Building Bridges for Strangers in Death Stranding

~ a short story Suddenly inspired by a spring in his little steps, Lou wandered off from his parents’ side. They gawked at flags and documents on the walls. Family trip to the memorial museum, where the United States’ founding documents were preserved. Papa wanted to revel at the Constitution…

~ 3 short stories of parasocial relationships taking strange and terrifying turns in the age of livestreaming and online celebrity. Aleksandra watched her bestie every day through a live feed. She’d talk and listen and watch videos and play video games. She’d react to such experiences with great animation and…

~ a short story A trail of gore winding through the central thoroughfare of the chapel revealed a monster surfacing from behind the dais. A wolf. A giant. A god. Executor Nexe halted his trained approach and let the sensors on his suit prime. Dripping, bloody claws scratched at the…

~ musings on obsession. “I swore, from that point on, to approach every matchup as a matter of life and death. No one was going to have that kind of control over my focus ever again.” ~ Kobe Bryant We revere the results of obsession. From movies and music, to…

~ a short story The thrum of deep sound hearkens me to return. Where? As a child, I was quiet but mischievous. More than anything, I liked to make people laugh. I wanted fun and smiling people; I yearned for… What? A rain check in my pocket. Bank account numbers…

~ a short story Mr. Smith gritted his teeth as the glove was affixed to his soft knuckles. The inner material braced against his fists roughly, shimmied there by silent public servants. Unforgiving was such equipment, its harsh cushions fitted to the soul that wore it. Or rather, the soul…

~ a short story Don sipped the whiskey down in the stale silence of the office air, mingling thoughts of Sharon with dreams of Jess. Panel windows cornerstoned him at the offices of Smith & Smither, where he spent his days brainstorming ways to sell staplers. Pitch decks and art…

~ essay on Bloodborne (2015), the ultimate in action-horror role-playing. Shortly after my journey through the Lands Between, I entered the nightmare world of Bloodborne (2015) due to some friendly recommendations. With it, FromSoftware’s transcendent Souls action-RPG formula shifted into the realm of gothic horror and cosmicism. Much like Elden…

~ a poem It all started with the word. Language split us even as it connected us. The “nightmare mind” of humanity’s reifying alienations and exploitations, it sourced off pages. Handed down from on high, Lexicon became law. The land summoned illusory walls that we soon built. A false world…