I mean, sure things aren't as great as they used to be, but it's not about that. We can't let ourselves get dragged down by nostalgia. It's about making up a new nostalgia. It's about moving forwards while also looking back at yourself as current ancestor. It's about a lot of things. Half-price hot pockets for one. Maybe some coffee as well. But what kind of coffee? Don't get distracted. You have work to do. Don't forget the work. Never forget the work. As long as you focus on the work then things can still turn out okay. It's not about you. It's about The Niceness.Now what was I doing?>Feeding the cat>Taking out the trash>Staring out the window>No, it was something else. I was __________
>>6103756>Taking out the trash
>>6103756>No, it was something else. I was …Innovating on what's nostalgic, so the people of today can see how great things were.
>>6103756>>Taking out the trash
>>6103757That's right I was taking out the trash. Knape was right when he said that if I kept daydreaming like this I would forget forgetting that I forgot. Wow that's a lot of tuna cans! Alright off to the hatch.I've always liked the carpet they have in the hallways here. A lot of people don't like it though. They say that the blue and white criss-cross hurts their eyes. I like to imagine that each and every step I take has it's own carpet-coordinates. What do they call that anyway? When people make maps that has a name.Wait why is Mrs.Horrace hunched over like that?Is she okay? It's my day off but The Niceness persists. Help people. You have to help people in need but you can't be nosy. Plus it's my day off. I know that doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things but isn't being nice to yourself also kind of important?But am I really going to walk right past this?Could I really be that kind of person?>Stop and ask Mrs.Horrace if everything is okay>Continue on down to the garbage hutch>Something else ________
>>6103778>>Something else: Stop and call out to Mrs. Horrace and see if she is okay.
>>6103804>>Something else: Stop and call out to Mrs. Horrace and see if she is okay.Well I should at least call out to her or something. Calling out is better than just approaching. Approaching is an act of commitment. Calling out is just casual concern.“Mrs.Horrace is everything okay?”Why is she crouched over like that and what is she holding? Is she scrubbing the hallway? Old people are weird. “Mrs.Horrace?”It’s like she can’t hear me. That or she’s ignoring me, but she’s never been rude to me before. Maybe she’s having “an episode” or something. People can be so fragile when they get to this age. Jesus, what is she doing? Maybe I should call someone. But is that making a fuss?>Try and get a closer look>Maintain your distance and alert the authorities>Continue on down to the trash hutch>Something else ________
>>6103853>Try and get a closer look
>>6103853>Something elseTry walking around to see her from another angle, while keeping some distance.
>>6103899>>Try and get a closer look>>6103900>>Something else>Try walking around to see her from another angle, while keeping some distance.I should try and get a closer look before I start jumping to any conclusions. Still, I’ve heard stories about people suddenly lashing out or acting irrational when they get this way. I wish this hallway wasn’t so tight then I could some decent distance between me and Mrs.Horrace should my paranoia shed itself into intuition. Best I can do is have my back against the wall and maybe hold out the trash bag out in front of me. Hope that the tuna cans can make a decent enough shield. Yes. That could work. I’m sure it’s nothing but I can’t shake this feeling. It’s a cold feeling and—Oh sweet Jesus! Is that blood? She is cleaning the blood. Something has gone wrong. What do I do here? She is babbling and scrubbing a hole right through the carpet. Day off over. The Niceness has other plans. Even at a glance I don’t like what I’m seeing. I should try and get her inside her apartment at least. Then I can start making sense of things. Then again when it comes to stuff like this you have to start speculating as soon as possible and she does seem stuck in her own head at the moment.>Escort Mrs.Horrace back into her apartment>Gather information while Mrs.Horrace remains present (D20 check)>Attempt to communicate with Mrs.Horrace (D20 check)>Something else _______
>>6103926>Escort Mrs.Horrace back into her apartment
>>6103926>Gather information while Mrs.Horrace remains present (D20 check)
Rolled 17 (1d20)>>6103946>Attempt to communicate with Mrs.Horrace (D20 check)
>>6103927>>6103946>>6103998So when it comes to tiebreaker scenarios such as these, would guys rather:>Wait for someone to break the tie>Roll for it?>Have me just go with 'first come first served'?
>>6103926>Escort Mrs.Horrace back into her apartmentgood quest>>6104233Id say roll if I hadnt broken the tie
>>6104233I have no problem with rolling for it.
>>6104273>>6104289Sounds good! From now on we will decide tiebreakers with a D20 roll.
>>6103927>>6104273>>Escort Mrs.Horrace back into her apartmentI can’t just leave her like this. She could hurt herself. Break her hip or something. Isn’t that always happening to old people? I feel bit strange touching her, but I’m just gonna make believe like I’m being a good grandson. Pull her up by the upper arm.“Come on Mrs.Horrace let’s get you back inside”What is she mumbling to herself? Elk People? She’s standing up. That’s good.I really didn’t want to have to carry her.This apartment is huge. I wish my apartment was this big. What’s with all of these papers all across the ground though? I never took her for a messy person but I guess these are the sorts of things you can’t tell from a face. Maybe somewhere there’s a really disheveled guy with a really clean apartment. I’ll just set her down on that lavender couch. If I take her to her bed then she might snap out of it and get the wrong idea.“There you go Mrs.Horrace”“We’re going to get this sorted out okay?” “You don’t have to worry about any more elk people.”Needing to stay calm for someone else is something I am thankful for in this moment. I did good. That was a nice thing to do. What now?>Head back out to the hallway to investigate (D20)>Head back out to the hallway, grab the trash bag and continue on down to the hutch>Alert the authorities>Something else _________
>>6104439>Head back out to the hallway, grab the trash bag and continue on down to the hutch
>>6104439>Alert the authorities
>>6104439>>Head back out to the hallway to investigate (D20)Slow and steady.
>>6104439>Head back out to the hallway to investigate (D20)>Captcha: MOATThis must be some sort of clue.
>>6104439>Alert the authoritiesI want to see what kind of cops this vaguely unsettling setting has
>>6104491>>6104639>>6104642>>6104722It'll have to be a D20 roll to break this tie.
Rolled 16 (1d20)>>6104947Assuming we’re the ones to roll.
>>6104947>>6105009Yes. I should have been more clear.
Rolled 15 (1d20)>>6104947
>>6105009>>6105316Nice! Thank you! I am still getting the hang of things. But I think that just for rapidity I will be doing the tiebreaker rolls from now. I have written in quite a few fun misadventures and side quests and will be back in a few hours to continue this, and hopefully get thrown a few curveballs by (you).
The way you write is comfy. Nice quest.
>>6104642>>6105009>Head back out to the hallway to investigate (D20)>Rolled 16 (1d20)Okay time to makes some sense out of this mess. Red letters. Possibly blood or paint selected for the express purpose of resembling blood. Definitely an element of mania to the orthography but not uncalculated either. Excitement. Jittery. Some other emotion I can’t quite pinpoint. Part of the message scrubbed out by Mrs.Horrace but we already knew that much. As for the message itself: “I WILL LEAVE NO MEMOIRS”. Cryptic. Almost biblical but with an undeniable flair leaning towards controversy and transgression. These are the words of a heresiarch or something similar. Bible adjascent. The paint has permeated and dried into the carpet completely but this doesn’t really tell me anything. As for the two marks left beneath the message: Possibly Roman numerals. Two. Two what? Or maybe it’s saying “I” twice. Two I.s. Two eyes? I’m gonna leave that be for now. What’s really catching my attention are these trace amounts of residue. Translucent. Glimmering. No. Glittering. There are particles inside of it that catch the light and reveal the substance as an icy crystalline blue. It just appears clear otherwise. Dichromatic. Wait can something be dichromatic if one of its colours is clear? Monochromatic doesn’t fit either. Let’s just leave it as chameleonic SLASH lenticular. I’ll know what it means. Now—“Stay right there, don’t move!”“I’ve called COGI”Moving my eyes I can make out the vague shape of a firearm with one of my neighbours at the other end of it. They sound quite agitated. I don’t blame them.I will have to choose my words quite carefully.>“There’s no need for that I’m with COGI”>”There’s no need for that I’m with COGI” (Lie) (D20 roll)>”This is just a big misunderstanding, I am just a concerned neighbour just like you” (D20 roll)>”Please. I was just taking out the trash”>Something else ________
>>6105661Also wish I could keep my ID the same but I am on the road rn.So it will either be this>>6104947This>>6105022or this if I am phoneposting
>>6105661>”Please. I was just taking out the trash”
>>6105661>>”This is just a big misunderstanding, I am just a concerned neighbour just like you” (D20 roll)
>>6105661>”This is just a big misunderstanding, I am just a concerned neighbour just like you”
Rolled 18 (1d20)>>6105753>>6105774>”This is just a big misunderstanding, I am just a concerned neighbour just like you”
>>6106004>>6105753>>6105774>”This is just a big misunderstanding, I am just a concerned neighbour just like you”>Rolled 18 (1d20)“This is just a big misunderstanding, I am just—““Aster? Is that you? I thought this was your day off, what are you doing down there on the floor?”It’s Ricky the janitor. He lives a couple of doors down in a retrofitted automat. He still keeps most of his stuff sealed up in those perspex containers. We’re not exactly friends but sometimes we watch quiz shows together while waiting for our laundry to dry. Sometimes I can hear him having nightmares. And I’m sure the other residents hear him too. But nobody has ever said anything about it on account of Ricky is just so nice.“Woah. What is that? That’s gonna be hard to scrub out. Damn.”“Well Mrs.Horrace took it upon herself to give you a head start”“Oh. Terrific. Hey did you hear about what happened down at the trash hutch? Someone tried switching on the atomiser this morning and *PUFF* the whole thing shorts out and starts leaking smoke. All kinds of error sounds spilling out with it. Cleared out the whole floor. Apparently something triggered the biosensors so there’s a whole squad of you-know-whos sifting through everyones ashes and refuge. Serena said it was some sort of blood cube.”“A blood cube?”“Blood cube.” Ricky is holding his hands out and showing me that the width of this so called blood cube might exceed his entire arm span.“So. Anyways. I wouldn’t go down there for a while. Not unless you want to get accosted with a notebook. Also. I wasn’t kidding. I did call COGI. So you might want to duck out of here for a while for that exact same reason”“Yeah, thanks Ricky I’ll see you later”God what a weird day. I guess I was planning on heading out later anyway. I could go see Knape. That’s always good for a while. Or maybe just wander around the city for a while. That could be nice. Blood cube? What am I supposed to do with this bag of tuna cans now? Did I leave that in Mrs.Horrace’s apartment? That should probably be fine, right? I wish the library wasn’t closed today otherwise I could find out what book that message is from. Or I could just stay but I kind of trust Ricky when he tells me to avoid something.>Head to Knape’s Tapes>Wander aimlessly through the city>Wait for COGI to arrive in an attempt to find out more about the blood cube>Something else ________
>>6106094>Head to Knape’s Tapes
>>6106094>Wander aimlessly through the city
The Niceness Post #8>>6106104>>6106381>>6106643>Head to Knape’s TapesGosh what a weird morning. Elrad Staedler referred to such moments as “spiritual autotomy”. The loss or surrender of one’s tale in favor of another one. Not growth but regrowth. Even back then they had all the pieces they needed for The Niceness but next to none of the benefits. What’s that thing that they’re always saying at that start of the glossolalia broadcasts? “Clarity is regret regretting itself”. I’m getting too bogged down in the details. Thinking like a fortune cookie.Seeing Knape will be nice. He has a way of reminding me that obsession has no business being stern. I wonder what he’ll think of the blood cube and Mrs.Horrace and that weird gel. Damn. Should have taken a sample. Wait. Closed? Why would he be closed? Well this is why he gave me a key. He even said “use the key” So It’s okay to use the key. I’m using the key.“Hello? Knape?”All of the screens are off but the lights are on. Weird.“DON’T MOVE!”Knape appears looking about as manic as always holding some sort of remote with three different kinds of duct tape holding it together.“Knape what is this”“Don’t move!Don’t Move! Don’t move!”“Okay I’m not moving”“Good! Stay there.”Knape looks around nervously and then walks over to the windows. The blinds are already pulled down but he’s making sure they’ve stayed that way. He walks back in front of me. Holding his mouth open and his index finger up as though he is about to say something very important.“Dude.” His eyes are bulging and he is slowly nodding as if I’m meant to be understanding something.“What! What! What is it? What the hell is it?”Knape pulls down his orange computer glasses and says “This” and all of the screens lining the walls light up at once into a vast and bright negative space. It feels like a thousand camera flashes have gone off at once”“Knape what the hell?”“ShhhhShhshshshh keep it down!” My eyes adjust in time to catch the last few frames of his exaggerated shushing movement.“Look” he says and he points out a huddled and shivering figure taking up 20ft of mismatched CRTs. The figure hunches over a small pile of cartoon twigs and logs. I hear friction and grunting.“His name is Dug and he’s just figured out fire isn’t that cool?”“Yeah it’s cool, can I move now?”“Oh! Yeah! That was just, you know, for drama” Knape smiles and nods obviously incredibly pleased with himself.“Knape this is incredibly illegal”“Yeah that’s why I shut all the windows”A sigh slips out which is to be expected“Knape…”>Tell Knape about the blood cube>Tell Knape about the carpet message and Mrs.Horrace>Ask Knape about Doug>Ask Knape if he wants to watch a movie>Ask Knape *Something Else* ________>Something else ________
>>6106750>Ask Knape about Doug
>>6106750>Ask Knape if he's got porn
>>6106848>>6106905>>6107248>Ask Knape about Doug“It’s not Doug it’s Dug” and then Knape launches into a dense dialectic on John Conway’s “The Game of Life” and abiogenesis and Dug’s exciting potential as a legal loophole in the anti-AGI legislation that was holding back “a digital rapture and our right to expedite our inevitable defeat against entropy” He talks about mirrors. About the dissolution of social media as a means of expression once it had reached a point of perfection that rendered it all recursive and uninteresting. “Not even narcissist’s liked looking in the mirror anymore–what they craved was a new kind of reflection” Dug was to be the first organically evolved AGI and if all things went well he would reach a point resembling a cro magnon within the week. But this passion project had left Knape a manic and paranoid mess, and I admit, it both comforted and unnerved me when he unveiled this level of self awareness. Knape was halfway through drawing a diagram that would supposedly make all of the muddied tangents clear and connected when some semaphores lit up in an opaline line and lit up some security monitors. A couple of COGI agents had congregated outside holding out notepads and one feeling for his flaregun.Knape nervously pushed down on the intercom:“Hello Knape’s Tapes. We are currently closed for maintenance please come back another time”The COGI agents voice came through sounding like a scrambled up toy keyboard“We are looking for one “Aster Punig” in relation to an incident at Cupid-IT Apartment Block #34”Knape turns to me and then looks up at Dug holding a degausser and a look a few minutes away from resignation.“Aster? You brought them here? What are they even talking about”“I can explain that later but right now:>We’re going to have to find a way out of here and quick>I’m going to talk to them outside while you hide what needs to be hidden>We are going to have to fight our way out>I’m having a panic attack >We are going to have to use Dug>Something else
>>6108684>I’m going to talk to them outside while you hide what needs to be hiddenThey found us pretty quickly. I doubt running away’s gonna do much.
>>6108684>I’m going to talk to them outside while you hide what needs to be hiddenBe cool, man. MAINTAIN!
>>6108684>I’m going to talk to them outside while you hide what needs to be hidden
>>6108684>We are going to have to use Dug
>>6108756>>6108766>>6109155>>I’m going to talk to them outside while you hide what needs to be hiddenIt’s times like these that you really have to trust in The Niceness. I tell Knape “I’ve got this” and his expression blooms from betrayal to gratitude. As I approach the door I look back and I can tell that Knape has so many good reasons I shouldn’t do this he just doesn’t know where to start, so instead he does something unexpected and incredible: he listens to me. I breathe in, slow and deliberate and imagine myself biting down on leather like in an old world amputation, and then, I open the door. My eyes adjust to the sunlight like a drop of dye in water. “What seems to be the problem?” Is what I say to the closest human outline. “Sir, we have reason to believe that you may have been involved in an incident which has now become an inquiry.”“Protocol dictates that you are to now empty your pockets, drop to your knees and clasp your hands over your head”“Okay, alright, I am complying” I say and I can hear their weapons jostling as I reach into my pockets and pull out a mixture of lint and laundry tokens, two notebooks and an acorn skin wallet. My knees touch the ground and I catch a faint blue glimmer leaking out of the boot soles of the agent on the back left.“Okay sir, do we have your permission to extract your recent memory points or would you like to opt for a physical interrogation?”The blue agent is breathing raggedly now. Wheezing. “Sir you have to choose or we will have no choice but to consider this an implied altercation”>Consent to memory extraction>Opt for a physical interrogation>Point out the blue agents wheezing>Try and make a break for it>Pray to The Niceness>Something else
>>6109342>Opt for a physical interrogationFor the love of God, have a lawyer present.
>>6109342>Consent to memory extractionthey'll find out about Knape eventually if we try to hide it, and then they'll find out about our complicity in what he's doing. maybe this way the Niceness will be, well, nicer
>>6109342>Pray to The Niceness
>>6109342>Opt for a physical interrogation
>>6109342>>Consent to memory extractionThey don't have all day, they'll check out what we saw and be on their way.
