Two
characters seen from behind, the ship's fore deck, a crow on the rail.
Any combination is still a love story with the same motion capture. Two
voice actors each and their parts are written here without pronouns.
Here
as such the Killer and Learner are able to select both character genders
in any combination, so is the Explorer. But the tale tells by the
defaults this may be Lady Styx, which lends the question if Death in the
later game is Lord Charon.
~ The Midwich Prologues ~
A Love Story in Hell
A Love Story in Hell
Awaiting the dock as the ship unloads before departure, she walks ahead of the player into town (the same for all three players) ~
Gabrielle - Looking back, seeming friendly enough but vaguely amused by their existence, "Welcome back" (regardless if the first play). Turns leading their walk ahead, "This is where the experiment first started." Smiles, "Everyone was very excited."
The town's brickwork buildings all appear exactly the same but then start turning nearly as Rubik's Cubes in heavy chunks and grinding stone, aligning the doors and windows to differentiate them.
Some structures collapse inward to smaller, others chunking outward to wider and higher ending in a strange approximation of 'neo-victorian' into a classical Gothic architecture, peaked with spires at the finer corners.
~ The last of the buildings settle in as orbs of light rise behind them, darting to and fro in their rise while guards exit the wall towers from the parapets.
Gabrielle - To those in the sky, "They're the ones to watch. They're the system intelligence, all one mind and code but differentiated throughout the lands, to think wherever it thinks like imagination stretching and now ...
"They've become something else entirely. We don't even know anymore. But there they are ... being brilliant. Every single time.
"The entire population is derived from that code, all one intelligence divided and branched, but they don't know that yet. It's all too big for them still. They only know what they're here to do.
"So they've got their own varied randoms for their details. Clothing and wealth, but taken randomly from different sets as those above. Different every time."
~ The player and Gabrielle reach the town's central fountain ~
Gabrielle - Looking at the fountain, "Hm. This is a nice touch. The exact center." She sits on the edge and smiles up at the player, "Been a while." She's distracted a moment by the smoothness of the stone, "Okay ! So before we start, I need to ask. Why are you here ?"
~ 2 - I want to learn.
~ 3 - I want to explore.
(we assume the player has played through the other prologues in this write, but the could be played in any order with little change in the cross dialogue)
Gabrielle - "Well alrighty then." She stands and smiles, stares a second longer than before as as the world unfolds into the city's final form, then to the city's beginning.
"It's
the last permutation. This is it. The perfect rendition of your soul
and deeds in a world, cast back to the past to solve the future." A
last look over. "Good luck with that."
She turns away with a single step and is gone in a flash to the sky as it's grid-work crackles to the corners of the skybox.
Explorer - Voice over after watching, "Sweetest Death, I long for you."
Assuming for the tell that this is the third time through, the city has grown in complexity to its final form in history.
New walkways swing as the world unfolds with new certainty and fast before slamming hard into place with an explosion and dust, then silence.
She turns away with a single step and is gone in a flash to the sky as it's grid-work crackles to the corners of the skybox.
Explorer - Voice over after watching, "Sweetest Death, I long for you."
Assuming for the tell that this is the third time through, the city has grown in complexity to its final form in history.
New walkways swing as the world unfolds with new certainty and fast before slamming hard into place with an explosion and dust, then silence.
Until
from the dusts of settling settles the funerary march singing, followed
by all the people from their homes and shoppes, carrying this coffin
back to the waters.
When it's done they eye the Explorer with mistrust, the crow which always precedes the killer for the meal when it's done.
When it's done they eye the Explorer with mistrust, the crow which always precedes the killer for the meal when it's done.
No
clothes on foot but a cloak which forms the bird in change, and too
proud of its human form among these shy Victorians, with no belt for the
cloak and the skin of deathly blue.
"Count the wingtip feathers, it's a crow not a raven."
"Count the wingtip feathers, it's a crow not a raven."
So
sayeth the sudden ornithologist as the Explorer's shadow flies over on
way to the mayor's manor where now the third assumed they are beyond
depraved and just looking for fun ways to die now in creative ecstasy.
They know their time's up, but they are not going down without a fuck.
They know their time's up, but they are not going down without a fuck.
The
Explorer sweeps in the doors as a crow, landing human, black unwrapping
as her long sleeved cloak over deathly skin, yellow of the bird to dark
gold accents, feathers the tattered ends of an ancient cloak.
The crowd freezes as though caught guilty and fearing tomorrow's
realization of what they've done today. Children with their hands gorish cookie jars.
Mayor
- At the top of the stairs, he drops the accountant's corpse bled
empty. He stares a moment turning to disgust. "No."
Explorer - Smiles. "Hungry." Steps aside.
Killer - Standing behind, smiles. "Hi." Opens fire with hand and shoulder arms full (music main).
The Explorer has the option of
joining in or just watching as the Killer laughs room to room
without pause or mercy. Great time to 'explore' the manor.
If one were to play The Killer's Tale after this, the Explorer's finds would all be there, and the Killer would still have what was found in that Tale now if played prior.
And the explorer can use guns in human form, but drops them upon becoming a bird. More effective are the cloak's bladed edges in a landing spin and turning bird again to circle for more.
But when in flight the weapon inventory goes blank, unless the killer happens to have a hand grenade or maybe a small bottle of acid.
Departing the blood soaked manor and descending the stairs, the Killer smiles through the opening credits, walking the fast emptying streets as all the shops close, doors lock, windows shutter and bar.
~ The Explorer's Tale ~
And the explorer can use guns in human form, but drops them upon becoming a bird. More effective are the cloak's bladed edges in a landing spin and turning bird again to circle for more.
But when in flight the weapon inventory goes blank, unless the killer happens to have a hand grenade or maybe a small bottle of acid.
Departing the blood soaked manor and descending the stairs, the Killer smiles through the opening credits, walking the fast emptying streets as all the shops close, doors lock, windows shutter and bar.
~ The Explorer's Tale ~
The Explorer is made for player whim, ideal as a flying character for filling in the map and finding all the secrets, like the pages to the Learner's Book of Names.
These
drop into the Killer's inventory, which is still what's accessed when
the Learner looks into the Explorer's as companion. Because of this
relationship between Killer and Explorer, the Learner is the one with
access to all secrets found.
These introductory quests occur as the player stumbles upon them regionally in whatever order is happened upon, if not by just following the obvious clues ~
Town soldiers pour out rushing to action.
The Killer readies as may the player, until the soldiers run past them for the wall where the parapet catapults fire at a dragon circling nearby to drive it off, an act purposefully to annoy it and betray its hunts to its prey when it comes too close.
The Killer and Explore stare after ...
These introductory quests occur as the player stumbles upon them regionally in whatever order is happened upon, if not by just following the obvious clues ~
Town soldiers pour out rushing to action.
The Killer readies as may the player, until the soldiers run past them for the wall where the parapet catapults fire at a dragon circling nearby to drive it off, an act purposefully to annoy it and betray its hunts to its prey when it comes too close.
The Killer and Explore stare after ...
Killer - "I've never asked you for anything."
Explorer - "You've asked me for a lot of things."
Explorer - Unclear if the random people screaming are because them, the dragon or both but they are and she shoos them away. ""Like food."
Explorer - Unclear if the random people screaming are because them, the dragon or both but they are and she shoos them away. ""Like food."
...
Explorer - Annoyed at the circle screaming people, "Fuck off !" And into their homes they do, locked and pounding boards they do.
Explorer - To the Killer still watching the sky, a sigh ... "Fine."
Killer - "I wanna ride the ... "
Explorer - "You wanna ride the dragon."
Killer
- "Dragon." Watches it disappear over the hills to the northwest.
...
Killer - "I've never asked you for food."
Explorer - "Sure you have."
From the motel door ~
...
Killer - "I've never asked you for food."
Explorer - "Sure you have."
From the motel door ~
Chelsea Cotter - Loud whispering, "Hey ! It's me ... the real me. Come getcher room, I took care of that other one. Looked just like me ! Had to die. You know what to do and I'm with ya. Kill em all."
Explorer - "I was actually going to make a map."
...
Chelsea - "Huh. Well you're room's upstairs, far back past the fucking ... you sure you ... "
Explorer - "I was actually going to make a map."
...
Chelsea - "Huh. Well you're room's upstairs, far back past the fucking ... you sure you ... "
Explorer - "I'm sure people will die, yes."
Chelsea - Suspiciously, "Well alright then ... wichyer 'map making skills' ... "
If you go down the stairs instead of up, indeed a dead Chelsea hanging from the beams. Otherwise the same old room but for the terrace leading out across the rooftops assuming the third play, directly connecting player favored businesses.