>>4003099
The darkest time has come. No light left in the universe. The only choice is to rewrite all of it.

First for make good choices, Alabaster Soliloquy.

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>>4003099
>-The light has gone out of your life. Dark times lie ahead.
I want to drop an asteroid on the world. I really want to!

>>4003099
I EXPECT DEATH AND CRAVE MY OWN.

>>4003099
>-The light has gone out of your life. Dark times lie ahead.
Time for Amber to light the world on fire.

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Headlamps appear in your rearview. First one set, then two, then many.

"They are following us," Chloe says.

Though she makes you drive, she lets you speak. "They'll kill you," you say.

"They certainly mean to," she says. "After what transpired in the house, back there -- I suppose they don't care if you get caught in the crossfire."

"Good," you say, voice dripping venom. "I hope they kill us both."

Chloe frowns. "Is that truly how you feel? I am sorry about what happened to Whitney -- I am. But you know so very little... this day is going to be the most important day in the history of the universe. It is not even dawn yet. Let us see again, at sunset, whether you still feel that way."

She climbs into the backseat, and fishes around by the floormats. Sure enough, she finds what she wants: the stash of firearms Rose keeps in the Volt. She pulls out an auto pistol, checks that it's loaded, and gets back into the front with you.

"Excuse me for a moment," she tells you, then rolls down the passenger-side window, and pokes her upper half out with the gun at the ready.

SEASON 4 OP: https://vimeo.com/354421891
SEASON 4 OP (Creditless): https://vimeo.com/354421989

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>>4003099
>regularly beaten in season 1
>falsely jailed for over a decade in season 2
>kidnapped in season 3
>finally reunites with her daughter only to lose her forever in season 4

Being best girl is absolute suffering

Oh Chloe. Honey, no.

>>4003121
One good shot. All any of them needs is one good shot.

>>4003121
Oh my fucking god I want her dead so much

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Renee is making a sound that you've never heard in real life. You've heard it in footage of the aftermath of bombing campaigns, though -- that haunting wail of mothers picking through the rubble for their dead children. But the lossy compression of digital audio removes the upper and lower registers of that sound -- the parts that really pierce the eardrum and curdle the stomach. It's like an air raid siren come moments too late to save any lives. She's on her knees in the hallway rocking back and forth over Whitney's corpse, stooping, cheek-to-cheek, holding Whitney's upper half in her arms. Just the way she might have cradled her when Whitney was a little girl, if they'd had the chance; and the lake of tears Renee sheds does nothing to breathe life back into her.

Just beside this awful sight is Vivian, face-down, curled up like an inchworm mid-wriggle, with her forehead pinning her wrists, as motionless as a corpse herself.

And not far from Whitney's body is Johann the penguin, missing his eye -- his evil eye, too.

You pick him up.

"Sorry for bodyjacking you. You're free now." You go downstairs and set him on the dining room table to hang out.

Your wisecracks feel hollow even to you.

In the living room, Kay interrogates Samantha:

"It was Chloe!" Samantha insists. "Master Ally would never do that to Whitney! She used -- the eye thing -- that has to be it!"

Kay is one of the few among you not crying, but her grief expresses itself via rage instead: "How the fuck do you know that, you stupid slut? God damn it. You saw this happen? You didn't do anything to save her?"

Samantha clutches her face and weeps.

"She's right," says Rose -- no, Rose2. She can hardly speak through the frog in her throat and the fits of sobbing that refuse to subside. "Alabaster loves Whitney. You know this wasn't him."

Noelle comes in through the front door. "We've got them tailed," she announces. "Half our security force is going after them."

"Why not all of them?" Mom wants to know.

"Because we're still here, and we're still sitting ducks," Noelle says.

"This is all your fault," Charlotte says grimly. She has to speak up to be heard over Renee's screaming from upstairs, which only seems to get louder and louder over time. "You let this happen to her. You're supposed to be her bodyguard. What good are you?"

"Go to hell," Noelle says.

>>4003143
I have no words for this despair

>>4003143
>Rose2
D-does Amber still know then?

Everybody stop fighting please ;_;

>>4003143
Ah, I was wondering where and how lines would be drawn.

Not so fun fact, Alabaster's really rich now.

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Alex has been mute the whole time since this nightmare began, sitting in a chair in the den, staring at the ceiling. Finally now he glances down, and catches your eye.

"I need to go back there," he says.

You nod. "All right. Why?"

"I'm the project lead. She's using my project to do this -- I can use it to stop her."

He's got a crazed lilt to his voice that tells you he's not all there, mentally -- but then again, has Alex Best ever really been all there, mentally, to begin with?

"I guess you want me to escort you," you say.

"No!" Mom yells. She's at your side in an instant. "Not on your life! Alabaster's in enough danger as it is -- I'm not putting either of my other children at risk!"

"Ms. Catachresis," Alex says, "with all due respect, Amber is the only person here who can get this done."

"I'm not betting one child's life to save another!" Mom says. "No!"

"It's too late," you tell her. "I already decided."

"Amber--" Mom begins.

"You have three other children, by the way," you tell her.

"...What?"

"Never mind." You look at Alex. "What do you want to do?"

>>4003152
>"You're a multi-billionaire now," you say, still unable to process the meaning behind those words.

>"No shit, Sherlock. I hit the lottery. Great. It doesn't mean anything if you're dead!"

>>4003150
This is a point of interest.
Can't wait to suffer more.

>>4003160
This is also a point of interest.

>>4003160
Why does Amber remember if Alabaster doesn't?

>>4003160
>she does remember

>>4003143
>>4003160
I am terrified beyond comprehension

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"Alyosha tried to take Alabaster's and David's implants," Alex says. "Those are the same ones the cunt took, too. Why?"

It's a rhetorical question, one he answers for you:

"Alabaster's implant gives him close to eidetic memory. It also gives him memory of a different kind. Memory of the world before Sand Reckoner... for example... it let him see that you were Camelia. Maybe they think Alabaster's implant can remember the location of the lighthouse, too."

"You Sherlock Holmes, or what?" You say.

"...But to get it done, they want to give it more power. The power of David's implant -- the power of Penelope. Here's the thing: Penelope is nothing essentially new. Just a culmination of the prior generations of implant. Of which -- we have them all. Yours, Gal's, and Vivian's. If Alabaster's implant can be upgraded by David's -- it could just as easily be upgraded by yours -- I could do it. I need to get inside the building, though. The three of you, too."

It's a complete moonshot, of course, and you aren't at all confident that he's got the right idea to begin with.

You start here: "Problem A," you tell him. "How do we get inside the building alive?"

"I'm sure we'll figure it out when we get there," he says airily, like this is a minor nitpick.

Wants to go up against a multitude of armed gangsters without a clear plan. Now here's a trap after your own heart.

"Well then, first thing is first," you say. You peel your eyepatch away -- and this time, you discard it. It makes you a bit nauseated, and the world hums around you with topsy-turvy wrongness, but the sensation of it no longer hurts, and you can see clearly the things you want to.

Chloe, or just "the cunt" as Alex so correctly labels her -- is in a shootout on the freeway -- familiar environs -- flanked by a little rolling caravan of the blind warrior-monks enslaved to her, and pursued by your PMC, who are putting up a hell of a fight against Sand Reckoner supersoldiers. It doesn't last too long, because Chloe's men rout them, and then she makes Daddy pull off towards the surface streets.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

"They are headed for Darkbloom Analytics -- right?" Alex says.

You'd answer, but you're seeing something else you need to attend to first.

>>4003185
Amber please, you still need that to prevent infections.

>>4003160
Every time we put the poor boy back together, someone comes along and just takes a sledgehammer to him. Jesus.
>>4003185
And now it all comes out.

>>4003185
>You peel your eyepatch away -- and this time, you discard it.
Dropped.

>>4003185
So we're setting up for Amber vs. Possessed Alabaster in a contest of implant vs. implant. Is this what Chloe wants? Like the "everyone's implants linked together" scene, but on a much bigger scale?

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Upstairs, in the bathroom, Vivian is hacking and coughing, and wiping the remnants of her vomit away from her chin using a hand towel. The sink is full of her sick. She struggles to stay standing.

You've got your eyepatch back on. Vivian catches sight of you in the mirror, turns. Her lips quiver in rage. "Take that off," she says. Her voice is low, and emotionless.

"No," you tell her. "No fucking way, Jose. It just made you--"

She steps to you. "Take it off."

"Viv--"

She pushes you back with strength you never knew she had. Knee to your groin and hand to your face, she tries to take the eyepatch off of you by force, since you won't do it yourself. You push and kick back at her, grunting, and shouting half-formed curses. The scuffle draws bystanders -- Cerise, Gal, Mom, Kay -- and then, pushing into the room from the back of this little crowd, comes a still shellshocked and tear-choked Renee, who croaks: "What are you two doing!"

"Take that eyepatch off!" Vivian shouts viciously. "Take it off, you bitch!"

You huff, twisting yourself this way and that to evade her grasping claws. "Vivian, stop -- god fucking damn it --"

Cerise lunges forward, hauls the little girl back, and forces her off of you. Free again, you clutch your knees and catch your breath.

Vivian is out of breath too. It's shallow and sounds as if she might puke again. When Cerise lets go of her, she falls to her knees, sapped. But she manages to slur: "My sister is dead. My father and the man I love are in the clutches of her killer. That implant of yours is the only tool we have at our disposal -- take that eyepatch off -- do it!"

You shake your head no. "I love you too much," you tell her gently.

"You haven't loved anything in your life!" Vivian shrieks.

You know she doesn't mean it -- it's the grief talking. But it hurts.

Renee takes Vivian by the shoulders and swallows hard and looks her in the eyes. "Please," Renee says, "don't rush into things half-cocked. We don't know which way is up right now... the last thing we need... is for you to get sick, or -- or worse -- for no good reason... if you won't believe Amber, believe me. I love you too much -- to lose you too. I'd shrivel and die..."

But Vivian won't be swayed even by this. "What difference does it make?" She spits.

"It makes all the difference," Renee says.

Vivian launches into a speech, words coming twice as rapidly as you've ever heard from her: "We have to get Alabaster back. We have to kill Chloe. We have to destroy Darkbloom Analytics. Those are the only things remaining. There is nothing left to question -- and everything left to do. Am I the only one thinking rationally?! Amber must put her implant to use, no matter the cost -- and it cannot be done as a half measure. If it makes me ill, so be it. I have managed worse!" She looks at you. "You must do this -- if you love me, you must do this for me!"

[ ] Eyepatch off.
[ ] Keep it on; use it only if you need it.

>>4003203
>[X] Eyepatch off.
Fuck it, no brakes.

>>4003203
>[x] Eyepatch off.

>>4003203
>[ ] Eyepatch off.

>>4003203
>[ ] Eyepatch off.
This will end great, I can tell.

>>4003203
>[x] eyepatch off
She's absolutely right and I hate it

>>4003203
Did all of the implants get a firmware update, or is it just Alabaster's? I'm leaning towards Keep It On, but if Amber is at risk of zombie shenanigans I want that eyepatch glued to her face

>>4003203
... I can't do it. I can't.

>[x] Keep it on; use it only if you need it.

>>4003203
Eyepatch Off

>>4003203
>[x] Keep it on; use it only if you need it.
>>4003209
>>4003210
>>4003212
>>4003213
>>4003214
>>4003221
"Fuck it, let's kill Vivian"
I would rather all of you die than her.

>>4003121
Based Chloe making anons SEETHE

>>4003203
>>4003223
This.

>>4003223
>I would rather all of you die than her.
A lot more than just Vivian's life is on the line right now.

>>4003223
She'll come back. Everyone who dies will come back through Sand Reckoner.
...R-right?

>>4003203
>[ ] Keep it on; use it only if you need it.
I can appreciate that she's committed, but I'll still protest.

>>4003223
Oh I'd much rather die too, Trackman

>>4003231
I don't care if everyone dies, but if we start selectively picking off our girls one by one for questionable benefit, then you're all lost.

>>4003223
Yeah, let's just not use all the advantages we have. That's smart

>>4003203
[X] Eyepatch off.

>>4003237
>I don't care if everyone dies
>I just don't want Vivian to die
Vivian is completely right, we have objectives right now and nothing else matters. Too many people have died already at this point to start playing conservatively now.

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>[x] Eyepatch off.

You pull it away from your face again, slowly. Vivian closes her eyes and braces herself against the new waves of nausea that batter her. You kneel down before her, and put the eyepatch over her eye instead.

"Any better?" You ask.

"A little," she says.

"Keep it warm for me."

You kiss her. She kisses you back. She doesn't taste the best right now, obviously, but you'd gladly taste her bile any day, for the soft touch of her lips.

"I'm sorry, Amber... I'm so sorry..." she says, crying pitifully, and shivering.

"It's no one's fault."

"I know you love me."

"I do," you tell her.

She's sick again, all over you -- but that's fine.

"I can manage," she insists. "I just need to get used to it... it's a passing nausea, nothing more..."

You help her downstairs, shielding her from the sight of Whitney's body, as Cerise drapes it with a bedsheet.

>>4003241
Not opposed to using them, but burning them at the start seems like a rough call. Once Vivian is incapacitated, will Catcheresis even still work? Best to save it for when it's needed.

But we do need to make aggressive moves too. Otherwise everyone will get picked off one by one and we'll all feel pathetic for doing nothing.

>>4003248
My heart hurts so much.

>>4003255
It's better this way. The sooner they all die, the sooner we can resurrect them. It's like ripping off a band-aid.

>>4003248
;_;

>>4003256
I just hope there's a reality where they can be happy together. It's all I want. One where their relationship isn't doomed from the very start.

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The stench of standing sewer water invades your nostrils as you and Chloe wade through the tunnels. But she stops just before the final corner towards the section running underneath the main campus and the server room.

She hands you Penelope.

"Go on ahead," she whispers.

Not that you have much choice in the matter. But she lets you stick around for a couple questions.

"How are you doing this?"

Chloe puts a forefinger to her eyeball and pulls away the contact; her iris changes from reddish hazel to a brilliant blue.

"All I needed was a moment to focus," she says. "While you were unguarded, in the penumbra between wakefulness and sleep -- to stare into your eyes, one lover to another. And establish a link."

"You --" you sputter. "How did we not know--"

"It was inert," she says. "An empty shell waiting for the firmware update. I had it put inside my eye after your adventure in Vail. But it was capable of nothing at all, until Diogenes was completed."

"Why are you doing this?" You demand.

"Alyosha Kerimov is a moron," Chloe says, "and he thinks that the lighthouse is the key to unlimited power. He could not be more wrong. The lighthouse is a mechanism -- like any mechanism, it is built for a specific purpose, and it only functions within its limits."

"What do you want with it?"

"The lighthouse can reset everything. That is its purpose. It can remake the world in the fashion that we choose. Imagine if you could have conscious control over that burst of power Cerise so briefly wielded that night! But it won't let just anyone in. It fears its own destruction, and so it hides. We need the power of Sand Reckoner to see it. The full power. That is what Alyosha intends for you, Ally -- to use you as a means to an end, and then get rid of you. That is not what I intend for you. I intend for you to be part of the new world too. I want us to remake the world together. To inhabit a world where we didn't suffer as children -- where none of us did. A world for you, and a world for me -- and a world for Whitney, too, and all the others. That is my sincerest hope."

"You're not going to get what you want," you say. "Maybe you could have before you did what you did. Not now."

"We'll get what we want. Both of us."

"No matter what happens," you tell her, "I will make sure you die. And I'll make sure it hurts. That's the only thing I want anymore."

"I love you so much, Ally," she tells you, voice brimming with emotion. "Go on, now. Go see Alyosha. I will be with you soon."

>>4003283
Fuck you.

>>4003283
I believe her when she says she wants that. I just don't care.

>>4003283
God she's so fucking crazy

>>4003283
Honestly the only point of conflict between Chloe's ideal world and mine is that in mine, Chloe is stuck sucking uncle dick for eternity

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>trending tweets
Stop it, OP. Just stop.

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With distance from Chloe, you have control over your own muscles again. It feels weird, somehow, to be able to move of your own free will, after an hour or so in the backseat of your body.

You'd return the way you came, and go after her, but even if you were lucky enough to find her -- she'd probably just take control again.

Your only options are to sit and do nothing... or to go and make something, anything, happen.

You press forward.

Up ahead, Will and Auburn both lie dead, face down in the brown water, bullet wounds to their heads. Execution style. You hope it was painless.

The charges that Will delivered are all still here, those Roomburners you so carefully assembled all those years ago. There are, in addition to that, several tall pyramids of C4 bricks, these quite near Auburn's corpse. He brought enough for the whole class.

Was he intending to totally demolish the building?

Maybe there's still time for that.

There's a hole in the ceiling already. Someone -- either Auburn, or the people who murdered him and Will -- already blasted a backdoor into the server room for you. All you have to do is hop up, catch yourself on the floor tiles above, and heave yourself through. You hardly have enough strength for it... should have done more pull-ups when you had the chance. You flop out onto the floor like a baby rhino dumped from the birth canal, and struggle to your feet again. Coughing, you swipe the plaster and concrete dust from your clothes. You glance around.

The ghostly hum of data and the eerie blue glow of the servers' lights is all you find.

Completely abandoned yet still maintaining 99.9999% uptime: Darkbloom Analytics systems are reliable, if nothing else. No one thought Whitney could keep this place running... they were wrong. She kept it running better than anyone. She did it all for you.

If it kills you, you'll find vengeance.

>>4003283
>That is my sincerest hope.
Lets see how true this turns out to be....

>>4003308
I don't doubt it. 1% is more sincere than 0 if it's even that high.

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>>4003307

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>>4003283
Hahaha... oh I hate being right.

Love the title card for this episode.

>>4003307
Will ;_;

H-he's going to use a Yggdrasil Leaf now, right...?

A cyclops, a dying loli, an anemic NEET, and a trap walk into a burning server facility...

>>4003308
If nothing else, Chloe has always been direct in stating her intentions.

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Up in the grand lobby, it stinks. Worse than the sewers, even. The devs who were working on Diogenes were camped here, literally, while under siege from the protests outside. They were living in the rec areas on the 3rd floor, and using the first floor as a trash heap. Scores of bulging garbage bags lie tied-off along the wall -- as tidy as garbage can be, but still smelling to high heaven.

You feel the chill of gunmetal against your skin. It's a sensation you've gotten way too used to. Someone has a pistol to the back of your head.

"Upstairs," comes a thickly accented Russian voice.

Time to go meet Alyosha again. Let's hope he doesn't want to take your other kneecap too.

In the elevator, surrounded by a half dozen men, each about 100 pounds heavier and 6 inches taller than you, you can't help asking:

"You do know you're all going to die, right?"

No response.

An image flashes through your mind of the besieged employees lying in a bloody heap among the ping-pong tables and game console setups on the third floor. Something tells you it isn't just an imagining.

"I guess you already killed the devs working on the Diogenes project," you say.

"All but one," says one of the men.

>>4003332
KILL EVERY RUSSIAN

>>4003332
>we get to watch Nelson die too

Wow! Thanks, OP

>>4003283
True best girl right here

>>4003332
Why did he keep Nelson alive. Just to interrogate us with?

>>4003340
Considering we pruned his family tree so thoroughly, he probably wants to extend a similar courtesy to Alabaster.

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You come out into the C-suite. The bodies are gone, but the bloodstains on the walls remain: Armstrong's, in the hallway, and Muskfucker's, in the boardroom.

The man masquerading as Max Pershing is in the boardroom, too, waiting for you. So is Nelson. Nelson stands at a PC hooked up below a desk that's been dragged in from another office -- a sort of ad hoc workstation along the wall opposite the door. You identify the PC as Alex's -- formerly Sable's -- and Nelson is reviewing project files, going back and forth from that PC to another hooked up right beside it, this one his personal work terminal.

He looks as deflated and defeated as you've ever seen a person look.

Alyosha's cronies force you to sit, and tie you down.

Alyosha takes Penelope from you. He smiles. "No doubt Chloe's subterfuge," he says. "We'll root her out, and her warrior-chinks too. Do not worry."

"You get the bullet too," you tell him through gritted teeth.

"Uh-huh," he grunts. He sits across from you. He holds Penelope by the wire, dangling the grain in front of your face like a hypnotist. "Nelson is going to take this implant, and turn off its power limiters. Then, we're going to put the implant inside of you. Then there will be no more Alabaster Soliloquy: just a conduit that will lead me where I want to go. You have an hour or so left to live, Alabaster, so spend the time in quiet contemplation, why don't you." He looks up at Nelson. "Are you ready?"

"Almost," Nelson says.

He hands Nelson the implant. Nelson puts the wire end into an ad hoc adapter connected to Alex's PC. He resumes his programming work.

"I have some final arrangements to make," Alyosha tells you. "And I have to keep up appearances to the buffoons who run the US military. My men have some Chinese mercenaries to kill as well -- so please, wait patiently. Do not mistake being alone up here for being unguarded. Trying to do anything tricky will result in terrible retribution, so I advise strongly against it."

He stands, and goes, leaving you alone with Nelson.

>>4003346
>so please, wait patiently.
How dare you stand where he stood.

>>4003346
It's time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MIbof4WaXg

>>4003352
Fuck Quest is the Zero Escape sequel we always needed

I just caught up after missing the last two threads
I don't know what to feel

>>4003358
You're just in time to hop on the rollercoaster, then! Strap in, this thing doesn't have breaks. Or straps, actually.

>>4003358
Embrace the pain, Anonymous-dono. Use it as fuel for the rest of this journey.

>>4003358
Sadness or rage. Take your pick.

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Agonizing silence settles over the room, punctuated only by Nelson's keystrokes, and time seems to dilate until every moment is an aeon.

Swallowing, you muster your courage, and tamp down the bile. "Whitney's dead," you tell Nelson.

Nelson, his back to you, bodily winces. But then he continues working.

"Did you hear me?"

He says nothing.

"You're betraying me... I can't believe this. After everything. Everything we've been through -- you're betraying me."

Nelson moves back and forth between the terminals, working studiously, and not acknowledging your words.

"Not just me," you continue. "Everyone. Whitney -- you love her, and now you're spitting on her by doing this. Cerise -- Gal -- weren't you supposed to be like a mentor to them? And Vivian -- since she was a little girl, you've been part of her family, and--"

Nelson finally turns and looks back at you with large, sad eyes. "You have people you love, Alabaster. I have people I love. I'm sorry."

"They'll kill you," you tell him. "Whatever they told you, you know it's a lie. After you're done with this, they'll kill you. Like Armstrong, and Muskfucker, and... like Whitney..." you fight back a revulsion of tears. "Once your usefulness is through, they'll dispose of you, just like all the others."

"I know," he says slowly. "I'm a goner. I know it. But if I help them, before they do that... then maybe... there's a chance, however small... that they'll let my family live."

"Help me," you beg him. "We can get them out too. Did you know Gustav Eichmann?"

"Yes. He hired me. Listen... Alabaster--"

"He lives far away from here. I'm going there after I get out, me and everyone else. There's room for your family too. You and Rebecca, and Mia -- and even your dogs. I'll get them all safe for you. If you help me, I can guarantee your safety!"

Nelson's expression is stony. "There is noplace on this planet far enough we can run to, to get away from these people. You know that."

He turns, and goes back to typing. "It's over, Alabaster. I'm sorry."

[ ] Accept his decision.
[ ] "If you don't help me, I will kill your family."

>>4003367
Accept It

>>4003367
>[x] Accept his decision.
I refuse to allow Alabaster to become that kind of monster. Our girls will come through for us. I have faith.

>>4003367
>[ ] Accept his decision.

>>4003367
>[x] Accept his decision.
I'd sooner believe that Nelson is going to help us of his own accord than that threatening him would help matters

>>4003367
>[ ] Accept his decision.
He’s right, we don’t have the power to protect his family, and we don’t have the power to hurt them either

>>4003367
>[x] Accept his decision.
how did it all go so wrong, guys
this is actual despair

>>4003367
>[x] Accept it
I don't want to burn the bridge with one of the few men who could save us, and if the plan goes ahead as Alyosha intends, we wouldn't even get a chance to kill them. Nelson knows that.

>>4003367
>[ ] Accept his decision.
As much as I'd like to throw around threats, we don't have the power to back them up right now.
If by some miracle we do get the power, I don't want to cash this check.

>>4003367
[x] Accept his decision.

>>4003367
>[ ] Accept his decision.

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[x] Accept his decision.

"What do you know about the lighthouse?" You ask him. If you can't get his help, you might as well probe for info.

"Less than you do, probably," he says.

"Try me."

"Big shiny red reset button, or so they say," he sighs. "Alyosha won't shut up about it. I guess he thinks he can give himself a version of history where he's king shit of fuck mountain... so to speak. There's a timeline where such a thing exists, right? He wants to hop on into it."

"All of this -- so some miserable old Russian fuck can rule the world?" You sputter.

"Basically."

"And you're going to help him? He'll erase your fucking family too, then! Won't he?"

Nelson pounds the desktop. "What choice do I have, Alabaster, you stupid bastard?" He turns towards you. He puts an index finger to his temple, twists it like a screwdriver. "Got any big ideas in that big brain of yours, huh? I'm doing the only thing I've got left to do! So shut the fuck up and let me work in peace, before you get my family killed!"

He turns again, and picks up where he left off with his programming. Voice still tinged by anger, he adds: "I'm sorry about Whitney. She was the best boss I ever had."

"She really was, wasn't she."

His voice softens. He glances at you over his shoulder. "Yeah. She was."

>>4003367
>[X] Accept his decision.

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>>4003428

How are you numbing the pain tonight, /fq/-tachi?
Kirin for me.

>>4003464
Working on translating a doujin. If I absorb myself in something fun, it's almost like I'm not crying! Haha... ha......

>>4003468
Ooo, what doujin?

>>4003475
Keine to Mokou no Seikatsu Jisshuu, by Itou Yuuji. I'm not very good at moonrunes, but I like translating a lot, and for the most part I'm good enough to understand everything I need to. But I'm sure as soon as I finish, someone in the comments will tell me how I got everything wrong!

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"Our security's gone," you tell them, sitting at the dining room table. "The ones we sent after the cunt, anyway. We're gonna have to raw-dog it when we head in there."

Kay huffs. "Here I go, killing Russians again," she says as she loads a revolver. She spins the barrel. "And some chinks in the mix this time, too."

"Hey," Noelle barks. "I'm Asian. You can't say that."

"I'm half-Japanese too, you dumb chink," Kay says. She marches off into the kitchen, for a glass of booze, to brace herself for the coming onslaught.

Noelle calls after her. "Well, you look more like a wetback than an Asian!"

When Noelle glances your way again, you meet her gaze with an unamused grimace.

"She does," Noelle insists.

You ignore this ethnical debate, and resume your largely fruitless attempts to soothe Vivian. You rub her back in small circles, and try to force her to drink some water. She can hardly swallow. Hey, at least she isn't puking anymore.

Mommy and Mommy's Mommy are arguing out by the foyer.

"I'm going!"

"No--"

"You can't stop me! That fucking bitch has my husband -- I will see her dead -- I will kill her with my own two hands!!"

"Rose, please -- do you really think Alabaster would want you risking your life --"

"No, that stupid prick doesn't think I'm capable of doing anything right! He'd tell me to stay too, then I'd tell him to go fuck himself and tag along anyway! That's how it works!"

Rose comes into the room with you now, too, toting her sawed-off. "Let's fucking go already."

You sigh. "Can you give Vivian, like, two whole seconds to get her sealegs before we--"

"NOW," Rose barks.

"God you are such a cunt, Mommy."

Rose doesn't even know how to process that particular string of syllables.

Charlotte joins her at her side. She, too, has a gun -- the Saul Mallory special, a so-called assault rifle with armor-piercing bullets. Guess the Mallory clan is ready for war.

>>4003464
Some stupidly expensive bourbon. I'll be switching to bullitt soon.
>>4003493
Oh gosh...

>>4003493
>Charlotte joins her at her side. She, too, has a gun -- the Saul Mallory special, a so-called assault rifle with armor-piercing bullets. Guess the Mallory clan is ready for war.
It's full boogaloo time.

>>4003493
Vengeance.

>>4003493
>Hey," Noelle barks. "I'm Asian. You can't say that."
>"I'm half-Japanese too, you dumb chink,"

Even in these dire times OP can still find a way to make me laugh.

>>4003493
>ethnical debate
I would have laughed at this if I didn't feel so damn tense right now
> Mommy and Mommy's Mommy
This too. (And if it was Scarlett, would that be Mommy and Mommy? That almost sounds like a law firm... the best possible law firm, perhaps.)

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>>4003508
Well they're firm at least.

>>4003510
God damn it, Anon, now I AM laughing

>>4003513
I'm glad, I think we could use it.

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Chloe's motivations reminds me of this guy.

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"please no"

"There's no 'please no' here. Don't give me that shit."

"please no"

"Where you go, I go," Cerise says. "So don't you try to guilt trip me, because it won't work."

Gal's big doe eyes are welling with tears. "i dont want you to die"

"And I don't want you to die either. If we live, we live together -- if we die, we die together -- that's how this works, right? You fucking -- literally vowed that that's how this would work."

"i dont think wedding vows mean--"

"I'm going," Cerise says. "That's final."

Gal, knowing the argument can't be won, hugs her wife tight, head to Cerise's bosom. Cerise pets her.

And Mom, for her part, is testing the heft of a deagle -- you worry for your safety more with her armed than with her unarmed, but you'll never convince her to stay back. The Soliloquy clan is ready for war too, then...

>>4003516
I haven't thought about that show in years.
>>4003510
Legal hit.

>>4003518
Even if all of them are, I'm not. I'm not ready. I can't be ready.

... where's Renee?

>>4003518
I hate it!

>>4003518
Oh fuck, are we just going to leave Renee alone with her fuckbunny in her dead daughter's mansion?

>>4003518
>And Mom, for her part, is testing the heft of a deagle
I know myself well enough to admit how hot I find this.

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Renee, on the living room sofa, looks like a shattered shell of a human being. Not even Samantha's insistent doting can move her. She guzzles whisky, joylessly, and considers the guns lying on the coffee table before her.

"Know how to shoot?" You ask her, as you stroll into the living room. "Don't answer that. I know the answer is no."

"I can learn on the job," she says.

"Drunk?"

She goes to take a swig, but you swipe the bottle from her.

"There's nothing but hatred in my heart anymore," Renee says. "I'm not even scared of pain."

"I guess you wanna come and take it out on some mooks."

"I'll do whatever I have to. If I don't shoot them, I think... I think I'll shoot myself instead," she says.

Well, there's incentive.

"Can I come too!" Samantha asks. "I'm coming too!"

"Sorry," you tell her. "It's not Take Your Pet to Work Day."

"But I can help!"

"Yeah? How? You don't know how to shoot, either."

She stands, strolls into the kitchen. You follow. She takes a knife from the butcher block. Then she squints, and throws it -- it describes a perfect, clean arc through the air, straight into the calendar hanging on the wall across the room. The blade has stabbed exactly the square indicating today's date.

"I should have figured," you say. "Learn that one in the circus?"

"See?" She says. "Let me help!"

Guess your bunny is as ready for mayhem as any of you.

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>the harem getting all kitted out
Oh man.

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>>4003546
Well. Come what may. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Time to unleash at least 14 hells upon the world.

>>4003546
We've already established that Smatters knows how to build things, so I'm glad to see she also knows how to destroy

>>4003546
>"I'll do whatever I have to. If I don't shoot them, I think... I think I'll shoot myself instead," she says.
If this happens I'm joining her desu

Please don't let her die ;_;

>>4003568
Chartanon, please don't

>>4003568
>Please don't let her die ;_;
hahahaha I'd be shocked if a quarter of the harem makes it out of here alive

>>4003571
Thanks for the concern trackman, but tell me you wouldn't do the same in my shoes

>>4003582
I had to talk to someone close about last week because I was on the verge of leaving completely. Cerise's coma fucked me up, Whitney dying needed friendly consultation.

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"Okay, twink. It's your show. Where are we going?"

Alex nods. "I need to get your implants looking straight into Ally's, like you did that night -- or, failing that, directly connected to the servers. And I need access to my workstation. With that -- using Diogenes, we can upgrade Ally's implant such that it can do everything yours can... I hope. In theory."

"Don't hedge now, you fucking gayboy. Can we do it or not."

"Yes."

"Is that 'yes for sure' or 'yes no maybe I dunno can you repeat the question'," you demand.

"It's 'yes, this is our best chance'," he says. "He'd have the full capability, of every single part of Sand Reckoner and Diogenes both. Which is the key to finding the lighthouse. Alyosha thinks so -- the cunt thinks so -- unless and until we prove otherwise, they'll kill him trying to make it happen. So we may as well try because if we don't, he'll be dead by sunset."

Gal checks the PC in the living room. "your terminal is active, right now -- so is nelson's."

Alex nods. "I thought so. They're trying the same thing we are, then -- just using Penelope instead of the implants separately. Like I said."

"Where are those workstations?" Kay asks. "Physically."

"Can't seem 'em," you say sadly. "They're in the black hole of that building."

"They're probably close by one another," Alex says. "I'd assume they have Nelson working on it, so he'd be working on both, together. Those workstations are either in the server room, or upstairs -- maybe in the boardroom -- those are the likeliest places to check."

"How long would you say we've got, do you think?" Noelle asks.

"Let's go," is all Alex will say.

>>4003617
I forgot the word "s.oy" is on an auto filter here. Oh well. Slight change to dialogue, then.

>>4003618
Did they change it to "based"? I though it was "onion". I remember a post saying "onion sauce" once. Does this make me retarded?

>>4003624
It might chance to "onion" when alone and "based" when attached to "boy."

Let's test:

Onions sauce
Basedboy

>>4003624
There were two different filters. One of th----

>>4003625
Yeah, that.

It's super dumb.

>>4003625
"onionboy" is funnier. This is a stupid filter.

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>>4003617

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You tsk. Perfect news at a time like this...

"What's the matter?" Mom asks.

"Your trigger discipline, for one," you tell her.

"What?"

Charlotte gently guides Mom's finger off the trigger of her gun.

"Shouldn't I be ready to shoot, though?" Mom asks.

Charlotte slowly shakes her head.

"Well something else is the matter!" Mom says. "I know that look, missy -- you're not happy. What did you see just now?"

"I think we're alone here," you say.

"What do you mean?" Cerise asks.

"Our friendly neighborhood mercenaries just bolted -- guess they got word that their other half went into the meat grinder, and didn't want to join them in dying."

"That's the problem with hired guns," Kay says. "No loyalty."

"Now we're really gonna have to raw-dog it," you say. "One harem, up against the world. What do you guys think?"

"We had worse odds in Vail," Noelle says.

"Where's Chloe?" Vivian asks, voice drowsy, and having trouble just sitting upright in her chair.

"Hanging out in a sewer, surrounded by some blue-eyed ubermenschen."

"Alyosha?" Kay asks.

"Can't see him, so probably inside. Let's assume with the red guard."

"How are things outside the campus?" Rose asks.

"Riot-y."

"Three options here," Kay says.

"Shut. The. Fuck. Up." You tell her.

"We can fight our way through the sewers, fight our way through the front gates, or land on the roof -- which is noisy and dangerous in its own way.

"The fucking roof, really?" Rose says. "I suppose you'll just fly a helicopter in."

"Sure. Why not?"

"...Oh yeah. You're a pilot."

[ ] Sewers.
[ ] Gates.
[ ] Roof.

>>4003658
>[X] Roof.

>>4003658
>[ ] Roof.

>>4003658
>[X] Sewers.

>>4003658
>[X] Gates.
Easy target when in the air, easier target when trying to get in

>>4003658
I dont want to jump into this choice without thinking about it, but helicopter would put us much closer to the end goal. They're likely going to know we're coming either way.

What do you guys think?

>>4003658
>[ ] Gates.

>>4003658
>[X] Roof.
I mean, it's not like they've got the place loaded up with flak cannons or something (...I think). I guess the risk of getting stranded there is higher, but it's not like we're gonna escape anyway. May as well land as close to the target as possible

>>4003658
>[x] Gates.
Going through the gates can help us blend in a bit. Also helps with stress relief with all the targets.

>>4003658
Chinese in the sewers surrounded by our bombs.
Civilians at the front gates.
Russians literally everywhere.

I wonder, assuming Ally gets the upload, would he be able to control the Roomburners the same way Mara was controlling the SMATTERS units?

>[x] Roof.

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getting ready for the endgame
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2ueIUnon2c

>>4003677
Stealth is not an option here, Anon. There's fourteen of us and there's no way any one of us doesn't get recognized instantly.

>>4003658
Fuck it.
>[x] Roof

>>4003658
>[ ] Gates.
Having everyone packed into one bird seems like a bad end waiting to happen.

>>4003690
Yeah, but that would be really anticlimactic. More likely we all get stranded in the building in the course of the landing, I reckon. If we enter by the gates, they're going to pick off half of our squad before we even get to the C-Suite.

>>4003658
>[x] Gates.

>>4003613
Ok, I get it's sad. But did you really cry to your friend about a fictional character from a smut quest dying?

>>4003658
>[ ] Roof.

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Nelson pauses. "Does David know what happened to Whitney? The implant is off right now... was it that way when-- you know."

"He didn't see it," you say.

He nods.

"It's ready to turn back on," he says. "No more low-power mode. Who knows if David's consciousness will even still be in this thing once that happens. But... if it is... would you like him to know?"

"I don't care," you say. Because you really don't.

"If it's all the same to you, then," Nelson says, "let's let him spend his last few moments in ignorance."

"He'll know anyway," you say.

"Maybe. But why torment him?"

He pulls the implant, still powered-off, from the workstation, and walks to you.

"Everything is ready. If I turn it on, and you look into it, it should upgrade the one in your eye -- I don't know what happens then. Having all of Sand Reckoner in her brain put Cerise into a coma... maybe it'll do worse to you... then again, she didn't have Diogenes to help her mind weather the deluge of data, did she. We're in unknown territory, is what I think I'm saying."

Instead of turning it on and forcing you to stare into it, he sets it on the table in front of you, still inert.

"I'm not going to do it," he says. "Alyosha can do it himself, when he gets back. I did my part of the bargain. And... I know you think this is a betrayal, Alabaster... but I always liked you. And I don't want you to come to harm. I've done the minimum expected of me, to help the people I care about... now come what may."

He sits down beside you. From under the table, he produces a cooler. "Do you like beer?"

"Beer is... fine," you say.

He cracks open a couple of cold ones and -- since your arms are tied down -- he helps you drink yours, while the two of you await your impending deaths.

You talk of old times -- the funny malapropisms Whitney always made, and how mad Armstrong always got during Lightning Rounds, and how no one ever seemed to realize that if they didn't want Kay snooping, they had every right to kick her out, and how that sensitivity coach Rose brought in after Whitney's N-word debacle was the biggest fucking oaf in the cosmos, and how Mom's baking was maybe the only thing that kept everyone from leaving for greener pastures, and, and, and... and now it's all gone, washed away like rain down the storm gutter, and not even your recollections can stir the joy you once had.

>>4003714
All that matters [from a narrative sense] is that one team (harem/chloe) gets to Alabaster. that's why the sewer is right out.
>>4003754
Well, okay. That's one good choice made.

Almost 6 years after I found Fuck Quest some random night on /a/, I realize that the quest came back years ago and I missed the boat. I got caught up in the last three days.

Whitney was my favorite character.

>[x] Roof

>>4003754
Thanks for that, at least, Nelson.

>>4003767
I'm sorry you had to come in like this, Anonymous-dono.

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>>4003754

>>4003767
Welcome back, friend. You get to enjoy the ride with us one last time for real next week.

>>4003771
I had some big spiel formulating about how I wasn't really digging season 2 or 3 all that much because of certain gripes I had, but how season 4 brought me back on board with OP studios.
I just feel very, very sad now.

>>4003778
I'd like to know about your gripes so I can make fun of your opinions later, Anonymous-dono, but right now we're all united in fear and grief and I'd like to not make any new enemies. Suffice to say, welcome back and good luck.

When we banged Chloe, did the Fuck Counter update?

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Alyosha reenters the boardroom to find you and Nelson sitting there chatting. Though you both fall silent the moment he enters.

Max Pershing's dress uniform is stained with blood, and he's carrying a smoking pistol -- either circumstances forced him to join the fight, or he simply missed being in a body hale enough to do some killing. You wouldn't put it past him. Either way, he's been neck deep in it.

"Is it done?" He asks.

Nelson sighs, beleaguered.

Instead of saying yes or no, he directs his final words to you. He takes a final swig of beer, savors it, sets the bottle on the table, and says: "I'll see you in another life, Alabaster."

Alyosha laughs, raises his pistol, and shoots Nelson in the head. Nelson's body jerks back as if zapped with electricity, and then his arms fall limply at his side and he slumps lower in his seat, nearly sliding off of it entirely as the brain matter runs in clumps down the chairback.

"All right, then," Alyosha says. "Things are how you might say... dicey downstairs, so we're getting an extraction by helicopter. We'll be leaving in about ten minutes."

But just as soon as those words are out of his mouth, you hear the gentle roar of rotors overhead, translated through the sturdy roof.

Alyosha frowns. "Early... Good news I suppose! Off we go."

He cuts you free from your bindings.

>>4003808
oh god oh fuck oh god oh fuck oh god oh fuck oh god oh fuck

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>>4003807
Not as I recall I was kind of freaking the fuck out.
>>4003808
Hahaha, oh Christ. They're moving him alright.

>>4003774
I'd like to say I'm glad I made it in time but I'm not sure I am anymore

>>4003785
Quick list:
>Traps aren't my thing
>I thought a lot of those little character moments that made me love FQ vanilla were lacking due to the more rapid plot advancement
>As a result of the above, there was much less buildup towards the FUCKED achievement
>The lewds started to feel like they had the same set of four tags they drew from
>some of the OG girls getting shafted for scenes in the early part of the reboot
>the fact that it was a reboot at all.

>>4003808
Share a brewski in jew heaven with Armstrong, my lad

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>>4003818
Well to that I only have one response.

>>4003808
;_;7

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I need to take a breather, and then start writing the real confrontation.

Sunday evening at 9 PM EST: we do violence.

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>>4003832

>>4003832
We'll see you then, OP. Good work tonight.

>>4003823
Hey, the smut's good when it's not just Alabaster pumping his fuck-slop into a bitch pig while she begs him to rape and hit her whilst someone watches, which felt like every scene in somewhere around late season 2/ early season 3. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

On an unrelated note
>just realized Chloe stole Whitney's nickname for Alabaster

>>4003847
I dunno, looking back at the list of pastebins, I remember some pretty hefty variety. Maybe it just comes off that way on a rapidfire binge read? Hmm.

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>>4003832
You show that breather who's boss, OP. I fully expect tradwife to light up some reds tomorrow night.
>>4003847
IIRC she's been using it for a little bit. Possibly a jab to get back at him for calling her Chloe.

>>4003720
I wasn't crying, I was just really fucking mad. I wasn't gonna leave out of sadness, but out of anger.

>>4003808
>Alyosha frowns. "Early... Good news I suppose! Off we go."
Kek

>>4003876
That's even worse...

>>4003832
Given i'm probably not going to be here when the decisions are made I'm voting for whichever option is remaking the world with Sand Reckoner
Whitney can't be gone. She's the heart and soul of Fuck Quest.

It is now 4:21 AM.

Out of all the years i've read this, I finally feel the need to say alabaster, for all of the massive shithead he is, never deserved all this suffering, and now best girl is dead too, God damn it why?

Am I the only one that liked Whitney's death?

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>>4004433
Depends on your use of the word 'liked'.
For the purposes of the narrative, it worked on a whole bunch of different levels and set out a very clear almost-worst-case-scenario for the endgame. It also set the players up with a reason to be invested all the way until the end. In that sense, it was a really good move.

But any move like that is going to draw a lot of ire, especially if you drop it on one of the core characters. Worse still if you can frame it as the player's responsibility and make them own it. Again, if you can get a reaction out of people, it should be a good move. But you can't control what reactions you get.

I liked the decision to pull the trigger, and have a smidgen of hate towards everyone involved in making it happen.

>>4004433
I still feel it was really cheap. Chloe did tell us she was going to seduce us but she also made it clear that her loyalty to everyone was super tenuous and keeping her on the outside all of the time could have led to her betraying us anyway.

And she was going to betray us regardless. I'd have just preferred if it was in a way we could anticipate beyond 'don't sleep with this girl who has already murdered everybody who has scorned her'. There was literally no way to predict or prevent the implant she mentioned and nobody even vaguely mentioned it as a possibility. Again, it just feels cheap and contrived like Motoko being a spy all along or the government firing on protestors.

>>4004498
It's just that when it happened I was shocked and enjoyed seeing everything falling apart. Even in this episode my favorite part was seeing everybody's reactions. It really hammers home that Whitney is fucking dead and there's nothing we can do. Well, except rewrite reality but that's the least of our problems right now

>>4004701
I mean, I guess? It kind of came out of nowhere, sure. And as much as people want to play the blame game I don't think anybody expected fucking her to cause Alabaster to kill Whitney. I get there was the whole thing with Chloe talking about seducing us but if people distrusted her that much she wouldn't even be let into the nail house.

But at the same time, get over it. It wasn't ooc for Chloe to do what she did and it's an interesting turn in the story. Makoto and Whitney Darkbloom were way worse than this of all things. It's obvious that it's just salt at this pointt

>>4004722
I didn't say she acted out of character. I said it feels like railroading because it came out of nowhere through things the player wasn't informed of even when we had reason to believe if we *didn't* sleep with her she'd kill us.

OP has already said he's had problems with railroading before. The audience has said it's an issue before. It's a relevant criticism.

>>4004725
I've pointed out tons of railroading in the past but this season has been really good about avoiding that

>>4004759
I think now is a clear example of it.

>>4004761
I respectfully disagree. This is a clear consequence of choices that were made.

>>4004765
I'd say getting got by chloe was a consequence. Something as huge as the death of a core character coming in with a 2 for 1 is a bit much

>>4004765
>>4004778
We had as much reason to think not fucking her would ruin us and even then 'I'm going to seduce you' doesn't justify "oh i had a secret chip all along and nobody mentioned this or made it possible despite teh fact alex, who designed the thing, hated me and was highly suspicious of me, did not mention it could happen"

>>4004433
you're the only one that should die
kys

>>4004765
And things we said we wanted
>Whitney stalking around the Nail House looking for victims
It was a perfect flavor, until it wasn't.

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OBLIVION AWAITS LADS.

Who else /fuckingterrified/?

It's time to stare into the abyss.

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Alyosha leads you from boardroom, into the C-suite and towards the small, isolated stairwell that runs only between the building's top floor and the helipad. A small retinue of his cronies joins him, and marches alongside.

"Where are you taking me?" You ask, as if you're in a position to demand information.

But Alyosha is feeling magnanimous in what he assumes is imminent victory. "Kamchatka -- not that you will survive the journey. We will do the upgrade while airborne. Then Konstantin will assist the operation to put Penelope inside of you as well."

Konstantin -- you recognize that name. Of course. Mara's mob doctor. He was supposed to be in federal lockup. Seems that taking over the body of one of America's highest-ranking military officials brings with it some additional perks, like the sway to bust friends free from prison. Or maybe the FBI has its own useful idiots too, who helped out. You've never seen an image of him, but you think you can pick him out of the crowd: he's the nebbish walking with you on Alyosha's other side -- a 5 foot zip little twerp with advanced male-pattern baldness, a patchy attempt at a Rasputin-esque beard and a paunch to match. The man's certainly not one of Alyosha's bodyguards, so it must be him.

This fucking half-midget scum who works in league with child-murderer Alyosha Kerimov is going to scoop out your eyeball and erase your consciousness so his boss can enact some cockamamie world domination scheme. It's absurd. Your life is going to end with an absurdity, just like that...

Into the stairwell now. And just like that...

Konstantin Federov is no more. You see the flecks of skull and bits of brain spattering your shirt before you hear the boom of the gun. Konstantin topples to one side, dead as dead. Amber is on the landing, holding the smoking gun, and smiling wickedly.

>>4005148
FUCK YES IT'S GO TIME
FIRST BLOOD, BITCHES

>>4005148
Do or die time.

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>>4005148

>>4005148
IT IS TIME FOR FUCKING BLOOD

>>4005148
>Konstantin topples to one side, dead as dead.
But how dead IS dead anymore?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TazywZDuj9I

>>4005148
BETTER DEAD THAN RED BITCHES

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Your vantage on the world does a 180 as Alyosha grabs you about the midsection, tackling you like an NFL linebacker out of the stairwell and into the nearest office -- which just happens to be the one formerly belonging to Armstrong. Framed photos of Armstrong with every US President since Carter, and many other world leaders besides, line the walls; and fittingly, there are trophies from his college ball days in here, too.

A couple of his henchmen come barrelling in too, as Alyosha climbs off of you. You right yourself. Alyosha, plus these two towering footsoldiers most closely guarding him right now, keep you hedged. They stand in front of you, with their pistols at the ready, near the open door's jamb, peering out.

"Get back!" Alyosha barks. "We will kill Alabaster if you don't!"

Already there is a cacophony of gunfire outside the office. Amber didn't come alone. As expected.

Someone in the hall, you've no idea who, sprays the office walls with gunfire. It can't hit any of you through the thick drywall and studs; but it does force Alyosha and his men to stand back from the entryway -- since a stray bullet could definitely strike them, otherwise.

The three are now shouting curses in Russian among themselves, surely some variation on: "where the fuck did they come from?"

You consciously choose to let hope burgeon inside you. Your girls have come to your rescue.

"I told you that you'd all die," you remind the three stooges.

This cuts into the ongoing dispute between the men, and they turn their attention on you. Maybe you were cocky. Alyosha strides forward, and roughly hauls you by your collar, pressing his muzzle to your temple. "Go out there and force them to stop or I will murder them all before your very eyes."

"Go fuck yourself," you tell him.

He punches you in your solar plexus. His threat, to Amber, of killing you, was definitely empty -- he needs you -- but there's nothing to make him squeamish about damaging you a bit. When he lets go of you, you fall to all fours, gasping, and then for good measure he kicks you in the teeth. You flop to your back.

"Go out there and stop them firing on us!" He says. "You will regret it if you don't!"

Your face is bloody and your front incisors are definitely looser than they should be.

Going out there, to be with your girls... is just what you want anyway. You stand, with the manhandling assistance of Alyosha. His gun pressed to your back, you walk with him into the hall.

>>4005161
I'm glad we waited to make threats. This is so much more satisfying than trying to badger Nelson.

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You knew Amber was no stranger to gunplay, but you didn't expect Dr. Carte to be standing at her side. Shoulder-to-shoulder they buttress the jamb of the stairwell, firing at the now depleted royal guard Alyosha had intended to spirit you towards Siberia with. Noelle and Kay are the forward force: they're halfway down the hall, shooting point-blank into a couple offices that some of the more tactical, or just cowardly, of Alyosha's men took cover in.

Accompanying the two Christmas Cakes is also Samantha Smatters, who's mopping up... what?... she's busily, and remorselessly, stabbing wounded survivors through the head.

It's because of Samantha that the other two men who were just in Armstrong's office with you -- who aren't so lucky as to have you for a meat-shield like Alyosha does -- die the moment they set foot in the hall. They get felled by twin blades that Samantha chucks in their direction with all the grace and precision of an Olympic archer. They clutch the handles of the knives lodged in their aortas, as their knees wobble under them, before finally giving out, and dropping -- disbelieving that their entire lives, through whatever twisted paths it has led them through the years, end now right here, in a California office building, at the hands of a slut in a bunny costume.

"What the fuck--" you breathe. You're disbelieving it, too.

>>4005168
Holy fucking hell Samantha just went up so many notches on the tier list.

Sakuya cosplay when?

>>4005168
HA

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>>4005168
Fuckin glorious

>>4005168
How can anyone say that Whitney isn't a brilliant investor?
She bought a sexpet and now it's paying dividends.

>>4005168
This is the true meaning of "good girl"

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Alyosha, outnumbered badly and with reinforcements not coming quite soon enough to be of any help, steps backwards into Armstrong's office with you once more.

Amber appears at the threshold. Alyosha cowers behind you. But you know Amber will be able to hit him -- she hasn't got her eyepatch on. You slowly nod at her.

It's a game of quickdraw, then.

Amber raises her gun, and Alyosha his. They fire, seemingly at the same moment -- each forcing the other to retreat. Alyosha kicks you in your tailbone, shoving you forward, and dives behind Armstrong's desk; Amber ducks back into the hall.

Free now, you fall to your belly and grasp at the nearest corpse, looking for a gun of your own to join the fighting.

Amber is back inside the office again, all at once, striding with purpose towards the place where Alyosha hides. Your eyes follow her transit. Your gut somersaults in terror as he stands up from his cover, and fires at her, point-blank. She's a dead girl walking.

Except not -- because none of Alyosha's bullets hit her. Dismayed, he glances at his weapon, as if to check that it hasn't been replaced with a popgun. He chucks it aside and banks then on the primeval method of warfare: bare-knuckle brawling. It's a terrible mismatch of weight classes. He charges Amber and brings her to the ground, starts to wallop her, and he isn't holding back: full-force blows straight to her pretty face.

"How did I miss!" He screams. "Tricks! What tricks have you used!"

He should know already, though -- stupid asshole.

Your hand curls around the grip of an Uzi -- this will do.

Amber, grinning smugly, spits a wad of blood in Alyosha's face and tells him: "I'm just going where the bullets aren't."

He snarls."Well so am I."

He gets his hand around Amber's throat and squeezes hard, then with his other hand he pulls a little snub-nosed pistol from his butt pocket. "Can't dodge if I hold you still, though, can you?"

>>4005180
FUCKING KILL THE FUCKER ALLY

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But Amber's still smiling. "You're going where the bullets aren't, too?" She croaks. "Well -- are you also going where the knives aren't?"

His face goes slack. That pre-warning wasn't pre- enough to save him. He looks up just in time to see Mom lunging into the room. She puts a butcher's knife through his gut. He yowls like a dog hit by a car, and falls back, quickly bleeding out -- deja vu, all over again.

"You moronic degenerates," he sneers, trying hard just to breathe anymore. "You won't make it out of here alive..."

He dodged this same fate once. He won't a second time. What Hazel Cantor tried to do, you finish for her. You put the uzi under his chin, and fire -- you make sure the little grain in Max Pershing's eyeball gets obliterated, too.

>>4005184
YES
FUCK YES
FUCK YES

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>>4005184
MOM WITH THE STEAL

PLEASE TELL ME NOBODY HAS TO DIE

>>4005184
Thanks mom.

>>4005184
THAT'S OUR MOM
So, did North High used to teach knife combat in Home Ec, or...?

>>4005184
>she didn't get to kill darkbloom
I'll consider this close enough though.

>>4005184
This motherfucker absolutely deserves to bleed out from a gut wound *twice*.

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"This building -- definitely has to burn now," are Amber's first words when the ringing of gunfire fades. "We just killed a four-star general, Daddy."

You drop the gun -- and take Penelope from the breast pocket of Pershing's uniform.

"Are you okay?" Mom asks, clutching your face and hugging you. You nod.

"Do you know where Chloe is?" You ask Amber.

"No," she says.

"Somewhere in this building, then," you say. "How did you guys get here?"

Kay, passing by, swipes her palm back and forth through the air like a drifting feather. "Flew in."

"Alyosha has people coming in by chopper too," you tell them. "They'll be here any--"

Any second. Here comes the whir of more rotors, now.

"I know, Daddy, I know," Amber says. "We're not done yet -- we gotta get out through the basement. And blow it all up on our way out... let's go."

>>4005184
>"You won't make it out of here alive..."
Now the big question, what did he mean by this?

>>4005196
>We're escaping through the basement
Oh boy, this is gonna suck

>>4005196
The cunt is next.

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You rush with your girls down the hall -- plus Alex, toting his work PC with him under his arm like an office drone stealing from the job, power cables dangling behind him. Most of the others are holding weapons of one kind or another. Your harem is a phalanx, united, and ready to face whatever you find on the floors below.

"How's Palau this time of year, again?" Noelle asks.

"Warm and sunny," Kay replies.

(Actually, it's monsoon season, but you'd rather live through a thousand monsoons than one more second of this madness.)

You slip into the main stairwell, on the other side of the hall, and down a couple floors -- to avoid being caught waiting for an elevator while Alyosha's extraction team storms the place.

Then, on the floor where Charlotte and Saul used to have their offices, Rose too -- you do call for an elevator. But when it smoothly arrives and the doors slide open, inside are Chinese soldiers in flak jackets, surrounding a grinning Chloe Xi.

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>>4005214
OH FUCK OFF

>>4005214
Kill kill kill.
Alabaster, get the fuck away so she doesn't pull your strings again.

>>4005214
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FJTK_iNA5s

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>>4005214
>Your hand curls around the grip of an Uzi -- this will do.
Oh no.

>>4005229
>You drop the gun -- and take Penelope from the breast pocket of Pershing's uniform.

It's fine. Alabaster isn't fucking armed.

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Your Daddy is a real dumb asshole. When he isn't thinking with his big Daddy cock, he's doing retarded shit out of anger. Like now, as a for-instance: he tries to jump Chloe as if he's gonna strangle her to death in the middle of a group of a dozen mercs pledged to her service. It's a half-baked plan that doesn't even begin to go off. She just uses her Jedi mind-trick bullshit to floor him.

And then her people turn their fire on the rest of you.

Being able to predict where the bullets will go doesn't mean you've got a safe place to put yourself. If there's nowhere safe, then that's just it: there's nowhere safe.

Predictive powers also don't mean you can save everyone. Eventually, no matter what you do, you can't.

Here's how it happens:

A yellow-toothed piece of shit bootlicker in Chloe's employ gets his muzzle pointed directly at Kay's head, and fires, but Noelle, zero hesitation, like a Secret Service guard, puts herself between them, and takes a bullet to the chest.

Simultaneously, Rose tries to blast Chloe's away with her boomstick. But the same merc who just fatally wounded Noelle becomes the negative-image of Noelle's valor, and takes the shot for Chloe.

You kneecap another two goons, but they're like rats; can't kill 'em all. Noelle hasn't even hit the floor before one of them is already scooping Daddy into the elevator like picking up a discarded marionette. Another is stealing Cerise -- of all people -- who hollers for Gal to run. Gal is frozen in terror and can't heed the call. It's Alex who gives her the motive force necessary to pump her feet. At a rapid trot he hugs her with his free arm, and all but carries her back to the stairwell. You know where he wants to go -- it's your only chance -- so even as you provide cover fire, you follow.

You try dragging Vivian, the way Alex drags Gal. It's no use. Vivian is weak, and heavy -- you can't manage carrying her and shooting at the same time. Your evil eye gives you vision, not strength. Luckily you've got a fuckbunny to help. She doesn't know where the hell you're going, obviously, but that never stopped her in the past. Samnantha hauls Vivian up, carries her like a baby, and dashes away with you.

Kay is screaming blue murder and firing indiscriminately at the men who killed her lover; Renee is right beside her, fearing death even less.

And Mom...

She sees you make it to the stairs. So she throws her lot in with the two children who aren't at least somewhat safe. She charges, unthinking, for the elevator where Chloe's men hold Cerise and Daddy. Whatever happens next, you don't witness, because you're out of the room, and you can't see into the parts of the building you don't currently occupy. Is that a blessing or a curse? You don't think you'll ever see your mother again, in person, or otherwise. You can't consider that right now -- you need to make for the server room -- it's time for plan B. Alex is going to give Daddy the juice, remotely.

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>>4005237
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

>>4005237
The bitch is going to put it BACK INTO CERISE?
Oh FUCK no.

>>4005237
;_; I wanted Kay and Noelle to be happy so much, bros.

Chloe falls, everyone dies

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>>4005237
;_;

>>4005237
>chloe is end game
why couldn't it have been Mara or Darkbloom and not Chloe? a villain I actually cared about

>>4005249
Mara's been dead for a long time now, Anonymous-dono. If Darkbloom is somehow still a threat, it won't manifest until Penelope is put to use. We'll see what happens there.

But if you really don't care about the universe screaming for vengeance against the cunt, I'm not sure what to tell you.

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>>4005237
>Noelle
>Kay
And like that my five is down to one, plus Alex.
Jesus.
>>4005249
Taking into account trends, I would rather Mara be dead than in the body of any of our girls.

>>4005255
>>4005256
Nah, Chloe has to die, I just felt so much more invested in Mara and Darkbloom as villains. They just felt more threatening and were more conniving. It's like going from filet mignon to a burger.

>>4005257
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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>>4005257
>"Both your children will live," Chloe promises Mom.
>No mention of Renee

STOP

STOP PLEASE

PLEASE DON'T DO THIS TO ME

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"Both your children will live," Chloe promises Mom. "Please leave -- they are in able hands now."

You can only watch in mute horror, as Mom points her gun from face to face. Chloe's men point their weapons right back.

Your girls took out a few of these thugs, but far from even a majority: there's 9, plus Chloe, by your count, still up and about, jammed into the elevator with you as Mom holds the doors open. The please-stop-holding-the-fucking-doors-open alarm blares, unheeded.

Mom is the only one left standing in Chloe's way. Chloe's men have got Cerise and now also Renee both held tight, here in the elevator with you. Meanwhile Rose, Charlotte, and Kay already had to duck into what used to be Charlotte's office; out of ammo, all, and knowing they won't be able to win regardless.

"Mom..." Cerise chokes. "Just go -- find Gal and get her safe, okay?"

"I love you," Mom says. She keeps having to press the doors open as they try to slide shut, and she wags her gun around. She looks from you to Cerise. "I love you both -- I didn't say it enough -- I'm so sorry."

Cerise is crying. "Don't do anything stupid. We'll be okay... I promise."

Chloe grants you the ability to speak -- these, your own words: "I love you too, Mom. Don't get yourself killed." You nod at her. "The lighthouse exists. I'll fix everything."

"I can't just leave you," Mom says desperately.

It's Charlotte who de-escalates. She steps forth from the cover of her office, gingerly, empty hands held up in a show of non-aggression. She clasps Mom's shoulder. Rose joins her now, too. You lock eyes with them.

"We all love you," Charlotte tells both you and Cerise. She glances at Dr. Carte. "And you, too. Even if we argue."

Dr. Carte isn't in a lovey-dovey mood. She just struggles against her captor, uselessly.

"I'll see you soon," Rose tells you.

You can't even nod -- no control whatsoever -- but you know your eyes glimmer with agreement. You won't let hope be extinguished...

Mom steps back and, at last, with no more bloodshed, lets the doors slide shut. Her face disappears between the narrowing gap; it's the last you see of her.

Chloe takes you, Cerise, and Renee to the nurse's office on the third floor -- past the cafeteria, where, through the glass-paneled walls, you can just glimpse a small sight of the carnage in the rec areas beyond.

>>4005257
>"I love you," Mom says. She keeps having to press the doors open as they try to slide shut, and she wags her gun around.
Even now. EVEN NOW, OP is still making me laugh.

>>4005267
;_;

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Alex hurriedly sets up his PC, connecting it to some outlets at the end of one of the walls of server towers. He steals a monitor from some tech's office located on the massive subterranean facility's periphery. You, just as hurriedly, travel back and forth from the little hole leading down to the sewers, toting bricks of C4 with every trip, and sticking them to the towers at roughly even intervals.

At the end of every brick, you stack one of Daddy's so-called roomburners: these will be fuses for the real pyrotechnics.

You try not to look at the bodies of your two closest friends each time you drop back into the sewers for more bombs -- these boys who loved you, and whose deaths are directly because of you.

With that guilty thought in mind, you send Samantha Smatters out: telling her not to wait up for you all at the Nail House, because you think maybe none of you will come back. You don't want your pet to die too, if you can help it.

But:

"But I will! I will wait there for you!" She insists.

"I just literally told you not to-- you should go literally anywhere else besides the Nail House, Sammy--"

"I will wait!" She says again. "You're the only masters I've ever had who really liked me! You take care of me... I love you all! Samantha Smatters will not let you down okay! If you come back, then pick me up!"

She goes before you can argue otherwise.

You hope that someone among you all does make it back home -- if only to give the pets some water and kibble.

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>>4005267
I'm so scared

>>4005272
Godspeed, fuckbunny

;_;7

I assume somebody has had the theory that season 1 is post lighthouse. Cause that’s what I’ve been thinking.

>>4005272
Godspeed, Samantha. Take care of Guy and Kuso. ;_;7

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>>4005272

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"Do you think--" you begin. "Do you think the lighthouse can fix this?"

"I hope so..." Vivian says weakly. Her nightshirt, that she never had the chance to change out of, is still stained with her sister's blood.

Alex is all grit and determination: "The next part's gonna hurt. I need to -- penetrate your tear ducts with some conductive wire -- since there's no way right now to pull the implants out, this is all I can do, to get them directly into the servers..."

"Stop!"

You glance towards the direction of the barked order. Jesus fucking Christmas: more Chinese zombies.

"We are orders on not killing you," he says, ungrammatically, and so accented that even you, with all the computing power mankind can offer, have difficulty understanding. "Only if cooperate. Cooperate!"

End of the line. They're already got Vivian and Gal, and fighting would only lead to their deaths. You hold your hands up. Mr. "Cooperate!" grabs you by one wrist and tugs you toward him.

"Asshole," you grunt.

Alex, looking less scared than enraged -- watches. He hasn't been subdued by anyone. The merc squad takes you, and Vivian, and Gal -- but none among them even glance his way. Mr. "Cooperate!" radios, in Chinese, back to Chloe; you never spoke a word of Mandarin, but you know what they're saying:

"We are here. We have the other implant users in hand."

"Alex Best?"

Alex doesn't speak Mandarin either, but he recognizes his own name, of course. He cocks his head, befuddled.

"We are looking for him now."

A group of men toting FAMAS rifles push past, boots clattering, sweeping their sights up and down the rows of server towers -- searching for the boy who's standing, literally, right in front of their noses. Alex sidesteps them like a jewel thief dodging laser tripwires.

Mr. "Cooperate!" walks towards Alex's PC setup, all but bumping booties with him. Alex, carefully, and quietly, steps backwards out of his way.

"His terminal is here. He can't be far."

"Find him quickly. That Tiresias implant he has may make him difficult to detect."

"Understood."

You don't even want to look in Alex's direction, lest you give him up; he gives you a curt nod as he passes, and slips away from the room.

What other aces do you have up your sleeve today, Alex Best?

>>4005284
Do your best, best boy

>>4005284
Oh god oh fuck thank goodness. He can pull through for us. Our boy can pull through for us still.

>>4005284
Our boy's on his own now... I believe in him ;_;7

>>4005284
I can't believe a trap and a killer fuck bunny are our best chances of saving the world!

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Kay kneels over the dying Noelle Keki. They're alone together -- for the last time.

"Why..." Kay breathes. "Why did you -- fuck you. Why!"

Noelle turns her head this way and that, like a person delirious with fever; she's clammy, and blinking rapidly, as the vitality escapes from her. She manages enough focus, though, to meet Kay's rheumy eyes.

"You're a cockroach," Noelle says weakly.

Kay stutters. She's hurt, and confused, and most of all, distraught. "--What? You... you don't mean that -- you're so stupid--"

"No. I mean it." Noelle gulps. "You reporters -- you're like cockroaches -- you can survive anything." She clasps Kay's hand. Grits her teeth. "Get out of here. Survive. This building is gonna get lit up soon -- and everyone's gonna die -- but not you. The world still needs Kay Vera. I died for that -- so don't piss me off -- go --"

Kay kisses Noelle, one more time, deeply, and forcefully. Then weeping, she stands, turns, and scurries from the building. Noelle dies smiling.

>>4005299
god damnit

>>4005299
...fuck.

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>>4005299
haha but what if this scene didnt happen and she was still alive

just as a joke haha