"New problems keep happening" is the 2020 mood.

[spindizzy]

Hey everyone! I spent the last fortnight being a slug, because apparently pre-shark week can still kick my legs out from under me by making my meds less effective! And I still haven't looked at my diary, so everything that I meant to do got replaced by "staring into the void" and "not staring at things that require emotional engagement". Yaaaaaaay.

But! Here is some of the stuff I stared at!

• Legend of the Phoenix — Okay, so it's a palace intrigue visual novel about going back in time to avenge/prevent your own murder, with dating sim, princess raising, farming, and dress-up games attached. And it's set in ancient(?) China, but one of the romance options is very clearly tsundere bishie Henry VIII. And somehow your character keeps fostering children, despite being a servant in the imperial palace who presumably does not have time to raise the *checks* forty-three babies that she's adopted between nine different fathers at time of posting. ... It's weird, is what I'm saying, and the translation(?) is ropey and there are too many characters and it's theoretically free-to-play while also being pay-to-win, AND YET. This is about the right level of mental and emotional investment for me this week!


• sithe has been watching a LOT of Mythbusters, which I'm mostly tuning in and out of, and pretty much my entire take-away point is that the ginger lady has the best sense of style, and a lot of the myths they investigate could be covered in five minutes by talking to people who know what they're talking about, but fewer things explode while doing that, so fuck it.


• Animal Crossing — I've been so out of it that talking to my villagers or actually DOING THINGS on the island is too much effort, but Beardo has moved off my island and taken his uncomfortable belly fuzz with him! Only to be replaced by an adorable hamster with the exact same personality! ... Why is my island a haven for really dramatic dudes. How have FIVE of these guys managed to find me.


• The Untamed — We got up to the coffin town flashbacks and EVERYTHING IS SAD. THIS STORY ARC ISN'T THE WORST THING IN THE UNTAMED, BUT IT'S FUCKING UP THERE, OH MY GOD. Like, I enjoy Xue Yang's horniness for people trying to kill him, but also this story arc could have been solved before it began by Xiao Xingchen being slightly less self-sacrificing or Xue Yang having a slightly more proportionate sense of retribution.


• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — I HAVE MISSED MY DISASTER LAWYERS AND THEIR EQUALLY DISASTROUS SPIRIT MEDIUM BFFS, OKAY. I love everyone! I have a lot of feelings about Phoenix coming from the Yosuke Hanamura school of friendship, where you do him one tiny favour and suddenly he'll die for you. But also: EDGEWORTH. I FORGOT HOW MUCH OF A SHIT HE IS IN THE FIRST GAME AND I STILL LOVE HIM. THIS IS THE WORST. ... Also the entire Fey family deserves better, but that's known.


• Scum Villain's Self-Saving System — You know how sometimes you look into a fandom, and it looks back? So far I've managed to find a bunch of really good PIDW-verse Luo Binghe fic that actually do things with how much being a power fantasy means that he's not actually good at being a person, even with the people he theoretically likes, and how even at his best he's still awful! I kinda treat the "Original Luo Binghe" tag as a "Dead Dove Do Not Eat" tag, but I've lucked out so far. Although I'm still looking for the "Shen Yuan realises that System never specified Luo Binghe needed to be ALONE in the Endless Abyss fic," but considering there's at least one fic where Shen Jiu falls into the Abyss by accident, maybe I'll find it.


• LexGarrett is feeding me tiny bits of the Unlimited Bladeworks Abridged series, because the style of humour that Abridged series have is usually not my jam? But the constant roasting of Archer using swords instead of a bow is my jam, so I'm allowing the little bits!

Anyway, yes, I am fine! I have reconstructed my to-do list and it is a nightmare, but I promise I will break it down into sensible smaller lists and see you all once I've dug myself out of this pit.