Curate of Curiosities

So, where we left off, we got pretty much nowhere in our investigation. All we know is that Colin (and possibly Abby) knows something about how Em disappeared.

Not that it really matters, since we finally managed to take the school mascot to the dance! For some reason, we're supposed to see this as an accomplishment.

Uh oh...

Like with previous episodes, we start with another normal day at school:

Excuse me, are you a staff member? You're looking a bit too old to be eating with us.

Wait, what!? You're Em? You're the one who put that weird letter in my locker?

Aw man. Just when I was about to stop caring about this mystery, here comes the one person this whole thing revolved around.

We have so may questions to ask, but Em has an answer to one of them. Since last year they've been enrolled in a geology school.

Are you sure you're not actually a staff member? I feel they would be more likely to make themselves relatable to students with awful puns.

Good advice, but you could have told me that before Em decided to show up unannounced.

The other kids really need to know about this. Hey everyone, Em's back! Antagonizing the school bullies and sweet-talking Colin wasn't a complete waste of time after all!

Colin's the one who those girls said knew the most about the situation, so I'll press him for more info. Never mind that he had a breakdown about his academic performance the night before.

Once again, you're speaking in platitudes, Colin. But I feel I already have an idea what's up. Maybe Em isn't the innocent victim that they've been made out to be.

So is there a reason that Em is drawn in a far more detailed style than the other characters? I swear that their portrait has wrinkles.

Oh, is that what you call it? I just thought they had a thing for looking like a 55-year-old on bingo night.

But their fashion sense isn't the big secret that forced them to leave school; it's the fact that they apparently stole their supplies! And while this sounds believable, you need to know that Abby, for whatever reason, has a vendetta against them, which has been clear since before they turned back up, so maybe you should take what she has to say with a grain of salt.

No matter how you slice it, this is a really messed-up situation, and I'm not sure that I can side with either of them.

If only it were that simple. If you try not to take sides, you're brought to the same dialogue choice again, with that very option removed.

Yeah, I'm making my decision now. I'm going with the one who doesn't shoplift.

Now, back to our date. Since making wild gestures in front of us is a pretty ineffective form of communication, Turkeyhawk opts to text us instead. From three feet away. In their defense, though, they're quite well spoken for a bird.

We get pulled into our classmates' group chat. I don't remember ever getting invited to a group chat, especially since, as far as I'm aware, we've only known them for about a week.

Abby's trying to brainstorm a way to do...something about those three girls who bullied us back at the start. She says that it's about dealing with bullies, but I know that the only reason that she's doing this is to get back at Em by proxy, since they're the only ones who have given them a shoulder to cry on.

No. No, Abby. I'm not taking part in any of your social media crusades, and I'm certainly not sharing any of your hashtags!

Listen, as funny as dating the school mascot has been so far, I probably should have expected things to get a bit more dramatic since A, we've officially become an item, and B, this game's thesis statement is teaching impressionable teens about relationship issues.

But the problem is, I'm not exactly sure why they have an issue with Sasse all of a sudden. Sure, I had the option to partner up with them for science class today, and since Colin was the one who actually knew anything about the situation I went with him, so I thought that was the reason they were acting this way. But then I reloaded my save file and went with them instead, and the same thing happened.

Oh no...this game's trying to force drama so that the message will get through!

Oh come on! Of all the things to discuss... And with exactly the person you wouldn't want to mediate with!

Well, if Abby can reasonably assume that you're a shoplifter, who knows what else you've been up to?

So this is where the mystery, the thing that game's promotion made such a big deal of, has led us so far. To someone who got blackmailed into leaving the school by their bitter ex.

So there's the mystery solved, but there's still three more episodes to go. I guess the thing that's going on with Turkeyhawk would have happened even if I was pursuing someone else, yet now that this relationship building stuff is starting to come to the fore, I don't have high hopes for how this game's second half will handle it.