hello world. I've never made a twine game before. I programmed a snake game once that could store up to 10 high scores, but that's about it. let's see what I can do with this medium. Oh, hang on the phone is ringing, could you get it for me?
[[who is it?]][[your very first and most brutal crush]]
[[your first and probably best girlfriend ]]
[[your first abusive ex]][[you pick up the phone]]
[[you watch it go to voicemail]]you answer the phone, but I'm too tired to finish this twine game, and it's really something that I just want to do in one sitting, so let's just say you have a nice conversation and you apologize for being a shitty boyfriend and then you get the not-bad ending in a way that gives you nice choices to choose from with some seeming conversational varience in a way that makes it looks like I'm showing you the narrative from different sides but really all the sides go in the same direction and there's not room for you to mess up, but you can, but like nothing bad happens. this conversation in particular doesn't have any stakes, it's just a weird episode from your past that you didn't expect to happen. I guess there's emotional stakes, but it would just be a rehash of the crush-arc, but with more learning and guilt as opposed to just being generally upset. and like, one of these story routes had to be a dud, right?
[[right]][[answer it]]
[[watch it go to voicemail]]
[[hang up before it goes to voicemail]]"Hello?" you say.
she doesn't say anything.
then she says something
"Oh, I didn't think you'd pick up. I thought you'd be asleep and I'd get to call you and leave a voicemail. but. hi."
"why are you calling me? I thought you and jacob were engaged?"
"His name's alex, and we are. but I miss you. I don't know. I'm drunk. I shouldn't have called you. this was a mistake."
"Okay. bye then."
[[hang up the phone]]
[[wait for her to hang up]]you stare at your phone as it vibrates, her name illuminated in the darkness of your bedroom. you think back to all the time you spent together. all the conversations you had and the lives you never got to live together because you were both in the wrong place at the wrong time. your worlds were too far apart. and why would she ever date a loser like you, even if she did love you?
you phone stops buzzing and her name dissapears. you wait for a minute while you assume she leaves a voicemail. she does in fact leave you a message. it's 51 seconds long.
[[listen to it]]
[[delete it]]your phone won't let you delete a voicemail message without listening to part of it. you know you aren't strong enough to only listen to a little bit. Even if you hold your phone really far away from your ear or turn off the volume you'll still have to know
[[listen to it]]
[[buy a new phone]]okay you're being ridiculous.
[[sorry, I just want there to be at least a semblance of the illusion of choice]]I know. I understand.
[[listen to it]]you press play and put your phone up to your ear. your stomach is upset with you.
//hi it's me.
I guess you know that by now.
if you're listening to this and haven't deleted this I guess I just want you to know that after everything that's happened I still think about you
and like
what would have happened
but you're in such a good place now. and I'm ''happy''
I'm like really, truly happy for the first time in my life
and I wouldn't change anything that I did
but I miss you
and I don't know why
and I don't know why I'm telling you any of this now or at all but I just feel like it's something you should know; that my life is great but I still feel like I'm missing something or that I don't have enough
and then I think back to how we never could have worked and never would have worked and I think about how awful all of that would have been and it's just so
much
it's so much.
I'm sorry. I shouldn't have called. I hope you find your happiness //
the voicemail ends
[[the end of the game]]thanks for playing(?) this twine game(?). I hoped you liked the very short narrative. try all the paths if you want or close out to stop playing. This is my experiment in narrative storytelling I guess.
[[.hello world]] you hang up the phone. you thought you were over her. you knew that you weren't, but you at least thought that you were and that thought gave you a little bit of solace and comfort, but you knew better, but knowing that didn't really matter, you know? and it's been years. oh well. sometimes these things happen.
[[the end of the game]] "I love you" she says, scarecely audible
"I love you too"
she sobs and hangs up the phone.
you thought you were over her. you knew that you weren't, but you at least thought that you were and that thought gave you a little bit of solace and comfort, but you knew better, but knowing that didn't really matter, you know? and it's been years. oh well. sometimes these things happen.
[[the end of the game]] no, I won't let you answer the phone
[[no let me answer the phone]]
[[watch it go to voicemail]]
[[hang up before it goes to voicemail]]you hang up almost out of reflex. you're sick of her calling you. it's pathetic
she calls you again because she knows that you're there. you hung up the phone early.
you gave her feedback
feedback means your vulnerable
if you're vulnerable it means that you're breakable
if you're breakable then it means that she'll
just
keep
calling
[[watch it go to voicemail]]
[[turn off your phone]]
[[block her number]]you turn your phone off. it won't work in the long run because you need to use your phone and you'll have to turn it on eventually. but the calls stop for now which is good. you can breathe.
[[bad ending]]you got the bad ending. I guess this is a game now because there are multiple endings with some qualifying statements attached to them as opposed to just one ending that asks you to play again. please get a better ending next time
[[.hello world]] you want to answer the phone? fine. you answer the phone.
[[you die]] your heart is pounding and you feel something slimey crawling around inside of you, trying to get out as you read her name over and over again as your phone shakes on your bedside table.
it stops
she's going to leave a message. or text you. she always does.
[[listen to the voicemail]]
[[block her number]]
[[turn off your phone]] no, I won't let you listen to it. no one deserves that.
[[block her number]]
[[turn off your phone]]
[[no let me listen to it]]you're an idiot. fine.
you press play
your ears start to bleed and your vision gets blurry
you can't dial 911, your phone is unresponsive
you try to call out but your tongue gets stuck in your mouth
no one can hear you
you see the afterimage of her face burned into your retinas you as darkness closes in around you
you are dead
you are dead and you hate yourself
you are dead and you hate her
dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead dead
[[bad ending]] you go into your phone's setting and block her number. you should have done this months ago.
an enormous weight is lifted off your shoulders. you feel amazing.
[[block her on every other social media platform]]you block her on facebook, email, snapchat, twitter, instagram, groupme, venmo, linkedin, quora, google+, youtube, and unmatch her and report her on tinder for good measure. there is no way she can find you now. you are safe.
[[the end of the game]]thank you, I'm glad we agree.
you can pick one of the other phone call options now, I'm not going to make you work extra hard or click a lot to get back to the very first question
[[wow thanks, that's really considerate of you]]
you're welcome
[[your very first and most brutal crush]]
[[your first abusive ex]]
[[bad ending]]