drop ★ pop ★ candy

☆ Nothing too exciting's been going on this month, mostly just been working, though I'm at the end of a long weekend off right now which has been nice. On Friday I went with my mom and brother to this great all-you-can eat sushi place, which I always regret afterwards because I never know when to stop myself sjhdfksjf but it's so worth it. And then I got suckered into going to Bath and Body Works and buying more soaps because I had coupons again. I did get a cute little leaf patterned soap holder for free since I had a reward that was going to expire soon. (Right now they have this SUPER cute fox pattern candle holder and a really cool-looking snake and roses soap holder, but I never pay full price for this stuff so I'll just have to hope they're still around when all the autumn stuff is being discounted lmao. Doubtful the Halloween one will be but maybe the fox holder...)

☆ Genshin Impact dropped an update with the next world location, Fontaine. I can't say anything about the main quest story because I'm actually not out of Liyue yet lmaoooo I haven't actually even unlocked Inazuma. I brute forced my way into Sumeru when it dropped and now I've just jumped into Fontaine. I really need to get back to the main storyline but it's like, there's always sooo much to do in this game I just log in to do event quests and stuff and then call it a day. But Fontaine is really cool so far, I love the underwater exploration. And the character designs for the new/upcoming Fontaine characters are so good. I know they make their money off the terrible gacha but it's wild that you can play this game totally F2P when the world is SO big and intricate, the jungle areas of Sumeru are gorgeous and now Fontaine is super pretty too.

☆ Star Trek update: I finished Strange New Worlds season 2! I loved the crossover with Lower Decks and the musical episode lmao I love when Star Trek gets a little silly. And they continued the proud Trek tradition of using those silly episodes to bookend an episode about the lasting trauma of the horrors of war. Overall it was a pretty strong season, though there was far too much heterosexual drama. All of it reads to me like a bunch of self-insert shipping with established male canon faves sjhfdsjkdf like you're telling me they couldn't throw us a bone with Chapel/La'an or something. Or finally make Chapel/Uhura canon like come on if you're going to break up Spock/T'Pring in front of me at least give me canon Chuhura.

☆ Okay ending this post with a manga rec! Our Dreams at Dusk, or Shimanami Tasogare, is a 4-volume manga about a gay teen, Tasuku, who discovers a community center where he meets other LGBT people and learns to accept his sexuality while volunteering to help restore vacant houses with them. It's a mix of coming-of-age drama and magical realism and it's incredibly thoughtful and beautifully drawn. Through the various people Tasuku meets at the drop-in center the story touches on gay and trans issues and the different ways people shape their identities. Since it is a realistic series it does involve serious topics like suicide, being outed, misgendering, etc. but it's a positive and hopeful series overall. The first volume nearly made me cry while reading on my lunch break at work lmao, the lesbian storyline with Daichi and Saki hit particularly close. But the whole manga is incredibly good, I highly recommend it!