trails from zero thoughts
9 Mar 2026 11:33i'm a ways into chapter 2 of trails from zero, so here's some thoughts on the game so far.
( spoilers below )
right now i think my plan for the next couple months is as follows: trails from zero this month, trails to azure next month, and then a break to play clair obscur. i don't own the cold steel games yet (and i'm debating where i want to play them... i need to find out if there's save data carry-over) so i hope there's a sale by the time i get there. i really would like to focus on the trails series this year, because i've genuinely been having such a good time with it.
on a related note, i finally got my collector's edition box for trails in the sky 1st chapter (the remake of FC) and it's even lovelier than i expected. they even threw in an extra bracer emblem pin since it was so late. i'll definitely be looking out for the collector's edition of 2nd chapter when it releases later this year.
FFXIV Fanfest 2026 preparations
7 Mar 2026 01:33
KV drew our Warriors of Light for the sticker exchange. They won't be on stickers together, just for the sake of sharing :) We also made some Triple Triad card versions and I made some zines of my WoL, Wisteria, that I am excited to trade along with my stickers.

I stopped attending anime and videogame conventions in 2019 and the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown made me realize how much I was burnt out from them and no longer enjoyed cosplaying... I was consistently making costumes and attending cons for over ten years at this point. I wanted to make Yugiri's A Realm Reborn - Heavensward outfit, as a comeback of some sort, but the thought of a cosplay project that size actually ended up demotivating me when I thought it would motivate me.
But, wanting to still dress up for the festivities, we decided we'll make some low-level gear from the game. The idea felt a lot more doable and actually sparked some motivation! I have the supplies ready and will be working on them this weekend.
I will never see eye to eye with Venat
7 Mar 2026 02:09( things that don't land for me )
Anyway my mood has been better (thank goodness for that), I'm hoping to get most of it not all of my edits done for my wip before groceries on Tuesday. I am trying like the eighth type of lightbulb before having to bite the bullet and spend like £50 instead of £10 to see if something almost alike to what I previously had but not quite will work instead. 🥲 but I could also end up returning all those... eyes pls. We'll see how I feel about Endwalker after I play something else as planned.
I was going to have dad over for more flat maintenance or maybe furniture stuff, but hadn't done any tidying due to having prioritised writing, and with what were PMDD symptoms at the weekend that was probably a good call. It's equally tough to celebrate what should be a writing win as I did it, I bested those demons, when I am experiencing all the demons again just in a different font 😔 I do and have always felt like I'm repeating myself unknowingly from other fics in the same series, it's very same formulaic as a couple of others, but some parts I am very happy with. Ashe does a lot of emotional heavy lifting and makes a fair few little speeches whilst Amélie doesn't, it's lopsided, but I keep having to remind myself that at this point in them learning to co-inhabit that's okay. Amélie running away, choosing Ashe, staying with her in Arizona speak incredibly loudly so she has to do her best to reciprocally be worthy of such grandiose gestures... and she would reinforce with action and words alike, that's the type of person she is.
I did try writing in some Frankie. I don't know Frankie's speech patterns at all. One day my stupid ass brain will let me read a singular book. That was something else I was contemplating doing during this week but I've been flagging on SHB due to being... in bed so much... or stadium suffering... the matchmaker the last three days has been incredibly heinous and tonight downright unfair. Match quality has been very bad in general since season start. Due to weekly reset min-maxing yesterday I only had to play two games which I won to get to where I needed to be. Today I had to play nine, because I lost seven of them, five consecutive, which at that much of a loss streak you should just fucking stop, but min-maxing points days are Tues/Weds 🫠 I keep getting mentally stuck on bad match chat experiences of the night, so until people learn to behave I might just turn chat off in game entirely for a bit, lmao.
I was playing a bit of my ouihaw save in the sims and then decided to make a Prih and G'raha sim. I then decided to make a five apartment building complex for not just them but a selection of Scions. As one does. I finished their unit at least and very lazily did one of the others, so tomorrow I'll pick a third...
february wrap-up and march goals
4 Mar 2026 11:54i'm a few days late on this, but better late than never...
websites
i got nothing done last month, lol. i hate february. worst month by far.
march goal: make new contact page for redcrown.net, poke some more at wip layouts. keeping this simple so i actually do it...
writing
still no progress on endwalker fic, alas. however, i did manage to make progress on a new original story idea.
march goal: continue working on new original idea (worldbuilding, mostly, but i'm also ironing out plot and characters, etc).
video games
hey i actually achieved something here! i finished trails in the sky the 3rd, which i enjoyed a lot. i didn't really end up liveblogging it as i hoped but the tl;dr is that it was an excellent wrap-up for the previous two games and offered a lot of interesting bits of worldbuilding that have made me very excited for the rest of the series.
and on that note, i've started trails from zero! i'm not that far in, just finished the prologue last night, but i'm REALLY enjoying it so far. i'm short on time this week but i'm hoping to play more of it when i'm able.
the march goal therefore is to finish trails from zero, which i think i can manage if i genuinely set time aside for it. so far so good, but we'll see how the rest of the month shakes out.
in reading news, i'm once again stalled and either need to dnf or commit to the book i'm reading. unsure right now which one it will be...
And you could've done so much with the easter egg of Widow requires a visor of some kind that slots into place when her ult activates, and on this occasion doing the opposite - removing the visor to show her eyes, and making them red to match the og visor lighting up, whilst also implying logic virus... I just know this would have tickled Yoko Taro's brain... Square letting me down one last time.
The other skins are going to Wuyang (9S, weird pick), Vendetta (A2, personality clash but the sword is good and the big spins she does with the sword are just Nier spins), and then Lifeweaver (Adam) and Mercy (the Yorha Commander) and the last one in particular is so. Yeah. Give it up for another evil Mercy skin everybody. And not a single omnic/robot got a skin in the game about androids/robots. Of course not. I hope we get music in some way at least...
Decided on and bought my gold weapon backlog, of which Anran has seen some use because it turns out I do enjoy playing her, she just works best when you have someone to coordinate with when retreating for cover or heals woops. But I got the majority of my list, so, Orisa, Sojourn, Tracer, Widowmaker, Ana, Illari and Kiriko, then Anran and Domina, leaving Pharah, the cat and Vendetta, of which I decided to leave Vendetta until such a time that she crashes and burns during the storyline because then congratulations girly you actually did something and advanced the plot successfully (because thus far we are three weeks in and nothing has happened yet with her attack on Overwatch, it's all new character introductions, yknow, stuff we got pre character release being drip fed, I'm expecting once the five week run is over we'll see some advancement?). I do kind of want to give her the crimson wolf weapon as it is literally her theme, but I committed to the golds for women bit, and don't want to get two comp weapons for someone I don't play... :')
I did get the gold for Mizuki. I have lost every single game with him since. That's how it goes. ( plans for what's next )
Finished 5.3 in SHB! I actually got to see the second part of Elidibus for the first time ever! The prior two times I was in too much pain from the ATE to do so as it's the first trick one, and the first one not to fill a gauge but to keep it from depleting and will, always, be pixels off failing. It's a not a couple of seconds worth of quick pressing that you could take ten seconds to do, it's like ten to twenty seconds of consistent quick pressing, which is not very accessible at all. My method with ATE's after much trial and error is to very gently roll a finger around the d pad, and whilst it is not fast by any means for filling a gauge or stopping a deplete, it will do it successfully. And doesn't wreck my right thumb further, or cause issues in my left. I just can't regularly do whatever that piece of content is. tl;dr, I actually really like his fight now that I could participate, lol. I'd forgotten a lot of the plot threads and his reasoning for becoming The (titular) Warrior of Light, but it's actually really genius, because he was embodied to be hope, it has simply become twisted and an obsession over the years, and he uses what is typically reserved for the playable hero of the power of hope to win against his adversary (you). Full end of Okami or Persona 5 moment. And in true JRPG style, the next thing the WoL themselves do is call upon the power of hope and belief to take their friends safely home to the Source, including G'raha, and it's such a nice moment... you know you will succeed because Elidibus showed you the way... I am so weak to stories about hope and that is what SHB is, ultimately, all the way down.
Eden 9-12 also did, and Cylva follow up quest where you leave the crystals you gathered to her (and their memories recognise her), went to solo Warring Triad/HW base primal ex's so I can today take Unukalhai from the closet to the First for the final bits of Cylva content, and so when Khlip does do Endwalker I can have all my voidsent threads already in place. I wasn't going to do 5.4/5 right away but Krile hijacked my cursor when I was looking directly at the Solar so uh 5.4 did start LMAO. I guess I'll continue until Endwalker start and then take the break by playing something else. It shouldn't take too long, since it's just two dungeons I know very well. I may cutscene skip for certain individuals though. I absolutely switched off during their respective monologues at the end of 5.3: I simply do not care :')
Seriously: every time I thought of this today, it made me smile. Peak trolling, indeed - I'd call it epic trolling! Makes me want to hug the programmers at TCM!
Plus it is such a great noir film, one of Ingrid Bergman's best roles, for which she won her first Oscar (though my favorite role of hers will always be Casablanca). Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotton are great in it as well. A young Angela Lansbury is in it, too.
