#aspen benoit

[dead-finch-420]

she just like me fr ✊😭

[adirosa]

[dead-finch-420]

GOVERNMENT MANDATED EAR SCRITCHES

[abyssguard]

please be happy - 1st anniversary memorial acrylic stand (studio élan) illustrated by adirosa

[abyssguard]

please be happy - rotating acrylic stand (studio élan, studio nekomata)

[abyssguard]

please be happy - aspen benoit acrylic stand (studio élan) illustrated by adirosa

[abyssguard]

please be happy - aspen benoit & miho "gaze" acrylic stand (studio élan) illustrated by adirosa

[sinonlesbiantruther]

I just started my second playthrough of Please Be Happy, decided to take the long way round rather than loading a save or skipping through I love this story that much. (spoilers below)

To be honest, I was unsure about if I'd do a second playthrough. The comfy Aspen ending made me feel so good I didn't want to "undo" that to see the rest of the story. But then... I had a terrible thought. You see, I have a fear, an existential one of being "forgotten". It certainly made it easy to put myself in Miho's shoes during some sequences. But it also made some things feel truly heavy. Given the context of the events surrounding the route choice. I had a, for me, terrible realisation about what could happen when starting the Juliet route. I truly love Aspen so much that, when I first saw her on this second playthrough I had to stop for a bit because I burst into tears just thinking of what I was planning to do. As a fun aside, I'm fairly sure I've had a noticeable impact on the Spotify play count for the soundtrack, due to listening to Aspen's theme... a lot. The first is the 3rd of September. The second is today. (the 5th of September)

Before starting this second playthrough, I caught myself lost in thought. Worried, I suppose, about what might come to be in that route I haven't seen. It was at that point I unknowingly followed the example of the smartest fox I know, in the words of Miho: "This worry, these questions, would follow me wherever I go. No matter how far, and no matter how long." "So then, what do I do?" "The only answer I can think of is the scariest one." Reading that line again, in a new light, really did strike me. In a small way, it felt like it was there, specifically for people like me, struggling with the idea of seeing the other route.

And then.

When this line played it all slid into place for me. The depth of kindness Miho gets from all the characters in this game is truly heart-warming. During the start of this playthrough I was in a discord call with my Girlfriend, when I reached that line, that reassurance, that affirmation that it would be okay. I literally dropped everything else, after a moment she asked if I was okay. I was crying, for the second time. In chapter one. I can't say the road ahead will be easy. I'm sure I'll struggle more with my fear of the very real risk in this story that poof it'll all be gone. But I suppose that's what makes life in general so beautiful. It's there until it isn't. And I've still got another Aspen playthrough to go if it really is too much. But, I can rest easy, in the knowledge that: "If it ever becomes too much, I can simply stop reading, or do something else." I truly want to thank the team at Studio Élan for this wonderful story that I've yet to see all of, I'm sure it's one I'll revisit as an old friend, someday.