The Awakened - Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu

I personally think that the whole point of writing a book is telling a story. I know that having some kind of message is kinda inevitable because after all there is a reason if you wrote a book about octopus instead of rabbits, but as Davian Korran said, you don't have to smash it in my face.

As I said before, I love Pratchett and he isn't subtle about this kind of thing - they are often the point of the whole book - but he does it in a good way.

Thud! theme for instance is about the troubles multicultural society: dwarves and trolls hate each other and now a lot of them live in Ankh-Morpork and there is an extremist political dwarf party who wants them to fight against the troll, because hating trolls is part of being a true dwarf, according to them.
But the plot is about the murder of a dwarf who was one of the leader of the extremist party.
And Samuel Vimes being awesome.
It's a funny book, it makes sense in his fictional world and it's interesting. Even when he writes stuff like this:

It makes sense in the context - a vampire wanted to join the Watch and humans were pissed about it - and Vimes isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. If he was writing about a more clever character, like Esme Weatherwax, he wouldn't even had to write it down like this, since she does exactly the same thing but in the opposite way. Incidentally, he hates vampires too.
But he's not writing down the message, he wrote a good plot who gave you his message in a non-stupid way.

^

Said it much better than I could.

I didn't know that Poirot died! Sherlock Holmes survived too, but what happens to him after he retired seems kinda depressing, so I wonder if Doyle did it on purpose. ENJOY BEING FOREVER ALONE, SHERLOCK HOLMES.

I read about actors, if I remember correctly Bela Lugosi had the same problem after Dracula. He end up doing an awful amount of sequels but after a while the horror gold age ended and he was screwed up for life.

I think I'll give a try with book 1, I'm sure that Myriel is so marvelous and household budget is so exciting.
...
Well, it's worthy a try.

About Sherlock Holmes, there isn't a real continuity except for the Reichenbach part, so if the novels bore you, just throw them out of the window.

I just used more words, your post was all it was needed to say XD

Poirot is actually Forever Alone, too, though he claims it's his own choice (many of his cases are spouses murdring each other). He dies at a very ripe age, though, after it's been a standing joke he's been a retired consulting detective for 50 years. Christie wrote in real time and he was a retiree in Mysterious Affair at Styles already in 1920.

I think it says it all Leonard Nimoy wrote 'I am not Spock' and then 'I am Spock' a few years later. It's a dangerous thing to create something popular.

Good luck! If you get tired of the book in any instance, you can always watch the songs. They summarize the happenings with amazing precision at times. (Turning manages to sum up a Gillenormand chapter despite his never being in the musical).

I'll be reading on my laptop, so I better just shut down the window XD

If much less eloquently. I no speakey human early in the morning.

Well, marriage was never an option, but he lived with Watson for seventeen years and Watson was widow again when Holmes retired, but it seems like they never meet again. And I don't understand why XD

I remember about that! He wasn't even going to appear in a Star Trek movie ever again after the first one - unlike Takei who is actually doing a musical or something - but then they told him about what was going to happen to Spock in ST II and he accepted because it was cool.
And of course they had to do ST III after that.
And someway he end up starring in ST XI too.
I don't understand you, Nimoy.

Songs! <3

Yeah, that's sounds like a better option XD

No, it was accurate, I kinda wanted to quote Pratchett XD

Yeah being "trapped" in a character is a common thing for many writers and actors... just think about Daniel Radcliffe, he's going to be always remebered as Harry Potter no matter which movies he's going to do.
And for writers that have a long standing series of book with the same protagonist, at a certain point it's normal to start to hate it. Once the character's anaysis and develpoment reached his course, he should just disappear, but the public still want that character to be the protagonist so they are forced to keep going with him if they want to sell.

This discussion would lead to the problem of the public that is incapable to "let go" series or characters that have completed their cycle and are just happy of seeing them still around (just think of TV shows that go on for 9 or more season!)... that's wrong for me. As much as I love some tv shows, I would be happy to see them end after few seasons but with an awesome story and a perfect ending, instead of keep dragging the story until there are enough viewers and then give an hurried ending, I hate when it happens. (I'm talking of TV shows right now but the same thing can be applied to books)

SO, FUNNY STORY: I decided to play this game and the msvcr71.dll was missing.
Then I fixed it and I started playing
Then I had to open word reference because I didn't know how to write raccoon
And the game crashed
And I didn't save.

UPDATE TIME!

For those who don't remember, we are in a mental hospital called Black Edelweiss searching for clues, because a lot of immigrants went missing in London and we found a box with a Black Edelweiss in the Cthulhu temple where they were imprisoned.



Holmes disguised himself as Amos Colby, a detective from Boston who was sacrificed to Cthulhu. Last time we need to steal gown to look like a nurse. Since taking one from the fainted nurse was too mainstream, I had to click everywhere like crazy in order to find it. I don't have a screenshot of the gown in the closet because I didn't even see it.

Well, now that Holmes looks fabulous - Lie down with me, Watson - we can go upstairs!



Oh God, this place is wonderful. Let's stay here forever.



Okay, I was kidding.




...and this is actually a wonderful idea. Well, for us, the birds will die if they actually escape since we're in fucking freezing Switzerland.



Whoops! There is nothing more to do here, so let's go downstairs again and figure out what I miss.
No screenshot of Watson wonderful pyjama, instead have a picture of the cute little birds we're probably going to free at some point:


Goodbye, So Soon

Sherlock 'Male Nurse' Holmes is hard on cockatiels, tough on crime, easy on drugs.

And yay, it's back!

I will never leave you.

I just needed some time because this game is tiring. I finished the chapter on Halloween and I had to take some time just to adjust myself after that and eat an awful amount of ice-cream. Then I started to play again today and I have to finish it, it's like a drug.

I know the feeling. I had that relationship with Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines and that was not a healthy one when I spend half the game jumping at shadows and talking to myself to avoid screaming. I will say now I HATE ASYLUMS I HATE THEM AND I NEVER WANT TO BE INSIDE ONE AGAIN AND NOT HOUSES MADE TO RESEMBLE IT AND NO ABANDONED HOTELS AND WILL THOSE STUPID PEDESTRIANS JUST WALK INTO DARK ALLEYS SO I CAN EAT THEM, DAMNIT.

And this is why I wanted to end the previous post with a cute picture of birds.
I love you too, Greta.



I wanted the make some kind of joke since Heidi and Switzerland, but here the voice actor is good: she sobs and calls Heidi and really feel bad for her.



You're a sneaky impostor dressed as a nurse, so of course you're going to help me!



Well, I did remind something about pink crystals which Holmes didn't let me take...
We brought them back to him, but he needs some water with them. He point us to a fountain in the garden



...you know Holmes, we took the pink crystals form a lab. I'm sure there is some clean water we can give to that poor fellow...



Holmes keep giving no fuck.



...Why? We went around there for a while with a metal tin filled with pinky, sparkly water - that's how it looks like with Becker's medicine in it - and no one caught us!
Holmes asks him about the key of the aviary





....SHE'S LOOKING AT US.



Stop being sassy and TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME.

I hate creepy dolls.

CREEPER DOLL RETURNS.

Shykes.

And what gies Holmes away, anyway? That he's nicely dressed beneath it? That his face is known from TV? Does BBC even broadcast in Switzerland? *I know the invention of the TV is years off, let me ramble*

Oh, look, Holmes being cute.
Aw.


And this is the story of How This Game Make Me Go D'Aww While In A Fucking Mental Hospital With People Screaming In The Background And A Crazy Woman Holding A Creepy Doll.





...welcome back, Creepy Mental Hospital With People Screaming etc. Heidi however is happily staring at Greta while she tell us that she killed a guy.







And this is a moment where the VA sucks instead. Because, you know, Holmes actually cared about people. Instead the VA doesn't give Holmes any emotion.




The lady is the one from the hall. I don't think we can go to the hall and ask her to invite us to her room without even asking her out properly.
...
Can we?









WE LOVE YOU, HEIDI! YOU'RE THE BEST CREEPY, MURDEROUS DOLL I EVER MET!
I have less thing to search, I could leave sooner! ;_;
Farewell Heidi, please don't go crazy and kill us all.



And this is how today update ends!
Tomorrow: Holmes and I are going to be proper gentleman and go to a lady room without her permission so we can steal her stuff. For the Greater Good!

Your heart is in the right place <3

I heard about that game, I never tried it however, I heard that understanding how it works requires ages.

Watson.
He can't teleport behind him right now, but he's always with him.

It wasn't as bad as it was frightening the ever loving stars out of me. Kind of like... Heidi, really. THOSE FUCKING EYES on that doll...

It needs a mod to even partially function, though, and a lot of tinkering. The big fanpatch one I used had your blood levels drop with time (I set it down so it was a bar every 30 minutes) so I did a lot of stalking in alleys.

Yay, update!

(Sorry, I don't really have anything else to say right now)

Don't worry, I'm glad you're enjoying it ;)

So, off we go searching for a key!



I'm getting Umbridge vibes from this room and I'm not sure why. It's quite nice however.



And the first thing Holmes does is art appreciation! It seems perfectly fine to me, but I'm not going to argue with Mr I-Wrote-A-Monograph-About-Cigar-Ashes-Residues.



I can see it Holmes, but who on earth is Callipyggy M'Bala-Smith-Papadopoulos?
Holmes brush me off by telling me I have a horrible pronounce and keeps looking for the key. I pick up the bottle and the pair of glasses, plus that strange grey thing near the desk (you can see it in the first screenshot).
You know Holmes, I just realized we are stealing something this woman has spent hours working on and her glasses. And that I'm being a bit preachy lately.
This is what I get for going around with you.

But now, we found the key!
EPIC MUSIC.









This game hasn't great cutscene or anything, but has this awesome moments where screenshots aren't enough. I should have made a video.
The birds fly everywhere and all the nurse leave their position to catch them.

I think the Umbridge vibe is that fluffy pinkish carpet. Or the general sense of doom and lunacy.

SO BACK TO THE CREEPY CELLS AND SCREAMING PEOPLE.



Nope, I think we talked about this before. Holmes has a fine suit and nice shoes. And Jeremy Brett face.




KISS, SHERLOCK. (KISS = Keep It Simple, Stupid.)
Seriously, I love you, but it's not like we have so much time to let you being posh.



You can bet your crazy ass we are - see Holmes? It's your fault, the more you are fancier the more I have to compensate.
Holmes asks him where did they come from.



Did they talk to each other at least?




ALL THE HORROR MOVIES. ALL OF THEM.
;_;

Holmes tells him to rest and that we will help him as soon as we can - never? When are we going to do that, Holmes? - and we continue walking along the corridor.



That's a classroom.



And that's another problem we have to solve. Before trying yo do that we went upstairs, to check the kitchen that's now unguarded.
The cook is still in there, so we have to lure her out first.



Well, I do remember product compost mostly by potassio in the lab that could help us simulating a fire... that should do it.



It worked! I had to check a walkthrought at this point, because I had no idea that I had to measure the water and the amount of potassium first, and I didn't even know how to do it.
And for some reason Holmes just waited for me to figure it out all by myself.
I like to think that he considers me as his apprentice at this point.
...
Holmes, you're making so many poor decisions in this game.

( Another problem of this part of the game, is that the mental hospital doesn't seem too bad if you don't consider that you have to spent a lot of time just standing here trying to figure out what to do. It was claustrophobic. A bit like the Deep Roads in DA:O)

I hate that sensation in a game, that constant paranoid fear someone will come around the corner and then I slam my mouse into the keyboard and quickload and hide in a corner. Don't ask me why I do this to myself, because I have no honest idea.

Well, no kidding, this really isn't going to make things easy.
The cooks run off and all we can found is a note



I really like keep finding all this kind of notes around. It makes the place a bit more realistic.
Also, now that I'm checking thorugh the documents - I just remembered about the letter Mycroft sent Holmes before we left for Switzerland. I'm lucky this wasn't needed in the game.



MYCROFT, CAN'T YOU WRITE BETTER. Seriously, you can read it as a screenshot because ZOOM, but in the game is hard to read all this documents.
Also, do you remember that strange characters we found in the Cthulhu temple?



His body is seaweed, his body is octopus, his voice is your voice.
LIGHT OF ABYSS! I hope you are a octopus I can eat.



Downstairs again, trying to figure out how to pass that gate.
So, there are two levers, one that open the first gate and one who opens the second one. It's a security system that requires two people.
That's not suspicious at all!



Now we just put there the anvil we picked before...



Done! It's like hanging a bit like an hanging, but no one will get hurt and why this is the first thing I thought of. I really need to get out of there.



First lever down, second lever up, first gate close, second gate close!
We can move on! What do you think, Holmes?



...

Tomorrow: Stairs, a dungeon and oh my god why

Probably for the same reason I do this things too. Usually at night when I'm at home alone, so sometimes I end up turning on the tv because I need to know that there are real people out there. Like know, I want to keep playing but this dormitory is so quiet...

At least the disembodied hand marker reminds me of Anton and then I can pretend things are terrible in the fun way when this gets too scary. HOLMES, SENSE OF SELF-PRESERVATION, YOU KNOW WHAT IS?

HE DISMISSED THAT CLAIM. IT TOOK TOO MUCH SPACE IN HIS BRAIN
LIKE THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Trigger Warning: There Will Be Blood



Hogwarts! Let me dream.

Down there there are two cell, Dr Gygaz office - our spoon isn't enough for pick the lock with it - and what I think is a box room. One of the two patients just sit there, staring at the wall.
The other one loves Maths.





OH MY GOD IS HE SCHWARZ FROM THE CAUCHY-SCHWARZ INEQUALITY? /has done her homework today
I hope it's him. Even if it doesn't make any sense.

Holmes decides that it would be a good idea to read the dossier of this man. I agree completely, since SCHWARZ and it's suspicious that they locked him up down there. There must be something interesting about him.
The doc office is lock, so we'll give a try with the box room.



Look, you can't put a "No Entry" sign near a door and expect people to not enter.



Magic spoon to the rescue!



...yeah, of course he will. *pats Holmes* Now let's just enter to the room where no man has gone before.



WHY DID I OPEN THAT DOOR.





I'm sorry guys, but I HAD TO CHECK IF THERE WAS SOMETHING IN IT.



Useless Italian Trivia: Do you know "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"? Well, in Italy the title of the movie was translated as Do Not Open That Door (Non Aprite Quella Porta).
Its a title often quoted, since it's a common phrase and the movie was popular. So everytime I play/read/hear something where people open a fucking door they're not supposed to, I remember that movie.
GUESS WHAT HAPPENED JUST NOW.



On the bright side, someone left here the key to doc office. Because that's where you leave the key of your office, who wouldn't be happy to enter to a room with fucking blood everywhere when you need your key?
Holmes, hug me.
I don't care you hate physical contact, I need a hug.
Okay, give me some chocolate at least.

Amusingly, in the Danish version of Clue, Mr. Boddy is named Doctor Black or, as it would be in German, Doktor Schwarz.

KEIN ZUTRITT, HERR HOLMES.

Man, everything in German sounds so angry. And crazy Math guy reminds me of David Archer.

Guys, don't ever buy a Scotti snack. I know you probably don't have it in your country, but don't nevertheless. If you have to choose between it and, I don't know, fennel, eat fennel instead. Worst rice-and-chocolate snack ever.



And this office is wonderful! Doc, why can't you have been be nicer? Or voiced by Christopher Waltz? Game need super villains voiced by Christopher Waltz.
Don't look at me like that Holmes, it's called coping mechanism.

Okay, first thing first: DATA! (No, not that one)




So dreamy...and he looks a bit like the real Schwarz:



But the real Schwarz is so much better. Look at his beard!
Stop judging me Holmes, you're jealous because Watson has only a moustache.



Says Holmes, looking at the only thing that makes sense in a doctor office. EVEN IF IT'S CREEPY.



...okay? We'll gave a look to the classroom later.






Now, let's give a look to the letter:



WHAT. What does this mean? "Keep the Light, my master (so the Light is the master?) close at hand" ? So the Light is in this hospital? And...there is a great day coming?
IT'S LIKE THE PROMISED DAY?



This sounds bad. Like Apocalyptic Bad.





...and yes, there is this thing going on about a Mysterious Patient who has amnesia, has been found near a riverbank and it's brilliant at Maths.
Yeah.
I'm going to give a look to...oh shit, another box room.



WHY I KEEP OPENING DOORS THAT SHOULDN'T BE OPENED.
WHY.

Except German love songs. No really, I think it's magic:



Then again, lately I really like German. It sounds good. Except when I try to watch the news, I still have to understand how german sounds.

And yeah, I'm posting this thing in the middle of my posts because HAPPY THINGS.

I hate mental hospitals so much... all we need now is a madman with a hackaxe.

NOT TO BE TAKEN AS ADVICE, GAME.

We all do.
I even liked the doctor at the beginning of this chapter.






But why. Seriously, why forcing people to memorize this horrible chant Becker mentioned before and then ship them to New Orleans? What's the point?







I want him DEAD. Also, I hope this doesn't meant that we're going to save lobotomized people. HOW CAN I TELL TO THAT POOR MOTHER THAT HIS SON NOW IS LIKE A BIRD. DOC, YOU'RE SO DEAD. EVEN IF WE CAN'T KILL ANYONE IN THIS GAME.

Tomorrow: We seek the Light and Holmes shops for a beard.

"If I cannot leave with you, I will leave through you. I SEEK THE LIGHT!"

♥

THAT'S WHY WE NEVER SAW LARIUS AGAIN. Doc cut him up and throw him in the river. HE KILLED AN OLD GOD. Take that, Hawke! (Who is a bird.)
I'm not making any sense today.

I kind of like that ending to the tale. One less thing on my conscience just because Hawke is thick as a brick.

UPDATE!
Today I did all the Christmas thing - going to Christmas market, having mold wine, enjoying the snow, doing Maths exercise, hating tourists at the supermarket - so finishing this chapter sounded like a good idea.



So, we were going to look for a beard. I can't think of a place where someone would keep a fake beard in a mental hospital, so we just went to check the class. And they play One?




You don't say. I'm not sure about what is the point of this.



...okay, I feel your pain, maths teacher.

We retrieve a fake beard from the shelf and combine it with the glasses we found earlier.

It's time for Sherlock to show his amazing skill as a detective! Disguise time!





*violins playing in the background*

Sherlock looks rather fetching in a beard, doesn't he? And you'd think teaching the poor kids Math and Math only was torture enough >_>

So, Holmes tricks Wolff by disguising himself as Holmes with a fake beard.
Well, at least is better than RDJ Holmes' disguise in the last movie?



"I know my boy, I know. But their leader, he's a doctor, isn't he?"





Remember this moment next time a child tells you that his maths teacher is evil.

Wolff explains us that the doctor and the others meets in a secret chamber, which opens if you light the right torches in the right order.



You all know your tables, don't you?

S-sir, yes sir o.o

Then Holmes takes his disguises off and waits for me to solve the puzzle.

That's because I am the one doing all the work!


There are so many stupid jokes I could do right now.
Holmes stops and pose like a soldier standing at ease. I think I'll hide behind him, in case someone decides to throw knives or himself at us.

...telling a campfire story.


I didn't read crazy horror poems for nothing.

Hell of a way to discover your purpose in life.

The man screams, and every single nurse in the mental hospital hears, even two floors up. We run to the doctor office and take the elevator.

I love how Holmes is so utterly and entirely unflappable. It only makes me wish we could have seen Watson react to all this alongside him. Somehow I doubt he'd take it as much in stride since this isn't one of the games where he himself is an eldritch abomination.

And we end up in more happy places. We can't go upstairs because there is a nurse - who stares at us but does nothing, maybe he's just admiring Holmes - so clearly the only thing we can do it's to enter in the cell with the mad man and talk to him.
Yep.
All the bad decisions, Holmes.