Burned_Cookie
Very tired girl.
- Location
- Plato´s cave.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It/Its
Hmmm happy to see this update, even if the cliffhanger is a bit mean.
No-Leaf Clover (Virtue's Last Reward) (Clover SI)
- Thread starter Flairina
- Start date
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
Not a bad plan — it's not like it's not an understandable viewpoint — but Sigma and Clover!me are a pair this round, which means we're both supposed to be part of the voting process when the AB game rolls back around, and I don't actually have unilateral say over the decision. Also, the person we're "up against" this time is, uh... well, if you've played/watched the game, you probably know what just happened to him. Suffice to say, it would make the prospect rather difficult.
Thank you! It's a panicked and often quite frantic headspace, but it's mine, so I'm glad you like it.
Well yeah, it's obviously a coincidence (unless perhaps a bunch of nuclear reactors suddenly have near-simultaneous meltdowns, and a strain of the virus which causes degraded time perception and suicidal thoughts emerges), but the mind is built to make connections like this, so I do understand being low-key freaked out.
Ah, don't worry, the game won't ever actually show him dead because he's a kid, so he's... probably fine? For a given definition of fine?
This isn't a quest, but I kind of like that you think of Clover!me as "us" — thanks for being beside me in spirit, if not in person. o(^▽^)o
You can find the likely answer in the events of a previous chapter.
(Me being completely incapable of something really critical in-universe does seem to be a trend between my various SIs, eheh... ^^; )
I know I am. (┬┬﹏┬┬)
Late reply, but thank you! That's actually a very helpful list for me to keep in mind myself, and I'd love to see what those "ideas" are, should you ever put them into print.
Working on it! ᕕ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕗ
*whistles innocently in a non-spoilery manner*
Last edited:
- Location
- Wayland, Massachusetts
You know what you did
Glad to see this updated, honestly never played the game but it sounds like a complicated series of events to keep track of and introduce changes to. Making things derail in a believable way requires an understanding of the story that rivals its original creater, but when it's done well it can be a real treat.
Chapter 11: Plead the Fifth, part 2
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
"Wha- Quark!" Sigma cries, spinning around in tandem with me.
"Why did we come here...?" Quark mutters in a dazed tone. "What's the point...? We're just going to die..."
My heart seizes. Oh no, the Radical-6!
"No, we're not just going to die... we have to die... all of us... it's the only way for us to be free..."
"Wh- what are you talking about, Quark...?" Sigma says, looking increasingly freaked out the longer that Quark speaks.
"Just end it... end it all..." Quark rambles. "Free the body... free the mind... free... the..."
Before he can finish that all too ominous line, Quark's eyes roll up in his skull, and he collapses backwards in a dead faint. Sigma lunges forward and manages to catch Quark before he can fully hit the ground, thankfully preventing the young boy's head from smashing into the floor.
"Quark! Are you okay?!"
When Quark doesn't respond, Sigma puts a hand to the boy's chest, presumably to check that he's still breathing. Upon confirming as much, Sigma lets out a sigh of relief, though he still looks extremely troubled.
"What the hell was that...?"
That would be an event I really should have been more prepared for. It happened in the original VLR after all, as well as the initial timeline I went through, even if it didn't happen in the last one for whatever reason... although, isn't Quark normally supposed to have this little episode before everyone enters the Chromatic Doors, not after? Ugh, why has so much of my meta-knowledge turned out to be so utterly useless?
"Any ideas, Clover?" Sigma asks.
I nod, opening my mouth to suggest that it might be the effects of Radical-6 — and freeze, abruptly remembering that we haven't actually "discovered" what the symptoms of the virus are just yet. If I even vaguely imply that I already know them, when I really shouldn't... no, I can't say that.
"I- actually no, I don't have any clue what that was either, Sigma." I say instead. "Here, bring him into the room."
Sigma seems slightly confused by my instant reversal of stance, but does as asked anyways, lifting Quark up in a cradling hold and cautiously sidling into the laboratory. He lays Quark's prone body down next to the glowing tanks, looking a little regretful that he doesn't have anything to rest the young boy's head on.
"It was like he just suddenly went crazy." Sigma says restlessly as he straightens back up. "But why?"
"I don't know, but I doubt it's anything good." I reply. "We should try and get through this room quickly so we can get Quark back to the infirmary as soon as possible."
Partially because that's just the best place for us to take care of him, but also because I really, really don't want Quark to wake back up while we're still in here, fully suicidal and out of his mind, with only Sigma and I to try and restrain him. Given just how strong he proved to be last time whilst in the throes of the virus, I'm not sure that the two of us alone could actually stop him from killing himself this time, and I'd rather not have to find out.
Thankfully, Sigma seems to agree with me, and we wordlessly disperse throughout the room — or, well, "disperse" in the sense that we walk a few feet away to examine different things. The room isn't actually large enough for us to truly distance ourselves from each other, but that's probably for the best anyways, given how these escape rooms tend to work.
I crouch down to investigate the open cubbyholes beneath the second alcove on the left, which appears to have a fume hood and a chemical drain built into it. Meanwhile, Sigma moves over to the shelves in the back, which are stocked with a bunch of cylindrical, metal-and-glass containers — much like the one stuffed underneath the alcove I'm looking in.
"Okay, I've got... a jar of seeds, looks like?" I say, pulling the cylinder out into the light.
"Same here." Sigma says, pulling an almost identical-looking container off the bottom shelf. "There's two more of them on the table as well."
"Huh, right you are." I say, taking the container from Sigma's outstretched hand and placing it with mine at the front of the table, next to the one already sitting there, then reaching around the bizarre-looking microscope on the right to grab the container there as well. "What's with all the seeds?"
I look back up at Sigma just in time to see him slowly lid his eyes at me, his lips suddenly quirking into a broad smile... only for it to drop just as quickly as he turns away again, shaking his head.
"Not the time..." I hear him mutter under his breath.
...he was about to make some horrible "seed" related innuendo, wasn't he. I've got to be more careful with what I say around this guy — good on Sigma for showing some self-restraint this time though.
"There's some other stuff here too." Sigma says, attempting to brush past the comment he just almost made as he pulls some more containers off the shelves. "We've got some sort of clear mystery liquid... a root that kind of looks like a severed hand..."
He turns to show me the container before placing it on the table, and I flinch back slightly — he's right, that does look like a hand, albeit a rather grotesquely stretched out one. Did they grow it that way on purpose? Surely not.
"And also... this."
Sigma pulls down the final non-empty container, inside of which is-
"Oh, eww." I say, unable to stop myself from grimacing upon seeing the dead frog floating in the jar.
"Hey, be nice." Sigma teasingly replies. "He's not that ugly. Besides, maybe if you kiss him, he'll turn into a prince."
I roll my eyes. "Yeah, maybe, but seeing as how that frog has been sitting in a chemical bath for who knows how long, I have my doubts that the resulting 'prince' would be in the best of shape."
Sigma nods. "You're probably right."
Having said as much, he smirks and pops the lid off the frog's container, filling the nearby air with a rather strong disinfectant scent.
"Sure you don't wanna give it a try anyways?"
I level the flattest glare I can manage in his direction.
"I'll pass, thanks."
Sigma chuckles and closes the container back up, then joins me as I move to examine the leftmost alcove. This one doesn't have any storage space beneath it like the one to its right does, but there's a tray sitting inside of it, emblazoned with another lion-eating-the-sun design, and on it rests-
"A scalpel?"
I shiver a little as Sigma picks up and examines the silvery tool. Another damn blade... this facility has a lot more potential weapons in it than I initially thought it did.
"Still cold, huh?" Sigma asks, evidently having noticed me shudder.
"Yeah, but that's... not really the issue." I say, taking a few steps back. "Just, keep that thing pointed away from me, alright?"
'And far away from Quark.' I privately add, glancing back over at our third team member's prone form.
Not having any use for it just yet, Sigma sets the scalpel back down and moves to examine the wall of tanks, while I turn my attention to the table in the center of the room. Even ignoring the seed jars, there's a fair amount of stuff sitting on it, including a pair of odd-looking machines taking up a good chunk of the table's surface. One is trapezoidal and blocky, with a pair of small cylinders jutting from its top, while the other is a larger, hollow cylinder (someone up here apparently really likes cylinders) with some sort of thin, tube-shaped canister hooked up to its interior. There's also a bundle of black and yellow wires extruding from the latter's base, which are themselves connected to a black, flat-topped dome thing with what almost looks like miniature blast doors on its side.
I take a few seconds to investigate the mystery machines, but don't find much that wasn't obvious at a glance. The trapezoid has a pair of tiny screens on its side, but they're not on at the moment, and there's no apparent power switch to change that. It doesn't seem like we can do anything with either of them — which is weird, because usually these rooms don't contain completely pointless objects. Maybe something else in here will activate them?
Shrugging, I move on, picking up the two metal binders laying on the table instead. Spotting a similar binder set inside one of the alcoves on the right, as well as yet another jar of seeds, I grab the latter and place it with its brethren without comment, then lay the binders back down and open up all three of them at once.
"...oh hey, I think this room may actually come with instructions?"
Sigma turns away from the tanks, his normal eye widening a fraction. "Really? For what?"
"Well," I say, scanning over the revealed pages, "this one is for 'Hydroponics', which I think has to do with that big pipe network over there?"
I gesture at the installation occupying the rightmost alcove, where three interconnected pipes lead down from the ceiling, dividing into five before leading straight down through the counter below. Their open ends poke into the top of the five smaller cubbies beneath, each of which contains a mostly empty beaker back lit by a brightly colored number panel.
"This next one is for 'DNA Extraction', and I'm pretty sure is for that weird-looking blender over there." I continue, this time more certain of my answer as I gesture again, this time to the alcove on the left of the pipes. "And this last one is about... Frog Dissection."
I pull a face, looking from the frog container to the scalpel and back.
"Well, that seems like a pretty clear hint." I say. "If a rather disgusting one."
I mean come on, there's not even anywhere to wash our hands in here! Seriously Sigma-Zero, even if your hands are robotic, that's hardly an excuse for ignoring basic sanitation practices!
"I take it you'd prefer I handle this?" Sigma asks, already picking up the frog in question.
I nod. "Please. It'd be kind of hard for me anyways, what with my nails."
Since Sigma's hands are occupied, I start reading the next steps aloud for him. Sigma obligingly follows along, pouring the preservation liquid (ethanol, according to the instructions) down the nearby drain, then extracting the frog from its glassy prison and laying it out beneath the fume hood. Seeing the dead amphibian lying there, limbs splayed and belly up on the cold, hard metal, I can't help but feel a small pang of sympathy for it.
"Poor little guy..." I say, quietly bowing my head as Sigma slowly lowers the scalpel towards the frog's stomach. "I'm sorry we need to cut you open, Mr. Maybe-Prince. I promise, we wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't absolutely necessary. I hope you can understand."
Sigma pauses for a moment to aim his one normal eye at me. "What happened to 'ew, gross'?"
"Just because I don't enjoy the sight of floating frog corpses doesn't mean I can't feel bad for him." I reply, breaking from my almost-mourning pose. "I mean, would you want your body to be preserved after death in a jar on a shelf, just for someone to come along and dissect you who-even-knows how long later? I doubt the little guy willingly donated his body to science either — he may just be a long-expired frog, but I wish we could at least treat his remains a little better."
Sigma shakes his head at me, seeming a little amused.
"I didn't realize you had such strong feelings for this frog." he says. "Are you sure you don't want to try and-"
"Oh, get on with it already!"
Thankfully not belaboring the joke, Sigma turns back to the table and lowers the scalpel, slitting the frog's stomach open with one quick cut and revealing something round and blue inside. Without any of the hesitation I would have displayed in his place, Sigma reaches in and pulls out the object, which turns out to be a small, half-blue and half-clear orb with an odd protrusion on its front, filled with some sort of weird-looking goo.
"Seems Mr. Maybe-Prince here had a kidney stone." Sigma comments.
I giggle. "Yeah, and is it me, or does it kind of look like it came out of one of those plastic toy vending machines?"
"Huh?"
"You know, the kind that you see at supermarkets with the cheap little prizes inside." I elaborate. "Those little plastic boxes that cost like a quarter or two each? Usually have gumball machines next to them?"
"Ah, those." Sigma says with an air of realization as he looks back at the capsule in his hand. "Huh, you're right, it kinda does. Don't think we'll be finding any prizes inside of this though, unless you're into weird frog goo."
He looks around the room. "Now, where do we put this?"
I glance over at the microscope again — or, more specifically, the four round indents on top of the squat, cylindrical attachment (more cylinders?!) hooked up to its front.
"One of those, maybe?" I suggest, pointing.
Evidently not having any better ideas, Sigma walks over to the instrument in question, bending down to look into the lens.
"Huh, can't see a thing." he notes as he straightens back up. "It's pitch black in there. You're right though Clover, looks like this should fit, so maybe if I do this..."
Sigma fits the extruding bit of the half-blue capsule into the top of the microscope, which it fastens into with a satisfying *click*, then bends down to look into the lens again.
"...then absolutely nothing will change." Sigma deadpans.
I snort. "Well yeah, we probably need to fill all four ho-"
I catch myself, knowing exactly how Sigma will reply to that particular wording, and quickly rephrase.
"-all four slots first before it'll start working. Doubt these would be here otherwise."
I hold up two empty versions of the same capsule Sigma just inserted, previously sitting on the same tray I placed all the seed jars on, and lightly squeeze one to pop it open.
"You're probably right." Sigma sighs as he moves back from the microscope. "Anyways, looks like that's all the loose items in here, so let's get blending."
On board with that plan, I start moving towards the appliance in question, but Sigma is closer and gets there first. Seeing as how he's already started looking over the DNA extraction instructions, I decide to let Sigma handle this one himself, sidling up to watch as he grabs the root and the jar of liquid and sets them next to the blender. A few seconds later, he also walks over to the fume hood and, to my surprise, takes the waste tank out from underneath the counter, which I didn't even realize (or remember) could be removed.
"Not that I'm doubting you, but why do we need that?" I ask, slightly puzzled.
"The instructions say we need ethanol for this process," Sigma replies, hefting the waste tank onto the counter, "and this what we've got to work with."
I frown. "Okay, but if we're trying to extract DNA from the root, isn't all the frog residue floating around in that stuff going to contaminate the sample?"
Sigma shrugs helplessly. "Maybe? I don't see any other ethanol in here though."
I point at the container of clear liquid. "What's in there then?"
"Saline solution, apparently." Sigma replies. "It says so underneath the lid, and we need that too."
Still concerned, I take another quick look around, but Sigma's right. This room is fairly small, and we've already picked up pretty much everything we possibly could, save for the empty jars on the back shelf.
"I... suppose you've got a point." I say uncertainly as Sigma tosses the root into the funnel-like attachment beneath the blender. "Let's just hope this works then."
Sigma closes the lid and starts up the blender, which whirs to life surprisingly quietly for how powerful it seems to be. In just a few seconds, the root has been thoroughly pulped, at which point Sigma opens the lid back up and carefully pours some saline solution into the funnel, the liquid inexplicably turning a vibrant neon green upon contact with the root pulp and slowly starting to drip into the beaker below.
"You know, this is kind of making me feel like I'm back in biology class." I idly comment as the liquid gradually trickles down. "Any moment now, the teacher is going to walk in and yell at me for not wearing safety goggles, or pulling my hair back."
"Or having a lab coat." Sigma adds. "Seriously, where's the lab coats? They're the coolest part of the job. What kind of sub-standard scientist forgets to stock their lab with those?"
I snicker. "I guess whoever designed this place must not have been very bright, huh Sigma?"
Sigma nods in honest agreement, and it's all I can do not to bust out laughing.
Once all of the now absurdly colorful liquid has collected in the beaker, Sigma opens up the waste tank and pours some of the unfortunately froggy ethanol in, causing the mixture to take on an almost jello-like consistency. Finally, he removes the beaker and scoops some of the contents into an empty capsule, causing the transparent top of the plastic orb to take on the same neon green color as the mixture.
"And that's how it's done!" Sigma says, sounding inordinately pleased with himself as he slots the new capsule into the microscope and peers into the lens again. "Still nothing to see in here though, and, uh..."
We both turn to stare at the remaining root-saline-ethanol jello sitting in the beaker, which we have no way of easily getting rid of since we're currently using the waste tank. After a second or two, I just grab an empty container off the shelves and dump the excess material into it, though the beaker is still left slick with slime — once again, I really hope this puzzle doesn't care that much about cross-contamination.
"Alright, now what?" I say.
"I'm guessing we just do this again?" Sigma hazards. "We've still got an empty capsule, and a bunch of seeds to use for material."
"Right, but which kind?" I reply, gesturing at our collection of jars. "There's five different varieties of seed here, and we've got a limited supply of ethanol."
Sigma scratches at his shoulder. "That's true... maybe we need another clue. Let's come back to it later."
Well, I hope later is soon, because I don't see much else in here we can fiddle with other than the pipe network. Aside from the weird table machines that is, which might just be totally useless — are they seriously just here to make the room look appropriately science-y? I swear at least one of the things was somehow important though...
Frustrated by my inability to remember, I put the subject out of mind for the moment and move with Sigma to the rightmost alcove, picking the hydroponics folder back up in the process.
"Man, look at all these pipes..." Sigma muses. "This looks complicated."
"It looks complicated, but I don't think it actually is." I note as I skim over the (extremely brief) instructions. "We just need to get a ratio of one part fluid to ten parts water for each beaker... huh."
I guess I have to rescind my earlier statement. Assuming this works as stated, there is running water in here — it's just incredibly inconvenient to use or access. Like, there's not even a drain in the floor in case any of it spills, or there isn't a beaker under all five pipes, so it literally can't be used for anything other than this puzzle. Inconvenience, thy name is Zero.
"Does that mean those numbers are units of liquid then?" Sigma asks, glancing up at the glowing red '40', '80' and '40' over each respective pipe, and then at the '3', '3', '2', '5', and '3' behind each of the beakers. "In that case, I think we just need to use these handles to change which way the pipes send down water, so that each beaker gets the proper amount."
I raise an eyebrow, a little surprised at how fast he figured that out. "I think so, yeah."
Although... we don't have any surplus of the fluid that's already in the beakers, do we? And the instructions say they're all different kinds...
"Do not pull the lever without double-checking your answer though." I add. "I don't think there's any way to reset this puzzle, so we may only get one shot at it."
I'm not entirely certain about that — to my admittedly-limited recollection, there aren't any puzzles in VLR where the player can permanently lock themselves out of the solution — but I just don't see any way we could possibly "redo" this one if we get it wrong.
"Shouldn't be a problem." Sigma says confidently as he starts flipping handles. "I am proving to be a rather awesome scientist, if I do say so myself."
I roll my eyes. "Somehow I think it'll take a little more than what we've been doing for anyone to consider you a 'scientist'."
Sigma stops for a moment to cross his arms at me, as though pouting. "Oh come on, can't you just let me have this? Where's the accolades? The awards? The recognition of my scholarly excellence?"
Unbidden, my lips curl upwards into a smirk. "Oh, my mistake. Just a second."
Clearing my throat, I plaster on my brightest, widest smile, then turn to look Sigma directly in the eye.
"Ahem... congratulations Doctor Sigma!" I exclaim, clapping wildly. "I always knew you could do it! Those guys with PHDs in Biochemistry haven't got a thing on you, who can cut open frogs and solve moderately difficult escape room puzzles!"
Sigma does a few exaggerated bows in my direction. "Thank you, thank you! I couldn't have done it without the help of my lovely assistant, who carried out the truly crucial tasks of staring over my shoulder the entire time while making snarky comments!"
Laughing, I open my mouth to fire back- then abruptly snap it shut.
What am I doing? What are we doing?!
"Clover?" Sigma says, the grin slipping off his face a little. "Something wrong?"
"Yes something's wrong!" I exclaim, visibly startling him. "We're supposed to be hurrying, remember? And instead we're just standing here doing some sort of impromptu two-person comedy routine! We need to focus!"
Sigma's gaze briefly flickers over to where Quark still lies, and his tone quickly sobers. "Right."
He turns back to the pipes with renewed concentration, while I turn away and try to force my brain back on task.
I didn't even notice the two of us had fallen into such an easy conversational rhythm. Sigma is a lot more fun to talk with than I'd honestly expected him to be... not to say that's a bad thing, but we somehow managed to get so caught up in our own banter that we practically forgot about Quark, which is especially egregious in my case, given that I know what's likely going to happen when he wakes back up again. As Sigma himself pointed out when we started this room, this is not the time to be cracking jokes.
Determined to not accidentally extend our stay here any longer, I move away from Sigma to ensure I don't distract him again. I also take a moment to remind myself that Quark isn't the only reason I should be doing my best to focus right now — the whole point of these escape rooms is to raise our "epiphany points" after all, meaning it's likely in my best interest to solve as many of these puzzles as I can. I don't know how much any of it will help in my case, if at all, and I still don't regret passing off dissection duty, but the fact remains that I shouldn't just be sitting back and letting Sigma do this stuff for me.
I frown. Sigma is already working on the pipes though, and it would likely just be counterproductive to have both of us trying to figure them out at once. In which case, what's left for me to do? The seed blending? We still don't know which kind to put in, and I doubt that we have enough ethanol left to try them all at random...
Anxiously tapping my foot, I pick up the trio of folders again, scanning over them to check if we missed something. Which, as it turns out, I did — peeking out from under the hydroponics instructions is a second sheet of paper, which I somehow passed over the first time I looked. Pulling it free, I find that it explains that there's a connection between the beaker fluids and the seeds... presented in the form of five distinct syllogisms.
Perfect.
Moving in front of the quintet of seed jars, I set myself upon the logic puzzle. It doesn't strike me as a particularly difficult problem, but between the renewed franticness of my thoughts and the fact that I can't write anything down, it takes me a lot longer than I feel it should — so much so that by the time I've got it figured out, Sigma looks ready to pull the lever on the pipes.
"Hey Clover, come check my math?"
I walk over and do so, finding that his configuration looks correct — apparently the answer is literally just to make all the handles face straight down, dividing every juncture in half.
"Looks good to me." I say.
"Let's do this then."
Sigma throws the switch, and trickles of water flow down from above into each of the five beakers. The little red lights above them each turn green in succession, then stay that way, presumably confirming that we got it right.
"Great, let's get these seeds in them." I say, already moving to do so.
"Wait, what?"
"There was a logic puzzle in the hydroponics directions explaining what to do next." I quickly explain as I pop seeds into their corresponding beakers. "I solved it while you were busy."
"Okay, but weren't you the one who said we should check-"
I toss a seed into the final beaker, and something in the wall immediately makes a thumping noise, at which point a tiny half-red capsule comes tumbling down the chute beneath the switch.
"...nevermind then."
"Sorry, just trying to speed us along." I say a little sheepishly.
Sigma shakes his head.
"Alright," he says, picking up and placing the third capsule in the microscope, "just one more to-"
The screen next to the microscope lights up in white. Sigma tilts his head at it, clearly not having expected that, while I immediately lower my head to the eyepiece.
"It's working." I announce.
...for a given definition of "working" at least, since this definitely isn't showing what the microscope's eyepiece is actually pointed at. Instead, I seem to be looking at a small, rectangular screen displaying six rows of colorful tabs, framed against a background of neon DNA strands. Each of the rows is paired with another, and each of the tabs is labeled with either a "G", "C", "A", or "T".
"It is?" Sigma asks. "We haven't even gotten the fourth capsule in yet."
I don't respond, already working to figure this out. There aren't any instructions to be seen, but given what I'm looking at, along with the very on-the-nose background image, it's not hard to figure out that this puzzle is based around DNA base sequences. As such, I probably just need to shift the rows around — which seem to be controlled by the dials on the side of the microscope — until every G connects to a C, and every T connects to an A. Annoyingly however, when any one row moves, so too does another. All except for the fifth one that is, in which case I probably need to make sure I match that one up last-
"Clover?" Sigma suddenly says from behind me. "Need some help?"
"Ah- no, I'm fine." I haltingly reply, still twisting dials. "Don't worry, I've got this."
"You sure?" Sigma continues.
"Very sure."
"Alright, just let me know if you want-"
"Sigma, could you please just stop talking and let me focus!" I snap.
The words come out somewhat harsher than I intended, but the distraction Sigma is providing really isn't helping me- wait, there!
I make one final move, and all 36 of the tabs lock together — whereupon a surprisingly loud rendition of the "COMPLETED" jingle issues from somewhere on the machine, almost directly in my ears.
Yelping in surprise, I stumble a couple steps back from the eyepiece, thankfully managing not to trip over my own feet in the process. Steadying myself and grumbling internally at the aural jump scare, I look to the screen on the microscope's right, and am pleased to find that it's now lit up in bright green.
Sigma is already looking at the passcode, seeming a little stunned — as well as oddly disappointed? — but quickly wipes the expression from his face when he notices me staring.
"Nice job, Clover!" he says in way of congratulations. "That's only the normal password though. Should we try to get the other one too? If there's another one of those files inside, it could be important."
I shake my head. "We can't risk taking the time for that. We need to get Quark to the infirmary."
Sigma seems to hesitate for a moment, but ultimately concedes as I start punching the passcode into the safe. It swings open just as obligingly as the others, and inside I find the expected contents, including a map of Floor B, a pair of moon cards, and the exit key for the room. That isn't all though, as there's also a small brown book of some kind, propped up against the safe's back wall, as well as a thick glass bottle filled with bright purple liquid, the label on the front of which reads-
My breath hitches.
Axelavir.
"Why did we come here...?" Quark mutters in a dazed tone. "What's the point...? We're just going to die..."
My heart seizes. Oh no, the Radical-6!
"No, we're not just going to die... we have to die... all of us... it's the only way for us to be free..."
"Wh- what are you talking about, Quark...?" Sigma says, looking increasingly freaked out the longer that Quark speaks.
"Just end it... end it all..." Quark rambles. "Free the body... free the mind... free... the..."
Before he can finish that all too ominous line, Quark's eyes roll up in his skull, and he collapses backwards in a dead faint. Sigma lunges forward and manages to catch Quark before he can fully hit the ground, thankfully preventing the young boy's head from smashing into the floor.
"Quark! Are you okay?!"
When Quark doesn't respond, Sigma puts a hand to the boy's chest, presumably to check that he's still breathing. Upon confirming as much, Sigma lets out a sigh of relief, though he still looks extremely troubled.
"What the hell was that...?"
That would be an event I really should have been more prepared for. It happened in the original VLR after all, as well as the initial timeline I went through, even if it didn't happen in the last one for whatever reason... although, isn't Quark normally supposed to have this little episode before everyone enters the Chromatic Doors, not after? Ugh, why has so much of my meta-knowledge turned out to be so utterly useless?
"Any ideas, Clover?" Sigma asks.
I nod, opening my mouth to suggest that it might be the effects of Radical-6 — and freeze, abruptly remembering that we haven't actually "discovered" what the symptoms of the virus are just yet. If I even vaguely imply that I already know them, when I really shouldn't... no, I can't say that.
"I- actually no, I don't have any clue what that was either, Sigma." I say instead. "Here, bring him into the room."
Sigma seems slightly confused by my instant reversal of stance, but does as asked anyways, lifting Quark up in a cradling hold and cautiously sidling into the laboratory. He lays Quark's prone body down next to the glowing tanks, looking a little regretful that he doesn't have anything to rest the young boy's head on.
"It was like he just suddenly went crazy." Sigma says restlessly as he straightens back up. "But why?"
"I don't know, but I doubt it's anything good." I reply. "We should try and get through this room quickly so we can get Quark back to the infirmary as soon as possible."
Partially because that's just the best place for us to take care of him, but also because I really, really don't want Quark to wake back up while we're still in here, fully suicidal and out of his mind, with only Sigma and I to try and restrain him. Given just how strong he proved to be last time whilst in the throes of the virus, I'm not sure that the two of us alone could actually stop him from killing himself this time, and I'd rather not have to find out.
Thankfully, Sigma seems to agree with me, and we wordlessly disperse throughout the room — or, well, "disperse" in the sense that we walk a few feet away to examine different things. The room isn't actually large enough for us to truly distance ourselves from each other, but that's probably for the best anyways, given how these escape rooms tend to work.
I crouch down to investigate the open cubbyholes beneath the second alcove on the left, which appears to have a fume hood and a chemical drain built into it. Meanwhile, Sigma moves over to the shelves in the back, which are stocked with a bunch of cylindrical, metal-and-glass containers — much like the one stuffed underneath the alcove I'm looking in.
"Okay, I've got... a jar of seeds, looks like?" I say, pulling the cylinder out into the light.
"Same here." Sigma says, pulling an almost identical-looking container off the bottom shelf. "There's two more of them on the table as well."
"Huh, right you are." I say, taking the container from Sigma's outstretched hand and placing it with mine at the front of the table, next to the one already sitting there, then reaching around the bizarre-looking microscope on the right to grab the container there as well. "What's with all the seeds?"
I look back up at Sigma just in time to see him slowly lid his eyes at me, his lips suddenly quirking into a broad smile... only for it to drop just as quickly as he turns away again, shaking his head.
"Not the time..." I hear him mutter under his breath.
...he was about to make some horrible "seed" related innuendo, wasn't he. I've got to be more careful with what I say around this guy — good on Sigma for showing some self-restraint this time though.
"There's some other stuff here too." Sigma says, attempting to brush past the comment he just almost made as he pulls some more containers off the shelves. "We've got some sort of clear mystery liquid... a root that kind of looks like a severed hand..."
He turns to show me the container before placing it on the table, and I flinch back slightly — he's right, that does look like a hand, albeit a rather grotesquely stretched out one. Did they grow it that way on purpose? Surely not.
"And also... this."
Sigma pulls down the final non-empty container, inside of which is-
"Oh, eww." I say, unable to stop myself from grimacing upon seeing the dead frog floating in the jar.
"Hey, be nice." Sigma teasingly replies. "He's not that ugly. Besides, maybe if you kiss him, he'll turn into a prince."
I roll my eyes. "Yeah, maybe, but seeing as how that frog has been sitting in a chemical bath for who knows how long, I have my doubts that the resulting 'prince' would be in the best of shape."
Sigma nods. "You're probably right."
Having said as much, he smirks and pops the lid off the frog's container, filling the nearby air with a rather strong disinfectant scent.
"Sure you don't wanna give it a try anyways?"
I level the flattest glare I can manage in his direction.
"I'll pass, thanks."
Sigma chuckles and closes the container back up, then joins me as I move to examine the leftmost alcove. This one doesn't have any storage space beneath it like the one to its right does, but there's a tray sitting inside of it, emblazoned with another lion-eating-the-sun design, and on it rests-
"A scalpel?"
I shiver a little as Sigma picks up and examines the silvery tool. Another damn blade... this facility has a lot more potential weapons in it than I initially thought it did.
"Still cold, huh?" Sigma asks, evidently having noticed me shudder.
"Yeah, but that's... not really the issue." I say, taking a few steps back. "Just, keep that thing pointed away from me, alright?"
'And far away from Quark.' I privately add, glancing back over at our third team member's prone form.
Not having any use for it just yet, Sigma sets the scalpel back down and moves to examine the wall of tanks, while I turn my attention to the table in the center of the room. Even ignoring the seed jars, there's a fair amount of stuff sitting on it, including a pair of odd-looking machines taking up a good chunk of the table's surface. One is trapezoidal and blocky, with a pair of small cylinders jutting from its top, while the other is a larger, hollow cylinder (someone up here apparently really likes cylinders) with some sort of thin, tube-shaped canister hooked up to its interior. There's also a bundle of black and yellow wires extruding from the latter's base, which are themselves connected to a black, flat-topped dome thing with what almost looks like miniature blast doors on its side.
I take a few seconds to investigate the mystery machines, but don't find much that wasn't obvious at a glance. The trapezoid has a pair of tiny screens on its side, but they're not on at the moment, and there's no apparent power switch to change that. It doesn't seem like we can do anything with either of them — which is weird, because usually these rooms don't contain completely pointless objects. Maybe something else in here will activate them?
Shrugging, I move on, picking up the two metal binders laying on the table instead. Spotting a similar binder set inside one of the alcoves on the right, as well as yet another jar of seeds, I grab the latter and place it with its brethren without comment, then lay the binders back down and open up all three of them at once.
"...oh hey, I think this room may actually come with instructions?"
Sigma turns away from the tanks, his normal eye widening a fraction. "Really? For what?"
"Well," I say, scanning over the revealed pages, "this one is for 'Hydroponics', which I think has to do with that big pipe network over there?"
I gesture at the installation occupying the rightmost alcove, where three interconnected pipes lead down from the ceiling, dividing into five before leading straight down through the counter below. Their open ends poke into the top of the five smaller cubbies beneath, each of which contains a mostly empty beaker back lit by a brightly colored number panel.
"This next one is for 'DNA Extraction', and I'm pretty sure is for that weird-looking blender over there." I continue, this time more certain of my answer as I gesture again, this time to the alcove on the left of the pipes. "And this last one is about... Frog Dissection."
I pull a face, looking from the frog container to the scalpel and back.
"Well, that seems like a pretty clear hint." I say. "If a rather disgusting one."
I mean come on, there's not even anywhere to wash our hands in here! Seriously Sigma-Zero, even if your hands are robotic, that's hardly an excuse for ignoring basic sanitation practices!
"I take it you'd prefer I handle this?" Sigma asks, already picking up the frog in question.
I nod. "Please. It'd be kind of hard for me anyways, what with my nails."
Since Sigma's hands are occupied, I start reading the next steps aloud for him. Sigma obligingly follows along, pouring the preservation liquid (ethanol, according to the instructions) down the nearby drain, then extracting the frog from its glassy prison and laying it out beneath the fume hood. Seeing the dead amphibian lying there, limbs splayed and belly up on the cold, hard metal, I can't help but feel a small pang of sympathy for it.
"Poor little guy..." I say, quietly bowing my head as Sigma slowly lowers the scalpel towards the frog's stomach. "I'm sorry we need to cut you open, Mr. Maybe-Prince. I promise, we wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't absolutely necessary. I hope you can understand."
Sigma pauses for a moment to aim his one normal eye at me. "What happened to 'ew, gross'?"
"Just because I don't enjoy the sight of floating frog corpses doesn't mean I can't feel bad for him." I reply, breaking from my almost-mourning pose. "I mean, would you want your body to be preserved after death in a jar on a shelf, just for someone to come along and dissect you who-even-knows how long later? I doubt the little guy willingly donated his body to science either — he may just be a long-expired frog, but I wish we could at least treat his remains a little better."
Sigma shakes his head at me, seeming a little amused.
"I didn't realize you had such strong feelings for this frog." he says. "Are you sure you don't want to try and-"
"Oh, get on with it already!"
Thankfully not belaboring the joke, Sigma turns back to the table and lowers the scalpel, slitting the frog's stomach open with one quick cut and revealing something round and blue inside. Without any of the hesitation I would have displayed in his place, Sigma reaches in and pulls out the object, which turns out to be a small, half-blue and half-clear orb with an odd protrusion on its front, filled with some sort of weird-looking goo.
"Seems Mr. Maybe-Prince here had a kidney stone." Sigma comments.
I giggle. "Yeah, and is it me, or does it kind of look like it came out of one of those plastic toy vending machines?"
"Huh?"
"You know, the kind that you see at supermarkets with the cheap little prizes inside." I elaborate. "Those little plastic boxes that cost like a quarter or two each? Usually have gumball machines next to them?"
"Ah, those." Sigma says with an air of realization as he looks back at the capsule in his hand. "Huh, you're right, it kinda does. Don't think we'll be finding any prizes inside of this though, unless you're into weird frog goo."
He looks around the room. "Now, where do we put this?"
I glance over at the microscope again — or, more specifically, the four round indents on top of the squat, cylindrical attachment (more cylinders?!) hooked up to its front.
"One of those, maybe?" I suggest, pointing.
Evidently not having any better ideas, Sigma walks over to the instrument in question, bending down to look into the lens.
"Huh, can't see a thing." he notes as he straightens back up. "It's pitch black in there. You're right though Clover, looks like this should fit, so maybe if I do this..."
Sigma fits the extruding bit of the half-blue capsule into the top of the microscope, which it fastens into with a satisfying *click*, then bends down to look into the lens again.
"...then absolutely nothing will change." Sigma deadpans.
I snort. "Well yeah, we probably need to fill all four ho-"
I catch myself, knowing exactly how Sigma will reply to that particular wording, and quickly rephrase.
"-all four slots first before it'll start working. Doubt these would be here otherwise."
I hold up two empty versions of the same capsule Sigma just inserted, previously sitting on the same tray I placed all the seed jars on, and lightly squeeze one to pop it open.
"You're probably right." Sigma sighs as he moves back from the microscope. "Anyways, looks like that's all the loose items in here, so let's get blending."
On board with that plan, I start moving towards the appliance in question, but Sigma is closer and gets there first. Seeing as how he's already started looking over the DNA extraction instructions, I decide to let Sigma handle this one himself, sidling up to watch as he grabs the root and the jar of liquid and sets them next to the blender. A few seconds later, he also walks over to the fume hood and, to my surprise, takes the waste tank out from underneath the counter, which I didn't even realize (or remember) could be removed.
"Not that I'm doubting you, but why do we need that?" I ask, slightly puzzled.
"The instructions say we need ethanol for this process," Sigma replies, hefting the waste tank onto the counter, "and this what we've got to work with."
I frown. "Okay, but if we're trying to extract DNA from the root, isn't all the frog residue floating around in that stuff going to contaminate the sample?"
Sigma shrugs helplessly. "Maybe? I don't see any other ethanol in here though."
I point at the container of clear liquid. "What's in there then?"
"Saline solution, apparently." Sigma replies. "It says so underneath the lid, and we need that too."
Still concerned, I take another quick look around, but Sigma's right. This room is fairly small, and we've already picked up pretty much everything we possibly could, save for the empty jars on the back shelf.
"I... suppose you've got a point." I say uncertainly as Sigma tosses the root into the funnel-like attachment beneath the blender. "Let's just hope this works then."
Sigma closes the lid and starts up the blender, which whirs to life surprisingly quietly for how powerful it seems to be. In just a few seconds, the root has been thoroughly pulped, at which point Sigma opens the lid back up and carefully pours some saline solution into the funnel, the liquid inexplicably turning a vibrant neon green upon contact with the root pulp and slowly starting to drip into the beaker below.
"You know, this is kind of making me feel like I'm back in biology class." I idly comment as the liquid gradually trickles down. "Any moment now, the teacher is going to walk in and yell at me for not wearing safety goggles, or pulling my hair back."
"Or having a lab coat." Sigma adds. "Seriously, where's the lab coats? They're the coolest part of the job. What kind of sub-standard scientist forgets to stock their lab with those?"
I snicker. "I guess whoever designed this place must not have been very bright, huh Sigma?"
Sigma nods in honest agreement, and it's all I can do not to bust out laughing.
Once all of the now absurdly colorful liquid has collected in the beaker, Sigma opens up the waste tank and pours some of the unfortunately froggy ethanol in, causing the mixture to take on an almost jello-like consistency. Finally, he removes the beaker and scoops some of the contents into an empty capsule, causing the transparent top of the plastic orb to take on the same neon green color as the mixture.
"And that's how it's done!" Sigma says, sounding inordinately pleased with himself as he slots the new capsule into the microscope and peers into the lens again. "Still nothing to see in here though, and, uh..."
We both turn to stare at the remaining root-saline-ethanol jello sitting in the beaker, which we have no way of easily getting rid of since we're currently using the waste tank. After a second or two, I just grab an empty container off the shelves and dump the excess material into it, though the beaker is still left slick with slime — once again, I really hope this puzzle doesn't care that much about cross-contamination.
"Alright, now what?" I say.
"I'm guessing we just do this again?" Sigma hazards. "We've still got an empty capsule, and a bunch of seeds to use for material."
"Right, but which kind?" I reply, gesturing at our collection of jars. "There's five different varieties of seed here, and we've got a limited supply of ethanol."
Sigma scratches at his shoulder. "That's true... maybe we need another clue. Let's come back to it later."
Well, I hope later is soon, because I don't see much else in here we can fiddle with other than the pipe network. Aside from the weird table machines that is, which might just be totally useless — are they seriously just here to make the room look appropriately science-y? I swear at least one of the things was somehow important though...
Frustrated by my inability to remember, I put the subject out of mind for the moment and move with Sigma to the rightmost alcove, picking the hydroponics folder back up in the process.
"Man, look at all these pipes..." Sigma muses. "This looks complicated."
"It looks complicated, but I don't think it actually is." I note as I skim over the (extremely brief) instructions. "We just need to get a ratio of one part fluid to ten parts water for each beaker... huh."
I guess I have to rescind my earlier statement. Assuming this works as stated, there is running water in here — it's just incredibly inconvenient to use or access. Like, there's not even a drain in the floor in case any of it spills, or there isn't a beaker under all five pipes, so it literally can't be used for anything other than this puzzle. Inconvenience, thy name is Zero.
"Does that mean those numbers are units of liquid then?" Sigma asks, glancing up at the glowing red '40', '80' and '40' over each respective pipe, and then at the '3', '3', '2', '5', and '3' behind each of the beakers. "In that case, I think we just need to use these handles to change which way the pipes send down water, so that each beaker gets the proper amount."
I raise an eyebrow, a little surprised at how fast he figured that out. "I think so, yeah."
Although... we don't have any surplus of the fluid that's already in the beakers, do we? And the instructions say they're all different kinds...
"Do not pull the lever without double-checking your answer though." I add. "I don't think there's any way to reset this puzzle, so we may only get one shot at it."
I'm not entirely certain about that — to my admittedly-limited recollection, there aren't any puzzles in VLR where the player can permanently lock themselves out of the solution — but I just don't see any way we could possibly "redo" this one if we get it wrong.
"Shouldn't be a problem." Sigma says confidently as he starts flipping handles. "I am proving to be a rather awesome scientist, if I do say so myself."
I roll my eyes. "Somehow I think it'll take a little more than what we've been doing for anyone to consider you a 'scientist'."
Sigma stops for a moment to cross his arms at me, as though pouting. "Oh come on, can't you just let me have this? Where's the accolades? The awards? The recognition of my scholarly excellence?"
Unbidden, my lips curl upwards into a smirk. "Oh, my mistake. Just a second."
Clearing my throat, I plaster on my brightest, widest smile, then turn to look Sigma directly in the eye.
"Ahem... congratulations Doctor Sigma!" I exclaim, clapping wildly. "I always knew you could do it! Those guys with PHDs in Biochemistry haven't got a thing on you, who can cut open frogs and solve moderately difficult escape room puzzles!"
Sigma does a few exaggerated bows in my direction. "Thank you, thank you! I couldn't have done it without the help of my lovely assistant, who carried out the truly crucial tasks of staring over my shoulder the entire time while making snarky comments!"
Laughing, I open my mouth to fire back- then abruptly snap it shut.
What am I doing? What are we doing?!
"Clover?" Sigma says, the grin slipping off his face a little. "Something wrong?"
"Yes something's wrong!" I exclaim, visibly startling him. "We're supposed to be hurrying, remember? And instead we're just standing here doing some sort of impromptu two-person comedy routine! We need to focus!"
Sigma's gaze briefly flickers over to where Quark still lies, and his tone quickly sobers. "Right."
He turns back to the pipes with renewed concentration, while I turn away and try to force my brain back on task.
I didn't even notice the two of us had fallen into such an easy conversational rhythm. Sigma is a lot more fun to talk with than I'd honestly expected him to be... not to say that's a bad thing, but we somehow managed to get so caught up in our own banter that we practically forgot about Quark, which is especially egregious in my case, given that I know what's likely going to happen when he wakes back up again. As Sigma himself pointed out when we started this room, this is not the time to be cracking jokes.
Determined to not accidentally extend our stay here any longer, I move away from Sigma to ensure I don't distract him again. I also take a moment to remind myself that Quark isn't the only reason I should be doing my best to focus right now — the whole point of these escape rooms is to raise our "epiphany points" after all, meaning it's likely in my best interest to solve as many of these puzzles as I can. I don't know how much any of it will help in my case, if at all, and I still don't regret passing off dissection duty, but the fact remains that I shouldn't just be sitting back and letting Sigma do this stuff for me.
I frown. Sigma is already working on the pipes though, and it would likely just be counterproductive to have both of us trying to figure them out at once. In which case, what's left for me to do? The seed blending? We still don't know which kind to put in, and I doubt that we have enough ethanol left to try them all at random...
Anxiously tapping my foot, I pick up the trio of folders again, scanning over them to check if we missed something. Which, as it turns out, I did — peeking out from under the hydroponics instructions is a second sheet of paper, which I somehow passed over the first time I looked. Pulling it free, I find that it explains that there's a connection between the beaker fluids and the seeds... presented in the form of five distinct syllogisms.
Perfect.
Moving in front of the quintet of seed jars, I set myself upon the logic puzzle. It doesn't strike me as a particularly difficult problem, but between the renewed franticness of my thoughts and the fact that I can't write anything down, it takes me a lot longer than I feel it should — so much so that by the time I've got it figured out, Sigma looks ready to pull the lever on the pipes.
"Hey Clover, come check my math?"
I walk over and do so, finding that his configuration looks correct — apparently the answer is literally just to make all the handles face straight down, dividing every juncture in half.
"Looks good to me." I say.
"Let's do this then."
Sigma throws the switch, and trickles of water flow down from above into each of the five beakers. The little red lights above them each turn green in succession, then stay that way, presumably confirming that we got it right.
"Great, let's get these seeds in them." I say, already moving to do so.
"Wait, what?"
"There was a logic puzzle in the hydroponics directions explaining what to do next." I quickly explain as I pop seeds into their corresponding beakers. "I solved it while you were busy."
"Okay, but weren't you the one who said we should check-"
I toss a seed into the final beaker, and something in the wall immediately makes a thumping noise, at which point a tiny half-red capsule comes tumbling down the chute beneath the switch.
"...nevermind then."
"Sorry, just trying to speed us along." I say a little sheepishly.
Sigma shakes his head.
"Alright," he says, picking up and placing the third capsule in the microscope, "just one more to-"
The screen next to the microscope lights up in white. Sigma tilts his head at it, clearly not having expected that, while I immediately lower my head to the eyepiece.
"It's working." I announce.
...for a given definition of "working" at least, since this definitely isn't showing what the microscope's eyepiece is actually pointed at. Instead, I seem to be looking at a small, rectangular screen displaying six rows of colorful tabs, framed against a background of neon DNA strands. Each of the rows is paired with another, and each of the tabs is labeled with either a "G", "C", "A", or "T".
"It is?" Sigma asks. "We haven't even gotten the fourth capsule in yet."
I don't respond, already working to figure this out. There aren't any instructions to be seen, but given what I'm looking at, along with the very on-the-nose background image, it's not hard to figure out that this puzzle is based around DNA base sequences. As such, I probably just need to shift the rows around — which seem to be controlled by the dials on the side of the microscope — until every G connects to a C, and every T connects to an A. Annoyingly however, when any one row moves, so too does another. All except for the fifth one that is, in which case I probably need to make sure I match that one up last-
"Clover?" Sigma suddenly says from behind me. "Need some help?"
"Ah- no, I'm fine." I haltingly reply, still twisting dials. "Don't worry, I've got this."
"You sure?" Sigma continues.
"Very sure."
"Alright, just let me know if you want-"
"Sigma, could you please just stop talking and let me focus!" I snap.
The words come out somewhat harsher than I intended, but the distraction Sigma is providing really isn't helping me- wait, there!
I make one final move, and all 36 of the tabs lock together — whereupon a surprisingly loud rendition of the "COMPLETED" jingle issues from somewhere on the machine, almost directly in my ears.
Yelping in surprise, I stumble a couple steps back from the eyepiece, thankfully managing not to trip over my own feet in the process. Steadying myself and grumbling internally at the aural jump scare, I look to the screen on the microscope's right, and am pleased to find that it's now lit up in bright green.
Sigma is already looking at the passcode, seeming a little stunned — as well as oddly disappointed? — but quickly wipes the expression from his face when he notices me staring.
"Nice job, Clover!" he says in way of congratulations. "That's only the normal password though. Should we try to get the other one too? If there's another one of those files inside, it could be important."
I shake my head. "We can't risk taking the time for that. We need to get Quark to the infirmary."
Sigma seems to hesitate for a moment, but ultimately concedes as I start punching the passcode into the safe. It swings open just as obligingly as the others, and inside I find the expected contents, including a map of Floor B, a pair of moon cards, and the exit key for the room. That isn't all though, as there's also a small brown book of some kind, propped up against the safe's back wall, as well as a thick glass bottle filled with bright purple liquid, the label on the front of which reads-
My breath hitches.
Axelavir.
Yeah, that's not exactly a twist if you've played the game, but give Clover!me a break; I'd forgotten which safe/room the stuff was in. ^_^;
I find Sigma sort of difficult to characterize, especially in these escape rooms, since how quick he is on the draw largely depends on who's playing him/what difficulty you're on. I'm still a little torn on whether or not I wrote him as being too humor-inclined here, as he usually plays the straight man in his interactions with the others. However, he's also pretty willing to join in on jokes if someone sets them up first, and occasionally even conducts what I can only describe as one-man absurdist theater (see: the GAULEM Bay toolbox interactions), so with Clover!me all but repeatedly encouraging him by joking back, I don't think this is too far off base. Do tell me if you disagree though.
A huge thanks to @Pheonix14, @Warclam, @ScorpioBot, Henry Branscombe, Bertucchi, Twei, and my nine other patrons not named here, as well as an extra special thanks to a certain generous patron who wishes to remain unnamed. Each of them receives an official Crash Keys brand lab coat, freshly retrieved from- oh hey, so that's where they went! 🥼
I find Sigma sort of difficult to characterize, especially in these escape rooms, since how quick he is on the draw largely depends on who's playing him/what difficulty you're on. I'm still a little torn on whether or not I wrote him as being too humor-inclined here, as he usually plays the straight man in his interactions with the others. However, he's also pretty willing to join in on jokes if someone sets them up first, and occasionally even conducts what I can only describe as one-man absurdist theater (see: the GAULEM Bay toolbox interactions), so with Clover!me all but repeatedly encouraging him by joking back, I don't think this is too far off base. Do tell me if you disagree though.
A huge thanks to @Pheonix14, @Warclam, @ScorpioBot, Henry Branscombe, Bertucchi, Twei, and my nine other patrons not named here, as well as an extra special thanks to a certain generous patron who wishes to remain unnamed. Each of them receives an official Crash Keys brand lab coat, freshly retrieved from- oh hey, so that's where they went! 🥼
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- Location
- Wayland, Massachusetts
Well Sigma sure burned Zero. Would be a shame if they were the same person 🙄
Takareer
Words and feathers
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
On the one hand, yay a cure! But on the other hand, if you're not threatened with death you might not be able to psi your way out.
Hold on a sec…
Wasn't there something like this in the game, too? As I recall, Alice's R6 infection progression depended entirely on whether you allied or betrayed her in the first round, unless you didn't go through your first door with her at all, in which case her infection level was automatically 'high'.
Burned_Cookie
Very tired girl.
- Location
- Plato´s cave.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It/Its
Well that was quicker than expected.
Also, gotta love the funny grandpa.
Also, gotta love the funny grandpa.
I think that he also still sees his younger self, so you are not the only one. More to the point, he is probably acting as such, either because he doesn't know otherwise, or doesn't want anyone else to know that he knows that he is old.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
Sigma doesn't realise he's in his older self's body atm, believing himself to be the 20 something young man from the first game, iirc. Dude somehow avoids reflective surfaces or otherwise remains oblivious until events force him otherwise - one example being his arm getting crushed, only to learn it was robotic, during a bad end.
- Location
- HK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Old Sigma must be really relieved that his younger self has the observation skills of a brick outside of escape rooms, because otherwise it would have been a hell of a lot harder to hide that.
Burned_Cookie
Very tired girl.
- Location
- Plato´s cave.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It/Its
Seriously, I notice something like a single red spit appearing on my forearm, not instantly but I do, so how do you miss having the hands of an old person?
- Location
- HK
- Pronouns
- She/Her
He's got robot hands, that's how. I believe they look like they did before all the Nonary Game stuff happened. Old Sigma is very fortunate in that Young Sigma never went toilet once in the games, else...
I'm more surprised at the eye and face - did he never once touch it? I mean, I don't have wrinkles, but I think I'd notice if I suddenly had a ton. And a literal bionic eye that makes no attempt to be subtle should be pretty obvious to the touch. Unless the robot hands are advanced enough to fake facial textures on specifically his face.
JBcristal
Bring Me All The Puppies!
- Location
- Somewhere that doesn't have enough puppies.
I think that might've been the case at least at some point. Honestly, the twist might be hilariously overcomplicated but if I remember my romp with the game properly, they had an excuse for every chance of Sigma finding out on his own.
Ah oh boy, is that a blind reader I spy? Usually I'm all up for blind reading and this story does a solid job of explaining things in a somewhat accesibly sensible manner too, but I'd recommend reading (very handy run in the LParchive webpage) or watching this game instead of trying to piece things out. It's kind a meta mess. A wonderful meta mess, but a mess for sure- and we aren't even getting the original protagonist's perspective here!
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Burned_Cookie
Very tired girl.
- Location
- Plato´s cave.
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It/Its
Ha! Foolish Fool!
Do you not see?!
Piecing together the CHAOS is half the FUN! (In the DF sense, but I play that so there!)
Personally, I only played 999 and that was years ago, when it first came out, so I only remember the broadest of elements, so I'm in the fun element where some things are vagelly recognisable, but not enought for me to know what the hell is going on. Funnilly enought, I feel this makes the story more fun, not less, as anything new we discover (not in the quest sense, in the we're learning with Clover sense) is both surprising and vaguelly familiar.
And while I'm planning to come back and play the entire series in the future (including replaying the first game to refresh my memory of it). I'ts far enought in the backlog, any spoiler I get from this story will probably be really vague when I get to it. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying what I'm seeing and hoping for some of the crazy twists this series is known for in the future of this story.
And while I'm planning to come back and play the entire series in the future (including replaying the first game to refresh my memory of it). I'ts far enought in the backlog, any spoiler I get from this story will probably be really vague when I get to it. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying what I'm seeing and hoping for some of the crazy twists this series is known for in the future of this story.
The game really doesn't sound like my sort of thing. That this story is so great is one of the leading reasons that I somewhat doubt that Flarina will ever write something that I don't like. This and the Cat and Ladybird thing. I recall just having no appetite for that show at all, just, totally tiresome, but Flairina touches it and suddenly it is good *shrugs*.
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
It most definitely is, yes. ^^; Hopefully my understanding of the Zero Escape series is up to the task — I've been doing alright so far, I think!
Surprise, I actually managed to update in a reasonable amount of time for once! Mostly because I consider this the second part of the last chapter, and thus didn't actually upload the first half until this part was also finished, but let's just pretend otherwise! Woo~! 🎉
Nah, that's impossible. Rule one of mystery stories: the protagonist cannot also be the culprit. It's even mentioned in one of the secret archives! Clearly this fringe theory cannot possibly be true.
Thankfully, the goal right now is to be able to SHIFT without needing to be threatened with imminent death... plus, the source of said death so far hasn't really been coming from the bracelets anyways.
Yes, there was! Clover!me even noted earlier that in the game, while Quark is usually the first one to fall victim to the Radical-6, Alice is the first one in some timelines instead. Whether or not I'll manage to put together a working theory as to why that might be (or if it's even all that important), you'll just have to wait and see.
Now if only he wasn't also the pervy grandpa...
Given that the game shows you Sigma's younger self first, then lets you continue to think he looks like that throughout the rest of the game until the very end... no, that's not weird at all.
Correct, Sigma still sees himself as young as well — well, unless he "remembers" the first timeline Clover!me went through, wherein he ended up finding out about his apparent age way ahead of schedule, but what are the chances of that...?
Heh, yeah, Sigma does have a lot of excuses for not noticing it. He's wearing a jumpsuit so most of his body is hidden, his arms are robotic and so still look young/are still strong, his bionic eye is integrated into his optic system so his vision looks the same, the gravity of the moon would supress any joint pain he might have from age, there aren't many reflective surfaces in the base one would normally think to look in beyond the dirty mirror in the Infirmary and the running water in the B. Garden, etc etc etc. Still, it is a little hard to believe that Sigma never once just, itched his face or something and noticed the giant chunk of metal protruding from it, or wondered why his hair was brushing parts of his head it shouldn't have been, but these are things we're not really supposed to think about while actually playing the game. Which, fair enough.
I'd ~recommend~ it too, but a fair chunk of this story's readers ARE reading it blind apparently, and enjoying it all the same. In which case, more power to them.
I find it quite interesting how many different ways/reasons people enjoy this story, despite having wildly varying levels of knowledge of the series proper. Clearly I must be doing something right. ^^;
(Also, "spoilers that aren't really spoilers because I will have absolutely forgotten them by the time I actually get around to viewing the canon story" are perhaps my favorite kind. XD)
Heh, I appreciate your apparent faith in me — I'll do my best not to let you down on that front.
(Also I totally understand why you wouldn't like Miraculous Ladybug; there are a couple stand out episodes, but a lot of the show's writing/plotting is extremely basic and repetitive. Which is why most of the fandom's best material comes from fanfic that alleviates that.)
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Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
If you need to play through again for a refresher, they're $20 for all three on Steam atm iirc.
I... think at least one classic mystery novel violates that rule? A McCarthy book iirc. Otherwise it tends to be that the PoV character is not the culprit, ya.
DragonUnitOmega
Akechi/Fem!Akira gives me life
- Location
- Inaba
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Etc
Is this still updating? I'm assuming it's still updating.
...I hope it's still updating as I(would be kinda embarrassed about doing this...) had known of the existence of this fic for a while. But I put off reading it for various reasons...until now! And a good summary of my thoughts would be:
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I KNEW I SHOULD'VE WAITED SO THAT I HAVE MORE TO READ THROUGH.
But lucky for you! I'm in my more in-depth review mood. So buckle up! -puts review glasses on- Because I'mma be gushin' 'bout the fic.
So, first immediate thing I'd like to say, YES a Zero Escape fanfiction, more specifically Virtue's Last Reward. When I saw the title of thread, I couldn't believe it. I LOVE the trilogy so much. It's by far my favorite visual novel series. Yeah there's plenty of flaws and such but gosh dang it did I love the story, the puzzles and the characters and it was a blast. So I'm happy to see fics about this relatively obscure series outside of visual novel and/or RPG (i found out bout 999 through an rpg focused fansite that featured it so that's why i'm counting it okay?!) circles, and especially happy if it's something I like.
And boy do I like it.
The beginning is already feeling like I'm reading Zero Escape all over again, as in the way the prose goes and the thoughts narrated feel right at home with the franchise, with how NoLeaf!you going nuts about the possibilities and so on about the implications of being here...and already getting the typical headaches one gets from thinking about time-space problems. XD You know, the usual "wait am i messing up the timeline being here but wait if i am here doesn't that mean that i'm not messing it up but wait what if it's something else i'm messing up but i don't know yet aaahrrrrhggggh" kind of thoughts. I don't know, maybe because I would like to think I would have those kinds of thought if I was ever put in a similar situation, or maybe I just like freaking out and frantic thoughts in fiction in general, but I liked that.
Either way, yes, No-Leaf!you ending up in this world is very unfortunate considering how hard anyone has to work for to reach even the semblance of a happy ending. So that's certainly not helping with the usual problems of dealing with being in another person's body and time-space shenanigans. And we got plenty of tiny mysteries on our way.
Staring off with those secret files. Maybe in the end it's not important, but it's one of those things that, as you pointed out, is put off to the back of the mind, partially because of it being part of the interface. So I think it was nice to include it. I don't know. I'm a sucker for trying the best as possible to include gameplay only stuff and incoporate it in a way that makes sense in universe.
Then we got how much does Zero. Jr knows about you but I'm more on the side of "yes he does and it's most likely a lot". Why. Because when Zero Jr. said "Poor reader" during one of the chapters, my first thought was that was an obvious hint about, well, him knowing about your circumstance since, you know, another way to refer a "player", especially one doing a visual novel, is "reader". Now, while No-Leaf!Clover assumed he meant the extra files, which it could very well be, I still think that pretty much confirmed him knowing for me...so yeah.
And then we got other mysteries that you later point out. Including but not limited to: Alice's seeming phobia about either forced sleep or needles or drugs (which I currently speculate is related to, oh I don't know, maybe being under cold ice for a long while?), Tenmyouji seeming to be obssessed with Alice/All-ice (which I currently speculate might be because of Akane somehow), Sigma's seemingly coincidentally having his choice out of his hands and...how you got here...and Zero's identity. Which, well, you already "answered" that and No-Leaf!you also dismissed it, so I too will do the same since all we got is speculation, same with Phi's hostilities. But with how in both VLR and ZTD my first thought was "How are they gonna make it so that the POV is Zero and it makes sense this time?", well...whether that becomes true or not depends if you wanna keep that tradition going, or break it. So yeah.
Then we get the collision of the usual time stuff and general tone of Zero Escape as, of course, with so many factors in play, including likely many ofd screen stuff, plenty of things go wrong. Starting with Aken being dead. And ouch was that a "wham" for me, me literally imagining a shoe dropping in surprise, and also realizing the problems now that she's dead. Then Sigma's age reveal to himself, which my immediate thought was "uh hey clover? might wanna stop dio before--okay too late"...followed by Dio killing you and OH BOY I was going "no no no no no no no no" the whole time. Yeah, I knew it was likely that this would trigger a SHIFT, but gosh dang it did I want to punch Dio. And the most "recent fail", blown up after Phi has Sigma ditch you and co. before SHIFTing herself. And then you blowing up and dropping bombs. Figuratively of course. Which, yiiiiiikes. I mean understandable, but yiikes. And all of these have consequences, whether more immediate or not.
So yeah. Not stacked in your favor.
But it's not all doom and gloom. Tenmyouji showing hints of his old self from 999 during the "first run" was heartwarming. Luna being, well, Luna and nice to you when you were "infected". Sigma being goofy was hilarious, especially that "stand uo routine"...since, yknow, he does end up being a doctor. XD Tho yeah it wasn't a good time to do so but still! And of course Alice being a loyal friend to Clover...not let's hope she can be your friend too, someday. Oh and Quark being Quark and adorable.
Speaking of the infection though...when you were questioning about where in world was the cure I was like "wait you don't remember it being in the lab?" so I basically went "FINALLY" when you go to it and found the cure.
Also I will say, no, I don't mind at all at you railing into Sigma about his more pervy jokes. I was of the similar opinion of "Sigma. Dude. I like you. So please STOP, YOU'RE MAKING YOURSELF LOOK BAD", which is an opinion I hold even more tightly after ZTD and my subsequent shipping of Sigma/Diana (which was inevitable as i was kinda shipping sigma/luna during vlr but not a whole lot cuz of...i forget, but i think it's mostly the fact that she's a robot he created). So yeah, again, totally don't mind. Please feel free to correct him so that he doesn't do that when he sees Diana.
Ahem. More seriously though, I like to think he'd at least solve things pretty well. I mean he managed to become a professor-doctor-what-have-you. And I think he has a balance of being humorous and serious and you're doing that well enough. Or, well, you could take that lab scene as a joke/poking fun at how, despite being in a tense situation, ridiculous dialogue and hilarious observations occur during it.
Aaaaand that's all my "main" thoughts. I could go more in detail but that would reviewing each chapter by themselves again so no thank you...(for now?).
But yeah, again, I hope this is still updating, hope you don't mind this long review outta nowhere and hope you're doing well. I look forward to more.
Probably won't be as in-depth as this one. Maybe.
That depends on how I feel whenever you put up a chapter.
...I hope it's still updating as I
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I KNEW I SHOULD'VE WAITED SO THAT I HAVE MORE TO READ THROUGH.
But lucky for you! I'm in my more in-depth review mood. So buckle up! -puts review glasses on- Because I'mma be gushin' 'bout the fic.
So, first immediate thing I'd like to say, YES a Zero Escape fanfiction, more specifically Virtue's Last Reward. When I saw the title of thread, I couldn't believe it. I LOVE the trilogy so much. It's by far my favorite visual novel series. Yeah there's plenty of flaws and such but gosh dang it did I love the story, the puzzles and the characters and it was a blast. So I'm happy to see fics about this relatively obscure series outside of visual novel and/or RPG (i found out bout 999 through an rpg focused fansite that featured it so that's why i'm counting it okay?!
) circles, and especially happy if it's something I like.And boy do I like it.
The beginning is already feeling like I'm reading Zero Escape all over again, as in the way the prose goes and the thoughts narrated feel right at home with the franchise, with how NoLeaf!you going nuts about the possibilities and so on about the implications of being here...and already getting the typical headaches one gets from thinking about time-space problems. XD You know, the usual "wait am i messing up the timeline being here but wait if i am here doesn't that mean that i'm not messing it up but wait what if it's something else i'm messing up but i don't know yet aaahrrrrhggggh" kind of thoughts. I don't know, maybe because I would like to think I would have those kinds of thought if I was ever put in a similar situation, or maybe I just like freaking out and frantic thoughts in fiction in general, but I liked that.
Either way, yes, No-Leaf!you ending up in this world is very unfortunate considering how hard anyone has to work for to reach even the semblance of a happy ending. So that's certainly not helping with the usual problems of dealing with being in another person's body and time-space shenanigans. And we got plenty of tiny mysteries on our way.
Staring off with those secret files. Maybe in the end it's not important, but it's one of those things that, as you pointed out, is put off to the back of the mind, partially because of it being part of the interface. So I think it was nice to include it. I don't know. I'm a sucker for trying the best as possible to include gameplay only stuff and incoporate it in a way that makes sense in universe.
Then we got how much does Zero. Jr knows about you but I'm more on the side of "yes he does and it's most likely a lot". Why. Because when Zero Jr. said "Poor reader" during one of the chapters, my first thought was that was an obvious hint about, well, him knowing about your circumstance since, you know, another way to refer a "player", especially one doing a visual novel, is "reader". Now, while No-Leaf!Clover assumed he meant the extra files, which it could very well be, I still think that pretty much confirmed him knowing for me...so yeah.
And then we got other mysteries that you later point out. Including but not limited to: Alice's seeming phobia about either forced sleep or needles or drugs (which I currently speculate is related to, oh I don't know, maybe being under cold ice for a long while?), Tenmyouji seeming to be obssessed with Alice/All-ice (which I currently speculate might be because of Akane somehow), Sigma's seemingly coincidentally having his choice out of his hands and...how you got here...and Zero's identity. Which, well, you already "answered" that and No-Leaf!you also dismissed it, so I too will do the same since all we got is speculation, same with Phi's hostilities. But with how in both VLR and ZTD my first thought was "How are they gonna make it so that the POV is Zero and it makes sense this time?", well...whether that becomes true or not depends if you wanna keep that tradition going, or break it. So yeah.
Then we get the collision of the usual time stuff and general tone of Zero Escape as, of course, with so many factors in play, including likely many ofd screen stuff, plenty of things go wrong. Starting with Aken being dead. And ouch was that a "wham" for me, me literally imagining a shoe dropping in surprise, and also realizing the problems now that she's dead. Then Sigma's age reveal to himself, which my immediate thought was "uh hey clover? might wanna stop dio before--okay too late"...followed by Dio killing you and OH BOY I was going "no no no no no no no no" the whole time. Yeah, I knew it was likely that this would trigger a SHIFT, but gosh dang it did I want to punch Dio. And the most "recent fail", blown up after Phi has Sigma ditch you and co. before SHIFTing herself. And then you blowing up and dropping bombs. Figuratively of course. Which, yiiiiiikes. I mean understandable, but yiikes. And all of these have consequences, whether more immediate or not.
So yeah. Not stacked in your favor.
But it's not all doom and gloom. Tenmyouji showing hints of his old self from 999 during the "first run" was heartwarming. Luna being, well, Luna and nice to you when you were "infected". Sigma being goofy was hilarious, especially that "stand uo routine"...since, yknow, he does end up being a doctor. XD Tho yeah it wasn't a good time to do so but still! And of course Alice being a loyal friend to Clover...not let's hope she can be your friend too, someday. Oh and Quark being Quark and adorable.
Speaking of the infection though...when you were questioning about where in world was the cure I was like "wait you don't remember it being in the lab?" so I basically went "FINALLY" when you go to it and found the cure.
Also I will say, no, I don't mind at all at you railing into Sigma about his more pervy jokes. I was of the similar opinion of "Sigma. Dude. I like you. So please STOP, YOU'RE MAKING YOURSELF LOOK BAD", which is an opinion I hold even more tightly after ZTD and my subsequent shipping of Sigma/Diana (which was inevitable as i was kinda shipping sigma/luna during vlr but not a whole lot cuz of...i forget, but i think it's mostly the fact that she's a robot he created). So yeah, again, totally don't mind. Please feel free to correct him so that he doesn't do that when he sees Diana.
Ahem. More seriously though, I like to think he'd at least solve things pretty well. I mean he managed to become a professor-doctor-what-have-you. And I think he has a balance of being humorous and serious and you're doing that well enough. Or, well, you could take that lab scene as a joke/poking fun at how, despite being in a tense situation, ridiculous dialogue and hilarious observations occur during it.
Aaaaand that's all my "main" thoughts. I could go more in detail but that would reviewing each chapter by themselves again so no thank you...(for now?).
But yeah, again, I hope this is still updating, hope you don't mind this long review outta nowhere and hope you're doing well. I look forward to more.
Probably won't be as in-depth as this one. Maybe.
That depends on how I feel whenever you put up a chapter.
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
This is definitely one of my slower updating fics, but it is indeed still active! Worked a little on the next chapter the same day you posted this, in fact.
Always nice to elicit a reaction that positive, especially on one of my lesser read/known fics. (*^▽^*)
=
But lucky for you! I'm in my more in-depth review mood. So buckle up! -puts review glasses on- Because I'mma be gushin' 'bout the fic.
Review glasses are definitely my favorite kind to see on other people.
So, first immediate thing I'd like to say, YES a Zero Escape fanfiction, more specifically Virtue's Last Reward. When I saw the title of thread, I couldn't believe it. I LOVE the trilogy so much. It's by far my favorite visual novel series. Yeah there's plenty of flaws and such but gosh dang it did I love the story, the puzzles and the characters and it was a blast. So I'm happy to see fics about this relatively obscure series outside of visual novel and/or RPG (i found out bout 999 through an rpg focused fansite that featured it so that's why i'm counting it okay?!
And boy do I like it.
Thank you! As I imagine this fic indicates, I'm quite the fan of them myself, VLR in particular. It's not as popular as the other two games of the series in terms of fanfiction you can find set during it (probably due to the post-apocalyptic setting and all), and the series in general isn't all that well known, but, eh, I write what I'm inspired to. If other people enjoy it, that's just a bonus.
I'm glad it works for you! Looking the first few chapters over now, I wonder if I should go back and do a bit of paragraph splitting to make it all flow a little more nicely — but then again, perhaps the they convey Clover!me's ongoing panic beter simply left as is.
Mysteries aplenty indeed, to the point they're something of a challenge to keep track of both inside and outside the fic. ^^; Pleased that you like the inclusion of the secret archives — I like incorporating "gameplay only" stuff into fanfics as well, and even aside from where they've already made an impact, there's a good number of upcoming plot points I probably wouldn't be able to use without their inclusion, so I feel that was a pretty good idea in retrospect. No comment on Zero Jr.'s knowledge of Clover!me (as he might say, one can't just be revealing things out of order when a plan is already in place), or the "minor" mysteries still to be covered in fic, but as for Clover!me being Zero... well, you're hardly the only one to speculate as much, so perhaps you may want to compare notes.
No kidding. ^^; I'm kind of known for not being very nice to my SI-selves just in general, but Clover!me might just have it the worst — I mean, I certainly haven't killed myself in any of my other fics. Excellent to hear all those segments worked for you dramatically speaking though — this is (in large part) a suspense fic, so it's always good to know when the various "wham" moments have their desired effect.
No story should ever just be an endless parade of misery — and in a universe where the world has already ended, those small, joyful moments (hopefully) feel all the more meaningful. o(*￣︶￣*)o
What Clover!me does and does not remember is wholly based on what author!me does and does not remember — so, while I obviously checked/looked up where the Axelavir was later, at the time of writing, no, I genuinely did not remember that. Clover!me wasn't kidding about it having been years since I've played VLR. ^^;
Also I will say, no, I don't mind at all at you railing into Sigma about his more pervy jokes. I was of the similar opinion of "Sigma. Dude. I like you. So please STOP, YOU'RE MAKING YOURSELF LOOK BAD", which is an opinion I hold even more tightly after ZTD and my subsequent shipping of Sigma/Diana (which was inevitable as i was kinda shipping sigma/luna during vlr but not a whole lot cuz of...i forget, but i think it's mostly the fact that she's a robot he created). So yeah, again, totally don't mind. Please feel free to correct him so that he doesn't do that when he sees Diana.
Ahem. More seriously though, I like to think he'd at least solve things pretty well. I mean he managed to become a professor-doctor-what-have-you. And I think he has a balance of being humorous and serious and you're doing that well enough. Or, well, you could take that lab scene as a joke/poking fun at how, despite being in a tense situation, ridiculous dialogue and hilarious observations occur during it.
Yeah; Kotaro Uchikoshi and his weird fixation with extra-horny main characters, I swear. I thought Sigma was bad, and then I played AI: The Somnium Files, whose main character enters a slow motion "Matrix Mode" the moment somebody so much as suggests the presence of a porno mag in the vicinity... dear god. ^^; Anyways, libido aside, Sigma is indeed fairly intelligent — hell, in the games he essentially solves every escape room almost singlehandedly, assuming you're not on easy mode — and as such, it only made sense to me to write him as such. Even if he also tends to be easily impressed with his own actions, and gets distracted by his own bad jokes.
I absolutely do not mind "long reviews out of nowhere", and I'm very flattered you felt it warranted to spend so much time and effort doing so in the first place, as well as thrilled you're enjoying the story thus far just in general. Thank you so much! q(≧▽≦q)
- Location
- Wayland, Massachusetts
So, first immediate thing I'd like to say, YES a Zero Escape fanfiction, more specifically Virtue's Last Reward. When I saw the title of thread, I couldn't believe it. I LOVE the trilogy so much. It's by far my favorite visual novel series. Yeah there's plenty of flaws and such but gosh dang it did I love the story, the puzzles and the characters and it was a blast. So I'm happy to see fics about this relatively obscure series outside of visual novel and/or RPG (i found out bout 999 through an rpg focused fansite that featured it so that's why i'm counting it okay?!
This was also my initial reaction to finding this fic on ff.net
More people should be zero escape fans.