Jul 31, 2025

My day started with me being in a call with someone and she was going to stay up really, really late. I offered to get them coffee and food like we used to and she chose McDonald's. I got Wendy's and even made a joke about how perfect it would be at this time of day (because I used to eat Wendy's very, very late back in 2024), and she teased me about it. It was still funny and I took the joke just fine. We got our food and we watched a few videos from Edvasian about Crumbl cookies. Eventually, someone messages me that she was playing Peak and that the seed for today's run was very easy. We got on call and she shared her screen showing that she was able to make it to the alpine section alone. She did make a mistake, though, and that caused her to somehow fall into a deep crevice where she died. We both played multiplayer afterwards. In our run together, we got pretty far. We passed the alpine section with my help and even got through the caledera section through pure teamwork. And we even brought Bing Bong with us! When we got to the final stage, the kiln, that's where we started having problems. She told me to put Bing Bong in her bag so I could get it just in case she dies. I also had a scout effigy in my bag that I could use to revive her at any time. When we started climbing to the last stage, she had a call with her boss and she was basically preoccupied. This was on "tenderfoot" difficulty so hunger wasn't much of a problem, but it slowly ate our character's stamina bar because she was on a long call. I thought about taking Bing Bong from her bag and doing it all alone but I didn't. I eventually instructed her to jump and she did, but she took Bing Bong down with her and my heart absolutely shattered into a million pieces. I just had to grit my teeth and keep climbing. By some miracle, I actually got through it! I was able to bring back someone from the dead using the scout effigy, but Bing Bong wasn't here with us which just made things bittersweet and gave me so much regret. Someone was able to get a few achievements, including the "naturalist" one that she's been wanting for a while. We then left the call after that as it was finally someone's time to reach the end of the game. But me not taking Bing Bong left a super sour taste in my mouth. I kept playing that decision over and over. I couldn't sleep and the self-inflicted regret was eating me. So I played Peak again and I'm bringing Bing Bong with me this time. I went through the run alone. Again. And again. And again. At first, I fucked up because I swung on to the chain at the caldera section too early and I fell into lava. I was just about to invite someone back again, too. I got too hasty. I tried again AND I got to the kiln section. That's where I invited someone. She was in another meeting and was preoccupied, so I couldn't instruct her to climb up this certain ledge. I was the one who fell this time and I fucked up because I carried Bing Bong and a lot of stuff with me. Someone died shortly afterward. I decided that I wasn't going to sleep without bringing Bing Bong to the top. On my 3rd or so attempt, I was able to get through the caldera with Bing Bong in tow. I invited someone BUT I HAD JUST REALIZED THAT I HAD PLAYED THIS RUN IN OFFLINE/SINGLEPLAYER MODE. It was seriously such a misclick. I couldn't invite someone to this run no matter what. At this point, the sun had risen and I was so fatigued and tired, but I just said "fuck it" and kept going anyway. I felt like absolutely crying at this point. Still, I was able to bring a lot of stuff with me and I eventually got to the peak! I got Bing Bong with me and I was so scared because he almost fell through the floor when I was taking photos. But I finally got him and I got so many achievements by myself. I just powered through all of that while playing a lot of songs, first from Benson Boone and a lot of repeats from Kanye's song "Heartless" and then some of my "Programming Focus" playlist so I could "lock in." Still, I had work today and I decided to sleep for 1 hour before going to work. Thankfully, I'm super productive today and I actually did a lot of stuff. I was surprised at how awake I was at the end of my shift despite sleeping for only 3 hours overall. Work eventually finished and it was my time to play Peak again with someone and Luan. This was kind of a weird run. I somehow had forgotten a few paths that I took and a few markers. We fucked up around the alpine part trying to look for the capybaras because someone wanted to complete this "gourmand" achievement, but was unsuccessful. She fell at some part and lost Bing Bong in the process. We still pushed on and I guided them through the caldera part where they both died and I was able to bring them both alive for the kiln stage. We basically had nothing for this round aside from food and bandages. But thankfully, Luan was able to navigate some parts of the kiln and found shortcuts that I missed in my runs. He even joked that we still needed him which someone and I laughed at as I tried to pull him up from a wall near the top. Someone fell in the process because her stamina was so low and she wanted to see this new feature of seeing us as turkeys when her hunger bar got big. But she fell at the same spot where she took Bing Bong down with her in our earlier run. Still, Luan and I were able to make it through and I was able to gain 2 new achievements, which was nice. We all stopped playing after that since someone was so sleep-deprived, too. We ended up still talking and I was fully wide awake up until I finished writing my journal entry at 10 p.m. All in all, today was kind of what July was like overall. I spent a lot of time with friends and with the people that mattered, work was pretty good, and I was able to spend a lot of time just smiling and having fun despite all the stress.