Unused scenes/script

Since I wasn’t able to write the promised snippets (somebody please kill my insomnia), I want to share some unused scribbles of scenes that didn’t make it into the game proper. Enjoy!

***

It’s weird seeing him do something as mundane as stirring coffee, so Reed asks, just to break the silence, and also because he’s terribly curious, “How long have you been in love with [MC]?”

He expected a reaction, maybe denial? He gets more than he wished for.

Laurent’s hold tightens reflexively, then loosens immediately after, as tough to conceal his reaction. The mug, free of the confinement of Laurent’s fingers, comes crashing down on the freshly polished tiles.

The thick pottery breaks into three large fragments, and the racket drowns Reed’s amused whistle, but not the words that follow. “Oh, wow. That bad, huh?”

***

Alan: ...and gave it to... A-something.

Reed: Aileen. That’s what you get when you can’t bother to remember their names.

A: Do I pay you for advice?

R: No, but you could sta-”

A: Get the fuck out.

R: 🤭

***

Jewel seems like a different person here, in the desolate stretches of verdure. Gone is the undertone of suspicion that accompanied her through thick and thin.

In the abandoned complex, there’s no reason for her to look over her shoulder. Not when the consistent buzzing of the barrier resounds sweeter than any lullaby.

It only dawns on you after several days that you’ve never seen her truly happy, not until now. Content, yes, but there’s always been a hint of melancholy in her every smile.

She wants to stay here - you can’t blame her. Thinking about leaving squeezes your throat. It’s painful; the amount of guilt it causes you to feel.

***

Player: “It would be fair if you worried about your career. I mean, what if your executive officer learned about you associating with me?”

Laurent “... [player_name], officer Fortin already knows.”

P “What?”

L “She knows. She found out about you a couple of hours after the warehouse burned down.”

Shit. You knew the SPD was quick, but holy shit.

L “I assumed you knew, I-”

P “No. It’s actually... I’m glad I didn’t know, because I would be shitting my pants the entire time.”

No wonder Fortin choose you as the lamb she wanted to slaughter. A runaway five dabbling in Perfumare? Forget the murder, she could fuck you up for all the above and each separately.

Truthfully, with all eyes on you, you have no idea how to get yourself out of this mess. You avoided death and jail. That’s all.

L “Do you understand now-”

P “No? It still has nothing to do with you. It was your higher-ups who tried to frame me, not you.”

L “And that makes me less accountable? Because I went against Fortin's orders?”

L “I wish I could say I did it out of love, but it wasn’t so noble. I would've done it either way, because that’s just not right-”

P “That’s a good thing.”

L “Is it? Well, I’ve been quite sheltered, you realize. Before they made me the commanding officer I was content to do what I was told.”

L “In Alven we were tasked with catching violent criminals, ones that there was no doubt they were at fault of what they did - arsonists, mass murderers. It was easy to assume we did the right thing, that it was needed, and I didn’t look past that.”

L “ It’s naïve to say I didn’t expect the SPD to be corrupt, I know it is, I didn’t think it was severe, but I can’t be complacent now that I know.”

P “Well, we do what we have to, Laurent. You think I wanted to deal with Perfumare.?The government is fucking us every which way, but we have to live somehow.”

P “Nobody needs you to be a martyr. There’s nothing to be guilty about.”

***