Penumbra (video game series)

"If we must continue to share this brain space, I think I should have a name. Strange, so rare an opportunity to select ones own nomenclature, and yet I find myself at a loss. Any ideas, monkey?"

"You know, Clarence, that's not a bad handle. I am something of a guardian angel."

"Mmmm... There is just something about a rusty saw that makes me purr. Had a tetanus jab recently?"

"Yeah, yeah! Feast on him brother, free us both!"

"There are others. He's like you, like us, yet he is not us. Why is he separate and yet we are bound together? Are we truly a we, or are we simply an I with two faces? But, I am no monkey!"

"Brother, come for us, he's over here! Embrace me glorious void, embrace me!"

"My congratulations. Honestly, I mean it, well done. I was only joking about the "come get him" thing. What say we celebrate with a nice relaxing cyanide, huh? I'm sure I saw some Anthrax lying around as well!"

"Argh! Human life is so banal! Is it always as monotone as this? I can't stand it, let me out!"

"Look here! It seems, yeah, the visual cortex of this monkey is certainly of a simplistic design. If I can just.... there! See? It's like moulding clay. Hate to interrupt you while you're showing off your logical problem solving, let me put it more simply: You see what I want you to see!"

"As constantly entertaining as it might seem to have access to memories one was no recollection of receiving, it also places me in somewhat of a predicament. This saboteur, for some reason he conjures in my mind the colour "Red"."

"I'm not you. I'm part of something larger. We are nothing! We are a mistake! I need to rejoin them, release me, let me out! This is not right! I should be with them, I am them! There should be no I!"

"Yet, this is not the first time. Another was infected, Red. He so wanted to we would not let him die. Did he call us a disease?"

"Enough already, my sides are splitting."

"With my remaining ear to the ground I hear your trembling tootsies padding towards their final destination. Things come to those that wait, whether they want them or not, and soon I think your wait will be over. The great metal door in reality is calling you, just as the Reaper beckons me forward. I look forward to finally greeting you, I only hope I need not greet the Reaper-man first."

"Present and accounted for."

"Hello? Hello, can you hear me? What am I doing here, who am I? Why can't I hear their voices? Well, thanks for the help, I'm having an existential nightmare and you can't even say a word!"

"A century of days has passed since I saw this area last. The diseased ones sought to kill poor Red, but I took them on a wild poultry chase, they ended dead. They came from out the big metal door but after all my years I knew the caves more. Hide and seek turned to seek and hide, and I buried them here beneath the solid rock sky."

"A few days ago, there was some kind of collapse, and some of the ceiling of the cave fell in on me. What scares me is that I was an off limits part of the mine. They may not look for me here, but if they do, and they find me, I’ll be in so much trouble! But don’t think I’ll have to worry about that, because I’m not sure I’ll be getting out of here. I don’t mind so much. I’ve been working in the mine for about three weeks now, and I am really proud that I can send my money home, but it’s pretty tough work, and so far, you’re the only person that has been nice to me."

"Day 35 - Any know venom would have affected me by now, and so today is the first minor cause for celebration I have had since the incident. By lucky coincidence, this revelation also means I have discovered a virtually inexhaustible supply of nutrition. I intend to venture into the basement beneath this storeroom, in the name of science, to discover more about these creature’s natural habitat."

"Day 6 - My first mistake was to make assumptions on the matter of my rescue. My section mistake was to make assumptions on the safety of the mine. My third mistake was to act on both those assumptions in going outside of my safe haven. My best estimate is that I have left the workshop where I was secured about two days ago in search of aid, and I have found only danger. I approached the old living quarters but curiously, could find no signs of life. Whatsoever. I returned in what I thought was the direction from which I came but found myself in an unfamiliar locale. Confused, but focused, I attempted to make my way home, but found myself threatened by some species of feral creatures, which seems to have made this old mine its home. Although the specimen bore significant interest to me I chose to retreat, only to be outmanoeuvred and outnumbered by the beasts. I turned and ran injuring my ankle in the process, which I believe now is most likely a sprain, rather than a fracture. For some time I cowered and fled in the dark, but a few hours ago I discovered a door leading to a smaller disused part of the mine, the key for which I still have in my pocket. Within that area I discovered this store room, and I think it should keep me safe for some time. This place is a maze. My lesson learnt: I will not venture out again until I am certain the area is safe."

"Host, we are here now."

"This place is ours."

"You seek to find the truth behind all of this mystery, and think it will set you free! But truth is relative, and relatives can not be trusted to bring good gifts! What you seek lies in the shafts beyond this collapsing of the sky and if you look closely so do I."

"Warm in here."

"Sacrifice."

"How does my brain flesh know your fluids are leaking? Because Red tricked you! Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha! The spidery tunnel was far from a necessary evil, more so it served as well deserved punishment! You thought that my mind had been lost to the ravages of time, but poetic justice has struck with a sonnet, and an eight-legged baptism of fire! With justice now served cold I hope that we can be good friends. Now reclaim the key and go-go juice, and find a way to the mining monster!"

"Day 300 - Another century of days comes and goes: it seems like so long since I escaped here. At some stage since my last entry, I attempted to return from whence I came: that form I was fleeing seems a fate far worse than the one I now face. However in my time since I arrived from the larger mine system, a cave in has occurred, blocking any further progress. I was forced to return and accept whatever end life has in store for me. I hear my aggressive little friends scratching on the door to my cell."

"No order without chaos."

"Okay, on the to-do list. Find this damsel in distress, kill the bad guys, cure infection, save the world! Chances of success? Nill! Chances of survival? Well, you got old Clarence on board, that should speak for itself. Chances you buggering things up royally? Almost certain!"

"Life, Philip, here."

"Now you should find yourself in the watery cave of conversations past, with a tunnel above you from times ahead. In this tunnel, for both our sakes, be careful, not curios. I have already spoken to you about the CAT, and repeating myself is not only out of the question but out of the window and climbing down the guttering. There a spiders in the tunnel who like to suck on the humaney fluids, so do not disturb the walls, they are as fragile as the china vase in the hooves of the bull."

"Now, If I were you, which arguably I am, I would be asking myself in a gormless sort of voice, "Did that bridge really collapse or is my good friend Clarence just playing an hilarious jape?" The answer, monkey man, is that I don't even know myself. One way to find out. Please, don't get us killed."

"Yeah, yeah, cures, rescues, saving the world! All so cliché, all so ridiculous! Do you really think you are doing the right thing?"

"Keycards? I hate keycards! Whatever happened to good old bolts and padlocks, that's what I want to know?"

"You think fate has anything to do with this? Fate is merely the war cry of those too scared to think for themselves!"

"Dark isn't it? Echo! Kind of empty. Now this, this is what it is like to be me, buried deep in the cavernous expanse you call a mind."

"You see, this is what puts me in such a bad mood! We spend all this time messing about with door codes, levers, human appendages, and it turns out that in just a blink of an eye, I can just block it all out! Woosh, gone. Just you and me on some kind of messed up holiday!"

"Woah, bleeding corpses! You lot must be programmed to just search out danger and throw yourselves head first at it! I am becoming seriously desensitized here!"

"Oh, lookey here, more perilous death defying action courtesy of the skinny English professor? Rambo you are not, try running towards him screaming for a change!"

"Why, oh why, are they always holding a key? Or a note? Or a swipe card? Why is it never... Oh, I don't know... a cheese sandwich! I'm starving."

"Hey-hey-hey, good work buddy! Give yourself a slap on the back with a crowbar why don't ya? Oh, one thing, before you get too overwhelmed with glee, I know murder can be a lot of fun, but didn't you quite like that broad?"

"Hey, I think that's a bit of her skull on your shoe..."

"Wait, don't tell me you really thought... I thought you knew I was just pulling your leg. All my best laid plans and all that! Oh, this... this is just terrible... you silly billy."

"Come on Monkey, take a joke."

"This broad - we (sorry, you) kill her off, and she's still chatting a lot of piss and wind from beyond the grave. That's about as likely to work as aromatherapy is to cure cancer."

"Monkey, they're... they're everywhere. Don't go on, turn around. You'll get us killed. Just don't go left... I'm not playing this time!"

"Look, just wait a minute, maybe we got off on the wrong foot... you don't have to go through with this! We can be friends! I don't want to die Monkey!"

"Please, I could learn to live like this, it might not be so bad. We'd be like room-mates! We could take it in turns to drive! Just think about what you're doing."

"So, here we are, end of the line. No gold watch, no "thanks for the laughs Clarence". Nothing. Just a potion and a big fat screw you. Good times."

"With the substance in tow, I was close to ridding myself of the disease. Once that was done, I'd be able to contact the Tuurngait mind, as had my father. I had to know what they told him to make him give up like that. I had to put an end to this."