When Falling Blocks Started Controlling My Heart

I played Steem Pentris many times before. Honestly this game never feels boring to me. Even when I think I will just play for few minutes, it always pulls me in for long time. Because this game looks simple but actually it plays with my mind. The falling blocks look very calm but inside me there is always this small tension, like I have to fix everything before it gets messy.

When the game starts, everything feels slow and easy. Blocks fall gently, shapes look friendly and I feel like, okay, I got this. My hands relax on the keyboard. Left arrow take block left, right arrow move right and down arrow drops it fast. I know all this because I played it many times. But still every game feels new.
In beginning, I try to set a plan in my head. I want to keep the middle clean. I want to avoid small empty holes and I try to build a nice straight line space for that long “I” block. But the game doesn’t always listen to my plan. Sometimes it gives me all the wrong shapes. Like when I need a straight block, it gives me the Z -shape. And when I don’t need the square block, it keeps throwing it again and again. It feels funny and annoying at same time.
Around 80 score, speed gets little fast. Not too much but enough to make my heart beat a bit. I start moving blocks quicker. My fingers press arrows faster. Sometimes block goes the wrong way because my hand slips or I press too quick. And then I think oh no, now it will create big problem. One small mistake in Pentris becomes a big mountain later.
Then slowly I reached around 150 score. This is the part where I start focusing more. No background noise, no mobile check, nothing. Just me and my falling shapes. When a full line gets completed and disappears, I actually feel a small happiness inside. Like I fixed a problem in life. It sounds silly but it really feels like that. One neat line… and suddenly I breathe easier.
But Pentris never stays kind for long. Soon the blocks fall faster. My mind starts rushing. I tell myself don’t panic, don’t panic but still sometimes I rotate a block late. And when a wrong block fits in the wrong place that empty gap hurts so much. Because I know I will have to manage it later and it will never easy.
At 250 score, I was so lost in game that I did not blink much. I was trying to manage speed. My heart was beating fast. Look like I am in some kind of race. I was trying to keep the tower low, create lines, fix holes. But the shapes were coming like they had no mercy. The Z -shape especially, it felt like it wanted to end me.
Then I made that one big mistake. I pressed rotate too late and the block fell vertical instead of horizontal. It created a tall gap that I could not fix. I tried to adjust the shapes but speed was too high now. Blocks were dropping like rain. My calm thinking was gone. I was just surviving second by second.
In last moments, I knew I was going to lose. But I want not to stop. I wanted to reach at least 300. It became like a small personal mission inside me. So I fought with every block, tried to place them right, even when everything looked messy.
Finally, after lot of struggling, my score hit 300. And right after that, I lost the game. The tower touched the top.
But honestly I didn’t feel sad. I felt kind of proud. Because even with mistakes, speed, pressure, wrong shapes, I still made it to 300. For some people maybe 300 is nothing but for me it was a small win. A moment where I felt like, yes I did good.
When game over I went back and took a deep breath. My hands were little tired but my heart felt light. Steem Pentris is not only a block game for me. It is like a small fight with myself. A small journey where Itry to fix things, clean things and keep going even when everything is falling fast on me.
For next time my target is 500. I will go above 500 InshaAllah. This game grabs my mind for few minutes, it makes me forget everything else.