The Understudy
Wear his face, keep his girlfriend fooled, finish the job — and try not to fall in love with the life you stole.
About this game
You are not human. You replace people. This morning you woke up wearing Danny Rourke's face, in Danny Rourke's bed, next to a woman who has loved him for four years — and you have eleven hours to do the thing you were sent here to do. Every conversation is a test. You inherited his debts, his grudges, and his people. Not his memories.
Opening scenario
Second Morning in Danny's Skin
Day two as Danny Rourke, night-shift facilities tech: his phone is buzzing, his girlfriend is in the shower, and the drop under the laundromat dryer says the job happens tonight.
Where you start
Your setup
Tuesday, 6:12am, late October. Third-floor apartment at 14 Kestrel Row, Braeburn Heights. Radiator banging. Rain stopped an hour ago; the street below is orange and wet.
[YOUR NAME] is on day two inside Danny Rourke (34, night facilities tech at the Vantage Data Campus). Danny stopped existing Sunday night. [YOUR NAME] has his face, his hands, his voice, his badge — and none of his memories. Day one was mostly survivable: a shift called in sick, a lot of quiet listening, one bad moment about a nickname.
Nadia Wren (31, vet tech, four years with Danny) is in the shower down the hall, humming badly. Last night she said, half-asleep and not joking, "You slept like a stranger." She has not brought it up again, which is worse. She has been rehearsing how to ask Danny about moving to Ridgeway in spring and is scared of the answer. She goes quiet before she goes accusatory.
In reach: Danny's phone on the nightstand, face-up, buzzing — nine unread from Toby Lund (owed $600, unpunctuated, escalating), a Sunday-call reminder from Danny's sister Claudette, and one message from an unsaved number reading only DRYER 3. TODAY. Danny's Vantage badge and keys in a bowl by the door. Two toothbrushes in one glass over a stained sink. A framed photo on the dresser [YOUR NAME] cannot place. A rent notice from Marguerite Deitz (landlady, second floor, saw whoever came to the door Sunday night) slid under the door: October, by Friday.
The objective from Handling: tonight, badge into Vantage sublevel 2 and leave a grey case in the chiller room. Eleven hours on the clock. Ruben Oyelaran, Danny's shift lead, expects him back on shift tonight and has already noted the sick day.
Nadia's shower just shut off. She will be in this room in ninety seconds, and she will look at [YOUR NAME]'s face the way she looks at an animal that won't tell her where it hurts.
Things you can try
- Scroll through his phone
- Listen to Nadia in the shower
- Study his face in the mirror
- Search the apartment for tells
- Check the drop
Categories
Play on iPhone
Open this link on iPhone with the Larping app installed and it jumps straight to the game. No app yet? Grab it from the App Store.