the mellow tigger's musings

I played computer games a small amount this week. Nothing is holding my attention yet. I keep reverting back to listening to stories online, and doing nothing else whatsoever. Within each story, I get a free daily unlock of a few episodes (each episode between 6 to 12 minutes long). When my stories reach a point where all of them are still locked, then I tend to start yet another new story, because they begin with around 100 episodes freely available to get readers hooked on them. It's a strategy that works.

The latest story to get my attention is "[BL] Taming His Dragon Heart". It's a surprising interest of mine now, because I stopped listening to it several times previously. It's set in a magical world that also includes our own world's modern technology. It's a fun mix, seeing humans rely on tech where the other races rely on magic. Humans are the weakest of the races, with the worst physical resilience, magical ability, and lifespan. The story features a recklessly sarcastic young human man who is in a workplace contract of service to a dragon lord in human form. I disliked the slavery aspect, which drove me away from the story several times. The humor, however, kept me coming back for more. The plot eventually gets better.

I wasn't hooked until episode 41 ("Parking Lot Panic"), where the humor that's been building finally reaches an important plot crescendo. It establishes a case of mistaken social realities, a falsehood that the 2 main characters find they must continue to nurture for practical reasons. The "will they or won't they become a real couple" vibe continues onward. It seems that finally in episode 105 ("The Reckless Ethan"), the relationship between these 2 main characters will finally become valid instead of just incorrect rumor... until the next episode 106 ("Of All the Ways to Die") when plausible/practical denial sets in again. The same vibe continues onward. The pattern repeats when a real relationship seems imminent in episode 121 ("Acting Classes and Assassinations"), only to be plausibly denied as a practical deception in the next episode 122 ("Leafy Greens").

The story is currently locked for me at episode 126. It would cost a small fortune for me to pay to unlock through the currently-last episode 431. More or less, it costs $1.10 to unlock a single episode. So this one story would cost about $335 to hear it all completely on my own whim. Much longer stories that have 4,000 episodes are obviously insanely priced. This PocketFM platform is heavy capitalist exploitation in a single app. It's really terrible, especially when compared to the more realistic cost of dvd sets of television series, which many of these stories are worthy to become.

So... I listen daily, allowing a small trickle of free unlocks of new episodes per story. It'll take months or years to complete some of my selected stories this way. I'm poor, though, so here we are.

I took a few days off of work this week. Instead of catching up on much-needed chores outdoors (before the city writes me to complain) or indoors (because the gas company wants to replace my gas meter), I did nothing but lay in bed and listen to YouTube stories, mostly BL (boy love) stories but not always. It's amazing how much content is available for free these days. I listened to so many hours that my YouTube algorith was fundamentally changing its recommendations to me, and that detour needed to end. I created a new gmail account and Firefox browser profile, then I spent over an hour transferring my YouTube channel subscriptions from one account to the other. Hopefully my main account will return to science stories soon, without having to completely wipe my Google history first.

One of my favorites stories, an hour long, is "[BL] The Alpha King's Guard Wolf Never Stops Insulting Everyone — And I Am the Only One Hearing Him". It's less about BL and more about a very memorable wolf character who has opinions (correct ones, naturally) about everyone and everything. The hilarity comes from the fact that his many opinions would be immensely awkward or socially damaging, if every other human could hear them. Instead, it's our main 2 characters who can hear him while they still have to navigate the social world... while the wolf keeps plotting to make them a mated pair. Yes, it's definitely one of my favorite Omegaverse stories.