My immediate plan to remedy my lack of foil is, itself, foiled by the fact that there isn't any placed under the glass top of the desk jutting from the wall yet. Instead, there's a tiny metal cylinder that's rather obviously meant to be the end of a key set atop it.

I pick the cylinder up and slip into my now empty pockets, taking note of the horizontal markings carved into the wall above the desk this time. The fold out "bed" hasn't been pulled down out of the wall yet either, so I do so, revealing the expected dull white outline of a human body, a hole in the fabric where the right ankle should be. Creepy as ever...

Tossing the archive file I'm still holding on the bed for the moment, I pan my gaze around the fairly bare room. Whatever puzzles this places contained, they must not have been too memorable, because I don't recall any of them — though I can't imagine the important bits will be hard to find, given how bare bones these quarters are. Other than the desk and bed, there's just a landline phone sitting on a small table extending from the wall, a tall locker with nine buttons set near the handle that I'm pretty sure I can't open yet, and...

A wall poster of a tanned, red-headed woman posing on a beach, her chest and pelvis obscured by silvery gray scratch-off foil.

Who I can't help but notice looks more than a little like a slightly older Clover.

Shaking my head, I step up to the poster and mechanically start scratching off the silvery section, my fake nails more than long and sturdy enough to serve this particular function. Leave it to Sigma to include a set piece like this in his escape room puzzle. There better be a swimsuit under here...

As I work at the poster, I frown, still considering the Dio problem. I need to strike first this time, somehow — maybe even ensure that he dies early, just so he can't cause any more problems. Is that even possible to do without his fail-safe setting off the bombs though? I'm pretty sure he was killed by K in at least one timeline in canon, and it didn't kick in then... maybe it only works if he's already armed the bombs? Might actually be the same with the detonator, given he apparently removed it from his person last timeline...

I exhale. God, I can't believe I'm seriously considering the logistics of committing premeditated murder. Would that I could think of a better option, but Dio has been more actively hostile thus far than even the game proper led me to expect, and I don't know how else I could possibly-

The phone suddenly rings, startling me out of my morbid thoughts. Breaking from my task, I walk over and answer it.

"Hello?"

"Ah, hello Clover." K's voice says from the other end of the line. "I take it your room has a phone as well? It seems the numbered buttons at the top connect them to each other."

"Guess so." I reply. "I take it it's not usable as an actual phone?"

"Not so far as I can tell. I of course tried several emergency numbers first, but this phone does not appear to have an external connection, nor a way to type in more than four digits at once. I also attempted to call Room 3, but there is apparently no number associated with it."

"Meaning you can only call Rooms 1, 2, and 4?" I summarize. "Feels like it'd be simpler for you to just walk over here and talk to me in that case."

In fact, even in the context of the video game, a phone line connecting rooms all of fifteen feet away from each other seems incredibly pointless. There's undoubtedly some other purpose to them, I just don't recall-

I glance back down. Ah.

"Wait, the display on my phone changed."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, it says '25**'." I read off. "Probably part of a code or something? I'm guessing Luna's room has a phone too, maybe call her and see if the same thing happens."

"I shall."

I hang up, turning back to both the poster and my prior thoughts.

Seriously, is there any better way to deal with the threat Dio poses other than just... killing him? I suppose I could let the others know of the threat he poses early, but they'd have no reason to trust my word over his, other than his general unpleasantness. Could I maybe trick him into revealing his true intentions somehow? I'm pretty sure Sigma did something like that in the game, though I'm not sure it would work for me even if I remembered the specifics. The easiest way I can think to get the threat Dio poses across would be to get proof he stabbed Akane, but I don't actually know if she's dead yet, and in fact I'm really hoping she isn't in this line, since this entire endeavor becomes kind of pointless otherwise.

My eyebrows scrunch inwards. Whatever I do, I need to do it soon. Dio almost certainly can't have planted any of the bombs yet, and everyone is still alive at this point, meaning this first round is undoubtedly the best time to deal with him-

The phone rings again. Blinking, I do the same as before.

"Yes...?"

"It seems you were correct, Clover." K's voice sounds out again. "Luna's phone gave me the other half of the code. I managed to connect to Room 3 with it, but it seems we will need a tape for its 'answering machine' to function."

"Huh. Good to know. Keep at it."

I hang up and again return to my previous task, shaking my hands to remove some of the silvery gunk that's accumulated under my nails. It's proving surprisingly slippery, but I'm making headway, having gotten most of the foil off the poster by now. However... well, there IS a bikini underneath, but unless there's information secretly hidden in this woman's tan lines, I don't think there's anything actually useful accompanying it. I must be forgetting something again; what is this poster actually fo-?

The ringing of the phone once again crashes straight into my train of thought. Narrowing my eyes, I pick it up for a third time.

"Clover, have you heard of-"

I hang up before he can finish his sentence and leave the room, deliberately not closing the door this time, and walk a few feet over to throw open Room 1's as well.

"Hey, so maybe we just leave the doors open?" I suggest, raising an eyebrow at K.

"...I suppose that would make more sense, wouldn't it." he admits, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head through his suit as he hangs up his phone, the receiver of which has a little three part screen attached to the back of it.

"Yeah, probably."

Even for something this, I don't need to be updated on every little bit of potential progress via a phone call that could just as easily be conducted through some cups and a piece of string.

"What were you saying again?" I ask.

"Ah, well, I found this."

He holds up a book with a stylized illustration of a pair of cats sitting on the cover. The one on the left is pure black, while the one on the right is pure white, and also upside down. Both of them are surrounded by their opposing color, akin to a yin-yang symbol, and the pair are facing each other.

"It appears to be about a rather fascinating quantum physics thought experiment called 'Schrodinger's Cat'." K explains as he leafs through the pages. "Have you heard of it?"

"...I am familiar with the concept, yes." I dryly reply.

Considering its relevance to Akane, the axis this whole situation hinges on, I'd be kind of screwed if I wasn't.

"Oh?" K hums. "Perhaps you can assist me then. I imagine this book being placed here signifies that it is a clue of some sort, so I'm reading through it right now."

...that's a logical thought, but even if it was used in escaping this place, I'm pretty sure the game did not actually require you to read it to do so. In fact, I think it was just here to bring attention to the concept and coincidentally activate Sigma's cat-speak tic — so I should probably steer K onto other things.

"You might be right, but it'd take you a long time to read through that entire thing, and we don't even know if it's important." I point out. "Maybe save looking through it in detail for if we get stuck?"

"Hmm... it seems a bit of a shame, but perhaps you're right." K admits, closing the book and setting it back down on the safe for the moment.

"Find anything else?"

"This-" K motions to the cushioned slab behind him, which looks just like the one in my room, save that the hole is positioned over the silhouette's left knee. "-and these-" He gestures at the symbols above the glass-top desk, which look more like odd triangles than the horizontal lines I saw in Room 4. "-though I'm not quite sure what they mean just yet. There is also another safe..." He points at the metal safe beneath the phone desk. "...but we obviously cannot open it yet."

I nod. "Shall we go see what Luna's doing then?"

K nods back, and we leave the room to join Luna, who startles slightly as the door to Room 2 swings open behind her.

"Oh- hello you two." she greets us. "Is something the matter?"

"No, we just figured this would be easier if we talked to each other." I explain, stepping inside while K lingers in the doorway. "Find anything yet?"

Luna shakes her head. "Just that."

She points to the desk, where a small piece of metal that looks a bit like the pin to a wind-up toy rests. Recognizing its likely use, I pick it up, fish the other piece of metal from my pocket, and slide the former into the latter, causing them to snap together with a satisfying click.

"A key." K notes with what sounds vaguely like delight. "What could it be for?"

"I have an idea." I reply. "There's really nothing else we can do in here though?"

Luna shakes her head. "Not yet, I don't think."

I glance around the room. It's just as sparsely decorated as the others, with the familiar desk-phone-bed-locker combo, and I admittedly don't see anything to do either, beyond to pull the still-folded wall bed out. I quickly do so, revealing the same chalk-like outline as both other rooms I've been in, this time with a hole in the left arm.

"How morbid..." Luna says quietly. "These rooms are already so colorless and somber. It feels like too much to add this."

"Morbid?" K repeats. "My room had an outline like this as well. Is there something particularly strange about it?"

"Oh, um-" Luna stutters, seemingly caught off guard by the question. "Well, they usually signify... do you really not know...?"

Ignoring Luna pretending like she doesn't know exactly why K would be ignorant of such things, I brush past the latter, stepping back into the hallway, and slide the tiny key into the handcuffs locked around Door 3. A quick twist, and the cuff locked around the bar on the wall opens, leaving the chain dangling from the front of the door. A very simple solution, for this place.

Turning the newly-freed wheel, I walk inside without fanfare, and find... a room nigh-identical to the others, as I already knew it would be. K and Luna follow me in a moment later, once again proving that splitting up for this game's escape rooms will never actually last — though true to K's earlier concerns, having all three of us in the room at once does make it feel a bit cramped, especially once he pulls out the bed again.

"The right arm this time." K says, hand on his chin. "What exactly are these meant to signify...?"

I ignore him, my focus instead on the locker at the back of the room. It looks different than the others for some reason... are the lights around the buttons supposed to be lit up?

Suspicious, I walk over and try the handle — and the door swings open.

"It was already unlocked?" Luna says with clear surprise. "I don't think I ever would have noticed that."

I narrow my eyes where she can't see them. Yeah, I'm sure you wouldn't have, but only because you making major progress on your own would sort of defeat the point of making everyone else go through this in the first place. The espers need to solve puzzles and have epiphanies, and since Luna is a GAULEM, she's more of a proctor than a participant. It's literally more helpful for her not to be helpful, so I can't exactly blame her for not handing us the answers.

...and yet, knowing that, her acting impressed that I noticed something that I was clearly intended to notice feels just a little condescending. She might even actually mean it, but...

Shaking my head, I look down, any irritation I might feel at being patronized vanishing the instant I notice the large roll of silvery sheets stuffed into the locker. Yes-!

I grab the roll of foil in a sudden fervor and almost frantically start unrolling it, hardly even caring who's watching as I move to tear off a piece. Not going anywhere without a piece of this again, Dio will have to tear it away from my-

"Um, C-Clover?" Luna suddenly interrupts. "Maybe we should be a little more careful with that?"

"Yes, those markings look rather important." K adds.

I blink at the two of them, confused, until I realize there's a bunch of shapes and lines marked on the outside of the aluminum. Oh, right, this wasn't just for the bracelets, it's for- eheh.

"Fair point." I say, feeling slightly abashed. "Hold that end for me?"

Luna obliges, taking hold of the foil's end as I roll the rest out over the floor, forcing K up against a wall as he tries to get out of the way. By the time the foil starts "running clean", we've discovered four distinct sets of symbols, separated and grouped together with clear purpose. I move to tear the foil apart-

"Allow me." K breaks in, holding up what I first identify as a large USB drive, only to realize upon spotting the edge sticking out of it that he's actually holding a box cutter. "This was on the desk when we walked in. I imagine this is why."

He kneels down and slices the foil with the blade, making four perfect cuts through the thin metal... though to be honest, I think just folding and tearing it would have worked just as well. Hell, I could probably have used the tip of my nail to split it, it's just aluminum foil.

Whatever the case, we're left with four large marked sheets of foil, and quite a bit left on the rest of the roll. Setting the latter aside for the moment, I select a sheet that looks like a bunch of vertical lines next to half a K and an R, and — having already seen and remembered how this worked from what was left behind in previous timelines — slide it under the glass top of the nearby desk. The flipped reflection of the symbols carved into the wall above the desk join with those of the foil beneath it, clearly forming the word "LOCKER".

"This does not seem like a particularly necessary message." K comments. "Perhaps those in the other three rooms will be more useful?"

"Shall we check them then?" Luna asks, hand over her heart... or, where her heart would be, I guess.

"Yes." K replies simply, looking down at the thin sheets of metal. "...though, ah, perhaps one of you should carry the foil? This suit does not seem made to handle more... delicate tasks."

"I'll leave that to Luna, if that's alright." I cut in. "I want to take another quick look around before moving on. Just to make sure we haven't missed anything."

Thankfully, neither of my partners questions me as they leave to check the other rooms. The moment K and Luna are no longer in line of sight, I scoot behind the door with the roll of foil in hand and quietly tear a generous chunk of it off, sliding the resulting square into my back pocket.

Phew. Safety net reacquired... not that it'll save me from-

-The slamming of a metal door. Blood seeping through my fingertips. Gasping for air that will not come-

The roll of foil drops from my suddenly-nerveless fingers as I squeeze my eyes shut and brace myself against the wall. No, don't think about it, don't think about where you are right now; think about something useful, something actionable, something-

Forcing my eyes open, I grasp at the door and pull myself around it, latching onto the handcuffs still hanging off of the handle.

-something like these, maybe? Could be useful... can I take them? Even if not to use on Dio, then at least to keep him from finding and using them on anyone else, as he pretty clearly planned to last timeline. I just need-

I pat at my pockets, only to once again find myself stymied by my outfit's total lack of storage space. I could maybe just barely fit the cuffs in my back pockets if I put a single cuff in each one, but the chain would be left hanging out, and it would be incredibly obvious I had them if anyone saw me from behind. Unless I stuck them down my- no, no, that's not gonna fly. Scratch that idea; I can't use these, or at least can't carry them around.

In which case...

I pull the key still set inside the right handcuff out and slip it back into my pocket, leaving the handcuffs themselves hanging right where they are, one side still locked around the handle.

...neither can anyone else.

I pull back from the door just as K suddenly reenters the hallway, walking back over to Room 3 with a black square in hand.

"A cassette tape?" I question as he re-enters, feeling obligated to at least ask what he's doing.

"Yes, this was in the locker in Room 2." K says, setting something in his other hand down on the shelf as he does so. "I believe I need to place this in... here."

He slots the cassette into the top of the phone, then immediately leaves the room without further comment, leaving me staring at his retreating back. Huh. Can't complain about his efficiency I guess, but somehow I expected slightly more commentary? Also what did he just-

My eyes widen as I realize what K just left behind. Wait a sec...

I walk a few steps forward and lift the box cutter from its perch. The tiny rectangle is heavier than I'd expect from something its size, the metal dense and high-quality. While it's considerably smaller than the handcuffs, even this would be too bulky for me to keep in my skin-tight pockets without it being obvious I have it.

However...

Carefully retracting the blade, I lift the tool to my collar and gently, hesitantly slip it into the left side of my top. The tightness of the fabric keeps it in place as I straighten back up, while the fur collar outlining the cups hides the concealed weapon surprisingly well.

...this might actually work. I do feel slightly humiliated to be resorting to Victoria's Secret Compartment, and it's a little uncomfortable, but I can deal with that. Better than being left defenseless again.

The cassette in the phone abruptly starts spinning, and I wince as the sound of Zero Jr's voice breaks out over the hallway, pointlessly tinny and needlessly pre-recorded. Man, how loud is that message meant to play? Maybe leaving the doors open wasn't a great idea after all.

Deciding I should probably get back to actually helping, if just because I can only realistically pretend I'm still checking this room for so long, I leave Room 3 and walk back over to Room 4, where I started. Luna is inside of it now, staring at the now mostly scratched-off poster. To my surprise, not only has the correct foil sheet has been placed on the glass desk in my absence, but the locker has also been opened.

"Huh, good job Luna." I say idly, having been almost certain I'd have to enter the code and open the latter myself.

Luna looks over at me and... blushes? Wait, did Sigma seriously give her the ability to do that? I mean I guess he did want her to be lifelike, but I thought her skin was-

"T-thank you..." Luna mumbles, breaking my train of thought. "Here."

She pushes an oversized plastic coin into my hands, refusing to meet my eyes for some reason.

"I think it's for that poster?" she continues, still acting weirdly embarrassed. "Though you seem to have already made significant progress without it."

I turn the coin over, then glance down at my nails. Is that really what this coin was for? If so, feels like this particular section of the game really kind of skimped on the internal logic. Both this and the box cutter are kind of extraneous for the tasks they've been set out for, so long as you have access to... well, hands.

"I have to say, I'm a little surprised?"

I look up at Luna again, confused.

"About what?"

"I just wouldn't have expected you to be the kind of person who enjoys this sort of thing."

I stare at her cluelessly, glancing back and forth between her and the poster. Enjoys- huh?

"I'm afraid I am still unable to open the locker in Room 1." K announces as he walks into the room and rejoins us. "It appears to at least be active now, and I have discovered a sequence of shapes, but the code itself remains-"

He trails off as he spots the poster on the wall, staring silently for a moment before resuming.

"...Clover, did you model for this?"

"Do I look that tall or tanned?" I ask with half-lidded eyes.

"No, but I noticed the resemblance too." Luna chimes in. "They even have the same little pink sticker under their eyes."

My sticker is a flower, hers is a star! If you're gonna slander Clover at least get it right!

"What's this?" K asks before I can protest this point, rubbing his armored finger over the fragments of silver-gray still clinging to the paper.

"It's scratch-off foil. It's commonly used on scratch cards, or to obscure information that isn't meant to be seen." Luna answers.

"I see." K glances back at me, posed in such a way that I can practically feel the raised eyebrow. "...this doesn't particularly feel like the time for this sort of thing, Clover."

This sort of- what is he implying-

"I wouldn't have expected it either." Luna agrees, pushing her fingers together. "She doesn't really seem like she'd be her own type, does she-"

"HEY!" I shout, flushing. "What are you two insinuating?! It's not like I put the thing here, and of course I scratched off the foil, it's part of this room's puzzle!"

...I think. It is, isn't it? Surely it's not just decoration for- I mean just because I didn't find anything under the foil doesn't mean-

I glance back at the outline on the pull-out bed, then back at the cutesy accessories and tattoos the woman on the poster is wearing. Oh RIGHT!

Shoving K aside — or rather, K lets himself be shoved aside as I raise the plastic coin and use it to scratch at the woman's cutesy arm and leg accessories, which are positioned in the same places the torn away sections of the beds were. Sure enough, they peel away just like the other foil — I just didn't remember or realize they were foil, because they were deliberately made not to look like it. They're actually pretty well hidden even to senses other than sight; the accessories aren't raised above the paper at all like the other foil was, and they don't even have a noticeably-different texture from the material around them.

The coin does actually make the task slightly easier, if only by degrees, so within short order I've revealed a 6 in a star on the woman's right bicep, a 1 in a circle on her left forearm, an 8 in a diamond on her right knee, and a 9 in a triangle on her left calf.

"See?" I say, relieved. "We actually needed to scratch all this off!"

"Yes... though not the foil that existed over her torso or hips. Which appears to be the only part you initially made any effort to remove."

The audible mirth in K's usually monotone voice brings the red right back to my face.

"Because it was way more obvious! And it's not like I would've known until- oh, forget it."

I shove the fake coin into a pocket and pout as both my partners visibly hold back laughter. Stupid Sigma, your horny puzzle prop is getting me accused of your vices in your stead! And really? Out of everyone in this game, this pair is the one to stab me in the back like this? Luna could be innocently vicious at times — I distinctly recall her implicitly agreeing that Sigma looks he lives in a garden shed — but this almost feels targeted, especially since she should already have known about this poster!

"Ahem... all humor aside, I believe this may be the final code we need." K says, blessedly dropping the previous topic. "The shapes line up with the ones from the foil, which I imagine will open the locker in Room 1."

All too happy to move on from the prior subject, I let K take the lead as we move back to the locker in Room 1. He starts punching in the numbers via the its strange, addition-based lock, but I frown upon noticing what he's punched in actually adds up to.

"Shouldn't it be 1689?"

"Two of the shapes on the poster were upside down, compared to the sequence on the foil." K calmly replies. "I took that to mean that their numbers should also be flipped. Do you disagree?"

"Oh... no, I just hadn't noticed." I backtrack, glancing over at the foil in question. "Nevermind."

He's right. Pretty sure that detail tripped me up when I first played the game as well, so you'd think I'd have remembered the trick. I don't feel like I'm really on my A-game right now... possibly because the closer we get to solving this room, the closer I in turn get to discovering if I'm now in the correct timeline. To discovering if I'm talking to K right now, or to Akane.

It's starting to weigh rather heavy on my thoughts.

The lights on the locker turn blue, and K pulls it open, revealing a small, glowing green screen, already lit up with the trio of symbols we need. I move over to the safe beneath the phone and punch the combination in, revealing the same combination of key, keycards, and page of rabbit-speak extra rules I recall obtaining from the lounge, what feels like a small eternity ago. I pass one keycard to Luna and pocket the other, letting my partners discuss the page of rules I already know on their own.

"Before we proceed, I feel I should point out there may be another code for us to find." K says just as I'm about to walk out and unlock the door. "Clover and I discovered as much back in the room we awoke in, which led us to discover the file you saw her holding earlier."

He looks to me, I suppose for additional input, but I've got nothing to really say to that anymore.

"What did the file actually contain?" Luna asks.

I shrug. "Just a bunch of terms and explanations we all heard a few minutes later anyways. Nothing useful."

"A different one might be more so, however." K points out.

Luna nods. "If it could have additional information about our situation, we should probably try to find it, shouldn't we? It could be important."

"Maybe?" I reluctantly admit. "We can stick around and try to find another secret safe code or something if you two really want, but we might want to hurry up as well. Just because that rabbit didn't give us a time limit to get out of here like he did with those fake elevators doesn't mean there isn't one."

I also already know what the Crew Quarters file covered, and it was nothing I really feel needs to be brought up or reiterated this timeline, so I'm not exactly keen on going out of my way to help find it this time.

"A fair point." K muses. "I'm not certain how long we've been in here for either... perhaps we would be better off safe than sorry. That said-"

He leans down, grabbing the Schrodinger's Cat book from the top of the safe again.

"-I shall be taking this with me, I think. While apparently not needed for this room, the fact that it was deliberately placed here leads me to believe it still might somehow be related to our larger situation."

...you have no idea how simultaneously wrong and right you are, K.

Despite her previously-stated opinion, Luna doesn't seem too upset by K's change of heart, and we all file out into the main corridor. I twist the key in the lock, and the exit slides open, ejecting us from the Crew Quarters' hallway back into a slightly-less dingy one.

The moment of truth approaches...