Triangle for Two by Navarro and A. Clearwater
Triangle for Two is a short story about a person with two selves in one body. Or two people sharing a body? Or…well, it doesn’t matter, the work is not about litigating the idea of consciousness and personhood. Anyway, this two-for-one special are trying to reveal their nature to another person, who seemingly is some kind of close friend or significant other, but struggling with the emotional risk that this comes with.
I think what is most interesting about this work is that there are potentially many different ways to interpret the subject matter, especially because the nature of the two characters sharing a body wasn’t entirely obvious. (Are they lovers? Siblings? Merely friends? Not sure! Boundaries are probably weird and blurry in a single body!) You could take it at face value, and read this as a story of someone with a psychiatric disorder. You could read it as science fiction, and interpret this as a weird, freaky accident that happened to someone. You could take it as a general metaphor for having different sides to one self, and feeling like some parts of ourselves are hidden from public view, only revealing those parts in acts of vulnerable intimacy. You could read it as a metaphor for gender dysphoria, which was what came to mind the most for me as I read it. For me, the work served as a site of reflection for feelings about what inhabiting a gendered body means, and how sometimes there is dissonance in that, especially when navigating romantic relationships.
Though there isn’t a lot of “gameplay” or a feeling like choices are weighty and meaningful on the story outcome, I think the interactivity still worked here in helping you truly feel the nature and conflict of the characters inhabiting one body. It is clear why this work wanted to be in this format, and I think that highlights the diverse nature of what IF can be.