It's probably to the VN's credit that I've found it intriguing enough to revisit multiple times in hopes that it'd connect with me just a bit better. And I do like many things about it: there are a lot of excellent lines, each scene communicates a mood very well, and the minimalist story and its equally minimalist presentation only come off as purposefully so. (Customizing the text box for a game less than 1000 words long counts for a lot in regards to the impression of intentionality it creates.) The shader effects I can't talk about because they didn't work on my computer.

In the end, though, the VN remains something I respect more than like. The ending is not the part I take issue with, at least by itself – and, as a sidenote, I love how the incomplete title foreshadows it – but I'm not sure how well it works with the rest of the story also being so elliptical and, in particular, the precise shape of the omissions. It plays with the ideas of the reader having no idea what's going on and the characters having gaps in their knowledge, but how these two factors meet creates a separation that distances the reader from the text rather than pulling them in.

What feels like a key line reads: "No, words alone won't never do." (sic) But in the conclusion, we not only don't get the words but are also deprived of the other thing – conveying the flow of the conversation through the other character's expressions is a good device I don't think ultimately does anything here without more context about what they're actually talking about. The anticlimax would feel stronger if there was something more tangible to hold on to before it happened; why they're meeting and what's at stake is sketched very loosely even accounting for the STD metaphor. I continue the appreciate the author's unique, experimental works, but this one did less for me than the others I've read so far.