Part 29: Chapter XVII. The Last Day of Snow Bird Mountain

Chapter XVII. The Last Day of Snow Bird Mountain

I can't find Brett anywhere! He's not answering his cell phone and it's the last day of our trip. He wasn't going to leave without me, was he?

Fortunately, I ran into Danny.



Hey, Danny.



Oh, Danny must be upset with me for some reason. I can't really imagine why, though.



Oh, right. That date! Oh well.



Hey, retard.



What the hell is your problem?



That's not what happened.
It's not?



It was a favor to Brett.



Yes.

Danny seemed pretty angry. But hey, I didn't mind throwing Brett under a bus if it got me off the hook. Literally...



Oh, I guess Danny wasn't mad anymore. Eh, whatever. These people don't make any fucking sense anyway.



While I could just... restart the conversation I guess, I decided to get this over with.

Have you seen Brett anywhere?



What'd he say?
I don't know.
Where is Erica?



Thanks, Danny.
No problem.



Aw, how sweet! I'd have to remember to help him out downstairs if I were drunk at a party. I mean, reaaaaaally drunk.

Anyway, I went to see Alex at the Tap Room.



You're an ugly, filthy, disgusting, buzzard-loving, dog-faced, gill-having, monstrosity of a rat bastard!



Where's Erica?



Will I ever see you again?

I swear to God, I am not moving pictures around or something - this is the natural order of the conversation.



According to the double negative, I should take crap from anybody, so long as they stayed out of my way. Got it.

Thanks, Alex!
Good luck...



What the hell did that mean?

Anyway, off to the ski lift to see Erica.



Baby, are you okay?
Eh.
Erica, where have you been?
Right here.



You had me worried sick.
Sorry.
Don't you ever disappear like that again.



Where's Brett?
I don't know.
Erica!



Whoa! Kitten's got claws.

What's going on here?!



Just tell m-

No, I'd better not. It would probably just prompt her to make me ask her nicely and I'd have to redo the whole thing.

I do!



What did Brett say to you?



Brett... in love... with... me?



Yeah, right!



What a loser!



-is.



Fortunately, I convinced her I just said that out of shock.



That was when we kissed.

You can learn a reference to this in the stage where you're trying to convince Brett to date Erica. If not, it really doesn't matter. It's just sort of annoying because Sprung wants you to make dialogue choices based on events in Brett and Becky's childhoods that you - the player - may not necessarily be knowledgeable of.

This is not the only time this happens as we'll see.



I've gotta find him.





And you're gonna be fine?



You don't need a man.

Use Item -> VibraMax 6000



No, I'm lying. Boys are such a necessity!



Erica... was not much for sarcasm.

I've gotta go.
Righteous, dude!
Huh?
Nothing.
Bye.
Good luck!

So, this is technically the final stage of Sprung... only to make it seem like Becky has nearly as many stage as Brett, they divide the last "Find Brett!" stage arbitrarily into five parts.

So, Danny, Alex, and Erica constitute the first of the final five stages.

Kiki was in my way.

Okay that's a short stage intro, but really people. I dare you to make sense of this:



Ripping the jacker? I... I guess because Kiki jacked your boyfriend, you have to rip her a new one. Whatever. She's in your way and for no reason at all, you have to diss your way through her in this, the final timed stage.

There's no Game Over dialogue. Screwing up here delays you, and you just get Game Over! if time runs out.



Get out of my way, Kiki.



Thanks for hooking up with my boyfriend.



Guys seem to want to hook up with you...



But they always want to date me.




I really thought he was the one.



God, this was so easy! Not to mention repetitive! Everything I said was a set-up. Say my name, bitch!

Until I found out he was such a whale-hunter!




I wonder why I never hooked up with him.



Oh yeah! Because of his disease.



God this bitch was gullible. Time to try a new tack.



And by the way... Remember when we first met?



You were so cute in your little sun dress.



Now it's more of a moon dress.




We became friends the first time we met.



Because no one else liked you.



And remember prom?
Hardly.



I have to admit, I am taking some weird pleasure in watching a character from this game I hate being torn apart so viscerally.




Go to hell, Kiki!!!



Oh... I can't stay mad at her. Didn't that Christ guy once say something about forgiveness? No wait, that was Brett last week. I always mix them up.



But her reaction to that scared me.



And with that... it was time to find Brett. Would I find him in the next stage of this?  No. 



Coming up...



Thanks, everyone!

I ran to the ski shop to find Brett, but neither he nor Lucas were there. I had to hope they were around somewhere. Leanne, Elliot and Shana were here.




I'd better keep these. They might come in handy. Now to ask the invisible man a question.



Where's Brett?


gonna be me.




Shit, hooking up with Elliot had bad repercussions. I couldn't get info on Brett's location without placating Leanne first. Also "repercussion" and "placate" were my e-mail words of the day.



Leanne...



The truth is I hooked up with Elliot.



But I didn't know you two were together.



Whatever. It was like the truth.



And I know he loves you.



I can tell by the way he looks at you.



I made out with him to get back at Conor.



If I had known you two were trying to get together, I wouldn't have done it.



... ...GameFAQs!

I mean, I really said...

I'm the one who tried to get you two together! I feel awful about what I did!



Except Conor never really loved me. Elliot really cares about you.



No problem.



Now to get down to business.




Okay, I'll go now.



...Except I couldn't go now because I had to cover Brett's ass at his job. Even though he got fired from there.

Hold on, I can't leave yet.



How's it going, Shana?



Sure.



This bullshit made us both happy!



Now we have to give her those four items. This is not a puzzle. It is busy work.

I gave her the sunglasses.



And the bandanna.



And the camera.



And the hairpin she gave me before my first date with Conor.



That should be everything.



Seven seconds later...



I ran to Brett's apartment... but then it was then that I ran into him...

Coming up...

My final battle with...



Dickbag-X.

seaborgium posted:

Did you seriously have to wait 7 seconds before it moved on from the crazy hippy? Most games wouldn't do that, but Sprung, well, you never know.

Not this time. In Brett's game, you had to wait for a period of time while he held his breath during Truth or Dare. I was personally surprised we didn't have to do it here as well.




Crap. I didn't have time for this. Brett could leave a day early and I wouldn't get a chance to talk to him until we got back home WHICH I COULD NOT LET HAPPEN



I don't have time for this.



I had a gut feeling that I shouldn't be too mean to Sean. He might lose his temper, say "Fine" and...



To find Brett.



I guess there was still no reason to lie. But I had to play it smart. God knows what motivation DB-X had now.

At his apartment.



I didn't entirely trust Sean... but Brett's bus was leaving pretty soon.

How do you know?



Yeah, right.



Where was he going?

Jesus Christ, Sean, enough. Just fucking tell me where Brett is!



Just tell me where he is!



Sean, please tell me where Brett is.

This is an annoying conversation because it just keeps going in circles until finally...



Because I'm in love with him!





Wait...






I didn't-

I mean, I didn't really mean that. I meant it the other way around. That he was in love with me... where did that come from? My head was reeling.




Why would you help me?



And though it didn't make sense in the context of the previous sentence, I was so confused, I found myself saying...

I guess people deserve second chances. I trust you.



Sean - who I won't refer to as DB-X anymore - really knew how to talk to women. It was no wonder I'd originally fallen for him.



Ha ha! Sean funny!



Thanks.



Coming up...

The last boss of Becky's thread.



And annoyingly...



I forgot. THIS is actually the final timed stage of the game. Timed stages prsent more of a challenge for me. There's such a large amount of flicker that a lot of my time is spent hoping that I paused the game on the right frame so I can get the screenshot. So frequently, I'll waste a couple seconds on "Pause. No, dammit, play... pause. No, dammit, play... pause. Got it. *Screencap*."

This is the second to last stage. I have an idea on how I want to write the ending, but our multiple ending choices are:

- Do we want to realize Brett is the true love of our life?
- Do we want to realize Brett is our best friend and not want to ruin that?

(But I plan on showing both no matter what, of course.)

So let me know what you're hoping for. Besides, "Slowbeef, I think you should video yourself putting the game into its old box with manual, putting all that in an old barbecue grill, squirting lighter fluid on it, and setting it aflame."

The Ultimate Battle: King Dickbag Versus 555-BECKY, Straight From The Fridge

I ran to the Nature Trail expecting to see Brett. Instead...



Conor.




Leave, I don't want Brett seeing you here.



Oh God, no. I had to do... something. But good God, what?



I had to make sure he hadn't done anything to Brett!

Where's Brett?



Go away!



Shit, I didn't have much time. How do I take this guy out, once and for all?

With insults. I had to let it all go. I had to hit him. Harder than I'd hit anyone on this entire vacation.



You're such an embarassment!
Why is that?



Your best friend hooked up with me.



You think that's as bad as I can hurt you, Dickbag?

Try me.

I can hurt you more.



Your father still pays your rent.



You think that's all? I'm not done with you, Conor. Not by a fucking long shot. Take 83 seconds of pain all at once.



Your friends like me more than you.



C'mon, Conor? You wanna fuck things up with me and Brett? You're not even swinging! Knock me out, champ! KNOCK ME OUT!



I can't believe you still get an allowance.



And now, ladies and gentlemen, I'll admit it. I forgot about that line, and that one made me laugh. It's my second favorite in this stage.



People don't like you, they like your money.



Conor, I want you, baby. I want your tears. I want you to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat... having had nightmares about ME!



You okay there, Conor?



We're not done. Now I'm going to bring you up just to tear you down.



I think we should get back together.



I'm serious, I really miss you.



I've thought about it and I want to give you another chance.



I miss the way you used to hold my hand.



Gull-

I guess I'm just lonely.
You?

i-



You made me realize there's nothing more important than you and me.



-ble.



Definitely! I'll schedule in for a nice time between 'when pigs fly' and 'when hell freezes over'!



Brett would be here in 30 seconds.

It was time to drop my atom bomb. I channeled all my hypnotic energies...



By the way, I just saw your father.



I ran into him at the Tap Room.



I invited him to sit at my table.



He ordered the steak.



He even paid for my meal... and the wine.



...



And then he offered me a ride home.



















I thought of a couple of things like...



But I settled on...

...



We both call him daddy.



And just then...



I can't tell what happens here, honestly. I assume Conor runs off, but the screen flashes white and Becky says "AWESOME!" and Conor is nowhere to be seen. Maybe his head exploded. I hope so, because that's the one thing I can't deliver in this LP.

edit: I figured it out.

And then Brett punched out Conor!

AWESOME!



I took off my "war face".

Because now it was time Brett and I had a good, long talk.

Next up: Final Stage of Sprung.

Alright, I'm still doing screencaps of this atrocity. And funnily enough someone at the Port Authority saw me do it.

"Excuse me... is that Sprung?"

"Uh.. yeah."

So we had a discussion about how his girlfriend loved the game and I was doing a thing where people on the Internet voted for the next move. So yeah.

Anyway, one more thing I noticed in doing this:



See anything wrong with that picture? Let's zoom in.



Oh goodness. They forgot to fill the inside of her hand with the transparency color so it's a big fistful of flesh. Sprung. What a quality game.

I have over 100 images so far, so let's offload some of this.



And then out of nowhere...



Kiki?! But didn't I take care of-



What the hell are you talking about?




I have no idea what she's talking about.



Oh God, I got it now. Kiki wasn't really my friend after all... and now she wanted to ruin things with me and Brett. I had to stop her.



She's just mad because I ripped her a new one.




Have you ever known Kiki to tell the truth?

Well...



Haha! Barely even a challenge, Kiks!



Okay, this was really pathetic. I'd pretty much only dealt with Lucas like once this whole trip. But Brett seemed to believing it...



Brett, don't believe a word she says.

He wouldn't, right?



Brett, you don't believe her, do you?



Hooray! We both had a good laugh over my best friend trying to betray me! AGAIN!



And then I decked her in the face. (No, really.)



That'll show her! Plus, now her and Conor were unconscious on the scene. It was the perfect time for Brett to profess his love for me.



For no reason at all, I started to laugh and then Brett said:



Here it came.



So you were gonna leave without saying goodbye?



So I hear.



Okay, so for God knows what reason, Becky CONSTANTLY defaults to laughing face throughout this whole stage whenever Brett says anything. It gets really annoying and I took a lot of caps of it, because it's just... so not appropriate.



Everyone knows.



And then...















He said it.







Omitted lines:

I loved you when I tried to set you up with my friend Danny.

I even loved you when I hooked up with Kiki in my game because I always had a thing for her.

I really loved you when I set you up with Elliot in order to get a job.

I especially loved you when I never, ever made mention of any of these events previously.



And now it was time for me to decide.

Brett's words hung in the air. I thought briefly about the stakes here. It was a good thing Kiki didn't convince him I had a thing for Lucas...





I had to be careful. If I loved him, I still had to convince him I wasn't just saying that. Because if I couldn't...



And if I didn't love him, I had to let him down easy. Otherwise...



Wanna know how I really felt, though?



It didn't matter now. I knew how I felt.

And it wasn't like this:

(Final vote tally: 12-8)




Are you sure this isn't some kind of phase?



I think we make better friends than lovers.



Haha, I'll bet you did!



It wouldn't work out...



We're too similar.



We're both too aggressive.



What if we end up in different parts of the country?



Who knows where we'll be in a year?



We've been friends fro so long, how can we change that now?



I need you as a friend...



Oh, Brett, you little gentleman!



You're like a father to me.
You can still call me 'daddy'...

Whoa. Yeah, he actually says that.

You're like a brother to me.



I couldn've made it through childhood without you.

Was I sure these were proper contractions?



Wha-? Bug!



You were the first person I called when Eddie broke my heart.

This event is never referenced anywhere else. This is really blind guesswork. Is there any reason that one is better than "the only boy to ever let me watch him cry" is?



Aw! His sadness was hilarious!



You were there for me when Judy told everyone I ate my boogers.

Ugh.



And when your grandfather got sick, no one else cared but me. No one.
Well, my friends and family were pretty supportive, too.
I mean... And when your grandfather got sick, rabid dogs couldn't tear me away from you.



I would never want to risk losing any of those things.



We don't have the right chemistry.





Physical attraction is only the first ten minutes of a relationship.

And the only reason I dated Conor, mind you, but still.

WolfShirt, in the first thread posted:

Oh Brett, you stupid man-child.

But if it's not there at first, there's nothing you can do about it.



And while you're my best friend, I find you pretty repulsive.
Am I so hideous to look upon?
Er... And while you're my best friend ever, I can't see you any other way.



Jesus, Brett, you're really fucking stubborn sometimes.



I wish I could see you in that way, but I can't.



I'm sorry, Brett, I just can't stop seeing you as that kid I pimp out to my friends.
Well, at least one of us is benefitting from the relationship.
That is...



I'm sorry, Brett, I just can't stop seeing you as that kid I spent my childhood with.



You need someone else.





I'm not ready for a relationship.



You need someone who's hotter.
Becky, what are you talking about? You're hot as fire, girl!
You need someone who's ready for a relationship now, and not wavering.



You need someone like Erica.



You could hang out with her as a friend and see if you like her.



You need someone with the same goals as you.



Does that make sense?









But that's not how I felt. Not really.

No... the truth is...

This is what you all wanted.



I guess I always knew.



I think I'm in love with you.



Since just now.
That's not very long.
Uh, I mean... Since we were little kids.



We were too young.



I've been thinking about it for so long.



Yay!



It had been so long I thought it went away.



I'm a little worried our friendship will be over.



This made me so happy, to see him worried!



But then again, that means we're already halfway there.



Okay, Becky, Jesus. Knock it off already.



I was using him.



Tee-hee! Of course!



I was so angry at Conor and I wanted revenge.



Ahahaha! He was!



Thankfully, I know you love me no matter what mistakes I've made.



Uh... where was Brett going with this?

What about it?



Yeah, that made sense.

Don't worry, I'd do the same thing.



This is the longest "I love you too" I've ever fucking heard.



No, I probably should.



Haha yeah! No seriously, why is she defaulting to this?



He didn't mean anything.



But he didn't turn out to be the person I expected.

Brett doesn't respond with anything particularly great with the alternatives here. It's usually a predictable one-line response like "That's not right to do."



And it's actually a good thing all that went down...



Because I stole Conor's credit card!
Isn't that a crime?
I mean... Because otherwise I wouldn've (huh?) realized how amazing you are.



And now I had to convince Brett I really loved him. Saying like 12 things in a row ought to do it.













Other people that know us don't always get you and they don't always get me, but they always get each other. Sometimes, when I'm looking at you, you make me laugh without even trying and there's nothing sexier than that. I've known you practically my whole life. You and I haven't always gotten along and we don't always agree on everything, but you've always been there for me no matter what.

It's not that hard to figure out the right one. Choosing the wrong answer here is pretty funny though, because you get to watch Brett's expressions change and get sadder and sadder.



So... We're both really fucking longwinded, huh?



Just biological, I guess.



And he kissed me.





But that's not how it ended, either.

It really ended like this. (No audio.)


The End.

Let's Play Sprung

July 30th, 2007 - November 9th, 2007

Holy shit, that felt like forever.

Very special thanks:

- Desumtayah for the House of Horrors pictures
- Wolfshirt for fanart
- Tasian for a ton more fan art and head explosion
- ZZTTheFifth for being the behind-the-scenes Sprung expert. He also sorta offered to substitute pitch for me when I was about to give up on it.
- Tasian, and ZZT who helped me get the true ending up
- Everyone who enjoyed this crap