life updates

Me and my partner moved in together early this month. It ended up being a lot more work than anticipated and now we are trying to live pretty frugally due to not having an actual income at the moment (my last paycheck was a research stipend for the whole summer) which hasn't helped me focus on hobbies again like I wanted to. Recently there was a massive book sale in my hometown and I thought I would be able to pick up some more books in the series I was following but it seemed like the warehouse sale only contained books no one else wanted. We didn't even find some of the popular novels we were looking for. I have debated reactivating my Barnes and Noble premium subscription and ordering some books but it just seems like a waste of money. I have at least been making sure I spend a lot less time at work which has given me more free time to just relax which has been nice, I am pretty much done with the day at 2:00pm now.

I am pretty stressed about lots of things still. I worry trying to have a relaxing summer will make me unprepared for the busy semester I am about to have. I worry a lot about the cleanliness of our place. I had it in my mind that I would clean every weekend but of course reality gets in the way and most weekends I don't feel I have the time or energy. I also worry about money of course. I'll be limited in how much I can work during the semester and I wont be able to work at all the following semester. I have been saving money for this period for the past two or so years but the cost of living drains savings fast.

Deltarune spoilers lower down by the way, with images from Chapter 5. Also, I know the pictures are really low quality but I am trying to save as much space as possible.

moving

Despite it being weeks after we actually moved we still haven't fully set everything up. We don't have any shelves or drawers yet for the bedroom or office so our clothes and books are still piled on the floor. It took me a while to get used to the new place, with the first week or so being really stressful and emotional, but after we got the living room set up I was mostly settled in. It's really nice to be able to set up a space how I like, with Pokemon plush out in the open and game consoles actually accessible.

My partner has been wonderful and took it upon herself to do a majority of the cleaning while I have been at work and makes incredible food for dinner most nights. She is really good at turning random ingredients we ended up having into delicious meals. I feel like I haven't been the best partner making her do most of the work around the house and worry about that only worsening when she gets a job as well.

deltarune

Deltarune Chapter 5 came out recently. Before it released I of course played through all the previous chapters. This time I did so on my Switch instead of my computer as it seems chapters will release cross platform from now on and I prefer playing games on console. Typically I just delete my previous save data when I replay the game but at some point I would like the get all three stars on all chapters, replaying the whole game for each (a star is added to a chapter for each save file that defeated the secret boss).

I wanted to take a picture of me playing the new chapters but just like when 3/4 released I forgot until after I had already finished so this is all I have. I left work early to start playing as soon as it released and ended up finishing not too late into the night. I was worried I was going to have to skip the secret boss and come back to it later as I was having a lot of trouble with her but ended up beating her after only an hour or so.

The chapter itself was amazing, by far my favorite. That spot used to belong to chapter four but honestly it was a bit lacking on replay. That may just be me not focusing on it enough as I was thinking a lot about the soon to be releasing new chapter, as lots of chapter fours appeal comes from the emotional moments. I think a lot of people expected it to be much more eventful than it was. I actually like that the chapter seemed to slow down a bit and focus on character development.

I think Ralsei needed this chapter to come into his own more and show the development he went through in the last few chapters. Flowery went from filling me with dread to being one of my favorite characters in the span of like three scenes and me and my partner can't stop quoting him. I was very excited by the flowers being references to the fallen humans (though it was expected, it was still amazing to see) and loved each of their characters. When I saw Yellow and realized I gasped. Aqua is by far my favorite. It is strange calling them by their colors as I am used to them being named by their traits. Ranking is Aqua, Flowery, Seth, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange. I cried when we had to say good bye to all of them and after Flowery got hurt by the knight. Listening to some of the ending songs still makes me pretty emotional.

The ending of the chapter was great and I thought it was really interesting how in the end the party was almost fighting on the side of the prophecy. I think earlier in the game I thought that the prophecy would end up being subverted or broken but now it really seems like we wont be able to avoid it. Susie ending up in castle town was really disheartening and things just aren't going well for Kris at all at the moment. I think the relationships between Kris, Noelle, and Susie are really interesting in their complexity and I love how they are being developed. Noelle and Susie were obviously leading up to this but Kris' jealousy is more complicated than we thought. I really tend to hate jealousy plots but this dynamic is actually interesting to me. That said I am not looking forward to it all coming crashing down. I like to imagine Kris, Susie, and Ralsei; Kris, Susie, and Noelle; and Kris and Berdly all being relationships at the end but obviously that it completely unrealistic. If I had to pair them up I think Kriselle is still my favorite despite how cute Kralsei and Suselle are.

The music in this chapter is great with Flower Man being an amazing moment in game. In fact that fight and the lead up to it may be my favorite parts of the game so far. I really love Who might you be? and Petal Dance, another amazing moment. I don't think the impact of the soul traits being present really hit hit me until then. The secret boss' song featured Miku which was cool. If this chapter came out about three years ago that would have given me a heart attack. Mew Mew is another favorite character now. If Toby Fox writes another amazing trans character I am going to start getting suspicious, his representation is a bit too good. Speaking of, it seems like Ralsei is also obviously going through something. At first I thought trans Ralsei may not get the development it needed to feel satisfying but now it is looking more likely than not which is exciting. Of course Kris' story is as amazing as ever and they remain my favorite character. I think that may be why Aqua ended up being my favorite flower, as she seems heavily based on Kris as a child.

In terms of the future of the game, I really am not that invested in theorizing at this point. I still like hearing what people think will happen but I mostly am just looking forward to seeing how it plays out myself. If I had to give my current thoughts on where the story is going: introducing Noelle to the dark world is going to backfire massively and will lead to a fountain being opened either in the hospital (most likely?) or her house. Chapter seven will likely be in the bunker after chapter six ends with the codes being collected. Maybe the last code will come from Kris after a change of heart, leading to two being found one chapter. I am unsure what the members of the party will be with Noelle being brought in. Either she will replace Ralsei for a bit or she will just run off. There is the possibility of the soul moving to a different character of course but I don't really want to speculate on that. I really think anything could happen at this point. I have the feeling that all fountains will need to be sealed by the end of the game, essentially killing Ralsei and all other darkners, but with his development even that seems questionable. I am also unsure if the Gaster mystery will have much more development despite the constant teases...It's almost funny how often we are hit with a Gaster, secret boss, or "deep lore" reference completely randomly now.

minecraft

Recently I started a new singleplayer Minecraft world and played a bit of modded Minecraft with my partner. There isn't much in the singleplayer world right now. I am not the best builder but I like the idea of having a fleshed out world so I am trying to focus on simple builds and not stressing about how great they look.

I typically don't like playing modded Minecraft, as it just feels like it complicates the process of setting up and maintaining a world. I tried it now since my partner had been talking about wanting to play with a farming and cooking mod and I had been seeing a bunch of cool things people were making in the Create Aeronautics mod. We played a lot right before moving and created an airship base which I really love. We talked a lot about plans for the "MK3," an improved airship with farms and more complex machinery on it, but haven't played much since.

I keep thinking about how it would be fun to have a single vanilla personal server that me and some friends could build up for an extended period of time, as in like one server for the rest of my life. That said I don't really have enough people I am close to for that to become a particularly big thing. The idea of it seems so much fun through. I watched a person on youtube talk about playing Minecraft with a bunch of family members and it seemed really nice. In the past I tried to convince my father to play Minecraft with me but I couldn't even get him to commit to trying it. I don't think he ever will but I still have a theory that it would be a perfect game for him to play.

pokemon

Around a year ago I planned on playing through all the "modern" Pokemon games (gens 6+) with my partner. She never got really far but I was about halfway done with a Kalos living dex. Recently I reset that playthrough as my DS's date was set wrong for the first few days of it and it saying my playthrough started in 2011 was bothering me. I played just a bit more this month. I would like to get to Alola pretty quickly as I have wanted to start collecting ribbon masters for the past few years now and am getting impatient, but I haven't had much motivation to continue the playthrough.

conclusion

Finally being in a new place is nice and I have really tried to prioritize relaxing this summer but things are still stressful. I worry about the future a lot and that me trying to relax right now will just have consequences down the line. That said I was still able to enjoy some things this month, like replaying one of my favorite games and spending time with my partner. I just want to get this next year over with, be done with college and focus on working and doing things I actually want to do.