Visual Novel / It Lives Within

It Lives Within is a Fan Sequel of Pixelberry's It Lives series. The first three chapters were released on April 30, 2022. The book went on a mid-season hiatus after Chapter 11, and the second half began releasing on October 29. After the 20th chapter was released on December 31, 2022, it was announced that the book would be going on another hiatus for an undetermined period of time before the release of the final three chapters. On February 18, 2023, it was confirmed that the final three chapters would be released in March 2023. The series ended on March 5, 2023.

Tropes:

• Achievement Mockery:
  • Just like in It Lives Beneath, there are "achievements" that are unlocked when a character dies (with the achievement's name being related to the character's circumstance and death):
    • Abel: Indiana Gones
    • Amalia: Cold Case
    • Connor: The High Ground
    • Jocelyn: Out Of Breath or Heartless Creature (the latter only occurs if Rowan murders Jocelyn themself).
    • Lincoln: Ink Splattered
    • Rowan: The Fallen or Cosmic Karma (the latter only occurs if Rowan goes the Judas Kiss route and loses to Noah/Devon).
    • All four love interests in the same playthrough: Corpse Party
  • There are also "achievements" for doing questionable things and failing certain objectives. Achievements highlighted in yellow are associated with actions that will disappoint Rowan's ghost and doing enough such actions will result in them calling Rowan a psychopath. However achievements highlighted in red are associated with even more horrible actions, and doing any of them will result in Rowan being called a psychopath by their ghost. Getting any of the achievements marked in bold will result in (or from) the death of at least one character, so you really don't want to get them.
    • Riddle Me Not: Fail Luis' riddle, resulting in Connor not getting the healing glove.
    • Not This Time: Fail to get Lincoln's watch (meaning that Rowan jumped into a river fully clothed and nearly drowned for nothing).
    • #Wasted: Your love interest rejects you when you try to kiss them in Chapter 11.
    • Myth-Understanding: Fail to obtain Marianthe's phone in Chapter 11, either by getting distracted while having sex with her, not grabbing the phone in time while she's distracted, or saying the wrong thing and causing her to catch on to you.
    • Fatality: Struggle to defeat Marianthe^note make at least one incorrect choice in Chapter 12, resulting in Jocelyn not getting her Whip of Dominance.
    • Am I The Drama?: Make out with both Lincoln and his father in Chapter 13.
    • Insatiable: Make out with Lincoln and his father and Jocelyn in Chapter 13.
    • No Besting The Shifu: Fail to perform Amalia's "block, grab, attack" technique during the sparring session in Chapter 13.
    • What Does Not Sink: Fail to defeat the fish monster in Chapter 14, resulting in Rowan not getting a lore document.
    • Colossal Bitch: Insult Lincoln in Chapter 15 after he tells Rowan that they're better off without him (he definitely won't come with you in this case).
    • Truth Hurts: Lie to Elliot Vance about his sibling's wellbeing in Chapter 15. The achievement will unlock in the next chapter.
    • Siren Song: Stay in the Lotus-Eater Machine instead of resisting temptation in Chapter 16 (leading to a Non-Standard Game Over).
    • Uni-lateral: Refuse to fix Amalia's college records right away when given the choice in Chapter 17, even after finding out that Rowan was responsible for deleting them. The achievement will unlock when Amalia finds out. (If you choose to fix them later it will disappoint Rowan's ghost, but if you choose not to do so at all, Rowan's ghost will label them a psychopath).
    • Future McQuoid: Have sex with both Lincoln and Matthias (which will have 'dire' consequences regarding the former later).
    • Sausage Party: Have sex with every possible male hookup - that is, Lincoln, Abel, Luis, and Matthias. This is not an achievement you want, especially if you're looking for a good ending with Lincoln, because it requires you to sleep with both him and Matthias by nature.
    • All On My Own: Nobody comes to comfort Rowan in Chapter 18. Getting this achievement requires you to have less than 50 relationship points with all three (all save for Amalia, who left earlier, and doesn't come back yet, if at all) remaining love interests.
    • #SadDILF: Make out with Lincoln in Chapter 18 after accepting Matthias' love confession.
    • Point Of No Return: Devon leaves Connor for Noah. Getting this achievement requires Rowan to encourage a relationship between Devon and Noah while the former is in a relationship with Connor even after being called out on it.
    • Union Walkout: Refuse to choose a love interest after romancing more than one of them (not counting Matthias) by picking the "It's not my fault people fall in love with me" choice. Rowan will be exposed for cheating and their love interests will dump them.
    • Understaffed: Too many people died or left in the first two books, resulting in the group not having many people in the fight ahead.
    • In The Dark: Jocelyn doesn't warn Rowan about Matthias' trap. This requires your relationship with Jocelyn to be below 50.
    • Judas Kiss: Side with Matthias at the end of Chapter 20.
    • Break-Abel: Abel and Lincoln don't reconcile, resulting in the one with the lower Nerve score leaving. This requires Abel and/or Lincoln's Nerve scores to be below 50 (if both are below 50, whoever's nerve is lower will leave). Unlike with Amalia, who leaves before this point, should either Abel or Lincoln leave, their fate is sealed^note While them leaving won't directly cause their death, as mentioned before, it requires their nerve to be under 50. During the nightmares, if a character's nerve is below this threshold, it becomes impossible to save them.
    • Heartless Creature: Murder Jocelyn in cold blood. Doing so requires you to have a low relationship with Jocelyn that she doesn't warn you about Matthias' trap and have a Nerve score below 60 and choose both the "attack her" and "give in to the anger" options simultaneously.
    • Scarring Hearts: Abel or Lincoln has broken up with Rowan. For this to happen, Rowan has to either kill Jocelyn or romance Matthias. While this in itself won't make Rowan's ghost call Rowan a psychopath, the actions required to get this achievement will.
    • Lost Focus: Make the wrong choice during Rowan's nightmare in Chapter 21, resulting in them losing an eye.
    • Corpse Party: All four love interests die in Chapter 21. To even get all four love interests to this point without any of them leaving (while still having a low enough Nerve score) requires a lot of planning ahead.
    • Glass Half Empty: Five or less characters survive the story.
    • The Fallen: Rowan is defeated by Matthias. This achievement will not appear if Lincoln can use the watch to save Rowan.
    • Cosmic Karma: Side with Matthias, only to lose to Noah/Devon in Chapter 22.
    • Judas Miss: Matthias dumps Rowan after betraying all of their friends for him and joining his side. For this to happen, Rowan has to join Matthias' side in Chapter 20, but become fully human in Chapter 22.
    • Skeletons In Your Closet: Every possible character that can die does.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • In It Lives in the Woods, Jocelyn wasn't shown to be anything other than straight. In this book, she's canonically queer; she mentions having had a threesome with two other girls, and her past self accuses her of being Armoured Closet Gay, though she is still a love interest for Rowan, regardless of their gender.
  • Similarly, Noah and Dan were shown to be straight in It Lives in the Woods, and both of them are potential love interests for Devon, regardless of gender, in this book.
• Anyone Can Die: In Chapter 21, the main characters are thrust into their worst nightmares by the Power. While playing as them, if you make an incorrect choice (Abel swerving off the road, Amalia falling into the grave after the gravedigger told her she was unloved by all, Lincoln touching the artifact to prove to his parents that he's worth a damn, and Jocelyn agreeing with her past self that she hasn't changed), they will die. Additionally, Rowan can end up killing Jocelyn if their Nerve is too low and they choose to attack her, then give in to the anger. Also, if Connor's Nerve score is too low, Noah and Devon will be unable to break through to him, and he will attack them, forcing Rowan to kill him. Potentially, the only one that can be still alive by the end of the chapter is Rowan (and even they can end up with an eye missing if they made a wrong choice during their nightmare).
• Armoured Closet Gay: Jocelyn is accused of being this by her past self in Chapter 21 if she is in a relationship with a female or non-binary main character, despite having bullied Lily in the past for being a lesbian.
• Back from the Dead: Either Noah or Devon (depending on who became the new Redfield and the end of It Lives In The Woods) is resurrected in Chapter 16 by a ritual that failed earlier in the book, due to their soul not being whole at the time.
• The Bad Guy Wins: In Chapter 22, if Rowan picks the choice that is the opposite of the path they've been taking (merging with the Power after having mostly chosen Blood options or merging with their human half after having chosen mostly Shadow points), or their Nerve score is too low, Matthias succeeds in making them the new Power anchor and retaining his immortality.
• Big Brother Instinct: What pulls Rowan out of their shock is hearing their little sister calling for help.
  You don't know what she did to survive so far, but you know that whatever happens, you're not losing another family member today.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • During Rowan's bout of Power Incontinence in Chapter 2, Lincoln shows up and helps them control themselves.
  • In Chapter 18, if Amalia's relationship score is high enough, she will return just as a corrupted Connor is about to kill Rowan and knock him out with her staff.
  • In Chapter 20, Jocelyn will strike Matthias with her whip (if she has it) or use a taser on him (if she doesn't have the whip) just as he's about to sacrifice Rowan.
• Blaming the Victim: Matthias takes advantage of Jocelyn's desire to protect the town (to make up for being an awful person in the past) and manipulates her into luring Rowan into an ambush. When Jocelyn finds out and calls Matthias out for using her, Matthias blames her for being so easy to manipulate.
• Book Ends: The beginning of the story has Rowan wake up from a nightmare about their dead family. The last scene of the Blood ending (if Rowan's alive) has Rowan waking up from a nightmare about the events of the story. Bonus points if Amalia is Rowan's love interest, since Rowan woke up next to Amalia both times.
• Break Her Heart to Save Her: In a sense. If Rowan's relationship with Amalia is too low by the end of Chapter 17, she will leave and never return. While heartbreaking, this does mean that Amalia won't venture into the caves in Chapter 21, meaning she won't be killed by the corrupted Power. As such, she survives the events of the story in this case regardless of her Nerve score and the choices Rowan makes after Chapter 17.
• But Now I Must Go: On the Shadow route, after Rowan defeats Matthias and either separates the world from the Power dimension or leaves a gate open so that the Power can continue existing in their world, they bid goodbye to their friends and return to the dimension where they will exist as a being of Pure Energy.
• Cassandra Truth: Rowan tries to explain to their best friend Amalia that monsters are real, but she refuses to believe them. They head out to bring back proof...and end up being attacked by about 8 vine monsters.
• Character Customization: As well as the appearance of the previous main characters (Devon and Harper), you can also customize the protagonist of this story. Unlike the previous two, the main character can be customized as transgender or non-binary, and they can also wear accessories. The main character's default name is Rowan Burke.
• Childhood Friend Romance: One of Rowan's potential love interests is their best friend Amalia. Because they've been best friends for so long and neither of them wants to rush into anything that may ruin their friendship, Amalia's romance route is much slower than the other love interests.
• Clock of Power: The watch Rowan can obtain from the river in Chapter 7 has the power to turn back time by 15 minutes, but only once. This becomes a lifesaver in either Chapter 21 or 22, if one of the love interests or Rowan themself dies; the watch allows Rowan (or Lincoln in Chapter 22) to Set Right What Once Went Wrong and save the deceased.
• Content Warnings:
  • The start of the book has a warning saying that the book contains disturbing scenes and depictions of violence and trauma.
  • The premium scene in Chapter 18 where Devon comforts Noah or vice versa has a warning that the scene involves discussion of PTSD and other mental health related topics.
  • Chapter 20 opens with a warning that the chapter contains violent and gory scenes, some involving children.
  • Chapter 21 opens with a warning that the chapter may contain extreme gore depending on your choices, as well as scenes involving emotional abuse. Given that not only can Rowan's friends die in this chapter, and Rowan themselves can get an eye torn out, but their deaths are horrifying, and their dead sprites appear at the end of the chapter with "DEAD" written below them, this warning is not to be taken lightly.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: A premium scene in Chapter 17 has Amalia mention that Rowan once tried to combine pickles and honey.
• Cutting Off the Branches: The beginning of the story allows you to choose the fates of the characters from the previous two books; whether they lived or died, who the main character's love interests are, and whether Noah killed Devon or one of them sacrificed themselves, and whether or not Parker ran away.
• Deadpan Snarker: If Rowan has the "Sarcastic" personality, they will be this, often responding to danger with a quip and an eyeroll.
• Depraved Bisexual: Rowan can be played as one; they have four official love interests (two male and two female) and a couple of other characters they can flirt with and/or sleep with, and they can shamelessly flirt with them in front of each other with zero remorse (and two of the characters Rowan can sleep with are father and son). This is without mentioning that Rowan can also undergo a Protagonist Journey to Villain and injure (or even kill) multiple people, refuse to save their love interests in a life-or-death scenario, and even join the Big Bad's side (and yes, Rowan can sleep with him as well).
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Some of Rowan's dialogue changes depending on whether they gravitate towards kind, sarcastic, or mean responses. In Chapter 19, Connor who has become a Horror, has something to say about Rowan's personality:
    • If Rowan is "genuine", Connor says that they should grow a backbone and that if they can't be firm with him, they shouldn't be fighting monsters.
    • If Rowan is "sarcastic", Connor asks Rowan if everything is a joke to them, and that while the town's in danger, people are dying, and Amalia abandoned them (if she did), Rowan isn't taking anything seriously.
    • If Rowan is "aggressive", Connor points out that Rowan is angry all the time, can't control their emotions, and rarely says anything nice to anyone. Rowan then snaps back, and Connor points out that they're yelling for the umpteenth time.
  • The story changes a bit depending on who survived in the previous two books. For example, if Ava dies in the first book, her coven will be run by Sunny instead. Also, if Devon was the only survivor, they will cry to Connor about how all their friends are dead, and Connor's nerve score will decrease. If Connor lost Devon or Stacey in the first book, he will lose a lot more nerve when his mother is killed because he's already lost at least one person close to him already, and now he has very few (if any) loved ones left. If Harper Vance died at the end of It Lives Beneath, they will appear as a ghost in Chapter 15. In Chapter 20, if both Lucas and Harper are dead, the witches will be unable to find a cure for Connor after he turned into a horror, since Lucas is the one who analyses the Power-corrupted water, while Harper's blood has become a corruption repellent due to being stuck in the Void Between Worlds. Both of them being dead means that it's impossible to come up up with a cure, let alone mass-produce it.
  • Unlike most Choices stories where you can flirt with your love interests all you want with no repercussions, It Lives Within takes a more realistic approach. If you flirt with a love interest in front of another love interest you've flirted with before, they will get jealous, and you may even lose relationship points with them. Additionally, in Chapter 19, Luis can call out Rowan for romancing several of their friends at once if they've done so. If they admit that they are deliberately playing their love interests without remorse, Joycelyn will record their confession to Luis and play it to their love interests, who will be disgusted and abandon Rowan (even those Rowan didn't romance), with the relationship and Nerve scores of anyone Rowan did romance, along with Rowan themself's nerve, decreasing, also earning Rowan the "Union Walkout" achievement^note It is still possible to romance multiple love interests and get away with it, as long as Rowan admits to Luis that it's time to make a decision before anyone gets hurt. The love interests that weren't chosen will lose some relationship points, but nowhere near as many (about half as many) as the previous scenario.
  • Certain choices have different effects that depend on whether Rowan leans more towards trying to live a normal life (Blood) or understanding their Power (Shadow). One such case happens during the confrontation with the fish monster in Chapter 14; if Rowan tries to use their Power to defeat the fish, it won't work unless they have enough Shadow points, and if they try fighting it without their Power, they will fail unless they have enough Blood points.
  • In Chapter 18, when discussing the revelation that they are the Power in human form, if Rowan is transgender or non-binary, they will mention that, on top of everything else, they also had to contend with dysphoria and being afraid to come out.
  • In Chapter 11, when Rowan is speaking with Marianthe, her dialogue changes depending on whether they've met before or not (if Rowan chose to help Amalia with college, they will not have met her, while they will have if they chose to help Noah and Devon). Additionally, Rowan can introduce themself as their name, a fake name, or say that they're a mystery. The default fake name is Taylor, but if the main character is already called Taylor, the fake name will be Jordan instead.
  • In Chapter 2, the "genuine" response upon finding Jessica's dead body is normally "We let her down". However, if Rowan accidentally shot Jessica while trying to shoot the monster, the response will be changed to "I let her down".
  • Throughout the book, Rowan can encourage a romance between Noah and Devon. However, if Devon is already in a relationship with someone, they'll call Rowan out for encouraging them to leave their partner for someone else. Connor will get especially angry if he's the one dating Devon.
  • There's quite a bit of unique dialogue if Rowan romances both Lincoln and Matthias McQuoid, due to A) them being father and son, and B) the fact that the relationship between the two is rockier than the cave that Rowan and friends travel to (and fall into) at the end of Chapter 4. Multiple achievements are given for flirting with them both, sleeping with them both, and kissing one in front of the other. Rowan also muses how dirty they feel for sleeping with them both, especially since Lincoln would be livid if he found out what Rowan did (and boy, is he when - not if, when - he does find out). The consequences will be fully realised in either Chapter 21 or Chapter 22, depending on whether Rowan joined Matthias' side or not.
  • If Rowan wears a hijab, any choices involving ordering or drinking alcohol will be skipped over, or the option will be replaced with a non-alcoholic drink, such as juice.
  • In Chapter 22, all of the horrible things Rowan did over the course of the story (if they did any) will be mentioned by their ghost. What Rowan's ghost says to Rowan depends on what they've done and how bad those actions are. If they haven't done anything bad, Rowan's ghost will say that they're a good person and that it's not their fault that they replaced the original Rowan. If they've only done a couple of bad things that they shouldn't have done but aren't unforgivable (like playing their love interests and refusing to fix Amalia's college records), Rowan's ghost will say that there's worse people that could have taken their body, but also plenty of better people too. If Rowan has done outright terrible things, such as joining Matthias' side, killing Jocelyn in a fit of rage, or being so horrible to Amalia that she never came back even after her college records were fixed, then Rowan's ghost will call Rowan a "horrible psychopath".
  • While the option to attack and even kill Jocelyn appears in Chapter 21 if Rowan's Nerve score is too low, it will not appear no matter how low their Nerve is if they're romancing Jocelyn, since Rowan would not be able to bring themself to hurt the woman they love, even if she betrayed them.
  • Trying to kiss a love interest if their relationship score is too low will cause them to reject you. Also, flirting with Jocelyn in Chapter 3 will elicit a negative response if her relationship score is low enough.
• Disproportionate Retribution: One student (who was likely possessed) attacked their professor over getting a C grade.
  Student: A "C"? A "C"?! All that hard work, and you gave me a "C"?!
• Downer Beginning: Almost all of the main character's family have been massacred by an elk monster, with only them and their little sister remaining. And then their little sister gets killed as well.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: In Chapter 20, collecting every possible collectible unlocks an outfit weaved by the Power, which permanently disables the timer on timed choices for the rest of the book. The message also mentions that the choices ahead will be difficult, so having unlimited time to choose will be helpful.
• End-Game Results Screen: A "Final Stats" screen pops up at the end of the final chapter. As well as showing everyone's final Nerve and relationship scores, it also shows Rowans decisions throughout the book, number of collectibles, and more:
  • Final path (between Blood, Shadow, Mixed, and Betrayal)
  • Total number of survivors (out of 5)
  • Total number of lore documents (out of 9)
  • Total number of collectibles (out of 6)
  • Power state ( Contained, Healed (Shadow Path, leave gate open), or Healed And Separated (Shadow Path, don't leave gate open))
  • Horrors cured (Yes if both Harper and Lucas are alive, No if neither of them are alive, Partly if one is alive and the other isn't)
  • Rowan state (Alive, Dead (lost to Matthias or Noah/Devon), or Ascended (successfully healed the power on the Shadow Path))
  • Gate opened (Shadow path only) (True if Rowan left a gate between the human world and the Power dimension, False if Rowan separated the world from the Power dimension completely or if they died while on the Shadow path)
• Eye Scream: Rowan loses an eye in Chapter 21 if they make the wrong choices and/or their Nerve is too low. Unlike the scene in It Lives Beneath where Harper loses a finger to a bear monster, Rowan's sprite will show a missing eye from that point onwards.
• Face–Heel Turn: Rowan, of all people, can end up doing this by the end of Chapter 20, if they choose to side with Matthias, despite knowing all he's done. Yes, even if their personality up to this point has been "genuine". Taken a step further in Chapter 22, when Rowan can make Noah or Devon the new anchor, then kill Matthias so they can have all the Power to themselves.
• Failure Is the Only Option: The ritual to bring either Noah or Devon Back from the Dead in Chapter 9 fails regardless of the choices you make (even if all your choices are "correct"). This is because their soul isn't whole at the time.
• Fan Sequel: Of It Lives In The Woods and It Lives Beneath.
• Final Boss: In most routes, the last remaining threat to the main characters and their quest is Matthias, who wants to kill Rowan and make them the new Power anchor. However, in the Judas Kiss route, the final boss is either Noah or Devon, who Rowan has to fight against and win in order to make them the new anchor and get their happy ending with Matthias.
• Foreshadowing: The fatal end of all four love interests is hinted at throughout the book and comes to fruition during their "what happens during your nightmare happens in real life" nightmares in Chapter 21 if their Nerve scores are too low.
  • In Chapter 2, Lincoln tells Rowan that the knife that was used to murder Jessica is a runed object, so he can't use his psychometry on it without risking his head exploding. During his nightmare in Chapter 21, if the wrong choice is made, he touches a runed object to prove to his parents that he's useful, and his brain explodes.
  • In Chapter 5, Amalia explains to Rowan that she wants to get a decent job to support herself when she's older, not wanting to end up "dead in a ditch" before her time. This happens to her during her nightmare in Chapter 21 if she makes the wrong choice; she falls into an open grave, unloved and having done nothing with her life.
  • While driving with Rowan and their friends in Chapter 14, Abel swerves to avoid something in the road that only he can see, nearly totalling the car and getting chewed out by Jocelyn for nearly getting them all killed. During his nightmare in Chapter 21, if the wrong choice is made, he swerves off the road to avoid hitting his mother's ghost and dies in a car crash.
  • In several chapters, Jocelyn metaphorically beats herself up for being such a horrible person in the past, and wondering if she's genuinely changed for the better. During her nightmare in Chapter 21, if the wrong choice is made, her past self literally beats her up over her awful past, to the point that she dies of her injuries.
• Get a Room!: The reaction of one offscreen heckler when Rowan kisses their love interest at the carnival in Chapter 19.
• Get Out!: Lincoln tells Rowan to get out of his apartment in Chapter 15 if Rowan gets angry at him for not coming to the séance, calling him an immature kid who needs to hurry up and get over his mother's death already.
• Good Is Not Nice: If Rowan has the "Aggressive" personality, they will be this, being ill-tempered, rude, and abrasive, while still having a strong sense of justice.
• Hero Antagonist: In the Judas Kiss route, Noah or Devon (depending on who became Redfield) becomes this to Rowan, who is a Villain Protagonist at this point.
• Honey Trap: One scene in Chapter 11 allows Rowan to seduce a woman so they can get ahold of her phone for clues.
• Immortality Bisexuality: Matthias McQuoid is almost 250 years old, he's immortal thanks to the Power, and Rowan can romance him regardless of their gender. One chapter mentions that he's been with a lot of people (no genders are specified).
• Last-Second Ending Choice: The choice you make in Chapter 22 qualifies to an extent. Regardless of how many Blood and Shadow points Rowan has, they can choose to merge with the Power, their human half, or neither. Where this trope differs in this case is that going against your previous Blood/Shadow choices causes Rowan to lose Nerve (in some cases, all of it), meaning that the decisions you made over the course of the book do factor in to the choice you make here, and going against the path you've been following for the entire book will cause Rowan to lose so much Nerve that they will not survive the confrontation. However, if you have Lincoln's watch and haven't used it yet, Lincoln uses it to go back in time and revive Rowan. As such, you can only disregard the route you're on and still survive if you have the watch and you haven't used it yet.
• Likes Older Men: Combined with the gender-inverted trope, Rowan can flirt with both Matthias (Lincoln's dad) and Mayor Green (Connor's mom), and doing so gets you the "Freudian Complex" achievement.
• Love Father, Love Son: Rowan can flirt with, kiss, and hook up with both Lincoln and his father Matthias at different points in the story. Also, if Rowan kisses Lincoln and Matthias witnesses it, he will get upset, unlocking the "Sad DILF" achievement. Chapter 21 has Lincoln find out, and he is royally pissed.
  Lincoln: It doesn't matter what you did or didn't know, Rowan! He's my dad! You should know better than to mess around with both a father and his son!
• Multiple Endings: It's confirmed early on that there will be different endings that depend on whether the main character chooses to settle down and try to live a normal life or continue fighting the Power. The consequences come to fruition in Chapter 22, in addition to the consequences of the Judas Kiss route:
  • If Rowan chooses to merge with their human half, they will lose all of their Power, but they'll be fully human and will be able to live a normal life. If Rowan beats Matthias, the Power will decide to punish him. If not, Matthias wins and keeps his immortality.
  • If Rowan chooses to merge with the Power, their ghost passes on. If Rowan beats Matthias, he'll lose his immortality and age into a skeleton. Rowan then vanishes along with the Power, but not before saying goodbye to their surviving companions. Additionally, Rowan has the option of keeping a gate open between the dimensions to allow access to the Power, or sever its connection completely so nobody can misuse it ever again. If Matthias wins, he uses Rowan as an anchor and keeps his immortality.
  • If Rowan chooses to merge with neither, they retain some of their Power, but not enough to seal the breach. If Rowan beats Matthias, they use their Power to defeat him, and carry on living as who they are. If Matthias wins, he keeps his immortality and Rowan dies.
  • The Judas Kiss route has either Rowan successfully defeating either Noah or Devon and making them the new anchor, or losing to them, resulting in both Rowan and Matthias being killed. Additionally, Rowan can either live happily with Matthias or kill him and take his Power for themselves. Also, if Rowan becomes fully human, Matthias won't want anything to do with them anymore, and the story continues as if you never romanced him.
• Multinational Team: All six main characters have different ethnicities. Abel is Native American, Amalia is Dominican, Jocelyn is Asian, Lincoln is implied to be Latino (given that his mother's maiden name is Aquino), and Connor is White. Rowan's ethnicity is customizable.
• Never My Fault: In Chapter 20, Jocelyn finds out that she had been manipulated by Matthias into almost leading Rowan to their doom. When she calls Matthias out for this, he retorts "Well, maybe you shouldn't have been so easy to manipulate!"
• Nice Guy: If Rowan has the "Genuine" personality, they will be this, showing kindness towards their companions, opening up to them, and wearing their heart on their sleeve.
• No Immortal Inertia: In Chapter 22, if Rowan beats Matthias on the Shadow route, he loses his immortality, and the 250 years catch up to him, leading to a scene of his body aging and rotting.
  Rowan: We're now seeing him for what he really is: a decrepit old relic who has lived much longer than he ever had any right to.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: One of Rowan's responses when Luis meets them for the first time and starts flirting is this. Amusingly, Luis doesn't react negatively, instead he's impressed that Rowan managed to resist his charms.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: If Rowan flirts with Mayor Green in Chapter 11, Connor will be shocked, and his Nerve score will drop by a few points.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • All of the collectibles and lore documents can only be obtained in the chapters they are found in. Missing them (either by declining them or selecting the wrong choice) locks you out of them for the entire rest of the story (Save Scumming aside).
  • Certain romance routes can also be locked out if you make certain choices.
    • Your last chance to flirt with Matthias is in Chapter 15, if you don't flirt with them, the choice that unlocks their romance route in Chapter 17 won't appear.
    • Jocelyn's Friends with Benefits route requires an exact combination of choices to unlock. In Chapter 5, you have to follow her, call her a "sexy mystery", then sleep with her when the choice appears. Doing anything else locks you into the slow burn route for the rest of the story. Also, you are given the option to break up with her in an optional scene in Chapter 7, after finding out about her past. Doing so will lock you out of any romance with her for the rest of the book, some of her optional scenes won't be available, and any attempt to romance or flirt with her will cause her to react negatively, resulting in her losing relationship points, rather than gaining them.
    • Devon has only one chance to begin a relationship with Noah or Dan in an optional scene in Chapter 18. Not taking the scene locks Devon out of a relationship with Noah or Dan for the rest of the story. Also, there is only one chance to get relationship points with Dan, if you miss it, Dan's romance route is locked out for the rest of the story.
• Polyamory: Defied with extreme prejudice. Unlike most canon Choices books, this story not only prevents you from being polyamorous with your love interests in the end, it outright punishes you for leading multiple people on. Flirting with a love interest in front of another can cause you to lose relationship points, Connor calls Rowan a slut if they pursued two or more interests enough, Luis encourages Rowan to commit to a single love interest because not doing so wouldn't be fair to them, once official with a love interest, the love interest(s) that you didn't pick will lose relationship points if you previously romanced them enough, and refusing to pick a love interest will result in Rowan getting busted for cheating, meaning their friends are all pissed with them, Nerve and relationship points are lost all around (and a lot of them at that), and Rowan is locked out of all of their romance routes for the rest of the book.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Jocelyn Wu, who appeared primarily in the first book and made a cameo appearance at the end of the second book, is a love interest for the main character of this book.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Over the course of the story, Rowan can go from a well-intentioned and genuine person who wants to protect their town to a heartless creature who plays their friends without remorse, refuses to fix the problems they caused, has the potential to outright kill two of their companions, betrays their friends for the Big Bad, and either permanently joins his side or even surpasses him.
• Really Gets Around: Rowan has four official love interests and three other characters they can sleep with despite them not being official love interests. It's possible to sleep with all seven of them, and doing so gets you an achievement.
• Really 700 Years Old: Matthias looks like a man in his 50s or 60s, but Chapter 17 reveals that he's almost 250 years old.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • In Jocelyn's nightmare, her younger self lays into her for her past as a Barbaric Bully, and how she bullied Lily for her sexuality, how she shoved Devon into a locker, and how she tormented Ava for being different, cumulating in them saying that Jocelyn should have died at homecoming.
  • Rowan is on the receiving end of one from their ghost in Chapter 22 if they've engaged in Video Game Cruelty Potential over the course of the book. In the worst scenario, Rowan's ghost calls them a "horrible psychopath" for their actions. They point out how Rowan pursued two men who were father and son (and asks who the hell would do such a thing), led on multiple people at once (which they refer to as "pretty sucky"), encouraged Devon to dump their partner for Noah or Dan (just because they thought "they'd look nice together"), refused to fix Amalia's college records despite breaking them in the first place (which they refer to as a selfish decision), beat the shit out of (or even killed) Jocelyn out of anger for her misguided betrayal, lost control of themselves and killed Connor, chose not to bring back one of their dead friends with the time-turning watch because they needed it for themselves, and, perhaps worst of all, siding with Matthias despite knowning all he's done.
  Rowan's ghost: So when you ask what I mean when I say that you're a horrible psychopath, that's what I mean. You and I are two completely different people. I never would have done what you did.
• Reformed Bully: Downplayed with Jocelyn, who is still quite a jerk, but nowhere near as bad as she used to be back in high school. Played straight by the end of the story if she survives (even moreso if she is Rowan's love interest).
• Ruder and Cruder: It Lives Within uses significantly stronger language than either of its prequels or Choices stories as a whole. In most Choices stories, the strongest language is usually "bullshit" or an F-bomb cut short. This story features quite a few uses of the F-word and its derivatives. There's also the option to uncensor nudity, and the sex scenes are much Hotter and Sexier, using direct sexual slang instead of euphemisms like Pixelberry normally uses.
• Schmuck Bait: In Chapter 17, Rowan has the option of fixing Amalia's unpersoning from her university's system, as well as deciding whether to tell her the truth about themself (namely, that they are the Power in human form). For both of these decisions, a warning message pops up saying that fixing the problem and telling the truth, respectively, may cause Amalia to leave for college or abandon Rowan entirely. It turns out that honesty is the best policy, even if they hide the truth and don't fix Amaila's problem, Amalia finds out in the next chapter regardless (and she will be pissed if she finds out that Rowan lied to her). Worse, refusing to fix the problem (that Rowan caused, albeit indirectly) and hiding the truth from Amalia causes them to lose so many relationship points with her that she will not return after leaving, no matter how many relationship points you had with her prior. In short, the warning messages imply that being truthful will end badly, but it turns out that not being truthful has the worst outcome.
• Serenade Your Lover: A premium scene in Chapter 5 allows Rowan to serenade Jocelyn, who is initially embarrassed, but eventually decides to go with it.
• Series Continuity Error: Rowan can encourage a relationship between Devon and Noah, even if Devon is in a relationship with someone else (with special dialogue if they are in a relationship with Connor). If Devon leaves Connor for Noah, Connor will blame Rowan for ruining his life, due to them encouraging the romance between the two. However, it's entirely possible for Devon to realise that they love Noah in a premium scene without any encouraging from Rowan at all throughout the book, and Connor will still blame Rowan for telling Devon that they love Noah. It would make more sense if the "Because I'm in love with [Noah]" choice that you get while playing as Devon only popped up if Rowan had encouraged a romance between them at least once before this point.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: All of the hookup scenes (except one^note the one where you seduce Marianthe to steal her phone, and you can't fade to black because the objective is to steal her phone during sex without succumbing to pleasure and forgetting about the phone until it's too late) have a "fade to black" option, which cuts from the two characters getting steamy to them lying in bed afterwards with the mature content skipped over.
• Shed the Family Name: In the final chapter, Lincoln (if he's alive) will legally change his last name to his mother's maiden name, not wanting to carry his abusive father's surname around with him.
• Silver Fox: Matthias, Lincoln's father, is described as such by Luis. The main character has the option to flirt with him and even hook up with him much later on. As of Chapter 20, Rowan can even join his side, unlocking the "Judas Kiss" achievement.
• Sliding Scale of Parent-Shaming in Fiction: Matthias appears to be between Type I and II initially, as he clearly does care about Lincoln and shows remorse for having been a bad parent/his role in the state of their relationship...but by the end, he's solidly Type IV. On top of prioritizing The Power over Lincoln, Matthias murdered his son's mother in cold blood, planned to sacrifice (or actually did sacrifice) Rowan, and possibly knowingly had an affair with Lincoln's love interest behind his back.
• Sole Survivor:
  • Rowan is the only member of their family to survive the monster attack at the start of the book. Subverted when it's revealed that Rowan died too, and that they were resurrected by the Power.
  • History can repeat itself if all five of Rowan's companions die and Rowan survives.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Due to the nature of the story, this happens quite a lot:
  • If Rowan is in a casual relationship with Jocelyn, during the part where she mentions that she used to be a Barbaric Bully, Rowan can choose to break things off with Jocelyn, saying that what she did was messed up and that they don't want to be with her anymore.
  • When Lincoln finds out that his father manipulated Rowan and planned to sacrifice them, he officially gives up on him.
  Lincoln: I hoped that one day, we could have a normal father-son relationship. But you were going to kill Rowan. And I'll never forgive you for that.
  • If Rowan chooses to not fix Amalia's college records, Amalia will leave and not come back.
  • In Chapter 19, Connor has become a Horror, and spends much of the chapter cursing everybody out, saying awful things, calling Rowan a slut if they've flirted with multiple love interests, and threatening them. If Rowan chooses the "There's no going back after this" response, this will be their reaction.
  Rowan: Now that we know your true thoughts, no-one's going to believe your "nice guy" act anymore, even if we manage to fix you. And that's a big "if", because right now, I just want to leave you to rot.
  • When Lincoln finds out that Rowan slept with his father (if they did), Lincoln is disgusted, and says he never should have trusted Rowan. Abel has a similar reaction.
  • Rowan choosing to give in to their anger and kill Jocelyn will be met with this reaction by the other characters.
• Title Drop Chapter: The 23rd and final chapter is called "It Lives".
• To Absent Friends: In the final chapter, if Rowan lost to Matthias or sacrificed themself to heal the Power, there will be a scene of their four friends drinking at the bar and toasting to Rowan, saying they'll never forget them.
• Token Evil Teammate:
  • Quite downplayed with Jocelyn, who is rather harsh and abrasive, yet still on the side of good, while the rest of her companions are nice guys. Played a bit straighter when it's revealed that she was working with Matthias to protect the town and planned to sacrifice Rowan, subverted when she finds out that she was being used, turns against Matthias and spends the rest of the book trying to redeem herself.
  • Connor becomes this after being corrupted and turned into a Horror. Rowan even has the option of saying that they're going to be done with him after their mission is over and he and the rest of the Horrors are healed.
  • Rowan themself can become one if they go down the Villain Protagonist route. Even if they don't side with Matthias, some of their potential actions paint them as somebody who makes Jocelyn Wu seem like a sweetheart in comparison.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Amalia's is lemon pie. She always orders it whenever she and Rowan go to the café, and if Rowan refuses a bite of lemon pie in the first chapter, this exchange occurs:
  Rowan: I just don't see the appeal of lemon pies.
  Amalia: One, you're wrong. Two, suit yourself. Three...have I mentioned that you're wrong?
• Unperson: At the end of Chapter 5, Amalia finds out that she is not enrolled on any of her college courses because she was never enrolled there to begin with, despite being a student there for three years. In Chapter 6, nobody recognizes her (not even her favorite professor), and there are no records of her anywhere on the system. This is believed to be the result of The Power and later officially confirmed.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • Throughout the book, Rowan can commit various acts that are dubious at best and downright horrible at worst, all of which their ghost calls them out on in Chapter 22. They can:
    • Encourage Devon to dump their partner for Noah.
    • Screw around with multiple love interests without remorse.
    • Pursue both Lincoln and Matthias (who are father and son).
    • Choose not to fix Amalia's college records, despite being responsible for erasing them in the first place. Even if you do, it's still possible to be such a bad friend to Amalia that she leaves anyway, though doing so requires you to go out of your way to be mean to Amalia, since she has a much higher relationship score at the start of the book.
    • Side with Matthias, despite knowing all he's done.
    • Beat Jocelyn to death for her (well-intentioned, but misguided) betrayal.
    • Kill Connor if his Nerve is too low.
    • Refuse to save a dead love interest with Lincoln's watch (which allows the user to go back in time 15 minutes, which would be perfect for saving them).
  • Additionally, there are a couple of actions that Rowan can commit which won't elicit any sort of response from their ghost, but are still dickish, and other characters will still call them out (or at least react negatively). These include:
    • Breaking up with Jocelyn in Chapter 7 after she poured her heart out about her past as a bully, then continuing to flirt with her and even trying to kiss her after she reacts negatively to previous flirtations.
    • Lying to people.
    • Cursing out Lincoln for not wanting to come to the seance in Chapter 15, calling him a "scared, self-absorbed little kid".
    • Not supporting Amalia at college in Chapter 6.
    • Being unsympathetic to Abel's situation of being haunted by ghosts in Chapter 14.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment:
  • Refusing to fix Amalia's college records results in her leaving and not coming back.
  • Leading on multiple love interests and refusing to choose which one you want to be with results in Jocelyn recording Rowan's speech about how it's not their fault that people fall in love with them and that they just want to have fun, resulting in all four love interests (even the ones you haven't romanced) abandoning the main character.
  • Choosing to side with Matthias in Chapter 20 will have devastating consequences. Everyone's relationship score drops to 0, and unless you merge with the Power and have a high Nerve score, Noah or Devon will defeat Rowan and kill Matthias, with Rowan being trapped in the cave for all eternity with the consequences of their actions. Fittingly, going down this route and then losing to Noah or Devon nets you the "Cosmic Karma" achievement.
  • In Chapter 21, if you've slept with both Lincoln and his father Matthias, the latter will reveal this to Lincoln, who will not be happy. So unhappy, in fact, that his relationship score will drop to 0.
  • Also in Chapter 21, if Rowan caves in to their anger and kills Jocelyn, everyone else will be disgusted, resulting in the other characters' relationship scores dropping by at least 75 points. Additionally, if Rowan's in a relationship with anyone, they'll break up with Rowan.
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • Lincoln and Abel used to be best friends, until an incident in high school where Lincoln convinced Abel to go for a joyride in the principal's car. They crashed it, and both of them were arrested. Lincoln was bailed out by his father, Matthias but he didn't tell him that Abel was there too. Poor Abel lost his college recommendations and almost lost custody of his siblings, but then Matthias got Abel off the hook and managed to get him to retain custody of his siblings. Because of this, Abel looks up to Matthias as a father figure, while Lincoln knows what a bad father he really is, and can't believe Abel won't listen, resulting in them being estranged from each other. Fortunately, they can reconcile in Chapter 21 if both their Nerve scores are high enough.
  • Surprisingly, Rowan and Amalia can end up being this at the end of the story, despite having been best friends since childhood. If Rowan is a bad enough friend to Amalia (or doesn't fix her college records despite erasing them in the first place), Amalia will leave Rowan at the end of Chapter 17 and not return (she does return at the end of Chapter 18 if her relationship score is high enough). If Amalia doesn't return, then in the final chapter in the Mixed route (the route where Rowan chooses to stay in Westchester and protect the Power^note In the Blood route, Rowan leaves Westchester and their friends behind for a normal life, and in the Shadow route, Rowan has Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence), they visit all their surviving friends before they move away, and Amalia calls Rowan out for being a bad friend ( regardless of how high her relationship score actually is) and says that she doesn't want them in her life anymore.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 16 is a massive one. Harper either reunites with their friends at the hospital (if alive) or their ghost passes on (if they're dead), Noah's or Devon's (depending on who became Redfield at the end of the first book) soul is made whole and the ritual from earlier in the book brings them back to life, and Rowan realises that they aren't human, they're The Power in human form.
  • Chapter 21, in which the "moment of truth" arrives, and the love interests can die if their Nerve score is too low, or if they make the wrong choices (the only way to guarantee their survival is to have a Nerve score of over 90, in which case, the timer is disabled and the only available choices will ensure they survive). Also, Rowan can lose an eye if they're not careful, and Matthias reveals that Rowan's been screwing him if they have, causing the love interests (especially Lincoln) to turn on them.
• What Were You Thinking?: Lincoln angrily asks Rowan this after they dive into a lake to retrieve an item without warning, especially if they failed to get it and had to be saved by their companions.
• With Us or Against Us: In Chapter 20, if you have been romancing Matthias, he asks Rowan if they think he's a monster when they discover he's the Big Bad. If Rowan says yes, they will also say that they can save him. Matthias replies "There's nothing to save, Rowan. Either you're with me, or you're against me". At this point, you have to decide if you're with Matthias (in which case you'll continue the "Judas Kiss" route), or against him (in which case, the story continues as if you've never romanced him).
• You Lose at Zero Trust: Each of the main love interests has a relationship score and Nerve score measured out of 100. If either score is too low at crucial moments, bad things will happen:
  • If Lincoln's relationship score is too low by Chapter 15, he will refuse to come to the séance, meaning that Rowan will have a harder time supressing the Power.
  • If Amalia's relationship score is too low by Chapter 18, she will leave and she won't return. If this happens, the end-of-chapter recap for Chapter 18 and beyond will say "Alive, but left" in place of her Nerve score.
  • If Abel's relationship score is too low at the beginning of Chapter 20, he won't trust Rowan enough to ask for their help, resulting in him not getting the shield.
  • If Jocelyn's relationship score is too low near the end of Chapter 20, she won't warn Rowan about Matthias' trap.
  • If Abel and Lincoln's Nerve scores are too low in Chapter 21, the one with the lowest Nerve score will leave.