File: carqg-02.png (103 KB, 700x500)

103 KB PNG

>>41773481
You break your left arm and make a sling for it.
You crawl through a pipe full of outsider blood. You strengthen your resolve.
You gaze upon Summers' outsider killing machine and go a little crazy
You meet _Alice_, Col Summers' outsider 'sister'.
You realise you've lost your memory.
Summers returns, and draws his _knife_...

....
(AND THIS TIME)

You pull yourself together. You might not remember much of your past, but you do remember the situation. And maybe your memories will come back to you.

Summers strides towards you, his _red_ knife in hand. Alice looks at him in confusion. You have a few seconds to act.

> "Ah, Colonel, me and Alice were just talking about your brilliant plans!"
> Step behind Alice. "That thing is dangerous, Summers. We wouldn't want any accidents."
> "He's going to kill me, Alice. Just like he got your sister killed."
> Get back down the stairs.
> [Write in]

>>41773502
> "Ah, Colonel, me and Alice were just talking about your brilliant plans!"
Eh, probably too early to try and turn her to our side, sadly.

>>41773502
>> Step behind Alice. "That thing is dangerous, Summers. We wouldn't want any accidents."

>>41773502
> Get back down the stairs.

>>41773502
>> "Ah, Colonel, me and Alice were just talking about your brilliant plans!"

>>41773502
>"Ah, Colonel, me and Alice were just talking about your brilliant plans!"

File: carqg-03.png (90 KB, 700x500)

90 KB PNG

>>41773804
>>41773691
>>41773608

The Colonel stops in mid stride. For a moment, he looks... afraid? Then he glares at you.

"What did you tell her?"

> "Oh, nothing."
> "Oh, nothing." Wink at Alice.
> Make up a bluff.
> Prepare an attack.
> [Write in]

>>41774032
> "Oh, nothing." Wink at Alice.
Let's play some mindgames.

>>41774032
>> "Oh, nothing." Wink at Alice.

This can go so well or so badly.

I like dice games.

>>41774032
> Make up a bluff.

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>41774032
>"Oh, nothing." Wink at Alice.

>>41774072
Do you?

>>41774032
>> "Oh, nothing." Wink at Alice.

File: carqg-04.png (93 KB, 700x500)

93 KB PNG

>>41774203
>>41774199
>>41774072
>>41774062

He stares at you while Alice looks confused at your gesture. Then Summers turns to Alice.

"Subject One. Tell me what she told you."

Alice turns to him. "Um, she didn't say much. I was telling her about all the ways I help you save the world, and she was saying how she..."

> Interrupt. "How I knew her sister and was going to take Alice to meet her."
> Interrupt. "I was just going to say that thought your plans were perfectly great, with one flaw."
> Let her finish, say nothing.
> [Write in]

>>41774593
> Interrupt. "I was just going to say that thought your plans were perfectly great, with one flaw."
Fuck if I know, so let's just control this conversation.

>>41774593
> Interrupt. "I was just going to say that thought your plans were perfectly great, with one flaw."

>>41774593
>> Interrupt. "I was just going to say that thought your plans were perfectly great, with one flaw."

>>41774593
> Interrupt. "How I knew her sister and was going to take Alice to meet her."

>>41774593
> Interrupt. "How I knew her sister and was going to take Alice to meet her and convince her of how great your plan is. But, I must admit, it does have one flaw..."

>>41774692
>>41774670
>>41774620

Uh, for this option, it helps if people would specify if they think his plan actually *has* a flaw, or if we are going to make something up.

>>41774833
>Actually telling him the flaw
As long as the QM doesn't know, he certainly won't!

>>41774833
Well for one, he sure seems far too confident to the point of lax-ness. He hadn't even made any precautions for us escaping last time.

That's not really plan-specific though, so naah I have no fucking idea, it just sounded fitting!

>>41774833
Ridiculous.
I just want him to be confused about what we're saying.
And then we get the drop on him.

>>41774593
>> Interrupt. "How I knew her sister and was going to take Alice to meet her."

>>41774833
Make one up?

You're just making more "bad people." You're not actually reducing their numbers. You don't know the secret. You're smearing the _red_ around but you don't know how to destroy it.

The _red_ is still semi-alive and responds to our thoughts of Summers with anger.

>>41775262
_red_ a creepy.

File: carqg-05.png (64 KB, 700x500)

64 KB PNG

>>41774620
>>41774670
>>41774692

"A flaw? What flaw? Subject One?"

Alice turns to you, then to him. "Erm... I don't know anything about that. She was just saying that she was going to help me see my sister again. Which would be great! Uh.. if you are okay with it."

Summers studies you. "Don't listen to a word she says, Subject One. She's a liar and she's lying right now. She's just randomly making shit up."

> "Well, if you don't want me to finish...."
> "Let me finish..." [Write in a bluff]
> [Write in]

>>41775300
> "How rude! Why would you say something like that?"
Play the imouto-game, make him look bad.

>>41775300
>> "Let me finish..." [Write in a bluff]
You're just making new Outsiders to replace the ones you kill. You don't know how to _destroy_ them.

Not to mention, you're just as much one of the 'bad things' as _Alice_ here.

>>41775300
>>41775406
I'll support the first part but not the last. Sure we and Summers knows what that's referring to but Alice will just hear the new girl calling her a 'bad thing'.

>>41775439
_Alice_ calls herself that.

>>41761591
>"Well, um, because I'm bad and stuff, other bad things come to try to find me as long as I'm hurting... sort of. B-but it isn't that bad."

>>41775300
>>41775406
Sure.

File: carqg-06.png (65 KB, 700x500)

65 KB PNG

>>41775538
>>41775406
>>41775439

You open your mouth to speak. At that moment, a fragment of a _thought_ comes into your head.

_That is not the right answer._

> _Realize_ why that is not the right answer, choose a different option. (2 power uses remaining, minor usage)
> Continue talking. "You're just making new Outsiders to replace the ones you kill. You don't know how to _destroy_ them."

>>41775861
> _Realize_ why that is not the right answer, choose a different option. (2 power uses remaining, minor usage)
Eh, fuck it. I dunno if it's in our best interest to actually TELL him though.

>>41775894
>>41775861

(You won't actually tell him, I'm just giving you a chance to pick a different option from before. I'll explain why you messed up either way.)

>>41775861
> Continue talking. "You're just making new Outsiders to replace the ones you kill. You don't know how to _destroy_ them."

>>41775861
>> _Realize_ why that is not the right answer, choose a different option. (2 power uses remaining, minor usage)

Damn. What will turn them against each other.

Alice loves her brother and believes he loves her, and that she and all her kind are 'bad'.

Summers killed her sister, and plans to kill Alice once he no longer has use for her.

What else.

>>41775861
_REALIZE_

>>41775932
Ah okay, well I'll stick with it at any rate.

>>41775861
> _Realize_ why that is not the right answer, choose a different option. (2 power uses remaining, minor usage)

> "Well, if you don't want me to finish...."

It's more believable to not blurt out the flaw in his plan. Since he's still hostile.

>>41775894
"right answer" here doesn't mean answer to the question "what is the flaw" but "what do you have to say to get out of this alive."

>>41775861
He was afraid of us telling _Alice_ something.

>. I was telling her about all the ways I help you save the world, and she was saying how she..."

...how he's destroying countless worlds in his wake.

>>41493838

>"Of course people notice. Every little thing I do attracts notice. I imagine it looks very alarming. Didn't you watch the news? From past experience, in a few short hours, every major nation in the world is going to launch a nuclear assault on this country. I'm already making preparations to keep moving on."

The flaw is destroying all the worlds you visit.

>>41776184
Hmmm, that's a good point, except...does he have a reason to care about those worlds?

>>41776216
It's not him that matters.

He's afraid of _Alice_ learning that. She's only helping because she thinks he's a good person saving people.

>>41776236
I suppose, the flaw would be lying to his sister then, in a way.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>41775894
>>41775976
>>41775981
>>41776026

>>41776338
Well it's a 50/50 for...something.

Someone else's thoughts come into your head and you shut your mouth immediately.

_Alice is totally loyal to Summers. If Alice was helping Summers 'save the world', but was in fact doing the opposite, wouldn't she tell him? If being around the dead Outsider material for a few mere minutes gave you this idea, then it's something they must have dealt with before. So if you were to make this claim, you must make Summers believe you're right, and Alice was lying to him all along. Given that you are apparently his enemy, this is not going to work._

_Further pieces. Alice said she helps Summers 'move house'. Summers also said that when things go bad in each world, he moves on to the next. According to Someone, moving non-Outsider things has a cost. Which means that somehow Summers is finding the energy to move a lot of things repeatedly, without paying any apparent price. If Summers wasn't lying, he was doing this in a way that didn't reveal to him that he himself has outsider abilities. Finally, notice that the storage tank you crawled through had *two* pipes in it. With the lower pipe apparently channeling dead outsiders to the storage tank. What's the upper pipe connecting the storage tank to the central facility for?_

_Summers stores the remains of the outsiders. When the time comes, Alice consumes them, and uses the energy to push Summers and his facility to a new world._

You manage to shut off the flow of ideas before it becomes overwhelming. Summers looks at you impatiently.

> "Alice... you..."
> "Well, if you don't want me to finish...."
> "Let me finish..." [Write in a bluff]
> [Write in]

>>41776423
> "Well, if you don't want me to finish...."

>>41776423
Damn, I need to think about this. On the spot here.

>>41776531
We're pretty much fucked.

>>41776423
>consume for more energy
Toldja we should have drunk the _red_ while we had the chance.

>>41776423
> "Alice... you..."
Might as well get it all out there.

>>41776423
> "Alice... you..."

He was afraid of us telling Alice something. What. That he killed his sister? He kills her kind all the time.

That said he originally was going to kill her, that he hates her, and only changed his mind because he needed "it" for his plan?

>"I didn't stop for a while, until I realised that I needed it."

That he's starting nuclear wars and destroying worlds and he moves house to escape that destruction? She doesn't know the reason they move, right?

>>41776767
That he killed his sister and then FED her sister to Alice would probably be kind of skeevy

>>41776907
I think she's aware of the cannibalism.

File: carqg-07.png (83 KB, 700x500)

83 KB PNG

>>41776621
>>41776767

You can't disguise the revulsion in your voice. Alice snaps her attention immediately to you, as if she had perceived somehow what had happened.

_You hear a very quiet voice in your head. "I..."_

Summers looks at you two, confused. "Wait, wait, what's happening?"

You see Alice is still looking at you.

> "I just realised how much I hate your guts, Summers. If you want to believe I'm lying about a flaw, go right ahead."
> "How could you, Alice. Don't you realise what you are doing, 'helping'?"
> If you were a bit _more Outsider_, maybe you can talk to Alice silently... (2 power uses remaining, write in what you want to _do_.)
> [Write in]

>>41777068
> "I just realised how much I hate your guts, Summers. If you want to believe I'm lying about a flaw, go right ahead."

>>41777068
>> If you were a bit _more Outsider_, maybe you can talk to Alice silently... (2 power uses remaining, write in what you want to _do_.)

_the machinery is stopped. the Console needs Summers' attention urgently._

>>41777068
> "How could you, Alice. Don't you realise what you are doing, 'helping'?"

>>41777068
> "How could you, Alice. Don't you realise what you are doing, 'helping'?"

I dunno if attacking her is in our best interest right now, deserved or not.

>>41777216
This could be interesting. It would give us time alone with Alice to get her to our side.

Do you guys think this is a good idea?

>>41777360
Why would Summers leave us with her even if she believes that and tells him, though?

>>41777360
Eh, with Summers seeming to be at least part-outsider, he is probably resistant to such a direct change, so it seems risky. That said, I don't think giving up on our humanity is a good idea, so I'm already on the other side of the fence as far as these choices go.

>>41777425
Because he'd have to deal with some sort of technical emergency. He'll probably give her a gun and tell her to shoot us if we do anything funny

>>41777425
I think the anon's idea is to use outsider abilities to damage the console.

>>41777068
By a bit more outsider option, does that mean telepathy?

>>41777488
Yes, that's what I mean.

>>41777425
The Console is in the same room. He wouldn't be going far.

>>41777507
Ok, I vote for that option.

>>41777425
A dozen Outsiders would no longer be tortured and could be banging to get out.

>>41777483
Okay, but he was just brandishing a knife at us. Why wouldn't he just stab us? Why would he instead choose to to turn his back to us and leave us talking with Subject One?

>>41777615
Why wouldn't he just stab us the moment we start trying to subvert Subject One by talking to her right in front of his face?

>>41777615
Technically we wouldn't be talking. We'd be 100% silent.

But yeah distracting him seems unlikely to work if it isn't something more of an urgent threat than us.

>>41777645
You guys are missing the point, the _outsider_ option is to speak telepathically, whatever it is you're talking about would be some sort of write in option

>>41777670
You CAN'T speak telepathically, you don't have the ability, unless you _do_ something and become _more Outsider_ as a side effect.

You might as well _do_ something useful.

I'm kind of lost as to what we're doing. Or what exactly our goal is.

Do we just want to put an end to Summers' scheme?

If so, I think there's a few possibilities:
-Convince Summers that what he's doing is wrong
-Convince Alice that Summers' scheme is hurting Summers, and that he'll never heal if it never ends
-Destroy the machine
-Kill Alice

Killing Alice might be the easiest and simplest option, but obviously it's not a pleasant or Good action and there's the real possibility that she can just use her _juju_ to thwart any attempt on her life.

Destroying the machine seems borderline impossible, since Alice would be unimpeded from protecting it with her _juju_.

Convincing Summers seems possible, but extremely difficult. He's a nutcase who has done a LOT of horrible shit. He has to believe that he's right, because the alternative would destroy him.

Convincing Alice seems like the "safest" option. She is fanatically loyal to her brother, and dropping everything to save him would be mostly in-line with everything she's already done. But can Summers just get another _Other_ to milk?

Notably, I don't think that just killing Summers will work because if Alice is still loyal to his scheme then she can still fuck shit up with her powers.

Or maybe this whole quest has gone completely over my head and this entire post is drivel.

File: JR1Gz.jpg (32 KB, 343x262)

32 KB JPG

>>41777670
>whatever it is you're talking about would be some sort of write in option

You can't be this bad at reading.

>write in what you want to _do_.)
Is a requirement for telepathy.

On the other hand, I'm pretty sure we can still try to leave.

(Uh to clarify, you basically need to up your outsider level one more increment to be able to _speak_. Any use of the outsider ability would give you that as a side effect.)

(Anyway I think these two are currently tied.)
>>41777225
>>41777244
or
>>41777216
>>41777539


>>41777694
(There's a few other possibilities, but you're mainly right. You might want to decide what you are going for here.)

>>41777767
I'll just let anons deal with it while I sleep, thanks for running!

>>41777656
We wouldn't be talking, (the talking would come later), we'd be altering reality in some way. The proposed way being to distract Summers by making some machinery stop working so that Summers needs to head over to the Console.

>>41777645
Because he doesn't know what Alice was told before he got there. Remember, he only stopped approaching us with the knife after he learned that we had been talking with Alice about his plans. He's trying to figure out the degree of damage control necessary.

In that light, he's not going to just leave and lessen his control over us and our potential influence over Alice. That's why the telepathy option is appealing, it would allow us to talk to Alice while Summers thinking he has the situation currently under control. The price being more of our humanity, more of Ourself.

>>41777906
If we make the breakdown a containment breach or at least a potential containment breach and hostile tormented Outsiders could be loosed if it isn't fixed, it would help.

>>41777767
I vote for _more Outsider_.

Even if Summers doesn't turn his back on us to fix the console, it doesn't really matter, does it? The point is just to use our power so that we can unlock telepathy.

To that end, I think an alternative would be to heal our broken arm. It may not be as much of a boon as distracting Summers, but it would be guaranteed.

File: carqg-08.png (87 KB, 700x500)

87 KB PNG

>>41778010
>>41777539
>>41777216

_The mechanism down beneath you is protected. So is most of the console, in fact. It slides away from your ability to affect it. You almost give up, when you find a single tiny component. It was made in another world, a long time ago. You blast that component with a decade of incompetence._

_Something else that is yours flies into the abyss._

An alarm sounds. Summers looks over, quizzically, and back at you. "A problem? Now? You did you, didn't you? Subject One, fix the problem."

> _Tell Alice "Don't do it."_ (Free talk)
> _Make the problem worse._ (1 power use left)
> "I didn't do anything!"
> [Write in]

>>41777694
Killing Alice, she is in a wheelchair and we do have some stairs that lead down to the blades of death chamber right next to us.

>>41778294
>> _Tell Alice "Don't do it."_ (Free talk)
How could you, Alice. Don't you realise what you are doing, 'helping'?

You know how many worlds Summers has destroyed now?

>> "I didn't do anything!"

>>41778294
> "Huh? All I did was crawl through your people-grinder contraption, before meeting and talking to Alice here. She can confirm that's how I got here. Isn't that right, Alice?"

>>41778294
>> _Tell Alice "Don't do it."_ (Free talk)
You know killing won't ever make him happy, right? And it won't ever make him love you like his real sister?

>>41778294
>Tell Alice _Don't do it._

>>41778294
>_Tell Alice "Don't do it."_ (Free talk)

File: carqg-09.png (112 KB, 700x500)

112 KB PNG

>>41778476
>>41778423
>>41778396
>>41778331

_Ah, this is much easier than talking. I mean why were you even doing that all this time? You reach over with a part of yourself, and the connection is made._

_You sense her thoughts. Love, mainly, or what she thinks of as love. Guilt. Regret. And Fear. You realise she's actually scared of you._

_She speaks to you. "Don't do it? Why? If I don't... the bad things will come up."_

> _"You don't need to be scared of me."_
> _"They aren't bad things."_
> _"Fix it if you want. But first, listen to me."_
> [Write in]

>>41778299
Falling down the stairs leaves an awful lot of time for her to react and _fix_ it.

If we really want to take that route, which we probably don't, we'd have to do something immediate. Something like snapping her neck or stabbing her through the heart with Summers' _knife_. Even then, we don't know just how potent a mainline of alium-puree is. Could be she just gets back up.

>>41778647
>_"You don't need to be scared of me."_

>>41778647
>_ You don't need to be scared of me, or these things. Listen to me, please? This will only take a few seconds, you can fix the thing then after we finish talking._

>>41778647
>> _"They aren't bad things."_

>>41778647
> _"Fix it if you want. But first, listen to me."_
Welp, we're committed to killing ourselves, might as well play with what we bought with it.

>>41778647
>> _"You don't need to be scared of me. I just want to help you. Both of you."_

>>41778740
That's the spirit, anon.

File: carqg-10.png (71 KB, 700x500)

71 KB PNG

>>41778675
>>41778725
>>41778781

Time passes slowly. Summers' mouth opens and no voice comes out.

_"Don't be scared? But.. I don't know what you are. It's like you are a blurred thing. You want to help, but you don't even know who you are. You're a monster, aren't you?"_

> _"I'm your sister's daughter."_
> _"Yes, I am a monster. I killed someone."_
> _"I'm what your brother is. Can't you see?"_
> [Write in]

>>41778951
>> _"I'm what your brother is. Can't you see?"_

>>41778951
> _"I'm your sister's daughter."_

>>41778951
>_"I'm your sister's daughter."_

>>41778951
>_I have a brother, and a father. And I had a mother. People who I love. People who I want to protect. People i'm trying to help,_

>>41778951
>> _"I'm what your brother is. Can't you see?"_

>>41779009
Changing my vote to >>41779158

>>41778951
Seconding >>41779158

File: carqg-11.png (72 KB, 700x500)

72 KB PNG

>>41779158
>>41779209
>>41779303

_Surprise. Joy?_

_"Oh? Then you and I, we're the same! Did you tell that to my sister, did you help her to understand?"_

>_"She died to save me. I'm sorry."_
>_"We aren't the same."_
>_"I am trying to protect the people I love from you."_
> [Write in]

>>41779387
>_"She died to save me. I'm sorry."_

>>41779387
>>_"We aren't the same."_
>_"I am trying to protect the people I love from you."_

>>41779387
>She died to save me. Your sister was my mother. I'm sorry. I loved her. She died protecting me from you and Summer. Now I'm trying to do the same for others.<

I feel like we're navigating a minefield. I'm too scared to take a step.

>>41779387
>_"I am trying to protect the people I love from you."_
> _"And your brother"_

>>41779387
>>_"She died to save me. I'm sorry."_
>>_"I don't want anyone else to die."_

File: carqg-12.png (76 KB, 700x500)

76 KB PNG

>>41779596
>>41779465
>>41779488
>_"I am trying to protect the people I love from you."_

You are dimly aware that Summers is beginning to realise something is happening.

_You don't think Alice is afraid of you any more. But... she's sad. "I'm afraid we can't be friends then. I... I have to protect my brother. I have to defend his dream. Because he's the one *I* love."_

> _"Even though he thinks of you just as a tool?"_
> _"Is everyone else so worthless to you?"_
> _"Even when his dream killed your sister? My mother?"_
> [Write in]

>>41779545
But we've already stepped on mines, and have had pieces, vital pieces, blasted away. So now it's just a matter of whether we can crawl out at all before we expire. And after that, if we will manage to find necessary care to not lose ourselves completely.

No don't fret, vote away!

>>41779387
>_"She died to save me. I'm sorry."_
>_"I am trying to protect everybody."_

>>41779852
> _"Even though he thinks of you just as a tool?"_

>>41779852
> _"Even when his dream killed your sister? My mother?"_

>>41779852
> _"Is everyone else so worthless to you?"_
>_"I am sorry to make you choose this but it's either his dream or his life, you don't have to be a tool to him, you are free to choose."_

>>41779852
>_Even when his dream killed your sister? My mother?<

>>41779852
>_"Even when his dream killed your sister? My mother?"_

>>41779852
>> [Write in]
_"Your brother's dream is killing him, Alice. It's devouring him from the inside-out. He needs your help, but not like this."_

>>41779852
>> _"Is everyone else so worthless to you?"_

File: carqg-13.png (76 KB, 700x500)

76 KB PNG

>>41779971
>>41779924
>>41779906
>>41779865
> _"Even when his dream killed your sister? My mother?"_

You _tell_ her how it happened. You can't help but be cruel. In the moments that pass Summers starts walking towards you.

_"Oh." She says at last. "I-I had thought... I had hoped. It's not quite the same as sisters, you know. We were simply the closest amongst our kind. Both strong entities, we dipped often into your lives, trying to learn from you. It became a habit to think of each other that way."_

_She thinks. "So she's gone. That means I am alone now. That means I only have my brother. I... I can't just lose even that, I can't lose his love."_

> _"He is not your brother, can't you see that?"_
> _"He does not love you."_
> _"You don't have to be alone."_
> _"Is everything, everyone else so worthless?"_
> [Write in]

>>41780264
>> _"You don't have to be alone."_

>>41780264
>_You don't have to be alone.... I am your niece after all. And I want to help you, and to help Summers too if I can. I think he's going to try to kill me now, but he's killing himself and you really. Help me end this, please? Then we three can live better lives_

>>41780264
>> _"You don't have to be alone."_

>>41780264
You never had it. He told me so himself.
>> _"He does not love you."_
>> _"You don't have to be alone."_

File: carqg-14.png (82 KB, 700x500)

82 KB PNG

>>41780402
>>41780382
>>41780322
>>41780300

Summers is shouting. It seems he is angry.

_"What do you mean by that?" She's surprised._

> _"Don't you get it? If you side with Summers, you are trapped with a monster who will never love you, pitted against the entire universe. How can you be more alone?"_
> _"We can work something out. You can take your brother with you. We just need to stop this stupid crusade of his."_
> _"You can come with me... join my family. We'll find a place for you."_
> [Write in]

>>41780828
>> _"Don't you get it? If you side with Summers, you are trapped with a monster who will never love you, pitted against the entire universe. How can you be more alone?"_

>>41780828
> _"We can work something out. You can take your brother with you. We just need to stop this stupid crusade of his."_

>>41780828
>> _"You can come with me... join my family. We'll find a place for you."_

>>41780828
> _"We can work something out. You can take your brother with you. We just need to stop this stupid crusade of his."_

>>41780889
>>41780865

Do people seriously think Summers can be convinced to happily give up and go along with us. Is this what we are going for now?

>>41780828
> _"Don't you get it? If you side with Summers, you are trapped with a monster who will never love you, pitted against the entire universe. How can you be more alone?"_

>>41780828
>_We could be a family. We can work something out. Find some way to help you and Summers to end this stupid pointless crusade. Alice, you could come with me, to be with people who love you, really love you, not just use you. I can tell you really care about Summers, more then he cares about you, but he's never going to love you back in the same way. I understand if you don't want to leave him behind- we can take him too. Maybe with time he'll actually understand how to love you back. I'm begging you though, open your eyes. What's going on here? It won't last. It'll end soon and end bad for everyone._

>>41780977
We have to , it's either this or failure, not keeping everyone alive is failure, we will foil his plan and make him see reason.

>>41780977
Nope. It's bullshit.

This is just to keep Alice talking until Summers does something stupid.

>>41780977
well we need to at least convince his sister that this is a viable option.

>>41781099
Tell Alice what she wants to hear so that we can REMOVE SUMMERS

>>41781184
She needs to come to terms with some hard fucking facts. We can't just keep feeding her delusion.

>>41781276
We can if we can just distract her long enough for us to nab Summers' knife and just remove all our problems.

>>41781141
Like stab us? Because I think he's leaning towards stabbing us.

>>41781313
Before he can stab us he has to make the move of getting within arms' reach of both us and Anthy here.

>>41781446
You seem optimistic about our chances of fighting a trained soldier in hand to hand combat, with an Outsider backing him up, and with only a single use left of our abilities, and with the _knife_ already in his hands.

>>41781540
We also have enemies-of-my-enemy slowly crawling their way up the ladder and then the stairs behind us as long as we keep Alice distracted.

>>41780988
>>41780889
>>41780884
>>41780865
>>41780861
>>41781003

(I'm sort of reading this as a tie between 'tell her she can take her brother with her', or 'break the truth to her'. With the join my family thing as a possible third faction. So, uh. Someone tiebreak please.)

>>41781606
>break the truth to her

Rolled 1 (1d3)

>>41781606
There

>>41781446
And nothing will stop him. We can't, and Alice won't. She can't act against him. To do so would be to accept that she played a large hand in ending many, many lives, in rather horrific manners, for ultimately nothing.

And I don't think that's something that she's capable of doing. Not yet. She went quiet when we kept our eyes open on the way in, because she couldn't stand to look herself, it was too painful for her. We may be able to convince her to stop helping him, but to actively act against him? I don't see that happening.

>>41781606
She can just _look_ at her brother and see that he doesn't love her, right?

We can just tell her to do that?

File: carqg-145.png (101 KB, 700x500)

101 KB PNG

>>41781643
>>41780861
>>41780988

You are dimly aware that Summers is hurrying towards you.

_"What..." She says. "No. You are wrong. You have to be wrong. My brother loves me. He always has. What he is doing is not wrong. It cannot be wrong."_

> Switch attention to Summers.
> _"You don't dare look at what he is doing, do you? Look now. Look at what I remember."_
> _"You don't know what it means for someone to love you, do you?"_
> [Write in]

>>41781791
>> _"You don't dare look at what he is doing, do you? Look now. Look at what I remember."_

>>41781791
>> Switch attention to Summers.
Jesus christ how horrifying

>> _"You don't dare look at what he is doing, do you? Look now. Look at what I remember."_

>>41781791
> _"You don't dare look at what he is doing, do you? Look now. Look at what I remember."_
Let's hope that our memories of talking to Summers earlier wasn't part of our latest loss.

Probably can't telepath and dodge at the same time huh.

Or trip him down the stairs.

File: carqg-15.png (117 KB, 700x500)

117 KB PNG

>>41781848
>>41781816
>>41781813

_"N-no. That's..."_

She is quiet.

And then Summers stabs you in the right shoulder. Pain fills you and you lose all feeling in your good arm. He raises his _knife_ to stab you again.

You look and see that your blood is _red_.

"Stupid fucking bitch," he shouts at you. He looks between you and Alice, frantic. "FIX THE CONSOLE. In a few seconds a horde of half mad outsiders are going to come out from below and kill all of us. ARE YOU INSANE? Or do I need to hurt her more?"

As if in answer, you hear rumbling beneath you.

> _Fix my left arm_ (1 power use left)
> "The outsiders are going to go after US, Summers. And you especially. Not Alice. Don't fix the machine, Alice."
> [Write in]

>>41782073
>> "The outsiders are going to go after US, Summers. And you especially. Not Alice. Don't fix the machine, Alice."

We can glance at our left arm with the "but you can fix my arm" implied.

>>41782073
> "The outsiders are going to go after US, Summers. And you especially. Not Alice. Don't fix the machine, Alice."

>>41782073
Dammit, when is the _secret_ that _someone_ told us gonna be useful.

What was it.

>>41782073
> "The outsiders are going to go after US, Summers. And you especially. Not Alice. Don't fix the machine, Alice."
Meh, arms. What were they ever good for anyway? We used an arm to try to change the radio station once, and look where that led? We're probably better off without them.

>>41782155
(Uh, um, you've kinda avoided the large scale reality manipulation I was intending with that by not going for either the front gate or the damaged wall plates last session...)

>>41782073
> "The outsiders are going to go after US, Summers. And you especially. Not Alice. Don't fix the machine, Alice."

>>41782073
>> "The outsiders are going to go after US, Summers. And you especially. Not Alice. Don't fix the machine, Alice."

Fuck it fine, we've already lost everything all because of Summers, we can at least take him down with us and die satisfied.

File: carqg-16.png (118 KB, 700x500)

118 KB PNG

>>41782114
>>41782120
>>41782168

He stabs you again, and grabs you by the throat. You almost black out.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" He screams. "FIX THE MACHINE SUBJECT ONE! FIX IT!"

You see out of your peripheral vision Alice backing away. Red smeared shadows begin to emerge from the ground. You shut your eyes but the screaming had already begun. This time at least they aren't familiar to you.

> _"Find my family, Alice. Save them. That's all I ask."_
> _"I... I don't want to be eaten by these things Alice. Take what's left of me."_
> _Fix left arm_ (1 power use left)
> [Write in]

>>41782423
> _"Find my family, Alice. Save them. That's all I ask."_

>>41782423
>> _Fix left arm_ (1 power use left)

>>41782423
> _Fix left arm_ (1 power use left)

Might as well use the _power_ while we can, i guess

>>41782423
> _Fix left arm_ (1 power use left)
Fuck you Summers.

>>41782423
> _Fix left arm_ (1 power use left)
This makes us into an outsider, doesn't it?

>>41782423
> _"Find my family, Alice. Save them. That's all I ask."_

>>41782543
(Yes)

File: carqg-18.png (49 KB, 700x500)

49 KB PNG

>>41782543
>>41782494
>>41782483
>>41782448

You make _the choice_ almost _without thinking._
Wi͓̙̙th̟͎̞̫̞o͓̻͚̗̙̼u̦͍t͙͖ ̥̗͇th̟ị̻̯̠̼̩̞n͎k̯̝̞͙̟͖͕i̙̤n̻̻̜̘̺g̳̩̗͕͔̹.̠
̮̤̦̟

W͇̘̝͉i̤̠̺̩̘̣t͈̖̼̗̘͇̼͍̣̞͓͎͎̻̤͇h̠͍̗̣̞̣o̙͉̳͍͓͓̭̤̼̗̘͉̦̰̫̘u̙̟̮̖̟̗͍̼̮̘̭̼t̰̯̲̳̰̹̳̺̩̯͇̗̯ ̩̯̻̠̦̰̬̗̙̝̰̠̞̺̟̥̗ͅt͕̗̘͈h̟͕͙̳̱̦͕̫̘̙̳͍̮̹͈͍̲̠i̥̙̗̟̭̘̫̣̬̱͉̰̺n̹͖̤͔͈͎k͈̝͖̪̫̲̠̦̞̦̟̭͚̥͓͎̲ị̟̱̮̻͍̖̗͙ͅͅn̪̜̜̹̟͔̦̼̮̳g̞̳̥͍.͔͓͔̘͓̯͈̪̙̲͍̗̝̖̞͈̙͇
͖̳̝̳͙̫̠̮̙̰ͅ


_______

The world blurs. What was once clear is now hazy.

What was once hazy is now clear.

There is a monster on top of you. Your right arm is hurt. But otherwise you are fine. He has his hand on your throat but you are only pretending to breathe. There is some girl's thoughts inside you, but it doesn't seem terribly important. I mean there are friends around you, and they are very angry.

Okay. The hate of the monster above you permeates you. There are no rules. Not tonight.

> Kill the monster.
> Eat the monster.
> Push the monster off you.
> [Write in]

>>41782811
> Push the monster off you.

>>41782811
>> Push the monster off you.

>>41782811
>The hate of the monster above you
Hatred towards, or hatred felt by.

>>41782811
>Push the monster off you.

>>41782811
> Push the monster off you.

File: carqg-19.png (94 KB, 700x500)

94 KB PNG

>>41782929
>>41782885
>>41782845
>>41782836

Well, it's not really pushing. You choose a world for him where he is already flying through the air.

He crashes against the far wall. The knife, which you couldn't move so easily, clatters to the floor.

You stand up. Blood from your wounds hang in the air like butterfly wings.

The mad ones surround him. You see Aunty Alice leaving.

> Leave.
> Move him.
> Watch him die.

>>41783054
>Watch him die.

>>41783054
> Follow Alice

>>41783054
>>41783097
Backing

>>41783054
>> Leave.

Is it safe to take the knife?

>>41759869
>(Any further use of your powers will involve you losing something. With something significant at two more uses.... Major uses will cause more side-effects, for minor uses, 50% chance of no effect.)

Were there offscreen rolls for those last two uses of power?

>>41783054
gonna back >>41783054

>>41783215
A bold choice, sir.

>>41783119
(It's cumbersome to move around.)

>>41783180
(Neither of those uses were minor.)

>>41783054
>Leave.

>>41783222
I'm an idiot. I meant >>41783097

>>41783227
I didn't notice any side effects of breaking that component though.

And the effect of fixing the arm seemed inevitable consequence of _the choice_ more than a side effect.

File: carqg-20.png (78 KB, 700x500)

78 KB PNG

>>41783305
(_Red_ blood. Enh please stop moaning about mechanics now! I'm not exactly gonna retcon this!)

>>41783097
>>41783107
>>41783119
>>41783240

You don't care to observe the monster's dying terror. Instead you walk after your aunt out of the door of the chamber. It feels much more pleasant outside.

You notice a manacle lying on the floor where you aunt left it. You suppose such bounds are only meaningful to creatures who wish to keep their forms.

"You're hurt," your aunt speaks, concerned.

"I'll heal," you reply.

"This world will be ashes soon," she says. "We should leave."

> "There are some people I want to take with us."
> "Okay."
> [Write in]

>>41783350
>> "There are some people I want to take with us."

>>41783350
> "There are some people I want to take with us."

>>41783350
> I'm staying.
It's over. If we take our family, one of them might go crazy like Summers. Even if they don't, we aren't the same person, the same sister and daughter, not anymore.
There's no happy ending in sight here, so let's at least see if we can not create any unnecessary suffering, and try to contain the mess to as few realities as it's touched.

File: carqg-21.png (56 KB, 700x500)

56 KB PNG

>>41783379
>>41783365

Your Aunt is a bit agitated by this. "Are you sure that is wise?"

> "Third time's the charm?"
> "I... I think you need this. And I think they need this too. So we are going to make this work."
> [Write in]

Thread theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64kM-0tRjeA

>>41783450
>> "I... I think you need this. And I think they need this too. So we are going to make this work."

>>41783450
The flaw with the previous instances:

Mom and Alice had been dead for years. There was no plausible way for them to be restored to life.

As far as these two know though, the Mom only just died, and the imouto is only kidnapped.

Resurrection of the mom as something a little different is a bit more believable this time around.

>>41783350
> "There are some people I want to take with us."

>>41783450
>... no, no I don't.

>>41783450
> "I... I think you need this. And I think they need this too. So we are going to make this work."

>>41783522
Backing, as I feel this is the GM warning us away from making a bad decision.

>>41783450
perhaps we could check in on them without them knowing, but for now let's go with >>41783522

>>41783593
Nah, the GM then gave us two options to justify it. I'm just being a pessimist due to seeing no way to undo the apparent character death we've undergone, nor a way for all four of us to move to another reality without essentially killing four innocents to take their place.

>>41783593
(This is the epilogue, silly.)

>>41783450
>> "I... I think you need this. And I think they need this too. So we are going to make this work."

>>41783522
That isn't even a grammatically correct retort. It makes no sense.

>>41783663
very well. I retract >>41783617 and go with
> "I... I think you need this. And I think they need this too. So we are going to make this work."

>>41783593
Are you stupid? The quest is ending. It's irrelevant what's chosen. Their uncertainty is only because the previous instances of human interaction caused THE PLOT, which is usually a bad thing. But the plot is over now.

It's not like drinking the blood of the fallen.

>>41783670
It it's saying that she (the protagonist) does not think it is wise

>>41783709
The question was "are you sure"

They answered "i don't."

They're retarded if they can't realize you're supposed to say "I'm not."

>>41783732
Ah, you're right. For whatever reason, I had read it as something along the lines of ' do you think that is wise?'. Which is obviously not the phrasing used. My apologies.

I do hope the intended meaning came across, even though I screwed up the wording.

File: carqg-22.png (68 KB, 700x500)

68 KB PNG

>>41783678
>>41783670
>>41783533
>>41783473

To be honest, you're not sure. You feel some reservations yourself. But then you think of the last wish of a certain girl. And you think of the years and years of misery that Alice has been through. Thinking of the girl makes you feel a bit warmer, a bit... human?

This time it'll be okay, you think. You'll be careful. Well, you don't think either of you are gonna volunteer to help out with mass murder in the future any more.

You tell your Aunt this. "And we'll find a nice world. There should be lots of worlds where Colonel Summers just had all four of them shot, right? Plenty of choices. And..."

You look up.

"Hey, that's my face." You protest. She laughs.

> "Take this seriously!"
> "If you want to be who I was, you'll have to be a lot more sulky and paranoid."
> "Seriously, the brother's a creep. If you're mom, you can at least order him around."
> "I give up."
> "Wanna play rock paper scissors?"

>>41783848
>> "If you want to be who I was, you'll have to be a lot more sulky and paranoid."

I suspected Alice wanted to be the little girl.

>>41783848
>"I give up."

>>41783848
> "If you want to be who I was, you'll have to be a lot more sulky and paranoid."
Consider that taking the place of Mom means fucking Dad.

>>41783848
>Eh. If you don't wanna be mom, shall we try twins? The details are a bit fuzzy regardless, so it might work.

>>41783894
That kind of human rule doesn't seem to matter anymore.

>>41783848
> "If you want to be who I was, you'll have to be a lot more sulky and paranoid."

File: carqg-23.png (84 KB, 700x500)

84 KB PNG

>>41783885
>>41783873
>>41783942
>>41783894
>>41783904


You start to agree... and then you realise the horrifying implications.

"WAIT WAIT... NO, YOU CAN'T!"

She just laughs and laughs.
THE END.

THANK YOU ALL FOR PLAYING.

You were all awesome. Even you, boybutts anon.

I hope everyone had fun and forgives all the inevitable plotholes, slightly dodgy mechanics, somewhat wonky art and other stuff I missed!

>>41783970
Nah, don't worry about it man, you did great

If you enjoyed this quest, please upvote it on

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=car+quest

if you haven't already. I'll take a bit of a break from questing for a bit, so check my twitter at

https://twitter.com/fffquest

for announcements.

>>41783970
How did you imagine the quest finale going down? Did you expect it to be this containment breach staredown? To give up that last Humanity Point?

To not even bother trying to dodge Summers coming to stab a bitch?

>>41783953
>>41783970
Thanks for running, was a neat premise and such.

>>41783970
What's the deal with the red star scape?

And its relation to the 'you are driving between two walls. You can only go forward. There's someone ahead of your car.'

>>41784086
(the crimson star scape. or CARSCAPE for short.)

>>41784057
Like the earlier anon said, I kinda plotted for three main ways it could end.

The most likely was talking Alice out of it. If people were more convincing with their bluffing, I figured you could play a trick where Summers sends Alice away to one of the side rooms while you work out a deal, and then you could have her overhear it by using your powers. Telepathy was the second method. If you picked a less destructive method of using your penultimate point, it would have come down to using your interactions with your family, in contrast to her interactions with Summers. With the containment failing though, you didn't need to turn her against him as much, you just needed to make her not help him. Once the containment was breaching, and he was gonna stab you, I didn't really see any real way you can actually get out of there as a human.

The second possibility was luring Summers down to the lower chambers. You could then either turn the machinery on. Or just have him devoured. Alice wouldn't look down there, so she wouldn't save him. You'd still have to deal with Alice.

The third is a straight up fight. You could have used the Secret the outsider's true form... to turn the odds in your favour dramatically. But you will have to deal with Alice afterwards still. You will probably have to kill her.

>>41784086
The Carscape is an abstract representation of the way the outsiders view the multiverse when they are not part of it, which Someone gave you for reasons of convenience (for me, obviously). I had kinda planned out a wider mythology behind the outsiders, including their city... But we didn't go there, and that was probably for the best.

(Hint: Arthurian mythos)

>>41784221
What was the point of _someone_ putting the MC in the driver's seat of the metaphor car anyway.

And that guy we were gonna run over.

>>41784248
_Someone_ was just trying to confront us with the choice of whether to go with the happy alternative reality, or the original reality. She was trying to make the point that given the chance to recreate the original accident where we killed our mother, we wouldn't go through with it.

Of course we are way too stubborn for such a gambit, and she didn't actually *want* to let us choose freely there. So it was a clusterfuck all round.

File: wat-face.webm (914 KB, 1280x720)

914 KB WEBM

>ITT

>>41783970
Beautiful work OP 10/10 regret that I will never read this for the first time again.

>>41784307
Would closing your eyes have helped at all in the crazy chamber?

Or was that inevitably going to cost a humanity point?

>>41784307
What would we learn from trying to _think_ about what red means? What would drinking the blood do, accelerate Outsider-ness?

_Someone_ was exhausted after the carscape incident just because of moving us back to reality, or something else? Did control of the metaphorical steering wheel matter?

Was there any scenario where _someone_ didn't die? I guess if they scanned Dad or Bro instead.

>>41784731
Yes, would have saved you the humanity point. Of course that means you will have to figure out how the facility worked, and Alice certainly isn't going to willingly tell you.

>>41785410
Mainly what you had figured out. Drinking the blood would have seriously sapped your humanity, and also would have limited your options when dealing with Summers. (Mainly to the murder death kill variety...)

_Someone_ was exhausted because you actively and deliberately fought her for control. My initial idea was to allude to _Someone_ getting tired by the proportion of black in her outfit, but literally nobody noticed this, so I decided not to make a point of it.

You could have e.g. Broken through the checkpoint. Or really simply told _Someone_ to give herself up because it would be safer for the lot of you. In general yeah, if you were nicer to _Someone_, we'd move on to the secret history of the Outsiders stuff, but I was hoping this didn't happen because that means I would have to do more research and maybe even come up with names for characters!

>>41786299
Now that's kinda disappointing. I want to know more about this world(s)? and the Outsiders in general. And if we had help her, would we all have been happy?

Great quest, fff. It was a fun ride. h-heh I'm really looking forward to your next work.

But as good as it was, I think the best thing to come out of it was your twitter pic. I smile like an idiot every time I see it.

>>41786639
Well, you are going into territory I've planned out less for. I think the general framework of how things were going to work out was that you would meet with the people who were attacking Summers (remember the military exercises stuff? The mobile phone jamming?) Maybe a full-human ending is possible that way. Maybe not.

I wasn't sure whether the mythological connections I had thought of for the Outsider backstory really made sense or maybe fitted into the themes of the rest of the story so I am kinda relieved we didn't go into that. The basic idea was that a bunch of aspects of British mythology - faerie, changelings, cold iron, the scabbard of Excalibur that guaranteed victory, were fragmentary stories of what people understood of the Outsiders. Yes, this was a story about elves. I apologise.

>>41786844
>Yes, this was a story about elves.
You monster.

>>41783970
Jesus Christ is this worthy of a screenplay. Seriously, very well done.

>>41786844
>meet with the people who were attacking Summers (remember the military exercises stuff? The mobile phone jamming?)
Once we saw the soldiers we all sorta leapt to the conclusion that that was them, and Summers somehow just infiltrates the real military of this world.

It didn't occur to me until just now to revisit that assumption and consider there might be two military factions at odds, not counting the foreign powers that would nuke the country.

>>41786299
>You could have e.g. Broken through the checkpoint.

But how, by the time we woke up the car had stopped--

oh wait. YOu mean if we'd kept Bro in the driver seat and not resisted so hard earlier.

>>41187679
>Your brother brags: "Oh don't worry. With my invincible driving skills, I'll just break through any roadblock!"

>>41786299
>initial idea was to allude to _Someone_ getting tired by the proportion of black in her outfit, but literally nobody noticed this, so I decided not to make a point of it.

Rereading, it just wasn't really clear. It's also hard to notice shading changes in just black and white. (But which helped make the _red_ facility weird.) And it briefly flipped inconsistently even before it was given up.

Initially the coloring is diagonal lines. >>41185137 >>41186552 Then flip to carspace, the outfit is white at the end of thread 2. >>41188605 Then in thread 3 it's dark gray before it's given up on, like you said, leaving it just blank white.

>>41787343
Yeah there's definitely things I would want to go back and edit for consistency, if I could.

File: worried-laughter.png (513 KB, 600x782)

513 KB PNG

>>41160336
>The front passenger seat is empty, _of course_.

Well that was some early usage of _underscores_.

Was the death of mom the MC's fault originally or was that added in because anon talked about that in write-ins. Were we just good at guessing.

>>41787822
Uhhh the super early use of the underscores is kinda an error because I didn't really figure out exactly what symbology I was going to use at that point. You might also note the green Blargh in thread 2. That also didn't mean anything.

Death of the mom was always gonna be the MC's fault.

>>41787371
You could always turn it into a picturebook for kids.
Kids love murder

>>41787916
>You might also note the green Blargh in thread 2. That also didn't mean anything.
I think what you meant to say was
>You might also note the green Blargh in thread 2. What could that have meant...?
D E E P E S T L O R E

I wish I could think of something to say about this.

>>41791963
That poor car. Being in Car Quest, it probably thought it was the main star of this story, or at least a major part of it. Instead it gets crashed, and uncrashed, and crashed in the maybe-not-present, then gets stopped by tanks and lastly abandoned on the road, never to be seen again at all during the second half of the quest.
The car, Abandoned! In Car Quest! The shame. What did it do wrong? How could it have deserved such an end? Fate is a cruel, cruel mistress indeed.