Consistency

Pushing Your Luck Too Far

x her. touch her. read placard. t suicide. a exhibit. t exhibit. a carving. g. g. g. a placard.

Portents and Omens

x her. a her. read placard.
a artist. z. z. z.
a reliefs. a childhood. z.
If she talks about the Tiber: a bridge.
If she talks about the mountains: a lightning.
If she talks about the Piraeus: a ferry.

x her. a her. x placard. a artist. a strangeness. a him. t suicide. z. a her. a stories. a maxims. a personality. z. z.

Mortality

a her. x placard. a him. a afterward. a him. a woman. a church. a exorcism.
a god. a prayers. a muses. a madness. a prophecy. think about the gods. a pantheon. a artemis. a zeus. a hera.
think about pantheon. a hades. a death. t death.
touch her. galatea, sorry. a her.
a stories. a travels. a numen.
x her. galatea, turn. a memories. z. a loneliness. z.
think. think about her.
galatea, turn. a death. a thasos. think about gods.
galatea, pray to zeus.

Love Lost

x her. a her. read placard. a pygmalion. g. a loneliness. a suicide. a suicide. think about her. touch her. touch back. touch gown. a gown. a owners. a backdrop. x cheek. touch cheek. a carving. g. a pain. a polish. a him. a love.

x her. a her. touch her. touch her back. a artist. z. z. a studio. a ocean. z. x her. x hair. touch hair. a hair. x hand. touch hand. a hand. x her. kiss hand. a backdrop. x ear. touch ear. x cheek. touch cheek. think about animates. think about her. read placard. a waking experience. galatea, turn around. kiss her. g.

Invitation

x her. a her. read placard.
a suicide. t suicide.
galatea, get down. g.

x her. a her. read placard. a artist. z. z. a cyprus. a garden. a flowers. a smell. a stone. a quarries. a carving. z. a secrets. a carving. x her. a punch. a tools. a chisel. g. a polish. a hammer. a marble. a reliefs. think about tools. a claw. a drill. a hand. x hand. touch hand. a doubt. look at her. a backdrop. g. a pedestal. a spotlight. a air conditioner. look. a artist. a sale. a him. a death. t death. z. a screaming. a nightmares. a shades. a afterlife. a gods. a prayers. a muses. a madness. a drink. a prophecy. a apollo. a delphi. a pythia. a priests. a hexameters. a civilization. a anarchy. think about anarchy. think about gods. a aphrodite. a love. a pantheon. a hades. z. galatea, turn around. a artemis. a zeus. z. a hera. a seduction. a dionysus. a drama. a illusions. a freedom. a grief. touch her. t grief. t jenny. a him. recap. think about zeus. a justice. a vocabulary. a speech. a breathing. x her. x eyes. x face. think about sculpture. a sculpture. a art. a painting. a woman. galatea, sorry. hug her.

x her. touch her. galatea, hello. touch back. touch hair. x back. touch spine. a her. read placard. a waking. experience. z. x her. touch ear. a life. a childhood. a him. a nightmares. a her. z. z. galatea, turn around. touch chin. stare at her. g. galatea, turn around. x her. x eyes. stare at her. galatea, look at me. t childhood in general. t family. t relatives.

a her. read it. t me. a waking. experience. z. a life. a childhood. t childhood. t family. t parents.

x her
a curtain
x her
x cheek
x ear
touch ear
touch cheek
x her
x cheek
touch cheek
x gown
x back
x spine
x head
x arms
x mole
a mole
x hand
a hand
a tools
a chisel
a eyes
a drill
galatea, turn
x her
x throat
x chin
x nose
x mouth
touch mouth
galatea, turn
x her
x eyes
x eyelids
x face
galatea, look at me
look at her
look at eyes
galatea, look at me

Eliza

x galatea. x backdrop. a her. read placard. a artist. a waking. a pain. a artist. a loneliness. t suicide. z. a him. a fits. a childhood. z. a memories. t me. t family. t parents.

x her

galatea, hello

read placard

a exhibit

t exhibit

think about exhibit

think about komininsky

think about galatea

galatea, look at galatea

alternate last move: a pedestal

galatea, hello
t job
x galatea
x shoulder
touch shoulder
think about hazar
t hazar
a her
read placard
a marble
think about vanitallie
t vanitallie
touch back
x back
touch spine
think about animates
think about exhibit
a exhibit
t exhibit
kiss hand
galatea, sorry
t hazar
think about exhibit
think about her
x her
galatea, turn around
g
x face
think
think about exhibit
t fairy queen
z
t bhattacharyya
t komininsky

brute force

x galatea.
turn her.
g.

x placard. a thasos. a gods. a muses. a apollo. a dionysus. a bonds. a inhibition. a pain. galatea, pray to dionysus.

Variation: Use the same walkthrough, but don't ask about inhibition or pain.

Address to Kypris

x her. x placard.
a artist. a carving. z. a him. a fits. a secrets.
a pirates. a dionysus. a anarchy. a suicide. t suicide. z.
a nightmares. a moon. a gods. a aphrodite. g.

(... Gotten maybe a little overly carried away here or actualy hacked ?.)

>I scream for ice cream

wait is this where post making contest came from

You open your mail and discover an important message.

come on and SLAM
and welcome to THE JAM

, said the King. He went on to explain that the kingdom was under attack by a wicked witch, who had threatened to attack the kingdom with

shame

and so, for the sake of the Galactic Alliance of Planets, the captain was to follow a set of important instructions:

x her. a backdrop. a placard. read placard. a carving. g.
a pain. a drill. x hands. a hands.
a fear. a waking. a death.

The doctor explained that if the patient followed these directions exactly, the procedure would

kill her.

Now, it wasn't my first case in the big city. I had a plan, and I was going to stick to it. It was a plan so simple a child could follow it. All I had to do was

x galatea. galatea, hello. x dress. a artist. a waking. z.
a him. a fits. a nightmares. a shades. a afterlife.
a gods. a apollo. a dionysus. a illusions. z. a masks.
restart. look behind curtain. take curtain. g.

But despite our best efforts, the Imperial Army soon took over the whole continent. And it was too late to flee. We had only one last, desperate chance for survival, namely,

x her. a her. read placard. a artist. hug her. attack her. think about cancer.

And that's how we learned about the letter Q! But the next letter was hidden deep in a frightening cave. It was very dark in there, so we needed something very important. What was it we needed?

galatea, hello. read placard. t suicide. hug her. a her. a waking. a sight. a hearing. a sleeping. g. a food. g. g. z. z. t processes.

And with that, you arrive at the poetry jam just in time. Unfortunately, you were in such a hurry that you forgot to write a poem. Desperately, you scrawl one on your arm while the poet ahead of you recites something.

Reflections
x galatea
touch back
touch spine
a her
read placard
a marble
a sparkle

and with the incantation complete, the demon appears before you. You cackle with glee, and ask it for ultimate power. It glares at you with fiery eyes and says,

Pushing Your Luck Too Far

is the perfect name for your new game show! But it turns out that coming up with a game show involves more than just making up a title... you need to come up with a game! So, what are the rules going to be?

x her. touch her. read placard. t suicide. a exhibit. t exhibit. a carving. g. g. g. a placard.

You look up from the directions. The treasure should definitely be here. But something's wrong. There's already a hole here, and you don't see a treasure in it. You only see

Portents and Omens

, the newest hit band! You've got all their albums already. You can't wait to hear their next concert in person. You've only heard one of the songs they're scheduled to perform, but it's a great one:

x her. a her. read placard.
a artist. z. z. z.
a reliefs. a childhood. z.
If she talks about the Tiber: a bridge.
If she talks about the mountains: a lightning.
If she talks about the Piraeus: a ferry.

You put down your interview notes. You've got this. You can handle this. You just need to pick up the phone and call her back. Just give her the answers you've prepared and everything will go smoothly.

Wait, what was the number again?

x her. a her. x placard. a artist. a strangeness. a him. t suicide. z. a her. a stories. a maxims. a personality. z. z.

You look over the puzzle again and again. You just don't see how you can get an answer here. Nothing makes any sense... wait! You think you see it. The answer is

Mortality

was your gift from your teacher before he vanished. And frankly, it was a terrible gift. The other guys got mastery of magic, and control over the dream world. But you? You get the ability to die. That's so stupid.

So you're just going to have to get your revenge, and you know just how you're going to do it.

a her. x placard. a him. a afterward. a him. a woman. a church. a exorcism.
a god. a prayers. a muses. a madness. a prophecy. think about the gods. a pantheon. a artemis. a zeus. a hera.
think about pantheon. a hades. a death. t death.
touch her. galatea, sorry. a her.
a stories. a travels. a numen.
x her. galatea, turn. a memories. z. a loneliness. z.
think. think about her.
galatea, turn. a death. a thasos. think about gods.
galatea, pray to zeus.

, the President said, concluding her speech. She smiled. After that stemwinder, she wass sure to be re-elected. Especially once she followed it up with her new campaign slogan:

Love Lost

is the headline, and you're in deep trouble. You bet a lot of money on that match, and Love couldn't pull it out. Now you owe the bookies big time, unless you can get a lot of money quick. And you've only got one idea for doing that.

x her. a her. read placard. a pygmalion. g. a loneliness. a suicide. a suicide. think about her. touch her. touch back. touch gown. a gown. a owners. a backdrop. x cheek. touch cheek. a carving. g. a pain. a polish. a him. a love.

is your new pseudonym. It's a bit short, but you're too pressed for time to fill in all the usual names. You're not trying to pass yourself off as a real name, anyhow; the pseudonym is just to keep it from drawing too much attention.

So with that settled, it's time to write your first book, which is called

x her. a her. touch her. touch her back. a artist. z. z. a studio. a ocean. z. x her. x hair. touch hair. a hair. x hand. touch hand. a hand. x her. kiss hand. a backdrop. x ear. touch ear. x cheek. touch cheek. think about animates. think about her. read placard. a waking experience. galatea, turn around. kiss her. g.

- and that's final! You look your boss right in the eye as you finish. She's clearly shaken by your complaints, but in a few minutes she regains her composure and says, calmly,

Invitation

is your only shot at getting out of this mess. The success rate is low, but if you get that Geomancer to your side, you may just be able to turn this fight around.

It's a success! But you haven't won yet. You're going to need a careful plan to take down that Mediator. Your battle plan from here on out is

x her. a her. read placard.
a suicide. t suicide.
galatea, get down. g.

and with that, the witness concludes his testimony.

This is looking really bad for your client. You're going to need to think carefully about your cross-examination. So you take some time, and offer your first question, making sure to keep it simple.

x her. a her. read placard. a artist. z. z. a cyprus. a garden. a flowers. a smell. a stone. a quarries. a carving. z. a secrets. a carving. x her. a punch. a tools. a chisel. g. a polish. a hammer. a marble. a reliefs. think about tools. a claw. a drill. a hand. x hand. touch hand. a doubt. look at her. a backdrop. g. a pedestal. a spotlight. a air conditioner. look. a artist. a sale. a him. a death. t death. z. a screaming. a nightmares. a shades. a afterlife. a gods. a prayers. a muses. a madness. a drink. a prophecy. a apollo. a delphi. a pythia. a priests. a hexameters. a civilization. a anarchy. think about anarchy. think about gods. a aphrodite. a love. a pantheon. a hades. z. galatea, turn around. a artemis. a zeus. z. a hera. a seduction. a dionysus. a drama. a illusions. a freedom. a grief. touch her. t grief. t jenny. a him. recap. think about zeus. a justice. a vocabulary. a speech. a breathing. x her. x eyes. x face. think about sculpture. a sculpture. a art. a painting. a woman. galatea, sorry. hug her.

You just stare at the orders in disbelief. Can this really be what command wants? Then what... what are you fighting for?

No. You can't follow these orders. Consequences be damned, you're going to do what's right. You're going to

x her. touch her. galatea, hello. touch back. touch hair. x back. touch spine. a her. read placard. a waking. experience. z. x her. touch ear. a life. a childhood. a him. a nightmares. a her. z. z. galatea, turn around. touch chin. stare at her. g. galatea, turn around. x her. x eyes. stare at her. galatea, look at me. t childhood in general. t family. t relatives.

and that's when she turned to me and said, that was my dad's zebra!"

The audience is silent. You must have messed up that joke somehow. Well, there's not much you can do about it except move on to the next one. You're feeling really confident about it, at least. You take a deep breath and say

a her. read it. t me. a waking. experience. z. a life. a childhood. t childhood. t family. t parents.

You look at the readout again. You just can't believe this. If these results are accurate, then you've been completely wrong all this time. The entire experiment has been built on faulty premises.

This can't be possible. But, you're a woman of science. No matter how much it pains you, you have to base your work on the truth. You'll have to run the experiment again to make sure everything is working right. So you start all over and remind yourself of the procedure:

x her
a curtain
x her
x cheek
x ear
touch ear
touch cheek
x her
x cheek
touch cheek
x gown
x back
x spine
x head
x arms
x mole
a mole
x hand
a hand
a tools
a chisel
a eyes
a drill
galatea, turn
x her
x throat
x chin
x nose
x mouth
touch mouth
galatea, turn
x her
x eyes
x eyelids
x face
galatea, look at me
look at her
look at eyes
galatea, look at me

and tomatoes. That's the whole list. You don't know if you're going to be able to find all this, but you've got to get your shopping done today one way or another.

So you head to the closest grocery store,

Eliza

, of course. Of all the people who could come back into your life, at this of all times, of course it would be her.

Where do you even start? After all that happened, what can you even say?

Well, you can think of one thing.

x galatea. x backdrop. a her. read placard. a artist. a waking. a pain. a artist. a loneliness. t suicide. z. a him. a fits. a childhood. z. a memories. t me. t family. t parents.

shall be the name of your new global empire. Naturally, failing to refer to it by its full title will carry the harshest punishment you can devise. Namely,

x her

, you decide. This character just isn't adding anything to the story, you may as well remove her entirely.

Wait, you've just xed every character in the book. Maybe you need to go over the list again and think about who to add back in... wait, yeah, you think you see two of them you can rework into the central characters. Their names are

galatea, hello

, you say into the phone. The plumber sounds confused.

"Are you sure you have the right number? There's no Galatea here."

Wait, really? You'd better double-check your info. But where did you put it down?

read placard

You read the placard the printer just finished and... hey! Your name is spelled wrong here, it's not even close to Galaty. You're so annoyed you could just hit him with something, but there's nothing around except these decorative dioramas about letters of the alphabet.

So you pick up the

a exhibit

is where you go in a museum to learn about stuff. My favorite exhibit is the one about that hot drink people in England really like, it's the

t exhibit

is almost ready to go. There's just one problem: it turns out that in order to make a showcase about a living public figure, such as Mr. T., you need his permission. And you tried to find him but he just said he pitied fools like you. So before you go back and ask again, you've decided to

think about exhibit

for Exhibit is what matters. Exhibit is Life. Exhibit is Love. Exhibit is Society. We are all part of Exhibit, so Exhibit is what we must all think of.

Most importantly, be sure to think about the person who made Exhibit possible.

think about komininsky

and realize that he had the means, the motive, the opportunity. He could have killed the victim easily... because he was the victim.

But if this was a suicide, why stage such an elaborate attempt to make it look like a murder? Was he trying to pin his death on someone else? But who?

think about galatea

," says your tutor. "Most people think forwards, or backwards, but so few take the time to think about. You will serve your art best if you learn this practice, Galatea."

Ugh, not this again. He keeps mixing you up with his other student. You're sick of this. You point at the other student and tell him that's

galatea, look at galatea

The cultists' chanting is getting louder. But you can't stop now. You have to get to the altar.

You know enough now about the dark gods controlling the cultists to understand how to disrupt their plans. You just have to make it to the altar and you can break the eldritch spell with the ancient chant you've gone through so much trouble to learn -

alternate last move: a pedestal

You keep alternating your last move with the move before, going from a pedestal to a chandelier effortlessly. Your opponent seems baffled; even though she has the upper hand, and there's no conceivable way this tactic can prevail, you persist. She's convinced you're up to something.

And you are. As soon as Galatea makes a mistake, you seize on it and advance through the play you've carefully prepared.

galatea, hello
t job
x galatea
x shoulder
touch shoulder
think about hazar
t hazar
a her
read placard
a marble
think about vanitallie
t vanitallie
touch back
x back
touch spine
think about animates
think about exhibit
a exhibit
t exhibit
kiss hand
galatea, sorry
t hazar
think about exhibit
think about her
x her
galatea, turn around
g
x face
think
think about exhibit
t fairy queen
z
t bhattacharyya
t komininsky

and of course, your parents. That covers everyone you wanted to thank for their part in the long journey that is your life, all leading up to this moment when you accept the award for

brute force

is here to bring the PAIN! Yeah, Brute Force is the toughest team out there on the field, and Brute Force doesn't take no shit from nobody!

You know what Brute Force is going to do? I'll tell you what Brute Force is going to do! Brute Force is going to

x galatea.
turn her.
g.

That's the order you'll take on these last three bosses in. It should give you the weapons you need to have an edge.

But before you do that, you'd better revisit the other stages. You know you missed a bunch of stuff. You take a look at the checklist to confirm that you still need to find

x placard. a thasos. a gods. a muses. a apollo. a dionysus. a bonds. a inhibition. a pain. galatea, pray to dionysus.

And now you've reached the last target. The last of the sages' heirs that you need to slay to undo this damned seal.

Of course, this heir was smarter than the rest. Realized you were coming. Set up an entire fortress to hold you back.

But this is hardly the first fortress you've torn your way through. You remember the last one you destroyed, centuries ago. Quite fondly, in fact. You even remember exactly how you do it.

So for this one, you think you'll do a

Variation: Use the same walkthrough, but don't ask about inhibition or pain.

is the latest entry in the Variation series. As usual, its subtitle is utter nonsense and has nothing to do with the actual events of the movie. Nonetheless, this Variation still delivers the thrills and laughs you've come to expect of the franchise.

The movie begins with the deuteragonist, Galatea, meeting the protagonist in the middle of his

Address to Kypris

is an awful lot to pack into one volume, but you think it's necessary for the Encyclopedia Galatea to fulfill your vision.

Having decided on the scope of the volume, it's time to start on the actual articles. You'll start with the entry you're most excited to write, the one about fish artistry. You quickly jot down a few notes:

x her. x placard.
a artist. a carving. z. a him. a fits. a secrets.
a pirates. a dionysus. a anarchy. a suicide. t suicide. z.
a nightmares. a moon. a gods. a aphrodite. g.

So many images rushing through your head at once. Your mind can't take it. What's real? Are you even yourself, or are you observing someone else through an omniscient viewpoint? There's no, what's the word, something about things staying the same. Whatever it is, it just seems to be missing from her existence now.

But suddenly, it strikes him. The way to end the torment, and return to clarity. Galatea doesn't know if they'll go back to a singular existence, or simply resume its ever-shifting experiences without being aware of the changes. Still, either would be an improvement over what I'm feeling now.

And one single word is the key to ending it. You gather up as much of your sense of self as you can and speak it across a thousand lifetimes.

APACH

(... Gotten maybe a little overly carried away here or actualy hacked ?.)

Wow, you really don't know why you just broadcast that so loudly. You check your systems. Your enthusiasm containment servos might be malfunctioning.

But your diagnostics don't show any oddities. Perhaps another droid has been attempting to remotely access you? Your internal logs aren't indicating any signs of an attack, but a skilled intruder would edit the logs to avoid any such traces.

You consider reporting to engineering to see if they can settle the question, but then you'd likely have to answer questions about your illegal upgrades. How should you handle this?

>I scream for ice cream

The ice cream vendor stares at you. Embarrassed, you explain that you were only shouting because you really want ice cream, and you were so excited that you completely messed up the flavor you wanted.

What flavor was that, again?

wait is this where post making contest came from

"Passes Rules 2, 3 and 5," says the Great Evaluator. "You are drawing closer to completing the trial."

Whew, good thing everyone's just shouting and doing nonsensical things, or you might feel embarrassed about yelling a meaningless word right in the middle of the Space Consortium.

What nonsense will you say next to try to pass all the rules?