[X] Ask the 'good doctor' about the Tiles and the weird things that are going on with that.
[X] At some point, if possible, shine a light in her face. That's what they do in interrogations in the movies.
The FILES are grouped into two sections - PAST SUBJECTS and PRESENT SUBJECTS. You decide to peruse the first category to begin with.
Each 'past subject' file has a photograph of a child, along with their name, place of birth, age, and pages upon pages of medical information. A small paragraph on the second page has been written detailing how the children - although they're referred to as 'assets' were obtained, signed by one R. Stockholm. The majority of them, it seems, were homeless children taken from the streets, orphans taken from care homes, or impoverished children taken from their families and declared missing. Another small report has been affixed to the end of each file, detailing the status of the children: ALIVE, DECEASED, or, in a few cases, UNKNOWN, as well as a number of technical terms you don't understand about them having been exposed to serums and chemicals.
Meanwhile, the 'present subject' files - wait. These are all empty. Every single one. The only thing left in this section of the cabinet are a few folders labelled 'Art Therapy - property of Dr. Ankara'.
[X] Show the doctor the files on test subjects, ask what she has to say about that.
-[X] Ask why the files on 'present subjects' appear to be missing. How many are there? Where are they?
[X] Ask her what the end result of the experiment was supposed to be.
The BOOK appears to have been written by one FATIMA AMJAD, and is about THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AND XENOPSYCHOLOGY. Most of it is written in MUCH TOO DENSE PSYCHOLOGICAL TERMINOLOGY for you to fully understand, but what you can understand is the TOP SECRET watermark that has been placed on every page.
Do we show her the book? It is written by her, and it is top secret. I don't know if we should trust her with the information that we have it, but on the other hand, we are unlikely to find someone else to interpret it for us. Unless we stumble upon one of the ENTITIES who is also a brainiac.
You feel refreshed. You feel stronger. You feel like you'll never lack for energy again, never have cause to sleep or eat or breathe or drink ever again. You feel refreshed.
Being refreshed is nice. Never needing to sleep, eat or breathe, on the other hand, is not. We have seen that taking it does not advance the 'Ascendance counter' immediately, but it clearly does something ENTITY-related.
I don't mind Mari gettting a tile, but we are the most affected individual in the group. Should we accelerate others on their paths to Ascention?
I am not particularly afraid of taking one, and will probably vote for it before we leave, but I am unsure who should get it. Besides, timestops are awesome.
Do we show her the book? It is written by her, and it is top secret. I don't know if we should trust her with the information that we have it, but on the other hand, we are unlikely to find someone else to interpret it for us. Unless we stumble upon one of the ENTITIES who is also a brainiac.
There is a lot of questions I'd like to ask Ankara. What is she doing - here in the Institute in general, and now when she appears to work contrary to their purposes? What made her change sides? What are we supposed to do - escape, thwart something, help save the world? Who or what was it that hurt her?
However, the question that is foremost on my mind is this:
[X] Do you know what happened to Moth? Is there a way to help him?
In theory, if these Tiles really do have refreshing/healing properties, they could be a way to bring him to his senses. That is probably the only outcome where I'd vote for leaving the room with someone else's tile. On the other hand, if his aspect/ENTITY overcame him and drove him to violence, making it even more powerful would be disastrous.
I guess I just don't want to think he could be gone for good.
There is a lot of questions I'd like to ask Ankara. What is she doing - here in the Institute in general, and now when she appears to work contrary to their purposes? What made her change sides? What are we supposed to do - escape, thwart something, help save the world? Who or what was it that hurt her?
However, the question that is foremost on my mind is this:
[X] Do you know what happened to Moth? Is there a way to help him?
In theory, if these Tiles really do have refreshing/healing properties, they could be a way to bring him to his senses. That is probably the only outcome where I'd vote for leaving the room with someone else's tile. On the other hand, if his aspect/ENTITY overcame him and drove him to violence, making it even more powerful would be disastrous.
I guess I just don't want to think he could be gone fo good.
Maybe more details about the Consortium's goals and methods and any dangers we can expect to encounter and such- you know, the usual. She might not know and might not tell us if she knew, though; there are cameras everywhere, after all.
Listed without assigning any kind of priorities - just things I think would be interesting to know. Some of the topics may overlap.
- What is this project Dr. Brighton has created? When and how did it start?
- What is the danger that the project is supposed to save the world from?
- What are this project's goals?
- What is the current progress? How close it is to the completion of its goals?
- How did you (or everyone else) end up selected for this project?
- Where is Dr. Brighton? Where would he go now that the staff seemingly turned on him?
- How did it come to this that his own daughter was selected as a test subject?
- Where is Klaus Helsinki? Is it even advisable to try and contact him?
- Is the experiment still ongoing, or did it crash and burn while the subjects roam free?
- What is it that the Institute wants from us?
- What does Ankara herself want?
- What are those ENTITIES? The tablet, the alien language - how do they fit into the picture?
- What is Ascension? What will happen to us once we Ascend?
- What happened to Luna/Kala?
- What lurks in the Labyrinth?
- What lies past the Labyrinth? How do we get out of here?
- What should be our next steps?
Also, here is the list of all updates since June, for possible threadmarking.
[X] - What are this project's goals?
-[X] How did I end up selected?
-[X] What is Ascension. What happens to us once we ascend?
-[X] How do we get out of here?
Turning four of them into a vote. Tried to pick the most central ones.
...I actually thought about 'how did they choose researchers for the job', because I was thinking about the staff folder we found earlier. It didn't occur to me that we have no idea how the kids are chosen either. Presumably, there are some kind of tests they score really well in, and there probably needs to be some physiological compatibility between the ENTITY and the host. But it's better we ask.
It takes some CONCENTRATION, but you eventually manage to COPY DOWN ALL SEVEN SENTENCES. Even if doing so is making your head hurt. You really can't make head nor tail of them! THE OLD WORDS. YOU COULD NOT HOPE TO UNDERSTAND, CHILD. Really, just, what on Earth could they mean? So confusing... what were you thinking about, again?
On another note, now that I needed to quote this, I suddenly noticed that the colors used are all custom colors (mostly), not your standard Xenforo ones. The difference may be as subtle as #4dffff and #00ffff, but it's there. I wonder if it's just for flavor...
I'm terribly sorry for the inordinately long delay between updates once more, current events have really done absolutely nothing for my steadily worsening mental state, but should all go as planned I'll have an update up by this time tomorrow.
For what's it worth, I wanted to say a big "Thank You" for running this quest. It is one of the best things I've seen come to this forum, and it never fails to brighten my day. I never knew I missed it before I found it.
The new story development fills me with anticipation. We are about to get some actual long-term goals besides getting out of the current room, and possibly opponents to work against as well. With all respect for his punchability, Dr. Brighton doesn't seem fit to be a proper antagonist anymore. His crew though...
At long last, here it is! A spectacularly long update, which I hope makes it worth at least a little of the weight. The plot is advancing nicely! Honestly, I mainly motivated myself to write this by listening to the Virtue's Last Reward soundtrack - a soundtrack that fits the aesthetic of QS very well, and one that I'd recommend to anyone as a beautiful achievement in video game music.
For what's it worth, I wanted to say a big "Thank You" for running this quest. It is one of the best things I've seen come to this forum, and it never fails to brighten my day. I never knew I missed it before I found it.
And by the way, thank you very much for this comment! Honestly, it absolutely made my day to hear that someone enjoys this ridiculous little thing I like to write, and gave me a much-needed jolt of motivation.
"You..." she frowns, kicking her feet as she seems to struggle to remember. "You.. I'm not sure. It just felt like you were holding it for a lot longer than you were. As if you, standing there, holding that... as if that was something that might just go on forever. I don't know. Forget it, Calloway, I'm just making myself look stupid."
You assure Mari that she's not being stupid; that when the two of them held their own tiles, you felt something strange happen. Something that you can't quite put into words, not perfectly, but something nonetheless. Something that didn't feel... of this world.
"Well, now you're just being ridiculous," says Mari, primly.
"I dunno," Owen counters, seeming deep in thought. For Owen, being deep in thought seems to mean thinking at all, but at least it's something. "It's not like anything's... well, impossible, right? After all of the, uh, the stuff, that has happened, and is, uh, still happening, and is, uh, maybe not going to stop from happening, although it maybe will. I'm not, uh, exactly an expert on, future, status, of-"
"We get it, Martinez," Mari snaps testily. "You're a gullible moron."
Owen frowns and crosses his arms, glaring at the floor. You roll your eyes - you don't have time to deal with these two, or at the very least, you don't right now.
You decide that you have done ENOUGH HANDS-ON INVESTIGATION when it comes to these tiles. You put MERCURY back in its place, and watch the SOLAR SYSTEM begin its intricate and delicate rotation once more. It's a pretty satisfying sight. Mesmerizing, almost... but no! You have no time for being mesmerized! The only thing around here that is going to be mesmerized is DR. ANKARA, and then only by your IMPRESSIVE MOXIE.
Ankara's stirrings have been steadily increasing, and as you go over to check on her, her eyes flicker open behind her wire-frame glasses. She doesn't seem to know where she is for a few seconds, before she blinks, and that insightful, knowing gaze, fixes on you standing over her. Sighing, she goes to climb to her feet, and then quickly sits down on the floor, breathing heavily after she nearly collapses in the attempt.
There are a few seconds of silence, when neither of you say anything - it would feel somehow wrong to say something right now, like you're in church, or a movie theater. You feel as if to say something would be to break a rule, to shatter a moment, to distract from something that needs to be seen more than anything. It's a curious feeling, but it's very quickly broken when she says something.
"You bandaged my wound." It's a statement, not a question, and her tone only carries with it the very faintest impression of surprise. You point at Mari over your shoulder, trying to keep your tone equally calm in return.
"She did," you reply.
"And you let her." There's a certainty in those words, the self-assurance in one's own perception of the world that only the deeply arrogant and the frighteningly perceptive are able to hold. You feel as if you have nothing to say in response.
[X] - What are this project's goals?
-[X] How did I end up selected?
-[X] What is Ascension. What happens to us once we ascend?
-[X] How do we get out of here?
"I will answer some of your questions, child," Ankara says, interrupting you in the split-second between your opening your mouth and the words you intended to say tumbling out, "But I cannot answer all of them. There are some things you should not know, and some things you cannot know, no matter how much you deserve. I am sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I am sorry."
"Right," you sigh, tapping your foot impatiently. You're a little irritated that you got interrupted like that when you were just in the middle of launching into a MACHINE-GUN SPRAY of RAPID-FIRE INTERROGATION. Of course, you realize the gravity of the situation, but at the same time, the idea of finally getting some answers has you so excited that it's all you can do to stop yourself from giggling aloud. This case is going to be MORE CRACKED than the principal's window in your infamous CASE OF THE CARELESSLY-POSITIONED BASEBALL PLAYERS! "Tell me everything you can, lady."
Adding 'lady' at the end was a nice touch, you think to yourself, smiling, and you almost give yourself a pat on the back. God, you're brilliant. Instead of focusing on you and your brilliance, however, Dr. Ankara is very rudely leaning against the wall, looking down silently in her lap. You tap your foot meaningfully, and eventually she looks up to answer.
"The world, children, is in grave danger. There is... something approaching, that is beyond our understanding. Or at least, that was beyond our understanding, before the institute you're standing in right now figured it out. To protect the world, we needed a weapon. And you... not just you three, others as well, you were needed to help us create that weapon. We needed children, but it turned out that we couldn't just use any children. Think of it as hands and gloves. We had to find hands that would fit the gloves perfectly, the gloves being this project. If you were chosen, it's because you're what we needed."
She shakes her head, refusing to look you in the eye. "You have to understand. We've only had the best intentions since the beginning. I cannot tell you all of it, there is so much that is secret. So much that you should never have to know. Please believe me when I say, anything that has happened... anything that will happen, it was for the greater good."
"Um, if I can just, if it wouldn't be too rude to interrupt what you're saying," interrupts Owen, rudely, "That's all, uh, very interesting, and I'd really like to write it down so I can, you know, listen to it all later, but. Right now. How do we get out. How do we get home."
Ankara sighs again, a lone drop of blood pooling at the corner of her lips. "There are several levels to this center. If you want to leave, you'll have to pass through the Labyrinth to get to the main elevator. It goes as far as the first floor of the penultimate level. From there, you'll have to make your way to the emergency elevator, and you should be able to take that to somewhere above ground. You... you can try and leave if you want to. But it's dangerous. This whole facility is dangerous, right now. And without you, I am not sure if the Consortium will be able to serve its purpose. To save the Earth."
You look helplessly, confusedly, at Mari, hoping for some solidarity, for a signal, for anything. She looks like she's not hearing anything she hasn't heard before. "Was I always meant to be used for that, then?" she asks, scowling. "Did all of you know, all of you except Father? Was that the plan all along?"
Ankara shrugs and nods. Mari frowns, takes a deep breath, and shakes her head. "Doesn't matter. They're people, and I am too. And we're going to find my father and get out of here, and we'll complete his work without any of you, and without any of, of all of this." She turns and offers you the Mari version of a reassuring smile, which is a smirk that, while being smug, somehow includes you in the smugness.
Owen takes the opportunity of this moment of solidarity to inquire after his erstwhile companion.
"I don't know, but I have a theory. I cannot tell you, however. It would distress you too much, children. And I honestly do not know whether or not he can be saved. I am sorry." She gestures to her bleeding abdomen. "It is Mars that nearly killed me earlier."
[X] Ask the 'good doctor' about the Tiles and the weird things that are going on with that.
[X] At some point, if possible, shine a light in her face. That's what they do in interrogations in the movies.
You don't have a LIGHT that you could use for that purpose, so instead you just stand in such a way that the AMBIENT LIGHT reflects off of the jewels on your DETECTIVE CROWN and into her eyes! That'll show her! Disappointingly, she doesn't seem to be affected by it beyond a slight squint. You inquire about the TILES.
"For what lies ahead, to have one of those will be very useful," is all she says, "But equally as dangerous. Be careful."
[X] Show the doctor the files on test subjects, ask what she has to say about that.
-[X] Ask why the files on 'present subjects' appear to be missing. How many are there? Where are they?
[X] Ask her what the end result of the experiment was supposed to be.
She doesn't even seem willing to lift her head up to look at the files, hanging it instead in what may be exhaustion, shame, or both in equal measure. "Soteriology, children," she says, quietly. "The study of saviors."
Slowly, unsteadily, but surely nonetheless, she's getting to her feat, still leaning on the wall for support. Reaching up, she first adjusts her hijab, then polishes the lenses of her glasses. "Listen. I have already stayed here too long while I was unconscious. The security of the Labyrinth is currently focused on following me. If I try and make a run for it, successful or not, I should be able to attract enough attention to make your passage through possible, if not quite safe. If you have anything more to ask of me, ask it now. After that, I will try and escape this place, so that you may have a chance at surviving your own attempt. Marinette, your father is in the main building, where, exactly, I do not know." She fixes you with those eyes that make you feel like she's looking through your eyes and into your thoughts.
Yes, we probably should... If she does die here, it wouldn't exactly be fair of us to have taken her keepsakes and kept them from her in her final moments.
[X] Do you have any idea where we could find Kala? She's been following me, or maybe leading me, since I woke up here.
[X] What about any of the other children or personnel?
[X] Return Dr. Ankara's PERSONAL BELONGINGS
- [X] Disclose that we tried to BREAK INTO*Ahem* INVESTIGATE her phone and other belonings
It looks like we might be the last ones to have arrived. The MOON, MERCURY, JUPITER, and SATURN symbols were missing from the window when we entered the Cathedral, and it looks like Kala kept the MOON symbol until we came.
What do we know about how the GSC has treated the other Ascending children? I recall something about violent conflicts against SUN and MARS, but I might be confusing it with another story.
I'm quite dubious that our best option is for Dr. Ankara to run towards her likely death, especially since her sacrifice doesn't even seem like it'll do all that much.
It looks like we might be the last ones to have arrived. The MOON, MERCURY, JUPITER, and SATURN symbols were missing from the window when we entered the Cathedral, and it looks like Kala kept the MOON symbol until we came.
What do we know about how the GSC has treated the other Ascending children? I recall something about violent conflicts against SUN and MARS, but I might be confusing it with another story.
I'm quite dubious that our best option is for Dr. Ankara to run towards her likely death, especially since her sacrifice doesn't even seem like it'll do all that much.
"Bloody hell, of course everything isn't alright, Roger. What's the status on the assets?" Her tone is frosty and commanding, almost regal in its haughtiness.
"Saturn's been making her way through the-"
"Call them 'it', Roger."
"-Its way through the initial chambers. Approaching the main facility, now with Jupiter in tow. Mercury and Mars are in the maze, they've been sticking together since they found each other. None of them have so much as entered the first stage yet, but it can only be a matter of time. I can't get Luna on the cameras anymore, they keep breaking, but I can follow the disturbances. I don't know how it's getting around the facility, but I think it's gotten into the maintenance tunnels. Venus is still under, thank God, but it took all of Dr. Helsinki's team to get it that way and he says he can't afford to take that many casualties again."
"Sol?" Her tone is resigned. She knows what the answer will be.
"Still loose, somewhere in the west wing. I haven't heard back from Marshal Kyoto's team in three hours. I think we can assume they're done for."
"Goddammit. Any sign of Brighton, the bastard?"
"None. I've been able to find Ankara, though. She's in the maze, for whatever reason."
"Soft-hearted idiot. This is all her fault." The hatred in her voice is like tar, choking, thick and boiling.
The man shrugs. "Any orders, Doc?"
"Don't call me 'doc', that's an order for you. Make sure Gaia's secure."
Mars, or Moth, went violent and ran out on his own some time ago after sticking with Owen for a time. Venus, whoever they are, Is still in the possession of the GSC scientists and apparently also had some sort of violent outburst. Sol is rampaging somewhere in the facility. And Luna, or Kala, is somewhere in the maintenance tunnels, probably nearby considering all the helpful clues she's left for us. Then there's whatever Gaia is supposed to be.
