Part 88: Blackwell Epiphany - Update 14 (Part 2)

Rosa checks in with Cory to see if she can chase up Ray.

I don't who he is, but I think he's involved with prostitution.
... Prostitution? Is this related to Lia's case?
I don't know. It could be.

Oh geez, I hadn't thought about how that might look, hahaha.

This just gets better and better. Anyway. Ray. Let's take a look.



Really? Without a surname, even?

There was a raid on a bar called Vantini a few years ago, and someone named Ray was taken in for questioning. No charges were made.
Just Ray? No last name.
No. Whoever Ray is, that's his full legal name. Anyway, here's the address of the bar if you need it.
Thanks.
Sure.

We're at a bit of a split path at the moment. Much like Isaac and Mavis in Unbound, or Tiffany and Jamie in Deception, we now have two ghosts who need to be investigated, and their paths basically don't cross. We can focus on one first and then do the other later. And in the mean time, we still have the roof ghost to think about.

Field's Gym



Somewhat arbitrarily, I decide to focus on Peter first. He was the first ghost we found out of the two, after all. We need to help him become "aware", just the same as usual, so we can then use Madeline's totem to send him to the circle. I guess this will just be like any other case until then.

Yeah. You interested?
I sure am.

Michael had mentioned to us that Peter gives personal fitness training. It's not clear yet why we'd want to, but at least it gives Joey a reason to keep talking with Peter.

Well, I don't have the time right now, but I can probably pencil you in. Just gotta check the schedule outside.



Peter floats out to his calendar to figure out when to squeeze Joey in.

Hmmm. How about next Tuesday. Say, 11am?
Sure, I think I can swing that.
Great. Here's my number in case you need to reschedule. You got a phone?
Ah. No. I'll just remember it.
Hm. Okay. 646-555-0425.
Thanks.
Great. See you then.

Aha. That's a good reason - we now have Peter's phone number. Maybe we can use that to our advantage?



Hahahaha, sure thing Peter Joey returns outside and passes the number to Rosa. She tries ringing it, but...

Hey, this is Peter. Leave a message.

...no dice. Hopefully that means he still owns the number. Then we'll be able to trace it.



Rosa returns to Cory to ask him to trace the number. Cory must be wondering how the hell we keep coming up with names and numbers for him to look up

I suppose I can. Within reason.
I'm trying to track down someone who Lia knew. The number is 646-555-0425.
All right. Gimme a second.



Excellent. Maybe he'll have something in his home apartment that will help us figure out how to wake him up.

Peter's Apartment



Rosa and Joey arrive at Peter's apartment. Mostly out of politeness, Rosa tries knocking first.



Surprisingly, a girl's voice responds. Perhaps it's Peter's wife, or girlfriend, or something?



As the girl answers, the rest of the apartment is revealed to us. Rosa has a few options. She can ask who the girl is:

Who are you?
Who's asking?

She can ask to come in and quiz the girl:

Could I ask you a few questions?
Um. No? Who are you?

Or she can mention Peter straight away:

I'm looking into Peter Fielding's death. Did you know him?
...
Look, I'm DONE talking about Peter. I've got my own problems. Just leave me alone.

Hm, that's an unusual response. She obviously knows Peter. Who is she?



Whichever way Rosa chooses, the girl slams the door in her face.

Dunno. It can't be your copious amount of social grace.



Rosa tries knocking again.

What is it this time?
I'm working with the police.
And?
And I need to ask you a few things.
I've already told the cops everything.
I wasn't there. Just leave me alone.

She then slams the door shut on us again.

Like a hedgehog, but without the winning personality.

Rosa gives it another try.

I'm a friend of Peter's.
So?
So I was hoping we could talk about him?
Funny. I was hoping to be left alone tonight. Guess who wins.

This is getting annoying.

This is Peter Fielding's apartment. Why are you living here?
Because I do? Now please leave.
We really need to talk. It's very important.
Well. I really need to get watching this movie. We all have stuff to do.
You know what? Never mind.
You know what? Suits me fine.



Finally, Joey decides to just head in himself. He's not impressed with what he sees.

Yech. Who knows how long that's been lying around. After seeing the state of this joint, Red's place doesn't seem so bad.
She looks like she stopped caring about anything years ago.

A couple of things in particular stand out to Joey.



First of all is this card on a small table next to the couch. It's Peter's old gym card. If we can get ahold of that, Rosa will be able to enter the gym, at least.



Secondly, on the coffee table is a copy of this probation form, though with the girl's name annoyingly covered by a slice of pizza. At least we can see the case number. Apparently she was one of the people at the Karth House.



Rosa and Joey head back to the police department to chase up the number.

Does that case number mean anything to you?
No. But if we can learn more about it, maybe we can learn more about her.
She doesn't like you much, that's for sure.

Let's see if Cory can help.



I can't, no. Sorry.
Eh. It was worth a try. Thanks anyway.

Damn. Why not? That's annoying.



Joey tries asking Peter instead.

First of all - no. And second - what were you doing in my apartment?
Er, you know what? Never mind. I'm confusing you with someone else.
Sure. It happens.

Hahaha, smooth. Joey then incriminates himself again.

So who's that lady living in your apartment? Girlfriend, maybe?
For the record, I'm currently single and happy about it. And I think I'd notice if some random woman was living my apartment.
Sorry. Must've been the wrong place.

Obviously she's moved in since Peter died, whoever she is. That's a bit strange.



I spent a bit of time walking around trying to remember how to solve this puzzle. While revisiting George's apartment, I noticed that Rosa had received some more emails earlier today. The first is just a bit of flavour.



The next is from Durkin, where he actually uses the expression "Jane Doe" Awesomely, Rosa is going to get paid for her work at the Karth House! We download a copy of the case notes, which adds a new item to our clue collector.



The last email is from Cory, I guess inviting us to visit him. Sorry Cory, we didn't even realise we needed an invitation!



Okay, so the solution to working out who the girl in Peter's apartment is to recognise that the she was found in the Karth House raid. She should therefore be mentioned in the case notes.

... Bingo! The case number *is* listed in this file. It belongs to a "Maggie Fielding." It appears she was picked up in the raid on the Karth House. She was brought in for an emergency detox and forced to go into rehab. It lists one known family member. A brother. Peter Fielding.

Aha. That explains why she might have moved in. She's house-sitting. And I guess if she was at the Karth House, she is probably otherwise homeless. She sounds like exactly the right person to help us to learn more about Peter - if we can convince her to talk to us.


Tomorrow we'll talk with Maggie and see if she can help us to learn enough about Peter to make him recognise his own death. And then, hopefully we can help Heather too. Looks like things have finally turned a bit of a corner here, with us working towards achievable goals again! See you all tomorrow.





Continuing the trend of posting what might be construed as "spoilers" if it wasn't that they are never addressed again in Epihpany, I want to talk about Jocelyn in this Word of God update.

In particular, I want to revisit The Countess' comments from Unbound. She said that she loved saving souls and that it felt good. Madeline said something similar in Convergence, and yet what we've seen earlier this game contradicts that completely. What does Gilbert have to say?

Jocelyn did find saving souls rewarding, but more so in retrospect

Jocelyn was obviously a bit of a child in the way she handled things, but Gilbert claims that she actually found the whole ghost-saving process rewarding. I guess she was just colder than usual in the Joey case because she was very much planning to betray Madeline and was busy focusing on making sure that happened.

Mostly, though, Jocelyn was conflicted because she felt like her life had been stolen from her. As time went on after banishing Madeline, she found herself reflecting more positively on those few short months, and even missing it. She began to define hereself as someone who "used to" save ghosts. By the time she becomes The Countess, it has become her entire personality, to the stage that, in her madness, she has forgotten that she actually only saved ghosts for a very short window of time.

Gilbert had initially planned to have one game which contained a fairly significant flashback sequence (kind of like Lauren in Unbound) for Jocelyn and Madeline, which would have showed them working together somewhat more fluidly than in the scenes we saw earlier in this game (which by their nature show Jocelyn at her worst). That game being cut probably hurt Jocelyn's chance to really flourish as a character. As it is, we'll just have to take Gilbert's word for it that Jocelyn found ghostsaving rewarding, because there is nothing in this game to indicate that whatsoever.