more like Queen Peach i tell you hwat

---

As stated in my last review on Super Princess Peach, I was very excited for Showtime. Like, way more excited than I ever thought I would be. Just off of the first couple trailers, I was enamored by the charm and promise that was being presented, what would essentially be a full game's worth of watching Peach undergo magical girl transformations and exploring different set pieces with her new abilities. I was in it for the style, and nothing else. As time went on (and as Nintendo kept spoiling all of the fucking costumes on their Twitter...), in an unusual turn of events, my excitement only grew. The demo drops, I play it, and I'm locked in, pre-order and all. I got what I came for, and I enjoyed every second of it.

almost every second of it.

Obviously, the costumes are all fantastic. It is such a breath of fresh air seeing such a major character for the series in all these different outfits, especially since Peach doesn't usually get to do much in the first place. Of course she has all of her spin-off designs, but Showtime does so much more with everything, experimenting with all sorts of aesthetics and colors, not one of them failing to impress. That really was all I was expecting for this game, so to move on to the actual gameplay...

It's fine enough? Peach doesn't get much of a moveset, the game only ever utilizes a total of three buttons, and I think they did fairly well with such limited controls. Not every gimmick is a winner (lord knows I never want to play another patissiere level again), but I thoroughly enjoyed what they came up with, the big stars being the detective, mermaid, and ice skater plays. (sorry, ice world bias.)
I have to admit, though, and it never really makes itself known upon first playthrough, but holy hell is this game slow. Again, it's never a problem as long as you can finish up everything you need to in one go, collecting all the Sparkle Stones and Ribbons, but, say you miss one of those collectibles, either by simply not exploring enough or failing a certain task; in order to go back and try for it again, you have to do everything from start to finish a second time. Your newly made progress won't be saved after exiting the stage like in the previous Peach game, so instead you'll have to repeat the whole stage, and by then, you'll notice that most of your time in each level will be spent completely motionless as some dialogue fades in and out of view. You aren't given the option to skip any of it, either. Text is placed on screen by itself, accompanied by animations that you have to wait for the end of before you are allowed to start moving again. As I said, not a big deal on the first playthrough, but it gets excruciating having to see it any more times than once. god forbid you spend 30 damn minutes on the second patissiere level like i did

I see where everyone else is coming from. Yes, Princess Peach: Showtime! can feel incredibly easy, handhold-y, linear, whatever else you might have heard. It is not complex in the slightest, but that's not what I was looking forward to. I was looking forward to the cute costumes and the fun worlds to look at, with the added bonus of some new personality for the princess herself. With such little expectations, of course I was going to have at least a little fun. Not the "game of the year" I was maybe (somewhat ironically) psyching myself up for, but I'd say it's considerably better than everyone else is giving it credit for. Again, though, that could just be my low standards, made even lower after recently finishing a much worse Peach oriented game.

---

peach's next smash moveset could be killer if you think about it now holy shit

I'll admit first and foremost, I saw the leaks before release, I saw the trailers for this game, and I thought it looked like absolute dogshit! I was terrified to see where Fire Emblem was headed with this, and lord knows I wasn't anywhere close to interested in those avatar designs. I thought it looked like complete and utter ridiculousness, but... time went on, and it grew on me. As wheatie does, the game released and I saw a few clips of it floating around on different platforms. It looked ridiculous. Almost... intentionally so?

The story is terrible, yeah, of course, I think that's been made abundantly clear by everybody, but I can't help but smile at it still. Everything about Fire Emblem Engage is silly, from its writing, to its character designs, to just its whole damn premise, it's absurd! And yet, they seem to know that! So instead of desperately trying to claw its way into a dark and brooding story, it almost felt like they were more leaning into the absurdity of what they had. This isn't a game you're supposed to take seriously, and I fuckin' love it.

Looking past that, though, as a Fire Emblem in gameplay, it does a stellar job. I don't feel the need to go over what everyone else already has countless times before, general consensus seems to be shockingly positive regarding the map design and the gameplay, but I also really enjoyed some of the paralogues, getting to revisit maps from the older games and even getting to walk around them somewhat freely after the fight's over. That's something I'd also like to talk about, because good god this game is so fucking pretty! Maybe I'm just surprised after having played Three Houses for so long and staring at its boring and repetitive maps so many times, but even besides that, the hub worlds like the Somniel or the post-battle, fully modeled maps, I was absolutely astounded by just how beautiful Engage was to look at. Could very well be the prettiest game on the Switch, helped by its already vibrant and colorful/flashy design everywhere else.

Now combine those beautiful atmospheres with a just as beautiful soundtrack, pure bliss. I spent so much time in the Somniel just spacing out and wandering the area, listening to whichever song fit the time, and at this point I think it's going to stay with me for the next while. The serenity that comes with these tracks is something I find scarcely matched in other media. Shit, I'm listening to them even now, writing this review, thanks to this cool little compilation I found of all of 'em. That's not to say the other tracks aren't amazing as well. Being as obsessed with this series as I have been for the last eight years or so, it was more than exhilarating listening to the throwbacks they whipped up for all of the Emblem Trial paralogues, or the slow and gratifying buildup of Last Engage at the end, to be followed shortly after by a lovely vocal track for the credits roll, among god knows how many others.

Engage was a stunning, whimsical, and just overall fun experience, in every sense of the word. I regret being so doubtful of this game at first, and I especially regret taking 14 entire months to finish it (oops). It's, as I said, absurd and ridiculous the whole way through, and I've learned to appreciate that sort of thing so much more over the years. I can't call it my favorite Fire Emblem, Sacred Stones has that nostalgia (and GBA) bias over me, but this was still a marvelous love letter to one of my favorite franchises ever, even despite some of its more prominent shortcomings.

"camp" as the kids say

March 22nd, 2024, marks the release day of Princess Peach Showtime, a game that I have been looking forward to since its reveal, and even more so after playing the demo recently and being absolutely enamored by its sense of creativity and whimsy. I figured, hey, if I'm looking forward to this Peach game so much, I should give the first one a try as well! I sincerely doubt they'll be at all related to each other, but its fun to get the full Princess Peach experience regardless. Except this one wasn't very fun, actually.

Super Princess Peach is, 90% of the time, a mindless walk through a quick level grabbing whatever collectibles you need or may come across. The other 10% is a frustrating mess of a labyrinth where you will be wandering the area multiple times over in hopes of finding the weird little happenstance you need to pull of to find a Toad, or having a good old trial & error fest in a room that is exclusively pipes that only exist to drag you back to the beginning of the room. One of them takes you to the end of the level, have fun guessing.

The game doesn't do much to make these levels feel special, either. Peach's entire gimmick is her four emotions (stellar concept really), or three, given that one of them does nothing but heal Peach, in a game where dying is not only extremely difficult, but goes practically unpunished on the off chance it does happen.
The three emotions that actually are utilized are never for any more than a couple purposes. Being happy makes her spin windmills or blow away large clouds, maybe float at a snail's pace if you don't feel like platforming; being sad makes her run faster and grow plants; being angry makes her burn bridges and light torches, up until the end of the game where they just do that for you anyway. Very rarely will a new opportunity arise for one of Peach's abilities, but chances are you won't be seeing it again after a couple more levels.
Making it to the end of each world will reward you with a boss fight that follows a quick and easy touch screen minigame. Every boss in the game has one weakness that you will be told about just before fighting them, and they will hardly change anything up the whole time. Pick their favorite feeling and hit them five times with it, win game. Hell, you don't actually need to use any of the emotions for the final boss of the game except for one very brief instance of Rage just before the final hit.

The story is nothing I'm crazy for, either. I didn't care for Perry, and I guess Nintendo didn't either. Bowser and the gang find a Vibe Scepter (good one) that makes everyone very emotional, giving them similar abilities to Peach herself. This doesn't matter, SPP is more focused on giving you quick glimpses into the talking parasol's past at the end of each world, something something evil magic something something old man. It's your job to help reunite them. Or don't. You won't.

I was content on giving this game maybe a low 6/10 if it weren't for that final world. Genuinely appalling decisions made there.
Oh well, I don't have to play it anymore. Still looking forward to my Game of the Year tomorrow. Stay tuned for that one.

The day is April 1st, 2024. April Fools' Day! What are some silly pranks I can play on people on such a momentous occasion as this?
I've got a good one! I'll finally play the sequel to that game I hate, and see if it's actually any good.

---

I've made it clear enough how much I hate Breath of the Wild, how much it quite literally pains me to play it. Obviously, I wouldn't be looking forward to Tears of the Kingdom either. Especially with just how much they tried to hype it up, like good lord this shit ended at least four Nintendo Directs. Despite all that, I decided to make a fool of myself today and give it a try, thanks to my brother being a BOTW fan in my stead, and purchasing this game back when it released. Be surprised when you hear this: I still don't like it.

I went into TOTK with no intentions of ever finishing it, and certainly no intentions of putting too much time into it. I gave it two hours, finished two shrines, and fucked around with whatever new mechanics they gave me. Shockingly though, I can at the very least admit that I didn't hate the new ideas. I enjoyed fusing items together a decent amount. It's definitely more Zelda than I felt with its prequel.

Unfortunately, there's still the entire rest of the game. The large, open world that has me running in circles for lord knows how long because I can't figure out a way to reach that spot I pinpointed on my map. The open world that I will be begrudgingly slogging through because my stamina doesn't allow me to speed up for any longer than three seconds. The very same open world that ends up giving me a headache if I spend too long in it. I didn't like it then, and I still don't like it now, fun new gimmicks or otherwise.

But hey, that's more than I could say for Breath of the Wild. Given that I had even the slightest amount of fun ever, I can still call it better than the first. It even took a little longer to give me a headache this time around. Maybe next time we can get an actual Zelda game.

---

why did i do this?

I only recently learned that this even exists, just by scrolling through a particular shop of no importance. I figured, why not, I'll give it a fun try, and in the only way I know how anymore. With a 16 Star speedrun.

... That run took me, like, two weeks, because I immediately learned upon booting the game up that my New Nintendo 2DS XL™©'s analog stick has drift. Something I'd never noticed, but I suppose the stick is extra sensitive when it comes to Mario 64.

As far as I can tell, it's just Super Mario 64 on 3DS. A marvel to be sure, and a fun game all around, if you're looking for a fun new way to play, there's no reason not to try it out. Assuming your system doesn't also have drift. That can get very annoying, no matter how short you're playtime might be.

also would not recommend BLJs on a 3DS, not very fun.

This was the first of the Shantae games I had played way back in early-mid 2018, when I had been randomly compelled to try out the series and became her number one advocate for a Smash Bros. inclusion, which... :(... but oh well. I think this is easily the one everyone should start with, as it's not as frustrating as the first game, yet nowhere near the polish and style of the later entries. It's a valuable playthrough if you're hoping to get into the series yourself, but I wouldn't blame anyone for skipping it to play Pirate's Curse instead.

Admittedly, Risky's Revenge is not quite as good as I had remembered as a kid. Dungeons are all pretty bland in design, sluggish to traverse, and the world outside of those dungeons can be rather barren. Shantae herself doesn't control the best either, her hair attacks always carry the long windup and cooldown whether she's fully upgraded or not. It's not terrible, especially for being only her second (...third?) outing, but it's not easy to come back to after playing the rest of her series. I couldn't help but think about how much more I'd be enjoying Pirate's Curse or Half-Genie Hero throughout my playthrough.

i'll also admit that i tried to play the first game before this and gave up after a short while, so hey, Risky's Revenge is definitely a fine improvement.

First and foremost, I should be thanking my friend QuentTheSlayer for gifting Pseudoregalia to me a few months back during the Steam Winter Sale, go check him out, and thank you very much, Quent. I had heard about this game a little before that through a quick "check out these games!" sorta video, I thought the art looked pretty nice and I was intrigued by the concepts I had heard and the gameplay I had seen. It wasn't until another friend of mine also played through it recently and started singing its praises that I had finally decided to devote myself to it and boot it up.

It's a 3D Metroidvania type of deal, with a huge emphasis on its range of movement options that you will unlock throughout the game. That's easily its most notable aspect, the movement in Pseudoregalia can be absolutely stellar, with every ability having all the right tools to make platforming fun, as well as allowing you to challenge yourself upon coming across an obstacle that might seem impossible. Chances are, with the right amount of experimentation, you'll find a way through. I've always been a sucker for strong movement in any game that allows it, so naturally I'm gonna like what I'm given here.

I have a hard time praising much else, though. While yes, the platforming is fun when the opportunity arises, the actual world you will be exploring with your techniques can get very tedious to walk through. I even played this game after the map update, so, while I'm sure I didn't have it as bad as I could have, it still wasn't the best. The map does a somewhat poor job with its sense of direction, given that it's just a map, giving no details on your actual location. Very often would I find myself entering a room, only to immediately back out of it once I realized I was on the wrong path to my destination. Some rooms can also just prove relentlessly large in scale, with exits spanning multiple different walls and corners, as well as elevations.

To add even more, exploration can start to feel a bit aimless after enough time. There's not much of a story being told here, outside of the very beginning and the very end. There are a few pieces of lore strewn about with tombstones and bookshelves, I suppose. I just never felt I had a very clear goal the entire time I was playing, the number one collectible, being the Major Keys, aren't locked behind anything besides some quick platforming challenges, and collecting them still doesn't feel all too grand.

Maybe that's for the best though, since combat seems to be the least centric component of the game. The most you will ever gain to your weapon is the ability to charge an attack, and a projectile (which, even then, is still used more for hitting far-off switches than actually fighting). I guess you also have the option to toss your sword, but I can't recall any instances of it being necessary, nor can I think of any reason I would actually want to do that.
In combat, basic enemies will usually fall to a few slashes, and sometimes you'll come across an enemy that requires a few more. There is little impact to your hits, with the complete lack of animation on contact or upon death. They will instead shake a bit, and then slowly fade out once they've taken too much damage.
I do think I was also a little overhyped on the final boss. I definitely enjoyed it (and it was definitely the most fun I had while fighting anything in this game), but it's very simple to learn and adapt to, and by the time you've figured that out, it'll be over just a few moments later. The boss falls, you get a quick little conversation over a white background, and are swiftly sent back to the title screen to no fanfare. Just feels really abrupt and anticlimactic.

I can still remember having fun from time to time with Pseudoregalia, it's just that those times were always in rather short bursts, before I had to return to my clueless wandering around the map. I'd still recommend it, of course, but I think I went into it a little overly enthusiastic, and came out just a bit worn out and disappointed. I will still look forward to the dev's next project, Electrokinetic, though.



i think Sybil mighta awoken a little something in me

This is a game of choice. All outcomes are dealt by your hand. There is no room for error, no mistakes to be made, no extraneous activity set up to prey on your downfall. All that is asked of you is to select a case.

Are you confident in your decisions? Do you trust yourself enough to follow through to the end? How long do you believe you can stay confident in your selection? That is not what matters now. At the moment, you have six cases to eliminate from the pool.

One falls. Another. Then another. Four. Five. Six. Some lucky drops. Some higher than you would have liked. Out of obligation, you are now given the choice to finish the game immediately, taking a definitive offer totaled from your remaining potentialities. Usually no higher than ~70,000 dollars. The choice is yours. Deal, or No Deal?

Well, that's ridiculous. Look at the board! You still have several hundred thousands awaiting you! You would be a fool to accept that puny an amount with such high odds of success! No deal, banker.

Continue forward. Please remove five more cases from the stage. One... two... oh, dear. A major hit to your possible winnings. This will not go over well in your next offer. Nevertheless, all you can do is continue forward. Three, four, five.

The banker has returned with a new offer. You have gained an additional ten, maybe fifteen thousand to your deal. All you have to do is accept. But that is not what you are here for. You are behind the podium because of the big one million that still eludes you. It could be sitting right next to you, for all you know. This is another deal you cannot make.

As the game progresses, you start to feel it. Your confidence is waning. Your options are diminishing, and so, too, are your prizes. Your decisions have led you to exhilarating highs, and heart wrenching lows. You have lost your chance at the fabled one million dollar prize, but that does not mean you are out just yet. You can keep going. $750,000 is still a fair amount. If not that, then 500,000. Do not let this one instance tear you away from victory.

The banker has returned. You have done well, and are rewarded with the promise of a definitive 200,000 dollars, at the least. Deal, or No Deal?

Not good enough.

You have made it this far. You can go higher. There is still that non-zero chance of half a million. Do not accept the deal. Do not settle for mediocrity. Is that how you want to live? To spend your restless nights tossing and turning over what could have been? No deal.

Ahead of you lies four more cases. Choose one.

Your best bet crumbles.

The banker is not pleased.

The deal is dropped, and it is now clear to you that perhaps you should have left when you were given a satisfactory result. But that is not what you are here for.

One more case.

Down goes your saving grace. There is nothing left for you.

The banker has given you one final chance. Will you count your losses, accepting the perfect in-between of your last two cases? Or do you still think you can beat the odds?

At what point would you still consider it worth it? The only thing keeping you going anymore is your ego, which has tumbled time and time again as you decline each and every out. If you leave now, you will not only leave unhappy, but unfulfilled. Despite it all, there is still that looming sense of achievement that comes from taking your shot, and making it out stronger than you could have.

Do not accept the deal.

Your odds are now 50/50. There is no middle ground anymore. There is no settlement to be made. You refused what was given to you, because you held out hope. Hope that got you nowhere. You have one final decision. Will you swap your case for what is left on stage, or will you stay true to your first choice, the case that has stayed by your side since the beginning?

Your confidence is what pulled you through to begin with. You promised to see it through to the end. You will not let anything tell you otherwise. Win or lose, you have always stayed true to yourself. You have what you want. You know what is best for you. With no one to blame but yourself, you have lost everything, but you know there is still more waiting for you.

---

I chose to keep my case. Given the possibility of one hundred dollars or five, I decided not to swap.

I walked out with five dollars. I won five dollars. Nothing brought about this result against my wishes. Everything that happened in this game was under my hand. I have trouble even calling myself a winner, given that there was no opponent to beat, no loser to be seen. I can't blame the game, or another person, or any other outside force. I chose this outcome, and I did everything in my power to keep it that way. Myself. Such is the thrill, and the horrors, of Deal or No Deal.

Four years...
It took me four years...
But I have it

No matter how many times it's been said in the past, Persona 4: Dancing All Night may just be one of the strangest decisions Atlus has ever made. To take their critically acclaimed murder mystery and turn it into a rhythm game, complete with professional dancers, tons of different artists providing remixes for old songs, and, uh... Hatsune Miku. And to somehow make it good?

I won't speak on the Story Mode since, again, it's been four years, and I remember none of it, so the most I can do is talk about everything else.
The music is the best out of the Dancing series, giving spotlight to even some of the more obscure Persona songs that you don't tend to see talked about, like the opening to Persona 4 Arena (the first one), and even extending some other songs with new lyrics. I'm not gonna try and act like I understand the deeper meaning behind "yeah, flooded apple pie, left out 'til somebody cries" but I still think it's nice to hear more from one of my favorite soundtracks ever.
Gameplay is surprisingly reasonable, though there are some charts that can be a little wonky. The hitsounds are satisfying when timed right, and the controls are smooth enough to feel fun. I'll add, though, I played the entirety of the game by scratching with the analog sticks instead of L1/R1, I just can't see how those two buttons feel comfortable with everything else. I'd maybe understand it if it were L2/R2, but sadly that just isn't an option. I find my fingers to be a little too close together on the former.

I feel like I'm repeating myself, but I can't stress enough just how weird it is that this worked so well. Even weirder how the other 2 dancing games that came after fucking sucked LMAO
Proud to finally have my FC on every song in the game, 9/10.

Obviously it's the highest selling Mario Kart, hell, the highest selling Mario game at all, so they must've done something right. Totaling a solid 96 tracks and 50 characters, some even crossing over from different games entirely, there should be a little something for anybody and everybody. I dunno know, though, I just can't get into it as much as I feel like I should.

This is a very clean feeling Mario Kart, almost a little too clean. I guess it's the Double Dash fan in me, but Mario Kart 8 has always felt just a little too smooth for my liking, which sounds like it should be a good thing, but I definitely prefer the more chaotic gameplay of Mario Kart. Although, I can give them credit for this, 200cc does do a pretty good job of fulfilling that wish. Custom items as well to an extent, though that's a bit more on the ridiculous side than hectic. Big difference.

I digress, chaotic or not, MK8D still has some beautiful and vibrant tracks. Electrodrome was, and to this day still is, easily in my top 3 tracks out of the entire series. Mt. Wario is another really fun design and concept, which I'm sure has had its praises sung relentlessly by now. Even the retro selection is pretty damn strong, some remarkable glow-ups given to tracks such as GBA Mario Circuit, GBA Ribbon Road, N64 Rainbow Road, though I do understand the grievances to be had on that last one. Outside of the first page of cups, 8 Deluxe also introduced the Booster Course Pass line of DLCs, which, ah...

Sorry, I hate this concept in its entirety. I understand you have your sweet little mobile game and you need to preserve all of its tracks for when that inevitably shuts down, but I really don't think the way to do it was by adding paid DLC to your Deluxe rendition of your 8 year old game. Yes, I see why they did it, I get it, highest selling game on the Switch, it still just feels stupidly counterintuitive. Not to mention how wildly inconsistent the quality can be. For every GBA Boo Lake, there's a 3DS Toad Circuit. For every Yoshi's Story, there's a GBA Sunset Wilds/Sky Garden sorry i'm a super circuit fan and i will NOT sit idly by and let them curse my beloved tracks.

I won't call it bad, it's very clearly not bad. Good, even. I just don't like the feeling it evokes, which is, uh. Not much. Online works surprisingly well, battle mode is easily better than base MK8. Shoutout Reyn and Quent for the fun times and look forward to their reviews as well, assuming they both write one. If not, then at least look forward to Reyn's.

look i'm SORRY i really am but like i'm having a lot of fun checking in on all the stuff i remembered as a kid, this just so happens to be one of them LMAO

I don't have any fun tales to tell or any vibes to reminisce on like I did in my EYX review, which is unfortunate because that means I actually have to try and figure out what I'm supposed to say about "Sonic.EXE" and his game.

But I don't wanna be too negative about it. I actually have some nice things to say, though it's more so just me being surprised and not actually anything I'd call any good. My memory of this game was purely what it started out as, walk right and watch these characters die in about 15 or so minutes. To my shock and surprise, there have actually been some very major changes made in the 11 years since that original release. You are now given the option to, uh... I dunno, see a little more? You can fulfill certain requirements (walking left instead of right) to find extra stages that provide something of a story that I don't care about, culminating in one last little walk to the right as the blue blur himself. Blur as in he's being covered in static, nothing speed wise, he's still just walking. Aside from that, Knuckles can punch now, Robotnik lost his ability to slide (sad!), and sometimes you need to jump instead of it being purely a walk to the right. The art at the end is different, frankly a little more silly looking than the original, but shit I know there's not much you can do about that.

Was fun to see what's new, but it's still a shitty story written by a shitty person turned into a shitty game. As much as I got to gush over the community aspect of it all before, I still can't deny that much. Still not a 1/10 though lmao

I always feel bad with games like these, I feel compelled to apologize to this fictional woman for actively choosing the bad options so that I could see her not have fun for that one last ending...

One Night, Hot Springs (or "one night, hot springs") is a game I stumbled across just yesterday, and was immediately interested in. I looked it up, found it on Steam for [[wow]] zero dollars! and added it to my library to install later that night to play through it once I woke up the next day. Given my recent discoveries over the past several months, I've found it all the more valuable to read and understand more transgender stories, to take in other experiences, even if they might be written from different countries and/or cultures.

With such a difficult and personal topic as this, there comes a lot of discomfort. It's hard to place yourself anywhere, to know where you belong, or if you will at all. It's hard to introduce yourself to people without overthinking things, you're never sure if they'll accept or understand what you mean, and it's just as hard to try and explain everything in a way that won't dwell on more bad feelings. It's hard to give honest answers to even the closest people you know, because all in all, the whole process dwells on uncertainty. These things take time to get used to, and discovering yourself is never easy. Interestingly, I think that's about the most I could resonate with this game. The discomfort and inability to speak wholeheartedly.

It's painful sometimes. It takes a lot to go out of your comfort zone, and it can take a lot out of someone when things go wrong. It's understandable that, to some, the easy way out would be to simply avoid those scenarios altogether, prevent them from happening. Sometimes it feels easier to keep some things to yourself, rather than suffer the potential consequences of "burdening" someone else with your struggles and memories. Lord knows I've done the same for long enough, and still do so more often that I'd like to admit. But that won't get anyone anywhere. Nothing comes from airing your speech into the void for no one but yourself, or repressing them to maintain an atmosphere. The good part comes from finally letting it out, and finding the right ones that are willing to stick by you after the fact.

I can't say I relate to everything of this story. I had my realizations after I had already graduated and cut off everyone I knew I would be uncomfortable staying around. Naturally, there also comes the cultural differences between school uniforms, school structures in general, and uh... hot springs. But what's there is there, and I always appreciate knowing that there is common ground between folk. I can understand and feel the difficulties of introducing myself or being introduced to new faces, no matter their pre-existing relationships with those I already know. I can understand and feel the doubt and guilt that might stem from expressing trouble or discontent. I can understand and feel the discomfort from having to conform for society or legality's sake. No matter how short ONHS might have been, I will always appreciate a space to see and resonate with another's life.

Find your friends, and hold them close. Find yourself, and hold that even closer. With time, things will get better. Comfortability comes from experimentation, not being afraid to try and grow, and I think a powerful step in that direction is valuing and taking the experiences of those like yourself to heart. Thank you.