'3 Days to Live' is a melancholic introspection that blurs the line between furry romance and personal diary that deals with immaturity, wacky scenarios, and unmet expectations. The presentation of visual and audio assets are (once again) amazing quality from Phwog and Red Means Recording doing the art and music. The story itself is very conversational and you can tell it bounces between someone narrating a video essay and a casual discord call, a style identifiable to Boring Keith and Kah. The characters are all distinct and fully realized, and the expressions that Phwog can emote from the sprites is just the icing on top. For folks that are looking for a few good chuckles, some great character expressions, and the urge of self-reflection, this is worth a read through.
Since this ain't a competition (and this is an fresh reaction), don't read on if you don't want to be spoiled or care about unwarranted critique. I think it's a nice structure to have '3 days to live' coincide with the number of hookups that happened, but I have to admit, the reluctance of committing towards a full on sex scene during any of them leaves me wanting. Having the action get cut off before each one arbitrarily is certainly a chaste choice (seeing the cap flag right at the elevator/the big guy falling asleep right before action/the miscommunication with the nice guy/horse guy is just a dream). One aspect that I'd like to applaud is writing a flawed protagonist that's deceptively portrayed with a victim complex. It'd be easy, especially with so many internal thoughts, to have him as 'just a nice guy down on his luck', but there's subtle indicators that he's just as superficial and judgemental as those he looks down upon. Examples include how he's a sucker for big men and will excuse so much for it and the projection of the 'pity fuck', where it's obvious that he thought he was the one doing the pitying, not the one being pitied. Really good job in striking that balance. That being said, it's a shame that he doesn't really grow or have an arc as a character. With so many lulls in the story that are just the explanations and color commentary on common fur-con staples, to have the narrative payoffs be angst and self-pity is a bit of a let down (I would've even taken a fade-to-black). There's certainly a view point of this story being more educational/informational, especially with the 'gay-history-lesson' section, proper bottoming prep, and possibly a cautionary tale towards high expectations around dating and hook up culture. However, from a pure entertainment point of view, at the end of reading this, I'm left with a sense of low spirits and ambiguity. If this was the aim of the story, then it achieves it. My takeaway is that with such a wealth of creative and quality resources at this team's disposal, it intrigues me that this is the type of story that they wanted to pour time and effort into, and release out into the world.