The Longing-ist Playthrough: Day 17 – 17/01/22 – 353 Days, 4 Hours, 39 Minutes and 26 Seconds to go…

Day 17 was a quiet day, relative to some of the exciting discoveries of Days 15 and 16, but I have no doubt that more intriguing times are just on the horizon. It might be the first day since I started playing The Longing when I can honestly say that I have really very little to report. Some of that is down to my choice of agenda, but equally, I think I’m getting to a point where I’m missing something that I need in order to progress the story.

[Home] loaded up and I was pleased to see that Monty had finished the whole of The Time Machine in a single sitting! 😊 I did the same thing, buddy – I’m glad you enjoyed it. Before doing anything out in the kingdom, I shepherded him down to the mushroom garden so that we could pick and replant the mushrooms that had grown overnight, with the hopes that we might have more to go at in the morning. Of the four that were growing, we were only able to replant two of them, with there seemingly no room for the third… oh well, down the hatch! I had my notebook at the ready and my finger hovering over the ‘screenshot’ button, but this time there was no vision from the fungus.

Feeling whimsical, and just because I could, I ushered Monty down into the shower for a few moments, but he just stood there staring, seemingly wondering what in the world I was thinking. I’m not going to lie – I had really hoped he was going to do a little rub-a-dub-dub, but realistically, why would he? 😅 Then it was time for horn practice, and once again there was no progress to report in the slightest. Today it was two lots of six notes and the crescendo of a long three. You know what, if that’s all it takes to make you happy; just a few simple notes and no melody – who am I to judge?

And with that, it was time to depart. I had decided that today was the day we returned to the [Halls of Eternity] – the Halls had provided us with plenty of bits and pieces for [our home] – why not that elusive last piece of wood?

During the short jaunt down to the [Halls of Eternity], I noticed that the games performance seemed to dip a little bit, with my inputs being delayed and Monty taking a while to register what I was asking. Something to monitor. That aside, we made it down to the glistening white hall and I had Monty set off walking for a while. I hadn’t planned any specific time for him to be down there, I just figured that I’d turn him back when I got bored. Time doesn’t move in there, after all.

I kept a watchful eye on Monty’s progress as he shuffled through the never-ending pillars of the hall, and it wasn’t long until we claimed our first prize – another book for the collection. 😊📘 Buoyed by finding something and the thought that there might be more, we pressed on for a while longer. Sadly, there were no swathes of goodies to be found this time, and I was just about to turn back when a piece of paper came into view on the floor just a few metres ahead. I had Monty pick this up, ready for another masterpiece once we got home, and then decided it was time to turn back.

The walk out of the hall always feels like it takes way longer than the walk in… it’s the same though – I checked… and when Monty finally stepped out of the gleaming, colossal room and the timer started moving again, I decided to call it a night. I want tomorrow to be more productive and so thought we’d stay out-and-about in the kingdom rather than go back [home]… I’m going to have to start force some more of those mushrooms down you in the coming days if business doesn’t pick up, Monty, I have a word count to meet!

Continue reading: Day 18