things i hold on to

This game makes me start to understand what timeloop protagonists go through.

"...We've been friends all these years, and you won't even try?"

I did, Gaoyang, I did. I made the active choice to loop back time 7 different times because I refused to let your lover die and for your spirit to break. I wanted to save you. I died all 7 times, and in my first few attempts, I inadvertently dragged down people I cherished with me. I tried, Gaoyang, I really did! But you're acting like I never did!

And of course you are! You don't know about what I tried, about how I failed! You don't know that every route leads to failure!

I tried every possible option until I had to accept that I could not help you! Please let me at least stay by your side!

"Why do old people always have the brightness so high and the text so big on their phones? 🙄" Because aging causes vision loss.

"Why do old people struggle to do [insert 'basic' task like using remotes, doing things on electronic devices, cooking food, etc]? 🙄" Because aging causes cognitive function loss.

* you have power

* you're safe

You get to play at having power over someone else. This is your dominance sorts of things, your sadisms, etc.

You get to play safely. You can play with scary things while knowing there's safewords and a dom/top who loves you.

although amusing, if you know where the term "rule 34" came from.

if you know where the term “rule

34” came from.

apparently clouded leopards can use their claws to hang upside down

um

I'm lucky: My son is a very easygoing kid. But I remember the first tantrum he threw for me. He was standing by our front door and asked to go outside. So I opened the door and grabbed his shoes. But as soon as he stepped onto the porch, he pointed back into the house.

"Inside," he said.

"Okay," I said. I picked him up and brought him inside.

But as soon as I shut the front door, he pointed outside.

"Outside!" he said.

You know where this is going. We went back and forth, inside and outside, again and again. He got more frustrated. And I got more frustrated. Eventually he wound up straddling the threshold of our house, sobbing. When I tried to comfort him, he screamed at me. "You go wherever you want!" I said. He just got madder. I felt trapped, convinced he’d concocted the whole episode as a pretext to unleash his rage at me. It was ridiculous. I consoled myself with the thought that he was just being a toddler.

But later I kept thinking about him wailing at our front door, one foot inside, one foot outside. His misery wasn't unreasonable, or trivial, or silly. My son was experiencing the agony of wanting two things that were impossible to have at the same time. What a fundamentally human sorrow! My son wasn't being a toddler; he was being a person. Adults may not walk around howling, but that same pain rages within us. In that moment, as a father, I was powerless to solve my son's problem. I told him he could go wherever he wanted, but of course I was wrong. To be where he wanted was impossible.