entrancelogs | + Your imagination can't hurt you! +

Then would it be reasonable to assume that there is a lie somewhere?

[Or maybe that in itself is the lie. Or it simply could be one of those puzzles that was designed to make you overthink and thus miss the obvious. After all, Zacharie's half was not that complex.

But for now they only had 'liar' and that the number 1 wasn't the first in the sequence. Zacharie attempts to work out any other messages as it's presented and comes up with nothing.]

I also have to assume that the messages do not line up so nicely all the time.

Probably. Yeah.

[There is a lie somewhere, all right. Probably all coiled up inside him. Might as well be a biological thing at this point with how much it's just a - part of him. HE IS A LIAR.

He's always been a liar.]

N-no. No. Not always.

[He's not really that fantastic at math, really, but there's something to be said for the number at the beginning being separated from the others. He tries adding it to each of the numbers in turn, but comes up with nothing that seems especially usable.]

Never, actually.

Humm...may I borrow the pen?

[He moves to a different wall to keep his writing away from Tim. Not that it would be difficult to tell the difference between their handwriting - Zacharie's is particularly atrocious - but if it winds up being nonsense then it doesn't have to be scratched out, just ignored. He just needs a place to put his thoughts for the moment. So:

Entry 000.129519 Entry Liar 112.1265451400953 112.1265451400953 exactly the same, repeated message(?) 1 is not the first sequence/block puzzle. Point of (.)? 15582.36181564095 still unknown.']

Eh eh eh. I am beginning to understand my Puppeteer's frustration due to fake difficulty and a severe lack of paper. Perhaps you have an answer to my inquiries regarding the usage of zeros and decimal points?

[If it's decoding by numbers to letters, there wasn't any use for the zeroes.]

[Tim hands the pen over, wishing bitterly that he had a calculator of some kind. He's not exactly one for advanced algebra, and while they might be able to solve the problem eventually, having something to help crunch the numbers would make it go a lot quicker. And the longer they stay in this room, the more his eyes start to hate him for it.]

I dunno. I dunno, I...it's way more numbers than what fits for a puzzle like this, isn't it?

[If he tries - multiplying, maybe? He separates 000.129519, and multiplies it with each of the strings of numbers. It takes a while, the laborious scratching of the borrowed pen only occasionally broken by moments where he bites his lip to concentrate or shoot a nervous look at the buzz of static on the television screen.

145225183.211854
14.522518
14.522518
20.18.211920]

Maybe that translates to...

[It only takes a few moments to come up with the message that links up to the numbers. He reads it aloud, his mouth dry.]

NEVER CURED
NEVER
NEVER
TRUST.

[If there's any, any small amount of reassurance to be take it's that the static doesn't get any worse. It knows he's right. Tim may be a liar...but he never lies when he says he is one.]

Never cured. Never trust.

[Zacharie mulls it over. Thus far this puzzle has only revealed things that was making his partner here highly uncomfortable. Almost as if it had only one interest and that was disturbing Tim and Tim alone. And if that was to be followed, it had no interest in Zacharie himself thus far. The one thing here from his world that could be considered disturbing was from the Pure Zones and all he had to do was never mention it.

So...did something in this room have it out for the other man?]

Cryptic messages appear to be a recurring theme here amigo. Although I have to question the comment that I should not exhibit trust in a puzzle made for two. Are you doing alright, by the way?

[He'd consider making a survival horror joke but it's probably too much.]

About as well as you could expect.

[Which is to say, not very. His vision is really starting to itch painfully, his eyes burning as if he's been staring at the sun for too long, and the pulsing beginnings of a headache have begun to needle into the bridge of his nose and his temples.

Maybe It's nearby.

No. It - can't be nearby. He'd know. He'd know if it was. It's a warning, the static. Nothing more.

That's the solution to the original encryption, he's pretty sure. They've just got to figure how to translate it over to the cube puzzle.]

Maybe...maybe if we turn "never" into numbers. Like, um...with numbers one through six. Since that's the word that shows up the most, right?

[Zacharie doesn't press the issue. This place wasn't effecting the NPC in the same way it was Tim - the Pure Zones weren't an issue for Zacharie, he just didn't like being in them - and whatever else that may be in here was only interested in the other man. He just borrows the pen again to write it out.

NEVER 14 5 22 5 18 1 4 5 2 2 5 1 8

8 could probably be taken out since the blocks didn't go that high, but at the same time 1 couldn't be used because the puzzle already proved that it didn't begin with it. But...]

...liar.

[Was something...lying to them?]

[Tim cringes at the word, inadvertently, a hateful impulse he wants to claw out of him. His mouth tightens as he tries to sort out what to say to that. No, it can't possibly be liar again. That was the solution to the puzzle with Max, and it couldn't be the same one over and over again, could it?

He shakes his head reluctantly.]

I already - that was already a solution for another one of these things. Earlier, with someone else. It wouldn't be the same code twice.

[And here's hoping Zacharie doesn't draw a line of correlation between Tim and liar though, honestly, it's probably inevitable at this point.]

[He's starting to put that together. Zacharie didn't lie in OFF, there were just things nobody asked him. And again, this room seemed out for Tim's blood. Still, unless there was going to be an 'He was evil all along!' plot twist Zacharie was content to ignore it.]

I meant it more regarding the idea that the clues may be lying to us. It's a common staple in RPGs to include a puzzle where only one person tells the truth and another lies. We attempted to use 'one' as the first number and it was incorrect, but what if that was a lie?

[And with the static as a warning for a certain something, Tim would try to screw up as little as possible. After all, this room seemed to care only for him.]

So what does that mean? We pick and choose which numbers are "lies" and which ones aren't?

[That sounds like a lot of trial and error, and he's not sure what that's gonna mean in the long term. Though he has an inkling, and that inkling rests squarely on the fuzz of static over the TV screen that hasn't died down since they made their first error.

If it's really trial and error...

He doesn't wanna think about it.]

[The easiest way to deal with OFF's puzzles without bothering to find clues or looking them up was to try every single one until you had the correct combination. Trial and error at its finest.

Maybe he's overthinking things, in the end, and it's probably in part that death doesn't mean much to Zacharie - bar one, maybe two instances. If they die here than that's that. Still, it would be amusing for the guide character to get killed off by a puzzle they couldn't help solve.]

Would you mind if I attempted the sequences, excluding the 'one' at the beginning?

[Yes, he almost says, but bites it back just as fast. Almost draws blood with how hard he chews on the interior of his cheek, considering how he could possibly refuse a - perfectly rational suggestion.

He only darts one more glance at the screen full of white-on-black snow, and then nods, jerkily.]

Okay. Yeah. Sure.

Knock yourself out.

Merci.

[He walks over to the blocks once again. 1 4 5 2 2 5 1 8. If they were going by the assumption that there was a lie, perhaps excluding the 1 at the beginning may do something.

So the NPC reaches out and taps the 4th block. As it doesn't appear again in the sequence it should go invisible. If not the static will get a little worse and things will get a little louder.

Regardless, he'll stay silent until whatever happens, happens.]

[The screech of static as it crescendos is like the drawing of a nail over chalkboard. Tim cringes reflexively, his fingers pulling into fists, nails digging painfully into the flesh of his palms.]

So that was...a lie too.

[It's getting louder. It's getting louder.

It's coming for them, isn't It?

Isn't It always.]

[Not Safe runs through their little room and the blast of static makes him flinch. Probably for the first time in Wonderland Zacharie felt afraid of...whatever was coming for them. And he was rapidly running out of ideas. Guess he really did need to look up more puzzles like this for future reference.]

It appears so. However I would not worry too much about the music playing right now.

[Unless the room decides to spawn something else from his world, nothing else from the Pure Zones will show up.]

So one and four are out. Is there anything else?

That's not what I'm worried about.

[The music is...creepy, if you can even call it music. It sounds too discordant and strange to his ears, but it's fine. It's weird, but he's heard worse. He's hearing worse right now. It buzzes angrily in his skull like a bee trapped in a jar.]

We can't just - just make guesses and hope they're right. It's getting louder. Every time we mess up, it gets louder.

There is something coming after us, isn't there? From your world I'm assuming.

[It's making his face itch, which is an accomplishment! But not worth dwelling on. But despite that there were two people in here Zacharie knows that whatever arrives will kill them. Something...it just felt like something that they could not win against.]

More importantly, do we have time before it arrives?

Maybe. It...maybe.

[There's usually only one thing that it could mean, the screech of distortion blaring across an otherwise blank screen. It's just a hunch. But given everything he knows, everything he's lived through, he imagines it's a pretty damn good one.]

That. That right there. [He indicates the burst of static on the television with a fluttery wave of his hand.] It gets worse every time we mess up. I dunno how many more tries we get before it -

[He cuts himself off. Before it stops screaming outside, and starts screaming in their heads, maybe?]

[That's one way to take away the brute force option. Zacharie stares at the static on the TV and wonders how something that simple can scare him. He's got a good demonstration here, the NPC assumes. Whatever It was, it put the fear of God into Tim.]

Then we should take a break and think. Unless it decides to break the rules, I do not see why we shouldn't invent our own.

[Regardless, he's going to just stare at all the writing that they've done. There were letters and numbers. Something was to translate into a six number combination that didn't begin with either 1 or 4. So what were they missing?]

All right. Yeah. Let's...

[He trails off. He's...gonna sit down, he thinks. Sit down against the wall and close his eyes against the incipient headache that's wheedling its way into his skull, and just...just think.

It's hard to think with that continuous tone, that pitch, drilling its way into his brain. But isn't it always? Isn't it always?

Usually, yeah.]

I just...dunno how to whittle it down to six numbers. I thought we solved it. We solved it.

[Not Safe wasn't exactly pleasant noise to listen to and the hum of the TV wasn't helping. Although as Tim said, the soundtrack isn't really a worry. Just a background noise to something much worse.

Zacharie still didn't know. He didn't want to know. But panicking won't do him any good here. Just breathe. Slightly fatalist attitude aside, he wasn't done just yet.]

Is there a way to put these numbers into others?

[Zacharie was speaking a bit more frank than usual but they were in danger, so doing a run-around is useless.]

[He needs to get hold of himself. He needs to stop panicking or hovering on the edge of panic and he needs to pull himself together and just - and just think. He grits his teeth, eyes screwing shut, shutting out the brightness of the room's blinding white backdrop.]

I don't...there's gotta be something we're missing, right? Some hint or, or something.

[He scrambles over to the wall containing their combined calculations and scrawls, assessing the original strings of numbers.]

Maybe we just...take the ones that repeat most often?

[Zacharie nods and then after a quick count, writes the whole thing down so nothing's missed:

0: 8 1: 17 2: 9 3: 3 4: 4 5: 12 6: 7 8: 2 9: 7]

From highest to lowest, they are...one, five, two, zero, six and nine, three, and eight. The numbers that appear most often are one, five, zero, two, six and nine.

[To be safe he writes down those as well before moving to another clean wall. Zacharie doesn't bother saying anymore out loud and just continues to write:

High to low: 1 5 2 0 6/9 Low to high: 6/9 0 2 5 1

[So now they have exactly six numbers. But the question is which one? High first or low, and where do the 6 and 9 go?]

[Oh god. And that's assuming this is, any of this, right. What if it's not? What if it's just a red herring, trying to get them to pursue an entirely false clue?

Breathe. Breathe. He stares at the list of numbers, trying to figure if there's some sort of message there, in how frequently they show up.]

So if we just...take out the high numbers, that leaves us with fewer combinations, since we can't use seven, eight, or nine.

[That's still way too many options. It's like trying to guess the combination of a gym locker.]

[The thought isn't illogical. This puzzle seemed to rely on making them second-guess everything they come across, almost as if this was meant for more than just two people. Took OFF's puzzle mechanics and made them much more complex. Still, he writes it down to stay calm.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 high to low: 1 5 2 0 6 low to high: 6 0 2 5 1]

I am unsure if we need zero as well. Normally the confirm button is the last in the sequence and while it could count as zero here, it would be unusual for a puzzle from my world to be ordered this way.

[Sure it could be another way to screw with them, but better to throw out every theory they've got, right?]

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