- she/her
I'm SoftenStar! But you can call me Audrey. :3
I really need to talk about something. I guess talking about it will make me feel better. This might get sad so fair warning.
So last week I celebrated my cats, Tiger and Nina, turning 18 years old. I guess I forgot to post something here but I was still excited about it.
but like...that's really old for cats. To be honest, for the last couple cat birthdays I've thought "there's no way both of them will still be year next year" and I've been wrong twice. However, this time the feeling is more certain, at least about Nina.
Nina's breathing/asthma(?) issue is getting worse. We're bringing her into the vet tomorrow (well...my parents are...I have to work) and I'm terrified of what they'll say. Maybe it will be something they can treat...and maybe it won't. Maybe we'll get a medicine she can take temporarily, or maybe the vet will have no answers and we'll can her home and the issue will continue. idk we won't know until tomorrow and the fact that I'll be working makes it worse. I at least told my mom to text me and update me about it but I really wish the vet had an opening on my day off. I really hope the issue is treatable, but since she's 18 years old I'm worried.
Not related to her breathing issue, but Nina has definitely lost her hearing. It's kinda sad to be honest. Just earlier this year I couldn't open a chip bag without her running over and standing on my lap demanding for chips (I never gave her any) and now it's possible to vacuum next to her while she's sleeping and she won't wake up (she used to run away from it). Her meowing is occasionally louder as a result. Despite this, I still talk to her whether she can hear me or not because I love her.
Tiger is doing pretty good. He doesn't have any issues that I'm aware of. He definitely sleeps more than he used to and is a little smaller than he was before (that's also true of Nina) and maybe eats a little less than he used to, but he's otherwise doing good. He's actually not yowling at night much anymore, which was great...but now Nina likes to do that so it's like nothing changed. |D
idk I know I've talked about this stuff before but I'm still terrified for the day where I lose either of them. They've both been my best friends for 18 years after all. With how Nina's been lately I've just been extra anxious about it lately.
The good news is that both cats are still their usual sweet selves despite their old age and declining health. Sometimes they're a little clingier than they used to be but they're both loving and cuddly. Sure Nina sometimes paws me in the face but she just does that to get my attention.
idk just with Nina's vet visit and breathing issue, my work's upcoming inspection, and the election (I already voted) I'm feeling very stressed, which might be why I haven't posted much lately.
sorry if this journal got a little sad, but I do feel better after writing this out. May Nina's visit to the vet go well tomorrow.
I think it's time for another update journal because I got some stuff to talk about. :0 Might be a long one with lots of rambling but what else is new
So two weeks ago I took time off of work and attended my local anime con for the third year in a row! It's kinda become a tradition at this point for me lol.
I definitely spend too much on merch. |D (pics can be found on my Twitter media tab: https://x.com/SoftenStar/media )The worst being a $70 Charlotte from PMMM plush (and at first I misheard the seller and thought it was $700...|D). I mostly bought charms, specifically of Marcille from Delicious in Dungeon, Nene from Toliet Bound Hanako-kun, Cinnamoroll, Kirby as a witch, Hua Cheng and Xie Lian from Heaven Official's Blessing, the Mareep family line, and Yona and Hak from Yona of the Dawn.
I also ran into a former college classmate, who had a booth in the artist alley. I bought a cool sticker from her booth. Nice to see how much her art has progressed from college!
Other things I bought include an Igglybuff plush and a bunch of snacks. I got hungry during the convention. |D also someone randomly gave me a plastic duck at one point
On the last day, I said I wouldn't spend anymore money...and then I found out they were having a video game sale in the vendors hall that day. |D They had a lot of NES and SNES games, PS2, PS5, Switch and other consoles. It took all of my strength not to buy tons of games, but I did buy Romancing Saga 3. I also found Bunnie's Amiibo card for $5, and she's my favorite so I had to get her (now she can move back into my New Leaf game after being gone for 10 years and I don't have to be sad anytime I play the game anymore).
I promise I didn't just spend money though. |D I also went to lots of panels! They had a lot of voice actors this year and most of them had Q&A panels. My favorite was probably Amber May's voice acting panel (she's super cool btw like I hope she comes back next year). I also went to a Gundam Witch panel that was really good, but I was one of two people in the audience, which was awkward. |D I need more people in town to watch the space lesbian mecha anime...
I also went to panels about localization, becoming an author, and one on martial arts...which I stupidly sat in the back of the room for and didn't get a good view of what was happening. |D
I do think that my biggest complaint is that the con was isekai themed, but the panels really weren't about isekai. There was a Q&A panel for two voice actors from one of the big isekai, but nothing else. idk kind of a missed opportunity, but previous years also didn't have a lot of themed panels so maybe I expected too much. |D
I sadly didn't play Red Dragon Inn this year since one of the panels I wanted to go to was during the tournament, but I'm hoping to play next year. I did spend a lot of time in the game room though. I love playing the random games they have installed on the hacked console they bring (one of them had Puyo Puyo Sun!! But it was only multiplayer mode and I had no one to play with |D ). At one point while I was messing around on a Sega Gensis Classic, the kid sitting next to me kept talking to me about his Tetris score and didn't seem to understand that I couldn't watch his screen and play the game I was playng. |D Kids are silly.
I also spent some time in the manga room. I read all of Time Stranger Kyoko and volume 2 of Chibi Vampire since I read volume 1 last year. The selection of manga is always kinda strange but it's a nice quiet room for getting away from all the noise.
Overall I had a good time. I think next year I need to check out the fan rooms people do since my co-worker was telling me about all the cool things people were doing (like maid cafes, Pokemon rooms, etc).
Anyways, over the past month and I played and beat Final Fantasy I in the Pixel Remaster Collection. I previously played a small portion of the game on Wii virtual console, but didn't even get past the second dungeon (in my defense, the original is hard and I was a child). Thankfully the Pixel Remaster has some much needed quality of life improvements that made playing it a much nicer experience.
My team was Red Mage, Fighter, White Mage, and Black Mage. I love mages so this shouldn't be surprising. It's also very similar to my team on the Wii version I played, except I had a Thief instead of a White Mage (White Mage saved me so many times so I'm glad I got her). While the upgraded classes were cool, I kinda missed the smaller cuter sprites for the characters. XD And I was so sad that Black Mage loses his iconic look when he upgrades to Black Wizard!
The only boss I struggled with was the final boss, Chaos (who I fought at least three times before beating him). I was struggling since I couldn't revive my guys and heal before Chaos KO'ed them again...and then I finally realized that I never bought the LV8 magic spells, including the full-heal revival spell. So I left the dungeon, bought the spells, went back, and finally killed Chaos.
It's weird how some of the music was nostalgic to me. I hadn't heard the songs since I played the Wii version over a decade ago, but stuff like the town theme and even the battle theme were strangely nostalgic. I'm not really familiar with any recurring music tracks in the Final Fantasy series yet so I wonder if any of them will show up in future entries. :0 (idk I'm Dragon Quest brained so I'm used to sometimes hearing random tracks from older games in the newer DQ games)
Playing it also made me think a lot about Bravely Default, which is more of a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy but dang to they share some things (like the elemental crystals), And a part near the end of FFI reminded me of a very infamous part of Bravely Default lol
Eventually I'll start Final Fantasy II. Yes I'm going to play them in order. >:U but I'm going to play some other things before that. WitchSpring R's physical copy should be out on Switch pretty soon and I want to play that right away when I get it, so I'll probably play some smaller games (maybe more Sonic Adventure 2 on PC because I need to make my Chao stronk).
Not much else to say outside of that I can't believe it's October already! :0 It's already getting dark earlier at night and I hate it. I know a lot of people seem to adore fall, but I kind of have a seasonal depression during this time of year. In the past, I think it was mostly because I associated fall with school, but now it's the fact that in a few weeks it will be dark outside by 5pm. idk having it go pitch black outside before I'm off of work really kills me mentally for some reason. Plus it's getting colder and I'm not ready for winter...god anyone new in town who thinks that last year's winter is the norm is in for a nasty wake-up call this year...
I guess the last thing that I'll mention is that my cat Nina has pretty much lost all of her hearing. There are rare occasions where she seems like she hears us, but otherwise she's now pretty much oblivious to the sounds around her. It's honestly kind of sad. ;_; Earlier this year she'd react to chip bags being opened and would harass us for chips (I never gave her any) but now she has no reaction, not even if someone vacuums next to her (she hates the vacuum cleaner).
She's also become louder...probably due to losing her hearing. However, her loud meows almost exclusively happen at night when we're all trying to sleep. |D (otherwise she still mostly does small sneaky meows) Tiger used to be the one to meow at night, but lately he's done that a lot less and for a brief time it was actually quiet at night, but now the deaf cat is meowing instead. god dang it
Both Tiger and Nina will be 18 years old later this month! God they're old babies. Watching them get older had been kinda sad. ;_; They still seem to be okay but I worry about them sometimes, especially Nina since she has random wheezing/asthma episodes. The soonest the vet can see them is in December and that feels really far away.
welp I said that was the last thing but here's the actual last thing. I mailed in my ballot today! B-) Third election I've voted in baby! Vote blue and vote the right-wing morons out! They'll probably send me another jury duty summons lol but if I can help attempt to get my dumb red state's vote to be blue then it's worth it.