Reconciliation DM

So, I appreciate that information which you shared about the reasons for your absence.
I wanted you to know that I find them to be completely legitimate and understandable.
The thing is, before you shared that the only basis I had for making any sort of judgment was your actions.
I don't feel that sharing every detail of your life is needed,
but when you vanish into the aether for more than a year;
it isn't often you're welcomed back as if nothing had happened.
This is the case IRL, so some sort of explanation at the time would have helped.
A secondary concern I had was that if stuff like this can happen in the past
(and there's an established history of it taking place)
that makes a person wary of what could happen in the future.
I know from watching ZC Development of many cases where people would jump in;
make a ton of alterations and then vanish again without any word of why.
Even those who did, it still leaves those who are still working on it in the lurch.
I've been playing catchup to what you originally made since I started working on this.
Finding bugs that weren't known, fixing broken scripts,
discovering entire areas and secrets I had no clue existed.
If you added even more things then something happened; it would make the entire process even harder.
Not saying it would happen, but the only basis I have for judging future actions is what has already occurred.
Whenever you asked me if I wanted to take a break so you could insert the Earthbound stuff,
I was under the impression that was the only thing you were going to add.
At that time, I didn't recall any discussion of the gas mask before that.
The entire reason for even approaching you in the first place was because
you did a lot more than you said you was going to.
To me, if you say you're going to do X and then proceed to do X, Y and Z
without sharing this fact with the rest of the team; then that means it could happen again.
So I wanted to make clear that acting without agreement could lead to a point
where one of us wanted something the other did not and this would cause a split.
I get that it having the gas mask be equippable is important. That really isn't the issue that concerned me.
The issue is "Could either of us add anything we wanted to the quest, despite the objections of our partner?"
I never felt that I had the right to add anything which you objected to.
I know now that some things might have fallen under this category, but I wasn't aware of it at the time.
I'm not objecting to the idea of the gas mask as an equippable item.
I couldn't care less either way.
I'm objecting to the idea that if I had real objections and they don't fit with my partner's view,
that I will be ignored. Who is to say that something else might be a feature you wished to add
that to me I would feel it was not negotiable for it to be left out?
I would be willing to collaborate on your quest going forward and let the gas mask in as you wants.
But only on one condition.
Nothing is not negotiable.
I am mostly willing to negotiate when it come to the things I want to include.
If you can't do the same, then we can't work together.
I know that may seem a bit of an oxymoron.
"Nothing is not negotiable except for the fact that nothing is not negotiable"
My only concern from the start was "would disagreement about something in the future cause a split?"
We disagreed about the gas mask.
While not important, it said to me "Your opinion doesn't matter."
If I allowed something to go unchallenged, if I just let myself go with the flow
and do whatever was suggested; then I would no longer have any real say in matters.
The argument started because I disagreed with your viewpoint. And it escalated from there.
If something so relatively insignificant as this could lead to a split,
then perhaps it is best we continue working separately.
I had to look at it this way.
"If this is so important that he's willing to split the quest over it,
then how can I predict whether or not the next thing we disagree about might do the same?"