soulping | opal

[ you know what? since you like hurting yourself so much--punching you in the shoulder you just smacked into the door ]

What did I just say about not trying to force things!?

Ow!

[Rubs his arm.]

Well now my arm hurts too much to search.

[ Tamaaaaaaaaa ]

What's wrong with you, why are you being like this? Don't you want to help Natalie?

[ a whole lot more than just your arm is going to hurt if you don't straighten up and fly right, mister ]

[Gulp.]

I'll start looking.

Look, Tama. Natalie's a very private person, and she's extremely stubborn--and prickly, too. If you go around here trying to force things that are locked or closed off without at least trying to find another solution, you're probably going to break something, or make things harder for us.

[ it would be just like natalie's heart to make the going tougher the more you tried to force something ]

You want to help her, don't you?

....yeah.

[He sighs and nods.]

I'm sorry. I'm just. I wanna help her. So I thought I could force my way out of here to find the shadow so we can step it. And I'm nervous, so it's making me. Screw around a little.

Sorry. I wanna help her. I'm gonna take this seriously.

[ well, it's fairly impossible to stay mad at you now. good job evading a suplex, tama. instead you get a pat on the shoulder ]

It's okay. Your heart's in the right place, you just need to calm down and think a little bit more about the kind of person that Natalie is, and what she would and wouldn't want us to do. We'll find a way to her, it's just going to take some time and exploration.

C'mon.

[ and she's going to go over to check out this record player now. why is it only playing the same two minutes over and over again? ]

[As you get close to the record player, the music gets more erratic and strange. It keeps changing, becoming darker and more desperate.]

....it's changing.

Should we try to stop it?

Maybe.

[ it sure ain't right, that's for sure ]

Let's see if we can't find any other records in here.

[ looking around for other records to put on the player? ]

[There are no other records.]

...I'm gonna stop it, okay?

Alright. ... Be careful.

[ she kind of has a bad feeling about it. ]

Yeah...

[He reaches his hand out and gently picks the needle off the record.]

[As soon as you do it shoots off the player and careens towards the closet, shattering the record and sending the door slightly ajar.]

[ HOLY COW! ]

Th-that went off like a bullet!

[ what an unconventional key ]

G-geez!

[Had to kind of. Dodge the arm, there. Whoop.]

...well, let's try the door again?

Yeah. It's open now, at least...

[ though we did. somehow manage to break something... hopefully it was meant to be broken.

LET'S GO SEE what's behind that door. ]

[You open the closet and the entire room changes. What was neat and orderly a moment ago now looks like a tornado has passed through. All the furniture is now in disarray, strewn all around. A layer of debris and filth is spread over the floor, and messages are scrawled angrily on the walls:

Why was I born?

Why didn’t they love me?

What did I do wrong?

If you look closely, you can see the writing instruments that were used to write the messages not far from where they’re written.

Additionally, you can now see a variety of objects in the closet. There’s a small model of a birthday cake, a doll, some strange kind of gun, a throw pillow that has the word “family" embroidered onto it, a small potion bottle, and… a razor?

You think you can glimpse something else at the back of the closet, but something tells you that these items are important. Perhaps you should look through them?]

...

[Tama looks around the new room, a grimace on his face.]

Jesus, Natalie...

I knew things were bad for her at home, but...

[ this? god....

...

she tentatively reaches out to touch the model birthday cake and the throw pillow, which seem to be the safest options. ]

...

[Tama takes the razor.]

[The candles on the model of the cake flicker, very much alive and active. As soon as you touch the model, you receive a memory. As the memory progresses, you keep waiting for the other shoe to drop… But when it does, that doesn’t stop it from hurting. You’re so ashamed and embarrassed and angry that it’s hard to speak.

The pillow is perfectly embroidered; regardless, when you pick it up, you feel a surge of anger before being treated to a memory. It’s filled with anger and sadness - you feel betrayed and abandoned. She told you she would be your family, and then she left for months. How can you trust her again after this?

As you pick up the razor, you see that it’s slick - because it’s covered in blood. Touching it gives you a memory.]

[The razor tumbles out of Tama's hands, because they've both started shaking.

He doesn't even realize that he's started crying until he sniffs loudly.]

[ she's still reeling a little from that memory about Natalie's brother, as well as the anger and abandonment of the second one as she releases both the pillow and cake, when the sound of sniffling behind her attracts her attention-- ]

Tama. You're crying. What happened?

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