Spoiler Regarding Dammek, given the information we have right now, I'm willing to offer him the benefit of the doubt and say he might be dealing with the same sort of self-fulfilling prophecy bull that Vriska was. He did, after all, have a book on lusii that says his lusus picks bronzebloods with leadership potential, and I don't think he has any good examples for what a leader should act like. That said, he's still been utterly awful to Xefros from what we can tell, and I hope he gets that sorted out before Xefros has to deal with him again. (Also, is it just me or does anyone else suspect that Dammek might have some mind-control psionics? Xefros says that his memories of the time Dammek made him act out the stunts from "their" favourite action movies are fuzzy, and Dammek didn't seem too surprised as he passed Joey. And something definitely whammied Joey into using that key on the portal. Definitely way too early to say for sure, though.) Whatever's going on, Scratch is definitely paying attention to it - that Scratchware that Xefros got didn't come out of a plot hole. And there's the implication that Dammek didn't have it, too - possibly Scratch only cares because a human showed up, whereas Dammek was just a run-of-the-mill wannabe rebel.
Spoiler it's entirely possible for one person to make another do something they're not super into without mind control. it's not that weird. And honestly I assumed the memories are fuzzy bit was a joke about how he got a minor concussion, because, action scenes. and we've seen other Jujus compel people to use them - mostly the lollipop, possibly Cal.
Spoiler It's interesting that we got to control Joey, Jude, and Xefros in Act 1... but not Dammek, the 4th of this main cast. That's part of why it's so easy to be suspicious of him, we haven't gotten his pov yet, his only contributions this far have been how he made (unintentional) obstacles for Joey, how he's bullied Xefros into a situation that is presumably meant to be better than the alternative, and how he's struggled to survive in hellworld. Eta But re Juju compulsions, it is funny that we haven't gotten to control him at all. Does add the question if he's under someone else's control.
Spoiler Yeah, I figured the first time I saw the "you don't remember much" dialogue was a joke about having gotten some head trauma as a result. But when I played through it myself and looked at the photo of Xefros being shot through a flaming hoop? That's what made me start suspecting that Dammek might have mind control powers, because Xefros' expression in that photo was weirdly blank. But you're right that it's entirely possible for him to have done all that we know he has without mind control. And it definitely is interesting that the only one we didn't get to control during Act 1 was Dammek - but I'd honestly written that off to being because we don't currently have a way to toggle between worlds and by the time Xefros was in the picture, Dammek wasn't on Alternia any more. Spoiler I had noticed that! While Xefros has hexagonal ones, and claims he's not allowed to have round ones. Begs the question of who told him he's not allowed round ones.
Spoiler two theories: 1) it's literally only rustbloods who have to have hexagonal discs. brownbloods and up get circular ones. 2) dammek stole some. he doesn't even like the music that they have. it's purely Fuck You I Have The Circular Datadiscs Take That
Spoiler YES i didn't put it together as i was playing, but i was telling my friend about the hints function dialogue bc she didn't think to try it, and i was like .. huh ... actually that character voice sounds .. very scratch-y
oh, by the way I'm putting up a no commentary play through, and then probably will do a proper let's play when I'm done with that.
Spoiler Wait, the hints function does something, after you go through the portal? I only saw my friend try it beforehand, when Joey was still in her room, and he didn't try it again afterwards; I figured it wouldn't do anything at all. Shit, now I need to go play it again.
Spoiler Before you cross it starts saying maybe you're playing the wrong game if you're having this much trouble; afterwards it STILL doesn't actually help, but starts saying more cryptic, vaguely Scratch-y things about having things to do. Edit: also, hell yes @peripheral , now maybe I can actually see half the cutscenes.
There was actually a patch recently that I've heard fixes the cutscene issue! Haven't tested it myself yet, though.
and also a thing I noticed: Spoiler: mild hiveswap spoilers so Dammek isn't even 7 sweeps old yet, but has already taken an 8-letter adult troll name. not entirely sure what to make of that, just thought it was an interesting observation.
Spoiler: Reply to above I think Xefros mentions something about the other Tetrarchs? So it might be a thing for their rebel group. Or Dammek is kind of a pretencious little shit. Fake edit: I looked up tetrarch, and appearently a tetrarchy is a leadership of four people, so it is probably a rebel thing. And also super pretencious.
