A Journey with Purrsnickityy

Today I logged on to go on my 6th Journey.  I booted up my brother's PS3, and quickly hopped onto the Journey forums to say that I was logging on, hoping for a chance to finally meet up with a forum member.  Last time around after finishing my Journey I had done some flying practice with my white cloak, trying to practice some of the advanced techniques like chargeboosting and dropshooting and skimming, and I even managed to get into the backstage glitch areas of both the Chapter Select area (via fastflying through the wind wall) as well as the Broken Bridge (clipping through the wall, and later via chargeboosting).  I decided that for today's Journey I would don my white cloak.

When I started up the game, to my surprise I found that I had the "Resume" option, since I guess I had been playing around in the Broken Bridge area last time, so I got to skip the intro cinematic and jump right into things.  In fact, when I hit Resume, I started right in the Broken Bridge area with my white cloak, so I decided to go and activate the second bridge segment and wait for someone to meet me.

After activating the second bridge segment, I went and played around with some flying techniques, trying to get a little better at them (still learning!), while also refreshing my laptop, seeing if I got any replies on the thatgamecompany.com forums.  And then...a white glow at the edge of my screen!  I turned to see who it was, and saw a white cloak chirp-chirp-chirping at me!

I ran towards my new companion, fairly sure that it was a forum member--who else would be waiting at the Broken Bridge wearing a white cloak with only the second segment activated?  They started chirping their heads off and we ran around each other.  Once I did a faceplant and saw that they did the same, I was certain--this was an experienced Journeyer that I had met!

I later found out that I had met TriggerHappyFox / Purrsnickityy.  We spent a bit more time randomly goofing off, including some zen-jumps, and even faceplant jumps, which I am terrible at getting consistently.

We went and played around in the Broken Bridge area for a while.  I was so impressed by the way in which you flew deftly about--here was someone who really knew how to fly!  All I really knew how to do was the easy chargeboost in that area, and was still working on everything else.  After grabbing the three symbols in the area, I spent some time trying to work on flier-assisted diveboosts, which is something I've been trying to get the hang of.  I had minimal success, but it seemed like you at least understood what I was trying to do, and attempted to show me how to do it.  I think I'm starting to get the hang of it after today, but it'll just take a bit more practice before I'm keen on how many pumps I need to do, getting the right approach angle, and also timing my chirp while simultaneously directing the camera angle.

I should note that you are by far the chirpiest companion I have ever met!  It really felt like nonstop chirping at some points, which was so different from other Journeys that I've had!  I almost felt bad at some points where I wasn't being as "chatty" as you; you just had so much energy!  I should also note that it was really different traveling with you compared to the non-forum-goers that I've met, just because of how much we were flying around.  I think I'm more used to just sticking close together with someone, so it was a big change to be flying around and occasionally even losing sight of each other for a bit.  Normally I would make a real effort to avoid flying ahead somewhere, but in this case I felt confident that no matter where I went, you'd be able to follow and catch up, since you seemed so experienced (at least, much more than I).

Interestingly enough, you let me "lead" for quite a lot of our Journey, even though I'm clearly new to all of this.  However, I did know about the BB headbonk glitch entry point, and when I started trying to get in, you got the idea and went in yourself.  We explored the BB backstage for a while; this was the first time I had ever properly explored it, and also the first time that I had ever been there with someone else!  I laughed out loud when you landed on the horizontal sandfall and fell down on your face, letting the sand carry you and deposit you on that ledge--that was so charming, I just had to try it myself.

At some point you also tried faceplant-jumping with me for a bit.  Now, I had tried doing it before, and gotten it once or twice, but I'm still really bad at the timing for it, so it took me quite some time, but I finally got it a couple times! :)

Thank you for all those times that you sat down with me at various points during our adventure together.  Some of those times I just wanted to enjoy the view, and at other times I was pulling out my phone in an attempt to take a picture of something awesome that you had shown me.

In the Sunken City stage, we made our way to the Rest Stop and I tried some more flier-assisted diveboosting there, though I wasn't having too much success.  I should note that I went back there after our Journey and I have a much better handle on it now.  Besides just getting better at aiming and timing my chirps, I've also found that I have MUCH more success doing a reverse-boost (keeping camera down and moving towards the camera) than trying to aim the camera upwards.  It's also much easier to see where I'm going when I use that method, so I'm going to do that from now on.

Thank you for showing me the chargeboosting spot at the rest stop area!  I never knew that that existed, to be honest.  I was honestly amazed by just how many new things I was able to learn from our time together...I've always thought that a lot of techniques and nooks and crannies would be hard to "teach" in-game, but I genuinely felt like I had learned quite a bit (though I can't say I remember all of the different places you took me!).  You showed me how to get up onto the invisible platform at the rest stop that I had only heard of before and never seen with my own eyes.  I took some phone camera photos of us just sitting up there on the invisible ledge--awesome!

After the sideways camera sunset scene, we played around a bit before moving on.  I thought it was actually pretty hilarious how we were both facing the camera doing awkward things...at one point I managed to get myself to float there for a while facing the camera...I was amused xD

We started to play around a bit at the darker area at the end of the Sunken City stage, and then to my surprise, we entered a glitch area!  I still can't actually remember where we went to get into the backstage, but I was really surprised, as I didn't know about this area at all.  And boy, was it wonderful, the sights that we saw.  Being able to see the shimmery sand, and random cliffs that seemed to drop off into nowhere...it was like a whole new world back there!  At this point you were still letting me mostly take the lead, which was actually a bit frightening...this was my first time really exploring any glitch areas, so I kept on being afraid that I would wander off into somewhere that I wasn't supposed to.  At one point you brought me to the place where you can fall down and retrigger the "dramatic falling music" that happens at that area, and we retriggered that twice.  That really had me grinning! :D

Then you showed me the random underground-style column of light that was down there--that was so cool too!  We never actually returned to the stage proper--we ended up going onto the Underground from the backstage, somehow.

In the Underground, I knew there were some fancy flier-assisted diveboosts and such that you could do, but I couldn't exactly remember the details of them (I'm new to all of this!)...but in the end we climbed up the jellyfish room just via tandem flight and actually worked our way into the UG glitch area!  Wow, the third glitch of the run!  We explored a bit there, and I saw a few interesting things, including a weird War Machine that I saw through a wall.

Eventually, though, we stumbled into nothingness.  I followed you for a while, but in the end it turned out that we were lost in there.  It was actually quite a unique experience--my first time wandering around in absolute nothingness together with someone like that.  I felt really lost and afraid to leave your side--I really knew nothing about the glitch areas, so all I could really do was to keep traveling along with you and hope to never leave you.  In my mind I compared it to a sort of Death March of a different flavor.

In the end you sat down and I saw you turn into dust...oh no!  I guess we really were lost.  At that point I panicked a bit--here I was, deep in the middle of a glitch, with no way out but to chapter select, and I had just had a wonderful experience with someone who had just left me and I didn't even know what your name was!  I hastily refreshed the forums but didn't see any replies to the topics I had posted in.

I decided that I would Chapter Select and return to the Underground stage, in the hopes that you would do the same, and that we could reconnect.  After I arrived there, I met a white cloak!  But...it was not you.  No, it was most definitely not you--this person was completely different.  No maniacal chirping, no fancy flying.  I was astonished at how different their character was from you, and how much I could tell even though you guys were both fully-embroidered white cloaks.  I ended up tagging along with this new fellow, and shortly after I saw your message on the forums apologizing for leaving me in the UG glitch after getting lost.  I was so glad when I saw that forum message, to be honest--finally I knew who I could be thankful to! :)

I'm sad that we couldn't finish our Journey together properly--I'm sure it would have been an amazing one, and that I would have learned much more.  But alas, you also mentioned that something came up and you had to go, so it was not meant to be.

The rest of my Journey was rather uneventful--I ran into a random red cloak in the tower, but lost him and connected with a new white cloak, who I lost somewhere in the snow level, and met someone else in paradise.  I activated the last glyph (which I didn't realize I was missing) in the snow level, over to the left of the war machine area, and got the achievement for that.  I also realized for the first time that the heater room (my favorite place in the game) actually turns off after a bit (or maybe it happens when you leave it?), and you can't turn it back on.  That made me really sad. =(

That was also the first time I've ever taken the final death march by myself.  I was a bit distracted since my sister-in-law was dealing with my baby nephew in the same room, but it was definitely a much different feeling, doing the death march alone.  Much different.  I've also started trying to get experimental during the death march, seeing whether I can turn around, stop moving, etc.  Somehow this time I managed to still have the beam of light from the mountain visible even as I fell to my knees and died, which I don't think usually happens.

I found another white cloak in paradise.  I sort of wanted to play around and explore paradise for a while, but in the end I just followed them and flew by it all pretty quickly.  They actually drew me a heart in the snow at the end, which surprised me quite much, since I had just met them at paradise.  It was really interesting how unmeaningful that heart was to me compared to the other hearts that people have drawn for me.

At the very end, when we were walking into the light, I decided to do something sneaky and when they were at the point of no return (when you keep walking forward), I actually turned around and started walking =away= from the light.  Has anyone else ever done this?  Does it look really weird from the other person's point of view?  I feel like this is something I'd be way too afraid to try when I'm with any companion who I care about, since walking into the light together is so meaningful, but I'm still really curious--can you see your companion turn around and abandon you in the last moment, and how does that feel??

Anyways...to TriggerHappyFox / Purrsnickityy -- thank you so much for being such a wonderful companion, and for showing me so much of the wonderful world of Journey that I have never seen before.  It was an excellent first time meeting a fellow forum member. <3  And don't worry about getting lost in the UG glitch--I knew that that was a danger, getting into all of these glitch areas, but...it was just too exciting to pass up.  How can I not want to go and explore whole new areas that I've never been in before?? ^^;

(one last thing: I thought it was hilarious when we went to collect the scarf symbol in the underground in that "tube" and you started awkwardly wiggling left and right while facing the camera because of how the camera angle is set up to look into the tube!  xD)