FM: Alpha

FM: Alpha (FM:a) is a visual short story set in the Elsaverse. It was released on February 2, 2017, as a monthly perk for Tora Productions' donors on Patreon, and publicly released on February 17, 2018. FM:a was officially ported to Ren'Py and added to the Elsaverse Omnibus Vol.1 bundle that came out on August 5, 2021. The story presents the food court's gunman incident already depicted in Finding Miranda (2016) from a different point of view, and it's intended to be read after finishing that game.

FM: Alpha was born thanks to a theory posted by user "xCooler2" on the Shark's Lagoon adult gaming forum. He noticed that, in Dreaming with Elsa (2015), the first-ever game set in the Elsaverse, (J)ason was the player's character, and (J)essica Springfield made a cameo; then, in the next game, Redemption for Jessika (2016), Jessica was the love interest and (M)arc was the player's character, with (M)iranda making a cameo; and finally, in Finding Miranda, Miranda was the love interest, and the player's character was named (L)ucas. This led him to reason that the upcoming fourth game's love interest would be a woman who made a cameo in FM and whose name started with "L", and he pointed out to Lucile, the woman who was threatened by a gunman at the food court incident. The theory was absolutely wrong, as writer Tlaero had the whole saga already planned out and the fourth game was going to be about Chloe, but she was so amused and inspired by the incredible and totally unplanned coincidence that she quickly wrote a short story that could keep the letter sequence going, making Lucile get somehow involved with a male character whose name started with "C".

Plot
The reader is put in the shoes of a mysterious man who is trying to convince Patrick Bower to shoot Lucile, as she has apparently disrespected Patrick somehow. Agitated and easy to manipulate, Patrick agrees and takes the gun the other man is handing him. Then, the man walks to a satellite police office located in the business park and pretends to be a worker who wants to file a report about some minor stealing, probably in order to have an alibi. But, while being attended by Sylvia, he watches on the police CCTV how Xara calms Patrick down and defuses the situation in the food court, although he doesn't know who that woman is. Frustrated, the man walks away from the police substation, and then he phones someone else. That's when the mystery is unveiled: the man is the former Jessica Sprinfield's boyfriend, Charles, and he's calling Morland. In a brief exchange, readers learn that Charles is actually Morland's son (and Chloe's brother) and that Lucile is an accountant targeted by Morland's organization for having some info that could hurt them. Upon hearing what has just happened, Morland orders his son to start investigating the blind, green-haired woman who has just dismantled his plans, hinting that he knows her from a distant past; he also says that Crow will now deal with Lucile instead of Charles.

Miscellaneous

 * Despite Xara's efforts, Lucile's fate was sealed, and Darkness Falls (2018-2019) first chapter explains what happened to her after this incident.