07/03/2019 18:02:37 ¶ ● ⬈

## Okay, What About Episode 3

callmearcturus:

> Follow up to last post obviously. I’ll be brief.

> So once the player completes every route in the second ‘loop’ of the game (i.e. all of the routes introduced in episode 2), they set off another persistent variable, just like they did at the end of episode 1.

> When this persistent variable is flipped, the player can replay the game, and instead of it loading into the same intro sequence of Jake arriving home from his trip in the morning, the player is given a choice.

> “When is the best time to start an adventure?” it asks, and the player can choose “In the bright morning” or “In the dead of night.” The first option loads them into the usual scenario and all the routes of ep1 + ep2. However, if they pick the new option, they are loaded into a new intro.

> Jake arrives homes late at night. As he heads upstairs to his house, he passes the floor below him and sees Dirk’s apartment being searched by people in red uniforms. They all urge him to move along, sir.

> When Jake reaches his apartment, he finds someone lurking on his fire escape. It’s Dirk, who professes to be the downstairs neighbor being swatted right now. He apologizes and says he’s been hiding out in Jake’s place whenever these people come calling. (He also admits he’s been watering Jake’s plants while he’s away.)

> Jake invites Dirk to hide out overnight and gets him settled on the couch with some bedding so he can rest. While watching Dirk sleep, Jake’s mind runs amok trying to guess what kind of exciting mess Dirk is tangled up in. He comes up with three or four scenarios that the player picks from immediately, and that begins a long, more dramatic route through episode 3, each eventually culminating with Jake having to help Dirk run away from Crockercorp.

> In one route, Jake supposes Dirk is a researcher from a top secret lab who’s absconded with a precious experiment. Thus, Dirk becomes a CC researcher who has stolen Bec, a supernaturally powerful dogcreature that CC was experimenting on. Dirk knows fucking nothing about dogs, so Jake has to help him dog wrangle and eventually escape with Bec. The happy ending is all three of them on a road trip, safe and free.

> In another route, Jake supposes Dirk IS the precious experiment that’s escaped from captivity. Thus, Dirk becomes a CC refugee, a reality warping man known as the Heartbreaker. He has an incredible power: he can conjure forth whatever someone’s greatest desire is. The catch is once he does, the person forgets the thing ever existed. At the height of the experiment, CC had Dirk bring an orphaned girl’s mother back to life, only for the child to completely forget her. It broke Dirk, and he ran away. Learning of CC’s horrific treatment of him, Jake does everything in his power to protect Dirk and save him from them. In the end, the only way to truly rescue him is for Dirk to use his powers to pluck Jake’s greatest desire from him: Dirk becomes safe from CC, but vanishes, and Jake immediately forgets he exists.
> BECAUSE I HATE UNHAPPY ENDINGS there is a coda to this route in which a year later, Jake is still listless and unhappy, hanging out in the coffee shop. Dirk shows up, and asks if he can buy Jake a drink.

> In the last route, Jake supposes Dirk is someone of great importance who is running from CC’s evil regime. Thus, Dirk becomes an alien prince who is hiding out on Earth as he’s the last living person entitled to the throne. Jake leads a little spy mission into CC to try and figure out how to save Dirk, and discovers that back on his homeworld, the Baroness can’t keep hold of the peace because she’s not entitled to the throne as long as there is a living royal remaining. But time is running out before Dirk is sort of auto-abdicated. Jake convinces Dirk to return home to his planet and take up his place. Dirk anxiously asks if Jake wants to come with him. BOY WOULD HE. It’s finally revealed that Dirk’s alien form is basically a blue skinned alien space babe, like Jake’s deepest fantasies. They live happily ever after.

> So that was the road map. Each episode was basically set up around answering a Question. In episode one, it’s who the strange noisy neighbor is. In episode two, every jokey route reveals what is inside the second apartment Dirk has. And in episode three, each route focuses on Dirk’s backstory, leading up to Jake finally leaving on a great adventure.

> All centered around the mystery of one Choice Babe.