as a child being told "the moon controls the tides" with no additional explanation was like. oh okay. you want me to believe in magic? you're talking about magic right now? okay. fine
Also, since it frequently gets commented on in other posts: the choice of bgm is because Jingle Bell Rock doesn't necessarily have the same cultural significance in China (or at least not to OP) so it's not particularly recognized as a holiday/winter song
nothing has been more important to my being queer than when i went to my first pride parade, got seperated from my group, had a panic attack about it and was sitting on the side of the road holding a tiny genderfluid flag and freaking out. then this six foot five drag queen in four inch heels appeared from literally nowhere and sat down next to me. i, this scared-shitless trans bi kid at pride for the first time, very nervously told her she looked pretty and i told her my name and that i got lost and didn't feel like i should be at pride and she held my hand and said "oh, honey, everybody deserves to be here, especially you. pride is for everybody who's ever gotten lost, who's been scared of who they are or where they are. you think we never been scared before? pride's for you, honey, because you're scared. you don't have to be proud right now, but you're gonna be one day, honey, i'm sure of it."
i found my group soon after that and i never saw that queen again but to this day i am convinced i met an angel.
so yeah. pride is for you. pride is for all of us.
3. If a player loses both of their bishops, the king can now legally divorce the queen without the papal go ahead. This puts the queen into FRENZY mode.
4. Once per game, a player may change one letter in a piece's name to change its role. The rook is now a book. The pawn is now a PAWG. The queen is now...well...I shan't say
5. Knights are now Horses
6. Horses are immune to landmines
7. Pawns can move back a space if they forgot something
8. A bishop can be combined with an adjacent rook to create the Wizard Tower piece
when i was a teenager it felt very revolutionary to be cruel to myself. like some kind of slow passive protest against how much everything hurt. i starved myself of sleep and food and tenderness because it felt right. it felt sharp and angry and radical and i wanted to be those things. adulthood is the realisation that the world is already working to cut into you well before you learn how to do it yourself. caring for yourself and others is the real protest