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--- name: pixi-vn-ink-pause-continue description: Use when an ink script needs to hold on a canvas/sound change without printing dialogue (# pause), or needs to show a line of dialogue and its choice menu together in a single step (<># continue). Part of the pixi-vn-ink skill set — install alongside pixi-vn-ink. --- # Pause and continue Official docs: [pixi-vn.com/ink/other-narrative-features](https://pixi-vn.com/ink/other-narrative-features). Requires `addBaseHashtagCommands()` to have run (its `narration` section, on by default) — see **pixi-vn-ink**. ## When to use this skill Use whenever a step needs to change something on screen (show an image, play a sound, edit a canvas element) **without** immediately also advancing to dialogue text on the very next player input, or whenever a line of dialogue and the choice menu that follows it should appear as a single beat instead of two. ## `# pause` After any `#` hashtag command runs, the engine performs a [`continue`](https://pixi-vn.com/start/labels-flow#continue) into the next step automatically. That's usually what you want — but it means a step that *only* changes the canvas/sound state, with no dialogue of its own, immediately falls through into whatever the next step shows: ```ink title="ink/start.ink" === start === # show image alien eggHead Hello, world! // shown immediately — no chance to look at the image alone first -> DONE ``` `# pause` stops that automatic advance: it clears the current dialogue and waits for the player to continue before moving on, so a scene-setting step reads as its own beat: ```ink title="ink/start.ink" === start === # show image alien eggHead # pause Hello, world! -> DONE ``` Internally, `# pause` returns a `dialogue`/`clean` operation and clears the step's own `dialogue` / `goNextStep` fields — it's a hashtag command like any other, registered by `addBaseHashtagCommands()`'s `narration` section (see **pixi-vn-ink-hashtag-commands**), not special ink syntax. ## `<># continue` By default, a line of dialogue followed by a choice menu takes **two** steps: the first shows only the dialogue, the second shows the dialogue *plus* the choices. ```ink title="ink/start.ink" === start === Who are we going to rescue: the kitten or the wizard? * [the kitten] -> DONE * [the wizard] -> DONE ``` Appending `<># continue` to the dialogue line collapses that into a single step — the dialogue and its choice menu appear together, skipping the extra "just the text" beat: ```ink title="ink/start.ink" === start === Who are we going to rescue: the kitten or the wizard?<># continue * [the kitten] -> DONE * [the wizard] -> DONE ``` `<>` is plain ink glue (no line break before what follows); `# continue` is the hashtag command that forces the story to advance to the next step automatically (it sets `goNextStep = true` and disables glue) — the combination is what produces "dialogue and choices in one step" rather than two separate mechanisms. ## Related - **pixi-vn-ink-hashtag-commands** — `# pause`/`# continue` are ordinary hashtag commands, not special syntax; this is where to look to register a similar one-off flow-control command of your own. - **pixi-vn-ink** — "Diverting in the same step", the closely related native-ink glue/timing rule for diverts specifically. - [pixi-vn.com/start/labels-flow](https://pixi-vn.com/start/labels-flow) — the underlying `narration.continue`/`canContinue` mechanics these commands manipulate.