Inseparable

Well.... The introduction to this story about an entirely natural and beautiful love certainly uh... peaked my interest. "You thrust one final time, your ragged cry of release filling the air and startling a pair of birds overhead." Certainly a very pointed beginning that opened hard and fast.

Joking aside, the birds make this birds and the bees scene IMMERSIVE, and if I'm anything, it's an immersion fiend.

That said, the protagonist responding to sex with, "Thank you" made me pull out—er, pulled me out of it. Back when I played that AI text game that was posted here a few years ago, when I tricked the AI into writing explicit scenes, the characters always said, "Thank you" after an orgasm. But that's a minor complaint (fortunately Mondy was not a minor, because, well, the protagonist's degeneracy was already high enough, which I found out later. Mind you, that degeneracy made this story awesome, so....).

Now in all seriousness, this story carried a pure SORROW in it, which I fed off of like a crazed wraith. It starts with the guarded acceptance of the protagonist's relationship with Mondy, but then evolves into pure homophobia. Nothing lubes up good old-fashioned bigotry like disease, and as one would predict, the citizens no doubt blamed the two for the plague.

Soon they all disappeared, and then we get to the heart of the story: the remnants of the village. I LOVE liminal spaces, and this section of the story as nothing BUT liminal spaces. They are perfect for reminiscing, for dealing with unresolved demons, and or exposition. Mizal absolutely killed it here. The protagonist walks through a ghost town, haunted by his own memories, past grievances, guilt, shame, and nostalgic longing. I really lost myself in this part of the story, jokes aside. It was very well done.

But all of that seemed a strange juxtaposition to the sex. I remember thinking, why in the world am I clapping Mondy's cheeks when he hasn't even recovered yet? Selfish af. Of note: because of the loops, you can baste his cleft for eternity—although by the time I got to the end of the story, I wouldn't recommend it.

Which brings me to the twist. I had thought the protagonist a mere victim of homophobia, and the town the victim of God's ire (and clearly it wasn't punishment for homosexuality, I figured, since Mondy was still well enough to get his canal cleaned.... but in hindsight, perhaps I was wrong?). Instead, it's much worse. Our hero is so utterly, emotionally obliterated that he's been mucking out the stables of a corpse.

Based on what I found in one of the endings, he's not just driven mad. There comes a point where he is aware of what he was doing. Corpses can't consent, so not only is it necrophilia, it's rape. And he's doing it to the one he loves. Of course, the details of this ethical dilemma aren't spelled out in the story, but it's clear he feels it in that ending. But perhaps it was Mondy's corpse ripping apart that snaps him out of it.

Grief is a very powerful thing. Especially if you've been lonely you're whole life, and been treated as an outsider. Added guilt at what he believes he could have and should have done to save Mondy no doubt compounded the emotional devastation, and the final result is just ugly.

But it's ugly in a very beautiful way. And that's why this game is great. Not only is it a look into a liminal, long since dead space (the town, the protagonist's life), it's a deep study in absolute, ultimate, PROFOUND loneliness. That was what I felt more than disgust, humor or shock at the end. In fact, as I was reading this story, I might have chuckled just once, at the beginning. For the rest of it, I was arrested by the rotting scent of desolation and denial.

Which brings me to my preferred ending: laying in the snow and accepting it. Kissing Mondy and embracing the end, finally. That is where the story should end, I feel, because there really was nothing alive in the protagonist. Even his soul itself was a liminal space, with only his connection to memory keeping him alive. What better way to die than with that burning ember?

And so, I recommend this one. It's short, sweet (in a sour way), and has a nice twist (which I've utterly spoiled here, of course). Two rotting necrophiliac thumbs up!

Inseparable was a fantastic story!

Unfolding different parts of the story as you visit different locations in the village was a really effective storytelling technique. Inseparable tells the story of 2 lovers, Mirk and Mondy, giving us a short glimpse into their lives. We play as Mirk, who's exploring his surroundings and as he does so, thinks about his past.

The start of the story was captivating, as we are immediately thrust(pun-intended) right in the midst of a sex scene, which is a bold choice but the author pulls it off.

From there, we find out that Mondy has an incurable disease, and is weak and bed-ridden. This is an interesting premise that immediately grabs the audience's attention. Right from the get-go, we're already invested in their love story.

As Mirk travels from place to place, we learn more about him, Mondy, and their lives through his stream of thoughts. Some places bring up memories of sadness, other places bring up memories of his love with Mondy, and so on and so forth.

This was a risky approach, primarily because switching back and forth from the past to the present could cause lags in the story because authors might focus too much on the past, resulting in the audience losing interest as the flashback drags on and on. But that was not the case here. The author keeps the flashbacks short and poignant, with each sentence really hitting audiences in the feels.

Each place in the village carries different memories, and each place really seems authentic. I could really imagine and envision what these places must have been like within the context of the disease wreaking havoc on the village. We see how the different locations were before the disease and after, which is really hard to pull off as a writer.

This story game was also a fantastic example of LGBTQ+ representation. There are very few LGBTQ+ stories on the site, and Inseparable is easily one of the finest examples of a gay relationship done right. Mirk is a 3-dimensional, fleshed out character that isn't just a stereotype or token representation, but a real gay man. The author took some care to show the depth of love Mirk has for Mondy.

Another really fascinating aspect of this story is how the author showcased the very real phenomenon where communities ostacrize marginalized groups when disaster strikes. This is something that has happened throughout history, when a group of people go through significant hardships, subgroups that were historically treated with disdain are now painted as the scapegoats and receive much more hate. This was a really important theme of Inseparable, and is also a really interesting instance of verbal irony, since the title of the story is "Inseparable", yet at the first sign of hardship, everybody from the priest to the housewives in the communal kitchen ostacrized the 2 lovers. It's really tragic how the village has a communal kitchen that, even in present day after the plague already struck, still had hot stew and potatoes available for the taking, yet that small bit of compassion couldn't be shown to 2 individuals who had done nothing wrong besides be gay.

I really enjoyed the insertion of the Emily Dickinson poem, the presence of items in this story was few and far between, so the one item that appears(poem) must be of significant literary significance. "Years had I been from Home" is a famous poem by Dickinson that beautifully offers a thematic parallel to Mirk visiting the village in the first time for a long time(for he and Mondy had moved to a home removed from the rest of the village after Mirk sold his stuff to pay for Mondy's treatment) as this poem is also about a speaker who comes back to home after a long time and experiences fright at the change that happened while she was gone. The poem shows how the narrator is more and more frightened of the home, with Dickinson making the home into a character of its own, questioning and accusing the narrator of what business they have there, until the narrator runs away out of fright. That was a masterful and intentional choice of poetry to enhance the overall story, because the plague/sickness wrought great change in the village, because so many people had left so the village became dead and as a result, the survivors were intolerant and homophobic.

I really enjoyed the suspense that the author builds when you try to visit the abandoned house, where the author keeps rerouting you back to the village by saying "You don't want to visit this place", naturally making us keep trying to get there. That was a unique piece of storytelling that led us to the final piece of the puzzle being revealed, how Mondy and Mirk got to where they are now, because Mirk sold his family home, business, furniture and everything to keep Mondy alive, at least for a bit longer.

Finally the multiple endings. They were all tragic, but tastefully done. Ultimately the endings were bittersweet(barring the one where you choose to abandon Mondy and then commit suicide, that was really sad), and they really stayed with me even after I finished the story.

I'll give this one an 8/8. The writing was incredibly well done, it was a very believable and heart touching love story with deep and complex themes. I don't know how it could be improved, it was really well done.

The following sums up what the core of the story is: ... warm memories of the time you had together flood your brain. You take them with you when you go.

Visiting the detailed locations in the story's setting, each location told a story of its own and you can appreciate the detail that went into crafting how each piece fit together to form the whole.

The search mechanic rewards the player by allowing them to discover even more in each location and this is a good devise to impart the little details that make such exploration worthwhile.

I do think the story would benefit by having the ability to circle back around each location, in case the player wants to revisit some of the warm and caring memories that all come together in the end.

If I had to go negative, it would be that I wanted more. More about the procedure done, more about the debt collectors and more about the special relationship between mother and son-in-law.

This might have made the story a bit larger, so I realize this suggestion may be out of the scope for its intended audience.

I can just imagine the angry puritans from the church, all gathering outside the poor men's house with torches and pitch forks, chanting, "It's Mork and Mindy, not Mirk and Mondy!"

Got to say, I was very surprised by the twist at the end. I congratulate you for giving End a run for his money in terms of edginess... Still, I found the relationship between the two men to be very sweet, and for some reason I couldn't really think badly of Mirk, even at the end. Poor little bugger. :(

Also, incredibly impressed with Mirk's stamina, since at the beginning, you have the option to just repeatedly make love to Mondy as many times as you like in a row without stopping... I guess when you love someone that much, your passion just goes on forever. (Also, very impressed with how well he was... "preserved"... Both inside and out. They must be some potent embalming oils.) ^_^

I think my favourite part what the abandoned building in the woods... By the third time I had to click on it, I was practically ripping my hair out with anticipation. I was like... "What? What's in there? What happened? This had better be fucking good!" ... And it was. I definitely didn't see that coming.

Reading through the comments has got me having second thoughts about the whole story now. I mean originally, I assumed the church and the mother turned against Mirk and Mondy's relationship because "God hates fags" and all that... But now I'm wondering what order everything happened in... I mean, after your son brings his recently embalmed lover over for Sunday dinner, even the most understanding mother is going to raise an eyebrow. :p

Any way, to sum up... Not exactly sure if it's what you intended, but this was a really sweet love story... I mean, yeah, it was incredibly fucked up, yet still, while the relationship wasn't described in a massive amount of detail, it came across very nicely just how happy the two of them were together... And I'm sure Mondy would have appreciated knowing that their love was strong enough to transcended even death itself. ^_^

This altered my neural connections. I have so many questions, and yet all of my questions have been answered.

Thank you for stabbing me so deeply in the heart. I would have screamed, but I made the mistake (?) of reading this at 4am.

Being gay in an abandoned town sounds nice right about now.

Long, but fun

WHAT. I laughed, cried and was kicking my feet all within like 10 minutes?! that- that was art.

🥀

7/8 - I really loved the sad ending which I got.