One Knight Stand - King Arthur x Among Us Apocalyptic Road Trip (WIP 1.2M+ words)(UPDATE 12/1/25 74k+ - Scouting the Heist)

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I definitely had fun reading through this! I was impressed by how extensive the customisation was, and I can’t remember the last IF I played where picking a career felt like it had a real impact in the narrative. Some of the more random and goofy dialogue options struck me as kind of out there, but I also never felt like I was forced towards picking them and the narrative respected my choice to play things more or less straight; if there’s space for both sides of that coin, then great!

On which note, it was fun to mostly respond to texts via “ok”, “thanks” and [left on read].

The sound effects weren’t my cup of tea, and I reset in order to turn them off on pretty much the second screen, but tbh I really, really dislike fly noises in particular so it was a snap decision.

The zalgo sometimes got to be a little too much during the very interface-screwy moments; it felt like maybe one step too far, in terms of escalating tension?

I’m not sure how I felt about the section towards the end of the demo which prompts you to reconfirm how you feel about Adrian/Merlin and whether you’re putting on a front. I can understand perhaps shifting from “Adrian’s my pal” to “I’m crushing on Adrian” or vice versa, but having so many options, including “Actually he’s a stalker!” from back at the start, and the framing took me out of it - I went from focusing on the story to thinking very mechanically, moreso with the two-faced stuff. However, I gotta acknowledge that I’m not sure how you’d go about positioning that in a more organic way, I just struggled a bit to reconcile how I could really say actually, I was lying all this time when the narrative has been in my head so much.

I glanced at the Serial Killer and Imposter secrets without actually picking them, cause I was curious, and along with Inhuman, my true selection, they all felt very compelling. Great job.

My end of run stats:

Magic : 10 Physical : 32 Intelligence : 27 Charisma : 20

Bold : 66 Sweet : 111 Sassy : -40 Optimist : 62

Health(at Climax) : 54 Health(Final) : 100 Wound : healed Serious Injuries : 2

Caution : 16 Will : 4 Apathy : 0 Purity : 2 Cloudcuckoolanderness : 2 Denial : 1 Coward : 0 Silent : 16 Mute : false Pottymouth : 4 Intimidation : 28

Arthurian Lore : 2 Serenades : 0 Interpretive Dances : 0 Crimes : 0 Known Crimes : 0 Reject the Call : 0 Ward Status : 6 Lore Dump : 0 Lore Dodge : 0

Tech : 10 Medical : 50 Internet : 0 Criminal : 0 Botany : 30

Club : polo Job : paramedic Hobby : garden Talent : tactics Using Pseudonym? : false Pet : None Dibs : None

Childhood : abuse Secret : inhuman Crazy Theory : None Crazy Theory Level : 0 Two-Faced : False

Vice : wrath Addiction : smoking Fear : closed Fear Level (at Climax) : 18 Corruption : 1 Mindcontrol : false

Random Appearance: false Attractiveness Level : 1 Striking : 2 Body Type: 1 Height: short Best Feature: eyes

Tattoos : 0 Striking Tattoos : false Scars : 2 Striking Scars : true Piercings : 1 Striking Piercings : false

Striking Clothes : false Heavy Clothes : false Long Clothes : false Flashy Mask : false Haircolor Striking : false Eyecolor Striking : false

Merlin Affinity : 54 Merlin Flirt : 40 Merlin Bond : 3 Merlin Gender : female

Adrian Affinity : 76 Adrian Flirt : 0 Adrian Past Bond : 0 Adrian Current Bond : 2

Weapons : polo mallet

Inventory : Audrey III & herb garden | wardrobe | picture of foster family | Magic 8 Ball | pearls of protection | Arthurian Lore guide |

Achievements : Insomnia | Nepenthes | One Small Step…

(is this the most seriousface MC so far? I’m a little proud of myself)

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Thanks for all the stats everyone! I’ve finally finished collating them (and found a few more bugs indicated therein like how the loredump stat doesn’t seem to be adding properly). Otherwise, here is a sneak peek at the ‘average MC’.

Summary

Magic: 9.9
Physical: 24.5
Intelligence: 25.9
Charisma: 31.3

Bold (107.5)
Somewhat Sweet (92)
Somewhat Serious (31.6)
Somewhat Pessimistic (26)

On the threshold of being Cautious (19.6)
Exhibiting some Cloudcuckoolander tendencies (7.57)
Not in Denial (0.84)
Can be a bit Quiet at times (16.1)
Can swear a time or two, but not really a Pottymouth (2.88)

Knows about King Arthur, but not an expert (2)
Randomly burst out singing 0.8 times
Randomly busted a dance move 0.5 times

Job: Police Detective (followed by Computer Programmer)
Hobby: Gardening (followed by Gadgetry)
Talent: Magnetism (followed by Tactics)

Corruption within Acceptable Levels: (3.4)
Attractiveness Level: 1.5 (1 = supermodel, also no one chose anything lower than average)
Figure: Equally split between smaller (petite, slender etc) and average (lanky, curvacious). Only 1 person went with the larger frame (statuesque, burly etc)
Height: Pretty equally split between short, average, and tall.
Best Feature: Figure (followed by eyes)
Most Popular Body Modification: Scars (1.1)
Clothing Style: Split pretty equally between long and heavy
Haircolor: Normal
Eyecolor: Normal

I suppose to the surprise of no one, the incubus who looks exactly like your dream come true mostly has “I’m attracted to Merlin” as their bond. With a few people being friendly or manipulative. Merlin is also pretty equally split appearing as male or female.

Adrian is mostly split between being a friend or a potential crush.

Most Common Weapon: Squirt Gun (followed by Hunting Knives, then the Glock-19/Iron Lamp)
The Inventory: Pearls of Protection (followed by the picture from your past, your wardrobe, and the laptop).

That physical versus charisma stat may be why escaping from the monster under the bed seems to be the hardest stat check. Saving Pippa and protecting Merlin have ways to pass via mostly charm while the monster is unimpressed with your charisma.

Still, I tweaked some of the requirements to make it a bit easier in the next update.(After all, the successful escape route is longer than the rescue route, so I kinda want a few more people to be able to see it!)

It should’ve been Merlin suggesting to bring along Audrey (since they’re the only one who knows you’ll be traveling in a supersized motorhome). Adrian is obviously just jealous that he never had as much luck with his own Venus Flytraps. :wink:

Thanks for the stats (no worries, they showed up fine) and the comment on liking the potential horror-comedy blend!

Found the bug! The code calculating what the MC had on their person (versus stuff that was packed away in the luggage) wasn’t running properly after the packing was finished. This should be fixed in the next update. Thanks for the heads up, I certainly wouldn’t want all the pulling your gun options to be DOA.

Also, the stats you posted indicated that you chose to set a true option for your MC’s internal monologue at the end, but it didn’t say what the option was. Next time you’re on the ending page (no hurries!) could you check if there’s any other info after the Two-Faced: True part?

Otherwise, like with Addictions & such, I went with the four vices that had the most narrative and mechanical impact on the story. Greed and Wrath can end up screwing over the MC several times in Chapter 1, Lust seemed a no-brainer with how romance-focused the CoG audience seems to be (also a literal incubus in the story). Sloth is a nice ‘safe’ choice that has quite a bit of mechanical impact but isn’t as narratively traumatizing as some of the other vices (also it dovetails nicely with a potential plotline in Camelot).

Meanwhile, Gluttony is either going to manifest similarly to Greed (if the MC is gluttonous for something less obvious) or if I went for the literal version of gluttony… well, there’s no hunger mechanic in the game, it really wouldn’t have any impact outside of flavor text. If I was really determined to use all the seven sins, I could’ve added in Pride and Envy with a little bit of extra work, but it would’ve required more finessing than the four vices I went with.

Regarding Lucifer in particular, Merlin has their reasons for saying what they did. Whether their right, wrong, or obliquely lying remains to be seen.

Magic and technology can often do the same things, just in very different ways that are hard to mistake for each other. Like you can fly in a plane using normal physics. Or you can turn yourself into a bird via magic and fly that way. Or if you want to expend vast quantities of energy, you can cast an AOE spell that nullifies the laws of gravity. A lot of magic can be summarized as…

reject_your_reality

It’s just when you need both realities to work at the same time that things get dicey like when you’ve enchanted something technological (like a gun). You need the laws of magic to work to maintain the enchantment. You need the laws of physics to work for the gun to still fire. Now the two realities are colliding (and sometimes it works out fine, and sometimes it doesn’t.)

Thanks for the comments! 3AM is the perfect time to read Chapter 1 (bonus points to do it in the dark for full self insert experience). It’s great to hear that the MC is being so well received. Hopefully I can make the other characters just as interesting.

Thanks for the comments! Alas, I’m afraid I must inform you that someone reported a -85 sass for their MC, so yours is only the second most seriousface at this point.

Also, a quick heads up that if you ever forget to turn off the audio at first, you can turn it off from the normal Stats menu too so you don’t have to reset the whole game.

Regarding confirming your opinion on Adrian… all the options are available to everyone since, depending upon how you play, MC can come across some rather suspicious things which might cause a negative reevaluation for him. Going by the stats that people have been posting, it doesn’t seem that most players are going down that route, but it’s still possible.

The placement of the reevaluation also varies depending upon what happened in the chapter. The MCs who got kidnapped at the end of Chapter 1 won’t come across it until the middle of Chapter 2 (although I’m not sure if that placement would be better for the MCs who willingly came along or not).

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I had wondered how (if, really) you were going to tie the vices to the Arthurian bits of the story. I can see how all of them would fit, particularly when it comes to the fall of Camelot. As for not including Pride and Envy, have you considered including them as non-player accessible options? It’s always seemed to me that pride and envy had rather a lot to do with the story of Arthur, from Uther’s Merlin-assisted kidnapping and rape of Ygraine all the way through to Arthur’s eventual betrayal and death.

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Ok I’m getting frustrated how do you NOT get possessed?

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I jumped from the bed to the chair and then kicked away a thing and was good

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Ooh, I didn’t find the option to turn off sound from within the game, but I expect I was looking for the same button as I remembered seeing already from the main page.

Regarding reevaluations, that makes sense, I suppose missing anything obviously sketchy can make that scene have the feeling that I had about it.

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Doesn’t really answer my question. No matter what I do, I find myself only with like 2 options and I’m railroaded into “haha dumbass you’re possessed.”

I would very much like not to be

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It depends on corruption stat and your choices. What is your character work, hobby and secret?

@Person-Man, you played youself:

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Security guard (I play on mobile, detective sounds cool but isn’t available), gadget hobby, and a changeling.

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this was absolutely massive of a demo- i’m very impressed and invested! i’ve only managed to complete my first run, but i plan on going back and trying different options for different outcomes! the atmosphere is so engaging and so immersive, it was really difficult for me to step away from the game and actually do my real life responsibilities. i’m already buzzing with excitement for my next run.

i’m so curious to see who MC is as well as everyone else! adrian and merlin are v charming and i’m intrigued to see how their dynamic with mc and eachother evolves. i’m not entirely sure how this apocalypse is going to go, but my mc will certainly treat it as another “average tuesday” kinda thing to keep what sanity he has throughout, lol.

my current stats!

Magic : 10 Physical : 17 Intelligence : 23 Charisma : 37

Bold : 130 Sweet : 145 Sassy : -14 Optimist : 27

Health(at Climax) : 69 Health(Final) : 92 Wound : healed Serious Injuries : 2

Caution : 35 Will : 2 Apathy : 0 Purity : 3 Cloudcuckoolanderness : 4 Denial : -2 Coward : 0 Silent : 21 Mute : false Pottymouth : 6 Intimidation : 0

Arthurian Lore : 3 Serenades : 1 Interpretive Dances : 0 Crimes : 0 Known Crimes : 0 Reject the Call : 0 Ward Status : 7 Lore Dump : 0 Lore Dodge : 0

Tech : 10 Medical : 35 Internet : 10 Criminal : 30 Botany : 0

Club : polo Job : wildlife biologist Hobby : criminal Talent : tactics Using Pseudonym? : false Pet : None Dibs : None

Childhood : abandon Secret : inhuman Crazy Theory : None Crazy Theory Level : 0 Two-Faced : True True Sass : True

Vice : wrath Addiction : smoking Fear : attention Fear Level (at Climax) : 20 Corruption : 5 Mindcontrol : true

Random Appearance: false Attractiveness Level : 1 Striking : 1 Body Type: 2 Height: average Best Feature: eyes

Tattoos : 5 Striking Tattoos : false Scars : 1 Striking Scars : false Piercings : 0 Striking Piercings : false

Striking Clothes : false Heavy Clothes : false Long Clothes : false Flashy Mask : false Haircolor Striking : false Eyecolor Striking : false

Merlin Affinity : 66 Merlin Flirt : 40 Merlin Bond : 1 Merlin Gender : male

Adrian Affinity : 94 Adrian Flirt : 3 Adrian Past Bond : 0 Adrian Current Bond : 1

Weapons : XM556 Microgun | Excalibur |

Inventory : wardrobe | picture of foster home | Magic 8 Ball | autograph | pearls of protection |

Achievements : BBQ Deferred | One Small Step…

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I’m not sure but i think the author said the security guard is always possessed or something like that

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Ah. Well, that’s weird I guess. Thanks

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There’s definitely going to be side characters exhibiting more than enough of the other types of cardinal sins, so the MC won’t be alone with that. The MC can also exhibit the other sins as well (like someone who chooses Sloth as their vice can still be lustfully chasing after everyone), it just won’t be the main mechanic that’s punting them in the face.

As to the direct link to Camelot, that’s a bit more complex. It’s possible to still be exhibiting that same type of behavior both now and back then, but it’s also possible that MC (or someone else) got their original behavior/vice/sin traumatized out of them with what happened in their previous life (or vice versa… got an inclination for a particular vice due to what happened).

What you’ve been told about the security guard is true (if you ever told Adrian exactly what happened the previous night, that would foreshadow why it turned out that way). If you’d like to play as the detective instead, you need to chose a different phobia besides death, blood, fear, or attention as those are incompatible with that particular job.

Yep, it’s the Toggle Sound Effects button towards the bottom of the Stats menu choices. That should allow you to turn on and off the audio whenever you want.

Thanks for the stats and the comments! I hope your second playthrough is just as interesting as the first one. And yeah, Merlin and Adrian certainly have a dynamic going…

oks_kitten_fight

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It’s probably an unnecessary idea, but for some reason I wish it were possible for us to decide how the MC killed his victims in the serial killer path, Maybe depending on the choice, some status can go up? Like, killing in a brutal way could increase the MC’s strength more

Anyway, this is just a dark idea I had for some reason, don’t take it too seriously

O feel bad thinking about it :frowning:

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To fair they literally got away killing somebody without getting some punishment from the authorities. The mc had to be smart about it and end them quickly since they would be sus once bodies are found and can’t be caught at the scene. I hope we can get the driver some point so the mc can move on from the accident.

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The serial killer actually already gets a strength boost due to how they’re killing their victims. All the secrets get different boosts to align with that particular background.

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Nice. Glad I was able to help out.

I lost my old saves, so I redid my initial MC (which I’m probably gonna do again once the fencing route is complete). It looks like choosing to manipulate Merlin and or Adrien for your own ends triggers the two-faced stat, even if you decide that your outward traits reflect your inner personality. You see “The ‘Me’ that exists in my mind” in your stats once you confirm you want to manipulate your party member(s).

While we’re on the subject of ending stats, I’m curious about what the Ward Status is supposed to mean. I’m guessing it has to do with how often Adrian has to stop you from doing cool stuff?

Thanks for explaining why you picked the current Vices. Yeah, that makes sense, and I can see how Pride and Envy would require more build-up compared to the current set. And I suppose the Addictions are a good substitute for Gluttony anyway.

It’ll be fun figuring out which is true as the story unfolds, that’s for sure.

Ah, so both magic and science are already mimicking each other, but in ways that separate them by design. Sort of like a mix between the magic system in the Nasuverse (where technology is now able to replicate the effects of spells), and how Espers use their powers in To Aru (which is essentially forcing reality to conform to their own desires).

Minus the “Magic A + Science A = Error” problem, which is the result of two universal laws being largely incompatible with each other. Once again, thanks for the explanation.

If memory serves, it goes something like this:

Imposter Secret + 5 Charisma
Inhuman Secret + 10 Magic
Serial Killer Secret + 5 Strength
Lying About Amnesia Secret + 5 Intelligence

Don’t know how you increase your stats further though, other than a boost to Magic and Intelligence (and presumably other stats) during the hotel spell.

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i want to play recommended worst way possible but i cant peak Security Guard with fear phobia ??

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Sooo I was finally able to look away from the demo (for now), and daaamn I don’t have enough words to describe how awesome it is!
The horror kept me up all night and thinking back to the humour almost made me choke on my coffee the morning after :melting_face:

I think this is the only IF I’ve read that actually used the zalgo text effectively? The images were a nice touch too, the eyes zooming in may or may not have made me squeak like a penguin getting strangled in the middle of the night :upside_down_face:
though looking at them eyes closely they’re kinda round and sparkly and… cute? like they look like they’d belong on one of those squishy plushies of undeterminate species with really long eyelashes

The funny death quotes were funny all on their own but the fact that they’re immortalized on your stat screen forever had me rolling :joy:

“delete my browser history!!” LMAO

And I really appreciate you giving us the option to hold Adrian’s hand in the apartment scene bc that was all me and my phobia-ridden MC could think about while hobbling up the stairs in the dark like PLEASE HOLD MY HAND PLZ IM KINDA DYING IN TERROR OVER HERE.

I’m on a quest to find all the routes and flavour text available but the variations just keep on coming!
My playthrough count is well in the double digits, heck it might even tip over to the triple digits before I see most of the variations available!
Well… maybe not even then since I’m having a hard time picking options to be mean to the ROs, I like them way too much already :crazy_face:

Are you sure you’re just one person and not a team of full-time writers?? because dang this is insane it’s like a bottomless gift that just keeps on giving!
It took me several playthroughs to find out you can be chased all the way up to your apartment if you injure your hand and don’t bandage it + dither on the 2nd floor!! Seriously, how many variations ARE there???

And can I just say how I love the fine little details, like:
-Adrian’s relationship points going up by 7 pts after talking about the number 7
-the many, many, MANY ways you can fluster Adrian with your choice of attire
-that Narnia closet comment if you’re a guy
-that text with Merlin if your name starts with a ‘C’
-Adrian’s reactions if you filch his last name :hugs:
-how the ‘stopping the guard’ option actually works if you’re in your police uniform!
-I found swearing in my native language and laughed way harder than I probably should, did you really look up all the swear words in the world or are you just fluent in like 200 languages?? kudos to you either way!

And the myriad of flavour text like ALL the flavour texts like wow it seems like there’s flavour text for literally everything you choose and I’m all for it!

Man I love Adrian already, he puts up so nicely with my crazy cloudcuckoolander MC, I can’t stop being weird bc his responses are too entertaining :rofl:
Appreciate him taking the initiative to potato-sack carry (or literally kidnap) us away from danger, my sweet, naive, cloudcuckoolander, thrill-seeking serial killer fairy prince(ss) MC who thinks eldritch abominations are oh-so-sexy certainly needs saving from themselves :smiling_face_with_tear:
I don’t think this MC would mind at all if Adrian actually turned out to be an obssessed stalker

Happy to see FGO Merlin was one of the options since that was exactly how I was imagining Merlin would look like after reading their descriptions. similar personalities too!

I was fully ready to go tldr with Merlin’s wall of text but ended up reading everything somehow, it was so entertaining for whatever reason??
And the replies and emojis and spelling variations and wiki links and like that’s so cute for Merlin and also I’m so impressed with YOU like were you a major in Arthurian lore??
I know jack shit about knights of the round table but I do know that summarizing stuff like that requires geek-level understanding of the source material and there are a LOT of source material!

There’s one con though. I’m sad that you can’t pack your demonic alarm clock. You could’ve had your own cream-of-the-crop demonic hellhound (sound only) to drive off the obviously lesser demonic hellhounds like ROAR in Pokemon. Clearly a loss of the ages.

I really wanna go code diving and see what you’ve named all the variables etc and find out all the little secrets I’m missing but alas I don’t know how to do that :smiling_face_with_tear: so I’m just gonna go right back to my nth playthrough digging for more secrets and theorizing if you won’t mind!

Here's the stats from one of my favourites if you're still looking for some:

https://u.cubeupload.com/nairnine/medicskillerthrillle.png

Weird bug I found, it was the knife that shattered not Excalibur but the option says otherwise:

https://u.cubeupload.com/nairnine/brokenotbrokeexc.png

Weird.. bug? I found, tbf I WAS serenade-ing Adrian at every opportunity:

https://u.cubeupload.com/nairnine/serenadestranger.png

All from serial killer/accident/thrill-seeker/paramedic background, Adrian saved Pippa, MC left early and serenaded Adrian in the streets, took the stairs, got inside the apartment and fought the 'mon with my knife if that helps.

Also, not sure if it’s a bug or not, but in all playthroughs Adrian’s text messages are sent twice, right after you pick your phone and right after Adrian shows up.

Sorry for the rambling, I usually just lurk but man I couldn’t help myself with this one. You’ve got a way with words that just sucks you in, I can’t wait for all 4 books to be available already so I can throw my money at you and find out what the mysteries are all about!

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Whoops, sorry about having to redo your MC. It looks like everything is fine then. I was worrying that True Bold or True Pessimist might’ve been bugging out since they haven’t showed up in anyone’s stats.

Ward status was keeping track of the state of Merlin’s protective ward over your apartment complex (which set the end state of the building).

I’ve never watched/read ToAru (just a couple eps of Rail Index), but that sounds similar(ish), although perhaps a bit more widespread if everyone is forcing their own reality (instead of forcing the reality of the Otherworld in OKS). Although I wouldn’t be surprised if different fantasy series use a similar take on magic.

Most of the MC’s stats are set in the customization phase. You can also bulk them up a bit during the Free Time periods if you choose training over everything else. The big stat increase will trigger upon regaining your Camelot memories/powers. (There’s a reason that even people who’ve been min-maxing their stats are topping out at ~50 since the stat screen is on a sliding scale from normal mortal to godly supernatural).

Yeah, having the fear phobia is a direct conflict of interest with being a security guard since that’s a position that can put the MC in dicey situations. Fear should definitely be the most difficult phobia to manage in the game, meanwhile the security guard is recommended for the trauma since they’re always going to eventually fail the possession check. You can get a similar experience by taking a different career and then sticking your head outside the trailer during the attack.

Conversely, if you want to see the security guard’s extra special recollection of “what really happened last night”, the phobia that has the greatest effect in Chapter 1 would be fear of the dark. And overall, fear of death will probably have the second most impact throughout the book (after the fear phobia).

All the variations! Which people will probably never see (except perhaps for you.) I’m actually not sure how to read the code for a compiled game that’s been uploaded to a different website either (not without having to download all the files first). Might have to wait until the updated version is uploaded to Dashingdon.

Glad to see someone managed to trigger some of the more obscure stuff like the Benoni flavor text. And whoa, you actually got ‘Take Your Achievement & Get Out of Here!’, ‘Just According to Keikaku’, and ‘I’m Petty…’… no one else has come forward with those achievements yet.

Thanks for the stats and comments! I’ve fixed the three bugs you reported in the next version of the game (Adrian texting twice was definitely a bug too). It seems I really screwed up that ‘I’m sleepy. It’s time to go to bed.’ part when I switched the variables from temp to permanent at the last minute.

The hellhound eyes are actually super-magnified fly eyes (since I described its eyes faceted like a fly). I’m sure all the house flies appreciate you thinking their eyes are cute.

The MC who chose the Shakespeare quote for their final words will definitely be enjoying some extra vertical space on their stats screen until the next dying opportunity pops up.

One of the myriad various ways that encounter can go. And surely spending a week looking up curse words in various languages will come in handy during my life!

Also, yes, all the Merlins! (Except the ones from Guinevere Jones and Mr. Merlin which I pruned because I didn’t want the option to go over 13 choices.

However, if I allowed the MC to take the demonic alarm clock with them and they used it in the motorhome, one of their new roomies would probably murder them. And it might not even be the saboteur this time.

But yes, let the cloudcuckoolanderness flow through you.

Well, you never know which “slight variation” might actually trigger a cascading avalanche of changes in the narrative. But if you don’t usually replay, you might want to wait until the next Chapter 2 update. (Although I think I’ve got the checkpoint set up properly where you won’t have to replay from the start even if I add in new variables.)

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