It is the year 2015 and your name is Genji Okazaki. You are still unaware of what Overwatch is going to do to your life in about a year. You are, however, currently waiting for your friend Oliver to pick up his brother in the yard. Why are you not in the yard? Easy. You need to investigate. And you are also too shy to follow him now, after being trapped in a conversation. Whew. The father of the boy who lives here is about to show you pictures of his cats. You are not very passionate about cats, but too polite to tell him off. They are pretty cute though. Apparently. Your throat feels a little dry. Is it rude to ask for water when you're planning on leaving in like a minute.
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[[Ask for a glass of water]]
[[Oh no. I should wait for a good opening. ->opening]]You cannot do it. You really need some water and you can feel your throat becoming itchier by the second. You can barely open your mouth. Asking for water is too overwhelming, you just hope you can leave soon.
[[Maybe if I have a really good opening? ->opening]]"Oh, sweet," he says. We got uuuh, apple juice and.. water?
You are unsure whether it is okay to ask for apple juice. He offered it but it seems more fancy than water. You take a look at the giant fridge that has a child's paintings plastered all over it. All signed with a scratchy looking "M von Rügen". You figure if he can afford kitchen appliances like that, he can afford to let you have apple juice.
[[ Apple Juice.]]We got uuuh, apple juice and.. water?
You are unsure whether it is okay to ask for apple juice. He offered it but it seems more fancy than water. You take a look at the giant fridge that has a child's paintings plastered all over it. All signed with a scratchy looking "M von Rügen". You figure if he can afford kitchen appliances like that, he can afford to let you have apple juice.
[[ Apple Juice.]] He hands you a box of apple juice and a repurposed mustard glass with cartoon animals on it. "You got this, yeah?" he says, already leaving the room. Oh no. You're in here on your own now. Which is exactly what you wanted, but it's much scarier than expected.
[[Pour some apple juice and finally tell us why you're here]]The guy is surprisingly quick at showing you an image of his cats. You expected this to last for eternity. He's looking outside. You can't ask now, he needs to turn around. "I'll tell Malcolm to wrap things up. Want something to drink?"
Holy. Shit. You feel blessed. You have never been so grateful. Or at least not for the past few hours.
[[ Yes.]]
[[What do you have?]]The refreshing sweet taste of apple juice. Your parents used to not allow you to drink it without mixing it with water first. This is true teenage rebellion. Ah, why you're here? Well, you've had the sinking feeling that there's something about Malcolm's father that needs investigating. You're convinced it's a supernatural presence. You're not exactly sure what it is though, that's why you're investigating. You hope it's aliens. You know they're real but it's just very unlikely to meet one. Perhaps a magician or something. A wizard? You're not entirely sure on those. But Malcolm's father's hair is always dyed immaculately. That can't be right. You have experienced firsthand how fast dye fades and roots grow out. And that guy's hair looks way too soft for the level of maintenance required as well.
[[Investigate the drawings on the fridge->drawing]]
[[Look around]]The dining room is directly connected to the living room and the door seems to be open. There's a bunch of cat scratches on some of the furniture. There doesn't seem to be an awful lot of personal items in the dining room so there's not much you can go off of. (if: $drawings is false)[There's a bunch of drawings on the fridge.]
{(if: $drawings is false)[[Look at drawings ->drawing]]}
[[Check out the living room.]]
{(if: $drawings is true)[[Look at drawings again]]}They look like a child's drawings. Unsurprisingly. There's some houses with people waving from behind their windows, a bunch of trees and some cats. One painting of two cats is titled "Asmeowdeus and Purrson". One is a tabby and the other has black fur. You assume those are the cats you just saw. As someone who has called most of his video game dogs Bello you don't feel qualified to judge their names. Okay, maybe a little. But you must admit Purrson is quite funny.
[[Look around]]
{(set: $drawings to true)} (display: "Intro")
{(set: $drawings to false)
(set: $loveletter to false)
(set: $authorlore to false)
(set: $asmeowdeus to false)
(set: $datingsim to false)
(set: $metsasha to false)}This feels illegal. You try to think of a good excuse. Maybe you saw one if the cats. That would kind of require one of them to be in there though. Please be in there.
[[Enter]]Nothing special. You have always found it hard to pretend to feel excitement over children's drawings. Hold on. upon closer examination there is one picture in which Asmeowdeus (you presume) looks kind of distorted. If you look closely you can tell that she has three eyes. Maybe Malcolm just wasn't good at drawing yet. You will keep it in mind though.
[[Check out the living room.]] That's a living room all right. There's a bunch of cat related furniture. Seems reasonable. Some DVDs and books are crammed into a little shelf. It's a bit dusty aside from what seems like a kids section. There's also a less dusty shelf with some games in it. Some toys are laying around. You're a little jealous of these kids' lego sets but your parents probably would have bought these for you, too. Maybe. There's a bunch of cheap collectible toys scattered on different surfaces as well. But most importantly of all: there actually does seem to be a cat on the sofa. You'll get out of this situation. Somehow.
[[Pet the cat]]
[[Check out the shelves]]You've always been a bit awkward around animals. You never got why people thought they are easier to interact with than humans. She looks at you with her green eyes. You feel like she knows you're not supposed to be here and you turn away hurriedly. The cat keeps sitting on the sofa.
[[Check out the shelves]] Oh wow, they really own Sharknado. Did they make genuine DVDs of that? You spot some more questionable movies. Is it okay to just leave these around kids? The books mostly seem old and boring. There's also a bunch of nonfiction and programming books in there. Weirdly enough there are a bunch of YA novels all by the same author. There's no other children's books in this shelf.
[[Look at the novels]]Malcolm isn't old enough to read these yet..or is he? Honestly you have no idea. Maybe his parents don't particularly care since there are a bunch of R rated movies right next to it anyway. You open the book to get a summary of the plot. You despise when books don't put these on the back. Who cares about the reviews.
[[Well,]]It seems to be a supernatural love story high school setting type of deal. Not to cast judgements on anyone's tastes here. You open the back of the book to see if there's information on the author. There is no picture of them attached. They probably didn't want to be seen writing this kind of thing. The text claims they live in an idyllic rural town in Southern Germany. If this wasn't a coincidence it must be an acquaintance because the town you live in is a shithole. A blurb wouldn't lie to you. You feel like you don't have time to focus on the book for much longer, so you decide to do one more thing:
[[Check out the book more closely]]
[[Look up the author on your phone]] There's little notes on some pages. They say things like "this part is SO funny" and "pretty sure Eliza said that to you before, hope she doesn't sue you (just kidding darling, it fits so well)". You don't know who Eliza is. But whoever wrote these comments obviously knows the author. You put the book back into the shelf. Maybe you do live in an idyllic town after all. Against your better time judgement you also look into a bunch of the other books. They all have comments. Some of them have little hearts drawn next to them. There is still a little chance this is a coincidence but probably not. The comments' enthusiasm almost make you doubt yourself on account of your earlier judgements. You figure it is time to go back to the dining room. On your way out you take a quick glance at the game shelf. when you hear someone opening the door to the kitchen. Gotta go fast.
(set: $loveletter to true)
[[nyoom]]It tells you they would prefer not to have their real name mentioned in public. Again, just what you would do if you wrote trashy YA werewolf and demon romance, so you understand. There's some more vague information. Apparently they are in their 30s. You try really hard to figure out how old Malcolm's dad looks. Maybe? Malcolm is like 10, so that seems reasonable. But he could always be older. You are really bad at estimating old people's ages. Maybe he's like 50 and you are none the wiser.
You also find the website of the series. Apparently it's not a chronological series, just loosely tied together. There's a picture of two cats. You turn around. The cat is looking at you. You swear that it is looking at you. It's a black cat like any other. You're not sure why you thought you could tell by looking at her. All cats look the same to you. But the one next to her on the image is a tabby. Suspiciously close in colour to the elusive Purrson.
(set: $authorlore to true)
[[Escape Asmeowdeus' gaze]]Your heart is beating at the speed of light. You barely manage to get out of the door when you basically bump into the person coming in. Lucky for you, it seems to be Oliver. He tells you that they're looking for Malcolm and his brother. They are hiding because they don't want Jonas to go home. A timeless classic. He says he's just giving you a heads up but you can feel free to search in the garden. He doesn't think there is much of interest for you there but the best he can think of is going to the toilet. Malcolm's father is looking upstairs so that's out of the question. His bedroom is also extremely out of question.
[[Thank him and check out the bathroom]]
[[Tell him you love him]]You hurriedly make your way to the door. Someone else seems to open the door to the dining room at the same time.
(set: $asmeowdeus to true)
[[nyoom]] You make your way to the bathroom. That's the room you are least worried about looking at anyway. It's easy enough to come up with a reason to go to the bathroom. You should flush the toilet though. For good measure. So you're convincing.
[[Look around -> bathroom]]This isn't what this game is about. And you don't have time to do that right now. You mean, obviously it would make things weird. So you wouldn't do it anyway. Even if you weren't time pressed. It's not like you ever thought about it. You're just friends. Who kiss sometimes. Love is a daunting concept, isn't it?
(set: $datingsim to true)
[[Thank him and check out the bathroom]]There is a humongous zebra patterned rug and the shower curtains are a particularly tacky shade of pink. Ouch. It kind of looks like a MySpace website. But as a bathroom. (if:$authorlore is true) [Once again you are trying to figure out how old Malcolm's parents are.]
How old are people who were on MySpace now? You don't know, you just used SchuelerVZ like a normie back in the day.
[[But is there anything..... suspicious?]]There's a bathroom cabinet and a drawer. Unsurprisingly there are towels and a litter box. It looks weirdly pristine. Most of the stuff you can see looks like bathroom utensils. There is actually some hair dye that looks like it has been used recently but it doesn't seem to be the right shade of purple. In fact it looks rather pink. Maybe he mixes it with something else. Your only hopes of finding something substantial are the cabinet behind the mirror and below the sink. That reminds you a little of the Pink Panther game you used to play. You shouldn't look into other people's bathroom stuff unless you're a pink fantasy creature in a video game. Or something like that. Something like that being a very nervous 17 year-old boy in this case
[[Well, check it out]]If you really were a cartoon animal, like this task required, you would be shaking so much, onlookers couldn't even tell your outlines anymore. Luckily you are a human so you just feel really nervous. Internally. You take a glance at the door again. Closed firmly. Alright then.
[[Look behind the mirror]]There's toothpaste and hairspray. A hairbrush. You don't know what you expected. There's a sticky note on the inside of the door that reads "reminder to get Eliza to prescribe you more antidepressants". The handwriting looks a little scrawly. (if: $loveletter is true) [It's also definitely not the handwriting of whoever wrote the comments in the book. But you suppose whoever Eliza is, is a recurring theme here.]
Hope you get your antidepressants from Eliza, man. You close the cabinet again. You don't think any of this brings you closer to your goals.
[[Look into the other one]] You open it bravely. It's mostly bathroom cleaners. Huh. Some cat litter is in there, too. Aside from how tacky it looks this is the most boring bathroom ever. You take a look at the laundry basket. Even if something of interest was in there, you are NOT looking at some strangers' underwear. Out of desperation you pull aside the shower curtain. Perhaps there is some telling soap. Instead of soap you find yet another cat. {(if: $asmeowdeus is true) [She's a tabby but she has the same eyes the other cat had.] (if: $asmeowdeus is false) [It's the tabby.]} You swear she is looking at you as if she knows what you are doing.
[[Tell her you're sorry]]
[[Tell her not to tell her owners]]You stumble over your words a little. You feel silly talking to a cat. But you feel like she understands. She jumps out of the bath tub and walks over to the door. Oh, right, you closed the door. She's looking at it, meowing. Completely forgetting your master plan, you don't flush the toilet, you don't wash your hands either, you just open the door for the cat. So you figure you might as well leave the bathroom. Not much to be done. Later you would realize you didn't even adjust the shower curtains. No one will ever bring it up to you though.
[[Follow the cat]]
You stumble over your words a little. You feel silly talking to a cat. But you feel like she understands. She jumps out of the bath tub and walks over to the door. Oh, right, you closed the door. She's looking at it, meowing. Completely forgetting your master plan, you don't flush the toilet, you don't wash your hands either, you just open the door for the cat. So you figure you might as well leave the bathroom. Not much to be done. Later you would realize you didn't even adjust the shower curtains. No one will ever bring it up to you though.
[[Follow the cat->follow2]]She's scratching at a drawer in the hallaway. You feel like she shouldn't do this. You try to tell her to stop but it's futile. Of course a cat wouldn't listen to you. Would you have to touch her? Ah what if you hurt her. What if she hurts you. You try to move closer to her but you feel frozen in place. Your head starts spinning. She probably wants something from in there but you can't just open it. Can you. If you start crying now, because of this, you think you will just dematerialise and never come back. Forcing your hand to move you get your phone out, trying to text Oliver when Malcom's father appears again. An unlikely savior.
[[The cat....]]He sighs. "Baby, you already had treats. " Wow, most people wish someone would talk to them as gently as this guy is talking to his cats. He's giving her a treat anyway, almost ignoring you. You're awkwardly looking around. There's a phone on the drawer with a bunch of sticky notes with phone numbers on them around it. "Oh, we got your friend's brother, they're talking it out in the landing, I wanted to check on you." For someone who is paying very little attention to you that's a bold statement. He offers you to give Purrson one of the treats but you decline. She's looking at you again with her big, round eyes. He scribbles down a note to buy more cat treats and sticks it next to the phone numbers. (if: $loveletter is true) [You've seen that before.] It's definitely not the same as the writing on the other notes. (if: $loveletter is true) [It must be.... oh. It looks like the handwriting in the books. Well, not to cast judgement but... hm.]
[[The landing.... ]]You have no idea where it is. Unsure how to proceed you shuffle around a little, taking note of the doors around you. Well you know some of those definitely aren't it. Like the bathroom or the kitchen. Malcolm's father just starts walking at some point, giving you a vague hand gesture, so you follow him.
Sure enough that's a landing. You love yourself some stairs. Jonas is standing behind Oliver and making a face.
[[Wave]]Hi. Oliver apologizes for his brother causing a ruckus. Jonas remains quiet. Malcolm's father says it's no big deal, he's glad they get along so well and so forth. There's a bunch of plants in here. There's also a bunch of framed pictures. Mostly pictures of the cats or the kids but there's also a picture of who you assume is Malcolm's dad (but a little younger) and someone else next to him. Oh, so that's where the pink dye went. Probably.
[[Say Goodbye]](if: $metsasha is true)[You're surprised they even realized they forgot about you and said goodbye but you're glad their marriage is going strong. Probably. You guess? To be honest you don't really care.]
You feel like you learned absolutely nothing. Except for the fact these cats are definitely cursed and can read minds. You think.
Later Oliver asks you about your findings. You tell him about the cats and the book and the tacky bathroom. "Maybe they're just really good at hiding," he says. You've always wondered if he genuinely believes you or only pretends to. But you always felt like he cares.
(if: $datingsim is true)[[Maybe this is that kind of game?]]
(if: $datingsim is false)[[Thank him]]You're just like, really grateful to have him in your life, you know. Maybe you do want to tell him you love him. The thought is still very daunting but you want to tell him anyway. You give him a kiss and hope he will notice it's different from usual somehow. He looks at you fondly.
[[Thank you for playing]]He asks you what you are thanking him for. You're unsure what to say. You blurt out "for existing, I guess?" He starts laughing but you don't think it's mean spirited.
"No, thank *you* for existing."
[[Thank you for playing->thank2]] You're just like, really grateful to have him in your life, you know. Maybe you do want to tell him you love him. The thought is still very daunting but you want to do it anyway. You give him a kiss and hope he will notice it's different from usual somehow. He looks at you fondly.
Thank you for playing <3He asks you what you are thanking him for. You're unsure what to say. You blurt out "for existing, I guess?" He starts laughing but you don't think it's mean spirited.
"No, thank *you* for existing."
Thank you for playing <3She walks up to another closed door. The only other door that's completely closed in fact. You have no idea what room that is just the vague notion that you shouldn't open it. Not that you would have to, since the cat just jumps up to open the door. You feel a little used, not gonna lie. Miss Purrson likes to have others do things for her, it seems.
Preoccupied with the cat you almost forget that there are other people in this house. You do, however, remember when you hear someome say "Purrson what the fuck is your problem?" Oh no. You hope they don't leave the room.
[[Don't be suspicious?]] They leave the room. As the kids say, fiddlesticks. They seem to be as surprised by you as you are. It's like spiders. A lot of things are like spiders if you really think about it.
They greet you but they don't really look at your face. You're not sure though because you're also not looking at them directly. What you do notice is their bright pink hair. They open the cupboard and fish a bag of cat treats out of it. They offer you to give one of them to Purrson but you decline.
"Ah, not much of a cat person? Me neither," they say. Gently petting the cat in front of them.
(set: $metsasha to true)
[[Look around again?]] You're not really sure what to do. There's a phone on the cupboard with a bunch of sticky notes with phone numbers on them around it. You watch them write a note about buying more treats in the same scrawly handwriting as the other ones.
You shuffle around awkwardly. They look at you again after closing the door of the drawers. "You okay?"
[[Yea..]]They're not entirely convinced. You look at each other. Ah. There's some noise coming from the opposite end of the corridor. Both of you just stand there, unsure if you should check it out. You feel a strong sense of solidarity at their relief when neither of you have to actually do anything because the origin of the noise is moving towards *you*.
[[Wave->wave2]]Hi. Oliver apologizes for his brother causing a ruckus. Jonas remains quiet but he's making a face. Malcolm's father says it's no big deal but he gets caught a little off guard when he sees the two of you.
"Darling, aren't you working?"
"Oh, yeah. Purrson came in, I thought she's hungry."
"Huh, weird. She prefers to have others open doors for her, she usually never does it."
You feel a bit like you're third wheeling at this point.
[[Say Goodbye]]