“I was trying to find a familiar face in the window across the street…”

Vancouver Wheather Cycle, aka “I was trying to find a familiar face in the window across the street…”

A short story about self-reflection and tenderness that straddles the line between the grounded and the divine

For my cycle game, I turned to my Magpie Book ‘Cycle Week’ and chose a ‘Vancouver Wheather Cycle’ consisting of four stages: 

1. Notice it’s raining
2. Grab an umbrella
3. Get wet cause the umbrella was broken by the wind
4. Go home and drink tea

Meaning gap and the thematic argument:

This cycle is quite simple and straightforward, and that's why I was interested in taking it to create an engaging story with a significant meaning gap. While the cycle is about Vancouver's rainy weather, the story pushes it to another level, adding multiple layers of meaning.  My favorite way to cope with challenges, emotions, and feelings is to reflect on them on paper. Since childhood, I have been talking to myself with the paper and the pen. There's a certain magic to it. It lies in absolute honesty and vulnerability. With this seemingly basic cycle, I wanted to create a story that would convey this feeling of tenderness I experience during self-reflection when writing on paper.  The story immerses the reader in the life of the protagonist, who went through a lot of severe psychological trauma, and one day, he closed himself off from the outside world. Instead, he invented a whole world for himself.  To avoid feeling the pain of loss, he began to communicate with people only in his imagination. It was an obsession with the image.  Through this short story, I wanted to emphasize how easy it is to get lost, to get lost in the world of one's imagination, not realizing reality, and not wanting to come back to it.  This story touches on trauma, fears, and human emotions, and thus, I want to give the reader space for self-reflection through this piece.

Craft elements:

Talking about the ‘what’ and ‘hows’ of the game and its ‘ingredient list,’ I will highlight three crucial craft elements of this game, namely POV or narration, structure, and plot. The story is told in the first person to emphasize the idea that all action takes place on paper as an act of self-reflection. The structure is cyclical, starting and ending in the same place. To justify this structure, I used a technique that blurs the boundaries between the written and the real in the plot, bringing the reader back to the moment of the desire to sit at the typewriter and start the process of thinking and crafting. 

Playtesting:

Talking about feedback, I chose three people to playtest it.

Questions:

• What did you like about the game, and what you didn’t? 
• How did you interact with your expectations from the game? 

1. Alina

She/her; Participates in the CRWR 312 course. 

Alina loved the game's self-reflection aspect, specifically the twist that the plot existed at the threshold between real and magical, written and happening. She told me it would be interesting to push it further, adding details and plot twists. She was surprised by the meaning gap of the seemingly ordinary cycle. To improve my game, I added more context by rethinking my character's background and some crucial details.

2. Luca

He/him; Participates in the CRWR 312 course.

Luca also enjoyed the gap in meaning and the interactive element of naming the character of affection. He loved the game and its ambiguity of interpretations of the game.  While he offered thoughts about developing the idea for a more extensive scope, he revered its effectiveness as a draft piece. 

3. Eugen

He/him; Does not participate in the CRWR 312 course.

As a player outside of the CRWR course, Eugen was surprised by the almost unrelated story to the name of the cycle and its headings. He said it is well-written and includes an exciting plot twist and a thought-provoking narrative. He also mentioned that the game was particularly striking because of its cycling nature and the idea of writing (or rather typing) that can be traced through the narrative. Eugen expected to see more interactions with other characters within the story. Nevertheless, I chose not to intervene in the protagonist's inner world for the sake of the idea of this particular piece.