(2/2) kpwlt 2024/05/21(Tue)06:23 No. 1091481 ID: 127310
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Gretchen now gives you a friendly wave.

“Well, thanks for having me over! Hope to see you again soon! Speaking of, there should be a calendar on your computer with some local events on it. We always go to ‘em. You should come to some!”

You thank Gretchen for coming over and helping you with the box.

You swear this wasn’t there before, but Gretchen goes to a relatively distant train platform, at which there is a train waiting. She boards the train, which departs promptly.

You keep looking at the platform, wondering how and when it got there. After a while, it sort of dawns on you that you’ve just been staring at nothing all along. You haven’t blinked or looked away, and the platform didn’t disappear. It just isn’t there.

>>1091481
I've had that sorta happen with screen changes. Like, I'll be looking at the page, waiting for it to load, and suddenly I'll realize it's already loaded, presumably during a saccade, and my brain never flagged my view as having changed.

Anyway. Uh, mess with the echo machine? Investigate the well? Do you feel tired? Seems like an awfully short day, but you do you, I guess. Maybe you could read some more of those books.

It's probably only there when the train is. You'll have to get a train schedule if you want to take a trip. A little concerning is that you've been staring at nothing, so the train platform wasn't there at the same time that it was. Maybe just... not think about that too much right now.

Anyway, Kaspar seems like a tricksy fellow. He managed to create an inert rubber ball that still experiences emotional distress! Is there some way to separate and refine torment from the tormented, and combine it impossibly with base matter? Wait, where did Kaspar find someone who was tormented?

You might want to be wary of this "Kaspar."

Well, that doesn't make how the chamber works any more clear. But hey, Gretchen seems nice. It's good to have a potential friend in a place like this.

Is the study still a mess? Might as well tidy up while you've got nothing else going on.

Huh, the 2 setting duplicates the item? Seems like our guesses weren't quite right. Perhaps each setting has a unique effect.

Why don't we check out the well? It sounds like you can go down into it?
Or we can get the key from the lethe and check out the Red Realm.

(1/4) kpwlt 2024/05/29(Wed)06:43 No. 1092013 ID: 127310
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Update 13: The Sinister & Unlucky Update

>You might want to be wary of this "Kaspar."

Yes indeed! I was never really a fan of Kaspar myself, between you and me. Anyway, what you’ve been hearing about Kaspar has sort of painted him as a weird fellow in your mind, so you’ll be aware whenever you see him.

>But hey, Gretchen seems nice. It's good to have a potential friend in a place like this.

You do like Gretchen. Even if she seems a little put off by some of your antics, she does seem like she genuinely wants to be friends with you.

>Uh, mess with the echo machine?
>Huh, the 2 setting duplicates the item? Seems like our guesses weren't quite right. Perhaps each setting has a unique effect.

Maybe. Or…
You put one of the balls back in the Echo Chamber, and set it to 7. Just to test a theory.

When the smoke clears, there are 7 little green bouncy balls in the box.

GmNwnT →→→→→→→ Septuple GmNwnT

(2/4) kpwlt 2024/05/29(Wed)06:43 No. 1092014 ID: 127310
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>Seems like an awfully short day, but you do you, I guess.

I wonder if the days get longer as you go on. This day technically isn’t over yet, it only will be once you go upstairs?

>Is the study still a mess? Might as well tidy up while you've got nothing else going on.

You will once you go upstairs. You won’t go upstairs yet because you’ve still got some day to enjoy. I think.

>Why don't we check out the well? It sounds like you can go down into it?
>Or we can get the key from the lethe and check out the Red Realm.
>Investigate the well?

Alright. You head down to the basement and decide to go down the well first. You won’t go into the Lethe yet because it gives you the heebie jeebies and you still haven’t reconciled the part where you forget everything you know with a desirable outcome yet.

You jump a bit when the door of Limitless Space slams shut behind you, but you bravely carry on.

(3/4) kpwlt 2024/05/29(Wed)06:43 No. 1092015 ID: 127310
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You find a little knob in the rock formation and tie a spare tentacle to it. You can retract or untie this tentacle at any time. This tentacle is long, but it’s not infinitely long. If you don’t have this tentacle tied here, you will still be able to pull yourself up from the well as long as you are standing under the opening.

You hop down the well and fall for a few seconds, before slamming against the bottom. If you had bones, they would probably be broken. You find yourself on a floor, and surrounded by walls, that are made from a material not unlike some form of skin stretched over bone. If you (you you, not Rose you) run your tongue along your gums, or the roof of your mouth, that is how i would best describe it to you. It isn’t completely wet in here though, just a little damp in spots.

(4/4) kpwlt 2024/05/29(Wed)06:43 No. 1092016 ID: 127310
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Picking yourself up, you notice that you have two paths ahead of you. One looks to slope up, the other goes down. Both bear signs.

The downward path’s sign seems as though it had once read “SURFACE-LEVEL HELLBENDER LAIR”. However, someone has clearly crossed this out. The sign now reads “SURFACE-LEVEL HELLBENDER LAIR”. Curious.

The upwards leading path’s sign clearly states “AQUIFER - VERY FAR”.

Both signs have, in smaller, darker, stencilled writing, “W.O.L.A.N.D” near the bottom.

Aquifer sounds like the safe choice.

How could it be surface level if it's below the surface?

Might be good to get some actual rope to use to climb in and out of this well. You can't really explore further if you're still hanging onto the top of it.

I don't think we want to wander down a "very far" path right now, you probably can't stretch your tentacle that long. Let's check what used to be the hellbender lair.

(1/3) kpwlt 2024/06/05(Wed)19:33 No. 1092483 ID: 127310
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>How could it be surface level if it's below the surface?

It’s possible that this terminology just means that it’s near the surface.

>Might be good to get some actual rope to use to climb in and out of this well. You can't really explore further if you're still hanging onto the top of it.

No need. The well isn’t deep or wide enough to prevent you from climbing out easily. The only reason you’d need a rope is to mark where you’ve already been and there are better ways to do that.

(2/3) kpwlt 2024/06/05(Wed)19:33 No. 1092484 ID: 127310
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>Aquifer sounds like the safe choice.
>I don't think we want to wander down a "very far" path right now, you probably can't stretch your tentacle that long. Let's check what used to be the hellbender lair.

Aquifer doesn’t sound bad but yeah, it’s best to check near paths rather than far ones for now.

You head down the descending path. It doesn’t feel like you are descending, even though it looks to descend quite steeply.

You enter a small cavern with several collapsed tunnels leading into it. Several large lizard looking things lie in various stages of death and decay. The more mutilated of them even have little, uh, little stone fellows near them.

(3/3) kpwlt 2024/06/05(Wed)19:33 No. 1092485 ID: 127310
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You go closer to one of the little stone fellows.

This little fellow swivels to ‘look’ at you. It’s slightly unnerving. It says nothing.

It’s still covered in blood.

You sort of want to pick it up.

>>1092485
Say hello! ...hmm, you can't truly die here, right? Might as well pick it up then.

something so cute can't be bad! But, maybe try sending a finger over while you keep your distance.

I suppose if these lizards are "Hellbenders" then this would explain why the sign has been crossed out.

I wonder if those emerged from the lizards...or simply made the wounds. Or neither, I suppose.

Greet it, but please don't touch the creature that just grew out of someone who is now dead. It might have cooties.

(1/2) kpwlt 2024/06/10(Mon)07:33 No. 1092769 ID: 127310
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>I suppose if these lizards are "Hellbenders" then this would explain why the sign has been crossed out.

That would indeed explain it.

>I wonder if those emerged from the lizards...or simply made the wounds. Or neither, I suppose.

You hope they didn’t make the wounds. If they took down those lizards they could probably take down you.

>Greet it, but please don't touch the creature that just grew out of someone who is now dead. It might have cooties.

Aw, come on. You’ll wash your tentacles when you get back.

>Say hello! ...hmm, you can't truly die here, right? Might as well pick it up then.
>something so cute can't be bad! But, maybe try sending a finger over while you keep your distance.

What a cute little fella! You hold it for a while with just one tentacle to make sure it won’t beat you to death or lacerate you or anything and then grab onto it properly.

Whenever you turn it away from you, you can feel that something inside it is wiggling to try to turn around to face you again.

(2/2) kpwlt 2024/06/10(Mon)07:33 No. 1092770 ID: 127310
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At one point while holding the fellow you nonchalantly look directly into the small indent on its upper portion. You are immediately filled with intense fear and hatred. You struggle for breath as steel introduces itself to your lungs and hearts. Your head is split to make way for the hands of an unknown interloper.

You cast the little fellow across the room and make yourself as small as possible in the corner. You make sure that you are still actually fully intact. You still are. What an odd thought.

Don't make eye contact. Got it.

Well at least a little guy didn't burst out of your head, or whatever happened here. Better get it a blindfold if you want to keep it.

>>1092770
Lungs and hearts? Do you have more than one of those? I think you just relived the last memory of the Hellbender that this guy came out of! Observe that it was stabbed, and its head split.

I guess loot the swords and go back home. This is probably enough adventuring for the night.

(1/1) kpwlt 2024/06/17(Mon)08:19 No. 1093030 ID: 127310
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>Don't make eye contact. Got it.
>Well at least a little guy didn't burst out of your head, or whatever happened here. Better get it a blindfold if you want to keep it.

Yeah, seems like they’re pretty harmless.

>Lungs and hearts? Do you have more than one of those?

Yes, you have two lungs (one pair of lungs) and three hearts. You aren’t sure whether that’s also true for the Hellbender.

>I think you just relived the last memory of the Hellbender that this guy came out of! Observe that it was stabbed, and its head split.

Yes, indeed. I wonder if you could figure out exactly how everything unfolded from these. You also wonder where the little fella came out of, as in, where he was in the Hellbender. Supposedly in the head, but then where would the Hellbender’s brain be?

>I guess loot the swords and go back home. This is probably enough adventuring for the night.

Alright.

You yank the sword (singular) out of the Hellbender corpse and retract your tentacle lifeline, making sure to hit as many walls as possible on the way out. The way you exit the well would easily deceive any onlooker that what happened in the well was a lot cooler than what actually transpired there.

As you leave the Room of Limitless Space, you hear what could have been the sound of scurrying just obscured by the autonomous slamming of the door. It sounded to have come from the Storage Space, though quite close to the Pool Room.

Oh no it's the Hellbenders back for revenge!

Check your storage space. There's probably some bag of grain there that the rats have gotten into.

Time to hunt mice with a sword. Just a typical part of being a homeowner.

I wonder what would happen if we put one of those little guys in the echo machine. Can we pick one up again without having an existential crisis?

Also I’m pretty sure WOLAND is another name for Satan.
I’m not really sure what to do with this knowledge.

Investigate the noise.

>>1093030
mental note: set up some mouse trap, ferment the jug of milk to conjure the trap cheese
/
investigate the storage
/
unrelated:
what's up with this kaspar guy, his water undrinkable, resurrection device confounding.
/
it makes sense that your uncle owned a memory wiping tool. no man can live sane with infinite tales of life in one body.

(1/3) kpwlt 2024/06/27(Thu)04:46 No. 1093495 ID: 127310
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>I wonder what would happen if we put one of those little guys in the echo machine. Can we pick one up again without having an existential crisis?

A good thought, but one that may have to be put on hold for now. Try to remember to do this at some point, ok?

>mental note: set up some mouse trap, ferment the jug of milk to conjure the trap cheese

If your hunt doesn’t provide any results, that’s exactly what you’ll do.

>what's up with this kaspar guy, his water undrinkable, resurrection device confounding.

Kaspar seems like a bit of an odd character. He also apparently has an alchemy lab?

>it makes sense that your uncle owned a memory wiping tool. no man can live sane with infinite tales of life in one body.

The thing is, though, you’re not sure that your uncle was sane in the first place. And where he was getting infinite tales of life, you don’t know.

>Also I’m pretty sure WOLAND is another name for Satan.

…

>Oh no it's the Hellbenders back for revenge!

Oh god, you hope not. Those things looked bloody menacing, even when dead.

(2/3) kpwlt 2024/06/27(Thu)04:47 No. 1093496 ID: 127310
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>Check your storage space.
>Time to hunt mice with a sword.
>Investigate the noise.

You march into the storage space and notice a pair of stubby legs trying to cram themselves under a cupboard(?) of some description.

(3/3) kpwlt 2024/06/27(Thu)04:47 No. 1093497 ID: 127310
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You grab an almost nonexistent ankle with a vicious tentacle and drag the thing kicking and screaming across the floor to you.

A squat, rodential creature clad in a red cotton top and blue denim shorts. It takes one glance at the bloodied sword in your hands and starts crying for mercy. In a flash of pity, or perhaps shock, you loosen your grasp on its leg and it scrambles away.

As it turns to take one last look at you before vanishing under the cupboard, you see the glint of some sort of blade in its mouth.

You shouldn't kill sentient foes out of hand. Maybe you can come to some agreement, or drive it off? Or coopt them somehow.

Draft up a tenancy agreement for the little guy. Some extra income/ help around the house wouldn't hurt.

Little guys are great to befriend. They can get into small spaces you can't. That's something that when it comes up, it's vital to have.

>>1093497
"What do you have? A knife?"

(1/1) kpwlt 2024/07/02(Tue)20:14 No. 1093724 ID: 127310
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>You shouldn't kill sentient foes out of hand. Maybe you can come to some agreement, or drive it off? Or coopt them somehow.
>Draft up a tenancy agreement for the little guy. Some extra income/ help around the house wouldn't hurt.
>Little guys are great to befriend. They can get into small spaces you can't. That's something that when it comes up, it's vital to have.

You try to reason with the little guy, but he seems to be giving you the silent treatment at present moment. You also don’t bring up any sort of money agreement, since you despise the idea of being a landlord.

>"What do you have? A knife?"

This gets a response, albeit a nonverbal one.

He extends the little knife, while maintaining a white-knuckle grip on it. He then takes it back and throws out several little bits of chopped up wood as if to give an explanation.

Aw, little carvings! Having an in-house artist is classy as hell. Just tell him not to break anything important.

>>1093724
Compliment the carvings. Do they look familiar?

(1/1) kpwlt 2024/07/04(Thu)07:16 No. 1093774 ID: 127310
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>Aw, little carvings! Having an in-house artist is classy as hell. Just tell him not to break anything important.
>Compliment the carvings. Do they look familiar?

You tell him his carvings look cool. You can almost hear his squeaks of gratitude.

As for the carvings, they sort of look like something you might have seen before? This one looks like a horsey. Or a knight, if you’re a chess terminology prescriptivist.

This fellow seems nice, you should let him stay.

Welp, guess we are going to invite Reepicheep over here to play chess!

>>1093876
yes I see he's carved a bishop, and a knight, and a... sad...whale?

(1/2) kpwlt 2024/08/09(Fri)07:24 No. 1095587 ID: 127310
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>This fellow seems nice, you should let him stay.

Alright, you’ll let him stay. He probably has a name of his own, but he hasn’t been particularly forthcoming about it. What do you want to call him in the meantime?

>Welp, guess we are going to invite Reepicheep over here to play chess!

You’ve actually never played chess, though you do have a passing knowledge of the rules. Regardless, you think he’d probably destroy you.

>yes I see he's carved a bishop, and a knight, and a... sad...whale?

Well, he probably doesn’t have much in the way of a reference.

(2/2) kpwlt 2024/08/09(Fri)07:24 No. 1095588 ID: 127310
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Now, what was it you were doing again?

You seem to be thinking about Kaspar a lot. No judgement from me (not that i’d tell you if i was judging you), but you might want to ask around and gather more information about him before actually meeting him if he worries you that much.

You could also investigate further into WOLAND if you wanted. You do have their number, after all.

You could also do something else entirely. I’m not your boss.

Well, let's see. Thinking about the telephone room, weren't there some books in there, that you haven't looked at yet? We could check another one or two of those. Or cold-call somebody. Ask if their refrigerator is running.

Didn't Gretchen say the house would provide food if you do all your chores? Should check in the pantry and cold store to see if anything showed up, and plan dinner while you're at it.