Part 110: Escape: Pantry
Time to do the escape dance again! This time we're in the Pantry, a room a lot of people don't really like because... well, you'll see.
It's not without its charms though.
VLR OST: [Pantry]
This track is pretty okay. It falls just about on the happy side of the nebulous divide between percussion-heavy electronic music and noise. I think a melody even kicks in at one point.
Anyway, the layout here isn't particularly complicated. It's just a square-ish room with some shelves.
This corner seems as good a place to start poking as any. It means we'll be heading counterclockwise from the entrance door. Methodical!
Looks like it's designed to turn on when you touch it.
I think we need to type something in.
Okay, let me give it a shot!
Yeeeeeah, we're going to need something to go on here.
I think that might be a clue.
Hey, this is from a calendar, right?
Yeah. It looks a little weird, though...
We immediately pull it from the wall and stick it in the archive.
Yep. It's definitely a calendar! And it is a little weird; they've indicated the month breaks by jamming a second number into the cell, rather than just seperating the thing into groups of cells like normal people.
Anyway, there's two pages of this but I'm sure you get the point.
Cryptic. That gets plugged into the archive too...
...along with an extremely helpful note.
Oh well. Next stop... these... things.
Yeah. Tons of them.
[missed opportunity for further underpants jokes]
Ummm... Wow, how many are there, I wonder?
366.
...What?
I said there are 366 drawers.
You just... looked at them and figured that out?
No. I did math.
They're divided into 4 sections, each row is numbered 1 through 14.
In other words, there are 14 rows in each section.
The columns are labelled with the letters A through G, so you've got 7 columns er section, and 4 sections mean 28 columns total.
Now, each section has a few spots where there aren't any drawers, right? Well, specifically there are 26 of those spots.
So you just calculate 14 x 28 - 26.
And that's 366?
Right.
You did all of that in your head?
Of course. It's pretty simple stuff.
...
...
Riiiight. So...
There are 366 days in a leap year, you know.
You know... The shelf numbers go from 1 to 12, and there are 12 months in the year...
It's the same with A through G. There's one for each day of the week.
In other words, this is a year calendar divided into quarters.
Going from right to left [sic], they correspond to the months January through March, April through June, July through September, and October through December...
Oh... The five columns between A and G are a different color.
The A column is Sunday, so it's red...
And the G column is Saturday, so it's blue.
Well this is all fascinating but we're still nowhere.
Lots of pokables here.
Some of the pictures on these boxes look really tasty.
I wonder what's under the wrapper...
Under where?
Under there!
Shut up!
There's a bunch of instant coffee and boxers of tea.
Uh... you mean, "boxes", right?
Gaaaah!
So anyway, that cabinet in the back looks promising.
It's really hard to get to.
Agreed.
It's got a sliding door.
All right, let's slide it then.
It's got a couple pieces of paper inside. We probably ought to hang onto 'em, huh?
Huh.
I smell an irritating puzzle approaching.
But wait! There's more!
I think it keeps the wheel in place.
So if we push it, it'll unlock?
I think we can move this thing if we release all the locks.
Sounds good. Let's get to it, then.
And so we do.
Now let's check out the other side.
Sure enough...
Good. Let's see if we can move this thing.
And now we can look in the other half of the cabinet!
And this is... what, some kind of chemical?
Let's take that binder first...
Hrm...
Now the chemical.
Um...
You can use it to test how basic or acidic something is.
Didn't you ever do that in school?
You put it in water, and the water changes color depending on the basicity or acidity.
Going by the colours on the chart we just got, it looks like we've got a bottle of Universal Indicator, a mixture of several different pH Indicators that between them exhibit discernible and (mostly) unambiguous changes in colour across the entire pH spectrum - unlike the individual indicators, which transition between two colours across a smaller pH range. It's handy when you want to be able to tell the exact pH of something at a glance, rather than just "yep, it's acid". Science!
Alright, time to turn left again.
Well, it's full of ice cubes.
Do you think maybe it's an ice machine?
It's pretty big for something like that.
Maybe it's an industrial ice machine...
These look like handles, right? I wonder if you can lift it open...
Lemme give it a shot.
Another dead end.
There's a hole here.
Looks like there's a diagram to the left of it.
"LOCK" and "UNLOCK"... Do you think they're showing a button here?
So pushing this hypothetical button will release a lock?
I don't see a button anywhere, though.
Maybe it's in the hole...
I... don't think so.
Could we put one on?
One what?
Have you even been listening? A button.
Hmm...
Looks like it.
Are these threads cut into the inside?
So, like, a female screw.
Maybe we can combine it with something else and make it a bit more... useful.
Nothing is ever easy.
But there was something else on that table...
So what do you normally put in a beaker?
That's not normal!
It's not?
Whatever.
Let's say you did put a yam in it for... whatever reason.
You'd put liquid in too, right?
Have you seen anywhere in this room where you can pour liquid?
Not yet?
So, continuing on, we have the safe for this room, and then this... other thing.
It's got this 5x5 grid of metal boxes...
The top row's empty, though.
Yeah. Do you think we're supposed to put something in them?
Well, not something, I guess. Probably more boxes.
Hmm. Let's investigate closer.
Maybe it's not on?
Looks like there's a card slot right under it.
You think maybe there's a connection?
Huh... Wonder what it is...
It's got a sort of metal shaft here...
And it's got these grooves cut all the way down the side...
Yeah, like a male screw...
Maybe we need to combine it with something?
Looks like she might be onto something th-
What do you mean?
Well, I mean, come on... One of them is male... the other one is female... The way they, uh... fit together... It's dirty no matter how you look at it.
What are you, 13?
...Anyway.
This is pretty blatant.
Have you seen anything that looks like it needs a button?
HRM.
What are you doing?!
You broke it!
That's ridiculous. Why would a drawer just be--
You're kidding! It really is warm!
What's going on here...?
You took this out of the dolly, right?
Yeah.
Then maybe it's for heating food up.
Someone could have used it recently, so there's still some residual warmth.
Still a few more things to poke here...
No, I think these are pages from a day calendar.
The blue ones are Saturdays, and the red ones are Sundays.
So the black numbers are weekdays?
How so?
Well, maybe something happens when you plug these dates in somewhere...
Hm...
Finally there's these things.
It says "Basic Water".
So does that mean we're supposed to put basic water in here?
For whatever reason, there's two of these.
Hm... Basic water, huh...
Isn't what the ionized water stuff is?
Hm...
This one says "natural water"... Do you think that means we're supposed to put water from nature into it?
No, Clover. Look at it again.
It doesn't say "natural".
It says "neutral".
Whoa, you're right!
That means it's not acidic or basic, it's right in the middle.
Right.
So do you think we're supposed to put drinking water in this bottle?
It says "ACIDIC WATER", so I'm going to go out on a limb here and say we probably shouldn't drink it.
Then again, it's empty, so it's not like there's anything to drink anyway.
Acid water... So what, like... vinegar, or something?
Uh... I suppose. I think this is probably more like the water they use in beauty products.
Um... Usually around 4, I think.
4? Isn't that kind of low?
No, the pH of human skin and hair is usually around 5.
You want something that's slightly more acidic than that.
Ooooooh, I see.
Well this has all been fascinating.
The last stop on our circular tour is this... other thing over here.
Well, it's got a faucet, so...
I think it's connected to the water storage tank up there...
So you'd use it to pour water?
Yeah. There's a drain too.
Oh yeah, in the middle here.
Uh, Sigma...
Don't you think you could use that here?
So, this puzzle. We've got to fill those four containers with the correct pH water, with definitions of "acidic", "neutral" and "basic" defined according to that one chart we found earlier.
This puzzle is basically a reprise of the cocktail puzzle in the lounge, except slightly less obnoxious. Like its irritating big brother it uses the inventory as a stand-in for a self-contained puzzle screen with its own logic, and therefore doesn't provide any hints either. The difference is that there aren't as many possible variables.
Actually, there's one other important difference; we don't know the actual pH values of the buttons on the left there.
Yes, it's just water.
The inventory can help us there, too, though!
High-school chemistry to the rescue!
The pH detection chemical worked!
It's a sort of yellow-green...
Well, going by the pH color scale we got, it looks like the pH of this solution is 6.
This is the water you got from the 0 button, right?
Right.
The water you got when you pressed the 0 button had a pH of 6, right? That would mean...
So if you push the +1 button, then you'd get pH 7?
Yeah, maybe.
As with the lounge, we use the drain to reset our containers.
It looks like we've got our solution locked down, but it never hurts to be thorough.
(After I put the pH detection chemical into it, the water turned deep blue.)
(This appears to be water with a pH of 9, like ionized alkaline water.)
Wonderful.
The pH is 9, which would make this ionized water, according to our chart.
Thank you, Alice.
For some reason, there are two basic water containers, so we fill the other one up too.
As expected, the +1 button gives us neutral water...
...and the -2 button gets us pH 4.
We've finished our tour of the room, so let's go chasing leads. First, I believe we were short a button over here...
Yeah, looks good to me.
Well, why don't you go ahead and push it?
Yeah, sounds like the lock opened.
So we can open it?
I'd assume so, yeah.
Hm...
I wonder why?
Looks like I can open it from both sides...
See?
I think you could do that from the front or back too.
Then there's no hinge, it's just one huge lid. It's just sitting on top of the bottom.
Hey... Does it look like there's something inside that ice cube to you?
Yeah, you're right. I wonder if we can get to it...
Well, we won't just be grabbing it, that's for sure. This glass is in the way.
How about dropping it through that hole?
Hole?
There's a square hole down here, see? I think you just need to slide the ice cube into it.
How?
I really have to explain it? All right, fine. Just pay attention...
Gyroscope integration!
The thing that distinguishes this sliding block puzzle from the others is the fact that blocks will freeze in place after a while.
The cubes will change colour to show how close they are to freezing.
It's a little tricky.
Just keep trying. You can do it.
...Can I?
Huh. Really?
Interesting...
But unhelpful!
Urgh...
This is easy.
Then you do it!
You think I can lift up that huge slab of metal? Nice try.
...
Do it again.
...
If my brother was here we'd have been done with this hours ago.
Your brother...? Also, it's barely been fifteen--
Shut up.
...Fine. Pay attention, okay?
First we need to number the ice cubes that we can move. Starting from the bottom, let's call them cube 1, cube 2, and cube 3. Got it?
Next we have to get the ice cube we want to drop through the hole. Understand?
Yeah.
Okay. Try sliding cube 1 right, down, and then left.
Then it'll probably freeze, so bring cube 2 over...
Bring it over?
That should be enough for you to figure out the rest.
Now get on with it!
It's not working!
So first you slide cube 1 right, down, then left.
After that you just need to slide cube 2 down, then right!
When you get it to that spot, cube 2 should briefs--
"Briefs"? How on Earth did you mistake that for "freeze"?
...
...
Men's underwear is really, like... a thing for you, isn't it?
Goddamnit!
Anyway cube 1 is right, down, left!
Cube 2 is down, right!
You got it?!
Yes, but...
Shut up! Just tell me how to do this, goddamnit!
Oh. Well. If you're going to be like that, I don't think I will.
Oh no no no no no no I am so, so sorry. Please, please tell me the answer.
...What?
Say it!
C-Clover-chan is... hella moe...
Louder!
Clover-chan is hella moe!
Eeeeeee! Oh, you're embarrassing meeee! He he he.
What in God's name is wrong with you...
Huh? Did you say something?
No, nothing.
Whatever. Anyway, lemme show you how it works.
After you move cube 2 like I told you before, you just need to move cube 3 down, then left.
Then it'll brie--I mean freeze there, so you can bounce cube X off of it.
Getting it into the hole should be easy.
Okay, give it one more shot!
Still not working!
...
Clover-chan is hella moe!
...
Clover-chan is hella--
Gah! Okay! I get it! You really need me to tell you the whole thing?
Please.
I'm sick of doing this, so I'm just gonna give you all the moves you need to make, okay?
Thanks! Here goes!
Good job, Sigma!
Open it up. We should be able to get that ice cube now.
And it's definitely an ice cube and not an ice cubes. Game.
And it's got a... uh...
A card of some kind. Looks like it's about the same size as a credit card.
How do we get it out?
Maybe we could throw it against a wall or something?
No, that might damage the card.
So you just want to... what, wait until it melts?
There's got to be a faster way...
What, are you going to sit on it like an egg?
I'm pretty sure all that's going to get you is a cold, wet butt.
That's not what I meant!
You've got something, don't you?! Something waaaaarm.
Waaaaarm, you say?
Well, this oughta--
--Huh.
Yeah. It'll probably melt eventually...
That's a waste of time. Just stick it back in the dolly.
Okay.
It's probably warming up right now.
We should probably keep an eye on it...
Sounds like it's done.
Open it up and have a look.
Hey, look, the water from the ice melted--Ah! Hot!
The card's underneath the water...
Okay, here goes...
Aaah!
A-Are you okay?
...Just kidding.
Dick move.
Well, it says "VISITOR ID" on it, so wouldn't it be for, like, authenticating or something?
We might be able to use it to activate... something.
"Something", eh?
All right, let's slide this baby in...
Yeah!
Go for it.
Looks like it's on now...
Why is the screen... red?
Do you think something's wrong?
Wait... It says something...
Cannot verify presence of acidic water vessel.
Please rectify.
Cannot verify presence of neutral water vessel.
Please rectify.
Cannot verify presence of basic water vessels.
Please rectify.
Alright, fine.
We slot the water vessels back in... but we've got no ration boxes. Looks like we'll have to chase down our last lead...
...
Back to this thing. We have to find the dates from the sticky notes and map them to the appropriate spots on the wall to get their numbers. I'll be skipping this as neither the puzzle nor the "hint" dialogue is particularly interesting or otherwise noteworthy.
Look at the shelves!
Huh?
The shelves! The drawers! Whatever you want to call them!
That's one. We have to enter all the codes individually, of course.
Some repetition later...
Come on! Let's do this!
There are now five open boxes for us to plunder.
It's got a picture of pasta on it...
I guess it's some kind of ration.
They're preserved food that can keep for a very long time. Sometimes they hand them out in the army.
Given what's inside it might be more accurate to call this a ration box.
So in here is some pasta that's been processed and preserved...
I would imagine so.
Hey, didn't we see something kinda like this somewhere else?
You know, that reminds me of the machine on the dolly...
Maybe this needs to be put into one of the cubbies...
The rest are all basically the same. None have any unique dialogue.
Can't help but notice this thing's still on, though.
This one is a little obtuse, but fairly easy to figure out once you start going through hints you've gotten that haven't paid off yet - so long as you can remember them. The cryptic hint on the wall calendar said "The day the man was abducted". Sigma is the only man present, and we all know he was abducted on Christmas day. So let's look up Christmas on the wall...
Do you think this could maybe possibly be it?
Yeah. It's probably the safe password.
That's good, right?
Well, there's one problem.
This screen shuts off after a set amount of time...
N-No! We need to be fast!
I can do it! I've got a really good memory! All I need is a moment!
Indeed I did. It's locked away up here.
Phew... what a relief.
...Well, that was weird, but I guess we've got our bonus password now.
Anyway, let's go and individually insert the five boxes into their slots...
Yeah...
Rearrange the order of the rations boxes so that they match these values.
Okay. This puzzle is kinda annoying but not really unfair or bullshit in any way, it just requires juggling a lot of numbers. Also, the hint dialogue is pretty dull so I won't be showing it off, except to note that Alice will straight up tell Sigma the solution before she actually explains how to get it - she just wants to get out of this damn room as fast as possible and won't go into detail unless Sigma requests it. Her explanation isn't very interesting, either.
Remember the nutrition charts? Of course you don't, they were ages ago and this room is kinda dull.
We've got a stock of 5 of each kind of ration and we've got to arrange them so each person gets the correct total amounts of nutrients.
There are probably a bunch of different approaches to this but they all boil down to either trial and error or doing a bunch of simultaneous sums in your head.
I just solved the shit out of this puzzle!
H-Hey, um, aren't you getting a little too excited...?
Yeah, it's... kind of freaking me out.
Uh... did you see the screen?
You did it!
Now we can open the safe!
And that's us done.
Yeah, it's just like the one in the AB Room and the infirmary.
So all we need is a password...
Should be just like the others.
All right, let's see what we've got...
First is...
It says "FLOOR B".
The one we found in the infirmary said "FLOOR A".
Yeah, so did the one in the lounge.
That would make floor A the top floor, right?
I mean, we rode the elevator down to get here...
Yeah, you're right...
These must be...
They have moons on them...
Then these have to be the cards the announcer was talking about.
We've got two of them, just like with the sun keys.
You take one, Clover.
Huh? Why?
Well, you're a solo, right? Alice and I only need one.
Oh, right. Got it.
Is that the exit key?!
Yeah, it must be.
This is our ticket out of here.
Well hold on, Alice, we've got one more thing to do in here...
Awright. Now we get out.
Okay!
Three... two... one!
We've just got time for some secret files, though. Had we done this branch earlier I'd have censored many of these, but since we've gotten Alice's big infodump already much of this is fair game.
Cooked Food 1:
Cooked Food 2:
Free the Soul:
Myrmidons:
Brother:
Bracelet (3):
