Hello, denizens of OT.

My name is Puzzle. I've been visiting the OT forums for about a day. In that day, I've had one passion, and one passion alone: Investigative Journalism. I've been an investigative Journalist for that whole day.

Since some of you might not be very familiar with me, let me start by writing up a brief history on myself. A biography, if you will. I started out playing Osu way back when, in 2012. Joined. Made an account. Played for a bit. Fell in love with the game. Visited the forums, to see what was crack-a-lackin'. I found the FG forums in a period of exploration, and was immediately enthralled and enraptured. Thread games on a forum for a game? What bigger waste of time could I possibly find? I was hooked and addicted instantly, and have stayed there these long 7 years - albeit off and on - until recently.

Now, for those of you who don't know, FG is a totally different land than OT. While OT is a blossoming - well, maybe budding is a more appropriate term, given the age of the government - democracy; FG is total anarchy.

Some people have a very visceral reaction to that.

Some people look at that, and think; "How awful! I would never want to live there." But it's not as bad as you might think. While there is no government - no laws and rules - I think that helps build a very strong sense of community in the members who live there. We all look out for each other. There's no big brother, no anonymous authority figure constantly looking over your shoulder. Instead, there's a sense of community - a few unspoken rules, and those rules contribute to a sense of friendship and comradery. We're there for each other. Support each other. Work for each other.

Yes, that does make me an immigrant. Yes, I understand that may be confusing to some people - why would an immigrant want to be an investigative journalist for OT?

You'll just have to keep reading. I have a very good reason for that, and that reason will become clear soon enough.

Now, put yourself in my shoes. I'm a member of a society that operates off anarchy. And here I am, minding my own business, when I hear a story about this wonderful land called OT. There, they have a democracy, a government. Laws and rules. They work together. Imagine it! Living a life with no sense of government, and suddenly being shown this new and encapsulating idea. Protection. Laws. Structure.

I was intrigued. I decided to visit. Lurk in this thread, lurk in that thread. Check things, here and there. Find out what the deal is and see what's going on. And boy, let me tell you, I was star struck. A real government! A democracy! Royal scientists! Parliament! Presidents! Laws! Think of all the improvements to the quality of life!

So I lurked, and got more interested. And then I lurked some more and got even more interested. The government was fascinating. The concept was intriguing. The execution was romantic. I loved it. All of it. It infatuated me.

Then the Tad the Tadpole thread came along.

For those of you who aren't aware, this is the thread in question: https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/926421

And here it is. The thread that changed everything. A joke thread. A seemingly innocuous comment on a pun involving one of the OT thread parliaments members names. All in good fun, right? Doesn't the OT constituion protect the denizens right of free speech?

Then I see something. Something awful. Something that goes against humanity, reason, and law. The thread was nuked.

That's right. You read it right. WMTs (Weapons of Mass Threadstruction) were unleashed upon the thread. Denizens were evacuated, and the place was incinerated and turned into a wasteland.

Video Footage of the event



The Aftermath



circa 2019

The devastation was total and complete. Homes obliterated. Uninhabitable. Land desolate and grey. What was once a bustling and sprawling thread, full of the homes and lives of many denizens, was turned into sand and dust.

It was a striking sight. A haunting one. Something I'll never forget.

And why? What was this all for? A little bit of a joke? An expression of freedom of speech that's protected by the OT constitution? Something wasn't right.

My investigative journalist senses were tingling. When you've been in the biz for as long as I have, you start to get a sense for these things. An understanding. Something here just didn't add up. The Puzzle pieces didn't fit together the way they should, and I would know, since I'm literally a goddamned Puzzle.

So I started to investigate.

This is Finding The Truth.

Well, at this point in time, I hadn't been an investigative journalist for very long. In fact, I had never been one, and this was the start of my passion. So I went around and started asking questions, building contacts, and networking. I have a buddy who's a Journal, and I borrowed her Journal to start my career of Journaling. With my new and trusty recording device in hand, I went around and started digging to discover what was really happening in the Tad the Tadpole thread.

The obvious place to start was the man himself: Tad Fibonacci. Member of the OT government extraordinaire. He was one of the first people recruited by the royal scientist Abraker with the formation of the OT government. His role is handling and managing data for events - something analogous to a book keeper or an accountant.

Now, I know most of you might not make this connection, but I'm a damn professional. And let me tell you - doesn't it strike you as a bit odd that the datakeeper for the OT government has the ability to nuke a thread? What about datakeeping goes hand in hand with launching fucking nuclear missiles?

5 minutes into my research, and something was already starting to smell froggy. I didn't like it; not one bit.

So I contacted him. I wanted to find out why this had all occured, and what exactly had happened in that thread.

And I was refused. Tad would not allow me to interview him.

Tad had this to say on the subject:

"I better not. Since it's voting time, it can be interpreted easily that I'm being influenced, even if in actuality, I am not. So just to be safe, let's wait after [sic] the election instead."

Froggier and froggier. I wasn't buying it. I told Tad that the interview wouldn't be about the election - it wouldn't! I was specifically going to ask him about the Tad the Tadpole thread. However, even after I mentioned this refutation, he still refused to be interviewed, claiming that only after the election would it be an appropriate time.

Now, I suppose that's not too strange, when looked at in a vacuum. Tad is a man of the people. He wants to stay true to his government, his citizens, and he claims to not want to unduly influence the election. But there's a lot of circumstances I don't understand - for instance, the logical juxtaposition of not wanting to influence the election, but nuking a goddamned thread. Don't you think that MIGHT MAYBE have some consequences on the election results, Tad? Do you not think that may affect voter turnout, or who will vote for who? I certainly as hell do. For instance, any candidate that may have had Tad's political support previously has just lost my vote.

And what about the reaction itself? I mean, seriously, nuking a joke thread? While claiming to be a member of the government who is supposed to be protecting the free speech of the denizens of OT?

A little suspicious, there, Tad. One might call it a little froggy.

Now, at this point in time, I hadn't thought of those things. I wasn't aware. I was ready to write it all off as just a string of coincidences.

But when you've been in the biz for as long as I have, you build connections. You get a reputation. People start telling you things. Most of it's bullshit, of course. A tidbit of information here, a whackjob conspiracy theory there. And some of it's just inane stuff. Who cares about the cake that Kim Kardashian baked for so and so's birthday? I mean, some people care, but I'm not that vain. I just ignore that stuff. That's not a scoop. But every once in a while you receive a tip that's solid gold. And that's exactly what happened at 9:06 AM today. I received an anonymous tip from a little birdie that told me something very interesting.

Now, these kinds of tips - they're a different story from the ones previously mentioned. They start out small. A cookie crumb there, a piece of information here, But there's something wrong. There's something off. So you dig a little further. You look around. You try to Find The Truth.

So that's what I did with this tip. I looked. I double checked and cross referenced. I dug. I hunted.

I got an interview with the President of OT.

This is Finding The Truth.

Weapon of Mass Threadstruction is an unnecessaryly scary phrase.
The destruction was limited in scale and did not cause the forums any immediate or long term problems.
Proof for this is that even now, the affected thread is still accessible and safe for denizen's traversal. And no other threads were affected.
Furthermore, no denizens were harmed during the incident and we did not suffer any damage to OT's infrastructures.
The only thing we nuked was the thread, and even so it's still completely functional.

I would rather call it the Weapon of Deterrence.
Since from the evidences, we could clearly see that it barks but does not bite.

And regarding the nuke itself, the thread was used as an area to test out nukes. Or rather, a more controlled and safer types of nukes. Ones that are seemingly destructive but in actuality, deals damage on a very small and controlled scale.

I believe this new weapon will serve as a means for the OT Military to protect our country.

As for why did we tested it in that certain thread, where everyone can see it's destructive powers. As I've stated before, it's a weapon of Deterrence. We need to demonstrate it's capabilities in order to deter any potential threats to OT.
Also, before the test, said affected thread was already a inhospitable swamp environment and was only populated by frogs.
Furthermore, our data shows that the thread was infested with the trashipitus virus of a mysterious strain.
There were no denizens who were living in said thread.
By testing out weapons there, we minimizes the destruction the weapon would cause, and eradicate the trashipitus strain that was infesting the land.
And I did say that the land would be inhabitable for some time and that was a mistake on my part.
Our nukes does not emit radiation upon explosion, that's why we could have such a good level of control over it.
And so while the nuke did wiped out most things in the area, the land itself is still habitable, but we'll need to lay foundation by putting some infrastructures in said area to make it hospitable.
And so we'll suffer no loss to OT's land.

Tad Fibonacci wrote:

Weapon of Mass Threadstruction is an unnecessaryly scary phrase.
The destruction was limited in scale and did not cause the forums any immediate or long term problems.
Proof for this is that even now, the affected thread is still accessible and safe for denizen's traversal. And no other threads were affected.
Furthermore, no denizens were harmed during the incident and we did not suffer any damage to OT's infrastructures.
The only thing we nuked was the thread, and even so it's still completely functional.



I would rather call it the Weapon of Deterrence.
Since from the evidences, we could clearly see that it barks but does not bite.

And regarding the nuke itself, the thread was used as an area to test out nukes. Or rather, a more controlled and safer types of nukes. Ones that are seemingly destructive but in actuality, deals damage on a very small and controlled scale.

I believe this new weapon will serve as a means for the OT Military to protect our country.

As for why did we tested it in that certain thread, where everyone can see it's destructive powers. As I've stated before, it's a weapon of Deterrence. We need to demonstrate it's capabilities in order to deter any potential threats to OT.
Also, before the test, said affected thread was already a inhospitable swamp environment and was only populated by frogs.
Furthermore, our data shows that the thread was infested with the trashipitus virus of a mysterious strain.
There were no denizens who were living in said thread.
By testing out weapons there, we minimizes the destruction the weapon would cause, and eradicate the trashipitus strain that was infesting the land.
And I did say that the land would be inhabitable for some time and that was a mistake on my part.
Our nukes does not emit radiation upon explosion, that's why we could have such a good level of control over it.
And so while the nuke did wiped out most things in the area, the land itself is still habitable, but we'll need to lay foundation by putting some infrastructures in said area to make it hospitable.
And so we'll suffer no loss to OT's land.

That's an awfully convenient explanation you have there, Tad.

Don't worry. I'm good at finding the real reason behind things. If you're not lying, you won't have anything to worry about. You should really hire a PR manager, though.

And I would like to make it clear that I had no clue what Puzzle's interview was about. Puzzle only told me it was for investigative journaling but he never told me the details.
He only said that it will not be related to the ongoing election.

But since people may interpret our interview in different ways, I declined but I said I am willing to do it once the election is over.

Stay tuned for the next article on Finding The Truth. I will be posting it tomorrow, as well as another piece focused around my interview with President Achromalia.

I think it would be wise to cancel the election for so long as we have not figured out the truth behind the nuking of thread "Tad the Tadpole". For all we know, maybe something was lurking in that thread that the governement official didn't want to leak out and as such, they destroyed it before anyone could see. What they want is to delay our investigation until the elections have ended, this way even if we do manage to unearth a massive conspiracy behind this election, it will be too late for the president has already been elected.

There's no reason to cancel the election.
The truth for nuking said thread has already been revealed.
And it's true that the nuke did wiped out the land, the thread itself is still documented and is open for any denizen to see. For all I know, no posts were deleted from it and no information were altered.
This can be easily proven through the OT feed bot in the OT!neus Discord server.

And we did not do anything to delay denizen Puzzle's investigation. Denizen Puzzle started his investigation on his free will and in his own pace.
There's no reason for us to delay it.
Puzzle himself could verify this.

And regarding the election, it is for OT! Parliament members and not the president. We have already elected president Achromalia some time ago.

Goddamn it Achro you're the president.
You're not supposed to conspire with anybody.

You know what is the truth? **CRUSH UPDATE SEASON FINALE IS COMING OUT IN JUST UNDER 30 MINUTES!!**

[ Penguin war trumpet noises ]

Questions to ask. People to interview.

My senses were still tingling - and they just wouldn't stop. I needed to get to the bottom of this. The people needed to get to the bottom of this.

Now, at this point, from my interactions with the OT government, I wasn't expecting much. Tad had rebuffed me completely, claiming people may interpret the interview as attempting to influence the OT election. Imagine my surprise when I rung up President Achromalia and he agreed to the interview.

Now let's take a moment and examine this. The more you dig into the story, the more things seem to not make sense.

Why exactly is President Achromalia fine with an interview, but Tad rejects one? Another case of something being odd... Off. Just not right. At the very least, this implies some sort of discordance within the OT government - some sort of a lack of sharing of information between the officials. Why would one refuse an interview on grounds of "being seen as influencing elections" while the other doesn't have a problem with it?

Does this mean that Tad is simply more politically savy than the President? Or does it mean that the reason Tad gave me was BS? I did tell him the interview wouldn't be about the election, after all...

Froggier. And. Froggier.

So I go down and visit the President. We got out for a nice cup of coffee together. How novel an idea, right? The President sitting down and having a nice cup o' joe with me.

He ordered a Mocha Latte. I went for a French Vanilla Cappucino. It was a nice, quaint little shop. Many of the patrons seemed quite surprised to see their President out having a drink and a chat. Personally, I think it's a good thing for a political figure to be out and seen doing 'normal person' stuff. It builds rapport. It shows that they're just like you and I - down to earth. Just a normal person, with normal problems, in an extraordinary position.

Suffice to say, I was already impressed with how the President was handling the situation - the drinks were his idea. We made a bit of small talk, then I pulled out my Journal and we got down to business.

Q: Would you mind telling me about the OT government? Maybe a brief history and overview of the members, their positions, and their duties as elected officials.

A: "Hmm. Well, it's not too complex." ... "The OT!Government has been a group within Abrakers discord hosted by Royal OT Scientist Abraker. After Tad hosted the presidential elections due to events in OT" ... "Abraker and Tad had gathered up two more members. I was added to the role for OT!Government along with another lad called Tee." ... "No members have joined since."

"As for each member in general, Abraker has directed some big parts of the effort to make OT generally enjoyable to be in, and really pushed this forward with us. Tad has taken hold of taking care of event data and had previously been the one to judge who won the presidential election. I've taken care of overseeing and smoothing things out, from taking part in announcing and in writing and citing the speech for the sake of this movement. Tee has, as of now, fully taken care of writing up the OT!Constitution, which, aside from putting in place general laws, also states various things regarding the roles of goverment bodies. Especially OT!Parliament.
We're still making preparations for roles within the OT!Parliament, but generally the duty of the parliament-elect shall be to oversee and take part in lawmaking and discussing things in hopes of representing our denizens."

As a side note: After the interview, President Achromalia was kind enough to give me a copy of the OT!Constitution. You can find it here: https://old.ppy.sh/forum/t/920951

Q: Thank you very much. This is all very interesting. Now that I have a better understanding of the OT government, I'd like to ask you a few questions about an incident that occurred earlier in the day. Are you familiar with the "Tad the Tadpole" thread? (Link: https://osu.ppy.sh/community/forums/topics/926421)

A: ... "Haven't seen it. I'll check."

Q: So you're unaware that Tad nuked the thread?

A: "Oh. Now I am." ... "Well, that's something."

Q: It says in the OT constitution that you are acting Command in Cheif. Yet you weren't aware of the authorization and use of a nuke on a territory that falls under the jurisdiction of your government. Doesn't that seem like an egregious use of power to you, Mister President?

A: "I wasn't [aware] because I was asleep. From my perspective, Tad has done this of his own discretion, which... I'm not sure what to feel about."

Q: Do you believe his response was justified?

A: "Speaking seriously, I don't think it was exactly justified. Had this been under my knowledge and control beforehand, I'd rather it not have happened at all. Nuking a thread for the sake of obscuring... Well, a pretty terrible joke, but I personally think it's a bit much."

Q: Do you believe that Tad legally had the right to take this course of action, as a sort of governmental datakeeper?

A: "I think that's where it may get interesting because we've yet to get together a Parliament and have yet to enforce a base of actual law regarding things including the use of destructive force. We can't say Tad has done anything illegal. I don't believe there was even a 'right' regarding the use of force - the rather insane nuking of a simple joke thread. I don't think it has anything to do with his role but regardless, I'm just kind of perplexed. I'd default to saying that Tad was culpable, though, and that it was an excessive use of force."

After the interview, we shared a few more words, finished our covfefe, and left. I would have loved to stay around and chat a bit more with President Achro - he's an interesting character, and very charismatic. You can tell why he won the election after just a few minutes of hanging around with him. But as you can imagine, the President is very busy, and I was more than grateful to have just gotten this interview with him.

Well, what can I say? There's a lot to unpack here. Simply put, this interview does not paint a good picture for the OT government - and especially not for Tad. Straight from the horse's mouth - or should I say the skeleton horse's mouth - President Achromalia calls Tad's actions "perplexing" and an "excessive use of force". On top of that, it seems Tad had subverted all of President Achromalia's authority in choosing to launch the nukes - though the legality of that seems to be in greater question than I thought (Achromalia intelligently points out that it isn't specifically illegal, while I had thought it was very explicitly illegal). But President Achromalia wasn't even aware that they had been launched when we began the interview!! I mean come on! These are fucking NUCLEAR MISSLES and weapons of Mass Threadstruction, and not even the damn president knows what's going on!

... That seems like the hallmark of a dysfunctional or unorganized government. Which presents a problem.

Now, we all know just how good the OT government is. It might be a budding government, but they're clean. Efficient. Like a well-oiled machine - as well oiled of a machine you can be when you're a democracy, anyway. The OT government just doesn't make mistakes like this. So why? Why wasn't President Achromalia informed? Why did Tad launch those nukes? He claims there was a virus. He claims the territory is still inhabitable. Maybe, Tad, but it's still a goddamned wasteland. I've seen it. Grey. Dusty. There use to be homes there. There used to be bustling activity. You could walk down the street, stop at a donut shop, and talk to six or seven different people about their day and lives... and now there's nothing.

Now it's a ghost town.

Why, Tad? And why was President Achromalia not informed? You'd think if it was a virus that was
serious enough to merit nuclear missiles, the President would be aware. So why the sudden discrepancy in the usually well-together government? Hell, even Royal Scientist Abraker asked me to put on a damn Hazmat suit - after it was made clear to me that there was no radiation. No fall out. No virus.

Why?

And surely Tad would have realized the political fallout for his actions. We all know Tad. He's in his position for a reason. He's smart. He's cunning. He didn't get to be where he is just by ignoring the results of his actions.

He's calculated. He even once kicked my ass in a game of chess.

I've seen his campaigns. Hell, he's even campaigned in FG - another goddamned forum. This guy is good. Some people have even gone so far as to call him a political genius.

Surely he would have known, then, the political backlash for his actions? Yet he took this course of action anyway. You want to know what I think?

I think Something scared Tad. Something in that thread frightened him enough for him to risk throwing it all away - all the power. All the prestige. All the fame.

What's got you so scared, Tad?

That question rang in my mind. It rang, and it rang, and it rang.

Why the sudden discrepancy in the usually well-together government? You can explain it all away as a series of coincidences, but I've got a little birdie. And that birdie likes to tweet. Po-tweet, po-tweet, po-tweet, motherfucker.

So I did what any good investigative journalist does - I got into the thick of it.

I traveled into the wasteland that used to be the Tad the Tadpole thread and I looked for clues. Looked for evidence. Looked for the Truth. What I found shocked me to the core.

This is Finding The Truth.