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Hello everyone. I'm OddHaberdasher, this is my first Let's Play, and this is... Chaos;Head OST: M.I.L. Chaos;Head is a Visual Novel written/published by MAGES and developed by Nitroplus(N+). MAGES has a number of well regarded titles in their roster (mainly in the Visual Novel genre), including Corpse Party: Blood Covered, Muv Luv and the Ever 17 remake. However, the title they are most well known for is almost certainly Steins;Gate. Steins;Gate (and its sequel Steins;Gate 0) are part of the Science Adventure series of Visual Novels, as are it's sister titles Chaos;Child (released in North America on PS4/PS Vita in late 2017, and on Steam in January 2019) and the duology of Robotics;Notes and Robotics;Notes DaSH (set to reach North America on October 13 2020). However, there is one title oft forgotten about. That title is Chaos;Head, the subject of this thread. Despite being the very first Science Adventure title (being released in Japan in 2008, as opposed to Steins;Gate in 2009), Chaos;Head will likely never be localised for western audiences. Details are sketchy, but it seems the reason has to do with a dispute over proprietary rights (simply put, MAGES wrote the story and owns the story, but N+ used their engine and thus needs to give their permission for anything to be done with Chaos;Head. That's the going theory, anyway). Couple that with a terrible anime adaptation (We do not mention the anime.), and Chaos;Head has been doomed to obscurity. Which is a pretty big problem, as elements from C;H continue to make their presence felt in later installments and Robotics;Notes (as the third in the series) assumes you are already aware of everything from the prior two games (Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate) and doesn't explain anything. Then you need Robotics;Notes to have proper context on anything that follows and it's kind of a mess. Not to mention the obvious problems of releasing a sequel (Chaos;Child) before the original. Thus, I decided to try and fix this, in whatever way I could. But enough background, onto more practical matters. Spoiler Policy There are to be no Chaos;Head spoilers, no Chaos;Child spoilers and no Robotics;Notes spoilers. Steins;Gate discussion is allowed, but only in properly marked spoiler tags. This VN is relatively unknown, and if people can get through FF7 without advance knowledge about some of the most famous twists in videogame history, I'd like a similar experience for the readers here. This is an ideal jump-off point to Steins;Gate and the others in this series, so let's not spoil them, okay? On that note, I would also like to add that I will be linking to the officially released OST on Youtube at appropriate points in this thread. Thus far, I have seen no spoilers in the comments for these videos, but that could change at any time. Trigger Warnings The story of this VN will contain, in no particular order: Murder Blood and Gore Body Horror Autocannibalism Regular Cannibalism Public Humiliation Cruel and Unusual death Pregnancy Childbirth Improper usage of Medical Equipment/Drugs Gross Otaku Kidnapping Self-Harm Psychological Torture Physical Torture Psychological Trauma Suicide A Backdrop of Conspiracy Intense feelings of Paranoia If seeing any depiction of these would cause you any amount of mental or emotional distress, then don't read this thread. Just don't. I am absolutely serious about this. What kind of LP will this be? Mainly a screenshot based Let's Play, although I will be making and/or linking to videos at points which I feel cannot possibly be represented properly by screenshots (such as, for example, the Opening Video). What's the problem with the anime? Imagine two boxes. One is labeled '24 episode anime' and the other is labeled '12 episode anime'. You put Steins;Gate, a VN with an average playthrough time of 35 hours, into the first box. It fits snugly inside, more or less. It's a tight fit and you might have to trim a few bits sticking out, but it works out. You put Chaos;Head, a VN with a similar playthrough time, and shove it into the second box. Then you take a whole bunch of 'filler' and try and stuff that in too. Then you change an important plot point and make the ending completely unrecognisable. That is the Chaos;Head anime in a nutshell. We will have no more discussion of it. I was just looking at the Wikipedia page, and I saw that there's a re-release of this called Chaos;Head NoAH. Why aren't you doing that? Because NoAH has never been released in the West, has never been released on PC and the fan translators are still working on it. I'm no Orenronen, so we're stuck with the original PC version. The only thing missing is some extra endings that have no bearing on future titles. EDIT: I will summarize these extra routes/endings at the appropriate time. Is there anything we should keep in mind as we read? What you should keep in mind is this: "Plain text such as this line indicates a character is speaking" Italics like these are indicative of narration or a character's thoughts Bold is for when I feel interjection or clarification is needed All that said, let us begin....  Table of Contents Part 1 - In Media Res Part 2 - Eyes in Eyes Part 3 - The New Generation of Madness Part 4 - Delusion Trigger Part 5 - Jamais Vu Part 6 - Strike the Stake Part 7 - Survival Confirmation Part 8 - Gero Froggy Part 9 - Girl A Part 10 - Shared Interest Part 11 - A Promise Part 12 - An Outing Part 13 - Grim Advice Part 14 - Lost Things, Found Things Part 15 - A One-Man Play Part 16 - Click Me Part 17 - Making An Appointment Part 18 - Taking A Test Part 19 - New Gen Wiki Part 20 - Research And Investigation Part 21 - The Prophet They Call FES Part 22 - Black Mass Part 23 - A Generous Donation Part 24 - Shogun Part 25 - The Girl From Class D Part 26 - Police Procedural Part 27 - Girl D Part 28 - Design By Committee Part 29 - New Classmate Part 30 - Tōryanse (Let Me Pass) Part 31 - Re-evaluations Part 32 - Di-Sword Part 33 - Following The Trail Part 34 - Visual Rebuilding Part 35 - Escape Part 36 - On The Run Part 37 - Gravitational Attraction Part 38 - The Group Dive Part 39 - Delusion Part 40 - A New Chance Part 41 - Remote Neural Monitoring Part 42 - Raising A Flag? Part 43 - Brainless Part 44 - Infinitum Nihil Part 45 - Freesia Investigations Part 46 - Noah Part 47 - Sacrifices Part 48 - Nanami-chan Part 49 - Hand Wrapped Gift Part 50 - Rescue Quest Part 51 - New Perspective Part 52 - Bad End Part 53 - Cut It Out Part 54 - Quest Failed Part 55 - Psychopath Part 56 - Regrets Part 57 - Fame Part 58 - Value Part 59 - Dream Part 60 - Kozu-pii Part 61 - Scholar Part 62 - Heartbreak Part 63 - Ir2 Part 64 - Gladioul Part 65 - A Break In The Case? Part 66 - Ghost Stories Part 67 - Doomsayer Part 68 - A Family Matter Part 69 - The Eighth Millennium Problem Part 70 - Nowhere To Go Home Part 71 - Gigalomaniac Part 72 - Cracking The Case Part 73 - A Delusion-Drenched Game Part 74 - Dead On Arrival Part 75 - Equal Yet Opposite Part 76 - Guest Of Honour Part 77 - Self Reflection Part 78 - Birth of the New Generation of Madness Part 79 - Blue Sky Part 80 - Family Reunion Part 81 - Stakeout Part 82 - Choose Your Destroyer Part 83 - Prayer Part 84 - Silent Sky Part 85 - Desire Blue Sky Part 86 - Chapter 1 Delusion Recap Part 87 - Yua Route Summary Part 88 - Nanami Route Summary Part 89 - Chapter 2 Delusion Recap Part 90 - Ayase Route Summary Part 91 - Chapter 3 Delusion Recap Part 92 - Sena Route Summary Part 93 - Chapter 4 Delusion Recap Part 94 - Chapter 5 Delusion Recap Part 95 - Kozue Route Summary Part 96 - Chapter 6 Delusion Recap Part 97 - Chapter 7 Delusion Recap Part 98 - Chapter 8 Delusion Recap Part 99 - Rimi Route Summary Part 100 - Chapter 9 Delusion Recap Part 101 - The Little Death Part 102 - A Peaceful World Part 103 - Crying Sky Part 104 - Chaos;Head Love Chu Chu Summary OddHaberdasher fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Sep 29, 2020 |
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Apr 27, 2020 08:50
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Reserved.
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Apr 27, 2020 08:50
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Part 1 - In Media Res I'd recommend watching this: Video:Chaos;Head Prologue We start with a view of a Gray Sky, heavy with rain, as a young boyish voice begins narrating.  Those eyes are always watching me. The stare pierces through the rain clouds coated in pitch black. It pours down on me like the rain -Don't look at me. My body won't stop trembling. But it's more the cold rubble I'm sitting on than the chill of the rain. It's horribly cold.... An anonymous gaze from the heavens pierces me. As if to escape it, I raise my head ever so slightly, surveying my surroundings. The camera pans down from the sky to reveal...  These are the remains of the Shibuya 109 building (labelled '107' in this game), one of the most well-known buildings in the Shibuya district of Tokyo...  and from the looks of it, the rest of Shibuya is in similar shape. No one is here. No one is moving. No one is alive. All I can hear is the sound of the rain, continuing to fall. This way everything will- both alive and dead- will it all be gently enveloped and washed away? If all that happened was just a delusion, I'd be happy. However, it does not seem to be so-  Our protagonist, yet unnamed. I'm trembling, but that's no more than a physiological phenomenon. The action is involuntary. I don't want to shiver like this. If I can't move it freely, then it isn't my body. It's as if I was never born with my own free will. No one knows where the soul is kept. Despite that, how can anyone say for certain that my soul is inside my body? But- If that's the case, then where am I? Am I here? Am I nowhere? OST:M.I.L. (SFX:Footstep crunching on rubble)  Someone approaches. The source comes floating out of the midst of nothingness. -Who are you? The reason your skin appears so pale-  But she isn't trembling. And, almost hidden by her forelocks, these eyes- -Don't look at me.  If- If she and I are the only ones in the world, if we continue gazing solely at each other like this for the rest of eternity- Would my world be reduced to what her eyes reflect? Would her world be reduced to what my eyes reflect? I am what's reflected in her eyes. She is what's reflected in mine. When I think about it that way, the world instantly becomes much smaller.  "Hey-" She hangs her head- and spreads her arms apart- It's like she is trying to take off and fly away, taking aim above the clouds. Or it's as if she were to catch all of the rain. At the very least, watch this part: Video:Chaos;Head Prologue (Last Half)  The Girl spreads her arms...  speaks...  and brings her arms together...   From the light in her hands...   something emerges...  With the way she hangs her head, theres no way I can assess her expression from my position.   Beyond the thin film of rain, what kind of face are you making....?  --An angel?  Ah.....I see. I understand.  She slowly drops to her knees before my collapsed form. Even now, her head hangs down. She softly reaches to embrace my head. Relieved by the fact that she isn't looking at me, I simply surrender my body to her.  The girl says something, but nothing can be heard. A whisper near my ear. A lovely noise. But I can't hear it very well.  A warm, soft, tender, sweet sensation. It's much like anesthesia. And mysteriously, my trembling gradually starts to lessen. Her faint breaths tickle my cheek. A very sweet scent. I abruptly feel a pressure on my chest. The great sword she carries is tearing the skin of my chest, boring into my flesh, threading between my bones and steadily sinking its way into my body.  Because you kill me like this, so gently-- I unexpectedly become anguished-- I'm on the verge of crying-- To keep her from noticing, I look past her head, up past the dark gray sky that goes on dropping rain on us.  I no longer sense that gaze anymore. There's no longer anything out there. As my consciousness dims, I stretch a hand towards the sky. Somebody, tell me,   
OddHaberdasher fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Apr 29, 2020 |
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Apr 27, 2020 08:51
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Well, if this is even half as spectacular as steins;gate (my personal pick for the best visual novel and best anime series, ever), I'm rather excited to see where it goes!
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Apr 27, 2020 09:30
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Oh boy, this loving thing. I liked Steins;Gate and Chaos;Child. I really liked Robotics;Notes (both the visual novel and the anime). In fact, I liked Robotics;Notes so much I got a poster of it. I did not like Chaos;Head. I did not like Chaos;Head so much I never actually finished it, not even the new and improved NoAH version. That said, I'm interested in seeing if I actually missed anything worthwhile.
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Apr 27, 2020 10:02
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( < ) ___ ( < ) whose eyes ( > ) ___ ( > ) are those ( O ) ___ ( O ) eyes I like this VN. Good luck with the LP
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Apr 27, 2020 12:15
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Part 2-Eyes in Eyes  SFX: Computer Noises Not being able to see it even though it's watching me; what a weird concept. For as long as I can remember, there have been countless instances of me sensing a "gaze" from who knows where. Even if I turn around, there's no one there. But I'm always convinced that someone had in fact been watching me. A chilly sensation at the back of your neck. Is that just what's called being too self-conscious? Or else, a phobia of being watched? Until I reached middle school, "Surely God is watching over me." That's seriously what I thought. An essay I wrote around the same time centered around that kind of theme. Of course, thinking back on it now, I was a kid and overly full of myself no matter how you look at it. That really stings. If somebody else happened to read it now, I'd shut myself up for the rest of my life. Hehehe. I still remember the title of the essay.  Whose eyes are those eyes?   "Don't look at me"Fed up, I murmered that as I looked up at the gloomy ceiling. Of course, there wasn't any answer. This is my room. I live by myself. There isn't a single human being in this room besides me. I tried turning around. He turns and looks behind him.  He turns back...  giving a glimpse of a figurine shelf as he does. See how many you can recognise!  The room doesn't have any windows, so it's dark to begin with. There's absolutely no way to tell what it's like outside. There's no way to tell if it's noon or night.  "My name is Nishijou Takumi, 17 years old. I am a second year at Suimei Academy. But the truth is I really don't go to school that much." "Grades have never been a problem for me. I always take the midterms and finals, and I get pretty good marks on them. You could call me pretty smart."It wasn't as if yelling out was going to make anything happen. No one would come running. The darkness just went on being there in the form of darkness. But the dark arouses peoples fantasies as well as nightmares. Something that can't be seen is ultimately something unknown. Even if you know it's impossible, you can't help but wonder if maybe something might be lurking out there. Dammit, I have this habit of unintentionally exacerbating my own paranoia.... As though to break away from that, I continue my speech.       The Shibuya 107 in better times than we saw it last    The blue text is a TIP. TIPS are terms that are explained in more detail in the glossary. For example: MMORPG posted:Abbreviation for "Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game". Refers to an online game where a large number of players connect and play at the same time. It's official title is "Empire Sweeper Online." I enter Baselard-that's the name of the world in ESO-pretty much every day, to the point of depriving myself of sleep. Deans Valley is the name of an area that appears in ESO, and only aggravating monsters show up there. For all that they come at you with sickening special attacks, they don't drop any good items. The guys who hunt in Deans Valley are idiots. Upper-level players quickly call it quits and head into the nearby Liate forest. Naturally, I did the same.  DQN posted:In Japanese, this is also read as "dokyuun". An antisocial person with no common sense. "But this room brings it down to a level I can handle. That's because it has a top-of-the-line computer and blazing internet connection. Well, it kind of makes a first-class place for a student. So I call it my base."Nothing but me ever moves in the room. Becoming aware of how dumb it was to go on talking to myself, I decided to stop my little self-introduction for "whoever was watching me".  The room smelled of something rotting. I could feel the stagnancy of the air on my skin. Empty plastic bottles and the containers of already-eaten convenience store lunches lay scattered across the floor. There were ero-game packages piled on top of the bed. Thanks to them, I ended up sleeping on the sofa mostly. "I should really clean up the place. Who the hell would leave such a-? Oh yeah, that'd be me.     I couldn't let any harm come to my nearly 100+ brides, sisters, and daughters. These girls are the precious existence that heals my heart. It's their shelf alone that I make sure to tidy up once a week. I investigate things like the angles from which they look the cutest and where they should stand on a daily basis. And, not wanting my darling big sisters and daughters to get dirty, I never neglect to dust them.  My personal computer is enshrined at the farthest-back part of the room.  Orgel Seira posted:The lead heroine from the fictional anime, "Blood Tune THE ANIMATION". Likes saying "dimwit" (bokenasu in Japanese). "Seira, Seira, you're so cute."Murmuring that after meeting her eyes, I grabbed a bottle of cola from beside my computer and drank it down. It was lukewarm, but I didn't really care. "All right, gotta get back to ESO-ing."Settling down in my chair, I put both hands to the keyboard. It's the only thing that calms me down.  Paladin posted:A holy knight. One of the character classes is ESO (Empire Sweeper Online). While a fighter class grants them high defence, paladins can use recovery magic and are particularly resistant against dark attributes. However, there is a special condition that must be achieved to class change into a paladin. Considered the strongest class in ESO. Obviously, he's currently at the max level, 50. It's the highest rank you can get in any of the valid servers. Most people recognize me just from the nickname "Neidhardt der Blitzschnelle". They all treat me like a god. I've completed all the rare weapons, rare armor and rare magic. My rare items completion percentage is 95%... Well, it's a bit of an uphill battle. I could never use all the moneypoints I have. Since I make pocket money through RMT-Real Money Trade-I could live like this for half a year without needing to do any part-time work. RMT posted:The abbreviation for "Real Money Trading".  I take care of all my basic communication this way. I've even helped other players out at the huge, anonymous message board "@channel." I participate in epic threads a lot, too. Oh yeah, that's right; in "Furepara"-a social networking service, you know-my friends list passed the 100-person mark ages ago. SNS posted:Abbreviation for "Social Networking Service". Various kinds of websites of this kind exist, whether it be via invitation or registration. A particularly easy way for people to communicate on the internet.   It's not that I don't want to go, it's that there's no point to going. I can get all my studying done online. Studying at home is enough. But it seems that you've gotta have this thing called sufficient credits to graduate, so I spend the absolute minimum amount of time at school that I have to go. That's the smartest way to survive as a student. The parents always complain about it.  According to the chart, if I go 2.5 times a week I'll be fine. The guys who go to school everyday call me an otaku freak and look down on me, but from my perspective, the ones who stop thinking for themselves and just go to school as they're told are the real morons. -In any case, my lifestyle here ain't so bad.  Fall asleep posted:Japanese chat slang, read as "nemuochi". Falling asleep at the computer monitor while in an online game or chat room. A state in which one has zero response. Grim's a friend I always team up with in ESO. We've never met IRL, but we always talk online. On top of that, Grim brings me all kinds of valuable news. He's almost like some sort of information broker. Seated in my chair, I started typing. quote:Grim: Hey! Neidhardt! What's up? You're not replying, you fall asleep or something? Grim and I talk about everything. We're not face to face, so I feel at ease talking about almost anything. But in real life... that's not the case. quote:Grim: Then you mean the 2-D world   And with that, we reach the first choice in the game. Unlike the majority of choices in this game, this choice has multiple components to it. Thus, to avoid bogging the thread down with votes on individual questions, I have created a poll. It is located in the link below, and will run for a total of 20 hours. I'll have something ready soon after results come in. See you then! Decide Takumi's tastes here! OddHaberdasher fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Apr 27, 2020 12:52
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Aesculus posted:Oh boy, this loving thing. I had a similar experience! I've tried reading Chaos;Head no less than two separate times and could not finish the drat thing, it's so... well, see the LP. But the plot sounds really bonkers and I'd like to know what's going on. Except that there's so much of the protagonist to deal with.
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Apr 27, 2020 13:10
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I...I take back what I said, I already hate the protagonist
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Apr 27, 2020 13:52
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Bookmarked, 5’d. Thank you for your service. This game has been a white whale of mine, and I’m looking forward to the LP.
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Apr 27, 2020 16:02
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Hey, look at it this way, you won't have to listen to Takumi's voice most of the time! Jokes aside, this does seem to be a recurring theme when it comes to reactions to Chaos;Head. You either stick it out with Takumi and become A) somewhat appreciative of his character, foibles and all, B) hooked enough on Chaos;Head as a whole that you can overlook Takumi specifically, or else you simply become aggravated enough with him to quit Chaos;Head altogether. I will admit, it is hard to see much in the way of charm in Takumi at this point, especially when compared (as I imagine many are) with his immediate successor Okabe Rintarou. I imagine that I would have found it harder to deal with Takumi if I had come from Steins;Gate, instead of working through the series from release order. At this early point, all I really can say is "give him a chance, please?"
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Apr 27, 2020 17:30
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Having recently played the Noah version, I'd just like to say its additions are so significant I think this original version is kind of an incomplete story without them. Sure, they're not part of the canon ending and so don't affect the rest of the Science Adventure universe, but we're talking 10 or so hours of contents that explain a *lot* about the characters and the plot. Also I have no idea what the quality of this fan translation is, but much like the rest of the series this game is a translator nightmare. (Also thanks for the mention in the OP)
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Apr 28, 2020 07:21
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orenronen posted:Having recently played the Noah version, I'd just like to say its additions are so significant I think this original version is kind of an incomplete story without them. Sure, they're not part of the canon ending and so don't affect the rest of the Science Adventure universe, but we're talking 10 or so hours of contents that explain a *lot* about the characters and the plot.  I certainly wasn't expecting someone like you to pop up in my little thread. I did kind of downplay what Noah brings to the table (mostly because I can't read it, sour grapes and all that). I do say, from the perspective of someone who has only read this version, that it never felt 'incomplete' to me. No more incomplete than any other Science Adventure VN at least. It's really a different experience reading a SCIADV story for the first time, and then reading it again after you've had the opportunity to consume some of the Expanded Universe material (Manga, short stories, Drama CDs etc.). I am, however, aware of what happens in these extra routes and endings, and I am also aware of a few bits of translated Chaos;Head extra materials. I plan to post these materials at appropriate parts of this Let's Play, and am currently having some internal debate as to whether it would be appropriate to also discuss these alternate routes in this LP. As to the quality of the fan translation, it uses Di-Patch 2.5. Rigs was involved with Di-Patch, and Rigs currently works as Lead Translator with the Committee of Zero, which have done amazing work for Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate 0, and Chaos;Child (also currently working on Noah). I trust the TL's quality. In other news, the Poll is over and the results are in! It was neck and neck for a while, but a slim plurality emerged toward the end. Recording and production is underway and all else being equal, I should have the next update before the end of the day.
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Apr 28, 2020 09:42
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From what I've played and heard of Noah, the extra content is mostly bolted on at the end, which I guess might help if you're really into things but for me it didn't really fix the core problem of Takumi and the game feeling like a slog for the entire first half. I guess we'll see if I notice any differences until the end if the LP survives, so good luck I guess? Also, in favor of just writing up a summary of the side routes if you already know what happens in them. I doubt anyone's going to be able to experience them in any other way this decade anyway, since, well... OddHaberdasher posted:As to the quality of the fan translation, it uses Di-Patch 2.5. Rigs was involved with Di-Patch, and Rigs currently works as Lead Translator with the Committee of Zero, which have done amazing work for Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate 0, and Chaos;Child (also currently working on Noah). I trust the TL's quality. Yeah, CoZ does some good work and I don't doubt his Japanese, but I wouldn't trust Rigs to die properly, let alone write a functional translation.
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Apr 28, 2020 10:03
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OddHaberdasher posted:I did kind of downplay what Noah brings to the table (mostly because I can't read it, sour grapes and all that). I do say, from the perspective of someone who has only read this version, that it never felt 'incomplete' to me. No more incomplete than any other Science Adventure VN at least. It's really a different experience reading a SCIADV story for the first time, and then reading it again after you've had the opportunity to consume some of the Expanded Universe material (Manga, short stories, Drama CDs etc.). I've only read the Noah version so I can only speculate on how it feels without the extra bits. I'm trying very hard to avoid any spoilers here, but the one thing that separates this game from the ones that follow is that the cast here never acts as a group. Takumi only interacts with the rest of the main characters one at a time, and they don't really interact with each other at all. The fact that the story also likes to focus on one character at a time means you get long stretches without seeing some of the main characters, and in the end none of them get enough screen time or exploration of their characters. The extra endings don't help the first point but definitely does the second - you get histories and motivations that are sorely lacking from the main story. I'm almost through the first Robotics;Notes now (I have the double-pack for the Switch with DaSH, though since I'm trying to do them in release order now I think Chaos;Child is next for me), and it takes the "ensemble cast" storytelling even further than Steins;Gate did. It's the main reason I like these two much better than C;H.
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Apr 28, 2020 10:19
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Part 3 - The New Generation of Madness WarningThis update will include the following: Discussion of murder, discussion of the aftermath of a suicide, depiction of the aftermath of a suicide, depiction of a dead body, body horror, blood, pregnancy (sort of) The results are in:  No, it doesn't.  Yes, they are.  No, she doesn't.  SFX: Computer Noises quote:Neidhardt: If that's what we're talking about, lemme whip out my pet theory  quote:Grim: Hey, hey, don't forget like that Like what? What do you mean?  quote:Shogun has entered the room I tried greeting him, but "Shogun" didn't reply. ...wtf, is he ignoring me? Despite the fact I went out of my way to be friendly. Does he know who I am? Is he acting this rude regardless? Dude, I'm Neidhardt der Blitzschnelle. It's illegal to enter one of these chat rooms in the first place if you're just going to lurk. Lurker (ROM) posted:ROM is a Japanese abbreviation for "read-only member", though in English this is known as "lurker". Refers to people who simply read bulletin board but not post at all. Whatever. I don't give a poo poo. This is what's nice about the Net. There's no need to bother yourself with pointless interpersonal relationships. quote:Neidhardt:So, what was it? Grim Shocking...so that means a gory murder or something must have happened. It has been getting more dangerous around here recently. quote:Neidhardt: You're not gonna bring up guro pics again, are you? No, I really don't want to see it. But lately there have been a lot of composites and other 'shopped pictures around. They're set up as traps in lots of different places, and if I get tricked by one, I end up looking whether I want to or not. "We, well, I might have gotten a little desensitized..."quote:Grim: Even though you're the strongest paladin in Baselard, lol PK is an abbreviation for Player Kill. It refers to the dicks who take part in a certain kind of delinquent behaviour, killing unrelated people in Net games and stealing their equipment and money points. quote:Neidhardt: I don't do stuff that childish ...But I do Real Money Trading left and right. Hehehe quote:Grim: K, calm yerself on down, bold hero. Haha New Gen? What's that? We haven't covered this yet, have we? Although Grim referred to it like it'd be natural for me to know it. quote:Neidhardt: What is it? Ah, now that you mention it, I kind of remember something about an accident... But I just vaguely knew about it, and hadn't bothered to check the details.   "The two incidents that have occurred in Shibuya this past month are collectively being called 'New Gen'... "Including a fetus, there have been seven victims."WarningThe following image may be distressing and probably isn't Safe For Work. This, and further images of this nature, will be hidden behind a link. Aftermath of a group suicide "The first case involved five friends who took part in a group dive from a high-rise building..." "In the second case, a fetus was stuffed into a man's body..." "Whoah, you serious..."A chill went down my spine.    The New Generation madness: such are the incidents that have been causing a stir on the Net for day after day. Two instances of this already ocurred. One featured such a brutal method of killing that there were TV channels that forebore to express the criminal's behaviour in words. Apparently, there are rumours that the initial diving accident might also have been a homicide. All of the dead five's parents and friends declare that "There's no way s/he would ever commit suicide. I can't come up with so much as a trace of a motive." Additionally, circumstantial evidence makes it difficult to think that they were attempting suicide.  quote:Neidhardt: I took a quick look "Grim, you rear end, you're having fun at my expense here..."He does this kind of thing once in a while. But if I hesitated, it would hurt my reputation as Baselard's Neidhardt. Setting aside real life, when it comes to ESO, I'm a god. I'm the strongest. I'm a knight of justice who knows everything and is stronger than everyone. Like I'd let him make a fool of me. I mustered my courage and clicked the URL. http://www.gurodaisuki.com/data/img/11841554610003.jpg  quote:Neidhardt: Hahaha, you got me Come to think of it, that Shogun guy was still here. I'd completely forgotten about him, not that it mattered either way. I wasn't that sleepy, so I thought I'd do a bit of hunting in ESO or something. Ah, speaking of which, Burachu broadcasts today! There's no TV in my room. I get everything done on my PC. "Another fifteen minutes, huh? Maybe I'll go to the bathroom or something first."Spotting Seira-tan next to my monitor, I grinned. Today I'll be able to see Seira-tan. It's something I always look forward to... As I thought that, I was about to close the chat window, when-  "Huh...?"Shogun posted something. "Wh, what's with this guy, posting after being silent for so long..."He wasn't a faithful lurker? Going by the file extension, it looked like a link to an image, but... A sudden link from someone suspicious, a person I didn't know, and on top of that, one who hadn't posted a single thing before. Without thinking, I gulped down a breath. What was going on? I'd never felt this kind of horrible premonition before, in all my time on the Net. Of course I didn't want to click it. I clicked my tongue and looked at the clock. Twelve minutes until my promised time with Seira-tan. It'd be a good idea to cut the conversation right away. quote:Neidhardt: Haha, look, are you trying to use Zhuge Liang's trap here? lol I tried my best to sound like I was joking around, to make it seem like I had plenty of relaxation to spare. Truthfully, I didn't want to chat with some guy I didn't know. I was nervous and it made me sweat. That's to say nothing of the fact that if this Shogun person wasn't Japanese, there'd be no way to deal with him. quote:Shogun: (in Japanese) Sorry I surprised you Hey, he started talking to me normally... My mind was put to rest a little. quote:Neidhardt: Nah, no prob For some reason, there was a weird gap.      A vision of the New Gen incidents sprung to the front of my mind. They were gory enough with someone like me envisioning them, so in reality, they must not have been something you could bear to look at straight on. A man's torn stomach. The fetus that was forcibly stuffed in the hole. When the five who dived from that high-rise hit the ground, they must've gotten so badly messed up that there would be no way to tell what they really originally looked like... Just imagining it made me feel sick to my stomach. I hastily shook my head to get rid of the gruesome delusions. This Shogun guy is so suspicious to make me think about all that stuff. I got seriously caught up in it.    Was he just a freak or what? I've said I'm smart, but I'd never seen the formula he posted out of the blue.  "...Huh, no hits."Could it be he simply typed in some random, made-up formula to make himself seem more intelligent? I didn't get it.  quote:Shogun: fun^10Xint^40=Ir2 Shogun starts posting links, from 168492...  ...all the way to 168513 Countless URLs went up at an incredible speed. What's going on with this guy... Is he getting his kicks by intimidating me? Maybe he's a friend of Grim, working together to pull the wool over my eyes?   An unidentifiable terror. Since it was already normal for me to feel like I was being watched, I couldn't get myself to calm down.  When I tried putting it into words, I realized that my voice was shaky. My familiar, messy room felt like something altogether different. It's said that after you watch a fear-mongering TV program, or go to a horror movie, or hear a scary story from your friend, the careless air of your own house, which you should be used to, becomes so frightening that you can't go to the bathroom by yourself late at night. -Right now, I'm having a similar experience.  Shaken up, and leaning in toward my monitor, I- Without thinking, I put pressure into my right index finger and clicked on one of Shogun's links. "Aah! Wait..."WarningImages below may be disturbing and will be NSFW. A dead body A close up of their face  It was possible for me to regard it as a pure mistake, but the motion of clicking had come to me all but naturally. "Uuh, wha, what's this..."What filled the monitor's screen was a photograph of an objet d'art. Something like the spikes of a hedgehog or a needle-stuffed flower arranging tool was stuck to the wall in the shape of a cross. A reddish black puddle had formed underneath the giant flower-arranging tool, with its needles sticking out all over. And I couldn't make them out, but there were also a number of small, garbage-like lumps strewn around. Seriously, what was this? The work of some puffed-up, self-proclaimed avant garde artist? They show up a lot, those people who create gory-looking works and unabashedly say, "It expresses the chaos of this world." I had no intention of coming to understand that kind of moronic art. Still, it was a mysterious image. It wasn't directly guro. It only reached the point of having a guro-esque sense to it. Despite that, why- Did it feel so raw to me? Why did it give off such a strong presence? Is it possible to hallucinate the sense of blood entering your nose, enough to make you choke? Is it possible to experience an illusory smell so vivid that it brings about nausea? A stabbing pain struck at my temples. My nausea wouldn't stop. "Uuh, uu..."I desperately tried to grab the mouse, but my hand was shaking, and it didn't go so well. I was so frantic that I failed to grasp it, and it slipped off the desk, dragging only its cord behind it. I reeled in the cord, set it back on the mousepad, and closed the window. SFX END  
OddHaberdasher fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Apr 28, 2020 16:06
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This is cool, looking forward to more!
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Apr 28, 2020 22:48
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Part 4 - Delusion TriggerWarning This update will include the following: Discussion of New Gen, homophobia  SFX:Computer Noises Yesterday, I didn't get to watch Burachu in real time. But after that, I watched it on Mewtube, so it wasn't a real problem. Even after watching it something still felt wrong. What Shogun said right before I closed the chat window- It was almost as if he'd seen through the fact that I cowered in fear of "God's gaze." It was too much for a mere coincidence. Maybe my personal information was leaked on ESO. Maybe it was someone who didn't like Neidhardt. I thought about the different possibilities. A god-like existence like mine has many allies, but also many enemies. Well, the enemies were basically a kind of side effect of the popularity. Of course they'd be there. People who envied Neidhardt's strength and popularity childishly tried to provoke me. It was just a matter of ignoring them. But this was different. The fact that I had no clue who Shogun was worried me to the point where when I logged into ESO, I couldn't concentrate at all on hunting. On top of it all, today was... SFX END   SFX:Rooks calling I really didn't want to, but if I didn't go by my "minimum attendance shift chart," my calculations would get messed up, and in the worst case scenario, I might have to repeat a year. "Even though I'm sleepy..."I fought off a yawn and trugged off toward school. It takes about ten minutes to walk from my base to school.  My body felt heavy, it was hard to breathe, and I started to sweat. It's always like this when I go to school. Why do I have to go to school? It's such a painful event. Muttering balefully to myself, I kept moving my feet forward all the same, head down, watching the asphalt's white line.  SFX END SFX:Bird Song Housewives took their morning walks, and salarymen sat on the benches reading sports newspapers around the park's pond. Even though Shibuya was so crowded and noisy, the park on the outskirts was quiet and perfectly fit the expression, "a place for relaxation." I sat down on one of the benches too. On the way to school, it was a habit of mine to eat breakfast while gazing at the surface of the pond brimming with serene water. It was a nice time of year and the trees were gradually gaining color. Today's menu was some breakfast bread I'd bought at a convenience store along the way. It would be enough to tide me over until night. I wouldn't normally eat lunch. No one wanted to eat lunch with a creepy otaku like me, and I had no interest in eating lunch by myself while everyone around me merrily ate together. After finishing my cream-filled bread with some Coke, I gazed listlessly up at the sky.  My parents' house was only a few stations down along a river, but there's a distinctly different feeling between there and here. That said, I kinda liked the dullness of the sky. Although I really don't know why.  If I didn't get going soon, I'd be late. I had to avoid that at all costs. As someone who only goes to school 2.5 times a week, I couldn't do anything to make myself stand out. In any case, it was important to just be there, kinda like the air. To safely and peacefully make it through the day without catching the eyes of the teachers or any delinquent types, and without having anyone interfere with me... that was the goal of my school life. SFX:END  SFX:Faint babble of voices in the distance, the school bell rings occasionally It doesn't have much of a history; I hear that it was founded about ten years ago. The building is nice and trim-looking, and a lot of TV dramas about teaching are shot there. The uniforms were apparently designed by a famous designer, so quite a few of the girls are airheads who entered the school just because they wanted to wear the uniform. It's ostensibly a prep school, but the percent of people who continue on to college is at the upper-middle level. Hilariously enough, they use the blurb "a free, creative school atmosphere" as a selling point for new students, regardless of the fact that the school regulations are very strict. Although the rules are in the process of becoming rules in name only. Besides, it isn't entirely off the mark to describe it as a free, creative school atmosphere I guess. After all, someone like me, who only comes 2.5 times per week, can keep rising to the next grade like anyone else. As might have been expected, when I reached the front of school, the other students on their way there started getting noisy. But since I'm not so good with crowds, I hunched over as I passed through the school gates.  SFX: Bell has stopped ringing, but the voices are louder, though still indistinct My little sister, who's one year younger, goes to this school too, but she lives with my parents. A day when I run into her is a tragic day indeed.   I had the feeling that the group of girls chatting nearby tossed me a look, but it was only for a second, and they went back to their conversation without saying anything. Deep down they viewed me as a creep, no doubt about it. Hmmph, from my point of view, 3-D girls are far more creepy. It's fine by me if they think I'm a creep. If they don't notice I'm here, all the better. If they do just that, then I'll go on living in silence, without giving them any trouble. I often wonder what's wrong with the people who call me "creepy." I don't get it. It almost seems like they want the attention of the people they're calling creeps. I was in my seat, just hunched over my desk staring at it's surface-  Suddenly, someone smacked me lightly on the back. It startled me, and I raised my head.  OST:Soliloquy "Mi, Misumi-kun..."My classmate, Misumi Daisuke-kun, was giving me a grin. He was pretty good looking and all the girls seemed to like him. He himself openly declared how much he like women, and for him to say he was dating several people at once. From my perspective, he was a guy who'd jumped fully into delinquent territory. If possible, I'd have preferred to not have any connection to him at all, but...  "You always look down. Too much gaming and not enough sleep?" "N, not really..."He was the only person in the entire class who talked to me. I wonder why he always started talking to me? Our hobbies and personalities aren't even slightly similar. It had been on my mind since we became classmates this year. If, hypothetically, I were a girl, I would kind of understand. But, being a guy, I don't know why he talked to me.  "I guess there's no avoiding it, you are a hikikomori, but come on, try answering a little more cheerfully."If I could, I'd have done so a long time ago. It was almost painful for me to talk to 3-D human beings. Anxiety keeps my voice from coming out properly. Since I don't normally talk much, I can't articulate myself well through speech, and I shrink back because I'm scared I might say something stupid and be made fun of. I wish people wouldn't talk about stuff they know nothing about. They have no clue how hard it is for me. Oh, but I'm no hikikomori. A hikikomori is someone who shuts himself up in his room 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I'm different.  "Being nervous around chicks is one thing, but you act like that around me, and people are gonna think I'm a homo." "W, what?..."Hold up, he really doesn't like girls, and he's really into guys-!? In a hurry to put some distance between us, I pulled away. I almost fell out of my chair. Flustered, I had to grab onto my desk.  "What the hell are you doing?" "Mi, Misumi-kun, are you gay...?" "O, oh, yeah. Haaa-, you scared the crap out of me..." Misumi-kun quickly checked out our surroundings, grinned, and lowered his voice.  "Yesterday, I got my third girl from this class. Wanna know who?" "Tha, that's okay. Not really..." "C'mon, show some more interest. It was Tanaka, I'm telling you man, Tanaka." "...Who's Tanaka?" "It's almost October, and you still don't know your classmates' names?" "But I guess that's natural, since you're not interested in the third dimension."Exasperated, he shrugged his shoulders and let out a sigh. However, up until the present he had never once belittled me for my hobby-that is, the fact that I love 2-D characters. He didn't call me "creepy" or anything. It wasn't to his tastes, so he didn't overstep himself. Looking at that side of him, he didn't seem like such a bad guy. This might have been why I unintentionally fell into conversations with him whenever he started talking to me.  "With this, I've finished capturing all the cute girls in our class." "I'm thinking that it's about time to expand my hunting grounds to the class next door.".....Maybe he isn't that good of a guy after all. If the girls overheard this, I think they'd be appalled. "I hear there's a real hottie in Class D, but she only comes to school every once in a while." "Somehow, doesn't the thought of that get you moe'd up?" "Ah, but in your case it's more like the warm and fuzzy kind of moe~ than the getting fired up kind of moe."...I wish people wouldn't toss around the word moe without knowing what it means. "well, let's stop talking about stuff you aren't into."OST:END SFX:END  Honestly, it surprised me to hear those words coming out of his mouth. I had thought he was a person who didn't think about anything other than women. I couldn't picture him watching the news or reading the paper. "According to the rumours, the group dive case was murder, too." "I, is that so..." "I'm not joshing you. It was written in the sports newspaper."So his source was a sports newspaper... Wouldn't that make it completely unreliable? Besides, I'd already heard that news, not that it had caught my interest. "So, listen and be amazed, will you? An eyewitness reports that the killer is female, and on top of that, a real beauty." "A female..."As I watched Misumi-kun tell me this excitedly, the dots finally connected. I saw why Misumi-kun had suddenly started reading the sports paper, which he normally wouldn't have given the time of day. It had to do with a girl. I guess you could call this a natural development. Would he be cool with a murderer, so long as she was cute...? Speaking for myself, I'd be okay with that if she were a 2-D character, but... Misumi-kun cast his eyes at the blue sky beyond the window. His face took on a far-off look. Why's he looking like he just achieved enlightenment or something?  "I wonder what kind of person the culprit is? Is she really a hottie? I wanna see her and find out-"Just now, I became certain of the fact that this is a guy who lives solely through the lower half of his body. "I'm confident that she won't kill me, at least. After all, look, I'm a pretty cool guy, right? She might be a serial killer, but once she meets me, she'll fall in love on the spot, man."That's why you won't get killed...? The frivolity of his train of thought whooshed clear over my expectations. I reeled back from the Misumi-kun who proved himself able to say such a thing breezily and without hesitation. "I, I'm... not into that, so..." "But hey, whether or not it catches your interest, the perp is deeeefinitely wandering around the area, you know? You might end up crossing paths with her somewhere." No, I can certainly rule that much out, but I couldn't completely deny the possibility that it was one of the students here... If that were the case, maybe I should say "I have PTSD," to maneuver my way into graduating even with insufficient attendance. PTSD posted:Abbreviation for post-traumatic stress disorder. From DSM-IV ("Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders", an American book on psychiatry), fourth edition, 1994. "Look, wanna come check out the crime scene with me today? We can get there by walking from here. Sounds like there's still blood and stuff left over."I had absolutely zero interest in doing so. All I wanted was to peacefully and safely take my classes, hurry up and go home, greet my Seira-tan, and return to the world where I can become a god. "Kobayashi and Hasegawa say they've already been there to see it." "I'm into that kinda thing, really..." So I squeezed out my voice with the intention of somehow refusing him, but he wouldn't listen. "Then we might have a surprise run in with the perp. Isn't it often said that the criminal returns to the scene of the crime?" "And, you'll be her next target. Repay your sins with death, that kind of thing. As for the nature of your offense, let's see... how about because you're a shut-in?" And with that we have finally reached the main gameplay element of Chaos;Head: The Delusion Trigger! Notice, in the last two screenshots, the Green and Red dots in the corners? That indicates that a Delusion Trigger is possible in this scene. The long and short of Delusion Triggers is that Takumi has a very active imagination. Occasionally it boils over and he starts having vivid daydreams. These dreams can be of a Positive bent (Green=Positive) or a Negative bent (Red=Negative). Or alternately, he can keep himself from getting detoured by his delusions and focus on what's going on in the real world (the Neutral option). Usually, Positive delusions tend towards romantic, comedic or rom-com hijinks. Usually, Negative delusions tend towards nightmarish horror or paranoiac worst-case scenarios. Usually, Neutral simply keeps Takumi focused on the situation at hand. Sometimes, delusions deemed Positive can turn terrifying in a flash, as the subconscious goes beyond control. Sometimes, delusions deemed Negative are of a more darkly humorous bent than anything fearful. Sometimes, what's in front of your eyes is worse than anything fevered minds can conceive. There is a little more nuance to all this, but we'll save discussing that for another time. There is no need for a poll for a choice like this. A simple show of hands will do. So, what will it be? Positive? Negative? Neutral? Reply with your vote Bolded. I shall see you all again. OddHaberdasher fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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Apr 29, 2020 16:28
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Negative, please, I want to see how hosed up this can get.
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Apr 29, 2020 16:32
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positive I think negative ideation might break our poor protagonist.
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Apr 29, 2020 17:07
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neutral Misumi-kun seems like the closest thing our guy has to a friend and I don't want to risk alienating him by doing something stupid
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Apr 29, 2020 17:40
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Im always voting positive. Always give it +1
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Apr 29, 2020 20:39
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negative I'm curious as to how this can get bad
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Apr 30, 2020 04:24
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Positive.
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Apr 30, 2020 04:50
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I read this way back when, long before I was familiar with Steins;Gate and ended up quite enjoying it. It'll be nice to have a refresher. Re: the lack of official release: it's particularly frustrating that the translation was taken down by the team when Jast hired them and then an official translated version never did emerge. What a pain. Yes, our protagonist is really, deliberately unlikable. But...well, stick with it, if you can. It's not one-dimensional, is all I will say. I had completely forgotten that his fictional MMO is abbreviated ESO. That's going to get real confusing.
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Apr 30, 2020 05:59
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Oh boy, a Chaos;Head LP! I actually played this myself years ago and it was a struggle to finish because of how much I absolutely loathed the protagonist. But in the end I was really glad I stuck with it and was really pleased with how his character developed by the end of it. Going to be following this just to relive the game and see how others react to the depths Takumi sinks to. Oh and since I don't remember what any of the delusion options are, I'm gonna go Negative.
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Apr 30, 2020 07:08
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Originally, I was planning to end the vote here, but since Positive and Negative are neck and neck (and since it's fairly late into the evening here), I'm amenable to extending the time. If the vote is still tied eight hours from now, I will break the tie.
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Apr 30, 2020 15:11
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Let’s start with Negative for an idea of how bad it could get and go from there. Nearly everyone in the story so far is a reprehensible bastard so I’m not too torn up about bad things happening to them.
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Apr 30, 2020 15:44
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I would like to go Negative too since the protagonist so far is somewhat distasteful so I wonder what his delusions would be like.
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Apr 30, 2020 19:38
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The vote is done, and Negative is in the lead! Production is starting now.
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May 1, 2020 00:30
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Part 5 - Jamais VuWarning This update will include the following: A corpse, blood, cats Last time, on Chaos;Head, Misumi-kun was just inviting Takumi to go rubberneck at a crime scene, then digressed into a fantasy where the New Gen killer (who's like, super hot) would be waiting there to kill Takumi for his 'sin' of being a shut-in (but don't worry, Misumi would be there to woo her...) By the ways, you might want to watch this: First Delusion Trigger  It wasn't a haunted mansion attraction or a horror film; people were being killed in real life, and the perpetrator still hadn't been caught. I didn't want to go anywhere that might be even a tiny bit dangerous. Even so, I found myself wondering about the New Gen criminal's motive. Were the incidents pleasure killings by someone with a couple screws loose in his or her head? It might be most fitting to think along those lines. Well, whatever. It had nothing to do with me.  That comparison alone is enough to prove that the 2-D world is unquestionably better than the real world. While frantically turning down Misumi-kun's invitation, I internally pictured myself throwing one straight punch after another. "A murderer, you say? I'd smash a guy like that to pieces the second I met 'im." By sinking into delusions like that, I was capable of killing or saving anyone. Someone who tried to enact it in real life would be a pure idiot, for not thinking about the consequences. Even the New Gen killer would have to get caught pretty soon. And after being put in jail for several decades, they'd get executed. I wanted to tell that killer: -Aaa-ah, if only you'd stuck to doing it in your imagination, and left it at that.         These images, which appear in a series of blink-and-you'll-miss-it flashes, signals the start of a delusion.  I was on the road to the neighborhood convenience store I usually frequent. It's about three minutes from my base by foot. Familiar scenery. A filthy street. But unlike any other day, today I was attacked by the peculiar sensation that I had gotten lost in a different world altogether. Although the scenery itself hadn't changed, it was as if I were setting foot in this place for the first time. Also, the rotten stench of raw garbage was floating in the air. The seeping moisture that clung to my skin was enough to make me mistakenly think it was raining. The air seemed to paste itself to me. SFX: A strange noise rises in the distance. A sort of metal-on-metal banging noise. Ting, Ting, Ting... With a brief glance, I saw that something had fallen at the end of the grimy road. "......." When I was several meters away- I realized it was the corpse of a cat. "Urgh..."Blood and excreta ran from it as it lay on the ground, and I hurriedly averted my eyes. Revulsion making my skin shudder with goose bumps, I turned on my heel.  "...Wh, what's going on..."When I spoke, the cat nimbly leapt away, vanishing into the shadows. Something about it gave me a bad idea. I'd better hurry up and head to the convenience store. But I couldn't use this road. The cat's body kept me from passing through. I had no choice but to take a detour. ...I noticed it as I was about to start walking. I had started getting the sense that I could hear a weird sound... I jerkily sucked in my breath and listened intently. SFX:The sound comes closer. Ting, Ting, TiNG, TING. A cat screams-  This image, resembling an old analogue TV turning off, signals the end of a delusion.  I was sitting in front of a PC monitor. I poured some Coke in my mouth to wet my dry throat, and let out a sigh in my reclining chair. I'd had a nasty flight of fancy... It must have been because I'd heard all kinds of gory stuff from yesterday to today. I often get influenced by my surroundings and end up imagining things that normally wouldn't even enter my mind. By and large, they make me sick, never mind the fact they're my own delusions. My imaginative powers might be a tad too strong. The less information I had, the greater the likelihood that those kinds of delusions would come floating into my head. There have been times when I got myself so scared, I screamed. My base aside, if I did that kind of thing at school or a place like the net cafe I was currently in, it'd make an awful scene.  This is where the above video ends. SFX:Computer Noises It was located at the edge of Shibuya's shopping district, and as such, many of it's customers were delinquent 3-D girls or bleary salarymen. But all the rooms were meant for individual use, so it wasn't a problem. By the way, the room I was currently in-Room 37-had been reserved for my use, and it was placed in the furthest-back part of the store. It was inconvenient for going to get juice refills, but because not many people went into the nearby seats, it was relatively quiet. I went out of my way to come here once or twice a week on the way back from school, in order to log on to ESO with a different ID. In other words, it was like taking a break. Neidhardt was a little too well known. I didn't mind that, but having to be a paragon of heroic behavior day after day was pretty stressful.  Avatar posted:A character used in websites, chat rooms, online games, etc. to represent oneself in a community. The one I use over here is a female character called "Liselotte." However, Liselotte's battle history was pretty terrible. I only used her to make those around her look better in comparison. Today, too, I released my stress by playing for about three laid-back hours. Afterward, I chatted with my guild friends for a while, getting worked up over stupid and/or ero topics. Guild posted:A small community. A guild is opened in an online game for players to gather, and together they take on dungeons, chat, and also meet in real life. SFX:End  Around this time of night, there tends to be an especially large number of juvie types in the shopping district. I got the urge to vomit when I saw them sitting here and there along the road like it belonged to them, or grinning crudely while eating fast food hamburgers. If I made the mistake of meeting their eyes, those imbeciles would soon react by attacking me. What savages. People like that aren't human beings. They're just males and females. They don't have a single fragment of social intelligence. Guys like that should go die. Seriously, they should go off and die. Is what I kept thinking, but when you got down to it, it was pointless to respond to them. So I planned to hastily remove myself from the shopping district.  Deciding I would go to "Animeight" today, I headed for the subway's southern entrance. When you come this way, the number of delinquents sharply decreases. The central district was seriously chaotic. Just walking there almost made it hard to breathe. If it were possible, I wouldn't want to take a single step closer. I want it all to get destroyed, leaving behind only "@Cafe" and "Mangadarake." Now then, I'll trawl through the comics and doujinshi today as well. Ah, come to think of it, preorders for the fifth Burachu DVD should be opening soon, shouldn't they? You should definitely watch this (Warning: Not Safe For Work): Jamais Vu  SFX:A dull ring, reminiscent of tinnitus. I blinked multiple times. I took a peek inside my bag. Several textbooks and a portable console were the only things inside. I hadn't bought anything at Animeight today. Despite the fact that I always buy something there, without fail. I let out a sigh and begin walking again. From here, it would take less than 15 minutes to get back to my base. Merely moving a little ways away from the station was enough to make the dazzling lights and neon vanish, and the presences of other people grow scarce. If I had to put it one way or the other, it wasn't very active. At most I saw middle-aged couples on their way to the hotel district, and once in a while, a salaryman returning to his nearby home. I had a hard time thinking it was the same Shibuya as the shopping district, which overflowed with those delinquents. It seemed that clouds had come out now that it was night, and the moon was hidden from view, making the road darker than usual.  Familiar scenery. A filthy street. Yet I was attacked by the peculiar sensation that I had gotten lost in a different world altogether. Although the scenery itself hadn't changed, it was as if I were setting foot in this place for the first time. Also, the rotten stench of raw garbage was floating in the air. The seeping moisture that clung to my skin was enough to make me mistakenly think it was raining. The air seemed to paste itself to me. "No, wait a second..." When had I previously experienced jamais vu? Deja vu/Jamais vu posted:Describes the feeling where a person feels they've seen a scene before, but regardless it's the first time they've actually seen it in real life. Dammit, reality and my delusions were getting mixed together. Now my thoughts were starting to resemble the stereotypical analysis offered by some sketchy expert on a TV variety show, weren't they? Anyway, I was certainly experiencing jamais vu at this very moment. And, that wasn't all. That prickling along the muscles of my neck. The sensation that someone is looking down on me from the heavens. It wasn't a hallucination. No matter how I sped up my pace, the "gaze" followed me wherever I went.  I wanted to turn around. But in the end, I didn't. This was a game I challenged myself with every once in a while. When I heard some small noise, even if I had the feeling that someone was watching me, I played the "It'll more than that to make me turn around" game. If I turned around, I would lose. The visions that usually appeared in my head when I sensed the gaze were ghosts with horrifying faces, monsters... things like that. Well, whatever the case, in these past 17 years, there wasn't a single instance of me turning around and actually finding something there. With that limited guarantee of safety attached to it, I came to enjoy this single-player mental game. I would carefully listen to the wind, raise one eyebrow and make a dubious face, try saying manga-esque lines. Because the reason I didn't turn around wasn't because I was scared or anything. "Y, you bastard, you're watching me." "Whose eyes are those eyes?" "Just kidding~"I had meant to make an urgent show of my nonchalance. But before I realized it, my feet had stopped. Sensing a faint alteration in the strained air, I cowered. At some point, my face had become soaked with sweat, and my knees seemed about to start knocking. Unable to bear it any longer, I turned around. I lost the game. But there was no one behind me, after all. There weren't even cars passing. What was this sense of displacement... SFX:Noise stops. It's quiet "Ah..."  Up until then, I had completely failed to recognize the fact that they were ringing. And now, I heard nothing. A silence so sudden it seemed like a lie, especially smack in the middle of a city. I had the feeling that I should be able to hear any sounds out there with incredible clarity. I shut my eyes tight and focused on my hearing. But of course I heard nothing. Strange. This was really strange... Normally, I would surely hear things like trains running in the distance and car horns beeping- Why...? Had something gone wrong with my ears? I wanted to shout out loud. I felt like I'd go crazy if I didn't. But I couldn't do it. It was too quiet, and the thought that breaking this silence might bring about something terrible made me hesitate. SFX:A sound in the distance. Banging of metal on metal. Ting, Ting, Ting... OST:Silence  A single sound unexpectedly entered my soundless world.  "...Crosses?"The instant I recognized them as such, my feet, which before had refused to so much as twitch, spontaneously stepped forward. Upon picking up one of the scattered crosses, I found that it was made of metal, and its lengthy point sharpened into something like a needle.  Because it was shaped strangely, I had mistaken it for a cross. I felt buoyant as I gripped the stake in my hand.  My feet wouldn't stop. I continued walking as though my consciousness were being sucked in that sound's direction. Was I being driven by morbid curiosity? Or was it because I wanted someone to save me? Because I wanted to be lifted out of that soundless world? This was turning out almost like a German folk tale. How did it go... That's right, the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Over one hundred children were lured away by the sound of his pipe. The sound didn't stop. The unpleasant sound of something being hammered grew closer and closer as I continued forward. The sound was coming from the depths of a narrow alleyway to my left. If I turned the corner, I would discover its source. Why didn't I think of drawing back? The idea didn't even occur to me. It was as though I was being made to move by something outside me. So I turned the corner, and what leapt into my eyes was- Warning Everything below this point is potentially disturbing, likely NSFW and (due to the number of images) uncensored. Proceed at your own risk!   My first reaction was to think, "I've seen this objet d'art somewhere before." That, and, "It doesn't look real." Some of the screws holding together my heart might have gotten blasted away; my senses might have gone numb. If I were my usual self, terror would have made me let out a pathetic scream, collapse, and urinate on the spot. An objet d'art like a hedgehog or a bunch of flower-arranging needles. A myriad stakes kept it stuck to the wall. As I gazed mindlessly at it, I realized that a huge quantity of red blood was flowing from the mountain of stakes. The brilliant red I had initially seen was a puddle of blood. Lit by the weakened light of the streetlamps that just barely reached it, that red let off a slick luster. Moreover, a bunch of shiny, flesh-like lumps that I couldn't identify were lying around. I started to suck in my breath, but at some point my throat had dried up, and not a single drop of saliva ran down it. I had realized. That the thing pinned by the stakes- Was a human corpse... It was done too immorally. Too mercilessly. Too thoroughly. And the one who had done so, who had driven this many stakes into the concrete, Was a single girl. If I were to say how I knew that-  Since her back was to me, I couldn't tell what kind of expression she was making. But the uniform she wore... was from Suimei. The rotten garbage-like smell I had sensed earlier reached my nose more and more vividly, making nausea come at me in intervals. Unable to tolerate it, I covered my mouth and struggled to keep my stomach acid from bursting out. At that point, I finally remembered the origin of my jamais vu- the feeling that "I had seen this somewhere before."  "That one time... the photo... Shogun linked to...!" At the sound of my voice, "Her" blood-dyed shoulders shivered. And she slowly turned to face me-  She had- Killed somebody-  "She" looked at me, widening her eyes as though shocked, then shifted to a tearful smile and squeezed her voice out-  She murmured. Glad? What was there to be glad about? More importantly, in a situation like this, why would she see me and smile? Her meaning was unclear. It was so unclear that something cold ran down my spine, and I hastily averted my eyes. I reflexively thought, "I don't want to get caught up in anything weird." I couldn't talk to real girls while looking them in the eye, and even setting that aside, she was unmistakably a murderer. The police would come soon, and I was hungry... Right, that's why I should go home. I should leave right this second. If not, I'll- Go insane-  "!?"She abruptly called my name. Even though it was the first time we'd met, and I hadn't given her my name.  As she watched me, her lips twisted in a horrifically fearless smile. Like those of a demon- "UWAAAAAGGHHHH!" I turned just once to look behind me, but "She" hadn't come chasing after me. 
OddHaberdasher fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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May 1, 2020 13:53
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Hey, loving it so far, but the polsy links aren’t working, they say the video owner hasn’t given permission for it to be played there, and gives a link to watch it on YouTube. Just letting you know.
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May 1, 2020 15:15
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drat. I've been putting all the videos I make on unlisted, that's probably the problem. Will change that right away. Please inform me if it works! Try again in, let's say, thirty minutes? EDIT: Actually, it was the embedding that was the problem. Quite obvious really, I don't know how I didn't think this would happen. It should work now. Lesson learned. Thank you for bringing this to my attention numerrik! Never hesitate to tell me these sorts of things, everyone! OddHaberdasher fucked around with this message at 15:24 on May 1, 2020 |
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May 1, 2020 15:19
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Here we go. That horror, that scene with the crosses. That's why I've tried this game multiple times despite not grokking almost anything else about it. Excellent ambiance.
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May 1, 2020 15:22
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Seems that our friend was right about the murderer being a woman. 
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May 1, 2020 22:27
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Shogun is looking suspicious as hell. And the television blip at the end is raising some red flags.
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May 1, 2020 23:14
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Part 6 - Strike the StakeWarning This update contains content that is not necessarily disturbing, but nonetheless NSFW. Please proceed with caution. This update contains: Shogun's photo, Orgel Seira  SFX:Computer Noises I was sitting in front of my PC monitor. My whole body was drenched in sweat, and it had soaked through to my clothes. What had happened just now? Had I imagined it? I was about to lose control of my nausea. To suppress it, I took some Coke out of the fridge and poured it in my mouth. It was a very real-seeming delusion, if I do say so myself, but way too guro. I still couldn't catch my breath. Would a delusion leave me without enough air? ...Like hell it would. Something about my right hand felt out of place. I was gripping my fist so tightly that my fingers turned white. I had been utterly unaware I was doing it. My heart pounding, I relaxed my muscles and slowly opened my hand.  A single stake rested on the palm of my hand.    But why was it here? Hadn't that been a hallucination!? I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't understand. That's impossible, that's impossible, that's impossible.    What I grasped was the edge of the shelf where my wives were lined up.  Unable to support myself, I collapsed on the floor. Above me, my prettily arranged figures came pouring down in huge numbers. Uuuh, goddamit... This was as bad as it got. Everything was at its absolute worst.   It had broken neatly in half. Despite the fact that I'd bought this in an online auction at a premium price!  I tried to sort of piece the sword back together, but even if I could line up the broken parts, it would be impossible to completely restore it. With this, it had lost all its value. "Give me a frigging break! D, dammit..."Pissed off, I kicked at my chair. My eyes welled with tears. Why did this kind of thing have to happen to me? When did I do anything wrong? Plopping heartbrokenly in place, I spent some time looking at my swordless Ignis and getting depressed.   When the storm of rage and confusion finished passing through me, "Her" face and the tableau of the "objet d'art" finally rose up at the back of my brain. The fact that I still had the stake meant it had been reality, not my imagination. I didn't want to, but I had no choice but to acknowledge it. Tomorrow, no doubt, the mass media would be in an uproar. I definitely didn't want to get wrapped up in something like this. Make no mistake, I'd be ruined if I got involved with someone like "Her"... No, rather, with that demon. I was already well on the way to self-destruction, to begin with. Because I'd brought home a deadly weapon, a precious piece of evidence. It wouldn't be odd for people to suspect me of being the perpetrator. On top of it all... on top of it all, that demon had seen my face... I couldn't run away from this whole affair... Next time... the demon would come after me... For now, I should put my own thoughts in order... For my own sake. For the sake of surviving, I had to get organized...   "That photo was like a message giving advance notice of the incident."If not, there was no way she would duplicate the killing method so faithfully. That girl must've begun by using composite photos to meticulously simulate the scene of the crime. And then on to the crime itself- although she'd probably call it her "work of art." That's what it means to be a psycho-she must have tried to carry everything out to perfection. "...It's so messed up." "But why show that to me... Besides, how did she know I'm Neidhardt? How'd she find out my name?"Uuuh, what should I do? That demon would come to kill me soon, I knew it. If she knew my name and email, there was a strong chance that she's also found my address. Seated in my chair, I hugged my knees and buried my face in them. The abnormal killing method I'd seen yesterday. When I thought that I might be killed the same way, I couldn't keep my cool in the slightest.   Delusion Start!  "Eh?"OST:SEIRA Almost certainly Not Safe For Work: Orgel Seira Seira-tan lay in front of my monitor and smiled at me.  "Takkii, you should shut yourself up here in this room. Then that demon won't be able to get her hands on you, right-o?" "In the meantime, the police will catch her for us~" "Until then, you mustn't trust in anyone. You mustn't heed what anyone says." "Demons, you know, they like using the gaps in people's hearts~ Being caught off guard is a NO!" "You can do it, Takkii." "But, Seira..." "They say that running away is the same as winning." "Forget all about the third dimension. Think of it as being totally unrelated to you, and things'll be easier, right-o?" "No point in thinking about things that have zero-zero to do with you~" "I'll tell you something good. Hikikomori are the strongest, did you know? Cause they don't meet with anyone, right-o? That means no one attacks them. It's the strongest kind of self defense." "So Takkii, you should become a hikikomori. It's simple, right-o?" "...Th, that might be so."Well said. As expected from a wife of mine. Facing forward, I gently picked Seira-tan up by her slender waist. No matter how close I brought her to my face, she kept smiling without making a single expression of disgust. "Thank you, Seira. Thanks to you, I've worked up my courage." "That's right, the third dimension can eat poo poo. That demon doesn't care a whit about a creepy otaku like me." "I'm secure. There'll be no problem if I feel relieved, and play ESO everyday, and watch my favorite anime." "But like I said before, you're not allowed to get caught off-guard!" "Yeah, I know."I won't trust in anyone. I won't listen to anyone. I'll be wary of everything about the third dimension. Do all that, and things would turn out okay. "I'm happy you're so worried about me, Seira. Hehehe." "Now then, how about some ESO-ing to get my mind off things?"OST:END  The Delusion has ended...but what's with this transition? We're doing something a little different from the usual. An intermission of sorts.  Watching this is recommended: Strike the Stake  A clear voice resounded late at night, in Miyashita park.  Leaning against the bridge's railing, and showing no signs of being disturbed by the noise of the traffic, the girl they called FES was singing.  There wasn't a single spectator. If she sang in the streets, over a hundred people would stop, wanting to hear more of her voice. But now FES was deliberately, peacefully letting her existence melt away into the curtain of the night.  She was content to simply stand quietly here in this place. By doing so, she might become one with the darkness and be released, if only for a second, from the tainted air of this city called Shibuya. That was the feeling FES had.  FES glanced up at the night sky. The clouds that previously covered it in it's entirety were clearing up, little by little, and a trace of moonlight shone through them. But the stars' hesitant winking was erased by Shibuya's blazing city lights.  FES closed her mouth and slowly raised her hand toward the sky. 
OddHaberdasher fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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May 2, 2020 06:00
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Part 7 - Survival ConfirmationWarning This update... is actually relatively wholesome, what the hell!? Well, 'relatively' is the key word in that sentence... OST:Adventure  In ESO, I was a god. There was no need to be frightened by demons. Everyone revered me. I always thought about how wonderful it would be if I could stay forever in such a comforting world.    "Ooooh, my character's appearance changed! Amazing! This is wild! Hey, look look look, take a look, Grim!" "Hm?"SFX:Someone is banging on the door in the background  "Guess I'll head back to the city and show it off a bit."Having gotten my paws on an ultra-rare item I'd been searching for forever, I was in hyper mode. My depression had been completely blown away. Meanwhile, the one banging on the door is now yelling as well as banging on the door. It's a girl, and though I don't speak Japanese I do know "Onii!"  Its only effect is to change your characters appearance, and it doesn't have any practical use. But on the flipside, since those around you could tell at a glance if you had one, you'd be the object of many envious stares. Given that, and the increasingly violent banging, I feel safe in concluding that she's saying something like "Open the drat door, bro!" "Hehehe, I did it... Neidhardt's gotten another step closer to God!"  OST:END So much for wallowing in the joy of snagging a rare item. Don't get in my way...  "Geh..."That voice... I became dejected the second I heard that familiar voice. No doubt about it, the voice's owner was the assassin sent out by my parents-my little sister Nanami. This was going to be a headache.  S, poo poo... A stormy period of time was about to start. I really didn't want to open it, but if I didn't, she'd run back to my parents, and they'd tell me, "You should give up on living alone, after all. Come back home..." This building's owner was, by and large, my dad, so he could put enough pressure on me to chase me out without so much as breaking a sweat. Uuh, it doesn't get any more unreasonable than this...  Shuutuuuuuuup!!! Don't wail so loud...  Helpless, I released the inner padlock and opened the door.   OST:Girls "......."This loli-bodied runt is my little sister. One year younger.  "At least give an answer when I call out to you. I started to think you might've dropped dead."Every time we see each other, she starts complaining. As could be seen from how she stood with her hands on her hips and her head thrown back, she was a cheeky little brat. Her existence brought me a hundred disadvantages and not one bit of benefit.  "Uwah, your room's as dirty as usual. Clean it up a little, will ya?" "......." It's because she's my little sister that she gets ahead of herself like this... When I see those guys who moe over little sister types, I want to tell them at the top of my lungs: "You've gotta battle with the reality of it." Well, sister or not, I didn't think she had a bad face. Her kind of childish-looking face might be smack in the strike zone for loli lovers.  Ah, by the way, I don't mind loli types. As long as they're 2-D. Hehehe.  "......." "Well, it's not like you have a girlfriend to help you clean up, and you're the sloppy sort, so it was obvious things would end up like this~" "......." "At this rate, maybe it would be better if I came and cleaned for you, after all." "Bu, but I refuse...." "But why!" "I, I don't want... want to let you... mess up my room..." "How mean... Is that the kind of thing you say to the little sister who came all the way out here to make sure you were still alive?"You yourself don't show your brother an ounce of respect. Besides, no one asked you to come check on my survival.  "Geez... Why do I have to be siblings with someone who causes nothing but trouble? Sometimes I hate it." "......."Advancing further and further into the room, Nanami opened the fridge without asking permission.  "I, I don't care..." "Whatever. Then I'll have the Coke."As usual, it looked like she had no intention of getting my approval first.  It's time for a Delusion Trigger! Positive? Negative? Neutral? Which will it be? OddHaberdasher fucked around with this message at 12:18 on Oct 12, 2020 |
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May 2, 2020 07:43
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Neutral, because I'm terrified of the chance that the positive one might get horny. It's been literal years since I played this but I think one of these delusions went horny and I DO NOT WANT THAT.
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May 2, 2020 11:51
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Im changing my previous vote to "always positive except about the sister, who should be neutral"
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May 2, 2020 12:15
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