It’s already half-way through February and I figured I’d write a post for the blog. The script for Wandering Chrysanthemum is coming along nicely and The Powers That Be continue to destroy the world at a record pace. Part of me asks, will I be able to finish the main story in time to give people hope for the future? Who know …
Visual Novel Update
As I said earlier, the script is coming along nicely. I’m not too worried about it but I also keep introducing new concepts that I feel will bite me in the ass later. For example, I decided to give Amagi and cyborgs in general something called an Ouroboros Drive which is basically a portable device that allows them to use alchemy.
It was inspired by a mock drawing I made of a battle UI for Wandering Chrysanthemum to satiate an urge I had to make it an RPG Maker game.
That would be a lot of work and I would have to re-evaluate the script to make it fit into a game like that. Not really interested in doing that in the moment.
So yeah, I have a lot of ideas about the world, lore, magic systems, but I really don’t think I should invest too much in any of that right now. Since I’m writing a prologue I think it’s fine to allude to things that might exist and just develop proper concepts later.
I’m thankful that I gave myself until the spring to finish the script. As far as I know, there shouldn’t be anything in the near future that would a major delay.
Recently, I uploaded concept sketches of Amagi and Azuma on Bluesky.
Amagi Concept Sketch
Azuma Concept Sketch
Thanks to all the support from my followers on Bluesky. It makes me feel good when they like my art, it’s validating. And it helps counter the harsh critic within me.
Anyway, these are my two original characters. I love them a lot and I hope to develop their identities further in the months to come.
Health
Lately, I’ve been feeling a little off. Between last week and this week, I managed to get shin splints from walking back and forth between my job. The snow hasn’t completely melted yet, so certain parts of my commute feel more like hikes rather than walks. I bought work boots ahead of the winter and I hadn’t used them much until the snow storm hit a few weeks ago.
Honestly, I didn’t notice how heavy they were until they became my daily driver. Sure, my feet are warm and cozy while I’m wearing them … there’s no arguing how comfortable they are when I’m idle. However, walking 2-4 miles a day in these is excruciating.
Today was the first time that the snow had melted enough for me to use my regular walking shoes again. Guess what? I didn’t feel as tired today at work! Still, my stamina has been kinda low lately … I only manage to walk home on Tuesday. I think it’s fine to take a break from walking, especially in this cold.
That aside, I’ve also been having trouble sleeping again. Not to scare anyone, but I feel like this overwhelming sense of dread if I don’t fall asleep immediately. I start to experience derealization, or something like it, and become hyper aware of my own mortality.
It hasn’t gotten bad enough for me to get a panic attack or anything … but it’s really annoying to shake off. When it happens, I use my phone for a little bit to watch something boring until I fall asleep. Part of me thinks that it’s my body telling me that I’m not doing anything worth while in my life. I kinda feel that …
My job is okay, I think I’ve mastered how much I have to do to not get fired. But that passion I had for it at the beginning is gone ever since I started to do more clerical work.
What’s been keeping me going has been writing the Project Parousia and working on my art. There’s not much variation to my day-to-day life. Hopefully that will change soon. My boss said he’d help me get approved for remote work. So, I’ll be able to work from home at least one day out of the week. I’m hoping to do Wednesdays since it would break the week apart nicely to break the monotony.
Aside from that … I guess I’ve just been a bit miserable because of everything going on in the world. I keep reading about conspiracy theories for both Project Pariousia and just because a lot of what is on the news closely aligns with what I’m writing about.
Even a lot of people in public are saying that it feels like all the conspiracy theories are coming true. All it’s done is make me feel like I’m writing in the Death Note, lol. Well, the conspiracies I’m writing about are basically the endgame of all conspiracies. We’re still a ways off from the “big finale”. I’m just trying not to go crazy reading these things online.
Books
Earlier this week, I stopped by Barnes & Nobel to check out their “movie section”. It’s actually a single cardboard display with anything from DVDs to 4K Blu-Rays on there. The selection feels completely random and sometimes is akin to the bargain bins at Walmart.
There was a movie I wanted to buy, but I saw that I could get it at a better price online.
As I walked towards the exit, I saw a thick book with an amazing cover titled Alchemised. It’s a book by the author SenLinYu. I didn’t look it up or read anything about it aside from the recommendation provided by the store’s staff, but I saw that it was a fantasy novel about alchemy and was immediately sold.
I’ve read about four chapters of the book so far out of a total of fourty plus. Just flipping through the book excitedly, I saw that it was nearly (if not) 1000 pages long. It’s my first large novel in a while so I’m gonna take my time with it.
So far, the story has followed the protagonist, Helena Marino, waking up from this stasis pod she was keeping herself alive in with her healing abilities. She’s one of the surviving members of a failed resistance against a coup and now finds herself in the hands of the enemy fourteen months later after being discovered in the pod.
The necromancers who took over think she holds the key to soul transference so they’re about to pick Helena’s brain to learn her secrets. No one really knows how Helena survived for so long or who used alchemy to rearrange her brain in the first place, so she’s become the necromancers’ top priority.
The writing is very digestible … while looking up the name of the author online I caught glimpse that they had done a lot of fan fiction writing before debuting with Alchemised. This isn’t a knock on the writing style, but it suddenly makes a lot of sense why it feels easy to read.
Hoping to share more about the book as I work my way through it.
Closing
That’s more or less my life right now. NIKKE recently had a story update and I thought about writing about it, but it’ll depend on whether or not I feel like doing that this weekend. This upcoming week is my birthday and I wasn’t able to take the day off … well, I could’ve but my co-worker who works remote would’ve had to come in and rearrange some child care stuff. I don’t have kids, so I feel bad making parents do that just so I can have a day off without any real plan.
It’s the second year this has happened, aaaaaaaaaaaa…. Ah well.