Part 9: Blackwell Legacy - Update 7

Let's keep this moving!

Update 7

Having made very little sense of the ghost in the park, Rosa decides to visit the Brittany hall dorm again. Kelly knew JoAnn, and judging by the photo JoAnn was a friend of the ghost in the park when she was alive. So perhaps Kelly will know something?

NYU Theme



This time around, Kelly doesn't even bother getting up and meeting Rosa at the door, so we just go inside.



Kelly never even bothers looking up, presumably just focusing on her midterms. I guess this is (or was) a common study area, with Kelly's side covered in various shit while JoAnn's side is pretty much empty. At least I assume it's a study area and not the entire dorm... unless JoAnn and Kelly were sharing a bed? This would explain why Kelly never wanted to sleep here.

Rosa looks around the room... at Kelly:

That's Kelly. She gives me the creeps.

At the bed/couch:

It's the only bed in the room. I guess Kelly got rid of the other bed after JoAnn... left.

Apparently it's a bed. My guess is that this room was another victim of the lead artist vanishing in the crucial final stages of Legacy's design.

At the window:



This comment isn't just designed to show Rosa being awkward and insensitive - many upper-floor dorms at Brittany dorm hall actually do have safety bars on the windows in real life. Gilbert was a pretty big stickler for realism when he put real locations in-game.

Off on JoAnn's side of the dorm, there are some photos pinned up on a pinboard.



From right to left:

That's her, the ghost in the park. She looks so happy here. I wonder what happened to make her... like that.
I recognize her. That's JoAnn.
The future Mrs. Davenport? I wonder what that means?

Can't help but wonder why Kelly didn't just give us this photo of JoAnn before since it was an individual photo and the text could easily have been cropped out. Oh well.



*sigh* Fine. Make it quick.

Rosa continues pushing her luck with Kelly.


Thanks again for lending me that photograph.
No big deal. It was just sitting there on her desk.

"But damned if I was gonna walk all the way to the fucking pinboard!!"

How are you holding up?
Me? I'm fine. Midterms are a bitch, but I'm handling it. Or, I WOULD be handling it if you didn't keep bugging me.
Can I take a look around?
What for?
Just to see if I can find anything else about JoAnn.
What, you're a detective now?
Well...
Forget it.
Please let me look around? It would really help me out.
I've helped you out enough. You can ask your stupid questions, but you touch nothing.

Kelly is happy for us to be here, but not to actually touch anything. It's pretty obvious that we would want to look at the diary on JoAnn's desk, but if we try, Kelly tells us to take a hike.

Come to think of it, why didn't the police take it? Surely they would be obligated to investigate in a situation like this? I don't know.



Rosa asks Kelly about the two girls in the photos, in particular the "Future Miss America".

Oh. THEM.
You know them?
Only through JoAnn.
Do you know their names?
The blond girl is... Alli. I think. And the Asian girl is Susan. I tried to avoid them when they were here.
Really? Why?
Look, I need my space. JoAnn needed her friends around her. So whenever JoAnn turned this place into Social Central, I split. They didn't care for me, and I didn't care much for them.

So at least we have the ghost's name. Alli. Perhaps that will help Joey bring her back down to Earth again.

We also get an explaination of why Alli told us that they "drove Kelly away, but that was okay, she didn't like us anyway."

Rosa keeps asking "her stupid questions". After all, Kelly said she could!

Does the name "Deacon" mean anything to you?
Nope. I'm agnostic.
Do you know anything about JoAnn's friend, Alli?
You mean Miss Blondie?
Yeah.
I know enough, which isn't much. She was over here all the time, visiting JoAnn. She was kinda... sweet, I guess. Laughed all the time. Ugh, that was annoying. That was usually my cue to get outta here. Why do you want to know about her?

This is a question Rosa will get alot through these series: why is she asking about person A when person B probably only tangentially knows them?

I'm having... difficulty finding her. Would you know where she is?
I dunno. She could be anywhere. Studying. Partying.
Pushing up daisies?
Shh!
Hm?
Nothing.
Right...

I always get a kick out of Joey piping up in the middle of a conversation where only one participant can actually hear him



Rosa now turns her attention to the third girl. The other two are dead. Either the third girl will be useful in finding out about her friends, or she will also turn up dead. Either way, Rosa needs to know about her.

Not much. Quiet, I guess. Maybe she just didn't talk around me. I never stuck around long enough to get to know her.

On the photo of Susan, it mentioned she was the "Future Mrs Davenport." Rosa asks about that.

Do you know anyone named "Davenport"?
No, but it's a stupid name.
It's written right over here on JoAnn's bulletin board.
You think I care what she does? I mean, what she did. I mean, I don't know anyone with that name. Sorry.

Kelly is starting to run out of venom by here, and sounds pretty drained. This interview is probably over.

Thanks for helping out.
Yeah, sure. Whatever.



No. JoAnn and I might not have been buddies. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna let some stranger paw through her stuff.

As I mentioned before, trying to take JoAnn's diary elicits an angry response from Kelly. We need that diary though, so we'll need to take advantage of some trickery to get it.



You what?
It'll only take a second.
Fine fine. Just hurry up.
Who do you think you're calling?

Rosa grabs the telephone, pretends to dial, and then says:

Hello, could I speak to Joey please?
...
Hi, Joey?
Um...
Yes, I had some questions for you.
... Ahh! Heh. Not bad, kid. Not bad! If you got something to say, say it quick. Lady pincushion here is starting to look a little hot under the collar.

This scene is a classic because Rosa speaks in such a stilted, put-on manner

So what's happening here is that Rosa wants to ask Joey to help her to distract Kelly so that she can take the diary. All in all it's a pretty clever puzzle concept, except for one problem - she could just have easily have stepped outside, spoken to Joey in the hallway (or hell, back in her own apartment), planned what they were going to do, and just returned.

Still, if she had done that, we wouldn't have been able to see this beautifully awkward conversation that's about to come!



Do? Look around. Check for clues. We need all the information we can get our hands on.
Joey, I'm not sure I can do... what you asked me to do. This is stupid.
Kid, you HAVE to. Don't back out now.

I love the way Rosa is trying to back out of her own terrible plan here



Huh? You mean metal nose?
Yes. She's making me nervous.
Me? What can I do?

Hahahaha, this is so blatantly suspicious that if Kelly was even bothering to listen she would immediately kick Rosa out.

You performed a little trick for me earlier. I'd like you to repeat it for me.
Trick?
Joey, do you see the pile of papers on the desk?
Yeah...
I need you to work your magic on them.
Ahhh. Sure sure. I can handle that.

Honestly, this is the least smooth piece of deception I've ever seen Fortunately Kelly isn't actually listening at all.

Thanks again, Kelly.
Yeeah. Sure.



Joey floats on over and blows Kelly's papers off her desk. As Kelly bends to pick them up she takes her attention off Rosa (whatever little of it was there to begin with, anyway), and Rosa is able to pocket the diary.

Nice one!



Continuing to flaunt the game's Adventure Game Puzzle mechanics in its face, Rosa then whips the notebook (not a diary, apparently) open right there and then and starts reading it, which of course Kelly doesn't care about in the slightest.

Looks like standard poli-sci lecture notes. It looks like JoAnn liked to doodle in class. The last set of notes in this notebook is pretty... strange. I'd better take a closer look.



Hahaha, very cute. JoAnn presumably split up with a boyfriend recently, which may or may not be a clue. Susan is buddied up with some cool, hip (or possibly blind?) dude called Alexander. And Alli was polyamarous or something.

The next page is a bit more frightening.



See, this is the kind of thing I would have thought the police might want to see.

So what can we deduce from all of this? "He" made Alli go, and now Alli is dead. It's safe to assume from Joey's chat with Alli that "he" is the Deacon, whoever that is. On the other hand, it sounds like Susan has been taken somewhere. And in the meantime, JoAnn was apparently going batshit crazy.

Rosa checks in with Kelly regarding this Alexander character.

Do you know anyone named Alexander?
No. Sorry.

Nothing much more we can do here, but at least we have a couple of leads now.



You've commited your first burglary.
Is that what I just did?
For the greater good, kid. For the greater good.
That makes me feel SO much better.

Seriously, I love the interplay between these two

Now, you may have made the mental leap already - if Susan was the "Future Mrs Davenport" and was dating a guy called Alexander, presumably his full name was Alexander Davenport. But of course, Rosa will only make the leap if you combine the two clues together in her notepad.

Hm. It's safe to say that these refer to the same person.

Rosa starts to talk to Joey about it, but he quickly cuts her off.



Even with nobody in the hallways, I guess it is a bit dangerous to start talking out loud to a ghost with people potentially coming in and out.



Back home, Rosa checks out the web to see if she can dig up anything on Alexander Davenport.

Hm. An Alexander Davenport was listed as being on the Hockey Team at NYU. It doesn't say anything else about him, though.

That's not particularly useful, unfortunately. Let's see what Joey thinks.

Who do you think "Alexander" is?
Well, judging from that silly doodle you're carrying around... I'd say he was Susan's boyfriend.
You think he's involved?
Anything's possible.

Washington Square Park



Yeah, sure.

Armed with the ghost's name, Rosa and Joey decides to approach Alli again and see what can be found out.



Yes! That's me. Alli Montego of story and song. She kisses the boys, but not for long.
Cute. Well, Alli Montego. At least we've confirmed who you are.

Excellent, confirmation is had, and we also get Alli's surname. This will be useful for assisting Rosa to cyberstalk her.

For reasons which are never really made clear, Alli speaks in rhymes whenever talking about people in her life.

Can you tell me about your friend Susan?
Quiet Sue. Little Lady Lee, always neat and always fair. Won't say much, but you'll know she is there.
Lady... Lee?
She had to go away. Stupid Deacon. Sending away all my friends. Even the little, little ones.
Do you know anyone named "Alexander Davenport"?
On a date, with Alexander the great! Was it an accident, or was it just fate?

My guess is that the rhyming thing was intended to be a common trait for all ghosts in the series, but was eventually dropped because it stymies good writing without really adding anything.

So if Susan is "Little Lady Lee", presumably her full name is Susan Lee. Fortunately this time we don't need to combine clues in the notepad in order to make that connection. Perhaps this is the game's indication that Joey is better at mentally processing clues than Rosa is?

There isn't much else we can get out of Alli yet, so Joey and Rosa excuse themselves and head back out of the dog run.

*sigh*.
You all right?
This is going to take a long time to get used to.
We got the rest of your life, doll.

I can't tell whether that's supposed to comforting or horrifying. Rosa and Joey head back to their apartment to try to figure things out.

Rosa's Theme



Looks like it.
And she's trapped in the dog run at Washington Square Park.
That's where she is.
And we have to save her.
Yep.
... Is this going to be a typical day from now on?
You'll look back on this as one of the normal ones.

As we will see throughout this thread, Joey is absolutely correct here.



Jumping onto her computer, Rosa does some research while Joey scouts out the kitchen, or whatever the hell he's doing. Joey's lack of interest in computers is a fairly well-maintained concept in the games, since presumably his living years were long before computers were invented, or at least mainstream. I guess a career detective might resent a little box that can a thorough investigative job in a few minutes.

I think I got her. Susan Lee, 18 years old, was admited to Bellevue Hospital last week after an apparent suicide attempt.
I think that's our girl.

So it turns out Susan is in Bellevue, where she hopefully is not being seen by that asshole Dr. Quentin. At least she is alive, although she apparently attempted to kill herself like JoAnn.

Rosa continues her research, searching for Alli Montego.

Alli Montego? Let's see if I can find her. Hm. She apparently spent some time on a spiritual internet forum. She was looking for information about... Ouija boards? "Are Ouija boards dangerous?" she asked. "Can they call anything evil? And if so, how do you get rid of it?"
Oh jeez.

This doesn't sound very good.



This has happened before?
A few times. Those things are NOTHING but trouble.

Rosa tries looking up information on Ouija boards herself, but doesn't get very far.



There's no way to really tell fact from fiction.

So it seems out next step is to try to speak with Susan Lee at Bellevue, in the hopes that the one friend still alive can shed some light on what happened to the other two.

We'll get to that tomorrow, but just before we finish today, let's see if Joey is willing to open up a little about Lauren and Patricia.



Eh, I guess. She was a tough lady. Stubborn. Smoked like a chimney.
Anything else?
Your aunt was... she was tough. Always ready to pick a fight. Wouldn't take guff from nobody. We got on famously.

Joey really perks up when speaking about Lauren. It's pretty clear he liked her alot, clear enough that even Rosa picks up on it.

So you liked her?
Liked her? Hell.



Sure I liked her. She was the first person in ten years who was willing to talk to me. She didn't scream, or run away. And she certainly didn't SWOON, like some people.
Shut up.
She just looked right at me and said "Oh." That was it. That was all I needed to hear.

The timeline here mostly matches up. As far as we can tell, Patricia started seeing Joey in 1961, and died in 1970 after eight years in the asylum.

Judging by these comments, Patricia had absolutely no interest in acknowledging Joey's existence, which I imagine must have been extremely frustrating for the both of them.

So what happened after that?
What's this? An interrogation?
Cut with the questions, kid. You're bothering me.
We'll talk about this later.

This is all Joey will say for now about Lauren. After we have solved some more puzzles, he'll open up further. Technically you can wait until the very end of the game and get the entire backstory at once, but I think it works better in dribs and drabs.

However, even though Joey is through talking about Lauren, Rosa can still ask him about Patricia.



Ole Pattycake was a real bundle of laughs.
Pattycake?
Yeah. Your grandmother. Her name was Patricia, right? So you get Pat. Patty. Pattycake.
You really called her Pattycake?



Joey sounds really pleased with himself about this, hahaha.

Come to think of it, just about everything I did hacked her off.
Like what?
Like... eh, forget it. Ask me later.

Apparently we've done enough puzzle solving, because Joey decides it's already later and allows us to continue.

Why did she hate you so much?
Because I ruined her perfect little life. She had the nice house, the supportive hubby, the two kids... And then I came along.
Yeah, you have a way of ruining peaceful lives.

It's nice to see Rosa's passive-aggressive streak hasn't diminished at all through this whole experience

Hm.
Anything else?
Nah, I'm done talking about her. Ask me again later.

That's all we're getting out of Joey for now. Tomorrow, we'll head to Bellevue to speak with Susan to see if we can figure out just what the hell is going on here.