I had received a large cardboard box in the mail. Inside of the box was a diorama of anime and pokemon figures. Inside of another box was a folder full of documents with the sender’s address, photos of their home, and a list of their favorite characters. My heart sank when it dawned on me that I hadn’t done my part of the holiday gift exchange. I rushed to the computer and scrambled to find the email that contained our secret santa assignments in my hotmail inbox.

I was in charge of teaching a photography class to the people in our office. When I walked into the house, someone asked me if I had the equipment necessary for instruction ready. I quickly ducked out and went back to the car to pick up my camera. I stepped out of the car and offhandedly snapped what was supposed to be a test photo but I was so nervous that I didn’t even take the lens cap off.

We were multiple seasons into the zombie apocalypse and I was still trying to find a place to camp. Most of the spots in the urban landscape had already been settled. I landed onto the rooftop of an apartment building only to find that I had stumbled into someone’s makeshift home. I snuck around some more until I was outside of a large banquet hall. The local residents were holding a meeting and I had to introduce myself as I grappled with what was real or not.

I was playing as the Driller in Deep Rock Galactic when were were being swarmed with Spitters. I was pretty sure we were going to fail the mission as the music ramped up and the firing became more intense. Suddenly a bunch of display cars started turning in helicopters. I figured I would at least stick around long enough to see what happened next instead of giving up.

I was playing some kind of game where one team had to catch the other inside of a large warehouse. I was on the team that was being chased and we started on top of a large shipping container that was suspended high above. My role was to support the others as I scouted the area from our hideout. A few moments into the game, I heard some kind of commotion going on below. It sounded like a teammate got caught.