1. Did believing you could play this only once impact how you made decisions?
Not exactly? My first playthrough of any game I play like those (especially shorter text based games), I primarily make the choices based on what I feel/what I would do. I'm never really trying to reach some specific goal on a first playthrough, it's primarily gut instinct for me. So I don't think believing I would only have one chance to play changed that for me much.
2. What do SAL and Ash look like in your mind? Did you mentally assign a gender to either or both characters?
I imagined Ash as a pretty androgynous, maybe leaning a little bit towards feminine? I had a pretty clear image of them in my mind, but I didn't really mentally assign them a gender. SAL I didn't have as clear of an image of. I think I mostly just viewed them as a computer screen with green text because that's how the game looks lmao.
3. What choices did you make? How did your game end?
I had my SAL be pretty blunt about them feeling they are not capable of loving Ash, but also open to the things that Ash was saying about them believing SAL to be capable. By the end they decided to keep talking it through tomorrow, and give them both some time to think things through.
4. What did you like and dislike about this game?
I really enjoyed the game!! I liked a lot of the options we were given, and I really enjoyed how this game explored the relationship between Ash and SAL. I don't think there was anything I disliked!
5. How did this game make you feel?
I'm not sure if I can state a specific emotion, but this game surprised me a lot. I would have SAL pick an option being like "I am not capable of loving you" and then all of the ways Ash responded to/handled that always surprised me and really made me (and SAL) think a lot. SAL also surprised me, especially in that one part where Ash made SAL specifically repeat that one thing they just said without really thinking about the weight it held (I can't remember the specific line). I think both SAL and I were pretty set right off the bat on SAL not actually being capable of loving Ash, but Ash really surprised me throughout this game and I think SAL surprised themselves too, and I really enjoyed seeing this play out!
6. Do you want to see these characters again? What would you want to see in a follow-up?
I would love to see these characters again, but at the same time I also don't think it would really be necessary. I think this game ends at a really good point, and leaves enough room for the player to come up with their own vision on the nature/future of SAL and Ash's relationship. But you would also not catch me complaining if I got to see these two again lol.
7. What predictions do you have for SAL and Ash's relationship? Where do you see it going?
I'm not sure honestly. I think this partially has to do with my literalness with stuff? I don't fully know the purpose of SAL, or Ash's job and why/how this relationship was able to be formed, which I think makes it hard for me to imagine their future. What if Ash got fired? Would they not see each other again? If things did get really serious, would it be possible for SAL to leave this place to be with ASH? I can be a very literal person so I think it's hard for me to imagine a future with them without fully understanding their situation. But I also don't think all of this context is the most necessary. If I had to do my best to ignore my very literal side and try to imagine it lol, I would say that I think SAL would want to start taking things more slow. They like what they have with Ash, but still have their own doubts on being truly capable of loving Ash.
8. Any other things you want to mention?
This was a very lovely little game and I'm very happy to have stumbled upon it!