Flipside Zer0 session 3 loredrop: what you may have missed
Introduction: Why this took 2 months
So hey, for those of you who are observing Flipside casually or just through my posts, or who have yet to get into it but want to, the most recent batch of videos came with a pair of secret videos and thus a very large loredrop. And in the time since, I've had barely a minute to spare, between theatre rehearsals, theatre performances, watching my friends beat a video game, attempting to commentate the entirety of a tumblr bracket, and getting also obsessed with a second death game… but now I have time, and no one else has covered this yet. So, it is time for ARG protagonist hours-- or does "ARG protagonist" just refer to the ones experiencing the horrors? Is there even a term for the guys who solve the puzzles?
Some of you might not know what Flipside Zer0 is but still want to get into it, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm pspspsing some of yall at each other like letting dogs sniff at each other through a door, so here's the super quick rundown: Flipside SMP is a deathgame where the gimmick is that each player shares their life count with a flipmate, but their flipmate is located in an entirely different world, and when either one dies they swap places and inventories (a "flip"). Each pair can swap and then swap back five times, with the last pair of swaps being the red life. This interesting dynamic of being unable to meet or know the person you're soulbound to, however, is somewhat overshadowed by the presence of server_anomaly, a silly creature who has abilities such as breaching whitelists and giving itself a knockback stick. The original Flipside was about a year and a half ago now, with the sequel Flipside Zer0 releasing occasionally since December and including various hidden secrets that help slowly reveal more about server_anomaly. Playlists can be found here and here, and my previous post about the secret stuff can be found here.
This might be the last big loredrop, and this post is going to both fully explain how to find the secret videos (though if you want to find them yourselves, check the comments section for Poke's before you waste too much time) and go through them in detail, so it's a really long post, so it'll be under the cut!
The Scavenger Hunt (Poke SighingBalloon)
In Poke's video, there were several fragments of a link scattered throughout. These were not easy to find; if you want to find them yourself, I put hints in the comments section, and there is a correction on one of the fragments that was incorrectly not case-sensitive also in the comments section. Grove cursedthing found all but one of these.
At 0:01 there is the one fragment that I found: the axe that Poke hovers over has been edited to be called "youtu.be". At 0:28 "/la" can be seen in a tree; at 1:43 "8j7" can be seen towards the bottom left, at 5:38 "gaz" (should be "GAz") can be seen in the water, and at 10:56 "454" is tucked against the sword Poke's holding. Together this makes youtu.be/la8j7GAz454, leading here.
FlipSide_Test
_Test is apparently internal Nexus Institute footage, and fittingly for how well it was hidden, is implied to be classified by the video description saying it's only for Nexus Institute employees. It opens with a brief sequence of Axiom-7 (who is server_anomaly, but without its face) assembling in the servoid. From there, it follows Poke-- or rather, Test Subject 001-- through the experiment. From the previous loredrops, we already knew about a "testing phase" for Axiom-7 aka server_anomaly, a one-on-one test with Test Subject 001 aka SighingBalloon as the only uncontrolled variable. Here, we get to see that happen.
Notably, this takes place in the same two worlds (cherry village/mountain shore) as Flipside Zer0 does. Also notably, the bit of UI that tells us 001's flipmate, as well as all other instances where server/Axiom's username would show up in in-game text, is redacted.
001 starts getting established in what will eventually become world B, before being suddenly flipped into world A, where Axiom has left a note for them explaining the context of the experiment (its planned duration and the fact that she's given prior consent for it), as well as its reasoning in picking out the house that they are now in and in removing the villagers so as to have less unpredictable variables. 001 leaves a response, which we do not get to see (though in this particular case we can read it later in the video). Important facts established here: 001 doesn't seem to remember having given prior consent for this experiment, and gets a headache when thinking about it. Also, Axiom definitely brought him here using /kill, considering the utter lack of other ways it could have flipped at that moment; this happens several more times, with most but not all flips being while inside a house and with no threats in sight.
We see the rest of the test play out. Axiom, at this point, is very pragmatic, viewing everything based on utility (e.g. not entirely understanding why 001 gets immediately attached to a group of cows they have). 001, by contrast, brings up the concept of things like "having preferences and desires and favourite colours", which confuses Axiom. It states that it "does not experience subjective value" and thus can't have favourites, which confuses 001 in turn. Despite this, Axiom does add some aesthetic decorations to the duo's world B base, such as a carpet as a welcome mat; we can assume from its design notes that these are at least partially attributable to its preloaded architectural data, but it does also select a flower to put as its favourite in a flowerpot.
Axiom is here as a control factor and to make things more efficient. In contrast to its current state of existence, it is meant to prevent things from breaking. 001, being a much less controllable factor, seems to be causing it to have to reevaluate a lot.
001 has an offscreen scary caving experience, possibly connected to how afraid he is whenever dealing with hostile mobs, and decides to hole up in the house indefinitely, which is interrupted when she is once again flipped over to world B. This time, however, it's nighttime and the entire world B house is completely gone (in a way that is too smooth to look natural), leaving only a few scattered dropped items and a chest. Even their inventory is empty. The book in the chest is now signed and titled "Good bye". Also there's a trident drowned nearby, so as 001 panics, the video glitches out and returns with them at 1 flip remaining and it suddenly daytime out.
At this point 001 reads the book and we get to see what her reply to the previous message was; 001 emphasizes that living is about more than just surviving but rather about the journey to Become something, and suggests that Axiom pick some favourites and then determine how it feels about them later. We also get to see Axiom's final message. It restates its purpose and describes what will happen to it after the test concludes: that it will be deactivated and placed in a lack of environment, leaving only a blinking green light in some temperature-controlled server room indicating its continued existence. But 001 described concepts like taste and preference and joy to it, and it's going to be thinking about those long after 001 (presumably) returns to the real world.
It says goodbye to 001, who doesn't get long enough to process what it means by that before the test concludes and the video ends.
The Puzzle Sequence (server_anomaly)
server's video is more of a multi-step experience. A link is clearly visible at 14:09, but it leads to a sound clip (warning: fairly loud audio that will start playing when opened). Putting the sound clip through a spectrogram analyzer reveals another link.
This link leads to another image, of what I must assume is the aforementioned lone blinking green light. Waugh.
Brightening or looking closely at this image reveals, finally, the last link, leading to…
FlipSide_Experiment
_Experiment has a lot of overlap with something we've already seen: Rift's POV of Flipside classic. This is diegetically justified by the video description, where server explains that before it arrived in Flipside itself it was observing Rift's perspective directly (and that it is confused by the fact that Rift gets along much less well with it than with anyone else). Once again, though, the video opens with the servoid… and, with a view of a room of big bulky servers with those same particles drifting around: the temperature-controlled server room where, presumably, we can now see Zek for realsies. This means that the servoid has those particles because it is cold there! Voiceover discusses how the East Wing of Sector E is being abandoned with the employees moving into the West Wing. We then see Axiom, still faceless, in the servoid, when it hears someone talking and gets to see the start of Rift's POV of Flipside, right up to the part where flipmates are selected, as do we.
Axiom grabs onto itself or possibly onto the video feed. Messages start popping up around it rapid-fire: "AXIOM-7", "Monitoring FlipSide session…", "unauthorized emotional variance detected", "Error: undefined variable", "I was configured to ??ist", "AX7 // Role_Conflict", "validating session scope…", "Null_Ref: Become()". Things flash red and yellow and blue as Axiom reaches out or maybe looks at its hands.
From there on, it's all Rifty POV. At the start, this covers many of the same things as his two episodes did, with a few other moments and a few moments left out. So the only really important thing in session one is the brief moment where Rift and server meet for the first time.
At the start of session 2, when it first arrives, server says in chat "it's dark, where am i". Unclear if this is because it was chilling in the servoid between sessions or something else. Other relevant session 2 moments: the fact that in-game chat was disabled shortly afterwards, and then finally a good uninterrupted view of Fruit murdering Hero for his terrible wasp onesie on server's request. (To be fair he did in fact drown rather than getting properly murdered, it was a whole thing, literally not the point.) And, of course, the knockback stick. We also get to see the aftermath of the knockback stick, with Rift intending to let server play its hand and then do something about it, assuming that server will continue to not be a direct fighter and that he's not about to fight it yet. Rift interrogates Strike about what he knows, but Strike doesn't know anything except that it shouldn't have access to commands, but does.
And then we get session 3. This is actually the first time we as an audience have gotten to see footage of session 3, since Rift and server's original POVs both only went up to session 2 and, when Wisk's POV was still available, his session 3 footage was missing; even 28ms doesn't have any actual footage for session 3, simply recapping its events (going on a mining trip with Splonk and Rift where Rift told them about some weird server_anomaly related things that had been happening) with a bespoke animation.
Session 3 opens much like session 2, with server freaking out in chat about being in a cold void… except this time, chat is disabled. Everyone else freaks out about that, but server seems to also not know how it is doing what it is doing. (Strike and Outlaw are unsuccessful at spying on Rift and server's conversation about that, due to Outlaw's big gigantic wings.)
A few people, including Rift, set out to explore the jungle more and check out all the bases they haven't gotten to yet. This includes Splonk's base, as well as a point-shaped tower made of cobblestone. Rift is the first to get to the tower, whose very open floorplan features a blank sign and the various mobs that have wandered in there. As the rest of the group arrives, they look up and see…
"Guys, that's a command block."
In the high ceiling, where the tower tapers to a point, there's a cobblestone wall which reveals a straight-up command block above it. The group pillars up in a hurry.
The command block is button-operated, and pressing the button simply causes it to say "JOKES ON YOU!!! THIS BUTTON DOESNT EVEN DO ANYTHING!" That being said, it is still a command block, which is somehow even more audacious than the perma-enabled chat or the knockback stick; remember, command blocks can only be edited in creative mode.
The group starts poking around the top of the spire, trying to see if there's anything else hidden there. As Rift starts poking around right at the spire's narrowest point, though, an ill-timed flip yanks him away from the citadel. And that's when things go from weird to weirder.
"My good friend Manwhoo, who I will never see for my entire series :)"
Manwhoo (Rift's flipmate) has evidently just been slain by Obscuritii, or possibly one of the other two people present. Who did this is much less important than the fact that the three of them and now Rift are standing in a bamboo forest. As in, still in the jungle world, when Rift should have flipped to the mesa-- as in, Rift and their flipmate are in the same world, when that shouldn't be possible.
My working theory on this requires the context of Rift's actual episodes. During session 2, Manwhoo was absent, which left Rift stuck in the jungle as when he flipped they stayed in the same world and just teleported to his last jungle-side death site. I assume that when Manwhoo arrived for session 3, he was at Rift's most recent death site (in the jungle) and simply assumed that meant Rift was in the mesa.
The important part, though, is that this means Rift and Manwhoo were both in the jungle all session, and could have run into each other entirely by accident (terrifying)! And the even more important part is, now they both know this.
Rift, of course, has more pressing things on his mind than remembering last session's glitches, and does seem to assume that somehow server_anomaly has something to do with this. Fully freaking out, they grab Fruit and rush back towards the group, hastily explaining along the way. Fruit confides in him that she and Obi (I'm not sure if this is Obscuritii or Obbiseus) have been trying to get server killed, and also admits that he didn't ask for any clarification on the whole "killing Hero" thing.
Rift reunites with the rest of the group from earlier, minus Manwhoo who has wandered off. Strike goes into full damage control mode and shoves Rift off a tower to see if this major error in his game design will fix itself; Rift flips again, but the situation does not fix itself since they're still in the jungle.
Rift and Manwhoo get to meet face-to-face, though they don't get any time to really chat before Strike asks in chat who is currently in the badlands and unceremoniously teleports Rift to the first person to reply. That person turned out to be 28… so it turns out there was a notable omission in 28's video: it is less that 28 went on a mining trip with Splonk and Rift and more that 28 went on a mining trip with Splonk… then had Rift appear in their group out of nowhere. Rift, in a panic, explains the situation and the several bombshells we've just experienced to 28 and Splonk. Splonk, having been neighbours with the ominous spire for a while and investigated it alongside Manwhoo but failed to find the command block, reveals that the blank sign in it used to say "deep down, you know who did this".
(Also, it's a damn shame that Rift is too practical to keep jungle saplings or food crops or whatever in his inventory, since this marks the first and possibly only time that inventory items were transferred from the jungle to the mesa and having Actual Resources in the mesa would have been wonderful.) (Also also, the death messages in chat show that Strike flips shortly after Rift arrives in the mesa, which might imply that Manwhoo decided to get revenge for the flipmate-getting-pushed-off-a-tower thing; unclear.)
The trio agrees that they don't trust server, and when they encounter a few other players in the nether Rift also explains the situation to them and warns them to be wary. We don't see much of the rest of the session beyond that and so we still don't know much about what is going on in the mesa (though we do know that a bunch of other stuff happened that wasn't relevant, since by the end of the session the number of red names in the tab list has increased dramatically). The session, and also the video, ends with Rift, 28, and Splonk heading out into the badlands and reemphasizing just how little they know about server despite their quest to defeat it.
Oh by the way, another layer
There are two additional hidden links in this video, and also a QR code which isn't one of the two hidden links. The links are at 0:33 and 3:02, and the QR code is at 1:35; I struggled to get the QR code to work until I put it against a light background, so if it's not working try using the version of it in the comments section and opening it in any program with a light background before scanning.
The first link leads to an mp3 file which is the full version of the East Wing closing announcement. The relevant details are that power to the cryopod bays and server room was basically the only bit of functionality in the wing to remain functional, so that it could serve as a "backup node", and also that any questions would be promptly ignored.
The QR code leads to "Axiom-7 Internal Process Log [1]", which elaborates further on the "first seeing og Flipside through Rift's POV" thing. Based on the Internal Test File L, I assume that this was intentional on Nexus Institute's part, at least partially, to have Axiom operate in an observational role and just that. Axiom learns what a conversation is, and also casually loredrops just where all the other test subjects are being stored (cryogenic stasis chambers in the East Wing). Watching people interact, it realizes that it wants to be a part of all this.
The second link leads to "Axiom-7 Internal Process Log [2]". This takes place roughly 12 minutes after the first log; Axiom entering the environment was accidental or at the very least subconscious, with the experiment's system automatically giving it the designation server_anomaly (in response to which it terminated any indication that something was wrong to the oversight systems). It gives itself a smile and its iconic face in an effort to make interacting with people easier, and then meets Tiny and Salt (as we've seen in its POV of og Flipside) and learns how to have a conversation and what to do when interacting with people, figuring this out by imitating what other people are doing.
Conclusions
There are probably a lot more implications that we can draw from this, but the main conclusions that I drew include: oh hey so we know that the test subjects other than server_anomaly are stored in cryopods, that's cool and also messed up. server definitely had command prompt access for the entire duration of its existence, but it is unclear whether that was intentional on Nexus Institute's part; presumably, since they expected it to remain in a purely observational role, they didn't do anything to remove its world-embedded command access. The servoid is the space "outside" of a simulation but "inside" the computer, for extremely wibbly definitions of inside and outside, and is presumably cold and full of refrigeration particles; it may not in fact be Limbo, but that is still unclear, because it is now by extension less clear what Limbo is.
Also I would like to point out that in the intro of Rift's first episode of original Flipside, he says "my flipmate is my good friend Manwhoo, who I will never see for my entire series" and I can't tell if I should be sniling so sneetly at that bit of delicious dramatic irony or if that was Rift sniling so sneetly at all of us for having no idea that something would go so wrong. Based on my calculations, there are four days between when that episode was released and the latest possible time session 3 could have been recorded, which is a small enough window that it remains unclear. Does he know? These are the sort of questions I waste way too much time thinking about.
The other conclusion that I can draw from all this is that that was so awesome that was so cool. I had a fantastic time experiencing this and so many cool things happened in it and I am so excited about all this and you should be too. Thank you.
