#because it does

Lately, if you're upset around her, she will come over to you and wrinkle her little toddler brow and say, "Okay? Okay?"

And if you say anything other than an affirmative she will gently pat whatever body part is closest and say, "So brave! So brave! Yay! I'm so proud!"

And then you're less upset because this little half-wild human who is basically in the process of domesticating herself has told you that you're brave and she's proud of you, and it's so sweet and funny and unexpected, and once you're happier and finish your thing and aren't as upset she says "Hand?"

Then she takes your hand and drags you to the nearest animal and shows you how to pet them, or takes you to the door and once you let her outside she drags you to the garden tower and starts showing you how to smell or touch the plants, and then she asks "Okay?" and of course you're okay at that point and then she smiles at you and takes you over to play with her chalk or her building blocks

well well well. friends I have on this app will not at all be surprised by my response to this question

but before I go into it, I'd like to say thanks! I'm quite glad people enjoy this game and the art I make for it. I will say I'm so very disappointed by this fandom being as small as it is but. we shall live, brothers, sisters and siblings. I hold out hope of it growing

anyways. the piano scene. I'm obsessed with it.

this game is about abuse and exploitation, and I agree, but people often overlook the war aspect as "environmental" when it quite obviously ties into its protagonist (and yes. I refer to boy as the protagonist of this game. the kids are the main characters, but he is the protag and girl is, at her core, the plot device. moving on)

war is more than the setting. it is someone's trauma and those who served in it are someone's tormentor. a kid suffered because of this, but I shall get to that another time.

war is abuse. it's not only to the victims of the violence itself, but to the people who are put into the shoes of those inflicting said violence, at least in this narrative. soldiers are kept alive in hospitals, and each keeps a grenade in their coat. they chase after the kids, explosive in hand but they remain the ones of first impact. some crawl, some stay in bed, clutching that same grenade close to their chest. they never throw anything, and part of me thinks they don't want to. almost every single soldier(with some rare exceptions) are dead set on ending their lives before any others'. they are no less than holders of exploding metal and they are no more than flesh capable of pulling a trigger. that's what they are and that's the only thing they're needed for. they are kept on their feet for what they can achieve, and not for what they are. they are only what they bring to the field, and everything else is completely irrelevant. part of me thinks they desire escape, like they're also conscious and experiencing this hell of their own. in war there is no humanity, and they have no interest in living without it.

war is only pain, and most have grown tired of hurting.

most but this one soldier who put his rifle down and played a song.

following its file name, the song itself is played in c major 7, and is incredibly slowed, which gives it this nostalgic yet unresolved feeling. it's improvised, like a remembering of something years before. it's paused and almost feels considered with every second after pressing a key. it feels human. empathetic. like the person who played this considered Him and what He felt.

his past is unclear, and his future is set.

his weapon is rested against the side of the piano, and on top, closer to him, sits a bottle.

the whole room would be dark if it weren't for the hole in the wall, through which light shines, on the floor around and the man himself. it feels like hope. like through this darkness we've been forced in, there is one sliver of something better.

outside, explosions are muffled by distance, and yet the ground still shakes with them. the kids still flinch from the sound, and yet he continues playing.

the war is ongoing, yet he found a chance to stop. either wishing for it to end, or thinking of the better days he lived before. he no longer posed a threat to others, only to himself, by making his position known. he didn't seem to give much care, though, as again, he continued playing. in a world of hatred and fear, he felt something different. regret, longing, empathy, maybe all three. we can never be sure, but he felt something.

beyond the pain and physical anguish, beyond the explosions and shots fired, he felt.

and then he got shot.

for being more than flesh, he was punished. humanity has no place in the war, therefore his life was ended.

he was human, and he died for it.

and it hurt me.

and yet people don't talk about it, because the war is "the setting". it's the protagonist's trauma, cause of death, and continued torment. and yet, somehow, it remains a setting.

The GOP is about to officially coalesce around a seditionist for president