Well, after around 2 and half years, I’m back … again. I really have no excuse, I just never thought about it a lot and kept busy. I was officially hired in the job I mentioned in my last post Aug of 2021. I’ve been in and out of a higher temp position helping the higher-ups in my department when I wasn’t needed in my official position because we’ve been having trouble keeping temps. I’ve also been taking music lessons and have had two student performances with that organization. I’m still playing PoGo and sometimes go to in person events when I can make them. I did do the community day on Saturday and got all three shinnies I wanted. Wizard’s Unite shut down and I’ve not started any other Niantic mobile games so far.

I’ve been playing Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. It’s fun and I’ve got all the current Pokémon and their various forms. I can’t remember if I mentioned it, but I’m all so working on my living dex to level 100. Most are at least level 35, except some that can’t be accessed in any of the Switch games. (I’m in the middle of The Indigo Disk epilogue now)

I joined an anime/manga group in the area and the manga part of the group is reading several series by volume. Of the ones we started with we’re now on volume five of both Black Lagoon and Toilet Bound Hanako-kun. I’ve previously read Black Lagoon, but didn’t mind rereading it. Black Lagoon is about a Japanese businessman who is sent to deliver a floppy drive (yeah, shows you the time it started, lol) with info on his company’s illegal dealings (that he didn’t know about before then), but is captured and ransomed to his company. They instead try to kill him and his captors on their torpedo boat. He renames himself ‘Rock’ and joins them in their ‘transport’ business. It’s not complete, but is no longer on hiatus, I think…

Toilet Bound Hanako-kun is about a high school girl named Neenee who tries to have a wish fulfilled by one of the 7 school legends, Hanako of the Toilet. Instead of a girl, a boy ghost calling himself Hanako comes. He doesn’t fulfill her wish, but she ends up connected to him. It’s about their adventures and finding out his history. 19 volumes have been released in the U.S. and it’s still releasing in Japan.

The other two we started out with were, Daemons of the Shadow Realm and Reincarnated as a Vending Machine. They were not continued as only one volume had been released for each at the time. Daemons of the Shadow Realm is the newest work by Hiromu Arakawa, who wrote Fullmetal Alchemist. It’s about a boy named Yuru who lives in a village and protects his sister. However, people come and attack the village and he learns that things aren’t as they seem and his sister and parents have been gone for a long time. Then he learns of Deamons and the prophecy about him and his sister. It’s about him trying to find them and what happened while people are after him. It’s still updating.

Reincarnated as a Vending Machine is as it says in the title, a man dies trying to save a vending machine and is reincarnated as one. He is in a dungeon and cannot say more than a few stock phrases. He meets a girl and manages to communicate that he is sentient. She’s strong enough to carry him around and takes him with her around the dungeons while changing to different types of vending machines as needed. It’s also still updating. I’ll talk more about what series we’re reading next time.

If any of you have read my previous posts, you’ll know I have ‘quests’ I like to do. This has continued even without me letting you know. I don’t remember if I mentioned this one before, but I was working on the chronological new Doctor Who series, including side series. I got through Season 5 Episode 2. I’ll pick this back up at some point.

Another one on hold is the Marvel extended cinematic universe in chronological order. I started with Captain America and am now on Season 3 Episode 3 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I’ll go more into this later, but this includes the Defenders series and their character’s ones.

The main quest I’m working on now is this, I have a text-to-speech app called Voice Dream on my phone. I copy chapters of fanfictions I like on it to listen to it so I can play them when driving or doing something else. Last year at some point I was bored and organized it into folders and put them in A-Z order. I decided to listen to them from the beginning and work on down. It hasn’t completely gone to plan as there are some I haven’t listened to in a long time and wanted to read instead, but I’m still plugging along. I also decided to split up my one-shots/fully completed fics (on one file) into alphabetical folders more then halfway through and made things harder on myself. On my listen list, I’m actually on the Ts, but the read list is in the Ds (though just one left) and there are a lot and some of them are long. There’s a C left in the oneshot read list, but it’s a sequel so I want to read the first one first, lol.

I’m reading several at once because I found somewhat early on that it was difficult to focus on one, especially long ones, continually. I started switching between several to make sure I wasn’t bored and made it kind of convoluted, but that’s the way I like it I guess. The last D to read is Dumbledore’s Army by Bobmin356. It’s a sixth year Harry Potter fic where Harry gets a letter from his parents in heaven (spelled by Lily before she died, somehow) and with the help of an ex-military American squib, gets himself and his friends ready for a war. It is a completed fic with a sequel. (I finished this later before I posted this)

One of the ones I’m listening to is Total Command by Epsilon110. It’s an AU version of My Hero Academia where only women got quirks and Izuku is one of the only characters not gender-bent. He still impresses Lady All Might and gets her quirk, but did he really not already have one? It’s an incomplete fic that hasn’t been updated since March 2021, though they’ve posted other stories since then.

Another I’m listening to is, Yet Again with a Little Extra Help by Third Fang. It’s a Naruto fic where things went weird before the Fourth Shinobi War and Naruto gets caught and the Kyuubi is being ripped out of him. One of the author’s OCs ends up in his mindscape and end up resetting the Narutoverse back to his academy days. It’s very weird and random. The OC, Ghost is just one of an immortal family who are insane. It’s finished and has a sequel that is still updating. (I also recently finished this one and am on its sequel).

While I’ll talk about the ones I’m working on, I’ll also be going down the list of ones I’ve already completed as well. To start off with is a one-shot called 1A is the Source of Kendo’s Headaches by multiple authors(?) but the one I found it through is Clouds (myheadinthecloudsnotcomingdown). It’s a weird one where Izuku potentially has plans to take over the world that Kendo finds out about (and Nedzu is helping, of course) and he’s being chased by 1A.

Next is 88 Miles Per Hour by Perfect Lionheart. It’s a Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover mainly with Back to the Future, but several other ones eventually. Xander puts on a Doctor Brown costume during the Halloween episode they’re turned into their costumes. That one does some time traveling and goes back to his past self and they go on an adventure. It’s currently 10 chapters and is not finished or updated (Like a lot of his fics) since 2012.

The last one I’ll mention is A Body Roll or Two by TheAmazingWadey. It’s a Miraculous Ladybug fic where Adrian left during High School, but is back for college. The attacks stopped, but now that he’s back will they start again? Also, Marinette has picked up Bachata dancing and joins a professional group, guess who her partner will be? And a certain Chat has taken to talking to her as well. What is going to happen? It’s a fun 54 chapters, but unfortunately is also incomplete (but just by a chapter or two) and not updated since 2017.

I’ll talk about some of the anime I’m watching next time. Finally, I’m still waiting for news on the newest Kingdom Hearts mobile app Missing Link or KH IV. Hopefully they’ll give us more information soon. As always – May Your Heart Be Your Guiding Key!