You park your car close to the edge of the frozen lake. There's no wind, no visible sun. The clouds are a weak, pale gray. The lake is a weak, pale purple.
$when[=$next[=It's not a lake, though. It's your old friend, the Blob With A Face.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"2")You step gingerly with your snow boots. The ice looks as solid as a normal lake, but you know that, unlike water, the Blob With A Face can move on its own.
You start walking.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"3")You don't know where to walk, though.
You can't see where the Blob's face is, under the ice. You also know the Blob With A Face can move its face wherever it wants.
It probably doesn't matter, but you decide to:
* [[4c<-stay near the edge]]
* [[4b<-walk slightly far out]]
* [[4a<-walk all the way to the centre]]Each footstep takes you farther and farther from the shore.
This far out, the most wondrous feats were suddenly possible for you - leaping higher than a house, running faster than a train, rolling over and over down a never-ending hillside.
Whenever the Blob With A Face dragged you this far out to play with you, the knowledge of being at its mercy, offering your safety to a thing that was not human, of your trust in a friend being brought to the limit, always made your breath shallow.
Puffs of white breath flow from your nostrils as you continue walking.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"5")You walk forty steps out from the shore.
The first time you'd walked this far had been an accident. One summer's day, when the Blob With A Face was especially warm, after you'd finished running along its perimeter - the friend under your feet flowing ever forward, propelling you at unheard-of speeds, Olympic speeds, a down-escalator in every direction you strode - you stopped and caught your breath. Only then did you realise how far inward you'd ran - far farther than you'd agreed to ever walk on it.
The Blob With A Face tried to apologise, but you told it you were happy.
The ice under your boots is still and unmoving.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"5")In the end, you only take ten steps out.
This was as far as you were willing to walk on the Blob With A Face, on the first day you agreed to walk on it, before your trust grew. The feeling of it supporting your bare soles was indescribable. You stepped off quickly, but the feeling remained in your feet and knees for the rest of the day.
The ice under your boots only feels hard and smooth.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"5")You're carrying something with you. You brought:
* [[6a<-an ice axe]]
* [[6b<-an electric ice saw]]
* [[6c<-a hammer and chisel]]You grip the ice axe - an old attic relic that's probably older than you - and raise it, beak-forward, like it's a garden pick.
You hesitate, abruptly second-guessing how thick the ice must be, worrying about hurting the Blob With A Face - if not physically, then by disturbing it from rest. Then you remember what it once told you, that nothing you could do could ever hurt it, and your certainty returns.
You bring the axehead down. The force of impact passes through your arms. Harder than you'd expected. You pull the axe out of a small gash.
You bring it down again. Another gash, joining the first.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"7")You're still embarrassed at the moment you paid for this from the nearby town's hardware rental store. Your incoherent mumbling when they asked whether you were "fool enough to try ice fishing". They replied, darkly chuckling, that all the fish in these lakes had been dead for years - and would still be dead for many years yet.
The roar of the saw makes you impulsively worry about hurting the Blob With A Face under the ice, though you know the Blob With A Face has no skin to break, no flesh to cut, and claimed to have never felt pain.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"7")You realise soon enough, as you ring an unsteady rhythm of hammer-swings across the ice, that you really should have brought something actually designed to break lake ice. Or even looked up any information about breaking lake ice beforehand. Instead, you brought what you hoped would do, for ice you hoped was thin enough, for a meeting you hope, so dearly hope, will go as you need it to go.
You stare down at the coarse dent in the ice, your hands beginning to ache. You should just go back. You should just drive back, find a hardware store, get an ice saw, and come back tomorrow.
You can't. You hope, with all your might, that only a few more dents are enough to carve out a hole.
And so the sad ringing continues, clang after clang. Your hands promised relief after every swing, your self promised reward after every hit.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"7")Finally, you manage to pry a complete chunk of surface ice loose with your thick-gloved hands. You lift it – heavy – and place it and the tool aside.
Inside the hole, you see a darker purple surface. Not water, but something else.
$when[=$next[=Suddenly, the surface wobbles, and a face emerges. Two crevice eyes, one crevice mouth.
"It's yooooou!" your friend, the Blob With A Face, says.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"8")The hole you carved is so narrow, and the face it fits into it is so much smaller than you remember.
"It's me," you agree, settling into a squat, keeping your arms close. "I came to see you."
"But why?" asks the Blob With A Face.
You know why. But how much of it can you say?
* [[9a<-some of it]]
* [[9b<-very, very little]]"I just… it's just that, for me, this winter has been so long. I needed to talk to someone."
"You dug out a hole in the ice on me," the Blob With A Face inquires, "just to talk to someone?"
"I needed," you stammer, trying to unpick your own absurdity between breaths, "someone who I haven't grown afraid to talk to."
$when[=$next[=(goto:"10a")"I… was back in the state for this week, and I drove over here a few days ago… and I started wondering if you really were doing OK under this. I began worrying, and, it got to…" You gesture to the block of cut ice, though the Blob With A Face surely can't see it. "…where I had to do this."
The Blob With A Face, with its crevice eyes and crevice mouth, makes a gentle, scornful expression. "You didn't need to worry! I was just fine."
$when[=$next[=(goto:"10b")"Afraid to talk to?" the Blob With A Face tries to understand. "You're afraid to talk to people?"
You long to touch the Blob With A Face, but you know its body must be as cold as a real ice lake.
"I just needed… someone who doesn't know everything about me. Someone who's always been happy to see me, no matter what. Someone who I only have fond memories of." Simple memories, that haven't grown complicated.
"Well," the Blob With A Face slowly concludes, "I'm a someone like that! I'm happy to see you now! So your hard work hasn't gone to waste."
$when[=$next[=You remember the Blob With A Face would shudder and churn when making even the briefest remark. Here, encased under ice, its voice quieter than you remember, only its playful, lilting words remind you that it's the same person.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"11")"How long have you been awake under there?" you ask.
"Well, I don't sleep," the Blob With A Face says. "So, the whole time!"
"And you weren't bored? Lonely? Sad?"
"No, I never feel any of those feelings! I was just waiting. I wait every winter."
$when[=$next[=You remember the Blob With A Face would shudder and churn when making even the briefest remark. Here, encased under ice, its voice quieter than you remember, only its playful, lilting words remind you that it's the same person.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"11")Flecks of frost are gathering along the edge of the hole.
You want to ask the Blob With A Face one question in particular. The question is about:
* [[18<-our past]]
* [[15<-its past]]
* [[12<-its future]]You vividly recall so many of the times the Blob With A Face played with you. Standing on it while it poked your feet or dragged them apart, trying to make you tumble over. Chasing after lumps on its surface and stomping them triumphantly. Lying down and pretending to swim as it carried you from one edge to the other. And finally, going limp and letting it toss your body around like a beachball on ocean waves.
How special those memories were. And yet, you think as you look down through your crude, tiny hole at the Blob With A Face, how distant and small they feel now.
"Blob," you ask. "All those times we played together, you and I… did they make you happy?"
$when[=$next[=(goto:"19")"Blob," you ask, bringing up a topic you'd never raised before, "did you have any other friends, before me? With people like me?"
"Aah," the Blob With A Face murmurs. "Quite a few, actually! Each one longer ago than the last."
"Did they visit you in winter, too?"
"I told them they didn't have to! And, unlike you," the face stiffly rotates in the hole, "they didn't take the trouble to!"
"But," the Blob With A Face continues, "none of them came back after spring, either."
$when[=$next[=(goto:"16")"Blob," you ask, your voice wavering, "can you die?"
"Hmmm!" the Blob With A Face hums. "I don't know! No one's asked me before." It asks, sincerely, "Do you think I'm alive?"
"You speak," you reply. "You learn. You remember. You feel emotions. Yet, you don't need air, or energy, or food, or feel pain, or fear."
"I don't!" the Blob With A Face agrees, its face shifting left and right.
$when[=$next[=(goto:"13")"Didn't they?" you ask.
"Nope! I didn't miss them, though."
"Did you… miss me, while you were under the ice?"
"I saaaaid I wasn't lonely down here," the Blob With A Face repeats. "I didn't miss you. I was just waiting."
"That's OK…" you slowly say, feeling foolish. "I'm glad you weren't missing me. Because…" you pause.
$when[=$next[=You don't know why you paused. What's there to hide?
"…I missed you terribly."
$when[=$next[=(goto:"17")"Awww!" the Blob With A Face consoles you. "You shouldn't be missing me!"
"I… I don't know why," you murmur. "All you are is just a… a blob. All we did was play and bounce and roll around together, me on you. I know that's all you can ever be." You take in a deep breath of cold air. "All I can ever be. I know you don't– can't like me."
"Hey! I liked being with you!" the Blob With A Face says - a slightly sour note in its voice for the first time. "I had a lot of fun when we first met! And," it continues, "if you come back in spring, we can have a lot of fun again!"
$when[=$next[="Yes," you reply, blinking, noticing you're starting to shiver. "We can. We can."
$when[=$next[=(goto:"End")"So, maybe you live, but can't die," you continue. "Maybe, no matter what, you'll never die."
"I hope so!" the Blob With A Face remarks.
"Maybe, even after I've died–" (it is here the Blob's face grows a little smaller) "–after everything else I love has died, you'll still be alive."
$when[=$next[=(goto:"14")The Blob With A Face listens silently.
"That's… that's what I needed to know," you murmur, "right now." Your voice grows weaker.
"That somewhere, there's some little thing that can't die."
The hole is growing smaller. The Blob With A Face smiles warmly.
"That there's some tiny speck of good in this world that can't be taken away."
$when[=$next[=(goto:"End")
Far above, a gap in the clouds drifts past the sun, brightening the world for a moment, before it passes, and the world grows dim again.
=><=
###¶"Of course they made me happy!" the Blob With A Face beams. "Because I saw that they were making you happy. I was having fun because you were having fun."
"I'm glad," you reply. "And… you're right, Blob. I was so happy. But I didn't realise how happy those times had been, until long after they were gone. Not until this winter, when I thought of what happened to me, before and since."
"Blob…" you lean on both your arms, gloves pressed to the ice. "I wasn't just happy. Those were the happiest days of my life. The happiest days of my life were with you, and we never even knew."
$when[=$next[="And…" you continue, your voice softening, "I tried so hard to be that happy again. But I can't. I'll never feel that joy ever again."
$when[=$next[=(goto:"20")"Noooo!" The Blob With A Face gasps. "That's not true!"
"It's true," you mutter, a mutter that's almost a splutter. "I've forgotten how to feel happy. I've tried so many things, but nothing can make me happy again."
"…Well, even if you have forgotten," the Blob With A Face slowly replies, scrunching up in the hole, "if you come back in spring, I'll help you remember. We'll play together like we did all along, and it will be just as fun as before!"
"I, I really wish I could, Blob," you answer, slowed by the concern in the Blob With A Face's tiny voice. "But I've changed so much. So much… so much has happened to me. I can't be that person again. Never again."
$when[=$next[="Hey," the Blob With A Face firmly says, "I've changed too. I'm so different now. I can't move. I can't play. I can't roar. I can only talk. But every winter I change, and every spring I change back. You can, too!"
Its face grows as wide as the hole can fit, even as the gathering frost thickens, even as your vision starts to swim. "I know you can."
$when[=$next[=(goto:"End"){(set: $next to (click:?page))
(set: $when to (event: when time > 1s)+(t8n:"dissolve")+(t8n-time:0.8s))
(enchant: ?link, (text-color:blue+white))}