Last weekend was a peaceful holiday weekend. I got to complete my first playthrough of Undertale, of which I concluded in a Neutral/Pacifist route that sadly concluded with Mettaton taking over the entire underground as my character left to the surface; there’s something bone-chilling about that. The thought of a monster-crafted robot dictating over all of monster society in some obligated fan club felt so wrong. It’s like having AI taking over society and the collective are to bow to its whims or else.
I also had the fun of playing with other players in jolly cooperation in Elden Ring NightReign. While it’s purposely designed as a multiplayer experience, the game has a narrative for all the characters available, as well as concerning the Nightlords. I appreciated how, upon diving in, I understood that FromSoftware respected its material enough to not jumble the timeline of the main game. What I mean by this is that the events happen after The Shattering War but before the call of the Tarnished to return to The Lands Between to mend the Elden Ring. I like this.
I also managed to nearly reach the 1/2 way point of A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin and the deeper I’ve gone into this first book from A Song of Ice & Fire, the more apparent it becomes that the show left a lot on the table as far back as Season 1. The meltdown with The Mountain in the tourney, the looming assassination plot towards Robert Baratheon and especially the major conversation between Ned Stark and Varys was an eye opener. The deeper I go in on this 1996 classic, the more I understand how much David & Dan left behind that would’ve added so much more weight to the story.
Speaking of stories, I’m finally up to #7 in FireFrei editing. Now that I concluded transferring and editing #6, now my editing and writing can be closer together. This will definitely ensure that I have a tighter grip on my writing to have the novel ready. I think it also helps that I’ve been keeping livestreaming more in the passive lane as I prepare myself for this. This story needs my love and attention, as does the art for the final chapters and eventually the cover art itself.
I also concluded writing a 2nd chapter for the story tentatively called Drafts. It’s refreshing to craft a story from a month to month basis with chapters only as long or short as my mind can allow. I cross my fingers that by October of 2026, I’ll have it concluded and then release it.
