I'm here for the Queer stuff 🥳

Americans:

From Wikipedia: A graham cracker is a sweet flavored cracker made with graham flour.

The next ingredient (which is also extremely traditionally American but slightly more variable) is typically Hershey's chocolate, but you could probably swap this out in the UK with any plain chocolate bar.

Last ingredient is big marshmallows, the kind you do the chubby bunny challenge with, like the size of your thumb and twice as thick.

A proper s'more, the most traditional possible variety, involves to graham cracker squares, two slab segments of Hershey's chocolate, and one to two marshmallows depending on your preference for filling and gooeyness. You put a slab of chocolate on one of the graham cracker squares. Your marshmallows should be toasted, usually over a campfire but if you're doing them at home over a gas stove burner is fine, but the fire part is critical. You can toast them to whatever degree you like, some people like them nice and golden brown but still kind of firm in the middle, me personally? I want that bitch to CATCH ON FIRE, I want it gooey and sticky as hell in the middle, crispy and burnt on the outside. Slap that motherfucker on your graham cracker and chocolate square, top with the other one so your marshmallow and chocolate are sandwiched together by graham cracker on the outside. You do this with your freshly toasted marshmallow because ideally it will be hot enough to start to melt the chocolate so it sticks to the marshmallow and the graham cracker and, combined with the gooey marshmallow, it keeps the whole thing together, and for that reason some people will let them sit for a hot second to let the melting process happen (especially if like me you have chocolate on BOTH graham cracker squares, not just one, because you're a sugar fiend), but if you are a young child you do not have that degree of patience and you eat that shit immediately, unmelted chocolate and all. Consume your summer camp delight like a tiny club sandwich, get gooey sticky marshmallow and chocolate all over your hands, and enjoy.

The first is that you don't pull the marshmallow off the roasting stick and somehow put it on the chocolate. Your staging area will look something like this, with the graham crackers and chocolate already set out (though not usually on the fire like this, for us it was always someone's lap or a picnic table or something)

And when your marshmallow has reached appropriate roasting perfection, you use the graham crackers to slide it off the stick.

and ideally, as a CHILD you are using a literal stick. Like you walked around and spent time looking for The Perfect Stick off the ground while the adults set up the fire. It has to be thin enough the marshmallow will fit, sturdy enough that it won't bow, long enough that you won't burn yourself roasting your marshmallow. And preferably doesn't have a lot of bark that's sloughing off, OR so much bar sloughing off you can peel it all back and get to the clean stick under it. If you're smart, you might stick the tip into the fire first to "wash" it/burn off anything that was still lingering, but. well, most kids don't.

When you bite in, the marshmallow and chocolate SHOULD ooze out all over you. If you don't kinda look like this eating it, you've probably done it wrong:

You find a spot, not above all the logs where everyone sticks their marshmallows by default, but at the heart of the fire. Ideally between a couple logs already glowing gold. Something like here:

Below the leaping flame. Near the logs. There's probably only one or two spots good enough for this on any given fire, but that's okay because everyone else is up above. They will get their marshmallows faster. They will be either firm or burned or both. That's not your goal.

Rotate the marshmallow slowly. Ideally come in at an angle so the part closest to the flame is the side, not the tip. The spot closest to the fire is the spot that turns a crispy golden brown, and you want that everywhere, on the tip and around the circle.

You keep going, slowly turning, for several minutes. Several people will rotate in and out of the higher sections, getting their fast delight. Eventually, your marshmallow will start sagging badly, risking falling. Maybe it does fall and got start over. But eventually it will be golden brown all over, and so liquid it no longer clings to the stick. It is ready, finally.

You say "who hasn't gotten one yet?" And deposit it onto their waiting graham crackers and chocolate. You've made an excellent marshmallow. It isn't for you. Get another while you're over by the bags and go back to the heart of the fire.

That's your evening. One, slow, perfect marshmallow at a time, given to whomever still wants s'more. You're making art for children to stuff into their mouths cheerfully. You're watching the movement of the fire and the heat of the logs, like you would if you were maintaining it — maybe you would be, maybe you were the one who built it — but right now that's not the goal. Let someone else put more logs on, while you take only the one stick and find the best spot for it to live.

You will, eventually, finish a marshmallow and find that nobody moves to accept it. Maybe they're all eating right now, or maybe they've gone through so many they're hesitating. Eat your masterpiece then. Enjoy it, the hardest and most perfect result from a fun and beautiful moment. Go back in for another, until you've run out of marshmallows and the fire is too low or until even you are done with s'mores, until you have made enough.

Like, for example:

Binghe: "System? Can you show me Shizun's current, ah...'stats'?"

System: [Opens a screen with way, waaay too much information. Health Bar, Mental Health Status (which is broken up into smaller units like happiness, stress, and two mysterious categories labeled '???'), hunger/thirst, and Status Conditions (which, at the moment, only contains Without a cure).]

Binghe: @A@ [overwhelmed]

Binghe: [snaps himself out of it] ònó "I will learn quickly. For shizun!"

And Binghe does, but for a long time, nothing he does seems to change anything in the Stat window, even as it tells him things like '+20 happiness point!'.

Then, as the conference looms ever closer, his shizun starts to become quieter, and the system starts jumpscaring Binghe with short, unexplained '-5 happiness points'/'+20 stress points' messages. They're easily fixed with good food and distractions, but no matter how much Binghe looks into the matter, he can't seem to figure out where his Shizun's sudden distress comes from.

(That day, when Shizun asks him if he's willing to do anything to become strong, Binghe's poor heart receives a shock when his answer earns him a delayed '+50 stress points!')

At the edge of the Abyss, even as things go horribly wrong, Binghe's system doesn't shy away for a second. Every few words, it warns him of severe point gains in the stress category; but if he's honest, he's too busy trying to convince his Shizun that he's still good to pay that the attention it deserves.

Later, when he finds a safe place to hide and cry, the system opens itself unprompted.

[System update: New Categories Unlocked!]

It turns out Shizun's stress levels rose drastically in the moments leading up to pushing him into this place. Not only that, his happiness points *tanked.* In fact, they tanked so drastically that it met the conditions nessecary to finally reveal those mysterious '???' categories.

Binghe sobs. The new categories are 'Fear' and 'Heartbreak', and one is already decently high.

Throughout his time in the Abyss, he constantly checks Shizun's status window. It's the only thing he has connecting him to Shizun, yes, and at first that is the only reason he looks at all, but as some time passes, he begins to realize that those stats labeled Hunger and Health are gradually falling into the negative categories. Mental Health is stagnating at an alarming low number as well.

"This one doesn't understand. Shizun threw me in, so why...?"

[Would Host like to unlock Stat Window Plus for a more in-depth experience?]

"'In-depth'...? Would that explain why Shizun is...like this?"

[Affirmative.]

He agrees. Suddenly, Hunger is accompanied by two timers showing how long it has been since Shizun last ate and drank. Health breaks down into sleep, hygiene, and energy. Status Conditions has added a timer, too, tracking the time between flare-ups as well as the percentage of Without a cure's slow conquest of his poor Shizun's body.

It's slightly underwhelming. At the same time, as he looks over the timers and the new subcategories, his mind starts painting an impossible picture.

Shizun isn't eating. Shizun isn't sleeping. His heartbreak points aren't lowering.

Shizun is *sad.*

Shizun... Was he missing Binghe? The same way Binghe misses him? Did he... maybe regret throwing him away?

The idea sinks in more every day. Gains traction with every hour Shizun neglects himself; for Binghe likes to believe he knows his shizun best, and skipping food and rest was most unlike his dear beloved.