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<<silently>>\n<<set $stare = $stare + 1>>\n<<endsilently>>\n<<if $stare eq 1>>\nThe depths appear to go on forever.\n\n[[Keep staring|Stare]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $stare eq 2>>\nIt's vaguely hypnotic.\n\n[[Keep staring|Stare]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $stare eq 3>>\nThe inky blacknees seems to stare back.\n\n[[Keep staring|Stare]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $stare eq 4>>\nEverything else seems so small in the face of the void.\n\n[[Keep staring|Stare]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $stare eq 5>>\nIt's beginning to feel unnerving.\n\n[[Keep staring|Stare]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $stare eq 6>>\nIt's just too much.\n\n[[Keep staring|Stare]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $stare eq 7>>\nAny further and there's no turning back.\n\n<<endif>>\n[[Go back|Back]]

The cue ball fits easily in the cavity but it is cold and dense.\n\nAn orange is in the fruit bowl.\n\n[[Try the orange|Orange]]

The popular rendering of a heart is anatomically improbable. The cardboard crumples at the edges, the chocolates are half-eaten and sold on clearance, it will never fit.\n\n[[Move on|Next]]

The obvious things do not work.\n\nA cue ball peeks out from under the couch.\n\n[[Move on to unusual solutions|Unusual]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $nothing = 0>>\n<<endsilently>>\nThe toaster produces pop tarts that are singed on one end and barely cooked on the other. Rain spatters gently on the windowpane. It’s a Tuesday.\n\n[[Eat pop tarts|Eat]]\n[[Watch the rain|Watch]]\n[[Do nothing|Nothing]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $taken = "yes">>\n<<endsilently>> \nThe body is neither light nor heavy, limp nor stiff. It fits comfortably on the couch in the front room. \n\nThe void in her chest is hypnotic.\n\n[[Examine hole|Examine]]\n[[Try to fill the void|Fill]]

Easily nesteling into the hole, the orange is juicy and alive but fruit is incompatable with the cardiovacular system.\n\nA bunch of bananas were under the orange.\n\n[[Try the bananas|Bananas]]

Hope is a cliche for a reson. It is almost everywhere and it almost always works. Those rare times where it isn't and it doesn't are truely hopeless.\n\nThis isn't one of those times.\n\nJust a little more of a lot.\n\n[[Fill it with everything|Everything]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $nothing = $nothing + 1>>\n<<endsilently>>\n<<if $nothing eq 1>>The sound is coming from the door. it begins as a light rapping and escalates into a full on knock.\n\n[[Open the Door|Open]]\n[[Do Nothing|Listen]]<<endif>>\n<<if $nothing eq 2>>The knocking escalates to a pounding on the door.\n\n[[Open the Door|Open]]\n[[Do Nothing|Listen]]<<endif>>\n<<if $nothing eq 3>>The pounding continues to increase in volume and severity.\n\nIt is almost unbearable.\n\n[[Open th Door|Open]]\n[[Do Nothing|Listen]]<<endif>>\n<<if $nothing eq 4>>The sound is unbearable.\n\nWhat could be responsible for such a thing?\n\n[[Open the Door|Open]]<<endif>>

The toaster produces pop tarts that are singed on one end and barely cooked on the other. Rain spatters gently on the windowpane. It’s a Tuesday.\n\nThere is a knock at the door.\n

In the nothingness facing the void everything is tinged with pain. It's somthing to hold onto when there is nothing else.\n\nThis is almost enough.\n\n[[Fill it with hope|Hope]]

Joy is a bitter pill when taken in the light of nothingness. However, it still brightens even the darkest void.\n\nThis too is not enough.\n\n[[Fill it with pain|Pain]]

The raindrops leave delacate trails on the window.\n\nA gentle rapping eminates from somewhere.\n\n[[Listen|Listen]]

A pitcher of water sits on the counter next to the sink.\n\n[[Try the water|Water]]

The water sloshes in, dampening her clothes before draining out into nothingness.\n\nPerhaps actual fluid was a bit too literal.\n\nNothing else seems to be at hand.\n\n[[Turn around|Turn]]

The reciever produces nothing but dialtone. The ringing continues.\n\n[[Answer the banana|Banana Phone]]

A gentle rapping eminates from somewhere.\n\n[[Listen|Listen]]

Tuesday.

The pop tarts are still hot from the toaster. The molten filling burns a little.\n\nA gentle rapping eminates from somewhere.\n\n[[Listen|Listen]]

Tears spatter her clothing. \n\nDripping into the void, their chemical composition of water, protiens, and other substances have little effect.\n\nTheir metaphorical payload yields better results.\n\n[[Get emotional|Emotional]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $ignore = $ignore + 1>>\n<<endsilently>>\n<<if $ignore eq 1>>\nThe ringing continues.\n\n[[Ignore it|Ignore]]\n<<endif>> \n<<if $ignore eq 2>>\nThe ringing continues.\n\n[[Ignore it|Ignore]]\n<<endif>> \n<<if $ignore eq 3>>\nThe ringing is incessant.\n\n[[Ignore it|Ignore]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $ignore eq 4>>\nThe ringing begins to be grating.\n\n[[Ignore it|Ignore]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $ignore eq 5>>\nThe world ceases to be anything but ringing.\n\n[[Ignore it|Ignore]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $ignore eq 6>>\nring.\n\n[[Ignore it|Ignore]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $ignore eq 7>>\nRing.\n\n[[Ignore it|Ignore]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $ignore eq 8>>\nRING.\n\n[[Ignore it|Ignore]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $ignore gte 9>>\nRING!\n\n[[Ignore it|Ignore]]\n<<endif>>\n\n[[Pickup the phone|Phone]]\n

There is nothing. The door, the room, all gone.\n\nAll that exists is emptiness.\n\nEmptiness and her.\n\nShe of the replacable heart.\n\n[[Cry|Cry]]

Sadness is a salve. Salthered upon the void it seems to dull the edge.\n\nThis alone is not enough.\n\n[[Fill it with joy|Joy]]

The obvious things are easily at hand, heart shaped and heart-like in appelation.\n\nA jar of marinated artichoke hearts sits on the kitchen counter.\n\n[[Try artichoke heart|Artichoke]]

The unlimeted backness of the void in her chest is contrasted by the stark white emptiness that surrunds everything.\n\nThere is nothing else.\n\nThe competing nothings threaten to erase everything.\n\n[[Fill it with sadness|Sadness]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $taken = "no">>\n<<endsilently>>\n“You’ll have to replace her heart” he says. And with the affliction named it suddenly becomes obvious; there is a hole, a void, in her chest.\n\n[[Examine the hole|Examine]]\n[[Take her|Take]]\n

As a bunch the bananas don't easily fit. By themselves they sit awkwarly.\n\nSomething is ringing.\n\n[[Anser the phone|Phone]]\n[[Ignore it|Ignore]]

Nothing and everything are coexistant; like life flashing before one's eyes in the moment before death. \n\nThere is a rush of sound and vision so dark it blinds with brightness, so loud it deafens with silence.\n\nIn linear swirl of ordered chaos there is only her.\n\nShe with the replaced heart.\n\nShe of the closed void.\n\nHer eyes open.\n\n[[And then.|Then]]

<<if $taken eq "no">>\nThe man is still holding the body on the porch. He seems to have grown weary\n\n[[Take body|Take]]\n<<endif>>\n<<if $taken eq "yes">>\nThe body lies lifeless on the couch. The void in her chest seems to emit a barely audible howl.\n\n[[Try to fill the void|Fill]]\n<<endif>>

The lettuce is cool and crisp and uncontrolably leafy. It sits there in the hole as it sat in the fridge; ineffectual and slowly decaying.\n\nThere is a heart shaped box of chocolates on the coffee table.\n\n[[Try the chocolates|Chocolates]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $stare = 0>>\n<<endsilently>>\nThe hole is a deep, black, and impossibly round. One could get lost in it.\n\n[[Keep looking|Stare]]\n[[Go back|Back]]

The marinated artichoke hearts are slick with oil. They slip and slide and disappear into the void to no effect.\n\nA heart of lettuce is in the crisper drawer.\n\n[[Try heart of lettuce|Lettuce]]

The man's voice comes through the end of the banana.\n\n"Oranges and bananas? What's next, grapes? You'll have to do better than that. Be more fluid in your thoughts."\n\nThere is a click and the banana goes silent.\n\n[[Think fluidly|Fluid]]

Brian Easton

A man is standing on the porch just beyond the doorway. He doesn’t appear old but nonetheless seems weary, the weight of a woman slung in his arms. Her skin has taken on an almost waxy sheen.\n\n[[Listen|Listenman]]\n[[Talk|Listenman]]

The house is filled with objects that might fit.\n\n[[Try the obvious|Obvious]]