I'm gonna ramble about a lot of things so if you just want adopts information then I'll put that near the top so that you don't have to dig through my ramblings. I have a lot of random stuff to ramble about so this will be a big journal. XD

Adopts will be happening pretty soon. I'm predicting either Monday afternoon or Tuesday after my short work shift. I'll make a post when I'm about to post them and I can definitely send messages to anyone when I'm about to post them. They'll be draw-to-adopts again and they'll be posted to DA. The usual rules will apply (comment to reserve adopts and draw them in a week or so).

idk how soon I'll be doing adopts after this. |D I really need to focus on character bios plus I wanna design a bunch of characters for my stories!! But don't worry, I will do adopts again at some point. I just need to focus on me a little.

One thing I've been thinking about it actually altering two OC's designs (Light and Dark). Originally the two had markings on their arms and legs and ...ear/antennae(idk what they are sdfjaohf) but for some reason I removed those when I started using them in comics...but then I kept Sketches and Jade's markings!! idk I kinda want to add those back on. I would probably just edit their current bio pics since I don't feel like drawing new ones for such a minor change.
idk I'm just kinda mad at my teenage self for removing that part of their designs. |D Giving Sketches a hat was a good design though. Lightning never had any markings but he and Sketches did have green and blue wings respectively...but they couldn't use them so I just got rid of them since they were pointless to have. All of the Chaos Puffs originally had halos too (they were based on Chao after all lol) but I think removing those was the right call.

I also really need to make more species bios. I made a simple one for Soft Creatures last year but I'm still conflicted on whether or not to include more info on the image. I also think I should remove the morality section since that's more of a character specific thing (My thought process was that cats would have a very strange sense of morality compared to us humans so other species would to...but idk I don't think that works well here with sapient characters |D ).
I wanna make species bios for all of my silly made up species, mostly for world-building but also for fun. If people wanted to make characters in those species it would be fine but I'm mostly making them just to explain what my characters are supposed to be. I do wish that Toyhouse let us post species though because I refuse to upload these as "characters" >:U my character count must be accurate dang it!
The next species bio I would make would probably be for Chaos Puffs. After that it would be more random... Minx Cats, Colors Dragons, Winged Elves (welp did I even label any of them as that in their bios??), Devil Sprites, etc. I also need to name Pocky's species. ;_; why has it taken like 11 years to do this. I know "Chiivi" was suggested in the past but I'm so indecisive.

Anyways, the Art Fight winner was announced!! https://artfight.net/news/95.art-fight-2024-seafoam-vs-stardust-results#comments And spoilers it was my team! >:3 My team finally won again. I've won two and lost two.

Art Fight was fun, but I've drawn less this month due to some burn-out. |D However, sometime in the next few months I'll probably make an art trades journal so keep an eye out for that! Art trades are technically open always but I notice that it's easier to make a journal for those.

For video games, I recently finished playing Marl Kingdom Chronicles, which consists of the two sequels to Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure that were previously never released in English! These are the games made by the Disgaea devs before Disgaea, and god to I love them. They're such silly and colorful RPGs and I love all of the characters (well, except one lol). The games are definitely not winning any "Greatest RPG of all time" awards, especially with the second game's confusing dungeon designs, but the idea of an RPG that is also a musical is so great that I wish more games were musicals. The third game, especially its final chapter, was kind of a grind fest though. but I love grinding so I had no issues with it!
For real though...I'm kinda obsessed with these games. I love Disgaea, but I'm sad that Nippon Ichi Software hasn't made any new Marl Kingdom games in decades. They're making a Phantom Brave sequel though, so there is hope!!

Since I need a break from RPGs, I've started playing an otome game since I usually play one every year. The one I played last year was rated T, but this one is rated M and it really shows. |D I'm still definitely a weirdo though for playing these games for the plot instead of the romance though but visual novels are honestly pretty fun. I like randomly finding a bad ending by choosing a wrong dialogue option.
I am sad though because the character route I wanted to do first is locked. |D It's normal the the true route to be locked until the other routes are completed, and sometimes other routes are locked until another route is completed, but I'm still sad because I wanna know what his deal is! >:U Let me learn about the sad boy dang it!

Recently, I because interested in Swedish candy after seeing people online hyping it up, and as someone who loves candy (especially sour candy) I had to check it out. So...I ordered $80 in candy... https://x.com/SoftenStar/status/1825223825274937588/photo/1
And yes it was worth it. It's really good candy! My favorites so far are the sour bubblegum rocks, the Sour Bubblegum Pacifiers, the Super Sour Ovals, and the berries. I still haven't tried the rolls. I definitely want to do another order sometime, especially since some of the ones I wanted weren't available when I ordered.

I also did a day trip to Minnesota and saw some troll sculptures: https://x.com/SoftenStar/status/1825717386835800528/photo/1 . And I went to Zorbaz of course. It was really warm that day so we also went swimming, but the sunfish in the lake were surprisingly aggressive. XD They kept surrounding us and randomly running into us. I think they wanted food.

I think that next thing I have planned is to go to the anime convention in town next month! I already have the Saturday and Sunday off but I gotta figure out something for the Friday. I really hope the artist alley has lots of good merch again. Most of my fandoms are too niche (like Marl Kingdom lol) but I did find a Puyo Puyo charm last year! At least I know they'll have lots of Pokemon plushies to tempt me with.

welp that's probably enough rambling. XD Hopefully I'll get some art done on my days off! Like I said earlier, there will be adopts soon so keep an eye out if you're interested!