Part 20: Confinement room

[Music: Quinary Game]



Pretty sure this is the first time I've posted the "map" of the area, but there's a reason for that here. This is roughly how large the area we have to deal with is (though it's missing the rooms Seven and Lotus went into for some reason), and yet... it takes quite a long while to get through.



So, clearly, we'll start with the most obvious aspect: admiring the architecture.

(It's a ceiling. I've seen a lot of ceilings in)



We also know that there's another door on the right. Let's take a look over there for a moment. It could come in handy. Probably not, but we won't know until we check.



By which I mean let's just look up constantly.

(The ceiling.)

(Ceiling...)

(So that's the ceiling, huh...)



Okay, yeah, the door closer to us is more what we're interested in here so let's give that a prod.



"EMERGENCE" ...Maybe it means we need to emerge out of here.

That's certainly a possibility. There is another possibility though.



This door, back here.



I thought of that, and I tried a couple things, but...yeah. Same result.
(Guess Seven wasn't about to do anything. Ah well.)



There's nothing else, at all, out here. The best starting point for trying to get out of here is the room Seven picked to investigate.



It's a rather threadbare place, though. I guess there'll be something under the bed cover, or even the bed itself.



Can't say I'd want to sleep there.

Apparently not. There is that odd thing on the right side of the room that is worth examining. It should prove useful.



Well, if I had to guess, I'd say it's trying to look like water.

It might not prove useful right now, but I'm sure it'll come in handy at some point. It's too striking not to.



It's been quite a while since we've had the chance to look in a sink. Might as well take this opportunity to do so.



Doesn't look like we're gonna be able to pull it outta there.
Might have to use our heads on this one. All right, let's figure this thing out.

Doesn't seem to complicated. Just needs some water poured on it, which should help remove it from the drain. Fortunately, there's a tap right there!



(Doesn't matter how much Seven turns that thing, no water's coming out.)
(Has the water been shut off from somewhere else?)

Bah, so much for that idea.



We can, however, spin around in the room to see... a desk and a tiny chair.



Huh? You say something?
Nothing at all.



Well, of course it's gonna be simple. I mean, it's probably like that so we don't try and use it as part of the puzzle, right? You probably use a desk to write letters to your family or something, but this's a boat. I'll bet the only thing they used this for was eating off of.

There's not much to this desk, true, but there's bound to be something in the drawer.



There's something up with this drawer. I don't trust it.

...Goddammit, is there anything in here we CAN do? I guess there's bound to be some reason why the drawer won't open, so maybe if we find out what that is we can get in.



Doesn't matter how old this thing is. We're gonna have a tough time if we just try and break it open.
It's probably gonna be a pain, but I think we need to figure out a way to get those screws off.

Of course. The drawer is screwed shut. At least this one's easy enough to deal with; all we have to do is find a screwdriver which shouldn't be too hard.



In the meantime, though, let's go over to the far side of the room and look at the toiletries.



I seriously doubt I'm gonna need this for anything.



Well, this part is thinner than the rest. In fact, this doesn't really look like it's part of the rest of this thing.
(This rod feels loose... Maybe if I give it a couple turns.)
(Here we go.)



Even if we run into a screw it fits, we're gonna have a hard time of it without a handle.
Well, if we can find a handle, maybe then it'll do us some good.

Of course, if we learned anything from the previous room then the fact that the toilet seat is down is rather suspect. We should give that a once over.



Honestly, I'm amazed you could bring yourself to touch it.
Hah! There's way nastier stuff out there in the world than a gross toilet.
You're a real deep thinker, aren't you?



It's a sun symbol, but it doesn't look like the ones on the doors.

That makes two bizarre symbols we've seen so far with no explanations for what they could be for. I'd call it progress, but it doesn't really feel like it.



Ah well, I'm sure we could at least have some semblance of good manners and attempt to help clear out this disgusting hell hole.



Loose? You think it'll come off if you pull on it?



Huh. Look at this. That handle doesn't really fit on the string. Maybe it wasn't meant to be attached to it.



like you're supposed to screw somethin' in there. We seen anything that might fit in there?

I doubt it. There's nothing else in here we have access to either, so there's only one thing to do now.



Let's go check in on Lotus, of course.



...There's something about this room. I can't put my finger on what, but it feels like we've seen this before.



No kidding. If I tried to sleep here, my skin would dry out in no time.
Well, it's not like you're that young any more. That shouldn't really matt--



It seems you'll die before you have a chance to grow old and hideous.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're right. Dry skin is a woman's worst enemy.



This cloth has some sort of design on it... Oh, this is pathetic.

Oh, yeah. That reminds me of this completely unrelated thing: look at what we found in Seven's room!



screwdriver rod. You'll need a handle if you want that thing to be useful.



wouldn't you say? And the inside of this hole... You see? It's threaded, like you're supposed to screw something into it.

I'm sure there's something about this we're missing, though I have no idea what it could be. Oh well, let's look at the mirror here now.



Is that a drawing of a blue scarf...? No, maybe not.

Here I was, thinking that Lotus was meant to be the smart one out of these three. I guess everyone has their moments, though.



You think they made it that shape for a reason? Or just for fun?

I'm sure the drain is a perfect square just for kicks.

There is a more pressing issue here though.



No, it's not just the sinks. Everything's opposite, like a mirror image.
So? That's normal if you're both using the same water pipes, right?

The same pipes...? Hey, that gives me an idea. It's a bit of a daft one but it's worth a shot at least. Let's run the water here and see if that works to our advantage.



If we can find a knob, or something that'll work as one, then we should be able to get water to come out of this thing.

This is a really arcane scavenger hunt. It's almost like Zero wasn't trying too hard for this one; I guess there's bound to be one dud, so at least we're getting it out of the way now.



Then again, there is this semi-partition next to the sink.



Privacy is important for...these...things.
Well, it's not like you're going to use it,



Heck, it's better than being totally exposed, right?

...Moving on.



Much like the previous room, we can spin around to the door and get a desk and old stool.

This looks like a chair for prisoners. It's rusty, but I don't think it's gonna be a lot of help.



(Lotus is not having this.)
(Does she really not want to be in this room that bad?)



The desk here, though, is nothing particularly interesting. There's got to be something in at least one of these damn things, right?



Yeah. Something's not right, though.



Why don't you take it out?



It's kind of an odd shape, and it looks like someone attached the handle with a screw after the fact.

Wait, hang on, there's a mirror on the bottom of this thing?



Oh, huh. So there is. That's pretty odd.



Of course. There's no way you could hide a puzzle in something that small.
Yeah, I know... Still. Hmm.
(Still seems like they might try to--huh?)



Huh? It looks like there's something in there...

Sadly, if there is then there's no way to get to it right now.



So, let's look at the toiletries here next.



Eww... How the hell can you touch that? It's...it's horrible.
Well, it's not like I've really got a choice, do I? It's not like I want to...



Much like in Seven's room, the toilet itself seems rather suspicious and worth examining.



If you don't want to, then I'll do it, all right?

Yeah, this is pretty gross and Seven's not here to do it for us this time. Still, someone has to do it so...



What the hell's wrong with you...
I don't want to touch it! Ever!



Yeah, it's pretty filthy, but it's a precious hint. Let's remember it, all right?

Much like with Seven's room, there's nothing left to do here so let's move on.

By which I mean showing Seven our cool new toy.



The handle looks all weird too. Like...maybe somebody put it with a screw that wasn't supposed to go there?



Now, we can finally go and search through the room Junpei's meant to be searching after having done Seven and Lotus' jobs for them.



The rest of the place is too dark... I can't see anything. There's no way we can explore the rest of this room.

Eh, we'll be fine. We can see enough to manage I'm sure. Let's give it a shot at least! Start off with the same routine as before, which means we check out the sink area first.



(In fact, its so high that it's kind of hard to see your reflection in it.)

That's odd, and different. On the plus side, even with this room as dark as it is we can still search the sink. If there's something there, we'll know anyway and if there isn't then there isn't.



It's hard to be sure 'cause it's so dark here, but I don't think there's anything going on with this sink.
This faucet is... too hard to turn.

Sink's useless it seems. There's still a desk here, so we might as well see if it has anything in it.



(Goddamnit! No matter how hard I pull on this damn thing, it won't budge!)
Guess I won't be opening this any time soon. (It doesn't look like it's got a keyhole, and there doesn't seem to be anything stopping it.)



What is it with the desks in this room? Not one of them is useful in their original state, which is kinda annoying. And sorta ridiculous.

Ah well, there's still two things left to investigate here.



Sure would be nice if that mirror was a little lower down. It looks like it's the same height as the mirror on the right... I wonder if that means anything.

That's pretty odd, but I'm not gonna worry about it right now. We have a disgusting toilet to look at.



(It probably means a (14) somewhere represents an E, but I don't know what (14) that would be.)

Well, uh, there's two possibilities that this could be referring to. The door with "EMERGENCE" written on it is obvious, but we've got no way to make that relevant so it's probably wrong. Considering the rest of the game, it's that 14 is E in some form of mathematics...

But, oh well. We're done here, so let's flush and leave.



Damn it...! It kinda pisses me off that I can see it, but I can't touch it.

(All right, it took a couple tries, but now I've got you, string!) Yes! Now I can pull on it!
Huh...? (Doesn't matter how many times I pull it, there's no flush!)



I wasted a bunch of time 'cause I was determined to flush a toilet...

Great, so we know this one was just outright a waste of a time.

Before we leave here, and write this whole room off for the time being, there is something odd about those mirrors. Mirrors... hey, that gives me an idea!



(Now I just gotta figure out where to reflect the light. Maybe if I go somewhere that's a little easier to shine light on...)

We can shine light on three other things, but sadly they're not interesting so let's just get the important stuff.



Is that a number...? So if I shine light on this mirror, then I get to see some numbers.
(I can see...a (4) on the left...and a (7) on the right.) (4) and (7)...

There's absolutely no indication of what these are referring to. I wonder if the other mirror'll help illuminate that one.



I get it. If I shine light on a mirror, a symbol appears. (The left one has a sun, and the right one's got a moon symbol.) I'm gonna remember this.

A sun and a moon symbol...? Hey, wait a minute. We've definitely seen those before!



Yeah, that's right. There was some kinda number hint, there too



No... It's gotta be how many times we flushed.

Well, it's easy enough to test and we have nothing at all to lose from this.



(Chances are, they made this puzzle so someone wouldn't trigger it by accident.)

(I guess I should just keep pulling on this thing, then... All right, here goes. Second pull!)

(Third pull...)

[Sound Bite: Click]



I did, but it doesn't look like anything's happened here.
Huh. Wonder what that sound was...

Maybe it was in Lotus' room. Let's go check there.



Right... There was a number there too, right? Number... That's probably how many times



Well, we know it works thanks to testing it already so let's skip doing that seven times because there's nothing remotely new or interesting this time.

[Sound Bite: Click]



Junpei. Did you hear something from the other room?



That seems more likely than not, considering how Seven's room didn't affect this one and vice versa.

...But, while we're here let's grab something.



Maybe you should consider what the design might be. Perhaps that'll give us a hint?

I'm not sure. Seven, what do you think?



I feel like I've seen that design somewhere before... Maybe I'm just losin' it.

Right, okay.

Y'know looking at that pattern on the towel, I think I recognise something too.



Are you talking about that towel you've got? Yeah, I guess it does look a little like that thing on the mirror.
Yeah, the spring on the towel has gotta be indicating the picture on this mirror.
And the mirror is indicating the sink...right?



Hm, in that case we've only got part of the solution... considering how often we've been bouncing between the two rooms I'd be more surprised if the remaining part wasn't in Lotus' room.



Do you think that means anything?
On the towel, it looks like water is flowing from the river to the spring.



That looks more and more likely. Unfortunately, we're missing something here so let's try something that I'm sure you figured out ages ago by now.





We can tighten or loosen any screw we find, so long as they're Phillips-head screws.



I think I'll tell him you said that. This'll be fun...

Well, hey, we got a screwdriver that's usable. I know exactly where we can put this thing to use!



Now we can open the drawer.



Well, maybe the drawer's what we need.
The drawer, huh...
All right, let's yank the thing out.



I wonder what it's for.
Hmm... Maybe there's a hole somewhere, and these bumps line up with it an' trigger a hidden switch or something...



No, that doesn't sound too out there actually. There's only one other place we can use it, though.



Which is, yet again, back in Lotus' room.

In case you can't tell there's a lot of wandering back and forth even if you're doing this without wasting time looking at minutiae and you're also being spergily optimal with the way you handle things.



What was that...?
I heard it too. Let's open the drawer.



Is that... a tile like the one in Seven's sink?



Red, blue, grey... Several lines in each colour. What does it mean?
Your guess is as good as mine.

The tile is a pretty odd item; it gives us 3 lines of dialogue, but only once. When we examine it with either Seven OR Lotus, we miss what the other one has to say at that point. This is an odd thing to mention, but nothing else has been like that so far. We might get different dialogue if talk to one before the other, but it hasn't locked us out of any until now.

So for convenience let's just keep bugging Lotus.

Have you taken a close look at this tile, Junpei?



The red lines?
Yes...

Hm... The tile with the three coloured lines on it, right? Junpei, did you notice this?



(14), huh... Yeah, I guess it kinda does.

Does it? I think we might have to check that one.



Sorry, but I think that looks more like it's saying "hi."

More importantly, we have something else we can do while we're here.





Yeah, it seemed a little weird to put it on a wooden drawer like this.
I'm sure they made it look odd on pupose. With a shape like that, there's only one place it could go.

Yeah, I agree with this one. We know exactly where to use this!



Now I can turn the water on.
Junpei, what are you doing?
It's pretty obvious, isn't it? I'm running the water.
I can see that. I'm asking you why you're just letting it run like that.
Think about it, Lotus. This faucet didn't have a knob when we found it, right?
What do you mean?
Just watch. (Any time now...)



Hey! Water's filling up! Doesn't that just mean the pipes are clogged?
Whoops! Let's turn it off for now.
So...did anything change?



Thank you, Mr. Obvious! Ugh. Junpei, I'm leaving this one to you, all right?

Since we've seen plenty of things so far that are bona fide hints for this, so we might as well go check.



It certainly looks different already.



What do you mean "This room too"?
Well, I turned on the faucet in the other room, and it looks like it made the water come up through here.
So the drain in the other room just runs here, and the water from over there pushed out this tile.



This makes tile #2, and they all share the same search dialogue unfortunately so we'll just gloss over that part for now.



[Music: Silence]

He spun around to see Seven kneeling on the floor. His face was rigid and pale. Droplets of sweat covered his forehead.

H-Hey... What's going on? You okay, man?

He was concerned... He'd never seen Seven like this before.

Slowly the other man lifted himself to his feet on shaky legs.



His face was pale, and his breathing was heavy. Sweat was pouring off his face and staining his shirt. He was many things, but "fine" was not one of them.

Are you sure? You don't look so good...

Seven didn't answer. Half of his face was twisted, as if distorted by extreme pain, and his eyes were glazed.

Finally he spoke.



?

His words made no sense.

W-What are you talking about...?
We opened the number [2] door and walked in here. Don't tell me you forgot...?
No, no, that's...that's not what I mean.

He shook his head several times, as if trying to clear something from it.



I... I...