– PRIDE MONTH 2020 –
She was a mess by the time the credits rolled: cheeks glistening with tears, hair falling down from her brow in messy strands, her hands dampened by futile attempts to wipe her face clean. The presto from the opening of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons played on, and the three on the couch, gripping each other tightly, sobbed to see a woman they’d grown to adore over the past two hours be brought to such grief.
Dania reached for the tissues, and found the box missing.
Author’s Note: this review of Night In The Woods discusses allegations of assault made against one of its creators. These allegations broke after my first two playthroughs of the game were concluded, and the emotional impact of the game already established. I considered whether to cut the review entirely, not wanting to promote the work of this developer. After careful deliberation, and in light of the accused being immediately fired from Infinite Fall, I have decided to move forward in reviewing Night In The Woods, in support of the other team members of Infinite Fall, whose work on this excellent game should not be allowed to be brought down by another person’s actions.
Dania lay on the couch in her apartment.
I need to delete Twitter, she thought to herself. She knew she wouldn’t.
With a herculean effort, Eleanor managed to wrench open the jammed window in their apartment, letting the June breeze waft through the room. Thick beams of the sun hit the floor, the couch, and Dania’s open eyes.
“Gahh!” Dania recoiled, shielding her eyes. “The light!”
“I’ll close the blinds in a second,” Eleanor promised. She carefully reached out the window, attaching the ends of a purple, white, grey, and black flag to the windowsill. It billowed in the breeze as she shut the blinds, blocking out the light.
The book had been sitting, unremarkable, on the coffee table in their living room when Gwen finally took the moment necessary to question the cover image.
“Is that a deer in a Santa hat?”
Picking up the book, the clearly photoshopped cover for Chasing A Brighter Blue had a quaint, algorithm-designed draw to it. Gwen could tell at a glance that this book would contain not a trace of deer wearing Santa hats – perhaps it would contain no deer at all.
The Hanslick Girls 