OH WAIT! maybe you can rewrite the signs. change Good to Bad. and stuff.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/14(Sat)10:48 No. 218298 ID: 5de592
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>>218241
You think to draw on the signs, and write "BAD" where "GOOD" is written, but your plans are ruined when you realize that the words are etched into the material. You can't remove or erase them.

"About those Allies, have you managed to kill any of them?" You ask.
"We haven't managed to kill him yet, because it's impossible." Nguyen replies.
"Him? And how is it impossible?" You ask.
"We think there are more Allies, but the only one we've ever met is... him." Nguyen shakes as he talks.
"By him, he means Nuke Dukem." Tran says, "We think it's possible to kill him, but we can't do it. He shoots us before we can get close." Tran says, depressed.

"Do you know anyone that can help us?" You ask.
"Perhaps, if we go to our village." Nguyen replies.
"Well then, let's go. I need to know more information if we're going to survive."

You pick up the minigun. It's surprisingly light, almost weightless.

The two Vietnamese walk to their village, and you follow them. You walk through forests of palm trees, strangely devoid of any other type of vegetation. It's an easy walk, and you're at the village in no time.

In the village, there are only 3 huts, and the total amount of people comes to 6, counting Nguyen and Tran.

You think you see a gun inside one of the houses.

>>218298
Give one your old gun and tell one of the others to get the gun from the hut. Also ask them if they got any bubblegum, Duke might be placated with one.

Prepare an ambush. And try to avoid dying. You're probably not going to come back if you get killed here.

It looks like an normal rifle. If that gun is weaker than what you found at the base, maybe he's going to show up here first, then head towards the secret base. Slowly powering up and all that.
Or I'm completely wrong and it's all random or whatever.

That said, ask the villagers why they don't try using the weapons. They know he's coming, so why aren't they arming themselves?

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/14(Sat)13:22 No. 218340 ID: 5de592
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"Why didn't you grab the guns yourself?" You ask Tran.
"...We can pick up those guns?" Tran asks, mystified.
"Sure. I mean, I did it right?" You heft your minigun upwards, proving your point.
"You did, but you're different. We can tell you aren't from this place." Another of the Vietnamese speaks up.
"Yes. You are an instrument of change for this world." Nguyen says, strangely devoid of his shyness.
Needless to say, this makes you feel uncomfortable.

"...Right. Why don't you try grabbing that gun?" You say.
"Sure." One of the Vietnamese goes into the hut, and picks up the gun. The others all stare at him, starstruck.

Suddenly, an exact copy of the gun appears with a *POP*. Another one of the Vietnamese rushes in and grabs that gun. The same gun appears again. The cycle repeats until all of the Vietnamese are armed.

"Alright, we need to set up an ambush, or we'll all die." You state.
"Ambush? What's that?" Ngugen quips.

"... Just hide in the huts. Does anybody have any bubblegum?" You ask.

As they begin to hide themselves, one of them says, "What's bubblegum?"

"Nevermind. Just wait for my signal."


A few stressful minutes pass, but sure enough, you can hear footsteps. You also hear a gruff, badass voice.

"I'm here to kick ass and kill people, and I can't find any donkeys."

>>218340
Hot damn, wait for him to become visible and then unload everything you got on him. Time to show Duke that there's a new lord in town.

>>218342
his name is nuke dukem, not duke.

anyway. the moment he shows up then yeah, totally let loose.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/14(Sat)15:35 No. 218373 ID: 5de592
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Nuke Dukem strolls onto the scene, a gigantic cigar coming from his fat lips, and what can only be described as a peashooter in his hand.
"NOW!" You scream, and the Vietnamese come from their houses, spraying bullets all over. Only a few that are fired actually hit him, but that's a lot when so many bullets are being fired.
He opens his mouth, the cigar glued to his teeth.

"If I had a dime for every ambush I've been targeted by, I'd be the goddamn U.S. Mint." He raises his pistol, slowly, obstructed by the sheer amount of lead in his skin.

And that's when you come out.

>>218373
Spray him full of mingun hot lead death. And come up with some appropriately snappy oneliner. Like cut him in half with bullets and tell him that you hate to cut things short.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/14(Sat)15:40 No. 218376 ID: 5de592
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You fire bullet after bullet from your minigun, ammo coming from nowhere, the heat from the barrel dispersing into the air. The sparks from the bullets make the front of the gun look like fireworks and the sheer force pushes you back.
You stand, aiming the force of nature at Nuke Dukem as he stands there, taking hit after hit, only to simply stand there and spout one liners.

"Scars are like money. The more you have, the more women want you." He just then realizes that he is actually being shot.

"Whoah, I'm taking damage!" He raises his peashooter, and guns down several of the Vietnamese. They fall and then spontaneously explode into meaty gore.

>>218376
Hmm, you should probably start running to dodge his shoots.

Hmm, might be good to withdraw towards the bunker. Some concrete between him and you should even things out alot more.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/14(Sat)15:52 No. 218379 ID: 5de592
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You blast away at him, slowly descending the stairs. You can see him taking significant damage, and you hope he's almost down. Yet, like always, he keeps spouting stupid one-liners.

"I could make another Statue o' Liberty with all the bullets I've gotten shot with!"

"And I could make a Purple Heart with all the bullets I'm gonna fill you with!"

He turns toward you and aims carefully.

>>218379
Time to dodge like a motherfucker. And try shooting him in the mouth some more, that might help shut him up.

USE YOUR SPECIAL MOVE

^ ^ v v < > < > B A

Wait.

Back up into the hut and take cover. In a lot of video games back then, even the smallest bit of cover stops bullets.

>>218379
Dodge dodge dodge! He probably has a hard time hitting moving targets, what with his 'careful aiming'

Non!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/16(Mon)20:39 No. 218962 ID: 5de592
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>>218381
What the hell?! Where are the buttons?!

You duck inside the house, jumping up the ramp and inside the grass walls. You hear several loud BANGs and you feel the wall rumble as the bullets slam into it. Luckily for you, in this world it seems that grass is as hard as concrete.

"Oh, look at my health! I gotta heal up!" You peer around the door, and watch as Nuke Dukem sprints off to your left, leaving an obvious trail of blood.

You briefly consider that all the Vietnamese are dead, blown apart like gory pinatas. Maybe you could have saved them... but you'll never know.

What do you do now?

they will re-spawn, wait a bit and see if they do. then go scout out more area, like check in the woods and stuff now. maybe you can find a secret area with an even better weapon?

>>218962
Get moving and follow the blood.

Can you see where he's going? If he's going towards the base you'll need to kill him before he gets a minigun of his own.

Follow him while keeping up a hail of bullets. Make sure to circle-strafe when he starts to aim.

>>218962
Can't let him heal up. Go after him with a hail of bullets.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/17(Tue)21:19 No. 219343 ID: 5de592
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You look behind the farthest hut, and find a mysterious path. It leads to a small clearing, which has a treasure chest in it. You open it, and find a gun.

As you pick it up, sudden knowledge fills your head. You have a Triple Laser Rocket Shotgun! It's a shotgun that shoots rockets that shoot lasers! Awesome!

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/17(Tue)21:21 No. 219345 ID: 5de592
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You retrace your steps and follow the trail of blood. Unfortunately, your secret-finding has made you unable to catch up with him. You follow the jungle path.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/17(Tue)21:22 No. 219346 ID: 5de592
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Wait, what?

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/17(Tue)21:26 No. 219347 ID: 5de592
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You appear in front of a paved path, which leads into a large fenced in military complex. The trail of blood leads to a domed building that dominates the horizon.

You also notice to your great displeasure that you are no longer holding the Triple Laser Rocket Shotgun. Instead, you have a puny knife. It appears that the Loading screen has replaced your weaponry, which enrages you. I mean, who the hell has loading screens in their head?!

And to make matters work, there appear to be men inside the military complex. It doesn't seem as if they've noticed you.

get closer, but be ready to dodge just in case.

>>219347
Hmm, must be some sort of sneak level or something. Go up and slit the throat of the first one and steal his weapons.

It looks more like the home base for Dukem. He's probably going to find a medic or a healthkit or something.

I'm not sure if the NPC's will shoot at you, because you're not 'technically' part of the game.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/19(Thu)21:54 No. 220034 ID: 5de592
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You creep towards the men, cautious. They stand rock solid, watching with an iron eye. You brandish your knife, carefully, lowering your body as you approach one of them near your gate. As you steel yourself to slit the throat of a soldier, you realize something strange about him.

He's made of cardboard.

You look around. All the soldiers in the base are made of cardboard. You stand up straight, the tension gone. They stood vigilantly because they couldn't move at all. Everything about them is fake, from the guns to the helmets.

The trail of maroon blood continues into the domed building. There are also buildings off in the distance.

try the buildings first, i bet nuke still has his pistol, which is deadly.

We're not facing Duke without a better weapon. Look around a bit.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/20(Fri)22:38 No. 220373 ID: 5de592
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...God.

This place is just...
It's hard to describe your feelings upon entering this room. The coffins stacked upon the walls, and the pictures of the men hanging above them. Who are they? His comrades?
And the messages on the walls. "I'M SORRY" "I AM A COWARD" "I DIDN'T GO" You hope that they aren't written in what you think they're written in.
The mummified corpses of the soldiers stand inside their coffins. You walk up to one of them, slowly. You wrench a gun from the corpse, tearing a hole in the wrappings and revealing blackened, rotting flesh.

You think you understand Mr. Veli more now, more than before.


What would you like to do now?

this is another lie. a mummy does not rot under the wrappings. is the whole point of being a mummy in the first place, prevention of decay. mr. veli obviously has no god damn clue what to think so his mind is a mess of half made ideas. these soldiers probably died in a movie only.

>>220373
I wonder, are we both in Mr. Veli's head... or is he in our head learning about our own set of mental issues while we're in his? If the latter, we're on a clock- eventually, he'll figure us out and we'll... lose somehow.

The thing is, is Duke even the one that we're supposed to the fighting here, or is he as much of a supporting cast member as the people he's shooting and the cardboard cutout guards? He doesn't seem like he's some critical representative component of Mr. Veli's psyche, aside from the general fact that he's the 'main character' in this crazy video game world.

Only one way to find out, I guess. Take your gun and go cautiously looking for anyone else.

>>220379
Uh. They could just be improperly mummified. Like, just covered in bandages instead of actually dried out or anything.

I suppose we could check the other two coffins.

>>220390
(Yeah, that's actually what it is. I just didn't explain it well enough. It isn't that they're mummified, it's that they're just wrapped up in bandages.)

You open the other coffins. There are also mummies in those ones as well.
You feel increasingly uneasy, and exit out the door.

>>220380
(I support this kind of thinking.)
You look around the complex, brandishing your gun cautiously. There isn't anything of note in the other building, so the only place you can go is the gigantic domed building.
You open the hatch door, and find nothing except a long staircase. A rotten smell hits you, and you steel yourself. You ascend the long staircase.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/21(Sat)21:49 No. 220895 ID: 5de592
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Well. If you thought the other building is bad...

It's quite obvious where the bad smell is coming from now.

It's coming from the mountain of corpses, skinned and mushed into a pile, being ground up like orange skins in a trash compactor.

You heave, the disgusting sight bringing burning stomach acid to the top of your throat. You force it back down, trying not to reveal your position.

Maybe this is what happens to the people who die here?

You look ahead on the catwalk. Nuke Dukem is standing there, looking at a very big lever. What does it do?

For that matter, what do you do?

[[BE CAREFUL. YOUR PROGRESS, AND THE FATE OF A MAN IS BALANCED ON THE TIP OF A PIN. YOUR ACTIONS HERE MAY TOPPLE HIS MIND.]]

>>220895
Aim the gun at him, and say to stop right there. We don't have to fight. We can just talk. Ask him what the lever does.

>>220926
This. Only without looking like a threat. I think what he really needs now is a friend, someone to trust.

fuck, NO. just run up and knock him in. he has no qualms with killing us, we should have none when it comes to him. it is crunch time and you are all getting cold feet.

Be warned that wild speculation and assumption on the nature of our current situation follows.

>>220930
>I think what he really needs now is a friend, someone to trust.
Maybe Mr. Veli needs that, but we're not talking to Mr. Veli- this is Duke, who is apparently some sort of bizarre protective fantasy/psychotic personality shard. We're wandering around inside Mr. Veli's head; nothing that we see here is him, but everything that we see here is some part of him.

Now, to consider: Duke is part of Mr. Veli's standard mental play, and wants to pull the lever. So the lever somehow moves Mr. Veli's fantasyland forward. If he pulls it, my guess would be that everything stays the same for Mr. Veli, based upon the assumption that his head will attempt to maintain a steady state. We therefore do not want that level pulled, since we wish to disrupt his steady state.

However, bullets aren't the answer here. We already shot the guy; he hardly notices, because part of Mr. Veli's fantasy is that the Duke character gets shot and keeps going. What we need to do is use what we learned in the mummy room and attack verbally. Duke is a fine target, but we could just as easily shout at a wall; it's all Mr. Veli's head, so he'd hear us either way.

I think that the choice before us is to use encouraging/consoling words, or cruel/disparaging ones. If we want to break him, we reinforce his cowardice and shout out how sad he is for replaying a fantasy based in video games in his head again and again to somehow make up for his friends' deaths. If we want to help him work through his issues, we tell him that it's okay that he didn't go, he'd likely have died along with his friends and robbed countless children of a great teacher, and etc. in that vein.

Either path is fine with me, but if I were deciding on my own... I'd try to break him.

His self-loathing is what runs this world. If we enhance those negative emotions, we're going to get nowhere.

I'm really sorry I haven't updated yet! Real life got in the way of this, but I'm still checking for replies!
Sorry!

Plus I wanted you guys to think this out more.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/28(Sat)22:11 No. 223224 ID: 8d838b
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>>220933
((I like paragraphs, and since that's the only decision we really reached, I'm going with that.))

You raise your gun, aiming the barrel right at Nuke's face.

"Stop. What does that lever do?" You say.

"It stops all this. This machine, it makes all of them respawn. It continues the war, and I'm tired of it. Before, it was a game. Now... I'm not sure what to think. Maybe those people don't deserve to die..." He says.

"You think you can repent for what you've done? You can't go back." You say.

"What're you talking about?"

"I've figured this world out. I understand this now, I understand everything about you. You are a representation of Mr.Veli's want to go back to that moment from when he ran away from the army. He ran away from his responsibility at the last second. The people he met that day, they died because of him. Maybe if he was there, he could have saved them. But he ran." You say.

"He ran, and you are just his delusion, put into a fake version of Vietnam to play out his power fantasy of killing the enemy and saving his friends. But I saw his Black Bug Room. He can't save them, no matter what he does. They're dead, and he can't change that. But he continues his fantasy, because it's the only way he can keep living."

"And so, I have come to this conclusion." You say.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/28(Sat)22:46 No. 223232 ID: 8d838b
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"Your inner reality is a delusion, and your cowardice keeps you locked inside it. When you chose to run that day, you condemned yourself to a life of regret."

"You are broken as a human being. Your sin is that of cowardice. Continue to delude and isolate yourself until the day you die." You say.

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/28(Sat)23:24 No. 223238 ID: 8d838b
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"I think there's one thing you don't know." He says.

"Huh? What, then?" You reply.

[[I AM THE EGO.]]
[[I AM THE DEFENSE MECHANISM, THE SELF]]

He raises his pistol to his own head, and cracks a great big grin.

[[YOU HAVE DISPROVED ME, AND DESTROYED ME]]

"No, wait-"

Nons!ozOtJW9BFA 2010/08/28(Sat)23:34 No. 223240 ID: 8d838b
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You are now back in the junkyard.

Mr.Veli is now screaming and holding his head.

What do you do now?

knock him out. the fact that he isn't on the ground yet means his mind hasn't collapsed all the way.

>>223240
Wait for our shadow to win its fight, now that we've won the psychic combat. There's no need to risk coming out into the open just yet.