Okay, so I'm going to tell a story here. For it to make sense, you'll need to have played Oblivion. Yes, *Oblivion*. Not Skyrim. And furthermore, you'll have to have played the Thieves' Guild quest line through to completion.

Remember all that good stuff? Okay.

So I've got this friend. Known him since middle school. He has this...thing he does. He tends to go on and on about "oh woe is me" because he picks up on clues early on in movies and figures out any potential twists and even who will die in the big shootout at the end of the second act. It's something that kinda gets on my nerves because he's constantly going on about how it ruins movies for him, but dangit he just can't help but be so clever as to clue in on some background details and just figure everything out. I'm also kinda dubious on his claims since it's something he only ever talks about after the fact, and never during, but I digress.

So, long time ago, he's playing Oblivion, back when it was relatively new. I had already played it through and all that, so I knew what was going on. Well, he got really frustrated with the game when he encountered a game-breaking glitch. He was getting close to the end of the quest line for the Thieves' guild, and a cinematic sequence just locked his character in place, yatta yatta, can't progress. And he's telling me about how pissed off he is since he spent hundreds of hours playing, he all his backup saves were fine but every time he got to this point in the Thieves' guild, it kept breaking. And he really wanted to finish it and find out who the Grey Fox was.

According to what he read online, the glitch was known but wasn't getting fixed anytime soon. Only solution was to make a new game and start from the beginning. Something to do with "if you complete unrelated side-quest [x] before doing these quests, it breaks this sequence at [y] point".

So he's griping to me about this and how he wanted to find out who this Grey Fox guy was. So, I chime in with, "...but you did already? I don't know what you're going on about?"

He's confused, of course. When he asks me what I'm talking about, I tell him, "Yeah...a couple of weeks ago you told me you ran into one of the townsfolk and something they said gave away who the Fox is. You even told me his title, so I know you figured it out."

At this point, he's just flabberghasted. "What do you mean I figured it out? When did this happen?! Who did I talk to???"

So I just say, "Look, I don't which villager you talked to, but yeah, you figured it out. Maybe you forgot about it all? Either way, if it's this important to you, I'm not going to spoil it for you and ruin a genuinely good surprise. Chances are you'll figure it out again. I just don't want to spoil it".

He kept pestering me, but I absolutely refused to budge on it.

...

A few months later, I get a really nasty text message.

I only remembered all this because he brought it up recently. Ironically, I'd forgotten completely about it. Probably the best practical joke I've played on anyone in my life. That's probably not saying much, but I'm proud of it. I just wish I could remember it better. And no, that's not a joke.