Okay, so I wasn't going to update.
…But now I finished this chapter.
I am taking advantage of spring break. I am like reading this story every day and thinking of the next update.
And then…I have come up with this.
I hope you guys enjoy this update as the players embark in a rather terrible mission. Please enjoy this! The four go on.
Warning: Probably one of the most intense and unexpected chapters thus far in this game. Things get heated in this final four. I...well...just read on.
Episode 7 (Part 4)
It had been a full twelve hours since the previous night's game had taken life. Now, for all four of them, the leftovers of its consequences were taking its toll upon them like a brick. While most of them were sitting down, only Piantissimo was standing among the four of them, his face holding the same jolted image of disbelief as it had the night before.
"WHY did you do THAT?!" he exclaimed.
Tiny: Okay, I'll be completely honest…Piantissimo was NOT happy with my choice.
"I told you like…a million times," replied Tiny, her eyes shifting away uncomfortably from everyone else, "I just…I just wanted to keep everything and the game fair like it should be. I didn't think it right for us to win such an advantage. 5 Plus 1's...was a lot! No one...not even the Mole...should win that." She paused.
"And…" she started, "I'm sorry that McHallyboo gave me a Plus 1 in the end. I was caught off guard with that. I had NO idea of that aspect." Piantissimo turned to her, eyes in unhappiness.
"You….ruined me." Then the player, once irate, slumped down into the nearest arm chair he could find. On his face, a look of misery was seen as he drooped down into his seat with a depressed face.
"I'm done….I'm gone," Piantissimo whimpered, his voice in a half-sob as he covered his face. "Everyone has at least one, or four, or even six Plus 1's. But I have nada…zero…nothing to save me into the next episode. I'm doomed. I'm gone." Face still covered, the player's voice turned into a full sob.
"Oh…uh…he's really upset," Snifit whispered with a lost face, turning to the other two players beside him.
Snifit: Huh…either he's distressed and wounded beyond words can describe that his chances in this game are destroyed….or he's the best actor ever in this game.
"It is not the end, Piantissimo," Éclair voiced reassuringly, putting a hand on his chair.
"Pfft," Piantissimo said, turning over in his armchair. "You all have Plus 1's. I am doomed." Snifit made a sound of contemplation, as the others looked at him in silence.
Tiny: I shouldn't have done that.
"Well…you know…" Snifit began in a slow voice of thought. Snifit held his coins in his own hands, looking at them decisively. Then, he stood up, jumping up a bit with thought.
"Let's make a deal," Snifit began, his eyes lightening up with his face. "You like deals, I think. So I am willing to offer you-"
"There will be no offering of any sort," McHallyboo spoke suddenly as he entered the room, as Snifit sat back down with a stunned face. As Tiny and Éclair looked at him as well with surprise, McHallyboo continued.
"The coins that you won in the game last episode…can only be used on yourself. No one else. I will penalize the pot if this is broken." Snifit was on one side of the small room, looking a bit uncomfortable at the several coins that laid in his hand. Piantissimo himself turned to the host, eyes slightly glaring but giving up.
"I'm…just wondering," Tiny said in a quick voice, looking around at the others with unsureness before speaking to the host.
"Yes, Tiny?" McHallyboo didn't turn to her.
"I should have just pressed the green button…that was my whole point. To keep the game fair. But is there a reason I got a Plus 1 for pressing the red button?" As McHallyboo's mouth curled slightly into a smile, Tiny's look turned to one displaying confusion.
"Because…I want to see you do your job," the host said blankly, looking at the wall. He turned fully to the players.
"What's most important…is that your final mission of the episode, tonight, will bring you to places that you've never imagined," the host stated, changing the subject. "And what a mission it will be. I expect you all to play…because things will be ending."
"No matter how hard we play…we'll just lose," Piantissimo said in a bitter voice.
"Hey, let's be positive," Snifit said, nudging his chair. "We can win. We've won a lot already before."
"A possible 30,000 coins waits for you all," was McHallyboo's strong statement to them, before he turned around to leave. The four players, still in mixed feelings, only nodded to the host. The episode was reaching its final third, and it was their final chance to add to the pot. Tiny sighed, looking at her coin in a mixture of disapproval and confusion.
"I…don't need this," she muttered softly. "I wanted to play fair. Now...this."
"Complaining over a Plus 1," Piantissimo mumbled with jest. "There has never been a player in the history of this game to do so."
"I might have this one coin, but that doesn't mean anything," Tiny replied, facing the others. Snifit looked at the others, seemingly the least bothered player of the group.
"I can't wait to play this final and last game," Snifit stated with a nod. "I hope it's…a good ending." The host turning around at his statement, nodded back.
"It really will be the end of things," McHallyboo said, with a tip of his hat.
Tiny: This happens a lot: I make choices that ten seconds later, I realize isn't the best thing. Did I regret my decision in the Ultimatum game? Of course I did…but this isn't the first time I've regretted something that I've done in this game.
Éclair: I hope we are successful as a team in this last game. I am wondering what the results of everything will be. I am wondering how this episode will end for us four.
Piantissimo: Words cannot express the unbearable pain that I am feeling. A dagger is already in my heart, telling me that I am gone for the end of this episode. Those coins were my only chance at survival, and now, I truly have none. The executed one at the end of this episode…perhaps this is my last step.
Snifit: I have six coins. Perhaps, in other peoples' eyes, it is a gift of life and will save me to the next episode. But in my eyes, I know…maybe it won't save me. Maybe I can't be saved from myself.
The sun was setting down, and at the exact second it disappeared from the sky, McHallyboo tapped on his wristwatch to start the game. He stood with full posture, eyes gazing across the land, as he stood upon a small pedestal.
"The last mission of this penultimate episode…I have trained the players well for this," he said with a ready breath, turning around and smiling. But, at that second, his smile faded. He looked out at the city before him, troubled.
"But will they be ready…with what they have to do in the end? To themselves?"
The mission began.
Mission: Escape the World
You have 90 minutes.
30,000 coins await. All four must succeed to have a win for this game.
Escape this world. Good luck.
"Huh?" The rules were on a piece of purple paper, put on the outside glass of the hotel door. The four players read it with solid confusion, each taking in their own interpretation of the words before them on the slip of instructions.
Snifit: Our goal was to escape the planet…what? What even? What was this, McHallyboo?
"Wait, umm…I have to read these rules again," Snifit tried to confirm slowly, face befuddled. A single streetlight shined upon them, lightening the rules for them on the small paper.
"Escape the earth?" Tiny asked with equally perplexed eyes, face confused as she grabbed the purple page into her hand to read it. "With what? A teleporter? I have no idea how to even start this game for us."
"Well….uh…hold on," Snifit said, thinking. "This game has a solution….and…"
"Well, our ninety minutes begins, and we're lost," Tiny pointed out with a troubled face. "I don't get why we're expected to complete this, when the rules we are given are so vague."
"What's new?" Piantissimo said with a smirk, but it was more of an unfortunate one.
"Let us think," Eclair said, thinking. "Escaping the world…to do so, we must..."
"A…that's it...," Piantissimo said, snapping his fingers, as everyone turned to him. "That is it. The rocket." He grinned, as they turned to him.
"A rocket?" Éclair wondered, eyes widening.
"That's how we escape and get out of here," Piantissimo said with a triumphant voice. "When I was travelling, I saw a rocket. That's it, that's our location: the space station."
"Oh…the rocket that I passed by earlier in the hunt," Snifit recalled, suddenly looking ready to run off. "Yes! That's it! Let's go right away this instant!" Piantissimo nodded, looking sure.
"Is it far?" Tiny said, still looking a bit doubtful. "I don't remember a rocket, but it must be it."
"Oh, quite, it's far," Piantissimo remembered, grabbing the paper from Tiny to read it himself. "It is literally all the way at the other end of the city." He scoffed.
"We cannot make it in time," he said with a shrug and a snicker. "This game is hopeless."
"No…we CAN make it in time if we hurry," Tiny argued, grabbing the paper from Piantissimo who looked back at her with surprise. "Let's stop being so down and just get a move on with this game. I just want to get this episode over with. I want to get this...whole game over with." Piantissimo looked down at the ground for a second, then back up at the others.
"I just do not like that on top of this game already being so difficult to win, we have someone in our group who is going to try and ruin this game for us," Tiny said softly in almost a dejected voice. "Every game so far, in fact. It is frustrating." The other three just stood still for a second, looking at each other.
"We must stay positive…to not crumble," Éclair said gently. Tiny sighed, looking at the others.
"Okay, but before we do anything…." Snifit spoke out quickly, touching the paper slightly. "Look. There's actually a backside to the paper." As Snifit turned the paper over, they all together a set of rules on the back of the page, as they continued on the rest of the rules in shock:
Very soon, you will experience an apocalypse in this city.
Escape is necessary. If you don't within the time limit, then you will be subjected to the terrors that are to come with the falling world.
You will have enemies all around you. First will come the fall of mankind. Then will come the fall of the Earth. This is what it will look like.
The end of the world will begin with the color of purple. It is near you. The color of evil and ruin. Even the smallest piece of paper can start the world's end.
Once the first blast begins, then the world will begin its destruction. Run now. Escape the earth. Escape…the apocalypse.
The four players stood still, confused and alarmed at the words on the back of the instructions.
"The…apocalypse," Tiny repeated. Everyone, at the paper's words, turned to each other with concern.
"Could it be?" Éclair whispered. "The apocalypse? As in, the end of this world we are standing currently?"
"I don't know…if this is a metaphor…or…" Snifit said, looking up to the sky with confusion, "Or something that we're about to have to endure." Everyone looked at the paper in uneasy feelings.
"Ugh…," Tiny said, covering her face in fear and groaning with scared frustration. "This is not my kind of game at all."
Tiny: So all of a sudden, I knew it was probably going to be a terrible game. This building is just a simulation of the worst things that can happen.
"Okay, someone explain to me what this all means?" Tiny questioned. "Because what does it mean, apocalypse?
"And the beginning of the destruction being with purple?" Piantissimo laughed, as the only player finding humor in the situation.
BEEP!
Suddenly, Eclair gasped, letting the paper go from her hands as she took a startled step back. Everyone looked at her, then at the page, now on the ground.
"What?" Tiny asked, bending down to pick up the paper again. "What's wrong?" But then all of a sudden, Snifit realized the color of death too, as he yelled out.
"RUN!" Snifit shouted, frozen in fear. "Run! Let that go!" Tiny dropped the page again, confused. Piantissimo, all of a sudden realizing the danger as well, took a startled step back as well and began to run in the opposite direction.
"The start of the apocalypse…" he whispered, running off. "The color..."
"Just…follow!" Snifit grabbed Tiny's arm, who followed him with unknowing fear.
"Why—" And three seconds into their running, the purple piece of paper emitted a white light. A second later, it was a deafening sound that knocked all of them to the floor of the city concrete as a blast threw them off from their original spots. All four players were thrown from the explosion, falling to the ground in the midst of their running as their ears rang from the blast that had occurred.
All of them were disoriented, as smoke mercilessly filled the air. Confused, all four players were coughing, trying to get up to their feet.
Snifit: All any of us could see was white. Then slowly, it began to turn into red. And I knew that there was fire everywhere.
"No…" The hotel was gone. The location that stood as the once-peaceful hotel was now littered with fire and smoke. Bricks and debris were scattered among the wreckage, and what once was a peaceful location was now a view of horror for the players who saw it. Tiny, coughing, stood up, facing Snifit beside her among the grey smoke that filled the air. On her face was a shocked look, as Snifit turned to her, equally frightened. The two of them immediately ran to each other, among the smoke, then after a few seconds began calling out,
"Piantissimo?" Snifit called out. "Éclair?"
"Where are you guys!" Tiny shouted, covering her mouth at the same time from the smoky air. "Guys!"
Tiny: I couldn't see anything. It was like the world had gone to smoke. And we couldn't breathe. And all of a sudden...we found someone.
"I found someone!" Snifit turned to see the figure on the ground. The figure had her hair covered in dust and ash, and she was trying to stand up, dazed. The crown on the floor beside her made Snifit recognize the player who had been knocked to the ground.
"Éclair!" Snifit called. The two of them ran to her, as they helped her to her feet. The princess looked around, still disoriented.
"Snifit..." But after a few seconds, she let out a realized gasp, as she finally realized the scene of terror around her. The flames surrounded them, as she made a sound of dismay.
"Are you okay?" Snifit said, panicked in voice.
"Snifit…Tiny…what has happened to us? What has happened to the city?" The three of them were huddled together, the fire surrounding them as the city began to roar from the burning architecture around them.
"Guys, where are you!" Piantissimo's voice rang through the smoke. "I can't see anything!" His voice got closer, as Snifit caught in the corner of his eye the running man. He waved his arms, shouting out.
"Over here!" Snifit shouted, but then something louder than his voice and the roaring flames around them suddenly filled the smoky air.
RATATATAATAA! Gunshots started firing one by one, as all four players ducked in horror. The sounds of machine guns began to surround them, as the four players screamed.
"DUCK!" The bullets were heard once again, as they all ducked to the ground, covering her ears completely. Tiny screamed, losing her balance and falling to the ground among the piercing sounds. Eclair ducked down, grabbing her as well as the two females ducked for safety.
"Whoa!" Snifit lost his balance, but was grabbed by a figure who put his hand on his shoulder. It was Piantissimo.
"Run!" The four of them ran through the smoke, grabbing onto each other as the bullets continued to fire into the air. It was a blind dash for safety, and the further they ran, the louder the sounds of the bullets came.
"This way!" Piantissimo yelled, moving his arms for the others to follow. "Follow me! This way is clear!" One by one, each player grabbed the hand of the other, as Piantissimo led the group to an area of unknown safety.
Eclair: It was a feeling that could not be described. There was nothing else we could do but run for our lives.
It seemed liked an eternity of running for the four players, but it ended. After a short while, and far from the hotel's location, the smoke had decreased. Though the sound of fire and shooting could still be heard, they were in an area of the city that was away from the explosion. The four players looked at each other, shaken up.
"What is GOING ON?!" Tiny shouted, looking at the others. The sky above them was filled with smoke, and faintly, the sound of various individuals shooting into the night air could be heard.
"What is happening!" Tiny continued, frantically looking at the frozen others. "What is this, and why is this?!" Before one of them could speak again, another explosion from a nearer building sent them into shielding their eyes, as another wave of smoke and heat attacked them with vicious power.
Snifit: And then I knew. It was real.
"It is the apocalypse," Snifit said in a whisper. "This is why we have to escape this place." The other three looked at each other with shock.
"This is ridiculous," Piantissimo uttered, turning to look at the smoke that was reaching their place. "If this is the apocalypse, then it does not make sense. Why were people shooting machine guns earlier?"
"Because it is what the paper said," Éclair realized suddenly, as everyone turned to her.
"It is us, humans, destroying one another," the princess voiced sadly. "The destruction of mankind. The fall of us. That is what the note said would happen…and this is it. That is what is happening at this moment." As the ground shook again, as the four of them turned around. A building, probably one of the tallest in the entire city, was now crumbling down in a fiery blast of metal and red flames, disappearing slowly from existence in the city. As soon as it was gone, it was another shake that caused the players to look in another direction, as a building in similar height began to make its way into a cease of existence.
"Bombs…they are bombing the place," Snifit gulped quietly. Tiny threw her hands into the air, frantic.
"Okay, I did NOT join this game to be put into whatever kind of hell on earth this is," she exclaimed, as the others turned to her in surprise. "I quit. I'm done. Get me out of here, McHallyboo. I quit."
"What!" Piantissimo gasped at her sudden outburst, but Tiny just shook her head.
"I'm not going to subject myself to this psychological torture, just for some material money of thirty thousand coins," the frantic and exasperated player said loudly, as the other three looked at her with disbelief. But Tiny's face looked resolute.
"I'm…get me out of here," she said, voice and face distraught. "I'm done." Tiny knelt to the dirty ground, hands over her head as she tried to clear her mind. Snifit made his way over to her, then knelt down next to her.
"Don't quit," Snifit said soundly, face solemn. Éclair face expressed sadness, but knelt down next to the player as well.
"If we quit… we'll never know what we could have done as a team," she said, putting a hand on Tiny's hand. "We need all of us to work together…to survive this." Tiny just sat, facing away, her face looking undecided.
"This is just like a test," Snifit continued, his voice sounding almost urgent. "It is like…the challenge to see if we're strong enough. As a player. As a team." As Snifit looked directly at Tiny's eyes, she looked back directly at him, startled.
"Do you want the Mole to win this?" Snifit asked her. For a second, Tiny didn't say anything. The conflicted player closed her eyes, the finally, she let out a sigh of defeat.
"Okay," Tiny breathed, shaking her head and getting up. "I'm going to try and help you guys win. But if I'm willing to help. If I continue, I have to go at my own pace. You guys have to do whatever I say in this game."
"Of course," Snifit reassured. "If that is what you wish." The three of them stood up together.
"Uh…I would ask you all to please stop morally debating…" Piantissimo said with an alarmed look, "because we better get out of here…right now." The players turned to the direction of the rising smoke, as they saw a strange crowd of moving object make their way precariously towards their direction.
"What the…" It took the players a few seconds to realize that it was a crowd of people making their way to them. Each figure looked like a civilian, but their faces were blocked with concealed looks, the masks on their head giving each of the players a shiver down their spine.
Tiny: What were they? Robots? Creatures?
"These civilians do not look friendly," Tiny whispered. All of a sudden, the metal glare from the moon in the sky reflected off from an item in one of the hands of the civilians in the crowd. It was an item that made the blood in all of their bodies run cold. It was a knife.
Piantissimo: And each person was holding one.
"They're all holding one," Piantissimo whispered in fear, and at his sentence, the four players turned to each other in terror.
Before they could move, the person at the front of the eerie crowd started to run forwards, his yell piercing the air and making them run in the opposite direction. And one by one, each member of the crowd did the same, chasing the last surviving members on the planet that they all inhibited.
It was a dark place. The moon shined through the single cracked window that was of the once-beautiful store. The inside was already ransacked, as if terrible humans had already taken the rest of what had existed in the destroyed café. A single cake, splattered across the counter, made Snifit gasp with realization where they had decided to find shelter
"This is...was...the Love Café," he whispered. He looked to the ground, face both shocked and expressing a subtle sadness.
"We need a plan if we want to get out of here!" Piantissimo said in a hushed yell. "We can't just hide and sit here doing nothing!"
"I said I wanted to hide…so we hide," Tiny whispered back, folding her arms and slumping in the corner of the store. "I am not going back out there until those people outside…are gone."
"And wait for what?" Piantissimo retorted. "Wait for the world to end?" Tiny rolled her eyes, as the four of them sat in silence.
"We have to go, Tiny," Éclair said, her voice soft as she went to kneel next to her. "It is the only way to win. We may get attacked here as well." The other player just faced her, looking opposed.
"I said that if I wanted to continue…then you have to agree to the things I say," Tiny told her in a scared but definite voice. "Just…you have to understand. This isn't easy for me at all." Éclair looked down, sighing and conflicted.
"There is NO way we're going to make it to the space shuttle if we wait here," Piantissimo said with exasperation, pacing around. "I don't get it." He was walking around the store, looking at the inside of shattered glass and broken wood with disgust.
"Perhaps there is an alternative trick to this mission," Snifit suggested, and the others saw that he had picked up an object he had found in the corner of the store. The others all took in a deep breath as he took a step towards Snifit, realizing what he had picked up: it was a machine gun.
Piantissimo: I remember, from the Snowball Shootout game…he was the best shooter. And maybe he could shoot again to save us.
"Maybe we don't all have to make it to the end after all," said Snifit with thought. Piantissimo shook his head.
"The paper said we all have to," Piantissimo remembered, as Snifit looked back at his gun. "We all have to escape this place." All of a sudden, the sound of human voices began to fill the air even more, breaking the still silence outside. All players covered their mouths, as Snifit quickly ran to the window and looked outside.
"Snifit, what do you see?" Eclair asked worriedly. As Snifit stood still by the window, he turned back to the others, eyes worried.
"They are coming," he whispered, as the other three stood up with alertness. "And they have weapons. They're walking from our left and will be here within a minute. We can't stay." Everyone turned to Tiny in panic at his sentence, as Tiny looked up at them with alarm as well. Knowing that everyone else was waiting for her answer, she reluctantly nodded.
"Okay…but I swear," Tiny said, her face still holding the same amount of scared feelings since the beginning of the game, "If we see anything scary, I'm going to freak out completely out there. And...I'm not going to be well at all." Snifit turned to Piantissimo uncertainly.
"Where do we go now?" Piantissimo wondered, approaching the shattered window slowly. "There is no safe path, really." The sky, slightly, was the color of a faint red.
"We take a right," Snifit said confidently. "After going to this cafe, we must make a right. I remember seeing the rocket in that direction-"
"Actually, hold on," Piantissimo said sharply, as the others turned to him. "It might be quicker if we go forwards through the city. Then we'll loop around backwards to find the rocket. We need to get there as fast as possible.
"A forwards direction?" Éclair wondered. Piantissimo nodded, looking out the window, then back at the others.
"Okay, we'll go forwards through the center of the city," Snifit confirmed, nodding. "We have to get moving." He nested his weapon, which was the size of his frame, against the wall for a second as he put on his shoes. Tiny, staring at it, only shook her head with dismay.
Tiny: I...did not like anything about this game. I kept on telling myself, "This is just in a building. It's all projections. You know this". But it was as real as anything had ever been.
"If we go forwards, as you suggest," Snifit said to Piantissimo, "Then we will be going in the direction of the western canyons. I…don't know if that's safe at this time."
"It's the only way there and the quickest way to make it," replied Piantissimo, eyes squinting. "Well...I'm not one hundred percent sure. But if we want to make it to the rocket in time, it makes more sense to go forwards then. Because that's where it is." With a ready face, he picked up a metal bar from the ground.
Piantissimo: I had no idea what would be in store. I needed to prepare. Even though I was fast, that wouldn't be enough. I needed power.
"Yes," Eclair said. Then with a small pause, she picked up her own weapon from the counter: a broken piece of plate for protection. As she put it into her dress, her face held fear but determination.
Eclair: To survive...I have discovered in my life that you must do anything that is necessary.
"Let us go," Snifit spoke. "Together." One by one, the four of them stepped out carefully one by one from the shattered glass window of the café. As they each made it back outside, they felt the smoky air hit their bodies once again. After a few seconds, they were all out, and took in their land around them.
"Everyone ready?" Snifit said, as the others faced him. They nodded together, tense but prepared to go on.
Snifit: This was the final showdown. We all had to play our role to win. But for me...I knew things would be more real than ever.
"Well, onwards we go, shall-" But Piantissimo's mouth dropped open with shock, and so did the others' at the sight they witnessed of the remainder of the city.
It was not the same skyline they had first seen when they entered the calm world. Each structure and building in their view was now glowing red through the night, and the sky was crimson from the flames, smoke, and fire that now assembled the devastated metropolitan. Each building, if it had not crumbled down to the floor of the earth, was lit like a candle, on fire and adding to the smoke and raw inflammation of the sky. It was as if the sky was bleeding, in sync with the destruction that was happening upon the world below it.
The sight the players were seeing was the view of the world ending. And at that moment, even the Mole was afraid of their own creation.
Imagine that view...
Okay, so who didn't see this mission coming? Let us just remind ourselves that the author is a twisted and chaotic individual who should not have been released into this world to write stories. This is what happens when he goes in hiatus. This happens.
Well, at least everything, including this terrible apocalypse, is virtual in this Mole game, right?
Right?
Anyways, I replied to most of the people who reviewed! (Ah, I could only get the first few since I wrote this a long time ago. I'll make it up to everyone I missed, I swear! xD)
Guest: Hehe! As much as you said my last rely made you laugh, the beginning of your last review made me smile : ) Im so flattered that the question of being the Mole still lingered in your head outside of the story! It makes me happy that the magic of the tale still lingers outside, of just this story. Me myself, I'm constantly thinking at random times during the day, "OH, this mission idea would work well in my story!" or "The Mole should do THIS action!". Lol. Haha, and I enjoy it. Wow, the history on Piantissimo's name, you mentioned something I never actually knew! I always took it as "issimo" being the Italian suffix for "greater/more", which would make his name be "Pianta greater/more". Ultimately, I saw it as Piantissimo believing he was greater than other Piantas. But the music…totally slipped my mind xP Ah anyways, you had another spaz moment in your review and it totally made me chuckle xD! Thank you for the nice review and the laugh as well!
Dark Punxysaur: Heh well, anything's possible in the game of the Mole! The real question is: it is probable? As much as Plus 1 coins aren't as guaranteeing as an exemption, having at least 3 or 4 coins in your pocket is a pretty good advantage to have in the game of the Mole when going into a quiz and execution. Maybe that player will succeed, or fall….and it all depends on how you answer on the quiz about the Mole ; )
sixthsense6: Ah, you are certainly right! I even realized myself, just from your comment…this is one of the most tense and extremely mysterious finales ever. Dreams, mentions of time travel, a mystery surrounding a certain executed player…oh my gosh. It's all such a conundrum, and some of it even confused ME! Haha. But worry not, because soon, many questions will be answered. And your mentioning of Luvbi made me smile: I miss her as a player! She played such a game of such individuality and cleverness and deserved her spot very well in the final four of Saboteur's Island. Also, I liked your last thinking thought in your second comment! But alas, due to the confusing way I wrote it (and I did kinda write that part out of sequence order, lol), it did actually state she pressed the red button back in the end of last chapter, haha. But thanks for letting me know that yes, it's easy to miss : ) and I should write things less out-of-order next time, hehe!
Vivalahomestar: First, I must mention about that off-topic TVTropes thing: WHOA! am actually speechless. I saw the description there…and I literally was wide-eyed. Someone actually analyzed my story very well. I wonder who did this. Like, they took the time to summarize how indeed, the sequel had NOTHING to do with the original. Among other stuff xD. Wow. They….anyways lol, I'm surprised not my Mole stories made it on that page, but my god-awful old fanfiction from 2008 xD haha. COUGH SOMEONE SHOULD ADD MY MOLE SEASONS THERE COUGH.
Anyways, back to your review! You yourself did a very nice analyzation of the characters in their hotel rooms : ) With Éclai absolutely holding onto values, to Piantissimo definitely taking the game more seriously, you hit a lot of true points! Also, the way you described the Ultimatum game was pretty perfect: with the game shifting the center of attention being to the players own selves and decisions, it adds that personal and thus intense aspect to it. Wow, I should hire you to psychoanalyze my stories. They're perfo. Also, wonderful rankings list! I like how you justified the players suspicions and final rankings by combining a lot of great elements: player actions in general, their actions in the mission, and "clues". It was a nice mix to read. I like some of your suggested possible symbolism theories (not to be too specific, but the "mask", and also the game's title, brought some very wide eye-opening elements). It was fabulous to read, to be honest. Great work!
NintendoMLP: YAYYY! ….I'm sorry, I totally am in love with your reviews which preciously follow the story side by side. And like, please only do this when you have the time and don't feel obligated to do this for next review if it's too much, but OH MY GOSH. They're just…. x) I mean….lol, reading your review gave me like happy butterlifes because it's like looking at the story through different eyes! And thank you for them! So with that : ) Let me pick out my favorite parts: 1) "Tiny being secretly in love with her journal" LOL. I actually, when writing that, thought the "petting it like a pet" part was a bit creepy. I kept it because it gave an interesting vibe to her character, and emphasized a bit on how much she actually cares and treasures her journal. 2) Snifit's shy to not shy dynamic: yes, right?! It's actually quite a contrast. If you compare Snifit from the first episode, to the Snifit now, side by side, the different would be so evident that it's crazy. Is there something deeper to it? 3) Your "Ultimatum game?!" with an exclamation and question mark. I dunno, it just made me laugh because it honestly is a foreign concept term that Im sure a lot of readers aren't familiar with haha. 4) The players going blind and the show ending. HAHA, imagine if the show actually ended like that. Like I've said so many times, I truly believe the producers of this show of the Mole are evil. And if desperate times came, they WOULD do something like that.. 5) Your reaction to the end of the Ultimatum game mission. I won't say much, but I loved your shocked reaction and the conclusions you put together : ) Anyways, ah, I totally enjoyed each and every line you wrote, and before I forget, THOSE CLUES! I…promise to get something out before the end of the episode comes : )
Anyways,
SECOND FUN FACT! I just want to warn readers this as the next chapter comes, this might be the darkest mission to date that the players will have to play….
…In fact, it may be the darkest mission the players have EVER played across all 3 seasons of this game. I was wondering if this game should go down that path, but after three seasons, I realized: yes. Amp things up! And who ever said this game of the Mole was easy-peazy and full of sparkles? The show of the Mole is full of intense stuff. Never underestimate what this game can hold or has in store.
Anyways, to be honest, if the next chapter is too long, then it's going to be a two part back-to-back double chapter. Or, I might just put it all into one end chapter for you all!
Which means…the end is closer than you think to the end of this episode.
It's coming slowly. Be warned. Muahaha. Cough.
Anyways, haha! Stay tuned, readers, for the (possible not) end of Episode 7 of this diabolical game!