Tried to explain the concept of a 'video game console' to Beatrice today. Her face went from confused, to skeptical, to utterly convinced I was making it all up. I suppose 'a magic box that lets you control little people on adventures' does sound ridiculous when you say it out loud.

It got me thinking, though. About the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of things. About checkpoints and saves, about loading a previous file when everything goes wrong. It felt normal once. Now, the idea of just... erasing a mistake and trying again without remembering the pain of the failure seems almost like a fantasy itself.

We don't get to reload. We just have to keep moving forward with the weight of every stumble. But maybe that's what makes the victories real. They're earned.

...Betty just said my explanation was 'thoroughly lacking' and that Puck never needed such contrivances. I think I've been dismissed.

(Mood: thoughtful)