>>1047495
Remember the onion thing

>>1047495
Do A, the clay gathering, but request a sled or something we could use to to drag the clay back, a hand shovel, a normal shovel, and maybe a bin. Actually just ash for the two shovels and a wheel barrel.

Talk about the weird male to female ratio. Its weird.

>>1047504
I'm suggesting A cuz I don't think we have the muscles or the stamina to reliably cut enough fire wood for what everyone needs. Plus swinging an axe is real tiring. At least with some specifically requested tools I think things might go a little faster, as opposed to doing it by lugging around buckets, which I assume was Tippler's default carrying option if we go for the clay.

>>1047495
What was the insulation idea for the clay? Are we just slapping this against the walls and letting them dry, or are we going to make brick molds for the clay to dry in so we can fire them, then start stacking them to maker brick walls?

A

>>1047499
What onion?

>>1047512
The worm cure

Suggestion 2022/10/26(Wed)17:06 No. 1047575 ID: 9ea24b
File 166682916960.png - (100.34KB , 500x500 , p40.png )

>Random beast
By random beast you meant one from the collective. Besides Olivia, there’s no sign of other sentient life around here.

>Remember the worm remedy
Truffle gave you the cure last night. Speaking of which you need to excuse yourself and take a shit.

>A
After your truly legendary bowel movement, you stumble back to Carlos and tell him you want to collect some clay for arts and crafts. At your request, he produces a couple plastic hand shovels and a rusted toy wagon for ease of lugging purposes.

>Weird male to female ratio
You ask about the remaining three beasts, apparently the deer is the only other woman leaving the current gender ratio at 7:3. That seems pretty uneven and ripe for some less than savory actions.

Carlos seems offended by your implications. “We didn’t try to make the ratio that unbalanced, it’s just how it turned out between everyone who died the first winter. Also nobody here’s a rapist.”

“As far as you know.”

Carlos lets go of the wagon handle and grabs you by the scruff of your hoodie. “Anything you want to share, John?”

“No! I’d never–my dick doesn’t even work man.” You’re a murderer but you’re not trying to make anyone suffer more than they already have.

“I meant what I said when we first met and I still trust everyone’s word over yours.” Carlos drops you and in exchange you gracefully drop the subject.

It takes a while for you to find a vein of clay dense soil, but once you do you load the cart with as much as it can carry and painstakingly roll it back to base.

What would you like to make?
A. Clay oven for baked foods
B. Start to work on some woven branch, grass, and clay walls (multi-day project, will need additional clay)
C. Other (suggest)

>>1047575
You don't gotta be an ass Carlos. Yes, you trust everyone's word over ours, that's fair, but you don't gotta go bully us for nothing. Bet you feel like a real big man pushing around the small sick dude. Good for you.

>A. Clay oven for baked foods
>C. Other (suggest)
Ask around if no one is really got anything better to do. Besides Truffle and and our mouse friend I don't really know what everyone else does. At least with someone to help us, we could work together with us or them offloading the clay, and the other person works on the other half of the job.

Hmmm. I wonder if Truffles has a bee suit and a steamer. The prospect of farming honey would be useful for preserving food. I learned this from Kobold Quest!

Well he certainly doesn't seem like he thinks he was being too harsh. We don't need to suffer this more than we already have.
A. Small steps toward better nutrition.

I wonder, are there any signs of non sentient animal life (I.e squirrels and birds) you could try to set up a trap, but it depends on the experience you have I assume

>>1047589
This is a good point. Do non-sentient animals exist?

>>1047589
Like for example we could put a fish trap in a river, or catch craw-fish or crabs and stuff.

>>1047575
Wait I got an idea. If people are only doing token labors (counting food or something), maybe we could attempt to convince them to help us with the oven and the clay walls? If we can recruit enough help, we could possibly have it all done in a day.

>>1047579
>You don't gotta be an ass Carlos. Yes, you trust everyone's word over ours, that's fair, but you don't gotta go bully us for nothing. Bet you feel like a real big man pushing around the small sick dude. Good for you.
he didn't have to... but on the other hand it's kind of hot (yes John is straight whatever)

A

Suggestion 2022/10/27(Thu)18:50 No. 1047645 ID: 9ea24b
File 166692182714.png - (80.03KB , 500x500 , p41.png )

>Can you recruit people for more complex tasks?
Hm, good question. You assume once you have a positive relationship with someone you can get them to do stuff with you outside of normal task partnership, like what you’re doing with Carlos right now. For example, you could recruit Mitzi and Dorothy for wall building in the future, assuming you warn them ahead of time.

>What non-sentient animal life is around besides the fish in the pond?
The nuclear winter was pretty hard on most ecosystems, so there’s less of it than before. That said, you’ve heard birds singing in the morning in the cavern and you’ve made plenty of snare traps to catch rabbits and squirrels and such. There might be some frogs around the marsh, and smaller fish if you go looking. Feral cats, if you go back into the ruined city.

>Bees?
You haven’t seen any around.

>A
You go for an igloo shape, like a miniature pizza oven. Carlos follows your directions to roll out the clay and pick through it for any rocks. Part of you is mad at Carlos for always bossing you around. He probably gets a kick out of being the good guy and lording it over sick little you. On the other hand, he’s kind of hot and dommy in a completely heterosexual way and you decide to stop thinking about Carlos.

You put the oven a good meter from the firepit and start building it from thick coils of wet clay. It takes several hours, and you’re past lunch and well into the afternoon when you finish. It could still crack and break while drying, so you’ll check in on it again tomorrow.

There’s clay smeared on the edges of your sleeves and your already chapped hands are very dry. You take a little break before you find Mitzi, who’s doing some mushroom identification with a book. She’s open to your task ideas.

A. Hunt for small animals (suggest what)
B. Meet another beast (suggest who)
C. Other

>>1047645
Yiu need to fire treat it and do a coal burn possibly smoithing its surface with thin mud painted on also will make coal

Meet another beast - muskrat.

>>1047645
So long as no one fucks with it, it will be fine. Later on we should upgrade it by making a mud elevated platform for it so we dont have to squat to bake things.

C. Other
See if you can grab a late lunchx youre starving. If we ignore our 3 square meals we're liable go kill someone soon. If theres no lunch, ask if we can grab like a few veggies to munch on since WE WERE SO PRODUCTIVE (youre welcome Carlos)
A. Hunt for small animals (suggest what)
Build snares to catch rabbits and ask where we can put them. If we can start catching and breeding enough rabbits, we'll have a relable source of meat. Water is plentiful for them, and they can just eat grass. They also breed like....rabbits.

>>1047646
>>1047666
Shouldnt we get food?

>>1047675

Yes, we do.

Go hunt for some birds or squirrels.

A. A,A,A. You HONGRY. And you gotta solve your being hongry before something regrettable happens because of it.

Rabbit. And before anyone mentions rabbit starvation, you can solve it by stewing it with the organ meat and bones as well. I just hope Carlos doesn't take it as us having something against him. Also Is Mitzi cool with hunting? I'd hate to have her do something that makes her uncomfortable.

>>1047645
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0foHjPVbP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcwwZREsx8I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJKxQ9YC7N4
We can probably put the oven on an elevated surface when we finish. If we can build an oven indoors, make sure to build a privative roof over the oven since it's salable or at least will get damaged from excess water.

>There’s clay smeared on the edges of your sleeves
....bro why didn't you roll up your sleeves before hand? you're a filthy lad.

Suggestion 2022/10/28(Fri)13:49 No. 1047698 ID: 9ea24b
File 166699016529.png - (113.75KB , 500x500 , p42.png )

>A, you’re hungry!
Rabbits are your best bet in terms of prevalence and food value. A skinny rabbit still has more meat on it than most birds, though if you do go the avian route you’ll aim for more worthwhile fowl like pigeons.

>Remember to eat all parts of the animal
You’re the self-proclaimed expert of eating bones and guts, that’s where all the good stuff is. You don’t get squeamish easily, which helps.

>Filthy lad
It’s true.

>Lunch
You clean off your hands and have a nice carrot.

>Work more on the oven
It definitely still needs some smoothing and maintenance. You should have built the oven on a raised surface, but the floor still works despite the inconvenience. This evening you’ll get the chance to make some charcoal and improve your creation, should you choose to do so.

You ask Mitzi for a light bow from the weapon stockpile, then ask if she’s seen any rabbits around. She seems a little uncomfortable with hunting but understands you want some meat and asks you to teach her how to set traps. The grassy field where you first saw Carlos is the best place for rabbits, which makes sense.

The traps will take a while to catch anything and you’re dying for some tasty flesh, so you hunker down behind cover on the field and wait for an animal to cross your path.

Hunting check: SUCCESS
As the sun dips, several cute fluffy cottontails emerge from nearby bushes and start to graze. You bean one of them with a metal scrap tipped arrow, to your own surprise. The other rabbits scatter and you seize your prize. Mitzi averts her eyes from the limp little corpse, which you’re eager to prepare and cook.

Truffle investigation check: SUCCESS
On the way back to the library you meet up with Truffle, who looks grim. He shows you several leaves splattered with old blood and reports that he found the faint scent of death by the huge oak tree on the northeast side of the cavern. It’s been long enough that nobody can pin the blame on you, but this is evidence against Carlos, or even Mitzi since they were in that area on the day of the disappearance.

The atmosphere at base is tense while you prepare your rabbit and get your own pot to make a personal stew. What would you like to do this evening?

A. Work on your oven (you’ll hear what the other beasts are saying about Carlos)
B. Go see the remaining Phillip limbs and Olivia (you have hunting as an excuse now)
C. Talk to someone about the murder, and either defend or defame Carlos (suggest who)

B, go see your scrawny friend.

B. Also, maybe clean off or ditch your knife since that might carry the scent too.

>>1047698
B
Save some rabbit stew for her, get to know her and ask how she's been.

We should find Carlos and eat our rabbit stew in front of him. Waggle your eyebrows while you do it, send all the mixed messages.

>>1047698
Red pill Mitzi. If not us, then some other animals would. Nature is a scary lady.
Oh fuck bears exist....oh god I bet some were hibernating through the fallout, there could still be a ton of bears out there.

Before we do anything, separate the bladder and intestines to be cleaned later. If we leave them in there they're gonna spoil the body faster.

>B. Go see the remaining Phillip limbs and Olivia (you have hunting as an excuse now)
Don't forget to wash up after carrying the remaining limbs. This would be a good chance to talk to Olivia and see if she has and news about the world.

Suggestion 2022/10/29(Sat)11:50 No. 1047811 ID: 9ea24b
File 166706945726.png - (92.16KB , 500x500 , p43.png )

>Teach Mitzi about killing to survive
You’re sure Mitzi is well aware since carnivorous beasts exist and she has more than a grade school education. Some people just aren’t into hunting or seeing small fluffy animals die, she’s still supporting you by helping set snares even if she’s not enthusiastic about your kill.

>Bear beasts exist
Yes.

>Clean/ditch your knife
Well your knife smells like rabbit now, so you should be okay. Also you’d never throw away your most valuable survival tool!

>Eat the rabbit stew in front of Carlos
Everything except the bladder, fur, and intestines go in the pot. Carlos is a little preoccupied with fending off accusations, and doesn’t seem to notice your misguided attempts to get a rise out of him.

>B
You want to avoid the murder arguments and visit Olivia after a couple days of not seeing her. You still barely know anything about her, and you’d like to keep building your relationship. After a delicious and nourishing meal of meat and veggie stew, you take the bow and arrows and tell Dorothy you’re going out to hunt, since you can see well in the dark.

The limbs are where you left them in your old camp. After hiding the ashes from your fire and making sure Phillip’s overalls and pipe are well hidden, you pick up the reeking, rotten flesh and commence the lugging. The scent trail from the east to the north side is going to be pretty strong after this. You wonder if Truffle is planning to venture outside of the cavern to try and find the body.

Once you arrive where you left the torso last time, you sit and wait for half an hour before losing your patience and cupping your hands over your mouth to call for Olivia.

After waiting some more, you spot the coyote as she exits what looks like an old corner store up the street and cautiously walks toward you. She’s wearing her baggy rags, but looks noticeably more vibrant than when you saw her last.

What do you talk to Olivia about?

>>1047811
Ask her how she's been, and apologize about the....source of meat. We don't do this because we like it, but starvating to death is a poor alternative. We would also like for her to not bring this up to anyone, ever. That would be nice. Are coyotes omnivores or straight carnivores?

Maybe share some stories between yourselves, any news about the world, so on and so on. Does she plan on sticking around, or is she going to move on?

Wave, look friendly, tell she's looking better. Ask how she's been, where she's from, what she'd been doing to survive out here so far, and apologize for not showing up yesterday. Offer limbs and and address the elephant in the room that your feeding her person. Do what I've been saying and lie explain you found him dead and didn't want it to go to waste. And that you should probably tell the commune, especially since they're getting antsy about it, but you're kind of worried about the implications considering you'd already been eating him as well.

>>1047816
Then maybe dont tell the commune?

>>1047811
Does she have any useful skills?
What does she know about survival and trap making?
What was gwr ols occupation?
Does she got rhe virus think like we do?
She seen anyone around of interest?

>>1047811
Good to know she's looking healthier after eating the fish and other meat. Sorry about that by the way.
Ask her if she has any odds and ends she has to trade for. Is she any good at hunting rabbits? We got a bow, so if she's good at finding animal dens, animal tracks, or animal dung, we could use her help for hunting if she can start a fire or have a pot laying around. If she has worms we might be able to help her with that. We know a guy.
Any loot still left in any of the surrounding stores, or are they all picked clean? We know an old boar that'd love some more supplies to use to make stuff. We're actually in the process of making an earthen oven for more food variety beyond stews.
>she gets more food, potentially friends and medicine, maybe even a permanent place to live
>we get maybe info, maybe loot and favors, maybe a new friend

>>1047811
Does our dick actually not work? is there a pill or something that can fix that? Viagra?

Suggestion 2022/10/30(Sun)19:18 No. 1047939 ID: 9ea24b
File 166718271087.png - (110.50KB , 500x500 , p44.png )

You wave to Olivia and she approaches, eyes gleaming in the moonlight.

“Good to see you’re doing better, I shot a rabbit today and made a clay oven.” Oh no, you sound like an overexcited high schooler talking to his crush.

“Hi, yes I’m feeling a lot better.”

“I brought the rest of the meat, it’s gone bad so I can’t eat it but you said you still can.”

Olivia bobs her head. “Thanks, really. It’s good to have a friend.”

>About her
Olivia shares a depressing summary of her life and history in the area. Apparently she lived about 20km from the city on a small farm with her parents and several siblings, was homeschooled, and was looking to take over the family business once her parents got older. The family barricaded their house when the zombie horde came through, but didn’t have enough chickens and crops to break even through the harsh winters and were slowly growing more desperate. Olivia went to the city last month to try and collect supplies to bring home, but everything was already picked clean of consumables and she didn’t have the energy to make the return trip.

She isn’t infected and has similar food requirements as you, in that she can eat vegetables but needs some extra meat to thrive. She has a good sense of smell and can learn how to make traps. The herbivores and you are the only people she’s seen recently. Her base includes a variety of basic useful items she’s scavenged.

>Phillip
Speaking of meat…

“Yeah, so you probably could tell the meat came from a beast. In my defense I found him dead, uh, I think he fell out of a tree and broke his neck. Didn’t want him to go to waste and now the commune thinks he was murdered so I don’t want to tell them about it.” Solid execution, John, real smooth.

“I’m not going to tell anyone.” Olivia looks past you at the limbs. “I-I don’t care if you’re lying, with this I might feel good enough to go home soon.”

>Introduce her to the herbivores
You already made the decision not to do this.

>Erectile Dysfunction
Your body is constantly stressed by starvation, radiation, and zombie virus shenanigans. You like to blame the radiation for the lack of boners but honestly there are several possible contributing factors. Women still get you hot and bothered but there’s no outlet and pills that could help are a relic of the past. It sucks. You miss jerking off.

Happy with your conversation with Olivia, you walk via the north side of the cavern to the library, spooking the vole who’s on watch duty. Olivia can now be reached at any time by going to her base.

Your current stats are:
Hunger: 6 + 3 (daily hunger) - 3 (rabbit stew) = 6/10
Thirst: 4 + 3 (daily thirst) - 4 (drank extra water and got salt from rabbit) = 3/10
Tiredness: 5 + 1 (clay crafts) + 1 (hunting) + 2 (more lugging) - 3 (night’s rest) = 6/10

In the morning you hear from Mitzi that the group couldn’t decide what to do about Carlos so Truffle is going to search for the body with the oak tree as a starting point to try and get more evidence.

Who would you like to spend time with today? You get a task in the morning and one in the afternoon. Beasts you’re friendly with will offer more flexible task options based on your suggestions, but building relationships with other beasts improves your status within the collective.

>>1047939
Finish up the clay oven and see if you can get some help building an emevated platgor with it. Its never going to not bother me with the fact you literally have to get on your hands and knees to see what you're baking.
Try to get the oven a littled dried up and add scratches to the bottom. Add a little more clay to the bottom and to the platform (add scratches there too) and trt to smoosh the oven to the new platform. Remove excess clay, let dry for a while, then maybe heat it up to remove additional moisture. Did we mix the clay with some sand?

>>I’m not going to tell anyone. I don't care if you're lying.
And that's a win. Sounds like with her family farm of omnivorous kin you may have a backup for a long term place to live if the collective, or your reputation with them, goes to shit. Or should you just want to go with her, cause this murder investigation stuff is getting hairy.

Teach Olivia how to make proper traps. Ought to help her for the journey back and the future in general.

Spend the day helping Nick and Dorothy. Carlos will love that.

Plan: Journey with Olivia.

You cannot stay in this commune forever. You murdered one of them. You cannot pretend to be innocent forever.
But you did right by Olivia. You could do right by her family, as well. You need a home, and she needs help that you can provide.
When the time comes, gather up your supplies and just go with Olivia. Maybe leave behind a confession and a pledge that you'll never bother them again.
Do not betray her. Expect everyone else to hunt for your head once they find out, no plea deals for you in the post-apocalypse.

>What Do
Teach Olivia the basics of hunting. Make sure she doesn't go near the investigation zone.

>>1047939
Maybe set up an area where we can try raising any of the rabbits we catch in traps?

Suggestion 2022/10/31(Mon)14:36 No. 1048028 ID: 9ea24b
File 166725221386.png - (93.46KB , 500x500 , p45.png )

>Olivia and (randomly selected between Dorothy and Nick) Nick
>Order (randomly selected since it matters because of Truffle’s investigation): Nick then Olivia

Nick is convinced Carlos is the murderer and when you find him at breakfast he immediately launches into a loud rant about how the rabbit is guilty and a liar. He wants to go with Truffle for the investigation while you’d much rather work on your oven or hunt. Mitzi tells you she can check the rabbit traps during her usual foraging, and will even try to keep the rabbits alive for possible captivity.

A. Go with Truffle for a three person crew
B. Convince Nick to work on the oven by agreeing to support him this evening in the anti-Carlos crusade (you can break this promise but it’ll give you a bad relationship with Nick)

A. What could possibly go wrong?

>>1048028
A

A

A.

>>1048028
Boop Nick on the nose.

A, and ask what he looked like. The only physical description you've gotten so far is "big and strong". You don't want to say something you're not "supposed to be able to know", and nobody seems to have even mentioned his species to you yet.

Suggestion 2022/11/01(Tue)16:01 No. 1048156 ID: 9ea24b
File 166734366458.png - (112.89KB , 500x500 , p46.png )

>A, what could go wrong?
At least this way you’ll have some control over the situation and know what’s happening the moment anything suspicious is uncovered. You compulsively check your knife to make sure it’s at the sheath on your hip.

>Ask what Phillip looked like since if you were innocent you wouldn’t know
This is an excellent catch. You don’t think anyone’s even mentioned to you what kind of beast Phillip was and Nick tearfully tells you he was a squirrel with denim overalls and a big fluffy tail.

>Boop Nick on the nose
You raise your hand to touch Nick’s snout and he sternly wacks it away. Ow.

>Truffle
The boar leads the party to the oak tree, then gets down on all fours and starts sniffing, standing periodically to change locations. You and Nick help by kicking through the greenery manually, and eventually Truffle takes the search up over the lip of the cavern, into the derelict city.

Truffle investigation check #2 (75% success because of the scent trails): SUCCESS

The boar immediately latches onto the dried drips of bodily fluids that you left while lugging most of the corpse to Olivia and pursues the scent like a bloodhound. Your stomach sinks as you get closer to the city block where Olivia is staying.

“This might be where the fish thief lives! Be on guard.” Truffle arms himself with a chunk of concrete while Nick gets a hefty rock.

The three of you round the corner and run right into Olivia, who’s carrying an armful of old boards. She meets your eyes and makes a weak, betrayed sound.

Critical choice time. What do you do?
A. Surprise attack Truffle and Nick and kill them both (Olivia will help you)
B. Allow Olivia to be captured (she’ll tell them you’re the real culprit, though they won’t believe her, your relationship with her will be damaged)
C. Confess your crimes and allow yourself to be captured in Olivia’s place (???)

>>1048156
Wait, what? I thought some anon suggested Olivia move to a different spot since we brought her the limbs? What gives?

C
Aye yeah I'm a sucker for mystery boxes.

A. Olivia’s got a place to stay and they do meat.

A) But try to convince them to let her go, first. If they get murderboners (and I expect them to get murderboners), try to capture them alive.
And then torture them for a few days to see if, deep down, they're as sick as you.

>>1048166
>>1048169
Why the torture and murder all of a sudden?
Now, hear me out on this, but what if we went with B? We could probably do some lying and using some facts so Olivia is ultimately innocent. As far as we've "heard" about this Philip fellow, he would be significantly larger than this coyote girl, and last we saw her she was even thinner than us. Maybe she ate Phillip, but ultimately she couldnt had been the killer due to how extremely malnourished and anorexic she was. Sure everyone can give her shit about eating a person's corpse, but we should remind everyone that this is the post apocalypse and she doesnt do this because she enjoys esting people.

Worse comes to worse, we can offer to do guard duty over Olivia for the night, let her knock us out, and let her run away.

A

>>1048166
>>1048169
Not to mention, just because its an option to attack doesn't make it an automatic success. Sure Nick and Truffles are medium sized crestures like us, but they're heavier and now armed. Even with a sneak attack im not sure we can take them.

Say we succeed and kill them bothm we get. We get a finite amount of meat but can't, or at least shouldnt return back to the haven due to increased stress of losing a total of three of their own in a span of under a week. Really suspecious. Now say we fail to kill them, thats pretty straight forward. They would probably outright kill us for treason. Nick i can't be botheree to care about, but Truffles has grown on me. Dude is a pretty wholesome grandpa and a talented tinkerer.

>>1048156
B-b-b-b-b!

I really want to say C, but I'm going to go with A. I'm not okay with betraying Olivia, but these guys are a different story, kill the shit outta them.

C.

>>Yeah, so you probably could tell the meat came from a beast. In my defense I found him dead, uh, I think he fell out of a tree and broke his neck. Didn’t want him to go to waste and now the commune thinks he was murdered so I don’t want to tell them about it.

Ol' reliable. And you REALLY gotta sell it this time. Include the fact that you dragged it out here for the dual purpose of feeding Olivia so she can go home and to get rid of it faster. This can be corroborated with the opposite end of the blood trail leading to your camp.

For further convincing that he was dead already, Nick already believes you were too weak to have done it, and even though you didn't know Olivia, is shouldn't be hard to convince them that you couldn't have fought him and come out unscathed even if you'd done it together

>>1048196
This only if this say

>>1048196
This

B. That’s one of the reasons we kept her around, even if it wasn’t our favorite.

you know, it seems like they hate carlos, regardless of the fact that phillip got murdered. If we are to confess that he "fell" out of a tree, why not try to err... convince them to pretend like carlos actually killed phillip?

Y'know what, I didn't expect C to get popular, but I will totally change my vote to back it since it did. What lies behind door number 3?

A and C are stupid and unreliable, though A at least gets the quest back to murder-cannibalism if the fight is won. Really though she's a mangy little coyote, siding with her is dumb waifu shit and there shouldn't be any compunctions about selling her out for survival.

B

>>1048242
*DROPKICK*

>>1048196
Sounds good, but only if we're not cashing in and jacking out. Olivia's family won't wait forever. They can't.

You could also confess to hiding the fish thief without confessing to murder? Like yeah, you're a liar, but it was because you have a soft spot for her, she was starving and you told her off without endangering her by selling her out. Please don't hurt her over those fish?

(Also, you can vouch for her innocence in Phillip's murder, as she tried to steal fish AFTER his disappearance. What'd she need that much meat for?)

I'll go with B. Sounds like the kind of shrewd pragmatism our protagonist would go with.

>>1048156
Doing B now. For that [B]igger [B]ote

>>1048248
Okay thats way smarter i should vote for this

>>1048248
This is also kinda smart.

Suggestion 2022/11/02(Wed)18:35 No. 1048306 ID: 9ea24b
File 166743931593.png - (128.12KB , 500x500 , p47.png )

You’re tempted to panic and attack Truffle and Nick. With their complete focus on Olivia, you could easily stab Nick in the neck or kidney then defeat Truffle with your superior weapon. With the extra food you’d be able to leave the area with Olivia and return to her home.

No, you’re not in the mood for more bloodshed. You kind of like Truffle and Nick is annoying but still a person who lost his friend. If you were hungrier maybe you’d think differently.

You’re not going to let them capture Olivia either. You’ve invested a lot into the coyote gal and letting her take the blame just feels dirty. Call it softhearted but that’s where you stand.

>C, with extra lying
“Wait!” You hurry to put yourself between Olivia and the other beasts. “She didn’t do anything to Phillip, she was still stealing fish after he went missing.”

“Then why did the blood trail lead to her?” Truffle glares at Olivia, who’s frozen in place.

“Well…Okay this is going to sound bad, but I found Phillip already dead under the oak tree the first day I got here and uh, dragged his body away. Didn’t want it to go to waste and I didn’t know the rest of you guys lived nearby. Eventually I found Olivia and brought some of it to her and by that time I didn’t want to say anything that would get me in trouble.”

You’re not good friends with Truffle or Nick, so you can see in their faces that they don’t believe your lie about finding Phillip dead. Nick looks supremely disappointed that Carlos isn’t the killer and Truffle grimaces in disgust.

You throw out another last ditch effort. “Maybe Carlos killed him and made it look like an accident?”

“Lift your hands up, son.” Truffle unfastens your knife from your belt and Nick gets a firm grip on your thin wrist. “We’re going to take you back to the library and decide what to do with you.”

He turns to Olivia. “I don’t want to see your hide anywhere near our home. You come for more fish and we’ll hunt you down.”

Olivia stares at you in dismay as you’re escorted away, jaw hanging open with no noise coming out.

It’s chaos back at the library once Truffle shares the news. Carlos, Mitzi, and Dorothy seem extra betrayed. Your arms and legs are tied and the muzzle is fastened over your face. They even take your goggles so you can barely keep your eyes open and leave you on the bare floor while they gather everyone for a meeting.

The rest of the day passes like this. Your hands and feet are numb and you’re hungry and thirsty. The beasts seem split between immediately putting you to death and keeping you as a prisoner until you tell them the full story. Eventually night falls and you’re put under extra watch.

Two randomly selected guards: Deer and capybara

Bad luck, you got two beasts you’ve never even shared a word with. You curse yourself for doing the right thing when you could have gotten away scot free with just a little extra murder.

What do you do? You have extremely limited mobility but can still talk (it’s a fancy kind of muzzle).

Confess to your sins, explain you had absolutely no food and no other options.

and/or just sleep and dream, really all we can do right now. Maybe pray and hope that Olivia comes save us somehow since we helped her earlier.

But yeah, as I said around the start, this is why we shouldn't form friendships with our meals.

Oh! if we do decide to attempt to dream, lets try to dream of our past life before the nukes hit, (or just go into deep thought about the good ol' days if we cant sleep)
John backstory ahoy!

>>1048311
we must never say we directly killed him

Take a chance that they aren't total hardasses and see if you can at least get something to drink. Food probably isn't happening, but if they seem friendly enough you can try.

>>1048306
Well this is a weird day. If they plan on keeping us prisoner, can them give us regular rations? Else they should probably kill us. Better that than have a what do you call it, mental death?

>>1048311
Im not a fan of telling them the truth. They would definitely kill us, and out of all the people there we only have one or two friends.

>>1048343
They're hardly close enough friends to believe him over the others as well.

Never admit it. Stick to the story. There's a saying "a lie told often enough can eventually become the truth." and the most important person to convince is yourself.

>>1048348
The fact they're debating about putting him to death means they already strongly suspect John's the killer, even if previously they didn't seriously consider the idea that John could've murdered their large squirrel man. Sticking with the "oh I only found the already-dead body, I swear" story is unlikely to resolve in our favour, though maybe we'd be lucky enough that they'll just banish him. John has failed at being a serial killer zombie, and -- for what?

They don't have to wait very long to see John degrade back into hungry zombie mode, either. Just two or three days without proper meals. They might kill him regardless because that's the practical and sensible thing to do to a lying cannibal zombie man in the post-apocalypse. We'd have been better off with a full confession on the spot when we found Olivia if we were going to go this route at all, if only to pretend John has a bit of decency and a meaningful distance between his zombie and regular self.

Anyway we need to wait for Mitzi to get on the guard shift. Or ask to see her and speak with her one-on-one, or something similar. She's closest to John and probably the most credulous one overall. We can try to trick her to loosen the bonds -- we even have a legitimate reason if they're tied so tight our limbs are numb. And maybe at least convince her to sneak us some food. Maintaining John's reason and humanity will be important if we're going to try and drag this out, but they won't keep us prisoner forever; two people at a time watching us is a very real expense in work-hours for their community, and that's without them wasting food and water on us. We could nevertheless wait for a luckier selection of guards -- ones we know better, ones John might be able to convince in his favour with some better lies and justifications. If worst comes to worst and execution seems imminent, we can try to argue for an alternative sentence like indefinite forced labour.

>>1048369
A bonus in our favor is people like carlos knowing we are too weak to fight anyone like philip we are a sickly scraggly fellow mostly bone who would out of desperation eat anything and this was the day we got a full description of philip

Suggestion 2022/11/03(Thu)15:39 No. 1048397 ID: 9ea24b
File 166751518707.png - (92.74KB , 500x500 , p48.png )

>Confess your sins
At this point that would be suicide and you don’t want to die. It’s that will to live thing you can’t seem to get rid of. Unfortunately this means you don’t have an easy way out.

>They strongly suspect you’re the killer
Yes, but there’s enough reasonable doubt that you still have people who want to believe your comfortable lie.

>You’re going to degrade back into hungry zombie mode soon
Yes, at the end of tonight in fact since you barely got anything to eat besides a light breakfast today. A good incentive to ask for some food and water.

>Wait for the guard shift reroll
After several restless hours of waiting, the deer and capybara return to bed and two other beasts take their place.

Two randomly selected guards: Dorothy and Nick

Score! Dorothy’s a sweetheart and Nick, uh, has a complicated relationship with what he wants to be true.

A. Focus on Dorothy, ask for food, water, and a chance to use the bathroom. This can get your mouth and hands free depending how you spin it.

B. Focus on Nick, speak to him in private and offer your services. In murder.

Well, on the bright side we're back on track. Focus on Nick.

>>1048397
A

When was the last timecwe brushed our teeth or flossed? Like ever? How do we still have some teeth left? Oh right its only been like half a year since the end of the world? We better keep up the teeth care if we want to keep them.
Ask for reading material. What, they think we'll escape or something? Fat chance. We're just a skinny sick white boy. Maybe we can read up on some books about survival, or herbalism and foraging. Its be nice to know how to unfuck out body more.

Yes, we should really appeal to Dorothy's sense of kindness, and sticking with the "I was starving and the body was right there" story.

If we tell Nick we'll help him kill Carlos, he'll know for sure we are a manipulative bastard and he will likely side with the devil he knows.

Warn them about the encroaching zombie state, if they want to get anything from you they need to feed you.

Tell them you like them, you like this place (even if it's not a lie, put some extra flair to it) and that you wouldn't want to hurt them but that indeed, you were starving and did what you had to survive.

As a token of good faith, offer to give back what you looted on Philip, if they want to organize a funeral.

>>1048397
Tell dorthy we are starving dont remember if we even had dinner

Suggestion 2022/11/04(Fri)18:00 No. 1048470 ID: 9ea24b
File 166761003342.png - (112.75KB , 500x500 , p49.png )

>Don’t tell Nick you’re a killer
You were going to be a little more subtle than a straight up confession, but that’s a valid point. You’ll focus on Dorothy.

>Skinny sick white boy
It’s true. Hopefully this will net you some pity points.

>Dental hygiene
Among the myriad of side effects of the zombie virus is an above average resistance to cavities. It helps that you’re not exactly eating any sweets and you have an old toothbrush you use regularly without toothpaste. Five years of the apocalypse and your teeth are doing pretty well!

>A, appeal to Dorothy’s sense of kindness
“Dorothy.” Your voice is slightly hoarse from lack of water. “Please, can I have some food? I haven’t eaten since breakfast and I get kind of unstable when I’m really hungry.”

Dorothy hesitates and glances at Nick, who shrugs.

“I didn’t want to eat Phillip, I was just doing what I needed to survive. I-I’m scared.”

Your innate puppy dog eyes finally win Dorothy over. She takes you a bit further away from the main sleeping area and gets you a cup of water and some leftovers. You hold very still as she unclasps the muzzle and unties your hands so you can feed yourself.

“John, I wish you had told us about Phillip sooner. The others may have been a bit more forgiving but now I don’t think they’re going to let you live.” She closes her eyes with a pained, conflicted expression. “If I let you go, can you please leave without causing any more trouble? I’ll say you escaped.”

Dorothy is showing you mercy. Any beast besides Mitzi and Dorothy that encounters you from now on will attempt to kill you.

Important choice:
A. Find Olivia and leave the city immediately. You won’t be bringing any spare food to Olivia’s family.
B. Leave the city by yourself and travel back to the nearest outpost, doing what you did before to survive.
C. Maximum murder cannibalism time. Work with Olivia to hunt down more of the herbivores so you can bring more meat to Olivia’s family.

C. Let the bloodshed consume you

C. Take some(one) for the road.

C. Dorothy and Mitzi are cool though, so spare them from your hunt. Dorothy especially, she just gave you your freedom.

Carlos is a top priority target, that ration reducing rabbit is probably gonna get himself killed even if you left peacefully. Might as well do it in a way that'll do someone good.

D. Stay and stand trial. Prove that you are innocent! (even though you aren't)

>>1048479
This. Be selective in who you hunt.

>>1048485
Possibly

The group is in chaos with other guys planning to murder that albino asshole rabbit even if his condecending testimony would support us being too weak to kill phillip

>>1048470
A
It feels kind of fucked up to promise to leave, only to come back and kill everyone. Can't we just kill other strangers, or continue hunting for rabbits?

A for me, no need to try your luck.
Hunting them down when both you and Olivia are in such a weak state is suicide, you can't take them all at the same time.

A) This can't go on. And not because of moral issues, but due to long-term hate-crime consequences.

You've already corrupted the community into distrusting all carnivores. If you spit on their mercy, they'll devolve further into knight-templars against all carnivores. If they survive - and you kind of need them to survive for this region to recover - they must have some mercy remaining for your kind, or you'll plant the seeds for a future apocalypse.

Don't give in to the behavior of the virus. Don't let the hate spread.

>>1048470
A

>>1048470
Before we go, see if we can convince Dorathy to ask Mitsu if her trap caught a rabbit, and if they can leave it with us to take on the road, or smuggle in some food for us. We'll need food to be sane. A curse from our disease. Failing that can we somehow get our survival knife and other stuff that had been confiscated? Do we still have our canteen?

Suggestion 2022/11/05(Sat)18:03 No. 1048530 ID: 9ea24b
File 166769662558.png - (106.42KB , 500x500 , p50.png )

>A and C tie
Staying to hunt the herbivores is high risk high reward, not to mention kind of a dick move. Meat and resources are very tempting though, and you can always be selective on who you kill. It’d be safer in the short term to find Olivia and leave, but who knows how her family will react to another mouth to feed? At least you’ll be able to pass on your knowledge of snares and traps. Probably tons of rabbits out in the former farm fields.

>D?
There are a couple of free thinker voices who favor staying and standing trial, which you’d consider a more pacifist choice even if it isn’t feasible (Dorothy mentioned you’re going to be killed if you stay). You decide to count them as anti-C votes.

>Ultimately A
You ask Dorothy for your things and she fetches your pack, knife, and goggles. You whisper your thanks and gratitude before limping on your numb feet into the night.

Your final stats are:
Hunger: 6 + 3 (daily hunger) - 2 (leftovers and breakfast) = 7/10
Thirst: 3 + 3 (daily thirst) - 1 (cup of water) = 5/10
Tiredness: 6 + 1 (investigation) - 1 (poor night’s rest) = 7/10

You’ve made a loyal friend in Olivia, but the survival situation is still dire. At least your body is intact and you have knowledge of the cavern if you ever return. Olivia has a few morsels that she gives to you as you pack your bag with Phillip’s old meat and bones, before starting the trek with the coyote out of the city.


Thanks for reading, John’s story may continue in the future.

>>1048530
Great thread boss. Be seeing you later.