2/28 – Chris tells his story

Chris shared his side of the story about what’s been going on with Lia:

Thank you for those of you who tagged me in the last few days, I appreciate it. I’ve been reading along as much as I could when I wasn’t dealing with issues a little closer to home.

I’m sorry to hear about what happened with your husband, @a. Secrets in a marriage always sting a little, no matter how small. If you ever want to talk about it, I’m here.

Anyway. The short answer to what you’re all probably wondering is that I’m finding out a lot of this the same time as you. I didn’t know. I know that’s a little hard to believe, but it’s true.

Last year, Lia and I went through Ascension together twice, the second time as a surprise because she was so crazy about it after the first time. In little bits we started to get more involved (as much as we could considering the ARG was effectively over). I’m a little more socially anxious compared to her, she started talking to people and going to things pretty quickly. Trivia etc.

Anyway, one night she didn’t come home from work when she usually does. I thought she might have gone to bar method without telling me, I texted her, she didn’t answer. A few hours later, she came through the door with a huge grin on her face. “You’ll never guess who I just talked to.” “Who?”
Darren Lynn Bousman.

She was being vague because she had to, I definitely didn’t want to press. I was just excited. There weren’t a lot of specifics, but for Lust, he was interested in her playing along in some way.
I didn’t really know what that meant, I don’t think she did either. But after that night, as far as I knew, nothing came of it.

As Lust continued on, we just followed along, went to the events, wrote on the forums, it was like a cute hobby we did together. Every once in a while I would ask if she heard from Darren again, if her part was coming up, but it never did. It just never happened.

Lia never brought it up, I figured she was probably disappointed it never panned out.

I really don’t remember. I know that sounds bad. I was staring that calendar on my phone just now, trying to count. I’m bad at things like that. It all kind of ran together. She kept getting singled out, but it was all genuine as far as she would say. She was getting a lot of play, but she wasn’t playing along.

Anyway, And I thought it was great, but it was weird. She was getting what she was hoping for to a certain extent, being active, but she seemed to actually be enjoying it less. She used to love talking about what Mike and Russel would say on the podcast, we would theorize, but that petered out. She would get short when I brought Lust up, pointing out what someone said on the forums or whatever. She seemed to just get depressed in general.

By playing along I mean involved. As far as I knew, as far as she would say, whatever attention she was getting was totally innocent and random, like any other participant who gets a call.

Anyway I always write too much. The MSE comes, we go the same night the first time, she goes alone the second time. I’m just home.

No one texted me or told me what happened, so I heard about the stairs and the parking lot later. All I knew was she came home upset. She flopped onto the couch and was obviously drained. I kept asking what was wrong but she would just shake her head. The more I asked, the more she started to cry. Then she just hugged me and kept whispering “I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what to do. So I just helped her get ready for bed. I figured she would talk when she was ready.

Something freaked her out. And in the days after I kept hearing about how she acted. People were reaching out to her, texts and messages, and she was just ignoring them. Just ding ding ding.

After a while she seemed to get better. It was Christmas, it was her birthday, we went to SF, things seemed good.

And I just kept my theorizing about when Lust might come back to myself. I kind of knew better by then.
Then a couple weeks ago things started up again. And she started up again. Getting edgier. Going into the bedroom and closing the door. Just being quiet. And the more I tried to cheer her up or ask what was wrong, the more she would pull away. Sometimes she would tear up, sometimes she would just snap at me. Then she would apologize.

Then Monday came. She had a rehearsal/reading thing for a show she was cast in. And while she was gone, Morgan went live on Facebook. And I saw the NDA for the first time with all of you. Before he burned it.
I didn’t know when the reading was over, but I was texting her “Are you seeing this? They’re talking about you.”

She didn’t answer. But she came home. She didn’t even talk to me. She was on her phone, she was running around the bedroom, she slammed the door. I just waited on the other side until she came out. I asked what was happening. She said she couldn’t say.

I was being as gentle as I could, I gave her her space. Then last night after we got home from going somewhere to eat, I went to the Ralphs to grab cat food. When I was there, I got a text. Lia was going to a friend’s house. I went home and she was gone.

She’s still gone.

And I get that this is a game except when people say it’s not even thought it really is. She’s an actress, it’s a show, I’m not worried especially. But going on some kind of contact blackout is a little extreme when I’m not even being very active. I guess I’m just looking forward to tomorrow, because she should be home after whatever they do, right? This isn’t fun. But if this is what she’s doing, I get it. But like, come on.

Hey there they are. I planted a few of those myself on people, and I’m sure I’m right. But you’re not. This is why I’m annoyed. There’s no off switch for this and it can get a little much. How many O’s do I have to type before it’s Ooooout of Game.

I’m sorry for snapping, that’s not me. I just wanted to thank those of you for the nice things you say about Lia. You all have no idea how wonderful she is. Thank you for being a cool community. Good luck with all this. If anything changes, hopefully I’ll be able to let you know. Back to the background.