I started using my space heater as a candle warmer by just putting a scented jar one in front of it. I can't believe I never thought of this before. It's amazing. Everything smells like chocolate mint now. I want to eat the very air in the room.

Got some cute rings and bracelets from the recent Alex and Ani sale lmao. So cheap! I really like the adjustable rings a lot. It solves the problem I have of not being able to shop for rings online because I need to make sure they fit well. Amazing! Also a cute Prosciutto charm because The Grateful Dead episodes (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure) that aired recently were ridiculously fantastic, holy shit this adaptation is everything I wanted from Vento Aureo. ♥♥♥


Speaking of love, I did a lot of the valentines from this year's Fate/Grand Order event and they were all great (especially Dantes') but fuck Quetzalcoatl was my favorite. I just love her so much. Like she was ridiculously charming in the Babylonia chapter so I just impulsively rolled for her and fuck I'm so happy I got her. Everything she does just makes me happy.

I'm about 2k in with writing this 5+1 Fukigen na Mononokean fic, which is about 2/5 of the way through, so uh... maybe another 2k will wrap this story up. The writing is so stilted though, ahhhh.

Got up to around 11k (12k? I don't even know anymore) for That Person Now Returned and am still not done OTL. When will I ever finish this story and why is it so long. I should learn to write short, sweet scenes again. What happened to my cute, succinct, 1k oneshots. They're now a thing of the past... I'll be separating this story into parts when I post, to make it easier to revise. -__-

Pfft, as I was writing this post, I went to pull on the Valentine's banner and got Soren!! (*goes to delete the whole paragraph I wrote about not getting Soren.* Just Ike left now ahhh. Gonna train this Soren up right away and feed him tons of dragonflowers~) I've been loving the cute art and fic that have come out of this banner!! ♥ Am also itching to write a fic about Soren but no plunnies have hopped over.

I randomly saw that Astra Lost in Space is getting an anime! Er, I hadn't read or even heard about the series before that news announcement, but when I saw that it's by the author of Sket Dance, I had to check it out. So, I took the plunge and signed up for the Shounen Jump app~, with it's monthly subscription of $1.99 to access older chapters for SJ series. So far, I like the app and definitely feel it's a great idea to have an official source for Shounen Jump series. But after I finish reading all the old chapters, there's probably no reason to continue the subscription if all I'm doing is following the new releases. I've already read through most of the ones I'm interested in... also hit the daily limit of 100 chapters. (Why is there a limit ;__;) We'll see... Anyway.

Astra Lost in Space
I was worried the series was axed, as it's only 5 volumes long, but it was a solid ending, and the plot was well paced. The twists and turns kept coming, and several plot points packed a heavy punch. Shinohara Kenta's story telling has really leveled up since Sket Dance! Astra Lost in Space deals with some heavy themes, yet the overall story is still optimistic with a touch of humor. I love it. :) Looking forward to the anime!

Black Clover
I hit the 100 chapter limit on the SJ app because of this, pfft, so yeah, stuck at chapter 100. The art is really nice, and some characters are less annoying in their manga incarnations. The anime kind of drags things out and overuses certain characters' quirks, but I do like how the anime fills in the blanks with certain things and also gives Yuno some more development. So far, Yuno's been pretty absent in the manga. Am looking forward to reading past where the anime is at. :3

Ugh, I fell off the bandwagon on this again! I've been trying to plan a day a week to update with something but so far it hasn't stuck. Gonna keep trying so I'm asking for comment amnesty from everyone, I really like reading everyone's stuff (so many good ideas, and good art, and good writing!) but I don't always know what to say so...I'll have to work on that later and not be overwhelmed with guilt in the meantime. I'll try to get to it, it just might be later.

Also it's been raining almost nonstop here. I hate it. It makes driving a nightmare and it just messes with my mood so badly. I get that it's important, but a sunny day would be really appreciated.

I also, for the first time, wrote fanfic stuff of my own volition! It's not anything finished, and it's self indulgent as hell and I gave up as soon as I had to write more than two words of dialogue but still, I wrote something and that's an accomplishment.

I'm trying to record accomplishments here so when I look back I can remember everything is not as bad as I sometimes feel like it is. I think that's important, things can start to feel like they don't get better sometimes because good details are so easy to forget.

( Cut for being kinda negative )

To end this on a more positive note I have been playing a lot of Fate/Grand Order and I had no idea a cell phone game could bring me so much joy, but it does. I love it.

Humans are silly (and I mean this in the best, possible way: I'm glad we are silly).

It's not that we build machines (and, before that, train animals) to do things and go places that we can't. That is sensible.

But we give them names. Real names, not 'Mars Exploration Rover' or 'Mars Science Laboratory', but Opportunity and Spirit and Curiosity. Even the ones that do get names that sound all sciency are constructed around sounding like a thing: MESSENGER or OSIRIS-REX. We tell stories about them, and do things like have birthday parties and figure out that if you tell the rover to turn this motor this fast it will sound like it is singing 'Happy Birthday'.

We even argue about the stories we tell: whether or not Opportunity 'wants' to go back to Earth because she is lonely, or stay on Mars because Mars is her home.

They become something like people, even if only in our minds, so we mourn them when they stop.

Watched the Nintendo Direct thing!

( Fire Emblem and a couple of others )

Now I return to my endless gathering in FFXIV!

Ultimate Fanfic Trope Showdown from ellimists. (Thanks suzume!)

( results )

Now for some recent anime I caught up with.

( Black Clover, Run with the Wind, The Morose Mononokean, My Roommate is a Cat )

Also! SEASONAL SOREN ALT. VALENTINE SOREN ALT. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I never thought this would happen? I mean, I thought that Ike might be the person on the right in this teaser silhouette, or maybe it'd be his father Greil. But even though it wasn't Ike on the right, it was still Ike on the banner. With Soren!!! Seasonal Tellius banner with Soren, ahhhhhh. I had a bunch of orbs saved up to pull for more Legendary Ike merges from January's Legendary/Mythic banner, but I ended up spending them all on the Radiant Dawn Laguz banner, since I really wanted Reyson (who I never got from that banner, but did get later on as a 4* that I promoted right away). I figured I'd only go all in with my orbs with characters that I really liked, and Reyson was one of them. Even though there was a high chance he would be demoted, I still wanted a copy just in case. Anyway, now that he has been demoted to 4*, he's definitely a +10 project.

I also figured that there was very little chance that someone I liked would be on the next seasonal, as IS seems to keep releasing Fate seasonals, who I could do without, and I hoped that we'd get plenty of orbs for the anniversary, which we kind of didn't. So now here we are, with the seasonal I want most of all from this game, and I have no orbs left. OTL I'm sorry, I have failed you Soren. Hoping that orbs from the Tempest Trials will be enough to pull either Soren, or Ike, or both... I'll have to give up on Greil and Mist. ;__; I really wanted to collect all the Tellius seasonals (so far, I've succeeded with having 1 copy each of bridal Sanaki, Halloween Mia, Festival Elincia, and Festival Micaiah). But with a whole banner of Tellius seasonals and no orbs, this is an unlikely feat, haha. So far, my pulls have given me an Adrift Camilla (why, Camilla, you're on plenty of seasonals already. You don't need to show up here!) and a Ninian, who has been merged into my previous Ninian to remove her -atk bane. But eh, her attack is still low even with the merge, so pretty pointless.

This is when I wish Soren were a Tempest Trial unit so I could +10 him with grails, but I feel like ever since the grail system started, they're only putting units they think will be the most enticing as the Tempest Trial rewards, for more incentive to play Aether Raids, I bet. So I doubt we'll be seeing very many guys as the rewards now. Who am I supposed to spend the grails on now?? Eh, for now, I'm probably going with Naesala unless someone else I like better comes along.

I'm also still in disbelief that Soren and Ike showed up together on a Valentine seasonal banner, of all banners. XDDDD

I'll probably cosplay this outfit of Soren's too. :3