Story Text

Skyle was sleeping, curled up like a cat. She slept long after solving a
shadow everytime, as if to replenish the witchy energy she overdrew
for the case.

The girl learned that the divorce would not change how much she loved
her dad. It was true that mom didn't want to be with dad, but she didn't
have to adopt her mom's feeling. Her feeling belonged to her. She loved
him, and she knew that he felt the same.

Watching Skyle, I wondered whether I had a shadow. If I had one, would
I want her to know about it? What if mine was unsolvable? I felt that
if I were to have a problem, I wouldn't want her to worry. It wouldn't
worth her while. Really, it wouldn't.

I noticed that Skyle was awake. She had that puzzled expression again.
That can't be, she just finished a shadow, not another one already...

She ask: "If I were ugly, would you have talked to me?"

I said:

a) It wouldn't matter at all.
b) What do you mean? You aren't exactly hot.
c) Probably not.
d) Probably not--and I won't know what I missed.
e) Actually I would more be afraid of beautiful people.
f) It depends. If you owed me money I wouldn't care.

Variation

So far the player knows a shadow after Skyle had discovered it.
This time I show Skyle talking to the shadow during the encounter.
The following is the outline.

Shadow: The one that can't exist

0.1 - Skyle is in someone's mind, paying attention to symbols in the mind
0.2 - Skyle hears singing and discovers a shadow
0.3 - Skyle tries to hide but the shadow understands what Skyle is
0.4 - The shadow talks to Skyle about the situation the owner faces
0.5 - Shadow tells Skyle not to worry because the shadow is used to the problem
0.7 - Skyle explains that she can't ignore it
0.9 - The shadow suggests that she can, if she tries.
1.0 - Scene changes to the Narrator's perspective.

Story Text

Normally I wouldn't go to a fastfood restaurant, at least not alone.
But every once a while, I would have a craving for fries. Perhaps
I eat too little salt and oil when I cook myself.

If a stomach growls when it is hungry, then perhaps my occasional
craving is a similar signal, telling me what I need.

No, it could't be. There was no way that my body would think fries
from a fastfood restaurant was good for me. It must be me who
wanted it, perhaps to invoke a certain sensation or memory.

The mind is a double-edge sword. It lets us reason, but also gives
us irrational habits, even if they are harmful.

It was almost my turn to order when I noticed that Skyle was sitting
on the park lawn outside. She didn't see me.

I...

a) Leave the line and go to her
b) Get my fries first, then go to her
c) Get two meals, one for myself, one for her
d) Get an ice cream sundae and two spoons, and go to her
e) Get an order of fries and a salad, then go to her
f) Pretend not to notice

Story Text

Skyle asked me whether I minded her worrying about shadows. I told her that I didn't. I thought she was doing a good thing. Since she told me about shadow for the first time, I believed that I also had one. I didn't tell her before, because I thought that it was minor. But it was perpetual, that made it a shadow. I told her:

"I don't want to call home until I have good news. It always seem that it would come the next day. But days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. I want to call, but I had waited for so long. It should be any hour, any minute now, why not wait just a little longer?

"Then I realized that it is a shadow, because I know that even if I get good news tomorrow and call, the same situation will happen again, when I will have a bigger goal, waiting for better news."

Skyle...

a) Said that I was inconsiderate.
b) Told me to wait another day, then call.
c) Told me to call because they must also have shadows.

Character Design

The one that isn't a shadow

Skyle re-enters a mind that she had forgotten. She was about to leave after seeing everything being fine, but a shadow stopped her. Skyle doesn't remember the shadow. The shadow de-hypnotizes Skyle. Skyle gets mad at the shadow that hypnotized her. The shadow apologizes and asks Skyle for forgiveness. Skyle comments that the shadow looks different from a normal shadow, because while it lingers in the mind, it is not particularly sad. The entity says that a problem with no solution isn't really a problem, but a fact that needs to be coped with. Skyle accepts her view, but wonders what she should be called since she is so different from a shadow. Then...

Story Text

I had been having a strange feeling since I solved my shadow. It was a peaceful, quiet, confidence that I could solve any shadow that I might find in myself. There was no desires, hatred or fear. There was but an open acceptance of the surrounding. I accepted, because I knew that the solution of a shadow is found within, regardless of the circumstance. This must be what people call inner peace.

Usually, a story ends when all problems are solved, but life goes on.

As I was listening to the winter rain outside, I realized that I had never forseen or prepared myself for the day when I found inner peace.

Don't people find it only when they get old? Or when they are about to die?
What am I supposed to do with inner peace, now that I've found it?

I:

a) Look for entertainment
b) Enjoy it while it lasts
c) Reach out to strangers
d) Call a friend
e) Ask the audience
f) 50/50

Story Text:
The one that calls dinner

It had been two months since we last met. Nothing much had changed since. Skyle was still the braided girl in a flat cap, in the wheat field.
I couldn't tell which of us was there first. Perhaps she had always been there, I just didn't stop to notice. I said to Skyle:

"I thought of a problem. I don't think it is a shadow, but it had been bothering me for some time."

"Ok..."

"I was at my sister's house when I noticed that usually she needed to call dinner a few times before her husband and I would get to the table...
It is too trivial to be a shadow, isn't it?"

Skyle said: "Hmm..."

a) Did you not hear her?
b) Why can't you get seated right away?
c) Do you like your sister?.
d) Were you not hungry?
e) Do you like her cooking?
f) Is she upset about it?