drop ★ pop ★ candy

➤ It's To Clutch a Razor release day!!! Got my holds on Libby and a physical library copy so we'll see which comes in sooner lmao. I want to re-read When Among Crows before I read the sequel so I should get on that (though it's only a novella so I can definitely read it in a day or two).

➤ Hades II has also been given an official release date! It's coming out of early access September 25th which is Soon TM. I've just been waiting until the full game release to play it so I'm excited. 🥳 I've gotta finish Metaphor: ReFantazio first though, so I won't be getting to it right away, boo. Though that may be more of a struggle than anticipated because my PS5 shut down on me last night in the middle of playing because I think it overheated and I've been too scared to see if it'll turn back on. 😐 So we'll see how pissed I'm about to be.

➤ I've been reading The Summer Hikaru Died manga (finished the first 3 volumes and I've got the next 2 in hand already) and it's really good! It's a slow burn horror with queer coming-of-age themes about a boy in rural Japan who discovers his best friend has died and been replaced by an eldritch entity. The art is really good and I always love a good queerness-as-monstrous metaphor. Definitely going to be trying to keep up with this one as it comes out.

➤ My birthday's coming up soon, and of course my work schedule is all over the place this week lmao I worked Sunday and I'm working this Saturday, but I took some days off in between and a couple next week to give myself a three-day weekend anyway. Nothing major planned, might just try out a new fancy Chinese buffet with my family on one of my days off. I have been buying myself a bunch of stuff under the "it's my birthday month" mantra sjdhfksjhfds I ordered ANOTHER Jayvik zine full bundle so I really have to lay off the zines for a while lmao. (Easier said than done because there's like 50 million Arcane zines coming up please stop tempting me!!) I've also been eyeing a couple Hatsune Miku figurines I really want and they're not even that expensive (about ~25 bucks each) but I've been spending so much money lately and I've got my car inspection coming up too so I'm just bracing to be hit with a surprise big expense. 😑

Showing off some cool stuff I've bought in the last several months. Some pins, a bunch of stationery, and my Last Binding special edition pre-order finally arrived!! Click on the pics to enlarge.

( Read more... )

Despite how this post makes it look I have been very economical this month!! No-buy July for me...if only because I have been saving up for an upcoming anime convention, so really I'm just biding my time in spending too much money sjdhfksjds

I did however drop some dough on this for-charity Jayvik zine. (Pre-orders are still open, go check them out!) I love the merch and art they've shown, and they chose a charity that aims to help people with mobility disabilities to donate the proceeds to. Everything looks awesome, I'm excited to eventually have it in hand.

➤ All I ever post these days is pictures of stuff I've bought, but that's because I'm not doing anything exciting except buying things. The world's a hot mess and I'm stuck in treat yo self mode. Anyway look at my amazing new shirts.


(Click to enlarge) In my defense, two of these are for work lol.
Some people on social media had teased that Arcane shirt being in stores at Hot Topic but it WASN'T ON THE SITE so I basically just stalked their site until it was finally put up and then I bought one immediately. I swear they only printed like, 10 of these things because it's already out, I don't know why Riot is so deathly allergic to making Jayce merch. Or Viktor merch where he's not in his Herald form.

(Then again, the monkey's paw curled so hard on this one because there'd been leaks about a Pop Mart collab for Arcane blind boxes so I was excited to see what they'd have because they've done some cute League figures before. And they turned out HIDEOUS like holy shit. They want THIRTY ONE DOLLARS for a single blind box. Insane. They finally release Jayce and non-Herald Viktor merch and it's like a slap in the face. But you know what, good for me at least I don't have to spend money on it now!)

The DnD themed shirts are for summer reading this year! The art's by Carey Pietsch, who illustrates the Adventure Zone comics. :D The dragon one in the middle is long-sleeved, the DnD party on the right is short sleeved. They were both soooo cute I couldn't decide which one so I shelled out for both lmao. But hey, more clothes I can wear to work!

➤ I took these last two days off from work and I've been trying to use the extra time to poke away at my current fic that I should've finished weeks ago (it's for a monthly fic challenge, I'm still working on March's and haven't even started April's yet lol). It's much more "serious" than my usual fare which I think is what's been blocking me. Well that and the fact I've been very bad motivating myself to write lately. I'm going to TRY to finish it this weekend though...

➤ New game mode in Overwatch! Has anyone tried Stadium out yet? I played a few matches, it's been pretty fun so far but I'm still trying to memorize all the item perks and such because right now it's taking me forever just to go over everything between rounds haha. Also that magical girl skin line is SO cute wtf... I want Kiriko's skin so bad 😔

➤ Wrapping up this post and my coworker texts me that our nail polish order from Mooncat arrived lmao I got peer pressured into getting actual polish, originally I was just going to snag a bottle of their fast dry top coat off ysay's recommendation, but my Mooncat-collecting coworkers were like you should get some polish too...so I did. I am weak. Their colors are SO cool though? I ended up picking Antifragile and Strangeberry. Now I just need to actually stick to painting my nails more than once a year!

The cycle of saying I need to update and then not updating continues... I've still got my list of posts I want to make but most of my brain energy has been taken up RPing with a friend which has been a lot of fun!! I've been missing RP lately and I was even floating the idea of getting into a game again but thank god I convinced her to do a 1-on-1 thing with me so I didn't have to do that sjdhfsjkfdhs. It is, unsurprisingly, a Jayvik thing lmao.


A couple orders came in over the last few weeks!! I backed a pair of Wangxian and Hualian pins from a danmei ship Kickstarter and they're SO cute, I almost forgot about them until I got the shipping notice haha. And I also printed myself the best shirt in the world aka I put a Viktor Arcane "let's take ibuprofen together" meme on a t-shirt sjdhfkjsdf I love it so much. I've just been wearing it around the house but it's so funny to me.

( photos of the evidence )

I also discovered this sticker subscription site called Stickii Club that does 3 different themed packs a month and they're only $12, which is a steal for how much you get. It looks like they work with a lot of indie artists and their selection is so adorable, they have a lot of leftover stickers and things from previous packs on sale on their site and I'm really struggling to narrow down what I want to get... But I'm definitely going to subscribe for this month and see how it goes. 👀

I've enjoyed reading everyone's 2024 summaries and end-of-year memes! I can barely remember what I did two months ago let alone all year, so probably no yearly life wrap up from me lmao, but I do have some fandom-y memes I yoinked from y'all I may do at some point.

For now, here's my yuletide wrap up! (+1 extra fic I wrote but not for Yuletide.) This was my first time actually participating in Yuletide, it was so interesting to see the obscure stuff people requested. (I was too late reading The Will of the Many to nominate it this year, but I'm already sitting here thinking oh Yuletide next year? sdjfhshkf Maybe a fandom for it will exist by then.)

WHAT I GOT: I received this lovely fic for Freya Marske's Last Binding series! I let my creator choose which characters from the tagset to include and they went with all of them, which was a delight. The main pairings were present, but I loved the interactions between the less commonly combined characters, like Maud & Addy, Jack & Robin, etc. This really hit the found family aspect of the books super well!

Spinning a Family from Twigs by Vi0let_Baudelaire (Last Binding, Full Cast, rated T, 10k words)
A reflection on the meanings of family, and the stories of five people who joined the Blyth extended family.

WHAT I WROTE: And the fic that I wrote was also for Marske's Last Binding series, but it was pure PWP sjdhfjkshfs featuring a little magic, an unnecessary dance scene in the lead-up, Maud crossdressing, and a strap-on. Happy holidays I guess!!

Taking the Lead (Last Binding, Maud/Violet, rated E, 6.5k words)
Puzzling out the mysteries of Spinet House remains an ongoing problem. Violet tries to keep Maud's spirits up, but to Violet's delight, it's Maud who ends up taking the reins.

WHAT I WROTE BUT NOT FOR YULETIDE: I also ended up writing the world's dumbest Arcane fic for my friend for Christmas! This started as a series of jokes between me and her about obnoxiously supportive PFLAG ally Heimerdinger, spiraled from there as poor Jayce got dragged in, and then I banged out this fic in under a week as a surprise present for her lmao. I got another friend to draw a picture of Heimerdinger in an 'I ♥ my gay son' t-shirt. I think this is my life's magnum opus.

#1 Ally Jayce Talis (Arcane, Jayce/Viktor, rated G, 4.5k words)
When Jayce discovers that Viktor likes men, he wants Viktor to know he has his full support. Viktor wants more than that from Jayce, but he knows he'll never get it when Jayce is so clearly straight.

OTHER FICS I LIKED: Here's some Yuletide recs! Fandoms include: Buddy Daddies, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, The Last Binding, The Magnificent Seven (2016), Octopath Traveler II, Twelfth Night, A Taste of Gold and Iron, The Will Darling Adventures, xxxHolic

( Recs Below! )

A TV meme I stole from rionaleonhart. As soon as I had to think of 5 shows my brain blanked out so I picked 5 shows I've recently reblogged on Tumblr lmao.

TV questions: pick five TV shows you like (in no particular order) and answer the following questions. Don’t cheat!

1. Arcane
2. Interview with the Vampire
3. Star Trek: DS9
4. Black Sails
5. The Dragon Prince

( Questions behind the cut. )

Nothing exciting to report about my Thanksgiving. My family always does holidays very lowkey, so it was just my immediate family together for the usual Thanksgiving dinner. Actually we ate even earlier than usual for some reason so it was more like Thanksgiving lunch lmao. But other than that I basically spent the day rewatching season 2 of Arcane because my one brother hadn't seen it yet.

So the rest of this post is going to be Arcane chatter, sorry.

( spoilers below )

Unrelatedly, I did finish Veilguard earlier this week!! So I've got a big post about that to type up at some point soon.

Extremely belated Happy Halloween? I hope everyone who celebrated had fun! I'm not super into dressing up or anything so I just handed out candy to trick-or-treaters after work, and that was the extent of my celebration lmao. The best part of Halloween is the discount candy afterwards, of course.

I did watch two slightly spooky movies leading up to the 31st, though! My friends and I watched Lisa Frankenstein, which is a black comedy set in the '80s about a teenage girl and a Victorian boy who comes back from the dead. They fall in love. There are some murders. It's a very funny movie, Kathryn Newton is great and the whole thing has a very Heathers vibe. Highly recommend!

We also watched Bodies, Bodies, Bodies because my friends wanted something scary and this is about as scary as I'll go haha. It's another dark comedy, kinda slasher lite so a little bloody but nothing you wouldn't see in a regular R-rated action movie, so if that doesn't bother you I highly recommend it too! It's about a group of young adults (and Lee Pace lol) at a house party who play a murder game like Werewolf/Mafia that ends up taking a dark turn... Definitely do NOT look up anything/spoil yourself on what happens if you plan to watch it, for maximum impact.


This past week I had some extra time off work, which I mostly used to play Veilguard and read books. I didn't even pretend I was going to be productive this time sdjfhsjdhfs. I did go out for dim sum with my mom for lunch one day, and we also made a gingerbread loaf that I've been meaning to try out for like two months now.


THE AFOREMENTIONED LOAF
We actually didn't have quite enough ginger as called for by the recipe lol, but it still tasted good! The recipe was from Baking Yesteryear by B. Dylan Hollis, who does those comedic TikToks making old-timey recipes. It's a lighter loaf than your standard gingerbread, from some 1910s recipe or something. I think I prefer the regular denser gingerbread, but this was still worth trying out.


Oh and Arcane is back!!! Season 2 aired the first three episodes last Saturday, I'm so glad it's back... Is anyone else watching? The beginning of this season is definitely just bolting through stuff lightning-quick, I'm curious where they'll go from here but lordy they are trying to pack in a bunch of stuff lmao. I need to see more of my son Viktor, come back to me 😔

(I keep seeing posts from people being like 'I didn't ship Jayvik last season but now...' like what do you mean you didn't ship it last season. They have been like this the entire time. Glad you've seen the light though, now you too can feel like a rabid dog over them. Speaking of, CaitVi shippers how're we doing after all that lol.)