<<set $met = 3>> You decide these short conversations are useless. You can't find them when they are busy and expect them to have time for you but you need to know the footing of your relationship.\n So you go to their flat. No one tries to stop you, although you don't tell anyone you are going. You arrive and knock on the door.\n You hear footsteps walk up to the door. You stare into the peephole. There is silence for a while. Their flatmate opens the door.\n You ask if they are in. They are out, you are told. You feel they are lying to you. You want to barge into the flat. If only they would listen and talk with you you could sort this whole thing out.\n You leave.\n\n<<if $emailed eq 3, $phoned eq 3>>[[Next|BadEnding]]\n<<else>>[[Next|Choices]]\n<<endif>>
<<set $met = 2>> Maybe the problem with meeting them at the club was the false pretences. You lied to them and they could tell. If you want to see them you should just be honest about it. In your mind they are becoming this 'thing', which used to be a human so you decide that maybe if you just see them, talk to them face to face, it would help you move on.\n You want to explain yourself in person. You decide to get her a little something to try and make things better. You get her a little rubber panda. You made a joke about pandas once, early in the relationship, which you laughed about from time to time.\n You go into their work. After anxiously walking around for a few minutes you see them talking to a customer. You hang around waiting for the customer to leave, fiddling with the panda in your pocket, but you can't stare either so you face a wall trying to act normal but you can't so - \n They're next to you. They ask what you are doing here. You are caught off guard and try to explain that you just wanted to say sorry again for intruding on her club and you present her the panda. They don't find it funny but they take it anyway. You take this as a good sign. They tell you not to come to their work again and they leave.\n A couple of days pass and they do not contact you. It could have gone worse.\n\n[[Next|Choices]]
<<set $met = 1>> You decide that maybe if you could just see them again that would help you relax.\n You go to the club. You're anxious - you have no friends there except from them. You arrive on time and a couple members welcome you, clearly not recognising you, and you join a game of something you've not played before.\n As the other players try and explain the rules you're destracted. They're not here. They should be here.\n Eventually they arrive. Suddenly scared, you hide, focussing on the game board, trying to make sure it doesn't look like you're here for them.\n After the club ends and the group is on their way to the pub you make eye contact with them and feign surprise. They are not fooled. They ask you why you are here. You have nothing to say. They explain <<if $emailed > 0>>again <<endif>>that what they want right now is some time apart from you and maybe you could be friends sometime in the future but they don't know yet. They request you don't come back to the club.\n You nod, apologise and go home. You feel wretched. After a couple of days you decide maybe you just didn't explain yourself very well.\n\n[[Next|Choices]]
Again, you lie awake in bed, staring at your phone. Time is torture. You've tried to contact them again and again. If only they would listen to you, they would understand what you want and you could colaborate and everything would be fine again.\n Now you're not comfortable with how things have been left and it's driving you crazy. Maybe they still like you. Maybe they hate you.\n\n Would you continue on this self-destructive path? Scratching and scratching away, hoping that eventually they will give you what you need?\n They told you. They said they wanted time away from you. You ignored that. You disrespected them. Over and over and over again.\n Why would they want to spend time with you?
<<set $phoned = 2>> You decide it was worth it, just to hear their voice. You go through all of it again - the shaking, the waiting, then you hit the button.\n It rings.\n It goes to voice mail.\n You hang up.\n A day passes.\n\n[[Next|Choices]]
<<set $phoned = 3>> Maybe they just didn't see they have a missed call, or they didn't know why you were phoning. You dial again.\n It rings.\n It goes to voicemail.\n You leave a message, nice and relaxed, saying who it is and the rest of it and you were just wondering how they were getting on and all that so... Yeah.\n You hang up. You spend a day obsessing over if they've heard your message or not, are they listening to it now, or now, or now?\n Maybe. Either way, they do not phone you back.\n\n<<if $emailed eq 3, $met eq 3>>[[Next|BadEnding]]\n<<else>>[[Next|Choices]]\n<<endif>>
<<set $phoned = 1>> You sit with your phone, your thumb hovering over the 'call' button. You've already decided to do it but all these questions crackle in your head about how they may respond, if they are busy... You press it. You're going to hear them again!\n It rings. You try not to shake. They pick up.\n "Hello?"\n You hear conversations around them. There is friends there, laughing and joking. Do they know that you've seperated?\n You mumble about how you were just wondering how they are and all that. They tell you they are busy at the moment. You appologise and they say goodbye.\n Two days pass. It's hard not to check your phone constantly during this time, wondering if they will call you back. They don't.\n\n[[Next|Choices]]
<<set $nothing = 3>> You spend another week without trying to contact them. You wondered for a long time if they would try and contact you but you finally come to the conclusion that they won't.\n It's over. You had good times together but then they rejected you. You can say that out loud now.\n You look over your games again. The memories of playing them together are slowly morphing from a painful alarm to a more nostalgic memory.\n At the end of another work week you realise you've thought about them less during that time. Your life continues, new things fill the space and they drift away.\n That's okay. That's what they wanted.
<<set $nothing = 2>> You try to focus on work. You're making progress, although it's grinding away at you since the main thing you looked forward to is just not there anymore.\n This weekend is harder than last weekend. Saturday was normally the time you spend together. Several times you think your phone buzzes in your pocket but when you check it there is nothing. You reminise about the times you cooked together, the games you played together. It seems like it should still be in reach.\n The next week begins and washes over you like the last. Your co-workers have clicked by now. A couple of your better friends try to talk to you about it.\n You still feel lost.\n\n[[Next|Choices]]
<<set $nothing = 1>> You spend a weekend trying to destract yourself. You play games, watch T.V, it's all hopeless. You stare at the phone. Your mind won't let you focus on anything else but them.\n You ease into Monday and attempt the work you have to do. Monday turns into Tuesday. Tuesday turns into Wednesday. You feel lost.\n\n[[Next|Choices]]
<<if $nothing eq 0>> [[Leave them alone.|moveOn1]] <<endif>><<if $nothing eq 1>> [[Spend a week without them.|moveOn2]] <<endif>><<if $nothing eq 2>> [[Move on.|moveOn3]] <<endif>>\n<<if $emailed eq 0>> [[Send them an e-mail.|email1]] <<endif>><<if $emailed eq 1>> [[Respond to their e-mail.|email2]] <<endif>><<if $emailed eq 2>> [[Send them another e-mail.|email3]] <<endif>>\n<<if $phoned eq 0>> [[Try phoning them.|phone1]] <<endif>><<if $phoned eq 1>> [[Give them another call.|phone2]] <<endif>><<if $phoned eq 2>> [[Phone again, maybe leave a voice message.|phone3]] <<endif>>\n<<if $met eq 0>> [[Go to that games club they go to.|see1]] <<endif>><<if $met eq 1>> [[Go to their work.|see2]] <<endif>><<if $met eq 2>> [[Call on their flat.|see3]] <<endif>>
<<silently>>\n Set up the initial conditions. Remember the actions of the player for their next choices.\n<<set $nothing = 0>>\n<<set $emailed = 0>>\n<<set $phoned = 0>>\n<<set $met = 0>>\n<<endsilently>> It hurts. After building up a relationship for over a year there was nothing you could do when it fell apart. It was an instant for you but you know it wasn't for them. They thought about it. They decided when they would do it. Then they told you.\n "I don't love you anymore." After some discussion, they left your flat on what felt like good terms. It's hard to tell what your relationship is now, if anything.\n It's the middle of the night. It has been for some time now. You get out of bed and look out the window. It's a three-quarters moon. You stare at it. It says nothing.\n You wait and wait and wait until it's Sunday morning. They only told you yesterday but you can't help but want to reach out for them.\n\n[[Leave them alone.|moveOn1]]\n[[Send them an e-mail.|email1]]\n[[Try phoning them.|phone1]]\n[[Go to that games club they go to. You've been once or twice.|see1]]
The Itch
David Ferguson
<<set $emailed = 2>> You reply in a more chatty tone, saying okay, you understand, you will give them some space.\n You wait a couple of days. No response.\n\n[[Next|Choices]]
<<set $emailed = 3>> You can't stand waiting so you send a third e-mail. You ask for details about when they think you could possibly be friends again. Maybe if you knew how long this would last it would be easier to endure.\n A day passes. You struggle to think of anything else but them, checking your e-mail every half hour, every ten minutes...\n They do not reply.\n\n<<if $phoned eq 3, $met eq 3>>[[Next|BadEnding]]\n<<else>>[[Next|Choices]]\n<<endif>>
<<set $emailed = 1>> You sit down at your computer to write them an e-mail. It takes a few attempts. You decide upon a slightly less chatty tone than normal and discuss how you feel about the current situation. You say that maybe you would like to stay in touch, as long as they want to that is.\n As soon as you send it you feel the seed of regret. You stare at your inbox compelling a response. You open up your sent message and read it over and over again. You are increasingly terrified of how they will react. You're even more terrified they won't react.\n The next day you finally get a response. You skim through it then read it over several times before getting the just of what they are saying.\n Their tone is more formal. They say sorry and all the rest of it but it is almost unquestionably clear that they do not ever want to get back together. They say that what they currently want is space to figure themselves out.<<if $met eq 0, $phoned < 2>> They leave an 'o' after their name - a single hug. <<endif>>\n\n[[Next|Choices]]