Friday 26 April 2019

226 night in the woods - alive at the party barn

Dear Readers,

The only thing left to do now was to go see Gregg. When I got to the Snack Falcon he greeted me, saying look who's alive and well!

I asked him if that was a surprise and he said nah, it just seemed like, relevant. I said well look who's live and well you too! He said yeah and I said yeah.

Then we paused.

Then he asked me if I wanted to get out of here and do band practice. I said "Yeah".

The scene shifted to the Party Barn. Gregg struggled with the door, saying it never got any less stuck and it was worse when it was cold somehow. I said I was so ready for the cold weather! He said he hated winter. I said it was good actually. No one else was here yet. Gregg said buncha slackers.

I said it was like they didn't even want this band to succeed and he went heh heh. I wondered where would we even play if we wanted to? He said he had no idea. Maybe go play those Legion Hall shows in Fort Lucenne. I was like wow, those were fun and he said we'd be the oldsters now... I said yup and walked over the stage, hopping up and taking a seat on it.

Gregg then asked me if I was ok. I said "I guess" but I really wanted to say not really. I mean as well as I could even tell today. He said yeah. I was like hmmm... suspicious... He hopped up on the stage and sat next to me.

I asked him if he thought those guys could get out of the mine. He said he guessed we were gonna find out pretty quick. He asked me if I noticed anyone missing today. I said I didn't know, but I didn't think a lot of those guys were people I knew. He said you never can tell. I repeated what he said and asked him if this kind of thing happened to him often. He said all the time.

He then said he didn't really get what even happened down there with me and the... whatever that was. I said "The murder cult of dads?" and he said sure.

I said I kinda got them, I kinda understood them and he said really??? and I said no... then yes. then I don't know. It was like, a porch light that's on and there are all these bugs around it and then the light goes out and there's a hole where the light was. It was like what happened to me way back, like I was telling him about on the couch last night.

He was like gosh that was last night? It felt like 2 weeks ago for him! It did feel like forever ago...

After a pause he then said what a weird autumn it'd been. I said yeah, even aside from last night. It was the weirdest couple of weeks of my life. I said oh man, if he even knew... I told him I went to Germ's house the other day and he was like holy s#!t as he had never been there. I told him it was nice, up in the woods. He had a trampoline. He said aw luckyyyy!

I then said his grandma told my fortune, a little, vaguely? I could've just been hearing what I wanted to hear or something. He said Germ told his fortune once and maybe it was like a family thing. I asked him "What did he say?" and he said it was that he'd die getting hit by a bus. I was like wow... and that was kind of a downer... He said eh, and asked me what did she tell me?

I said if you squinted... it was sorta what happened last night? I said she was also really rude about my whole... brain issues thing. He said blech. I said but still, kinda spooky and like...

Then I told him about Lori, this girl I had been hanging out with. He asked who Lori was and I said she was Lori Meyers, aged 15 and lived out by the tracks. He said I was hanging out with teens now? and I said eh, she needed a role model. He said that was nice of you dude :)

I told him about us doing this thing where you put these little metal guys on the tracks and the train runs over them and they get all deformed. He said he used to do that with pennies and guessed he wasn't thinking big enough.

I said that Germ's grandma and just all of this, it was like there was some sort of thing under this holding it all together. But not because it cared about us. I said the thing in the hole, the ghost dreams or whatever, which I barely remembered now, even like Possum Springs, like we used to have a lot more jobs and people and stuff and now we didn't. And none of it was anyone's fault really. Anyone here and then at least.

I said when I was squashing those little toy guys with Lori I was like whoa, this was us. I dunno. It was all like dream logic or whatever. I felt like there were these giant... like when the mills and mine shut down, but those buttholes down in the tunnels thought they could bring it back, or like nobody goes to the church anymore but god was still gonna come back or something. Or like him leaving the sheep thing open and he said hey! I said that to them the gate was gone and to him the sheep were gone and then like, my whole BS, and... then I paused before saying I had lost my train of thought.

He said man, I was right. I really did have a weird couple of weeks and that I needed something. I was like yeah man, and that I was looking forward to Longest Night :) something to like, reset everything! He said they got in all that Longest Night stuff at work so I could just come down there. I said earlier and earlier every year.

I said I also brought about a rat infestation in town! He was like what? and I said it was like the one good thing that had happened. I said hope springs and rats multiply! He said it was very poetical and I said I was extremely poetical.

There was another pause and he made an ellipsis.

Then he said... they killed Casey...

I said yeah they did. They killed Casey.

He said he was trying not to think about it. He was thinking... do we tell his parents? I asked him what would we tell them? He said he didn't know... He asked if it was worse to let them think he was alive or tell them he was in a bottomless hole. In a tunnel. In the woods. With a bunch of guys who were gonna be dead soon? I said "We should tell them", though I was kinda leaning towards the other choice of not telling them too... He said ok and that I got to figure out what we'd say. I said I'd let him know if I ever came up with anything. He said that sounded good.

I said I thought it was important that we know at least makes it... mean something? I didn't know exactly how to say it. I said I thought we might be the only things in the universe who cared about anything, or who even could care. I asked him if he thought any of this meant anything. He thought about it and I said doooooooes it, Greggory?

Just then Angus came in through that door that made another racket. Hey babies he said to us. Gregg said Hey hon and I was like babies? Gregg asked him how was work and he said he was sore from like everything. I said I ran into like a zillion bushes the other night. Basically my body hated me right there and then. Gregg said gotta do stretches.

I asked them if I could move to Bright Harbor with them. They were taken aback! They hesitated and Gregg said he thought I couldn't leave home? I said they were home enough.

They didn't say anything.

Then I said orrrrrr maybe I'd just visit for a while once they got settled in. To this they said of course! and that it'd be rad :)

I then thanked them for saving me last night repeatedly. Gregg said it wasn't even a problem and that they'd save me as many times as it took!

The door creaked again and in walked Bea. We greeted her and she just stood there, saying nothing. I asked her if she was gonna say anything and she said she didn't really know what to say. Again, what in the heck even happened last night? I said "Ugh. Don't ask me."

I said couldn't we just play a song and get pizza and think about this tomorrow? Bea said she had a dream that the world was ending. I said song. and. pizza. She paused and said alright. I said sweet.

Gregg then said it does dude. I said what? and he was answering my question from 2 minutes ago. I said what question? And what were we even talking about?

Just then, the credits abruptly came up on the screen! That was it! They rolled and ended with Sharkle giving a wave and a goofy laugh.

Then it cut back to my journal. I drew Gregg, myself and Angus, each of us holding a slice of pizza. No Bea though? Above us I drew some stars. On the opposite page I wrote "RIP CASEY ♥"

That's it :) That's the end of the game! Not the end of the fun, though. I want to check out the extras and Bea's path. I didn't have an option to continue this playthrough anymore, just to start a new game.

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