Save for a few kinks that I'm still sorting out - like logging into/uploading images to my actual image hosting on my site - it's all back!!!! Everything is there, it's just a matter of fixing some fairly minor things. All told, it took about 12 hours from when I submitted the support ticket, which is honestly not that bad! Especially since they had to escalate it multiple times due to the complexity of it...yeah. idk what went wrong, but it was something major on their end.

BUT IT'S ALL BETTER NOW!!!

I have a lot of thoughts and also yesterday was Madara's birthday and I spent most of it stressing about website issues so like. bluh. MAYBE NEXT YEAR, MAMA XD

Anyway, I'm gonna try to catch up on my friends page and replying to comments and all that, I'm just kinda wiped emotionally right now. I hate that I mostly managed it while it was going on, but now I'm...not? It's like an emotional hangover of sorts I guess? idk. I don't like it :T

I did some grinding in the JP event but tbh I don't think I have it in me to get Hokuto....I'm supposed to be playing for fun and I don't wanna burn myself out on a game I really like D: Which is kinda disappointing but also like, it is what it is you know?

SUCK IT, PAST KILLIAN!!!! ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE WHEN YOU STAY UP PAST 5 IN THE GOD DAMN MORNING!!!!!!!!!!!!


I don't even have the pieces to unlock him but whatever, Hokuto is mine :D
I just didn't wanna miss out on the first event of the "new year" (since enstars rolls over when the anniversary is, aka the end of April) and I'm stupid. This is why my sleep schedule is shot XD I'll say I'm not as impressed as last year's, but last year's was Ringing evil phone so that's a tough act to follow. In general I tend to enjoy enstars events, though I'm still withholding judgment on this next round of main story events...I guess I'll see what the next part of that holds in a couple weeks.

Also it's this asshole's birthday next week, so I switched up my engstars profile some for him~ I'm also delighted that we finally have the unit banners for "I have too damn many fans of all the characters in this unit" so I can flex my love of Double Face ;D


I guess I could change my featured cards to match the color story better, but I like them too much so they're staying ♥
I've had the Crisis Core soundtrack on repeat still, because it's just really good okay ;w; I was gonna work on grinding out more trophies in Rebirth or running around in the OG FFVII, but I'm torn...what if I just replayed the Crisis Core remake instead?????? IT'S REALLY GOOD AND I LOVE ZACK A LOT. LOVE ME A TRAGIC HIMBO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or I could finally beat FFVII: Remake but I got stuck at the final fucking motorcycle fight and even Liz hasn't been able to beat it so like. FUCK ME I GUESS!!!! I'm just mad at anything involving vehicles in games...

Also also I need more icons of Zack...I have a decent amount of FFVII ones backed up from what I had on GJ, but that was slightly before Crisis Core came out originally...so I only have a few of him. I'm gonna have to go through the depths of LJ in hopes of finding not dead links and/or make my own, I guess!

Today was....better than yesterday in some ways, because I actually managed to get out of bed before noon. Yaaaaaay! My whole body has been complaining about everything I fucking do these days, and it's really been knocking me out ;w; But I'm trying to get up and moving more in hopes that it'll help.

I did some grinding in the JP event but tbh I don't think I have it in me to get Hokuto....I'm supposed to be playing for fun and I don't wanna burn myself out on a game I really like D: Which is kinda disappointing but also like, it is what it is you know?

Highlight of the day: taking the boys to Pizza Hut (to make up for the slight of taking them to Little Caesars, aka not the pizza chain that Double Face had a collab with)


yes, the sign stuck out from the wall just enough to prop some nuis in~


they had a "ranch tasting flight" and I couldn't resist!!! tbh it was pretty good, even if the pepperoni "ranch" barely qualifies as a ranch; it tastes like straight up liquid pepperoni somehow?????
Other than that, I think I'm gonna be able to get Kohaku to 75k fans today in CN, which means I'll be able to take him on the BIGGEST UPPY in LIMIT BREAK DREAMERS!!!!!!! I've wanted to be able to do this since it hit JP last year, but grinding for fans is haaaaard. Or, no, it's not hard, it's just very time consuming. There's no real way to rush it. But I'm almost there!!!!! Madara isn't very far behind, so I'm just very excited *w* I thought I'd have to wait the many years it would take for it to hit ENG.....

Oh! The shopping center with the Pizza Hut is one of those ones where Everything Must Be The Same Color, and that color is dark green. Okay, whatever, I don't design shopping centers, but I do find it neat when I see one where even big chains have to fit the mold. And this one had a Wendy's- key word, had. When we went to leave, I noticed that it had been painted gray and all the windows were covered/painted over?????? Which is just a shame; I love seeing uniquely colored fast food chains. Even if it was just the outside, it made it ~different~ and now I'm sad it's gone D:

Also it was one of the closest Wendy's, so fuck me I guess XD I hope they put something fun where it was, or at least another fast food chain I like!!!

and I made myself sad all day listening to the Crisis Core soundtrack sobs it's just so good ;w;

I got rained on and I'm super sore + achy, but I had tons of fun today!!!! The Mt Vernon Flower Mart is back and we were in the market for more plants (aka, more peppers, since those were what we had the most success with last year), so Pat and I planned on meeting Liz there after they got off work. Pat ended up inviting Elio, since we hadn't seen him in awhile, and by chance he'd been planning on going today, too!!!

HOWEVER. I thought I was meeting Pat and Elio at the light rail stop by Pat's work, but Pat thought I was meeting them at the flower mart...so they left without me XD It's cool, I can handle taking the train alone...it was just really silly since they just left like RIGHT before I got there.

This meant I got off the light rail just as Liz was getting off work, so we walked over together~ We got maybe 30 seconds into our walk before we were like "hey, is it drizzling?" followed up by a torrential downpour. At least the nuis were safely in a waterproof ita bag!

Eventually, the rain cleared up and we made it the last block and a half to the flower market!!! AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!


we got to see a truly stunning rainbow ♥
I managed to whip up little bows for their ears this afternoon, just in time for the festival~~~~~~~ I was honestly really excited to go this year, not just because it's a fun tradition we've fallen into, but also because it was this time last year that Liz and I had truly fallen for Kohaku & Madara in a like... "oh, oh, this is gon' be an important one" ship feels kinda way. We walked around talking about Madara's love of impulse performances at street festivals and just...idk it was really nice ;w; I love them (kohamada and Liz).

So!!!! Returning this year with my decked out kohamada nuis...very special to me ♥

After that, we got the ever-important lemon sticks - since Elio had never had one! - and walked around, picking out plants. Honestly, the rain cut some of the heat, leaving the weather basically perfect for an evening at a street festival :D

( further images from the festival!!! )

While we were eating dinner - still at the flower market, but slightly fancier street food because it's in a sorta bougie area - someone came up and complimented the dress I was wearing, and then we ended up chatting a ton. They just moved into the area from out in the suburbs and seem similarly nerdy, so hopefully we've managed to make another local friend!!!

I'm in sooooo much pain from all the walking around, but overall today was good *w* I'm also too tired to figure out how to end this properly, sooooo bye? XD

I changed my laptop wallpaper today, because I got lost on pixiv + I wanted something summery~


art by 芦 ♥
Love how the only major change since the last time I posted my laptop bg is that I've added more versions of enstars to it XD I have good taste, I swear! Also finally remembered to include a shortcut to the control panel for mewdragon's online reader...since it's a weird url that I can never remember :T

Other than that, I've been fussy about the new enstars UI but not for major reasons, just more that I have muscle memory and only one of the versions I play has changed. I still play in ENG + CN and they won't be getting the UI change for yearssssss so I'm just struggling. And it's partially glitchy from being a massive change, so I have to be patient...something I'm bad at XD

I usually try to make the maximum amount of icons for challenges/contests I enter, but I'm still feeling burnt out ;w; I managed to pull together the minimum 5 for monthlyinspo, but most of them I'd made earlier in the month...bluh. I'm not happy with most of what I made, either.

BAD CREATIVITY BRAIN SUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!!!!

I did get the 5* from Sena's event today, at least!!! I don't even like him that much, but 1) the song slaps, 2) the aesthetic slaps, and 3) I'm trying to get as many copies of Leo's 4* from it as possible, which means I'm potentially getting two copies of the 5* XD


Senaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~~~~~~ real talk tho I've been looking forward to this event for over a year; Or the Beautiful Golden Drop is hands down my favorite Knights song *w*
okay back to the jp event~ I'm not gonna get Hokuto from sitting on my ass ;D

THE NEW UI IS HERE AND I HAVE....MIXED FEELINGS!!!!!! But mostly positive!!!!!!!!! Overall, I like a lot of the new aspects...which unfortunately means most of my gripes are about the function, not the form.


WELCOME TO THE NEW HOME SCREEN!!!!!! I honestly love how colorful and fun it is- it reminds me a lot of original Love Live, in a good way! I love that it's not afraid to be bright and almost tacky, especially when so many games lean towards minimalism :D
HOWEVER................I hate that a lot of the important features are now hidden behind buttons, including things I'd like to be able to see at a glance. BP (stamina), work tickets, and diamonds are now accessed by clicking the big star in the upper left that displays your rank, which looks cool but they don't belong within a menu. They're the sort of things that should be right there when you login. I also don't like that Story and Cards are no longer on the home screen- they're within the big star in the bottom right that says Produce, which is where most of the important shit is.

okay okay okay I'm not trying to write a tutorial here XD I've had a lot of reactions since it came back online approx ~24 hours ago...and now it's down for pre-event maintenance, hence why I'm rambling here.

There's also just a lot of hiding important things that shouldn't be hidden, imho. In the office item purchasing screen, it no longer tells you how many of each item you already have, unless you click on yet another button. The theme here is "plz put that back where you found it so help me" I guess :T

Seriously, the new UI is already bright and full of a bunch of fun shapes, I promise that keeping a few numbers/small images on there won't hurt. It'll just add to the organized chaos that I'm pretty sure they're going for! IT'S OKAY TO SHOW US INFO I PROMISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't wanna just be negative above the cut, so lemme say some more things I like~


the MEGA PHONE screen is honestly delightful- I think it's so fun!!!! I just wish that MV fitting room didn't take quite so many menus to get to :T

( many more images + new UI discussion under the cut, because I have a lot of feels )

OKAY. Okay. This was a lot of post, mostly about the JP enstars app, so lemme finish it off with proof that I actually left my house today: the boys at Costco~

THE ENSTARS MAINTENANCE WAS EXTENDED MY LIFE IS OVERRRRRRRRRRR

okay now that that's out of my system...I'm not gonna lie, I'm very sad to have to wait an additional 24 hours to play around the with the new UI...at least there's a lot of good stuff going on in the ENG and CN servers - particularly my favorite anniversary event!!!! - so I can play with that, but still ;w;

Anyway, all I did today was play FFVII and get lost in enstars on my phone. Uh. I live a productive life, I swear XD


Cloud went on a chocobo date with Aerith (and kept fucking it up in very autistic ways, not helped by all their friends tagging along)

( more ff7 screenshots in here! )

tbh I feel like I accidentally burnt myself out on icon making for the next week or so. I entered a bunch of challenges for like...a month straight? Which was a ton of fun!! But now I'm kinda overdone on it I guess? Or more like my creativity is fried, probably because I made so many in such a short period- for me at least. idk I know some people make a lot more faster, but not me! The fact that I've made around 200 icons this year is a lot for me, and it's something I'm quite proud of! I guess I just need to chill out for a bit.

BLUH.

ANYWAY. Ending this on a more positive note: I managed to get Kohaku's newest 4* in CN!!!!


I love that he looks so fucking cute and it's all because it's Mayoi vision XD thx Mayoi, for making Kohaku seem so precious ♥


also, the newest worldwide mission outfit dropped in CN today, and it is delightfully fruity- it looks like a mix of "gay sailor" and "little Victorian boy", and I'm here for it ;D

I FINISHED KOHAKU'S BIG BOW TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So clearly it was time to take the nuis on an ~adventure~
Also, Pat and I had avoided going to the new Ebisu yesterday and could not pull that off again XD We wanted to see the (relatively) new Japanese store!!!

....but first we went to Chili's for dinner. It had a wait and I was really hungry and I had to work very hard not to throw a tantrum in the Chili's entryway, because I'm the strongest. It ended up being fine and the food was good and I survived waiting XD I was feeling particularly whiny and difficult earlier, which suuuuucked.

BUT EBISU WAS REALLY GOOD!!!! It has its own parking lot in Towson, which is a big plus! Also if this place had been there when I was in college, I would have been even more broke than I already was XD Pat I both kept marveling at how much it would have destroyed our finances back then, lmao.

Honestly, I was having a bad pain day so didn't stay as long as I would have liked...which was maybe a good thing? XD They had a lot of tasty looking snacks that I don't usually see at H Mart or Lotte Market, so I will definitely be going back to peruse more of those.

And then we came home and farted around for awhile, but tbh we had originally gone out for bubble tea - cuz a lot of bubble tea places are super cute for optimal nui photoshoot options - and then we didn't end up going. And I started working on this entry at like 9:45 pm, at which point I got disappointed that we never got bubble tea...

NEVER FEAR, GONG CHA IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of their locations is open until 11 pm on the weekends, so we went back out~ However, they were out of boba...and a lot of other things.....but whatever, we had a nice time AND I got cute pictures ♥


they look so cute in the ita bag now!!!!!!!

( even more pics from the nui adventure! )

Anyway! I'm now very satisfied and exhausted. The JP enstars server is down for 24 hours of maintenance to roll out the new UI, so I'm sad it's and nervous about what it'll be like ;w; But the merge game has hit the ENG server + my favorite Knights event is happening, so it's not all bad.

ALSO I MAXED MY FIRST EVER GACHA CARD IN ENSTARS BY HAVING TWO COPIES OF REI'S FIRST FEATURE SCOUT COME HOME WITHIN 3 SCOUTS OF EACH OTHER??????


I was expecting it to be one of the multiple cards I have 4 copies of but nope!!!! Rei pulled ahead XD

( just more enstars squeeing and shit in here )

aaaaand I think I'm gonna play for FFVII~ baibai!

After buying all the ribbon and shit a few weeks ago, I finally finished one of the projects I bought it for!!!!!! I made a big cute bow for my Madara nui!!!!!!!!!!!!!


lookit him and his big dumb bow he's so cuuuuuuuuuute
It was very frustrating at times, because I'm actually terrible at making bows- this has been a problem since I was trying to make lolita outfits in my late teens and apparently I still struggle with them ;w; BUT I DID IT!!!! I conquered my fears and pushed through to make something adorable ♥

ALSO LIZ GOT ME A GIFT!!!!!!!!!


adorable kohamada pins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They're so sweet *w* They're also playing the horrendous card game mini game that's part of FFVII Rebirth, because we needed more mini games????(We didn't) But it hits in the right part of their autism brain, so they've been having fun.

uhhhhhhhhhhhh my brain is mush because I've been in the enstars mines all day (playing the jp tour) but I have many thoughts about the whole two (2) chapters of story I read XD I usually read the whole thing at once, but I couldn't help but jump ahead to the bit that's Crazy:B + Madara because...okay, because I'm a simple man, I'm always hoping for kohamada crumbs.


the boys were also here for Kohaku + Madara interactions, clearly
AND IT FUCKING DELIVERED!!!!!!! Yeah, it was only two chapters, but they had a ton of back and forth, cute snarky bits, etc etc etc ;w; Rinne now has a nickname for Madara - Mikeneko-chan - and it's so fucking cute!!! I'm so glad someone finally called him a calico cat in text, it's important to me *w* And then Niki said that Kohaku and Madara looked like cats together, which was so fucking precious. Like. Yes, please compare my faves to kitty cats, my day is made.

ALSO!!!!!!! Rinne told Madara that he has to prove his worth before he can have Kohaku back - which for the record isn't even why Madara was there, he just showed up and that was the first thing Rinne said to him XD - and it very much had the vibe of "you broke my friend's heart and I'm not gonna let you do it again" so like. VERY GOOD SHIP CRUMBS FOR MEEEEEEEE. This was followed by Kohaku being like "I can do whatever I want" which, again, gay????? SO GOOD.

HiMERU very clearly did not like that Madara was there and wanted him to leave. Which make sense with how dismissive he was of Double Face during Ephemeral Festival, but I like that Rinne was not and instead acknowledged that Madara is an important part of Kohaku's life...he's just a shit who needs to make up for wronging Kohaku.

gaaaaaaaaaaaaay ♥

And another thing!!!!! It opened with Madara pondering on Nice Arneb Thunder and thinking that him + everything regarding 4piece and his quick acceptance into ES is really sketchy. Which is 1) accurate and 2) hahahaaa I fucking called it, I just knew Madara wouldn't trust this dude!!!!!!!! I said this during the first 4piece tour last year and tbh Madara is one of (the only????) character who hasn't been immediately taken in by Nice's cult of personality charisma. Kohaku also seemed concerned about him after Madara showed up to question Rinne about his past, so like......there's still time for my crack theory to win!!!!! Double Face could still take Nice Arneb Thunder out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry not sorry I'm just having a nice time uwu


I ground through the tour quite quickly so I could get Madara's 4* ♥
Honestly, the tour setlist has been really solid so far!!! I just finished up stop 10 and it's been less than 24 hours, which is a lot faster than I've played any recent tours tbh. idk I'm just having a nice time? It's nice to enjoy things ;w;

I mean also Madara is in the event so there's a lot of MaM and Double Face songs, so I am delighted by that ;D

( more enstars-related screencaps in here )

Oh, right. I do have one complaint about the event. Two complaints, I guess? But they're related, so I'll complain about them together. There's no event song and no MV outfits ;w; I know that tours don't usually have either of those, but the year end tours usually do. I guess because it's the prologue to the next chunk of main story it doesn't? BUT I'M STILL FUSSY.

Just another reason to be mad at Nice Arneb Thunder XD

Liz thinks that the outfits are gonna be the 10th anniversary MV outfits that everyone gets, which, like...okay. That's nice and all, but I wanted year end tour outfits ;w;

AT LEAST I HAVE ALTERED AND MY FOUR COPIES OF TSUMUGI


and here's a Lumos for sticking around for this whole longass post!