Umineko FanFiction Discussion

[AuraTwilight]

Ah, about that. It's still in-progress. A performer of ours (In charge of Krauss, Rudolf, and some of the other huskier adults) has a peptic ulcer, so we've had a hiatus. I'm not dropping it though.

[Thunder Book]

So I started watching Redaction of the Golden Witch, and I was like "Oh, Renall~" at the part where

Spoiler:

Krauss learned about Kuwadorian after having people survey the island.

[Renall]

People immediately determined the Forgery was a fake the instant Krauss did anything intelligent.

[Thunder Book]

Haha, yeah. I like the set-up with the adults it leads to though.

Another thing I find myself liking a lot as I work my way through the second playlist is how Battler seems to have more private, one one one conversations with the characters. I'm so used to seeing multiple characters in a scene from the main games, so its kind of nice to see these slower, more personal interactions.

I wonder how this plays into the whole Forgery aspect of the story...

[Renall]

That's more a writing style thing, although it's not irrelevant by any stretch of the imagination. I just like focused interpersonal dialogues, usually between 2-3 characters total. While I am at times trying to intentionally mirror Ryukishi's style, there are things he does that I just don't or won't do and so I hope that differentiates the voice and style. I'm also intentionally trying to style the Forgery as having a distinct voice unto itself though, and that part is very important. The twin mysteries of the story are basically "What happened to Beatrice?" and "What kind of person is the author?" Knowing the answer to either is a guide to the other, although it won't immediately answer everything. Time will tell whether the ideas I thought I was expressing are the ones that actually come through.

That said I wouldn't jump into it expecting everything to be tidied up by a sequence of factual red proclamations, because I'm focused on those two questions and not other ones. Doesn't mean they won't be addressed, but I'm preparing a very different kind of reasoning battle for the climax and finale. Whether I'll still be on that by the time I get there... that's another issue. A great many significant changes have occurred even after the publication of the first two parts as I gather and refine my concept. I'm glad to finally complete the 1996 story, the framework of which has been an idea I've had since around the time ep5 was translated. All the other stuff has spun up around it and wildly out of control, and the meaning of the 1996 story has come a hell of a way since I started with it. But I've wanted that thing out of my head for several years now, and it's finally taken a form of some sort.

Also my signature is woefully out of date. Part 3 is done but for editing, though I expect that to take a good while yet as I get feedback from folks, correct errors, and tweak things. It ended quite well and it's made me enthusiastic about moving on to Part 4, where the metaphorical excrement hits the killer electric fan. I'll update the preview image soonish.

[Renall]

Redaction of the Golden Witch - Part 3

Walter Absalom has written that a human committed murder on June 14, 1996. But the wise sometimes say: Don't believe everything you read. There are many who would claim that a witch was to blame, the same as in 1986. It was magic, not man, which descended upon Rokkenjima with glory and violence... just as it did once before.

Absalom himself concedes that there are holes in his argument. If his resolve to struggle onward toward the truth is based on little more than a hunch, is he really offering any better alternative to magic?

The witch now presents her case. Judge for yourself.

The next playlist, in six more parts.
(YouTube appears to be having some issues populating the playlist properly; I'll fix this if it doesn't fix itself, it's probably related to the videos being uploaded Unlisted)

[Thunder Book]

Yessssss more Redaction.

[Renall]

For reasons unknown, the fifth video has no audio whatsoever. Oops. I'm fixing that as we speak!

[GoldenLand]

I'm really enjoying reading Redaction, Renall. I'm still on Part 1, though, so I'm not really able to speculate on where the story is going yet.

[Renall]

Well, I can tell you this much about where it's going at least: It's going to be rather a bit longer than I'd expected it to turn out. I don't know if it's writing creep or enthusiasm, but it seems like every part gets longer than the last. It's already up to 9 hours or so, which is quite obscene (suddenly I feel as though I cannot speak ill of people with 9 hour YouTube stuff), although in its intended final VN format I hope it would be quite a bit shorter for the average reader. That's still a ways off though, and I can't see it not being another 6-9 hours when I finally get it all squared away. And there's still parts I'd like to add but have left out, mostly meta-scenes. Yeesh. I am glad to have the YouTube releases, because it keeps me focused and on-schedule. Editing is almost a certainty though, as the shorter scene-based setup is more flexible when there aren't specific breaks. I don't know if I'd even want to use chapter breaks as such in a lot of cases where I do already have them.

As I finish up the writing on Part 4 (don't get too excited, scripting all this magic battle nonsense* is extremely time-consuming even with the writing done) I'm looking ahead to what is supposed to be the "final" part (inasmuch as of course there will be Tea Party-esque segments and such) and realizing there's quite a bit I want in there if I intend to end it at the point I want to end it. I don't have to; I could shunt some of that stuff into the other "post-story" parts, but I kind of like it where it is. But...

I intend to add a "Questions" video at the end of the video version. This part wouldn't be in any eventual re-edited VN release, it's just there for the fun of it. Basically some kind of "OK, here's all the stuff I did, now here's what I want to see your interpretation on." Let people debate incessantly in comments or just email me ideas. There's a specific reason for this, and for the structuring of what I'd want to have before the questions... but man, in some ways there's reasons that having those questions there would necessitate moving certain parts out of the "main body" of the work.

But it would be really neat to see how much people have figured out and when, without spoonfeeding some of the big revelations to prime the thought process pump (which would happen if I didn't move some stuff out to the Tea Party-equivalent).

---

* Regarding the magic battle stuff... something I think is interesting that I haven't really noted until I got to it is that it's rather... hard... to write a straight-up fight in this VN format, yet it's actually pretty smooth sailing to write a blue-and-red sort of "logic battle," even throwing in the various fantastical embellishments. The conversational flow gives a nice back-and-forth that's absent in a regular sort of fantasy scene, and is a good deal more satisfactory.

So naturally I'm slightly annoyed with myself for squirreling 99% of that sort of fight away into the post-story parts. But I must not falter. That sort of thing is better suited to giving answers anyway.

Also the preview image in my signature updates as scenes get worked on. It's usually a scene or two behind whatever I'm scripting though. It's all spoilers, but I try to pick the most intentionally misleading or decontextualized screenshots.

[AuraTwilight]

Here's the very first bit of this, finally.

WHEN THE SILENT SPIRITS CRY

Prologue: http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...&postcount=532
Chapter 1: http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost...&postcount=533

[AuraTwilight]

Spoiler for When the Silent Spirits Cry Prologue:

“Uwoaah! Help, Helllp! I'm gonna fall! I'm gonna falllll!”

“Battler...Battler! BATTLER!” I was snapped out of my fugue of girlish screaming when Jessica kicked me in the head. It wasn't very difficult; I was on my knees at that point, clinging to the rails like a a frightened toddler. “The boat's been stopped for three minutes. You can open your eyes, already!”

...So it has. I was so busy freaking out I hadn't even felt the boat's rocking, or lack thereof. Figures, huh? Welp, there goes my dignity for the entire weekend. Way to make a first impression after six years' absence. I try and laugh it off, and pick myself up. “Ihihihi, hey, blame my mom. She passed her phobia onto me, y'know!”

My father, the old bastard, coughs uncomfortably, and pats me on the shoulder. “Battler, get off already, you're blocking the way.”

“Oh, uh...sorry.” I didn't need any more encouragement to get the hell off the damn dinghy, and walked with everyone to the rose garden, half-lost in thought, half-too excited to watch where I was going.

Heaven. Nirvana. Freedom from worldly misery, pain, and woe. That was what I had discovered, as my face was covered in a world of white, soft, firm delight. “Oh..um...Battler...-kun...”

“Battler!” George-aniki pulled me away forcibly from Shannon-chan's chest, which I had walked right into. It seems she was coming down the stairs just as I was walking up them, and...an unfortunate miracle was bestowed upon me. Honestly, I did feel a little embarrassed, but Shannon didn't seem as flustered as I thought.

“Hey, Shannon-chan, are you alright?” Jessica actually beat me to it, as Shannon seemed a bit pale. George-aniki advanced forward to steady her balance out of chivalrous concern. Good guy, him.

“Y-Yes...um, I woke up with quite the migraine today. Natsuhi-sama loaned me some aspirin, and I'm not used to..um...” She coughs nervously. “I was being careless and inattentive, my apologies. Please, let me help with your bags.”

-

So after a few hours of being ridiculed like a fool later, we were having a picnic on the beach to enjoy the sunny weather while we still had it. Apparently we were expecting one hell of a typhoon over the weekend, so we'll be cooped up inside most of the time. Kanon, a servant I wasn't very acquainted with, decided to attend in Shannon's place. We all suggested that she lie down and take a breather in her condition. “So, George-aniki, what was with that bridal carry before? I know Shannon-chan was light on her feet but-OOPH!”

Jessica had elbowed me in the stomach, and vindictively pointed out George's red face. Oh. OH! “Hehehe, hey Maria, you know this one? George and Shannon sittin' in a tree..”

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G! Uuu~!” Maria giggled, but stopped when Kanon shot her a surly look. He seemed to take offense, and I wondered what business it was of his, but it wasn't really worth getting worked up about. From what Jessica claimed earlier, the two were close.

“So, Kanon-kun,” I venture, “I don't really know anything about you, I'm sorry. What do you do in your spare time?”

“Um...”

“Do you like any novels? Or...?”

He seemed really agitated, and that's when I noticed that Kanon had the same weird sort of pallor as Shannon. Is there a bug going around? “Oi, Kanon-ku-” Jessica asked, noticing, but was cut off when Kanon went into a coughing fit. It was overwhelmed by the blare of a foghorn; probably the harbor calling any sea vessels to port, but I was surprised at how clearly I could hear it.

“C'mon, Kanon-kun, this time I'll be the one to help you,” Jessica said, and would lead Kanon up, supporting him with her shoulder. “Sorry, guys, but can you clean up without us?”

“No problem,” George said, and we did just that. Well, George and I did, but Maria seemed to be staring out at the water. “Something wrong, Maria-chan?” George asked.

“Uuu...Can't you hear?”

“The foghorn?” I said. “Yea, it was surprisingly lou-”

“Uuu! Not that, them! Them!”

“Uh...?” I look to George, who shrugs. “Look, Maria-chan, let's pack this up and go inside. It's going to rain soon, right?”

She stood still and shook her head. “Won't rain. I wanna wait.”

George responds with a warm smile, and calmly tells her, “Right, you want to enjoy the view, right? Look, as soon as you see storm clouds, come inside, okay? We won't want your mother to worry.”

“...Kay.” She doesn't look up, just staring at the horizon. She'll be fine, right? Honestly, I felt all kinds of worries about leaving a kid here like this, but...I trust George. If there was cause for concern, he'd pick up on it.

“Twenty minutes,” I amend. “We don't want you to be washed away like a message bottle, ihihi!”

No response. Yea, yea, I know, my joke is lame. You could atleast pretend to laugh, Maria.

-

“That sort of deal is preposterous. Why would I ever agree to something like that?” Krauss said in a calm tone of voice.

Eva, however, was calling his bluff, “We know about Father, Nii-san. Kyrie, if you would?” The other woman wordlessly withdrew financial papers, as Eva explained, “You've been spending a lot of money. Money we know isn't coming from your investments. So you either found the gold, or you're embezzling father's money.”

Natsuhi was about to come to her husband's defense, but Krauss spoke up first. “Do you really think you're in any position to accuse me of stealing anything? You stole money out of mother's purse throughout high school!”

Rudolf, blowing out cigarette smoke, coldly responded, “Could you blame her? You kept breaking her things and blaming it on Rosa and I.”

Rosa bit her lip as she remembered those days, and lobbied at Rudolf, “Like you ever took any of the blame...”

“What was that?” Rudolf said innocently.

“I MEAN you're the one who kept getting out of things by pinning it on me. You would chase me into the woods and break things so you can point to my absence as an admission of guilt!”

“Hold on a minute, everyone, this isn't-”

“Quiet, dear.” Hideyoshi tried to calm the room, and Eva was having none of it, pointing her fan at Rosa. “What about you?! How many times have I woken up to find your boogies all over my open diary?”

Rosa barked, “I made it better! Seriously, do you really write letters to yourself like that? You're about as out of touch as my daughter.”

“Zing,” Rudolf said with a malicious laugh, and Krauss stared at him.

“You're not one to talk, little brother. Or do you have something you'd like Kyrie-san to hear?”

THAT got her attention. “Pardon me, what was that? What's he talking about, Rudolf?”

“Nothing! Absolutely nothing,” Rudolf said, “Atleast none of OUR kids mysteriously fell off the cliffside. Stillbirth can't be blamed on parental negligence.”

Judging by Natsuhi's expression, that cut deep. Her face reflected terror, sadness, regret, rage, confusion...and loneliness. Everyone was expecting her to hell, but she just muttered something as a foghorn blared in the distance. “Sorry, what was that?” Eva said snidely.

“...Just...just stop. Everyone just stop,” Natsuhi said, repeating herself. Not up for anger, she broke into tears, and just exited the room. That was a sobering exit to the group, and Hideyoshi again made attempts at pacification.

“Let's take a break. An hour or so.” Everyone just nodded, many of them avoiding each other's gazes. None of them felt very grown-up, then.

-

Genji opened the door to Kinzo's study, stepping in to continue the pointless ruse regarding Kinzo's life. Bringing Nanjo in with him, he noticed that Kumasawa was already here, staring at a book that had fallen off of one of the shelves. The tome was a crimson red, with a black magic circle of three circles within a larger, rune-marked ring. “Kumasawa-san?” Nanjo asked, but she ignored him, staring straight at Genji with something resembling...fear? Fury? Despair?

“Genji-san,” she said in a deadpan calm. “Who. Was. The last person in here?”

Genji solemnly closed his eyes in thought, and sighed. “That would have been...'Kinzo'. Is that the one?”

“Yes. This is that book.”

Nanjo spoke up again, confused. “W-what is it? What's wrong?” But his only answer was Genji retrieving some glasses to pour some drink of the Green Fairy.

“It's better if you don't know,” he said. “Please. Drink. Drink enough to lose your senses. That will be our apology to you.” As he slid Nanjo the first glass, a fog horn blared from across the sea...

[AuraTwilight]

Spoiler for When the Silent Spirits Cry Chapter One:

What woke Battler up was...the lack of someone waking him up. There was sunlight coming in through the curtained windows, which he would otherwise ignore, but after a few minutes of no one waking up and trying to get his attention, or being signalled for breakfast, he started to come out of his sleeplogged haze and grow concerned. Surely atleast Maria would be impatiently asking to play at this point? He crawled out of bed, got dressed, and looked around the room.

Not only were the beds empty, but they were also made, and according to the clock, it was...eight o'clock? “Oh, those assholes! Did they forget about me? Wait until I get my hands on them!” He smirked and schemed revenge noogies and gropings, but was honestly kind of worried. That didn't seem like something George or Jessica would do, and certainly it didn't seem like Gohda would tolerate it. On top of that, it was eerily quiet. Why was that quiet bothering him so much?

...The rain! He didn't hear it! Seeking confirmation, Battler pulled the blinds to look outside and saw....white. White fog, obscuring his view to about 20% visibility, he'd estimate. Certainly not a drop of rain to be seen. What in the hell? “Does this have anything to do with that foghorn we heard yesterday? Was the forecast wrong?”

“...Well, might as well get going.” Battler headed downstairs, calling, “Hello? Anyone out here?” No response as he walks into the parlor. He doubted they saved any breakfast for him if they forgot to wake him up for it, so he decided to scrounge up some of his own grub from behind the parlor counter. “Let's see...saltines, pretzels, peanuts...just beer food. This is gonna be a salty breakfast.” He got himself a glass of water to balance the salt out with, and as he ate, noticed something else on the shelves.

“What the...?” It was a flashlight and a radio, the former being used to hold down a note in familiar handwriting he couldn't pin down. “Be prepared...you must live”? What kind of joke is this? He barely had time to discard the note when the little black radio started to blare static. “Ugh, what is going on with this thing?!”

But he also heard banging. Battler looked up to see someone banging their fist on the glass window, as if trying to get his attention. With all that mist, he couldn't make out who it was, but he shouted, “Hold on, I'm coming!” He ran to the door, opened it, and walked over to greet the person. But...he didn't recognize those clothes. A black suit with a red tie, and...gosh, their hands were really pale! Stark white. “Hey, who is it? Uncle Krauss, maybe? What's u-WOAAH!” The figure turned around...

And it wasn't Uncle Krauss. It wasn't anyone he knew. It wasn't a human being! This figure...had no face. Just a blank white. Battler could do nothing but scream, and the figure approached him with a quick gait. Fearing for his life, Battler knocked the figure over with a shoulder shove and ran back inside the guesthouse. His first thought was to pick up the phone and try to call the main house...he DID remember Jessica giving him the number, right? Uh.

“Shit. No I don't. Dammit, Battler, listen more!” He slammed the receiver and tried to think of his next move, but that thing was coming. And it was coming quick. It was like...like a predator. “Stay away from me!” He grabbed the closest thing—a wine bottle, and smashed it over the thing's head as soon as it got within arm's reach of him, smashing the bottle and sending the figure to the floor. He must've bust its head open, as blood began pooling around the side of its head. “..I-I'm...I'm sorry, dude, but...you forced me.”

Don't apologize to the fucking monster, dumbass! Well, it wasn't easy dissociating personhood from it. Maybe it...maybe it used to be human? “Or...or maybe this is a dream! I mean, no one else can be on this island. There's no 19th person, right? Or...not-person...” His train of thought was interrupted by both his eyes watering, and the sudden silence. That radio turned off. “Shit...” He muttered and wiped his eyes. He'd been crying. And honestly he doesn't care about how pathetic he seems right now. This is...he doesn't even know. It's fucked up. He just...he's pretty sure he killed that thing. It was alive, whatever it was, and...and now that he thinks about it, he doesn't know if it was really trying to hurt him. Maybe...well, it probably was, he told himself.

It was dangerous. It was running too fast to be some faceless mutant guy asking for help. Maybe he's just telling himself that...so he doesn't have to consider the alternative. “Fuck it. I'm going to the main house. I've gotta find everyone else. I have to report this.” With a self-assuring nod, he threw the broken bottle in the trash and grabbed the coat rack, breaking off the prongs to make an improvised polearm. He didn't want anything to get that close to him again...

“Alright, Battler, just get right to the mansion, it's not that far. Just past the rose garden; you could see it from here if not for the fog...” He gets walking after pocketing the things left with the note, and he considered the fact that the note was probably a warning about that thing, atleast. Who left it? Why? And...does that mean someone knew this would happen? “Oh god, what if everyone else is in danger?!” God dammit, you selfish asshole, how come you only thought of that NOW?!

Battler's brisk jog turned into a sprint as he ran for the mansion's front door, and as he tried to open it...no go. “Oh come on!” Fuck it. He's smashing a window; he'll pay for it himself if Krauss and Natsuhi get upset. Bringing his polearm against the glass to shatter it...was fruitless. “Oh COME ON! I'm not that weak, I just killed a guy with a bottle!” He whacked a few more times in frustration, until he realized he wasn't getting the right sound. “...Wait.” He got closer and banged with his fist. There was a sound, but not the sound of hitting glass. It was more like...hitting the side of a car, or something. The sound reverberated, but gave no sign of giving. As if the windows were unbreakable.

“Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!” Ugh. Maybe the back door was unlocked. He'll come through the kitchen if he has to. Going around to that corner, Battler tries the door, but knows it's meaningless before he even feels the resistance. He knows that, because on the door is a message written in red paint. Well, he's saying it's red paint. Fuck you, brain, la la la, can't hear you, it's red paint.

It was in that same handwriting. “Dante, if you wish to leave this Purgatory, you must remember your sin. Because of your sin, this door to Paradise is barred from you. Remember your sin, and prostrate before the Golden Gates.”

“Oh, a comedian, eh? Alright, fine.” He'll just get something from the tool shed. Fuck you, door! Fuuuuck youuuu! He crossed the rose garden, when he felt a crunch under his foot. Stepping back, he notices, “Aw, jeez.” Maria's rose, as could be signified by the candy wrapper bow on it. It was laying on the walkway, and he just stepped on the damn thing. Well...if it had fallen out like that, it was doomed already. Still... Battler picked it up, unwrapped it, discarded the rose, and plucked a similar looking one, wrapping it up properly. “I'll just...give this to Maria when I see her.” He picked up the old rose and tossed it into the garden somewhere.

“I feel like a guilty kid sweeping a broken vase under the rug.” He sighed, and as he got to the tool shed, tried to figure out how to open it. The shed door wouldn't lift though, and with just a light tap on the windows, could tell they wouldn't break either. “So I'm not picking a lock. Alright then.”

Battler decided to try the church next, by virtue of it being the only remaining building. To his relief, the chapel door was open, slightly ajar at that. Before entering, however, he called, “Hello? Someone in here?” No reply. He entered cautiously, and the first thing he noticed was the strong golden beams of light coming in through the windows. “Wait...” Exit chapel. Look at windows. Enter Chapel. How in the fuck? The lighting was different. This sunlight didn't match the lighting outside. “This is an elaborate fucking prank, you guys.”

He walked up to the altar slowly, and noticed something resting on it. There was a piece of paper with some magic circle on it, and holding it down as a paperweight was a red key. He picked it up to look closely, and noticed an inscription: “For those who won't remember.” As for the paper...Maria would probably know, but he doesn't really care. He leaves it behind and heads back outside, and is suddenly tackled to the ground!

“AHH!” His assailant wasn't human either. A similarly suited figure, but this time it was worse. Not just no face, there was no head here! This guy had a book for a head, and was smacking his bindings opened and closed like jaws, black ink dripping from the pages.

“GetoffgetoffholyshitgetOFFME!” If this guy was going to play linebacker, then Battler was going to draw off of old Gym class experience. He pulled his legs towards him and kicked upwards, launching the bookworm several paces back. Enough time to grab his pole arm and get to his feet. He stepped on the thing's face when the book closed, and started waiting on it. “I. AM. SICK. AND. TIRED. OF. THIS. SHIT!” He found himself beating on the chest. He was hurting it but not really killing that way, and he felt kind of bad. With a sigh, he just plunges it through the neck, decapitating it. The radio went quiet again.

“...No need to make it suffer. Just kill it and get it over with. As for you...” He pulled out the radio. “Are you...telling me when monsters creep up on me? Well, shit, thanks. I'll pay better attention.” He pocketed the radio, headed to the back door of the mansion. With a satisfying click, he grinned and went inside.

[Golden Bug-Hunter]

Really enjoying Redaction so far.

I know you're interested to hear when people figure things out, so I'll toss out a few blues of things that occur to me from the three parts so far.

Hiding behind a spoiler tag for those who have not watched yet...

Spoiler for Part 3 of Redacted:

You described two big questions above, so here's what I'm getting as answers right now.

Beatrice is not there because she was replaced by Andromalius. Beatrice represents the mystery as Yasu created it, an elegant enigma to be solved as an act of love for Battler. But Jeroboam doesn't see the Rokkenjima incident that way at all. To him, the Witch Hunters may look like harmless kids cosplaying and debating and such at first, but the closer you look at it, the more messed up it is. Dressing like murder victims? Idolizing a serial killer? That's completely messed up, and the mystery is something sick to Jeroboam.

So, what have I figured out about Jeroboam?

Jeroboam knew one of the Rokkenjima Incident victims before Witch Hunting became a 'thing'. He really takes the theorizing and stuff personally. He is white, and his job is probably something like a lawyer or a high ranking officer in some corporation somewhere. The Kansai accent and the deeper emphasis on Hideyoshi's personality makes me suspect he knew Hideyoshi pretty well, but we do know that Rudolph's corporate woes in particular involved a law suit in America, so he could be one of the lawyers involved in that mess. This forgery portrays the siblings working together a lot more, so maybe that's a deliberate clue that both those connections exist, and Hideyoshi referred this lawyer to Rudolph at some point.

One more impression that I've gotten about our narrator at this point... The appearance of Andromalius as a young boy is how Jeroboam looked when he was much younger, simillar to the Eva-trice / Eva resemblance.

I noticed and enjoyed the way Andy fights the witch hunter club as a neat metaphor for how they approach figuring out what happened on Rokkenjima. Karl puts up a fight by not believing in the witch but then descends into some wild and crazy stuff. Hiro just flats out runs away from having any concrete theory, and Cass sits there not even putting up a fight, just watching it all.

Andy throwing the gold ingot into the ocean instead of giving it to Eva-trice is symbolic of the author not believe Eva is the culprit.

[AuraTwilight]

As someone who knows the truth of Redaction, I will simply say that Golden Bug-Hunters blues were entertaining to read. I will say that you have the right idea with ONE of those.

[battle22]

Aura, no VN style? Then I should copy paste it on andorid and read it there.

[Renall]

Originally Posted by Golden Bug-Hunter

Really enjoying Redaction so far.

I know you're interested to hear when people figure things out, so I'll toss out a few blues of things that occur to me from the three parts so far.

I'm happy to hear it from you, and there's a lot of things about Part 3 that I was hoping would be noticed or not noticed so replies like this are encouraging. I don't want to see people wandering far afield, as that means I really screwed up, so I'll just say that these are theories I'd be obligated to respond to very carefully, rather than dismissing them out of hand.

Spoiler:

I won't say where you're hot or cold of course, but at least with respect to the 1996 aspects I think you're getting into the narrator's mind reasonably well. Since I didn't provide all of the facts right away (although there's some there), I wouldn't expect a whole lot more than that. I would say your main mode of examination (focus on the people, who they are, and what they feel and think) is the right way to approach the story. You may have missed a few facts, but you caught several others, and understanding meaning is more crucial than understanding every plot point.

Although there's one factual thing that nobody has caught yet.

But Walter has his doubts about this work as a confession and the nature of the culprit, and will have a question for you (yes you, specifically) coming up at the start of Part 4. Will his concern change your mind? Or is he just unwilling to accept the truth after working so hard to discover it? Why would he react like that to the very thing he's been looking for answers to? What is it that's bothering him?

That said, it's 1986 where Beatrice's absence is particularly problematic, so keep an eye on that. What's up with 1986 anyway? Does the Forgery even have a solution?

Anti-Mystery's assault on 1986 begins in Part 4, which I am happy to report is now finished aside from the editing! There's going to be a fair bit of editing though, I suspect.

[Golden Bug-Hunter]

Originally Posted by Renall

Spoiler:

But Walter has his doubts about this work as a confession and the nature of the culprit, and will have a question for you (yes you, specifically) coming up at the start of Part 4. Will his concern change your mind? Or is he just unwilling to accept the truth after working so hard to discover it? Why would he react like that to the very thing he's been looking for answers to? What is it that's bothering him?

Spoiler:

For me specifically? Well gosh. I'm honored. You realize that I'm now going to be disappointed if I read anything less than 'So, Golden Bug-Hunter, what do you think?' in Walter's monologue now, right?

A doubt about it as a confession... makes me think of the conversation about 'how do you know the mansion existed?' Of course, for people in the 'Prime' universe, that is a solvable mystery. There would be records of the construction company, people who built the house, all kinds of building permits, etc. Likewise, a social, outgoing person like Cass probably had a good number of acquaintances to confirm she existed (and their absence would prove she does not) as well as the passenger manifest from planes to Japan on the days in question. I as a reader can't get my hands on them, but Walter / Meta-Virgillia probably could with some help from the police.

[AuraTwilight]

Originally Posted by battle22

Aura, no VN style? Then I should copy paste it on andorid and read it there.

Sorry, dude; I'm not good at scripting, and besides, it'd be a paaain in the assss to do~ XD Being a Silent Hill story, it would require making too much custom music, character sprites, environment backrounds...

[Jaden]

Redaction looks good so far! It's a more ambitious project than I thought it would be. I hope Renall manages a graceful conclusion to it eventually.

Spoiler for discussing part 3:

Jeroboam's character confuses me at this point. From his outward attitude and monologues, he seems super critical of the whole witch hunting affair. However, he did go to their convention, join their "club", seems somewhat enthusiastic in their IRC conversation, and is even willing to go on the Rokkenjima pilgrimage. I don't really know what to make out of it, but since everyone loves reading blue text...

He's into the girl, but is playing hard to get! This would be rather boring, though.

He's a helpless closet Rokkenjima otaku, as much as he tries to deny it! This is what I'm going with currently.

He's actually so edgy about the witch hunters he's planning to murder some of them! But if you assume the Jeroboam/Andromalius duality that Golden Bug Hunter suggests, there's a cooler motive:

He's a hitman "summoned" by Eva to preserve the illusion of the Witch. However, I think the witch hunter murders are unrelated to the Prime Umineko characters. It would kinda mess with the canon and there are clearly some bounds Renall is taking as a fanfictionist.