Side A
Chapter InoteWe begin with our Player Character - foster care veteran Alex Chen - sitting down for an interview with psychologist Dr. Lynn Denlon. Now 21 years old, Alex is leaving the Helping Hands Group Home to reunite and live with her brother Gabe, from whom she’s been estranged since entering the system. Lynn asks if Gabe’s aware of Alex’s “issues”, but Alex denies it, saying that once she’s out of Helping Hands, she’ll be a completely normal girl.
The game’s title screen shows, before we see Alex getting off a bus at Haven Springs. Arriving at the bridge leading into the town proper, Alex takes a moment to gaze at the wildlife and distant mountains before being met by Gabe. The Chen siblings enjoy a happy reunion - Alex either hugging Gabe or just shaking his hand at the player’s discretion - before Alex briefly sees a blue aura surround Gabe, and hears his sad thoughts about missing seeing his little sister growing up (unlike Max Caulfield and Daniel Diaz, Alex starts her game very much aware of her power, which in her case is the ability to pick up on other people’s emotions and the thoughts associated with them). Gabe then offers to show her the town, his aura of sadness disappearing.
First stop on the tour is gardening shop Lethe Flowers, where Alex soon finds herself being hugged by the elderly proprietor, Eleanor Lethe; as it turns out, Gabe’s told most of the locals about his little sister’s impending arrival. Alex gets a chance to look at the town’s main street before heading inside the shop with Gabe, who’s looking to buy an apology gift for his girlfriend Charlotte. Eleanor’s granddaughter and local computer whiz Riley is manning the shop floor, while also preparing for a college interview with Gabe’s help. Alex can give both of them advice for their respective predicaments. As Gabe goes to pay for the flowers, he and Riley talk about Mac Loudon, Riley’s on-and-off boyfriend, who she seems reluctant to talk to about her interview. Alex can look around the shop during this time, and the player gets the first opportunity to use her power manually, in this case learning Riley’s fear about not getting into college, and having to leave Haven Springs if she does get in. Alex has the opportunity to do this throughout the game, which in some cases can unlock new dialogue options for certain characters.
After leaving Lethe Flowers, the Chen siblings head for the Silver Dragon, the town dispensary and Charlotte’s workplace. Gabe heads inside to make nice with Charlotte; while Alex waits for him to return, she comes across Charlotte’s preteen son and comics lover Ethan, who shows her a copy of “Legendary Monster Slayer Thaynor”, a fantasy comic of his own creation. Alex then notices camping supplies in Ethan’s backpack, and Ethan admits that he’s planning to explore the old mines surrounding Haven that night. Alex is nervous about this, but Ethan insists he can handle himself.
Alex then spots a record store - Rocky Mountain Record Traders - on the other side of the street, and decides to check it out, recalling how she and Gabe used to hang out in another such store when they were younger. Exploring the shop, Alex finds a DJ booth being manned by a very familiar face: Steph Gingrich, former Blackwell Academy student and acquaintance of Chloe Price, now the local DJ for Haven Springs and the game’s Gay Option. Shortly afterwards, Alex gets to meet the game’s Straight Option and another friend of Gabe’s: Colorado Park Ranger Ryan Lucan. Upon learning that she’s planning to grab a record for Gabe, Ryan reveals that he’d put a record on hold for a later purchase. The two of them locate the shop’s hold list and extricate it from underneath Steph’s pet cat Valkyrie; as Alex picks out Gabe’s choice - Kings of Leon’s Mechanical Bull album - she talks to Ryan about how she and Gabe used to listen to records as kids, as well as either the dorky or cool bits of Gabe’s past.
Steph chooses this point to exit the DJ booth while angrily talking to someone over the phone. Her anger manifests as an intense red aura, and also reveals an unfortunate side effect of Alex’s power; when someone arounds her feels a particularly strong emotion, she herself can end up feeling that emotion and having her behavior affected accordingly, in this case tapping her heel and clenching her hands as Steph does the same (her journal and text history indicate a number of other such occurrences, including one where she attacked another foster kid after being overwhelmed by their anger, and another when she had a one-night stand with questionable consent on her part). Ryan thankfully notices her agitation - even if he doesn’t know the exact cause - and offers to jump in at the booth so Steph can resolve things with the person on the other end, calming both her and Alex.
Ryan briefly asks Alex what happened earlier, but Gabe enters the store before he can get a definitive answer, and Ryan aborts his questioning to help Alex sneak the record into her bag without Gabe noticing. Ryan warns Gabe that Mac was looking for him with hostile intent earlier, and Gabe leaves to get ready for his shift, Alex exchanging a look with Ryan before following her brother.
The two siblings encounter Ethan outside the Silver Dragon, with Gabe - a surrogate dad of sorts to the kid - talking to him about an upcoming LARP being run by Steph that the two are going to be taking part in. Gabe then asks about Ethan’s plans for the evening, with Ethan claiming that he’d like to stay at home instead of waiting at the Black Lantern (the bar Gabe works at) like Charlotte requested. He can’t help looking at Alex though after he makes the request, presumably afraid that she’ll figure out he’s trying to create an alibi for his late night spelunking. Gabe gives his permission, Ethan leaves, and Alex has her first major choice to make in the game; either she can tell Gabe that Ethan’s planning to hit the mines, or keep silent.
Whatever choice Alex makes, the two siblings continue down the street and talk about the mining operations near Haven, once traditional silver mines, now open-pit uranium mines managed by a company named Typhon Mining. They soon come across Jed Lucan, Ryan’s father and Gabe’s boss at the Black Lantern; after some joking at Gabe’s expense, talk turns to the upcoming Spring Festival, before Jed gives Gabe another warning about Mac. Alex and Gabe then head into the Black Lantern.
The Chen siblings arrive at Gabe’s apartment above the bar proper. It’s not Gabe’s apartment for much longer though; he reveals that he’s gifting it to Alex, seeing as he generally stays with Charlotte these days. Alex then reveals the record she got for him - which in a touch of irony he had been planning to give to her - and the two of them rock out to “Don’t Matter”, with Gabe miming drumming, and Alex having the choice of joining him by playing air guitar with a broom. The fun is interrupted by the arrival of Mac, who’s gotten it into his head that Gabe’s helping Riley with college is a cover story for the two of them having sex behind his back, and is none too happy about it. Things soon escalate to Mac physically assaulting Gabe, inadvertently overwhelming Alex with his anger. Despite her efforts to resist, Alex charges Mac from across the apartment and knocks him to the floor, before dishing out a vicious No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to him. Gabe tries to intervene, only to get punched by Alex himself. Hitting her brother does get Alex to calm down, but neither Gabe nor Mac want to hang around her after that.
Alone in the apartment, Alex cleans herself up before starting to unpack her things, including a toy mouse named Shu-shu. Looking around, she can discover a file Gabe had compiled from his efforts to track her down, as well as utilize another feature of her power; the ability to unlock memories from objects within the environment (there are two such objects within the apartment; a letter to Riley from her college, which has a memory of Riley and Mac arguing over Gabe’s intentions, and a crack in the wall, which has a memory of Gabe trying to track down his and Alex’s estranged father). After taking out her journal and recording her latest meltdown, she discovers a guitar under the bed - another intended gift from Gabe - and uses it to play a rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep”, echoing her feelings of being an outcast without a place to belong.
Alex then heads down into the bar area to see Ryan treating Gabe for his injuries, before the two of them leave to get further supplies at the ranger station. She meets Charlotte during this time, and the two of them talk about how Alex is feeling so far (Charlotte will also give thanks if Alex told Gabe about Ethan’s plans earlier). Afterwards, with Jed currently short-staffed due to Ryan and Gabe’s departures, he offers Alex some work as a server, having been falsely told by Gabe that she already has such experience (Alex can either come clean or play along). Whatever answer she gives, Alex gets to start work.
While cleaning up a table in the bar’s pool area, Alex is approached by Mac, who asks her to let him handle things with the soon-to-be-arriving Riley; for all his issues, he genuinely cares for her and doesn’t want to lose her. He lies and claims that Gabe attacked him first when Riley does show up, with Alex choosing to either support the story or tell Riley the truth, in which case she’ll break up with Mac. Alex is then approached by deputy sheriff and Black Lantern regular Jason Pike, who puts on a show of taking her to task for attacking Mac, but it’s only an act, and overall he’s quite friendly. Alex has the option of grabbing a drink with him later on.
Checking on a table in front of the bar allows Alex to meet Diane Jacobs, Typhon’s regional manager for the area encompassing Haven, and Reginald “Duckie” McAllister III, a cheery retired entrepreneur. After collecting their orders, Alex learns that Duckie’s favorite bottle of whiskey has gone missing after a bout of after-hours drinking with Gabe, and can try and find it for him. Steph’s also at the bar, and Alex can chat with her about the upcoming LARP, as well as play a game in which she has to guess a record from the jukebox picked by Steph, with the loser having to drink a shot of “Bedazzled Kiwi Schnapps”. Steph also mentions that Jed’s a local hero; several years ago during his mining days, he saved a number of fellow miners for a cave-in. Jed however asks her not to tell the story.
Gabe and Ryan return once Alex has finished all of her tasks, and Gabe asks Alex to meet him up on the roof. The two of them discuss the earlier violence in the apartment, Gabe noting that his sister seemed well-practiced at dishing it out. Alex can either tell him about her power, or simply tell him of her rough time in the foster care system. In both cases, Gabe will offer Alex reassuring and optimistic advice for the future. Alex then brings up the guitar, and can either admit to Gabe that she loves it, or that she’s a little rusty.
Ryan then arrives on the rooftop looking for Ethan, who of course isn’t in the Black Lantern, and hasn’t been found at his home. Alex will reluctantly tell Gabe about Ethan’s plans to explore around the old mine if she didn’t do so earlier - earning her brother’s disappointment for keeping such a secret - otherwise the Chen siblings will figure out where he is. Unfortunately for everyone involved, there’s a mining blast being set off by Typhon in that area that very night. Without any time to lose, Alex, Gabe and Ryan set off for the old mine.
Arriving at the old mine, Gabe calls Typhon offscreen in order to get them to delay the blast until Ethan is found. Exploring the mine’s processing center, the trio briefly investigate the now closed mine that Jed carried out his rescue in, before Alex discovers that Ethan based the environment of his latest Thaynor comic off of the processing center. Using the comic to trace Ethan’s route through the building, the trio discover that he had headed towards a nearby ravine, and find him trapped on the other side and terrified for his life, with a fallen tree serving as the only bridge.
As the lightest member of the rescue trio, Alex volunteers to go across the tree and get Ethan, with Ryan tethering her to Gabe. Unfortunately for her, Ethan is all but paralysed by his fear, forcing a reluctant Alex to tap into it. After recovering from the emotional impact, Alex finds herself seeing the environment with Ethan’s psyche, and discovers that he’s imagining the bottom of the ravine to be a monster that will attack him as soon as it sees him. Alex manages to assuage Ethan’s fears by pretending to be invisible, and helps him across the log, much to the relief of them, Ryan and Gabe.
Then suddenly the blast warning siren sounds, despite the blast supposedly being called off.
A distant explosion follows seconds later, sending a rockslide thundering down towards the quartet. Gabe is caught right in the midsection by a boulder and knocked over the ravine’s edge. Still tethered to him, Alex is nearly dragged over as well, before Ryan reluctantly cuts the line over her protests. The two of them take cover from the rockslide with Ethan, but Gabe is gone.
Just like that, Alex Chen has once again lost her brother, this time for good.
