Fatal Flaw: Mae's is her unwillingness to open up about her problems. Her friends and family want to help her — at least, Gregg and Angus want to — but she doesn't want to talk about her disassociation episodes recurring at college. It's not until she nearly dies and Gregg tells her that people care about her, that she decides to open up and confess about her issues with Gregg or Bea, and with her parents .

. The flaw of the Big Bad is their unwillingness to change. They believe they must sacrifice people to keep Possum Springs prosperous, despite the fact that the town is obviously dying regardless of their actions. Bea calls them out for it, but they remain stubborn. This later leads to their deaths, either by the cave-in or by slow starvation and suffocation.

The Dragon's flaw is his obsessive watching over Mae and her friends when they go ghost-hunting, and his targeting her specifically. While Angus, Bea and Gregg are skeptical that it's the same figure that Mae chased on Harfest, she identifies him and is further convinced that he has something to do with the kidnapping. It's notable that in the climax he attacks Mae when Gregg was the one who shot him with the crossbow. When he attacks Mae from the mine elevator, Angus smashes his head and cuts off his arm using the elevator.

Flavor Text: Quite a lot of it, and you often have to examine things several times to see it all, especially if you're gunning to get all of Mae's notebook sketches.

Foreshadowing: Two of the quotes from Grandpa's ghost stories in the intro. The specific quotes are "They feared death, so they ate the young.", foreshadowing how the cult would sacrifice the young and directionless to preserve themselves and the town, and "They went looking for the gods, and died in lonely places", foreshadowing how the cult, after seeking the Black Goat, ends up trapped inside the abandoned mine.

and At several points, people mention cults .

. When Angus fixes Mae's computer, he says it's not magic, just ones and zeroes. If you stargaze with him, he says he doesn't believe in a God, or if there is a God, he doesn't care.

Pentagrams are seen in a few places, such as the Demontower minigame or the secret handshake used by the cute girl at the party. One final five-pointed star forms from the wooden supports in the mine shaft.

You can find a missing poster for Casey before you learn he disappeared.

Mae at one point teases Gregg by saying she wants to see his head get stuck and chopped off by elevator doors. Guess what happens to one of the cultists in the mine?

Mae earlier chided Gregg for teasing her by saying it was too bad she didn't get crushed in a falling elevator by pointing out that it's a legitimate phobia of hers. At the climax, she narrowly avoids this exact fate .

. Mr. Chazokov tells Mae during a stargazing session that the gods in the legends they discuss are just metaphors for unfortunate things that can't be controlled (such as death, disease, natural disasters, etc.). As is the Black Goat, metafictionally.

Mae's last conversation with her mother at home has a big one for the upcoming climax: "You... We... Wouldn't be in this mess if I wasn't such a massive screw up. I just want to fall into a pit and die right now. "

" Mae eventually expresses her romantic preferences, essentially wanting someone, gender irrelevant, who's strong enough to beat her in a fight. If you pay attention to the porn popups on her computer early on, you'll notice ads for "Meet Burly Singles in Your Area" and "Tough Angry Singles".

Right before going to the party in the woods, choosing the right choices will have Mae reveal some of her experience when she was in college, like how she wasn't able to make any friends while she was there. At the party, while drunk, she talks about the statue of the founder and how to her, it just looked like shapes, which is foreshadowing that she might have dissociation. Mae also mentions during the party that she gets "woozy on cough syrup". Later, when discussing her mental breakdown in college, she mentions chugging down bottles of the stuff just to be able to sleep .

While not plot foreshadowing, Mae's walk home from the bus station has three certain actions that relate to future interactions with her friends: Directly outside the bus station, the fireflies begin to swarm around her if she jumps into them. Attracting fireflies is required at the end of Bea's second hangout . In the pit, Mae has to cause a pile of logs to slip by jumping on one to break it loose. Mae breaks a fallen tree with Gregg in his third hangout, as well as breaking a branch in Bea's investigation quest. In the playground it's possible to spin the pirate ship's wheel by jumping near it. Repeat this with the four windmills around Towne Centre (three in Part 2, and one in Part 3) to release their payloads, and you get more lines of dialogue with Angus during his investigation quest.

There are hints that Mae suffers from serious mental health issues very early on. If you open the options menu early in the game, you can see some rather obvious and hollow-sounding psychologist-speak phrases written in the diary, such as "Count to ten!" "Take a deep breath!" and "I.P.S - Identify possible solutions!" The diary is the closest thing Mae got to treatment after suffering a serious breakdown:her parents had no option but to take her to the town doctor, a jack-of-all-trades whose strength was definitely not in psychology or psychiatry. On a related note, the unreliability of the town doctor is mentioned in a random early game conversation, where one resident expresses doubt and discomfort about having to rely on him, only to be shouted down by another two residents who don't have any problem with him and his multi-discipline approach .

very early on. If you open the options menu early in the game, you can see some rather obvious and hollow-sounding phrases written in the diary, such as "Count to ten!" "Take a deep breath!" and "I.P.S - Identify possible solutions!" If Mae goes with Bea to fix the heater, she'll tell Mae about the hunting camps and warn her to not "like get shot or anything". A possible option later the same night leads Mae to wonder what it's like to get stuck in a cave. Mae's later shot at by the cultists, who are wielding hunting weapons. Soon after she gets stuck in a cave for a while (as does the cult, but they don't get back out) .

Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: They may not be related, but Mae and Bea have this vibe. Mae has a loving relationship with her parents and could afford to go off to college, but remains completely immature and dropped out. Bea, meanwhile, lost her mother and was forced to stay behind to work to keep her father's shop afloat, maturing in the process. She expresses her frustration about this multiple times. Subverted when it is revealed that Mae has serious, untreated mental problems, to the point where even Bea stops thinking of herself and Mae like this .

Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine: Gregg (optimistic, excitable, emotionally unstable, and a reckless risk-taker).

Choleric: Mae (the leader of the group (whether the others agree with that or not), rebellious, and hot-headed).

Melancholic: Bea (depressed, emotionally distant, hard working, and intelligent).

Phlegmatic: Angus (kind, socially awkward, and reserved to the point of appearing emotionless).

Eclectic: Germ (the only one who has no personal demons eating away at him; he even has a good family in the Weird Autumn Edition).

Fragile Speedster: The player character in Demontower as you progress through the levels; your dashing ability increases, while your maximum health decreases.

Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: At the end of the game, once The Heavy has been defeated, almost all main characters show a hint of sadness for them. Mentioning that they were driven by a desperate desire of saving the town they lived in, and that they said to not enjoy the things they did. Angus is the one to call out that they shouldn't pity them. The Cult of the Black Goat had, unnecessarily and in an act of desperation, sacrificed the homeless and the ones that people "wouldn't miss," in order to ask an Eldritch Abomination to save their town, and Angus feels no sympathy for, among them, having sacrificed their friend Casey.

The Friend Nobody Likes: Steve Scriggins is a sleazy guy who hangs out with Gregg and Mae sometimes, even though neither of them like him at all.

Fun with Subtitles: At one point, Mae is incredibly drunk. The dialogue options are crisp and eloquent almost to the point of Expospeak Gag, but what she actually says is slurred and wobbly.

Furry Confusion: Possum Springs contains both anthro and non-anthro rodents, cats, birds, and raccoons. Mae has a stuffed raccoon, her prom date was an anthro raccoon. Her parents have a bird in a cage. Lori M. is an anthro mouse usually found perched next to a building full of non-anthro rats. Mae's grandfather tells of a talking cat in Lost Constellation as if a talking cat were unnatural, even though both he and his granddaughter are anthro cats. When breaking into the Shreigeist house, Gregg gets attacked by an owl.

Probably the most blatant example is when Mae talks about how a dog chewed up her ear when she was young, causing to look like it does at the present. She then says something along the lines of "The joke is on him though, dogs only live for like 10 years, unlike people."

Lori M. refers to "the human spirit." Scott Benson implies that "human" refers to any kind of sapient animal in this universe.

"human" refers to any kind of sapient animal in this universe. There are references to buck hunting season in the game even though there are deer people wandering around the town.

If Mae fails to raise the rats in Mallard's Tomb, she'll complain about the fact her father owns a bird to Germ when he asks her if she has any pets. Germ agrees with her that birds are the worst.

Furry Reminder: Mae can play with a ball of yarn despite finding it "patronizing," and if she ends up going to Donut Wolf with Gregg and Angus she's able to seriously scratch up a mirror with her bare hands, so she clearly has claws. Mae can jump three times her own height and walk on power lines, because she's a cat.

so she clearly has claws. Many of the constellations in Longest Night are referred to as being anthropomorphic, and others are said to resemble other characters: Bea mentions that her mother always said she resembled Harmonium, Germ is said to resemble Invenerus (Specifically with the beak), and Lucio is specifically cited as a fox. In the game proper, Mae refers to Corvin the Thief as "asscat".

Gallows Humor: Many characters. Greg and Mae tease each other about possible horrible and unlikely deaths. Mae's dad comments that she shouldn't go out "unarmed" after Mae and her band find a severed arm , and Mae's mother jokes that it shouldn't be too hard to find out who said item belonged to, with she and Mae acting out a light-hearted skit about someone locating the owner.

Gameplay and Story Integration: The bass minigame can be very difficult, and the first time Mae has band practice you'll have had, at most, two cracks at it before and can't have practiced "Die Anywhere Else" yet, so it's hard to do well. This makes perfect sense story-wise, as Mae hasn't played in ages, thus losing much of her skill, and the song is new to her. Mae: I literally do not know this song.

Garage Band: The four mains occasionally take evening breaks to play in a band together — Angus on vocals, Gregg on lead guitar, Mae on bass, and Bea using a computerized drum kit. note The fact that 3/4ths of the band are LGBTQ (Gregg and Angus are gay and Mae is pan) may or may not make them a queercore band.

Gay Best Friend: Subverted with Gregg, in that the title is literal. Rather than be like the stereotypical swishy gay character who dishes out advice to his female friends, he's just Mae's childhood bestie who joins her in her acts of petty vandalism and just happens to be homosexual. (And Mae herself is not straight either.)

Gayngst: Downplayed with Gregg and Angus. Their relationship and the fact that they live together is depicted as entirely normal by both the narrative and all of the present characters. However, they mention that they've both gone through a lot of trauma to get to this level of normalcy and are desperate to move somewhere where they aren't the only queer people they know (which Bea theorizes is the only reason they're together in the first place).

God Was My Copilot: The Janitor is implied to be some sort of supernatural force, possibly even God itself towards the end of the game, he even knows Mae's name. The God(?) Mae meets in her dream point out that the thing Mae calls God doesn't exist, or at least is working in such a subtle manner, that is impossible for them to see, which would be fitting of a Janitor . There is though a plausible explanation to a lot that happens around him, and some are possibly just a coincidence, so it ends in a Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane situation.

A Good Name for a Rock Band: If you talk to Mr. Chazokov on the first day of Act 2, he'll tell Mae, he's looking for "dusk stars". You can have Mae reply, "Dusk Stars is the name of my shoegaze band."

Good Shepherd: Pastor Karen. She's a very kind woman, is trying to open a homeless shelter, and gladly strikes up a friendship with Mae, despite Mae's religious beliefs (or lack thereof). She uses her faith as a tool to help people of all backgrounds, creeds, and lifestyles. She privately admits her own faith in God is wavering, and she hopes that, by convincing other people to believe, she can convince herself, too.

Goth: Bea. She becomes more positive over the course of the game, however.

Growing Up Sucks: Growing pains and arrested development are some of the biggest themes in the game from the start, touching on everything from the mingled disillusionment and longing one feels upon looking upon their own naivety as a kid - especially with regards to losing the faith they were once able to take for granted when they were young - to how daunting the future looks when a person is thrust into young adulthood despite not having grown out of old coping mechanisms and bad habits yet, and they're now able to see old and familiar things in their lives start to decay with age.

Guide Dang It!: If you're going for the "Seriously?" trophy, you have your work cut out for you, as you will have to traverse each and every inch of Possum Springs, multiple times, looking for things to examine and people to talk to. The description even lampshades just how hard this achievement is. "All sketches? We made the game and have never gotten this. Wow." The "Accidentally Good Dinner" achievement (see video ) can be a bit tricky if you want to make dinner for Bea and her dad. There are four good recipes out of dozens of possible combinations of ingredients.

) can be a bit tricky if you want to make dinner for Bea and her dad. There are four good recipes out of dozens of possible combinations of ingredients. The questions the Thryy Wyrd Tyyns ask you when you first meet them on the cliff near the First Coalescence Church, about which spooky thing you have encountered in your life. From the clue on your journal and at the beginning of the game, the answer is obvious: a shipwreck. Also, about what God is like: it foreshadows what you will meet in the final dream in Part III (the Sky Cat), and it is "uncaring and distant".

Have You Told Anyone Else?: Inverted in the climax. When Mae asks the cultists why the latter is monologuing about what they do, including murder, the cultists point out that they can't go to the police. Even with Mae's word, the police will only know that hooded figures meet in a mine shaft to throw people down a pit. Plus, the cultists know Mae and her friends, as well as where they live, but Mae and her friends don't know who the cultists are.

He Knows Too Much: Mae and her friends get too close to the cult's business, and are nearly killed by them.

Hidden Depths: Gregg can actually write really good music. When the band jams, Mae even mentions that they can look into playing at venues if they want to continue.

Humans Are the Real Monsters: Well, "humans," but regardless, as terrifying as the Black Goat is, it's ultimately just a destructive, unknowable, and quite possibly near-mindless force. On the other hand, the cult members are fully aware of what they're doing and don't care because, the way they see it, they're targeting undesirables to protect their way of life.

Hypocritical Humor: During the mall trip with Bea, she dismisses the local Hot Topic Expy as being for teenagers and claims to be embarrassed to even be there... and yet her shirt comes from that store. Mae: [Pointing to a copy of Bea's shirt in a rack] Hey, isn't that... Bea: Shut up. Shortly after, if you ignore the shoplifting scene you can find a short conversation between the two with Mae complaining about the lack of any good music in the store, saying it's all for twelve year olds. Bea then points out that the store is draped wall to wall with merchandise from Mae's favorite band and that Mae herself isn't far off from being a twelve year old.

Gregg and Mae discuss how much of a scumbag criminal Steve Scriggins is during "Crimes", while glorifying their own crimes. Mae: So should we smash a window to get this out of here?

I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: The player is never told what the eternity sauce at the Donut Wolf is made of, but after saying that she didn't want any, Mae said that the last time she had eternity sauce, she stayed up all night digging a hole in her backyard with her parents finding her asleep at the bottom of the hole the next morning.

I Just Want to Be Normal: Bea. She's stuck working constantly to keep her father's store open and her bills paid. With her mother's death and father's subsequent breakdown, any hope of going to college and living a normal life like she dreamed of has been shattered as she tries to keep what's left of her family going.

I'll Kill You!: Gregg says this when the cult reveals that they killed Casey, his and Mae's best friend. He just can't because the cultists have guns and he has a crossbow. Later on, however, when Bea points out that the cave-in will trap the cultists underground, Gregg denies that it was murder.

I Never Told You My Name: In the epilogue, the Janitor calls Mae by name, and Mae realizes she never told it to him.

I Want Grandkids: Mae's mother mistakenly begins to suspect that Mae's worsening health in the third act is actually morning sickness, and the possibility that her daughter is pregnant is the only thing that breaks the concern, that she was otherwise displaying for Mae's condition.

In the End, You Are on Your Own: A defied trope. Mae wanders off to confront the "ghost" on her own, only for Gregg, Angus and Bea to arrive and shoot him with Gregg's crossbow. Through the rest of the game, the three friends refuse to abandon Mae. The final lines of Mae in the game are along the lines of "We may die tomorrow, but at least I am not alone today thanks to being with you guys".

Inelegant Blubbering: Mae after the party does this while drunk after relearning that Bea's mother is dead. By the time Bea pulls up to Mae's house, Ocular Gushers is ensuing.

Injured Player Character Stage: The final chapter has Mae grievously wounded after she falls down a mountainside escaping the cult. The player guides a slow-moving Mae back to town. Sudden inexplicable changes of scenery suggest that Mae is experiencing memory loss, fading in and out of consciousness, or suffered a concussion in the fall.

Innocently Insensitive: All over the place. Because a good number of the characters conceal their issues and traumas, what seems like perfectly ordinary conversation can trample all over one of the participant's feelings. For example, people in town constantly taunt Mae about dropping out of college, either complaining that she has it too easy, joking about it, or sneering that a waster like her was never going to cope at college. The adult residents in particular seem to think that they're just being Brutally Honest or dealing out tough love, but Mae didn't drop out because she was a slacker — she dropped out because her mental health issues made college a nightmare.

Insult of Endearment: Mae and Greggory go back and forth on one another, discussing the grisly bodily harm and/or death they didn't suffer in their latest shenanigans.

Interrupted Suicide: Gregg believes he does this in the climax if Mae told him and not Beatrice about her disassociation. He tells Mae firmly that even if he doesn't understand what she's going through, he's not going to let her die on him, and it's not her fault that the cult started hurting people and stalking them.

Interspecies Romance: Mainly, Gregg (a fox) with Angus (a bear). The player character, Mae (who is a cat), used to date a raccoon boy back when she was in junior high; and if the player decides to have Mae crash a college party, she has the option of flirting with a woman nicknamed "Bombshell" (who is a bear).

Ironic Echo: "Nothing to be scared of down there. Just a party." First used by Bea to calm Mae before attending a party, later echoed by Mae before descending into the mines to confront the cult.

Irrational Hatred: Mae is never anything but abrasive to her aunt Molly, despite Molly seeming to be a fairly mild-mannered Reasonable Authority Figure. The reasons are never stated - either there is some bad blood between them that's never explicitly brought up, or it's simply that Mae just generally resents authority figures.

It's All My Fault: Mae says this in the climax when Gregg shoots the cultist to save her. Her friends tell her that she didn't cause the cultists to commit murder or endanger them, and that they're there for her.

Jerkass Has a Point: Aunt "Mallcop" does have a point in that Mae shouldn't be wandering in the woods on her own to get home, especially to walk on power lines. She points out that Mae by being a Woman Child is naive about the world, and thus more vulnerable to getting hurt. Mae ultimately agrees with the sentiment, even if she's snarky about it.

Subverted during Bea's route. Bea gives Mae a What the Hell, Hero? speech for wasting her college opportunities, while Bea would kill to have gotten the chance to attend college. Bea backs off from this one when she finds out Mae left because she was having mental health issues .

. Mae gets one in on the Gregg path: when Angus blames her for enabling Gregg's criminal tendencies, she angrily asks him how it's her fault when Gregg is the one committing the crimes. This causes both Angus and Gregg to back off, and for Gregg to vow to stop his crimes for Angus's sake.

Jump Scare: When on Gregg's ghost hunt, Mae and Gregg hear a lot of odd noises in-universe. Turns out it's an old animatronic that isn't quite fixed yet. Later in the same scenario, the "ghost" randomly appears in a window when the two are running down a fire escape.

Earlier, when Gregg is picking a lock to get in to the museum, an owl will loudly screech and swoop in on the two of them out of nowhere just as Gregg gets the door open.

Keet: Gregg cheerfully screams most of his lines, seemingly can't keep still, and is super excited about everything that's happening. Let's do some criiiimes!

Lame Pun Reaction: Mae's dad's attempts to make a funny about family taco night are... not well received. Dad: The family that tacos together rockos together. Mae: ... Mom: Honey no. Dad: What? Mae: I am so angry right now.

Lampshade Hanging: It was already established that Mae knows all the stories of the nighttime constellations, so when there's a sideplot involving finding constellations in stars at dusk, she asks why she's never heard of these before. The answer? By the time they got to dusk star formations, they had already used all the well-known legends and myths.

Laser-Guided Karma: The cult shoves its victims down a pit in the mine, one that has a long fall. The person falling would be awake for a long time while heading towards the bottom, if the Black Goat doesn't eat them first. Thanks to Mae and her friends causing a cave-in, the cult is Buried Alive in the mine, and it's possible that the impact made them fall into the pit.

Lead Bassist: Mae Borowski is a Type C by virtue of being the Player Character, who just happens to play bass; the four friends never perform in public, leaving their actual memorability up in the air. Then again, depending on how well you play during each practice, she potentially demonstrates an amazing talent at improvising songs that she has never performed before.

Left the Background Music On: The Deep Hollow Hollerers provide the background music of Mae's dreams with each instrument joining in when Mae finds its respective player.

In the second and third days of Part III, during the third section of Possum Springs, Mae suddenly hears violin music belonging to Saleem, who lives on the topmost roof near the First Coalescence Church (whose music can be heard here ). He will stop playing the violin if you talk to him for a conversation. The same goes for when you talk to Sadie the saxophonist at the Husker Bee Ballroom. If Mae manages to get them both to reconcile, then when she enters the ballroom on the last day of Part III, both Sadie's saxophone and Saleem's violin can be heard, and can only stop if you talk to them for a moment. Even better is that the duo can now be heard at the Trolleyside Tunnel in the Epilogue, and one of the teens lampshades that they wish Saleem and Sadie would "shut the eff up" if you talk to them.

Leitmotif: All four main characters have melodies that are associated with them; Gregg and Bea both have musical stings that are repeated elsewhere in the soundtrack (The Snack Falcon Gregg theme and both renditions of Crimes for Gregg, MaeBea for Bea). Angus has a theme that's represented in Video Outpost "Too", Angus at Home, and Angus Climbs the Hill. Mae's theme is typically associated with her being destructive and stretches throughout Durkillesburg, Clanky Must Die, I'm Going to Break Something and Shapes.

Let's Get Dangerous!: Gregg, in the ending. He gets a crossbow to defend himself and his friends.

This simple, repeated exchange between Mae and Gregg always signals that they are about to get real about some shit. Gregg: Crimes?

Mae: Crimes. Angus would like to raise Gregg a notch. As the gang leaves the mine shaft, using the old elevator, the cultist that Gregg shot reappears. He grabs the nearest person, Mae, who's injured and can only kick at him. Angus then grabs the elevator lever and switches it, so that the cultist loses and arm and crushes his head.

Let's Meet the Meat: Parodied. During the first hang-out with Greg, Mae recalls being weirded out by an animatronic pig, that would sometimes be on display at the Food Donkey with stuff like sausage links. Steve: Eatin' his own kind.

Mae: Or her own kind.

Steve: Whatever, PC-Police...

Loser Protagonist: Mae Borowski, main character, is a pansexual college dropout, whose untreated neuroses catapult her out of college, and back to her hometown. The very next day, she manages to throw up on her ex-boyfriend at a party. While it's initially played for laughs, it becomes increasingly clear that she genuinely needs help... and being the main character of a Ghost Story (or rather, a Cosmic Horror Story only makes things worse for her.

MacGyvering: Spoofed. While hanging out with Bea during a house call to fix Mrs. Miranda's noisy furnace, Mae attempts to cobble together a fix of her own, using the objects you find in the basement: a fan, a fishing pole, a badminton racket, and a garden gnome. There are a few options available, all of them look ridiculous, and all of them just fall apart, before you even get a chance to try it out. Oh, and while you were messing around, Bea already fixed the problem, because she does this sort of thing for a living. Bea: "Way to go, Mae. Please don't fix anything ever again."

The Mall: It's possible to visit a dying shopping mall at one point, which helps remind Bea and Mae of more carefree times.

Mama Bear: Aunt Molly portrays herself as this. She offers Mae a ride home on threat of arresting her, when Mae was dreading a walk through the woods at night, alone. It's somewhat justified in that Mae was jumping on the power lines, which is dangerous.

Manchild: Mae is a character study in arrested development. At age 20, she's still immature, unemployed, and rudderless in life. She amuses herself with petty crimes, despite being old enough to know better. She is a twenty-year-old college drop-out who acts like a rebellious teenager, compulsively committing petty crimes, and having a hard time talking to other people her age about more adult concerns. This strains her relationships with her parents and most of her friends, except her partner in crimes, Gregg. Her flighty exterior also hides some severe mental issues, including a textbook case of dissociation / derealization .

Gregg is also this, albeit to a lesser degree than Mae. Even though Gregg has a job, an apartment, and a serious romantic relationship (unlike Mae), he demonstrates immaturity on multiple occasions. He commits petty crimes and allows Steven to shoplift from Snack Falcon, even though both could get him arrested and/or fired. He nurses grand plans for moving to Bright Harbor with Angus, oblivious to how unrealistic his dream is. Angus even ends up calling Mae out for encouraging this behavior despite his best efforts to keep Gregg stable.

Master of None: Dr. Hank is the town's resident doctor. As discussed by the townsfolk, Dr. Hank tries to do every field of medicine, but he doesn't do any field of medicine particularly well. Especially not mental health therapy. Dr. Hank's entire solution for Mae's mental problems is to have her keep a journal of the things she's thinking about. Not in addition to talking to a therapist, taking medication, or anything else; just "keep a journal" and that's it. As Mae's continuing mental health struggles show, this is absurdly ineffective.

Master of Unlocking: Gregg is shown to have this ability. He's able to pick open two elevator locks in the dark, while under extreme stress, using nothing but a pair of pliers and a paperclip. Even before that, he's got a set of lock picks that could have made the job even easier. In the Weird Autumn Edition, we do see Gregg use a lock pick to unlock the basement door in the Historical Society Museum, while Mae is holding a flashlight over him, but once he finishes picking the lock, an owl suddenly attacks him, causing him to lose the lock picks (and Mae to drop the flashlight), before they make their way in to escape.

Mature Animal Story: Night in the Woods features a cast full of anthropomorphic animals. It also features alcohol, swearing, serious themes about mental health and growing up in a Dying Town, a mysterious kidnapping or two, and vandalism.

Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The nature of the "ghost" Mae keeps seeing around town. She is convinced that it really is a ghost that is kidnapping people , while her friends whenever they see it assume that it's a guard or a hunter. The truth is none of them are right. It isn't a ghost, but it IS a cultist supposedly powered by an Eldritch Abomination with the ability to walk through walls.

, while her friends whenever they see it assume that it's a guard or a hunter. The truth is The Janitor has a recurring and cryptic appearance through the game. In the end, he might be just someone really old and experienced who happens to be wise and be in the right place at the right time, at the end, he knows Mae name even though she never introduced herself. He is possibly God or another entity as there is even a statue of him in the graveyard .

. Mae has recurring nightmares of a astral band in strange places that always end with she meeting a gigantic and bizarre creature. It's hinted at the possibility that Mae has some sort of connection to the supernatural and that those entities are some sort of Cosmic Horror, and the cult practicing Human Sacrifice to keep the town prosperous worships it not helped that the end of the game confirms she has some sort of psychosis, with symptoms of dissociation and sleep paralysis and one of the newspaper in the library reveals that there was some sort of gas leak in town that makes people hallucinate. Then again, the possibility that her apparent mental illness is the result of The Black Goat reaching into her mind is ultimately left just as open.

and one of the newspaper in the library reveals that there was some sort of gas leak in town that makes people hallucinate. Then again, the possibility that is ultimately left just as open. Whether or not The Black Goat actually exists is never explicitly confirmed. It is left open to interpretation whether the cult's superstitions have any grounding in reality.

Mini-Game: When Mae hangs out with her friends, the gameplay switches to this, such as a Rhythm Game during band practice and a Stealth-Based Game when shoplifting.

Mistaken for Pregnant: Mae's mother briefly wonders if Mae is pregnant. This has nothing to do with Mae's weight, however — she gets this idea because Mae dropped out of college, seemingly out of nowhere, to come and live at home, and has been feeling physically ill, and has been unusually moody and avoidant. Of course, it's nothing like that at all, but Mae's mother is surprisingly supportive, and open-minded when she asks Mae about it.

Mood Whiplash: Mae wanders into the woods alone, at night, after no one picks her up at the bus station. She then sees a flashlight and fears the worst. Then the person holding the flashlight speaks, and Mae starts to snark with an annoyed expression. It's her aunt Molly, or rather Aunt Mallcop. Aunt Molly then takes her home, pointing out the alternative is that Mae spends the night in jail.

After a fun band practice, Mae and her friends find a severed arm lying in the road. Even the music acknowledges the change. Then Black Comedy ensues when Mae pokes the arm with a stick.

At the party, a drunken Mae first moans about embarrassing herself in front of her ex. She then rants about wanting to cut people with a knife, and throws up her dinner tacos. Bea takes her home, revealing to the audience and a forgetful Mae that her mother died, and that she's bitter about not going to college. After this, Bea helps a drunken Mae to her room and tucks her into bed. Then Mae has a scary, trippy dream about smashing things with a baseball bat.

At Harfest, Mae and Gregg help Bea with a Stylistic Suck Halloween ghost play about the town. They have fun with it, especially since Mae had to memorize her lines in five minutes. Bea and Gregg after the show tell Mae that she can't join them on their respective trips for business and romance. When Mae is trying to figure out what to do, however, she sees someone being kidnapped.

The ghost hunt with Angus in the state park is a sad but ultimately touching scene where Angus tells Mae about his Abusive Parents and his disbelief in gods or the supernatural, and the two are having a pleasant time stargazing and getting to know each other better. At least until Angus notices that they're being watched by one of the cultists, and the two run for their lives back to Bea's car.

In Lost Constellation, what you hear about the Huncher before you meet her makes her out to be terrifying, but in person, she and the Kid turn out to be pretty funny. Then you find out what she's done and what her origins are.

Multiple-Choice Past: In the opening, the player makes a series of choices about what Mae remembers most about the year her grandfather died, including the disasters that struck Possum Hollow (the flood or the new highway taking away all the traffic from town), his favorite quote from the Prayer of the Forest God, and what he was staring at in his final moments.

Mummies at the Dinner Table: Minor character Mrs. Miranda apparently mummified her husband after he died and kept him in her house. Bea: Wait for it...

Mrs. Miranda: You can't take a woman's husband just because he's dead!

Bea: There it is.

Mae: Holy God.

Mundane Made Awesome: "Ride the chariot to donut hell!"