Neighbourhood Watch. Squachy has lived in your pocket long enough to know the neighbours. He knows which Ring is on which porch, which tracker keeps turning up, and that nothing much happened on Tuesday. This release lets him say so. Also he trips over things now. Unrelated. Mostly.
The regulars. A device he sees on three different days gets a name. Not its own name, the one Apple or Amazon gave it; a proper one, off a list of forty-eight sensible neighbours. Gary. Deborah. Norm. Dot. The LOG shows it in pink ahead of whatever the device calls itself, and Squachy greets them on the way past. "Oh, it's just Carl." "Gary again. Right on time." "There goes Linda. Never says hi." The same device gets the same name on any SquachWatch that meets it, so your squad can compare notes on Vern. He keeps sixteen at a time; the one he hasn't seen for longest makes room. It counts days, so it wants the clock set, which every board that has ever seen WiFi already has.
He has a nemesis. The thing you've caught most, once it's ten deep, becomes his sworn enemy. It gets a red NEMESIS stamp on its DEX card and its own lines when it shows up. "Not you again, TRACKER." "One day, FLOCK. One day." The title moves if something else overtakes it, which is exactly the kind of thing he'd hold a grudge about.
He notices patterns. Three of the same thing in ten minutes: "They travel in packs." Five: "This is a TILE convention." Ten: "I've stopped counting. I haven't." A tracker closer than any before: "New record. That AirTag was practically in my fur." Quieter than yesterday, busier than yesterday, he'll mention it once an hour at most, with the numbers, because he's been reading the black box when you weren't looking.
He notices you, too. Open the LOG five times in a minute and you get "The log is fine. Are YOU fine?" Go a whole day without poking him: "Twenty-four hours. No pats. I've started counting." Between all that he'll drop DEX facts you've earned and nudge you toward the cards you haven't, and on the right days he has something to say about the calendar. Friday the 13th. Halloween week. New Year's Eve. 3:33 in the morning, for the three of you who are up.
He does more with his body. Seven new moves, all built from the Squachy you already have. He leans toward the edge of the screen when he thinks he heard something. He trips over nothing and checks whether you saw. He shudders after a deauth or an evil twin. When the same thing keeps coming closer he takes a step back, then another. After a quiet ninety seconds he sits down. Tap his head, belly or feet and each gets its own answer. And a fast swipe across him sends him sliding into the wall, where he bumps, wobbles, and walks back with his dignity mostly intact. "I'm walking back. Slowly. To make a point."
Louder and quieter. A RARE catch gets a bubble with a second outline, because he is shouting. A catch in the small hours gets dimmer text, because he is whispering, and he'd like you to appreciate that.
The shark onesie got its outline. It was the one costume without one, and the fin sat on the hood like a party hat. Fin, hood and two new jaw corners that come down past his shades now share a single black edge, and he has nostrils, which sharks do.
One thing fixed. Carrying him into a corner of the screen could open Settings or rotate the screen mid-carry and leave him hanging there, held by a finger that had already gone. The corner buttons ignore a finger that's carrying him now, and a carry that stops hearing from the finger lets go on its own.
The actually-useful part
Added
- Regulars: a device seen on three different days gets a name from a fixed list; shown on its LOG row, greeted by Squachy, kept in NVS (sixteen, oldest out). RESET STATS clears them.
- Nemesis: the most-caught type at ten or more, stamped on its DEX card, with its own lines.
- Streak lines at three, five and ten of a type within ten minutes, and on a new closest for a type.
- Idle lines from the DEX's lore, nudges toward blank cards, today-vs-yesterday from the black box, and the calendar.
- Lines for opening the LOG five times in a minute, and for a day without a poke.
- Seven moves: lean and listen, trip, shake it off, backing away, sit down, tickle spots (head, belly, feet), and flick. Each has a SHOW OFF step.
- Bubble volume: a second outline on a RARE catch, dim text between eleven and five.
Changed
- The shark onesie: one outline round fin, hood and new jaw corners; a flared fin; nostrils; a lip line.
Fixed
- Squachy stuck in a corner after being carried there: the corner buttons no longer fire during a carry, and a carry with no finger updates for half a second releases.