To The Moon

Part 12

BGM: The Bestest Detectives in the World

: "As you know, I am a representative sent from NASA in all its glory. And I'm here. . . to tell you all about it!"

: "HIT IT, TIMMY!!"

Timmy manages three cacophonous notes.

: "But I digress! Anyways, I know that manyof you are wondering. . . .what chances do I have of doing something as awesome as adventuring in another realm?!' To inhale the sweetness of Venus, to swim counter-clockwise through the rings of Saturn. . . or, perhaps, just chillin' at the backside of the MOON?!"

You can’t not love Neil. He really pours his heart and soul into everything he does…even when it’s trying to change the mind of a long-ago memory.

: "Well here at NASA, we believe that with enough will, everyone has the potential!"

(Johnny): "But I don't want to go to the moon."

: "Then you're in luc-- wait, what? Why not?"

: "Why should I? I'm happy here on earth as it is."

: "Well. . . don't you wanna go there even a little bit?"

: "No. Why?"

: "Not even a tiny bit?"

: "Um. . . No?"

: "To start off, the moon is 4.5 billion years old. . ."

Time passes…

: ". . . And did you know that its surface is about as big as Africa?! It's true! In fact, if you try to bike around the moon. . . "

…and the speech goes on…

: "Also, it takes 1.5247 seconds for light to travel to the moon from here. And if you drive a flying car, it takes 130 days!"

…and as it does…

: "And last but not least, people who go to the moon get rich and famous! And we all know that rich plus famous equals groupies. Soo. . . that concludes my presentation."

Neil gets noticeably more and more desperate.

BGM: The Bestest Detectives in the World fades out.

: "NASA probably wouldn't hire you, but I suppose it was blatant enough for this."

: "Hm, I do try pretty hard."

: "Are you gonna go see if that worked?"

: "Of course. Be right back."

Five seconds later, he reappears.

: "Report."

: "Utter failure."

: ". . . Deuce."

: "Hey, don't get discouraged! I'm sure there are still things to be done."

: "Such as?"

BGM: Born a Stranger

BGM: Born a Stranger stops suddenly. The Bestest Detectives in the World begins again.

: "If you sell this house, YOU SURE CAN!!"

: "It's true! For both you and your spouse!"

: "But here's a riddle: Guess where you should go for the honeymoon?"

BGM: The Bestest Detectives in the World fades out. Birds chirping SFX begin.

: "You know what, this just isn't working."

: "It's more than just not working. It's ridiculous."

: "We're freakin' professionals! I didn't sign up for the job to run around yelling at him like an idiot."

: "You didn't?"

: ". . . Look, maybe this lack of sleep's getting to us. Had I known that we'd be an all-nighter, I would've brought coffee."

: "I agree. You should've seen the movie I constructed earlier. . . "

: "What movie?"

: ". . . Exactly."

: "Let's take a break 'til morning. . . Hopefully Johnny can hang on 'til then."

: ". . . I do have some calls to make."

The dream scape fades to black.

BGM: Having Lived

Eva is resting at the spot where we met Johnny in his relative past.

And then it crossfades to, um, this.

This is an interesting artistic style that they went with for this scene. Images of Johnny and River float past Eva’s enormous pixel-y face as she thinks back on the evening’s events.

: "Johnny's registered wish to go to the moon was successfully transferred, yet . . . there wasn't even a trace of him wanting to go to the moon after the transfer. Unless. . . unless a secondary condition for the desire was changed in the process. Only then, would the same desire produce two different outcomes at two different points in time.:

: "If there's anything that could've caused the core to change, she would be the top suspect. . . but out of all things, what exactly caused it? River. . . just what exactly did you do?

It’s sunrise – Eva’s been brooding on this throughout the remainder of the early morning.

She’s right. Johnny’s lifebar, which has been green throughout the story, is now a deep yellow color. He won’t last much longer…and we still haven’t gotten him to the moon. We need to remedy that – soon.

Fortunately, Eva’s got her priorities straight.

Lily is available for us to get a little more information.

: "With two children and all, I mean."

: "It's not that bad, really. There's a school bus that passes through here."

: "But how did you even end up here?"

: "Well. . . A few years ago, my husband passed away."

: "What happened?"

: "He was in the army. . . They were the last batch to be deployed overseas."

: "Sorry to hear."

: ". . . I panicked. Our savings were low, and the job market was grim. Johnny saw my ad and offered me this job. I accepted with gratitude. This place was peaceful, too. . . It helped me with my grieving."

: "Doesn't the government issue grants to war widows to help get them back on their feet?"

: "They do. And eventually, I received aid. But by then, Johnny was starting to have trouble on his own. . . he needed my help. Tommy and Sarah like this place, too. And so we stayed. As for Johnny. . . he was glad as well."

: ". . . We're going to miss him. I think deep down, he really wanted a family."

She’s referring to the kids.

: "I. . . I don't know. I'll probably make something up. . . but it's no use. Kids are smart nowadays. . . They'll figure it out."

: "Might as well. It's the nature of life. There's nothing to hide."

: "What else is there to do? Find a job in the city and live on, I suppose. I'm going to miss Johnny and this place. . . Maybe I'll come back to visit every once in a while."

Well, that’s that.

: "He said that he probably wouldn't get the chance himself, but. . .He wanted me to tell you thanks for him. So . . . thank you."

There’ll be nothing to thank us for if we can’t send him to the Moon.

Let’s go check up with Neil.

BGM: Having Lived fades out.

: "What is it?"

: "It seems like our little Johnny here has some hidden records from the old days."

: ". . . Hidden records?"

: " Hidden medical records, to be exact.”

BGM: Warning (AKA best track ever)

: "Apparently, during his youth, he was administered a large dose of enhanced beta blockers. And what luck! They tend to have this little side-effect on a curious thing called memories."

: "Beta blockers. . .Johnny didn't have a heart condition, did he?"

: "Apparently not. Which leads one to wonder. . . if the 'side-effects' were intended to be merely just that to begin with. And in such a large amount. . . its impact on his memories at the time of administration must've been significant."

: "Well it's not the machine, I'll tell you that. The maintenance department yelled at me for scolding them."

: ". . . So what now?"

: "I was just given the reconfiguration frequencies; that should get us past the blockers. And once we're in his childhood, it might finally be early enough to transfer his desire for it to work."

: "Then what're we waiting for?"

: "But just one thing. . . "

: ". . . Of course. There's always that one thing."

: "In order to activate the new frequencies, we'll need a trigger."

: "A trigger?"

: "Something that exists strongly in the bridging inaccessible memory. And we'll need to give it to John, for him to stimulate his memory internally."

: "But what do we know of that? We've only gotten a glimpse of his childhood memories. And even if we find a childhood photo or something. . . John's unconscious."

: "Yeah. . . back to square one."

BGM: Warning (AKA best track ever) fades out.

: "You know, this job hasn't been such a pain in the arse for me since Nora's case last year."

: ". . . Likewise."

: "This is killing me. . . . . . I'm going out to get some fresh air."

A drug with the side effect of dampening memories by interfering with stress hormones.

As a side note, you can see the candy cane that the kids were asking for way back in update #2 up there at the top left.

Neil leaves…

…only to streak back in a minute later.

: ". . . Quit barging in and out of doors."

: "The roadkill, Eva! It smells!!"

BGM: Warning (AKA best track ever)

: "I know. It's your fault for running over it."

: "What's going on? The children are still sleeping."

: "Wait a minute. . .that last memory, the one we were stuck at--"

BGM: Beta-B

: "What are you two talking about?"

: "The olfactory receptors are directly linked to the brain's limbic system, Lily! Don't you see what this means?!"

: "I'm--. . . what?"

: "He means that smell is arguably the most effective sense for memory recall. We can use it as the stimulant to bridge his childhood memories!"

: "And the best part. . . Even though Johnny is unconscious, he's still susceptible!"

: "I. . . I think I'm missing some vital contextual info on this whole thing."

: "Alright, this is good. . . . this is awesome. Now you just need to go fetch a piece of the roadkill."

: "Yes, I'll just—“

: "You're the one who ran over it!"

: "Exactly. I've already done my part."

BGM: Beta-B fades out.

: " . . . Oh you miserable bastard."

: "Um, if it helps any, I . . . "

: "They aren't really disposable gloves, but that'll probably change after this."

BGM: Birds chirping SFX.

Off to it, I guess.

We travel back down the forest path, meeting nothing worth notating here.

: ( It's not safe to just bring in a piece of germ-infected roadkill like this. There's a valved container in the car; it'd at least make its odour controllable.)

Meanwhile…