"Munchy, how many fictional boys are you so attached to that they literally make you cry?"

Shut up, I can love as many as I want! They're just so good ;-;

Spoilers for Our Life: Beginnings and Always, this adorable little dating/friendship simulator I found and immediately took to. I know probably nobody cares about it, but if you're curious, I would absolutely encourage you to check it out. Unfortunately, there are no female love interests, because the story really centers around one key bond, but you have the choice whether to romance him at all, and there are a couple of side routes. Either way, if any of that appeals to you, give it a try.

So. Said character who is the core of the story is a lad named Cove Holden. Your character (fully customizable, though you don't see her/him/them all that often) meets him in your childhood, as he's your new neighbor. The game focuses on the two of you growing up together over the course of several years, and how you impact each other's personalities and whatnot. Based on how you interact with Cove, the story can alter and Cove himself can apparently be very different, both physically and mentally. I'm not immediately sure how, because I've only played through the game once so far, but I love how my version of Cove turned out.

The character I made and played as is named Mark Romwell. I didn't really intend for this to happen, but I kind of just made him an amalgamation of my favorite types of characters. So y'all should probably already be getting an image of him from that, but I'll explain.

Physically, Mark is small. Short, though not extremely so, and somewhat frail, he's maab and not dysphoric in the slightest. Though, despite this, he's very secure in his masculinity and enjoys wearing skirts for special occasions and keeping his white hair long-ish. He wears glasses, the shape of which he experiments with as he gets older, and he keeps adding piercings. His eyes are purple— look, if I can use fun colors and it's commonplace in-universe, I'm gonna do it.

He feels all of his feelings very deeply. Aside from anger, which he tends not to feel, he's almost explosive with his earnestness. Prone to tears, panicky, but also extremely open to sharing his joy, he's remarkably honest with his emotions. He's also very physically affectionate— if there's one thing he does as often as cry, it's give out hugs like candy. He takes school very seriously, and works his ass off for good grades, but, due to this, he's pretty anxious about school. He's artistic, but not very sporty.

Mark's emotional vulnerability rubbed off on Cove, in my route, however, Cove is a little more reckless. Mark is a bit of a goody-two-shoes, but he mostly just wants to avoid himself and people he loves getting hurt or in trouble. Meanwhile, Cove has his moments of impulsiveness, similar to his dad. He and Mark have no problems with sneaking in and out of each other's houses for nightly visits. The two are extremely close, to the point where it's almost a little concerning, but Mark tries his best to spread out his time with his other friends so that nobody feels left out.

In my route, at least, both boys deeply love their families. I shouldn't get into that too much, for the sake of spoilers, but I'll just say that the two families mean as much to me as Cove and Mark themselves.

Now, without further delay, I'm gonna be showing some CGs that made me die of happiness.

Back in the child phase, Step 1. This is one of the first moments I really started to get sold on Cove as a character. Just the nostalgia, as two kids on their first sleepover with each other huddled under the covers and read a book together while trying not to let Mark's moms see.

In the young-teenage phase. Like usual, Cove climbed in through Mark's bedroom window being his usual dorky self.

In the young adult phase. This is the moment I decided to have Mark confess his feelings. The scenes leading up to this moment and the quiet smile on Cove's face meant I had to. After 10 years of knowing each other and being best friends, Mark finally put an end to the will-they-won't-they charade. As you will shortly see, I did not even remotely regret this decision.

TWO DORKS IN LOVE. SO, SO IN LOVE.

I cried a bit at the game's end. Both because I was sad it was over and because it was just so overwhelmingly wholesome. I know that parasocial relationships can be a bad thing, but hey, it's better than me convincing myself I'm friends with online celebrities. By the end, every single character felt like a real human being who both Mark and I felt deeply connected to. It felt like I was actually living a life, and growing up, and in a way, it kind of helped me feel a little better about growing up?

This is literally my third day of owning the game and it's already a hit with me.

As you can clearly tell.