"I wanna shell out $50 for the next part of the FFVII remake" I said, fully believing the lie was telling myself.

Anyway.

I picked up FFVII Rebirth on Sunday and I basically haven't put it down since XD It's so much better than Remake it's honestly incredible; they very clearly took feedback into consideration with this one. The gameplay is tightened up and modified just enough that it's fun instead of clunky, and while I still prefer the traditional turn-based experience, this is massive improvement over the last one. I still think Crisis Core feels a bit smoother because it leans more into the hack and slash nature of it, but I'm not dying in every fucking fight like I did in Remake.

ALSO THE FEW SECONDS OF ZACK IN THE OPENING IN AN ALTERNATE(??????) TIMELINE GOT ME RIGHT IN THE FEELS. I think because I just finished playing Crisis Core it hit particularly hard, but holy shitttttt, I was about ready to cry ;w;

Cloud looks so good too, like...they really have nailed "anime spiky hair bullshit" mixed with realism...it looks so soft and fluffy and also well spiked. It's just. idk. It manages to nail a lot of the stylistic things that fell short in Kingdom Hearts 3, and while I'm delighted it did...it also makes me sad for what could have been in KH3. It was ALSO an amazing game, but I'm still fussy about the style changes between KH3 and literally every other KH game ever :T

MOVING ON!!!

For the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm playing a game that was made for the PS5. Besides Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, everything else I own for the PS5 is on at least one other system (usually a fair amount), because everything is made for every damn system now!!!! It makes it feel like.....why do I have this system if it's just like everything else on the market?

BUT NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FFVII REBIRTH FEELS LIKE IT'S USING THE FULL CAPABILITIES OF THE SYSTEM!!!!!!! And not just like, oh the graphics are fancy, isn't that enough? No!!! There are so many little details that pull it all together and make it a richer experience *w*

I have a lot of other thoughts about it, but tbh I just wanna go back to playing....


so here's a majestic picture of Cloud with a dolphin XD

( few more screencaps under here! )

OH ALSO!!!! We had to go out to get more food for Lumos, because she's currently on "only the fanciest food money can buy" for her sensitive tummy...which is definitely hitting us where it hurts (the wallet). But we also picked up some groceries, including this absolutely necessary ceramic figure of a balloon animal. What animal? I have no idea, but I love him ♥


I put him on top of the TV with my son who has every disease (the green pumpkin)
BACK TO MORE FFVII I have a mini game I actually like (rhythm game)~

First thing: Lumos is doing better!!! She's been eating more regularly today and we got her some new antibiotics...which she does not like, but she didn't throw them up. So I'm counting that as a win ♥

Now, let's catch up on the rest of my life, since the last few days with Lumos kinda drove everything else out of mind. I finished playing Crisis Core a couple nights ago and basically cried like a baby. Every fucking time I'm like "maybe this time it'll be different" even though I know it won't be. The nature of a prologue like this is to let the tragedy loom in the distance while every bit of the game fills you with such hope that you can't help but get swept up in it. But that's just it- Zack has to die so Cloud can become the protagonist, and it's so damn good ;w;

Seriously...I have only hazy memories of playing the original on the PSP back in high school. I mostly remember GACKT Genesis pulling a whole bunch of anime bullshit at the end, so I somehow forgot the incredible bit of plot integrating into the UI in the final fight. Holy shit it was good. That's the sort of thing that I love about video games; when the menus suddenly become key plot elements I lose it!!!! :D

Anyway, I now desperately wanna pick up the next part of the FFVII remake (despite not really liking the first one), but I don't wanna shell out $50 for it especially with how much everything with Lumos just cost sobs so...I'm replaying the original XD tbh I wanted the next part so I could finally get out of fucking Midgar and I didn't wanna replay the original because, well, Midgar. But I had a save file on the PS3 that's right before the final couple boss fights in Midgar, so I called that close enough and started playing it this evening.

AND I DISCOVERED SOMETHING:


YOU CAN CHANGE THE COLOR OF THE MENUS??????????????????
Literally I first played FFVII in 2004 and I somehow never realized this until today. Okay. I'm stupid XD This picture doesn't quite capture how pretty my color gradient is, but the PS3 doesn't natively take screencaps and I didn't feel running it through the capture card. Maybe another day~

In enstars news: I got both 5* cards from the jp tour last night!!!! I actually have enough whistles and event bonus that I can probably nab a second copy of each pretty easily, because apparently that's just what I do with year end tours in jp?? XD Whatever, I'm not complaining...I'm delighted to have more Rei and Tori cards.

Aaaaand a couple doujins + a small piece of merch came in the mail! Probably the next package from our jp shopping service will be the exciting one - new outfits for the nuis!! - but this one was still good :D

( more pics + enstars screencaps )

Anyway, I started a new community this week as well, because what good is stress if you don't turn it into making sparkle graphics? XD I'd been hoping for a freebie community to pop up on a DW because I didn't feel like I should be the one running it...for some deranged reason???? I ran a bunch of freebie communities on GJ back in the day, idk why I thought I wasn't qualified??? But talking with thewizardofoz about it the other day pushed me to ignore my nerves and just go for it!

SO!!! Now vogliaa exists, which is the name of one I ran on GJ. I held onto a bunch of old icons I used to use to post there + I managed to lift the profile from the wayback machine, so I had something to start with. The banners and layout coding are all brand new, tho the layout coding comes from someone who was very big during 00s-era of freebies/requestables. I think it looks very nostalgic and colorful and nice ♥

Everyone has been so nice about it so far btw ;w; I've gotten some really kind comments and it just reminds me of how much I love making icons, honestly. I know that it's a bit rose-tinted, but making requestables on GJ was such a formative part of my life...I know I wouldn't be who I am today if not for the community and friends I made there.

ALSO THE TEMPERATURE JUMPED TODAY FOR NO FUCKING REASON BLUH

Soooo Pat and I are currently at the vet with Lumos, and she did NOT like the trip here. Usually she's more chill on car rides, but today she was stressed out the whole time. She kept opening her mouth and panting, which I think was from stress, but it's making me stressed ;w;

Her chipped tooth just barely exposed some of the nerve inside, but since her breathing is so bad they're gonna focus on that, since they'd have to put her under for dental work and they don't wanna do that while she's wheezing so much. ESPECIALLY since she decided she didn't want to eat today, which is worrying. Usually she'll eat her fancy slop wet food if nothing else. NOT TODAY THOUGH D:

Anyway. She's off getting xrays, so hopefully I'll have more answers soon ;w; They're real worried about her chest with how wheezy she is.

edit: back from xrays, looking cute! now we're just waiting for results.

uhhhhhhhhhhhh my brain is mush because I've been in the enstars mines all day (playing the jp tour) but I have many thoughts about the whole two (2) chapters of story I read XD I usually read the whole thing at once, but I couldn't help but jump ahead to the bit that's Crazy:B + Madara because...okay, because I'm a simple man, I'm always hoping for kohamada crumbs.


the boys were also here for Kohaku + Madara interactions, clearly
AND IT FUCKING DELIVERED!!!!!!! Yeah, it was only two chapters, but they had a ton of back and forth, cute snarky bits, etc etc etc ;w; Rinne now has a nickname for Madara - Mikeneko-chan - and it's so fucking cute!!! I'm so glad someone finally called him a calico cat in text, it's important to me *w* And then Niki said that Kohaku and Madara looked like cats together, which was so fucking precious. Like. Yes, please compare my faves to kitty cats, my day is made.

ALSO!!!!!!! Rinne told Madara that he has to prove his worth before he can have Kohaku back - which for the record isn't even why Madara was there, he just showed up and that was the first thing Rinne said to him XD - and it very much had the vibe of "you broke my friend's heart and I'm not gonna let you do it again" so like. VERY GOOD SHIP CRUMBS FOR MEEEEEEEE. This was followed by Kohaku being like "I can do whatever I want" which, again, gay????? SO GOOD.

HiMERU very clearly did not like that Madara was there and wanted him to leave. Which make sense with how dismissive he was of Double Face during Ephemeral Festival, but I like that Rinne was not and instead acknowledged that Madara is an important part of Kohaku's life...he's just a shit who needs to make up for wronging Kohaku.

gaaaaaaaaaaaaay ♥

And another thing!!!!! It opened with Madara pondering on Nice Arneb Thunder and thinking that him + everything regarding 4piece and his quick acceptance into ES is really sketchy. Which is 1) accurate and 2) hahahaaa I fucking called it, I just knew Madara wouldn't trust this dude!!!!!!!! I said this during the first 4piece tour last year and tbh Madara is one of (the only????) character who hasn't been immediately taken in by Nice's cult of personality charisma. Kohaku also seemed concerned about him after Madara showed up to question Rinne about his past, so like......there's still time for my crack theory to win!!!!! Double Face could still take Nice Arneb Thunder out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry not sorry I'm just having a nice time uwu


I ground through the tour quite quickly so I could get Madara's 4* ♥
Honestly, the tour setlist has been really solid so far!!! I just finished up stop 10 and it's been less than 24 hours, which is a lot faster than I've played any recent tours tbh. idk I'm just having a nice time? It's nice to enjoy things ;w;

I mean also Madara is in the event so there's a lot of MaM and Double Face songs, so I am delighted by that ;D

( more enstars-related screencaps in here )

Oh, right. I do have one complaint about the event. Two complaints, I guess? But they're related, so I'll complain about them together. There's no event song and no MV outfits ;w; I know that tours don't usually have either of those, but the year end tours usually do. I guess because it's the prologue to the next chunk of main story it doesn't? BUT I'M STILL FUSSY.

Just another reason to be mad at Nice Arneb Thunder XD

Liz thinks that the outfits are gonna be the 10th anniversary MV outfits that everyone gets, which, like...okay. That's nice and all, but I wanted year end tour outfits ;w;

AT LEAST I HAVE ALTERED AND MY FOUR COPIES OF TSUMUGI


and here's a Lumos for sticking around for this whole longass post!

TODAY WAS SUCH A FUCKING EXPEDITION AND I REALLY WISH IT HADN'T BEEN!!!!!

lays on the ground

The day started with our laundry machine being full of ants, which is fucking great and also I have a whole paranoia thing about my food getting infested/tainted by ants so like. Now they're somewhere else in my home, and that's terrible!

And of fucking course Liz and I had been planning on catching up on laundry today, so we were like...okay. Cool. We can go to a laundromat, do a shit ton, and call it good (for now). But nope!!! It's never that easy!!!!!!!! On the way to the laundromat, literally less than 5 minutes from the house, we got a flat tire in a chunk of road with nowhere to pull over.

COOL COOL COOL

We made it to a gas station, took a bunch of laundry out of the car - you know, because we were on the way to the laundromat, so of course the whole trunk + back of car was full - and Liz got to work trying to put on the spare tire. But the jack for Pat's car is like super fucking finicky, so it was just not working right.

HOWEVER!!! WE WERE SAVED!!!!!!!!!! A friendly bisexual man helped us change the tire while his girlfriend and boyfriend took turns slapping his ass.....because apparently I was in the start of someone else's porno XD Liz paid him back by buying him a pack of cigarettes and a gatorade, and honestly it was just a very nice interaction. City living is great, y'all.

After that, we finally managed to get "lunch" which was...late enough to be dinner......whatever, it was very good!!! And then...laundry daaaaay~~~~


you know I had to bring the boys!!!!
The laundromat had a lounge on the second floor with free wifi, but 1) the chairs were the most uncomfortable things ever and 2) once we really got into the swing of it, there wasn't much time to "relax" or wait. It took awhile, but now we have tons of clean clothes!!!! Our laundry never runs right in the winter due to the plumbing being shit when it's cold, so we were very behind...

And then we rewarded ourselves with bubble tea :D


oshikatsu life ♥
Final step: getting a replacement tire. The initial plan had been to swing by a 24 hour tire place and get a used one for relatively cheap, but that only sorta worked. Pat's car takes a very odd tire size, so they didn't have any used ones D: But this was a process, since they had to look through a ton of tires...only to be met with failure D:

However, all hope was not lost!!!!! They did have a new tire, for a much better price than tires for his care usually run. All in all, it could have been worse, but it still felt like one thing after a-fucking-nother. I swear, I couldn't catch a break today.

Now I just want wanna curl up and either play enstars or crisis core...I'm beat! So I'll leave you with a picture of a tower of tires~

excuse me, he was reading what to you? XD
ANYWAY, now that that's out of my system... XD I've been recording SPPs for the chat all day, since we're trying to gather as many of them as possible, and I have a lot. Maybe I play too much.......no, that can't be right!

Seriously though, it's given me a lot of direction for grinding the Eden event. Makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something instead just, you know, grinding. I really do enjoy the rhythm game, it's just...events are tedious, okay??

Alex came over this afternoon, we infodumped at each about enstars and FGO respectively, and then went on an adventure!!! aka, we got dinner + bubble tea at an Asian food hall because Alex mentioned Korean fried chicken and I needed it.


and then our nuis had a dinner date! :D
So now we're all playing enstars together and later we're gonna watch the livestream of the MDZS stage play!!! I didn't even know they were doing one but Alex mentioned it over dinner, and then by chance it's happening today only. So we quick bought the tickets and we're gonna try to record it, because apparently they're never doing a DVD/Bluray release :T

Guess who drove down to DC to get a remaster of a video game? THIS GUY!!


it's nostalgia time babeeeyyyy
I'd been meaning to pick it up for years, but the price of a used copy finally dropped to something reasonable, soooooo~ TIME TO DRIVE TO THE ONLY GAMESTOP IN THE BALTIMORE/DC AREA WITH A COPY!!!! We got to the mall with approx. 15 minutes to get to the store before closing, which wouldn't be too hard if the mall wasn't so fucking massive. Seriously, there's both Costco and Target inside the fucking mall. It's too damn big.

BUT WE GOT IT!!! I'm delighted to have it on ps5 now - thus adding to my very small library of ps5 games, lmao - so that I can experience it again and show it to Liz and Pat. I played it when it first came out, so my memories of Crisis Core are hazy at best XD So it's exciting!!!!

.....except for, you know, the worst part of modern gaming:


WHY. CAN YOU NOT JUST LET ME PLAY MY FUCKING GAME???? WHAT MORE IS THERE TO INSTALL??????????
This game is over 21gb so it's taking forever to install for some god damn reason. I just want to keep beating up monsters!!!! sobs. It's still fucking working on it...hence why I'm making a dreamwidth post.

( mall pix + a throwback )

Anyway, this all started because I was making aeriseph icons for a challenge and so...they were on my mind ♥

OH MY GOD IT'S FINALLY DONE BYE BYE

and our cherry blossom "tree" is in bloom!!!!!
aka, cherry blossoms for the cherry blossom boy ♥ Pat, Liz, and I went to Taco Bell for dinner, but first I had to take a bunch of pictures of Kohaku with the cherry blossoms. It's basically a glorified stick with a few smaller sticks coming out of it, but maybe in a decade or so it'll grow into a full tree :D

( more pictures of Kohaku-san under here! )

Also, today is Pat's cats birthday!!! Yes, their birthday is April Fools Day XD But we went to Petsmart to pick up some toys and treats for them, plus a new laser pointer for Lumos. Pat picked out some freeze-dried fish, and reactions were mixed:

• Dennis: HOLY SHIT BEST THING EVER!!!!! this may in fact be the best treat he's ever received- maybe the best food ever????
• Lily: no shits given- she barely cared about it or the freeze-dried chicken + catnip mix Pat got as well...which tbh is classic Lily behavior XD
• Lumos: licked the freeze-dried fish like it was a lollipop, before giving up on it. hers was eventually given to Dennis, which he appreciated

Lumos did enjoy her new laser pointer! It was her party favor- except we didn't have a party with all of them, because there would have been a fight XD It was nice tho!!! It's always good to get the kitties new stuff~

And then we went to gong cha and got XL bubble tea again, because I have no self control and bullied everyone else into it. I mean, it wasn't hard to bully them; we all love bubble tea. tasty tasty :D

Now Liz and I are farting around watching YouTube videos about dumb Hallmark movies~ I've been playing some more of the enstars merge game - I got one copy of Tetora already!! - and Liz is playing the new Madoka game. I hope it works out for them, since tbh they were quite upset when the last one shut down. Apparently the story was really good, so they were sad to see it go. But it just launched, so they're getting in at the beginning.

Okay, now that Adonis's spotlight time has come to engstars, I can finally read the story. The whole thing is vaguely D&D themed - it's called Dungeons & Druid after all - but the story isn't vague about it at all. It's D&D in all but name XD And it's delightful. Like. The event story is only 5 chapters + some minitalks, but I enjoyed every second of it.


but seriously, what's not to love about this theming???? also don't mind that I'm over halfway to a copy of Adonis...

( more rambling about the event story with multiple screencaps under here! )

ANYWAY. I'm still recovering from yesterday, because apparently I overdid it and stressed myself? my body??? out too much ;w; Liz and Pat went to see Princess Mononoke because it's playing in theaters this weekend, but I was too exhausted mentally (and maybe physically?) to go along. At least I saw it in theaters when it first came out, because I was lucky enough to have an older cousin who took me along.

Hmmmmm what else...

OH MY GOD RIGHT HOW COULD I FORGET!!!! MERGE MANSIONS THE ENSTARS MERGE GAME HAS RETURNED!!!!!!!!!!! It started last night in CN (and I guess we'll get it in engstars after Adonis's spotlight time is over) and I am having so much fun with it!!!!! I usually don't get multiple copies of cards in CN because I'm f2p + it's not my main focus, but since I can't play it in ENG yet.......I'm already almost halfway to my first copy of Tetora and it's been less than 24 hours XD

ALSO!!!!!!!! I MANAGED TO PULL HINATA FROM THE GACHA IN ONE 10 SCOUT??????????


idk why Mayoi is dead in the bg, I haven't muddled through the auto-translate of the story yet lmao, but HINATA!!!!!! it's all coming up Hinata~~~ maybe because his center event started in engstars today?
SO THAT WAS SHOCKING AND EXCITING!!!!!!! I'm worried he won't be as kinda in engstars, which will suck because he's a dance-based blue card just like the maxed out Yuta I have so I would really like to pull him. ALSO HIS OUTFIT IS JUST REALLY GOOD!!!

The kitchen is kinda trashed and I'm not feeling great, so I ordered Chinese for dinner...nom nom nom. It's not here yet, but it's my reward for uhhhhhhh finishing this entry and also not just taking a nap in the lovesac. I almost just curled up with Lumos earlier, so I'm gonna call it a win that I didn't.

OH. YES. CHILI'S WAS REALLY GOOD LAST NIGHT I had a nice time!!!! We went to one we don't usually go to because traffic was really bad, but it was delightfully predictable. It Just Tastes Like Chili's, and sometimes that's exactly what you're in the mood for. It was very comforting~

( cut the second: Chili's + more enstars screencaps )

We had a really nice day with friends today!!!!! Mimi and Magenta came up from Virginia to hang, which is part of what inspired the manic house cleaning XD But now our downstairs looks a lot better and we got to hang with friends XD

So, after chatting and showing them around the house some - and letting them pet Lumos, which was great because people are always amazed by how soft she is!!! - we ended up going out to eat a late lunch at one of our fave places in Hampden. Pat came along too, since Mimi was like "you're coming too, come on" and I'm just happy whenever friends meet & get along. I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD GO BADLY but I have anxiety like, all the time.

And then we somehow ended up joking about Knights for too long on the drive back to our house, and now we're maybe cosplaying Knights together at Otakon??? idk exactly how this happened XD But Pat's gonna be Leo, which I think will be fun, and Liz and I are still trying to decide which one of us is gonna be Sena and Naru-chan. We're both fine with either, so it's like...okay I guess we need to figure it out soon-ish.

I usually like making our cosplays, but Mimi found some actually good looking ones to buy on aliexpress and Pat wants to remake some of the accessories when they arrive, so they won't look like cheapo costumes that we put no effort into. And we'll look very consistent if we all buy the same costume, which helps.

ALSO I JUST LOVE MAKING PLANS WITH FRIENDS IDK IT'S JUST NICE!!!!!!! friendship good ;w;

They stayed way later than they meant to but we were having such a nice time together...thus is life XD It was just a really nice day!!!! :D

AND THEN!!!! LUMOS IS SO FUCKING CUTE I LOVE HER!!!! I know it's after 3 am, but Liz is still grinding out the last points they need to get a 3rd copy of Shinobu so here we are!!! It means I get to share Lumos (and also some other pictures from today).


but also why does my cat look AI generated XD

( a few more pics under here! )

Last night I did end up screenrecording demon Madara in Halloween Rendezvous...and then also a few other MVs in his two feature scouts, because I was in the zone I guess???? idk I had fun! And now I have a ton of screencaps to make icons from OwO

Also I'm super achy because I had a long day but it was worth it so who cares!!! I'd do it again in a heartbeat ;D