I was playing a Elemental Blade Flurry character in Diablo II when I realized that it was lacking all of the quality of life changes Path of Exile had. I had to reactivate my buffs and resummon my minions in every new zone I walked into. The waypoints were fickle as the window would open and close quickly at every slight twitch of the cursor after clicking them.

The three of us were in a free-for-all snowball fight in the meter-deep snow. The now-abandoned park was surrounded by brick walls on all sides. Every now and then, I would see a shadow at the foot of some of the trees. I tried to bring this to the attention of the others but they wouldn’t listen until I started hearing voices. I didn’t want to stay here any longer.

I woke up to the sound of my own voice. I looked at the phone in my hand to see that I had been in a call over Messenger with a friend for 43 minutes. Apparently we were in the middle of talking about recent changes in Team Fortress 2 and Apex Legends. I continued the conversation until the 50 minute mark before revealing that I had in fact been asleep for a good portion of the call and had no recollection of whatever it was that we were discussing.

I was making my way to my 4 o’ clock career counseling appointment that I had been putting off for months. I walked through the unfamiliar office to find a line in front of the room we were supposed to meet in.

Our last day on the moon was soon approaching. The interior of the building resembled a hospital with the walls painted dark blue. Every time I stepped out of the room, monsters resembling yellow emojis would come charging at me. We had figured out however that the creatures stopped in their tracks whenever you clapped in their direction. More specifically, they stopped moving and turned into clapping emojis themselves for as long as you continued clapping at them. The clapping was contagious. In order to make my way down the hall without being attacked, I had to keep clapping around me in all directions.

I was waiting in line in the newly renovated school cafeteria. There were screens above the lines broadcasting various video game streams. One of them was teaching how to play Caustic in Apex Legends while the other was some Starcraft tournament. When it came my turn to order, I asked for a bowl of noodles and was told that it would take a while. I didn’t mind and went to sit at a table. I continued watching the Starcraft stream.

It was night time and I was walking home with my uncle and cousin in Chiayi. We walked up and over a hill on a golf course until we reached the main road. I stopped for a moment at which point my uncle said I had to lead the way, as a test to see if I knew the way home from here. I opted to keep following the main road while my uncle commented that if it were up to him, he would have turned at the intersection and walked along the university campus instead.

I was watching a romance TV series with my parents. It was a straightforward story about how a couple fell in love at a party on a boat but it was presented achronologically and constantly changed perspectives. The entire series revolved around one night.

My brother wanted me to get him into Path of Exile. As my laptop was launching the game, I flipped through a small “trading booklet”. I set my laptop on the dining table so that it was facing the wall. I looked up to see that there were still many patches to go.

The two of us were sitting in the back of the car watching an AI Starcraft game on a tablet. This reunion was the first time we had met each other in years. I slowly leaned to the side until my head was against her shoulder. She invited me to lay on her lap.