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house plants are a lot like brains in jars

My cycle game follows the weird lifecycles of my window plants during the school year. Unlike typical plant cycles, I plant my seeds in fall, they flourish over the darkest months and end up being neglected due to exams by spring. However, the content gap is due to the actual passages being depictions of depersonalization. The cycle represents the relationship between the outside world and the depersonalized in that it is a constant push and pull. Recovery from mental health issues is never linear and is often about doing the best you can with the options you currently have, even if those options seem arbitrary. The irony of depersonalization is that recovery from it is typically incidental- actively attempting to re-personalize is often like trying to remember a dream and the harder you push for it, the further it floats away. It feels a bit like being a brain in a jar on a windowsill.

Initially, my choices were less well defined, and my play testers had difficulty navigating the cycle. The cycle is meant to be confusing, but when my links were embedded in the passage, it was impossible to tell what would do what. Moving them clearly to the bottom as a binary choice and rewording them seemed to really improve clarity.