idolpro | Bomb Game: future is now edition

Bomb Game: future is now edition

[ you open your eyes to find yourself in a room that might look familiar if you just so happened to be a certified zombie survivalist. however, if you were lucky enough to avoid the zombie meet & greet, then welcome to the dankest heckhole in tokyo-f. ]

[ the overhead lights flicker often enough to instantly grind your gears, while simultaneously doing next to nothing to illuminate the dilapidated little room. though a chorus of moans and groans rise from outside, all the doors and windows are securely barricaded, making the shambling monsters a non-issue... though it's possible their existence alone may put you on edge. ]

[ or maybe that's the -fsssst- sound, a subtle hissing coming from what could have passed for fire sprinklers. for the duration of the game a colorless and odorless gas is going to be filling the room, one that clouds judgements and exacerbates anxiety. but, hey!, that's what the janky table and busted chairs in the corner of the room featuring cold tea and dry biscuits is for - a carefully curated space for you and yours to kick back, relax, and KEEP TALKING. ]

[ the center of the room is where the main event sits, a BOMB, with several thick cords snaking out from it connecting to a bunch of different buttons. the entire thing is housed in an unbreakable glass cube, with only the buttons in reach of your grubby hands. a tv screen is suspended overhead, currently displaying the rules & winning conditions, but that's all about to change... ]

[ in the meantime feel free to enjoy a particularly messy wall, one stained with all sorts of things from the last bunch that tried ~~and failed~~ to win, ew! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"You can breathe a little easy. The bomb won't go off... this round."

[ With a snicker-snack, the wire attached to the chosen button is cut. All that's left to do is wait.

Oh. Oh no. A red light beyond the glass starts blinking as a shrill sound pierces the air. The sound and lights intensity to an almost dizzying crescendo until it hits you full force - a push and a pull that seems to steal the breath from your lungs for a moment. And then all goes quiet.

Looks like that was the wrong wire to cut. ]

Please choose 1-2 of the following status effects:
🎊 Amnesia
🎊 Desire to Change Something About Yourself (aka Midlife Crisis)
🎊 Extreme Body Temperature Fluctuations ( Hot & Cold )
🎊 Forced Honesty ( you can lie but it's hard, and there's a physical ailment each time you do )
🎊 Heightened Emotions ( Prone to Anger / Affection )
🎊 Morality Flip
🎊 Powers Go Haywire
🎊 Temporary New Phobia

If you prefer, you can also choose 1-2 from the minor status effect category instead but you must choose at least 1 from the previous set:
🎉 Extreme Gullibility
🎉 Hanahaki
🎉 Hallucinations
🎉 Kleptomania compulsion
🎉 Lose A Sense
🎉 Must Vocalize All Thoughts
🎉 Speech is Censored or Autocorrected
🎉 Super optimistic / Super pessimistic

-Powers Go Haywire

-Extreme body temperature fluctuations

An anagram, maybe? Or...

Four letters are greyed out.

A, S, W, O.

But they don't match the buttons we have available...

Maybe we should begin with the letters below? It must be encoded somehow.

It appears to be a cipher.

But what is "binary"?

Oh. That's a type of coding language.

Have you figured out what those letters say?

Not yet... If it is a simple a cipher as it appears, each letter should correspond with another letter in one direction or other along the alphabet.

One would guess the letters would be shifted by either four, six, or ten... One is struggling to do this mentally for some reason. One's head feels rather clouded. If only one could write it down with one's phone, but one cannot seem to get it to work.

[powers are off, so she can just stare at it uselessly]

And one of those words is "binary?"

Oh... perhaps so.

Let us see here.... These phrases contain two six-character words: "HOTGXE" and "IAXBKJ"

Let us test, first, the keys "H equals B" and "I equals B."

[muttering to herself]

C, D, E, F, G, H... that's six... O minus six is... N, M, L, K, J, I... "I"...

This is troublesome to do in my head today.

Edited 2022-11-27 03:07 (UTC)

[Also running over the calculations.]

The first one should be "binary." It works if you rotate by six. Keeping that in mind... [And taking out a pen to write the notes directly onto his arm...]

"Binary numbers are safe. That which is curved and consists of binary strokes is not."

Excellent.

...

What qualifies as a "binary number"?

Good question.

Where does "A S W O" come in, do you think?

[Hmmmmmmmmm. Jotting a few more notes on his arm and then pausing.]

...

We may have solved this backwards.

Backwards...?

[She stares at it a little more]

...Ah. Each is the sixth letter in the line. One sees it now.

It seems we indeed stumbled into the solution from the wrong direction. But at least this part of the puzzle is out of the way.

All that is left is to determine which of these buttons represents a "binary number."

How would you describe a "binary number," Causality?

If we're just discussing the word "binary," that could mean anything composed of two things. However, binary notation would be a system that uses a base code of two instead of 10. ...But I'm not sure that's what they mean here.

Ah.

So where it is written "ten" here, it means "two"?

...This may seem idiotic, but perhaps "binary strokes" refers to the shapes of 1 and 0?

...Or do you suppose it means "two strokes"?

Not sure... But binary strokes meaning the shapes of 1 and 0 makes sense to me. Especially since curves are out, too.

It says here that curves are not safe. So let us reject both instances of "U" on these buttons.

That leaves X, H, Z, and Y.

All of these are composed of straight lines... so one supposes "binary strokes" must mean the number of strokes used to form each letter, no?

"X" definitely takes two.

And "H" is three. Z and Y could each be written with either three strokes, or one and two, respectively, depending on how you use your brush.

True. How strange...

Hmph.

The clue says "binary is safe" and "binary strokes are unsafe."

X is the only one that is written in two strokes, no matter how you attempt it. One wonders if this makes it safe or unsafe.

How irritating that it could be parsed either way.

We could always give it a try and see if it works?

[Not like they're getting blown up this time, right?]

Hmph.

These quarters are excessively claustrophobic for one's tastes.

Let us get this over with post haste, that we may leave.

"Well, guess we didn't need that wire. But don't worry~ We replaced it with something explosive."

Edited 2022-11-27 03:41 (UTC)

...5

[ With a snicker-snack, the wire attached to the chosen button is cut. All that's left to do is wait.

It starts as a tingling, something scratching at your limbs and at the back of your mind like a mosquito that you just can't quite swat away. Annoying yet persistent.

It seems like you didn't quite pick the right wire, but at least the consequences aren't too dire. ]

Please choose 1-2 of the following status effects:
🎉 Extreme Gullibility
🎉 Hanahaki
🎉 Hallucinations
🎉 Kleptomania compulsion
🎉 Lose A Sense
🎉 Must Vocalize All Thoughts
🎉 Speech is Censored or Autocorrected
🎉 Super optimistic / Super pessimistic

-Hanahaki

-speech is censored or autocorrected

[Starting to shiver]

Fie.

...I don't know the first thing about music. Do you?

[Shivering so hard her beak is clattering]

One's d-d-dear friend V-V-Venti has diligently schooled one on this manner of m-musical n-notation...

L-l-let us see... The first line is the notes: D, A -- and then an M -- A, G, E...

...ah... "D-d-damage Control", it says...

[Fluffing up her feathers]

For w-w-what reason must it be so cold!

Punishment for our first mistake, I assume.

[HE KNOWS NUMBERS, NOT MUSIC.]

How is that a clue for the rest, I wonder...

They have the "G" in common... but that is t-t-too obvious, with the s-s-second clue.

If one rec-c-calls correctly, "G major" and "G minor" ... changes ac-c-cording to the... note that is sh-sharpened or f-flattened... in the first, it is the... the F... and in the s-second... the B and ... the ... the E...?

Ah..one cannot t-th-think like this...

Maybe we need to reference "damage?"

If we look at the notes marked with sharp or flat, the only one marked is "e."

If only "E" were one of the button options. One supposes the closest is 5.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Bomb Game: future is now edition

Round 1

Puzzle 1

Turn In

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Results

Major Status Effect

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Discussion

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Round 2

Puzzle 2

Turn In

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Results

Minor Status Effect

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Discussion

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