🕊️ Soul Reaver Love Note

You know that game or book or movie that is the root of your creative inspiration or core memory that fleshes out your character or life's interests or personality-- Soul Reaver is that for me! And its remaster just came out today!

I remember when I first got ahold of Soul Reaver! I was seven years old, in my small town's game shop ready to spend my allowance on some of the used games there! Soul Reaver with its creepy green cover and the cool zombie character at the center totally stood out on the shelves like a spotlight. I remember bringing it to the front counter and I couldn't afford the full price, but the man behind the register decided to give it to me anyway. <:')c I very well could be living a timeline where Soul Reaver wasn't in my life if it weren't for that guy!

It probably wasn't the type of game a kid my age and their little brother should've been playing, but now we have matching tattoos of the clan symbols in the game and a slew of memories to fawn over.
The reason behind my tattoo is the artistic influence Soul Reaver gave me, and the precious memory of my little brother suggesting the solution to a puzzle that had us both stumped for months-- And celebrating with laughs and screams and how much of a genius he was for getting it right and unlocking the rest of the game for us to proceed forward.
I'd always thought that he'd gotten his tattoo to celebrate that moment in particular, since he'd chosen the clan symbol of the first boss the puzzle had then led us to. But it wasn't until recently did he reveal to me that he didn't get it for that reason. He said that once the puzzle was solved, we eagerly made our way to the first boss of the game, after months of stagnation in the puzzle room. But before we could fight the boss, he said he was hungry, and I'd apparently stopped playing so I could go make him some mac n cheese. I'd always thought that it was solving the puzzle that made such an impact on him.

I love this game and everything it's brought me, all the memories and inspiration. And I loved getting to be the brave older sister who could play the scary game with my smart little brother helping me through all the brain teasers. But really, I was only brave because he was there, and he felt special because I was there.

This morning at 7 AM he texted me saying "TODAY'S THE DAY"