She had a #mountain of things to do, and it was Friday. She didn’t need to conquer it. She just needed to survive the ascent. #vss365

She looked up from her mail to the sky. No #bequest from a dead relative. Again. Rude. Not that she had any wealthy relatives, but if she did, and one of them died, she saw no reason she couldn’t inherit their money. #vss365

Even the clock striking five offered no #reprieve. There was still traffic to fight, then the kids and their homework. No rest in sight. #vss365

Every morning, before the sun had properly cleared the roofs, she knelt beside the bed and asked to be made clean. Patient. Humble. Worthy of the day's burdens. She had spent years learning how to #purify the soul. She had yet to discover how to purify her phone of spam callers. #vss365

Between the lack of sleep and the caffeine, she knew the #reckoning was coming. Eventually, her body was going to give up on her. She just needed it to hold out until everything was submitted. #vss365

She didn’t #hunger for a faster mile. She didn’t hunger for a smaller size. At this moment, at this particular moment in time, she hungered for a cinnamon roll. And, frankly, the cinnamon roll had the better argument. #vss365

My favorite thing about Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave is the number of cats wandering around town.

Most of the time, her o’s were o’s, but on days when the wind came up hard, she couldn’t help slipping into her mother’s voice. "It’s getting #stormy outside", she'd say with the "a" where the "o" ought to be. She’d catch herself, feel that old flicker of embarrassment, and then miss her. #vss365

She was #sustained by deadlines and coffee. This had seemed perfectly reasonable at thirty. At forty, it seemed less like a lifestyle and more like a medical experiment. #vss365

She was going to begin working on her draft. Not impactful enough. She was going to start working on her draft. Too generic. She was going to #commence work on her draft? Too formal. She was going to work on her draft. There. Simple. Direct. No more room for procrastination. #vss365

She decided, despite it all, to trade her naivete for hope. Not the foolish hope that nothing would go wrong, but the #sanguine conviction that she could survive whatever did. #vss365

She decided, despite it all, to trade her #naivete for blind optimism and accept whatever consequences followed. #vss365

She hadn't been to #Moonglade in eleven years. Her son was eleven. Coincidence? No. Babies had a way of ruining a perfectly good raid schedule. Her old guildmates were long gone, too. She wondered if anyone remembered her, or if Azeroth had simply carried on without her. #vss365

Her morning #elixir required roasted energy beans, water at precisely the proper temperature, four minutes of steeping, oat milk, and sugar. On rushed mornings, she could simply whisper a phrase to the local apothecary, offer coin, and let them make her morning coffee. #vss365

Rough Draft vs Final Draft

As the day wore on, her unease began to #wax. At first, it was little more than a nagging thought, easy enough to dismiss. But with every passing hour, it grew harder to ignore, until it had settled heavily in the pit of her stomach. #vss365

Her heart still beat. It still hurt. #Tissue, it turned out, had a cruel sense of humor. #vss365

She sometimes mourned the blank walls in her kids' rooms. Her childhood room had been covered with colorful #posters of bands and movie stars. Their heroes lived on screens, appearing and disappearing without ever leaving a trace. #vss365

If only her mind were a #sponge. Learning would come easily to her. Instead, it was more of a sieve, letting everything slip away. #vss365

She and her brothers had tied a thick #cord across the gully, rigging it into a makeshift rope swing. Every time they hiked that trail, they would stop there, take turns swinging out over the ravine, and laugh until their sides hurt. #vss365

She tried to tackle her leg hair, with all the best intentions. The #razor burns made her skin angry and stippled with red bumps. Wearing shorts was now out of the question, and it was too hot for anything else. Another day at home then. #vss365

All he wanted was a whistling #kettle, a soft chair, and a good book. #vss365

She had packed everything, even a camp sink, but forgot the #soap. She discovered this, naturally, only after it was too late to remedy. #vss365

She planted flowers for butterflies, sure they’d eventually notice the invitation. By midsummer, the #garden had attracted every creature except the one she’d planted it for. Finally, a butterfly appeared, circled the garden once, then flew straight into her neighbor’s yard. #vss365

She walked in wearing an absolutely #evil grin. He should have known right then to run. Instead, he smiled back, because apparently self-preservation had never been his strongest skill. #vss365

The day’s #toil was too much. The evening's rest was never enough. By the time the work was done, there was barely enough light left to remember that life was meant for more than labor. #vss365

Her imagination was #fertile enough to produce exactly one worthwhile idea: sleep. #vss365

She #tended to mind her own business. The only problem was that, in her mind, everyone else's business was her own. #vss365

This meeting covered everything. The model had given them #road maps with checkpoints and deliverables. Every problem had a plan. The only thing the plan neglected was the fact that there were five employees. #vss365

She had youth as a #tailwind. He had caffeine and denial. #vss365