How I’m feeling right now…

This isn’t even a joke - the first red flag happened in 1994, when my abuser broke their word less than five minutes after agreeing to fulfill a promise they’d made months prior, then immediately lied to my face by fabricating an excuse to justify changing their mind.

In the span of a few minutes, they’d lied to me, broken a promise to me, and manipulated me. I was six years old, and had a photographic memory. I should’ve known it wasn’t a normal thing for a parent to do. How could I have been so frickin’ naive, even years later?

@KeAfan7 I hope so too… honestly it shows in how so much of the content I create has undertones of escapism, familial complexity, and self-discovery.

Even Crystals was partly fueled by a suppressed urge to GTFO and find a better way of life despite not knowing who TF I am (ironic considering the base concept and main characters literally came to me in a dream)…

@KeAfan7 Yeah, my birthday’s a little less than two weeks from today. Not sure about setting up a US eShop account, but I appreciate the gesture!

Feeling a little blue today, so I’m going out for ice-cream!

@KeAfan7 Maybe I ought to do a Burping Toad as a continuation of the whole gag that started as the “Cartoon Frog Screaming on a Box,” then continued with the “Bellowing Red Sky Bro Frog”…

CONTEXT:

Everything’s upside down here at the moment, and it’s gumming up my daily routine more than ever…

Even going out for groceries and other essentials is risky, because this town has an extremely high UV index from mid-spring to mid-autumn, and I have to rely on public transport to get me around right now, meaning I often get sunburnt before even reaching the bus stop.

Add my still-teetering emotional state, and it’s a recipe for the worst bake-off in the whole history of cuisine… 🫤

…no idea why or how the conversation somehow shifted to discussion of cake, so it’s punny how I… mixed metaphors. (rimshot)

And humour is surprisingly good medicine. I also find things like listening to upbeat music and watching silly YouTube Shorts can be quite therapeutic in a pinch. Those are a few of the strategies in my wellness toolkit.

My body is resistant to copium, however… heh… psychology pun. 🥸

How's the weather over there down under? @RyanNerdyGamer

@Zatchbell I was finishing up a reply not long after you tagged me, only for the whole thing to disappear when my internet browser jumped back to the previous page, which left me discouraged to type it again (it was well-written and slightly humorous, and I couldn’t recall exactly what I’d put after proofreading and polishing for a good few minutes).

The irony? I had a similar glitch in this second attempt as well, due to a formatting error that backspaced nearly the whole thing, so hopefully this one goes through successfully (third time’s the charm)…

SPOILER ALERT: It happened AGAIN in the third paragraph while typing a tl;dr response about the harsh summer weather in my hometown…

I’ve decided to try a different art therapy challenge each month, to better manage my ongoing challenges and maintain my creativity as best I can.

For January, I’m creating a series of HeroForge miniature designs that explore what I might look like as a Pokémon Gym Leader, with one design for each of the eighteen main types (my current avatar is one of ‘em).

@KeAfan7 Definitely!

@KeAfan7: TA-DA!

https://www.wiiwarewave.com/t6187-ryans-art-therapy-01-2025-gym-leader-ryan-heroforge

After yesterday’s homophobic abuse, I no longer feel safe in this town, and will almost certainly never come back when (not if) I return to my found home…