Part 61: 4-7

For one last time, we return to the beginning and escape the 3rd class cabin. We meet everyone else by the B Deck central staircase. The 9th Man goes through Door 5, and dies. We know all this. We now also know the reason behind the attempt.

Unfortunately, this is a benefit we only get as players. There is sadly no option to have Seven deck Ace right off the bat on account of his being kind of evil. So, we begin our final excursions through the Nonary Game with the one choice we've always started with:



Door 4 or Door 5. We went through Door 5 last time.

Now, we take Door 4.

We've seen just about everything of value in here already, so this will be a very cliff-notes version.



We grab the map which is conveniently only ever in the room we opt to go through. This leads to June telling us about a mummy.



A super-frozen mummy that will never defrost. We have a good idea on why that is, thanks to stuff we learned in the freezer previously.



After that, we clear out that half of the room and leave June on her own to sit around doing nothing I guess. We solve the stuff needed in the second half, and we take the bookmark from Santa.



We've already see what happens if we take it, and what happens if we don't, so let's skip a bit further ahead to when we get to take Lotus' phony rorschach test. And this time we pick dog.



See, you've got the head here, and these are the front paws... And these are the back paws.

Junpei traced the black contours.

See?
Ahh...I see it. I guess you've got a point...

Santa despite his constant aloofness, was clearly impressed.

Junpei glanced over at Lotus.

She looked stunned.



I didn't think you would have been able to guess that.

For a brief moment, Junpei felt a swell of pride.

We totally didn't guess that, thank you very much. From there it continues as we saw previously, so we'll skip a long way ahead now to when we're in the freezer. In fact, to just after collecting the dry ice and getting ready to finally leave.



When talking about gases and sublimation and stuff this time we're picking the bottom option. We don't have to do it this way, but this way is slightly faster and removes the chance to screw up.

It did seem rather odd to Junpei, and he couldn't help but think about it.

June answered.

But it can turn into a liquid. Carbon dioxide turns to liquid if you put it under high enough pressure. But at 1 atmosphere, normal air pressure...
It won't turn into a liquid, right?
That's right. Instead of melting, it'll do what's called "sublimating", and change immediately from a solid state to a gaseous one.
See, that is weird. Water's a liquid between 32 degrees and 212 degrees. So why isn't that the case for carbon dioxide?

June replied, with an answer that stunned both of them.

There's a kind of ice that doesn't turn into liquid when it goes above 32 degrees.
?
?
I...heard about it... Its melting point is 96 degrees.
Ice with a melting point of 96 degrees?
You mean there's water that freezes at 96 degrees?
Yeah. Well, you could also look at it as ice that won't melt until it's 96 degrees...

Water that freezes at 96 degrees?

Ice that won't melt until it's 96 degrees?

Junpei was cold as hell, but this was too interesting to ignore.

He did his best to warm up by rubbing his arms and stamping his feet, then put the question to June.

So what's this ice with a melting point of 96 degrees called?



Rather than giving us a second chance to opt out, that one just railroaded us straight into the discussion about ice-9 and glycerin. Which we've seen the rest of before, so we'll skip to the next relevant item on our itinerary.



Which puts us a long ways ahead again. We get out the room, reconvene with everyone else at the large hospital room where the REDs are busted, go looking for the missing parts, Snake goes MIA, RED stuff is back, we split up and look for Snake, don't find him, Ace drugs himself with Soporil and we get to choose our second door.

It's 7. We want 7.

Once again, we're going to skip quite a ways ahead to the most relevant bit which means we've collected everything in the central part of the room, removed the key from the fake lung and used it to access the chemicals cupboard. In there, we open the locked box, empty it and take both liquids for the other room. Now we try and leave...

[Music: Septenary Game]



Yeah, I think that's probably best.

Clover nodded, and left.

Junpei was about to follow her when he realized that Seven wasn't following suit.

Hey, Seven, what's up?
Oh...well...

He looked up at Junpei distractedly, and then back down at the brown bottle he held cupped in his large hands.

What's that?

In response, Seven tossed the bottle gently to Junpei.

He caught it, and twisted it around to read the label.





What kind of medicine is that?



Why would they have something like that here?
Well, probably to clean stuff up.
Clean what up?
Fuck if I know. Still...



[Music: Silence]

Junpei looked up from the bottle.



Seven nodded, slowly, and spoke.

Well, I remember a story about EDT. It happened about 50 years ago. There was this factory, somewhere in America, making big old EDT crystals. They were makin' it to sell as industrial-strength cleaner, like I told you before. But...

[Music: Digital Root]



Once the crystal turns into a hydrate, though, it's useless as a cleaner. The factory had to just dump the crystals--as a hydrate, they were useless.

But it didn't end there.

After that day, the same thing started happening in EDT factories everywhere, even ones nowhere near that first American factory.



In fact, ever since that day, no factory anywhere has been able to make a pure EDT crystal.

Even in EDT research done years before, they'd never gotten a hydrate.

But after it happened at the first factory, it just...spread.





"Transmitting information in a way humans couldn't perceive. This phenomena spread throughout the world." ...Right?

Junpei looked up at Seven with half a smirk.

Seven stared at him, dumbfounded.



But...how did you know?
I heard another story kinda like that one.
When?
In the freezer.
What? The freezer?

Junpei told Seven the story he'd heard from June in the freezer in the kitchen.

How one day, glycerin began to crystallize...

...And the story of ice that wouldn't melt at room temperature.

When Junpei was done, Seven looked thoughtful, and absent-mindedly rubbed the scar on his chin.



That sounds familiar?
Yeah, hold up... I feel like I can remember something... It's...right there...

Seven squinted.

His eyes stared off into space, as if he were trying desperately to focus on something far away.



This is a choice we haven't seen before. The requirement for getting it is, of course, learning about Ice-9 in the freezer and then heading straight to this room. This choice is very, very important: pick the wrong option, Seven doesn't remember anything, the scene ends and the ending we want is immediately locked off. Annoying, but true.

Do you know about ice-9?
Ice-9...? Ice-9... Ice-9... Ice... Ice... Ice...

Suddenly, Seven's eyes shot open.

[Music: Silence]



That woman...?



Who's Alice?



?

It became clear to Seven that Junpei had no idea what he was talking about.

He ran his hand across his face and took a deep breath.



Yeah. More than 1500 people died. Worst maritime accident in history. What about it?
Did you hear about the boat that was sent to collect the dead bodies?



Sorry, Jumpy. That's wrong! The Carpathia is the ship that received the distress signal but was too far away to reach the Titanic before it sank.

It was a cruise liner, just like the Titanic.
No. That was the ship that picked up the survivors.



And this is the only reason anyone really knows about the Mackay-Bennett at this point. Well, outside of the UK at least since Gordon Bennett - one of the two men the ship is named after - has somehow since managed to enter English slang. His name itself is an exclamation of surprise or disbelief. You might even have heard it on Red Dwarf once.

Other than that, the ship is kinda boring. Sorry!

The Mackay-Bennet showed up on April 17th, 2 days after the accident. It set out from Halifax, a port in Canada...



This doesn't sound like a lot considering how many died, but it actually is. There were only 328 bodies found in the first place, so they did get almost all of the ones they could.

The Atlantic that far north was really cold. It would have to be, for there to be icebergs and stuff. Anyway, the bodies they pulled out of the water were frozen solid.



Well, they say the Mackay-Bennet recovered something more than just dead bodies. There were various bits of stuff floating around in the water--things the drowned had carried with them, or stuff dislodged as the ship sank.



A coffin?
Yeah. A wooden one.



The crew got pretty curious about what might be inside it, and opened it up.

They had to get a wedge and hammer it open, it was so well-made.

Inside...

[Music: Riddle and Puzzle]



...They found a woman. Or, I guess you should say, they found the dead body of a woman.

Her hair was thick and black, and her skin was deep brown and didn't show any signs of age or decomposition.

They say that she looked gorgeous, like a goddess.



Eventually, the Mackay-Bennet finished the search and returned to Halifax.

The 306 bodies were unloaded, and taken ashore. However, it was warm enough that they began to melt. They say that the stink was horrible.

But there was 1 body that didn't thaw...

The girl in the coffin.





Course, those rumors didn't last long.
Why?



They say someone snuck into where they were keeping her and stole the body. With the body gone, the rumors followed pretty quickly. And after a while, no one remembered her. You might be able to find something about



Wait... You just said that she was on this boat...



Now why the hell would you say something like that?
'Cause I know.
And just what is it you know?



Junpei gulped.

All right, tell me. What happened to Alice...?

Seven nodded, slowly, and took on the look of a man recalling something long buried.



Well, around that time, the word was that there was a thriving black market in New York. I mean, I'm sure there still is, but this was special. All millionaires, from all over the world. I've heard that Alice went up for auction there.



You've heard that name before, right?
Sir Gordain...
Isn't he the guy who bought the Gigantic? The Titanic's sister ship.
Yeah, that's him. Although I guess he hadn't done that yet...
What do you mean?



Then, 4 years later in 1916, he bought the Gigantic. And he hid Alice somewhere on the Gigantic. But nobody knows where. He died in 1931.



However...
However...what?
Well, he did have one close friend, who asked him. "Where is Alice...?" And he said... "Alice sleeps in a small chamber past the



What the hell is that? Some kind of riddle?
Your guess is as good as mine.

Seven threw his hands up in defeat.



She's hidden somewhere on the Gigantic. In other words, she's hidden somewhere on this ship.
Hmm...

Before Junpei could dispute Seven's rather bizarre claim--

[Music: Silence]

They heard Clover's voice from the door.

She did not sound pleased.



Stop wasting time and get over here!
Okay, okay, we're coming.
Ugh!

Seven looked at Junpei...

Yeah, so, anyway, that's the story.



With that cryptic remark, he turned and left the room.

Junpei was left behind to ponder what he'd just heard.

He tried to remember what June had told him earlier...



They say...that she was frozen. The story says that from the time of its discovery, all the way through to when it got put on the Titanic. And even though it was carried through the desert her body never melted.



No, that's nuts.



From there, we're free to go and finish up what remains of the room. It's just the light puzzle by the exit, swapping the body parts and grabbing the Jupiter key that's left so we'll skip over that stuff.



What's up?
Where's Clover?
Huh?

Junpei turned around. Clover was nowhere to be seen.

Goddamnit. Where the hell did she go?
Arg. Okay, just hold on a minute. I'll go get her.
Sure thing.

Junpei left Seven at the door, and headed back to the operating room.

[Music: Imaginary]



Hey, Clover, what's wrong? C'mon, let's get outta here.
...

She didn't respond.

If she hadn't been standing up and breathing, Junpei might have thought she was dead.

What're you doing?



Clover didn't laugh.

She stood stock-still, and said nothing.

Hey, Clover, can you hear me?

Perhaps it was something he'd said, or perhaps it was...something else.

Suddenly, her mouth opened, and she whispered in a dry, dead voice...



...
...
Huh...?
That's why we couldn't find him. If he's dead...



Suddenly the operating room felt very, very cold.

Wh-What are you talking about? What's wrong with you?

He gave her a small shake, but she still didn't respond.

The silence grew heavier.



This is another super-important choice. If we tell her we need to leave, it continues as it did last time we were here. Since we have the 4-leaf clover bookmark, though, we can give her it. Obviously, we want to do that.



He reached into his pocket, and dug it out.



Santa had given it to him in the 2nd class room.

He held it out to Clover.

Did you know that each leaf on the 4-leaf clover means something?



Take it. Use it as a good luck charm.

He pressed the 4-leaf clover into her hand.

Listen to me, Clover.



You have to remember what's most





...
Snake--I mean, your brother--... He's not dead.
He's alive, somewhere. I'm sure of it. You've just gotta believe in that...

Clover stared at the 4-leaf clover in her hand.

He could see tears start to form at the corners of her eyes.



Her voice was tiny and broken, and as she spoke, she started to cry.

She tried to hide her tears by looking at the floor, but it did little good. She wiped away tears with the baggy arms of her jacket, but more quickly took their place.

No matter how she tried, she couldn't stop crying.

Her tears made small wet circles on the floor.



Junpei wiped an errant tear from her cheek with his thumb, and gave her the best smile he could manage.

Now come on. Seven's waiting for us at the exit.

But still, she didn't move.

Wait. Before we go, there's one thing I want to ask you.
What's that...?



For a moment, his mind froze.

Then he came back to his senses, and realized the word meant nothing to him, aside from the dictionary definition.

Uhh... What?
Oh... Huh...



I mean, that you knew about the 4-leaf clover...
Uh... Look, I'm sorry, I don't want to be a jerk, but... You are making less than no sense right now.
Oh no no no! It's nothing. Just forget about it.
Oh don't give me that. You really think I could just drop this?
What is this "experiment" you were talking about?

[Music: Silence]

Clover looked away.

The 4-leaf clover was still in her hand.

She stared at it for a long moment and then, finally, spoke.



Cross my heart.
Really?
Really.



Of course you can.

Clover slipped the 4-leaf clover into her pocket.

Her eyes still red from crying, she looked up at Junpei.

Okay then. I'll tell you.











Clover concept art #2.