@coming in from outside kills you:
Slog came in from outside and he didn't asplode into evil soul thing.
Ah, but Slog was Illborn. And maybe that's what would have happened to Yaos if we hadn't stepped in.
Wilford, though, I've got nothing. Al isn't Illborn, so it seems unlikely that Wilford would be. That does suggest that
how you enter the Warrens is important in some way.
Apart from Al mentioning he hasn't been on the surface in "three years," he also mentions that Cherish was "what, 8-9 when I first found you?" in his letter. So yeah, unless somebody has been wiping the memories of both Al and Cherish and reincarnating Cherish as younger version of herself, then it's probably only been 3 years for him.
I had thought that it was 3 years since he was in the Warrens proper, not the surface, and that he found Cherish after entering the Warrens. (The latter especially because she wasn't in the flashback.)
Still, good points. I guess it depends on whose assumptions are correct.
Fair enough, though worst case we've established that Al can't have been down here for longer than 8-9 years; if he came in after Cherish, he couldn't well do that before she was born.
Remind me, what happened a fraction of a turn before we died?
We switched the perspective to Al.
I'm not sure what this did, in-character; maybe it let some of Ciro's vital essence seep inside Al to keep his spirit tethered to the world and stop it from reincarnating?
I'm really thinking that this is the thing we did different from every previous cycle. The branching point from which all other discrepancies arise.
Why do I keep feeling like pointing out that these things seem obvious?
Of course, depending on how long the Cycles have been going on...
Well, yes, to an extent I'm just restating what everyone else has already concluded. In part I do it because it's worth remembering what our base assumptions are for other theories (in case new information breaks them and everything resting on them,) and in part because if we want this cycle to turn out different than the
previous cycles, we should probably pay close attention to what makes this cycle unique. At this point, that means the recruitment of Al (who seems to be a wildcard in the broader context of the Warrens) and all the consequences of what happened in Chapter 2.
Here's a question- when Riltia fell in the acid, Oric/Betweenford went all Deus Ex Machina to keep her alive in order to perpetuate the cycle. So why didn't they act when Ciro died before that? Were they unable (as he possessed his own Soul Star) or unwilling (they really do want him dead-dead) or were they trying but just offscreen? That whole bomb in the mailbox really could have been intended solely to get Al and Ciro's body out of Underside and into the Greens, where he could be revived. Implying they don't know about Al and his vampire revival that was already going to happen.
Or maybe there was something in the acid that acted as a catalyst, causing the mutation or letting it happen?
Did any other non-Illborn fall in? Maybe we should toss Milli's corpse in the acid pool (when our lives aren't currently in much peril and we feel like remedying that while performing science)?
Part of my is against desecrating the dead, but mostly we can't do it because we don't have Mili's corpse anymore. Wilford fell in. On the one hand, his method of entry was the same as Al's, which might have protected him from becoming an Illborn. On the other hand, we know Al gets attacked all the time because he isn't Illborn, and Wilford didn't have that problem. Either his Soul Charge is too low to matter, or he's Illborn.
I'm really thinking that this is the thing we did different from every previous cycle. The branching point from which all other discrepancies arise.
Could that be the case, though? It's not like we knew what we were doing with that thing, and we would probably have had it pretty often in these cycles, right? I guess this cycle or that occurence could be strange, not unique, but it seems strange that this would have been the very first time ever we pressed the shiny star and ended up as someone else.
Here's the thing, how likely would we have been to try if we didn't recruit Al into the Active Party to begin with? We don't even know if we
can switch perspective to somebody not in the party (though it seems likely, given how many time FFS prompted us about "do you really want to bash Betweenford with the Astral Influx?") More importantly, though, I think the defining split is that A) We died right after switching characters and B) The character we switched to was Al, who has so much frustration and resentment penned up from his time in the Warrens he went and killed Riltia and Wilford. Switching to Al was where it started, but everything that happened after that is what escalated the situation.
Here's a question- when Riltia fell in the acid, Oric/Betweenford went all Deus Ex Machina to keep her alive in order to perpetuate the cycle. So why didn't they act when Ciro died before that? Were they unable (as he possessed his own Soul Star) or unwilling (they really do want him dead-dead) or were they trying but just offscreen? That whole bomb in the mailbox really could have been intended solely to get Al and Ciro's body out of Underside and into the Greens, where he could be revived. Implying they don't know about Al and his vampire revival that was already going to happen.
This is a good question. And it reminds me of another thing- the voices in that instance were talking about her like she had a part to play, despite her actions and circumstances seeming pretty bizarre and happenstance. I mean, is it common that we get a mission to kill her and then join up with her instead? I guess it could be...
As another thing to keep in mind, they knew when she died. That might or might not mean they were aware of her and Ciro's general circumstances, ie that he was dead in good company.
Otherwise... maybe because Ciro's the Target, his death and rebirth are different from everyone else's. Maybe it's more central, like the end of a play, so if he dies while everyone else is alive so what, whereas if someone else dies before that it's like losing actors before the end. Maybe it's the opposite, he dies and is reborn all the time, so it doesn't really affect much, whereas someone like Riltia dying is a relatively major event.
It's also worth remembering the form they revived her as. What exactly was the point of that?
The Siblings seem to be extremely well informed, given the status updates we received on the big board while Cherish was talking to Proxxy. This is why I assume they knew Ciro was dead. You raise a good point with the "in good company" bit, though. Ciro was probably going to be revived in a bit, as his corpse was whole. Riltia was drowning in a pool of acid- if they didn't interfere, she would have been gone forever (or at least the remainder of the cycle.)
Here's on to support the Greens' being a Life Support!
For when the bomb went off!
Also having this little theory about the OS being sentient.(at least during revival)
Crap, I'm pretty sure there was some other bit where oxygen supplies were mentioned. Was it the statue while we were pal'n around with Yaos? Somewhere...
You forgot "When will the players give up on bringing Slog back to life?"
Never.
5/27 NEVER FORGET