03: Father and Son

03: Father and Son

Character: Ethan Mars

Good Father Trophy

It is now 2 years later - and raining.  Say hi to Shaun as you pick him up from school and put him in the car, and then you get in.  This should be fun, right?  I mean shaving was a hoot, driving a car should be a bang!  Right, so check the mirror, put on your seatbelt and then start the car!  Are you ready to rip through traffic, maybe take out some little old ladies at the crosswalk? 

After you put the car in gear....  Yeah, you hit the gas and get to watch MORE CREDITS as the car drives in a CS rather than you actually controlling it!  Yay!  Err, not...  Okay so we do not actually get to drive in this game - which is a bummer as I really wanted to see how they would handle that aspect of the game considering the unique interface.  The answer of course is to not deal with it at all, but in a way I guess that is a relief too.

Now after the second set of credits unfold you get another brief CS and you arrive home - but not your wonderful and fashionable country estate - no no!  Now you live in a run-down dingy fleabag slum house!

Why is it that whenever a family has a tragedy they end up separated or divorced and the dad always ends up living in a rat hole?  Not only did Mom get to stay in that really cool house in the country while you moved to the city, but you somehow ended up with custody of your other son?!

Maybe that is how it works in France, I don't know, but I am pretty sure that in America what would have happened is that Mom would have gotten custody of the kid, and you would have been slapped with a very large monthly support payment for her and the kid.  That makes sense, I mean yeah the family courts tend to be pro-Mother, but logically uprooting the boy from his school and friends and a presumably nurturing environment to come and live in the city with a father who managed to get seriously damaged in an accident?  Either Mom is really bent and selfish or the French are... Hmm...  I might be on to something here!

Before you explore too much you should be aware that this is one of the chapters in the game that has a rather complicated trophy attached to it.  If you go into the kitchen now, you will notice that there is a chalk board there with a schedule on it:

SHAUN
4:30 Snack
6:00 Homework
7:00 Dinner
8:00 Bed

In the corner by the door is a clock you can look at.  Basically if you are going for the trophy you want to do the following in this order:

(1) Snack  - As soon as you arrive home dialogue with Shaun and tell him it is time for his snack (Circle).  You ask if he is hungry and he says "I guess so" so you should head into the kitchen and see what you can scare up for him!

Your first instinct is likely going to be to open the fridge and see what snacks there are in there - well ignore that instinct because there are no snacks in there.  Instead go over to the counter, where there is a bowl of fruit, and grab an orange from the bowl, take it into the living room and give it to Shaun, telling him "here is your snack!"  There, you got him a snack and it is a healthy snack, man you are a great dad!

(2) Homework: You can wander around the house, check out the different things you can do like read the paper's headline over in the corner or just watch the clock until 6:00 and then tell Shaun it is time to do his homework.  Just before 6:00 you will hear him sneeze.

Walk over to Shaun and ask him if he is ill (X) and then tell him it is time to do his homework - (Circle).  He tries to beg off but you should insist (X).  Go sit in the kitchen and watch him do his homework - that constitutes "helping" I guess.

Once he tells you that he is finished, walk over to his side of the table and take a look at his homework before sending him off to watch TV.  It should be around quarter to seven at this point, leaving you just enough time to head upstairs to the bathroom and grab a cold pill from the medicine cabinet and return to Shaun before it hits 7:00.

(3) Dinner: At 7:00 give Shaun his cold pill (LS down) and then ask him if he is ready for dinner (Square).  Head into the kitchen and open the fridge, grabbing the microwave meal (LS left) and then stick it in the microwave.  It cooks pretty fast, so pull it out when the bell rings and serve it on the table.  You will automatically call Shaun when you finish plating it.

You can sit at the table while he eats - and when he finishes his chicken leg and potatoes he will leave the table and head back into the living room to watch TV. 

(4) It is around quarter to eight now, so you can either look around or simply watch the clock until it hits 8:00 at which point you go over to Shaun and tell him it is time for bed (X) - to which he will reply that he is not tired, and that he wants to stay up a little longer.

Considering the fact that you gave him Benadryl an hour ago the little bugger should be plastered to the couch half passed-out right now, but hey, you are the Dad, so say no (Circle) and get him headed towards bed!  You instruct him to brush his teeth and put on his PJ's and you will come up to tuck him in.  Give him a moment and then head upstairs - his room is the open door on the left.

When you stand next to his bed, tell him goodnight (X) and he will suddenly remember his Teddy - and tell you that he cannot sleep without him!  You have to find his teddy bear - so head downstairs and go into the room that is off the left of the kitchen, where you will find the bright green bear on a box.  Grab it and take it to Shaun.

After you give him his bear and kiss him you start to leave and Shaun stops you with a question: "Why do you look so sad?"  You make a lame excuse and he tells you that what happened to Jason was not your fault.  Of course it wasn't - it was Jason's fault!

Now tell him goodnight and then sit on the bed, pull the covers over him and then kiss him goodnight again, not that you have properly tucked him in.  Stand up and move to the window and pull down the shade, and then head to the door, turn off the lights and close the door - leaving it open a crack of course!

As you turn away from the door you suddenly start to tremble and one of your blackout attacks hits you hard!   You come out of it standing in the street near the intersection of Carnaby Corner North, and in your hand is an origami animal!   As you walk down the street the world fades-to-black, and you earn the trophy "Good Father" (bronze).  Good on ya mate!
 
If for whatever reason you chose not to follow the schedule, or you looked for other things to do in place of watching the clock in between the scheduled events, here are some of the things that you could  have done in your house:

- Read the newspaper by the door and learn that the Origami Killer has nailed his 7th victim! 
- Use the toilet in the downstairs bathroom to facilitate.
- Go outside in the back yard and shoot some hoops in the rain.
- Walk around the house and turn the lights on - this is a really dark flat mate! 
- Re-read the blackboard with the schedule on it... 
- Read the various clocks in the house...
- Torture Shaun by offering to take him to the mall and buy him a balloon mwahahaha!

Just kidding about that last one...

As you know at the end of this chapter we get a cinematic moment and as we get our bearings, we notice that we are holding a paper origami figure of an animal, and are treated to a close up view of the street sign.  I don't know about you mate but I got a really bad feeling about this - I mean here we are clearly coming out of a blackout that did not include us being passed out on the floor, and we are holding an origami figure of the sort that according to the paper the Origami Killer likes to leave at the scene of his crimes - and we have absolutely no memory of what we have been doing?  I mean I know we are not killers but even I have to be suspicious of us!