I find Afternoon a compelling text because it is like Hegirascope in that the reader makes choices as to how the story progresses, but there is a lot more variety to the choices and paths available. It is also intriguing that there is a narrative (or several) that can be followed for multiple frames, whereas in Hegirascope the narrative is largely fragmented. The same can be said of how characters are handled within this text, as there are definite characters with defined attitudes and personalities, some of which we can only learn about by choosing correct paths.
This is somewhat closer to those interactive fictions like the Baron and Fate than Hegirascope, in that the choices are much more vast and they have to be done in a certain order for anything to truly happen. What is also interesting is that there is a sense of urgency to the choices provided, also unlike Hegirascope where you basically just chose a phrase that interested you and hoped it brought you to something more or at least equally interesting. In Afternoon, you are given a piece of narrative, and chances are you want to make the right decision to steer that narrative in the direction you want to see it unfold.
It was very interesting for me to see certain characters develop in ways that I did not expect. At first when introduced to the characters Nausicaa, Lolly, Wert, and Peter I had assumed that Lolly was Nausicaa’s psychiatrist and that they had become friends, and that Wert was married to Nausicaa. Now, either another character was introduced and I missed it, or Lolly is in fact a prostitute being used by the other three characters. I’m not exactly sure, just as i’m not sure about the relationship between Peter and Nausicaa, though I think they’re dating. There were also other characters, one named Andrew and another I forgot who were named and then I didn’t learn anything more about them because the story ended for me (and apologized for doing so, strangely enough.)