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<<audio startsong loop play>><div style="text-align: right;"><img src="images/cherryblossoms.png" /></div><div class="indent">Underneath the cherry blossom tree, there is a man and a woman, both enjoying the setting sun as it paints the clouds with shades of pink, orange, and purple.</div><div class="indent">The man, dressed in a patterned button down, has sweat dripping down his face. A drop catches and stings his eye as he kneels and pulls out a small box from his pocket.</div><div class="indent">The woman, in her best floral sundress and sandals, turns to look down at him as tears well up in her eyes.</div><div class="indent"><b>"Maven... I can't imagine a life without you. You've been there for me whenever I needed you for these past six years. I should've asked sooner..."</b></div><div class="indent">A bright smile spreads across Maven's face as she anticipates his question.</div>
<div class="center"><b>"Maven, will you marry me?"</b>
You are Maven.
How do you answer?
<b><div class="shadow">[[Yes, Sean!]]</div></b><b><div class="shadow">[[Definitely yes!|Yes, Sean!]]</div></b><<cacheaudio "mainsong" "music/Chad_Crouch Sparrow Serenade.mp3">>
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<<set $goodEnding to 0>>
<<set $badEnding to 0>>
<<set $worstEnding to 0>><div class="indent">You two lovebirds are engaged after all this time! Maybe now, you will have that big two-story house and those twins you've always wanted.</div><div class="indent">You spend the next year and some change planning your wedding. How many tiers should the cake have? Will you have a church wedding or an outdoor wedding? Where will Sean's family sit?</div>
<div class="center"><img src="images/wedding.png" /></div>
<div class="center">So many questions and so many hopes. That is until one day,</div><div class="center"><div class="shadow"><div class="shudder">[[you collapse.]]</div></div></div><<audio startsong fadeout>>
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<div class="indent">Your eyelids feel <b>heavy</b>. The world feels like it doesn't even exist.
<div class="indent"><i>Where am I?</i> you think to yourself.</div><div class="indent">As you struggle to open your tired eyes, you can hear the faint beeping of a machine and the weeping of a man.</div>
<div class="center"><img src="images/beep.gif" /></div>
<div class="indent">You are in a hospital room with tubes planted in different parts of your body. The weeping is coming from Sean. His head is buried into your stomach, drenching your thin gown. You fell sick not too long ago. According to the doctors, your chances are slim. You can't help but worry about Sean.</div><div class="center">Will you <div class="shadow">[[touch his hair]]</div> or <div class="shadow">[[say something]]?</div></div><div class="indent">Sean stops crying for a moment to lift his head. His sweet brown eyes look into yours, longingly. A single tear falls down his cheek.
<b>"We'll get through this, Maven."</b>
His voice shakes uncontrollably.
<b>"We have to!"</b></div>
<div class="center"><div class="shadow">[["I know, Sean. I know"->your death]]</div></div><div class="indent">You want to say anything to comfort him. Yet, you can barely let out more than a few words.</div>
<div class="indent">So you say, <b>"Sean, I love you. More than anything."</b></div><div class="indent">He stops his tears long enough to lift his head to look at you. His sweet brown eyes look into yours, longingly. A smile creeps onto his face. He replies, <b>"I love you too, Maven. More than the world itself."</b></div>
<div class="center">You think to yourself, <div class="shadow"><i>[[that's what I'm afraid of->your death]]</i></div></div><div class="indent">After a few grueling months, laced with anger and desperation, you suddenly feel cold. Incredibly cold.<div class="shudder">Extremely cold.</div> Your skin feels as if it were composed of a million jagged icicles, stabbing their way into your insides.
Yet, you are numb. The space around you is dark.</div>
<div class="center"><div class="shadow">[[You are dead.->what about Sean?]]</div></div><div class="indent">In the numbness, there is a light as the world blurs around you. Your spirit lifts out of your lifeless buried body. Your funeral was a beautiful sight, it likely lasted a few hours but, to you, it felt like seconds.<div class="indent">Sean was a mess, he has always been a bit more emotional.</div><div class="indent">As you look at the light above you, you wonder how Sean, the love of your life, will go on? It's that thought that keeps you grounded, perhaps it became your cliche unfinished business.</div>
<div class="center"><div class="shadow">[[>>->Sean's life after]]</div></div><div class="indent">Your love pulls you away and tethers you to Sean's presence.</div><div class="indent">You see him. He's alive but not all-too-well. He is sitting, alone, inside this house that the two of you once called home.</div><div class="indent">Fruit cakes and trays of lasagna litter the granite table in the kitchen, but Sean looks like he hasn't eaten in days.</div><div class="indent">His hair is greasy and flat; his clothes do not match.</div>The room is dim, lit by a single shaded table lamp, yet you can see him staring at a <a data-passage="test" title="a wooden frame picturing Sean and Maven">picture frame</a> with a half-empty bottle of sleeping pills perched next to him on an oak table.<div class="indent">You try to wave your hand in his face and call his name. It seems like he can't see you?</div>
<div class="center">How does it feel to see him like this?
<div class="shadow">[[Awful]]</div> or <div class="shadow">[[wonderful]]?</div></div><<audio pluckysong loop play>>
<div class="center"><img src="images/newlogo.gif" /></div><div class="indent">
<div class="center"><div class="shadow">[[Start->Disclaimer]]</div></div><div class="center">IMPORTANT!
This following text adventure is a WORK-IN-PROGRESS. Passages are being subjected to editing.
I do not own the rights to any of the music included. The images involved are likely to be changed or removed.</div>
<div class="center">Instructions:</div><div class="center">Choices = <span style="color: red;">Red</span> +<div class="shadow">Drop Shadow</div></div><div class="center">Hover = <a data-passage="test" title="Wow! Look at that!">Red Text</a> (hover for more info)</div>
<div class="center"><div class="shadow">[[>>->The Start]]</div></div><div class="indent">Even as an apparition, you can feel the pain in your still heart. The aching, suffocating, and sinking type of pain you remember from your past life. If only there was a way to help to him. This wouldn't have happened if you didn't get sick— or so you tell yourself. As if by second nature, your hand reaches out to touch him.</div><div class="center">Do you<div class="shadow">[[snap your hand back]]</div> or <div class="shadow">[[touch him]]?</div></div>
<<set $goodEnding to $goodEnding +1>><div class="indent">Obviously, your death meant something to him, after all, you were an important person in his life. It would bother you if he moved on so quickly; you did spend all those years with him.</div><div class="indent">You feel flattered that he misses you so much. You wonder if you can let him know you're here.</div><div class="center">Do you <div class="shadow">[[try to communicate]]</div> or <div class="shadow">[[not->watch him]]</div></div>
<<set $badEnding to $badEnding +1>>
<<set $worstEnding to $worstEnding +1>><div class="indent">You quickly withdraw your hand as you wonder about being able to communicate with the living. What would that do for Sean if he thinks you're still alive just in another form? Or, maybe you could try to make him feel better and maybe move on?</div><div class="center">Will you risk <div class="shadow">[[communicating]]</div> or <div class="shadow">[[not]]?</div></div><div class="indent">You allow your hand to reach until it meets Sean's shoulder. To your surprise, it phases through his fleshy body. You quickly gasp and pull away as he noticeably shivers.</div>
<div class="shadow"><div class="center">[[>>->Sean Heater]]</div></div>
<<set $badEnding to $badEnding +1>><div class="indent">What would it hurt to let him know that you're here? He'd be happy to know that you're still around.</div><div class="center">Will you try <div class="shadow">[[touching him|touch him]]</div> or <div class="shadow">[[something else|communicating]]</div></div><div class="indent">More than likely, you wouldn't say it out loud, but you enjoy seeing him this upset. In fact, it makes you feel warm inside, satisfied even.</div><div class="indent">He continues to wallow and cry while looking at the photo. The silence between his blubbering is deafening.</div><div class="indent">After a few minutes, he stops crying to grab the bottle and pours the rest of the pills in his mouth.</div>
<div class="center">This is not going well. Will <div class="shadow">[[you stop him|Interfere Suicide]]</div> or <div class="shadow">[[let him take the pills|Let Sean Die]]?</div></div><div class="indent">You remember seeing Sean's bottle of pills. They can't be good for him in this state. You decide, instead of starting big, to start small and try to knock them over. You channel all of your emotional energy at once. A tingly feeling envelops your body and manifests in your hand.</div><div class="indent">You reach to knock over the bottle and end up simply pushing it to its side. Sean looks away from the frame in a panic. He places the bottle right side up and blames the wind for it somehow.</div><div class="center">Will you <div class="shadow">[[get angry]]</div> or <div class="shadow">[[give up]]?</div></div>
<<set $badEnding to $badEnding +2>><div class="indent">You decide that it might be better this way for Sean. He needs to think that you're gone for good if he's ever going to move on. <div class="shadow">[[At least, you believe this is the right thing to do for him.|Must Move On]]</div></div>
<<set $goodEnding to $goodEnding +1>><div class="indent">The chill from your touch was enough to raise him out of his worn down chair.</div><div class="indent">He turns around and faces your direction as if your eyes are meeting his.</div><div class="center">Do you try to <div class="shadow">[[hug him]]</div> or <div class="shadow">[[watch what he does]]?</div></div><div class="indent">Maybe he <b>can</b> see you? So what if you are a ghost? You still love him. You open your arms to hopefully accept his affection after all you've both went through.</div><div class="indent">To your dismay, his tired eyes are looking through you not at you. He makes his way to the hallway behind you.</div><div class="indent"><b>"I could've sworn the heat was on,"</b> he says as he checks the thermostat. He turns it up a few more degrees and shakes his head in disbelief before heading back to his chair.</div><div class="center">Will you <div class="shadow">[[get angry]]</div> or <div class="shadow">[[give up?|give up]]</div></div>
<<set $badEnding to $badEnding +1>><div class="indent">You anticipate what he will do next. His once sweet eyes stare directly through you. He has no idea you are there before walking through your body to go turn up the heat. <b>"I could've sworn the heat was on,"</b> he says while looking at the thermostat. The heat is up a few more degrees before he sits back down.</div><div class="center">Your effort to touch him didn't work. What will you do now? Will you <div class="shadow">[[get angry]],</div> or <div class="shadow">[[give up]]?</div></div><div class="indent">A blind rage fills you and channels into a new energy. Unable to contain it any longer, you explode with emotion as you knock Sean's pills to the ground.</div><div class="indent">He is suddenly startled by the noise and jumps out of his chair. He looks around and sees that no one is there. <b>"Did I knock these over?"</b> He stares at the bottle he picked up, <b>"What are these things doing to me?"</b></div><div class="indent">He sets them back down and takes a seat again.</div><div class="indent">Is this some newfound power? Maybe there is a way to be in Sean's life in the afterlife?</div>
<div class="center"><div class="shadow">[[That was close|Might Not Move On]]</div></div>
<<set $badEnding to $badEnding +2>>
<<set $worstEnding to $worstEnding +1>><div class="indent">It's not worth it to try so hard to make yourself known right now. Maybe you will try again in the future when you're a little stronger. Or, that's what you tell yourself at least.</div><div class="indent">In the meantime, you want to focus on helping Sean in your realm of ability.</div><div class="center">For your first step, will you help him by <div class="shadow">[[trying to find him someone else|Must Move On]]</div> or by <div class="shadow">[[not getting involved for now|Might Not Move On]]?</div></div><<if $goodEnding gte 2>> <div class="indent">You decide that the best thing for Sean is for him to move on. You can't tell how long it's been since you died, but you know it has been long enough. <div class="shadow">[[No way do you want him to end up hurting himself.|Chapter 2]]</div></div>
<<elseif $worstEnding gte 1>> <div class="indent">While this option might not be ideal for you, you decide to maybe <div class="shadow">[[help Sean find someone new.|Chapter 2]]</div></div>
<<elseif $badEnding gte 2>> <div class="indent">For now, you decide maybe moving on is the better choice. <div class="shadow">[[It's time to get Sean out on the town.|Chapter 2]]</div></div>
<<else>>
<</if>><<if $goodEnding gte 1>> <div class="indent">You have a hard time committing to the idea of getting Sean to move on by finding someone else, or at least get him to experience one date. Yet, somewhere deep down, <div class="shadow">[[you're worried that it might be the right call.|Chapter 2]]</div></div>
<<elseif $worstEnding gte 2>> <div class="indent">You view this incidence as a second chance— a second chance to be with Sean. So, why would you help him move on? It's not up to you. If he wanted to then he would have. To you, if he can't be yours, <div class="shadow">[[why should he get to be with anyone else?|Chapter 2]]</div></div>
<<elseif $badEnding gte 2>> <div class="indent">You don't know if you really want to help Sean move on in that kind of way. You don't even know if you're ready to do that. <div class="shadow">[[Maybe there's another way... maybe.|Chapter 2]]</div></div>
<<else>>
<</if>><div class="indent">Regardless of how you feel about Sean's pity party where it's all about you, you still care for him and love him. There's no way you'd let him die. Not like this. <div class="shadow">[[There has to be something you can do.|Chapter 2]]</div></div><div class="indent">This could be the moment you've been waiting for. He can die and you'll be together again. It's probably why he's doing it in the first place? <div class="shadow">[[After all, it's not fair that you died the way you did and at such a young age too.|Chapter 2]]</div></div><div class="center">Chapter 2:</div>
<div class="center"> The Next Step?</div>
<div class="center">To be continued...</div>
