instead of making it say that lame stuff why not just have it set them as back if they talk.
also no reason to set vars
alias a {
.away $iif($1-,$v1,Gone)
amsg I'm now away from IRC for the following reason: $iif($1-,$v1,Gone)
nick $+($me,[AFK])
}
alias b {
.away
nick $remove($me,[AFK])
amsg I'm now back from: $awaymsg [This horrifying mess took me $duration($awaytime) to complete]
}
on *:input:*: {
if ($away) { b }
}