Turbo Pudding
Chapter 2 of Twelve Neighbors, Under the Lights, runs from Tuesday morning in the jury room to breakfast on Saturday. It’s also the chapter where Harrow starts talking back: things you said and did in chapter 1 come back to you, sometimes word for word. It’s Tuesday, so here are the level secrets of chapter 2. Nothing past the chapter, just where the choices hide and who remembers them.
The picture at the top is the first recess. Juror Seven has just taken the seat next to Patty, Juror Twelve, who taught her junior English.
The judge has read your form
In chapter 1, the jury form asks if you know anyone involved in the case. You can answer “Yes. Everyone does.” “Not really.” Or “He owes me a pie.” On Tuesday morning, Judge Whitlock walks into the jury room, and she knows what you wrote.
If you joked, she says: “Juror Seven. I’m told he owes you a pie. The court will not be collecting.” If you told the truth, you get a compliment from a judge who doesn’t hand them out: “An honest form. Rare.” And if you wrote “Not really,” she says nothing at all. She looks down the table, two seconds per juror. On you, she stays for three.
Four empty chairs
At the first recess, there are four free seats, next to Patty, Earl, Kaylee or Wyatt, and Juror Seven knows the stakes: “Whichever I take, I’ll be in it every break till this is over.” Each seat has its own scene. Patty remembers your Gatsby essay, mostly about pie: “It was a B-minus. Strong, for pie.” Kaylee shows off ten lavender nails: “Hazel picked the color. She’s three. She has a vision.”
Wyatt, the farmer, remembers chapter 1. On Monday night, he lifted two fingers off the wheel of his combine as you drove by, and you waved back, looked away or honked. Now he tells you which. Waved: “You waved back Monday night. Two fingers. Proper.” Honked: “I near put the combine in the ditch.”
The seat keeps paying off all week. Sit with Patty, and that afternoon she whispers: “You sat with me, so you get the good gossip.” Sit with Kaylee, and the two of you get a running joke at Thursday’s parade. Sit with Wyatt, and at Friday’s game, down the fence, he lifts two fingers, and you lift two back. Earl saves a few words for you on Friday, too.
Ten seconds behind Hoff’s
After the game, Paloma parks behind Hoff’s to go live, and she remembers your text from Monday. Send her the smiley, and she’s been decoding it all week. Answer “maybe” with the eyes, and she’s been “living on that maybe all week.”
Then she asks for one detail. Just one. The phone on her dash starts counting down in red, LIVE IN 10, and you have ten real seconds: tell her something true, feed her something false or say nothing. If the timer runs out, silence is your answer. Whatever you pick, the same note pops up, “Paloma will remember that.” A minute later, you hear what she does with it on air.
Playing on a stream? Turn on Streamer mode in the settings, and timed choices wait 20 seconds longer under a “Chat, vote” plate, so the chat can pick together.
A ribbon on the fence
At halftime, the stadium lights go down for a vigil. After, Kim Calloway walks along the fence with a basket of yellow ribbons and stops in front of you: “You worked with her. At Hoff’s. Would you?”
It’s not a small question: Kim was the State’s first witness, and you’re on the jury. Tie a ribbon, and she says, “Thank you, honey. She’d like that it’s crooked.” Stand apart, and you tell her, “I can’t, Mrs. Calloway. I’m sorry. I’m on the jury.” Either way, Kim will remember that.
Same as Monday?
Friday ends at home, with Juror Seven’s notebook and one question: if you had to vote tonight? Guilty, not guilty or I don’t know. The notebook checks it against what you wrote on Monday. Change your answer, and she admits: “Five days, and I already changed my mind.” Keep it, and she underlines it, “like that makes it truer.”
On Saturday morning, the chapter’s last thoughts go back to the biggest thing you did that week: what you told Paloma, the ribbon or the silence.
For a second read
Once you’ve found your first ending, chapter 2 has one more choice waiting at the vigil. It’s marked with the scales, ⚖, and that’s all we’ll say about it. Chapter 3 has one, too.
To go back for it, open the Story map: it shows every chapter’s choices, a check mark on what you picked, question marks on the rest and a “Go back to this choice” button on each choice you’ve reached. After many choices, a small note also shows what share of players chose the same.
Chapters 1–3 of Twelve Neighbors, all of Under the Lights included, are free to play in your browser at twelveneighbors.com. The full game is $9.99, paid once. More about the game is on its Twelve Neighbors page.
