azurrys

Over the past few days, I’ve been having one of those moments where I want to post about so many different things that I become paralyzed with indecision about what to tackle first, and then don’t write any posts at all. So, in the interests of clearing out as many of the links and notes in my “dw update” writing document as possible, I’ve decided that I’m just going to tackle all of the “smaller” things I’ve been wanting to post about in this entry, and then figure out things from there with the “bigger” things.

Predictably, most of these things are Scum Villain-related, but not everything!

One. So, I think I’ve mentioned before that I keep a spreadsheet tracking my reading (both original & fic), gaming, watching, etc. I may have also mentioned before that I keep a physical reading/media journal—mostly dedicated to writing down my thoughts about the books I read, but it also contains some tracking spreads and monthly wrap-ups, and at some point I started doing quarterly wrap-ups as well.

One of the things I include in those quarterly wrap-ups is a list of my “most read” (usually top five) fandoms for the past three months, as determined by the number of individual fics read for them. Over the weekend, I was compiling the stats I need for the quarter that just ended, and—well. These were the results:

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System — 115
The Goes Wrong Show — 14
Pokémon (Main Games) — 12
Radiant Emperor — 11
Fire Emblem Fates — 7

I had to laugh. That drop-off… incredible.

Two. Over the weekend, I finally read the new Scum Villain extra for the first time. My full thoughts on it definitely don’t count as a “smaller” thing—I’m hoping to write a full post dedicated to that at some point, because I definitely have many, many thoughts—but I do want to bring up something related to it, namely, MXTX’s afterword.

Or, more specifically, my discovering that MXTX refers to Scum Villain (the novel) as a “lively little grasshopper”.

I instantly wanted to cry, in the best way. That’s so adorable. And it’s even cuter in context: ( more beneath the cut )

Three. Related to the above—as someone who loves subtle fannish merch, my first thought upon discovering that MXTX describes Scum Villain as a “little grasshopper” (after, of course, having a meltdown about how cute that is), was—I need art and accessories featuring grasshoppers now. So I immediately went on Etsy, and… found that pickings were rather slim, at least according to my criteria. I ended up narrowing my search to “grasshopper necklace”, but most of what seems to be out there is either cartoony in style or colored in a solid silver or gold, neither of which was what I was wanting.

Along the way, I did come across this gorgeous lunar moth necklace, which is pretty much exactly what I want in terms of both style and color. Just. It’s the wrong insect, lol. (Though still quite pretty... and I do like moths.)

Four. This morning, I came across this Scum Villain fanvid: “Spoken for me” by sapin7 and just have to share it. It does use common character design elements that I dislike (namely, Binghe being given bestial traits), but even so, it’s still very good. The way that the creator matches the images on-screen with the lyrics sent me down such an emotional rollercoaster—I swallowed down so many urges to scream while watching.

Five. The other day, while playing a nonogram-style game on my phone, I was shown this ad for Merge Teahouse. Now, I’m not going to be downloading this game—both because I’ve placed a blanket ban on myself for phone games that incentivize daily logins, and because phone game ads are notorious for not having any real resemblance to the actual game’s vibe and story—but I was very struck at how perfectly calculated this is to appeal to my interests.

We have: a FOX who has taken human form (complete with cute ears and tail!), hurt/comfort with an emphasis on blood, implied pining, devotion won through a past act of kindness that the FL may or may not even remember, a ML who looks hot and cool and powerful but acts pathetic and cute around the FL* (including him taking down their enemies before giving the FL puppy eyes and going on about how ~scared~ he was!!), clear femdom potential, both the FL and ML clearly being competent in battle, the FL using a sword…

I would read that novel, is what I’m saying. I would play that visual novel. I would even consider watching that show. In short, that is the kind of ship I could absolutely lose my mind over, in different circumstances.

(* and yes. It does not escape me that Bingmei also has elements of this character trait. What can I say—I like what I like!)

Six. I’ve had a link to this tumblr post about the nature of fandom sitting around since like March or April of this year, waiting for me to talk about it, and—I don’t know if I have the right words for it right now, but it does resonate with me, and I do want to share it.

Last night, I finished my reread of volume 3 of Scum Villain, so it’s time for more reactions! I told myself not to go too overboard with the quotes, but the Holy Mausoleum arc is my favorite arc in the novel (and the other arcs in this volume are also quite high on the list), so it was a struggle to restrain myself… only the fact that I am physically typing out these quotes by hand saved me, lol. ( beneath the cut )

One of the romances I've managed to unlock in Cute Bite recently was the Lore teacher romance, and while I wasn't particularly interested in Vasilia before— ( silliness beneath the cut )