hi hello yes I'm still alive

still grumpy about back pain and physical therapy that is supposed to help with said back pain but has so far only succeeded in stopping it from getting worse

but mostly I'm just finding my willpower being tested because I have a very mean friend

and by mean I mean awesome and adorable

she sent everyone in our D&D group a gift and they arrived yesterday for most of us but we're not "allowed" to open them yet so that she can be there in voice chat when we open them before the game tomorrow

and I'm so curious

hmm, what else...

my hair is blue again, which makes me happy

of course that means since the dye is still very recent, my fingernails are also blue 90% of the time ^^;;

I've also had this serene little tune stuck in my head for most of the day now, and it reminds me of something I really appreciate about Trails in the Sky (well, First Chapter, since I still haven't played more than an hour of the sequel...)

Trails in the Sky OST - A Cat Relaxing in the Sun (F...

The characters are just so kind to each other? Like, not everyone is and there are some pretty terrible people out there and bad things happen but so many of the characters are just really nice and friendly and, well, kind when they don't have to be and it's probably a big part of the reason why I find the game so relaxing.

I'm having that same experience with The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet which I'm currently reading, and it's just such a nice change of pace.

sssoooo, how are you all doing? I've sort of read some plurks here and there in the last few months but I've probably missed a lot. (I was on social media a bit less recently but then also mostly stuck to twitter & tumblr and stuff when I was online)

The Trails party dynamic made me so happy ;;

I’m well! I got a new shiny phone today and paid off a debt (the phone is my reward for the debt) and have been playing phone games and 14 a lot

I tripped and fell into the Trails games, ironically enough. Also managed to find employment, which is a great relief.

Sword Logic oh I’m glad to hear you found something!

thanks! I've been lax on actually telling people about it because tired, but it seems like a pretty decent workplace so far

Lassarina yay for all of that! What have you been enjoying most in FF14 recently? I'm currently catching up on ananta and kojin beast tribe quests and slooowly bringing my item level up because I was only exactly at the level to clear Hell's Lid the and Fractal Continuum hard mode but that locks me out of a bunch of fun stuff still.

Sword Logic Ooooh a new job, that's great and even better that it seems to be a decent place to work at, too.
I saw that you were playing (watching? both?) the Trails of Cold Steel games but didn't look too closely since I stil want to get to them someday too. ^^;;

Haha, yeah, don't read those if you don't want spoilers. XD I watched the first one and then played the second, now I'm playing Trails 3rd because I love playing games out of order, for some reason.

Lym I’ve spent the last couple days zooming botanist from 53 to 59 but I adored little ladies day this year and I’m just enjoying roaming around right now

botany! <3

The Little Ladies day fate was a lot of fun and I really like the doll display shelf that's one of the rewards. Lash can certainly use it at this point...

the second quest with the girl in white was unexpected

Yeah ;; bittersweet

I admittedly immediately played the quest again on an alt in German because nine times out of ten, if there's a reference to sexual violence in the English script, it has been put there by the English localisation team and isn't actually present in other language versions, but yeah, this quest plays out the same regardless of language.

Oh gosh I didn’t know that

Well admittedly this game is very light on that kind of content thankfully

In that I was surprised it went there at all

yeah, even in the English version it's not very frequent, which is nice. (but references like the one in the first dark knight quest are still changed from just a general idea of violence)

(although maybe the drk quests aren't the best example since everything to do with Frey seems to have not so much been translated as completely rewritten)