PLAY ADA'S TRAIL Ada's Trail

THE GARAGE

Chapter 6 of 9, and the one nothing in the game tells you about. It holds 1 scene on the way in and 1 things he says only to himself. Every word of it is the game's own, and every word of it is a spoiler, so the whole chapter is covered until you ask for it.

What happens here

Intro. The whole campaign now stands on the hero's own ground: a new game opens at home — the prelude's living room is one wall away — and every earthside chapter breathes here before the next. The garage is the most his place in the world: ten years of weekends, the bench, the white hatchback parked on the deck, and the ship that is still one part short. His summary on the doorstep says everything the room needs to: home — the lawn is dead, the bench is a mess, and the ship is one part from perfect. Nothing hunts him here. The vendor who stocked GOODCO's machines has parked his cart at a counter inside (lockdown is a seller's market, and he follows the customer), buying what weighs the hero down, selling what keeps him upright, and mending what the road broke.

The doors. Three ways out, earned in order. THE CAR — the white hatchback — does the earthbound leg: he drives it to GOODCO HQ the night he takes the part, and it comes home the worse for every trip. THE ROCKET stands on the back lawn once the part is in — THE LAUNCH and every voyage after it leave from here, and it flies only where Ada's trail has already led (the moon first, then Mars once the moon has let go; he stops home between them, because there is no food on the moon). Tried before the part is home it goes nowhere at all, and he says why rather than showing a list of places he has not earned: still one part short, no sense climbing in until he has been and got it. Nothing here ever names a road ahead of the trail: Mars is not mentioned until the moon lets go. And a RIFT SEAM opens on the garage wall only once it leads somewhere — THE FOUNDER's RIFT CREATOR home from the void (see Level 4) and a deep road already walked — and then it reaches back into the rift and out to the West. Until then there is nothing on that wall at all, because a hole in the world that goes nowhere is not a promise, it is a question. The campaign's chapters are unchanged; the garage is the breath between them, and — when friends join his game — the place they land.

Side errands at home — RUTH, Ada's mother. She has a key to the garage and always has, and once the voyages start she is simply there between them, standing by the engine parts, because waiting at home means staring at the phone. She knows about the jacket — Ada told her about the zipper he fixed and laughed about it for a week — and she asks him for the one thing a search party cannot bring back: something of her daughter's. Three errands, one per leg of the trail, each elaborating a trace the campaign already lays down. THE RECEIPT: the chips-and-soda purchase the cameras caught being interrupted was still logged and printed, and GOODCO's night staff carry the floor's paperwork on them — bring her the slip from the last ordinary thing Ada did. THE DENT: the ENGAGEMENT REPORT says Ada bit companion unit 34, so somewhere on Mars a service robot carries a dented shell plate — Ruth wants to see the dent her daughter's teeth left in the machine that was told to keep her company. THE SCALE: in the rift Ada pried a scale off a lizard god, so Ruth asks for a scale like it, off the same scaled breed, to hold what her daughter's hands were strong enough to do. She is never scared for Ada and says so; each trophy confirms what she already believed, and her last word on the subject is that the girl is fighting her way back and the hero should go on.

How he gets there

The scene that plays before the level does, tapped through one frame at a time.

PRELUDE

Movie night, the night it starts. Ada announces they are out of chips and soda and steps out for five minutes, telling the hero to keep her spot warm. She takes the jacket he fixed the zipper on. Two hours later she still hasn't come back, and the room is quiet. Then the man who never gets up gets up: he crosses to the back wall, leaps for the weapon mounted over the couch and takes it down out of the air — which one depends on the difficulty (his GRANDFATHER'S SAWED-OFF SHOTGUN, a MEDIEVAL SWORD, a COMBAT KNIFE, BRASS KNUCKLES, or just A STICK) — and walks out the door she left by, carrying it. It becomes the weapon he starts the whole run with, and he is holding it in his hand from the moment the scene ends.

FRIDAY NIGHT. MOVIE NIGHT.

ADA

WE'RE OUT OF CHIPS. AND SODA.

THE HERO

MOVIE'S STARTING.

ADA

FIVE MINUTES. KEEP MY SPOT WARM.

SHE TOOK HER JACKET.
THE ONE I FIXED THE ZIPPER ON.

TWO HOURS LATER.

THE HERO

...

THE HERO

ADA?

SHE NEVER CAME BACK.

What hangs on the wall

The same night on every rung but one detail: what he takes down off the wall, which is the weapon the whole run starts with.

  • EASYSAWED-OFF SHOTGUN — GRANDPA'S SAWED-OFF, OFF THE WALL. IT'S ALL I NEED TO BRING HER HOME.
  • MEDIUMMEDIEVAL SWORD — THE OLD SWORD OFF THE WALL. IT'S ALL I NEED TO BRING HER HOME.
  • HARDCOMBAT KNIFE — THE COMBAT KNIFE OFF THE WALL. IT'LL HAVE TO BE ENOUGH.
  • NIGHTMAREBRASS KNUCKLES — THE KNUCKLES OFF THE WALL. THEY'LL HAVE TO BE ENOUGH.
  • JESUS CHRIST!A STICK — THE STICK OFF THE WALL. GOD HELP US BOTH.

What he says on arriving

The monologue over the black screen, before a single shot.

THE HERO

HOME. THE LAWN IS DEAD, THE BENCH IS A MESS, AND THE SHIP IS ONE PART FROM PERFECT.

What stops him mid-run

The run halts for these: something on this map is worth him saying out loud. Most fire on their own and once only. Usually there is nobody to say it to — and on the few where there is, they answer back. The ones pinned to a door are his answer to you trying it, and they keep answering for as long as the road stays shut.

The way out he cannot take yet — THE ROCKET

THE HERO

STILL ONE PART SHORT. NO SENSE CLIMBING IN UNTIL I'VE BEEN AND GOT IT.

The place itself

Everything this chapter happens in — what it fields on each rung, who is waiting, what it pays out and the map of it — is on the THE GARAGE mission page.