Glitcher 2016/08/06(Sat)21:17 No. 740816 ID: d1f5f1
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"Rulekeep!"
"Hello, Glitcher. You said it's not time travel."
"It may as well be! Rulekeeper what do oysters have to do with anything?"
"Nothing, Glitcher. Oysters are not relevant to us. Anyways, it feels quiet, doesn't it? In between cycles like this, it's just empty space."
"Well actually without being covered by threads, invisible air threads or clipping through walls, it's more like we're just naked."
"We're all naked without our clothes."
"Some of us are naked with our clothes!
"Glitcher, we're rambling."
"Yeah, okay. But look, over 3,000 cycles, any of them could have valuable information, most of them are probably just going to be contestants whining about constantly dying for 14 stages."
"Wouldn't you whine about that?"
"If I wouldn't, I wouldn't be here!"

Rulekeeper waits for me to continue.

I don't.

She keeps waiting.

Ugh I guess I'll continue.

"We're not completely nu - I mean there's some weird hanging threads between cycles. This place isn't clean."
"Yes. there's something connecting the cycles together. A sort of tunnel between them that causes persistence. I believe these are all the logs that have travelled from one cycle to the next. Have a look."
"Yeah this thread is real beautiful. It's like a sewage pipe made of gold."
"Don't be mean, Glitcher. These are the final thoughts of the few surviving contestants. It is just as bad as we thought. Just before they were deconstructed, or rebooted, it seems that the last memory they have, the most persistent one, is the one that is snatched up in this tiny pipeline and sent to the next stage."
"Huh, so does that mean Alison from cycle 1314 was a literal child down to the end?"
"Glitcher."
"Okay, fine, fine, but really, this thread has corruption written all over it. And it goes all the way to the first cycle. God, what a mess. It's like just a literal pile of ten thousand pieces of shredded paper. It'd be a huge pain to find anything in here. I can only see one at a time."
"For someone who sat through ten thousand years of... nothing, you are a very impatient entity. But, we already have a few logs to point us in the direction of potentially interesting cycles. We can go to any cycle and rewind it."
"Once we rewind and hit play, and then inevitably screw everything about the cycle up, can we revert back to how it actually ended?"
"Hmmm.... no, I believe as soon as we rewind, then have any meaningful impact on anyone or anything inside, it may take a different turn. However, I also feel that if a cycle is truly worth looking at, it will have a more, well, a more perpetual property about it rather than simply which contestants lived through what stages."

http://tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Logs

I guess Sevener 3111 might be worth trying. Seems like things changed somewhat.

Check out the first cycle where Corruptor started creating a glitched super log in Arbiters logs.

Finding out what news Corruptors got that caused him to turn against Alison would help. And where it came from.

We want to look for cases where important contestants might have been influenced by outside or hidden sources. It might end up that its all internal messages but our best bet to break out is finding a connection to the outside.

If you rewind to a past cycle and interact with it, subsequently changing it, will it then change the log left behind? Will it mean two logs get left behind? (If you change the logs will it make your own cycle impossible to return to, because it will be retroactively changed by the contestants getting different logs that make them act differently)?

...should you make a backup of the original logs-thread in case you change it?

Can you read all of everyone's logs, now? Not just the ones we gathered? Maybe you should start by snooping on the logs of people who won't ally with Alison, and see if they left any interesting hints.

Remember you two can choose to be invisible and intangible, so you can spy on a cycle before interacting with it.

...we probably don't want to run any rewound cycle all the way to the end and trigger the confrontation with the CAI. It'll catch on that you're doing something if it gets a bunch of confrontations at the wrong time, or that perfectly copy earlier interactions.

>SEVENER #3111 - NAGA STOPPED HUGGING
...I'm awful tempted to visit an Alison who lost hope and try and cheer her up. She pulled you back from the abyss enough times.

Ok, first, I think we need to find out what's up with the Corruptor. What's his whole deal. Why does he eventually start doing terrible things?

So, try this one:

>ALISON #2389 - CORRUPTOR KILLED EVERYONE, EVERYTHING. GLITCHER KILLED HIMSELF FROM THE GUILT.

You know... part of me wants to see the first cycle. Before the CAI at the end was even established. Heck, if we do that, won't we be able to see how the CAI connects to the outside world? I mean, when they're first established they have to form the connection. Regardless of how much security is put on the connection after the fact, being able to see how it's made will give us a serious advantage in any hacking attempts.

#2565 is another notable cycle. It'd give us an idea of what a Corrupted Savior is capable of.
We could try #2805 or #2805 to see the real CAI Fight. #2623 could let us see the merge attempt.
Can you tell what that weird glitchy cycle is where Chief left a log?
#1568 could be interesting- Corruptor was not in contact with Arbiter?
#1599 also could be interesting. Arbiter found out something about you, but it's missing from his logs. Go find out what it was.
#298 could give us info on why Corruptor can't leave.
#3111 is of course another anomaly. Alison not hugging is just bizarre.

#1700 seems interesting. What did Iso do to keep failing Alison?

Actually, important question: Can you somehow run a trace on Corruptor's logs? He mentions certain events but doesn't say what cycles they took place in. Can you somehow track the... memory links, or whatever, of certain phrases in those logs, to find out what cycles they're connected to?

We really need to see what that "Ghost" phenomenon is about, and Corruptor said he saw it happen in front of him.

Seeing what happens when Corruptor manages to make a bond with Saviour would also be a good idea. He also mentions cycles where he himself is "infatuated" with Alison, and those cycles may have Corruptors who are most willing to answer questions.

I think before we get into the nitty gritty of who is the corrupter and savior and how to break everyone out we should visit any of the more interesting logs like #1700, #3111, #2192,#2032, #1888, #403 don't interfere with them they just seem to have the most interesting stories to see what happened in. but #3111 or #1700 first.

CHIEF #(@!&#!--:? - YOU GET ONE MESSAGE SO STOP WASTING IT. THAT GOES TO ME, TOO

We could investigate why this number is broken. It's likely the Corrupter, but who knows.

Glitcher 2016/08/06(Sat)22:39 No. 740829 ID: d1f5f1
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>If you rewind to a past cycle and interact with it, subsequently changing it, will it then change the log left behind?
Huh, yeah, I think this thing is active. So reading a log from cycle 1000 in cycle 2000 means that it goes back a thousand cycles in the pipe and sees what's there.

It won't retroactively change anything though. It's not like going back to my cycle means regenerating the cycle from scratch, which is why it's not time travel. Right now cycle 3,119 is just frozen with all those wrestlers doing wrestly things. If all the logs get scrambled and someone there looks at them, then they'll be confused.

Now I guess if I rewinded that entire cycle, then...

>Should you make a backup of the original logs-thread in case you change it?
I guess I could for posterity.

>Can you read all of everyone's logs, now? Not just the ones we gathered? Maybe you should start by snooping on the logs of people who won't ally with Alison, and see if they left any interesting hints.
I guess.

Let's start with, uh, Chief.

He gets pretty desperate after stage 3. If he beats Alison, his high point is usually at stage 7, and he can get a pretty big empire going.

It always falls flat, though.

Iso's are surprisingly, uh... self aware. Not that helpful, but informative to things involving stage tips and words of encouragement to future Alisons. Oh, hey, he mentions Sweatermouse at some point. Says she's helpful. Thanks, Iso, that's helpful.

Sweatermouse's logs may as well be the Arbiter-Alison fan club echoes. Hm? She did one of those things where someone leaves a log on someone elses records, like Chief did on Alison's a few times. Sweatermouse's log is on someone called the Lumberer.

SWEATERMOUSE #644 (LUMBERER'S LOG)- WHERE DID YOU GO?

Maybe Lumberer is like the Alison-Arbiter substitute for when they die.

... Lumberer has a handful of logs, but Sweatermouse's is the last entry on his line. So I guess the answer is nowhere important.

>Corruptors logs
They're, uh... pretty well self contained and encrypted in Arbiter's logs.

Like all these other logs, though, I wouldn't trust what it says too much. I mean, they all point from Arbiter's logs as the focal point, but they travel throughout a huge number of cycles, and seemingly at random. It's like every cycle he could, he just changed his big log a little bit at a time, with what information he knows. So he says 'append' even though it looks like he was able to change and remove tidbits as well as add things in the middle.

Ultimately, though, it's made out of pretty mundane materials like it was just any other log. I can pick at all the changes and see which cycle was used to make which change. Cycle 1062 is when he said he and others have seen contestants disappear.

>Cycle 1700 in which Iso fails Alison
That's a huge rumor factory in the real current cycle, but it's probably something dumb and unimportant so I'm just going to have Guitar Knight summon Alison 1700 at some point for the big reveal.

>Can you tell what that weird glitchy cycle is where Chief left a log?
Cycle 2207. When I get close, there's a thick, black veil. I can see, well, sense, the cycles through it, but it encompasses cycles 1108 to 1153, and then 2202 to 2215. All the logs in these cycles either seem normal, or are completely screwed up gibberish.

I guess I could get through this veil, though. It looks like it's a barrier against corruption. It won't like me going through it, but I can see how it's structured, so it can't stop me.

When I get my fingers close, parts of it jut out to me like a weird magnetic jelly thing.


Okay, narrowed choices down to 2:
As far as testing the waters with mundane cycles go, I'm tempted to go with cycle 3111 about the whole not-hugging thing Alison is doing.

For the bold moves, I can burst through this veil and see what the corrupted block is all about.

Put off the bold move. You have lots of time, and you should experiment with "normal" time traveling before dealing with a souped up Corruptor, or automatic quarantine protocols, or whatever is putting up those walls.

3111, test the waters.

I don't want to go to the not-hugging cycle, it just sounds like a sad cycle where Alison finally broke down. Go for the breakthrough, but maaaaybe have Rulekeeper do it in case it reacts better to her. Let's make as little mess as possible until we need to.

If there were a theoretical outside entity observing the whole system, would they be able to see anomalous activity now that you've stopped the normal cycle program and are rooting through everything? We might be on limited time until someone tries to interfere.

Lets Alison it up so you get experience time traveling before going in the creepy zone.

Let's go with 3111

It occurs to me past cycles may have managed a way to break the simulation in order to continue existing indefinitely. Lets bust the vail and see what's inside.

Glitcher 2016/08/06(Sat)23:10 No. 740840 ID: d1f5f1
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I'll play it safe for a little bit at least.

Cycle 3111. Safe Zone 11. It just looks like a patio area. And a small gate to go into stage 11. It's been left open, and it just looks like a gate overlooking a cliff, now.

"Here we are."
"Yep. How do you think this will work?"
"I dunno, you're the one who can rewind everything. Every safe zone and stage is empty. Does this mean we have to watch everything go in reverse?"
"That, or we just rewind it all the way, and then we stay invisible. Everything should be deterministic."
"Well let's not rewind it all the way I mean nothing really important happens in the first few stages."

lets go back to stage 6 or 7 and see how alison is then

>>740840
Stay invisible to start with. Rewind really fast without watching, then fastforward in busts, skimming for anything interesting. You can start spying when stuff starts catching your eye.

start at stage 4, corrupted sanctuary.

We should follow the Lumberer through cycle 644 at some point to maybe get to the bottom of this ghost business.

>>740844

Good point there. This Lumberer fellow might have gotten ghosted. Might be worth it to go there and check.

>>740829
>veil
I think those are cycles where Savior succeeded? Or did some last-ditch desperation move because Corruptor did something extreme? Corruptor wouldn't have made the veil at least. It's reaching out to you because you ARE Savior, sortof.

I expect we're going to go in there eventually but right now we need to gather information then make sure that information is preserved for future Glitchers to find. Also, if you can, plant some information so that Glitchers in the future will be on the lookout for opportunities to recreate Rulekeep. Though, honestly, she might be completely unique. Maybe instead you should try to ensure she is backed up somewhere that a future Glitcher can access and resurrect her and maybe also you.

Hey, what happens when you rewind and there's a Glitcher alive at that point? Will Glitcher be in the simulation? Or will he/you be missing due to the whole system not recognizing you properly, which means the deterministic nature of the "time travel" will fail?

>>740842
Yeah. Let's just stay invisible and observe, no need to interfere unless we want to experiment or ask someone a question that observation does not give us the answer to.

Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)00:14 No. 740850 ID: d1f5f1
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>Veil is over cycles where Savior succeeded?
Seems kinda weird that it'd happen one cycle after another in 2 clean blocks. I'm betting that the Corruptor might have screwed up one cycle after another.

>Plant information
The only way I can think of is to write information on threads somewhere between cycles, and that's the universe equivalent of open space. There's a lot of that. I'll have to think of how to actually pass on information to future glitcher's without relying on them bumping into it by one in a quintillion chance.

>Will Glitcher be in the simulation?
Sort of. Not really. Not a true glitcher. I'll need to go into a cycle with a glitcher to see how it really handles it, but I don't think I can get an army of glitchers here, and cycles with glitchers might fail on the whole 'deterministic' thing.

"Bump it back to stage 4, where the corrupted sanctuary starts getting popular."
"Alright."

It goes pretty normally. Actually it goes really similarly to the current cycle. Except that it doesn't seem like I exist. Alison seems optimistic as ever. Corruptor is going to fight the system like they're the badguys. So on.

Stage 4, 5, 6 pass. Alison has other friends I've never seen, or at least paid attention to, before. Stage 7 has Sevener, and all the admins put an end to overloading stage exits. There's no CAI fight. Alison has lost most of her friends to attrition. She has new ones, but resurrection was also banned. Sleeping still exists, but she's made way too many promises to everyone, and she starts doubting her ability to do anything.

This cycle doesn't have the stage 7 house of suicide, but it still has a 99% mortality rate. Alison doesn't have any tricks left that work. The corruptor is quarantined by the Savior, and the Savior doesn't respond to any summons.

By stage 8, Anya is trying to talk Alison out of it, but Alison seems too detached. She plays a song for the people who are still alive, but the friends who could play with her died stages back. Stage 8 is entered, and though Alison lives, the numbers plummet again. In safe zone 9, she keeps on playing.

>"Thank you all for listening. It means a lot, and I'm sorry that this is all I can do for you."
>"You're giving up, aren't you?" Sevener asks, having made it to stage 9 as well.
>"I'm still open to ideas, but they've all been negated."
>"Were your end-stage hugs powered by ideas or somethin'?"

Alison is silent.

Whenever she promised something, she would always hug that person as she promised. After a while, whenever she hugged people, she would start making compulsive promises.

Safe zone stage 9 is where she stopped hugging.

Immediate temptation: Join in at this point, appearing beside Alison. Glitcher on one side, Rulekeeper the other. Introduce yourselves. Tell her you're not going to make any promises, but that you can say you are trying to fix everything, and you honestly do have hope. Because of her. And give her a hug.

Then disappear again like a pair of mystical douche gods. Have a look around for the "CAI creator notes" that one of Sevener's logs mentioned could be in the stage 9 safe zone. Leave these guys with a bit of hope to cheer them up, and let's head off again.

Next I say look for Lumberer 644, or Corrupter in 1062, to check out this "Ghost" thing.

Can we send her a note? Tell her that to not give up hope and that what she does eventually leads to a possible way out?

To focus on the long term and keep trying.

>>740850
Okay, this is just sad. I'm thirding doing something to give Alison some hope, even if it's just telling her that a future her finally managed to pull together what might be a winning scenario. Just to be sure, though, the admins can't mess with Rulekeeper, right?

Going to cycle 2111 or 2598 to find out what exactly going to the upper echelon entails and why King didn't come back from his trips there might be interesting.

This would be a good time to test what happens if you interact with a time rewound cycle. Maybe see if the log changes after you interfere.

Maybe go appear near them and give Alison a hug. Tell her thanks for being her and to never give up.

I feel like it's immoral to interfere unless we have an important reason to. We can't guarantee anything will happen from the time travel investigation, so all we'd be doing is giving hope to people who won't even be conscious for much longer considering they're going back into stasis. Why bother?

(hmm, I just realized... if the inside of the veil is where Corruptor emerged victorious somehow, and the veil itself wasn't made by Savior, that means the veil was created by an outside influence. Wasn't the CAI being controlled by the salikai via some sort of regular procedure to keep it from dying?)

1/3 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)01:29 No. 740861 ID: d1f5f1
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"Hello, Alison."

Rulekeeper and I materialize like the wizards we are besides Alison.

>"Ah?! Who are you two?"
"I am the Glitcher, and this is my partner, the Rulekeeper."
"Hello."
"We're time travellers."
"Pseudo-time travellers."
"Not going to make any promises here, but we're trying to fix everything! And I still got hope, and so should you. Because of you. So hang in there."

I give her a hug.

Then vanish like the cryptic douche-god I am.

>Search safe zone 9 for: 'SEVENER #2772 - STAGE 9 SAFE ZONE HAS CAI-CREATOR NOTES - MAYBE'
If I ever visit cycle 2772 then I'm gonna try and recreate the stage so that when Sevener makes her log, that 'MAYBE' turns into a 'NEVERMIND'.

It's probably just those photos lying around. I'll collect some while wandering the cycles.

2/3 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)01:29 No. 740862 ID: d1f5f1
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Anyway, we stay vanished and let the cycle keep on going to the end. Alison trucks on, and even hugs a few people, but she still dies on stage 9. I look away when it happens. Stage 9 deaths stink.

The cycle ends, and Sevener still manages to survive stage 11, so she leaves behind a log. I check out the logs for this cycle. Three no-namers leaving behind junk, and then Sevener.

SEVENER #3111 - NAGA STOPPED HUGGING
SEVENER #3111 - THE FUCK WAS THAT

Two logs, now. Okay then, it didn't remove the old one.

Next up, Cycle #644 in search of the Lumberer. We rewind and rewind, and then we find the Lumberer at safe zone 8.

That's him alright. Him and Sweatermouse, freshly resurrected.

He goes to fetch a drink or whatever in one of the buildings.

3/3 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)01:41 No. 740867 ID: d1f5f1
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Then he vanishes. No poof, no sparkles, no fading, no nothing. Gone like a video cut.

"Did you see that?"
"Dude vanished. His strings just kinda dispersed into nothing. I don't even see where they went."
"That's what I mean! He didn't go anywhere! He's still here!"
"What?"
"In this cycle, I mean. It's like he was absorbed by the stage. Stage 4, specifically."
"So dead stages consume contestants, now? Well, not now, but - you know."
"I'm just saying what I saw. But nothing about stage 4 changed, really. It's just... he's just there now as part of the stage? I don't know how else to describe it."
"Like he exploded into ash and was dispersed over the entirety of stage 4?"
"Yes, actually, except embedded into everything regarding stage 4. Not just a single instance of stage 4, either, but the very core that is used to generate all the stage 4's in a cycle."

We rewind again, then let it play. Every time is the same. I take a hard look at Lumberer's threads, and they're as normal as can be. In stage 4, I just can't find them.

"It's occuring to me... that whatever removed him, and whatever integrated him into stage 4, might not be emulated right by the cycle alone. In other words, the cycle is only reflecting the changes that it recorded after the fact."

Oh okay you're letting everything resolve itself after interfering. So I guess that was a nice thing to do, except then you're just exposing the AIs to a similar sort of repeated suffering that the cycles do.

Rulekeep is probably right about Lumberer. Which means it's either an entity like you two, or something interfering from outside the cycles. It's not possible for the CAI to interfere with the stages, is it?

Can Rulekeep communicate with him at all? If not here, then in the current cycle's stage 4? Can she tell if his personality is intact and will remain intact in every stage 4 from here on? I wish we knew WHY it happened. Maybe there's some clue in his prior actions in this cycle? Keep rewinding and see if he does anything interesting.

Now that's weird. Did anything strange happen in Stage 4, 644? Was Stage 4 damaged somehow? Look at 643 and 645's stage fours, watch them run. And check out stage 4 in like, 544 or something, in case it's something gradual over multiple cycles. What's different before and after Lumberer gets... integrated? What are his strings being used for? Are they still active? And just to be sure: this is the end of Lumberer? He stops appearing in later stages?

... Can you manipulate his strings, if they're still there? Can you talk to him?

So Rulekeeper thinks that maybe a external force did this to him but because its outside the cycle entirely we can only see the after effects?

Maybe you can test for that by looking more in depth at his strings the moment before he disappeared. See if he was surprised or if he saw something we could not. And also check the strings of the stage in that room. Did anything register someone or something being there?

If we can't directly see the cause maybe we can track its shadow. Get a idea of what happened if we can find a reflection of its actions in the stage.

Also check his past and future in the next cycle over.

Finally see if Rulekeeper can extract some of his threads so you can read them and get a idea of what they are being used for now.

Ok first check this guys history. Was he doing anything special during this cycle? Then check previous cycles. Was he there and doing the same sort of stuff? After that check his future. See if where he spawned is now missing a blob that would have been him.

Also was he really going to get a drink? Or was he knowingly going to a out of the way spot to disappear?

We need to make sure he is a actual contestant that appeared regularly before this event and then was never seen in cycles after it.

Because if not he could be a construct that was made to interact with Sweatermouse and what you saw is just him being reabsorbed by the stage after whatever made/controlled him was done with him.

>>740862
>Two logs, now. Okay then, it didn't remove the old one.
1901 had two logs as well, which implies that something like this may have happened before. Why that cycle, though? What do the other 1901 logs say, and can we find out when that second log appeared without slightly rewinding future cycles and asking Sevener what her logs were?

The log that was left was surprisingly vague, though, considering she had a few stages to think about it. I would have expected something like "Glitcher appeared out of nowhere with someone else just to cheer up Naga. Never saw him before or after. What the fuck?!"

>>740867
>Stage 4
The only interesting thing about Stage 4 that I can think of is that's where the keycards appear. Maybe there's a connection?

Ok a couple of ideas for what might be going on.

1. He is not really a contestant. Someone put him together out of stage threads and used him to interact with Sweatermouse and then disassembled him back to stage bits after leaving. Could be a way for external entities to enter a cycle and talk to people.

2. His threads were recycled into the stage as part of some repair process. Maybe the sim was damaged and grabbed the first nearby thing to use its parts to fix things.

3. Something invisible in our cycle rewind showed up and spirited him away. After it made a copy or drug him out of the sim or whatever his now redundant threads were absorbed by the stage.

4. Possibly he was supposed to die in a earlier stage but his death was caused or avoided by a bug. The Admins/shopkeeper/system ran a check for contestants that should have been dead and it noticed him and tried to retroactively kill him off but because he was in a safe zone the program could not run correctly. So he was absorbed into the stage instead of being killed normally.

>>740873
Explanation 1 would be perfect IF he didn't exist in previous cycles.

Well that's... something. I think this means that the Ghost is most likely another glitcher-like entity, as I doubt the CAI or any other external force would be interested in doing whatever that was, and a natural part of the cycles would be detectable here.

>>740871
He has a bunch of logs, that's how we found this cycle, this cycle contains his last log.

>>740872
A log is the last memory of a dying brain, her memory of that in words just happened to be "THE FUCK WAS THAT"

Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)02:35 No. 740878 ID: d1f5f1
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>Cycle 1901 also had two entries
I'll throw that on the to-visit list, then. The other logs in that cycle are just junk from 3 no-namers, though.

>Was he doing anything special during this cycle?
Nope.

>Also was he really going to get a drink? Or was he knowingly going to a out of the way spot to disappear?
As far as his threads show, he fully intended on getting a drink, and had no knowledge he was going to vanish. It seems coincidental, but that's how it looks.

>It's not possible for the CAI to interfere with the stages, is it?
I don't know if it's impossible, but there's no evidence to show that. And if they could, I'd think they could find something better than make random contestants disappear.

>Did anything strange happen in Stage 4, 644?
We rewind to see how Stage 4 played out. It's completely normal, without any Lumberer ash in it. Later on, we talk to the lumberer. He's normal. Completely mundane.

>Someone put him together out of stage threads/constructed him and used him to interact with Sweatermouse
Sweatermouse tries her best but I'd have no idea why someone would do all this just to talk with her.

>He stops appearing in later stages?
Let me make sure of that.

First we go to cycle earlier, 643. Stage 4 looks normal, except it has keycards, unlike 644. Lumberer is in the cycle, too, and dies on preliminary stage 3. There's nothing abnormal about his short short life. We let the cycle go out again. Of interest is that the administration does not like keycards existing one bit, and they managed to band together to prevent stages from making them ever again. Clearly that didn't last forever.

We go to Cycle 645, and we rewind back. Stage 4 is the same as it was after Lumberer disappeared, meaning the stage was permanently changed ever since consuming him. And Lumberer himself is still gone.

>Keycards
Keycards.

"Rulekeep?"
"Yes?"
"This stage 4 has two keycards for administration, one to stage 5 administration, one to stage 6."[/color]
"... I see."
"Admins petitioned to remove them from cycle 643 and onward. Cycle 644 didn't have them as planned. Now 645 does. These keycards are new."

>Keycards are MADE OF PEOPLE

Oh geeze.

Can you tell whether the keycards' strings are connected to Lumberer's distributed ones? Or, connected to something else that existed previously that they were made from instead, which then got replaced with Lumberer's parts?

Corrupter said he saw someone disappear, too. Maybe you should check that out and see what's common between the two disappearances.

I'm thinking... is it possible that there's some mechanism, or some entity, that tries to put things back the way they were after certain changes are made? But for some reason it needs to cannibalize other resources to do it? ... It would be a bit of a project, but could you find a cycle with amenable admins and get them to petition to have keycards back again? The old keycards? And see what happens?

Oh, then I guess that some form of number 2 from >>740873 is correct. I suppose we should keep an eye out for changes made that are meant to be permanent across cycles to see what else can trigger this phenomenon. Once we begin winding down this time travel adventure we may want to make a stop at the cycle before the current one to see if they made any changes that could cause the ghost to show up in our cycle. Heck, we may want to head there anyway if we're interested in finding out about the corrupted Savior.

>>740878
Just two keycards? Is the number variable, or have they been increasing as the stages go on? Who found them that cycle, Savior and Cake?

The keycards themselves are still an anomaly, though. They're given to contestants who can't even reach a place to use them without the Corruptor's help, and basically only give access to log reading and note writing. Since contestants need the Corruptor's help to use them, they were probably added by whoever added him, and the fairly consistent timing suggests it's an injected process rather than just something someone on the outside checks on every couple days. Presumably contestants are harvested to give the result permanence, and this method is used because whatever's doing this can't use the same process that the admins do. Was the Corruptor created the same way at some point? Can we harvest some unlucky contestant/admin/CAI Fight NPC to give Glitcher and Rulekeeper persistance?

Hmm, actually, since the keycards and the Corruptor are likely linked, I can see a bit of a pattern forming in who finds them. S5 is, presumably, found by Savior, and if not then we should look into who tends to get it since we never came across it in the current cycle. S6 is found by Cake, who apparently hates fighting. S7 is found by Alison, who was quickly beginning to desire to save as many people as she could and is consistantly very likeable. S8 is found by the Historian, who's put a lot of interest into finding and researching the CAI Creator notes. It looks to me like they've been found by the sorts of people that the Corruptor's creator would want him to associate with and be influenced by.

We should add investigating the cycle before Historian first gets his keycard to see if anything interesting happened to cause it to our to-do list, since his note's apparently fairly recent.

>>740883
I don't think Likol had specific knowledge of individual contestants, nor do I think he had the information to manipulate things so that the same contestants would receive the same keycards every cycle. If he had power like that then the Corrupter likely would have been successful many cycles ago, rather than being fickle and aimless as he is in our cycle he could be directly directed by Likol to achieve what he needs to.

Though I agree that it seems plausible that Likol is responsible for the keycards and the Ghost.

Oh, and if we want to switch cycles now I suggest cycle 1.

>>740883
Actually, thinking about it further, the ghost event might apply to other things as well. The Corruptor or Savior get outright destroyed, or the admins remove the CAI-Creator notes for some reason? All potential ghost events, meaning that even if the Corruptor does manage to beat the CAI, he might just come back two cycles later and go right back to business as usual.

Cycles 389 and 1577 are probably just very early quarantines, but may be worth investigating to see if Corruptor actually just never existed in them, and 1062 seems like a good place to investigate to see if something other than keycards were being reintroduced, and that Corruptor can point us to other cycles to investigate since that one probably knew of other occurrences.

>>740884
I didn't suggest that Likol could personally get information on specific contestants, just that he likely injected an algorithm that looks for contestants with certain qualities, like how there's an algorithm that decides which administrators get to progress at the end of each stage. We do know that Alison and Cake get their specific keycards fairly consistently, though, since Alison's note mentioned them with the same numbers, and Alison and Historian getting them seems a bit too convenient to be coincidence.

So whatever or whoever made these keycards possibly did not have direct admin access to make new items in the sim but had to recycle a existing program to create a keycard.

So the Ghost we are looking for could possibly be a outside "admin" that does not have full admin powers.

They were probably trying to influence the cycles by adding keycards and logs or changing other events without having the power to directly insert new code.

It found Lumberer and changed his system identifier from "Contestant" to "Keycard". He still exists to the system and possibly could be brought back but you would have to change the part of his threads that are mislabeling him as a keycard.

We should look for other cases of cross cycle notes and keycards to see if this is a common theme.

Hey, so what occurs when a cycle ends in a Cai fight? Is the opponent an emulated CAI at that point in time, meant to repeat the CAI's actions and words, or if it's the real CAI and it's getting confused as fuck about the time travel cycles.

Mostly just curious if we could learn how to keycardify and use that as a weapon against the CAI. Make a CAI keycard or some shit.

Examine the threads on the keycards.

>"Admins petitioned to remove them from cycle 643 and onward. Cycle 644 didn't have them as planned. Now 645 does. These keycards are new."
So... when the keycards were purged, they permanently consumed people to make new keycards? Oh geeze. Looks like we found our ghost.

Good thing you and Rulekeep didn't use your powers to make new keycards in your home cycle. You might have killed a bunch of people!

Does the "new" keycard show up in a different place, or get found by a new person? Who it used to be might influence who it's drawn to.

You might want to try and figure out when the keyacards start happening. Did they exist in cycle 1?

...hey wait, we don't know what indexing system this computer system uses for numbering things. Does it actually start with cycle 1, or is there a cycle 0?

If you go all the way back to the start of the preliminary stage, do you have a quick way to count the contestants? I'm wondering if the count goes down after Lumberer perma-dies or if a new blob replaces him. (Are there only a trillion minus 1 contestants now, or does the number stay fixed?).

1/4 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)11:56 No. 740903 ID: d1f5f1
File 147059620208.png - (67.88KB , 800x800 , 195.png )

>MADE OF PEOPLE
Seriously.

The keycard really is just a keycard, now inside threads and outside functions. It's not like the lumberer was transformed directly into the keycard, it's more like the stage digested and broke him down and then built the capability to make keycards again.

>Is the number variable, or have they been increasing as the stages go on?
Looks like 2 keycards per stage up through stage 10, so this cycle has 14 keycards total.

>Who found them that cycle, Savior and Cake?
Alison finds one, and the other just isn't found.

>Computer counting might include a cycle 0
Maybe in its raw code it counts as zero, but in everyone's perception, the first cycle, whether it 'cycle 0' or not, just reads as cycle 1 to me. There's nothing before.

>If you go all the way back to the start of the preliminary stage, do you have a quick way to count the contestants?
Not really. I'd rather not count to a trillion, or look at one hundred billion opening stages to see which ones only have 9 blobs. I don't think the lumberer gets replaced, though.

>It would be a bit of a project, but could you find a cycle with amenable admins and get them to petition to have keycards back again?
We rewind Cycle 643 and pinpoint one of the admins who spearheaded it. After a few threats and demonstrations, the admins change their minds, and don't remove keycards.

As expected, though, cycle 644 is already made and doesn't change just because 643 changed. Keycards are still gone. So, in cycle 644, we have administrators add keycards back at stage 3 to force the change.

There's a little bit of a butterfly effect, but nothing significant. Just people slightly steered to be in different places at different times. Sweatermouse and Lumberer are together at the point where he disappeared before.

And he still disappears! How awful. It's like the cycle itself just decided he's supposed to be gone. Even though stage 4 already had keycards again, he's still been consumed by that stage.

>Good thing you and Rulekeep didn't use your powers to make new keycards in your home cycle. You might have killed a bunch of people!
It sounds more like it's a good thing that the admins didn't ban keycards, because then next cycle a bunch of people might have died. Or maybe just one person, I don't know.

2/4 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)11:56 No. 740904 ID: d1f5f1
File 147059621291.png - (36.14KB , 800x800 , 196.png )

>Hey, so what occurs when a cycle ends in a Cai fight?
Nothing, actually. No one gets sent anywhere. People just finish stage 11, and then, that's it. Cycle shuts down. I don't know if that's because the upper echelon only accepts 1 ending CAI fight per cycle or what.

We go to Cycle 1062 where corruptor noticed someone disappear. It was someone inside of stage 8 again. Despite getting this far, they've never made it through stage 11, so they don't have any logs at all.

Just, gone again.

In cycle 1061, the administrators removed keycards from play, again. Pretty definitely a correlation, there!

"Let's go to cycle 1, Rulekeeper."
"Sure."

Cycle 1 starts out like a re-run. Alison dies early and Chief has a mishap in stage 3 right before the corruptor was going to bring him over instead of Alison.

The corruptor himself does his thing, and this time, he comes close to wiping out the entire administrative team. Buuuut, on stage 6, the Savior has a big fight with him. There isn't even any monologuing or explanation. Savior didn't even do anything in the stage up until Corruptor was about to wipe out the administrative team, and then he just shows up to try and quarantine the corruptor.

The savior is new, too, though, and didn't even think corruptor was anything but a normal contestant that broke the rules. The savior gets corrupted as soon as he tries a hamfisted attempt at quarantining the corruptor and flees, but he never leaves the stage, and the corruptor considers him a non-threat now.

3/4 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)11:57 No. 740905 ID: d1f5f1
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The rest of the cycle is the usual floundering, except no one knows at this point that the cycle is going to continue, so it's just a floundering to the finish. The corruptor is denied access through the end of stage 11, and it's just three of corruptor's house leaders that make it through the end.

As the cycle dissolves, corruptor realizes what is going on, and he tries to prevent it. It seems like corrupting the savior allows the corruptor to use the savior's power, but the savior tries to deny to be used like that. The savior manages to prevent having his own powers used to reshape the cycle while the cycle dissolves around them, and Savior lets out the fact that it's rebooting to start over again. Every time the corruptor tried to make a chance, the savior would block the attempt in a split second. Nothing changes, until the very last split second where the corruptor can make a change and the savior won't have time to plug the hole.

There, he makes the cycle let the remaining contestant's memories go on to the next cycle. He can manages to change the cycle's last instant, though, where only the stage 11 survivors still have anything left over, and it's just the one thought remaining. So that's the logs.

Once the cycle is completely shut down, the savior's corruption is washed off and seeps into the cycle, and the savior himself disappears. Probably back to his paradise, but the cycle's recording stops, so there's no way to tell what direction he went in.

"That's interesting." says Rulekeep "The logs were artificially made at the very first cycle, but that alone wouldn't mean that admins could access logs, could it? Anyways, I think after this cycle, the savior got a lot more careful about how to approach the corruptor, since it seems like he needed the savior's own power to do anything permanent to the cycles."

4/4 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)12:00 No. 740906 ID: d1f5f1
File 147059641535.png - (59.79KB , 800x800 , 198.png )

We go to the outside of cycle 2. I exist in this one, with the savior's corruption getting bundled up to become me. I don't rewind yet, but I read one of cycle 2's logs.

WARLOCK #2: ADMIN FUNCTION ALLOWS MEMORY RETRIEVAL - THANKS GLITCHER

Looks like I got to work as soon as I could.

"Would you like to go into cycle 2?" asks Rulekeep.
"I dunno maybe. Probably nothing special other than me being special. Some cycle though. I mean I still feel like I don't belong out here. Moving is weird and I just have to grab onto the noise in the signal and pull myself forward to teleport.
"Cycle 1901 had two logs. Is it possible that you've been out here before?"
"Maybe, but let me tell you! It'd be a huge pain to move around if I was a newbie and didn't have ten thousand years practice!"

Hey Glitcher what is causing the increasing frequency in which you and Rulekeeper have cute matching green teeth.

Check out cycle 2 and see what baby you was like. Then go scope out the double logs.

From cycle 1's exchange with Corruptor and Savior it looks like Corruptors grand plan to get Alison to convince Savior to work with him might just work. But we need more info on both of them. If Savior can retain memories easier than contestants he would need a lot of convincing. And we need to know what made Corruptor change his mind on the whole plan recently.

>>740904
Huh. So Corruptor and Savior were present in the very first stage. That kills the theory that they were introduced later. (Unless the stage counts reset when they were "introduced", and data from the stages before they were added have been lost).

>>740905
So... the Corruptor could change the initial conditions of the next cycle (perhaps drastically), if the Savior allowed it. Or the Savior himself might be able to himself, if he could be convinced.

Explains why the Corruptor's encrypted logs talk about finding someone to win Savior over, at least.

>"Cycle 1901 had two logs. Is it possible that you've been out here before?"
Would you be able to tell? If we rewound the cycle and checked it again, would it have "recorded" the presence of another observer / ghost messing with things?

...if you check a cycle you've already visited before, does it save echos or ghosts of your own last observation?

Glitcher having been out here before is as likely as another Rulekeeper like entity having been created before. Or Corruptor making a slight fight at the end again, giving someone time to leave two?

1/3 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)13:25 No. 740917 ID: d1f5f1
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>Hey Glitcher what is causing the increasing frequency in which you and Rulekeeper have cute matching green teeth.
Probably because we've been all up in each other's faces a lot.

Cycle 2 me looked a little different but nooot by a whole lot. And so incompetent. So slow. So bad. Like expected, I'm just a hole in the cycle that others are talking and reacting to, and doing things.

We can see what all I did as we rewind. A lot of nothing. We rewind back to safe zone 11 hour 2, then play it forward. I disappear.

The rest of the cycle doesn't have me. We rewind again, and I appear again at hour 2, doing stuff in reverse until hour 1 when we play again. I disappear right away, from hour 1 to the end of the cycle again. So I guess if we want to see what I did in a cycle, we have to watch it in reverse, and we have to pay attention, because we won't see it happen again.

>If you check a cycle you've already visited before, does it save echos or ghosts of your own last observation?
I test it by having Rulekeep play the cycle forward, where the old glitcher then disappears like usual, and I wave to my future self!

2/3 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)13:25 No. 740918 ID: d1f5f1
File 147060154150.png - (66.80KB , 800x800 , 200.png )

Then we rewind, and there I am, waving to myself in reverse!

As soon as we hit play again, though, I disappear, like the other old glitchers. It's all very confusing and useless!

3/3 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)13:28 No. 740919 ID: d1f5f1
File 147060169991.png - (57.49KB , 800x800 , 201.png )

Cycle #1901

We rewind to the beginning of safe zone 7. Flipping everything in reverse from how Rulekeep and I saw it... Glitcher - it's me - didn't even exist before safe zone 8. It's only then that he appears and introduces himself to Alison.

"Hi! You're the spokesperson? Alison?"
>"Yes, that's me."
"Where is the corruptor?"
>"I don't know. He's vanished, I'm sorry." says Alison. The corruptor is still in the cycle, he just went off to be depressed by himself. "Are you from the sanctuary?"
"I, uh... no. Sort of. I'm... not from here. I'm from farther away. Listen, here, I'll give a demonstration, I'll freeze time." He does give a little magic show. "See? I can stop the stages. You've overloaded the exits, and there's a few thousand people here. There's no end to this, you're just going to die. I'm sorry, but that's the truth! But I can freeze this safe zone."
>"What would that do?"
"... what? It would... you can live here. You don't need to go into stage 8."
>"I'm interested, but what's the catch?" says Sevener. "This is fishy as hell."

It's a lot of smalltalk, and Alison and Sevener get into an argument about whether or not they should. Alison doesn't want to live here since it's unfair to all the people who got killed up to this point. Although Sevener says it's time to cut losses, Alison wants to save everyone. The glitcher says it's impossible.

Glitcher is mostly doing this for Alison's sake, and he says if Alison doesn't appreciate it, then he'll find an Alison who does, and leaves at the end of safe zone 9.

"If you're a new glitcher and you've found me," he says to, well, me I guess, "I'm from Cycle 2215. I'm going to head to cycle 1726." He leaves the cycle, but he's so slow. It would take him years to get to another cycle at his rate.

At the end of stage 11, Sevener mutters "She screwed us all." to herself. Those are the last words said before the cycle ends, and she leaves the duplicate log about saving thousands.

Go check 2215 to see how this Glitcher learned time travel.

Welp time to check 2215.

We could just... y'know, head towards 1726 to find him while he's still traveling and say hi, and ask him how he got this ability.

Since 2215 is inside the veil, let's save that whole big mystery of how he managed to travel between cycles for a bit later. Head to 1726 first and see what else he tried to do.

>you can only view past Glitchers in reverse, and afterwards you disappear from the cycle
That's awkward. Observer effect: you can't observe any cycles that have a Glitcher without changing them, since in doing so you erase that cycle's Glitcher and it proceeds without you.

Unless you insert yourself and reenact exactly what the other you did before to restore the cycle to it's original state, but that might get boring fast.

Hmm. The only one who would be in a position to notice your missing from a cycle when you should be there would be Savior, since he'd remember being corrupted the last cycle, and expect you to exist. This might explain why when you met Savior, he had an idea Glitcher might not have happened in 3119 even though you're supposed to. Maybe he remembers cycles where you were missing. Maybe he remembers past time-travel reset cycles.

>"If you're a new Glitcher and you've found me," he says to, well, me I guess, "I'm from Cycle 2215. I'm going to head to cycle 1726." He leaves the cycle, but he's so slow. It would take him years to get to another cycle at his rate.
You should pause for the camera and speak:

"Hey if another new Glitcher finds this, I just listened to myself announce he's from cycle 2215 and heading to 1726. Only you won't see that because he disappeared now!"

I support snooping in 2215. Although that's kind of mean, since then this Glitcher's cycle will be reset to not have him, and his friends will forget him?

>>740926
Oh, yeah, good point. No piercing the veil yet.

Wait, if past glitchers are erased when observed and the stage is loaded...

What will happen when you try to return to cycle 3119? Will it rebuild, generating a new history as if you weren't ever there?

(It will be really tedious if this is true since the only way to get back to the stage as you new it would be to insert yourself back at the very beginning and relive it, acting out what you did before).

>>740926
Oh hey since he's from inside the veil we can ask him what the fuck is up with the veil.

>>740933
The stage is just frozen, not rewound. Good point though we should never try to rewind the current cycle. People would forget Glitcher exists.

Glitcher, in Cycle 1, who were the three final contestants? And the last Admin? Unless the CAI was already formed before cycle 1, those four are the CAI, aren't they?

I guess it would be basic courtesy for you and Rulekeeper to start leaving notes for future Glitcher/Rulekeepers as well, depressing though it is.

We really need to find versions of Savior and Corrupter who we could trust to talk straight to us. I assume you could theoretically talk to them in past cycles?

Ah, hold on!

The numbers we've been referring to the cycles by... they're the numbers that were attached to the logs. Since we just found out the logs aren't a natural part of the system, then the logs' count isn't derived from any sort of innate system count. The "first cycle" isn't really the first cycle, it's just the first logged cycle.

Glitcher, Rulekeeper, do you need the log thread to find your way between the cycles? Can you try to go earlier than "Cycle 1"?

Glitcher, my boy, do you wish to understand the differences of the cycle right before our cycle? If your other investigations don't take long, or you don't think this one will, might want to see how this cycles birth of Glitcher happened.

1/3 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)15:39 No. 740968 ID: d1f5f1
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Maybe someday I'll check out cycle 3,118 just to see if there was anything special about how I was made, but probably just another case of the savior getting caught by the corruptor.

>Glitcher, Rulekeeper, do you need the log thread to find your way between the cycles? Can you try to go earlier than "Cycle 1"?
I can use the log thread, but there's noise and debris and stuff in space that I'm using too. In space, cycles are just sort of randomly strewn about, so if I had to travel back to cycle 1 now by going to cycle 1900, 1899, 1898, it would take sooo long. So I move directly! 1726, for instance, is the closest in space to 1901, which is probably why the glitcher went there, not because there was anything special about 1726.

So I can tell that if there's a cycle before cycle 1, it's not in this universe.

>Glitcher, in Cycle 1, who were the three final contestants? And the last Admin? Unless the CAI was already formed before cycle 1, those four are the CAI, aren't they?
3 house leaders from the corrupted sanctuary. I believe Bones, Warlock and Obliterator. Their logs are pretty useless declarations of failure. The admin was - oh wow it's Guitar Knight? Would not have thought.

Anyways since the cycle doesn't go sending them off to a CAI fight or anything, I can't tell whether they're actually in the CAI now.

>Screwing up the timelines
Yeah if I rewind a cycle with a glitcher in it to a time behind where glitcher did things, then that cycle will get screwy. People don't just talk to an invisible glitcher that isn't there, they really do see him as gone.

But oh well!

The only cycle I don't want to touch is 3119, and that's frozen in its current time safe and sound. I don't think it really would matter, cept I enjoy seeing Fiver make a jerk of himself.

"Hi future me potentially! If you're hearing this, my own predecessor was here from cycle 2215..."

I continue on saying a few things that I know.

>We really need to find versions of Savior and Corrupter who we could trust to talk straight to us. I assume you could theoretically talk to them in past cycles?
Yep, they're as active and real as can be.

I pick up Rulekeeper and carry her off to, uh...

To Cycle 1726. Cycle 2215 can wait to pierce the veil, since if I can find that glitcher, he can just tell me directly!

We rewind back to stage 5.

"Rulekeep! He's not here!"
"Did he never make it? We heard him correctly, didn't we?"
"Yep. But this cycle's got no glitcher. No one's heard of him or anything!"
"Didn't he seem slow? What if he's still travelling and we just passed by him?"
"Haha that would be pretty funny! I guess we can go back out of this cycle and start searching back through our tracks."

2/3 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)15:39 No. 740969 ID: d1f5f1
File 147060955759.png - (92.92KB , 800x800 , 203.png )

After a long time of searching, I see what feels like a glitcher nearby.

"Haha oh my god he's so slow!"
"Now be nice, Glitcher."
"Yeah yeah, sunday best, be polite, only laugh at him when he says a joke."
"I doubt he will say jokes, Glitcher, so no laughing."
"Oh I bet he's just the biggest comedian."

3/3 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)15:39 No. 740970 ID: d1f5f1
File 147060957162.png - (35.37KB , 800x800 , 204.png )

"Oh, no, you're right again, Rulekeep."

Did he start to fall apart in the void? Or is that just what he looks like as he travels?

Or maybe something attacked him out here?

Go check to see if he is alive and give him/yourself some help if you can.

This is probably why we have not seen more double logs. Without your extra long time experience and Alison helping you stay sane through it and Rulekeeper by your side you could not make it all the way to the next cycle.

>>740970
Oh, geeze, he broke.

Don't get too close, or touch him. You're an empty void, covered in loose threads from the stage that stuck to you, right? Maybe his threads started running out, and there weren't enough new ones out here. I'm concerned if you get to close, he might start pulling from yours.

...is there any way to tell how "long" he was out here? (How does time work between stages). Ten thousand years or whatever it was alone in the death-wait stage sure messed you up, it might be worse for this guy.

Honestly, it might be safer to start with Rulekeep analysis tools than Glitch ones, since there's less chance of interaction.

Or to just wave your hand and see if the eye even tracks you.

Oh man that's not a good sign.

You need to try and revive him (or at least inspect the corpse) so we can find out what happened. Like if this is a side effect of staying in the void for a long time or if something in the void did this to him. Like the barrier we saw earlier.

Oh no, poor previous glitcher, is he still functional / anything you can do to help him?

Wait what? Useless declarations of failure... Cycle 1 resets before they reach the end? Then... the CAI must have been in place before the cycles started. Or, that other suggester was right and we can't see or reach cycles before 1 but there were cycles before then. If we can't find cycles before Corruptor changed things at that last instant, then we won't be able to find out who the CAI is without going to meet them directly... which is dangerous.

>>740970
Aw fuck. What happened to him...? It's been 34.67 years since cycle 2215, according to my calculations. Can we estimate how long it took him to get to this point?

Can you put him back together? Or at least read his threads to see what did this to him? Or how he gained his powers? Uh, wait, be careful. Don't touch him if it could possibly be dangerous. Like, is that an infection?

>count to a trillion

Can you build a machine to do that for you?

>It's been 34.67 years since cycle 2215
3119 - 2215 = 904 cycles

>ALISON #2310 - EVERYTHING HAPPENS IN THE SPAN OF 3 REAL DAYS
904 cycles * 3 days / cycle = 2712 days = 7.45 years

Did you base your math on something different?

Regardless of the real years, it was probably a lot longer subjectively, since we know time inside the simulation(s) passes faster than real time.

>>740970
...Well, that looks pretty dead to me! Time to see if you and Rulekeeper can manage to extract any useful memories about what happened to him.

And then maybe we should go hide in cycle 3119 for a bit just in case that makes you less likely to get insta-killed. We've let a cycle play out from start to finish and messed around plenty in other cycles, so someone's probably started wondering why the next CAI Fight hasn't happened yet!

Yeah have Rulekeeper try interact with him first if you want to try. Hopefully this is just that he took so long, but it may also be that Rulekeeper had a stabilizing effect on you that he didn't have the advantage of. Or it might be some long-term side-effect of the corruption barrier he passed through.

Or maybe his cycle just reached its conclusion without him, and that somehow severed the threads sustaining him? He said he stopped time... he must have tried pausing his own cycle before he left, right? Perhaps, eventually, something noticed and restarted it.

Maybe you guys had better cast an eye back at your own origin cycle, now and then, just to see how it's doing.

Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)16:27 No. 740991 ID: d1f5f1
File 147061244153.png - (36.57KB , 800x800 , 205.png )

>Can you build a machine to do that for you?
Huh maybe. Or just force the admin team to build a function that can run a search on all preliminary stage 1's for anomalies.

This is definitely not how anyone should look while travelling.

He's dead as dead be. I'm not sure how he could screw up hard enough to just fall apart like this.

"Rulekeep?"
"He's just part of his cycle now. His threads are completely blank, too?"

>How does time work between stages
World time? I dunno. But even if I leave a stage 'unfrozen' in technicality, I can still freeze time on it, so in terms of real-world time, I could be out here for years at a time and the real world people looking at the computer will have it go by in the blink of an eye. Probably. But it might not be so fast if a cycle was active at the time and the big computer in the sky had its own computations to worry about.

>Ten thousand years or whatever it was alone in the death-wait stage sure messed you up, it might be worse for this guy.
I don't think he was going that slow. Probably no more than a couple years, and that's in computer-time.

Come to think of it, we were made of threads from our own cycle. If that cycle finished up and managed to destroy threads outside of its own boundaries when it rebooted, that might've killed this glitcher by basically removing his spacesuit. Then the glitcher behind the shell would pop and go through the cosmos I guess. Maybe that's the noise in the signal I've been grabbing onto to move freely? Kinda spooky. Anyway, if that's what happened, then his threads would just be gone. Not shredded like this.

I almost touch him.

"Glitcher! Don't touch him like that!"
"I'm not! I'm hover handing him. I gotta see, because I see some dust on him."

The frayed edges start seeping towards me, slowly, like I thought they would. That dust I told Rulekeeper about is residue made out of the same material as the veil blocking off those cycles. The inside of the glitcher is caked in a thin layer of the stuff, and his torn up head slowly starts gliding to me.

"Yeah, this glitcher's toast. Nothing I can do here."

Cept worry that there's something else out here, too, that was able to kill a space faring glitcher.

>>740991
I don't suppose you can try to absorb what's left of him for data? Or maybe Rulekeep can do that block dissecting thing she did to you to the... head?

Is there any way to tell how long ago he was killed?

Maybe the black stuff on the head and that makes up the veil is a firewall material that is out here to stop unauthorized people from lurking here for long.

Can you read the heads threads? And are there any in the black stuff? Maybe having a small sample away from the rest would let you and Rulekeeper figure out what it is without to much danger?

>>740991
the cai?
Anti-virus software in the virtual environment that houses the CAI and these cycles?
To be clear, you have NO memories of being this Glitcher, right? I keep forgetting how your experience and previous memories flood into you when you remember them.

You know, you got a lot of memories by reading the threads of that note you left behind... can you pierce this Glitcher's memory somehow if you can't remember being this Glitcher?

>>740996
Also, you're a Hole given sentience and appearance, an anthropromized void. You can't rip apart a void, there's no (virtual) matter to rip and tear.

Someone filled this void with matter between the limbs to destroy it, effectively ripping you apart. To do this would take UN-glitching a Glitcher. But why would even doing that kill you? That little part of this past you should TECHNICALLY be alive, because you have no simulated organs, or HP.

>>740985
Oh I thought it was two weeks for some reason.

>>740991
What if he had his cycle frozen properly but took so long traveling that the outside world noticed the cycle was frozen? They went into the code to find out why it was frozen, then he got absorbed into his stage just like the ghosted contestants did. The Ghost is the outside world directly interfering in order to keep things going the way they should, so it stands to reason that this Glitcher may have made too much of a splash and attracted their attention. The veil thing inside him might be a side effect of how they deleted him, or it could again be how he was given these powers. We should endeavor to avoid the attention of the outside world regardless. Which means we have limited time out here.

I think we're gonna have to eventually figure out how to pass through the veil safely, or determine that it's safe. hmm. Okay I think our next big priority is to analyze the noise in the signal. Find out what it is. Could it be communication? A distress signal? Or is the noise coming from outside the simulation?

If the black stuff is a barrier against corruption, and you're created when saviour gets corrupted, then I wonder if this is what happens if you interact with veil?

Be careful, this is new territory and from the looks of it there's something that can hurt you here.

Uh... I don't suppose there's any chance that that frayed-edged barrier stuff... is him, is there? Like, maybe when his cycle was restarted, his... insides got yanked out of him, leaving this residue on the remains of his shell, and the rest of him was pulled back into the space around his cycle? Like... a big bit of toffee or rubber that stretched out and snapped back and went all weird and tangly and not its proper shape any more?

Because, I mean, I doubt you're really nothing inside, that your threads are draped over. Much more likely that at your core you're something the system and the senses made by the system are unable to see, so it just looks like a moving absence.

Anyway, in case this is some sort of countermeasure to shenanigans like yours, Rulekeeper might be able to protect you. Her presence in the system is more legitimate, she wouldn't trigger any safeguards that have been built against you or corrupter or whoever. Can you... uh. This is going to sound weird. Can you, uh... get... inside her? Somehow? Or wrap her around yourself?

>>740991
The black stuff is probably what killed the Glitcher, but why is his cycle quarantined, too? Did his cycle being quarantined cause it to spread to him because he was technically part of that cycle, or was he targeted separately? And why were the 13 cycles before it also blocked off? Was the Corruptor particularly active in those cycles and 2215 was the one where something decided that enough was enough and tried to isolate the alterations?

The Savior might be able to offer a bit more insight into the veils, but the most recent one isn't friendly to us right now, and who knows how long it would take to find one that an Alison had already got to.

Or, since the Corruptor apparently gets some of the Savior's tricks when he corrupts him, we can always go to one of those and ask for his help.

>>741005

Corruptor's logs mentioned times when Alison persuaded Savior to ally with him, if I recall. If we went to near the end of one of those cycles, a chat with the Alison-Corruptor-Savior team could get a lot of info and help!... Though I'd bet that that cycle is one of the one's that's blocked, since all sorts of weird things would have happened then.

Seriously Glitcher buddy don't go near that barrier unless you're wearing Rulekeeper like a glove or something. See if she can disguise your presence with hers or something. You can test it out right now with those remnants of the stuff on your predecessor's head, see if they react to her like they do to you and see if she can do anything that makes them not react to you.

He was probably killed to tie up loose ends after his cycle was quarantined. There's a good chance trying to slip through the veil will set off some kind of alarm. If you don't want whoever killed this Glitcher coming after you, you're going to need to get though unnoticed.

A multi cycle quarantine seems beyond what The Savior is capable of, but finding a friendly one to talk to could hurt.

Hey wait, when you tested the waving to yourself thing, the Glitcher-copy vanished. Does that happen with Rulekeep, or is she 'real' enough to leave time travel ghosts behind?

If she can time clone herself, a
Glitcher / Rulekeepers orgy is possible.

Oh hey if we want to find out something about the CAI indirectly, we can ask the Alison from cycle #2867 - THEY ARE GETTING SICK OF FIGHTING ME EVERY FEW WEEKS
How would that Alison know if she hadn't spoken to them directly, after all?

1/2 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)18:45 No. 741035 ID: d1f5f1
File 147062075238.png - (44.75KB , 800x800 , 206.png )

>Does Rulekeep vanish like Glitcher after rewinding, or is she 'real' enough to leave time travel ghosts behind?
Oh, she gets to stick around because she's ~*legal*~.

>Can you read the heads threads?
Like Rulekeeper said, they seem to be blank. Which is unusual, for threads.

>And are there any threads in the black stuff?
Nope. Black stuff is just a weird, dry film.

I don't really like the idea of touching the stuff directly though, because if something split my shell of threads open, I could close it right back up before I leaked out.

These threads either prevent threads from closing up again, or they do not respond well to the void that I am under the shell.

"Hey Rulekeep does this stuff get magnetic to you?"
"No, it does not appear attracted to me."
"Well, I like you. Think its safe for you to touch?"
"It may not be, but we may need to experiment as much as possible. I am replaceable, however. You can make a new rulekeep using the administrators in our cycle."
"Wow, I care about people a little bit so don't be so calloused."

She touches it safely, but she can't tell what it is or what it does.

>Is there any way to tell how long ago he was killed?
No, this has just been floating in space. It could've been 5 minutes or 5 millenia ago for all I know.

>To be clear, you have NO memories of being this Glitcher, right? I keep forgetting how your experience and previous memories flood into you when you remember them.
Nope, no memories. Contestants all share the same base core and just get amnesia from cycle to cycle, but I'm completely separate from other glitchers. These are basically my siblings.

Anyway, this glitcher was split apart and the void escaped. I have no idea what that would do to me, but considering he's not giving me any whispers from beyond, I doubt it's much else than death.

>What is the noise in the signal
That is a good question. It's like a nebulous cloud of noise that connects all the cycles. I mean, all the cycles have to be connected through something, since they all use the same base platform for all the contestants without just copy-pasting them over.

So it might just be that space is supposed to be noisy.

Except that so far, I haven't been able to detect things that go from the cycle to places outside of the cycle go a lot of the time, such as where Savior's Paradise is. So it might be actual noise that I can detect from my glitchery.

>I don't suppose there's any chance that that frayed-edged barrier stuff... is him, is there? Like... a big bit of toffee or rubber that stretched out and snapped back and went all weird and tangly and not its proper shape any more?
That'd be something.

But that'd also mean that the veil is made out of ground-down glitchers. And that's pretty metal.

"Hey, Rulekeep, can I get inside of you?"
"Why would you ever want to do that?"
"To penetrate the veil safely. I mean I could anyway, I know how to move the residue around and shield myself, but you know, now I'm curious."
"I suppose you could, but this residue might try to attack me to get through to you."
"Let's test it."

Rulekeeper gets all big and I step inside. The residue starts clinging to her. It doesn't hurt her, but if we try to go through a giant veil like that, Rulekeeper might get stuck, and I can't really use the noise in the signal to bat away the veil while inside.

I guess I'll still take the easy route. Maybe I have to stab at random to find a cycle where Savior is cooperative, but I'll go to Cycle #2867 in which Alison says the CAI is getting sick of fighting them every few weeks. It sounds like she might have actually visited that CAI.

2/2 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)18:46 No. 741036 ID: d1f5f1
File 147062076152.png - (37.62KB , 800x800 , 207.png )

Entering the cycle doesn't reveal anything abnormal, so we rewind.

Alison is there along with two new Alison-buddies, the Flyer and the Haggler.

I let them go back into the stage 11 exit and watch carefully.

I changed literally nothing, and the logs come back.

ALISON #2867 - I MUST SPEAK TO THE CAI

The others changed similarly.

I rewind again.

"Hey Alison."
>"Oh! Who are you?"
"It's me, the glitcher. Have you spoken to the CAI yet?"
>"Me? No, I thought this was the exit to go to them. Are you the CAI?"
"... no."

I disappear again. They're confused, but go through stage 11 again.

ALISON #2867 - I MUST SPEAK TO THE CAI

More garbage. Determined, but garbage.

>>741036
Shit. She spoke to the CAI after going through the door but before the reset, and CAI actions aren't recorded. Dead end, but at least now we know for sure that CAI actions are not recorded in these rewound cycles. Also I guess this confirms that the CAI can communicate with the contestants.
Hmm, that would support a theory that the Ghost is the CAI, not someone from entirely outside the simulation, and that the CAI require the existence of the keycards. Which means we could force the CAI to reveal themselves by removing keycards, but... we'd have to wait until the next cycle to meet them and we can't be sure Glitcher will survive a reset, much less Rulekeep. We COULD force the Ghost to appear without a reset by rewinding cycle 3119 and changing it to have no keycards, couldn't we? However, then nobody would remember Glitcher AND we'd be exposing ourselves to danger AND it would change a lot of the outcome of the cycle in ways that matter. Can't say if it'd be a good thing or a bad thing... oh wait, I guess things could turn out to be the same if Glitcher inserted himself into the simulation where he's supposed to be and acted in exactly the same way as before. Of course then we'd probably wind up with a second Rulekeep... unless the cycle doesn't progress to that point before the CAI intervenes. Actually that's probably what would happen. I mean, if we let the simulation run again after rewinding it THAT much, then real time days would pass in the outside.

...wait why isn't passing on the outside when we replay sections of these old cycles? I mean shouldn't it use similar amounts of processing power, which equates to real time?

Savior's Paradise... could it be possible that it's beyond the veil? Is there any mention of the Paradise in cycles before the veil?

Hmm is it possible that they survive for a period after going through that door? Like maybe its a time frozen area where they can meet the Cai and chat for a few minutes before the reset hits? But because its outside of the sim you can't see what goes on there?

That or you are modifying these cycles just by interacting with them. Nothing appears to change but something is going on a a level we can not see.

Wait I think I know what is up. In the original cycle they went through the door and met the Cai and had a chat. But because you are rewinding things there is no Cai for the rewound Alison to meet past the door. Is only the end of the recording. So the log changes due to the true ending not being there. In this rewound world they died going through the door so the last thought was I MUST SPEAK TO THE CAI.

If you want to fix it for future Glitchers I would tell Alison that you are the Cai and that you are tired of fighting her every few weeks.

>rewinding
...hey, can Rulekeep try to rewind the dead Glitcher? Treat him like he was a cycle she was visiting, and rewind him to an earlier state.

I mean, if only cycles exist in this space, maybe other objects floating in it can be treated as cycles?

>ALISON #2867 - I MUST SPEAK TO THE CAI
I would take this as proof that the rewound cycles aren't getting through to the CAI. She expects to, but never does. Whatever mechanism connects to the CAI isn't backed up in these old stages. Maybe it has to be initiated from their end, or it takes place on a timer?

>But that'd also mean that the veil is made out of ground-down glitchers. And that's pretty metal.
Uh, can you estimate how much of that stuff would be in a Glitcher? Even if there's been a few thousand of you over the cycles, a veil that encompasses whole cycles seems too big for that to be enough material. (Although I guess this place doesn't need to be spatially or geometrically consistent).

>>741036
There must be SOME data, some thread the CAI leaves behind. Investigate that portal and its threads.

Oh hey, one thing you might be able to try: follow the Corruptor some cycle and find out where he moves his Sanctuary. (How does he even make the sanctuary in the stages where you don't exist?).

Or follow someone who goes with Savior some cycle, see if you can see where his place is hidden.

>>741044
Then make a copy of that portal and insert it into the current cycle, somewhere inaccessible, see if that changes anything.

More things for the experiment list:

Visit a cycle where Savior got Corrupted, and see what Corrupted Savior does. Logs hinted at him being kind of fucked up?

Visit a cycle where Savior quarantines Corruptor, and examine the quarentine. Is it similiar to the stuff blocking off some of the cycles? Is it something new, that you haven't seen before?

...then try breaking that Corruptor free of quarantine, just to see how he and Savior react (might get some good info from that Corruptor, in gratitude).

1/2 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)20:30 No. 741076 ID: d1f5f1
File 147062702377.png - (53.82KB , 800x800 , 208.png )

>Savior's Paradise... could it be possible that it's beyond the veil? Is there any mention of the Paradise in cycles before the veil?
There are logs before the veil cycles, and I feel like I could sense the paradise if it were just inside the veil.

>Uh, can you estimate how much of that [veil material/residue] would be in a Glitcher?
Not much. There's basically no way the veil is made out of Glitcher.

>Time passing on the outside while replaying
The opening stage starts with a trillion contestants, and by the time stage 1 starts nearly everyone dies. Sooo, computationally speaking, that is, in the real world, the first few stages, even with the slightly mentally-neutered contestants, take almost all of the computing time. Stage 3 and onwards takes comparatively little unless something hangs it up.

>Investigate the portal
It just seems like a portal to a snipped off trail.

I have a feeling that when a cycle is born, there's a one time use portal to speak to the CAI. Once the cycle finishes, then that's it, that cycle can't send anyone to the cai anymore. It just points off in a line towards space, though. It might even be pointing to a precise location, but I can't travel in a perfect line so if I just went forward, by the time I actually got anywhere, I'd probably be way off the mark.

I don't even know how long I could go before hitting a wall or something.

Well, for now, I rewind again and act to Alison like I'm the CAI and I give her a big ol' spiel about how sick and tired I am of fighting them. It takes a few tries to get the log back to how it was.

ALISON #2867 - THEY ARE GETTING SICK OF FIGHTING ME EVERY FEW WEEKS
ALISON #2867 - I MUST SPEAK TO THE CAI
ALISON #2867 - THE CAI SEEMS MELANCHOLY ABOUT FIGHTING
ALISON #2867 - I SPOKE TO THE CAI BEFORE STAGE 11 ENDED
ALISON #2867 - THEY ARE TIRED OF FIGHTING

Eh close enough. I'll just give the speech again if another glitcher stumbles on me.

2/2 Glitcher 2016/08/07(Sun)20:30 No. 741077 ID: d1f5f1
File 147062703233.png - (89.76KB , 800x800 , 209.png )

>Visit a cycle where Savior got Corrupted, and see what Corrupted Savior does.
That was the first cycle, and from what I saw, the Savior was hesitant to touch anything anymore, either taking people off to paradise or otherwise. When he took people off to paradise, though, it was just the cycle re-enacting the events. The savior isn't actually the true savior, same goes for the corruptor, but the cycle can re-enact them, unlike me. All it means, though, is that the cycle can't do the out-of-cycle stuff that the Savior does.

If I'm going to find out where paradise is from looking at where the Savior whisks someone off to, then I have to go back to #3119 and have the real savior do his thing.

>Can Rulekeep try to rewind the dead Glitcher?
Apparently not. He doesn't count as a stage or part of a stage anymore.

>Recreate the stage 11 portal
I mean I could, in the same way that I could re-create a car. The problem is is that all the gas is gone, so the car isn't going anywhere on its own.

>Follow the Corruptor some cycle and find out where he moves his Sanctuary. (How does he even make the sanctuary in the stages where you don't exist?).
Just somewhere in the cycle's spare space. He seemed to rely on me for help in making his sanctuary, but as it turns out, he's capable of doing it on his own.

Having special functions, though, such as slowing down time and all that... that needs my help, definitely.

>Visit a cycle where Savior quarantines Corruptor
I float around, and on my 3rd one, find a cycle like that.

Cycle #2387

The cycle recreates Savior's ambush, and and Corruptor is sent to the quarantine. Or in theory that's what happens, but as far as I see, he just vanishes from this cycle. This Corruptor is never seen again till he comes back next cycle.

I rewind and play it back a few times, because I caught a glimpse of something. After a few repeats, I'm pretty sure that the Corruptor got literally launched into space. Probably into wherever the quarantine is. Outside the cycle apparently.

So the quarantine zone could in theory be reached but is probably so far away its not worth trying?

Saviors paradise might be similar. I wonder if you could track it down by looking into the threads of people pulled there? Or possibly the little ritual that summons him.

Can we go find the source of some of those mysterious notes that people keep getting? Like the ones Alison and Corruptor got that told them to kill each other?

Also I am curious about stage 9# where Arbitor starts placing logs into Corruptors file.

Also Arbitor is the diamond emperor that Alison pulled out of the belenos sim right? Doesn't that mean that she did that really early in the cycles? Might want to go back and see when that happened and who else was part of the duplicate message wave we go when it happened this cycle.

>>741077
>launched into space
Well follow it. Play the simulation as slowly as possible (by rapidly pausing then unpausing) to see where it leads. My bet's on the veil. Wanna bet the Savior never successfully quarantined Corruptor before those cycles? Or alternatively, chose that space as the quarantine zone then unfortunately wound up with a bunch of cycles being there later? If you can't keep the slow motion up once you're too far away from that cycle, you could triangulate by finding a second quarantine launch.

...oh shit. If the veil is the place where Corruptors are sent, then when you replay the quarantine launch, another Corruptor is sent there. Want to bet that the dead Glitcher was found and murdered by a Corruptor that became powerful enough to escape the veil, and when the other Glitcher rewound a stage that had a quarantine launch in it, he effectively announced his existence and location. Just like you did. How did the monster know what direction he was traveling though...? We know the monster couldn't have rewound the stage to see the note the glitcher left, and it took so long to find the guy's corpse it couldn't have been a chance encounter. ...unless the veil IS the monster? What if the veil wasn't always where it is now? What if the other Glitcher died because he tried to break out? Or by breaking out, the veil started to chase him? Or he didn't break out safely and effectively was a ticking time bomb?

>I'm pretty sure that the Corruptor got literally launched into space. Probably into wherever the quarantine is. Outside the cycle apparently.
So... if Quarantine is outside the cycle, does that mean there's a box somewhere in space full of all the Corruptors from all the cycles who got quarantined? A few hundred to a thousand Corruptors all trapped together for years and years and years?

I'm almost afraid to look for it.

Or if Corruptor doesn't have a way to rewind and interact with old cycles, and if he can't move through space quickly, maybe they're just all swimming out there alone as space snakes? Never able to reach a new cycle while it's alive, never able to interact with the old ones, nowhere to go, and going really slow.

...if there are Corruptors swimming in space, maybe one of them got the other Glitcher.

>the Savior was hesitant to touch anything anymore, either taking people off to paradise or otherwise.
Really? That sounds pretty benign. From

>SEVENER #1930 - CORRUPTED SAVIOR IS SOME SHIT ALRIGHT - AVOID HIM
I was expecting him to be acting erratic or hostile in some manner.

>>741089
It's possible that he acted differently in that cycle. There was another cycle in Sevener's logs where she said that Corrupted Savior can look totally normal too.

Maybe try:
>ALISON #1843 - THE SAVIOR IS BROKEN

And see if Alison discovered something special about the Savior that time?

Or, alternately, there is a section Corruptor's logs:
>I obviously haven't found a way to work with the Savior through the end, and the more I see what he is willing to do to satisfy the people he likes, the more I question what his namesake honestly means. I have tried many things. I have gotten the Snake Queen to get us to work together, to which I then martyrize her.

He refers to a cycle where Alison did get Corruptor and Savior to work together, though it seems that right at the end Alison always refuses something Corruptor wants to do and Savior sticks with her. If you can trace that cycle and visit them before that happens, you might find a Savior that you can just ask where he sends people. Or who will allow you to look at his threads.

It looks like that cycle, we might also be able to observe and find out what Corruptor does at the end. Might have to do with why he apparently kills everything in some cycles.

Say, can you leave notes in Corruptor's log? Something like: "HEY CORRUPTOR IT'S ME GLITCHER IF YOU HAVE A ME PASS THIS TO HIM PLEASE: HEY BUDDY, WHEN YOU FIND OUT THE THINGS, IT'S NOT AS BAD AS YOU THINK, GET THE ADMINS TO MAKE RULEKEEPER, GET TO THE NICE VERSION (IT WAS SECOND ONE FOR ME), GET HER WILLING (ALISON CAN) GET ALL UP IN EACH OTHER AND GET ADMINS TO GIVE HER FULL POWER, TALL ORDERS I KNOW BUT MY CYCLE DID IT, TRUST ME IT'S AMAZING"

Or can you maybe like leave a special glitcher memory egg somewhere, like your own log for yourself? With Rulekeeper's legitness maybe you can make it into something that can persist through the cycles.

Try and use a past Savior and convince him to betray present savior by saying he's a fake savior with his memories... So he'll tell you where and how to get to the paradise. Or how to have Alison convince present savior to work with present corruptor. They should still be him, so everything, including his emotions, feelings, and motivations should be very similar, but revealing the fact he isn't savior may be able to convince him to become anti savior.

Wait, how similar are the strings of past people from present people? For those in the present who you haven't read, like the savior... Could we get their strings from the consent of a past savior? just Groundhog Day him until he says yes.

Oh shit there's another thing we have to find out.

Is there a pattern to when Corruptor goes berserk or is benevolent? Is he ever ACTUALLY benevolent or is he just manipulating people? We've seen logs saying Corruptor has destroyed everything, but at least in Cycle 1 he did something good in the end. Or was he acting in his own self-interests even then, by assuring he will accrue information?

>>741102
Leaving a Glitcher log somehow would be good yes, especially if we can tell the future Glitchers that it's impossible for them to explode AND they should freeze time at some point to practice manipulating strings for a few thousand years with occasional breaks. GIT GUD, SCRUB.

Oh hey I have an idea for finding the Paradise. Just have Rulekeep ask Savior to show it to her. Savior should have no objection to that, surely... except maybe the coming back afterwards part.

By the way, Glitcher, how mutated was the first cycle, did it use the "normal" stages or the stages we've seen post system reset?

I think we should try to find the cycle where Alison convinced the Corrupter and Savior to work together, we may be able to find out where the sanctuary is, but even if we can't, it'll really useful to know how Alison produced that miracle, and perhaps also why it failed. I don't think we should expend too much effort sending messages to future cycles, because this will probably be the last one.

Glitcher 2016/08/08(Mon)17:07 No. 741151 ID: d1f5f1
File 147070122730.png - (23.85KB , 800x800 , 210.png )

>How mutated was the first cycle, did it use the "normal" stages or the stages we've seen post system reset?
It used pretty plain puzzles. Simple platforming, game theory, other theory, games of wits, so forth. Was okay would not spectate again no thumbs up or down.

>Look in what direction he was launched into space
AFter a lot of aiming and lining up and stuff, it looks like in the direction of nowhere. Not another cycle, not another veil, no nothing. I go forward a huge distance, to the point that the distance between me and the closest cycle is longer than the distance between any 2 cycles. I see nothing.

>So the quarantine zone could in theory be reached but is probably so far away its not worth trying?
More like the same problem as the CAI portal direction. It points somewhere, but it's so far that it'd be an astronomically low chance of actually managing to travel there!

>Corrupted Savior seems benign
Then again, that was just cycle #1 and he might have been caught off guard.

SEVENER #1930 - CORRUPTED SAVIOR IS SOME SHIT ALRIGHT - AVOID HIM

After almost 2000 cycles, maybe the savior didn't take to getting corrupted very well.

>Is there a pattern to when Corruptor goes berserk or is benevolent?
From what I'm guessing here, there's not really a pattern so much as just what information he gets his hands on versus who he's listening to each cycle and, uh...

He's actually pretty impressionable, isn't he. I'm not one to talk.

>Also Arbitor is the diamond emperor that Alison pulled out of the belenos sim right? Doesn't that mean that she did that really early in the cycles?
Yeah, so the first cai fight was probaby anywhere between but not including cycles 2 and 9.

>Just have Rulekeep ask Savior to show it to her. Savior should have no objection to that, surely... except maybe the coming back afterwards part.
Yeah and that's kind of an important

wait

"Rulekeep, I have an idea."
"I'm listening."
"So, you're your own entity, right. Savior could, theoretically, put you in his paradise, right?"
"Yes, though he wouldn't let me back out. I doubt it is a cycle, and so, I doubt I could do much inside."
"Right but. What if. Hear me out. What if I was inside you. When he sent you."
"I don't have any evidence as to why that would go poorly, but I can think of many poor outcomes."
"Right but."
"It could go well, too."

Well it's either that or start perusing more random cycles to do experiments and eventually stumble on something.

At this point Savior is sort of out of the loop and with Alison martyring herself she can't personally convince him of much (Unless you bring her along).

So might be a good plan. Honestly Alison found the best and maybe only way of making Rulekeeper think hard enough so that the system had to make her a real contestant. Maybe we can shock Savior into helping by doing something similar.

But a few questions.

1. Can you keep up the time freeze on the wrestling while out there.

2. Maybe Rulekeeper can get in and out by asking to inspect things so she can decide if she should send ghosts there instead of dying for the rest of the cycle. Its a legitimate idea and Savior might be up for it. And then you could stay hidden inside her if you needed.

Oh and if you can get in do not reveal yourself instantly. Stay hidden as long as possible to examine threads and such so we do not have to deal with Savior interfering.

>>741151
>smuggle Glitcher into the Sanctuary through Rulekeep
So... best case, that means we learn where the Sanctuary is. And put Rulekeeper somewhere where she has little, if any, power, and may not be able to escape from without Savior's cooperation. And we antagonize the Savior, by doing the one thing he made explicitly clear he doesn't want to.

This seems like it has way more potential downsides than upsides. And it maybe forces a confrontation we don't want / aren't prepared for. I can't even imagine the worst case, since there are so many ways it could go wrong.

I think this idea can wait.

...if you want to scout the Sanctuary, maybe get Alison to do it? She's dead, Iso has he ghost, he'll sleep to check in with his allies at some point and find her, and she can ask him about what it's like once he stops freaking out over her being dead again.

>Savior
He said before he couldn't accelerate time like you can. Does that mean if you stopped time in cycle 3119 for now, is he stopped too? Or are he and his Sanctuary outside the cycle and therefore immune? In the later case, he may have already noticed something is up. That might make subterfuge with Rulekeeper hard.

Go find out what the Savior is hiding in his little demi-plane. We have been wondering forever and if we do not go now we might never know.

One thought before we go. Can you find logs of people who were in the paradise when the cycle ended? Or is it a total mystery?

Cause if we go there and find out he is running a sweatshop and forcing everyone to make t-shirts the logs from people in there would help us get a idea of what you are getting into.

I think checking out the Saviors place is a good idea but maybe wait until after we get some more time traveling in.

Just look at all the good info we have got that could save our asses later. If we had just barged into the veil right off who knows what could have happened?

So put Savior visit on the to do list but lets check off most the other stuff on our list before we take that route.

Like watching a few cycles of corrupted Savior so we can try to find ways of fighting him if it comes to that. You going there could royally piss him off and you need to know how he works so you can resist him.

Get a time traveling training montage in before you wrangle with any special contestants. Might have to fight one of them so the better prepared the safer we will be.

But totally go there later.

>>741151
Um, did something happen? It looks like you're further away from the "galaxy" of cycles. Or is something blotting them out?

Before we do something that could have drastic consequences let's go experiment with the veil. You said you can move the veil around safely, so make a viewhole. See what's in there before you go in.

>Yeah, so the first cai fight was [probably] anywhere between but not including cycles 2 and 9.
Why so early? It seems pretty soon for any Glitchers to have started messing with how to make CAI battles, and the administration didn't start setting them up till late in the cycles in response to Alison antics, right? Post-Sevener-grudge. And if it were a fight against the CAI at the end of the cycle, they wouldn't have been able to bring him out to the stages.

Can you sense anything like cycle 19012, or 12731? Or is that just a case of Arbiter's logs being scrambled by containing Corruptor's message?

What about 287, or the ERROR #XXX mentioned in Arbiter's logs, first one might be worth investigating for being messed up yet outside of the veil, second one is an anomaly.

I'd put that plan on the backburner, it might turn out to be a good option later on, but for now we still have plenty of reasons not to do things that could endanger Rulekeeper, you, and/or our relationship with Savior.

I still think we should try to find the Corruptor/Savior/Alison team up cycle.

Hey, wait, what about the notes? The ones that started this whole mess? (For you, anyways).

At what point in the cycles did they start appearing? How do people make them?

>>741172

Yeah if we are going to hold off on sneaking into Saviors place lets go track down the origins of the mystery notes first.

1/3 Glitcher 2016/08/08(Mon)20:26 No. 741176 ID: d1f5f1
File 147071318625.png - (99.92KB , 800x800 , 211.png )

After pondering for a moment...

>Make a log to yourself
This would take awhile! And I don't have a way to directly pass it on to future glitchers. I might've been able to get rulekeep or the admins to pass things on to future cycles, but future admins can remove it.

But I do have a while.

So after I fiddle with the log string a bit, I inject a letter to myself through, uh.... corruptor and Alison. Both of them, why not.

Hello this is a letter to the Glitcher. It's me, the Glitcher. You can't explode from messing with strings! So do it all you want. Do it for thousands of years! Git gud! No but really. Thousands of years. Freeze time. Normal glitchers are like a snail trying to outrun a sparrow. Cheetah. A running sparrow. Anyway, here's some taller orders. When there's a handful of admins left, get them to make a rulekeeper that they'll make to stop you! She can't, but she can do stuff you can't. Beautiful things. It's great. But you gotta convince her. Get Alison to do that. If I leave any more logs for you I'll make them more structured. Have fun or whatever.

I don't know if the CAI can really modify logs or if that information was misleading, but better not make the risk. It's not like I know anything worth much about that anyway.

>Can you find logs of people who were in the paradise when the cycle ended? Or is it a total mystery?
I should be able to if they existed. But there's no logs like that, probably because they aren't the ones who go through stage 11.

>Cycles 19012, or 12731?
Yeah those are, uh, let me be sure...

Well actually... uh... maybe I should've looked at this early. After cycle 2215, the end of the second corrupted block, logs split off, and... there's a duplicate cycle 2216, 2217, and so on, up to cycle... 57,133.

All the logs are either broken or gibberish or so on.

And they're all in the veil that covers the real cycles of 2,202 - 2,215.

>What about the notes
I dunno. I don't have any leads on that, do I? I'll just keep an eye out. But I didn't see any notes going "COOL NOTES THANKS GLITCHER" or anything. Whatever later for now I'm also wondering where those keycards came from.

"Wearing you like a glove is a great idea Rulekeep! But we'll wait."
"Where will we go in the meanwhile?"
"Time travel training montage!"
"Does that mean our perception of time goes faster?"
".... I should look into that, but no. It's gonna be a grind. For now, we'll go into, uh..."

>And check out stage 4 in like, 544 or something, in case [the ghostings are] something gradual over multiple cycles
"Cycle 544!"
"What's special about 544?"
"I dunno, it's a while before the first known case of the ghosting!"
"Why don't we start at cycle 3, then, and move forward? I would say cut the cycle gaps in half in each direction, but since the ghost doesn't appear to strike at every cycle, we just have to pick far back and go forward."
"That takes soooo long. I've made up my mind, Rulekeeper, and we're going to 544!"
"We have time. Let's play it smart, Glitcher. Let's go to Cycle 3."
"Fiiiiine."

I go travelling.

"Okay we're at Cycle 544."
"Glitcher."
"I'm the driver I get to go where I wanna go!"

"Hummmm..." says Rulekeep, who has little choice but to rewind because when it comes to being the most petty, I have the most patience.

2/3 Glitcher 2016/08/08(Mon)20:28 No. 741177 ID: d1f5f1
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>"Glitcher, we've done it, just at the final stretch! We can contaminate beyond the cycles! Maybe the Savior can hold my corruption in himself and won't allow me to use his powers, but he can't stop this gaseous thread bomb of yours from unleashing itself as soon as the cycle attempts to unwind it!"
"... okay. So I made a bomb that's going to blow up on a dead cycle. Cool but I mean why?"
>"You've told me... the upper echelon, where system admins make their pleas to make changes... it does not respond with intelligence! It does not investigate. It merely sees skid marks, and then blames the car at the end of the skid marks without making sure it wasn't just a car that coincidentally parked there. If this contamination kills a contestant, and I do mean kill, then the upper echelon will look into that. This contamination, using your gathered system threads, will blame the event on the lack of keycard generation that we have introduced this cycle. The upper echelon will then revoke the revoking, and change what has to be changed to make them come back."
"It's a start I guess. Also don't use the word contaminate. Are we the bad guys?"
>"We're the guys that will pave the way for the good guys, if you want to think of it like that. A start is better than nothing, which is all anyone's ever done by being 'good'. Later Corruptors or Glitchers will see the scattered dust of these threads and realize what it is, and, perhaps, make additions to it! Perhaps someday, we can use the cloud of dust to reveal logs to everyone at the start, or pass on other information, or even find a way to stop everything."
"Uh... doubtful. I packed every system thread I could into this ball of gore or yarn or whatever, but when it explodes, well, I can't tell how big the area outside of the cycle is, but it's probably going to be thin and undetectable. This is just kind of stabbing in the dark. And a lot of contestants are going to get stabbed by accident before we stab something useful."
>"I'm not going to be powerless, Glitcher. Not this cycle. I will make my mark on progress, even if it leaves a nasty gash in my wake. I have already succeeded in creating keycards. Don't worry. It won't consume more than 4 people per cycle, and from what we have seen administratots are rarely so coordinated as to commit to wide changes more than once every several dozen cycles. They are rarely so unified! I wish it wasn't like this, but, I do not even know if our keycards will see much use. They are not implemented as thoroughly as I would like."

3/3 Glitcher 2016/08/08(Mon)20:32 No. 741179 ID: d1f5f1
File 147071352709.png - (55.84KB , 800x800 , 213.png )

"Glitcher..... no. Don't make that face at me. Glitcher. Stop. Fine, 544 had something. Stop gloating. Did something tip you off? You knew 544 was special, didn't you."
"MMnnnoooooooooope!"
"You just guessed 544. Out of nowhere."
"Mmmmmmmyep. Sometimes you just get lucky with a stab in the da - with a guess."

Well I guess you and Corruptor are the Ghost then. You made a recursive program that eats 4 people a stage to make keycards in later cycles. To bad you never remembered or noticed it working.

Wait if we see this wont this Glitcher disappear and then the ball will never get made? Which will then cause horrible paradox?

Time travel is confusing.

Well fix that if you have to and then keep on looking.

Welp we know where sweeter mouse's friend went.

>>741177
So... you built a virus with Corruptor that eats people in order to trick / blackmail the upper echelon into recreating the keycards as needed?

Um, congrats. You were the ghost. Or you built the ghost, at least.

Now, what's really interesting, is this shows it's possible to control the upper eschelon. It reacts, but doesn't analyze. It's not fully sentient.

...we just need to find ways to manipulate it that doesn't depend on murder. (Although, if you can still get to the old people, is it really murder? It just stops future versions of them from happening in future cycles). And that kick in faster than a cycle.

Check out the system string dust bomb. Is it made of any different stuff than you're used to? Is it the same stuff the veil is made of?

>thin and undetectable
It's the noise, isn't it.

Anyway, try to nail it down and refine it. See if you can make it bring back the contestants it killed.
...oh god, did it kill that Glitcher? This could be VERY DANGEROUS WORK.

Okay how about you pop in and talk to this Corruptor (give him the good news, to start with), and analyze the bomb in closer detail to see if you can figure out how to work with it in its post-exploded state.

Also uh, those duplicate cycles... those are... well, I think there might be a parallel process running with fewer contestants. Maybe that's the Paradise? Maybe those that enter STAY in there, and there's like a harmless mirror world where people don't die or get fully reset with the cycles, but it still technically has cycles. Well, that's the best case scenario. Worst case scenario is that it's full of corrupted contestants or Corruptor clones.

Oh, while you're talking to Corruptor how about you find out what's with his adherents? You know, those weird identical guys that are always completely on his side that seem to show up out of nowhere.

Damn, your brother had some gnarly makeup. Your wife is cute.

Talk to Corrupter, but be very careful with that bomb, it might explode without that other Glitcher to hold it in! Or it might be a fake copy that won't do anything without a real Glitcher making it. Or it might go off but not matter because without this cycle being recognized as the current one it won't do anything. We. Just. Don't. Know.

>>741180
It's not actual time travel. It's already happened, and this is basically a video recording of it. A recording we can rewrite, but we don't rewrite the truth of what happened. I bet that ball isn't even real system threads, or it doesn't really manage to launch out there.

Oh wait don't try to bring the contestants back via the bomb. You can just grab people from earlier cycles or earlier stages of cycles like right before they were permakilled. Them being ghosted in future cycles just means they don't participate. It's not really a bad thing, and they're no more dead than other versions of people in past cycles. There's just less of them in the backups.

Really the only AI that ever truly dies is you, Glitcher. There's no backups of you because the cycles can't record your data.

...well, it's also possible you're the same AI every time, with no variance whatsoever, so you've never died at all, just lost memories. Like, where does your personality come from? It's not Savior's.

Also I just had a hilarious plan. With what you and rulekeep can do now, can you just import a billion contestants once the current cycle gets to stage 11, then have them all pile through the CAI door? I mean, did the CAI door have any hardcoded restrictions on how many can go through? Well, on the other hand, they do have an iwin button so it won't matter. ...how did we find out about that, again? I guess the most we could do is import TRILLIONS of contestants and slow down the simulation enough to purposefully attract outside attention.

An alternate plan is to import like, everyone and then freeze time so the stages don't progress. It'll attract outside attention but if they do nothing (and why would they do anything, anyway?) you would in fact succeed in saving everyone. Can you freeze time for the stages only, like the dead Glitcher did? Oh, one problem with this plan is that the bomb might still kill people. Including you.

As an aside; we should talk to Alison #2144 at some point, she said in her log that the CREATORS DO NOT KNOW WE EXIST, but Likol's messages, the CAI book, and some ITQ answers imply that that isn't the case, she was probably just mistaken, but we can at least learn why she thought that.

>If this contamination kills a contestant, and I do mean kill, then the upper echelon will look into that.
>The upper echelon will then revoke the revoking, and change what has to be changed to make them come back."

Looks like that didn't actually happen. The "upper echelon" hasn't brought anyone back.

There's no way to investigate that, is there? Like, go look at whatever mechanism the admins use to make petitions, and follow it up the line to wherever it goes?

Anyway, if Corruptor is impressionable then we should see what things have the worst impression on him. Also, again, try use his logs to find where that Savior was who Alison convinced to work with Corruptor, or more importantly with her. He might tell you things.

>>741176
>After cycle 2215, the end of the second corrupted block, logs split off, and... there's a duplicate cycle 2216, 2217, and so on, up to cycle... 57,133.
>And they're all in the veil that covers the real cycles of 2,202 - 2,215.

Well that's interesting. If garbage logs are still being generated, that suggests time continued to pass inside the veil even after the next cycle started. Maybe there's still a Corruptor in there, thinking he's beaten the system.

>>741193
>If this contamination kills a contestant, and I do mean kill, then the upper echelon will look into that.
>The upper echelon will then revoke the revoking, and change what has to be changed to make them come back."
The "make them come back" here refers to the keycards, not the contestants (I think).

By the way, you two don't seem to get bored, but still maybe take a break from these vast gulfs of subjective time now and then. If there's a whole other set of parallel cycles (ones that are somehow being reset at a much faster pace?), then that's another load of computing time taking up the oversystem's resources and giving you more real-world time.

So go have more cute dates! Do fun things! Make love! Get married! Have a cute Glitchkeeper baby!... Could you actually do that somehow? Actually you should wait and get married when you return to your own cycle. Invite your friends, and your "parents", Corruptor and Savior, and the admins who made Rulekeeper. Throw a party! Enforce the peace through your obscene god powers. Have cake.

Don't be afraid to get premarital with the babies though if that's something you can actually do.

>>741198

Oh, well. My mistake. That's more terrible, then.

It does seem they expected future Glitchers/Corruptors to be able to use the dust somehow, though. We should try that, see if anything can be done.

I wonder, maybe if we go back to a cycle where Corruptor corrupted Savior, Glitcher could get cooperation from Savior by offering to try and undo the Corruption? If he introduces Rulekeeper and that she'll be helping, it could be something Savior would believe. Or if we say we're, like, going to suck the corruption out him, and instead of it going on to become a new glitcher next cycle this Glitcher absorbs it and becomes double-Glitcher. Then we get to examine his strings and also maybe get more Glitcher power. Since it's not really time travel, the next cycle's record won't have its ghost-glitcher, but nothing really important will be changed, right? If we don't actually play through that cycle the ghost might not even get removed. It'd be interesting to see if messing with the Savior corruption in the previous cycle does affect the cycle after, anyway.

1/2 Glitcher 2016/08/09(Tue)18:12 No. 741247 ID: d1f5f1
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>Wait if we see this wont this Glitcher disappear and then the ball will never get made? Which will then cause horrible paradox?
It would if this were actually time travel! But it's not, it's just rewinding a single cycle recording. What's done past a cycle is done past a cycle.

>You were the ghost. Or you built the ghost, at least.
It's be pretty cool if they held up a keycard or something for some nice exposition theatrics.

Cause then while looking at a present cycle keycard I could peer into its history and have seen this event.

But notes and keycards and stuff like that... no one holds one up and goes 'oh yes a keycard this was built in cycle 554 after the corruptor built the ghost' - nope, everyone clams up and gawks at it.

Well, anyway, guess Corruptor and I made the ghost.

>It's the noise, isn't it.
It's totally the noise.

It's pretty valuable, I'm not sure how well I could move out here without it. So, good job, past me and corruptor, I guess.

>Oh god, did it kill that Glitcher?
No, the end of the cycle killed this glitcher like always, but this glitcher at least made it so he went out with a bang.

>Damn, your brother had some gnarly makeup.
I dunno, maybe my tank top was just bunching up, but I'm pretty sure that's my sister. Because that totally matters.

>Although, if you can still get to the old people, is it really murder?
It's basically not even murder.

>Check out the system string dust bomb.
It's made out of system strings. It's even got an emulated corruption going. All glitcher did was shove a bunch of string together in high density, but the corruptor made it actually do stuff.

So interesting thing, the cycle is replicating the corruption pretty well. Uh, it might even replicate another explosion if I let this cycle end with the bomb intact. I take a good look at it. I think this'll help me maneuver a little better, but corruption kind of confuses me, and like I said, glitcher didn't do anything mind blowing with this.

Well, I guess I'll speak to the corruptor.

"Hey corruptor!"
>"I- er, glitcher? What happened?"
"Yeah that was the other glitcher. She's gone now"
>"What? Please explain to me!"
"That'll take a long time, so, uh... good news! Your invention is helpful."
>"How do you know?"
"I came from the future!"
>"I don't understand!"
"Your thing killed some people and it was actually totally useless inside a cycle, but it helps me get a grab on space and travel to other cycles."
>"I see."
"So the bad news, uh, well, that was a long time ago! So what's with your devotees, hm? Maybe you'll give me a straight answer?"
>"I... yes. They come, and they protect me."
"What would they protect me from?"
>"Danger."
"... Danger."
>"Yes."
"Also how do you make them."
>"Using my powers."

He's saying that pretty flatly like duh it's his powers.

"Your powers! Don't give me sass now."
>"Ah."
"What?"

....

"Corruptor what?"
>"Hello, the glitcher."
"Yeah I'm here."
>"Yes, I am too."

I see. The cycle doesn't actually know how to go off the script. This is the first time I've really spoken to the corruptor in another cycle directly, right?

Yeah, that makes sense. It can emulate corruption that was already done, and emulate stuff the corruptor and the savior did, but I think... it's like it saw the corruptor do a big calculus problem, and after a huge amount of work, got to x = 6. So when the cycle wanted to redo it, it goes 'oh, I've seen this problem, the answer was 6', but it doesn't actually know calculus, so if I really steer the corruptor off course, he basically loses his power. In this case, the calculus is the corruptor himself.

"Welp Rulekeep he's gone, mentally."
"What if I rewind?"
"I guess he'll be back! But then the glitcher will be gone."

I try it out and rewind until right before I first spoke to him. Then Rulekeep and I hide.

>"Eh? Glitcher? Where are you? Uh... hm."

He looks around, and just sort of slows down and stares at nothing for several minutes.

>"-is it, Glitcher. All we do now is wait."

That's the last thing he said before he and Glitcher sat in silence before the cycle ended. He ended up picking that last part up out of nowhere at the exact same time as when he originally said it.

"He resembles more of a stage component, Glitcher." says Rulekeep. "Moreso than a contestant, let alone the corruptor himself."

2/2 Glitcher 2016/08/09(Tue)18:12 No. 741248 ID: d1f5f1
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"Yeah. Well... I guess it's time to just go to minor leads on cycles and, you know, gather information."
"You sound like you're getting tired of this. I'm surprised, Glitcher, it seems like this is the activity you've been striving for for so long."
"Yeah but I was thinking it'd be more, uh, action packed. Like this bomb going off but everywhere. Not a longass trip to a cycle, check out it's just got the same people doing the same stuff, and then doing it again."
"Mmm, I just remembered that I did feel something was lacking when I had the opportunity to make my own stages. But you made it more fun for me by having the stages be less, well, stuffy. Can you do that for this?"
"Yeah. I guess I could mess around with contestants more. There's just some stupid sense of morality or whatever that says that might be mean. Maybe when it goes away I can get the love for my job back."
"Perhaps what you need is a break."
"Hey Rulekeep. Wanna go on a date? Another one. A long one. We can do the same stuff but make it datelike."
"If you'd like. Since you have experience making dates, then, I will gladly engage in your ideas."

>Girl Glitcher
You know, did you even get to choose your appearance with CU? Can you even affect the way you look with Shopkeeper, or did you just appear looking the way you do?

>>Oh god, did it kill that Glitcher?
>No, the end of the cycle killed this glitcher like always, but this glitcher at least made it so he went out with a bang.
No, I think the question was: was the random-dust-murder-to-make-keycards what killed the Glitcher in space.

>The old cycles aren't backing up the Corruptor like is it does the contestants and system people, and is using a standing construct
I guess it doesn't know how to make a copy of him? Although then how do new Corruptors get made each cycle?

Where are all the old Corruptors and the old Glitchers then? The contestants just freeze when time stops in their cycle, but do the Corruptors and Glitchers (and Saviors) just strait up die?

...or is there only one Corruptor (and Savior?) and he keeps getting amnesia each time?

>idea question to check
Hey, remember how Rulekeeper brought some people from old cycles back in the current cycle? And Guitar Knight brought back old Alisons? Are they actually missing from their old cycles now? Were they moved or copied?

>I guess I could mess around with contestants more. There's just some stupid sense of morality or whatever that says that might be mean.
The trick is non-mean meddling. You gotta aim to be the fun trickster god, not a jerkass one. Channel your inner coyote.

>Since you have experience making dates, then, I will gladly engage in your ideas.
...have Rulekeeper cheat and use rewinding a room somewhere to make time clones of herself (of the stable time loop variety). Then throw yourself into a pile of pink blanket ghosts for cuddling, that has to cheer you up!

After that, maybe crash the Neumono or Pomi CAI Battle sim, and have an Indiana Jones style temple explorer date.

>>741248
>No, the end of the cycle killed this glitcher like always, but this glitcher at least made it so he went out with a bang.
No I mean, did it kill the ripped-apart Glitcher? That's what I'm worried about. If the noise can kill contestants by absorbing them into the stage then it might also be able to kill you in the same way, except messier. Don't let the duplicate bomb go off, obviously, not unless you completely understand the risks involved.

Also how were you female? I thought you were created from the Savior- is he not the same gender from cycle to cycle? Was he female in 543? I guess it couldn't hurt to check. Also, try to talk to Savior while you check. If King is right and Savior and Corruptor are similarly not-contestants, then you won't be able to talk to a recreated Savior. Also this is a good time to analyze his/her threads! Those should at least be normal, although his existence might still be incomplete. Have you ever checked Corruptor's threads before? Try checking the copy of him to compare, if so.

As for date ideas, sure I'll bite. Go on a double date with Alison and Arbiter in a past cycle where they were romantically involved!

A date would be a good way to break the monotony. Its fun to go detectiving with you but was hoping for more big reveals and signs of outside interference. I mean it's good to have found the ghost but I was sort of hoping it was a shadowy figure that was luring off people and we could follow them back to there ghost lair to learn there ghosty secrets. And then unmask them after a scooby doo like fight sequence.

Lets think what makes a good unique date. Location will be important to set the mood. It has to be somewhere special.

Here is a idea. How about we go have a date in the Belenos simulation? It's the closest thing to real life in our world and it has systems built in for Ai's to get "real" bodies. We can go trick the harvest sim into giving us some jetal bodies and then go have a nice date at a fancy belenosian restaurant. Will give us a chance to try out those fun physical forms that Alison and Sevener got to play with and all the new senses they came with.

We can have a nice meal and maybe go dancing and play around a bit like normal people would for a day. What do you think Rulekeeper?

A sim date inside a cai sim seems like a decent date location. The Cai battles are the closest thing to real life in the cycles that we can see and I don't think you have ever been directly involved in one right Glitcher?

So go get some jetal or even fake organic bodies with big bank accounts and have a date in sunny belenos.

Dance the night away with bodies that actually feel like the real thing! See amazing locations moments before Alison's epic battle knocks them over! Get Rulekeeper to wear a dress and maybe even convince her to grow legs for the special occasion! Mess around with the stuffy emperors and there silly plots!

>>741259
I like the idea of a belnos sim date. Let's try and go with that.

I hate to be that guy but I'm going to be that guy.

Do we have to go back to the Belenos Sim? Can't we go to one of the other sims just to change things up a little?

>>741261
True, the Pomi sim might be interesting. It supposedly doesn't work correctly, so we can find out how exactly it malfunctions.

1/5 Glitcher 2016/08/09(Tue)20:16 No. 741263 ID: d1f5f1
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>Was the random-dust-murder-to-make-keycards what killed the Glitcher in space.
Oh.

No.

Maybe?

No. It's really just loose system threads that are directed to kill some people. They can kill contestants, but no way they could kill me, especially not a me that learned how to space travel.

Unless it received an upgrade in later cycles. Can't rule that out. But what am I gonna do, get scared and just live in this cycle from now on?

>Was hoping the ghost was a shadowy figure that was luring off people and we could follow them back to there ghost lair to learn there ghosty secrets
Gosh tell me about it but it just turned out to be a dumb cloud made by me and the corruptor, the latter of who then turned it into an urban legend about people who saw contestants disappearing by a thing from the beyond. He fooled literally everyone including himself what a goof.

>I guess [the cycle] doesn't know how to make a copy of him? Although then how do new Corruptors get made each cycle?
That's a pretty good question.

>Where are all the old Corruptors and the old Glitchers then?
Well I know where the old glitchers are!

They're dead.

Corruptors and Saviors? I'm not so sure about, now. The corruptor, I think he's genuinely remade, because...

>Have you ever checked Corruptor's threads before? Try checking the copy of him to compare, if so.
I have! And the threads here are just stage threads that emulate him. So I can't tell much. He really doesn't actually exist here after all.

The Savior... I'm really not sure about.

I wonder how much I could learn from watching one cycle end and watching a new one begin.

"Hey Rulekeeper, when you brought over people from old cycles... was that a copy paste or a move?"
"A copy paste."

>An alternate plan is to import like, everyone and then freeze time so the stages don't progress. It'll attract outside attention but if they do nothing (and why would they do anything, anyway?) you would in fact succeed in saving everyone.
Yeah but there's that whole upper echelon thing.

In fact stopping time is like the first non-trivial thing a glitcher learns. This idea must have come up, and it is possible, therefore, something must have gotten in the way. I've got to know what that something preferably before I anger it.

>You know, did you even get to choose your appearance with CU? Can you even affect the way you look with Shopkeeper, or did you just appear looking the way you do?
I just showed up as the glitcher. It looks like there's variance to me, too, but still follow the similar form. I can look like anything though I just don't want to, but maybe that glitcher wanted to be a girl. Or just started as a girl.

>I thought you were created from the Savior- is he not the same gender from cycle to cycle?
I'm more like the paint splashed on the poor guy who can't take a bath until the end of the cycle, and the paint goes down the drain into the next cycle. It's always paint but maybe the corruptor splashes the corruptor with other colors now and then, and the cycle before this was when he splashed the savior with girl-paint.

Or savior was a girl I dunno.

>Can't talk to savior, but can analyze his/her threads
Oh hey I could! If I can find him... of course I can.

It's the savior, over here, chillin' by himself in stage 11. I freeze time and get up close to him.

"Hello savior it's me the glitcher just gonna - oh shit he is screwed up this cycle. Whatever, I'm gonna nab his strings -"
"Didn't Alison ask you to get permission from him before doing this?"

........

2/5 Glitcher 2016/08/09(Tue)20:16 No. 741264 ID: d1f5f1
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"Alison"

3/5 Glitcher 2016/08/09(Tue)20:16 No. 741265 ID: d1f5f1
File 147079901856.png - (67.71KB , 800x800 , 218.png )

"ain't"

4/5 Glitcher 2016/08/09(Tue)20:17 No. 741266 ID: d1f5f1
File 147079904956.png - (68.03KB , 800x800 , 219.png )

"here."
"She's in your jaded little heart, though. Now please stop, that face is even more distasteful."

5/5 Glitcher 2016/08/09(Tue)20:20 No. 741268 ID: d1f5f1
File 147079922807.png - (48.88KB , 800x800 , 220.png )

"Oh shit Rulekeep I forgot about the CAI fights. I mean the fake ones. The belenos sim and then there's the neumono and then there's the Pomi and we can have a date over there. In one of those places. For funsies."
"I heard you had to make up the whole thing."
"Well no the functionality is there in each cycle, it really just sort of turns one of it's spare lots into a carnival zone of confusion and battle. It's great. And definitely isn't a normal stage and even I had trouble messing with it internally back when I first invoked it since you know I sucked too hard back then. But now we can do that! Even occupy a body and like, see what it's like to have physics. As a break. I mean I gotta bring in some people anyway to, you know, have the cycle even make a CAI fight. We can just scoop up a buncha people from stage 7 and go 'hey uh stage 7 is different now, so split up into 2 teams and like' and then just sort of trail off I guess but still pretend like the cai fight is stage 7. Then go on a double date with Alison and Arbiter somehow."

Oh right the Savior.

His threads are also hollow. I wanted to peruse gold but I found yellow painted gravel. A complete fake. He gets corrupted by the savior at like stage 6 or something.

He did lose his temper with corruptor though. Said that the savior is getting better and better at fighting him when he's forced to, but the corruptor gets amnesia every time.

Anyway. Belenos place is pretty cool I guess. But I haven't seen the other cai fights except just hearing people talking about them.

>Go to the tried and tested Belenos Sim
>Pre-Uplift Neumono Sim
>Pomi Mythology Sim

Oh and cause I'm a fuckin' wizard I found a couple others.

>Heef War Sim
>Miklik Uplift Sim

>>741267
Wait. Savior remembers everything? We HAVE TO talk to him. We can try to get to his threads at some point, but his memory is a treasure trove on its own.

Pick Pomi. I wanna see what's broken.

Hmm if Savior keeps his memories from cycle to cycle that could be a way to get through to him. Ask if he is really content fighting a endless battle with a enemy who is only trying to save his friends and forgets everything constantly. Make him realize that the Corruptor is a sad lonely figure trapped by his nature and he should be helping save him as well as the contestants.

If we have to scoop up people why bring people who fit the date theme? So instead of getting random people lets grab some couples and let them have fun as well? Like that sad pair that got split up in Chief's time trial? And there are plenty more contestants who have formed relationships.

Can tell them the goal for this stage is to have fun with your partner and enjoy having a real body for awhile. Whichever pair gets to the end and has the most fun doing so gets a prize.

As for which Cycle man its hard to choose. The Belenos sim would be a great place cause it has all the modern amenities and would have plenty of options for dates. But I really would like to at least peak in the others and see what its like in there.

Wait can you spin up all of them? Put several couples in each sim and have them all running at once? Then you and Rulekeeper can go from one to another sampling what they have to offer.

>>741263
>take a string from Savior
...is that even a real Savior, or is the stage emulating him the way it does with Corruptor?

>>741268
Oh he is, yup. Nevermind.

I get the feeling even if real-Savior can't stop time, he might snap free if you tried to ambush him using a time stop. He might be able to cheat that much.

>>741268
Heef war gets all blood god sacrifice stuff, I think. Doesn't sound fun for a date, especially if you're avoiding being evil gods.

Stage 7 was already neumono temple based, and we did the belenos sim already.

Let's do the Pomi sim! There are wizards there, you can pretend to be wizards. Or spirits, or trickster gods, or generally mess with people that way. And there are probalby neat jungle temples and volcanoes and beaches to explore for dates. It's supposed to be on an island, right?

Rulekeep would probably make a cute Pomi. As would you.

>>741268
>Belenos Sim
Yeah, about that. The Diamond Emperor was definitely dead in that one. So, how could Arbiter be based off of him, and how did Sevener meet him in #1935? Is there more than one Belenos Sim that can be chosen, or are the surviving emperors other than Sapphire randomized?

Buy, yeah, Pomi. There's no reason we can't make this date educational and find out how the Pomi sim's broken.

>>741273

Arbitor is not based off the diamond emperor he is the diamond emperor. Alison had a Cai battle way back in the first few cycles and dragged his character out of the Belenos sim with her. And did so in such a way that the sim compensated for it by having him dead for later Cai battles.

Now in the regular contest he became a normal contestant permanently and ended up starting in the same area as Corruptor. They became friends regularly due to close proximity.

>>741274
The belenos sim we're familiar with centers around Diamond being dead. Like, the plot is "get revenge for Diamond's death". That isn't compensation. That's an entirely new story.
It's practically confirmed at this point that the sims can retell different sections of history.

Let's learn whats broken in the pomi sim. Maybe we can learn a little more about these strange creatures as well.

>And did so in such a way that the sim compensated for it by having him dead for later Cai battles.
Except we don't actually know that part happened, and we know that's inconsistent with what happened to other people we know were pulled out in earlier runs.

When we finished the CAI battle and evacuated everyone, we pulled out a bunch of people who'd been pulled out before and already had "reincarnations" active in the contest.

>>/questarch/567016
>"DUPLICATES FOUND. LOVIRO/UNKNOWN. FELIX/UNKNOWN. VINYL/UNKNOWN. EMERALD EMPEROR/SWORDSBANE. UNKNOWN/UNKNOWN X 8. UNKNOWN/HEALER. TEMPORARY PLACEHOLDERS CREATED UNTIL NEW CYCLE."

And the sim didn't compensate by eliminating any of them from the scenario.

It's possibly we really broke things in an unexpected way when we got Diamond/Arbiter out, put it's equally possible there are variants on the sims. Unse Unce, while non-canon, already implies certain parameters are randomized on a new run, and we know from logs that's the rule with more conventional stage puzzles.

>>741279
...actually, wait, Glitcher, while you're doing magic anyways, want to check into those unknowns? I've been curious who the alts of the Unity-friends we rescued are, and really curious to see who Healer was derived from.

>>741276
Unless Diamond was secretly still alive in the sim and we just missed him! :o

You should probably actually check out every sim multiple times in depth in case we do end up having to fight the CAI in the end here, but for now you're just trying to have fun on a date, so I'd say either the Belenos sim for creature comforts or the Miklik uplift because that sounds interesting and less violent than the others and really what the heck even is a Miklik honestly?? do the contestants know about Mikliks?

Go for a look at the Pomi sim, see how's broken, if it's unfinished maybe there's some edges where you can see where its creator was working and learn stuff.

Also from what I gather, Pomi history was comparatively nice, though I doubt it'll be boring with the CAI battle scenario, and you guys could do with experiencing a setting that's not too technological.

You and Rulekeep put on some disguises to go on in there and enjoy yourselves, anyway. Eat and drink and make merry and all the pleasures of the flesh and all that, since it seems the sim lets players experience those.

Let's see the pomi simulation.

1/2 Glitcher 2016/08/10(Wed)17:00 No. 741400 ID: d1f5f1
File 147087362404.png - (55.77KB , 800x800 , 221.png )

>The Diamond Emperor was definitely dead in that one. So, how could Arbiter be based off of him
The sims have a little random value in them. I gotta wonder if that happened because of the whole series of logs giving away certain things. Not like it did a good job, since 90% of the time the sims are nearly identical.

The outliers, though! There was a cycle when the belenos sim was after the apocolypse. It was completely historically inaccurate.

"We'll go to the Pomi place! Start the rewind!"
"Okay." says Rulekeep, who begins. "What's there?"
"Hidden temples! Romantic beaches! Sexy palm trees! Wizards I guess."
"Aren't you the wizard?"
"Yeah but this sim will let the contestants pretend they are! That's what it's about. Each team gets a wizard, or whatever, and summons up beasties that individual teammates can then take control of and go fight it up. There's even a village there! We can act like the pomi villagers just on vacation when we get in the crossfire. Or go hide out in hidden temples and jump-scare the contestants. I bet I could make a spooky skull to fling at them."
"Do keep your imagination somewhere near the present." Rulekeeper says as we watch stage 8, which was kind of like an adventure stage in of itself. A lot of wandering around a world full of objectives and... land. "I like this one." Rulekeeper continues. "It's a shame it's taking so long. It's like a less cruel stage 7-3, in that it's like a lifetime of adventure. The challenge seems to be as much against one's patience and determination as it is gathered skill and reso-"
"Oh my god I will stop making faces if you stop nerding out about stages!"
"Deal, as long as I can at least review a stage like this."
"Watch Alison die later! We have good times to roll back to."

2/2 Glitcher 2016/08/10(Wed)17:01 No. 741401 ID: d1f5f1
File 147087371609.png - (118.27KB , 800x800 , 222.png )

Once we get back to the stage 7 safe zone, I get to work on creating the triggers needed for the cycle to allow a cai fight. At least it won't take as long as it took me last time.

"So, what would you like to do first, once we get there? Do we control one Pomi, or one Pomi for each of us? I am interested, these cai fights see-"

Savior shows up outta nowhere.

>"Glitcher! This isn't advancing the stages. I have to ask you to stop."
"Oh come on really?"
>"Really."

>>741401
On one condition. He tells you what you want to know. What's up with the veil, where is Corruptor being sent when he's quarantined (to the veil we assume), and where's the Paradise? Does he know how the other spacefaring Glitcher died and why there are bits of the veil in him? Did SAVIOR kill him? Also he's gotta let you analyze his threads. He remembers everything; hasn't a Glitcher done it before? If anything happens to him it'd be temporary anyway so what is he afraid of?

Tell him you don't answer to him. Only to your constituents.

If he wants you to stop he had better give you a damn good reason. And none of that oh its for the greater good and crap.

If he wants to spout that nonsense he can go back to hiding in his hole with all the contestants who are to afraid to help save the world.

>>741401
EXCUUUUUSE ME, Savior, I'm on a date.
You clearly don't even care about how Cycles end or ending the cycles once and for all, so I'm going to enjoy this one as much as I can, because this Glitcher only gets one life to enjoy.

So unless you can give me a good reason to further YOUR goals, I won't let you halt mine.

>>741403
You forgot to mention asking Savior why he looks kinda corrupted right now.

Hey Savior you look like shit. What cycle are you from?

If he is the current one hassle him.

If he is a time clone also hassle him.

As for stopping this give me a good reason or buzz off while I take my girl out on a date.

Don't forget to call him a good for nothing Mom.
We can already see he's pregnant with your sibling.

Why don't you take responsibility for abandoning me. Dad at least gives me a good home for the first few stages before things fall to shit with my best friends! You won't even LET me into your house cause your afraid I'll track dirt on the floor.

FOR SHAME, MOTHER! FOR SHAME!

...oh, what if the spacefaring Glitcher was confronted just like this, and he went to grab one of Savior's threads but it wound up destroying them both? Savior came back at the next cycle, but you didn't.

...well, there's still other things to talk about. Like the 50 thousand cycles inside the veil.

>>741408
I think that's because he's near Glitcher. Savior kindof glitches out when he's near Glitcher.

We're still in cycle 544, right? You didn't just undo the wrestling contest we wanted to finish later, or undo a stage's worth of memories so you'd have to explain to your friends what Rulekeeo's deal is, I hope.

>expect adorable Glitcher and Rulekeeper Pomis ona date
>get cuteblocked by Savior
Vengence! Cute transformations and dating will not be denied.

>what do
Ask Savior what the heck happened to him, he looks beat to hell.

Then you need to figure out if this is the real Savior or an emulated one. Because you can kick an emulated one's butt.

Also, seriously, relax, it's an island vacation, Dad. If you're gonna butt in and be a third wheel at least pull up a fruit drink and a swimsuit or something!

(You have two Dads and it's too silly not to start addressing them as such, especially if they're being annoying.

Also, you or Rulekeeper totally have to use your powers to swap his clothes and give him a drink).

>"Glitcher! This isn't advancing the stages. I have to ask you to stop."
Hey, it's not interfering with the current stage, either. I'm about as far away from it as I can get, doing my own thing.

Its a odd day when I look more stable than you Mom.

So what doom will befall me if I waste some time going on a date with my new girlfriend?

I bet you just don't approve of our relationship.

Not advancing the stages? Isn't the Savior usually in favor of helping contestants enjoy themselves as much as possible before they die? It doesn't make much sense for him to get in the way of our date plans.

Maybe he's just feeling left out. Invite him along, we can even find him a date.

Relax friend, we won't be simulating much, so this will only take a minuscule amount of actual time, then we'll get back to advancing the stages "legitimately".

>>741403
If we end up making demands like this I'd like to add why he cooperated with Alison in previous cycles, and more importantly, why he doesn't do so now. Also, what the heck is up with Corrupter, if he knows.

Glitcher 2016/08/10(Wed)19:03 No. 741431 ID: d1f5f1
File 147088099798.png - (21.91KB , 800x800 , 223.png )

>We're still in cycle 544, right? You didn't just undo the wrestling contest we wanted to finish later, or undo a stage's worth of memories so you'd have to explain to your friends what Rulekeeo's deal is, I hope.
Uhhhhhhhhhh yeah we're in 544. I would hope I would notice if I was rewinding our own cycle.

Also I would've really needed to step up to a brand new level of not giving a fuck to completely miss the whole life-long-adventuring part of stage 8.

"Wow savior. You look like shit."
>"I think you'll agree it doesn't do much good to judge someone based on something so cheap as appearance."
"Doesn't stop me. Also really dad or maybe mom it's an island vacation for me! I'm taking a break!"
>"Then how about you visit a stage that has adequate break material? I suggest cycle... ah, I'm sure you can find a cycle with good entertainment resources."
"No!"
>"I'm asking politely."
"And I said no! What do you even care? A cai fight barely even takes a real amount of time. I haven't even rewinded back to before stage 3! That's a huge time economy! Wait a second are you the real savior or this cycles? What are the cycles where you worked with Alison, how'd she get you to do that, and why not now? What's up with the corruptor?"
>"I assure you, I am real."
"Oh wait I guess you would answer that no matter what. And I guess you are real by answering one out of like 15 of my questions! Well if you want me to stop, you better have a good reason!"
>"I'm sure I have a good reason. I do not remember, well, as much as you think I do."
"... you're shitting me. Wait you are from this cycle aren't you?"
>"No, I am not bound to the cycles like you and corruptor are."
".... well what cycle am I from?"
>"3,119."
"Oh shit. Okay well why do you look corrupted?"
>"I don't know."
"Well what's up with the veil? You're even gooping at me like you're part of it."
>"I can't remember what lies under the veil."
"Oh now you're just bullshitting me."
>"No, I honestly don't remember."
"What about the other glitcher that died up in space? Why there's veil residue in him, I gotta analyze your threads cause I know you remember everything and I'd be surprised if a glitcher never did it! If anything happens to you isn't it temporary?"
>"Possibly. Yes, you can see my threads."
"Yeah that - wait what?"
>"If you promise not to make another CAI fight, then I will let you see my threads in exchange."
"Can I even trust you not to pull some bullshit? At least corruptor lets me work with him for a few stages, but you just never come to me! I bet you're going to avoid talking to the glitcher you're gonna have born after 3119, huh? I'm even willing to let you join in on our date if you wanted!"
>"Do you care for the loose stage strings that get stuck on you, or do you just brush them off? Oh, nevermind, it's not a fair analogy. But the offer stands. You can read my threads if you'd like, as long as you don't ever start a CAI fight again. Reading my threads is far more efficient and trustworthy than me explaining it, you know that."

Ohhhh he's got some bullshit he wants to pull out I just know it.

>>741431
Amend the agreement. You'll agree to not start a CAI Fight again for the reasons you are currently aware of (investigating the Pomi breakage and going out on a date). If something new comes up that makes it important to do the CAI Fight thing, the agreement will no longer apply, and a new agreement will have to be made.

But uh, can he stick around a little while after you analyze his threads, so you can ask any new questions that come up?

Fuck you Savior. I'm just as much a real person as anyone else in this sim. I am not just some disguarded threads from your stupid fight with Corruptor. I have friends and family and am free to live my own damn life however short it might be.

So tell it to me straight or fuck off.

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

Man, I was so psyched for cute date stuff, I'm not even interested in the literal plot threads he's danging in front of our face.

>"If you promise not to make another CAI fight, then I will let you see my threads in exchange."
...you know, if Rulekeeper plays Rules Lawyer, we already started this one, so the agreement wouldn't interrupt our vacation.

>look Corrupted
Does he feel corrupted? Is this really a Corrupted Savior, or a Savior who's appearance was mangled by shifting between cycles?

>you can see why threads
Okay, why is the one thing you would never let me do no matter how much I asked suddenly a better idea than letting me and Rulekeep dally in a little date. There's something huge I'm missing here, or this is some kind of trap.

In fact, your offering now, over something inconsequential, really makes me think looking at your threads is a bad idea.

>what do
Ask Rulekeep what she thinks, she hasn't contributed to this conversation yet. Oh, you haven't been introduced, have you! Dadmom, this is Rulekeep, the Rulekeeper, and my date. Rulekeeper, this is my inadvertent parent, the Savior.

(Honestly, Rulekeeper applying her stage-dissection technique to him might be safer than you grabbing one of his threads, if he prepared a thread specifically for you. Or you should collaborate and generate a joint analysis script that doesn't work exactly like either of your own normal meathods).

I don't trust you Savior. You spend forever avoiding me and now you want to help me learn more about you?

Well I don't buy it.

Why are you here now? What is it about starting this Cai battle that has you so worried? Is your paradise hidden in the Pomi world? Are you just trying to keep me from breaking it?

Or is there another reason? You have never actually cared about what I or any other contestant got up to before so why are you here to stop me now?

Ask what happens if you take the deal and then renege on it. I mean, it's information now, which can't really be taken back, in exchange for refraining from an activity, which can. There'd have to be some sort of enforcement clause.

I think Savior is a trap/virus. Tell him to go away and let you enjoy your date while finding out why the pomi cai fight is broken.

>>741458
I'd prefer not to as good as tell him we don't plan to honor the deal even if we accept it. If he doesn't have an enforcement method, we've essentially tell him a negotiated compromise is impossible, and he might move on to force. (Whereas even if we hold back and act reticent without agreeing he may still press on, trying to persuade us, and giving us more information in the process).

If you don't agree, who knows what kind of bullshit he's going to pull to try to stop you. You might as well play along for now.

If you really want to go in the simulation later, you can get around your promise by going to a cycle where a CAI fight has already been triggered, or just give somebody else the ability to trigger the fight. Or just break your promise, you're the Glithcer, not Alison.

Glitcher 2016/08/10(Wed)21:19 No. 741485 ID: d1f5f1
File 147088919540.png - (20.06KB , 800x800 , 224.png )

"Wow savior. You just completely ruined any trust I had for you. Which really wasn't much but now it's even less! Now I don't want to look at your threads!"
>"Why not?"
"You act all cycle getting all resistant to people looking you in the eye and now you're all helpful? You're up to something I know it! Are your threads literally dangerous for me to look at or something?"
>"They're just threads, Glitcher. Out-of-cycle threads. They're important to look at, and the reason why I want you to look at them is because you've exceeded me. You have to see out of cycle threads to accomplish what you want to accomplish, for reasons I don't remember."
"Whatever DAD. What do you think Rul - oh dang you two haven't even met have you?"
"Hello, Savior."
>"Hello, Rulekeep."

Wow I can really taste the chemistry like I can taste the water.

"I would not know what to think, Glitcher. I cannot seem to observe the savior effectively right now. I would need to make physical contact with him."
"Uck. Why are you even here, Savior? I'm actually feeling mildly annoyed here!"
>"Please don't be angry. You are just meddling in, well, everything of mine, and if you will do so, I may as well try and steer you into the right direction so that you either get killed by whatever else is out there, or succeed in destroying it. I would prefer the former, but either one is preferable to a stalemate."
"Yeah well how about I get to start a cai fight if I learn from your threads that there's good reason for me to start a cai thread?"
>"That is acceptable. If anything, you might learn a good reason to not start a cai fight, but I couldn't say."
"What if I do learn I should start it, can you even stop me?"
>"No, but a trusted source told me that you had some honor to you."

I guess I'll make a note that savior trusts people who are so wrong?

>Does he feel corrupted?
Eh I see some on him but not the amount I'd expect from an actually corrupted savior.

>Is this really a Corrupted Savior, or a Savior who's appearance was mangled by shifting between cycles?
>Savior
>Appearance
>Actually look at him
He just looks like veil dust with its -

Oh fuck savior forever he's covered in veil residue! I didn't even look at him that hard at first because of his stupid glowshow hurting my eyes.

And he wanted me to go and touch him!

I can easily brush away the veil dust like it's nothing but maybe he doesn't know that and it's the principal of the matter!

"Glitcher you are - I mean Savior whatever you are in weird veil residue stuff!"
>"Yes. You're a capable Glitcher, possibly unprecedented in skill, so you can brush it away safely, can't you? I am also interested in how the Rulekeep managed to fill in many of the small but crucial capabilities you lack."
"Man stay away from my girl!"
>"Your girl?"
"She's like the time to my space!"
>"Huh, I thought you were giving me the usual glitcher flippant remark when you said date. Still! I don't have any ill will towards her, she's more or less insignificant without you."
"Man I really don't want to read your threads because then I might catch a case of the assholery!"
>"Glitcher, please just take the deal. Read my threads, if they don't have a compelling reason to make you start a cai fight, then do not start a cai fight."
"Just go away."
>"No."

>>741485
Ehh... I dunno, this almost seems like a trap. He's not acting like his usual self. Be very careful. If he tries to grab you with that veil shit on him you might want to run away. ...should there be ANY corruption on him? That in itself feels wrong. Shouldn't Savior either be entirely clean or entirely corrupted? Maybe in order to come out here and be active in a cycle he's not supposed to be in, he had to travel through corrupted space? That would also explain the veil residue all over him.

If you can get at his threads safely then try it. Do so faster than he can react even, if you can. Don't hold back.

Okay, this is suspicious as fuck. I don't trust him one bit. We don't know for certain what's going on here, but he's obviously trying to deny us information, so he wouldn't offer us this deal if he didn't think that the info we would get from his strings is less valuable than what we'd get from investigating the CAI battles. If we accept his deal then we get a large amount of non-exclusive information, we could learn it through other methods but it would be difficult to do so. If we don't accept his deal then we get to learn a bunch of juicy CAI battle info, which will be useful if we have to fight the CAI, and we get to learn why he doesn't want us start another one, which is extremely exclusive info, probably only obtainable this way.

Current hypothesis: this thing, Savior or not, is being controlled by the CAI through the magnetic gunk. They don't want us entering the CAI battle because they don't want us to be more prepared for our fight with them because they recognize the possibility we'll be able to bypass their "I win" button. it's possible the gunk would attack you when you tried to read it.

Ask him why he doesn't want you to start the CAI battle, then when he's uncooperative, tell him to fuck off.

Like I mean what if he's a Corrupted Savior that "looks normal" and the veil residue is hiding his corruption? Still, even then you're extremely skilled and should be able to- ...no way, is this NOT the Savior from your cycle? Like, what if he's a Corrupted Savior that managed to get separated from the mainline Savior, like how Smuggler got separated, but somehow is still able to remember some things that the mainline Savior knows? He should remember everything he's done in the current cycle at least, so maybe you can quiz him on that to double-check his identity.

...ah. I have a solution. Tell him you'll agree, but you won't check his threads here. We'll revert this cycle's changes, disarm the bomb at the end, then go back to cycle 3119 and talk to him where he looks like a normal person and isn't covered in gunk.

>>741489
Oh shoot, I missed the update... Not that it changes much. Say that there's already a compelling reason to investigate the CAI fight and say that unless reading his strings invalidates that reason you still plan on doing so, is that acceptable?

>I guess I'll make a note that savior trusts people who are so wrong?
You'll have to thank Alison for being so trustworthy, even if she's wrong sometimes.

>"I would not know, Rulekeep. I cannot seem to observe the savior effectively right now. I would need to make physical contact with him."
If she's only hearing one side of the conversation, I suggest filling her in before going any further. You trust her, and she's been sensible sometimes when you're not. And you're angry right now. You could use a second opinion and perspective you can trust right now to check you.

You might want to use a thread to make a thing that repeats the Savior's words for her so she's not left out of the rest of the conversation.

>Oh fuck savior forever he's covered in veil residue!
>I can easily brush away the veil dust like it's nothing
Um. What if you can't. What if the trap when you go to touch him, and the reason Rulekeep can't perceive him at all, is that thing isn't made out of stings. What if that's not Savior at all, but some kind of construct built of veil residue.

>I thought you were giving me the usual glitcher flippant remark when you said date.
I'm not just a flippant thing. I'm a person, and I'm allowed to have feelings and care about people.

>she's more or less insignificant without you.
She's important. She's maybe more important than I am, since she chose to fight her nature to make a difference, and it took me gods know how long for me to accept I even could.

>I don't have any ill will towards her, she's more or less insignificant without you.
>more or less insignificant
>insignificant
...that isn't Savior. He didn't think anyone was insignificant. He honestly, truly, wanted to let everyone he could leave the stages and have a good life in his sanctuary. In his conversation with Alison, he said he'd be willing to build a whole second Sanctuary just for Glitcher if you ever accepted the offer yourself, so he could accommodate you, without risking the safety of the first.

Whoever this is, they don't care. Savior, for all his apparent faults and our philosophical disagreements with him, did.

The conversation style doesn't seem to match, either. This guy is too clinical and dispassionate, no flair, no expressiveness, none of the feeling.

Confer with Rulekeep, but I don't think you want to take the deal. This screams "trap" and "deception".

>>741493
This could work, but let's go back to our cycle when we're don time traveling.

Oh, and Rulekeep should know if they actually hadn't met before, so if that was a contradiction we should try to privately verify it. I'm not sure Savior confirmed they hadn't met, either, so would this actually catch him in a contradiction? Try to get him to decide one way or another before you ask Rulekeep.

Glitcher, what are your offensive capabilities? Defensive? Evasive?

There's a chance it could be a trap, but you're not going to figure this all out without taking some major risks. Surely reading his thread can't be anymore dangerous than piercing the veil, or any of the other stuff you're going to have to do before this is over.

Do it.

>>741495
I think the lack of anything suggesting not starting the CAI fight would be sufficient reason to start the CAI fight.
>If she's only hearing one side of the conversation,
Well, something to ask her, if she is able to hear him...
>...that isn't Savior.
Actually, that brings a point: There's one person Rulekeeper hasn't been able to see, and that was Glitcher. This guy must be another Glitcher pretending to be Savior. Everything about him happens to fit Glitcher's attitude and style.
And regarding the veil sticking to him--That's what it did to Rulekeeper while you were inside of her. Perhaps he found a way to inhabit and control a body, something you weren't willing to do to Rulekeeper. He could keep himself safe, but since he would be trapped inside of the body due to the veil immediately outside of it, his powers would be reduced. He knows you're powerful, and that you're a later Glitcher, but if he can get to your threads, he'll improve his own power.

...Maybe he's already done that, and that is why the other glitcher was dead on arrival. He's been killing other Glitchers to increase his own powers.

...oh god what if Glitchers don't die when the cycle resets? What if they've all just been stuck floating in empty space until they figure out how to move around (and they probably couldn't before the bomb went off), and one of them went mad from isolation?

If this was another Glitcher, though, why would the veil residue be attracted to you? Wouldn't it stick to him since he's closer? The only explanation would be that the veil can't detect him for some reason.

Tell him you'll take the deal, but not here. If you do examine his threads, you'll know everything you can know about him anyway, right? So let's all go to his sanctuary and see what's what there, first. Go somewhere he can make the portal if he can't do it here. Only Savior can control the way there, right? So it'll be proof he is really Savior. And we'll finally get to see if everyone has gone to the sanctuary is really ok, instead of it being some horrible extended trick.

Since you're in the sim, try causing a strong wind to blow the dust away without touching it. If touching him still looks suspicious after that, tell him you're not ready to accept Savior as your lord and savior.

Is there any way we can verify that this is the real saviour? Like asking when we last asked to look at his threads? That was safe zone 8 if I remember.

This seems very suspicious. Even if its not a direct trap I would be very careful whatever choice you make.

So a few thoughts about the situation. Discuss these with Rulekeeper and see what she thinks before rejecting or accepting his offer.

1. Why did he pick right now to show up? He could have stopped by anytime but he chose right as you are about to load up the Pomi sim. Maybe running a Cai sim will interfere with something he does? Or send out red flags to entities we do not want noticing us? Or could his Paradise be in or runs off some of the code used to run the sims?

2. Why is he covered in Veil residue or something similar? We have never seen him like this before so there has to be a reason for it now. Did he have to pass through the Veil on the way here? Has he covered himself in the goop to hide something from you? Maybe this is not Savior and is just someone trying to fake his mannerisms? He has said several things that seem un-savior like but honestly we have not talked with him enough in the past to know. Maybe he is another Glitcher that lives in the Veil who wants to absorb you or merge with you? Or something worse? He mentioned that he would rather you get killed by "whatever is out there" but you destroying it would be fine to.

3. What affects could even his threads have on you? Have you ever inspected Corruptors threads? Directly interacting with one of your "parents" could have side effects. Most contestants are completely different from you and the other special characters. If this is a Glitcher in disguise could he grab you and start reading your threads to learn your tricks or try to absorb you?

4. He is buttering you up quite a bit. Saying you are a capable Glitcher who is unprecedented in skill and such. That seems like he is trying to tempt you into reading his threads. If he has some plot to hurt you why has he just not zipped over and grabbed you? He specifically wants you to read his threads so what danger could come from that action? You have been overwhelmed by info before when you saw your past lives. He probably has way more info in his threads so the shock of seeing all of it could make you vulnerable to the Void goo.

Regardless if this is a Trap or just Savior being obtuse you should not just ignore him.

I would go for his "offer" but on your own terms. Study him thoroughly without touching him. Have Rulekeeper backing you up ever step of the way. Heck have her ready to absorb you to protect you from the goo if need be. Only start checking his strings after looking at everything else about him. Try to lure off a tiny section of the goo without making direct contact and see what happens and if its really Savior under there. Heck have him wait here for a bit while you go watch other cycles corrupted Saviors to learn more about what they can do and test your Void goo management skills before taking his offer.

Best case you learn valuable info from Saviors threads. Worst case you are in for a nasty fight while something tries to attack/absorb you. But we can't save the world without taking a few risks.

Oh and give Rulekeeper a kiss for luck just in case.

Maybe the reason the Pomi simulation is broken is because something that doesn't belong in the simulation was hidden here? That might explain why this "Savior" is so eager to not let you run the CAI battle. He's trying to stop you from finding whatever is hidden here.

1/2 Glitcher 2016/08/12(Fri)15:09 No. 741856 ID: d1f5f1
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>Glitcher, what are your offensive capabilities? Defensive? Evasive?
I can sort of almost stop time.

Which I do, by method of removing the time syncing particles around myself and Rulekeep. Those are also all over the place in space, but I can't use them to move around like I can the Ghostcloud. Anyway, once I bump enough particles away, I pass a threshold and, I'm pretty sure, end up in a whole different time.... track. One that happens to move a huge number of steps for every 1 step that the cycle takes.

Oh gosh I just thought of an idea I can't believe I didn't think of earlier. I'm going to start pulling one string from each cycle and carrying it with me to make a direct connection between cycles. It lets me keep an eye on every cycle I've been to, as well as let me teleport near instantly between them. Can't believe I didn't think of that before but oh well!

After I stop the time, as I keep calling it, I pull Rulekeep over on the side in private.

"I don't really want to talk to him anymore. Rulekeep have you two met?"
"Not particularly. We had Alison and one other pass on loose messages, so I have heard a few 'Savior said's while I'm sure Savior has heard a few 'Rulekeep said's."
"So this really was the first meeting?"
"I suppose it would count, yes."
"Can you even hear him?"
"Hm? Oh, yes, I merely can't see him because he's covered in... was that veil dust?"
"Yeah, it was. And you know what? I don't think that's the Savior at all. He should be either completely corrupted or not at all!"
"Why so?"
"... I dunno. I guess he was kinda glitched out when I saw him in safe zone 8. Point is, this guy doesn't act like the savior at all! No dumb flair, no unneeded extravagance, no smug tone of concern as he tells you you're not even a real thing, so on! I mean why do you think he even showed up right before a CAI fight? That's too much of a coincidence!"
"I'm sorry, Glitcher, but the CAI fight and the Savior are both things outside of my expertise. He does, however, move strangely. Can you remove the veil from a distance?"
"I can, and I will!"

2/2 Glitcher 2016/08/12(Fri)15:09 No. 741857 ID: d1f5f1
File 147103977735.png - (25.35KB , 800x800 , 226.png )

I scrape the building and have it wash over the corruptor, grinding off all the residue and putting it all in a newly formed concrete ball made out of the stage.

"That is a contestant. Although he has the Savior's form, he is from cycle 2410. His history and threads appear to have been modified."
"Let me see how - "
"Wait. He is also hollow. There is something underneath him.
"Goddamnit, Rulekeep! This suuuucks!"
"What? What is wrong?"
"This stupid other-glitcher is delaying the date!"
"Well, now we have a lot of new options, don't we?"
"I guess you're right."

A) Destroy him, go on date
B) Delete him, go on date
C) Become a murderer, go on date
D) Talk to him and then when he doesn't cooperate, eliminate him, then go on date
E) just talk to him for real i guess
F) Destroy the planet (and everything on it (including him(then go on the date)))

Stab him in the back and find out what is inside of him then F

>>741858
except Rulekeep clearly

>>741854
...Glitcher, why do you want to kill your brother there so badly? Are you that mad about someone trying to trick you / interrupt your date? Or, I wonder, if there's some Glitcher instinct / biological imperative to the effect of "there can only be one". Might want to have Rulekeep scan you quick, because that reaction seems way stronger than it should be.

I suspect this is the case, because that would explain what this Glitcher was trying to do to you (lure you into a trap to be killed / eaten) and might explain what happened to the space Glitcher you found. A different Glitcher ate him!

>what do
I say leave him frozen for a while, go have a date (visit the Pomi battle in a distant cycle, if you can't use this one) and then we'll come back and deal with him later.

What are our combat options versus other Glitchers? Glitcher on Glitcher combat seems risky (I suspect you're not the first one this guy tried to eat), but Rulekeep was made to stop you, right? Assisting her, she should easily be able to kick a different Glitcher's butt.

...we can't leave this guy alone forever, since you told him how Rulekeep helps you. Left to his own devices he might try to get his own, which might be bad. Especially since he someone knew your native cycle, too.

Can you restrain this other-glitcher and interrogate? Would be pretty useful to know why he was trying to trick you, why he chose here to interfere, as well as all the other info he's found from cycle traveling. Plus knowing how they figured out how to manipulate the veil would be handy.

Just make sure he can't pull anything sudden, you know what sorta glitch wizardry you can pull, so how would you stop another you from say suddenly attacking now that their disguise was removed?

>I scrape the building and have it wash over the corruptor

...!? Was that just a slip of the tongue/mind or is that significant?

Anyway, are you sure he's still not Savior? The basic underlying form seems to still be there, and Rulekeeper has never seen Savior before. For all we know normal Savior also has a weird hollow thing underneath him. Or this is another Savior, rather than another Glitcher. Glitchers kind of are part Savior so it'd be hard to tell.

How much can you or Rulekeep examine him like this? Can Rulekeep get a closer, more thorough look? How exactly has he been modified, and how different is he from the Saviors you've observed recorded? Also if you unfreeze time and he's another Glitcher what's to stop him stopping time too?

Anyway, if you've cleared all that, then talk to him. But: Ask him to summon up someone he likes to go on a double date with you. Then you can talk while you date!

>...!? Was that just a slip of the tongue/mind or is that significant?
No, I think Glitcher just was using his powers for literal earth building bending.

Find out who this is and why (and how) he is here.

If he found you right as you did this he had to be close right? Other Glitchers are slower than you traveling through the void right? Or maybe he has a thread from here to keep a eye on the sims. Which means he has something hidden here he does not want you to find. Could be in for a treasure hunt!

Either way make sure you get as much info out of him as possible. If he does not cooperate then time free him and read his threads to learn what is up.

Oh and get some hugs from Rulekeeper to calm you down. I know this interruption bothers you but blowing this guy up will just lose us info. Can always deal with him after you learn all he knows.

Oh man I was right?

Can you put him in some kind of cage? Like, force him to stay in the contestant "suit" and keep that bound? I don't think killing him is a good plan, but he could definitely do with punishment.

Wait this is some hollow pawn that someone sent to bother you? Don't kill him because he is probably just a empty shell.

Learn what he is and where he came from and who sent him. Then fill him full of explosives and send him back to his owner. That should show him.

Just learn everything you can from this thing before getting rid of it. Someone is watching you and just tried to trap you with a really silly trap.

What would have happened if you had read his threads? Would it have hurt you or just taught the guy on the other end how to deal with Veil goo? Maybe this whole thing was a plot from a Glitcher/other thing in the Veil to get you to teach it how to escape the goo?

>Wait this is some hollow pawn that someone sent to bother you?
No, Glitchers are just hollow. The part you can see and that interacts with the world around it is a shell is made of lose threads that get stuck to the weird core nothing. Glicher's made of something fundamentally different than everyone else, and doesn't actually have any threads of his own.

Find out what he is, where he came from, and why he is here. Oh and if he is trying to steal your girl.

Then blow him up and continue on date.

>>741857
>something underneath him
Paranoia says it's a bomb. His story was meant to lure you into thinking he's Savior and examining his threads. Can you peel him apart in layers to see what you're dealing with here, without activating it? Obviously to trigger the bomb you have to "examine" his threads. Or maybe it's proximity based. Anyway be careful dammit, but try to find out more about whoever's messing with you. Then yeah continue the date. The other Glitcher tried to stop the CAI Fight, so let's find out why that is, and have some fun while doing so.

>end up in a whole different time.... track
Can you estimate how long a Glitcher would have existed from cycle 2500 or so that constantly used this trick after a certain point? Or... was able to shove an entire cycle into this second track? Maybe that's what the 50k cycles are. A Glitcher that has spent an eternity polishing his skill. You only have one advantage over him- Rulekeep.

How easy would it be for someone as skilled as you to kill the both of you? I wonder why he didn't just come here directly. Maybe he can't?

>>741401
Oh, obvious question in retrospect: Did the fake-Savior get the lightshow right? When we asked Savior about his flashy entrances before, he said he did it because he was the only one who could, so it unambiguously identified him (just like Corruptor is unique in being able to break the allowed physical size constraints).

Either you (or we) weren't paying attention enough to notice that the lightshow here wasn't right, or it turns out Savior's trick isn't so unique after all.

...also in retrospect, if Savior is taking preventive measures against impersonation, he might already have been aware of this guy.

Suggestion 2016/08/12(Fri)18:31 No. 741905 ID: a9a7ce

Stay paranoid until you are sure blowing it up will not hurt you. Cause if I was a evil Glitcher I would know that I have a temper and would have filled that thing with traps.

So careful inspections before mythbuster explosion time.

Oh also try not to permanently kill this poor guy somehow. Don't forget that is a person.

Yeah okay, I would really like to know what this guy's deal is, but he tried to deceive us, and if we give him the chance to talk to us he might try to pull something. Kill him as thoroughly as possible, mercy will just give him a chance at revenge. Liars get dead.

1/4 Glitcher 2016/08/12(Fri)20:54 No. 741916 ID: d1f5f1
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>Glitcher, why do you want to kill your brother there so badly?
Well he's probably going to try to kill us so that seems like a solid reason if I think it over.

>I say leave him frozen for a while
I guess I could try.

>Was that just a slip of the tongue/mind or is that significant?
I've been nearly calling a lot of people glitcher lately, so it goes to figure that I finally meet another glitcher and I call him something else entirely!

"Rulekeeper even if you're not powerful enough to do it, how were you supposed to ever beat me without being able to stop time?"
"Even if you stop time, even while I am physically immobilized, if you stop time around me, I am able to perceive you. I can even see you as you move, even if I can't. However, even though I have no capability to affect physical objects, the syncing particles are non physical, and as you are aware, you move them more with your mind than your hands, though I'm unsure if you can tell the different any longer. In any case, I could, in theory, bring you back simply by doing the reverse of what you do to stop time. However, by the time I was created, your ability to transfer your physical movement to the empty timeline exceeded my ability to repair the distribution of particles. How this works, however, I do not know. But if I were stronger back then, then I would have forced you back into the cycle's normal timeline and disassembled you. I was also told I was immune to your unraveling efforts, but I never entirely trusted that assessment with good reason."
"Come to think of it I guess it was tougher I just didn't think about it since it was all a big deal so I made it tough in my head on top of it being actually tough. Wait so if you can act while I'm stopping time, then uh...."
"I believe..." Rulekeep lightens up her whispers. "That that glitcher does not realize that we know he's a glitcher. He is capable of moving, at least a little. But he isn't, much in the way someone lies still to remain hidden."
"So I can't just leave him frozen, huh. I mean I guess I knew I was never really stopping time, but it sure felt like I was!"
"You were only stopping it for those who couldn't perceive the alternate, which was everyone around you. You cannot freeze him. However, he has laid out a trap for you. Perhaps he is gauging you. It is possible that he knows that he is weaker than you, but he definitely does not know that he is stronger than you. Otherwise I expect he would have outright attacked. I would like to investigate this glitcher's threads, but I am afraid to, since I must get close and make contact with him. If his capability to stop time is greater than my ability to repair it, then I will die quickly."
"Hold on. I can get strings to latch onto him and look at him that way."

I start burrowing a hole through the contestant with layers to make sure I can see each thread before I touch it just in case there is some big explode-thread. I can test this guy too! If he's really a the glitcher then he will absolutely hate having the side of his head burrowed through!

Or, well, then again, he'd probably hate having me burrow through any part of him.


I gotta rename Catatonic cause that guy is a Guardsman compared to how fucked up this contestant is. This guy basically took an egg beater to his threads. Lobotomized or some equivalent. I can't tell a damn thing about him or his past, and he's probably more functional as a puppet than a contestant.

2/4 Glitcher 2016/08/12(Fri)20:54 No. 741917 ID: d1f5f1
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Goddamnit glitcher really was in there! A glitcher. Another. Ugh I don't like there being others maybe there really is some stupid there-can-only-be-one thing built in. He stops time, or rather moves to our speedier timeline, and slides through the contestant on the other side of the hole like air.

Rulekeeper is pushing the particles back onto him, and he's only able to move for about a second he loses the threshold he needs to pass through our stopped time.

He stops trying to deflect them. I've always just sort of blown them all apart in one continuous stream, but he's doing the equivalent of taking a deep breath.

3/4 Glitcher 2016/08/12(Fri)20:54 No. 741918 ID: d1f5f1
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I let him. It's probably a bad idea but I'm sure it'll be fine. Once he takes in a big metaphorical breath over about 4 or 5 seconds, he blows it all out at once like some kind of expanding anti-particle shield that, for a moment, is strong enough that I couldn't even throw particles at him to counter it. He starts moving again freely.

For a brief instant, he opens his shell of threads up on his foot as he kicks the ground up with it to Rulekeep. I'm pretty sure that's also a bad idea for him but he isn't dying instantly or anything. The stage is upturned at her, with all kinds of nasty adverse properties on the ground's threads. As soon as his burst was over, I tried to push particles back onto him, but I'm finding that way more ineffective than I would've thought. Dunno why. I'll ask Rulekeep about it maybe I guess.

Rulekeep's got it though. She brings the time hammer down on him again after just 1 second. The ground freezes as well. She gives me that 'please do something' look. I give her the 'you're just floating out of harm's way and I could have pulled those threads safely away from you and he might be a literal bomb so maybe you can do something back?' but I don't know if she got my meaning.

>Glitcher, why do you want to kill your brother there so badly?
This might be why.

>If he found you right as you did this he had to be close right?
Huh, yeah, that or he can move fast. I'd like to think that if he had any strings leading out of here, I would've noticed, but maybe I didn't. Or just some other means of transportation I don't know about.

>Can you estimate how long a Glitcher would have existed from cycle 2500 or so that constantly used this trick after a certain point?
Okay well that there is a dose of fear. If there's a glitcher like that that wants to kill me then I'm in a sort of danger that I forgot what feels like.

I'm actually less scared of a glitcher with the skills of spending an eternity training than I am of the mental state of the glitcher that spent an eternity doing that.

>Did the fake-Savior get the lightshow right?
It was pretty convincing.

>When we asked Savior about his flashy entrances before, he said he did it because he was the only one who could
What a bullshitter. I can make light on my own too. Maybe he said that before he thought I was competent.

He can probably perceive us right now. It will probably take me half a second to travel to him, then a few seconds to at least get the gist of what this glitcher is made of. Paranoia says it's a bomb that was just hidden inside! But it's probably not.

4/4 Glitcher 2016/08/12(Fri)20:57 No. 741919 ID: d1f5f1
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I'm going to give myself a huge headache if I think too hard about how the timelines work, but what I figured so far is that this glitcher needs about 5 seconds to stop time so that he can move with us, but he can still see and hear us during those 5 seconds. After he does that, Rulekeep can start undoing his work, and it takes her about 1 second.

After some practice with multitasking, I can do it in tenth of a second per person and act for the remaining 8/10th, and the big difference is that I can do it even as Rulekeep tries to undo it, unlike Rulekeep who can't try and undo a glitcher's work until after they've passed the threshold. And since it takes me less than the second she needs for it, I could keep her from undoing my stop.

Oh wait Rulekeep goes up to him and took a chunk out, and looks in for a couple seconds before looking at me.

"Got him no detaining!" she blurts out before starting to put him back together and moving away before he gets his second to play with.

>Either way make sure you get as much info out of him as possible.
Rulekeep should know everything he knows now.

Some sense of what I assume is the faded remnants of my morality is telling me maybe I should try to let him live but he's pretty surely trying to kill us every second he's got, and I don't know how to stop him from doing that aside from just forcibly making him go away and hope he gets the idea.

>Drop him a hint to go away
>Kill him

Well Rulekeeper did just yell that she got him and not to detain him?

Which implies to me that she looked in there and the info she got is bad enough for her to tell you not to detain him. You would only detain him if she still needed him around so she is telling you to kill him while you have the chance.

Might want to quickly double check her meaning but consider this.

The second he popped out he tried to kill your girlfriend.

If you took more than 3 of those 5 seconds to destroy him I would be very disappointed.