In Which We Explore a Mansion. Also a Lighthouse, Maybe

 Act 1

As usual, my commentary is in italics, except for in dialogue.

- We cut to darkness, with sounds of footsteps audible. Someone speaks up.
Lily: Dr. Watts and Dr. Rosalene, I presume?
- The screen fades into the interior of the house, the doctors are now inside and the kids are nowhere to be seen.

Lily: Thanks for coming on such a short notice.

Dr. Watts: (raising hand) That's okay, I tend to be bad at predicting deaths as well.
Dr. Rosalene: Are you the patient's daughter?

Lily: Oh no, I am just his caretaker.

- The kids come in running from upstairs, disappearing into a room towards the left. Watts, Rosalene and Lily all follow them with their gaze.
Lily: ... And these are my children, Sarah and Tommy.
Lily: (turning back to face Rosalene and Watts) It's not exactly a nine-to-five job, so Johnny lets us live here.
Dr. Rosalene: I suppose this "Johnny" is our man?
Dr. Watts: ... "Johnny"?
Dr. Watts: Listen, if it's a kid we're dealing with, I don't think we're the ones you want.
Lily: No, no. He just prefers to be called that.

- Lily walks right towards the staircase, then turns around.
Lily: He's upstairs right now with his medical doctor.
Lily: Come with me.
- Lily proceeds to walk up the stairs, Watts and Rosalene turn to face her, then back to each other.

Dr. Rosalene: C'mon, grab that case and let's go.
Dr. Watts: (turning to the box) ... When my back breaks one day, I'll sue you with the insurance claim.

Phew. Quite a bit of conversation there, and most of it having fairly decent relevance. So we get to know quite a bit about this Lily character, which would imply that she plays a major role in the plot. Neil as usual is rather brash, throwing smart retorts at his client(technically his client's caretaker, but whatever) and later complaining about holding a box, which is like.. part of his job as a doctor. He does bring one fairly striking point however: this machine is not for use on kids. Why that is the case will become obvious quite soon. Also, these doctors are distinguished from "medical" doctors, which is a little silly - technically every doctor studies medical science.

We gain control of our characters again, and can technically explore the first floor of the house. However, pretty much all the connecting rooms are inaccessible, trying to go anywhere gets Neil chided by Rosalene:

Dr. Rosalene: Where are you going? Grab the box so we can head upstairs!

So we have to pick up the medical box. Doing so triggers some grumbling from Watts.

Dr. Watts: Alright, let's head upstairs before I drop this.

We then head upstairs. We're prompted before taking the stairs. The moment the doctors are completely upstairs, the kids chirp in:

?: Ok, they're gone!
?: Whoever gets there first gets to play the melody!!
- The kids barge out of the left room and rush towards the piano. The boy gets there first.
Sarah: No fair! You pushed me.
Tommy: Did not!
Sarah: Whatever, you get the boring two notes anyway.
- The screen lingers on them playing the piano for a bit, then shifts to the right, cutting to the second floor of the house. The doctors head on, but Rosalene turns towards the staircase to listen to the piano.

Dr. Rosalene: ... Those kids are pretty good for their age.
Dr Watts: (sounding annoyed) Hey, you're the one who said there was no time to waste.

Dr. Watts: And incidentally, I'm the one who is carrying the weight of a small meteroid.
Dr. Rosalene: Yeah yeah, c'mon.
- The doctors turn back to the left.

Mostly some exposition about the song the kids were playing, rather interesting that the title theme basically exists as a song within the world rather than as part of the background. It likely has more than a passing connection to the patient.

We can look around the second floor. The clock only has one hand visible, and makes no sound. Entering the patient's room abruptly cuts the piano playing, likely it is soundproofed. There's a small gallery of paintings at the bottom, depicting, in order from left to right: a lighthouse by the cliffside, a woman holding something yellow and blue, a duck shaped animal, and three people. Going further left, we can spot a bunk bed for the kids, a shelf of books, and Lily and the doctor standing near the patient.

Talking to them produces a few responses:

Doctor: He's unresponsive at this point, but by the looks of things, he's still consciously hanging on.

Doctor: It's hard to say how long you'll have, but I would hurry.

Lily: Ready to setup?

1. Set machine down
2. Look around first

2. Look around first
Dr. Watts: Gee, y'know, I think I'd like to carry this excruciatingly heavy object around some more.
Dr. Watts: Thanks for asking, though!

I have no clue who he's talking to here, Rosalene? Pretty rude either way.

Upon talking to Lily and picking 2 again:

Dr. Watts: Naw, I don't think my back's broken yet.

There's a bathroom to the far left of Johnny's room, but there's nothing of note in it.

It is pretty swanky though.

Alright, setup time. 

Dr. Rosalene: Yes. It'll just be a moment.
- The screen cuts out to the same room, but with the machine propped up on a table, Neil hard at work on it.

Lily: ... Are you sure a common household power outlet is sufficient?
Dr. Watts: (turning to Lily) No worries, we're the experts.
- Dr. Watts turns to Rosalene, who plugs in the machine. The lights begin to dim strongly.

Dr. Watts: ... Oh crap.
- Lily is stunned, but the lights turn normal again. The machine now begins to glow, and Watts turns to Lily.

Dr. Watts: Standard procedures... Just keeping ya on your toes!
- Watts turns back to the machine and presses some buttons. Its screens fold outward and some setup sounds can be heard. Rosalene walks towards Lily.
Dr. Rosalene: How's he doing?

Doctor: Not so well. If I were to say, he's got just a day or two left.
Dr. Rosalene: That's plenty of time.
- The doctor turns around to face her, as she proceeds to examine Johnny.
Lily: (turning to Rosalene) ... So you two can grant him any wish, huh?

Dr. Rosalene: ... To try, at least.

Dr. Watts: (sounding excited) But we always succeed, because we're awesome.

Dr. Rosalene: (turning her head towards Lily) So, what's the wish?
Lily: The moon.
Dr. Rosalene: (looking quizzically, and turning her body towards Lily) The moon?
Lily: The moon... (line break for emphasis) ...He wants to go to the moon.
- Dr. Rosalene looks dumbfounded.
Dr. Watts: The geezers just keep on getting crazier, huh?
- Rosalene turns towards Neil.
Lily: So, can you do it?

- Rosalene turns again towards Lily.
Dr. Rosalene: ... It depends.
Dr. Watts: She meant to say "yes".
- Lily turns towards Watts.

Dr. Rosalene: Why don't you tell us about our client here?

- Lily turns back towards Rosalene.
Lily: That... I don't really know much.
Lily: Johnny's an odd man. Through the two years that I've worked here, he rarely spoke.
Lily: He worked as a craftsman for most of his life, and his wife passed away two years ago.
Lily: ... I don't really know many details.
Dr. Watts: I would've known more if I were his paperboy for Pete's sake.
- Lily turns towards him, Rosalene doing so after his dialogue is done.
Dr. Rosalene: Shush, just do your thing.
- Lily turns back to Rosalene.
Lily: Well... I suppose if you look around the house, you may find some more info.
- Rosalene turns around to face Lily.
Lily: I suppose Johnny wouldn't mind, since he signed for you two.
Dr. Rosalene: Mm... So be it.
- Rosalene walks towards Neil.
Dr. Rosalene: Alright, which one of us plays detective?

Who goes to search the house?
1. Dr. Watts
2. Dr. Rosalene

While this sounds like a great way to characterize and distinguish the two, in practice Rosalene's take on the journey just ends up being a less humorous version of Watts', outside of a few pieces of additional information, like Sarah and Tommy roleplaying in the area outdoors at night. I'll just pick Watts and go along with it.

Dr. Watts: I'll do it. I once played Sherlock Holmes in a high-school musical.
Dr. Rosalene: ... I remember you playing Watson.
Dr. Watts: (sounding irritated, I think) Meh, same thing.
- Watts proceeds to move out of his machine, and face Rosalene from the side.
Dr. Watts: Just configure this, I got it started anyway.
- Rosalene is stunned, and silently moves towards the machine.
Lily: My children can show you around. They're probably downstairs at the piano.

LOTS of dialogue to take in here. Mostly it talks about the job of these doctors, they're wish granters of some sort who visit people just before they die. The patient here seems to have been a "quiet loner" kind of guy. Watts sounds quite overconfident, and also rather rude, constantly interrupting Rosalene interrogating her client's caretaker. Atleast he does have some technical proficiency to back up the hot air. Two things of note: these doctors grant wishes to nearly dying people, and have to use a machine to do so, so it's likely to be something involving the mind. Watts considers going to the moon an absurd wish, even though it's fairly plausible as one, especially on their deathbed.

We regain control at this point. Watts can speak to Rosalene, Lily and the doctor for small snippets of dialogue.

Dr. Rosalene: Did you find anything yet, Sherlock?

Doctor: Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Lily: Tommy and Sarah can take you around the house if you need any assistance.
Lily: They're probably downstairs at the piano.

As he tries to leave, the doctor calls out to him.

Doctor: Wait, come back here for a moment.
Doctor: I have something for you.

Going back to talk to him:

Doctor: Here, take this.
Doctor: That'll keep you updated on Johnny's status.
Dr. Watts: I hope there's no self destruct button... I seem to have a knack for those.

What the doctor gives us is, well, a piece of UI.

See that green bar with a heart monitor reading? That's what his device is. It has no relevance for most of the game, and mostly exists as flavor. Ah well, better than nothing I guess.

We now head down to the first floor. At this point we get to enter the rooms freely, and even go downstairs. Watts will comment about asking the kids first when we try to go downstairs or visit the room in the lower left, but we can ignore him and explore them anyway.

Anyway, from right to left: the first room is a kitchen, the second is a study, and the third a bathroom. The kitchen is unremarkable, as is the bathroom, but the study does have something of note. It has three books - Dusklight, The Pilgrim's Guide to Origami, and The Emperor's New Clothes.

Dusklight is a blatant reference to Twilight, The Pilgrim's Guide to Origami is an attempt at comic relief, having such absurd claims as being "better" than Wikipedia Origamia(a clear poke at Wikipedia and other online guides) because it's made out of paper and has bandages for paper cuts, and finally The Emperor's New Clothes is all about the classic tale of the foolish emperor who wore nothing and claimed to have splendid new clothes on. Well, specifically the game just quotes the part where a boy notices and exclaims that he's nude. All in all, a rather bizarre collection of literature.

Oh, I lied about the bathroom. You can store tap water in the sink. Seems like a bizarre bit of interactivity to put in, likely a holdover from an earlier version of the bathroom.

The study also has a half done painting, but we can't actually examine it. Going close just makes Watts remark that he almost stood on the paint.

The basement has... well, a bizarre collection of just about everything. Dusty Animorphs books, locked chests, unused fine china, boxes of colored paper, and the sound of trickling water. Hmm, I sure hope there's an explanation for this sometime.

Well, time to talk to the kids!

Sarah: Wha'cha want?
1.Show around the house
2. Keep playing.

Option 2 doesn't lead to anything funny or interesting, so just pick 1.

Dr. Watts: Hey, your ma told you to show me around the house.
Sarah: Okay, maybe we will.
Dr. Watts: Maybe...?
Sarah: ... I think we just need a little convincing, that's all!
Sarah: Wut do ya think, Tommy?
Tommy: (excitedly exclaiming) Yah!
Dr. Watts: ... Alright, let's talk. 
Dr. Watts: What do you punks want?
Tommy: We want... one trillion dollars!
Sarah: (excitedly) Or the candycane mom hides from us!
Tommy: (also excited) Yah, or that!
Dr. Watts: Er, what?
Sarah: (still excited) There is a giant candycane on top of a high shelf that we can't reach...
Tommy: It's in the kitchen. Ma put it there to save for when we do chores.
Tommy: Get it for us, and we'll give you a tour through the house!
Sarah: (practically exclaiming at the top of her voice) What do ya say?
Dr. Watts: Well...
1. Sure, I'll go get it for you!
2. No. Cut the crap and help.

This is a fairly tedious comic sequence, but honestly 2 is the better pick here. 1 just leads to a visual gag of Watts jumping in place trying to reach the candycane. I mean, someone could find that funnier, maybe.

Dr. Watts: Plotting to eat stashed candy is a serious crime, y'know.
Dr. Watts: I heard you can get six years for that.
Tommy: (exclaiming in shock) Oh no! What do we do, sis?!
Sarah: (similarly shocked) We're sorry! We didn't know!!
Dr. Watts: Uh huh. Well, if you show me around this place now, I'll keep my mouth shut.
Sarah: Really? You'd do that for us??
Dr. Watts: (exclaiming proudly) Sure, I'm feeling nice today.
Tommy: (exclaiming in relief) Whew, thanks!!
Sarah: Yeah, we'll help!
- The screen cuts to them following Watts.
Dr. Watts: Alrigh', where do we start?
Sarah: (excitedly exclaiming) I know! There's this funny room in the basement.
Tommy: ... I don't like that funny room.
Dr. Watts: Er, what kind of "funny room"...?
Sarah: You'll see!
Tommy:... It's weiiirrd!
- Dr. Watts is stunned for a moment.
Sarah: We need to get the keys, though.
Sarah: The old man hid it inside a book in the study.

Pretty conflicted about this scene. On one hand this is a fairly reasonable depiction of kids playing pranks, as well as a reasonable situation to setup, but on the other hand it mostly exists just for the sake of some throwaway humor that adds fairly little to the plot. It would be an adequate scene on its own, but in here it just feels shoehorned in.

Well, this post is already quite long, so I'm going to split the contents into two posts. Join us next time, when we explore even more of the mansion and its surrounding grounds.

Next: In Which Two Kids Play Tag.