>>117356
I certainly hope that Kronos going in by himself isn't just a way for you to bullshit a reason to kill everyone that's being left behind by closing another door and having shadow monsters come and kill them!

>Kronos is going in alone.
>There's only seconds left to stop the Nightmare.
I still think it's bullshit that Kronos has to do the cliché "hero goes into the final battle by himself" routine.

Even though he'd probably have help with him if we just left that room instead of waiting for Tim. He'd probably also have more than just seconds of time left if we left that room sooner.

So, yeah, waiting for Tim in that one room really fucked us!

Unless the elemental shows up or something else amazing happens, this is going to end with Kronos being unfairly outmatched and with Karas paralyzingly him with that stupid power of his, Kronos will literally be unable to stop the world from ending!

.....I'm really hoping you'll at least give us a fair chance of succeeding against these odds!

It's probably going to wind up with Kronos getting caught in whatever trap they have set and then something happening to give us a chance to act.

So, I probably need to do a lot more reading to catch up. But, and this is a heartless question, what happens if we shoot and kill Belseth instead? No sacrifice and no apocalypse, right?

>>117376
The first problem I see with that is that Kronos' aim is shit right now and Belseth is probably gonna be in the middle of the ritual hall, presumably away from where Kronos enters, and with hostiles around him that'll get in the way of a shot. And the shot would need to kill him outright, which makes for a even harder target since it'd have to hit right in the head or heart.

The second is that without breaking the Rune of Eternity, Old Man Life can't swoop in and rip out the soul of Xuv, which is vital to the ascension ritual, along with all the Nightmare's souls, probably the soul of Karas, and the souls of who knows who else is aiding the ritual. Don't break it and Xuv's soul remains in place along with the Five's corpses, the Nightmare, and everyone turned by the Nightmare, ready for them to try again the next twin moon's kiss. Oh, and they'd catch Kronos and kill him for doing that, and very likely Bri, Thalia and Xarrin too.

And the third is that we don't know if Belseth has to be killed in a specific way to complete the ritual, such as being dismembered then flayed alive, or if him just dying would satisfy the ritual's conditions. We also don't know if it needs to be done at a specific time. It could be that just killing Belseth would be good enough to complete the ritual.

I'm confused as to where Kronos is thinking of applying the knowledge of how Krotos broke free of the Nightmare's influence. Is it towards negating Karas' Nightmare-given power of despair or is it towards breaking Karas free of the Nightmare's influence? Because either way I'm not seeing how it could work.

If Kronos did find the way to get out from under the effect of Karas' despair power, what could Kronos even do? He's still in close quarters with Karas who both wants to kill him and has direction from his master to do so. If Kronos makes a move for his pistol or to draw Bri's sword, Karas'll cut Kronos down. And even if Kronos did manage to get a hit in, it's really doubtful it'd take Karas down immediately.

And I can't see how to apply how Krotos broke free from the Nightmare to Karas. Krotos, according to just what he said, couldn't stand to see his brother Kronos die and brought Kronos back up to the royal crypt where he could be saved. It's not said outright, but it's fair to surmise Krotos did so out of love for his brother. But with Karas, his final turning by the Nightmare was because Karas felt totally betrayed by his beloved brother Kronos, breaking that love. Presumably Karas didn't have any reason left to go on besides base anger and revenge and fell to the Nightmare's influence.

I'm looking that these two possibilities, running possibilities through my head over and over trying to figure out what the solution is, what it is Kaktus had in mind, and coming up with nothing that'd work. That or it wouldn't make sense to suddenly happen. Like Kronos shrugging off Karas' power of despair with his love for Briannah, then drawing her sword, symbol of their love and her trust, and smiting Karas with the Power of Love. That is so fucking hokey and out of left field I dismiss it. Or rekindling Karas' love for his brother by Kronos hugging Karas and tearfully, sincerely apologizing for what he said, which wouldn't make a lick of sense for someone fully under the influence of the Nightmare.

At this point I'm left feeling like I'm missing something basic. That Kaktus couldn't have made this challenge so tough and I'm just over-thinking. Or did Kaktus due to stress omit something, or not make something clear? As it is I just don't see a choice of action that makes sense.

And I suspect that 91ee5f hasn't posted because they don't have any idea what to suggest either. So we're left with just two suggestions right now: 3ce125 trying to talk to Karas like he's at all rational and would listen, and Kome's usual unhinged garbage. This does not fill me with hope. ...I guess I'll throw a suggestion in, a shot in the dark, and pray it's right enough.

>>117426
>And I suspect that 91ee5f hasn't posted because they don't have any idea what to suggest either.
That is correct, I'm clueless on what to do here!

>>117426
If Krotos got free because of his love for his brother, then what Kronos needs to do is patch things up between him and Karas.

Which is ridiculous at this point, unless he really WAS framed.

And 1b2c07, a suggester who apparently just dropped into the quest and doesn't know what the fuck is going on, just posted. They didn't even get Karas' name right. God damn, it's reminding me in a bad way of the ignorant suggester clusterfuck in thread three that led to Kronos losing a eye.

>>117427
As am I, and it's driving me nuts. I know I don't have any idea what could be the right way, but I can't just not post. I can't abandon the quest. Not after putting so much into it. Especially not after my part in the utterly shameful fuck-up that killed Sisah and Doxan and hobbled Kronos and so screwed the group and the quest's prospects. I have to see this quest to a not-bad ending, since all ways to the ending I would have liked died alongside Sisah and Doxan. ...But if all I can post is a shot in the dark with a hope and prayer and it's wrong, then it's all over. All that I and us put in over seven threads, over the past two years and four months, will be for nothing. Down the toilet. And I'm stuck. Can't suggest, can't not suggest, can't sleep on it because Kaktus might update while I'm asleep and it'll be a Bad End. But I'm tired and it'll just get worse and harder to think and... I don't know. I just don't know.

>>117435
I think Kaktus expects us to get out of this easily.

Or if we don't, then he'll just watch us struggle for a bit before either ending our suffering by killing us or he'll take pity on us and randomly throw something at us that'll save our collective asses.

I really hope Kaktus does not actually allow kome's shitpost to leak through into the quest. That would be really dumb.

>>117450
Agreed.

I wonder what would've happened if Kronos had tried to enter Cain's dream.

Okay, I'm getting nervous that we've made the wrong choice shooting at the Rune of Eternity and not Nero, but I can't figure out a in-quest in-character reason not to. First reason is that Kronos doesn't know if the wand has more than one charge left. Second reason is that Kronos' aim is going to be bad 'cause he has to use his off-hand and Nero is likely going to be dodging Kronos' shot. Third reason is that Kronos has no idea how close to completion the ritual is and to spend even a little more time to shoot Nero risks it finishing. Put 'em together and Kronos can't afford the risk of possibly losing his only shot.

To choose to shoot Nero I have to meta that because Nero and Hera showed up right after Kronos got the wand that Kaktus will make shooting Nero connect and have at least one more charge left in the wand to shoot the Rune of Eternity. And dammit, we shouldn't have to fuckin' rely on meta knowledge. But if we chose wrong then I think what would happen is the Rune of Eternity would still break, but Kronos would pay dearly at Nero's hands before Life rips the Six and their power driving Nero away. Kronos will very likely lose in limb and possibly in life 'cause his fate to end the Six would already be fulfilled.

>>117697
Well I'm hoping for the army of tiny elementals to swarm them. Because Nero and Hera are focused on Kronos, they have no reason to look down until it's too late! XD

Actually, it looks like Kronos' ear grew back after doing his "phoenix" being reborn thing.

Maybe that means that his fingers and his eye also grew back?

>I wonder what would've happened if Kronos had tried to enter Cain's dream.
Hilarity would ensue.
>I don't think Kaktus is going to let us beat the final boss by being lewd.
…you’ve read my quests before, right?

...And in the end the correct choice was to shoot Belseth, disrupting the ritual and destroying the Six's vessel and them by the soul "burn" that seemed to destroy Nero's soul. And it was the one option we totally dismissed 'cause we kept thinking "we can't hurt Belseth," even though when you think about it even a little his soul has to have been devoured by now and he's totally dead, his body nothing more than a shell for the Six. And we stupidly didn't think that the Six hadn't planned contingencies for the plan we explicitly told them about. Like putting the Rune of Eternity right on Belseth's body, which they most likely did and was fuckin' hinted to us threads ago. God damn it, I feel so fuckin' ashamed that I went along with it and didn't even think it through, didn't even consider Belseth. ...Or Kira. The ritual needs her, so blast the center of the Rune of Eternity, sweep up and catch her and the Six in Belseth's body. But of course we couldn't even consider such a thing, could we?

Well, I don't see any way to talk our way out of this impossible situation, but I know we'll try anyway. And then the Six will consume Kronos for not swearing himself to them immediately and trying to yammer on. And then the only way I can think of that that could stop them is if a "poison pill" was hidden inside Kronos' soul unbeknown to him and us.

...Dammit, I'm shaking for real because of all this. I need a break...

>>117711
If the Six want to consume his soul they have to kill him again to do it, which means Life shows up and they lose because even if Life can't see them he can see where Kronos' soul is going. So yeah, kindof a poison pill.

Also they wouldn't have died from getting shot by the wand, obviously. That's still too anticlimactic. They probably would've deflected the shot, and then the deflected energy would've broken the rune. I'm not sure what Kaktus would have done if we decided to aim directly at Nero. Maybe the energy blast would've been big enough to hit the rune anyway?

>>117712
Goddamn it, the Rune of Eternity doesn't just make whatever is under it's effect hidden from Life, it makes it UNTOUCHABLE by Life! Life can only see and effect that which is mortal, that which has a beginning and end, and the Rune of Eternity makes things and people eternal and unending. It doesn't matter if Life can see that Kronos' soul vanishes in some spot 'cause Life can't do anything about it as long as the Rune of Eternity is in place.

The only one that died down there after the chamber's Rune of Eternity was broken that Life may have picked up on is Nero and maybe Hera. And since Nero's soul seems to have been totally destroyed, that would make Life even more angry 'cause souls should return to the River of Souls and not be completed. But that assumes that the Six didn't stick another Rune of Eternity(, or two, or three,) on the chamber for redundancy.

>>117714
>But that assumes that the Six didn't stick another Rune of Eternity(, or two, or three,) on the chamber for redundancy.
Kaktus wants us to finish this story just as much as we want to finish it.

He/She wouldn't pull something as bullshit as 2 or 3 extra runes around the room or on Belseth's body. He/She would give us something fair that we could beat.

Which makes me think that there's only 1 extra rune somewhere. Either in the room or on Belseth's body. And if Bri's and Bel's visions of Bel's dick having the rune are to be believed, then that's the only rune we have left to worry about!

I didn't think of this before, but Cain being the avatar of Life would explain why he missed the tea summons that one time with Belseth. That would also indicate Besleth had the rune on him by that time. It also means that either the rune has an area around it where Life is blind, not just the thing it's drawn on, or Cain decided not to show up because he could tell something was interfering with his senses and he didn't want to show up and reveal that. Like for instance, he'd have shown up with the wrong number of cups for tea.

Has Cain ever been in the same room as Belseth since then?

Yay we defeated the Six! Time to avoid falling flat on our faces at the finish line.

>>117801
Agreed because holy shit that was stressful! DX

Man what is with all these thumbnails being so fucked up?

Jeez, Kaktus, are you purposefully making this even more complicated so that we end up choosing the bad option?! DX

Kaktus, can you do a Musical Song-And-Dance Number ending for Strange Bedfellows?

...the vote's tied. 4 to 4.

I think we may need more discussion in the thread.

...nevermind. 4 to 8 now.

...and now it's practically tied again.

I haven't Voted yet cause I don't know which on I want! I what Sisah and Doxxan to live but I also want Kronos and Briannah and Belseth to get together and for kids to be had!

>...the vote's tied. 4 to 4. I think we may need more discussion in the thread.
>...nevermind. 4 to 8 now.
>...and now it's practically tied again.
Whoa there, calm down. The vote won’t end until at least after the weekend at the earliest. Got to give people time to vote after all. Also, if there is a tie I’ll simply be the tie breaker, that’s how I usually resolve ties.

>Jeez, Kaktus, are you purposefully making this even more complicated so that we end up choosing the bad option?!
…who said there is a good option? This isn’t a black or white, good ending or bad ending decision. Both are endings, sure, but both are rather grey. Which is a lighter shade of grey is up to you.
>Man what is with all these thumbnails being so fucked up?
My guess that there are simply too many images in the thread thanks to all the icons. Luckily, this was the last update, so look forward to a new thread for the epilogue.

>I what Sisah and Doxxan to live but I also want Kronos and Briannah and Belseth to get together and for kids to be had!
Well, changing the past will ensure that Sisah and Doxan lives… and there is always a possibility for Kronos and Bri to meet again, isn’t it?
Changing the future on the other hand will ensure that Kronos and Bri are together, but Sisah and Doxan will be dead.
So choose your poison.

Also, for those that missed it, here is another finely crafted link to the vote:
http://www.strawpoll.me/14423231

>>117900
So there's absolutely no way to resurrect the dead, despite them being in the Catacombs and the availability of a power beyond the gods?

>>117900
>and there is always a possibility for Kronos and Bri to meet again, isn’t it?
Most likely as brother-in-law and sister-in-law, since Krotos will still be alive and in love with Bri.

>>117900
>My guess that there are simply too many images in the thread thanks to all the icons. Luckily, this was the last update, so look forward to a new thread for the epilogue.
Hattbox asked about the thumbnail issue on the tgchan IRC channel and it was suggested that it was because of the recent change to the thumbnail generator so that thumbnails of animated GIFs would play. That change also included animated PNG support, but it seems to be bugged and running all PNGs through the animated PNG thumbnail generator, creating glitched PNGs.

>>117900
>>117911
Yeah, some quick testing shows its not thread dependent. You can save the full size of one of the afflicted images, upload to a different thread, and reproduce the corrupted thumbnail.

>>117913
Ah, I saw your test post over in the testing thread earlier. Anyway, I did some more testing and it looks like the thumbnail generator is choking on the 32 bit PNGs Kaktus uploads for some inexplicable reason. I've re-saved them as 24 bit and uploaded them into the test thread and the thumbnails gen right. But if I take a 24 bit PNG from another quest and re-save it as 32 bit and upload it, the thumbnail generates fine.

So, I took a 32 bit PNG from Strange Bedfellows that would generate a bugged thumbnail, loaded it into Paint.NET, and saved it out as a 24 bit PNG. Then I loaded that 24 bit PNG in, saved it out as a 32 bit PNG, then uploaded it and the thumbnail generated correctly. That means the thumbnail generator is not choking on all 32 bit PNGs but for some reason just the ones Kaktus makes. Could be the software he uses saves 32 bit PNGs slightly oddly, I dunno.

If changing the past ends up winning, then I think that when we get child Kronos to do something different, instead of faking not feeling good and wanting to go home, he should instead say to his mom, "Momma, am I gonna hafta mawy a Sakakilian lady to bring peace to our contwees?"

And then he behaves himself for the rest of the meeting and doesn't make his mom take him home early.

>>117914
Just saw on the IRC channel that the PNG thumbnail generation is connected to when there is some transparency at the edge of the PNG image. Just tested it by taking the image from >>/quest/845300, filling in the transparency and uploading it and the thumbnail generated correctly. So just make sure there isn't a transparency at the edge of the PNG unless you do need transparency there and it should work right.

>So there's absolutely no way to resurrect the dead, despite them being in the Catacombs and the availability of a power beyond the gods?
You can resurrect the dead, it’s just that they don’t come back “right”. The only reason Kronos was able to come back is because his soul is still nailed to his body thanks to Xuv, so he’s still practically immortal (not counting the timeline where he didn’t deal with Xuv and got his soul eaten…). Heck, the whole reason why the Six was so easy to distract / where kind of odd is because they went a bit mad coming back to life.

>Just saw on the IRC channel that the PNG thumbnail generation is connected to when there is some transparency at the edge of the PNG image.
Just updated Boldly coming and can confirm this. My original image accidently hade the background a bit too high, creating a small bit of transparency in the corner and thus mangling the thumbnail as well. Removing the transparency made the thumbnail work again, so… apparently the background is slightly off-center on the Strange Bedfellows updates?

>>117935
>The only reason Kronos was able to come back is because his soul is still nailed to his body thanks to Xuv, so he’s still practically immortal
Wait, what? I thought that soul binding was broken when the earth elemental ripped Xuv out of Kronos, either because it needed Xuv's power to maintain it or because the earth elemental would have sensed Xuv's mark on it and ripped it out as well. But does this mean the binding was still powered by the real Xuv that grouped up with the rest of the Six, powered from another source, or didn't need power at all. In the latter two cases, Life would have followed through on its end of the bargain with Kronos and break the soul binding. But also, if it doesn't need Xuv powering it to work, that may mean that her blessing of interspecies fertility upon Kronos still works too and he could have even more children with Briannah.

>not counting the timeline where he didn’t deal with Xuv and got his soul eaten…
Are you referring to dealing with Xuv in the dream encounter in thread 5 where Kronos in the end ate her instead of the other way around, or in thread 7 where she was discovered hiding out in Kronos and the earth elemental ate her? My guess is you're referring to the latter, but I figure it could have been either. Though, I'm kinda wondering how Xuv hiding out in Kronos would have been discovered without the earth elemental, or how she would have been dealt with without the elemental. You did write that you didn't think of the earth elemental as more than background fluff before it was suggested to use it, so I take that to mean it wasn't part of your original ideas to reveal Xuv's presence in Kronos to us and how to remove her.

>Just updated Boldly coming and can confirm this.
Glad to be of help to you, Kaktus.

>>117935
...well Life is going to remove the immortality now I guess. I thought the elemental sucked out the "blessing" the first time he got grabbed by it.
Anyway it sounds like the soul cannot be properly reattached to the body even with reality rewriting, which doesn't make sense but I will just accept it.

Welp the vote is 14 to 14. Never seen a tied vote with this many voters before.

I feel like in the end the only reason to avoid changing the past is the worry that Kronos and Briannah won't be able to get back together again. Everything else is fixed.

Y'know, in all of the quest we never did get a name for Kronos' mother. Perhaps 'Karen' to go along with the whole 'K' naming theme of her children?

...And I just realized that if the past is changed, then it's entirely possible that Kronos will have one or more younger siblings in the present. His father was only thirty back when his mother was killed, and she didn't look too far off from that age, so it could have happened if she lived.

>>117953
>Welp the vote is 14 to 14. Never seen a tied vote with this many voters before.
I'm surprised as well that it came up a even split like this. However, it's not over yet.

>I feel like in the end the only reason to avoid changing the past is the worry that Kronos and Briannah won't be able to get back together again. Everything else is fixed.
Well, there's a few more reasons to consider I can think of right away: There's a fair chance Zela won't be born if the past is changed, since she's 19 to 20 years old and the point of change is 20 years ago; Her exact age wasn't given, but 19 to 20 years was the range Bri guessed. There won't be new elementals born in this time period since there won't be the intense magic radiation from the Crypt of the Gods to fuel the old earth elemental of the garden reproducing. There won't be the power to cure Kira's infertility if the past is changed. And, despite what you think will be possible, there won't be Vark-Sakkilian or Vark-Hiver hybrid children of Kronos.

>>117955
>despite what you think will be possible
Dude, Dreamer said it was possible. What kind of confirmation are you looking for?

As for the elementals I'm pretty fucking sure there will be new ones since they're involved in a cycle of rebirth that's been going on since the world started existing.

As for Zela, and Kira's infertility? Who cares. Preventing a single person's birth is small fries compared to preventing an entire war and the death of both of Kronos' brothers. While it is LIKELY that Kaktus will mark down Zela as a casualty of changing the past (especially since you pointed it out), it's certainly not guaranteed.

Voting closed.
Starting with the update now.

Looks like changing the past is the winning vote. I guess poor Beatrix won't be allowed to exist. )-':>

/tableflip all the things.

I'm displeased.

>>117958
>Dude, Dreamer said it was possible. What kind of confirmation are you looking for?
Dreamer said it was possible because it sees every possibility, no matter how improbable. It doesn't give the odds; That's Fate's job. So while it's possible that Kronos and Briannah meet up in this new timeline, them somehow being able to conceive together is real unlikely.

>As for the elementals I'm pretty fucking sure there will be new ones since they're involved in a cycle of rebirth that's been going on since the world started existing.
Yes, there will be eventually. I know that. What I said was there won't be new ones born in this time period.

>Preventing a single person's birth is small fries compared to preventing an entire war and the death of both of Kronos' brothers.
And dammit, I know this too. My freakin' post in-quest laid it out and I voted for changing the past. And which I'm regretting now.

>While it is LIKELY that Kaktus will mark down Zela as a casualty of changing the past (especially since you pointed it out), it's certainly not guaranteed.
And I'm really regretting writing that now. I broke the rule of never giving the DM ideas you wouldn't like them using. Which is a rule I seemingly can't stop myself from breaking all the damn time.

>>117961
And the final tally is 16 for changing the past, 14 for changing the future. Kaktus, if you don't mind me asking, which one would you have chosen if it was a tie?

>>117962
...Goddammit, being reminded of this twists the knife even more. ...Oh god, I should have chosen to change the future. I should have because everyone we've met in the quest, and everyone in their world, will cease to be, replaced with a world and people twenty years past. True, there'll be those in this new world with the same names, the same genetics and similar bodies, but their experiences will be different, and so they're not the same people. The Sisah and Doxan, the Kronos and Briannah and everyone else in this replacement world won't be who we knew and cared about. We basically killed everyone in their world, just so the part of it we knew of wouldn't be as bad in the replacement world.

...And God fucking dammit, I thought of this all yesterday. I wish I had "flipped" my vote yesterday by voting twice for 'change the future' from a couple free wi-fi spots like I was thinking of doing. And I'll blame myself at every point something was apparently lost or changed for the worse in this new timeline. ...But by now I know that I'll blame myself for everything that goes wrong, so what's the fucking difference.

>>117968
>...Goddammit, being reminded of this twists the knife even more.
Good news! Life allowed Kronos to keep Xuv's other gift of being able to have children with non-Varkians! Beatrix still has a chance at existing! Along with that other child because Kronos was told that Bri was carrying twins! Kronos and Bri still have a chance at having their children!

.....now all we have to do is make sure Kronos keeps his pants on, otherwise he'll have a lot of half Varkian children all over the place!

You people retconned the fucking quest.
You fucking rebooted it.
Everything we did? POOF. Gone. Pointless.
Briannah? Gone. Sisah? Gone. Belseth? Gone. All of Kronos's friends? Gone. Eve the Kronos we knew is gone. This is effectively an entirely new character we're playing as.
And don't give me the "WE DID IT TO SAVE THE WORLD!!!" garbage.
We could have saved the world by choosing to save the future and not erasing everything we did.
I'm not angry at Kaktus. I'm angry at you people.
This is bullshit.

>>117970
It could be argued that everything we did was to change the past so there'd be a better future. ...But that just feels like a hollow argument. One that I didn't realize before I voted. And one I did realize before the vote closed, and I could have fixed if I didn't think and waffle on it until it was too late. And one I regret greatly now.

The Ass of Hat 2017/11/20(Mon)12:10 No. 117972 ID: 88bd6f
File 151120864242.gif - (973.39KB , 359x360 , salt duane.gif )

Can't win can you Kactus?

>>117970
You know what you could've done? You could've come onto the disthread and stated reasons for why everyone should vote for changing the future and not changing the past.

But you didn't do that, did you?

>>117973
Show of hands, how many people who voted actually changed their minds by reading something in the disthread?

>>117974
I did.

>>117968
>changing the timeline is tantamount to erasing people and replacing them
This is a world where souls exist, so that argument doesn't hold water. Also, since Life allowed Kronos to keep the hybridization blessing, that means there is continuity between the timelines.
We DID just prevent a lot of people from being born though... unless the newly-made timeline just delays their births instead of preventing them. We created more babies overall anyway, because the population was larger during those 20 years and people weren't discouraged by starvation and strife.

>>117970
Nah. A retcon would erase all evidence. The memories of what happened linger still.

We're all sad that the adventures we had with Kronos for the past two years are now retconned by our own actions. But this story wasn't going to have a happy ending, and now it can. That's quite the accomplishment, and a positive note in contrast to our world. Now we can screw around in the ending without feeling guilty about the deaths of millions.

... Also, I'm pretty sure most of the power in the "change the future" ending would have to be divested into the "stop the moons from colliding with each other and creating a meteor shower across the planet" thing. So there wouldn't be enough to make everything else happy.

Okay, had a break to calm down and get my thoughts together; Haven't gotten enough sleep for several days now and its left me frazzled. But after thinking even more on it, I stand by my conclusion that I, and we, changing the past was the wrong choice. But it's just because... Dammit, I wanted to stay with the Kronos and Briannah we spent two and a half bloody years with. Who we knew and guided though it all. I wanted those two broken people to finally have a much deserved happy future and a family together after all the shit they'd been through. That's a big part of why I put the effort in that I have on this quest. But no, at the eleventh fuckin' hour I had to choose what I thought was the responsible route and wipe it all the fuck away for some greater good! And while there's a Kronos and a Briannah in this timeline, they aren't the people I wanted and worked to have a future together. I'll still work to bring 'em together, but it won't be the same.

...Y'know, if Kaktus did a thread for the 'change the future' choice after this one, that'd cut out the salt about this. Could be non-canon, or Kaktus could choose which one is canon, or allow us to vote which one is. Ah, but I don't figure in the slightest it'll happen. Kaktus said he wanted to wrap up Strange Bedfellows so he could go on to other things.

>>117980
>This is a world where souls exist, so that argument doesn't hold water.
What? Why the hell not? What does that have to do with this at all? ...Do you know how souls work in this world? Once they pass beyond the Veil into Life's "garden" they are stripped of all personality and memory before flowing back to the world to enter any living thing. There is no reincarnation. No memory carried over.

And what I was saying is a person is made of their experiences, so change the past and the experiences of everyone in the world changes and all those in the previous timeline vanish. They cease to be as much as if they were killed.

And there's also the argument that changing the past is changing the minds of all those in the world, so it knowingly changed Bri's mind as much as if the power was used directly to change it. And that was something Kronos very much did not want to do to Bri.

>Nah. A retcon would erase all evidence. The memories of what happened linger still.
From the way they're apparently fading fast from the mind of this timeline's Kronos, they ain't gonna linger long.

>>117987
>... Also, I'm pretty sure most of the power in the "change the future" ending would have to be divested into the "stop the moons from colliding with each other and creating a meteor shower across the planet" thing. So there wouldn't be enough to make everything else happy.
...The moons were not gonna collide. One was just going to start passing in front of the other in its orbit from the viewpoint on the ground. That's what them "kissing" meant.

>>117974
In general? Yes, I've had my mind changed by good arguments from others. You have to leave yourself open to the possibility you might be wrong, that you haven't thought of everything, or that someone might have a better idea. Quests are collaborative, and in the best case that means relying on others to catch your mistakes or refine your ideas, or giving you ideas you can improve on.

This quest specifically? I haven't kept up with it so not as much.

>>117999
The souls are the same between timelines so they're the same "people", just having lived different experiences. Experience only works as a way to fully define someone if the soul does not exist.
Basically, the soul is what defines someone's core personality, and experiences further shape it.

Yes, things are different now. Do you really fear change that much?

>>118002
The possibility of suggesters changing their mind also presents the problem with using StrawPoll to tally the votes because you can't change your vote on StrawPoll after casting it. You could work around that by voting for the other choice twice, each from another IP address, to have the effective result that flipping your vote would have, but that's clunky.

>>117974
Not from the arguments presented in this quest by others that's for sure. I still proudly stand by the vote for the past option.

I'd just like to let you know Kaktus that among this sea of salt I am happy with the way things went.
I'm also happy that you didn't just go "and the past was change the end"

>>118040
...Upon reflection, I second this sentiment. You gave us a epilogue thread when you didn't have to, Kaktus, and also a unexpected choice to change the past or not. You could have just gone the 'change the future' route after Kronos rejected anyone becoming a god and wrote a epilogue and it'd have been good enough. You went above and beyond our expectations. And I apologize for my verbose whinging that changing the past was the wrong choice. And thank you, Kaktus, for running these quests.

>>118040
>>118051
This. This quest was a hell of a ride, thanks for seeing it to a full-fledged ending.

I don't comment much, but I think I have mentioned a few times that you are probably my favorite quest author and while I can't say I am ECSTATIC about how things turned out I enjoy reading what you do with our choices regardless :)

After seeing how Kronos' dad's picture has been a ? This whole time, it makes me wonder how much he's changed? Maybe he's healthier, isn't an alcoholic, and is fit instead of fat? Then again, I wonder how the rest of the family has changed?

We know Karas had a bit of a sweet tooth, so maybe without the war he was allowed to indulge in that candy he loved more than last time and now he's the fat guy in the family?

Krotos is alive, but what's he doing besides avoiding marriage?

And maybe Kira isn't barren anymore and she can have her own kid?

As for the new siblings, Kern and Karen, I'm looking forward to meeting them to see what they're like!

>>118125
Why not ask in-quest? Kronos remembers both his life and his other-self's, so he could compare his father and siblings and note the differences.

But my guess about Kronos' father, Helios, is that he has a bad temper in this timeline that was beaten down in the other timeline. That it was his bad temper erupting into burning rage over the death of his beloved wife that led Risavia into war. And then the terrible losses of the war and what he had done beat that bad temper out of him. But in this timeline, the war didn't happen, so Helios still has a bad temper. There's not really any evidence for this, it's just what I came up with in my head.

>We know Karas had a bit of a sweet tooth, so maybe without the war he was allowed to indulge in that candy he loved more than last time and now he's the fat guy in the family?
We don't know why Karas got a sweet tooth, though. Could have been a result of stress from the war, or from those Sakkilian orphans attacking him. And he had plenty of access to the candy he liked in the other timeline despite the war, so he could indulge in that timeline to.

>>118126
I know I could ask in-quest, but I'd rather see them in-quest instead of Kronos just remembering and describing them in-quest.

Okay, thumbnails are fixed now. I think. (Also make sure I know about the problem next time.)

The thumbnailer is exceptionally fussy. For a long time it already had an esoteric setting to make it work reliably on 32 bit png files. Then I turned on animated gifs, and they were terribly corrupted off the bat. To make gifs work I had to tell it to realign the frames, then deoptimize, then thumbnail, then reoptimize. It turns out that reoptimizing was... overly aggressive, and causing all sorts of corruption on certain files. So I have changed it from a general "optimize" to only do two *specific* optimizations that won't break everything. And then remade every gif/png thumbnail for the last four months.

>But my guess about Kronos' father, Helios, is that he has a bad temper in this timeline that was beaten down in the other timeline.

I doubt that, he had this sort of temper too in the old timeline but we didn't see it as often since we didn't see too many Kronos shenanigans that he'd be rightfully upset at.

Kaktus 2017/11/28(Tue)17:08 No. 118263 ID: 65a774
File 151191769610.png - (28.35KB , 686x526 , SALT.png )

>Okay, thumbnails are fixed now. I think.
Thank you, it does seem to work perfectly now.
>(Also make sure I know about the problem next time.)
As I am not one that visit the IRC channel often (or at all) or talk to the mods, I honestly thought someone else already brought it up to you guys. Sorry for that.

>SALT! ALL THE SALT!
BY THE FIVE, I’M DROWNING IN IT! On a serious note, though, I didn’t expect this kind of reaction… though the poll was very even most of the time…
>I'd just like to let you know Kaktus that among this sea of salt I am happy with the way things went.
Thank you. It’s nice being appreciated.
>I'm also happy that you didn't just go "and the past was change the end"
Honestly, I’m kind of glad I get a final chance to just be silly with these characters before the quest ends.

>Kaktus, if you don't mind me asking, which one would you have chosen if it was a tie?
*Shrug* coin flip?
>I wish I had "flipped" my vote yesterday by voting twice for 'change the future' from a couple free wi-fi spots like I was thinking of doing.
I really hope people haven’t been manipulating the voting in a way like that. It was very even after all…
>I'll blame myself at every point something was apparently lost or changed for the worse in this new timeline.
Hey, stop beating yourself up over my silly quest. I’m sure you have more important matters to worry about than what I make up from my deranged mind.

>We're all sad that the adventures we had with Kronos for the past two years are now retconned by our own actions. But this story wasn't going to have a happy ending, and now it can.
…did Kome just say something sane? Who are you and what have you done to the real Kome!?
But on that note, that is indeed kind of the tradeoff. This ending will be a bit less bittersweet… but the adventure didn’t happen in the way we played it.
>This is a world where souls exist, so that argument doesn't hold water.
First, souls in this universe don’t work like that.
Second, the siblings didn’t so much reverse time as they moved all the actors to a different stage with a slightly different manuscript to play after. Many characters are very similar to their old counterparts, even if the lack of war would have changed them more drastically. In fact, the biggest change is many of them have lost their flaws they got from the war.

>>118263
So that's why Zela got retconned from the memory of the first timeline? Both timelines use the same "actors" so if she didn't exist in one of them she couldn't exist in the other?
Well my other theory was that the Chronicler changed Kronos' memory of the timeline just so he wouldn't despair over having erased Zela.

Anyway how is that different from my interpretation of souls? The soul is the baseline personality, just like what you call "actors".

Kaktus, could you give your definitive "word of god" on the matter of Xuv's blessing allowing impregnation of males or not as well as across species. 3ce125 thinks it's possible, but I don't remember it that way and I can't find anywhere Xuv said it had that ability. Your word would settle it surely.

Why is everyone giving ip on Bri so easily? After everything we did to get Kronos together with her, everyone just wants to give up without even putting in some kind of effort to at least try to be with her! So I just want to know why everyone isn't at least trying to fight for her?

>>118468
I won't give up on her, I just haven't composed my post yet. As for everyone else... I dunno. Risk aversion? Don't want to rock the boat with Krotos? Don't want to leave anyone left out or unhappy? Pure utilitarian "this results in everyone getting with exactly one other person?"

Never mind Kronos will still feel a deep longing and sadness for Briannah and the children and family he could have had with her every time he sees her. Or that Belseth's feelings towards Kronos could shake out to have been much more lust than love and they'd end up breaking up. And those are just the two I can think of off the top of my head.

>>118468
The way I see it, we have three options:
1, go for some unstable love triangle thing. This leaves Belseth out in the cold unless we make it some kind of love square without even knowing if Krotos would be into Belseth.
2, beat Krotos in the game of love and take Briannah from him, which leaves both Krotos and Belseth out in the cold (though I wonder if Krotos would be into Belseth)
3, accept that since Krotos is alive again and had more of a history with Bri than Kronos, he has first dibs. I mean, Kronos only knew Briannah for like a week, while Krotos had been seeing her for far longer. That leaves Belseth for Kronos.

Regardless of which option we choose, children are still on the table since even if Belseth can't be impregnated (or he doesn't want to be, which is understandable) and/or Kronos isn't married to Briannah, Bri can act as a surrogate mother. I don't think Krotos will care too much about having a threesome to get her pregnant.

>>118471
Could you point out exactly where the heck you got the idea that Xuv's blessing allows for Mpreg, with a link? Because I don't remember that, and when I went looking I couldn't find it. I wrote what I did find in-quest in response to your post, so read that then post there or here or both, wherever you'd prefer.

>>118468
>Why is everyone giving ip on Bri so easily?
Because most of these people don't give a shit about the narrative or the characters in it. It sucks, but it's the only answer I can come up with.

>After everything we did to get Kronos together with her, everyone just wants to give up without even putting in some kind of effort to at least try to be with her!
Another thing we could blame: shippers. Personally, I blame the Belseth/Kronos shippers.

>So I just want to know why everyone isn't at least trying to fight for her?
I'm outraged and I want to try, but I know I'll be lost beneath a tidal wave of meme lords, shippers, and people who just don't care. It creates a very hopeless environment.

>>118489
>>/quest/849832
Still not either of those things. Those definitions don't apply to what happened. It's time travel. Not a reboot, not a retcon. Everything happened, now something new is happening and the two backstories are merged. I mean, did you watch Run Lola Run and go "wow most of that movie was completely pointless because of all the things Lola did right in the end"?

Also, if I didn't care, I wouldn't be suggesting. It doesn't matter what you think or what you wanted. Deal with it.

>hopeless
Have you been paying attention at all to how Kaktus runs quests? Almost every suggestion is included in some way. EVERY SUGGESTION COUNTS.

>>118493
>It doesn't matter what you think or what you wanted. Deal with it.
The thought process that lead to our current state of affairs, ladies and gentlemen.

>>118494
You should probably at least try to keep your story straight. You're starting to look like a troll.

>>118489
>>118494
Personally, I agree with your sentiment: it does feel like everything we worked for got undone by a poorly thought out decision. I've read in this thread that quite a few posters would go back and change their vote if they could, so at least some people are sorry for this mess.

Instead of whining and complaining about having to start over, everyone should instead focus on figuring out how to get Kronos and Bri back together. Because anything worth having needs to have some effort put into getting it.

If everything was just handed to us on a silver platter, then we would've stopped the Nightmare Six early, before they got so fucking close to winning and we'd still be in the original timeline!

I feel like the more suggesters fight for getting Kronos and Bri back together, the worse the fallout is going to be. The writing is on the wall.

>>118493
>It's time travel.
But it wasn't time travel, as Kaktus said at the bottom of his post, >>118263. I took what Kaktus wrote to mean that the world was reformed and those in it changed, often in body and all in mind. That many souls were restored who had perished in the last world, while others remained dead, only the way and when of their death altered in memory and record. And a whole generation was unmade, another created in its place from different souls, different personalities, different possibilities. All to match the pattern of a world from a very carefully chosen path of Dreamer's dream that started from a branch not taken twenty and a bit years ago. One that lead to a world with people very similar to their old world versions. And when it was all done, all that remains of the old world are the memories of a very few injected into their new world counterparts and a book by Chronicler.

In the end, the Siblings did not use that power to change the past, they used it to change the present into what the past might have become. For there is no way to change the past, no matter how much power you have. This I recognize from Kaktus' previous quests. That true, change-the-past time travel is impossible has been a common element through them whenever the matter comes up.

Knowing now what it really entailed, it's rather sad that Kronos, in the mental guise of his mirror-self, advocated for changing the past when he was also adamantly against using the power to alter Briannah's mind. He ended up choosing the way which did just that to not just his beloved but to everyone else in the world. I'm left wondering if he, and we, would have chosen that way if he had known what it really meant.

Also, in thinking of that no-time-travel commonality between Kaktus' quests, I remembered that there's something even more solid connecting them. Kaktus mentioned in the second Will We Dream discussion thread, at >>/questdis/112801, that all his quests, except for Boldly Coming, are in the same universe in some way. This I figure includes Strange Bedfellows. If true, it'd mean it is somewhere and -when in the same universe as Will We Dream, Rust, Unbroken, Numb, Transmachina, and Pixel Adventure 1 and 2. My suspicion is it's something akin to the Precursor game world, but it could be plenty of other things.

>>118613
>This I recognize from Kaktus' previous quests. That true, change-the-past time travel is impossible has been a common element through them whenever the matter comes up.
And I somehow completely forgot about our time jumping between Rust, Unbroken and Numb, nor Kaktus saying that there was a slim chance in Rust we could save Prince Eliraz from dying and being turned into a ghoul if we could come up with a sufficiently compelling way to do so. I blame lack of sleep for how I forgot something that was so important a mechanic of those quests. So this means it's not a common element across Kaktus' previous quests.

Ok, Kaktus, as funny as this is, I think you're going just a little overboard with random people bursting into the room. Can we please get everyone out of the room so that Kronos, Bri, and Krotos can get dressed?

Karas' mustache is really bothering me. Is it made of hair? Is it made of feathers? Does it grow out of his beak? Does he glue it on?

While I admit I am sad we didn't choose Belseth that was a pretty nice ending. I look forward to seeing whatever your new quest will be!

That was a very nice epilogue and ending, Kaktus. While before I expressed regret at choosing to change the past, after reading this I now believe that overall it was the better choice and I feel good about how it all turned out. That Briannah gets to be with both her loves and them her, to have a life and family together (of Vark-Sakkilian hybrids,) they all free of scars mental and physical, is what makes me the most happy about this ending. So thank you, Kaktus, and bravo for a quest well done!

>>118793
>I look forward to seeing whatever your new quest will be!
As do I. There's even a obvious plot hook for a sequel quest right in the ending text of this one, with Kern. But I have a feeling that Kaktus will continue with either Will We Dream or Boldly Coming for a thread before starting a new quest.

>>118811
>But I have a feeling that Kaktus will continue with either Will We Dream or Boldly Coming for a thread before starting a new quest.
You serious? I think Kaktus is going to focus on completing one or both of those before even considering starting a new quest!

I'm waiting for RUST(or whatever the true name of that quest series is) to start back up

>>118812
Yeah, you're probably right.

>>118814
That group of interconnected quests was named RUNE (Rust, Unbroken, Numb, Entropy, the last of which we never got to.) But, if I remember correctly, Kaktus decided to put it on indefinite hiatus, if not outright gave up on it, because it got to be way more than he could handle. It's been so long that if he does decide to restart it, it's gonna be tough since the previous suggesters will have forgotten things and newcomers would have to read back through multiple threads.

purpose 2017/12/14(Thu)06:44 No. 118825 ID: 54dec8

I actually asked about Rust prior in this thread somewhere and he said that he has no plans to continue Rust due to it being way too over complicated

>Even more updates!
It's like a Marvel movie. Just when you think it's over, something else pops up!

>It's like a Marvel movie. Just when you think it's over, something else pops up!
Have the end credits actually even rolled by yet? Nah, just kidding, it’s over now.
>So thank you, Kaktus, and bravo for a quest well done!
And thank you for sticking with me until the end.

>Karas' mustache is really bothering me. Is it made of hair? Is it made of feathers? Does it grow out of his beak? Does he glue it on?
It’s actually a really bad case of nose hair... or alternative I just took some artistic liberties and drew him with a mustache because I felt like it.
>But did everyone else who was down in the crypt remember the dream?
Probably.
>Did they ever explain the dream to anyone?
Yes.
>Did Kronos hug his mother and cry?
Yes and no.
>Did Kronos get to take Thalias, Belseths and/or Sisahs cock?
My sources say… chances are high.
>DID THEY HAVE KIDS?
Yes.
…
…and no, you won’t get to see them…
…
…yet.

>That's just the endcap where they advertise other books from the publisher.
“If you liked this story, you might like ‘Boldly coming’ or ‘Will we dream’ as well. Additionally, be on the lookout for the thrilling sequel to strange bedfellows, ‘A feast of souls’”
>There's even an obvious plot hook for a sequel quest right in the ending text of this one…
There are actually several sequel hooks towards the end of the quest. See if you can spot them all!
>I look forward to seeing whatever your new quest will be!
I’m probably going to focus on my other quest for a while first. Might even try to finish Boldly coming, as it’s probably half way done already.
>I'm waiting for RUST(or whatever the true name of that quest series is) to start back up
The Rune sage, which rust was part of, will not be coming back. It simply became too big to fast and crushed itself… and it’s been years so…

>So... GolementalQuest?
Vrrr…
>Steal all the tools!
*Purr*!
>Consume them all, little stone man.
Vrr?

The Ass of Hat 2017/12/16(Sat)12:36 No. 118927 ID: 74f87e
File 151345659095.jpg - (45.54KB , 312x444 , 149335150869.jpg )

>chances are high
Ooooh my!

>Rune is dead
Aaaaah fuck!