Frequency

''Frequency'' A game by John Ford Created for the Telltale Creative Workshop 2017 submissions Email: johnbrennanford@gmail.com Cell: (940) 230-6020 [[Click here to begin.]]

Five o'clock traffic on a bleak summer Wednesday. Sitting at what may be the longest red light in the history of mankind. There's no sound other than the engine idling, and the silence feels oppressive. [[You turn the radio on.]]

...dismissed claims that the deal was illegal, stating, “the Prime Minister acted only in our nation’s best interests.” Plans to publicly address the trade in more detail are forthcoming, according to a statement from intelligence director Rob Helquist. This is KELM News, Springfield. Funding for KELM is provided by the National Broadcast Foundation, and from these... You hear the high-pitched whine of an ambulance as it zooms past in the opposite lane. You involuntarily wince and feel your whole body tense up. Calm down, calm down... Current events is exactly what you need less of, you think. Music would be better - pure distraction. [[Tune Radio Up]]

...watching, to see what you will do Everyone's looking at you Everyone's wondering, will you come out tonight? Everyone's trying to get it right Get it ri-i-ight... Somehow this is worse. It's too saccharine, too frivolous. Your fingers drum across the steering wheel faster than the song's tempo. The red light persists. [[Tune Radio Up->Tune2]]

You tune in to the classical radio station halfway through "In the Hall of the Mountain King." As the tempo increases, you can feel the tension in your body growing by the second. Nope. Nope nope nope. [[Tune Radio Up->Tune3]]

"...well if yeh so smaht, why dontcha get yer own show, Jeffy?" "Hey, if I leave you, you'd be out of a job, smart guy! And who's gonna hire a shmuck like you?" "A shmuck like you, thass who!" (both laugh) "Say, why don't we take a commercial break, and when we come back I'll tell you all about the convention in Niagra this past weekend, and how Paulie made a regular fool of himself..." "Regulah fool, huh? Why, I oughta--" Suddenly, a blaring honk jolts you to attention. The light is green. You jerk forward into the intersection and are quickly on your way... [[Tune Down (Classical)|Classical]] [[Keep listening (talk radio)]]

Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." Slow, quiet, methodical. This isn't too bad, you think. Calm, calm... You survey your surroundings on the drive. A few dirty glass skyscrapers, reflecting the harsh late-afternoon sunlight uncomfortably in your direction. Dull brown fields of grass on either side of the highway, suffering from the seasonal drought. A plastic grocery bag tumbles across the asphalt. The whole world seems dusty and dry. Instinctively, you reach for your water bottle, only to find it empty. You are suddenly aware of how parched your throat is. Your chest tenses up, and as you try to swallow, your body kicks out a hard cough, convulsing your neck and torso. You look down. There's a speckling of blood on the steering wheel. Not now. Please not now. You take a couple deep breaths and try to steady yourself. Tune to: [[Tune Down (Pop/Rock)|Pop/Rock2]] [[Keep listening (Classical)|Classical2]]

You want a piece of my heart? You better start from the start You want to be in the show? C'mon baby, let's go! You want a piece of my heart?... You know what, maybe saccharine and frivolous is what you need right now. You try bobbing your head to the beat for a minute, trying to let yourself relax and to distract yourself from the metallic taste in your mouth, from the tightly-wound pain in your chest, from the gun in the glovebox... You look at the street sign as you pass an intersection: 27th Avenue. 19th is where you're going. At 26th, you hit another red light. [[Tune down (News)]] [[Keep listening (Pop/Rock)|Pop/Rock3]] [[Tune up (Classical)|Classical3]]

Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" continues. As time goes on, the music starts to sound less calm and more foreboding. Maybe that's just you, though. After all, it is a pretty mellow song. So why isn't it helping? Gradually, the glass skyscrapers and asphalt highways give way to long, stumpy brown shopping centers and cracked cement roads. As the distance to your destination shrinks, so does the speed limit. Part of you relishes the extra time and another part of you just wants to get it over with. You look at the street sign as you pass an intersection: 27th Avenue. 19th is where you're going. At 26th, you hit another red light. [[Tune down (Pop/Rock)|Pop/Rock3]] [[Keep listening (Classical)|Classical3]]

The Moonlight Sonata ends. "Requiem for a Dream" starts playing. Suddenly it all hits you. You scramble to hit the power button on your radio. It gets loud for a moment before it goes silent. Your hands are shaking. Listening to classical was a bad idea, you tell yourself. With the radio off, the rest of your senses wake up to the world. You feel the sweat sticking your shirt to your body. You hear the heavy bass of the car next to you. You taste the blood in your mouth. Oh God. The light turns green. You bolt across the intersection. 25th... 24th... 23rd... There it is. You see your destination ahead. But you're conflicted. Are you ready, you ask yourself? Will you ever be? There would be no harm in procrastinating for a few extra minutes, to prepare yourself... [[Turn right and take the long way]] [[Go straight and take the short way]]

You swerve into the right lane just in time to make your way into a residential neighborhood. You catch yourself speeding and slow down to below the limit. You cruise slowly down the street, passing dozens of humble little homes. Homes you could never hope to afford. Not anymore, anyway. "For Sale" signs in some yards. Empty swingsets and fallen bikes in others. Occasionally the sound of laughter from inside a kitchen. You feel more lonely than you ever have. A sign on the right reads "NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH ON DUTY." You glance nervously at your glovebox for a moment, then tear your eyes away, back onto the road. You had hoped that taking this route would help you relax, help you clear your head. Instead you feel the weight on your chest become greater, and your breathing grows irregular. You realize you're delaying the inevitable, and in doing so, torturing yourself slowly. There's no turning back from this. [[It's time.]]

No, no more excuses. No more waiting. You can't afford the time. You can't afford anything. 22nd... Up ahead you see your destination. The sun had finally start to set, and the pink-and-orange hues shone radiantly off the glass doors of the bank. For a moment, you reconsider whether this is really what you want to do... and then remember the past two weeks of largely sleepless nights, going over it in your head. Two weeks of fear, and pain, and restlessness. And you decided one thing above all else: you don't want to die. 21st... The trees on either side of you shake in the wind, their branches raised like arms held up in panicked warning. Still, you ready yourself for the task ahead as best you can. With one hand still on the steering wheel, you lean over and open the glovebox. You take out the gun, not wanting to waste a single moment. It's now or never. 20th... The bank approaches. The gun feels heavy in your hand. Speeding across pavement, the car feels light. You have a thought... [[Speed up]]

You take a long breath, and turn your car around the bend. 22nd... 21st... 20th... You park your car on the street, some 200 feet away from the building. You turn it off and shove the keys in your pocket. You try to take a few more deep breaths, but they all come out short and choppy. You rub your eyes. The sun had finally start to set, and the pink-and-orange hues shone radiantly off the glass doors of the bank. For a moment, you reconsider whether this is really what you want to do... and then remember the past two weeks of largely sleepless nights, going over it in your head. Two weeks of fear, and pain, and restlessness. And you decided one thing above all else: you don't want to die. You reach for the glovebox, pull out the pistol, and walk into the bank. [[Begin again->Title Screen]]

A Lincoln car ad comes on. Matthew McConaughey babbles on for a minute, waxing poetic about being zen or something. Uh, no thanks. I can barely afford this dumpster fire of a car, anyway. [[Tune Down (Classical)|Classical]]

You don't know if this is a good idea. But you also feel like you don't know much anymore, not for sure at least. You drop the pistol and press the gas pedal hard against the floor. The engine roars. The trees and buildings around you devolve into a blur of color and motion. All that remains is the bank in front of you. Before you hit the building, for just a moment, you can see the sunset behind you reflected in the glass of the front doors. Then you shatter the sky. *** [[Begin again|Title Screen]]

"In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins begins playing. Suddenly it all hits you. You scramble to hit the power button on your radio. It gets loud for a moment before it goes silent. Your hands are shaking. That was too much - you needed saccharine and it got serious. With the radio off, the rest of your senses wake up to the world. You feel the sweat sticking your shirt to your body. You hear the heavy bass of the car next to you. You taste the blood in your mouth. Oh God. The light turns green. You bolt across the intersection. 25th... 24th... 23rd... There it is. You see your destination ahead. But you're conflicted. Are you ready, you ask yourself? Will you ever be? There would be no harm in procrastinating for a few extra minutes, to prepare yourself... [[Turn right and take the long way]] [[Go straight and take the short way]]

...new financial plan aims to alleviate the weight of the state's debts. Critics of the proposal argue that such a drastic shift would only deepen the national economic divide and contribute further to shrinking the middle class. In other news, the debate surrounding the recent health care overhaul has once again come to a standstill, as lawmakers introduce new safeguards... The newscaster's words mostly go in one ear and out the other, but whereas most days they would make you feel tempted to doze off, today they make you tense. Not that you were even processing most of what was being said, but the timbre and vocabulary of the report brings only negative thoughts - you could tell it was about people far away, people with much more power and money than you would ever have, making decisions that more often than not make your life tangibly more difficult. Your breath shakes with anger and fear. And probably something else. The light turns green. You bolt across the intersection. 25th... 24th... 23rd... There it is. You see your destination ahead. But you're conflicted. Are you ready, you ask yourself? Will you ever be? There would be no harm in procrastinating for a few extra minutes, to prepare yourself... [[Turn right and take the long way]] [[Go straight and take the short way]]