Is there anything you can tell me about how it works—anything at all? Even if it's the smallest detail, it might let me play through the game without being affected by it.
Steve
[email protected] (Corey Thatcher) 6/17/13, 11:27am
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re: re: Room 127
Sorry, nothing at all. I've told you everything I know.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 11:48am
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re: Plan
Brett:
I know it's a long shot that you'll get another chance to see this, but I think I have a plan. I spoke to someone who had a small part in the creation of Room 127. He says that there is a sort of...song that plays at the end of the game, when you beat it, that will probably lull Ken into a moment of calm. That means someone in the building will need to play the game and make him hear it.
I can't ask anyone to play through Room 127, but I think I have a theory about how to do it safely. Tell Ken you're ready to play. Act like you're completely entranced and maybe he'll ignore you. Set up your phone to skype and point it at the screen. Find something to block up your ears.
I will solve the puzzles. I will tell you what to do in e-mails and instant messages, and you will perform the act while paying as little attention to the game as possible. We won't read any of the notes and we won't do any superfluous parts of the game. Just play to the end, as fast as possible. I have some notes from Dave that will help us do it quickly. The only reason that it took Dave and Ken so long to beat is that all of the “puzzles” lack any logical sense. They're arbitrary and meaningless, and getting one wrong means replaying the entire sequence because so many things crash the game. I have almost all the steps you have to take. We can mainline it in a matter of a couple hours, even accounting for the time it will take to send you instructions.
What do you think?
[email protected] (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 12:03pm
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re: re: Plan
Fuck it, let's do it. Ken's getting worse and I don't think we're making it out if we don't do something.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 12:16pm
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re: re: Plan
All right. Start the skype session as soon as you have it set up. I'll send over the instructions for the first part of the game. Remember, plug your ears. I think the music is a big part of what affects the brain. I think if you're not hearing it, or watching the screen, you'll be safe.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 12: 19pm
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re: fwd: re: Room 127 Feature
Here's an e-mail with several of the steps listed in the game. Don't read any of the notes. I don't think they're necessary and they may be dangerous.
After this, find the hole and go outside. Walk left until you reach the guard tower. Inside, go past the guard and up to the top floor. Find the SYRINGE. USE it on yourself. That will let you get back down to the bottom of the tower.
Once you're there, I'll e-mail you with the next instructions. Look away from the game whenever possible. I'll watch for you.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 12:38pm
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re: Playing The Game
Yancy:
Corey Thatcher tells me there might be a way to stop Ken, but it requires someone inside the building to play the game. One of the other writers is willing to do it. He thinks Ken is going to force them to play it anyway, or kill them. Even if it's a risk, he's willing to give it a try.
I am going to be giving him instructions and watching him play. I think if we separate the act of playing the game from solving the puzzles and watching the screen, he'll be safe.
Steve
[email protected] (Yancy Rand) 6/17/13, 12:51pm
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re: re: Playing The Game
Steve:
I get that you want to help the people in the CDN building, but do you realize what you're suggesting? I don't think you can just do this without any consequences. You're assuming that this is some kind of science, and that the game is sending out some sort of signal that you can block or ignore.
What if we're not dealing with science?
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 1:05pm
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re: Next Step
Okay, I see you're out of the guard tower. Now walk back to the main hallway. There are new rooms in the dark hall. The geography has changed. There are vials you can pick up in all of the new rooms. They are labeled room 121 and room 122 respectively.
[email protected] (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 1:17pm
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re: re: Next Step
Got it. Ken's still declining. He's installed the game on several computers throughout the building. He's forcing a woman from another department to play through it and keeping her in line with his gun. I think he won't be around much so we should be safe. I'll wait to take the last step until he's close.
Ken refuses to help me or the other woman with the puzzles, so I think you're fucking right. I think if I just let you play the game while I press the buttons, we should be safe.
That's how it works, right?
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 1:25pm
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re: re: Next Step
That's the hope, Brett.
Next, according to Dave's notes, you need to USE the GLASS again. Once this happens, I'd look away from the screen. Dave says there are some flashing lights when the nurse comes to retrieve you for the second time. Might as well not risk seeing them.
This time, the nurse won't grab you and rush you to the clinic. She'll run past you and collapse. EXAMINE her. You will pick up the KEYCARD.
Now you can go back outside the way you came in. Go right and you'll reach a small shack. Dave and I called this room the distillery. You still can't go inside. There's still nothing you can do there. You need to keep going until you reach the INNER WALL. There, you can USE the KEYCARD to get inside.
From there, you can reach room 123 where you find the last vial. There's also a note there. Don't read it. According to the notes, it says:
“Even after their mouths were sewn they continued to cry”
Like I said, no reason to look at any of this. We're rushing to the end. Once you have the last vial, you can go to the distillery.
I'll send another e-mail once you get there.
[email protected] (T. Smith) 6/17/13, 1:40pm
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re: Alex
Mr. Norman:
I see your office is on the news today. I wish it brought me joy to tell you that I was right. No good comes of re-visiting the past, especially when it comes to my dear Alex. Perhaps this is all my fault. I should have been more forthcoming, but I doubt it would have dissuaded you. There may be nothing else we could have done, either of us, to prevent this.
When I took Alex into my home, I thought I was doing something good. I saw reports of these children... They were malnourished, they were abused, and I thought they just needed a good home and everything would be fine.
Alex was never fine. In the first week at home, he tried to run away from home. He started fights at school. He killed the neighbor's dog and then he tried to bring it back to life. He was convinced he could fix the broken animal, and locked himself in the garage while he tried.
&nbs
p; I thought he would spend his life in juvenile detention and jail until he discovered computers. Working on the computer seemed to calm him. For a while, he seemed normal. Years, even. He was a computer whiz, and founded a technology club at his school.
Then, one day I discovered what he was doing. He sent a file to one of my nephews. He said it was a game. A few days later, my nephew burned down his parent's house. When the firefighters came to save him, he refused to leave the building and even fought them off. Barely twelve years old, he pushed out three grown men just so he could die in the fire.
Alex wouldn't stop talking about it. I confronted him and he admitted that the “game” was responsible. He tried to blame my nephew, calling him weak and cowardly. Alex said he was just trying to “open his eyes”.
I found out that he put the game on the computers at school. He was going to expose all of his classmates to the same thing that had killed his cousin. I thought I could stop it, but I'm no bomb maker... Things went wrong and we had to go on the run.
Alex is gone now. He went even further and I realized that saving him wasn't the right thing to do. I had to save everyone else.
I thought it was all over. But now it looks like he continues to rack up victims. I wish I could understand what happened to him to create this... But I never will, and that's my own hell to live with.
I will not be able to apologize to those in your building, so I am apologizing to you. I am sorry that I brought Alex Gogoasa to this country, and into your lives.
Thomas Smith
[email protected] (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 1:43pm
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re: re: Next Step
I'm in the distillery. Ken is walking around the halls, muttering something. It sounds like he's saying the same thing over and over again.
“I need to keep cutting.”
It's freaking me out.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 1:49pm
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re: re: Next Step
You're supposed to have earplugs in. You shouldn't be able to hear anything. Put them back in. I think the music is particularly important to the effect of the game.
USE the VIALS in front of the distillery equipment. It will start flashing. Again, look away. Can't hurt. When it's done, just type TAKE. You will pick up a BOTTLE. Walk back to the inner wall and enter there. You will find a new room inside this hall. It's room 124. Inside, there are a series of glasses. You have to POUR the liquid in front of all the glasses.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 2:01pm
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re: Alex
Mr. Smith:
Thank you for finally explaining everything. There is still something you can do. What do you know about the game? How does it work? Surely Alex must have explained something to you. You knew that you had to destroy it. What did he tell you?
Steve
[email protected] (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 2:09pm
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re: re: Next Steps
Fuck, what the hell was that? Did you see that? As soon as I poured the bottle into the glasses, all those kids walked into the room. I thought they were going to attack me but they didn't. Then they picked up the glasses. They started running into each other, hitting each other and blinking away.
What is going on?
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 2:21pm
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re: re: Next Steps
Quit watching that stuff, Brett. It doesn't matter. It's just the game trying to get into your head. That's what we're trying to prevent. Don't let it get in your head.
SEARCH the floor. There's a dark spot near where one of the children disappeared. You'll find a NEEDLE AND THREAD. TAKE it and leave Room 124.
Head back outside, now go to the main hallway. Return to the Clinic. There's someone on the table in the Clinic. USE the needle and thread in front of them.
Make sure you have your earplugs in.
[email protected] (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 2:28pm
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re: re: Next Steps
That sounded like screaming. Like real screaming. Like that couldn't have come from the fucking computer.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 2:32pm
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re: re: Next Steps
What did I just tell you?
[email protected] (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 2:36pm
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re: re: Next Steps
I had them in! I heard the noise through them. It was like it wasn't coming through the computer. It was like it was coming from inside my own head.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 2:45pm
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re: re: Next Steps
I heard it too, and I have the sound off on my phone.
Don't let it get to you. We're getting closer, but we're running out of time. The police are planning to storm the building. They don't think Ken can be taken out from afar. This is about to get real violent and we need to cut it off.
Go back outside. WAIT. This time, it will do more than just change the time of day. Look away. Don't pay attention to it. Wait until the screen stops flashing and go back to it.
Here's where Dave's notes get weird. They stop making sense, but I think we can still figure out some of it. Room 125 is now open, at the right end of the hall. Go inside. I'm not sure what you'll see in here. Maybe you shouldn't look. But there's a shelf and you need to go to that. OPEN it. TAKE the BOOK.
Go back out into the hallway and READ the BOOK. The screen will go black. It will look like its glitching out. But the game isn't crashing. This is normal, or at least Dave says something like this.
When the game comes back, you need to go back outside. The sky will be strange. Dave said he couldn't stop looking at it. Don't look at it. Just walk right, to the interior wall. There you will find Room 126. There is a chair inside. SIT DOWN.
I'd just walk away from the game now based on the notes I have. Give it a minute or two. Come back.
When it's over, you will be in Room 127. Now... Now I don't know what to do. Daves notes are now incomprehensible.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 2:58pm
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re: Room 127 Question
Corey:
Something happened. We're playing through the game. Just like you suggested. I hoped that we could avoid it having any effect on the player in the building if I gave him instructions through e-mail. He was to look away from the screen and just carry out my orders. He trained his phone on the computer and I just sent the steps.
We reached the last room and I told Brett—he's the one playing—to walk away. Dave—he's the one who killed himself—left notes that told me that he shouldn't look at the screen at this part. He shouldn't even let himself be tempted.
I forgot about myself.
I watched. As soon as it began, I couldn't look away. I could see beyond the screen. Beyond the tiny image on my phone and far beyond the 8 bit sprites on the computer. For just a moment I felt like I lost myself.
Right now, I'm okay. But I'm worried. What happened to me? What happened in Room 126, and what are we supposed to do in Room 127?
[email protected] (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 3:05pm
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re: Come on
Steve, you gotta have an idea of what
to do next. Give me something. I managed a peek outside and you're right. The cops are on the move. I don't want to be in here when Ken realizes what's going on. We need to get him calm NOW.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 3:09pm
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re: re: Come on
I don't know! There's nothing here. I watched the whole thing but I have no clue what the next step is.
The room looks weird. There are strange lines on the walls. It doesn't look like any of the other rooms. Smaller. Lonelier. I don't know what it means.
[email protected] (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 3:13pm
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re: re: Come on
Well figure it the fuck out!
[email protected] (Corey Thatcher) 6/17/13, 3:20pm
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re: re: Room 127 Question
Steve:
I don't know much about the game. I told you that. I want to help, but I don't know if it did anything to you or what to do next.
Sometimes I heard Alex talking about his time in Romania. He'd mutter about it while he was working, or in his sleep. He mentioned Room 126 sometimes, but never Room 127. Room 126 was where the children were restrained when they were violent. They were strapped into chairs and sedated. Apparently violence was common at the orphanage, but the administrators were very strict and did everything they could to prevent it.