“ɅBOVE” (bar)
The “Above” is a rooftop beer and cocktail bar a few streets away from the character’s work place. After 18:00, the player will automatically teleport there.
Atmosphere
The bar have been thought to welcome all types of customers:
- People who want to dance
- Those who want to discuss between each other without being bothered by other customers
- Those who want to have a quick refill of whatever strong alcohol they fancy, and who stay at the bar
Excepted for the bar zone, the other zones will be bit dark in order to give a smooth, intimate atmosphere.
The musical atmosphere will be a playlist of electronic / synthwave / dark tempo based music.
Owner
The owner is a 70+ old man with a small white beard and long (also white) hair generally tied in a ponytail. He has a lots of wrinkles, but also has piercing blue eyes. The owner’s name is Serim Coban. He is supposed to be retired but is too bored at home so he comes back every day. Her daughter, Ceylan, is both a bit worried and fed up about her father, and relieved he still is here to make the bar run smoothly. Ceylan handles taking and serving orders from the main room and the rooftop, and her father prepares those for her to take to the customers.
Serim Coban got this bar from a friend that passed away and didn’t have any family around. He initially was supposed to resell it, but after finding himself having to serve drinks because the old employees were sick, he found a liking in this domain and decided to fully get involved. Serim is a widower, and Ceylan helps him at the bar since she’s in age to carry drinks without spilling them.
Ceylan has a curvy figure but also has her father’s blue eyes which generally stops her from being bother by clients. Other than that, she has enough experience to know when customers want to talk about anything or if they only want to see their drink pop on their table without any social interaction
Serim is extremely calm and his emotions will always be “suppressed” in order not to make the customer uncomfortable. However, he loves talking about politics and essentially trashing the government.
Neither Selim nor Ceylan will have a strong opinion of the character, or at least they will never communicate it. The character will always be called “(the) Kid” when talking to or about your character
Zones
In the game, there will be 3 distinct zones:
The bar itself
When the character will have no one else to spoke with, they will sit at the bar in most case, and Serim will talk to them, making a bit of conversation (and also venting about the government). Serim will stand a shelf full of various bottles, and will always wear a white shirt with a towel on one of his shoulders.
Based on the character’s progress / status in the game, Serim will mention various things:
- Suggest more sleep when the player will start engaging in the The Empathic path
- When the character’s mental health will be lower than 20, Serim will say that whatever is happening in the character’s life, they cannot give up, too much is at stakes. Then he will say: “Don’t think I know what’s going on. But I’ve seen your face become like a skull. Nobody with a normal life would go through whatever’s happening to you.”
- When the character is engaged toward the Empty Path, Serim and his daughter will make remarks on how life seems nice for them.
- When triggering the The Late Awakening Path, the character will go to the bar. Serim will ask him what’s going on, which will break the cracks on the character’s face, and trigger the ending cinematic.
Sometimes, another character will already be seated when the character will take a seat, which will make the 2 characters (and sometimes Selim as well) talk together. This will happen for The Village (Hell mining outpost) and The Dove.
A table near the counter
Since the zone is still a bit remote from the dance floor, people get to speak with each other without having to yell. This is where the character will sit with one or more colleagues to drink a beer brought by Ceylan right when the bar sequence starts. The table can fit up to 3 people aside from the character.
The rooftop
This location will be used when no new discussion will be available, not even from the barman. The player will simply watch the landscape, showing all the skyscrapers, and occasionally fuel ships coming back from Gaspra, then take off again. The music can be heard from there, just at a lower volume.
The character will slowly drink their beer in an automatic way, before unlocking the possibility to go back to the appartment