"The house is too cluttered!"\n\n"You moved away so long ago, you must have taken all the important things with you."\n\n"You haven't touched most of the stuff in your room in years!"\n\n[[Not everything! I keep grabbing bits and pieces each time I visit!|Nope nope nope]]\n\n[[That's not the point! It's my stuff, you shouldn't have touched it.|Mine mine mine]]

These notebooks aren't the missing journals you were hoping for. You weren't writing as much during a certain period in your life and so these notebooks are a mishmash of class notes, to-do lists, and the very rare diary entry.\n\nThere's nothing of real value here except for the few pages here and there. Almost not worth the effort to save them.\n\nIs it really that important for you to remember who you were and what was going on back then?\n\n[[There isn't much else|Papers][$memories += .5; $notebooks = 1]]\n\n[[The past won't go anywhere except in the trash now|Papers]]

Knick knacks still stand - on the dresser, on the bookshelf. Stuffed animals, some bought, others made from home ec class smile at you.\n\nThe CD tower in the corner still stands, filled with music that you can still recall.\n\nPeering at the smaller bookshelf, it seems the books survived. However, there are additional books mixed in, titles you know you never would've touched. The Paris guidebook is still there. \n\nThe closet is barely recognizable. None of your clothes are in there.\n\nThe DVD set you wanted to bring back is there on the floor. Thank goodness.\n\n[[What's missing?|Negative Space]]

<<silently>>\n<<set $memories = 0>>\n<<set $notebooks = 0>>\n<<set $letters = 0>>\n<<set $minidisc = 0>>\n<<set $blanktapes = 0>>\n<<set $mixtapes = 0>>\n<<set $NES = 0>>\n<<set $DVDdrive = 0>>\n<<endsilently>>\nYou are in a house. A home. It used to be your home. But home is now somewhere else very far away. \n\nFor the most part, it looks the same, just a little bit older.\n\nYour parents look mostly the same, but a lot older.\n\n[[Go on, they're waiting for you.|Foyer]]

You open the box up and find \n<<if $minidisc neq 1>>\n[[The missing minidisc player and minidiscs|Minidisc]]\n<<endif>>\s\n<<if $blanktapes neq 1>>\n[[Blank cassette tapes|Blanks]]\n<<endif>>\s\n<<if $mixtapes neq 1>>\n[[A few mixtapes|Mixtapes]]\n<<endif>>\s\n<<if $minidisc eq 1 and $blanktapes eq 1 and $mixtapes eq 1>>\nthat you grabbed everything.\n<<endif>>\s\n<<if visited("Minidisc") and visited ("Blanks") and visited ("Mixtapes")>>\nThat's all there is.\n\n[[Hope everything fits..|Status]]\n<<endif>>\s\n

It's true. Each visit to the house usually resulted in taking something back with you.\n\nSometimes it was CDs and DVDs.\n\nSometimes it was books and graphic novels.\n\nSometimes you couldn't bring everything you wanted. There wasn't enough room in your suitcase or in the car.\n\nBesides, it was your stuff. It was still your room! \n\n[[Wasn't it? Look and see.|Your Room]]

It's dusty, but there's\n<<if $notebooks neq 1>>\n[[Some notebooks|Notebooks]]\n<<endif>>\s\n<<if $letters neq 1>>\n[[A thick folder|Correspondence]]\n<<endif>>\s\n<<if $notebooks eq 1 and $letters eq 1>>\nemptiness. You took it all.\n<<endif>>\s\n\n<<if visited("Notebooks") and visited("Correspondence")>>\n\nSo much for that. You should double-check before moving on to\n\n[[A Box that Rattles|Music]]\n<<endif>>

The classic original Nintendo console. Not the one with the Japanese writing and in order to get the cassette out you had to move the red lever. This was the one all your really cool friends had. You only got it after a lot of pleading and some really good greades but you never really played it. It wasn't until you were an actual adult when you beat Super Mario.\n\nThe gun for Duck Hunt is still there as well. So is the power cord.\n\nThe problem is how to connect the Nintendo system to your new high-definition TV. The system used to have those red, yellow and white cables and there's a grey box with a screw attached to it but you're not sure what it's for. There's no guarantee you can get it to connect to the TV in order to play it.\n\n[[Bring it all, anyway|Video][$memories += 2; $NES = 1]]\n\n[[It's ok, what else is there?|Video]]\n

--let the player undo moves? (on / off)\n--in sugarcane, this enables the browser's back button.\n--in jonah, this lets the player click links in previous\n--passages.\n\nundo: on\n\n--let the player use bookmarks? (on / off)\n--this enables the bookmark links in jonah and sugarcane\n--(if the player can't undo, bookmarks are always disabled.)\nbookmark: off\n\n--obfuscate the story's html source to prevent possible\n--spoilers? (swap / off)\n\nobfuscate: off\n\n--string of letter pairs to use for swap-style obfuscation\n\nobfuscatekey: eiolrwbxtfzksvajgqyhncmupd\n\n--include the jquery script library? (on / off)\n\njquery: off\n\n--include the modernizr script library? (on / off)\n\nmodernizr: off\n

<<if $memories lte 3>>\n<<display 'Just Enough'>>\n<<else>>\nYou took too much, it won't fit. \n\n<<display 'Less is More'>>\n<<endif>>

Blank cassette tapes. You barely listen to cassette tapes these days. Your car doesn't even have a tape deck anymore. \n\nIt seems like such a waste, though.\n\n[[They won't take up that much room.|Music][$memories += .5; $blanktapes = 1]]\n\n[[It's all for the best, really..|Music]]

Self Salvage Sabotage

The folder's thick with all the personal mail you received some time ago. Birthday cards. Wedding invitations. Postcards. There are a few love notes sprinkled in as well. \n\nSome names you still hold dear to your heart. Other names you barely remember. Or something happened and you don't really want to think about it right now.\n\nYou know who's important to you now. Perhaps it's better to let it all go.\n\nBut love doesn't take up a lot of room, either.\n\n[[Feeling warm and fuzzy!|Papers][$memories += .5; $letters = 1]]\n\n[[Everyone I need to know is on Facebook or Twitter|Papers]]

It's just a room. It's not just any room.\n\nYou weren't expecting a museum tomb enshrined to your memory. The walls are bare and most of the furniture is mostly in the same place as it's always been. \n\nThe smaller bookshelf has been moved by the closet and there's an unfamiliar wardrobe in the far corner. \n\nThe room feels colder, but it's always been slightly colder than the rest of the house. Or maybe it's because something beyond your control happened here.\n\n[[What survived?|Survivors]]\n

Only five or so mixtapes remain. One of them from Ginger, whoever that is. Was that really ten years ago? Then there's that pesky no readily available tape deck problem.\n\nMP3 playlists aren't the same though. There was something rewarding about painstakingly choosing your music, making sure you had enough space on your tape, creating an atmosphere that would hopefully blow your friend's mind.\n\nWhat to do?\n\n[[They are all that remain, let's keep it that way|Music][$memories += .5; $mixtapes = 1]]\n\n[[If I have no idea who Ginger is, am I really going to value this?|Music]]

It was true.\n\nThere are things you bought with your hard-earned cash.\n\nThings you were given.\n\nThings you picked up here and there.\n\nEach object has a memory.\n\nEach visit you try to bring something back with you. You already knew what you wanted to bring back this time.\n\n[[Is it still there? You have to know.|Your Room]]

You forcefully ask-tell her to not throw out anything else EVER while you head to the basement.\n\nWhat's gone is gone. You're older now, your memories aren't quite the same anymore. Sure, you'll remember some things but it's not the same as having something solid and physical and real there to anchor you. And even if whatever's left doesn't have any actual physical value, it was a part of you, it helped shape you.\n\nRight?\n\nMom said there were three boxes.\n\nYou can't bring everything back. You don't have any spare room in your suitcase and the car trunk is mostly full. You only planned for that huge DVD set of that TV show you love but now you're forced to choose what to keep and what to leave behind.\n\n[[A Rubbermaid Tote|Video]]

The patchwork of who you were isn't the patchwork of who you are now or who you will be.\n\nYou'll have new memories to replace the old ones and new things to be touchstones. You'll be possessed by the future.\n\nYou won't even notice when it happens.

Mom is delighted to see you. Despite the weekly phone calls and emails, it is no substitute for a hug and a smile and your general company. Dad seems agreeable to your presence, which is as close as he will get to happy at the moment.\n\nThey show off the renovated kitchen with pride. New appliances, new flooring, new lighting, granite countertops, more shelf space. It required so much work and so much money but it is finally complete.\n\nYou ask what's the next project on their agenda. Mom lists a few things - landscaping, the chimney, getting rid of that rusted broken basketball pole by the driveway, but nothing definite.\n\n"She's been cleaning a lot," Dad says. "She threw away a lot of my books. She threw out some of your things too."\n\n[[What??!?|Devastation]]

body {\n background-color: white;\n color: black;\n}\n

This was a birthday gift from your special nerd friend, many years ago. You really needed one, but you don't need it anymore. Pretty much every computer or laptop has a built-in DVD drive/burner these days.\n\nThat said, it probably still works and it doesn't hurt to have it just in case.\n\nThe CD-ROM installation disc is missing, but Microsoft probably still has those drivers somewhere. That's the whole point of 'Plug n' Play'.\n\n[[What's the harm?|Video][$memories += 1; $DVDdrive = 1]]\n\n[[It's fine, what else is there?|Video]]

The CD player and tape deck are missing.\n\nThe crate full of mixtapes are gone. Not just from your college radio show, but tapes collected over the years from your friends. They used to measure time and cemented friendship. \n\nThe minidisc player. More importantly, the minidiscs with the stories your mother told about her childhood. That was a lot of work and history that should be recorded again. And it still won't be the same as before.\n\nThe journals, cleverly disguised as regular notebooks, have vanished. At least fifteen years of thoughts, quotes, to-do lists and ephemera are no more. The stack of papers filled with bad poetry from your first heartbreak are (mercifully?) absent.\n\nThat thing you bought at that rock show is nowhere to be seen. So much for putting that on eBay.\n\nThe photos you hoped your parents would never find, the ones buried in the closet have vanished. You're not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.\n\n[["There's some stuff in the basement I haven't thrown out yet", Mom says.|Calamity]]

It's still here. It wasn't lost. It looks a lot more worn than you care to remember, but you turn it on.\n\nAnd it works. You look for some headphones and plug it into the minidisc. You can hear the music.\n\nYou look through the box to see if you can find the minidiscs with your mother's stories. You do. Your stomach twists.\n\nUnfortunately, transferring audio from a minidisc to something else would be an arduous process. It's better than nothing but you definitely could do better. And you have time.\n\nYou think.\n\n[[No, take it all!|Music][$memories += 1; $minidisc = 1]]\n\n[[I can definitely do better. I actually don't need this.|Music]]

Looks like you have enough room.\n\nIt's hard to believe, but it'll be easy to forget what was left behind. You're not who you were all those years ago. It stings because the initial decision was taken away from you but you chose what to save now.\n\n[[That's what matters.|The Future]]

Inside the plastic container, there is \n<<if $NES neq 1>> \n[[An old-school classic Nintendo system|NES]]<<endif>>\s\n<<if $DVDdrive neq 1>>\n[[An external DVD drive|DVD drive]]<<endif>>\s\n<<if $NES eq 1 and $DVDdrive eq 1>>\nnothing left. Don't you remember?<<endif>>\n\n<<if visited("NES") and visited("DVD drive")>>\nLooks like that's it for this Rubbermaid. Make sure you take what you want before moving on to\n\n[[A Small, Dusty Box|Papers]]<<endif>>\n\n

So you have: \n<<if $notebooks>>\n[[notebooks|Status][$memories -= .5; $notebooks = 0]]<<endif>>\s\n<<if $letters>>\n[[letters|Status][$memories -= .5; $letters = 0]]<<endif>>\s\n<<if $minidisc>>\n[[the minidisc player and recordings|Status][$memories -= 1; $minidisc = 0]]<<endif>>\s\n<<if $blanktapes>>\n[[those blank cassette tapes|Status][$memories -= .5; $blanktapes = 0]]<<endif>>\s\n<<if $NES>>\n[[the original NES|Status][$memories -= 2; $NES = 0]]<<endif>>\s\n<<if $DVDdrive>>\n[[that DVD drive|Status][$memories -= 1; $DVDdrive = 0]]\n<<endif>>\n\nIt's <<print either("a shame", "a travesty", "a pain in the ass")>> to let something go, but you have to.\n\n

@qunck\n\nself-imposed Ludum Dare 48 hour challenge on "minimalism" theme