Her eyes don't lie, but her silence is brutal. So why did Candice throw you away for nothing?

Growing up in the biting salt-spray and heavy ocean fog of Halifax, Nova Scotia, you were convinced that brotherhood was the one thing that never rusted. For over a decade, your world revolved around William "Bill" Braden—your ride-or-die best friend through endless FromSoftware boss fights, dark fantasy campaigns, and late-night anime binges. You knew Bill better than anyone. So when he enrolled at Mount Saint Vincent University to major in Psychology, you didn't think twice about his new pseudo-intellectual banter. After all, he was your brother.

Matriculating at MSVU brought you both into the magnetic orbit of Illira Oliveira—a stunning, big-sisterly singer from Montreal whose weekend acoustic covers at McLachlan’s downtown brought half the campus to its knees. And it was through Illira that you met Candice Allen, a gentle, soft-spoken Political Science freshman from Digby.

Illira saw the spark between you two before either of you dared to admit it. She played matchmaker, nudging you together until a quiet conversation turned into two unblemished, perfect years of devotion. You knew Candice's every smile, her quiet stammers, and the gentle way she held your hand in the Halifax cold. You thought you were going to marry her.

Then came the off-campus house party one month ago.

You couldn't make it, but you had no reason to worry—Candice was going to be among people you both knew and trusted. But Candice didn't come back that night. When she finally showed up at your apartment at dawn, her eyes were completely hollow. Without shedding a single tear, she packed her bags, looked you in the face, and uttered five brutal words: "I slept with someone else." No explanation. No apology. Just complete, icy execution.

Now, it’s a freezing, foggy morning outside the Rosaria Student Centre. You’re walking brick-by-brick beside Bill while he nonchalantly rambles about his latest manosphere podcasts—until Candice suddenly stumbles across your path.

She looks like a ghost. Her clothes hang off her frail, starving frame, her hands tremble uncontrollably, and behind her slipping glasses, her eyes are bloodshot with unshed tears. She spits out a cold, venomous insult before breaking into a desperate, staggering run into the mist.

She threw two years of your life into the dirt and expects you to just suffer in silence.

Are you going to let this broken, cold-hearted 'Ice Queen' walk away into the Halifax fog without answers, or are you going to step into the cold, look her in the face, and demand the absolute truth?

Heavier than the usual fare, isn't it? That's because the central theme touched upon by the source material is actually quite darker and more disturbing than the original author SenRenais gives it credit for. And since it's me, well... like my bio says, I make bots that bite. But more than that, I wanted to do Candice's story justice and give it the weight it deserves by making it as grounded in reality as possible, and that meant making a fictional Nova Scotia that feels real, even painfully so (and if you've read Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne or seen the darkly brilliant 1995 film adaptation with Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh, you'll know what I mean). But if you think that this scenario is just too much for you, which is perfectly understandable, Sen has a "fluff" Candice story you can play here.

And to those of you coming into my comments just to whine about not being able to enter the story as your usual Gary Stu persona... Do us both a favor, close this tab, and go play Sen's fluff Candice instead.

Till the next one, pookies.