Messages

1

Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 44: Discussion

« on: December 04, 2015, 07:16:44 pm »

All this discussion of cheating just has me thinking of more hilarious ways to try to cheat.

New idea: Slingshot.

Step 1)
Have Corona and Maytag head into Phase 2 with ends of a giant slingshot and a bucket of adhesive (non-magical).  Glue the ends of the slingshot to the walls of Phase 2 (near the end, right by the steps).

Step 2)
Have Corona, Maytag, and anyone else who can get through Phase 1 help pull the slingshot back.  In addition, strong people outside phase 1 pull back with a rope.  A heavy metal bar strong is laid across the door to the Dark Cell to create an anchor point.  Once the slingshot is drawn back to the entrance to Phase 1, it is tied in place on the metal bar via a short length of rope.

Step 3)
Melter (or some other small, light individual) is covered with pillows and equipped with a padded helmet.

Step 4)
Corona carries Melter into Phase 1 enough to get him into the slingshot "seat".  Melter will be paralyzed with fear and unable to resist (or could be drugged if that doesn't work).

Step 5)
Once Melter is in position, Corona moves behind the slingshot and cuts the rope with her sword.  Thus released, the slingshot fires Melter into the Dark Cell, carrying Melter into Phase 3 or beyond.  The padding (hopefully) prevents injury upon impact.

The ingenious part of this is we have no idea how Melter would react to Phase 2 or 3 (having never gotten that far).  His makeup makes it impossible for him to beat phase 1, but he might be better suited to the other two phases.  Even if the slingshot didn't fully work, it would at least get him beyond Phase 1.

....

This is fun.  ^^ 

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Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 44: Discussion

« on: December 02, 2015, 06:25:42 pm »

Ha!  Well played, Brion!

... although there are ways to modify the plan to overcome an incline (a wheelchair can be pushed up inclines and up steps with enough force).  But still, well played.  And thanks for hanging a lantern on that.  At least we know they tried.

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Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 44: Discussion

« on: November 19, 2015, 09:42:44 pm »

I'm trying to imagine how the logistics of that would work.  First of all, how would you get the 50 foot battering ram inside the door? 

Easy!  Warp Box.  Put a portal door up parallel to the Dark cell.  The portal door connects to a large, mostly empty warp box where you've stored a large battering ram (or other long object with which to move the Subject).  You open the portal and have people in the warp box move the object (battering ram, etc) forward into the hallway, where you attach the subject.  Or just attach the Subject in the Warp Box to save time.  Either way, the object with the subject is moved forward with a series of rungs by strong people on the outside (in the Warp Box, to give them plenty of room).  Meanwhile, you have Corona enter with the Subject to guide the Object forward and make sure it doesn't hit the "edges" or the doorway or whatever.  Maytag could help too.  Then, when they get near the end of Phase 2, Corona (and Maytag) stop moving forward and use the handholds on the Object to keep it going forward, make sure things remain steady, and to observe what happens without crossing over into the Third Phase.

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Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 44: Discussion

« on: November 17, 2015, 09:17:36 am »

Next he was curious about regeneration. Why? Because he wanted to see how healing worked. He also experimented on effects that could simulate fear and unhealable wounds, all effects that seemed strictly supernatural.  He found out these were mostly biological effects (fear demon is a mucous that releases pheromones, and the "curse" is simply a chemical that breaks down bonds to prevent closure of wounds).

I imagine there were a few other "monsters", experiments to understand various magical effects.

So then, he asks "if these things are have a framework that isn't magic, then why is it that people cannot see them as such?"

The brush showed him the Dark Cell.

Except that he has been researching the Dark Cell for more than 2 years, but Bloody Mary hasn't been active that long - a few months at most.  So clearly he didn't learn about the Dark Cell after creating Bloody Mary - he knew about the Dark Cell before recruiting/modifying her.  Moreover, he specifically said he created Melter to enter the Dark Cell, and Melter is the one who recruited Bloody Mary before she was bloody, so again, he knew about the Dark Cell first.

Now, that doesn't mean that your supposition about his experiments was incorrect either - just your conclusion that the Bloody Mary experiments led him to the Dark Cell.

It is, in fact, possible that he wanted to do regeneration experiments for both reasons - to see the limits of healing AND to create someone who could enter the Dark Cell.

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Flipside Discussion / Re: Chapter 44: Discussion

« on: November 15, 2015, 03:41:43 pm »

I've been wondering about Bloody Mary as related to the Dark Cell.

The Thin Man said that he needed Mary for regeneration experiments, and that she was the ideal candidate because she would volunteer for the procedure.

He also said that he created Melter to try to get past the first phase (because Melter didn't feel emotions) but it backfired.

Well, what if Bloody Mary was an attempt to make a real person who knew fear (because she was afraid of death and pain) physically stronger and unafraid?  Bloody Mary's upgraded were designed to overcome fear and pain, meaning that, in theory, that should make her better suited to getting through the first two phases of the Dark Cell.  Since her new body is physically stronger and she's used to being afraid, she should have been able to overcome the first phase fairly quickly, and her new body could have also resisted the pain from the second phase, leaving only the third.

Of course, her need to eat human flesh probably screwed things up.  Since her memory was erased, we don't know if she tried to access the Dark Cell or not.  My point is only that I think that the Thin Man intended to create someone who could pass the first two phases and Mary was the result.

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Flipside Discussion / Re: Maytag's (Completely Inconsistant) Personality

« on: November 15, 2015, 03:19:28 pm »

First of all, personalities don't friggin' work like that. You don't just decide to be chipper and likeable one day, and suddenly everyone wants to be around you. As someone who had trouble making friends growing up, and tried to "re-invent myself" multiple times, and who took acting lessons for years hoping to do just that, I have to say I don't just find it unrealistic, but insulting on a deeply personal level. It also just reads like a bunch of baloney.

I'm sorry that didn't work out for you, but I find Maytag's reinventing of herself entirely realistic because I did exactly the same thing she did, except without the split persona.  During high-school, I was a shy loner.  However, my senior year, I decided I was sick of myself and re-invented myself.  Of course, in high school, no one bought it, but then I went to college where I had no previous baseline and I was much more able to fake my new personality there.  I was fun, friendly, and outgoing - and it made my upset and nervous and it was really, really hard at first.  It took four years playing my new personality before I realized that, at some point during those four years, I'd stopped playing the part and was now living the part.

In high-school, I couldn't handle talking in front of a class.  I now publicly speak for a living.  It took five years, but I changed my personality by the same method Maytag did.  It is possible.