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Zoe posted:The truth is they're not actually secret agents, they're secret agents in training and the whole Nonary Game is just an elaborate test. They actually aced all their courses, but it was in a different timeline.
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Feb 8, 2014 15:54
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But maybe with a crash summer course entitled 'How to Not Mention to Strangers that You're Working for a Secret Organization' they can begin to salvage this situation.
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Zoe posted:The truth is they're not actually secret agents, they're secret agents in training and the whole Nonary Game is just an elaborate test. Is there such a thing as Secret Agent Kindergarten, because I think even that might be a bit too advanced for Clover at the moment.
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Feb 8, 2014 19:11
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Maybe the Secret Organization has been hit hard by the recession caused by the proliferation of a suicide-inducing society-killing supervirus and has had to make a few cutbacks in agent training, recruitment and educational funding just to stay afloat. Clover's incompetence is just a sign of the times!
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Feb 8, 2014 19:36
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Ometeotl posted:Is there such a thing as Secret Agent Kindergarten, because I think even that might be a bit too advanced for Clover at the moment. Go look up a cartoon named Bruno the Kid....
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Feb 8, 2014 19:46
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It's going to turn out the reason why they're saying they can't say anything is that they don't know anything more. Alternatively one of the symptoms of Radical 6 is it makes you really bad at keeping secrets for any long amount of time. Or I guess the multiple timeline thing is causing these feelings of almost trust among people causing everything to slip out.
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Feb 8, 2014 19:57
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The participants are all just people who have been told to play a role, but they have no idea how to do it for real. Clover and Alice were told to be secret agents, Luna was told to be a caring motherly figure, Tenmyoji was told to be a cantankerous grandfather and Quark his savant grandson, Dio a suave dickhead, K a mysterious armored figure (and no, we haven't figured out where the heck the armor came from - method acting is scary sometimes), and Phi was just given the word "tsundere" and told to run with it.
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Feb 8, 2014 19:58
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I'm half hoping that K really does turn out to be a robot. Not in the sense that they open the suit and there's nothing inside, or that it isn't actually a suit-but that they finally get the suit open, and there's a Gaulem just hanging out inside.
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Feb 8, 2014 20:16
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Nidoking posted:The participants are all just people who have been told to play a role, but they have no idea how to do it for real. Clover and Alice were told to be secret agents, Luna was told to be a caring motherly figure, Tenmyoji was told to be a cantankerous grandfather and Quark his savant grandson, Dio a suave dickhead, K a mysterious armored figure (and no, we haven't figured out where the heck the armor came from - method acting is scary sometimes), and Phi was just given the word "tsundere" and told to run with it. I could honestly believe all of this. I think Phi is more kuudere than tsundere, though.
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Feb 8, 2014 20:26
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No matter how bad she is, you can always brag your spy agency has a mummy working for them. And she can be all 'Mum's the word' when you give her the orders, and it's a big hit at parties.
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Feb 8, 2014 22:38
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Rei_ posted:No matter how bad she is, you can always brag your spy agency has a mummy working for them. And she can be all 'Mum's the word' when you give her the orders, and it's a big hit at parties. This lovely family comedy sounds like it's writing itself!
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Feb 9, 2014 01:26
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This is already a pretty lovely family comedy though.
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Feb 9, 2014 03:09
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Listen in: [English/Japanese] Until you tell me what you know. Then why don't you just ask Clover? Clover? You already know she works with me. ... ...Well, yeah. Then why don't you-- I wanted to hear it from you. Why? That's a good question. Remember the crew quarters? Or this garden? We got paired up for two separate rounds. That means I've spent more time with you than anybody else here. Maybe that's it. I guess I'm just curious about you. VLR OST: [Blue Bird Lamentation] If you won't click on that link, click on one of these: Listen in: [English/Japanese] What? Why? I... I tried to kill you. You mean in the AB Game? Yes. ... I was so scared... Who wouldn't be? Kidnapped and locked up, forced to play some sort of bizzare game... And then we found that bomb. I know I probably sounded calm, but as soon as we found that thing all I wanted to do was run away from it as fast as I could. Things just went downhill from there... What do you mean? I remember hearing that Quark had collapsed, and running to the infirmary with everyone else. When I got there, I realized I couldn't understand what anyone was saying. Then I started to feel like... It's hard to explain. I guess you could say I didn't feel like I was myself, and it only got worse. That was probably the Radical-6. Yes, I think so. I don't remember much after that... But when I woke up in the infirmary, suddenly all that fear was back. So I... It never even crossed my mind that it could kill you! God help me, even if it had I don't think I would have cared! ... See?! I'm horrible! You hate me, don't you?! Just do it! What? Do what? What the hell, Alice. I'm not going to kill you. I don't even hate you. You're lying! I could have killed you! I would have killed you! C'mon, calm down! No one's killing anyone! ... ... Listen in: [English/Japanese] Why are you doing this? ... You know, you kind of remind me of my father... That's who you were after, right? The people who killed your dad? Yes... Did they have anything to do with the Myrmidons? ... ... Ha! Come on... If you keep your mouth shut, I'll tell you what you want to know. About myself, and about the Myrmidons. Deal? Sure. My lips are sealed. Really? What crying? I don't remember any crying. Good. All right then... [Music fades out] Alice took a deep breath and began. VLR OST: [Confession] By my ninth birthday, we'd been there for six years. That was when it happened. In the middle of the day, my mother showed up at school. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she didn't say anything to me on the drive home. When we arrived, there were several policemen there to meet us. My father had always been a very punctual man, and when dinnertime came and went with no sign of him, even I began to realize something terrible had happened. It wasn't until several years later that I finally learned the truth: My father's lab had been attacked by terrorists, and he had been kidnapped. Fortunately, I was an excellent student and did especially well in math. I earned a full ride scholarship straight out of high school and spent the next several years studying. After graduation I took a job with the Department of Defense, hoping that they might have the resources to help me look for my father. I was immediately assigned to the Special Office of Internal Security. Their purpose is to investigate, and sometimes deal with, terrorist organizations and other serious threats to the state. I could tell my mother wasn't happy about my decision, but she chose to remain silent about it. Eventually I learned that the terrorist organization that had taken my father was none other than the Myrmidons, although at the time that name didn't mean anything to me. They were suspected of human cloning. Specifically, it was thought that they had been using cloning techniques to copy their most useful members and expand their ranks. The Myrmidons apparently believed that they could use cloning to create a new race of humans. Now, at last, I knew the reason for my father's abduction. The commander of the Myrmidons is a man named "Left". We know his name and his gender, but not his appearance or his age. The Myrmidons are closely associated with a cult known as "Free the Soul". We believe that Free the Soul provides their funding... But trying to pin any kind of misdeeds on the cult's leader, a man named "Brother", is like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. Brother is supposed to be fairly advanced in years, and rumors say he's so old he can't even get out of bed. Unfortunately, his mind seems to be as sharp as ever. At that point, I hit a wall. I knew the Myrmidons had been behind my father's kidnapping, but that was all I could learn about them. Then, one day, I got a tip that some of them were hiding in a building in the Nevada desert. I headed out immediately. On the way there my car had some engine trouble and stalled out. I was trying to decide what to do when an SUV appeared out of nowhere. I'll give you one guess who was behind the steering wheel. ...Clover. That was the first time we met. There were four other people in the car with her, and when I asked them what they were doing I got what was just about the last answer I'd expected. They told me they'd been locked up inside of the very building I'd been on my way to investigate, and that they were currently in pursuit of the people who had kidnapped them in the first place. My priorities shifted very quickly. After a short discussion, I convinced them to allow me to come along. My hope was to find the people they were chasing, who I was certain were the Myrmidons. In the end, however, we were unable to track them down. In fact, I still don't know where they might have gone. There was also a sixth person in the SUV, although they weren't... riding in it, per se. A middle-aged man, who I'll just call "H" for now, had been bound and placed in the trunk. According to the other four, he had been behind the disappearance of the children nine years earlier. We also learned that his pharmaceutical company, a major player on the world stage, was effectively controlled by Free the Soul. More specifically, I suppose, H was a member of Free the Soul, and very committed to their cause. So why had he kidnapped all those children? Apparently, it had been part of an experiment designed to test the ability of certain people to access what's called the "morphogenetic field". I don't imagine you've ever heard of it before, so I'll give you a quick rundown. Simply put, these people can access a sort of field that allows their consciousness to resonate with the consciousnesses of certain other people. To be honest, it might be simpler to just call it telepathy... The SOIS had heard of this particular ability before, and had actually used it in a number of investigations, so I wasn't surprised to learn of its existence. I was shocked, however, to learn that these experiments had been carried out by a member of Free the Soul. If that was the case, then Brother must have known about it... The thought of him discovering a way to control and harness that power was terrifying. It wasn't too long after the incident in Nevada that another tip about the Myrmidons crossed my desk. This time it claimed that the Myrmidons intended to launch a large-scale biological terrorist attack. My bosses decided that we needed more agents to deal with a threat of that magnitude, and Clover was recruited. Because she'd been a test subject in H's experiment, we knew she had the ability to access the morphogenetic field, and we wanted to put that ability to use. After several months of training, she was sent on her first mission. She would be tasked with the infiltration and investigation of a Myrmidon cloning lab. I was assigned to be her commanding officer. I hoped that our investigation might also give me a lead on my father's whereabouts. At last, I had a chance to find out what had happened to him. I wouldn't let that chance pass me by. Perhaps that was what kept me from noticing the truth... The whole operation was a trap. The lab was fake, and Clover was captured almost immediately. I got there as fast as I could, but when I arrived the building was only an empty shell. All of the conspirators who had pretended to be researchers and the like had already fled. I searched frantically for Clover until at last, in a basement room, I found her. She had been tied to a chair, but on the floor next to her was another body. It was my father. He looked as if he'd just been dumped there, and when I got to him his body was already cold. He was covered in dark, ugly bruises. It wasn't until later that I learned he had died from ruptured organs and intenal bleeding. They had beaten him to death. As soon as Clover had been captured, a Myrmidon in a mask had come to visit her. He'd said that unless she wanted to end up like my father, she would leave them alone, and tell her masters at the SOIS to do likewise. In retrospect, they must have known who I was, and who my father was. That was why they'd killed him. Perhaps they'd thought they were sending a message to me. Or that once he was gone, I'd lose my reason for chasing them. I took Clover with me and left. I tried to console myself with the fact that I had, at least, been able to save her. Some time later I received a call from the coroner. He told me there was something I needed to see. There in the morgue was my father, cold and pale on a steel table. I could barely stand to look at him, but the coroner insisted. On his arm were two rows of numbers, comprised of 8s and 9s. It took me a moment to recognize my father's handwriting. He had carved them into his own skin... On his chest was another message, but they were letters this time, not numbers. Not many, just enough to make a short sentence. I broke down crying, right there in the morgue. They were the first tears I'd shed since the operation had started, and there was no stopping them. There would be no forgiveness. Not for the monsters who'd put my father through this. They'd destroyed my family. I would make them pay, even if I had to die to do it. That night I made a promise to myself... I would avenge my father. It didn't take long to figure out that the numbers he'd written were latitude and longitude. They pointed to a chemical factory that had been disguised as an abandoned building. Further investigation revealed that it was the mother lode we'd been looking for: the headquarters of the Myrmidons. I think my father must have known how things would turn out. Knowing he was going to die, he'd written the directions to our enemy's fortress on his own body. He'd sacrificed too much for me to waste this opportunity with recklessness. This time our operation would succeed. This time, I wouldn't let my excitement put Clover, or any of my other agents, in danger. So we took our time. We gathered information, we did our research, and we planned. Finally, we were ready. December 25th, 2028 was going to be the day we finally set foot inside the Myrmidon stronghold. [Music fades out] Listen in: [English/Japanese] Yes... ... Well, there it is. Everything that's happened with the Myrmidons and me. I left a few of the details out, of course, but you get the idea. Yeah. Thanks. Not yet. Your story explained a lot, but there's still one big question. Which is? VLR OST: [Portentousness] Who here is a Myrmidon? One of us planted the bombs. And based off the code we found, it's pretty clear that person is a Myrmidon. Right? Yes. And I agree that we need to figure out who they are. What do you propose we do? Well, thats what I wanted to ask you about. Do you have any clues? Well, if I could decrypt that code, it might tell us something, but... How can we do that? I told you. We need a key. Without that, it's pointless. What's a key? A key is a key. It allows you to sort of... unlock a code. Myrmidons usually use this huge string of numbers as a key... Wait... A long string of numbers? Could that be... Lock no. 05 What is the long string of numbers? You'd think they could at least make some effort to frame some of these a little better... At this point I'd like to make a quick note on a small localization change. If you've been listening to the Japanese voice tracks you may have noticed that the name "Myrmidons" is entirely an invention of the localization team; the original name for the terrorists is the "Clay Dolls". You will note that "Clay Dolls" happens to sound almost exactly like "Cradle", especially if you sound them out in Japanese; this somewhat foreshadows the revelation that Gentarou Hongou - I'm sorry, "H" - is linked to them. It also has some very tidy symbolism; most notably it calls to mind the Golem, a literal clay doll. The localization team changed the name because in their opinion - which I share - the word "doll" is too closely tied up in the idea of a children's toy and wouldn't be taken as seriously in the name of a terrorist group as it would in Japan, where the word "doll" ("ningyou") can also be used to mean someone under the control of another (Also, maintaining the near-homophone with "Cradle" requires placing the emphasis on "clay", which is not at all intuitive to native speakers). Eventually they settled on "Myrmidons" because... well, in the absence of a way to directly localize "Clay Dolls", they just had to choose something that sounded cool. The new name has somewhat different symbolism that links it to something else in the plot... but now I'm getting ahead of myself. Also, three out of three games I've LP'd feature Myrmidons. I guess we'll know when we see it. And so here we are again. Now what? Our choices: cd ~/magenta/ally/green/betray Betray Luna after escaping the Gaulem Bay cd ~/magenta/ally/red After successfully allying with Luna, go through the Red door with Alice and Clover cd ~/magenta/ally/blue After successfully allying with Luna, go through the Blue door with Alice and K cd ~/magenta/betray Betray Luna after escaping the Lounge cd ~/yellow/ally/green After being betrayed by Tenmyouji, go through the Green door with Clover and Quark cd ~/yellow/ally/blue After being betrayed by Tenmyouji, go through the Blue door with Clover and Tenmyouji cd ~/yellow/betray Betray Tenmyouji after escaping the Infirmary cd ~/cyan/betray Betray Alice after escaping the Crew Quarters Fedule fucked around with this message at 06:41 on Mar 15, 2014 |
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Feb 9, 2014 11:05
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Don't care bout yo sob story, you're still an rear end. GO back and betray her earlier!
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Feb 9, 2014 11:13
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I never thought they'd top the song at the end of 999, but I'll be damned if they didn't.
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Feb 9, 2014 11:14
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Wow, she's actually wearing a shirt here. 
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Feb 9, 2014 11:22
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I still propose we get the worst bits out of the way and betray Luna, then when we're all sad from whatever happens, we can make ourselves feel better by betraying Alice.
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Feb 9, 2014 11:41
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Jagged Jim posted:Wow, she's actually wearing a shirt here. Yeah, I want this to be explained. Why is she refusing to wear a shirt? This retcon also makes no sense. June narrates: "It would not be long before Junpei realized who she was." How did he just randomly know Alice? ApplesandOranges posted:I still propose we get the worst bits out of the way and betray Luna, then when we're all sad from whatever happens, we can make ourselves feel better by betraying Alice. I'm seconding this. Betraying Alice was really unsatisfying. Maybe we'll get something interesting out of double crossing the good characters.
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Feb 9, 2014 11:49
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Your story is pretty interesting and all, Alice, but it still doesn't explain WHY THE gently caress YOU ARE WEARING WHATEVER YOU'RE WEARING. Nor why you were somehow wearing even less at the end of 999. BTW, nice attempt to make us feel bad about the stripped, game. Too bad it didn't work. As far as I'm concerned, operation "gently caress Alice" is still if full swing. Also, Sigma confirmed to have Radical-6 in Luna's path, seeing that his symptoms match what Alice said pretty much word-for-word. Though it's really strange that he somehow recovered. You think someone might have injected him with the axelavir in the time when he wasn't responding?
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Feb 9, 2014 11:50
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DJ Ramshackle posted:Don't care bout yo sob story, you're still an rear end. GO back and betray her earlier! (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 9, 2014 11:51
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Yeah, okay, this scene does make me feel kind of sorry for Alice. But it's just too sad to see her looking so guilty and distraught over nearly killing Sigma. Let's go back and betray her so she won't be put through this emotional anguish again!
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Feb 9, 2014 11:59
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Let's hop back to the first path and betray Luna after the GAULEM bay. It's the farthest down a path we've gotten so far without returning and I really want to know what was up with everyone dying.
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Feb 9, 2014 12:51
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Wow, info dump, but it did actually end up making like Alice as a character more. Now, to decide whether to go back and betray Alice again the first opportunity we got, or Betray Luna and get it over with... As an aside, I was playing through the game myself, sticking to the same routes as the LP, but I still haven't caught up yet-I knew about the save file corruption glitch, so never saved in any puzzle rooms, but I didn't know about the freezing issues with some of the puzzles... 
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Feb 9, 2014 13:07
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Completely unrelated to the current situation, but I was talking to a friend of mine as he was playing through 999, and when he got to the chapel, he became very upset that the title had apparently straight-up lied to him (the "9 Doors" part, specifically - there were two doors with 9 on them, making 10 in total). But then we had a revelation and realized that "9 Doors" doesn't necessarily imply "nine individual doors", it can also refer to the plural of "9 Door" (A 9 Door of course being a numbered door with a 9 on it), and as we all know, there are indeed two of them. So there you go, if you've ever been bugged by the title of 999 not matching up with the actual number of doors, there's your answer - the title didn't lie to you, it was just a clever exploitation of the ambiguities of the English language.
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Feb 9, 2014 13:16
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Sooo... What's the over/under on Clover being replaced by a clone during the time she was left alone while captured at a cloning lab? Maybe she's not good old axey and is actually the one who planted the bombs or stabbed the old woman (who we still haven't learned anything about at this point?.. What's up with that?)
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Feb 9, 2014 13:36
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Yes. Not a mummy. Hooray. I'm not sure where to go from here, and I'm not particularly invested which one we take now.
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Feb 9, 2014 14:10
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Aww, Alice.  So Left and Brother are definitely guys then? I bet at least one of them is here.
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Feb 9, 2014 14:11
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Mecca-Benghazi posted:So Left and Brother are definitely guys then? I bet at least one of them is here. Ha, funny thing with that is that every guy present is a valid suspect K: Obvious; the suit could be a disguise and/or life support system ala Darth Vader Tammy: Gruff old guy that has secrets and seems to know things he shouldn't, but too spry for the given definition of Brother Quark: Could be a young clone of Brother, which would explain a lot (and would mean that Tammy's Left) Dio: Obvious rear end in a top hat, could just be there to ruin things instead of just being selfish Sigma: Could be an empty vessel controlled via morphagenic fields by Brother, could be brainwashed ala Bioshock, could be a sleeper agent that was given amnesia through the sedative, could be a meta commentary on the player itself, all kinds of stuff
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Feb 9, 2014 14:25
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Woo! Finally we hit one of the character backstory dumps. And then hit a lock immediately after that. We haven't seen a single ending yet, have we?  Austrian mook posted:I never thought they'd top the song at the end of 999, but I'll be damned if they didn't. Blue Bird Lamentation is easily the best song in the game. It's basically "Feels: The Song". Jagged Jim posted:Wow, she's actually wearing a shirt here. ...I never noticed that before. 
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Feb 9, 2014 14:29
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:And then hit a lock immediately after that. We haven't seen a single ending yet, have we? Sure haven't! Hey, look on the bright side: we're guaranteed to see one in at most six more playthroughs
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Feb 9, 2014 14:32
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I'd like to make a crazy prediction that we'll get two within three.
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Feb 9, 2014 15:00
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Instant Grat posted:Completely unrelated to the current situation, but I was talking to a friend of mine as he was playing through 999, and when he got to the chapel, he became very upset that the title had apparently straight-up lied to him (the "9 Doors" part, specifically - there were two doors with 9 on them, making 10 in total). There's technically 20 numbered doors in total, counting both 9 doors, the room everyone started in (assuming they all worked the same), and the Q door.
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Feb 9, 2014 15:09
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Color Printer posted:There's technically 20 numbered doors in total, counting both 9 doors, the room everyone started in (assuming they all worked the same), and the Q door. My point still stands, if you read "9 Door" as its own noun, the title remains perfectly accurate 
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Feb 9, 2014 15:14
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Myrmidon lore, just to try and help speculation (never played the game, just thought it would be useful to know the reference). In Greek mythology, a king of a city had all of his people wiped out by a plague. He prays to Zeus, and Zeus takes pity on him. All the ants on a nearby tree are turned into people to repopulate the city. They are known as myrmidons, or ant people. They show up later in myth as the soldiers of Achilles at Troy, some of the best Greek warriors. So the conclusion as I guess it is that the myrmidons either want to kill off humanity and replace it with clones, or clone an army of super-soldiers. Or both.
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Feb 9, 2014 15:58
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Okay, so that's just straight up a picture of Dio sitting at a desk, right?
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Feb 9, 2014 16:03
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I think you guys are mean if you don't feel some sympathy for Alice after that.
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Feb 9, 2014 16:28
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That was quite the infodump. Lots of loose ends with the old plot tied up (and the Clay Doll/Cradle thing was interesting) but seriously how many screens was all that text on the DS? quote:Then, one day, I got a tip that some of them were hiding in a building in the Nevada desert. I headed out immediately. Like, immediately immediately. I didn't even take time to dress.  And too bad, too. She looks really good in a shirt. Also agreed with whoever posted about Clover possibly being a clone or robot...it's just too convenient that they were willing to just let her go. Though the revelations about Brother and Left combined with the idea of clones and robots and people being controlled through the morphogenetic field basically makes everyone a suspect at this point. Has there been any evidence yet that any of the characters are left handed? ...not that it would be that obvious I'm sure, just the first place my mind went. That and that one 'let not the right hand know what the left is doing' saying, but I'm not sure how well known that would actually be with the Japanese.
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Feb 9, 2014 16:30
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Regy Rusty posted:I think you guys are mean if you don't feel some sympathy for Alice after that.
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Feb 9, 2014 16:34
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Pierzak posted:Sympathy ends where a threat to own survival begins. You call me mean, I call you a corpse Jokes on you, I have the power of morphogenetic fields. 
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Feb 9, 2014 16:37
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Rei_ posted:Okay, so that's just straight up a picture of Dio sitting at a desk, right?
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Feb 9, 2014 16:40
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I think we should go way back and betray Alice the first time, might as well get this whole branch of the story out of the way.
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Feb 9, 2014 17:13
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