Please arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled interview time

Please arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled interview time
Type	Ghost
Developer(s)	Galla, Naryu, Zichqec
Origin	Original character
Sakura	Boss
Language(s)	English
SHIORI	YAYA
Release date	May 18th, 2023
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Please arrive 15 minutes before your scheduled interview time is a ghost by Galla, Naryu, and Zichqec, created for Ghost Jam 2023. The ghost puts the user in the position of a job interview, trying to be hired into a hoard maintenance position for a dragon.

The dragon, Boss, will ask the user questions to determine their eligibility for the job, and the user can ask Boss questions as well. Boss's responses will vary based on various attributes about the user's answers/questions.

• Asks the user questions, and responds based on the user's input.
  • The user can also ask Boss questions, and he will similarly respond based on the user's input.
• The firstboot sequence actually starts a chain, such that the first several random dialogues are all part of a long introduction sequence, before true random dialogues kick in.
• Option to switch random dialogues between just interview questions, just idle chatter, or both.
• Uses the user's name from the SSP preferences, and will get it wrong until the user corrects him multiple times.
• Balloon color randomization feature when using the included balloon, with options to toggle which colors are in the rotation.
• Paper on the right side of the desk which can be pushed off, causing Boss to duck down and pick it up.

Boss's firstboot sequence starts a chain dialogue, meaning that every time he talks, it will continue the next part of the chained dialogue until it is complete. How long this takes depends on what the user has set the talk rate interval to. By default it is 3 minutes between dialogues.

During this chain, there is one possible fail state in the ghost. When Boss asks the user if they have ever been caught stealing, if they say yes, he will become agitated. He will ask the user if they are “after [his] ties”. If they respond yes, he will become angry, and the user will retreat, with narration stating that the situation has become dangerous. The ghost will then uninstall itself.

The chain is 5 dialogues long after the initial boot sequence. At the end of the chain, Boss will “discover” the user's name by finding their resume. He will get the user's name wrong in some fashion, but not realize. After this point, the ghost moves on to normal random dialogues.

Note that the chain will continue even if the ghost is closed in the middle of it. When starting the ghost again, the chain will pick back up where it left off, so that the user does not miss any part of it.

Boss will say the user's name incorrectly initially, and the user will have to correct him, usually multiple times, before he finally gets it correct. They can correct him by clicking on their name any time it appears.

Boss gets the user's name from the SSP preferences. If at any point the user changes their name in the SSP preferences, they can inform him by clicking on their name when it next appears. Doing so will start the process of learning the user's name all over again.

Boss's name mangler works similarly in theory to Needle's, but with some key differences. Boss's name mangler goes in a set order rather than picking random transformations to perform on the name and combining them. If the input matches the output, that particular mangle is skipped and it proceeds to the next on the list. Once the whole list has been gone through, Boss will get the user's name correct.

In order, these are the different possible mangles:

• Backwards / Lengthen Palindrome - Reverses the user's name. If the user's name is a palindrome, then it will instead take the middle letter of the user's name and repeat it several times.
• Dragon noises - Adds “dragon noises” such as “grarararar” to the start and end of the user's name.
• Stuttering - Says the user's name, but “stuttering”. For example: “Wiki” becomes “W-Wi-Wik-Wiki”.
• Consonant/Vowel - Takes consonant-vowel pairs and repeats them multiple times. The consonant always comes first. For example, “Boss” can become “BoBoBoss”.
• Vowel/Consonant - The same as above, but the other way around; the vowel always comes first. For example, “Boss” can become “Bosososs”.
• Case change - Changes the letters of the user's name to upper or lowercase at random.
• Lengthen doubles - Takes double letters and lengthens them by a random amount.
• Shorten doubles - Takes double letters and shortens them to a single letter.
• Repeat single - If the user's name is only 1 letter long, it will be repeated several times.

Boss has two types of questions he will ask the user. There are yes and no questions, and user input questions.

With yes and no questions, Boss's responses may be positive based on a specific response, or they may be neutral either way. There are also some questions that have special responses when an answer is selected.

With user input questions, Boss's response varies based on different attributes of the user's response. There are a few keywords, such as “gold”, but primarily it relies on other factors. These factors include:

• Several instances of certain letters or question marks.
• Certain strings, like “aaa”, “eee”, “ooo”, “hhh”, “mmm”, “…”, and “??”.
• Writing the same word multiple times.
• Writing in all lowercase or all uppercase.
• Writing very long answers or very short answers.
• Writing answers that are only a single word long.
• Leaving the input box blank.
• Ending the input with “.”, “?”, “!?”, or “?!”.

Each of these things assigns the user's input various “intents”, and Boss's responses will be based on which intents are present. Not all intents are implemented. If there are no intents assigned to the user's input, the user will get a generic response.

Separate from the intents system, Boss will have a special comment if the user's response is a number, with or without a decimal point.

Questions will not time out until it is time for Boss to say another random dialogue. He will comment on the lack of answer, and then his next dialogue will occur shortly afterwards. He will also comment if the user closes out of the input box.

These intents also apply if the user is asking Boss questions from his menu. However, they are more limited here, and most of the responses to the user's questions are based on keywords/phrases.

Click to reveal the list of keywords.

Click to reveal spoiler content.

When using the bundled balloon, which has the appearance of stickynotes, Boss has a special system to randomize what color of balloon appears each time he talks. There are 10 possible options, the first 6 being plain colors, and the last 4 being patterns.

• Yellow
• Pink
• Blue
• Green
• Purple
• Notary
• Inkwell
• Shimmer
• Starlight

The user can customize which options are in the rotation by clicking the “About those stickynotes…” option in Boss's menu. Clicking on an option will change the color of the current balloon to that option, so that it can be previewed.

By default, the 6 plain color options will be toggled on, and the 4 pattern options will be off. The user can click on any option to toggle it on or off, with options that are off having dimmed text.

The user can also click on “Defaults” to reset the options to default, “Random selection” to pick a random selection of colors/patterns, “All on” to turn all options on, and “All off” to turn every option off.

If all options are off, whether through the “All off” button or by the user simply toggling every option off, Boss will use a special white “paper” balloon, which is the same as the paper in the “ad” that is used as the thumbnail, but without text. This is the only way to see the paper balloon in use.

Boss comes bundled with a unique balloon called “Stuck to a Filing Cabinet”. The balloon resembles stickynotes in various colors/patterns and of various sizes.