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There are strange goings-on at every turn inOxenfree 2: Lost Signals, and many of them lead back to Parentage, a mystical cult run by Camena’s wealthiest family. Parentage and its members know more than anyone else in town about the paranormal activity in the area, but they aren’t particularly forthcoming about it.
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Riley and Jacob will learn a lot about Parentage over the course of the night, but it’s possible to miss fragments of their history as the game progresses. Read on to find out everything we know about Parentage, from their mysterious origins to their current incarnation.
This article contains spoilers.
Parentage And Planetshine
The origins of Parentage are known only to members. Theonly story known to outsiderswas told by an inebriated member of Parentage in the back of a patrol car, so its accuracy is dubious at best. This story, as relayed to Riley by Ranger Shelley, is as follows:
Centuries ago, a lightning strike caused a devastating fire, resulting in dozens of deaths. The survivors reported that, in the aftermath,a triangular portal became visible in the sky.On the other side of the portal was a green paradise, throwing a stark contrast on the carnage and destruction below.
Those who saw the portal hoped to recreate it closer to Earth so that they could pass through to the heavenly realm on the other side, which they had namedPlanetshine.Based on what we know from the events in Camena and Edwards Island, it’s likely thatelectromagnetic interference from the lightning stormcaused the portal to open, but without that knowledge the newly-formed Parentage had to guess at how to open a new portal.
Unable to call down a lightning strike, Parentagetried to summon a portal with fire and death, offering up human sacrifices on pyres in woodland ceremonies. It’s unclear how many people were killed in this way, or if Parentage’s bloody history is any more than a myth, but theynever found the way to Planetshine.
Parentage In Camena
By the twenty-first century, Parentage washeadquartered in Camena, Oregon, likely due to the preponderance of paranormal activity reported off the coast of the area. The leaders of the organization wereCyan Massel and his wife, Marigold.
Parentage’s spiritual practices had, by this point,shifted to New Age wellness; astrology and meditation, for example. Despite attempts at outreach including a radio program and free classes at the Parentage-owned North Camena Community Center, the people of the townstill distrusted the group.
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Parentage still sought to attain Planetshine, and were even able todevelop a theoretical means of opening a portal using radio waves. However, due to the risks involved, both physical and spiritual, Cyan would not allow the group to make an attemptunless the stars were perfectly aligned.
According to Parentage’s beliefs, all time is constant - that is, every possible moment is always happening forever, and we simply perceive them in sequence. Attaining Planetshine meansstepping outside the normal flow of timeand experiencing a single moment for eternity.
Olivia And The Portal
Cyan and Marigold died in a propeller plane crash, leaving theirteenage daughter Oliviain the care of Cyan’s brother, who took over as the leader of Parentage. Devastated by the loss of her parents, Olivia sought to open a portal to Planetshine and return to a time when they were still alive.
Forbidden by her uncle to perform the ritual for the same reasons Cyan refused, Olivia recruited two friends from her high school,Violet and Charlie, to help her open a portal. She chose the night of a blue moon - a rare occurrence where the moon is full twice in a month - for her attempt to reach Planetshine.
Using radio signals to contactpeople who had become stuck between time through previous portals,Olivia and her friends stole parts and equipment that would allow them build an antenna on the beach of Edwards Island. With the correct frequency on the night of the blue moon, it would open a portal and allow Olivia to step through,changing places with Alex, a teenager who had become stranded and sought to return to the world of linear time.
Riley And Jacob
At the same time, Riley Poverly and Jacob Summers were setting up a transmitter across the bay at Camber Cape as part of a job they had taken with an environmental research project. The transmitter interfered with the signal from Olivia’s antenna, causing the portal toopen at an incorrect location and frequency.
The unstable portal allowed the crew of the USS Kanaloa- trapped on the other side since 1943 and desperate to escape by any means necessary - to influence the physical world around Camena. Posing as Alex, these “Sunken” directed Olivia to prevent Riley and Jacob from closing the portal. Alex, meanwhile, guided Riley and Jacob to stop Olivia and the Sunken, asthe portal would tear apart reality if left open.
After Riley and Jacob closed the portal, Olivia went to the radio tower at Edwards Island in a final attempt to reach Planetshine. She met Riley, Jacob, and Alex inside her new portal, where Alex explained thatone of them would have to stay behindin order to close the portal for good. Olivia volunteered immediately, knowing this was her ticket to Planetshine and eternity with her parents, but thedecision of who would stayultimately fell to Riley.
