Gifts received this year:
Yakuza: The Remastered Collection, PS4
Metroid Dread, Switch
Cells at Work vol. 6
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba vols. 4-5
$50 in cash
$50 Barnes and Noble card

Also went out for both lunch and supper (lunch at Taco Bell, supper at Pizza Ranch).
 

“Mayday, mayday, this is Sergeant John Akama of the Fifth Eastern Guard. My mecha has taken damage, and I am adrift. Systems are failing. Anyone else on this frequency, please respond.

“Is anyone else alive out there…?”

1 TOKEN: 8

“Damn… tried to get the gyroscope working again so I don’t do the long, slow spin, but guess that’s shot beyond repair… Not surprised, really…

“I think I’m the last of the Fifth out there. There were ten of us, originally… All nobodies from backwater corners of the Regime, out in mech suits fighting the good fight. Ten men and women all from across the Regime riding out in our mechs.
“Pretty sure Pierce got it. New kid, just joined up. Made a big deal about how he was from one of the agri-planets. Not sure what was so special about being a farmboy from a planet of farmboys, but he wouldn’t shut up about it. Nearly drove his mech into a wall the first day. Had to patch into his suit’s HUD and show him how the controls worked.
“Good aim, once he figured out how to get the arms moving. Pretty sure the Outsiders don’t care where you’re from… God, I can just see him trying to talk them to death…”

3 TOKENS: JOKER

“Oh, boy… Half the screens just went blank. Some of them came back, but… not enough.

“When I boarded the excursion craft off of Tau Strat, I saw a falling star out the window. I told myself, if that star could make it back home, I could. You didn’t see falling stars that often out on Tau Strat. Not enough debris in the local cosmos.

“Every time I saw a falling star after that, I figured it was a light guiding me home. Painted one on the side of the mech. Told myself it would bring me back home.

“Funny thing: after the controls locked, I could see a reflection in the viewfinder for a few seconds. It showed that falling star on the side of the mech. Completely unharmed. Might just bring me home after all.”

4 TOKENS: 2

“Barely anything’s left in this thing… Most of the systems are already shot, and the electrical is barely holding out. I think all that’s left are the reactor and the life support. Tried to patch up the stabilizers, but that burned out I-don’t-even-know-what. This just keeps getting worse.

“We were on a routine sortie against the Outsiders – nobody knows what they call themselves, we just call them the Outsiders – on the edge of the Rhemus quadrant. Three units of the Guard against two units of them. Figured it would be a quick fight.

“I was taking on a fighter – that’s what we call the small, quick ones – when suddenly all my systems start flashing. I spun around to see what it was. Goddamn crab-walker sneaked up on me, shot a hole through my guidance systems.

“Tried to hold it off, only for the fighter to blow out the backup guidance. At that point they got distracted, leaving me to float my way out of there. So… here I am…”

5 TOKENS: 7

“And there goes what’s left of the externals. This is nothing but a floating coffin now… No. I can’t give up yet. Long as the life support holds out, I’m alive. That’s all that matters.

“I mentioned the Outsiders… We’ve never seen what they look like. Their mechs self-destruct once they’re disabled, leaving nothing behind. Ever since they first attacked Sigma Quantis, we’ve only ever seen their machinery.

“As far as we can tell, they just come after us, again and again. Sigma Quantis was the start. Since then, they’ve attacked half the systems in this end of the galaxy.

“We win more than we lose, but they just keep coming. You’d think they would give in after a while, but they won’t leave until we find them and drive them out.

“What is it they even want out here?”

6 TOKENS: 5

“Got the heater working again, but I had to break some of the wires out of the manipulator to do it. Not like the manipulator was working. At least I’m not so cold now… Space isn’t cold by itself, but I’m not close to anything that could heat the mech up…

“I’d never left Tau Strat before I signed up with the Guard. First time off-planet was a bit of a ride. Never seen as many people in one place before as I saw at the training facility.

“Training lasted three months. First the physical stuff, getting you toughened up before they let you in the suits. Then the training suits for a while, working out the controls and figuring out what does what. Then the arms training, in and out of suit. Then they finally gave you a suit and let you work out how the real thing runs.

“Heard they’re thinking of shortening the training period. Wonder how badly we’re doing if they need to speed up kicking pilots out the door…”

7 TOKENS: 4

“Crap. Tried to fix the gyroscope again, but all that did was short out the patch job on the heater. Guess it’s back to freezing. Maybe this thing will point to a star…

“How did I get here? I saw an ad on the viewer. Sounds stupid, I know, but those commercials they play for the Guard are really a sight. Made me want to do my duty for ‘God, the Monarch, and the Stars’… Man, couldn’t keep a straight face saying that.

“Once the commercials sank in, I headed straight out for the local recruiter. Talked my way onto the force, passed the physical, and I was in.

“Not sure why they need a physical. This isn’t a Suit, it’s a mech. Everyone’s done with your hands.

“Anyway, spent the next month convincing my family I hadn’t gone insane and that it wasn’t a bad idea to sign up in the middle of a war. And that led to me floating through the void to God-know-where…”

8 TOKENS: ACE

“Nothing’s broken down this time… Don’t think there’s anything left to break. Just the stuff keeping me talking…

“The war’s still going on, somewhere in the galaxy. No clue when it’ll end. No idea what I’ll do when it’s over.

“I’ll probably leave the Guard. I’ve sure as Hell gotten my fill of shooting at things. Come home an honored veteran and…

“Wait. Why would I want to go home? There’s nothing on Tau Strat.

“...damn, never gave it that much thought. I don’t have anything back home, but I don’t have anywhere else to go. I… really should have thought this through more.

“Screw it. I live through this, I’ll figure it out later.”

9 TOKENS: 3

“What little is left of this thing is still stable. I’m probably miles away from the battlefield by now. Space is empty, so I haven’t gotten dragged into a planet’s gravity well. Wouldn’t that just be my luck?

“Tau Strat… Mentioned it a few times, but I haven’t gone into detail… Because there’s no detail to it. We’re the descendants of a colony project that never took off. The orphans of the Great Settlement.

“Ten light-years out from anywhere else, with nothing to export and nothing we need to import. No major foundational businesses, no strategic importance. Just several million men and women, out in the back end of the galaxy. That’s Tau Strat.

“My family actually took pride in being descended from the first wave. Can you believe that? What’s so special about being the great-great-grandchildren of idiots?”

10 TOKENS: JACK

“Systems are starting to come back online… Not sure what’s left that hasn’t burned out or broken beyond repair, but there’s something flashing in the HUD, so at least it’s not all junk… Either that or I’m starting to hallucinate.

“If anyone gets this… I’m John Akama, Sergeant of the Fifth Eastern Guard in the Regime Mechanized Space Infantry. Son of Julian and Rosa Akama, brother of Casey and Louisa.

“Tell my family not to fret. It wasn’t quick, but it was painless. Tell them I went out fighting. Tell them…

“Tell them that, despite everything, I really did miss them. They were the one bright spot in-

“Wait a second. That’s not my systems. That’s the communicator…”

It’s kind of silly, looking back at it. All that jabbing when I figured nobody could even hear me. Guess I get talkative when I’m scared.

One of the transports caught my signal as they were preparing to jump out. They sent a shuttle to pick me up. Engineers looked at the mech afterwards and told me I’d had less than ten minutes before the life support finally gave way. Guess the falling star saved me after all.

The med team patched my injuries up (just some cuts and bruises) and the captain gave me a berth. I spent a week just getting used to people again, and after that I had some decisions to make.

The first one was simple. I never wanted to be in a mech again. The therapist on the transport called it “astral claustrophobia”, told me it was common in survivors of mech fights. I requested a transfer as soon as I could.

Right now I’m on the crew of the transport that picked me up, the RS Majima. They say the war’s starting to wind down, which leads to the next decision I have to make: where do I go next?

Hell, I don’t know. I’m just glad I get to make the decision at all.

Games:

Final Fantasy X/X-2 Remastered, PS4
Just Dance 3, Wii

Books:

1632, Eric Flint
Leviathan Wakes, "James S. A. Corey"

Strategy Guides:

Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts 2
Grandia

Tabletop RPGs:

Eclipse Phase

And a new tote bag for all of these.
 

Other:

A nice Mario-themed carrying case for my Switch

Manga:

Black Butler, vols. 24-26