Murder the Maniac

I find the metal detector I purchased and start searching with it again.

Since I have another soul, I attempt to sign the covenant again.

after I hack and bash YAM with my Keyblade, I head over to the store to look for items concerning the 4th wall.

I tend to my garden, ask around for more lost souls and use my power again. in that order.

edited 17th Jun '18 2:27:23 PM by GravelordNeato

Update LV (55) - Nieve

Oh, hey, look at that! The update number says "love"! Isn't that just... so cute? Oh! You know what else is just so cute? Cuter than anything in the whole wide world, more charming, just... better? My M███y! He's just so everything, isn't He? Oh, I know, I know... He doesn't like it when I call Him that, you know... His real name... but what am I supposed to do? I just can't get Him off my mind. My little M███████. I'll never forget Him. And I'll never forget the day I met Him. I was all alone, always was. I was miserable. I had nobody. Until that day, it seemed like a usual stormy night, but something was different. He was different. He stood out from everything else, and at that moment, nothing else mattered. I still remember how He reached out his hand, promised to love me forever, to love me when nobody else would. To hold me every day, wipe away my tears, and love me, love me, love me. I owe my entire life to Him.

I owe my entire life to M███████ M█████.

The Scientific Inventor nods, and proceeds to plan out a way to extract the metals. Hug Machine is 10% closer to completion!

The Base Builder is hard at work. Base is 1% closer to completion! Additionally, by volunteering to help, you unlock the special Rocks-to-Progress upgrade. 5 rocks can be converted to 1% base completion. 5 rocks are automatically withdrawn, leaving you at 16, and the base at 3%. Well, at least now you can make it go a little faster.

Final stats: 3 Rock Collectors, 1 Base Builder, 1 Cult Leader, 1 Scientific Inventor, 1 Rock Arm, 10% Hug Machine Completion, 3% Base Completion, 16 Rocks.

Cult Leader Ability: Rock-Hard Hug. 2/3 Charge. (Gives double action to a random lobster!)

After your attack, the Maniac appears in your base, but suddenly regrows back together, all his parts still present! "I've gone through similar stuff before... My power might be watered down, but I know how to get through a wormhole! The secret is to- Hey, wait, is that my tree?!" the Maniac gets up, brushing some dust off himself, then points a finger at the flesh-tree abomination. "You're the one who made me?! But... you're so... UGLY! You don't even have eyes or hands or nothin', it's just a whole lot of... a whole lot of figging nothing! And besides, I don't wanna join your side, you stinky bleeding mess. My allegiance lies with this semi-human guy and his pet blobfish." he crosses his branches, rolling his eyes. "Oh. A blobfish, eh? Where is this blobfish, anyway? I've been meaning to talk to him again. See how he's been." the Maniac smirks and takes a look around the abomination's base. "What's it gotta do with you, you nosy little freak? At least you can still be nosy for a bit. Who knows, maybe you'll lose your nose next, and then you won't be able to do that, either?! And hey! Don't touch those branches!" the tree takes a battle stance, pointing the Maniac at the door. "It would be a shame if something were to happen to that blobfish, hm? But you wouldn't let something like that happen to your little friend, would you? Logically, I would have to take care of you first. So, as you would say it, would you care to... spruce things up a bit?" the Maniac laughs, readying his knife-hand.

Instinctively, you take a dash at your base, but are suddenly tackled by omegaPsi. "Oh, hey! Didn't even notice you there. Probably because you're so insignificant." he tries to stab you, but you get up on your feet. "Let's chat." he smiles a fake smile. You attempt to back away, but it's of no use, he's standing in front of the base, and no matter what direction you turn in, he just slides across, not letting you pass.

"The key to a perfect exorcism can be achieved, just as long as you don't worry about getting a little bit of blood on your suit-"

You attempt to finish reading the note, only catching that the name of the person who wrote it starts with an "M", before you are brought back behind YAM, the empty orb still in your hand. Well. That was... something.

{Great job, that'll show 'im! Who the hell's that guy, anyway?} a voice from within you calls out, which you recognize to be the Tomb Raiser, finally speaking up again, and with fancy brackets, at that! "You... just stole my... sw... sword..." he stares at his empty hands with equally empty eyes. "Die." he stomps his leg, running at you at full speed. You attempt to avoid his attack, but he's simply too fast, and suddenly, he's right behind you. He clutches you with one of his hands, then stomps down with one of his legs, creating a small pool of lava out of the ground immediately beside him. You fall into the crevice, as your rock body slowly melts away, until he presses up against it with his fingertips. In a moment, it solidifies back into rock, cooler and harder, but your rock body is now deformed. {Uh oh. Are we... stuck?} Tomb Raiser calls out, as you struggle to control the earth, but the chunks are a little too big for you.

You try to use your power. It fails. You look around, confused, then move around, but it still fails. Weird.

Then, you look around for lost souls, and find one just randomly sitting outside, crying. "Oh, excuse me... It appears that I've forgotten what my favorite food was. I know it was something big, and it just oozed deliciousness out of it! It's a little hard to pin down, my memory's failing me, but I know that it was... all twisty like. Loopy. And there was lots of it! If you can help me, I'm sure I can move on. It's just so tasty, and I can't bear forgetting it forever." Wow, sorta pathetic, this guy's tethered to this realm by food and food alone, and he's not even that fat, oddly enough. Oh well. You sigh, and tell him you'll try to fail, if you feel like it. These suckers are mostly going to give out shitty sidequests, aren't they?

Five souls in total! Current soul outliers: Hydraloonie (0), Tales of Under(-1), Dungkaka 1801 (-2). Everyone else has 1.

Medieval Paradox's note should help you along. "The key to a perfect exorcism can be achieved, just as long as you don't worry about getting a little bit of blood on your suit". I'd advise you to start planning something this turn, else YAM'll just keep respawning again and again.

The Good

The Brainiac: 124/150 HP. Really wants to join the fun.

Flesh Tree Thing: 196/196 HP. Pretty sorry about… yeah.

Anti-Dragons: 11/16 HP x5. 55/80 HP in total. Armed with water guns.

Miss_Desperado: 19/19 HP. 100/100 Blood Reserve. [26/50 Additional Blood Tank].

The Bad (and Also Very Ugly)

Fleshy Scythe: 36/46 HP. Grows soul-flesh fruit that can be stolen! Held by Gravelord Neato.

Yet Another Maniac: 13/18 HP. Powered by blood.

omegaPsi: 17/20 HP. Wants to murder the Maniac... all alone.

The Maniac: 115/150 HP. Power sapped by Yet Another Maniac, leaving him vulnerable!

I trip YAM, then i travel one second in the future, where i pick up YAM and tell my past self to spray him in the eyes with water. Then i shove YAM's own hand up his nose.

I point out that Omegapsi is busy with TOG, and just keep walking. Riiiight through him. when my face is no longer inside of his eyes and he can see again, he sees me... standing in front of him, willing to talk, with only-partly disguised impatience and wish to get over to spalthos.

"What do you want to chat about?"

"anything important?"

"are you planning to ask for some voidmetal or something silly like that? I'm not going to be any more amicable to deals if you lead to spalthos dying."

Meanwhile...

"Maniac, you shouldn't be here! the terraport area denial only shunted your LIMBS to my base! and only the ones you still have! please teleport elsewhere in a puff of logic."

"Second of all, if you messed with the Terraport process at all, since you're the maniac, not the brainiac, which means your powers are not focused on intelligence, you wouldn't be able to stop the cascade of failures as small pieces of your body went to the wrong places, or came back as rocks, or, most likely, come back as unstable isotopes that proceed to explode in a massive flash of light."

It would appear JOE is also here now while waiting for omegapsi to move. because... look the logic is complicated so uh i'ma skip it.

Anyway, if the Maniac doesn't disappear in a puff of logic, I said "Wait, before you do anything else, let me check something."

"THE RAPTURE ISN'T COOL OR SCARY AND EVERYONE WHO PLAYS PIANOS IS A BIG IDIOT, ESPECIALLY IF THEY MISSPELL PIANOS, AND I DON'T CARE WHAT THEY THINK OF ME BECAUSE I CAN JUST PORTAL IT NO MATTER HOW EDGE AND CRING IT BE!!1!"

...

...

...Ok, I think we're in the clear, he must not be here. Anyway, continuing, I snap my fingers and suddenly, the maniac sees around him a random, distant corner of 13th aveneu. any attacks he tried to make earlier get portalled, and I will refuse to say what got him to be elsewhere until next turn but it doesn't involve anything he could really counter.

If he doesn't get telepoorted...

I ask him whether he's enjoying his lack of oxygen while being crushed to death. before he can gather the breath to answer, he is thrown out of the base. straight into omegapsi, so psi can kill him and keep him out of my hair.

thrown by what? well, those vines he landed on? "These vines are special! They're living vines, unlike the rest of the base. If someone nasty tries to bark in, the vines will strangle 'em!" with a bit of plant manipulation, the vines threw him out after a few seconds, and well, he clearly wasn't defending and hadn't killed them, since the game'd have mentioned that! also, of course i'd drop him on the vines, in case his limb came to life again.

"Tree, nice pun early on by the way, the leave the fo-rest to me one. now, we'll need to cover the floor with a variety of traps for next time the maniac shows up. see what you can come up with, I'm going to sell someone else's soul to the i don't know."

I proceed to, if tog gives me a soul to use, sign the eternal covenent (configered to take that soul, not mine.). Gimme some powers!

i Pull out my grass pants from my inventory, making sure to keep it away from the orb i found in YAM. "alright here are some pants made out of leaves. that should work. also do you have a key of suites for sale?"

Okay, I have a plan! I give the chunks of metal to srovy. Then I try to skewer my Doctor Octopus tentacles through Yet Another Maniac's limbs so I can pin him in place for his exorcism.

Now that I have some metal from through Miss_Desperado I begin trying to shape it and control it with the help of a couple of rocks to create a Rock Core of Life which I will then affix to the Clay Husk.

Also I flip off Steffan (which is supposed to be spelled Stephan but pronounced Stefan)

for making incredibly long posts I don't want to read

edited 19th Jun '18 4:17:04 AM by Srovy

Fine, I sign away my soul to JOE, so that he can sign the Covenant. I take his piece of Voidmetal in exchange, as per our agreement. I stash it in my inventory for later use.

I escape from my earthen body, seeing as it seems to be less of an asset than I thought it would be. I taunt ΩΨ's inability to hit my incorporeal form until i realize that possessing him might be a more useful.

"Hey, ΩΨ, want your sword back? Here." I float the sword in front of me, handle facing him, open for the taking. As he hesitantly approaches to take it, rightly expecting a trap, he suddenly springs my trap. As he grabs the handle of the blade, a spike of earth bursts from the ground and impales him in the leg. As he turns in surprise to look at it, the sword reforms in his hand, so that the handle is also a blade. The double-bladed sword then stabs into his arm. In his moment of weakness, I possess him.

(YAG only gets 1 voidmetal piece, not all 3 of mine)

edited 20th Jun '18 4:37:06 AM by Steffan

Update LVI (56) - Mastermind

He could control anything with his mind. The sky was not the limit, nothing was. With his mere imagination, he could will anything into existence. That is, if he weren't an idiot. His disability, and most of all, unwillingness to think his situations through led to his downfall at the hands of Grim. It's such a shame, too. He was capable of so much. If his power was in the hands of Grim... the world would be what perished, and not him.

But it's all meaningless because what really gets him is the shoving. He tries to talk, but both his nose and his mouth are somehow blocked off by his hand, and he falls down again, taking 4 damage in the process!

Nice potshot. Anyway... Yes, however, the Maniac simply regrew the limbs that were not present! Except, of course, his eyes and his hands, which are magically impossible to just regenerate. The Maniac is thrown into the vines, bumping into omegaPsi. Confused, the vines keep bumping into each other while attempting to choke both of them, resulting in the vines strangling themselves! "Oh, figging heck, that wasn't supposed to happen!" the tree abomination shrieks, running up to the vines and attempting to control them. Nevertheless, the vines don't budge, and simply grab him along with the Maniac and omegaPsi, resulting in a massive ball of absolute vine chaos, the three victims tangled up between the strands. "Damn it! What are these... things made of? I can't even m-move my fingers! The fingers that I don't even have!" the Maniac yells, attempting to untangle himself, but the vines just wrap around him tighter and tighter with every motion.

"Ngh... maple if I try to... move my branches... it'll stop wrapping around us!" the tree monster yells, attempting to move, but the rogue vines have minds of their own, and they want everything destroyed in their paths. "It wasn't supposed to be like this... how are these things so... figging strong?!" he continues yelling. "Well, are you just going to stand there!? Help us! These vines won't get rid of themselves, and besides, they'll... argh! They'll kill all of us like this!" omegaPsi says, his face red from the lack of oxygen. You should probably help, the tree abomination seems to be having a hard time controlling them, and he may actually die like this, if you don't

Or you could do the sensible thing! Oh, hey, it's your pal, Green! Trust me, the Maniac smells real bad, and besides, I don't like blind people. Or homeless people. I know, I'm kinda an asshole, but hey, I'm justified in being an asshole! Because I'm just so much better than everyone else. And I can crawl into your mind! Ooh. Maybe I can find how Spalthos Jr is so strong! Heheh. I'm just kiddin'. I know you don't know. But I will figure it out. Mark my words. Even if it means ending you.

Anyway, just wanted to pop in and tell ya, if you just sit back, both the Maniac and omegaPsi will just go poof! They'll die! Hah. Isn't it great? But what can I do! Helping the Maniac along doesn't mean I like him. I just like him more than you, because you guys are just... the bottom of the barrel. Absolute garbage. But hey, don't get mad, I'm helping you, aren't I? Listen. The game can end here. The game of life, of course, for the three of them. You'll have to bare the tree's shrieks though. "Oh no! JOE! How could you figging betray me! I thought we were friends!" Hehehe! Hilarious, isn't it?

Your choice. Don't be a weakling. Make this easy for both of us. And for everyone on this god forsaken planet.

You have the soul with you, but you can't find anyone with the covenant. Obviously, the Maniac can't give it to you, the Brainiac is nowhere to be found, he's been gone for a while, and Kimmy J is just dead! Huh. Usually, it's pretty easy to find.

The Clay Husk gains sentience, and becomes the Bi-Material Alloyed Destroyer, or BAD for short. BAD looks around, as his hands rumble, and suddenly rock cannons appear in his hands. He looks at your rock stash, and picks one up, engulfing it. He raises his arm, and a rock shoots out of the cannon at insane speeds, tearing apart a nearby tree. It seems he operates on rocks, and can be given them to perform a variety of actions. BAD eats 5 rocks as fuel every turn just to keep running, but he can be shut off at any moment. He does not consume 5 rocks this turn, and you can turn him off the next one if you wish. He begins with 30 HP, and regenerates 1 HP at the cost of 3 rocks. While off, he cannot lose any HP. Furthermore, at the cost of 30 rocks, he can be granted an additional permanent health canister. The cost of this grows by 5 rocks for every health canister already added. He may seem a little expensive for now, but it will be nothing once you have more means of production.

12 rocks are collected, then 3 are used to build another rock collector, leaving you at 24 rocks total.

The base is being built, slowly but surely, and the hug machine is being built too.

Rock-Hard Hug activates! As expected, it lands on the Rock Collectors, adding another 4 rocks, making 28 total.

Final stats: 4 Rock Collectors, 1 Base Builder, 1 Cult Leader, 1 Scientific Inventor, 1 Rock Arm, 20% Hug Machine Completion, 4% Base Completion, 28 Rocks.

Cult Leader Ability: Rock-Hard Hug. 3/3 Charge. (Gives double action to a random lobster!)

BAD's stats can be found in the Battlefield.

In his mind, you find... a person? Hey, you know who that is! "Oh, uhm... Didn't expect to... eh... se ya here!" he gulps, and you recognize him as Green, the guy who enters people's minds, who you probably have heard of. "We... did meet, r-right? Or am I confusing you for s-someone else? All of you idiots are the same to me, heheh... But, uh, what are you doing here?! Oh, me? Oh, I'm... eheh... just..." he says, taking a step back, and bumps into something metallic. You look over him, and see a large metallic structure, full of buttons, dials and interfaces. "This is just, uhm... A table! Yeah! That's where I drink my c-coffee in the morning! Mmmm! Yum! Nothing beats roasted berry seeds! I h-h-hear that you humans really like drinking it! Really... really gets ya... going... in the m-morning... eh?" he appears to visibly be shaking, as you attempt to get closer to him, causing him to tiptoe and lean in on the structure. "H-hey! Don't you know that it's... uhm... it's wrong to t-try and corner me like this! Not without my p-p-p-powers! Look, I can... I can explain... I was just... I was just c-cleaning up! Just being a good ol' m-m-mind janitor! I... D-don't come any closer!! Stay back! Stay r-right where you are!!" he yells, falling onto the floor, shaking and rocking back and forth.

Five souls in total! Current soul outliers: Yet Another Guy (0), Hydraloonie (0), Tales of Under(-1), Dungkaka 1801 (-2). Everyone else has 1.

Welp. You guys are so close to defeating YAM! Come on, just the final stretch, you can do it!

The Good

The Brainiac: 124/150 HP. Gone with the wind!

Tree Abomination: 196/196 HP. Trapped in the vines, along with some other evil guys.

Anti-Dragons: 11/16 HP x5. 55/80 HP in total. Armed with guns, which are armed with water.

BAD: 30/30 HP. Current state: ON. 5 rocks to keep running every turn, 3 rocks to heal 1 HP, 30 rocks to gain 1 permanent point of HP.

Miss_Desperado: 19/19 HP. 100/100 Blood Reserve. [26/50 Additional Blood Tank].

The Bad (and Also Very Ugly)

Fleshy Scythe: 36/46 HP. Grows soul-flesh fruit that can be stolen! Held by Gravelord Neato.

Yet Another Maniac: 6/18 HP. Pinned down by Miss_Desperado

omegaPsi: 17/20 HP. Trapped in some vines. Damn it!

The Maniac: 115/150 HP. Completely vulnerable, located at Steffan's base.

I yell, "Okay, here's the plan! Everybody who is participating in the exorcism, get your butts over here and do it, quick! Everybody who's not, attack the Maniac!"

And then I yell, "You idiot, this is an exorcism, not an execution!"

edited 20th Jun '18 3:58:49 PM by Miss_Desperado

I punch YAM while he's pinned down, then i tell the Anti-Dragons to eat his head off.

For this round I ask BAD to collect rocks I also check in with the scientist

I use five rocks to create a rock Prestige badge (rank 1) I then send this to Desperado as a way of saying thank you

this will allow them to call on 5% of the rock army to aid them "but Srovy you don't have a rock army" I hear you cry, and yes while this is true I shall rectify that very soon

Next using another 10 rocks I create another rock arm and ask it to create a separate batch of lobsters which will receive combat training, and using another two rocks I create a rock Kevlar jacket hat and give it to the lobsters created by the new hand (after they are created that is) next I check in with whichever lobster is in charge of building the HQ and ask them to make adjustments to the blueprints to include a school, Lab, and training hall and after that I give all lobsters and the hands and BAD a Hug and a Belly Rub oh and while were at it I go over to YAM smacking my stomach yelling "I SHALL GUN ALL OVER THEE AND REEEEEEEE ON YOUR FOREHEAD"

edited 20th Jun '18 3:43:45 PM by Srovy

I take out that gun

you know, the one that got the maniac in here to begin with. the terraport gun

Click- ClaTERRAPORT

The Tree is impacted by the Terraport device, and terraports. however, the vines are no longer part of the fleshy tree, and the maniac and omega psi are not part of the tree, so they stay behind.

now, let's recount the recent past. the clone I left behind to ask omegapsi questions was bored, so he made a perfect replica of the tree, with joints and everything, but made of a different material since i don't have a ton of treeflesh on hand. then, recieving my telepathic message, he fires his own terraport module at the tree-duplicate: a modified terraport module, which can possition that which it terraports to take the place of another being, shapewise.

So, the fleshy tree is now a short distance from the thing, and a puppet-statue-thing shaped like him is in his place. omegapsi and the maniac, however, are still quite stuck.

Now what?

Well, I've got 2 people trapped. the maniac and Omegapsi.

so, I give them all a way out.

I present to them a contract of magical magic. If they sign it, I will teleport them (as in the signer, but not the other) out of the vines, And they will give me either their undying loyalty (both can take this option) or 1/2 of the souls they have now and half the souls they obtain in the future (the maniac). if they take the soul option, they are also to not attack or attempt to harm Spalthos until he has been returned to life for 5 sequential rounds.

Any one of them who signs, gets teleported. if Teleporting is impossible, I grant the signers intangibility. if that fails, I give them the power of not needing to breath and being invulnerable to crushing damage while they are entrapped by a vine, until they both signed the contract or all non-signers are dead, at which point I will give the signers immunity to fire and set the vine on fire, unless that fails, in which case I will terraport the vine repeatedly, converting large chunks of its mass into energy to fuel the process, until there isn't enough vine to hold them, unless that fails, in which case I will, Regrettably, use a key of suits to unlock the vines hold on them. sorry TOG.

If the maniac does not sign, then while I wait for him to die, I repeatedly chop off his feet and store all the feet-copys in a gravitational enclosure where gravity keeps them trapped for future use, unless this would free him, in which case I do not.

if the tree has time to do things and nothing presents itself, it is to make more traps like these... except with more failsafes to ensure he keeps control of them, and scattered in the outer rim of the base instead of the inner sector.

edited 20th Jun '18 3:46:28 PM by Steffan

alright i now head over to YAG and tell him to use his Key of Suites on YAM, bringing the wall i purchased with me as i do so.

edited 21st Jun '18 9:28:37 AM by medievalParadox

I find a box. In the box, I find a beef patty, a shield, a film reel, a metal leg, and a note that says: BEEF. I grab the beef patty, and put the beef patty in his eye. Then, I throw a film reel. He grabs a knife, and chops off my legs. I put on the metal leg. Ha.

edited 20th Jun '18 7:25:05 PM by Playing_with_boy

("He look familiar at all to you, Oval face? Can you do some sort of... magical analysis of him or something?") I float towards Greenie as threateningly as I can. "Okay, here, Little Green Man Brain Guy Person Thing. I will... let you... live... if you tell me what you're doing here. Like this," I say, pointing at the big terminal-looking-thingy. "This here big terminal-looking-thingy. Wuzzit do?"

I sidle closer to it and see if poking it looks like a good idea.

Also, I guess Homestuck guy is here now? That's cool.

edited 21st Jun '18 10:34:56 AM by YetAnotherGuy

i tend to my garden some more, and tell the lost soul that his favourite food was live humans, i could smell the cannibalistic degeneracy from here. But obviously not just any humans would do, he only ate the biggest, sumo wrestlers. How are they twisty and loopy? the dna of course! He connected his love for crimes against morality to his biology textbook which is as twisted and evil as his desires.

i then walk up to YAM, who I haven't really talked to yet, and use my power near/on him, if that doesn't work I use my necromancy to control his undead body into attacking the maniac, which he wanted to do anyways, to assert his dominance and all that.

But I'm pinning Yet Another Maniac down for his exorcism, remember?

I try to assist in the exorcism by pulling out my grandfather's grimoire and trying to find some spell or another that will help.

edited 22nd Jun '18 4:29:48 PM by JumpingFruit

Update LVII (57) - Green

Did you really think that you won?

Miss_Desperado: I yell, "Okay, here's the plan! Everybody who is participating in the exorcism, get your butts over here and do it, quick! Everybody who's not, attack the Maniac!" And then I yell, "You idiot, this is an exorcism, not an execution!"

Secondly, exorcisms usually help people, and executions harm them at their core. I have found that in the real world, the line between these blurs quite a bit. Just the other day, when this seemingly respectable stranger just had a rather extemporaneous, quite an extemporary, maybe a little extempore, and a bit of a random idea. Jumping out of a building to end himself. Having only just escaped from the clutches of prison myself, I had no choice but to help another soul in need. And what does he do? He sues me! Right then and there. Apparently, he wanted to die, and didn't want anyone saving him! Apparently, it's his "right" to die. Apparently, not only am I a criminal on the run, but now I also owe this random bloke 10 grand in pounds! Oh, excuse my British. I owe this random fellow 4535.924 kilograms. Besides, executions do help other people, don't they? You really only execute someone to keep people safe. To be honest, an execution sounds like it helps a lot more people. I mean, there might've been a maniac that might've killed 13,000 people, and trust me, I know a fellow like that, but how many people on average does a haunted person kill? 13? Far less than that, I'd assume.

And lastly, being faced with a haunted person, who, has hypothetically killed 13,000 innocent souls, both execution and exorcism would seem sensible, would they not? Besides, execution is better than 13 long years in prison. Not that I spent that long in there. I'd like to think I'm a little better at escape plans than that.

Rock collectors collect rocks, another rock collector is made, you know the drill. You end up with 45 rocks!

You use up a total of 17 rocks, leaving you with 28 again, to give Miss_Desperado a badge of honor, and create a rock arm and a bullet-proof vest hat. The hand will start to create them next turn. With your creation of a second rock arm, you will make even more rock collectors, or in this case, army lobsters!

You check in on the Scientific Inventor, who tells you they have just had a breakthrough in metallic technology! Once the Hug Machine is completed, progress will begin on a metallic conversion machine, still unnamed.

Meanwhile, you check in on the sole base builder. Overwhelmed by your additions, he tells you it'll be almost impossible to finish your grandiose plans ever at this rate! He needs more support, and he's only at 5% as is, which means it'll take 20x more turns at this rate to finish it. In order to even add anything, he needs a solid base, and by that he means the base of a base, the ground level, something to work on, which will be completed by 10%. Before that, he cannot add anything.

BAD goes to collect rocks, taking 5 rocks as fuel. He swiftly returns with... 6 rocks. Great. He tells you he's a Bi-Material Alloyed Destroyed, made out of metal and clay, not a Gathering Omni-Material Observing Detective made out of multiple materials, he can't find where all the high quality rocks are hiding, he's a lot better for actually destroying things. The Scientific Inventor overhears this, jotting down some ideas. Also, if you don't want BAD to eat 5 rocks next turn, you should probably say that you want him to be turned OFF, because right now, he's ON.

You hug everyone! Hooray! Belly rubs! The incomplete Hug Machine is inspired by your hugs and belly rubs, and adds an extra 10% to its completion rate.

Final stats: 5 Rock Collectors, 1 Base Builder, 1 Cult Leader, 1 Scientific Inventor, 2 Rock Arm, 40% Hug Machine Completion, 5 Base Completion, 29 Rocks.

Cult Leader Ability: Rock-Hard Hug. 1/3 Charge. (Gives double action to a random lobster!)

"If you think I will sign this contract... you're a fool." omegaPsi grunts, having completely given up from trying to escape. "As if some vines could really stop me. I am unbeatable, now and forever! You idiots will be blown up to pieces... by the time... I'm out!" he tries to yell, but his throat is completely covered by the vines. "Did you really think that you won?" omegaPsi says. "Did you really think that this is the end?" the Maniac says. And then, as if in unison, both chant one sentence.

"This isn't even my final form!"

Now, at this point you would expect a grandiose twist. Perhaps the Maniac and omegaPsi were working together? Perhaps they were one person? Maybe the Maniac was controlling omegaPsi from the interesting? Both were controlled by a higher entity?

Not quite.

"Wh... what did you just... say!?" the Maniac blurts in his signature raspy voice. "You heard what... I said! But wh... what did you say?!" omegaPsi blurts in his signature gravelly voice. "I meant that this wasn't... even... damn it! These fucking vines! I meant that... this isn't my f-final form!" the Maniac tries to explain. "I... I understand that... I'm not deaf! Even if these pesky vines are covering my ears... I can hear you... clearly! I need to know... what you... m-meant!" omegaPsi tries to ask.

"I meant that this isn't even my body, okay!?" the Maniac says.

"Oh... you too, huh?" omegaPsi says.

And both look at you.

No, don't be afraid to show it. I know you're surprised. I was surprised, too.

"But... who... are you...?" the Maniac asks.

"You know... who I am." omegaPsi asks.

"You know... who I am... too." the Maniac says.

"Then... why didn't you tell... anyone else?" omegaPsi asks.

"Did you... need to know?" the Maniac tells him.

"I guess... not." omegaPsi says.

And then, as you look at both of them, the glow in the Maniac's missing eye holes fades, and omegaPsi's eyes roll to the back of his head.

I'm a very good actor, I know. I learn from the best! But now isn't my time. Omega Psi is dead, the vines got to him just as I slipped out of his fragile little body. But you know who's still alive?

"...WHERE AM I?! Why is... everything so dark... why is everything so... dark again!? What's... crawling around me!?" a different voice calls out from within the Maniac's body. You recognize it, it's that fellow, the one who the Maniac became when he lost his memories! But... could it be? Could it be that he's- "Wait a second... Wait, I remember! I had to tell you... s-s-something! Names. N-names." he turns his head, frightened, back and forth, trying to break himself from the vines, and yet his mind is nowhere near them, it's floating somewhere, somewhere nobody can even reach it. "Names... I remember... Initials... On that book... I remember... the name!" he yells, twisting his shoulders as the vines crawl into his ears. "Daniel Greene!! Daniel Greene!!! Daniel... Greene..." he calls out, and you shake him, asking him, Daniel Greene? Who's that? The Maniac? Omega Psi? Whose name is it? Who is Daniel Greene?

"No... I'm... Daniel Greene. I remember... now. Daniel... Theodore... Greene... But I don't... matter... do I? Did I ever... matter? He... took my body..." tears begin streaming down his face, as he stops budging, the vines crawling into his nostrils, and yet he doesn't twitch. "Whose... name? I know... I had to tell you... a name... but... whose..." he says, the vines still creeping. "Wait... M-Maniac... Maniac! The Maniac!! His... name!" his body springs back, alive, alive and kicking, but mostly just alive, due to the vines covering his legs. "His name... it's... the key... you have to defeat... the Maniac! His name... what was... his name... I remember... but... I forgot... I think..." he twists and turns unnaturally, it's obvious he won't last long, but you still ask him. What is it? What's his name? How will it help you defeat him?! What is the Maniac's name?

"I remember! I always... remembered... his name!" he kicks and turns, spitting the vines out as they crawl into his mouth, they're everywhere, his eyes, covering his chest, his hair. "The... Maniac's name... it's... ack!" he tries to scream, but his mouth is covered, and he's gasping for air, the vines pulling his limbs apart. "It... name... mmmff... Mmmmm! Mmmm!" he yells, twists, turns, but nothing comes out. His mouth is covered, and you try to teleport him, you try to reach out, but you don't. Your body is petrified. You simply cannot move. You wish you could. But you can't.

"MMMM!!! MMMMMMMMMM!!!! MMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!! MMM!! MMM!! MMMMMM!!!! MMM!!! MMMMMMMMMMM!!! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! MMM!! MM!!!! MM!!! M!! M! Mmmm! Mmmmmmmm... mmm... m..." he yells and yells, struggles and struggles, but it's too late.

He's dead.

But the Maniac isn't.

As much as I hate to say it...

He's still very much alive.

Anyway, who do you actually aim that towards? You never mentioned a single person other than yourself! I guess it's the Maniac? But the Maniac's dead! What a paradoooooox!

Anyway, enjoy the metal legs. I've heard they're fairly fashionable during the summer!

"Well... I can explain... see... that's...!" he mumbles, but suddenly, he disappears. {We gotta get outta here! Pronto!! This body's shuttin' down! I can feel it!} Tomb Raiser yells as everything rumbles and every nonexistent light turns off. You swiftly exit the body, finding yourself outside of Steffan's base. Witnessing the last moments of Daniel Greene's death.

You walk up to YAM, standing next to Miss_Desperado, and activate your abilities. Unbeknownst to you, however, it activates on Miss_Desperado.

Both of you are sitting somewhere on a bench, along with every other player. The bench is very wide. You can tell the other players are fakes. Their bodies are paper, and their faces are masks that you drew with a sharpie. Miss_Desperado is sitting on the other side of the bench. She asks you if you're insane, and why you made all these caricatures of the players, and even the enemies you have faced. Yet Another Guy's ghosty tail isn't there. The Maniac has no arms, and yet here he has both. Unit 13 is shorter, and yet they all look the same here. You tell her you aren't insane, and that this is just who you are. And then you look over at yourself. You're one of those caricatures. I guess you are insane!

Snap back to reality. Both of you look at each other, and promise to never speak of this again.

Miss_Desperado: But I'm pinning Yet Another Maniac down for his exorcism, remember?

You find a spell that's literally named exorcism. Apparently it requires a sock, a battery, a bar of soap, a stick of butter, and a butler who has served as a butler for 13 years. Come to think of it, every butler you've seen is fairly old, and they definitely have butlered for more than 13 years! How odd.

So... what now?

edited 23rd Jun '18 6:08:37 AM by TrickleJest

I........stand around confused.