I am the TRUTH. I am THE LIGHT. I am......probably fucked.

So who do I support now? (warning: depiction of violence)

So ~four is (very likely) dead. :-/

On July 22nd, Kim (@electrichippo) from the Brothers of Seraph was invited to a meeting with an unknown agenda. Later on Instagram the Community sees this:

That's definitely Kim.

Later that evening the Community gets a youtube video of Kim telling all viewers that she was present to witness something.  The camera operator then pans over to the opening of a warehouse and the viewers finally see ~four's face as well as Addison.  III however, is not present.  Mind you a few days back another person on forum was basically begging III to meet with ~four and III actually agreed.  So the viewers were presuming that Kim/III and ~four/Addison were going to meet up.  Back to the video, ~four asks Kim the whereabouts of III, Addison is looking around kinda confused.  Addison then goes on about how she has to be sure about being the one (?).  ~four shuts her up, hears a car pull up and gives Addison a very large knife.  Addison walks away with the knife while the camera operator goes back to Kim and ~four.  ~four goes on a tirade about everything being filmed, how We should  really be living the moment and embracing everything we experience.  We see Addison coming closer to ~four, knife in hand and then BAM.  Addison cuts ~four's THROAT.  

Aw, fuck.

Addison then screams at ~four "I AM TWO! I'M IN FUCKING CONTROL!"  (pft, Addison, that was ~four's line and you know it).  While ~four bleeds out.  The last shot is Addison yelling at the camera operator to turn off the camera while ~four is presumptively on her final breath.  

III later on forum said he was late but more or less applauds Addison for killing ~four but alludes to that she is delusional that she is Gatekeeper 2.  Since then people have been jumping ship from the O.O.A. even more, declaring that they can not support Addison's actions.  To be honest, I'm now in the same boat.  Right now I consider myself hopeful that at some point Gatekeeper 2 will be out of the picture.  I actually have two theories how that will happen:

1.)  III will come back, furious, still proclaiming that he is the Last and Final Gatekeeper.  Him and 2 will throw down, Gatekeeper 1 will come in and get rid of them both.

2.)  Russell Eaton of My Haunt Life will have to kill Addison.  Right now in the plot Russell is basically the only person who is standing by Addison.  Russell has been warned countless times that things will get dark for him and what better way to make stuff REAL dark than forcing his hand into killing Addison/Gatekeeper 2.  Who knows, he may have that opportunity to give the bear and Addison may completely lose her mind, asking Russell to just end her suffering.

This blog is a bit all over the place but there is a few other items I want to address for my specific game-play.

I was probably the last person to hear from ~four.  She told me to rally up the troops and I feel like I failed.  Had I been a louder advocate for ~four, could things have gone differently?  Probably not.  I tried but also felt "rally for what?" and more importantly "when?"

Also, was ~four's death all by design?  ~four did a lot of talking like "we are locking and loading" and "I'll send you my fucking best" when it came to ending III.  So maybe ~four was just pushing Addison to come out of her shell, kill ~four, become Gatekeeper 2, and finally end III.  Or maybe this is just Addison snapping and killing ~four in a horrific way.  I'm honestly leaning towards the latter but on the flip side I'm HOPING that this was all by design so that I can support Addison rather than being in this weird "on the fence" position.  Being on the fence and observing is in-game a lame place to be.  Unfortunately Tension is not here to give you answers, you just kinda have to jump in blind faith.  Something I'm not ready to do at the moment.

Also, is ~four REALLY dead?  In the video we see ~four struggling but she's still moving as the camera turns off.  The gasping for breath indicates that Addison managed to do damage to ~four's larynx and/or trachea but the amount of blood wasn't enough to be fatal IMHO.  This is the Criminalist part in me taking over but I've seen neck wounds and this one didn't have the classic arterial spurt.  True, deaths don't require classics but something seems odd here.  I guess she could have died from suffocating?  When I worked at the emergency room just as a ward clerk I would see people surviving all sorts of injuries, neck wounds included.  I dunno, I just don't see ~four going down that easily.

Yes, Addison has additional blood stains on her face (seen in a Periscope video) which is a giant indicator something else occurred (either ~four with her bloody hands started to fend off Addison additional attacks or Addison "finished the job").  No matter how you slice it (zing) something else happened that we didn't see.  Since we don't have confirmation of ~four being really dead I actually hold out this bizarre conspiracy theory that ~four is alive, recovering, and fucking fuming at Addison for doing this.

Psycho Killer
Qu'est-ce que c'est
Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-

But since I have no idea what really happened and face value Addison murdered ~four and looney-tunes III is in alliance with the shadowy BoS, I'm kinda forced into a "I can't support either" stance.

And so I sit.....and wait for what's to come next.

Oh and late edit BUT quick plug here:  Ascension tickets are on sale and yours truly is going.  Eep.  You can absolutely have no involvement with the forum matters right now and still take part of Ascension.

So about that whole "~four being quiet thing"

Scratch that. She called me like at 10pm. She inquired about my job as Sentry of the Council and basically asked if I will stand for her. I affirmed by stance with ~four with a very confident yes. To which then she said when the time comes, I need to rally those that stand with her as well. Shit. No pressure.... :x *again I know this is all fictional but....ya my hands were actually shaking from excitement from that call. ~four is intimidating but she fondly reminds me of an organic chemistry TA that made my o-chem life hell for 10 weeks but I learned SO MUCH from her.

Choices, choices.

So several weeks have passed and quite a bit has happened.  Probably the biggest plot development is that Gatekeeper3 (who goes by "III") had quite the personality change.  He was once almost childish and unable to even use complete sentences.  Now, he's basically a ruthless murder machine who has allegedly killed several people that were in his path.  As III put it before, "III no longer destroys for pleasure I have now seen this world… III destroys for mercy".  Not someone I'd personally want to hang out with.

Meanwhile, Gatekeeper 4 and Addison went completely off the radar....until one day they pop up on Periscope.  Addison is seen in the video putting some sort of powdery substance into a pill capsule.  Four then takes the pill (now in a bottle) and shoves it into an envelope marked "four my very best".  Days later at a social gathering, Addison shows up at the gathering and asks the crowd who will go with her.  The Community chose Daela, who winded up going with Addison into a dark SUV.  During the several minute ride Daela got the package as well as a backstory about III murdering innocent people.  She had to swear to Addison repeatedly that she will not open the package.  Daela was also given the task to change the mind of a well known OOA detractor, Kim.  Kim (not present at the party) was suppose to meet III in person several days after the gathering.  When Daela came back many people debated whether the package should be opened by someone else at the party or just go directly to Kim.  She decided not to open it and was still trying to figure out whether Kim should receive it or not.   

Days later Kim did receive the package and as we all found out later there was a note inside that said "give this to his chosen one" (meaning had Daela opened it, she would have been giving this package to Kim anyhow).   Kim live streams her meeting with III and instead of giving him the pill ~four and Addison made, she slips some sort of other pill in his drink.  III is unaffected and announces to all viewers that Kim's faction, the Brothers of Seraph (BOS), have joined forces with III.

So now we have anti-OOA faction being semi-led by the Chaotic and Unhinged III.  On the flip side there is ~four and Addison who are still supposedly around (somewhere) but are completely off the radar with no indicators to their supporters that something, anything, will be done.

People are being asked what sides to take.  While I haven't been officially asked by any Tension Experience character I'm inclined to stick with OOA.  As much as ~four and Addison have been collectively ineffective against III there is always promise of another gatekeeper like II.  Whereas if I went to BOS, the leadership appears to be liable for just bumping off people for the hell of it.

And so now I sit and wait for the story to develop.....pretty much hoping that in-game I've made an okay decision.  What am I kidding, there is never an okay decision, you're going to be hosed regardless of the path you take!

Also tickets have gone on sale for Ascension!  If you have not been super involved with The Tension Experience, you don't need to have all this back-story information to understand what is going on while you experience Ascension.  I mean, this is Tension, you're going to be confused* regardless of your experience level.*pssst--that's pretty much the point of Tension IMHO