Lifeline: Crisis Line

Lifeline: Crisis Line, written by Matthew Sturges, is the fifth instalment in the Lifeline Series. The game follows Alex Esposito, a police detective who works at the Austin Police Department. The game depicts Alex as he investigates of a strange murder case. Unlike other games in the series, the player is connected to Alex via Helptext, along with HelpBot, under the guise of connecting to a therapy hotline.

While the game does not follow Taylor's storyline directly, The Green appear prominently throughout the story. The game is a part of The Green Series.

## Plot

You are first introduced to Alex Esposito as someone who is panicking after encountering something unexplainable. You learn that he is a Detective for Austin PD, who has recently started investigating the murder of Jason Leder. Your job is to help him solve Jason's murder while keeping Alex alive. Upon starting the game, the player connects to Alex via Helptext. On occasion, an artificial technology named Helpbot monitors your work and gives the player feedback on how the player's relationship with Alex is going. Every decision pursued in this plot best helps Alex uncover the most truth and reach the end to the best possible path. In addition, Alex informs the player about all things related to his well-being, Jason, and his suspects' whereabouts and permits voice communication to get direct insight into who Alex is talking to.

As the story begins, Alex communicates to the player he believes that he is in a serious situation. Alex mentions how his life as a cop has been changed completely as he shot and killed a woman for the first time after seven years of service. Alex gets more detailed and says that, upon hearing of a man named Jason Leder's death, Alex enters the deceased Jason's house and finds the woman he just mentioned that he shot. The mysterious woman asked for crystals, and because Alex suspected that she was dangerous, he shot her three times in the chest in self-defense. He also describes her as having green eyes. As soon as she is shot, however, her body disappears, and Alex then decides to use the Helptext app to ventilate his trauma and potentially seek a solution.

Alex soon mentions that he is on a remote hill looking upon a great view of Austin, Texas. While Alex already has a partner for his police work, Alex permits the player to become an honorary officer for this case. However, things turn for the worst as Alex, who was originally by himself, sees two visitors showing up in a car, and from here, Alex gets very suspicious that these people intend to commit harm to him. As the car rolls in, Alex notices that there is a box containing something potentially harmful. Alex eventually realizes that the people in that car possess weapons, and Alex makes a break for it into the forest below.

After running for some time, Alex takes a break to stop after believing himself to have escaped those two evildoers. Things take a turn for the worst as, to Alex's dismay, the green-eyed woman and another man are on the branches of the trees that Alex is currently at. Assuming they were sent there originally to kill Alex, the green-eyed woman seems to change her mind upon knowing that Alex can choose a mutual approach to discover the truth to where Jason's mysterious crystals are located and who Jason's killer is.

Jason finally gets back to his car and eventually begins to search for who Jason's killer is on that same day. He goes to Jason's workplace, but all workers there already have insight, knowing that Jason had just died the day before. Alex enters Jason's department and conducts interviews with three people who also work at the law firm: Jeff Sherwood, Rachel Melick, and Rod Ross. All three have good things to say about Leder and appear to show signs of being suspicious. They mention that Rod had been very kind to them, but he had a troubled past growing up in a rural town in Texas and had troubles with his family. Rachel gives important information that Jason had recently called Garzia from a company called the Pearson Corporation, and a company in Sweden called the Permanent Working Group.

Jason is then assigned to drive to a local Austin airport and inform Jason's wife, Mia Westerman, that her husband has died. Alex says that all the signs associated with killers when hearing about the killer's death were absent with Mia. On the radio, Alex hears an official report that Jason died in the backyard of a home by Lake Austin at the age of thirty. Nothing more, and Alex points this out because if any potential suspect gives testimony of something specific about the case, that would be information only the killer would know. Alex would find out who the killer is for sure.

Jason attends Jason's home and meets detective Cordelia Wiseman at the crime scene. It was discovered that Jason was found dead in the swimming pool, but because the EMT announced that Jason's body had no water in his lungs, Jason must've been killed before Jason went into the pool. In addition, duallies, or a specific type of tire mark left by big pickup trucks, are visible, including dried blood between where the tire marks were. These drive marks left a tread angle, and it is discovered that the truck was facing the pool when it drove in. Alex admits that this is an unusual case because things do not add up. Why is there dried blood between the tires over there? Upon this eureka, Alex realizes that a cliff directly behind the pool is a more reasonable explanation of where Jason was murdered. Because of the obvious tire marks, no one until this point that the murder took place elsewhere.

Jason says that this cliff, which Jason probably was killed, is part of Mount Bonnell and says that this hill already has a dark history involving a white man killing a Tonkawa Indian. Later, another member of that tribe killed a white settler in a tit-for-tat form of revenge. In addition, the hill was once called Antoinett's Leap after a woman jumped off the hill after being chased by Indians. In addition, another woman named Ivy jumped off in 2003 without any explanation.

He reaches the top and tries to imagine a recreation of the event. Upon doing so, Alex sees a few different trails, finds a small pinto-sized, an irregularly shaped stone that both glows and is warm to the touch (which Alex suspects is the crystal that the green-eyed woman wanted to find), and barely manages to find a potential murder weapon at the end of the cliff without falling off, which appears to be a bloody wrench that says VANADIUM USAG EXTRA. After finding these pieces of evidence, Alex leaves the hill.

Upon driving to places, Alex sees a car he had just seen earlier and believed this man to be tailing or spying on him. Because there is not enough evidence of a crime, the man is let off the hook. However, the man apparently works for the Pearson company. The same company referred to by Rachel helps to show that this man is related to the investigation.

Alex then travels to the house of Mary Jo Irving, who is believed to be the one who gave Alex the mysterious crystals. An aging woman, Mary Jo, says that she first arrived at Austin during the hippy years and happened to meet Janis Joplin, and it has changed dramatically since then in population growth and general trends. Mary Jo says that the crystals that she gave to Jason were a type of rock called tunguskite. This rock is described as a negative energy-absorbing space rock. Mary Jo says that she obtained those crystals from her grandfather, Chauncey Drake. Chauncy found the rocks at a meteor explosion called the Tunguska event in Siberia (which actually happened in 1908!). Mary Jo says that her grandfather happened to be within 50 miles of the impact with indigenous Evenks native to that location (again, who actually lived there and still live there today) in an attempt to find some lost treasure in the Siberian tundra. Chauncy finds these Tunguskite Crystals‎ from the remains of this meteor, of which the Evenks turn down the treasure due to fear of its evil powers, and Chauncy has sole possession of them. Mary Jo says that Chauncy finds these crystals glowing, like a fire, but feeling cold as ice. Chauncey initially gave two pieces of the tunguskite crystals that he found, one to a geologist of the Royal Society of England (which again actually exists and still exists today). A second piece to a physicist scientist in Chicago. Still, both end up in explosions, and Chauncy never gives these crystals to anyone else in his lifetime. Mary Jo says that Chauncy gave her granddaughter crystals only because she was a budding genius. Still, Mary Jo suspects that he only gave them to her because she was the only one who listened to his stories. Mary Jo criticizes her grandfather by saying that Chauncey was a sucker for the supernatural and mentioned that "he was even certain that there was some kind of secret wizard enclave somewhere outside of Portland (which is actually in Washington). If you can imagine such nonsense." Anyway, Mary Jo got serious cancer. Because it is so valuable, the crystals that Chauncey said to never give to anyone else, Mary Jo values her own life over her grandfather's wishes and gives them to Jason and his company so she can afford experimental treatment. On a final note, she expressly begs Alex to solve the mystery of Jason's death.

Alex calls it a day and goes home to sleep after a 16-hour day shift. He then is informed to go to Rob Ross's house. The same man who worked with Jason informed the police department that he wanted to be interviewed to mention additional information. Alex talks to Ross, and Ross said that he was withholding information because he knew that his own company bugs the department where Ross works, and he doesn't want to be caught for saying anything in front of them. Rod mentions that he hated Jason and made him a personal target to let his hatred onto him, such as tormenting and threatening Rod. Rod says that Jason bullied him when no one else was working and put on a disguise when being nice to other workers at that firm. Rod heard Jason yelling and cursed at his wife through his office room and heard so not intentionally but because Jason was loud and obvious. Rod also mentions that Jason was obviously cheating on his wife with a massage therapist named Holly. He is taking painkillers from rock climbing. He has an alibi with a client nicknamed Animal. Alex also notices that Rod is indebted in paying his car payments for an expensive car, that a wrench used to repair his car is missing, and that Ross lied about knowing about what Jason was doing with space rocks with his previous interview where he initially said he did not know anything of them.

Alex then barges into the Pearson corporation, the company that Rachel mentioned earlier with Garzia calling Jason, where he attempts to make a surprise visit to the corporation to find things that they would be unrehearsed, allowing Alex to find things about that company that they may have wanted to hide about. He meets a security guard threatening him from entering. Still, this security guard happens to be the same person tailing Alex earlier, whom Alex pulled over but let go, whose name is Marvin Heckler. Alex threatens the security guard about tailing him to his personal boss, and he then permits Alex to go to Garzia, a prominent person in the company.

Lutecia Garzia says that she does not know much about the incident, but she is caught lying since Alex says they just spoke two days ago. Garzia then mentions the tunguskite but mentions that Jason called off the arrangement of the crystals the day before his death due to not being interested and found another buyer. Garzia gives a very vague description of what Pearson actually does, only mentioning advances in technology space and enhancing efficiency. Alex lastly mentions that Heckler was tailing him, and Garzia swallows hard and gives a lame excuse saying that Alex sounds paranoid. However, as the interview turns to an end, a client named Ms. Virdi calls Garzia from her phone (playing the Titanic theme as the ringtone), and Garzia answers the call and says to postpone the phone call later. Alex sees a note on Garzia's table, including Regina Virdi and her address, and records it before Garzia snatches it.

Alex goes to the address and finds an isolated and gloomy two-storied house. Approaching the house, Alex sees a green-eyed squirrel. He enters the house illegally after knocking with no response. He finds a kitchen full of soup and canned foods in the back and a skeleton of a person who is almost certainly Jean Vargas, as well as a photo of a teenage girl named Arika Lanphear, a person Alex describes as looking like a typical runaway, that across the picture says the word MURDERER. This evidence helps show a clear relationship between the green-eyed woman and Pearson corporation. Other photos of Vargas and her presumed husband were found in various photos in the hallway. Alex goes up the room after hearing some noise above and finds another set of stairs with three rooms. Alex recognizes that this is not possible since there is a third flight of stairs in a two-story house. Alex goes up to the third story, only to find another set of stairs. Alex goes up to the fourth story, only to find yet another flight of stairs. Alex goes up this last flight of stairs, only to find that this fifth story leads to a room with an abysmal roof, one without a ceiling. Alex also sees a bird, and he says it's the biggest grackle, a type of bird brownish-grey bird he’s ever seen and is in a cage that says on it "Kette & Schuss Vogel." Alex says that this kind of bird is common in Austin, but the bird talks to Alex. The bird says, "state your destination," but Alex is surprised, and both talk very informally to each other. The bird asks Alex to please make a destination to a place. Alex asks what this wonderful place is, and the bird says, "one is warp, one is weft, that's the answer to one of your questions, or both." Alex refuses to cooperate to state a destination the bird wants him to go to. The bird warns that intruders are coming, and Alex defends himself, and the green-eyed woman and Marvin Heckler show up. By this point, it becomes more than obvious that the Pearson Company and the green-eyed woman are involved with the Green. They say that Alex should be fine and reward Alex for solving the crime of Jason. Alex gets comfortable in a sort of hypnotism, but the bird again asks Alex to please ask for a destination. Alex spontaneously says he wants to go home, and the bird says, "why didn't you just say so, you idiot?" Alex says the world is twisting in on itself, and Helpbot gets glitchy and says a fatal exception OE has occurred, the application will be terminated. After many hours, Alex is reconnected.

Alex says that he returned to his house, and he realizes eight hours passed. Alex says that when Alex traveled home, the green-eyed woman fell and was bleeding through her chest. Alex was feeling nauseous, threw up, and then went back to the house to get his car at Virdi's house by calling a taxi. He returned to the house to find that there were only two stories when he arrived and that only the skeleton remained and the picture of Arika and other photos had left. After returning home via his car, he got a call from Mary Joe asking how the progress is going with the tunguskine crystals. She warns that if the crystals are gone, and Mary Jo has no money for experimental treatment for her cancer, she will go to chemotherapy and probably die due to her cancer not successfully responding to it. After Alex makes a joke to finish the conversation, Mary Jo calls the detective a moxie but says that she is scared and that Alex needs to hurry.

Alex wakes up and has unhealthy food for breakfast because he knows his life may soon end. He then visits Mia, Jason's wife, and Mia talks about how he and Jason were never really close in their relationship and basically became non-existent. Mia mentions Jason's behavior as a defense mechanism for his childhood trauma, as he had a terrible family due to abusiveness and being distant in the middle of a town. Mia also mentions that Jason killed a man when he was 15 and drunk. His step-brother, Mike DeWitt, has been blackmailing him for money. Otherwise, evidence of Jason murdering the man with apparently a golf ball will be reported to the police, thereby arresting Jason. Mia says that Jason never really had friends but instead just made people feel better about themselves in a manipulative manner. Mia is hostile about Rod, calling Rod a weasel and a coward in general. Mia says that Rod has painkillers for a skydiving accident, a contradiction of the rock-climbing incident. Mia also talks about Jason's lover, Holly, the masseuse or massage therapist, and details how to find her. Mia shows Alex a picture of Jason's younger family, including Jason's step-brother. Mia also gives an alibi with Claire Schuerenberg, a friend of hers. Mia concludes her interview by saying how Mia's life has been empty and how she never had the life she really wanted and felt used her whole life, and Mia says that she is in a way apathetic to Jason's death due to the bad marriage.

After Alex finishes talking to Mia soon after, Alex calls Claire Schuerenberg over the phone, where Schuerenberg says off the record (a common assumption among the public that talking to interviewers off the record means information cannot be mentioned in court which does not exist, and Alex uses this to get information out of Schurenberg) that Claire was actually having an affair with another man on the night of the marriage.

Alex then goes to Jason's home, where Alex talked about that spot being where Alex shot the green-eyed woman to find new information. Alex finds a vault, and after finding the vault's password via someone’s birthday ( in a month, date, and year format), after seeing a large picture of Marilyn Monroe, Alex finds out that Marylin Monroe's birthday cracks the vault open. Alex finds tens of thousands of dollars in the vault and a Swedish passport. Alex concludes that Jason was secretly going to go rogue and escape to Sweden to contact the PWG company in Sweden Jason called recently. Two green-eyed people arrive, and Alex is forced to shoot the man holding the gun and then kills the woman trying to choke him to death. Both bodies vanish as they are dead, and the green-eyed woman sends Alex a text that she did him a favor by not having to bury the bodies.

Alex goes to Holly, and she says that she truly believed that Alex was really going to break up with his wife and be with her for the rest of their lives soon. Alex then goes to Animal, Rod's witness, and asks to confirm Rod's alibi. Animal, whose actual name is Herbert, works at his uncle's warehouse factory, and the uncle says that Animal is rather controlling and has a drug record up until 19, where he has been completely clean since. After Animal seems to talk casually, Alex makes up the idea that Rod was turned in and that he accuses Animal of selling drugs. Animal then runs away and throws his drugs in a nearby sewer, but he trips to prevent falling on a French Bulldog, and Alex catches him. Animal confesses that Rod forced Animal to lie because Rod was blackmailing Animal for drug possession of tramadol and Oxy after Animal started regularly giving those painkiller drugs to Rod after a water skiing incident and that Rod owes Animal $500. Alex arrests Animal, and they return to the police station.

Alex's actual police partner, Dietz, says that he found Holly, the person Jason cheated with and that Holly Day signed up on a sign-in sheet for a Kundalini yoga class at Yoga a Go-Go during the murder, so she has a perfect alibi. Also, they mention that Holly, heartbroken from Jason's death, may soon end up with comfort finding another boyfriend based on the confirmation of attending that Yoga class. Dietz also reveals that the wrench Jason found that was bloody on Mount Bonnell was for Lamborghinis.

Alex then arrests Rod after all possible events were chosen, and Rod is interviewed while arrested. At the center of the room where there is a light bulb, an annoying fly is flying and buzzing around it. Rod Ross is asked about drug addiction, and Rod says he became addicted after using them after falling badly out of bed. Rod also cannot explain why there is a wrench at the crime scene, similar to the car Rod owns. Rod also says that maybe the tunguskine rocks had to do with Jason's death. Rod says that he didn't know why Jason was killed at a swimming pool. Because there was no information released about Jason dead at a swimming pool, Rod finds himself revealing evidence only the killer would know. Soon after, Rod confesses, saying that he was the co-founder of Jason's corporation, he was mistreated. Rod made a fake phone call calling off the trade between Jason and the Pearson company, and when Jason was planning to meet in person on top of Mount Bonnell, Rod came over to admit him calling off the meeting. Jason brought the wrench from his car in self-defense, and after both people got angry and hostile, Rod killed Jason in self-defense. He claims he knew nothing about the tunguskite crystals. The fly that had been buzzing around soon became the size of a head, and time began to stop moving to everyone. The fly says, "she comes," and the green-eyed woman and Heckler appear. The green-eyed woman puts her hands around Rod, and Rod's eyes turn white. The green-eyed woman says that the Timeless Monks understood the possibility of the green-eyed woman's capabilities but instead turned into cyborgs in a lunatic religion. Suddenly, they and Alex go back in Rod's memory, and Rod is with Jason when he is about to kill Jason. Besides Jason are the tunguskite rocks. As Rod says, the fight between him and Jason was a matter of self-defense. As Rod is going on one trail to deal with the body in the bushes, a man creeps out of the bushes to collect the tunguskite crystals. Jason is thrown in the pool by Rod, but Jason's step-brother, Mike DeWitt, later drives to the pool, leaving tire marks. After realizing that the body was too hard to collect, Jason's step-brother leaves blood around him and leaves the body back into the pool. The step-brother drives away, and the memory ends in a flashback to reality. Rod is dead with blood pouring out everywhere, and the green-eyed woman says that Rod was too weak and that Alex is now of no use. She asks Marvin to shoot Alex, and Alex is shot in the chest. Helpbot appears, saying that the connection is lost and that Alex is left for dead. Helpbot says that itself is more sentient than otherwise perceived and that Helpbot is, in a sense the app itself. Helpbot wants to help others in need, and it still needs the player to help in the future to eventually save Alex because he still needs the player's help.

(The next game, Lifeline: Flatline, can be found here)

## Characters

### Alex Esposito

Alex is a Detective for Austin PD. He is initially in need of help after witnessing something he believes should be impossible.

### Jason Leder

Widely known for being the creator of a law firm, he appears to be liked by everyone at his job. He is known for having a troubled family in his youth. Found dead in his backyard and is believed to be the result of foul play.

### Helpbot

An artificial communication system that gives ratings on the relationship between Alex and the player.

### Rod Ross

Works for Jason's company as the lawyer to conduct legal work. Is later revealed to be the co-creator of Jason's company, Ross is known for a timid personality and for taking pain killers.

### Rachel Malick

Works as an assistant for the company Rod partakes in.

### Cordelia Wiseman

A detective also helps give Alex insight into the area Jason's body was found.

### Mary Jo Irving

An aging woman sold special crystals to Jason and his company to pay for expensive experimental treatment for her cancer. She inherited crystals from her grandfather, Chancey Drake.

### Chauncey Drake

Chauncey Drake is the grandfather of Mary Jo. According to Mary Jo, Chauncey found special crystals in the Tunguska Event in Siberia. He happened to be 50 miles away from the meteor that crash-landed as he was with the native Evenks who live in Siberia. Was the sole owner of the rocks. He then passed the rocks onto her granddaughter, because as Mary Jo says, Mary Jo was the only one of his relatives that would listen to him. However, at her grandfather's expense, Mary Jo sells the rocks to Jason to carry out her experimental treatment.

### Claire Schaurenberg

Potential provider of the alibi for MIa during the time of Jason's death.

### Mike DeWitt

Step-brother of Jason Leder, both Mike and DeWitt have a bad relationship with each other.

### Animal (Client)

Potential provider of the alibi for Rod during the time of Jason's death. Real name is Herbert, and he is known for having a drug record in his teens but has been clean ever since.

### Animal's Uncle

The Boss of a warehouse department hires Animal but does not like him because he believes Animal is bossy.

### The Green-Eyed Woman

An antagonist woman who is initially shot to death in self-defense from Alex Esposito can vanish and show up again totally healed. She seems to be a leader among the green and forces Alex to take the case to find who killed Jason Leder and to find where mysterious crystals that Jason possessed are now.

### Luticia Garzia

Leader of the Pearson Corporation, a very vague technology firm motivated towards helping other companies in technological advice and efficiency.

### Marvin Heckler

A security guard at Pearson Corporation is also seen tailing Alex on the road.

### Regina (Jean) Virdi

A client of Pearson is found almost certainly dead at her home as a skeleton and possesses a supernatural house that has a squirrel with green eyes near the house.

### Grackle Bird

Is found inside the supernatural area of Ms. Verdi's house.

### Holly Day

Jason Leder's massage therapist is also believed to have an affair with Jason.

### Dietz

Alex's actual police partner gives insight into what new information is being released regarding Jason's death. He is often doing office work and leaves physical work for Alex.

### Fly

Initially seen buzzing around the interview where Alex interviews his arrested suspect.

## Password

Code for Jason Leder's Vault: 06011926 (MMDDYYYY-style birthday of Marilyn Monroe, who is seen in the same room as a portrait).

## Music

A playlist of 11 songs in the Lifeline: Crisis Line track can be found here.