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>>2967661

There is an infinite weariness to Souichirou Mikogami's form, as he bows his head to the altar's cross - A huge, sad strength to the set of his shoulders. He is a man descending into his early fifties, a time when all his struggles should have been behind him - But there is something indomitable, too. Something unbreakable, as unyielding as a rod of steel.

Older than his years - But not defeated yet.

At length, he straightens. Stiffly, but without effort.

"The rite of confession," he says, "-is part of the Catholic faith."

"I cannot give forgiveness, unless one asks for it - And, to tell the truth, there's very little for which people need to be forgiven." A smile, familiar but somehow fond. "As for absolution and penance...I have found, too often, that each is but a state of mind."

"And yet - It helps, I find, to be heard. To speak of one's burden is-"

"...Is good for the soul."

He lowers his hands. There is a fine patina worked into his calloused palms, something that is almost - but not quite - the dirt of a day's work.

The pain in your chest is worse, now. It is a cold pain, a transfixing pain, as singular and bitter as a spike of ice. Like an anchor, fixing you to the here and the now.

-And somewhere, somewhere close, there is the patient drip-drip-drip of your strength seeping away-

(Continued)

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>>2967685

There is a self-consciousness to his words, a kind of reserve - A world away from Mr. Ebara's measured, precise tone. Not fatherly, not truly, but aware all the same. Like a guide who knows the way ahead, yet is troubled - not for himself - but for those who must walk the path.

But it is his eyes that tell the truth of the story.

He is astonished by you. There is revelation, and genuine pain - genuine wonder - in that realization. The sight of you has quite taken him aback.

It is as if you bring word of deliverance. Of some miracle, some truth that ennobles the messenger and the listener at once. When he speaks, there is an infinite gratitude - hidden, but poorly - that comes close to revealing itself.

"You have nothing to fear, my son."

"Tell me - What troubles you?”

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>2967685
>>2967711
"I don't know what happened to everyone else. Did we stop it? Was the city saved? Did anyone survive? Did I survive? Where's Kotone? Or the White Joker, your successor? What did you do to them?"

>>2967661
OP can you tell us the properties/qualities of lachryma? Why is it so sought after by everyone and used for basically everything? WHat's so useful about it?

>>2967711
"... I've messed up, Father. I've hurt a lot of people and my enemies are still out there. I dragged my best friend into hell and hurt the ones I cared for the most.

And I don't know how to fix it."

>>2967730
>Why is it so sought after by everyone and used for basically everything? WHat's so useful about it?

We could perhaps ask Mikogami that exact question.

>>2967745
Either IC or OOC I've gotta fucking know man, I have no idea why everyone shoves this shit into everything

>>2967711
"I don't knew where to even start. So much has happened and it seems like I've punctuated every step of the way with a horrible mistake."

"I still have to continue forward, but I'm afraid that it's too late. That everything will be over by the time I get back. That all will be for nothing. And that it will be my fault."

"Why are you here, Mikogami?"

>>2967711

"It is no mere coincidence that has led me to you. Something tells me you can lead me to what I seek."

I want to say this, but what do we really seek? A way out for Kazuya and us, but beyond that? What are we even looking for?

I'm also a bit weary of devulging everything to the man so I left out how we got there, what do you guys think? How much do we tell him?

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>>2967730
>>2967731
> "I don't know what happened to everyone else. Did we stop it? Was the city saved? Did anyone survive? Did I survive? Where's Kotone? Or the White Joker, your successor? What did you do to them?"

Your voice echoes within the vast, hollow space. Unbidden, it conjures images at the very edge of perception, as the shadows shift and murmur. There are shapes, almost - A veil. A tower, falling. Something vast, something terrible, rising from the ruin-

Your mind, playing tricks.

But there is that sound, like the surrusation of insect wings, a murmuring that comes from everywhere and nowhere at once...

> "... I've messed up, Father. I've hurt a lot of people and my enemies are still out there. I dragged my best friend into hell and hurt the ones I cared for the most.
> "And I don't know how to fix it."

He waits. He waits, until you run out of words - Not staring, merely listening. An audience of one.

> "Why is it so sought after by everyone and used for basically everything? What's so useful about it?"

And Father Mikogami says, at last:

"Look up."

Above you-

(Continued)

>>2967778

It is a wound. A weal, in the fabric of reality. A place where the substance of All That Is has been torn - Has been carved, with surgical precision - to reveal all that lies beyond.

No, not a wound - An eye. An eye that burns with fire so black that you cannot look upon it, not directly. The lines of stone that border it, that frame it, are graceful and smooth as brushstrokes. They shift and twist and shimmer and crawl, in the suggestion of shapes, sucking light from the air itself.

"My daughter made that," he says - With a parent's quiet pride in a child's achievement.

"I wanted to see. To know, truly - All the way to the ends of the Earth, and beyond."

"And so she made it for me."

"Can you imagine that?" Mikogami says. "It was like being a child again - When all you needed to do was to draw something, to make it live in your world."

His smile turns a little sad. "I suppose it's been destroyed, now. Nothing lasts, not forever. And yet-"

"For it to have ever existed at all..."

"-There's a beauty in that."

He turns his wrist, palm upwards, and things move. Things *flow*.

There is a *ripple*, as if a breeze has sighed through the church, against the ink-black of his cassock. But then, you realize - That perfect blackness is not dye, but Lachryma.

He is suffused with it, and it flows across him. Instead of dripping down, it flows forward, thickening across Mikogami's chest - And then it separates itself from him altogether, pooling into a floating sphere like mercury in free-fall. The ball of liquid Lachryma that hovers before him, above his palm, is the size of his fist.

(Continued)

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>>2967815
WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE

>>2967815

"'To plead the fleeting moment to remain'," he says - A quote, from memory. There is reverence to his words, as he closes his hand - Turning it over, like a magician's trick.

The mass of Lachryma is gone.

"Every parent holds their child back, out of love. To know that your child has surpassed you, has come into her own..."

Mikogami's voice turns a little gruff. His throat works, as he averts his gaze - A spasm of grief passing across those worn features.

"A man, I suppose, can be forgiven...For having a little pride in his daughter."

He sighs. A slow exhalation, to clear his head.

"It isn't just a tool, you see. It seeks completion. It seeks to be molded by consciousness, to be refined by it. And it is defined by us, as we are defined by others..."

"-And as we seek, ultimately, to punish and reward ourselves."

That faint smile again, nostalgic - pained - but somehow honest.

"It's not a sin to doubt, you know. It's that eternal question - Why does God allow terrible things to happen? Why do the good, the just, the meek suffer?"

"Because - In the end, He has allowed us to be our own miracle."

(Continued)

>>2967776
>>2967777
> "I don't knew where to even start. So much has happened and it seems like I've punctuated every step of the way with a horrible mistake."
> "I still have to continue forward, but I'm afraid that it's too late. That everything will be over by the time I get back. That all will be for nothing. And that it will be my fault."
> "Why are you here, Mikogami?"

"I am not," he says, simply. "I haven't been here in a long, long time."

"This - All of this - is the past. Tomorrow, all of this ends for me - And yet, I'll never see it."

His head swings around. Above, the eye shudders. Line of red arc across that glimpse into infinity, scarring the shape of it - Giving it form, with the gleam of edges and the fraying of shadow.

The pain is worse, now. You're not sure you can stand.

The lines of his face soften, imperceptibly. The effect is not unkind.

"Better for it to be too late. Better for it all to be over, than to have no future at all."

> "It is no mere coincidence that has led me to you. Something tells me you can lead me to what I seek."

His eyes close, just for a moment. Then-

"You," he says, at last, "-are not where you should be."

"You are not one of my thirteen, and so I know you are not of the church." A pause - "It will be Naoya, of course. He will succeed me - For he doesn't just believe.

"He *loves*."

(Continued)

>>2967924

It grows darker, now. The edges of the world, blurring.

Or is it your sight that's failing?

There's a sound - A strange sound, in all this desolation. A laugh. A warm, joyful laugh - unfeigned, spontaneous, gone as quickly as it comes.

"Look at you," Mikogami says. "Look at you, Joker."

His hand goes to his throat, as a battered shape catches the light - A simple cross, standing out all the sharper against his stiff collar. A twin to the one you carry.

"You hold my daughter's cross, and so I know - Somewhere, somehow, my daughter lives.

"Can't you see? You've given me a gift beyond anything I've ever known. You've given me hope. Because, now I know. In the end, I find a way."

[ ] "This isn't real, is it?"
[ ] "We're...in the Joker's Memory? Is that where we are?"
[ ] "What are you?"
[ ] "Is that - Is that why you're here? To gloat?"
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>2967966

(To clarify, there are two crosses. You're wearing one, and so is he.)

Let's hit the son of a bitch!
Let's beat the answers out of him

>>2967966
"So you want to know the outcome of your scheme?
Kotone was consumed by the Black Joker, then the Diadem was launched and we got rid of everyone on board aside from Pazuzu. Even the Fatal Abyss is dead.
What really happened during the last end game?"

Am I reading it correctly that we are slowly losing our life force? We might need to make this quick.

Now the question is whether we should really tell him that Kotone got absorbed. Maybe he sees that as a success, or maybe it will lose us points with him or get us points by making him despair.

>>2967985
I read that like that.
Maybe we can use the cross in some fashion... Or maybe it's just a trinket without any actual powers aside from Mikogami's reaction.

>>2967966
Offer to take his cross to Kotone, to give her the same hope.

>>2967966
"I don't think Kotone as you know her exists anymore. She lost most of herself to the Black Joker. Naoya found her a possible vessel, but by that it was too late."

"And I wish I could have helped her before it got that far."

"Was that your aim, Mikogami?"

>>2967966
>[x] "Is that - Is that why you're here? To gloat?"
>[x] "What are you?"

I'm honestly contemplating a "Look, if you don't want to help, I'll just try to figure it out myself."

I'm also curious about that book we got in the Black. Would it give us any insight if we'd have Mikogami take a look at it?

>>2968010
>>2968037
So we go with telling him that Kotone is fucked?

>>2968013
Or with giving him false hope?

Do we try to crush his spirit with "we killed all of your followers and Kotone is dead" or do we go with something softer?
I certainly like >>2968053's angle on working on his conscience.

>>2968069
We can do both

>>2968009

You try to-

-black-

A surge of dizziness courses through you, so utter and complete there is a moment of blank oblivion. You slump to the side, against the armrest of the pew. The pain in your chest is all-consuming, but it brings with it a strange clarity. Your limbs refuse to take your weight.

>>2968010

> "So you want to know the outcome of your scheme? Kotone was consumed by the Black Joker, then the Diadem was launched and we got rid of everyone on board aside from Pazuzu. Even the Fatal Abyss is dead."

And Mikogami's features crease. Something like sorrow passes across his face.

"So Fuma lives, too," he says - And he shakes his head, slowly. "He has my pity."

He rises, smoothening down his heavy cassock. With a measured tread, Father Mikogami walks up to the chapel's altar, and takes up a brazier from the slab. Without haste, with reverence, he begins to light the candles, the incense lanterns, one by one.

Motes of light gather, at last. Like fireflies.

> "What really happened during the last end game?"

His back is to you, now - His profile lean, almost painfully gaunt.

"-I'm disappointed," he says. He does not turn, as a wan, numinous light begins to fill the chapel.

"How should I know? The end lies in my future, in your past."

"And for me, tomorrow will never come."

(Continued)

>>2967966
[ ] What are you?
[ ] We're in the Joker's Memory?
[ ] Is there a way out of the Black?

>>2968093
Now I wonder why the fuck the last Red Joker apparently created this memory for him.
Is he a memory? Maybe his soul is trapped and he's sealed evil in a can.

>>2968093
"Mikogami, I don't think you were a bad person. I think you were, like me, someone who wanted to try and save everyone and ended up making mistakes. Help me fix yours. Tell me what you did to Kotone so I can help her. Tell me is there a cure for the Lachryma? A way to truly control it? I know you're a good man at heart. If God wants us to do things for ourselves, help me do what I can for those who remain."

"Is there a way out of the Black?"

>>2968093
Was it the previous Red Joker? Was he the one who locked this moment in the Memory? Why?"

>>2968101
>>2968069
>>2968059

> What are you?
> We're in the Joker's Memory?
> Is there a way out of the Black?

Is there a way out?

"I can't answer you," Father Mikogami says. "You were never meant to be here, and you have come more in hope than in expectation. I'm afraid I must disappoint you."

>>2968161

> Was it the previous Red Joker? Was he the one who locked this moment in the Memory? Why?"

"Was he...? No. No, I'm afraid you're quite mistaken."

He spreads the fingers of his free hand, as if scattering dust.

"This - All of this - is my memory. An hour, perhaps less. If, as I feared, that my heir would waver. An affirmation, of what was and what must be."

"But I see, now, that I was mistaken. Now, I see that I have no need to be here."

"As for the rest...Perhaps you should take the matter up with him."

>>2968138

> "Mikogami, I don't think you were a bad person. I think you were, like me, someone who wanted to try and save everyone and ended up making mistakes. Help me fix yours. Tell me what you did to Kotone so I can help her. Tell me is there a cure for the Lachryma? A way to truly control it? I know you're a good man at heart. If God wants us to do things for ourselves, help me do what I can for those who remain."

He's silent, for the longest time. For a moment, you wonder if he has indeed heard you - Or if he chooses not to answer.

But then-

"I think," he goes on - "I think it might be best if you left, now. After all - You're bleeding on the floor of my chapel, and it makes for a poor omen."

You look down, at last.

The Athame's hilt protrudes from your sternum. The wound is bleeding, blood flowing in time to the faltering beat of your heart. There is so much of it, it trickles down around the pew, pooling around your feet.

It is a mortal wound, deep and rending. The blade has impaled you, all the way to the hilt.

[ ] "When-"
[ ] "How long-"
[ ] "That's the..."
[ ] Pull it out.
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>2968216
"So ever since I used this..."
What a twist. It's not just Kazuya but also us whose real bodies are fucked.

OP, you are a bastard with this choice. To pull it out or not to?

From a utalitarian point of view, the Athame gives us lachryma-based healing, increased dexterity, merged some of our gear with our armor and will grant us additional lachryma-based boons later down the line.
However, it also made our armor corruptible and it's killing our real body.

Should we pull it out?

>>2968216
I'm against pulling it out, it might agitate the wound further. Plus, I have no idea what for Black/Red/real world consequences it might have. We might even bleed out or something.

Also fuck this guy. It's like this has been such a damn waste.

>>2968239
>It's like this has been such a damn waste.
Well, he's just a memory stuck in an eternal moment. Can't expect much from the guy.

Though I guess part of the problem is that we're just shit at properly framing our questions.

>>2968216
Wait, can we feel for the lachryma? Can we use the athame's powers to stop the bleeding?
In fact, he just told us that lachryma is just dreams made true.

If not, I think I would prefer pulling it out in order to restore our armor's original properties and maybe get another shot at using it.
But I'm kinda ambivalent so I'd prefer to take a backseat with the pull/not pull choice.

>>2968216
[ ] 'When?'
[ ] 'How long?'
[ ] 'That's the...'
[ ] Free: 'Please, Mikogami. If there's anything you could say that would help. That would reverse things or could guide me, I'm asking you as the man you were. Please. Is this blade real? Is this what my body is like when its alive?"

For FUCK sake and I was enjoying Crimson Joker even more than now that we had the Vitae Booster.

Okay so first of all guys, we do *not* have to pull this out just like we did not have to put the Athame in. If we take it out, we'll lose Scylla, our Leech Module, the synergy it has with the Vitae Booster, our nanomachine swarm.

If we take it out, we lose *all* of these. We also get 100 HP back but we lose the speed, strength and agility it had to. I say we ask him first is this how we'd appear in real life. Also if this IS us in the real...We're probably already dead anons.

>>2968254
There's not really much he could tell us besides what Lachryma is; an item to make the impossible real. It's just that the collective unconsciousness of humanity is awful and its been bound in the souls of the dead.

>>2968264
I'm with this anon. He just told us lachryma is based on our expectations. It doesn't have to be horrible and taint us, that's how we've been led to see it.

>>2968254
>Though I guess part of the problem is that we're just shit at properly framing our questions.
If my assumption is right, he was probably supposed to be some kind of exposition fairy at some point. Use the memory once in a while to meet this dude, tell him what's happening and get exposition from him.
However, we only met him once and also after stabbing ourselves, so it's less useful than it otherwise would be.

>>2968264

Let's try to use that to our advantage then and attempt a Draw Forth to heal ourselves.

>>2968254
He ignored half of what we said and deflected the rest. Should never have expected a straight answer from anyone in this quest.

>>2968216
>Leave it

I don't want to pull it out and have our real body lying there with a gaping wound, its best left alone. Secondly if this is why we can use Lachryma, and we just found out a bit of how it works why would we get rid of it now? It's not the right time, not before we can experiment and bend the goop to our will

>>2968216
>[ ] Pull it out.
END IT ALL

>>2968270

Shit, I just realized I might've fucked us over with that initial question. Sorry guys.

>>2968230

> "So ever since I used this..."

Ever since you-

Ever since-

>>2968269

> "Please, Mikogami. If there's anything you could say that would help. That would reverse things or could guide me, I'm asking you as the man you were. Please. Is this blade real? Is this what my body is like when it's alive?"

That *is* the question. Are you going to die?

Not the almost-death you've experienced, again and again. To have your limbs blasted off, to have your armor rent, to be shot and seared and burned. The flesh-death, the singular and final conclusion - so long-denied - that comes to everyone in time.

He turns. At last, he looks at you - But his expression is impossible to read.

"What if I said yes?"

(Continued)

>>2968326
"Then I'll have to make what little time I have left count."

Man... Now I wonder about Athame Attunement. Would it get us killed faster, or would it just become part of us?

>>2968326
>"What if I said yes?"
>>2968338
"No more point in holding back. My only regret will be that my best friend will probably suffer the same fate. As long as I achieve my last few goals, it will be enough."

>>2968357
Oh right, it's described as causing the Athame to move closer to our core.

>>2968326
"One last question, Mkogami:"

"How do you bring back someone who is neither alive nor dead? Someone whose soul is stuck in the Red, incapable if returning to its body despite it being alive?"

>>2968371
Asking the right question, anon. Thank you.

>>2968338
>>2968363

> "Then I'll have to make what little time I have left count."
> "As long as I achieve my last few goals, it will be enough."

His gaze turns inwards - Seeing something. A memory, perhaps. An echo.

"Then what do you have to fear?"

>>2968371

Calmly, with no particular haste, Mikogami grips your hand - A hand spasmed into a palsied claw.

His grip is firm, inexorable, like iron. A quiet strength, as he turns your wrist, the sleeve sliding back-

And you see, beneath your skin. The violet glow that issues forth from within. The Nihl Sphere, shedding that eerie light, like a lost and lonely star.

"You have half the answer," he says, and he lets your hand fall. There is the swish of his robes, as he steps back.

>>2968310
>>2968264
>>2968225
>>2968230

Your hand - slowly, wavering, uncertain - closes around the hilt. Blood, more blood than you could imagine, wells out from within you.

And you-

You remember how it felt, when the knife when in.

The moment of resistance, that died as it began.

The blow was fatal, yet every Player you'd ever killed this way had fought it. Raw instinct made them claw and scrabble, made them strain to reach up, to haul themselves away from death.

Not the Red Joker.

At the end, the Red Joker fought the very will to live.

(Continued)

>>2968395
you counted a deleted vote

>>2968395
>"You have half the answer,"
Fucking nigger. Time to find Pazuzu again.

>>2968395
"I can't let it all end when my friends can still die. I already failed Daegal, Natsumi, Miko, Hecate and Kotone once. I can't do it again. I'm afraid of leaving them alone. I'm afraid of leaving Kazuya stuck forever without me."

>>2968395

And you think - And you...

-reach-

Father Mikogami looks away, and as he turns, his features melt away and leave him without a face. The chapel begins to dissolve, too - Leaving columns of weathered stone, worn with time. One by one, the lights begin to go out, as the chapel withers away. Motes of light dance, beneath the vaulted roof-

But the pain is going away. You draw a breath, and the next one does not come.

And you look up.

You look up, into the heart of the black sun. The stirring of insects, their winged surrusation, becomes louder, louder. They merge into a mournful sigh, then a moan.

Like the sound of the wind over the acid ocean. A tempest, sweeping across endless expanses of black sand.

An eye that is not an eye. An eye that is a wound.

A wound in the world, in the fabric of all things. A wound that is a gate.

The gate that was the end of life as you knew it, and the beginning of the long, long mourning that followed.

The black sun races away into darkness, as the sky shudders to red. You no longer have flesh, but the heat scorches you anyway. Pressure squeezes your endosteel bones. And there is laughter, high and shrill, hideous and mad, piercing your mind.

And you see-

You see a desert.

The wind gusts back into force, the distance of the expanse you've left behind clinging your eyes.

Dream. Or is it a memory?

> "I can't let it all end when my friends can still die. I already failed Daegal, Natsumi, Miko, Hecate and Kotone once. I can't do it again. I'm afraid of leaving them alone. I'm afraid of leaving Kazuya stuck forever without me."

You can't - You can't leave them alone again.

You can't fail. For if you fail, this time, it is the end of everything. The apocalypse, long denied, will be complete. If - If there is nothing else but this, nothing else in the cycle of descent and dread and return, it has to be for a reason.

It can't have been for nothing. It can't have been.

(Continued)

For real though, Mio can suck a dick.

>>2968544
look she's shit tier but we should at least try to save her. I'd rather hecate but she IS stuck in that pit because of us. Kinda.

>>2968490

Your arms - sheathed in armor - are scarred grey. Your legs have been left behind, with the memory of long days of crawling behind you, and longer days ahead. You can feel the Athame, an unbearable ache, the one constant of the here and now, like the phantom echo of a single fatal thrust, a lifetime ago-

Forward. Across the black sands. To the place where you will reach the end of yourself.

Are you remembering this? Has this happened before? Is it happening now?

Maybe - Maybe, all of it was a dream. The escape, the return, the waking dream that followed. Better days, vividly imagined. All of it to be here, once again, to crawl legless through the desert seeking anything, even a better end-

Dragging yourself forward, now. Talons clawing furrows in the sand. Grasp and reach and pull and slide.

Over the grey distance-

A shape - the suggestion of a shape - looming above you. Dust-shrouded, a slanting shadow falling across your form. Beneath, you see-

-A scarred but unyielding red-

> "You're here now."

A voice. Affectless, made so by the toneless filter that leeches every scrap of emotion from it. Your own.

But before it was yours-

It was his.

> "Here, at last. Where you need to be."

(Continued)

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>>2968625

The ghostly hum of hydraulics, scraped nerve-raw. A proffered hand, steady as a rock. The same sparse frame, encasing endosteel bones, the hiltless blades of Fangs flaring from the pauldrons like savage trophies. The faint track of a mono-optic sensor, beneath the darkened line of a glare-visor.

And - that high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat, a single ragged tear in the fabric. Long-worn, but long-treasured. His only affectation, as much a part of him as the revolvers that ride in his holsters, the Beam Magnum he leans against his shoulder.

> "Hell, pilgrim. You've come all this way."
> "The least you could do is - Look a man in the eye."

[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>2968722
>Look him in the eye.

>>2968722
"I would but you've kinda knocked me off my feet."
>Try to stand while looking up at him.

>>2968367
It makes it more a part of us but we don't even know if having lachryma is a bad thing. Clearly it's incredibly useful and Argent's group were crazy about how scared they were but it being useful also makes it quite dangerous.

>>2968736
(Gentlemen, my apologies - It's extremely late for me, and I need to turn in. This looks like a natural cliffhanger: Good night and God Bless, and I'll catch you again soon.)

>>2968722
Look him in the eye.
"Feels odd to say this, but good to see you, Red Joker."

>>2968750
AT LEAST TELL US THEY'LL BE A RESPONSE SOON AAAAAAAAA

So did we pull it out or not? There were one for and two against. I pointed it out but deleted the post because it was (continued) but unless I'm dumb I don't see mention of it.

There was one deleted vote to pull it out, one to pull out, one post saying that he's not voting, two discussing it but not voting, and two votes against. JQOP only quoted the pull out, the deleted post and the two non-votes.

I'm confused.

>>2968835
I was against and still am against it now. So OP dropped mentioning it, I assume it did not count.

Did we ever get to see what a Lachryma infected player looked like in the Real? I'm racking my brains but I can't remember any instance

>>2968835
It's pretty obvious we tried to pull it out and made some progress but it's not all the way

>>2969290
They generally look diseased going off of Megumi's brother Kou and Rook but all of those people also had negative impressions of lachryma and Kou was being kept alive by lachryma. Not only that, white joke was filled to the brim with the stuff and he looks healthy in real life, handsome even.

It really does seem to be ones perception of it that is a big factor, even if Lachryma is tainted overall.

>>2968722
(Hmm, if we just left an interactive memory of Mikogami, is this our own then? If so, I wonder if we can get info out of Old J.)

Why would you leave me with this cliffhanger JQOP, It's going to eat at me until the update comes. I suppose It's best to leave us wanting though, eh?

>>2968835

(You didn't pull it out.)

>>2968735
>>2968736

> "Up you come, pilgrim."

The hand spreads, the light glinting off the tiny mail links as it closes on yours. Your internal gyros whirr, as they fight for balance, to recohere, as you pull yourself to your feet.

It's not his strength, so much as his solidity, that is astonishing. He is an unyielding, unshakeable force, like a weight, like a gravitic wave - As if made of some substance far denser than mere human matter.

>>2968757

Not a smile, not really - But there is the faint clunk of an auto-loader cycling, somewhere within, as metal grasps metal.

> "Wish I could say the same. In the end, you see, you're talking to yourself. And what that says..."
> "-Nothing good, I think you'll agree."

The Red Joker holds up a hand, to forestall the questions that are to come. He shakes his head, a little shake, as if he's irritated with himself - To keep himself from talking in the wrong direction from whatever he wants to say.

> "Here's the gristle - I'm a simple man. I hate the flowery speech shit."
> "This isn't *all* of me. It's all that I could fit in, all that I could risk."
> "By now, you must've figured it out: This isn't my memory. It's his."
> "That I'm here at all...It was a long shot. I took a gamble, and it's paid off - But there are gaps. There are pieces missing. I'll start like I mean to go on, and the rest-"

He reaches up, adjusting the wide brim of his hat. The wind hisses over the black sands, his dust-shroud flapping hollowly. Spurs clink, a patient counterpoint to each leaden step.

> "-The rest is up to you."

The Beam Magnum leans against his shoulder, as the Red Joker's head tilts down.

> "Listen. I want to..."

He stops, and you can tell he'd be making a face, if only he had one.

> "There's something I want you to remember, all right? One thing."

His voice is slow, heavy now.

> "I'm sorry, kid. For everything. I'd make it different if I could, but-"
> "If you're here. If we're talking like this-"
> "-then I've been dead and gone for a long time."

(Continued)

>>2971896

> "Walk with me."

Overhead, the slow skies turn. The wind makes a reptilian hiss, as you trudge across the sands. In that eternity, the only things that move are the slow-turning clouds, the distant dunes sloping forward as if in reverence.

> "There isn't a beginning. That's part of the problem. There isn't a beginning because time doesn't work that way. Not anymore."
> "There are parts I can't explain. Language fails - The easiest way to think of it is that everything happens right now, even though it doesn't. There are causes that have effects, only when they never happen."

A mechanical chuckle, as sound harsh and inhuman as the scrape of bricks.

> "Right now, right here, you and I - All consequences are only potential. What comes next - It makes everything real. There's no trick, no trap. I just want you to know."
> "It's about choice. The choice you make - It might rip open the lives of millions of people, who never get a choice of their own. It might be bad for you, but it'll be worse for everyone else."
> "And so...Here we are."

He looks across the burning sands.

> "It doesn't start with the other one. It starts with his daughter."
> "See, the whole point of being a Player is - Consequences are a only a suggestion. Your direct action changes things. Not just physically, but the *reality* behind them."
> "You choose a moment, you reach in, and *change* things."
> "You control the context of the past, you control the future."

The Red Joker shakes his head.

> "When there's enough of us, the world goes crazy. Nothing is real, not for very long."
> "The only thing you can count on is that people are going to get hurt, because the stronger the Player, the bigger the changes he can make. You've seen events *twist* and bend, seen it all go back and forth until the whole universe is the worst nightmare you've ever had."
> "Except nobody gets to wake up."

(Continued)

>>2971919

There's a subtle shift to his words - From what he knows to what he thinks.

"That's why there's two of us, I think. One to create, the other to destroy. A kind of...failsafe. The system corrects itself, and the gears turn on."

Sand crunches underfoot.

"The power finds her, first. And she uses it - She changes people with...A gesture? A thought? Because they want it. Because she wants to help them, to cure them."

"But the universe doesn't work that way. In the end, everything equalizes."

"In the end, she's taking on their burdens. Maybe she doesn't know this - But now, I think she must have. She knew, and she did it anyway."

"And when that weight crushes her - Just before it does - she gives it to her father instead."

"Now, he's a smart man. A planner. He sees to the truth of things. It's not the power he wants, not really. What he wants is to change the nature of the universe. To redefine it on his own terms."

(Continued)

>>2971936

"But you can't change things from inside. And so he gets creative, and he looks beyond the universe. Past the images on the screen, and into the 1s and 0s beyond."

"And he finds-"

The Red Joker's words cut off, as he comes to a stop. Beyond, a vast chasm yawns. A sense of terrible familiarity courses through you, as you look down.

And down. And further.

It is a wound in the fabric of the world, the place where reality ends. A pit, like a maw, vast enough to swallow continents. Enough to swallow all that is.

Even from here, you can feel the gravity it exerts on you. The draw, the urge one feels to leap. Except here, you know the fall will be forever.

"The place where everything is eaten. The place where all is consumed. The mouth of the Void."

[ ] "This...is it? The heart of the Underworld?"
[ ] "Everything - Everything falls through here, doesn't it? In the end."
[ ] "What - What's at the bottom?"
[ ] "That's insane. He wanted to use this to...?"
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>2971948
>>2971948
Jq op can we challenge him to another gun duel? Always bothered me that we lost to him(symbolically) in the arcade

>>2971948
[ ] "Everything - Everything falls through here, doesn't it? In the end."
[ ] "What - What's at the bottom?"
[ ] "That's insane. He wanted to use this to...?"

"Did he want to destroy it so it could no longer consume things or what...? What was that forge, the place where you made your hand of lachryma for? Did the White want to use this for something similar?"

>>2971948
[ ] "Everything - Everything falls through here, doesn't it? In the end."

>>2971948
Let's ask him if we can break the cycle, even if there is no real beginning to this, there must be a weak link in the causal chain

>>2971948
>[ ] "This...is it? The heart of the Underworld?"
>[ ] "Everything - Everything falls through here, doesn't it? In the end."

"What is the result? What does his success mean? What is it that he wanted to change?"

>>2971957
No point asking why, the only questions that matter now are how and where. The man is clearly deranged and a daughtercon

>>2971951
>>2971953
>>2971955
>>2971957

> [X] "Everything - Everything falls through here, doesn't it? In the end."
> [X] "What - What's at the bottom?"

"You've seen it."

There is a hollowness to the Red Joker's words, a hollowness made more so by the vastness in which his voice echoes. Far, far beneath, you glimpse something that might be sparks, tiny scattered specks of light...

Hints of spirals, lines and swirling runes...

And beneath it all. The sound of breakers, lapping against the surf. Thick, syrup ripples. Something slick and wet-gleaming.

A pulse, like a deep, cosmic heartbeat.

A sense of something uncoiling, something vast, something black, something scaled and greasy. Something coated in a heavy caul. Unwrapping, expanding out of a pit that's older than all the eons, moving towards the light.

Reaching out-

To the life that lies above.

Without conscious thought, without knowing what you were doing, you were leaning towards it. Over that last and final drop, that long, long descent. To the plunge that awaits-

And then you feel the Red Joker's unyielding grasp on your shoulder. Anchoring you. Locking you in place.

"What you see below - It's what remains, when all else is gone."

(Continued)

So we E. Y. E. now?

>>2971919
Is that why the misericode changed shape and we lost our card?

>>2972017

"It's the very last part, I think. The part that can't be broken-down, the part that can't be consumed."

"The part that remembers what it was to be alive."

"The deep past is a strange place. Imagine how long it's been down there. Imagine how long it's been fed. Changing, evolving, becoming something new. Something that hungers for form, for the world above."

> [X] "That's insane. He wanted to use this to...?"
> "Did he want to destroy it so it could no longer consume things or what...? What was that forge, the place where you made your hand of lachryma for? Did the White want to use this for something similar?"

"Who knows?"

"The truth is, what he was trying to do - It doesn't matter, not now. What *does* matter is-"

"He woke it up. He's set it loose."

"Maybe that was his plan, all along. Maybe it was a consequence."

Fitful light flickers, within the vision-slit of the Red Joker's visor. The faint whirr of a mono-optic sensor. "This - All of this - is conjecture. I was never one for plans, and he was always one to play his cards close to his chest."

His hand releases your shoulder, with the faint grinding of gears. His silhouette shifts, subtly - Manipulating something.

"The thing about Lachryma is, it's an amplifier. It seeks consciousness - To unite with it. To augment it. Maybe consume it."

"You know what a Player can do. Imagine what that will do to the world."

(Continued)

>>2972039
Because we're one of the highest players left and we believed it was bad, plus it being embedded in lachryma, made it worse i think.

>>2972042
Joker Op just a question for for clarity do we have access to any of our systems. Can we leave a mark or a beacon so we can monitor this place

>>2972055
Dude , this is a fucking memory.

>>2972042
"Does this mean lachryma is tainted by its nature? Can it ever be used for noble means? Or were we both mistaken?"

>>2972073

> "Does this mean lachryma is tainted by its nature? Can it ever be used for noble means? Or were we both mistaken?"

"Can you take that risk?"

His head tilts to the side. The question isn't a rhetorical one.

"You've seen the city. There was a civilization here, once. A culture, that used Lachryma as fuel. As the fundamental source of all things."

"Look how that turned out."

>>2972042

"It's funny, that. The first thing I ever did-"

"The first time I ever took a thought and made it real-"

Machinery whirrs. Intricate mechanisms, coalescing, condensing. Schematic lines, sketching themselves into existence.

"I made a weapon."

And you see-

The air blurs, around the Red Joker. The lines intersect with him, passing through him. The shape that takes form around him has width, has depth - Like spiralling geometry, mathematically-precise. It is not real, not truly - But imagined so completely, designed so utterly, that it is perfect in every detail. To construct this would not be creation, but actualization: Taking mental reality, and making it physical.

The thing of power lines and metal, of conduits and cells, is only an expression - The real weapon is the one that exists only in the Red Joker's mind.

The Forge. That's why he needed the Forge.

The impossible, intricate web - Like a constellation - hangs in place. Thought-forms, woven into physical space. And yet-

[ ] "...It's not complete."
[ ] "-You made this to kill the Black Joker?"
[ ] "This was your solution? Another weapon?"
[ ] "Something's missing, isn't it?"
[ ] "This is...In me?"
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>2972084
>[ ] "Something's missing, isn't it?"
>Free
How do I use the forge.

>>2972084
[ ] "...It's not complete."
[ ] "This is...In me? That's why my core is lachryma?"
[ ] "-You made this to kill the Black Joker?"
[ ] "This was your solution? Another weapon?"
[ ] Free: "There was a Red Joker in the city. I took his axe. How was he there? Do we have some kind of connection with the Black?"

>>2972091
This anon here also saying that asking how to use the Forge is a neat idea

(Gentlemen, my apologies - I'm going to need to take a break here for now. I apologize for the long tracts of exposition - I feel that I might not have been communicating it as clearly as I was hoping for, and I'll strive to improve.

I'll post again as soon as I get the chance.)

>>2972103
Can you update teh twitter about when you're continuing?

>>2972103
That's is Joker op, stellar quality as always !

>>2972108
Thanks*

>>2972107
(Certainly, but it's unlikely that I'll have time for more than one or two posts a day, over the course of the week.)

>>2972113
That's ok Op, I think everyone would prefer frequent short updates as opposed long infrequent updates. You do whatever you feel is best though!

>>2972084
Can we get the old RJ to help us with the athame? The juice doesn't seem worth the squeeze now.

>>2972084
>"You couldn't finish it in time."
>"I guess that explains the city then. Lachryma is discovered, you found a way to utilize it. And made a weapon out of it. Suddenly everyone wants a piece of the action. War breaks out, and we all know the rest."
>Free: "Have you thought about making something other than a weapon?"

>>2972128
Oh right, should ask about this creation of his.

Onions Gr-I mean, Lachryma is peeeeeopleeee
So that's why player armor is stupidly resistant against corruption, should we tell him what we did with the Athame?

>"To tell the truth, I've started taking on Lachryma as well, or rather forced to due to the extreme circumstances."
Wonder if we should tell him about Phantom Edge half-surviving and finally getting obliterated, but I don't think he'll know yet since he's someone else's memory of the RJ

>>2972176
>>2972164
>>2972128
We really really should tell him what we did with the Athame and what happens. Dude has to know so he can give feedback. He definitely doesn't seem opposed to lachryma but like he said, relying on it is fucking retarded. Thankfully, we haven't had to. Yet.

>>2971896
>The hand spreads, the light glinting off the tiny mail links as it closes on yours. Your internal gyros whirr, as they fight for balance, to recohere, as you pull yourself to your feet.
So we suddenly have feet again?

>>2971919
> "There isn't a beginning. That's part of the problem. There isn't a beginning because time doesn't work that way. Not anymore."
> "There are parts I can't explain. Language fails - The easiest way to think of it is that everything happens right now, even though it doesn't. There are causes that have effects, only when they never happen."
Is he talking about the underworld or about the general situation of the Red?


> "Right now, right here, you and I - All consequences are only potential. What comes next - It makes everything real. There's no trick, no trap. I just want you to know."
> "It's about choice. The choice you make - It might rip open the lives of millions of people, who never get a choice of their own. It might be bad for you, but it'll be worse for everyone else."
> "And so...Here we are."
So we are about to have a choice.

>>2971936
So wait, the Black Joker is the creator and the Red Joker is the destroyer?
How does the White Joker factor in then? I could understand it if the Black one was an unintended abomination, but this sounds like it's one half of the intended equation.

>"The power finds her, first. And she uses it - She changes people with...A gesture? A thought? Because they want it. Because she wants to help them, to cure them."
Also, Kotone is confirmed for Masakaki.

>>2971948
So Underworld is the name of the place we are in and the entire place is basically a junkyard?
But then how does that dead civilization factor in? I would have assumed this place was simply a place in the Red that is not mapped to any place in the Real.

>>2972017
>"You've seen it."
Or is our current location at the bottom of the chasm?

>And beneath it all. The sound of breakers, lapping against the surf. Thick, syrup ripples. Something slick and wet-gleaming.
Sounds like acid beaches. Our true nemesis.

>"The deep past is a strange place. Imagine how long it's been down there. Imagine how long it's been fed. Changing, evolving, becoming something new. Something that hungers for form, for the world above."
Oh I think now I understand.
Players change reality. Powerful players change reality more easily.
This monster is so powerful that its blood has become an agent of change. It produces lachryma and lachryma allows you to warp reality as if you had vastly more essence than you do. And because most can't handle that shit, they go crazy. It's why Akira was quite stable.

>"You've seen the city. There was a civilization here, once. A culture, that used Lachryma as fuel. As the fundamental source of all things."
>"Look how that turned out."
Fucking nukes. Nuclear power is perfectly safe!

>>2972084
So he's giving us the blueprint for his finest creation, to be crafted in the forge, but it's lacking one last part.

>>2972254
> So we suddenly have feet again?

(It's a memory, seguing from the past into the present.)

> How does the White Joker factor in then? I could understand it if the Black one was an unintended abomination, but this sounds like it's one half of the intended equation.

(My apologies, to clarify - He's referring to the White Joker's power, which passed from Kotone to Mikogami.)

>>2972084
>[ ] "...It's not complete."
"Is that the purpose for the black sphere in the armor, and the Athame's interaction with it? Because I used the Athame on myself and it seems to interact with that sphere. I hope this doesn't mean that Hellebore fucked your plan from beyond the grave - she gave it to me and told me it was your creation."
>[ ] "-You made this to kill the Black Joker?"

"To get this straight: You are talking about two Jokers. One creates, one destroys. But I know of three Jokers - Black, Red and White. You called the other Joker 'she' and implied that Mikogami is her father, so I assume you mean Kotone. The same Kotone who became the host of the Black Joker and was consumed by him. Did she start out as the White Joker or is this mass of solidified broken dreams actually the 'creating Joker' that you are speaking of?"

"Tell me your game plan and I might finish your work."

>>2972263
>(My apologies, to clarify - He's referring to the White Joker's power, which passed from Kotone to Mikogami.)

Wait, tell me if I got this right. So that means Kotona was the original White Joker and her healing power stemmed from that? Then, before her death, she passed on that power to Mikogami, who used it with his own power as the Black Cardinal to set up his huge plot?

>>2972267
(It's not a healing power.)

>>2972254
Yeah, we have feet again because it's a memory of him and us.

Because of what happened with the awakening of Lachryma, everything is caught in a loop that has no clear beginning or ending as the Lachryma itself drives others to continually try to revive it once its driven them mad. However, lachryma is not in and of itself evil; it can become and fuel anything as it responds to consciousness but one's own self-perceptions help shape it as does its collective unconsciousness. However, because it comes from the Black...Where the whole goal of everything is to survive the shitpit they're in...Yeah, you can see why it normally goes bad. It's extremely useful, just use it in moderation like RJ, WJ and us did. Don't pull a fucking Rook or Kaiser and you'll be good.

The choice is whether to make the gun or not I think. There's some reason why he couldn't make it though but he's gonna tell us.

No, the White Joker makes. The Red Joker destroys. The Black Joker is what remains. It's not supposed to be a thing but because Lachryma can make things...It tried to make a Joker, which gave it an awareness. Now, it's become an awareness of all those who died in the city before and refused to pass on.

The dead civilisation used lachryma like a fuel which is how they became what they became.

We've seen it when we used the Joker's Memory and we got a view of the black and realised the entire Black World is tangled up with the Black Joker.

Black Joker seems to be novel. It's more like all players warp reality, we've known this since the start, but because of how savage the Red is only assholes or damaged goods become powerful. Now picture if you made a player of the highest level from the very root of all Lachryma and its a gateway for that root.

>>2972263
Can we tell him about using the Athame on ourselves and what to do? Also if there's any extra level of our powers and how to access them because we haven't been able to make any weapons yet or use Oblivion's husk fully? Also, please ask him about if there's a connection between Red Jokers and the Black, on top of everything else.

>>2972267
It's a power to create. Like Cybele's but it can also make entirely new things too.

>>2972265
The Black Joker is a mistake, likely made when Mikogami became the White Joker after Kotone died and he tried to use the substance that could do anything to bring her back but instead he's given a mind to the mindless, a voice to the voiceless and a form to the formless.

>>2972269
>>2972270
Right. Wrong choice of words.

>>2972270
>It's a power to create.
Now I can see how the orphanage is so full of Players.
They had three generations of White Jokers and recruited their Player army from there.

>>2972277
Pretty much. It's why they've always had so many mooks to throw at us and kill over and over again. At least Kotone and Mikogami thought they were doing the right thing but it's clear that Naoya didn't give a fucking damn about anyone besides Mikogami and Kotone.

Y'know, I'm starting to wonder. The Joker's Memory is the White's, right? So why did we find evidence of an RJ down there that wasn't the Marshal? Maybe he was the Red Joker we found using signs of the righteous and Golgotha but that wouldn't explain how he had Golgotha's original form? Is it possible that all Joker related items like the Joker's Memory, the Forge and the Carnifex can just be used interchangeably by people with the designation Joker?

>>2967661
Mikogami may be crazy but I honestly really like the guy.

So, still desperately trying to catch up so I can participate, even if it might be the end.

Just hit part 123. Never have I really been so despondent, yet never have I been so happy. Poor Yui, and so many other people. I don't want to spoil what else happens, so I won't be back for a bit. But, if we keep fucking up, which I am pretty sure we do, I really hope its Kazuya that kills us for being a total monster. It'd be the most fitting, and really the only way I'd accept a death at this point. Give the world a hero it needs, and take out its second greatest threat. If its not by Kazuya, then maybe some sort of redemption, sacrifice ourselves to fight the black forever or what not.

Either way, keep fighting the good fight, OP and anons. I might have no basis for saying this, but I still have hope. Hope that this world and its people can be saved.

>>2974377
Also, as a quick aside, if you don't mind me asking.

What was Yui's connection to the red? OP said that every girl had a connection to the red, and I was under the impression that Yui was Tirian Edge.
Or was she really the one "normal one" out of everyone?

>>2974377
Nerds like you are what led this to crap by wanting to save everyone and waifufagging instead of sticking to a single certain path!

>>2967661
Was becoming a Smiler ever a possibility?

>>2974449
Wanting to save people wasn't the problem. It was the waifufags who couldn't prioritize with a damn and always steered us away from doing the actual important shit

>>2974474
That fucking dating sim arc.

>>2974474
Honestly the correct thing ever stated in this quest. Making stupid decisions for dead waifus is the height of onions

>>2974492
The height of onions. I hate autocorrect honestly

>>2974492
Mio a shit. Glad she's gone

>>2974474
>>2974485
>>2974492
We could have fucking explored the red world and done actually cool stuff man. Or focused on Hecate who was actually interesting compared to fucking Mio.

Not focusing on the Red World and building up our own gang of privateers and ne'er do-wells and not getting Limiter II as soon as we could ahve are my two biggest regrets in this quest. Using Exec: Barrier that one time is the third.

>>2974495
You guys fucked her up even worse by approaching her. It's like a step by step guide in 'How To Send Mixed Signals.'

>>2976660
I'd really like to nuke her out of orbit, but I'm certain Kazuya won't forgive us for doing that ever.

>>2967661
Oh man we have to tell him about us using the athame and the lachryma AND us having a nihil sphere

>>2972090
>>2972091
>>2972093

> [X] "Something's missing, isn't it?"
> [X] "...It's not complete."

As holo-light unfolds in the air - Phantom conduits humming with power, charge discs spinning, circuitry blossoming in die-straight lines - it takes you a moment to spot the flaw in the grand design. It is colossal in scale, in form, plasma lightning snapping and slipping against it, licking across the gulf - Half-real, it threads through the Red Joker's substance. Beyond him, as if he is but part of it, rather than the source.

Energy coils, half-formed, glow with all the colors of madness. There is a power here, a tremendous potency on the brink of manifestation, spilling out into the world like radiation from a reactor. Data spins in halos around you, twisting glyphs of containment and control imparting their meaning directly to your brain-

There is something grotesque about it, something uniquely hateful - Looking upon it sends a wave of nausea pulsing through you, unfiltered, unalloyed. There are sounds, whispers at the very edge of perception. Broken half-words, almost but never quite close to full speech. The translucent outlines of the Instrument swim in and out of close-focus, like a fever nightmare.

It is visible mainly in how it makes everything else less real. It makes you feel weak, insubstantial, like a image soon to be swept away by the howling wind.

Something is missing.

"You've got a good eye on you, boy."

> [X] "-You made this to kill the Black Joker?"

"Time I started down on this road, I figured it'd be simple."

The Red Joker's gaze goes distant - And, for a moment, you see how tired he is. How worn. A figure in a weathered Stetson, his guns worn backwards on his hips, the weight of his silent rifle bowing his shoulders. Within his eyes, within that mono-optic sensor: the embers of what were once an inferno.

"But I've been there and back, and I know one thing, now - Ain't a gun in creation can scratch that thing's hide. Not even one says Colt on the barrel."

"Thing is - You don't have to do everything alone."

>>2976806
>>2972128

"Funny you should say that. It was that damn knife that started this, after all."

He moves to seat himself on a flat rock - For a moment, the Red Joker seems to struggle, like an old man ridden with arthritis. Beneath the brim of his hat, the weary track of his optic sensor hums, like a flicker of distant lightning. "It don't matter none. My bones are old, that's all."

"-There was a friend of mine, back at the very beginning. Been through thick and thin together - And then there was a woman involved."

A faint hum of acutators, as he tilts his head to the side. "You know how this ends, boy. Thought I'd spare him the anguish, but - As it turns out, there's only so much the Red Joker can do."

"There are rules. You can bend it, and if it's hot enough you can make it a circle, but..."

"On one hand, there's us. On the other..."

(Continued)

"Well. There's the other one."

>>2976827

He raises a scarred hand - scoured all the way to the bare metal, to the grey. "Now, you're asking yourself: What happens to me? Do I die, if I pull that knife out? Truth is, I don't know. I ain't makin' no damn-fool promises."

"But something tells me - One way or another, you're going to be living a little while longer."

> "Have you thought about making something other than a weapon?"

"Now we get to the heart of it."

There's something pensive, in the way he carries himself - As if he's run through this line of thought countless times, in the silence of his own mind. "Way back when, I tried to do more with what I had. I figured - If I could make things, I might as well make something good."

"After all - Why only weapons? It may be that there's such a thing as a tool that can’t be used as a weapon, but I’ve never met one.”

"But no. It was weapons or nothing. And then I thought..."

He takes one hand in the other, and gently squeezes it. A stain near the cup of his palm darkens as it spreads, until Lachryma soaks through to the surface. It rolls down his wrist towards his elbow, as he makes a fist-

And his arm explodes in a blaze of unnatural flame. White flame, a flame that burns with smokeless fire. The red of his armor sears away - Ash and cinders swirling - the arc-welder flame revealing-

The Red Joker's hands are like yours - Made to hit. Made to pull triggers.

But - Freed from his dust-cloak - the arm he reveals is a curious thing. Pale, almost alabaster, almost delicate in their lines and form. A sculptor's hand, an artisan's, made for work of a far higher order.

The White Joker's arm.

"You know what they say...Better to ask for forgiveness than for permission."

"Besides - I figured, he wouldn't be needing it any more. Not where he was going."

(Continued)

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>>2976829

The graft is an ugly one, made in haste. It is a wound, a slice, dead-looking connections held together with a million weld-lines. Hydraulic fluid and coolant crusts the crude bandaged wrapped around it, the metal scarred and pocked.

And you can see the dullness of it. The leaden hang. The way the digits twitch, in spastic motion.

"Ugly bastard, isn't it? But better for fine work than you'd think. Hurts, though - Like your wrist's been packed full of red-hot gravel. Like - and pardon my language - a son of a bitch, it hurts."

"Only thing I could think of, though."

> [X] "You couldn't finish it in time."
> [X] "This is...In me? That's why my core is lachryma?"

A laugh. A dust-dry chuckle, one that doesn't sound like a laugh at all.

"Oh, it's not just the black oil, boy. Would that it was so simple."

"See, here's the thing: That beast down yonder - It's a hell of a bastard, but it has a shape. It has anatomy. It has - had - a brain, so there's what I stabbed it."

"It had a heart, so-"

"That's what I tore out."

He exhales, a slow rasp. "Took me a long, long time to get there. Longer, to get out. The way I saw it...If I was going to kill this thing, I needed something to work with. If Lachryma can do almost anything - Well, why not start with the source? How potent would that be?"

The Red Joker stirs. His joints creak, with the effort of motion.

"Thing is - In the end, I might have been...Just a little too clever for my own good."

There's a stoop to his form, now. A hunch, barely perceptible - As if he's fought it off all this time, through sheer force of will. Something, a silent spasm, shakes him from within.

"It takes - a certain state of mind - to do good work. Now, I don't know how it feels for you - But it burns, boy. It burns all the way to the quick."

A slow breath.

"And down here...It can burn forever."

(Continued)

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>>2972090
>>2972093

> "How do I use the Forge?"

"Hell - Isn't that what you're doing now, Joker?"

There is a pulse. Thudding, deep within your core. In the base of your helm.

"We're not just talking, you know. All of this - This is part of it."

The pulsing and the fire grows worse. Lighting you from head to toe. It is eating you away, from within.

The worst part is - It will never end. It cannot end. You have no flesh to burn, no bones to roast - And so this will continue. For the longest time, wracking you with pain.

The world seems darker than ever, now, as the wretched heat gnaws away at you.

The wind rises.

"Hold fast, pilgrim. You're almost there."

[ ] "I - burn-"
[ ] "You...*bastard*. All this time - All this time, you knew-"
[ ] "Part - Part of what...?"
[ ] "*Help* me-"
[ ] "This - This is how it feels to be you? The entire time...?"
[ ] "But...Why now? After all those years, why now...?"
[ ] Free

YOU HAVE CONTROL

>>2976854
[x] "Part - Part of what...?"
[x] "This - This is how it feels to be you? The entire time...?"
[x] "But...Why now? After all those years, why now...?"

>>2976854
>[ ] "But...Why now? After all those years, why now...?"

>>2976854
>Free: Reach for his hand.
>"Two things: One, thank you, for what you did for me back then; Two, Goddammit Old Man, you could've told me earlier!"

>>2976854
>"how much longer until we're there?"

>>2976854
"So, there's this guy in orichalcum armor. Daegal.
Real good with relics and shit.
You think his specialty could help here?"

>>2976854
"What feels like an eternity ago, I decided I'd pick up where you left off. A bit late, but I guess I've finally started moving in the right direction."

(Gentlemen, my apologies for leaving you hanging like this - It's been a full work week, I'll continue tomorrow.)

>>2976926
I know your pain. Take your time to recuperate, we got nothing to gain from you keeling over.

>>2976854
Free: "I'm ready, old man."

>>2976854
"You...*bastard*. All this time - All this time, you knew-And you thought I'd flinch?"
[ ] "Part - Part of what...?"
[ ] "This - This is how it feels to be you? The entire time...?"
[ ] "But...Why now? After all those years, why now...?"
[ ] "Do I have to cut his fucking arm off too?"

>>2976854
[x] nut on his forehead

>>2976926
No worries, OP. This is the best goddamn quest I've ever read, so get some rest.

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>>2978508

>>2978508
I just want to know, what the fuck is happening? This doesn't seem to have anything to do with the cult shit.

Does Mikogami not care if the Black Joker EATS THE FUCKING WORLD? I thought those men murdered the fuck out of each other! Like, this only raises more questions? Why the hell did the Red Joker graft another man's arm onto his stump? Are we dying or not? Is Kazuya going to die?

>>2978593
>Why the hell did the Red Joker graft another man's arm onto his stump?
He wanted to make something that wasn't a weapon.

>>2978549
Does using the slowpoke meme in 2018 count as a slowpoke?

>>2978593
So here's what happening. Mikogami was never in the Black until maybe after he got mugged by Red Joker, so he's never seen what Lachryma's like. When Kotone ended up destroying herself by using the White Joker's gift not just to heal but to fully create/recreate damaged parts of people, he grew desperate. He knew that there was a limit to what he could do as the White Joker so he did something insane.

He tried to create a way to make Lachryma manageable and useful as well as a path to other worlds and ideas. He also tried to use it to revive Kotone. He'd been driven mad from grief of watching his beloved daughter sacrifice herself for others and also wanted Lachryma to help transcend humanity. Fuma, I think that's the priest at the orphanage when Megumi was there I think, was more selfish than that. He simply wanted to transcend himself but he lacked the White Joker's support and was nervous about lachryma so he used the Diadem instead. To my knowledge, Pazuzu was never mentioned as *ever* using lachryma which tells you how nervous of it he was since he refused to use the thing all Smilers were pumping in themselves.

The Red Joker/the Marshal (for distinction) stole the White Joker's hand because the Red Joker can, at most, make weapons. Beautiful weapons, ugly weapons, dangerous weapons. It can only ever destroy, kill and delete. But what the Marshal realised is that he needed something with more utility than *just* a weapon so he wanted to make a tool which could be used as a weapon like how an entrenching tool is a shovel which can double as a hatchet. That's why he took the hand. To do that and to remake the RJ so it uses the Black Joker's core as a power source, to make it LE MAXIMUM powerful. Hence, why we're corrupted by our nature.

We're not dying. We're being remade in the cage the entire time. The reason we're in constant pain is because of three possible reasons; 1, we are being remade to entirely mix the Red Joker and Black Joker for a new upgrade. 2, we are undergoing a Terminus Upgrade fuelled by Lachryma and the Black Joker's core. 3, we are actually somehow integrating the Red Joker, Black Joker and White Joker designs; these contradictory templates are fucking us up, just like how the Hand of Midas did because it couldn't integrate with the sheer amount of Lachryma.

Kazuya is unlike to die in the Real. He'll probably be crippled, he'll probably be ruined but he won't die and could even heal considering how he's such a high level Player. In fact, the more he kills and the more he levels up, the more likely he is to survive because his innate ability to alter reality as a Player will tick up his survival chances. I can try to answer/give my slant on any other questions you have anon.

>>2978953
I think Fuma is the cripple in the wheelchair, the thing that is clearly a mobile Cradle. He is obviously Pazuzu at this point, it's an open secret.

The priest seems to be just a priest, and does not appear to be supernatural in any way. If he was, he would never have let Mio escape.

>>2978958
I always saw Wheelchair Man as IMAGO's true form. Pazuzu doesn't seem to be crippled/reliant on anything and he had a closeish relationship with Naoya. Not only that, Pazuzu's plan was completely unrelated to Mio, no? That was all WJ.

Interesting how Naoya's White Joker isn't similar at all to the original.

>Hoarfrost fumes against your fist, five unutterably white talons - the first cracks, the first flaws - skittering through the marble surface.
>And as the echoes of the explosion dies away, the cloak of smoke continues to seethe forth from the White Joker's spine. Like you, he is a thing made solely for war; A thing of lethal elegance, stripped down to the very core. Red points of orange light dance within the writhing mass, blurring the edges of his form.

Note the second passage is *after* he uses the Carnifex. But it makes me wonder is his form just different because he's a different incarnation or was it due to the Lachryma that he shaped himself to be like this?
>THERE WERE THIRTEEN OF US, DOWN IN THE DARK.

A THOUSAND YEARS LATER, THERE WERE TWO.


He seems to consider us to be one of the Disciples, despite what Mikogami said. Odd.

>>2978968
Imago hated Rust Kaiser, though. He even gave us a power to fuck him over with. WOW, that whole subplot was fucking miserable.

>>2978988
He hated Rust Kaiser *because* White Joker turned him against him, which suggests to me that they had a close relationship and he may have helped groom Rust Kaiser for Imago before backstabbing the guy. Remember, White Joker wanted to get answers about how to revive the dead because Naoya is fucking stupid and thinks that making a Black Joker didn't mean Mikogami was even more fucking stupid.

>>2978953
So basically, next level up we need to get some guns

>>2979755
I was thinking the next weapons upgrade would be best and maybe Golgotha after that. Damage should be our main focus from now on or overall upgrades like the Emulator, the Vitae Booster or Cackle.

>>2976881
Seconding.

>>2979755
>>2979849
While I'd be glad to finally get some more versatility in the weapons department, we are still stuck in hell.
We need survivability and resources.

>>2981782
Damage adds to both of those though. It refuels meter and heals us.

>>2981784
A significant chunk of the threats in this place seem to not provide essence, though.

>>2981788
Correctors don't but I think we'll be dealing with infected Players now. Also, we have Draw Forthe to heal us via Correctors.

>>2978968
Wheelchair dude and Naoya seemed to be friends. I'm relatively certain that he's Fuma, and that Fuma is Pazazu.

Naoya had his own goals all along, though, and fucked off at the last minute to try and enact his thing with using Mio as a vessel for Kotone.

God only knows what IMAGO actually is, at this point. I certainly don't think there's anything human left there.

In any case, every other post you've made has been insightful and made a lot of sense, so thank you.

>>2981801
I left put Consume. Draw Forthe, Consume. Might be able to use both together. Plus Blutsauger.

>>2984644
Have you ever really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

>>2967661
How haven't we leveled up yet after killing Calcite Arrow, Enfer and the Armory Guardian?

>>2996448
Pretty sure we leveled from Enfer, since he was the source of that nifty Terrorsight power we used to make Alura have a breakdown.

>>2996689
Yeah, we used it to buy Fatalism so instead we just have
>Distortion Haze
>Armoury Guardian

Now. One more to level up. Pity we didn't kill any filthy BLACKED Player scum.