Cooper came out the door with an irritating smile on his face, took a deep breath to appreciate the fresh air around and stared at his beautiful wife Vivienne, who had been waiting outside for a while.
— Looks like we're all packed here! Are you ready to go, my dear?
There was no question about it she wasn't as thrilled about the trip as he was. That conniving bitch mother of his couldn't stand Vivienne, and as years went by she made less and less of an effort to hide it. She thought Vivienne was beneath his precious son Cooper. She thought Vivienne was cheap. Ha! The lady who started out as a mediocre vaudeville act, out of all people, thought SHE was cheap. That was rich.
While all these thoughts crossed Vivienne's mind, she challenged herself to maintain a good attitude about it for Cooper's own good. She sighed, and without much enthusiasm she whispered:
— I guess so.
They both jumped on Cooper's MG TA Midget convertible, avoiding looking at each other much.
— It'll be a good weekend, you'll see. I'll make sure mother is on her best behaviour.
— You know she won't, but it's alright honey. I can handle her for two days, and I know how much you've been looking forward to seeing her.
— How about we plan something fun for next week? Just the two of us, no family involved. We can rent out that cabin by the lake you like so much. How does that sound?
Vivienne caressed Cooper's lap, giggled a bit and said:
— That'd be awfully nice!
Cooper smiled back at her, started the car and off they went.
— He ieadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake...
As Reverend Da Gioia finished his prayers, he couldn't help but wonder whether he was about to make the right choice or not. As usual, he was hoping his refuge in God would be the one guiding him through all these doubts, through these dark times. But boy, was it different this time. This time, everything was at risk.
— ...yea, though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.
Reverend Da Gioia looked up for a second, and within his deep green eyes one could have seen fear... but also immense amounts of hope.
This episode we investigate the Tweedles office, meet Flycatcher, then poke around Crane's apartment before checking on Holly.
The Wolf Among Us is an episodic graphic neo-noir mystery-drama adventure game developed by Telltale studios and serving as a prequel to Bill Willingham's comics. In this series we take on the role of the Big Bad Wolf, now known as Bigby Wolf, as he gets caught up in a murder investigation and tries to thwart the plans of a criminal cabal.
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I started this new game after having it on my game list for a while; it was finally time. I knew nothing about it except that it had references to fairytales, so I was going in blind. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It was a story based on your choices so you had to choose wisely and quickly. Depending on my responses to different people, the future may be changed. This is the first time I played a game like this.
I played as an investigator Bigby Wolf, basically the big bad wolf from the fairytale, watching over the rest of the fairytale characters after being forced to leave the Fairytale world. Why? I have no idea yet. But they have to hide who they really are from the normal people and Bigby is there to enforce it and now has to investigate a murder of one of their kind.
Episode 1: Chapter 1 - Disturbance
I started Chapter 1 and it explained that the series adapted to the choices I made. The beginning said the story takes place in New York City in a community called Fabletown, a place where Fables live after being exiled from their Homeland hundreds of years ago. They use Glamours, a magic spell, to hide themselves from the mundane world to keep themselves safe. And Sheriff Bigby Wolf protects them from each other.
Bigby is the one who I play as and he went into an apartment building and was met by a frog. Bigby told him he had to go get a glamour or risk having to go to The Farm, but the Frog said that the witches that do it cost too much, the quality wasn't good, and failed too fast. I was given the choice of how to respond, either in a mean way and take him away for failing to comply or give him another chance. I decided to give him another chance. He then told me that their was a fight going on upstairs which was why had had called Bigby over, so I headed up.
I went upstairs and found a man yelling and beating up a woman. When Bigby tried to stop it, the man started attacking and I had to fight him off. It got really violent until I hit him in the head with the back of an axe and knocked him out.
TI didn't recognize the woman that was there and she didn't give me her name, and this was apparently her apartment, and the man that was there was the Woodsman from the Fables. He told her to leave but she said she just needed the money he owed her. I asked her why he was attacking her and she said that he came here and started asking if she knew who he was and when she didn't he started hitting her. As we were talking, the Woodsman started to wake up and started to recite the story of Red Riding Hood and how he killed the wolf and he attacked Bigby again and we fought and ended up falling out the window and onto Frog's car. Oops.
We continued to fight and the Woodsman tried to get Bigsby to change into the Wolf and it almost worked, but he managed to use the axe and impale his head. Ouch. Yet he was still alive and the woman and Bigsby didn't look worried and he said that he was a Fable so he will be fine.
Now that there was a down moment, I could now question the woman. She still didn't give me her name but I did learn that she was a prostitute and that it was possible that we had known each other before since as Fables, they might have met at some point.
The woman said she had to go and didn't want to make any big deal out of it, especially since the Woodsman had disappeared. He wasn't dead then. Since the woman didn't get her money from him, one of the options was to give her money and I chose that option and Bigby gave her what he had.
Bigby insisted she take the money, so he did, but did ask her if she would stop by his office so he could ask her more questions. She was hesitant but agreed to just come by his apartment. She knew where it was. She then said that he wasn't as bad as everyone said he was and left. And that was it for Chapter 1 of Episode 1. Not much has happened just yet, but I have a bad feeling there is something up with the Huntsman.
Episode 1: Chapter 2 - The Woodlands
The new chapter started and Bigby was at the Woodland Luxury Apartments where he lived. As he walked up to the entryway, he spotted someone in the trees and it was Beauty. She was sneaking out and wouldn't say what she was doing out here so late.
She then asked me not to tell Beast that he saw her, and I picked the option that it was none of his business and was going to stay out of it.
I headed inside the apartment and ran into Beast, in human form, and he asked if I had seen his wife. It gave me some options and I chose to say I didn't see her, keeping my promise to Beauty and he left and I headed to the elevator.
I made it up to Bigby’s Apartment and he was really tired only there was a new problem. There was a pig in his chair. Bigy knew who he was though, it was one of the three pigs from the story whose name was Colin. He had escaped from The Farm since it wasn't all sunchine and daisies like they advertise and basically blackmailed Bigby for ruining his house so he could stay. He even got Bigby to give him a cigarette.
He even tried to guilt Bigby into giving him his water since it would make him seem more friendly as everyone was scared of him. Bigby had eaten a lot of people back in the day and then Colin asked about who he had beaten up since he saw his hands. I chose to say he was doing his job and sometimes he had to get physical. His job wasn't easy and he had to keep the Fables from killing each other.
Colin continued to nag at him, but Bigby said that he had to be big and bad to keep everyone in line. But he wasn’t always mean, there was one person he wasn’t mean to tonight, but he didn’t get her name. Colin just said that people needed friends as it got lonely since Fables live a long time and he’s seen the way Bigby looks at Snow. Bigby said to give it a rest, he hadn’t slept in two days and wanted to get some rest. Colin just asked for his water and I reluctantly agreed as long as he stayed quiet for him to get some rest, which Colin agreed.
Bigby was able to get a few moments of quiet before there was knocking at the door. It was Snow White, just Snow here, and she wanted him to follow her. Something had spooked her and she didn’t want to talk about it here since the walls were thin. So they took the elevator down to the entrance and Snow pointed out something on the steps covered in the security guards jacket.
Under the jacket was the head of a woman, and not any woman, the one from earlier in the day. Bigby said he knew her and that she was a working girl and relayed that the Woodsman had attacked her earlier and threatened to kill them both.
Snow said she had found the woman’s head and didn’t touch it. She wasn’t sure if one of them, a Fable had done this but Bigby wasn’t sure, there hadn’t been a murder in Fabletown in a long time. Snow didn’t want to cause a panic, so she wanted to keep it quiet for now, then asked Bigby to take a look around for any clues before people start coming through here.
I took a look at the head and found a ring tied to a piece of cloth that had some sort of symbol on it. Next, I looked at the head and noticed it was a clean cut with something very sharp or something with magic…the Woodsman had an axe. Moving on, it looked like the girl's head had been placed here on purpose for them to find, specifically Bigby. She was going to come and see him.
I then took a look around and found some drops of blood on the sidewalk. Further down to the right, I found a piece of fabric that looked like jeans. Then at the end of the alley, I took a look at the fence and there was blood on it as well and it looks like someone jumped the fence and cut themselves which is where the trail of blood came from.
Snow asked if he knew who did it, but he wasn’t sure. She then said they had to tell the acting mayor, Crane since King Cole was gone. I was given the choice of waiting or go ahead and just chose to get it over with. Snow was glad for the support and commented that he won’t be happy about it but it had to be done. She just hoped that he was rational about it. Bigby just didn’t want him interfering with his job. We also had to find out who this girl was and who did it.
I've liked the game so far, it's different. I've never played a game where my choices dictate what happens to the story. And there was also a murder that I had to solve. I hope none of my choices were wrong for future events. We'll see how this plays out.
The Claythorpe mansion was, for sure, an oasis amidst the chaos that it was the always crowded town of Brindleton Bay. Located in the remote island formerly known as Deadgrass Isle, it could only be reached by a boat that crossed the ocean all the way from Whiskerman's Wharf a few times a day, depending on the weather. Its isolation was the exact reason why Edna Claythorpe had her breathtaking Regency style mansion built in 1912, during the peak of her popularity as an actress. She needed a place to rest from the spotlight and somewhere to raise her beloved son Cooper, away from all the noise that she was forced to face due to her profession.
And talking about the weather, that particular afternoon the sun shined like no other, a soft breeze tickled the leaves of the trees and the waves of the sea broke against the rocks peacefully. That place truly was a piece of heaven where one could escape from it all.
While doing some gardening, Mr. Tackett sighted a small boat approaching the docks from the far.
— Must be either Mrs. Claythorpe's son or Reverend Da Gioia. At last.
As he went down the hill, he saw Cooper tend his hand to help Vivienne get out of the boat gently.
— Welcome back, Mr. Claythorpe!
— Ah, Tackett! Always in time. It's good to see you, my man!
Once Cooper had finished helping Vivienne, he turned around and shook Mr. Tackett's hand.
— I trust the trip wasn't too much of a hassle?
— Not at all, Mrs. Vivienne got a little bit seasick as per usual... but that's about it. Could you please be a champ and help us with the luggage?
— Why don't go see your mother, Mr. Claythorpe? I'm positive she was waiting for your arrival with great expectation. I'll take care of the luggage.
— You sure?
— Thank you, Tackett— said Vivienne.
The couple left Mr. Tackett behind and walked towards the house.
— Why don't you go get ready for supper while I go talk to mother, my dear? There's something I'd like to discuss with her privately.
— You think the pool will be fine to be used? I'd like to go for a swim first if we still have time before dinner... it is so nice out here it'd be a shame not to!
— Sure thing, you go do that then. I'll catch up with you later.
The backyard pool was Vivienne's favorite part of the house. She had always loved swimming, it helped her out disassociating from everything. Plus, and since her mother in law was terrified of water, it was the only spot in the mansion where she knew for a fact she would never run into her.
Something was off with her that afternoon, though. While doing a few laps in the pool, the same old memory came back unannounced to hunt her.
If she closed her eyes, she could still see it vividly. The creak of the door opening, the flickering of the oil lamp flame and hanging there, right in front of her... mother. Pale as snow, cold as ice. And that purpleness around her neck, where the rope was tighting her muscles. That awful shade of purple she had never been able to forget since.
Vivienne shook her head and decided she had had enough swimming for the day. She removed her swimming bonnet, grabbed a towel, dried herself off a bit and then laid it out on the lounge chair.