####################################################
########## LOOP ONE WEEK TWO ACTIVITY END ##########
####################################################

label loop_two_week_two_activityend:


    "Your midday excursion well-concluded and behind you, it’s time to retreat back to the hollowed halls of your home to take shelter."

    jake "..."

    "Despite all of your intentions, the day did end up a bit of a wash, didn’t it. The trip to the (dog park/coffee shop/cinemaplex) only doubled down on everything that’d been bugging you. You played your hand, not knowing your sauve opponent Discontent was sitting on some pocket aces, ready to take the whole pot."

    jake "..."

    "Before heading upstairs, you decide to check your much neglected mailbox. Though by now, you can’t imagine anything squashed in that metal contraption likely to lift your mood."

#(SFX: metally openy/shutty noises?)

    "Maybe you should have just gone back to bed. It just doesn’t seem right that this is so difficult. You’re like a strip of velcro just collecting fuzz and shit instead of making any real connections."

    jake "... What is even the matter with me?"
    jake "This surely cant be such an Sisyphean feat to find someone to add to the old roster of chums and dames."
    jake "I am burstin at the seams full of tales of venture and fortune. I like cheese and fancy films and can cut a rug. I think im a decent tier face-wise."
    jake "Why doesnt anyone want to come and get a load!"
    jake "What has Gere got that I dont? Is Witherspoon a more alluring playmate than I am?"
    jake "How is it that Mcconaugheys gotten the girl a dozen times and I not a once?"

    "You yank your bent up letters and parcels out of your box. Oh, look, another brochure for another trip abroad. You’ve done a dozen of these things and what’ve you got to show for it?"

    "A spiffing, incredible adventure feels a lot less important without someone to share it with or at least tell it to."

    jake "Life isnt a movie but is it so unreasonable for a guy to want that? To just *once* turn a corner and wham bam thank you maam walk right into someone special?!"

    "SLAM! You swing the little hatch shut. It bounces back at you, so you sigh and shut it again, this time locking it up good and proper."

    dirkhidden "Uh. I can come back."

    "Oh cheese and fucking crackers, someone overheard your lunatic ramblings. Someone you share residency with! How utterly mortifying."
    "You wince and turn to see who you’ve gone and given this whole one man show to."

    jake ".... !!"

    "Who is this."
    "Who is this fetching stranger lurking in the stairwell."
    "It hits you like a Babe Ruth slammer to the dome."

    jake "*gasp* The choice babe."

    dirkchoicebabe "... Excuse me?"
    dirkchoicebabe "Nevermind. You seem… busy. I’ll grab my mail later."

    jake "NO HANG ON."

    "That arrests the bloke mid-turn, score one for English. However, now you need to continue this conversation that you’ve gone and snipped the parachute of. There’s no escape now."

    jake "Sorry. We… havent met right? I think id remember crossing your path."

    dirkchoicebabe "No. I keep to myself most of the time."

    "He seems to think about it very hard before stepping off the stairs and taking out his key, going to check his own mailbox."
    "His hair smells like orange blossom and sandalwood. This is just like the movies! No one actually smells like orange blossom and sandalwood outside of movies!"
    "In the words of Chili Palmer, {i}be cool{/i}, English."

    jake "If Im to deduce from what ive heard in the grapevine then you must be the gentleman on the second floor."

    dirkchoicebabe "Grapevine? Must be some persistent species, in this climate."

    jake "HA well just some whispers ive heard. Got everyone up in a stir trying to suss out what exactly you get up to in the wee hours of the morn."

    "He nearly butterfingers his keys right to the floor before snapping them back up. Reflexes like a snake, that one."

    dirkchoicebabe "You heard that?"

    "Now that you’ve gotten a load of the midnight mayhem, you think everyone in the building’s heard it, or at least felt the seismic activity coming from this fellow from the second floor."
    "But he looks all discombobed about it. Best be kind about it."

    jake "Oh only a bit! I recently got back from the mediterranean so I’ve noticed it once or twice!"

    dirkchoicebabe "But other people have noticed it too. And they’re discussing it."

    jake "Its nothing to worry about! We’re just curious about what a fine fellow like you gets up to in the middle of the night."
    jake "PLATONICALLY."

    dirkchoicebabe "Whoa, what?"
    dirkchoicebabe "Look."

    "Oh. Not again. You can’t keep your face from falling."
    "You’ve gone and served up a heaping platter of your own foot right to your mouth, haven’t you."

    dirkchoicebabe "I’m sorry about the noise and I’ll…"
    dirkchoicebabe "I can’t promise it won’t happen again, but regardless of how this shakes out, it should stop soon."
    dirkchoicebabe "..."

    "What a haunted expression on that fine face."

    jake "I dont mean to be a bother but are you alright there mister…"

    dirkchoicebabe "I’ll be fine."
    dirkchoicebabe "..."
    dirkchoicebabe "Nice meeting you."

    jake "My names Jake!"

    "YOU HAVE TO STOP."

    "But the choice babe stills long enough to look back at you."

    dirkchoicebabe "Strider. Dirk Strider."
    dirk "Later."

    "He even did the smooth James Bond thing. Yowza."

    "Compared to earlier, that almost went well. Compared to how things usually go for you, it was a right damned social miracle."

    "It's a shame to watch him go. A little like watching some fiend make off with a stolen trinket while you’re helpless to stop them."

    "Except you don’t know this guy, so that feeling makes no sense. Your intuition feels like its stumbling dizzily off a carnival ride, and you haven’t the foggiest why."

    "That will have to be a mystery for another day. Maybe the next time you stagger into the path of Mr. Strider."

    "Oh, and you’ve got another issue of Shorts Illustrated! The day’s really turning about, isn’t it?"
    
    jump wip

return



##################################
########## MISC CODE #############
##################################

label wip:
    "that's it! if you've made it to this section, that means I havent programmed this far yet, or we've caught up to the script! Wowie!"
    "as a reward"
    "here's some dirk talking since he's yet to actually properly show up"
    dirk "..."
    dirk "Uh."
    dirk "Okay."
    jake "*wink*"
    dirk "......................."
    dirk "here is some text just so you cna hear the sweet sultry blips of dirk's sound font"
    dirk "beep beep bop beep. blip bop. skibby doo wap. ha cha cha. shooby shooby doo wop wop"
    jake "oh boy!"
    dirkhidden "this is how he'll look when he's in shadow when you first meet him"
    dirkhidden "oooooo~ the mystique"
    dirkchoicebabe "this is how he'll look before jake learns his name"
    dirkchoicebabe "bask in his babe.......... ness......"
    dirkchoicebabe "this is why i dont words holy fucking shit"
    dirkchoicebabe "the name for this particular variable is dirkchoicebabe and i am okay with this"
    dirk "and this is when he's appearing again"
    jake "this is what its going to sound like when these two dinguses have a conversation"
    dirk "......................................"    
    jake "......................................"    
    dirk "......................................"    
    jake "......................................"    
    dirk "......................................"    
    jake "......................................"    
    "okay we're done here"
    
return
    
label loop_one_dirk_number:
    "Wow there's no reason for you to be here!"
    "If you are reading this, that means I programmed something wrong!"
return

label jake_diary_unlock:
    "Wow there's no reason for you to be here!"
    "If you are reading this, that means I programmed something wrong!"
    
return

return