Incoherent Ramblings

Pain is actually manageable today, which is a relief from the past couple days of barely being able to leave the bed. Got out of the house for a bit and came back with fruity pebble creamer as a treat. It tastes like the leftover milk after a bowl of the cereal, which is delicious. And it's lactose-free!

Both mom and I have been playing Genshin Impact quite a bit. The controls seem like a little bit of a mess on console, especially bows, but we've been having a blast together. I'm looking forward to 1.7 - the web event has made me fond of Kazuha and his little boat but the one I really want is Gorou. No interest in any of the revealed girls, unfortunately.

I finished the currently released archon quests and have solidified my opinion that I really don't like Zhongli. Childe gets a pass because I love sketchy characters (and he was just as lead-on as the traveler). Kind of want to write something where the traveler is mistaken for an adeptus, or takes Venti up on his joking offer of becoming one of the four winds, but my brain has thrown a tantrum about not writing until I have a solid plot for either. Sigh.

Also bought Fire Emblem: Three Houses while it was slightly on sale. Wasn't entirely fond of Edelgard and Dimitri gave me too many Cullen vibes to actively choose his house despite liking the other student's designs, so I went with Claude and the Golden Deer. Thought I killed Ashe in the last battle before the timeskip and was very upset about it.  I enjoyed the ending, though! Especially the little blurbs about where the students all wound up, and I'm gearing up to play through the Blue Lions route. (And finally play through the DLC, I can see why there's so many fics about Yuri. Pretty and shady, my favorite combination!)

I'm working through manga once again, apparently ravenous for anything to read. Hayate the Combat Butler and Harapeko Usagi to Koisuru Ookami look hilarious from the summaries. Heavenly Jewel Change also looks promising.

Woken up to a combination of our wonderful neighbor screaming about something and my grandfather deciding he absolutely has to work on the roof today. At least there's coffee and cats.

Been play a combination of random games to keep myself occupied, as well. Finally got my hands on Glass Masquerade 2, which is absolutely gorgeous and just as fun as the first one. I love trying to guess what the puzzle's going to be about by the title and a game like this makes it so much easier to concentrate on podcasts. Unexplained Mysteries makes a good companion show.

Also tried out Loop Hero. It's cute! Not something I predict being a time-sink for me, but I like the simple starting controls and that you don't have to control the combat. I'll probably play this when I need something I don't have to think too hard about, which is the same category I throw the Knights of Pen and Paper series into.

ADOM, on the surface, looked exactly like my type of game. In practice, it was far too much information at once and easy to get lost in. The tutorial doesn't really explain things in a satisfying way but I like the art style it chose to use. Might try it again later when I have more brainpower to devote to it. For now, it's getting stored away in favor of other games.

Mom has been getting into K-dramas, which has led me down the path of realizing that I know way more Kpop than I remember liking. I was still very much into Jpop as a tween, but there were apparently some boy groups thrown into them. It's been interesting looking at the newer idols with her. She likes BTS and BLACKPINK, and I have to agree - even though Big Bang and EXO will still be my favorites.

Haven't made much progress through the manga, unfortunately. Here's to hoping Hana Kimi is as fun as I remember it being.

Spent most of the day trying to take it easier than I really want to. Working retail and food service really rubs off on you after years of it, especially with the guilt and fear of not using every second of the day to get stuff done. It's been fun unlearning that mindset. /s

I've put down Hades for the moment in favor of nearly finishing Littlewood, finally. Just two more books before I can get access to the edge of Solemn and a few more achievements to go.

It's such a cute game, done in an 8-bit style with more Stardew Valley-esque character portraits, and a lot of good humor. I'd liken it to a SDV/Dark Cloud fusion, but I don't know how popular the latter ever was considering it's an old PS2 game. Maybe a mystery dungeon-type game, instead, though with less emphasis on the dungeon parts. My favorite characters are definitely Dark and Arpeggio, with Dalton and Toby very close thirds. I'm probably going to have to write fic for it at some point, because the relationships between the villagers are wonderfully written in game, and make my indecisive self pick a marriage candidate.

Alas.

Made it about halfway through the G section for manga, as well. What I'm currently doing is going through and screening each summary for something interesting instead of actually reading it right there and now, because my brain is far happier making lists before I commit. I've heard nothing but good things about Gintama and Gangsta, and Gentleman Devil looks like a fun romp, so I'm looking forward to those as well.

It's still odd journaling like this where everyone can see, I'm very much the opposite of a people person and often don't have the mental energy to respond in a timely manner, but I think I'm getting more used to it. Today's treat is a bottle of V8 fusion - island strawberry flavored. Pineapple, kiwi, and strawberry work surprisingly well together.

My new glasses came in! We joked about the frames being grandpa glasses because both myself and the person who took me have grandparents who wear and wore the exact style. It's cute, though! Very vintage. Everything is still weirdly fishbowl but it's a relief to actually be able to see again. My last pair was from all the way back in '15 and almost double the price of these. Not looking forward to more headaches as I get used to them, but it's definitely worth it.

No art is getting done today, however, since I finally gave in to temptation and bought Hades. Hello new fandom, pleased to meet you.

The art style is so, so pretty. I'm not very far into the game yet, as I'm terrible at the whole hack-and-slash dungeon crawlers/rogue-likes anyway, but I'm honestly having a blast even without god mode turned on. Hypnos is my favorite character so far, because of course he is. I have a type and he fits every niche, unfortunately. Skelly is also great. I really love the back and forth Zagreus has with the narrator, too, and can't wait to struggle my way out of Asphodel.

I was a huge Greek mythology kid, right up until I found out about the Norse mythos, so it's fun to see how they interpret the gods. I think the only one whose design I don't like so far is Aphrodite but given how she's usually depicted in art, I can see where the inspiration is coming from. They just could have been more creative with it, especially looking at the other goddesses.

Think I'm going to wait until I meet mostly everyone before I go looking for art or fics, because I actually don't want to be spoiled too badly - well, more than I already am for a two year-old game that was pretty widely popular with tumblr.

Not going to lie, I've a love-hate relationship with the French language.

I can read it, for the most part, as it's similar enough to most of the other romance languages I've dabbled in. But it sounds like word salad to my ears (English is this way a lot of the time too, though, even though it's my native language) and I cannot for the life of me pronounce the nasals or the uvular R. And not for a lack of trying.

That does not in any way negate my fondness for Quebec City. It's gorgeous.

I took one year of French in high school - concurrently with Spanish 4, since that was the only language was offered at my previous school and I wanted to continue with it. Same teacher for both and I still love her dearly despite not actually being able to remember her name. I was a very, very awkward child and so painfully new that she took me aside and introduced me to the foreign language club, which was planning a trip to Quebec - I believe she switched it up between there and Spain every other year or so?

Anyway, we did all the touristy things one does in that city. Lots of history tours, museums, etc., as it's a world heritage site and a pretty famous for it in our area. I don't know how she managed to get rooms so cheaply at the Château Frontenac, but she did. All I personally remember of it was their indoor pool and the very heavy smell of chlorine and high-schoolers, and sharing my room with the three younger girls in my group.

When we weren't all corralled onto buses to visit the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré or the Montmorency Falls or a sugar shack for delicious maple candy, we were free to roam (chaperoned, of course) around the city, as long as we were back by dinner time. Being myself, a kid with a thirst for any sort of non-school related knowledge I could get my hands on, I found a beautiful little bookshop with floor-to-ceiling shelves and an incredibly patient man behind the counter who didn't make fun of my very shaky grasp of French.

I still have them, actually, a short book of popular french first names to go with my already extensive collection of name books, and a french copy of The Prince by Machiavelli. The latter is actually the only copy of the book I own at the moment, since I recently gave my English one to my brother to read on his flight home. I really love it, in all its dog-earred glory.

This post is a very long-winded way to say that I've picked up French on Duolingo out of sheer understimulation and remembered I actually liked the language at some point.

I've been staring at this blank post trying to figure out what I'd want to write about for ages, it feels like. The blinking cursor haunts me.

Life outside of fandom is pretty boring, especially for someone who doesn't drive and gets winded after walking a block. We ordered pizza tonight - hawaiian, for me - and watched silly music countdowns on Youtube until mom decided it was her bedtime. I still haven't touched my decklist for Valki and just thinking about D&D next weekend makes me tired, even though I know I'll be excited for it when the times comes. Drawing takes so much energy I never manage to get more than an hour or two past my warm up, even if I really want to finish the Present Mic piece for mermay.

I've been slowly making my way through the F category on readm.org and marking the ones that catch my eye for later. There's so many Fate/ manga. So many BL I'm excited to get to, too, but that's on the more positive end of the spectrum. Think I'm just going to pet the cat laying on the bed with me and keep scrolling.