Showing posts with label Housamo Chapter 14. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Housamo Chapter 14. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Chapter 14 Episode 18: Backstage 3 (Abridged)

Barguest: We've evened the numbers! Except only slightly since you need to go, Qursha! We'll hold them off!
Qursha: Ugh!
Amduscias: Y-you shall not--
Yuma: I'm here to help! I finally--(notices Amduscias) huh?
Amduscias: !! Y-you!
Yuma: AmDuke!?
Yuma and/or Amduscias flashback to that one time they saw each other at Amduscias's concert!

Qursha: Uh...whatever, bye guys! (super jumps away)
Barguest: We aren't here to fight you, Christine. Now that Qursha got away, we're leaving too.
Christine: >:(

Elsewhere, the grand guild alliance is making a ton of noise while not actually fighting! The point is to make Oscar stay in one place and force him into negotiations.
Qursha: Well there's only one place left and of course he has to be in the last goddamn one!
Yurakucho Opera House

Loki: Welp, they figured out where you are. Gonna run like a bitch? (smug)
Oscar: Well I'm an Entertainer! I can't be doing that. So, it's time to take the stage!
Outside
Barguest: I know I said I was bailing, but first a question. You guys did something to our guildmaster and Asakusa's guildmaster the way you did MC too, didn't you?
Christine: :)))))
Barguest: Payback time then! We're taking your guildmaster in for questioning!
Christine: Haven't you forgotten something?
Barguest: What?
Christine: Remember who came out to Tokyo when MC was shuffled away?

Suddenly EVERYONE looks up at King Solomon!
King Solomon: Cease fighting.
Everyone is forced to their knees!

Qursha: WHAT
Hierarchical pressure!
Weird Yurakucho

MC: HIM
Yurakucho

Barguest: WHAT
Nobody can move anything. King Solomon is clearly Special. Barguest feels he can never escape King Solomon's control.
Christine: Behold King Solomon, observer from beyond Tokyo.
Barguest: !!
Solomon: Faaatheeeer!

Flashback!
Gabriel: Barguest, I think you saw King Solomon in Yurakucho.
Barguest: Hmm. Sounds familiar.
Gabriel's exposition time!
There was once an ordinary king who ruled paradise and was given omniscience from God. He had the power to command demons AND angels, except he sat there doing nothing. Omniscience is the power to know All things happening now and later. Again, he just sat there and stared at his city.

Gabriel: There's more. King Solomon's paradise eventually disappeared in ruin, but his Millennium Kingdom will one day reappear. It's said to have angels, demons, robots, Old Ones, and other stuff...
Barguest: Wait that sounds just like Tokyo

Present
Oscar: Intermission time! I gots directorial and proprietary work to get to.
Loki: Oh. So you ARE running away like a little bitch.
Oscar: You are soooo classless, Loki. Why I'd never do anything to put a damper on things like that! I'm just gonna head backstage to do a little greeting. Everyone watching us needs to be having fun, or else I can't call myself an Entertainer anymore! Hold the fort if anyone comes in, thanks!
Later
Loki: (stares in Hannibal)
Loki: ...oh. Someone really DID come in.
It's Ahura Mazda and Nobumichi!

Loki: Are the Rule Makers coming out? Well allow me to greet you in place of the Entertainers guildmaster!

Witch Yurakucho
MC: Mr. Mononobeeee!
Quantum: :(
Quantum: !!
Quantum: MC, someone's here.
Oscar: Welcome to the backstage! Nice to meet you, I guess. How's it feel to be just an observer?
MC: WHOMST
Oscar: Oof, feasting your eyes on me? Anyways, hi I'm the Entertainers guildmaster Oscar.
End of Episode

Chapter 14 Episode 17: Backstage 2 (Abridged)

Let's talk about the Wanderers some more! They are those who came to Tokyo after losing their homes, never had a home, or came out of despair. But even here they don't have a forever home because the roles they have prevent it. The base example for its members would be Qursha, the self-proclaimed Arakawa Guild's Stray Dog.
Back in his home world, Qursha was known as the greatest hunting dog together with his partner the best hunter in the mountains. He jumped like lightning, uncatchable by anyone. It was a simple but happy life, one he thought would go on forever.
They didn't of course. They ended over a common tangle of foolish love. A mountain goddess spirit fell in love with the hunter at first sight, but her love turned to hatred over illicit love, and she imprisoned the hunter, separating him from Qursha. Mountains are sacred in Kitezh, and they are also places where things come and scatter about. Qursha could not oppose her/them, and so he lost his master and partner. His dream shattered, and he despised love and romance. And so he abandoned his home world.

Qursha came to Tokyo with his incurable wounds, the city that permits all loves. Races and roles mean nothing in the face of loving who you want. And all that love felt like a sick joke to Qursha. Stuck in his past as he was, it was hard to make a living. Luckily for him, being so deeply hurt was hawt in Tokyo. He'd give love to somebody new every day and have a bed for a night, and then he leaves before breakfast in the morning. He's aware of the contradiction of deriding love and his life of throwing himself into it.
There's still a bright part of his day: street basketball. Zipping around, dribbling balls, dunking SO hard...it's how he found his new dream and way of making a living. He dreams of jumping higher than anyone to chase after his old dream, though he has no idea of how he'll go about it. It's what screams him though. When he wins a basketball game, he takes a victory selfie and sends it to the guild to prove he's still alive.
Qursha can't answer whether he hates or loves Tokyo what with its acceptance of all loves, be he keeps trucking on. And now we're here with Tokyo on the brink of collapse.

Present
Clip show of Qursha running past a bunch of mobs!

MC: Oh no, I can't do anything! (pounds phone)
Quantum: :(
Yurakucho
Qursha's running around Yurakucho! But angels and livestreamers are blocking the way!

Motosumi: Raid party!
The Asakusa guild party invites have brought everyone along!

Maria: Everyone, we don't need to fight! We just need to be loud!
The Asakusa and Aoyama guilds and friends are playing decoy!

Maria: We're trying our best to live our lives here!
Tokyo is the city of all permitted love, but there's still pain and conflict. No paradise where everyone has an easy life exists.
Maria: ...but this still isn't the place where people can do whatever they like to us. We are here! Tokyo Pride!
Aoyama Angels: Yes, Guildmaster!
Maria and the angels advance into Yurakucho! Maria ties up livestreamers with her vines and clears the way. More mobs try to block the way, but Qursha slips his way past!

Qursha: Four checked, no luck so far. Twenty-two to go! Noble Phantasm activate!
Qursha starts jumping from building to building! His body scars are his artifact and they give him super jumping and lightning speed, the power to jump between heaven and hell based off the Georgian metaphysical worldview. Also no one can measure the movements made with it.

Qursha: Super jumping is awesome!

Yurakucho Opera House
Loki: So dick, all according to keikaku script?
Loki and Oscar are watching the grand guild alliance raiding Yurakucho on a TV screen.

Oscar: Pffft, no performance ever goes perfectly. You can put on the same play with the same lines, but it'll still come out different on another day. Ah fate, the strongest and most uncontrollable thing in the world. Such strange bedfellows it makes of people! But that's what makes shows so fun! I can die, but I'll always want to keep that pleasure in the forefront. (winks sexily at Loki)
Loki: Oh [bell ringing] off with that look, you [woman screaming].
Oscar: Haha, well what's my writing talents for if I can't BS the plot back together? Stay tuned!
Yurakucho
Barong: Whew, things are getting fun! Let's go too, Newbie!
Barong came over here from Asakusa.

Amduscias: ...Senpai, I--
Barong: Yeah I know, you have somewhere you wanna go to. But have you decided what stage you want to be on?
Amduscias: (stares)
Barong: Have you figured out what sort of story this is for you? What are you showing? Who are you starring for?
Amduscias: ...! I-I... (frowns)

Later
King Solomon: (stares in blank)
Christine: Please enjoy the show wherever you like! I shall see you later.
King Solomon wanders off somewhere while Christine bows.

Ahura Mazda: So, should we go to where we need to next?
Nobumichi: Yessir, I'm coming with you!
Ahura Mazda: Really? But don't you work under Lord Horus?
Nobumichi: Yes. I'll serve until the Rule Makers bosses settle things amongst themselves.
Ahura Mazda: ...I've always liked that about you. Okay, let's go.
Nobumichi: Where to anyway?
Ahura Mazda: First, I should greet the Entertainers guildmaster.

Later
Qursha: 23 down, 3 left to check o--
Suddenly, Barong, Amduscias, and Christine!

Christine: If we can't catch up, we just need to wait up ahead. It's 3v1 here. What now, Qursha?
Barguest: Surprise, it's actually 3v3 here.
Christine: !!
Suddenly, Barguest and Gurangatch!

Barguest: Y'know, Qursha getting your lot's attention made it easier for us to move around. We followed you. We are the Wanderers and no one's better at pursuit than us!
Surprised Entertainers!

Barguest: Qursha, go while we hold them off!
BATTLE START

Chapter 14 Episode 16: Backstage 1 (Abridged)

So, the Wanderers. Their guildmaster is missing and Barguest working at Yurakucho was originally done to look for clues into his disappearance. Well, they're's assumed to be missing when the concrete detail is that they failed to check in as normal. Since the guild doesn't have a home base, they instead do periodic "I'm alive you guys" check ins. The Wanderers have tried hard to look for the guildmaster and have come up emptyhanded, other than they were last sighted near Yurakucho. So, the Wanderers have taken Tianzun's suggestion of forging a grand guild alliance, which brings up the tidbit that the Asakusa guildmaster is also missing.

Present
Asakusa

Maria: Hello Ueno and Arakawa guild people, this is Maria.
Motosumi: Dammit, Tianzun pissed off somewhere again! Oh, and only NOW did he think to tell us our guildmaster is missing! Oh right, I'm Motosumi and subbing in for the guildmaster in the meantime.
Ginza
Barguest: Barguest and Gurangatch from the Arakawa guild here.
Pazuzu: Hey Yuma, I'll help you here, and by help I mean I'll basically take over for you! Anyways, I'm Pazuzu, people!
Conference call time!

Barguest: So first, the Exception in Yurakucho. Christine called him the All Exception King Solomon.
Gabriel: GASP
Barguest: She said it was just as planned. Also there was a second Exception summoned too. Called itself Utopia's Alibi or Proof of Nonexistence, the Zero Exception Overlord.
Maria: Huh. Two separate Exceptions at the same time.
Barguest: Seems like three people are involved in the summonings. First is Bigfoot from the Yurakucho guild. The second is some dick named Kirito. And third is...MC.
Maria: MC? We're allied with them.
Barguest: That makes them our ally too. We'll probably need to speak with them more officially later when they get back, but anyways all three of them disappeared. It looked like Overlord sucked in Kirito and Bigfoot. I dunno what in hell happened to MC.

Maria: Guildmasters going missing is a big deal, and we need to contact the Summoners...except we can't get in touch with them through the app. They're missing on the app name lists, so I think the Entertainers did something. Probably admin functions since not even the true big three guilds should be able to do that.
Pazuzu: Hmm. Looking at it another way, no one can actually attack MC right now too. If they're invisible on the app, they can't be challenged to battle either. They could be in the safest spot ever.
Barguest: Or they might not be. Also they dropped this when the disappeared. (holds up MC's Sword Held By Unspecified Appendage)
Maria: A human arm?
Gabriel: An angel wing?
Maria and Gabriel: wait what

Pazuzu: ...I think I'll just give you guys the facts. So, this Schrodinger's Body Part? Still alive, still got a pulse even though it's like that. That suggests the rest of the body is just somewhere we can't see. The Yurakucho guild can disappear people. They can also put on and take off roles from anyone, which not even the true big three guilds can do. And then the Exceptions that showed up. Are they using these facts...?
It's just like they switched parts u gaiz

Pazuzu: We should assume they did that to the Shinjuku, Asakusa, and Arakawa guildmasters.
Yuma: Hmm...
Hastur: Wait, doesn't that make them invincible!?
Recap: powers need roles to work at all.

Pazuzu: No, there are limits. Think, where'd the guildmasters go? More specifically...did they really go anywhere? We don't describe dying and decomposition as "disappearing" after all. It's like actors moving offstage when their part is done. To the story, they're gone. To God, they're still there. And it's not like they let go of the actor roles either. They're just in another frame of being that we're not looking at.

Maria: ...from what the Ueno guild told me, I always thought most Transients with finished roles disappear from Tokyo.
Chapter 8 flashbacks with Oniwaka, Zabaniya, and Ophion!

Maria: For those three, I thought they went back to their home worlds. But we as natives only have Tokyo as a home to go back to, so maybe what Barguest saw...
Barguest: Are you saying they're actually still in Yurakucho?
Gurangatch: Huh. Maybe so are the other guildmasters?
Babel Tower

Alice (who isn't even part of this conversation): All the Entertainers handle are the stage and its equipment, and the admin privileges they have only relate to making the game interesting. And somehow Christine STILL kicked your butt, huh Beowulf?
Beowulf: Shut up girl! You lost to the Invaders!
Alice: Hmm...did Oscar really turn on us?
Beowulf: Yeah, all the Entertainers are working on the same thing. Him included.

Yurakucho Opera House
Oscar: Welp, the Game Masters went away now, so time for the next act!
Elsewhere
Pazuzu: If they're putting on a show, then there must be a script. Best thing to do is ask their guildmaster why they went after the other guildmasters.
Everyone Else: >:(
Pazuzu: We need to get the Entertainers guildmaster to rescue the missing guildmasters. We at Ueno will go rescue our guild friends, you guys get the guildmasters. Cool?
Yuma: ...Ueno agrees. What about everyone else?
Barguest: I'll presume to speak on the guildmaster's behalf and accept.
Pazuzu: Okay! Now for the first problem: where is the Entertainers guildmaster?
The Entertainers Portals are known, so apparently admin privileges can't hide those.

Barguest: ...when I went in, I've confirmed 26 possible locations that they've got.
The Entertainers' Portals are theaters, movie places, and other entertainment facilities.

Pazuzu: But which one is he in?
Enter a Portal and you'll have a list of enemy players. They get tons of territory defense bonuses though, so getting in and out safely will be hard.

Barguest: We can handle that part.
Yurakucho

Qursha: I'M GOING IN
End of Episode

Saturday, July 8, 2023

Chapter 14 Episode 15: The Show Must Go On 3 (Abridged)

The Arakawa Wanderers is a guild of people with no home base and no need of a home base. The powers their members possess are varied, like the one who has a misfortune magnet, the one with super jumping, and the one with earth swimming. Their roles however tend to be in the same class of wanderers, drifters, and homeless, and this sets tends to make their powers have the traits of being slippery and hard to catch. They mainly gather around Arakawa in Adachi Ward, which is close to Rule Makers territory. The Rule Makers keep trying to catch them, but the Wanderers keep slipping through their fingers.

Present
Pazuzu: Sooo, thanks again Wanderers!
The group has gotten away from the Chiyoda-Chuo border.

Pazuzu: We were able to escape with our guildmaster because of you guys.
Gurangatch: It's okay. I'm glad you relied on me so much!
Pazuzu: I'm still surprised you dug through the ground like it was water.
Gurangatch: Oh, did I not show you my artifact?
Hastur: You are oddly friendly...huh? Have we met before?
Pazuzu: He's that student lifeguard from the Tokyo Fire and Disaster Management College!
Hastur: what
Pazuzu: That one school where firefighters and lifeguards go to. We worked with them once for an anti-bioterrorist training drill one time, remember?
Hastur: Was that the one where a student got spanked by a teacher?
Gurangatch: That sounds like Ulaanbatar when I was there. Raven does that every time he cuts class.

Pazuzu: Still, I didn't know you were a Wanderer, Gurangatch. I'm glad I got your phone number back then!
Hastur: You have no standards when it comes to reptiles
Pazuzu: Oh my god are you jealous???
Hastur: NO! ...I will however credit you all for helping Yuma. Why are you here anyway?
Gurangatch: ...looking for the lost and missing is one of my jobs, so I came here. They're important to us, even if they're out of work. We lost track of them, then Barguest called me over.
Hastur: what???
Barguest: Sorry, I got something to talk about before getting into that. First, that thing I asked you to look into.
Pazuzu: Yeah, I looked at it earlier while Yuma was out.
Barguest and Pazuzu bring That Thing out.

Yuma: A sword with an arm attached?
Hastur: A tail wrapped around a sword?
Yuma and Hastur: wait what

Hastur: Yuma that is clearly a tail...and it looks like one of…HIS tentacles now that I look closer.
Pazuzu: Welp, I knew it'd look different depending on who was looking. It's like the autopsy the Outlaws wanted me to do the other day. Also this thing is still connected to someone alive...or I guess missing? (palpates arm)
Barguest: ...what
Pazuzu: The person this arm belongs to is in another dimension that we can't percieve. I've seen something like this before. When Transients lose their roles, they disappear and drop their artifacts. Artifacts are basically part of a Transient's body, and it still living on after they leave is the same idea.
Surprised Wanderers!
Pazuzu: But you said this arm is from a Tokyo native human, and I've never heard of what happens to a native losing their role before...
Concerned Wanderers.

Pazuzu: Oh right sorry, this is kind of a lot to suddenly drop without context, huh?
Gurangatch: Not that.
Pazuzu: ?
Gurangatch: The Wanderers guildmaster disappeared the same way.
Pazuzu: What?

Yurakucho
Beowulf: UGH
Remember how Ahura Mazda joined Christine in fighting Beowulf? Beowulf's starting to get pushed back now.

Beowulf: So I'm finally sure you guys did something to MC, Entertainers!
Christine: Well yes, we knew you'd come after MC since it's the easiest way to continue the game.
This game is based on majority rule. The World Representatives are fighting for the trophy MC, and corralling their various ideas and beliefs into one banner is hard. There is one sure way to restart the game: damaging the trophy. If that happens, the fighting in the current loop becomes pointless and the World Representatives' majority agree to start over.
Now we have the Game Masters, the guild focused on keeping the game running. Things can be destroyed and people can die, but if things loop back it'll revert to how it was before. So, they make use of it and Beowulf was sent to make it happen this time.

Beowulf: You guys put the trophy somewhere where they're maybe alive maybe dead! And you did it with admin privilege to take their role! Right!?
Entertainers mobs come in!

Beowulf: Goddammit!
Wyrm: REEEE
Beowulf: What!?
Wyrm is gone now, and their tail is left behind.

Beowulf: You protected me, Wyrm!
Christine: We removed them the same way we did MC. So, are you stopping or--
Someone suddenly swoops in and flies away with Beowulf!

Christine: ...oh. Wasn't that one of the Game Masters...?
Above

Beowulf: Oh, piss off Raven!
Raven: You were getting your ass kicked and had to run, Beowulf. Even a child could have seen that. Must I spank your ass too?
Beowulf: Urk!
Raven: We must return to Tokyo Babel Tower.

Later
Pazuzu: Oh. So your guildmaster was invited out and disappeared too?
Hastur: FOOLS! How dare they try to take my huma--
Yuma: (stares)
Hastur: I-I mean! I do not mean it like that, Yuma!
Barguest: ...we've been up against the Rule Makers for a while, but this is the first time we've been in this position.
Gurangatch: We're good at disengaging and shaking people off, but now our regular contact is gone...
Barguest: There's one difference compared to before. The Rule Makers's ally...
Yuma: ...the Entertainers?
Yuma: >:(
Pazuzu: Right. It seems like they might be behind the Asakusa Taoshis guildmaster being missing too.
Barguest: ...and MC. Of course we'll suspect the Yurakucho guild being involved in the missing incident.
Pazuzu: Welp, our goals are the same then! So Guildmaster, what do we do?
Yuma: Pazuzu, Hastur, I...
Hastur: Fear not, I am with you, human!
Yuma: ...thank you. The Ueno guild will ally with the Arakawa and Asakusa guilds.
Pazuzu: Okay! Off to Yurakucho. We're joining the grand guild alliance and taking back the missing guildmasters!
End of Episode

Chapter 14 Episode 14: The Show Must Go On 2 (Abridged)

Ueno Academy, the headquarters of Transient biology research. Their guild: the Ueno Beast Tamers. They know more about Transients than World Representatives do, if you frame the question in a certain way. What they want is control over their powers, something they couldn't get in their home worlds. Almost all of them went out of control back home, but here in Tokyo, the guild setup pairs members into new temporary roles of Beast and Tamer to control themselves to an extent. The Beast Tamers also have Yuma. That's not his birth name, it's something the Ueno researchers gave him and they derived it from the term Unidentified Mysterious Animal. He's the guildmaster and he thinks he was supposed to be born a Therian instead of a human.

Ginza
Barong: Okay, time to get to our next stop Newbie!
Amduscias: W-wait, Senpai! I'm not ready for this...!
Barong: Pffft, the stage of life isn't gonna wait forever. People get stuck on some stage with some given role all the time, and we just play those parts. Oops, looks like we're late. The party's already started.
Amduscias: ...hey, isn't that--?
Somewhere slightly away

Yuma: I'mma werewolf! Awrooo! (fights Boogeyman and Nyarlathotep)
Boogeyman: Wow you flipped out so hard it's hard to believe you're human. You're Yuma, the Ueno guildmaster right?
Yuma: !!
Boogeyman: You try so hard to save your friends and prove your identity as a friend too. Your desperation is the flip side of fear. Come see our story. Nyarlathotep.
Nyaralathotep: It's psycho dubstep time!
The Entertainers put on a weird show!

Entertainers projector flashback replay!
Hastur: Yuma! This is no place for a human!
Ueno Academy research lab biohazrd sample storage. It's cold, but not that cold for people with fur.

Yuma: I-I want to help too...
Hastur: You are a puny human and should not be here! Get out!
Pazuzu: Aww, you're so worried about him my sweet sweet lizard.
Hastur: Cease your random prattle! I would NEVER worry ab--
Yuma: :(
Hastur: W-wait, don't cry!
Pazuzu: Is the cold making you want to hibernate? Want me to warm you up?
Hastur: I am no reptile! This chill is nothing to me!
Yuma: I...could have fur too if I used my artifact...
Pazuzu: ...sorry, but you can't. It's too dangerous if you lose control.
Yuma doesn't have a Tamer counterpart. Well more accurately, not even the Beast Tamers have figured out Yuma's artifact yet.

Pazuzu:  Now be a good boy and--(Yuma goes)--wait, Yuma? Yuma!

Present
Yuma: NOOOO!
But the projector video continues...
Every test Yuma has taken confirmed his status as human, but he is still dead certain he is not. It keeps hurting him. He must be crazy somehow, right?

Yuma: urgh
Yuma's self identity stays unstable. He loved the Ueno guildies, but only his sense of isolation grew stronger as he remained unclear on what he could do.

Yuma: GRRR
"Who am I?" Nobody was around to empathize with how he felt, so eventually he made himself a cage to contain himself for lack of any better ideas. The chances to leave it decreased over time, as did the chances to declare himself a beast.
Yuma: Sad grunting sounds! (reverts to human form)
Amduscias: He turned human? Wait, I recognize him!
Flashback!
Amduscias: W-welcome to my live show, everyone! I'm Amduscias! I-it might be funny that I want to be an idol, but I still wanna do it! T-thanks for coming! Showtime!

Present
Boogeyman and Amduscias advance on Yuma!

Amduscias: W-wai--
???: Hahaha! There you are, puny human!
???: I know you want "puny humans" to be your catchphrase, my sweet sweet lizard, but he's just gonna hate you for that.
???: W-what? But why!?
Amduscias: WHAT
Hastur: Ueno Foreigner of Biohazards, Hastur!
Pazuzu: Ueno Caster, Pazuzu. So, been having fun with our leader?
Hastur: (looks at Yuma) ...how DARE you make him cry!? You shall all lament in my binds!
Pazuzu: Go get them, Hastur. Yuma, get behind me okay?
BATTLE START (more happens after)

Hastur: The King in Yellow!
Not Bees attack!

Pazuzu: Protection Sign!
FLASH

Hastur: ...hmm? Nyarlathotep!?
Pazuzu: Friend? He seems bloodthirsty.
Hastur: My nemesis that I want to tear apart. He's always putting on personas and I hate that. Are those yellow clothes a taunt!?
Pazuzu: Personas, eh? Hmm... (thinks back to meeting Tianzun)
Pazuzu: ...wait, isn't there also a Nyarlathotep with the Missionaries?
Hastur: Same person, different roles so each lives separately. He's called the God of a Thousand Forms and he's always changing them around.
Pazuzu: Ohh, is that how it is for the Entertainers? I think I understand them a little more now. Whoops! (dodges Boogeyman)

Pazuzu: As I was saying, you guys are taking the same approach we do to research. Matching roles and powers, then hacking and using the system. Is that what that mask is?
Boogeyman: ...
Pazuzu: It's the same trick you guys used to destabilize our guildmaster's transformation!
Hastur: What. Explain in plain Japanglish!
Pazuzu: And that's how you guys pull your identities...or is it alibi? That's what you've guys said this whole time, right?
Boogeyman and Nyarlathotep: ...
Pazuzu: Haha, I got you guys there, didn't I? ...oh whoops we're surrounded.
It's a wall of livestreamers!

Pazuzu: Welp, we'd be stuck if we didn't have help. So it's a good thing we've arranged for some! Hastur, put up some blinding winds!
Hastur does so! Gurangatch digs in from below!

Amduscias: They disappeared!

Later
Yuma: Ugh...huh? Where am I?
Pazuzu: You okay? We managed to get away.
Yuma: ...oh no. Leib and others still imprisoned! I go help!
Pazuzu: ...thanks Yuma, it's nice to see how much you care. But calm down, we need you do to some guildmaster work.
Yuma: ?
Barguest and Gurangatch are here.

Pazuzu: They're from the Wanderers and they helped us. Now it's our turn to help them. Ready to hear them out?
End of Episode

Chapter 14 Episode 13: The Show Must Go On 1 (Abridged)

Once, in maybe Earth or maybe Eden, there was the kingdom of Not Israel whose All-Knowing king served an All-Powerful All-Knowing God. The king was given a ring meant for making familiar contracts by another of the God's servants, Michael. This was King Solomon, he who heard and lived his life in accordance to God's voice.
As a representative of God, King Solomon built and ruled over the Millennium Kingdom, but people also say that's all he did. He did little good for the individual citizens and let individual evils go. He just seemed to sit there and watch history go by.
What did he think as he did that? No normal person (ie those without omniscience) could possibly know.

Present
Duo: What people judge as good and evil is what they're able to comprehend. What if you had a pet chimpanzee and found out it had cancer? Don't keep pet chimpanzees actually, they'll tear your face off. Anyways, you might see it as a good thing to cut out the cancerous tumor in this insanely premised scenario, but the chimp would only see you coming at it with a knife and think this is evil. DNA-wise, humans and chimpanzees are really similar but intelligence-wise we're on completely different levels. So just as chimpanzees can't comprehend on our level, we can't comprehend on godly levels.
Duo: They say King Solomon's faith went through a bunch of different worlds and got changed by the process. Like, Garothman said King Solomon had this really cool sword. And you know the idea that demons are sealed by crests? That's connected to King Solomon's ring.
There are legends that King Solomon's descendants drifted to the far east and started the basis of a Touhou game. These descendants met with the Mononobe clan, married into them, and brought along their magic seals to the present day.

Duo: Speaking as one of the geniuses, King Solomon and Kyouma Mononobe are genetically speaking our father. It's where our hair comes from. He's been watching the game here as an Exception, meaning he couldn't be here himself and used Mononobe as a terminal to keep watching. Maybe a host or avatar or something. Except now the Rule Makers and Entertainers worked together to summon him, with an unusual condition in place.
Duo: So, I mostly get what ~~Karen~~ Curren is thinking since I'm a genius too. We all basically use all that past data to predict the future, but even with that I can't get a read on the Entertainers.
The Entertainers are here to make the game exciting. But, why tho?

Duo: Okay fine, Oscar's sort of a genius in literature. But he's still human and I can't see why he'd be that different intelligence-wise from us...
Bertro: That'd mean it's not a matter of intelligence here.
Duo: Meaning...
Bertro: The Entertainers have been looking at something we can't see. We've been watching the game up front with the World Representatives, but they've been watching from the back end. Can't they have seen something?
Duo: ...
Bertro: If I'm right, you'd be the closest to them from among us. You've been watching from elsewhere than us.
Duo: ...okay, I'll try.
Bertro: I'll send my agent Breke to investigate something. Tell me if your agent R-19 finds something.
And so Duo goes back to thinking.

Elsewhere
Barguest: RUNNING AWAY!
Barguest is trying to shake off his pursuers and is at the border of Chiyoda and Taitou on his way over to Arakawa. If he can make it, he can hide out like he always does.

Barguest: But what do I even do with this thing if I get there?
"This thing" being MC's arm. It's still alive and warm, just detached. Should he get a doctor or some researcher to look at it?
Barguest: What's going on with MC? What are the Entertainers planning?
Tianzun: Bad day, pal?
Barguest: WHOMST
Tianzun: Oops, sorry about the scare Barguest.
Barguest: You don't seem like an enemy, but...who are you and how do you know me?
Tianzun: Hmm, I know you from a friend of a friend of a student of mine.
Barguest: what
Social network chain: Tianzun > Hanuman > Nezha > Sanat Kumara > Echo > Barguest

Tianzun: Five degrees of separation, pal!
Barguest: ...so, are you here to help me or something?
Tianzun: Nah, I can't do much of anything here in Tokyo. I just came to tell you about this huge party we've got going on.
Barguest: w-what?
Tianzun: If you're in trouble, someone who sees that might help you. And if you see someone in trouble, you could help them. (hands Barguest a handwritten invite) Come on by if you feel like. There's a list of people already coming! Bring that little guy with you too if you want!
Solomon: wait YOU CAN SEE ME!?
Tianzun: Yep! Connecting with others is my one trick. Two points make a line and the path can go to unexpected places. Okay, bye! (poof)
Barguest: w-what he disappeared (runs off again)
Solomon: N-no, wait for me!
Solomon follows along like he's dragged along. Barguest looks closer at the invite.
Barguest: Haven't I heard of this guild on this list? They got researchers... (pulls out phone) Hello, change of plans. Any of you guys know anyone in the Ueno guild or someone who knows them?

Elsewhere
The Rule Makers have tied up Leib and the other Beast Tamers.

Leib: Your stupid autopsy report is done.
Angel: Good, give it to the messenger and have it delivered straight to Lord Horus. He says to not let the Entertainers notice, even if they are allies!
Leib: Yeah sure, whatever. If we're done, can you let us go now?
The angels hold up their spears!

Angel: No. We've been ordered to take you to another Portal. Keep them separated, they're set up as partnered beasts and tamers!
Leib: Ugh, they know that? I better get a call in before we le--
Angel: What are you muttering to yourself about!?
The angels frisk Leib!

Angel: A communicator! Destroy it!

Ueno Station area
Pazuzu: Welp, they noticed Leib's comm unit.
Hastur: Then we must save them! Why are we dallying about he--
Pazuzu: Hold your horses, my sweet sweet lizard. You aren't that reckless and--oh
Hastur: What?
Pazuzu: ...sounds like the guildmaster has charged in alone.
Ueno
Angels: WE'RE UNDER ATTACK
Yuma attacks!

Angels: Camera image analysis complete. It's the Ueno guildmaster! Everyone, turn on walkthrough mode as our equipment calculates his defense! Concentrate your fire!
Yuma tanks the attacks!

Angels: W-what, it didn't work? Why is the data wrong!?
Yuma: RAWR
Angel: N-no wait, I surrender! I'll tell you anything! Your friends? T-they were just taken elsewhere to our stronghold!
Yuma notices some familiar fur on the ground and eats it. He briefly flickers into Leib's form.

Angel: W-what?
Yuma jumps out!

Ueno Station area
Pazuzu: ...the guildmaster's on the move again. I think he found a lead on Leib? (looks at app's Find My Friend function)
Hastur: You can tell?
Pazuzu: Yeah, there's a tracker in Yuma's collar.
Hastur: Is privacy a foreign concept to you
Pazuzu: Ruuude. It was his idea to begin with. He's our petplay representative who wants to be controlled by someone. He feels he can't control himself, but then again that also just lead to him kicking ass. If he doesn't understand himself, how are the Rule Makers supposed to do that?
Hastur: Forget that! We must assist him at once!
Pazuzu: Aww, you love humans so much I'm a little jealous here.
Hastur: W-what? Stop jesting, I clearly do not--
Pazuzu: Ah, calm down. We won't get anywhere without a plan anyways.
Hastur: But my sheer power!
Pazuzu: Which isn't friendly fireproof, remember?
Hastur: mgrgrgr
Pazuzu: That's why I'm your Tamer! But my artifact can't cover for everyone. Anyways, let's go over the situation!

Pazuzu: Sooo, Ueno Academy and the Ueno dorm? Taken by enemies. Leib and the others are being transported separately. The Rule Makers are allied with the Entertainers. The South and West kept each other in check up until now, but they've started moving in the face of that alliance. And the only ones in our guild that are free right now are us since we were negotiating with the Outlaws, and Yuma. We're outnumbered even if we pull someone out to put into gay baby jail.
Pazuzu: On the other hand, we're up against a huge army who has our number. Even if we used surprise attacks to get one over on them, they'll cut us off eventually because the Entertainers are involved. Still, the Rule Makers/Entertainers alliances isn't that tight. Like, the attack on Ueno was all Rule Makers, so maybe they aren't a monolith.
Pazuzu: So, what now? I guess we need to take back our Portals first since we can't be caught outside like this. Leib and the others being moved elsewhere must mean they're still valuable to the enemies, so they should be okay for now. Maybe we should find Yuma and lead him away somewh--
Hastur: Wait, my seal detects someone! Show yourself!
Tianzun: It's me, I come in peace!
Pazuzu: ...huh, where'd you come from?
Tianzun: Sorry about that. I came to let you guys know about a big party we're throwing.
End of Episode

Sunday, July 2, 2023

Chapter 14 Episode 12: Grand Guild Alliance 3 (Abridged)

The Asakusa Taoshis is the guild based in the gangster school of Umamichi Academy in Taitou. Their guildmaster is Sanzou, a current student who acts like he's their actual father. The person he calls his master Tianzun, however, is almost never around at Umamichi, and their relationship may have influenced the other members to be independent people going their own way. Some call them just a gang of hoodlums with a bad rep, but they themselves are busy doing whatever wherever, like hanging out with friends, skipping class, or being dads.
Slideshow of individual Taoshis social networks!
If there's anything all these members believe in, it would be the teachings of the Umamichi hermits: their paths are infinite and neverending. In other words, our paths are greater and bigger than the walled areas of Tokyo. People who think on a world-level scale can't understand and see all of it. Truth and lies, good and evil, life and death, none of that limits how far these paths go. They may disappear from history and memory, but the path will not. It is salvation, hope, and in one way, a thing more terrible than evil. Where does it go? Nobody knows, and that is the scariest thing of all...

Present
Phone: Ally guild Rule Makers requesting backup in large scale battle against Asakusa Taoshis and Aoyama Missionaries in Asakusa.
Barong: Time to go check it out, Newbie!
Amduscias: Uh, isn't the Missionaries where Gabriel--
Hmm, that sounds so familiar.
Asakusa
Fighting!

Gouryou: Hey Motosumi, they brought reinforcements!
Motosumi: Dammit, we got a bunch of kids to protect so we're stuck on the defensive!
Motosumi looks at the children behind them.

Taishakuten: Well don't just STAND there, dopes!
Motosumi: ...Taishakuten?
Taishakuten: Come on, it's ass kicking time!
???: HEY YOU GUYS!
Maria: Wait...

Gabriel: It's me! And look who I brought with me!
Maria: Gabriel! And the angels who ran off on us!
Ex-Missionaries: Please let us come back! We ran because we were afraid of going up against Michael, but Gabriel talked us into coming back! Please let us join again!
Tianzun: Taoshis, allow me to take care of the children. I will hide them where the eyes of this world cannot see them.
Tianzun shakes his stick, causing the children to disappear.

Children: Wow, we're invisible!
Motosumi: Hey, Old Man...I mean, Tianzun-sensei! What were you saying before about the guilds and alli--
Tianzun: You've already planted the seeds, now reach out forward in your own ways. Any by that, I mean...PARTY!
Motosumi: what
Tianzun: Fight fire with fire! The serious can't win against people having fun if that's all they have going for them. Join hands with those you know and move forward! I'mma skip on ahead, bye! (poof)
Motosumi: ...that stupid asshole! Fine, I get it! Well not really, but we just gotta do things Taoshis style, right!?
Gouryou: (calls Seth and Typhon) Hey boys, got a minute? Oink.
Li Chou: (calls Alp and Cait Sith) HEEELLLP
Motosumi: (calls Takemaru and Kagutsuchi) Hey, call everyone you know! We're having a goddamn block party!
BATTLE START
(more happens later)

Gabriel: Hey, you guys! Angel Cheer!
Elsewhere in Asakusa

Barong: Nice! Get it all on camera, Newbie!
Amduscias: Senpai! D-doesn't it look like we're the bad guys here!?
Barong: Hmm, but to WHO?
Amduscias: T-to the people watching us!?
Barong: But there are no outsiders here. Everyone on stage in Tokyo is involved.

Asakusa melee
Maria: ...!
Gabriel: Maria, you look awful! What's wrong?
Maria: Sorry, I think the tension just flowed out of me.
Gabriel: You're pushing yourself too hard, liar! I'm like your other half! I can see how you really are. Jacob didn't just give you the guildmaster title. He gave you his loop memories too, didn't he?
Maria: ...he did.
Gabriel: So you're bearing the same weight the World Reps like Michael and the others ar--
Maria: ...no, I'm not.
Gabriel: What?
Maria grips her artifact tighter, enough to cut herself.

Maria: I saw the other side of things that the World Representatives didn't see.
Azathoth once showed people that everyone killed MC at one point or another. In mystery novel terms, everyone was the culprit. The World Representatives see that as them causing their worlds to loop. With no trophy to fight for, the game had to start over. They had majority power, so they could do so. That conclusion is correct, but only if you see things on the surface. Things look different to those behind the stage because the World Reps fundamentally could not see things from there. Nobody can see things from the front and back at the same time. Many can see things from perspectives not the World Representatives, like the managers, the wanderers like Jacob, and the ones who had always stood behind the stage of the game.

Yurakucho
Christine: Oof!
Beowulf: You done with your one lady villainess act yet!? Let's get her together, Wyrm!
Christine: ...Beowulf, you just called me a villainess, but isn't it true you generally plan to cut up the trophy to pieces and start the next loop? Perspective changes everything. You don't know how things look to outside watchers.
King Solomon: (stares in blank)
Beowulf: What, sour grapes or something?
Christine: Oh no, my backup is finally here.
Ahura Mazda appears and knocks Beowulf and Wyrm back!

Beowulf: OOF
Christine: Hello Entertainers ally and Garothman World Representative Ahura Mazda!
End of Episode

Chapter 14 Episode 11: Grand Guild Alliance 2 (Abridged)

Ah yes, the Entertainers. They made that famous student theater troupe, filled with so many acting talents and scene shifters. One such scene shifter would be Amduscias. He would always put on secret shows where he'd never show his face, being that famous Vocaloid music writer AmP. Back when giving Vocaloids personalities and making them sing were all the rage, Amduscias had a certain talent that synergized with that. And then he became famous! But then Amduscias started to worry that what he wanted to do was different from what he was able to do...
Then one day, Amduscias saw one of Gabriel's idol performances and it just blew his mind. He wanted to be a leading star like her!
Some day later

Amduscias: Mike test!
This is the day Amduscias first started performing himself, with his actual face visible. He was nervous. Would people laugh at a big lunk like him trying to be cute and shiny? But he thought about wanting to be on the same stage as Gabriel and performing with her, so he tried to imitate what she did. It didn't really go smoothly. His talent is in making others shine. Some time later, he decided he wanted friends. That lead to him meeting the Entertainers, purely by chance. So he joined, wanting people striving for the same thing he did.

Present
Invaders Mobs: Invaders, advance!
Rule Makers Mobs: Hold the line! Reinforcements are coming!
New Invaders Mobs: THIS IS TOO CRAZY
Sure is looking like hell out there for people who weren't involved in the game until now. There is no sweet release of death here, and nowhere is safe.

Invaders Mob A: We just got hit by an unknown force!
Invaders Mob B: What!? The app doesn't even label them! Who--
Entertainers admin privilege abuse! App radar Stealth mode!

Invaders Mobs: The Entertainers really ARE fighting!?
hypnotoad.wav

Invaders Mobs: Oh no, psychic damage!
The Entertainers got admin privileges because they weren't supposed to fight, so this right here is cheating.

Yurakucho
Beowulf: You Entertainers are dicks!
Christine blocks a sword with her umbrella!

Beowulf: I was supposed to have one easy job: killing the trophy to start up the next loop.
Christine: Yes, I suppose it was supposed to be.
Beowulf: And now you guys put MC somewhere I can't get to!
There are two management guilds for the game: the Yurakucho Entertainers and the Oshiage Game Masters. The Entertainers make sure the game is fun. The Game Masters make sure the game goes on. And of course, they've come to blows over conflicting goals in the past a bunch of times.

Beowulf: Christine, this isn't funny. I can't believe you're getting in our way and brought THAT thing here! (looks at King Solomon)

Christine: Wow, rude. He is a very important patron who's been watching me with the eyes of God, thank you.
Beowulf: Sure he is. No wonder your name means "the girl who gives herself to God." So, does it look like I give a damn? I'm only a Game Master so I can keep this game going and keep fighting! That's the only reason I look so questionably young! You really are trying to end the game, aren't you.
Christine: Indeed.
Beowulf: So, that makes us enemies right?
Christine: :)))))
Beowulf: On a more personal note, I heard you guys were hiding a criminal. What are you guys trying to do with Loki!?
Christine: ...allow me to correct you and say your premise of "you guys" is incorrect.
Beowulf: what
Christine: Even we Entertainers need someone else besides me to observe Him. A show needs both actors and an audience outside the stage.

Elsewhere
Loki: Aww, I wanted to play some more with you Ose, but it's time for my pickup.
Oscar: Hi Loki, how are you?
Loki: I WAS feeling great until I saw your stupid face, Oscar. Feels like my [donkey braying] got licked. I see you and your [chicken clucking] getting all big seeing me all tied up like this, asshole. So what does a criminal mastermind wannabe [dog barking] who acts like he knows everything want with me?
Oscar: Oh man, Loki you really got to watch your tongue. What if we had innocent impressionable children around? I love how you act though! So proud, so vulgar.
Loki: Stop [BEEP]ing around like you're [CENSORED FOR SENSITIVE EYES] me with [WORDS SO OBSCENE YOU WANT TO COVER YOUR EARS], thanks.
Oscar: Ha. Okay Loki, I came to take you to your front row seat. Come see my show play out! An empty audience is just so sad, and you're just the viewer I want.
Oscar holds up his cane.

Oscar: Behold my Noble Phantasm, Gearr nan Colaan! Except not really.
Ose: Hey wait, you just casted Gandr! That's a magic bullet spell instead of a stun or Quick booster!
Ose knows that courtesy of Odin as he holds where he was shot by Gandr.

Loki: Suit yourself, [REDACTED]. Does it look like I can do anything like this?
Oscar: Don't mind if I do! (rolls Loki out)
Ose: W-wait! Loki, I'm not--oof!

Later
Loki: I got a favor to ask. Could you let Ose go? I can't just leave him alone...and also I really liked seeing him suffer so I wanted to thank him.
Oscar: Wow, you've never been nice to ME like that. Don't legends say it was Odin who tied you up like this?
Loki: But I AM nice. Just to everyone but you. And I don't hate Odin, I actually like him because of the pain I had to go through. (thinks about how he had poison constantly pouring onto him)
Loki: He looked so conflicted when he sentenced me to eternal torture and it was awesome. The agony makes Ose look even brighter.
Oscar: Well okay then! I'll get that arranged, so--
Loki: Yeah yeah, I'll watch your show and roast the shit out of it. Speaking of, how do you expect me to watch it when I'm tied up like this?
Oscar: I got you front row seats! The actors have been assigned and they should be in place soon.

Yurakucho
Barong: Hey Newbie, ready for your first guild assignment?
Amduscias: C-could you stop calling me that Senpai? I'm Amduscias! I know you're a crazy awesome dancer, b-but I'm still an idol...beginner.
Barong: Maybe if you do your job good enough. Wow me, okay?
Amduscias: O-okay. I dunno what we're doing where, but we just need to stream to everyone in Tokyo, right? (sets up camera)
Barong: Yep! Your old work was awesome. You really are great at making other people shine.
Amduscias: S-stop, you're embarrassing me!
Barong: Aww, that's cute. You think you can be an idol acting like that?
Amduscias: Oof... A-anyways, who am I supposed to stream to? That'll change how I film this.
Barong: Easy! Anyone watching from outside the stage!

Broken Yurakucho
Schrodinger's Yurakucho outside Tokyo

MC: I wonder what's happening over there? Please tell me, Quantum-senpai!
Quantum: ...oh, okay tee hee. (straightens up a little)
Quantum: Okay, so. They can't see or hear anything on this side, but we can see or hear what happens there. Are you able to receive radio waves? That's standard for Utopia.
MC: I'm a human so no, but I do have a phone!
MC: I can't send anything, but I can pick things up!
Quantum: They can't observe us, but we can observe them.
MC: (thumbs through Not YouTwitch)
Amduscias: Mike test! Is this working?
MC: Wait, what channel is this? ...t-the Entertainers!?
End of Episode

Sunday, June 25, 2023

Chapter 14 Episode 10: Grand Guild Alliance 1 (Abridged)

Witch Barrier Yurakucho
MC: Get back, zombies! Quantum, get behind me! (goes for sword)
Quantum: ...um, what are you doing MC?
MC: What? Getting my-- / Okay I know violence is wrong but--
Quantum: ...that won't work. I said so already. Everyone who comes here lost their role, and that means they can't use their powers.
MC: U-uh, my sword's gone...and MY ARM TOO!?
Yep. Gone.

MC: W-when? Back then!?

Yurakucho
Christine: Ooh, welcome honored patron, the All-Knowing All Exception King Solomon.
Christine is vibrating.
Christine: Please enjoy our last humble show for you. I will be your guide...
King Solomon: (stares in blank)
Big thumping footstep. There's a sword by King Solomon's feet. Also an arm with a summoner mark on it.

Christine: Oh excuse me, let me pick that up.
Christine does so and touches the ring on it.

Solomon: Father!? Is that you!?
King Solomon-Mononobe: ...yeah, sorry I left you alone so long.
Solomon: GASP! That voice!

Mononobe: My side over here remembers everything of my time when I was over there with you.
Solomon: wait what
Mononobe: It's okay. Take my hand.
Solomon: Ahhh...
Solomon wavers.

Barguest: STOP
Christine: ...what is the meaning of this? You shouldn't yell in front of a guest like that.
Barguest: Shove it up your ass! Where'd MC go? What just happened!?
Christine: ...
Christine: MC has fallen from this world because they lost their role and existence for being.
Barguest: what
Christine: Those with no roles are unneeded on stage. It's the same for returning what you borrowed or held on to, or for stand-ins.

Bizarro Yurakucho
MC: Solomon, come here! ...Solomon!? (It's not working!)
The Not Zombies approach!

Quantum: ...this way.
MC: What? W-wait! (runs after)
Yurakucho

Barguest: Chains of the Unfortunate!
Barguest steals MC's arm from Christine with his chains!

Christine: What are you doing?
Barguest: You called MC an unneeded stand-in? MC helped me and Kenta way back when nobody else did.
Barguest: I lived from paycheck to paycheck, working for other guilds, living a sad life with Kenta in a dump. And then...we met them. Bad luck follows me, but it's also what brought us together in a bond of fate. I owe them for helping me and Kenta. And this is proof they existed! (runs)
Christine: !?
Christine: After him.
Live Streamers give chase!

Alleyway
Barguest: Getting...old...sucks!
Barguest is outnumbered and in enemy territory, so it's not going to take long for him to get caught.

Barguest: Hobos have their way of doing this! Hex Chains!
The power of bad luck causes a bunch of walls to collapse and fall on everyone including Barguest!

Barguest: (climbs out) ...good thing I'm so tough.
Barguest pulls out his phone.

Barguest: Wanderers, help!

Other Yurakucho
Quantum: We lost them. You okay?
MC: T-thanks...but why'd you help me?
Quantum: ...somebody helped me too once, back when I knew nothing about what was going on.
Hmm, Guild Dispatch intro flashback... It feels just like yesterday for Quantum.

Quantum: I've said it before, but you look a lot like them.
MC: ...oh. Well thanks then.
Quantum: ...you know, you can still live even if you don't have power. Just like me. I woke up on this side of the catbox, weak and undetermined in the maybe alive sense. It still had its perks, what with me meeting new people here. So...I don't know how to say this, but you too should...
MC: what? / Are you trying to cheer me up? / ...

Quantum: Well, I thought it'd be a shock to lose what you had...especially if you lost what you had to begin with.
MC: ...it wasn't always mine from the start. I remember something like this happening before.
Quantum: ...huh?
MC: (remembers Chapter 13)
Remember when Mu and Leviathan fused? And how Wakan Tanka and Tangaroa Inf. both cut themselves off from their original selves and were put inside the Exceptions? What if this divided state is related to solving the Exception?

Quantum: (stares in Schrodinger)
What if one of the goals was for the Exception starters to take off a part of themselves? What if a similar reason is why the new Exceptions appeared?
Shinagawa

Isaac: Okay Karen Curren, looks like things are going to your plan so far. You probably shouldn't underestimate MC though. They've been gathering unique memories this run, so they might trip you up~.
End of Episode

Monday, June 19, 2023

Chapter 14 Episode 9: Missing Link 3 (Abridged)

This is what Taishakuten has to say about Ahura Mazda and his home world.
Taishakuten: The first world would be Garothman, and it makes everything clearly distinctive from each other like good and evil, zero and one, and all that crap!
Garothman is the archetype otherworld because it made the Last Judgment setup. When a world ends, it splits its people between good people going to heaven and people who...aren't. Even Eden used Garothman as a reference when making that System. World Representative Ahura Mazda is the one on top of Garothman and its judge.
Taishakuten: You're asking ME about Ahura Mazda? He's a superman! Just like Superman! Even when he's passing judgment he's trying to make sure he's not going overboard. He's so good it makes me sick! Gag me with a spoon already, boy scout! If he's good, then I wanna be evil...what, would I want to fight him if I see him to see who's on top?
Taishakuten's pratical catchphrase is that the greatest thing in life is an unparalleled rival.

Taishakuten: Nah, I'm not his enemy. Not in the strength sense. We just don't mesh.
In Garothman, everyone with a role and power has a counter. Like, Taromaiti's power of corruption is countered by her rival Armaiti, whose power is meant to abide by virtue.

Taishakuten: What, Ahura Mazda's rival? The Evil superman who will only be born once in a single world who'll have one big battle for the world with him. He's Ahriman!

Present
Horus: I STILL can't believe you support an alliance with the Entertainers.
Horus and Ahura Mazda have known each other for a long time as fellow Rule Makers reps with World Pillars. Horus knows Ahura Mazda as a kind and strong superman who abides no injustice, not really the sort of man who'd be interested in fun or pleasure.
Ahura Mazda: I approve of the Entertainers' actions and I want the same thing they do.
Horus: What DO you want actually because--
Ahura Mazda readies his artifact. Horus follows suit.

Horus: No more answers? A shame. I'm sure you keeping me in the dark is from your sense of kindness...but to me? It is the highest insult for which you must pay for!
Ahura Mazda: By order of the Lord of Wisdom, Light of Intervention!
Horus: By order of the Sky God, Grand Resurrection!
Nobumichi: WHAT

Asakusa
Angels: Surrender, Asakusa and Aoyama guilds! The Last Judgment is at hand, sinners and believers! Do not resi--
Taishakuten: Shut the fuck up and stop spouting Bible quotes! Indra's Lighting!
BOOM
Taishakuten: Go find some creativity, come up with some NEW lines!
Gouryou: Bruh, I'm so glad he's helping us now...
Motosumi: We're still under siege, Maria. If we don't cut them off, they'll just keep coming until they take the Portal. Then they'll just pick us off and pressgang us.
Maria: I think so too. Right now, only the true big three guilds and the management guilds have the initiative. Nobody else can stand up to them, and we are stuck in the dark.
Motosumi: ...yeah, we're in the dark here. What do they even want?
Maria: We don't even know why they allied.

Maria: The Rule Makers are one of the true big three guilds. They're supposed to be trying to win the game and getting MC, but this time I've heard they're prioritizing purging the abnormality inside MC. By which, they'll take MC apart and remove it, then settle things next loop. I get that, but...the Yurakucho guild wants something else. They said if this is the best thing ever, they won't need to think about next time. It should clash with the Rule Makers plans eventually, so how did they ever come to an agreement? Are they not all in agreement, or is there some other reason?
Motosumi: I don't know how smart people thiink...
Maria: I don't know much about the Entertainers. Maybe I should ask Nyarlathotep about them.
Tianzun: (fuzzy) Hmm, I might know something.
Motosumi: Man, where the hell did our guildmaster go?
Maria: Yeah, where is he now that you mention him?
Motosumi: He always wanders off whenever he feels like, just like his stupid goddamn teach--
Tianzun: (clear) Excuse me, I have some foresight at least, thank you.
Motosumi: Stop blowing smoke up your ass, jackass! If the two of you were here, then--BWAAH!?
Maria: H-how long have you been there?

Tianzun: I've been here the whole time.
Motosumi: You're giving me a heart attack, Tianzun-sensei!
Tianzun: Haha, hello little children. How are you all?
Maria: ...you teach at Umamichi, Tianzun-sensei?
Motosumi: Pfft, like he deserves respect. He's just some creeper old geezer that blinks in and out of sight depending if he's on your mind. I mean, he's somehow super wise and reliable, but the stress on your heart man...
Azazel: Oh, like a counselor? He's just like me.
Motosumi: Dammit, do you have any idea what's been happening while you were gon--
Tianzun: Yep. The Yurakucho and Chuo guilds have allied, Aoyama has fallen, and we are under attack.
Motosumi: what
Maria: Huh?

Tianzun: I know what's happening. Even the part of my favorite student and our guildmaster disappearing. I've been making plans for this day. Ha ha, surprised? Remember that the path of Tao knows all--(bonk)
Motosumi: Why didn't you say anything earlier!?
Tianzun: PLEASE HAVE MERCY
Maria: M-Motosumi, please stop choking him!
Tianzun: GAAASP! I thought I was gonna die! ...anyways, you are the Aoyama Missionaries guildmaster Maria, yes?
Maria: R-right.
Tianzun: I came to speak to you in place of my absentee student.
Maria: ...about what?
Tianzun: About our predicament and our all or nothing plan to get out of it.

Motosumi: You got something that could work here???
Tianzun: Yep. You said we were in the dark on this stage, right Motosumi?
Motosumi: How the hell did you catch that? Urge to punch, rising...
Tianzun: H-hold on, deep breaths now, happy place. Calm, yes? So, they're all fighting each other and ignoring us, leaving us in the dark with little idea of what's happening. In which case, we should get everyone in the outs all cut off from each other to link up together!
Motosumi: what
Gouryou: Ahhh, I see.
Maria: Wait, are you suggesting--
Tianzun: We link up with all the other guilds for the grand guild alliance!
End of Episode

Chapter 14 Episode 8: Missing Link 2 (Abridged)

Aaru, the world with a System that judges with its deserts. Horus is the World Representative and approves of justice, but he wasn't always the Rep. It was original his uncle Seth. Seth was the only hero to defeat the great netherworld dragon Apophis, and Horus had inappropriately suggestive feelings for him since he was young. And then the rest of the family pushed for Horus to become the World Representative. The family split into two camps, and the fighting was ugly as both claimed to have legitimacy on their side. The claims were contradictory, and Horus still doesn't know the truth of it all even now despite being in the middle of it. His mother and relatives did the scheming and kept him in the dark. In the end, Horus defeated Seth, Seth was judged guilty of all crimes and exiled from the world.
Horus has wondered why only Seth was considered guilty in a familial dispute. It was just a power struggle. Everyone else including himself should have been judged too. But what REALLY stuck and mentally scarred Horus was his beloved uncle being burdened with all sins. It meant he himself was treated as an ignorant child, and he cursed his own youthfulness. When he came to Tokyo, he became a judicial police officer. He swore to face judgement himself and settle things with his uncle into terms as clear as day. He'd make his uncle accept him and show himself as not some little rich boy anymore.

Present
Nobumichi: I'm here, Horus! I mean, Sir!
Temp judicial police HQ in Chiyoda Yurakucho. Police tape is all around.

Nobumichi: I'm done with my witness investigation.
Horus: Very good. I just got back the examination report as well. (taps a bunch of papers on his desk)
Horus: This is from our virtuous biology researcher collaborators, reporting on that body part we found in Yurakucho. The conclusion: no definitive evidence was found.
Nobumichi: From my asking around, it's it was the same. The victims were nowhere to be found! We searched every Entertainers Portal and found absolutely nothing. Not even the smell of dead bodies. It's like a god spirited them away!
Horus: ...Officer Nobumichi. We have the trust of our respective networks. If a police dog like you could not find anything, then--
Nobumichi: Dog police officer.
Horus: Excuse me?
Nobumichi: All due respect, I am a dog police OFFICER and not a police dog. Please remember that.
Horus: O-oh, sorry.
Nobumichi: It's okay! So what were you saying?
Horus: Ahem. I hypothesize that the victims are in neither this world nor the next.
Nobumichi: what
Horus: If they are neither alive nor dead, that is the only logical explanation.

Maybe Yurakucho
Quantum: I'm Quantum, definitely maybe. This is where people who might or might not be alive come to.
MC: what
Quantum: ...oh, sorry MC. (stares at MC)
MC: Uh...something wrong? Did we meet before?
Quantum: ...I don't know. You seem like you both are and aren't the first person to observe me...we're alike. What were we talking about? Oh right, this place...well if you're from Utopia like me, maybe this will explain it? This is where things not picked up by failsafes fall, deeper than Exceptions. Oh, but personally I was born somewhere like here. Then I went to where the person who observed me was, but then they disappeared. I've been looking for them in Tokyo ever since. Had no luck, so I came here to recheck.
MC: You came from Tokyo? / Lost roles... / (ask for more details)

Quantum: ...wait, we should leave that for later. The other maybe/maybe not alive people are staring.
Not Zombies approach.
MC: W-what
Quantum: Those are the remains of people who lost their roles, just like you lost your future. Anyone who falls here turns into that. They're hollows of the world, the Missing. And you'll turn into one if you touch them.
In their previous world, they'd have damaged or defective bodies. There's something missing from them all over their body parts.

MC: ...that sounds familiar.
Flashback!

Shirou: I found something odd about the crimes that happened in Shinjuku.
Flash of policemen.
Present

MC: The stuff Shirou was talking about! / The Yurakucho case!
The Missing approach!

MC: Are these people the victims!?

Yurakucho
Horus: The Entertainers have been using a particular admin ability: the ability to give and take a role from someone. Remember how the Rule Makers and Entertainers formally signed the alliance at the Tokyo Cathedral? I was against it and brought you along. Remember the familiars the Entertainers guildmaster brought with him?
Nobumichi: Um, Babe Bunyan and Bigfoot or whatever? That's what their name tags on the app said.
Horus: Yes, but in truth they are very different people because the guildmaster gave them temporary roles. They'd normally have different names and classes. Our roles determine how our power works out, like it or not. Hmm, so the Yurakucho case was the same as the one before it. A serial crime with no identified criminal or victim, and only the crime happening is definite. You know, what with the body parts left behind. If this IS a copycat crime, we should have caught the first person of interest back when it first happened. What if that was a rehearsal for their real act later on? They could have been planning this even longer ago.
Nobumichi: Sooo, is the criminal one of the Entertainers or...
Horus: Or is it someone in the Rule Makers, yes? Right now, we don't know and they worked hard to make it that way. But what if the alliance was to make the case harder to solve? What if--
bwoom
Nobumichi: What just happened!?
Horus: An Exception!? No wait, this is different!

Later
Barguest: MC disappeared? What!?
Oh, Kirito and Bigfoot have disappeared too now. Bigfoot has Presence Concealment the Artifact while Kirito's gives fog cover. Which is to say, both have the ability to hide themselves.

Barguest: WHAT'S GOING ON!?
Elsewhere
Horus and Nobumichi are running towards the Exception(s).

Nobumichi: This would never have happened if we didn't let the Entertainers do their thing!
Horus: But the rules!
Nobumichi: ...what do we do if the serial killer case is an inside job?
Horus: But The RuLeS. I'll take responsibility as an accomplice as well in that case. Clarifying things to the utmost was the entire point I came to Tokyo.
Nobumichi: Haha, you are such an honest rich boy. I like admire that about you...Sir!
Horus: ...never call me a rich boy ever again.
Nobumichi: Oh, sorry. Let's hurry on then, S--
Horus: Wait, stop!
Someone is in the way!

Horus: ...what is the meaning of this, High Judge Ahura Mazda?
Ahura Mazda: Horus, your hypothesis is so right, but please stand down. Or else, fight me.
Nobumichi: :angry:
Horus: ...why? I thought you were also someone who wants to make good and evil clear too. I always thought of you as an ally...until now.
Ahura Mazda: ...I'm keeping you in the dark for this case.
End of Episode

Chapter 14 Episode 7: Missing Link 1 (Abridged)

What exactly is going on here
Oscar: Hello there, audience members! I'm Oscar, the Yurakucho guildmaster and playwright...actually make that dramatist of this show. Nice to meet you, but I'm not taking my mask off for anything beyond jokes, haha!
Nyarlathotep: New mask! New meetings! Totally not people you recognize! Masks are rude? Deal with it!
Oscar: We live only in this moment. All the world's a stage, everyone's an actor, and our lives are fiction! Okay, the show must go on!

There was once a serial killer in the city of fog that targeted prostitutes. That was the oldest theatrical criminal who still lives rent free in people's heads because he was never caught and never brought to light. What sort of person would enjoy a mystery knowing who the culprit is already? [Me. I do.] Following from that, maybe knowing All Things ruins all kinds of enjoyments. What if everything goes the way you figured it would...?
Christine (narrating if she wasn't already): I lost my family when I was young, and all I had was my dream of acting. It was probably never going to happen...but then He granted my dream for me. I was given many roles, a hope to live for. And after the curtains fell, he sent me so many rose bouquets, letting me forget I was all alone. I just wish I knew why he was so nice to me.

One day
Christine: Wait! Are you the one sending me flowers?
It's Mononobe!

Christine (narrating): I once talked to the one leaving me flowers, and he told me he was just His representative, who was always watching from far away. I want to show him a performance one day, with him here himself to enjoy it. And I hope it makes him feel less alone.
Christine (narrating): I devoted myself to acting, more than anyone else. And then I became a starring actress. I can play any role now, and almost all my dreams have come true.
Christine (narrating): I am Christine, disciple of the All-Knowing and actress who performs to delight him. I have performed only for him, the only one who has always watched me. I want him to see the best thing ever. And it has to be better than burning the city down, sinking an island, destroying the world and planet because we've done that all to death already. It has to be Perfect, with nothing coming after it. That's my last wish and joy.

Some prison
Ose: I'm alive somehow! Am I in the Yurakucho Opera's basement? I'm tied up by myself...actually, wait, someone else is down here I think.
Loki: Hi. You look like hell, but not as bad as I do, haha.
Ose: YOU
Loki: I'm Loki. Have we met?
Ose: I've been looking for you!
Loki: I know. You're Ose, Akasaka Agents spy. And Odin's representative which a piece of his memories and the ability to act like him with your artifact, crown of the pretender. You're ex-military. And a president. How right was I?
Ose: ...okay some of that is public, but how'd you get the classified stuff? Yurakucho admin privilege abuse?
Loki: Secret. So, are you my stan or something?
Ose: I'm here to make you pay for what you did in Yggdrasil.
Loki: Wow you sound just like Odin. Also you're going to need to be more specific on what I did in Yggdrasil.

Ose starts channeling Odin.
Ose: I'm talking about how you walled up Yggdrasil! All of us were supposed to die in a fire during Ragnarok so the age of man could come. But with the walls up it's stuck in a loop, meaning you took away the future and the human king who would stand up after! You're the only one who was capable of doing that, what with the artifact you used to wall up Midgard!
Loki: (stares)
Ose: Also I suspect you of being involved with walling up Tokyo. Talk!
Loki: Wow, you acted just like Odin possessed you. Except I know you're Ose, that [REDACTED] who likes to pretend he knows everything.
POP!

Ose: You dispelled my artifact!?
Loki: My tongue can dispel all illusions and falsehoods, which got me imprisoned for being too dangerous.
Loki: So, ready for a roasting? Man if only I could red text this, so just pretend there's a pinging sound! I know why you're chasing after me as Odin's rep. Because you're BORED and you don't have anything better to do. In fact, you don't even know what to do with yourself, just like Odin did after he got the wisdom of the Mimir! Knowing everything sticks you in place and takes away your future! Pffft, President of Hell? You're just a merc who does what you're hired to do, and that's why you're a spy. You're just like the Rule Makers mobs that way!
Blah blah blah...

Arakawa
Rule Makers Mobs: Find the strays on the list!
This is Chuo Rule Makers territory. The drone pilots' visors are feeding them information on what to do and how to optimize their equipment. Instructions include where to go, how to talk, where to look, and other dystopian levels of control. The mobs "cooperate" with it for way better efficiency.

Mobs: We're in Wanderers territory, stay sharp.
Cats: Oh no, they found us!
Mobs: Walkthrough mode on, past data predictions compiled.
Bang!
Cats: Oh no, we're cornered!
Mobs: Nobody move. Tie them up and send them to HQ.
Cats: Are you going to brainwash us!?
Mobs: ...why ask something so inefficient? I mean, some of our new troops ask that too though. You'll just be given the same headset we get. Happiness in group servitude!
The visor tells the mob how much money he just made.

Elsewhere
Karen Curren: I made those equipment to analyze the traits of their wearers and give them instant solutions. It doesn't give a perfect answer, but it can give something good enough that the wearer might not come up with. This is how I'm doing Plan C! It's different than what Bertro and Isaac have come up with, but... why am I talking about this anyway
Plan C has limitations compared to Plans A and B, which is why Curren was placed third among the geniuses.
Basement prison

Loki: That's your limit. You knowing everything puts you in a standstill, a dead end. It also takes the joy out of doing anything or going anywhere. Getting your priorities messed up is such a joke, just like Odin and the others. Those [REDACTED] got caught in their own trap! I almost want to thank them since spinning a hamster wheel still gives a feeling of wanting to do something.
Ose: ...why ARE you doing all this?
Loki: Short version, to entertain myself. That's why I--
Elsewhere
Curren: --went along with that suspicious liar Oscar's script. And so we allied guilds to full in for Plan C's flaws.
Opera House

Oscar: Leave it to me! I'm just trash who only thinks about fun, after all! Oops, right, you want to know what's happening with the plot, huh? Okay, put the show back on!

Yurakucho
Kirito: WHAT
A giant Nobody appears! Sort of.

Overlord: We are Overlord, Utopia Exception.
MC: what? / ...wait, why?
---
(C) No answer.
---
Overlord: We learned the truth at the end of time and wisdom. There is no future, no evolution.
Dimensional warping!
Solomon: M-Master, where did you go!? WAAAHH
King Solomon is there!

Solomon: Father!?

Down the magic rabbit hole!
MC: AAAAAA
Lots of falling through with a distorted sense of time until suddenly MC is in what looks like a Witch barrier.

MC: ...wasn't I just in Yurakucho?
Looks ruined. Also feels like some theater backdrop, doesn't feel real.

MC: Is this an Exception Domain? No wait, it feels different somehow...
Feels weird somehow. Suddenly, Quantum!

MC: WHOMST
Quantum: ...you can see me here?
MC: Yes, somebody's here! / what / (cautiously approach)
Quantum: (stares)
MC: Uh, who are you and where is this? Did you see an Exception?
Quantum: Exception? That's so quaint. I...must be Quantum, and this is where people who may or may not be alive come to.
MC: what
End of Episode

Wednesday, June 14, 2023

Chapter 14 Episode 6: Downfall 3 (Abridged)

Flashback!
Cop: Bwuh? AAAAAA
Barong: Heyo! Did you get high off those feels and get that nothing's as good as a show in the this world? In a show, you put out everything of yourself. Everything.
Cop: I'll do it! Give me more!
Barong: Cool! Welcome to the Entertainers, newbie!
Later
Beowulf cuts another MC(?)! Except this one was that one cop.
Present

Beowulf: Everything makes sense now! You've been brainwashing other people into your guild and making them into decoys!
Christine: Brainwashing is such an ugly accusation. We just gave them Infinite Joy, and they decided to give everything up to join our show. It's okay, everyone you cut down volunteered for it.

Beowulf: You fight good for an actress!
Christine: It's BECAUSE I'm an actress. You enjoy fighting, so I can take the part of a sword fighter to entertain you.
Beowulf: Dammit, another sword broke. Wyrm, be a good pack mule and get me another one!
Wyrm does so.
Beowulf: Hell yeah! (swipes)
Christine: What a shockingly casual (dis)regard for your artifact.
Beowulf: I'll use anything if I can keep fighting! I can get old or lose my mind and I can go if I have a sword. Just like the trophy, or else I can't keep fighting dragons!
Christine: So that's why you joined the Game Masters. But games are supposed to be fun, so I hope you enjoy our new screenplay.
Beowulf: ...why'd you guys team up with the Rule Makers?
Christine: :))))
Fighting intensifies!

Barguest: Wanderers, come in! I got new info from Yurakucho!

Arakawa
Arc: Thanks for helping me. The Rule Makers have been on me for forever. Why are you guys so close to the East's territory?
Hermes: Hey Qursha. That a new member?
Qursha: No, I helped them get away from the Rule Makers. Did Barguest call?
Hermes: Yep. We finally got some good info on the Yurakucho case. I can go cut a deal with Tajikarao with it!
Arc: ...oh right, you're the Arakawa Wanderers.
Qursha: And I know you, Otemachi guildmaster.

Arc: ...is this your Portal?
Qursha: Nah, we don't have one. Well actually, we keep ditching them. We never stay put anywhere, which is how we survived against the Rule Makers. Other resistance forces have been forced to "cooperate" with them.
Arc: ...is that a euphemism for brainwashing?
Qursha: Sort of, but worse. Did you see the things the drone pilots were wearing on their heads? They're Mind Expanders that tell them what to do and how to best work together and use themselves. Basically it tells them it's pointless to rebel against the Rule Makers.
Hermes: Give them the Pentagon secrets next, why don't you.
Qursha: It's cool, I know about the Genociders rumors too. Arc, you've got beef with them, right?
Chapter 8 flashback!

Arc: ...yeah, I owe them payback for my family, and the bill is big.
Qursha: ...okay. That fire in your eyes brings me back so far that I'm a little jealous. Anyway, were you really going to charge in alone?
Arc: Yes, and there's someone I need to take back with me. But the drones spotted me.
Qursha: Oh. Well turning back was the right idea. No one who went in ever came back. Like there was another guy who went in some time ago and hasn't come back. Dalai Avarga? He might be "cooperating" with the Rule Makers too now.
Arc: ...I heard you guys were using partisan anti-occupation policies against them.
Qursha: It's not THAT awesome. There's all kinds of causes, but the main thing is that we basically have no overlapping viewpoints with the Rule Makers.
Arc: what
Qursha: You know what belief keeps the Rule Makers together?
Arc: what?
Qursha: A god that has unconditional love and free mercy that isn't here but will guide us all to salvation. But as Wanderers, we decide where we're going to go.

Yurakucho
MC: The fog! Where'd Kirito go?
So much fog.

MC: Ow!
Kirito: ...wow, you're strong and managed to graze that. Or is it just that I'm weak?
Bigfoot: Nobody hurt MC!
MC: Bigfoot? / No, get back!
Bigfoot: It okay. Me, do anything for you.
MC: You're really protecting me...?
Bigfoot: ...me, understand Wakan Tanka's last feelings. Heyoka, hurt him. But, hurt healed, free mercy for all. Protecting you, joy. Me, love you.
MC: Bigfoot... / I love you too
(B) Bigfoot is surprised but happy.

Kirito: ...did you just say free mercy for all and understanding? Heh. Fuck you in particular for not knowing anything!
MC: Kirito? / What are you laughing for? / No stop!
Kirito: ...Mononobe taught me things I didn't want to know. I knew it was going to happen, but it doesn't mean I had to like or accept it. So I learned there's no such thing as free mercy for all and a family you can count on.
MC: What? What did Mononobe tell--
Kirito: I learned ignorance is bliss. I want no part of a world you're better off killed in. I'll kill you myself, and then I'll finally get out of this shithole stage they call a city!
BATTLE START (more happens after)

Yuma (narrating): Every time I see a furry I always think about how I wish I was born as one. Except I was born a human. If there is a God, why did this happen? Being human is embarrassing and sucks, so I go shut myself in a cage to suppress my inner beast.
Present
An angry beast broke out of its cage!

Angels: This is the team at the Ueno Dorm! We found the Ueno guildmaster! We'll be okay as long as we follow the directions we get on--OH NO
The beast lashes wildly and instinctively! And then Yuma runs out on all fours.
Yurakucho

Christine: Beowulf, remember how you asked why the Rule Makers allied with us? It's because we want the same thing.
Arakawa

Arc: ...the Rule Makers want the advent of the All-Powerful All-Knowing?
Qursha: Yeah, it explains everything. But do you believe it?
Underwater Shinagawa

Turing: Logically speaking, an All-Powerful All-Knowing being cannot exist in this world so long as there are limits. That also means they would have to exist outside the world.
Isaac: ...yep, if they're just one singular being anyways. But that makes room for the argument that they CAN exist if they aren't one singular being.

Yurakucho
Bigfoot: Storm!
MC: This is just like before...
Bigfoot: Me, representative of Great Mystery. If no Great Mystery here, then me can use same power.
MC: what?
Bigfoot: All things in nature. All-Powerful All-Knowing, inside me. So, me can save everyone without hurting anyone.
The storm blows the fog away!

MC: Wow!
Kirito: ...thanks, took you long enough. (poof)
MC: wait how'd he do that anyway
Bigfoot: (stabbed)
MC: Wait what? Bigfoot! What'd you do, Kirito!?
Kirito: My artifact is weak and can't take anyone in this world down. But that means I can argue it CAN take down someone who isn't in this world.

Bigfoot: (coughs blood)
MC: Kirito you stop this right now!
Kirito: (smug)
MC: (look away from Kirito to cover Bigfoot)
Bigfoot: MC!
MC: ...wait, haven't I seen this somewhere before?
Christine: Yes, this happened in a past loop once. Kirito stabbed you and you died. But, no rehashes! New script time!
Kirito: ...bye, my one-time family.
Kirito's knife touches Bigfoot and MC's arm with the ring on it.

Bigfoot: !?
The colors of the world invert!

MC: Why do I hear music
Live streamers are coming in!(?)

MC: wait what
Bigfoot: (coughs) No!
MC: An Exception...? No wait, something's different!

Christine: ...we can't let this loop go by. This is the only loop where Bigfoot became Wakan Tanka's representative, which makes him both an Urban Legend and an All-Powerful All-Knowing being part of the Entertainers. Now the conditions have been met.
Shinagawa
Isaac: Simple logic says an All-Powerful All-Knowing being exists, but it also says it doesn't exist.
Turing: Paraconsistent logic as academia calls it?
Isaac: Yeah, a god cannot exist alone in this world, but you can if you get someone else to be the "doesn't exist" part of the equation.
Yurakucho
King Solomon!

MC: Mononobe...? No, wait!
Christine: Well done for all you've done in your role, MC. Behold the mediator of the All-Powerful All-Knowing!
MC: ...something else is coming!
It is the being of the concept of Nothing.
Elsewhere

Karen Curren: ...all according to keikaku. Come, Dead End of Human Evolution, Alibi of Utopia. The Zero Exception Overlord!
End of Episode

Chapter 14 Episode 5: Downfall 2 (Abridged)

Shinjuku, Kabukicho, the Outlaws Portal. Kresnik is waiting for someone.
Kresnik: This is supposed to be the safest place...
Pazuzu: Hi! You the Outlaws messenger?
Kresnik: Yes, I'm Kresnik. You must be from the Beast Tamers...?
Pazuzu: Yep, Pazuzu from the Ueno guild.
Kresnik: ...thank you for coming all the way here in these trying times.
Pazuzu: It's cool, we're allies now! I mean, there was that time when you guys helped Leib and the others.
Oh yeah, remember that part of Chapter 8?

Pazuzu: Back to business! I reexamined that body remnant. How'd you get it past police security?
Kresnik: Old connections.
Pazuzu: Oh okay. Anyways, the thing is still alive. Not that weird since reptiles self-amputating is a thing.
Kresnik: What?
Pazuzu: Like lizards cutting off their tails. But anyways it looks like I was looking at dragon tissue.
Kresnik: Huh.
Pazuzu: BIG lizards! I guarantee that because of my specialty. Did you know dragons look different depending on who looks at them?
Hmm, just like MC.

Pazuzu: That still applies even if it's only part of them. We essentially can't tell who this belongs to. It's possible the ruling wrote down that the victim was the same as some dragon that just happened to be nearby, which would mean--
Kresnik: Sorry, could you just cut to the chase?
Pazuzu: Oh, haha sorry! Okay, the victim's identity has become unknown.
Kresnik: ...what?
Pazuzu: Wait, maybe cause and effect is in reverse. It's possible the case was fabricated and no one was involved. Here's the report, it's been risky sending things through mail.
Kresnik looks through the report and nods.

Kresnik: I see...that explains everything. Thanks Pazuzu, this has been really helpful. Rumors say the true big three guilds are looking for this info too, so it might be useful for negotiation.
Pazuzu: Nice! Okay, I'm gonna go now.
Kresnik: Wait, by yourself? In these times?
Guns and explosions in the distance.

Pazuzu: Nah, I'm not really alone. I got my Beast with me!

Ikebukuro
Balor: Kill them all!
Giants: YEEEAAAHHHH
The giants fight drone pilots.

Balor: Ugh, we're even. We're not getting anywhere like this. Did they put up drone pilots as a defense against my Mystic Eye? Are the other front lines any different? ...probably not. The Warmongers commanders are pretty much me, Teda, and Marduk. We'd be pinned if we didn't do this. Dammit, I could charge in if Avarga were here to take over leading.
Flashback
Balor: ...things have changed. Get going with your student, Avarga.
Avarga: Balor...
Balor: ...you're going to protect your student, right? And you have someone to settle a score with? Arslan, I mean. Don't worry about me.
Avarga: (frown)
Balor: I know why I came to Tokyo as an old man. I wanted to tell Them something at the end...depending on how this goes first.
Avarga: ...okay. Good luck.
Balor: Finish that fight you're looking for.
Present

Balor: Avarga, did you find a good place to die? Or--(bang!) Whoops, right, gun drones and all that. The South should be moving soon, and they should be fine against the East's drone pilots, but...

Elsewhere
Camoflagers: Use Presence Concealment to get past the drone cameras and ambush them!
Angels: Damn the Invaders and their tactics!
Camoflagers: Good! Now we--what!?
Streamers: Ayo chat, stream's starting with Presence Detection!
Camoflagers: What!? Oh no, our stealth!
Angels: There they are! Get them!
Yep, the battlefields in Tokyo are getting worse.
Akihabara

Agents: Oh my god the true big three guilds are going all in! They gotta end it quick before they destroy the city! The Rule Makers and Entertainers are recruiting, go go go!
Somewhere

Duo: Tokyo is now split between the West and South VS the East and Entertainers. No Switzerland in Tokyo here, and people will have to make a choice.

Yurakucho Opera House
Barong: Hey newbies! What's your name and what stage do you want to get on?
Amduscias: I-I'm Amduscias! And I want to be an idol! Except it might be hard because I'm so big!
Barong: It's okay! Stick with us and you can be anything! I'm Barong, your coach. Now come on up!
Amduscias: O-okay!
Barong: We can be anything if we're ready to give our hearts and bodies for it!
There's a certain shiver on Barong's face as he says that.
Elsewhere

Duo: The effects of that won't just stop at the individual game players.

Ueno
Angel: Nobody move, or you might get shot!
Fenrir: Curse you!
Cu Sith: HELP WAAAAHH
Angel: You, shut up! I know how your power works!
The Rule Makers mobs hold Cu Sith at gunpoint!

Leib: (Damn, they know about Cu Sith's NP.)
Angel: Now choose! Join the Rule Makers or...
Leib: (Die, right? Fiiiine.)
Leib: Cu, Fenrir, you can stop. We'll go along with it for now.
Cu Sith: Leeeiiiiib...
Angel: Okay then, hands up. There should be other members here, search their Portals!

Leib secretly turns on a phone in his lab coat before putting his hands up to share an emergency alert and news with the away team.
Angel: Gather all their war assets and send them to battle! We know what they can do!
Leib: (...do they know that sending a Beast alone is a recipe for pain for everyone? Pffft, we don't even know everything about ourselves. And there are some living things that are just walking disasters.)
Ueno Dorm
Angels: Come out with your hands up and surrender! We already captured the Ueno Lab! Resistance is-- w-why is there a cage here? Is that someone inside?
Yuma!
Angels: Get out here! Now--oof!
Yuma: GROWL
Angels: OH NO

Ueno Station area
Pazuzu: Hi, angels! Whoa, don't point your weapons at me all of a sudden.
Angels: Stop, you! We have wanted posters of Ueno guild members!
Pazuzu: Oh I know. You're with the Rule Makers, right? I hear you guys took care of our friends and know a lot about us. But then, there are things that just happen even if you know about them. Hastur!
Hastur: (glares)
Angel A: Oh god he's huge!
Angel B: I-it's okay, we already know their deals! First guy is Pazuzu, top dragon researcher and priority capture target! He's got a defensive artifact. The threat is the second guy, the Walking Biohazard Hastur! We have gas masks and biohazards suits to protect us, so if we--

Hastur: By order of the King in Yellow! Four poxes upon both their heads!
Angels: AAAAAA
Those gas masks and hazard suits turned out to mean nothing and Hastur bombs them with status attacks.
Pazuzu: Isn't he awesome!?
Angel: H-how can you be okay?
Hastur: What fool dares approach Hastu--
Pazuzu: (zooms in on Hastur) Secco, good boy! Good good good good good! Are you hurt? I can look ALL over you when we get back, my cute lizard!
Hastur: S-stop! I've told you a thousand times I'm not a lizard!
Pazuzu: It's okay! I have my warding charm that protects me from all the things you do, so I can touch you as much as I want!
Hastur: REPROBATE

Yurakucho
Bigfoot: MC, this soft serve ice cream good. Hope you like.
MC: Thanks / Feed me, Bigfoot / Stop that!
---
(A) Bigfoot: (smiles)
(B) Bigfoot: You, like baby. But...okay. Open wide...you, like?
(C) Bigfoot: What wrong?
---
MC: Bigfoot, please tell me already. What's the Entertainers up to?
Bigfoot: ...me, told protect you. No lies. Me, swear to Great Mystery.
MC: ...then let me go. I have to get back to everyone.
Bigfoot: ...can't. Outside Yurakucho, dangerous. Me, protect you. No one, hurt you.
MC: Why go so far?
Bigfoot: Me, have no persuasive argument. But, coming to love someone, wrong? You, end Great Mystery's pain. But, this different from gratitude. Me, love you. Me, always loved you since first meeting.
MC: Bigfoot... / (stare)

Later, maybe
Barguest: Barguest reporting. Guarding the VIP, nothing unusual. Yes, I know, don't get too close. (I have to do my Yurakucho work as well as my other thing. Ugh, so much to do.) Oh, uh, nothing. Continuing my watch...huh?
Beowulf: THERE YOU ARE
Barguest: Suspicious person approaching VIP! Heading them o--!?
Barguest: He just pulled out a sword and is running at MC! OOF, this is heavy!
Beowulf: Out of the way, chump! Get him, Wyrm!
Barguest: Wait, what is your deal!?
Beowulf: I'm Beowulf and I am here to cut me down a dragon!
MC(?) comes by.

Barguest: WHAT
Beowulf: Danish Smash!
Barguest: OH NO, MC!

losertrombones.wav
Beowulf: Dammit, it was another decoy!
Christine: Oh my you look especially young today, Game Master Beowulf.
Beowulf: Funny you should say that, Entertainer!
Barguest: Wait what just happened!?
Christine: Oh, that was a stand-in we put out.
Barguest: !?!?!?
Christine: Beowulf, we already knew you'd come after MC. Removing the trophy would be the fastest way to reset things and make the game go on, yes? The Warmongers and Invaders tried the same thing, but we're using admin privileges to hide them.
Beowulf: You put out decoys because we have admin privileges too, didn't you?
Christine: We don't want another rehash, so yes. Now then, show time!

Elsewhere
Bigfoot: !?
MC: What? ...an alert?
Bigfoot: You, hide behind. Something happening...someone coming.
MC: Wait where'd this fog come fr--
Kirito: ...
MC: ...what? / Kirito?
---
(B) Kirito: ...oh, you remember me? Gold star for you.
---
Kirito: Long time no see, MC. I wish it was longer actually.
MC: Arc's looking for you.
Kirito: ...yeah, I saw them. Do you ever worry about yourself? Why do you two care so much about the game? Are you just that stupid? Oh whoops, I'm sorry. You guys just don't know, so I shouldn't hold it against you.
MC: what
Kirito: ...you know Kyouma Mononobe, right? I heard so much from him around the time you first met him.
MC: wait WHAT
Kirito: Actually who cares. Work time. (pulls out knife)
MC: You here to fight!?
Kirito: ...no, it's nothing personal.
Bigfoot: Stop. MC, my guest. Me, protect.
Kirito: You poor little sap. Let's do this.
End of Episode

Thursday, June 8, 2023

Chapter 14 Episode 4: Downfall 1 (Abridged)

Barong: Welcome to Yurakucho, God bless! We are the Entertainers, and we want to give everything to you, viewers! Your enjoyment means everything to us, so that's why we put on masks to play whatever. Keep watching!
The next day

MC: Morning already...? Hey, where's Bigfoot?
Barguest: Hi, morning room service.
MC: Hi Barguest / Don't just barge in!
Barguest: ...you okay? Did they do anything to you?
MC: No? / Nothing bad
(A) Barguest: Oh...okay, good then.
(B) Barguest: (stares) ...wait, I should stop thinking about that.

Barguest: So not to repeat myself, but don't trust the Yurakucho folks. They're good at getting into your head and getting at what you care about. I wish I could stick with you all day, but I can't... plus I'm a doom magnet so I should stay away.
MC: You know something? Also why are you even here?
Barguest: ...I'm just working places and I got all sorts of bosses.
Christine starts lurking.

Barguest: They'd do crimes for fun, anything goe--huh?
Christine: Correct! Anything to delight our audience.
MC: W-when did you get in!? / Pretty! / What's with the mask...?
Christine: My, you're making a face just like the Phantom. Pay no mind to the mask, just something to hide my face so I can get into character. I'm Christine of the Entertainers. Nice to meet you.
MC: I'm MC
Christine: Thank you for accepting our invitation, MC.
MC: It's cool / I didn't even get to say yes or no / Okay what's the deal
Christine: That's why I'm here. So, may I have some of your time while That is away?

Somewhere in Yurakucho
Bael: Crimes for fun. The Yurakucho Entertainers only think about delighting the audience watching, and they'll do anything for that. Even crimes. But I'm a lawyer and the law is the law, even if I have to prosecute an ally or relative. Speaking of which, I better get on that, on my name as the top of King Solomon's hierarchy.
Later, the Nightpool

Christine: So MC, what do you think of our Portal? We have plenty of forms of entertainment while you stay, so could you please stop making faces?
MC: What is your deaaaal
Christine: I told you earlier: that as part of the management we want to make this game more interesting. The Game Masters want to keep the game running. We want to make it amusing.
MC: Amusing? Have you seen what's been happening out there!?

Christine: ...yes. Such a sad world, what with someone somewhere suffering at any moment. Some poet or other is always writing and asking God why he isn't doing anything. Is God not here, or is it some other reason? What do you think, MC?
MC: Who cares about God?
Christine: But you've heard of God. He's King Solomon, the All Exception who sent Kyouma Mononobe as a part of himself to watch you over all these loops.
MC: ...what
Christine: Yes, the All-Knowing All-Powerful God. How do you think God sees this world? He sees it as a comedy, even if we may see it as a tragedy. Charlie Chaplin once said life is a tragedy up close but a comedy in long-shot. Mononobe must have thought so too if he was a part of King Solomon.
MC: You shut up! / Stop putting words in his mouth / Sorry, I disagree
Christine: True, it's not like I can understand God. But it's the things you don't understand that charm you. So MC, what was Kyouma Mononobe to you?
MC: An always kind foster Dad / My sometimes hardass teacher / Maybe something else

Christine: Everyone has several personas and yet unseen dramas, and making those dramas the most interesting they can be has been my job up to this point. I don't have anything left to show him anymore...so we thought we should put on a show we never had before. And you're a big part of it, so be sure to take care of yourself until then. I should go now, it's about time for him to come back. (leaves)
MC: wait where'd she go
Bigfoot: Hello MC
MC: Bigfoot? Where'd you go?
Bigfoot: Patrol, Yurakucho. Me, protect you. Go anywhere today? Me, lead way.
MC: ...alright, can you show me around town?
Bigfoot: Okay. Me, happy you rely on me.
MC: (I can't trust you though...) / (Need info...)

Somewhere in Yurakucho
Nobumichi: The area's been sealed and investigated! Whaddya--I mean, what are we doing next, Sir?
Horus: Hmm...prepare the body part for forensics. Get someone specialized in Transient biology.
Nobumich: It'll be done in a jiff--I mean, yes Sir! Sorry about slipping up on my pleb speech.
Horus: It's fine. After that, look for witnesses and PoIs. Bring anyone suspicious to me. And while going after this serial killer dismemberer is dangerous, do not lose any body parts. If we have a full body, we can use my artifact for necromancy and questioning.
Horus's artifact has the power to resurrect people even if they've been cut into five. It did this for Osiris once, and Horus can use it to make whoever he used it on to correct the law.

Horus: (...is whoever doing this scattering the bodies to prevent my artifact from working? ...it can't be.)
Nobumichi: Got it! I mean, yes Sir! I'll be okay, I'm stronger than my foster brother Yasuyori, or anyone else!
Horus: ...yes, only the strong can create peace. We will make a paradise no one else did.
Nobumichi: Let my artifact handle it. Okay, here I go investigating!

Bael: Hello, Lord Horus.
Horus: ...hello, Prosecutor Bael.
Bael: Wow, you're like the only World Representative to show me any respect. The rest treat me so casually...oh, excuse me.
Horus: I must uphold the given laws and fulfill my professional duties.
Bael: Commendable. So, what does the Chuo Judicial Police think of all this? From what I've found, there were rumors that Yurakucho had underground selling of people. And then there were rumors that the serial killer was after the people doing these transactions. Sounds like that one person who went after the trophy at the beginning of this loop. Which reminds me, apparently that arm was set up to have the trophy's bio data? All the World Representatives were in such a rush over that, worried that someone was after the prize already. Not even they know who the real victim or what the murderer's motive was. But maybe Kyouma Mononobe does...

Horus: We're unsure, but I think the Entertainers are hiding something. As one of the judiciary police, I must solve this case.
Bael: ...oh right, you opposed the Ruler Makers-Entertainers alliance, didn't you?
Horus: Yes, as did Koropokkur. I was surprised Ahura Mazda supported it. It's true with their admin privileges, it'd be advantageous for us...but it isn't fair. We abide by majority decisions, but if the Entertainers are involved with this case, we cannot loosen up on the investigation.
Bael: How professional of you. So is this a continuation of the Shinjuku case or a copycat?
Horus: We have no evidence to confirm or deny either.
Bael: But doesn't your actual presence here suggest this is important to the game?
Horus: ...I have an investigation to get back to.
Bael: Oh, excuse me! Last thing, do you know of Yurakucho's history? It's a theater city, but it was also a brothel district once. Hmm, a serial killer targetting prostitutes. Where have I heard that one before? Okay, take care now, lots of plots going on around here.
Horus: (stares)
Later

Beowulf: So many people around today. Ugh, I hope I get the right one this time.

Later, Arakawa
Special Element Angel: Orders from the top of Rule Makers! Find and capture six targets related to the Awakawa Wanderers! New guys, understand your duties?
Mob A: Y-yes, find the dissidents in Arakawa!
Sp. Element Angel: Right, look through your equipment manual and the target list.
Mob A: Y-yes Senpai!
Sp. Element Angel: Good answer. Now which group were you all with before?
Mob A: The Missionaries! The guild was falling apart so I jumped ship.
Mob B: The Tycoons.
Sp. Element Angel: Good thing you joined us since we're on a roll. I also ditched my original guild. I felt bad about it, but I think this is correct.
Mob B: I heard in Minato there's this huge guild alliance thing.
Sp. Element Angel: Well this place is far from the front lines and Yurakucho so it should be safe. Hey you, you listening? Kirito Tachihara, I asked you a question!

Kirito: ...yes I heard, stop yelling thanks.
Angel: Creep. Where were you from before?
Kirito: Who cares?
Angel: Answer!
Kirito: ...the Berserkers, the Genociders, and some other places.
Angel: Did you get kicked out or something?
Kirito: (thinks about Oniwaka and the Genociders)
Kirito: ...no. I can't do anything anyways. Do I LOOK like I'm capable of anything? It's just that every group I was a part of blew up on itself. Not that that's suspicious or anything.
Mobs: WHAT
Angel: ...the albatross on our necks now, huh? No funny business from you, and--
Radio: Intruder alert, intruder alert! Fire!

Angel: THEM (gets caught in chains) what just happened!?
Kirito: Huh?
It's Arc!

Angel: The Genociders guildmaster!
Arc: Burn in your sins.
Angels: AAAAA
Qursha: Those chains!
Arc: Sorry, I hope we don't fight each other aga-- !!
Kirito: Arc? Huh. You're still alive?
Arc: Kirito!?
Chapter 8 flashback!

Arc: I heard about you from MC and the others.
Kirito: Huh. You two friends now?
Arc: I'm still a Genocider. We're allies, but I'm not a Summoner. It's still your home...let's go back together. Like family.
Kirito: ...I don't want it, and we aren't connected anymore.
Arc: Kirito...
Kirito: Why do you care so much about this tragic shithole of a world? Harlot told you how much the loops sucked, didn't she? I always thought Tokyo can go to hell too.
Arc: ...! Why do you say that? All of us loved you.
Kirito: Damn, I BSed the hell out of that to get you to say that, but seriously I don't need a bond of fate with any of you. Never talk to me again. The love families and mothers can give me can get shoved right up their asses. Every time I look at MC, I wonder how it is they DON'T think that.
Arc: Kirito...
Kirito: Bye. Get lost now, yeah?
Arc: Wait, Kirito! I-- !?
Drone Pilots: Get them!
Arc: Oh no, more Rule Makers mobs! (gets shot at as they run)
Drone Pilots: Escape route A1 confirmed, changing pursuit patterns.
Kirito: (stares)

Later
Arc: Dammit, there's no end to these drones!
Wow, it's like these drones know where Arc is going.

Arc: Do I have to fight them then?
Qursha: You, what's your face! Over here!
Arc: Who!?
Elsewhere

Kirito: Being alone is awesome and I would like to stay that way. So who are you and why are you getting in the way of that?
Israfil: Hahaha, oh excuse me! I'm Israfil and I am here to deliver a message from the Rule Makers.
Kirito: Is this a new order or something? I'm a weakling if you can't tell with your eyes. You sure you need someone who can't fight?
Israfil: That's why you're perfect for this. You want to end the world, don't you?
End of Episode