[What makes you smile? What makes you happy?]

Well, not this prompt. Nothing good game to mind and I’m bored. Yet, I’ll write something for the prompt.

Weeeell, let’s see…

The simplest answer to both questions is “Whatever entertains me.”, and I could also delve deeper to explain what entertains me for what reasons…but that idea bores me further. So… Often times I’m made happy just by imagining good things. Whether they be forms of entertainment, achieving difficult goals, finding myself in fantasy scenarios, or improving my skills in any field.

When I daydream of possible situations, such as coming home to find that my parents baked some kind of confectionary, or increasing my level of skills in a game, the thought is most often quite short. Mostly just, “Wouldn’t it be great if this happened?”, then I forget about it. Really nothing much, simply a short thought that temporarily raises my expectations a bit. Then, when it doesn’t happen, I reinforce the idea that expectations should be kept low if I want to keep my sanity. Life, after all, is not always fun.

Tis often that when I daydream of achieving difficult goals, the specific goal in mind is finally managing to put my imagination on paper in a satisfactory manner. That is to say, finish writing my damn novels. I know that the stories are good enough to be entertaining, my literary skills are up to par with what’s necessary to sell, and that there’s a large enough audience for my works…but putting myself on the spot to write seldom works out. Hell, after a period of around a week and a half of deleting the shit I wrote because it wasn’t good enough, I only managed to write 2,200 words before I lost the special mindset that let me do it. It’s painful.

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Now, regarding finding myself in fantasy scenarios…well, duh. This uneventful and boring life on Earth does not compare to the adventures I’ve read in stories like Will Wight’s Cradle, I EAT TOMATOES’ Coiling Dragon, or Er Gen’s I Shall Seal the Heavens, which are only a few examples. However, I must address a common misconception I’ve noticed in relation to living out a fantasy life of adventure: I don’t want to live a shitty isekai* life where I’m dropped into a fantasy world with huge advantages over everyone else, face minor problems at most, and get all the most beautiful lovers. GAWD, that’d be boring. I want an adventure wrought with mystery, combat, friendship, betrayal, losses, successes, horrors, and romance. ALL of it! Not just one, not just a few. I want it all and more! Of course, not all at once. Jeez, could you imagine?

Anyway…fantasizing can be fun.

…

*isekai: Japanese word meaning “other world” that is also known as a subgenre of fantasy wherein characters are transported to a world different from the one they originated. The term has much baggage due to very many common tropes used in such media for easy fan service and wish fulfillment (typically for male audience).