Dear Readers,
I went in to see Gregg at work. Angus wasn't at work and Bea closed her shop so I couldn't see her either. Going to band practice this time had to be done through Gregg, though this was the Bea path I was taking.
He asked me if I wanted to get out of here and do practice and I said "Yeah"
The scene shifted to the Party Barn and it was Bea who struggled with the door this time! She said this door just didn't like to open. I said I bet it was worse in the summer. Then I noticed a pentagram on this sticker! Bea said she couldn't read the band name on it. I read out Cops... Driller? Bea said she guaranteed me it was not Cops Driller. I said maybe it was a German band with a name in English as it sounded like that. Bea put on an accent and said greeted an imaginary audience and introducing herself as Cops-Driller. :) I tried to say auf wiedersehen but messed it up. Bea said it was close enough though :)
We walked in. Gregg was nowhere to be seen. Bea asked where he was. I said he had to spring Angus from work. Bea asked what that meant and I said zero clue. Bea was like huh. I said I was a little unclear about how both of them still had jobs since they seem to just up and leave work early a lot. Bea said there was a lot about those two she didn't understand. I said I think they just plain needed each other. Bea said she thinks Gregg does more than Angus. I said I didn't think Angus would agree. Bea said that's because it wouldn't occur to Angus to think otherwise, because he was an extremely nice person.
I said "Gregg's a nice person!", though I really wanted to say the other thing. Bea said he definitely was but he was also bratty and irresponsible and had like zero attention span. She said Gregg needed a parent as much as he needed a boyfriend and he was really lucky that Angus was a little bit of both. I said Angus thinks Gregg, like, *saved* him.
Bea said listen, she wasn't saying he didn't, if he thought so, but Angus might also just be attracted to really sincere guys in leather jackets... who carry knives. She said if she met the right guy those would all be plusses. I was like geez, she'd thought this one out!
Bea said before I came back, Angus and Gregg were the only people she hung out with most of the time. She said she had a lot of time to study.
I walked over to the stage and sat up on it. Bea asked me how *was* I. I said "I'm uh good." She asked me really? and I said I felt like right now I could convince myself I was fine or completely shattered. Just like... stuck in neutral. I asked her too and she said she wasn't great. She said she had a dream the world was ending. I said it might be.
Bea asked me if I thought we were safe. I said I had no idea. She said it was a great feeling and I said yup. She walked closer to me and said she was a little confused about what even happened last night. I said "Well, there's apparently a deathcult of dads" or was, who knows if that was all of them. She said she couldn't believe they even existed or existed before. I said it would probably take them a few days to die. Bea made an ellipsis before saying yup.
I said I dunno, that I understood them in a weird way. Bea said really?! and I said it was like a porch light that was on and there were all these bugs around it and then the light goes out. And there's a hole where the light was. I said it was like what happened to me way back. Like what I was telling her about on the couch last night.
Bea was like holy crap that was last night and said it seemed like 2 lifetimes ago. She laughed a little.
Then there was a pause between us.
I said gosh I couldn't even wrap my head around these past two weeks. Bea said she thinks that was pretty understandable. I said this world was extremely messed up, huh? She said yes. Yes it was. I said a... failed state? She said it was pretty close.
I said my granddad, before he died, his last words were like this house is haunted. Bea said that was spooky and asked if he was in my house. I said no, he was looking out the window at the hospital. But I think I got what he meant. This whole... place.
I told Bea the other day I ran into these three weird teens, though actually she met them too at the graveyard. She laughed and said yeah, the ones that tortured me. I was like yeah, them. I told her that they told me I'd see a bunch of pentagrams and it'd like aid me. I said I think they were witches. And then it actually happened. Bea asked how... so? I said I didn't know. I saw the last of the pentagrams in the tunnel last night, made from the support beams. I said Angus would say it was pattern-seeking. She said that would sound like Angus alright, but he'd say it nicely though. I said when I saw it it reminded me of something and it didn't really register until this morning-
I asked Bea if she remembered Adina and the frozen lake. Bea did and said she thinks it was called Adina and the forest god. I was like whatever and asked if she remembered how there was a dead astronomer who was like a reflection in the ice. She said yeah, looking for a star you could only see when you were dead. The Ghost Star. She said her mom had a Ghost Star tattoo. I said if you were looking at a reflection of a star from below, it was gonna look kinda like a pentagram. She said that was... true. I said I woke up this morning and I was like oh wow, I felt like I found my Ghost Star and then lived.
Bea asked if this was because of teen witches and I said I thought that was dumb alright, but I met Germ's grandma. Bea was like what????? I said yeah, I went to his house and she asked what it was like. I said it was nice, double wide with a finished basement. It had a trampoline too. She said bouncing on those things made her sick. I said his grandmother told my fortune. Sorta. She was like holy crap. She asked what my fortune was and I said she said some pretty crappy things about my whole, you know, head thing. She was like ah. I said but otherwise it was kinda vaguely... what happened last night. She was like wow. I said see? So maybe I was thinking, maybe she was a witch too. I didn't mean like an actual witch and didn't mean the teens were real witches either. She was like so... and I then talked about Lori M.
I told Bea I was hanging out with Lori M. She asked if I was just hanging with teens all over the place these days? I said hush, I was like a role model :) She said oh well then. I told her about Lori's thing where she puts little metal dudes on the train tracks. She was like oooh! and the train squishes them? That's so cool. I said yeah, she was great. I said I dunno, maybe this was just me not being a kid anymore, but watching her do that, open her little bag and pull out these things and then using actual trains, making little monsters, I came to the only logical conclusion: Witch.
Bea said gee, I must be swimming in witches! I said hey, she herself could be one too! She said she wishes, as she had some hexes to hand out. I said I obviously counted as a witch as I was like spooky magic all the way! She said of course!
I said I dunno, last night, today... everything was extremely bad here right now. Everything was bad in the world. Bea said guys last night, they were like ghosts in an old mansion who didn't even know they were dead. Just stalking around killing whoever moved in. I said like granddad said, it was haunted. But there was also a lot of witches in it, and that made me feel a tiny bit better.
Bea was like, so the entire rust belt was just lousy with ghosts and witches? I said yeah, but not all ghosts were bad. I said I didn't really know where I was going with this as it had been a long week. She said it was fine.
There was another pause.
I then asked if she had any new... uh... rat problems at the shop? She was like uh... yeah and asked me how I knew? I said I heard there were some rats around town and it made me happy for some reason. She said there was no such thing as a small rat problem. There was just gonna be more of them. I said hope springs, rats multiply. She said that was cute and that they literally sell rat poison at their shop. She said they were going down. I said we'll see.
I was being coy here, not telling her I was responsible for all these new rats :) I had no problem telling Gregg of course!
I then said hey, speaking of nothing, how good was her car? Bea said good how? I said could it drive real far? She asked if I knew anything about... and was like what in general. I said we should like do a road trip! She asked where and I said out west it gets all flat. She said that it does. I said we could go where it was really flat "and they sell barbeque." she said she thinks BBQ is south. I said not all of it. I said it was everywhere, calling her Bea-Bea-Q. All different kinds: Dry, wet, ultra... She said she could... and then said let's talk about it next year. I said I'll start planning it now! Gosh almighty, that Bea-Bea-Q line was so so cute :)
Bea said she thought I couldn't leave home because of my... issue. I was like eh, she was home enough :) I said if we were trapped here together we might as well be trapped out there together. I mean, if we weren't dead by then L O L.
Bea said I had a way of making doom sound like a lot of fun, calling me Maeday :) she said that was actually kind of a gift.
Gregg then arrived, struggling with the door. Angus was with him. I was like there they are! Angus walked in saying hey guys. Gregg walked in saying sup nerds. I said "Pssh. It's you who are the nerds." Gregg was like whaaaaaaaat? Angus was like geez, they had never been so insulted! Gregg said take it right back, dork! I said fat chance! Haha! Bantz :)
Bea then said to Gregg that she didn't really know Casey. He made an ellipsis before saying yeah. She said she just wanted to say she was really sorry. He said yeah, thanks. He said Casey was a good one. I said Casey was good. Bea asked if we should like... tell his parents? I said "Probably?" Angus asked what do we tell them? I said I dunno. I said could we like... make up something that sounds real? Bea was like oh what, the truth wasn't real enough?
We paused for a moment.
Then Bea said no I was right the truth was insane. Angus asked so like, what do we do? I said about Casey? He said no, like, in general.
We paused again.
I then asked if we could think about this tomorrow? If we could just play a song and get a pizza? Bea said she didn't think song and pizza was an answer, really. I asked if we could just be normal for like one day? Bea said she didn't know how today could possibly feel normal.
I said "When I was in that coma or whatever" I saw the future or maybe it was now the future. Or was the future. Angus said like flying cars and stuff? He said actually those would be a disaster. Gregg laughed and said finally Angus admitted it and that he owed him 5 bucks. Angus said bet's a bet. I said no, it was like the town was abandoned, like being eaten and reclaimed by nature or something. I said I went to where my house used to be and when I was there I felt completely hopeless. But now, I think I could just build another house. Or I could just move on. Knowing when to hold on and knowing when to let go... and then I lost my entire train of thought. I had it for a second, then it was gone.
After a brief pause, Bea said song and pizza sounded good. Gregg said song and pizza. I said yeah. Good enough.
After another brief pause, the credits abruptly started rolling!
This ending feels different, quite different. The one with Gregg I was all confused about something but this one I just had a train of thought about the bigger picture and how we just settled on song and pizza for now.
The final doodle in my journal was different too. It was of Bea and me and her car. I was sitting on the roof and she was sitting on the hood, smoking. No Angus or Gregg, though she wasn't part of the other ending's doodle either. There were some stars above us.
Of course there's the RIP Casey on the opposite page, same as last time.
Then there's the credits, which feels different to look at now due to recent real life events with the game's developers... I just kept on playing the game from September last year to now and carried on. What a sad, messy situation.
So now I've just finished the playthrough with Bea after doing the playthrough with Gregg, as well as the Longest Night and Lost Constellation. There's surely more little things with dialogue choices and stuff. Someday I'll come back and do another playthrough as this game means a lot to me and it was there for me through these tough times. I'll just make another post about art stuff I've unlocked and then play different games for a while.
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