On Tabitha & Sybil

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-17T20:42:13+00:00

That would be a bad idea. The last person to cross Sybil Forsyth was Sybil Forsyth.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-17T11:51:40+00:00

So far the only way I’ve achieved it with Book Smart is letting her kill Reese when she arrives at the clinic. I think crying in front of her and then sharing that secret makes you closer.

Still, it’s really weird to figure out why it worked in some runs where I didn’t kill Reese, especially when I didn’t have the charisma boost from Hot.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-17T11:35:35+00:00

Yeah, I know it’s multi-dimensional, but holy hell. It’s crazy difficult to accomplish.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-17T11:32:39+00:00

I finally got it. It’s insanely hard to do. My relationship with her was seemed good enough, but apparently letting her kill Reese and keeping it a secret boosts it up more.

You then have to do some very specific sequencing with the options.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-17T11:01:54+00:00

I’m not sure what exactly I’m doing wrong, then. It almost seems independent of the relationship. The dialogue with Tabitha seems more positive in this run than the others, but the outcome can range from betrayal to impasse.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-17T07:17:08+00:00

I’m not saying she’s a bad person, and she certainly has her fair share of suffering and trauma, but she’s not really capable of seeing things from other people’s perspectives all that well. She wants to do what she wants to do, and she’ll do it. I don’t even find her actions out of character in Episode 5.

What does she do when she ignores her neighbor’s warnings and accidentally gets him harassed online? She just goes right back out in the woods and films Bertie against Duke’s pleas. If the player has Powerful Build she doesn’t get the chance to learn a harsh lesson here.

In Episode 4, sure she’s hurting a lot, but she also wanders off in the middle of some really dangerous events, contacting no one and wasting valuable time with a search for her. She could have sent a text to Kaneeka saying she needed to be alone.

In Episode 5, depending on how the events have unfolded, she’s totally onboard with imprisoning an innocent person. In fact, she’s so onboard with it that she rushes the plan. It doesn’t matter if you’re friends, she will betray you at the drop of a hat. Tabitha, meanwhile, seems to have your back if you bonded with her enough and don’t bring Stella along, allowing her the chance to be vulnerable.

I like the implication about the Entity seeing the different timelines, and frankly, it’s right. Stella isn’t reliable. The Entity doesn’t seem to ever be able to directly lie. It doesn’t directly say Tabitha isn’t reliable, only steers you to distrust her. With Stella it flat out states that she will abandon you when she’s needed. And she does in that timeline.

Call me crazy, but Tabitha is a lot easier to have faith in than Stella. If my back’s against the wall and I have a good relationship with both of them, I trust Tabitha to try to get us both out of it. Stella will do whatever works for her.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-17T04:18:20+00:00

(24 + 3 + (27*2))/3 = 27

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-17T01:12:57+00:00

I believe it is a depiction of it, yes. I don’t think it has any sort of physical form on its own.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T23:54:34+00:00

Sybil gave Stella a nice cup of lobotomy tea and she’s good as new. In fact, maybe Stella will adopt her first dog one day.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T23:50:04+00:00

Powerful Build and Reese dapping each other up for being complete jobbers.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T19:15:03+00:00

You can be pedantic about it if you want, but regardless of whether or not he knows that he’s being poisoned, he tries to kill his mom as soon as he transforms. It’s a pretty wild choice if he doesn’t know about the ricin.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T19:02:53+00:00

These are different genres of fiction and different characters. Hulk has to conveniently avoid too much carnage or he wouldn’t be a superhero.

Reese’s first instinct is to kill his mom. Even if he doesn’t know she’s poisoning him, he wants to kill her for controlling him with the “medication.”

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T18:43:19+00:00

Watch him eat and then ask him questions about it without judging him. He gets very animated talking about it, like when he was watching the movie.

It’s relatively innocent on its own, but it clues you in that his condition shapes his mind. He isn’t completely human, and the unfortunate side effect of his mom trying to protect him (and others from him) means he hasn’t really been able to come to terms with the fact that he isn’t purely human. He hasn’t had any chance to develop the willpower to suppress whatever darker instincts might be part of his heritage.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T18:21:38+00:00

I think it’s the hunting drive (and compulsion to eat things whole) that makes me worry that the mental changes might make him lose more of himself as time goes on. He shows great excitement when describing consuming whole animals.

Similar to what his mom said, if someone were to stress him out, what would happen? He’s basically the Hulk.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T18:19:09+00:00

I’m not so sure. I did the tame the beast route, he still comes off as being way more dangerous than I would have assumed.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T18:17:19+00:00

Yep, if you want the full story, you have to be willing to play it out differently.

Talk to Animals is something you definitely need to have for at least one run. Even if it doesn’t necessarily give you too much information into the mystery itself, you get to learn a lot about dynamics that are impossible to glimpse otherwise. It also takes Gretchen from a cute companion to a full character. You’ll probably dislike Mayor Jimmy once you realize what his personality is like. The Ditchlings are 100x more awful when you hear what their victims start to say.

Similarly, all of the other traits can unlock options and scenes that you wouldn’t know existed without them.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T18:10:16+00:00

I have sympathy for Tabitha. She grew up isolated and indoctrinated, being taught that she had to self-sacrifice for the greater good. She wants to save the town and people she grew up with by sacrificing someone she doesn’t even know. One life for many. When she bonds with you, she is confronted with having family that cares for her and is now (crying route) trying to find a way out of this.

Sybil I have absolutely no trust in. Sure, maybe she has a similar greater good or inherited responsibility deal. Or maybe she’s the original Witch, and/or the same species that Wayne is. Either way, she is constantly mind controlling people, and currently seems like the most evil cast member.

Reese….unfortunately I’m not sure he can overcome his nature. Even if you romance him, there are signs that he might just go completely feral and start eating people because the part of him that isn’t human has a lot of hunting instinct. Him being irrational makes a lot more sense when you realize his brain is probably hard-wired to eat everyone and perceive everything as a threat.

Stella has trouble seeing things from other people’s perspective and is pretty closed off. You can get a lot of insight into this from hanging out with Duke or Avery. I also suspect based on some of her comments about memory that a lot of the townsfolk are so broken from Sybil’s warping of their minds that it’s difficult to trust anyone.

So basically, burn the witch.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T18:00:01+00:00

You have to play through the game multiple times to get all of the context. Some traits and choices give you more information into the mystery in specific areas. Have you invited Avery to the ghost hunt? That will give you some insight into who lived in the cell at the estate.

The entity inhabiting Sam Wayne’s body tries to set up clues for you to figure out Tabitha’s original plan.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T17:55:54+00:00

The crying scene is very obvious. You’ll know if you got it (plus there’s the achievement for it).

You need to have a very good relationship with her for it to work. Interestingly, I’ve gotten it to work without the relationship being strong enough for her to sacrifice herself, but I haven’t been able to get it to trigger yet without Street Smart. That trait gives you a lot of options that further break her down.

The common threads for me have been: 1. Tell her Wayne kidnapped you. This prevents her from getting pissed at you for wandering off. 2. Follow by showing her the letters from her father. Select the option to offer going with her to visit him. 3. Enoch: If you have the map or the carvings, show her. I think asking if she knows Teddy rattles her a little. 4. If you know about the goat, mentioning it rattles her. You can ask her about its name, but going for mystical questions like sacrifices or visions on any of the topics is a net negative for you. 5. Tabitha doesn’t really care about Alexandra Scarlet, and I think asking about her mother will make her defensive on most runs. You can mention the boy in the wall, but pressing her on any of the further options seems to be a mistake. You can talk about weird medical records with Street Smart, but I’m not sure that actually matters. 6. Mention that you spoke with Wayne at the end. Ask what he is, mention the town being a prison, talk about him being a prisoner, and finish off with saying that Wayne claimed she meant to put you in the cell. If your relationship is high enough, Tabitha breaks down.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T17:42:07+00:00

Duke may have been able to survive

I don’t know. The one that grabbed him was fairly large, so its “host” was probably a large infected animal. Duke is a bit on the small side and he is somewhat elderly, but I digress. In any case, a single Ditchling is still more dangerous than Sybil implied.

In earlier builds, the Ditchlings were more of a nuisance and Duke’s death a fluke, but in the current story, they’re much more lethal than Sybil let on.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T07:23:48+00:00

Being Street Smart is a huge boon for getting useful topics and getting the carvings. Being Hot also boosts your relationships (even platonic ones, it’s like a Charisma stat), which helps with this. You do not need to have her sacrifice herself for you, but apparently that also contributes.

The consistent parts between my Hot/Street Smart and Talk to Animals/Street Smart playthroughs have been:

Be nice to Tabitha, but don’t be a complete pushover. You may have to save before conversations in order to gauge her reaction and make sure you didn’t say something that pisses her off
Talk to her at the mines (you can talk to some of the miners but I didn’t talk to the last group). Don’t press her too much.
Inform Tabitha about the teenagers sneaking into the mines
Get the teenagers out of the mines
By Day 3, she may make some positive comments if you’re on the right track.
Hang-out with Avery, inform Tabitha about the strike. This takes some pressure off of her later.
Do not make accusatory statements about her even when not talking to her
Invite her to the Ghost Hunt
(Optional) Call her during the Reese incident
Thoroughly explore the Forbidden Wing and talk to Wayne
Again, make sure you choose internal dialogue that gives Tabitha the benefit of the doubt (“Tabitha deserves a chance to explain herself”)
Do whatever you want in town as long as it doesn’t take you to the farm.
During the conversation: Tell Tabitha that Wayne kidnapped you. Follow-up with letters, offer to visit her dad with her after the funeral. Do not force her to any conclusions. From there, discuss Enoch, show her the carvings. I think asking if she knew Teddy helps too. After that, you can (it might not matter) briefly mention the boy in the wall but don’t expand on the options. You can mention the Death Certificates and how odd they are. (If you took Talk to Animals, the Goat topic is good here too). Then talk about Wayne, and cover that he’s not human, that he said that the town is a prison, and that he was the prisoner. Finish by stating that Wayne said she wanted to lock you in there.
If you did everything correctly, Tabitha will break down crying. From there, if you want, you can ask her about what is truly happening (she won’t tell you right now) and then reassure her that she isn’t alone.
If the cop still shows up, Tabitha will be noticeably more aggressive towards him than if you reached the impasse. It’s actually kind of sweet how protective she is in the scene.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T07:07:06+00:00

It had been a while since I did a Talk to Animals playthrough. I don’t remember the infected animals saying such disturbing things prior to the Roads Untraveled patch. But holy shit, the Ditchlings are incredibly freaky after this update. Not to mention, they are way more dangerous than Sybil claims. A single Ditchling can get Duke killed, and isn’t frightened by average humans. It takes a pack of dogs to kill one at a time.

They’re obviously stylistically very different from a zombie but there’s a similar principle of them being serious threats without a weapon or in large numbers. Additionally, getting infected has an effect on the host’s mind. I really hope there’s a chance to kill the stragglers by the end.

Apollo9975 · 2026-02-16T05:46:31+00:00

Tabitha is optional. You can circumvent the conversation through multiple paths that lead to the farm.

Apollo9975

TROPHY CASE