Land of Books and Memories

Big FE4 post

2026-01-03T06:12:23Z

I finished my third FE4 playthrough, so now's a good time for a bigger post about it.

( Extremely lengthy thoughts )

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Movie Musings

2025-08-29T05:13:30Z

Not an actual update, just thinking about movies.

( My issues with The Last Jedi )

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Two supports to go!

2025-03-16T03:53:07Z

The Kent/Karla support has been drafted, leaving two to go (and two to re-draft but still). Progress! Once all supports are done, basically all the text will be done.

I'm still debating whether to do final battle quotes, because I might have to revamp the opening text for that chapter to make it work but I like what I have currently. So it's a maybe. But that would be quite short. And there's a handful of paired endings still to draft, but those are also very short. There'll be small incidental pieces of text, like faction names for units and stuff, but that's more a matter of figuring out where those are stored in the ROM than drafting them. So we're getting very close to the next stage! Which will be the most time-consuming and difficult...lol...but, progress.

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Romhack updates and art

2025-02-20T04:44:32Z

I'm a bit stalled on SoS at the moment, BUT at this point there are only three supports left to draft! And two to re-draft because I think the existing versions are a little meh. But still, that's a bit closer.

But I haven't had much energy for a while...so I ended up working on a random project instead. I was in the mood to do some FE8 sprite splices last week and ended up making 32...enough for a full party (FE8 itself has 34 recruitables in the main game). I actually kinda like them. I was a little more daring in making edits etc this time compared to other sprite edits I've done. They're still a little wonky, but I feel like they have a nice vibe. The full collection:
( Sprites! )

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Romhack Progress

2025-01-01T22:17:34Z

At the start of 2025...there are officially only five supports left to be drafted! ...and two I want to re-draft, and I need to edit them all...but still, enormous progress! I've also started drafting the paired endings, now that the supports are mostly finished. After that, the chapter 32x convos need to be written...and then I think all the major pieces of text will be done.

Of course, creating the chapter events will be the most difficult piece...but still: progress!

( Still working on paired endings )

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Romhack Support Progress

2024-08-04T04:07:24Z

As of today...91 supports are written, 24 yet to go, and 19 characters have fully completed supports. Excellent progress!

Now this does mean that most of the ones left are more challenging ones...but still. I'm getting ever closer to have all the game text drafted. (although of course...that still leaves the hardest part, creating the chapter events, to go. but one step at a time)

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So much progress this is unreal

2023-10-22T06:20:03Z

I'm continuing to actually make progress on SoS (which is no longer titled that lol). I wrote a bunch more support levels (I have 18 full supports so far!), finished all the chapter maps, finished all the portraits, and finished all the stat edits (those may get edited far down the road after playtesting). Not bad!

I know that full supports are not needed to finish the hack...but I just really want to do them lol. So that's going to take ages. I may try to focus on that for NaNo, actually. Once I have all of those written...at that point, the remaining tasks are:

1. palettes. All the characters that are in different classes from canon need a new palette, and Ephidel needs a palette since he was never fought in canon. Limstella also needs a new palette since her portrait was recolored.
2. paired endings. I already wrote all the solo endings but I'm waiting to finish the supports before settling on the paired endings.
3. boss stats. Once I decide on which characters to use for which chapters, I'll need to edit the stats to suit where they're located in the game.
4. chapter events. this is the biggest thing other than the supports, this is the Event Assembler files that create each chapter (unit placements, running cutscenes, etc). I'm basically saving that for last...because it will be by far the most difficult lol...

And since the FEBuilder tool was created since the last time I was working on SoS...I guess I'll have to learn to use that once I'm actually ready to insert data into the ROM. Hopefully it'll make things easier rather than harder lol.

Well, it's still a long way from being done, but I'm pleased with my progress. Me, actually making some headway towards finishing a project? It's a rare sight...

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I truly do have too much free time

2023-10-07T03:55:02Z

Got a random idea last night for a parody song for my D&D group to welcome the new party member, so tonight I wrote it up and now I'm researching how to actually combine audio tracks etc so I can make it properly...if only I had this much energy when it came to actually useful activities...

I'll post it once I have it recorded, but the lyrics are:

( This is extremely goofy )

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Draft complete!!!

2023-09-28T04:46:14Z

The draft of the story text for Sword of Shadows...IS FINALLY DONE! I also wrote the tactician convos (the brief dialogs that can be had with a specific character before each chapter), the fortune teller dialogs, the houses/villages text, and all the recruitment convos. I'm leaving boss convos for later because I haven't hammered out every single chapter boss yet. The like, plot-important bosses are all set but the random subordinates aren't.

This has been over a decade in the making...obviously I still need to edit it, and finish other pieces of text (loads of supports still to write), and do way more stuff (maps, events, character palettes)...and I also still want to add one or two more recruitable characters so that'll need some additional text...but still! This is a big accomplishment for me! Having an actual draft instead of just vast piles of notes! Gonna just enjoy it for a bit before I start getting bogged down in all the remaining work lol.

When I finally finish the whole thing I definitely need to do an LP of it just to like...record all my behind-the-scenes commentary lol. Probably no one will ever watch it, but I'll enjoy making it, at least.

Also, I'm actually thinking of changing the name, because it occurred to me that the big plot-important magic item should of course be called...the Fire Emblem. I mean, that's FE tradition. But all my tags for it and all the folder names and stuff are SoS because that was the name for so long! Oh well. Undecided on the subtitle, maybe like, The Forgotten War or something? The Lost History? The primary focus of the plot is on how a conflict that occurred two hundred years ago was all hidden from history and now has reemerged.

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So close!

2023-09-26T04:59:01Z

I've written the draft text for every chapter except the last one for Sword of Shadows. I am SO CLOSE to having a first draft finished! After all these years! This is very exciting for me lol, finishing projects is my weakness.

I still need to write all the other text--boss convos, villages, supports, endings--but the opening and ending scenes for each chapter are obviously the core of the text, and I will hopefully finish the final chapter's text tomorrow. Once I finally got back into the mindset for working on this...I actually was pretty diligent lol.

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Sword of Shadows progress

2023-09-16T06:01:15Z

I am pleased to report...that I finished updating the existing draft text (which I had up to chapter 16) and have started on chapter 17. New territory! Wrote some recruitment convos too. It's slow going, but still, progress!

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At least it's something lol...

2023-09-11T03:46:58Z

I've been trying to write more regularly, and this week I've really been writing more...but not on ReEldest, on the FE fangame I've been working on for a decade instead. I had lost track of it for...geez, years at this point. At this point I'm just like, it's something, any writing is good lol. Once NaNo comes I'll write more ReEldest...probably...

I did finally hammer out a new chapter-by-chapter outline for Sword of Shadows (the fangame, aka SoS) so hey! Big progress. And I finished a bunch of supports I had started and then never got around to writing A levels for. And I'm now going back through the old text for the opening chapters and updating it all. Progress! So much progress!

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Another poem

2023-08-27T04:46:00Z

Haven't posted any writing in ages...I wrote this back in July.

( The Marsh Doesn't Change )

( Read more... )

So the entire thing is basically about large-scale change in life. I've seen lots of writing about difficulty with change in autism that focus on small-scale change, like one's daily schedule changing, but not a lot about large-scale change, like graduating school or aging or like, cultural changes over the course of decades. But all of those big life changes are also very difficult. As I get older I feel that more and more. Everything continues to change and I feel very disconnected from everything. So basically, this expresses those feelings. The feeling of disconnection from one's own past, and the impossibility of returning to the past and the person one used to be.

I've actually written a surprising number of poems, pre-diagnosis, that in hindsight are hella autistic lol...for example, I once wrote a poem with the line "Your face is a foreign country", talking about being unable to understand other people's feelings (ie, like being a traveler in a foreign country and not being able to understand what people are saying). So like...yeah, looking back...it was kinda obvious, huh...

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Wegovy Log

2023-03-05T04:06:55Z

Did my one-month check-in with my PCP, and she upped the dose to the next level, .5mg. Took the first of those on Friday.

I wasn't sure whether side-effects would return upon increasing the dose, but I've had no nausea at all, so it seems like I may have adjusted well enough that the increase didn't cause an issue. So that's quite promising. Hoping to see increased effects with the increased dose; my ideal would be to have NO binges. So, we'll see how the week goes on the new dose.

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Wegovy Log

2023-02-27T04:59:21Z

Did the fourth injection on Friday.

( Working well so far )

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Wegovy Log

2023-02-20T07:03:21Z

A bit late, but I should update about the third injection.
( Week 3 )

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Wegovy Log

2023-02-12T05:18:46Z

Did the second injection yesterday (ie, Friday). Some updates.

( Current state of things )

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Wegovy Log

2023-02-04T04:56:19Z

Still tracking my experiences with this medication.

( Seeing some initial effects )

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Starting Wegovy

2023-02-03T05:34:02Z

My doctor suggested I try this weight-loss drug that's been in the news lately, Wegovy, and my insurance finally approved it so today was the first dose. Figure I'll keep track of my experiences with it for reference.

( Day 1 )

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Outline Complete!

2023-01-02T22:47:22Z

After reading back through the chapters I wrote for NaNo I decided I needed to revise the entire outline AGAIN, and I've now finished it. So the revised, revised outline is now complete! And ended up being even longer, with 40 chapters (and some chapters might eventually get split into two if they're too long, so...it's long lol). Of course now I have to actually WRITE the thing, but still--progress!

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VICTORY AT LAST!

2022-12-25T00:16:36Z

After many, many attempts, I FINALLY CLEARED PURITY FOREST in Mystery Dungeon DX! This run took...I think around 4 hours, maybe a little less? This dungeon is insanely time-consuming, mad respect to people who do clears with loads of different Pokemon.
( Deets on my successful run )

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Noveling proceeds apace

2022-11-18T03:40:34Z

The good news: chapter 18 is done (in draft form). The bad news: I'm now reaching the part of my outline that was kinda vague because I still need to hammer some things out. But still--progress! And I'm at 41k for my NaNo, not bad. This is the farthest the ReEldest outline has ever actually gotten...

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ReEldest Continues!

2022-11-13T22:34:34Z

Still working on ReEldest for NaNo this year, and I've finished drafting chapters 15, 16, and 17. I mean they're gonna need plenty of editing when the whole thing is done, but progress! Lots of progress! Can't edit a blank page, right?

Sadly I'm getting to the places where my outline is a little less detailed, so the challenges will only increase...T__T But it's something. Maybe I could at least get through chapter 20 by the end of the month? It's a 32 chapter outline, so that would be pretty good...

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What this, a post that's NOT just my journal?

2022-10-14T03:21:34Z

Shocking but true lol. More writing! This is another piece from detectiveverse (aka the thing I posted before, it's shorter though).

( This one is shorter, I promise )

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Some prose this time

2022-09-29T04:14:26Z

Moar writing posts lol. Back in my LJ days I used to post quite a bit of writing! Not that any of it was particularly good...but anyway. I feel like this piece kind of just perfectly sums up my writing style, and it's also genuinely one of my favorite things I've ever written. It is also kind of incomprehensible to anyone but me, which...is very on-brand for me lol.

This is a piece that's like...almost 20 years in the making. The concept for this specific scene is from way back in high school (and a lot of the characters in this are even older, some of them are ones I created back in middle school!), and I then spent almost two decades continuing to mull over the whole story, coming up with new ideas, making changes, etc, but never actually writing it. And then for NaNo in 2021, after literally years of struggling with writer's block for ANY writing, I just...got the urge to finally write this. And like, it fully lives up to my expectations, in spite of ALL OF THAT BUILDUP. That's quite rare for me lol. Anyway, with that preface aside...here it is, with no explanations of who anyone is or why any of this is happening lol, just...just enjoy it in its raw, unadulterated form.
( It's super long too lol )

( And this is something of an explanation of this thing lol )

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