[Stop telling him that when you are just as bad, idiod. Like before, he's quiet for a long moment again... almost like he's skeptical telling Daan anything.]
...Yes.
[More hesitation, but he glances at Daan's face, and then lowers his eyes.]
I said I wanted to study them. The beacons. I wanted to learn more about them. I decided... I would do what it took in order to find out more. I've always been an ambitious man.
...So I stole two of them. The only way I had to research them was to... hand them over to the Cerberus Assembly, a collective of powerful mages. However. The Assembly happens to be aligned... with an enemy nation. The Empire and Xhorhas have had rough tension for some time due to the Empire's desire to expand their territory.
[Well, he can't lie now that he's said all of that, pride or not. He finds it funny Daan says lion's den when groups of them are referred to as dens. So, yeah. Almost a literal lion's den.]
Right now... no one knows. There is a group of would-be adventurers who are sticking their noses where it doesn't belong, however. The Mighty Nein. They could cause my plans to unravel without knowing.
Then the unruly group comes by, throwing a wrench in your plans. Sure. I feel like I can get a sort of sense of that, although my experience is far less organised.
We're the same in the instance of delving too deep into powerful sources that we probably shouldn't have for the sake of answers, but I'd say yours is a bit more lofty and involved.
[ For him it's very much more 'I was on a personal quest and then I got roped into a 14-person murder tournament I did not sign up for this thanks'. ]
I don't know about that. I just wanted to find answers. Whose god it was that my wife and my father-in-law sacrificed themselves to, whose sigil I saw. Why he did it at all. It wasn't meant to be any sort of grand overtaking. I just saw the name of a city repeated in his documents he left behind, so I headed there.
Of course, as you may have gleaned, I did end up stumbling into much more than I bargained for, but it's not related to what I was looking for. [ It is but he's not from a timeline that knows that because you need to literally be the worst person ever to get that ending. ] ...I'm afraid everything I've done seems to more or less be for nothing.
[His was I was on a personal but traitorous neutral evil journey, and then seven idiots walked in saying they were gonna give back one of the beacons I stole by essentially stealing it themselves.]
I suppose yours ended up being convoluted accidentally.
[ And then you ended up dating one of them so win-win in the end? That's literally as far as my CR knowledge goes with Essek.
Anyway observe his souvenir which says 'I went to Prehevil and all I got was trauma and this stupid t-shirt'. ]
I'm no wiser to the truth, and if anything, I ended up with more questions. And as of my memories of my last moments prior to coming here enlightening me, I was well on my way into becoming... something inhuman, I'd wager.
So yeah. Feels like it was for nothing, if not worse.
No winner of the tournament. We never figured out the truth behind the machinery.
[ Hilariously! He's feeling nervous and not very confident about this whole machine plan you guys have got going on because he's already failed a machine route once!!! ]
Your timeline is doomed then...? [Like. Not literally really. Hypothetically. Listen, he's a time man.] According to Laudna, ours may be as well, or headed that way. She claims to have met me before. That a human man sent me to them, so it can't be too far into the future if he is still alive.
[ That being said, Daan is doomed no matter which ending/timeline you go so there's always that...! Hooray. ]
...I wouldn't know. Our lovely "host" of sorts never bothered to explain it. Only that we had three days, and there could only be one winner... one survivor.
[ok i have to admit it finally, this icon keeps giving me these vibes every time i see it and now that i think about maybe you'd play spike spiegel too i guess assigns you
NOT THE TIMELINE BEING FOREVER DOOMED welp. also looks directly into the camera.]
...So many of you have come from some other Plane to a place with almost the same conditionals. I do apologize even if I didn't really play a part in your summoning directly.
[ Pensively does the finger pushy thing...... I have a very distinct type and despite its hyperspecificity I manage to find it every time. ]
I'm not trying to...
[ He can't see them or chooses not to see them but the letters being like KILL are so funny. Daan's mostly just been like 'keep this number in mind and lay low until later' while other people are like SOUP! SOUP! SOUP! ]
I was trying to avoid saying anything that'd cause outright panic or make people jump the gun.
[LOOKS AT THE FUCKING SKY ABOUT THESE LETTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
You're one of few then. People have been trying to get their favorites on that side, but it has confused everyone here who believe there's some sort of stipulation, like the last five remaining, about who should go and who should stay.
I've never heard so many questions about why people were telling them to die. How should I know!
... I'll see who I can send a letter to clarify things to, even if it means butting in a bit on others' exchanges.
[ So funny, help. ]
I can't say I have any strong thoughts on this. Of course I'm loathe to demand certain people die over others, but being the survivors in that situation isn't exactly easier than being over here.
[ We're buttering. The living are in grief, and we're buttering. ]
Yeah, but it's a bit out of our hands since it isn't as if we can go over them and do the job on their behalf.
[ That'd probably be a kindness and Daan's brain-soup says it'd be for good causes but womp. Instead they can only send KILL letters and meme on Todomatsu's booth. ]
Especially presuming that even if we succeed in this machine, it'd just be counter-productive to show up over there until they've really fully failed the ritual anyway, right?
[ Imagine we just show up and restore the numbers before the cultists are even done giving up. ]
Why do you all keep insisting on coming back here? To what? Another locked dimensional Plane with an entire cult waiting to be at our throats plus some kind of primordial god? You are already on a separate dimensional Plane in which they have no access!
We won't know finalities until the ritual has hopefully failed, but it's an idea.
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Well... it's a bit late for that, I think...
[The touching.]
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[He is quiet for a long time, debating.]
There are some... mistakes I have made which I'm going to need to... correct if I ever get out of here.
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Was worth a shot asking, but I figured that'd be your answer.
[ And it'd be a hypocritical statement for Daan anyway. There's also no turning back. ]
So many of you came with mistakes you need to rectify... a pretty serious one?
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...Yes.
[More hesitation, but he glances at Daan's face, and then lowers his eyes.]
I said I wanted to study them. The beacons. I wanted to learn more about them. I decided... I would do what it took in order to find out more. I've always been an ambitious man.
...So I stole two of them. The only way I had to research them was to... hand them over to the Cerberus Assembly, a collective of powerful mages. However. The Assembly happens to be aligned... with an enemy nation. The Empire and Xhorhas have had rough tension for some time due to the Empire's desire to expand their territory.
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You're essentially now caught between a rock and a hard place, traitor to your nation while in the lion's den. That sound about right?
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Yes, something like that.
[Well, he can't lie now that he's said all of that, pride or not. He finds it funny Daan says lion's den when groups of them are referred to as dens. So, yeah. Almost a literal lion's den.]
Right now... no one knows. There is a group of would-be adventurers who are sticking their noses where it doesn't belong, however. The Mighty Nein. They could cause my plans to unravel without knowing.
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We're the same in the instance of delving too deep into powerful sources that we probably shouldn't have for the sake of answers, but I'd say yours is a bit more lofty and involved.
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[This is more of a joke. He gets what Daan is trying to say.]
I'm not so sure about that necessarily. I imagine yours is rather lofty and involved in some ways. Having seen a little from you of what I've seen.
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I don't know about that. I just wanted to find answers. Whose god it was that my wife and my father-in-law sacrificed themselves to, whose sigil I saw. Why he did it at all. It wasn't meant to be any sort of grand overtaking. I just saw the name of a city repeated in his documents he left behind, so I headed there.
Of course, as you may have gleaned, I did end up stumbling into much more than I bargained for, but it's not related to what I was looking for. [ It is but he's not from a timeline that knows that because you need to literally be the worst person ever to get that ending. ] ...I'm afraid everything I've done seems to more or less be for nothing.
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I suppose yours ended up being convoluted accidentally.
[As Lovecraftian aesthetics go.]
Do you really think it was for nothing?
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Anyway observe his souvenir which says 'I went to Prehevil and all I got was trauma and this stupid t-shirt'. ]
I'm no wiser to the truth, and if anything, I ended up with more questions. And as of my memories of my last moments prior to coming here enlightening me, I was well on my way into becoming... something inhuman, I'd wager.
So yeah. Feels like it was for nothing, if not worse.
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Did you think your story was all over, though? You were becoming inhuman, but... what if you discovered the truth almost at the end?
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No winner of the tournament. We never figured out the truth behind the machinery.
[ Hilariously! He's feeling nervous and not very confident about this whole machine plan you guys have got going on because he's already failed a machine route once!!! ]
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Your timeline is doomed then...? [Like. Not literally really. Hypothetically. Listen, he's a time man.] According to Laudna, ours may be as well, or headed that way. She claims to have met me before. That a human man sent me to them, so it can't be too far into the future if he is still alive.
[Human timespans and all.]
What happens to those who win the tournament?
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[ That being said, Daan is doomed no matter which ending/timeline you go so there's always that...! Hooray. ]
...I wouldn't know. Our lovely "host" of sorts never bothered to explain it. Only that we had three days, and there could only be one winner... one survivor.
[ It was a kill-em-all situation. ]
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NOT THE TIMELINE BEING FOREVER DOOMED welp. also looks directly into the camera.]
...So many of you have come from some other Plane to a place with almost the same conditionals. I do apologize even if I didn't really play a part in your summoning directly.
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That being said Daan and Steven have an alarming overlap so like, you know... ]
Nothing you can do about it, so no need to apologise.
Well. We can do all our best to get out of here, there's always that.
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Yes, perhaps if all of you over there cease scaring the others here half to death in your letters.
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I'm not trying to...
[ He can't see them or chooses not to see them but the letters being like KILL are so funny. Daan's mostly just been like 'keep this number in mind and lay low until later' while other people are like SOUP! SOUP! SOUP! ]
I was trying to avoid saying anything that'd cause outright panic or make people jump the gun.
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You're one of few then. People have been trying to get their favorites on that side, but it has confused everyone here who believe there's some sort of stipulation, like the last five remaining, about who should go and who should stay.
I've never heard so many questions about why people were telling them to die. How should I know!
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[ So funny, help. ]
I can't say I have any strong thoughts on this. Of course I'm loathe to demand certain people die over others, but being the survivors in that situation isn't exactly easier than being over here.
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[It's funny, and they're dying.]
Don't misunderstand. You all are just as much in danger as we are over here, not until we have full certainty the ritual fails.
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Yeah, but it's a bit out of our hands since it isn't as if we can go over them and do the job on their behalf.
[ That'd probably be a kindness and Daan's brain-soup says it'd be for good causes but womp. Instead they can only send KILL letters and meme on Todomatsu's booth. ]
Especially presuming that even if we succeed in this machine, it'd just be counter-productive to show up over there until they've really fully failed the ritual anyway, right?
[ Imagine we just show up and restore the numbers before the cultists are even done giving up. ]
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Why do you all keep insisting on coming back here? To what? Another locked dimensional Plane with an entire cult waiting to be at our throats plus some kind of primordial god? You are already on a separate dimensional Plane in which they have no access!
We won't know finalities until the ritual has hopefully failed, but it's an idea.
[Said pointedly.]
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