The note on the desk read

'Max Payne interiors'
as if my sunlit doppelganger had the
faintest idea what is meant by that

My investigations reveal there is a Max Payne
third-person shooter which has
'one of the bleakest settings in gaming history'

Now I'm not a gamer but this gritty,
noir-inspired aesthetic, featuring dark, dilapidated,
and claustrophobic spaces which mirror the protagonist's
despair and the city's decay was
instantly recognisable to me

And yes the subway, the hotel, the drug den
with their sparse lighting, worn textures, and
often filthy environments are
the ideal locations for my own
gritty, revenge-driven storyline about
a man on the edge, fighting to clear his name
while struggling to uncover
the truth about his slain family - it all added up

You're in a computer game, Max.