Status Updates From Games: A Love Story

Tbh I’m unsure on how I feel about this book but I LOVE their intellectual sparring!

Y’a des phrases qui sont écrites pour m’abattre. Vraiment y’a de ces pépites 😭

“I don’t think I have much to gain from destroying some child’s worldview,” Aleksandr replies dryly.

“To be clear,” she says, “I can still critique your free market capitalism. It’s bullshit. Elijah’s views are just also bullshit.”

“Just as well. I’ve only really got tolerance for one feral socialist in my life.”

“An honest dollar has never been made without breaking someone’s back.”

“And here I thought prostitution was the worlds oldest progression,” Aleksandr says.

Do you execs prefer handshakes or firm nods of acknowledgment? I’ve got both on offer.

Amina is so funny

Noooooooo dont do thiiiiiis you can be happy 🥹🥹🥹🥹

"How would you know:" she retorts.”I could have been faking it all this time, and you just wouldn't have notice—ah_"

Aleksandr slides his fingers inside of her, three all at once. Lili falls back with a hiss at the chill of his ring, the sudden surprise of it. The metal of his watch presses cold against her, too. "I know when you come, Lili," he warns. She inhales sharply as his fingers start to move. "Trust me.

“For someone who’s already gotten off multiple times this morning, you’re very belligerent,” he observes.

“I could have been faking it.”

He laughs, amused. “Sure.”

There, I think that’s me. I think I’ll never be free of that. I think that is who I am, at the root of everything, and I both hate it and cannot live without it.

If the pain ends, she will still be here, without them.

“It’s never going to stop unless you feel it,” he whispers. “Whatever it is- I can hurt you, but you need to feel it- it’s pain, Lili. Pain ends.”

- if her sense of independence, freedom, identity can be found only is resisting help, in letting no one take care of her. If the inverse might offer strength too.

That there is an end to pain-it’s an idea, rather than a belief but it’s tied to that night with Aleksandr, the sense of falling headfirst into herself.

(6:35 a.m.) are you at the office?

(6:35 a.m.) Yes, I do occasionally work, sweetheart.

(6:35 a.m.) and here I thought white men got everything handed to them.

(6:36 a.m.) I, too, am disappointed.

“I could be your hobby,” she volunteers, running her hands up his arms.

“That would imply you offer more stress relief than you incur,” Aleksandr counters.

“I think he’s going to just stand there until you go,” Lili stage-whispers to Aleksandr.

“The stray child is correct,” Michael says.

“Intellectual consistency is important!”

“Soundness of thought, yes, but you don’t need to subscribe to one ideology for that.”