Part 6: Darkroom

This point is where our choices start becoming directly tied to what route we end up starting down. Before this LP started, I had people vote blindly on what route to start with, but I won't reveal anything about what route got the most votes- you'll see when we get to it. Once we get onto an actual route, we'll have choices that the thread will have voted on, but more on that when we actually get to it.

For now, though, we need to make a choice on who we're going to explore with, and for the route that won, we'll be going with...

[BGM: Silence]


I decided that I had already talked with Ox quite a bit when I woke up, and it would be best to branch out.

Actually, I'll help Snake and Rooster search.

Great! Now we've got a triad of searchers to uncover the blasted Trinkets.

I doubt Mouse will be a hindrance. And it's possible that these items will be hidden not in a way that invites spread out searching, but rather deliberate thought.

Not entirely sure what you're saying, but it sounds like we're decided.

Fine. Mouse, you go with them. Now can we quit talking about searching and just start searching?!

Yeah, let's do that. The rest of us can just split up and look around.



Oh, and everybody, remember to input your moves and reconvene here before the round ends.

Got it.

With that, we all spread out and began our search. Rooster, Snake, and I started by completely looking through a classroom. Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing out of place there. It was a completely standard school classroom. We moved on to the next classroom, and again, we found no success. It was disheartening, but our search had only just begun.

[BGM: Cock a Doodle Doo]


We started going further down the hallway, when Rooster commented on the art display hung on the wall.

Ooh, would you look at this little gallery.

It is quite nice, isn't it.

This is certainly an artistic school, I have to say. I've seen a bunch of murals painted on the walls and individual art projects hanging all around the place.

But this is the first full-on artist showcase, isn't it?

Yeah, it is. So why are we stopping here?



Mouse, the first thing you learn in the showbiz world is that people only perform their best when morale is up. If we just wander around looking for clues like Scooby-Doo zombies, we'll be half as effective as we would be as ourselves.

I, for one, am feeling more motivated by taking a second to appreciate this fine and powerful art.

How is this supposed to be powerful art? This is just a bunch of still-life paintings of the same car.

Ah, so that's how this comes across to the naïve eye. You need to look deeper to see the true artistry behind this piece. Art is always a very metaphoric thing.

For instance, look at that painting of a wheel. The wheel actually represents... a car.

Rooster, it's literally a closeup of a car.

Case in point.



While our friend here is certainly struggling to make his point convincingly, he's actually not incorrect. I concede that at first this collection just seems to be a collection of still-life closeups of the same car.

However, try asking yourself why it was drawn this particular way. The paintings seem to employ plenty of horizontal strokes in places not needed, adding a sense of motion and blur to all these shots.

However, it's clear that this car is stationary, in bad shape even. Look at how the tire is slightly depressed, or how there's a crack in one of the car's front lights. Artists do not needlessly add such details.

Most telling is the use of monochromatic palettes for each individual piece. The colors chosen imply a lot. A burning red, a dark purple, a melancholy blue. These are deeply negative colors. As a whole, these pieces come together to suggest a sense of inner conflict.

There's a sense of motion, and yet the car isn't moving- it can't move. Emblematic of the artist's life, perhaps? It's frustrating, disheartening to have this complete mishmash of wanting to move but being unable to.

All that said, I will give you that such interpretation requires ample thought. It is the fault of the artist that you did not come to such conclusions. A more skilled hand would be able to make that inner conflict more apparently visible.

The fact that such themes are so subdued is doubtlessly a product of the artist's status as a novice.

Huh. That's an interesting take. Still, you have to wonder why art always bothers itself to be so abstract, instead of just showing such things.



I would guess you're not a fan of modern art then? It's certainly a genre easy to criticize.

However, I would argue that in an age where high fidelity artistry is becoming more and more common, an emphasis on art that provokes thought is even more important. Additionally, art is most importantly about self-satisfaction.

That's a bold claim.

Agreed. I don't know if I fully believe it. But I think art that the artist doesn't enjoy is worthless. And often the art with subtlety in its meaning is the art most meaningful to its creator.

Take the Soup Cans of Andy Warhol. A friend of his suggested as a joke that he draw cans of Campbell Soup. Warhol loved the idea, and promptly painted dozens of them.

This drew many criticisms from art critics, which only seemed to feed Warhol's obsession with painting them. Later in his life, Warhol called those soup cans his favorite pieces, and even said that he wished he could've only painted those soup cans.



And today they stand as an incredibly iconic piece of art history, in no small part because of Warhol's enthusiasm for them.

You're certainly knowledgeable about all of this.

Why, of course. I mentioned it earlier, but I am an artist. Not my main job, unfortunately, but perhaps one day.

Ah, a fellow artist, are you? Glad to be working with a comrade in the war for beauty.

Please, please don't compare yourself to him.

Now now Mouse, Rooster is right. You're a struggling actor, right?

Nix the struggling part and you've got it.



Well, expressing yourself on film is absolutely a form of high art. Anything that exists for the sake of expressing the human condition is art.

Of course. I'm not saying film isn't art. I'm just saying I don't think you two are comparable. I mean, forgive me if I'm wrong Rooster, but you don't seem like you're making black-and-white French films.

No, I make things that people can actually watch without passing out.

See?

I still think you're being too dismissive about this, Mouse.

Rooster, why do you act?

Great question!



You see, ever since I was young I wanted to be like those action stars and superheroes I'd always watch. They were people who would do anything to save the day, who were unstoppable, who truly believed in themselves.

They were famous and loved and totally cool.

That was really moving to me. So that's the sort of rockstar life I want to live!

You want to be famous and have a lot of money and a lot of fans. Got it.

That's not what he said.

Rooster, you clearly have a deep desire to be appreciated and powerful. That's why you emulate the stars you've seen on the big screen. Let me ask, what sort of roles have you been performing as?

Kickass heroes who win no matter what the cost. Just like me.



I thought as much. However, it seems like you really desire to be that, which may actually be a hindrance. Have you considered playing a role that desires to be a heroic figure, yet lacks the strength or conviction to pull it off?

What? No way. That guy seems like a loser. Why would I portray someone like that? It goes against my brand.

I see. It may be too early in your career for a more dramatic role, anyways.

Well, that was a waste of time. Could we get back to searching for Minor Trinkets?

Yes, we should resume our search. How about we look in that darkroom over there? I believe Brian would be more likely to hide the items in exciting locations like that one.

Sure thing!

Wait, how do you know that's a darkroom?

I don't- I'm guessing. Though I'm pretty confident. That black spinning door is a staple of darkrooms.

If you say so. No reason not to search there. Let's go.

We entered through the spinning door.



And just like Snake said, it ended up being a darkroom. Plenty of photos were being developed. The darkness counterbalanced with the ominous red glow was really freaking me out. Snake was right, if Brian wanted to hide something, this was the sort of place he'd do it.

Let's get to looking!

It didn't take long to find something.

What's this?

Mouse, did you find something?

Yeah, on the floor. Darkrooms generally don't have safes in them, right?

It is certainly not standard. Let me look at it.



Snake picked the safe up and put it on a desk.

It's locked with a four digit code. This safe is pretty cheap- the sort of thing you could buy easily at a store. No doubt this is related to the race.

But if it's locked, how are we supposed to open it? This isn't fair at all! You can't tell us there are items in the school and just lock them away!

Calm down. I doubt Brian would play an unfair game, there would be no point. More likely than not, there is a hint to the safe's password somewhere in this room.

Could this be something?



Rooster called us over to a wall. On the wall, four photographs were turned around and pinned up. On the backs of these photographs, four words were written in Sharpie:

RUNNING OUT OF TIME?

This has got to be something, right?

Yes. This is a message to us. But what could it mean? There are four photographs. Perhaps the number of letters in each code word could be a hint?

Hold on, let me see those photographs.

I tore them off the wall and turned them around. Sure enough, there were actual pictures on the front, and they seemed to be related.

Hey, these pictures have numbers written on the bottom right corner. 1, 2, 3, and 4. You think they were taken in that order?

No, there's more water in the cup in Photo 3 than in Photo 2.



The order...

Ah, that might be it.

What are you thinking?

The message was talking about time, right? We may need to put these photos in the proper order.

But I thought you guys just said that the numbers on the bottom right didn't give us the order!

Exactly. We need to use other clues in the photos to properly sort them.



At first glance, the photos all looked the same. They were all of a cup on a bedstand. In each of them, there was an hourglass directly behind the bedstand, and in each photo all the sand was at the top of it. However, the contents of the cup changed slightly in each photograph.

In the photograph with the number 1, the cup was fully filled, and had ice in it.

In the photograph with the number 2, water filled about a third of the cup.

In the photograph with the number 3, the cup was almost completely empty, with mere dregs of water at the bottom.

In the photograph with the number 4, the cup had almost no water in it, but there was ice.

A shame that there's an hourglass behind the cup instead of a clock.

If there was a clock, it'd be way too easy.

Hmm...

While this game does not have proper 'escape room' content, we will occasionally encounter a puzzle like this as we progress through the game. These do not have any bearing on what route we will end up going down (and you do not in fact have to get it right, the game will continue even if you answer wrong), but they may serve a purpose we don't know yet... so we'll be answering correctly for each of them when we encounter them.

That said, things will be set up so that you have a chance to solve the puzzle yourself (including spoilering the right answer where applicable), so don't worry, even though the thread won't be involved with these, you'll still get to solve these individually if so inclined!

On that note, if you want to figure out the solution, stop here!



I've got it!

You do?

Yeah, the order's really simple. In Photo 3, the cup is empty. In Photo 2, the cup is filled a little bit. In Photo 1, the cup is finally fully filled, and ice is put in it. And finally in Photo 4, the cup is drunk from, only leaving the ice.

How about it? The order makes complete sense, right?

We're given the choice of agreeing with him or not; this puzzle isn't one where we put the answer in ourselves, but rather have to figure out whether the suggested answer is correct or not. That said, Rooster's guess is incorrect.



Nice try, but I don't think that's right.

What? Why!

It just doesn't make sense. In every picture, the hourglass has been flipped, right? That means it's an hour between each of these pictures.

Yeah? Why does that matter?

So who fills a cup of water a third of the way, waits an hour, and then fills the rest of it up?

I don't know, someone who lives life on the fucking edge, a complete radical madman, how about that?

Mouse, I believe I have a better solution.

Shoot.



Rooster wasn't completely off track. It should start with Photo 3, with an empty cup.

Then it goes to Photo 1, where the cup has been filled. After a time, the cup is drank from, leading to Photo 4. However, the cup is then left, and the ice remains, leading to Photo 2. This sequence of events keeps the hourglass in mind,a nd still makes perfect sense, right?

Once again, we're given a choice of whether to agree or not; Snake's suggested answer is the correct answer.



Yeah, that sounds right. In that case, the safe's combination should be 3142 then. Should I try inputting that?

I don't see why not.

I decided to try it out, and sure enough it unlocked. Inside, I found a token. It had the words 'Snake Minor Trinket' written on one side, and a four digit number combination on the other. 6561.

This is it! We found a Minor Trinket!

Yay! Good job, team!

And hey, it's even the Snake Minor Trinket. That's kind of ironic. Maybe you should hold onto it, Snake.

No no, finders keepers. I think you should hold onto it for now.

[BGM: Silence]


Anyways, more to the point, its getting close to the end of the round. I would safely call this a victory, yes? Then I propose we enter separate rooms, input our moves, then reconvene in the cafeteria. We can report this success to the others.

Good idea. I'll input my move in here, and you two can go in those classrooms we searched earlier.

Works for me.

Very well.

With that, Snake and Rooster left me alone in the darkroom. We had successfully found a Trinket. That alone was good news, but seeing how it was hidden, I felt better about our chances.



If Brian just stuck all the items inside random textbooks or similarly obscure hideaways, it would be nearly impossible to find all 12 Minor Trinkets. However, if it was a matter of solving basic puzzles like this, we could definitely find them all.

I turned on my tablet and selected RUN. Then I left the darkroom and went back to the cafeteria.