Thank you to everyone who offered their condolences. My older brother and I headed back to our parents' house last Tuesday evening to bury our guinea pig, then were back in our apartment by Wednesday evening since my brother started work on Thursday. I'm really grateful he drove me out at that time; I really needed the closure. Cindy was buried in the tulip patch, so hopefully the bulbs there will still grow despite being disturbed.

We've bought two new guinea pigs since then, both of which are male and not firmly named yet. The younger of the two, bought at the beginning of the week, is tentatively named Captain Ahab, since my older brother thought he looked like a pirate with one black leg and an eyepatch. The elder of the two was bought Thursday evening and was actually a cagemate to Ahab, but I was hesitant to get him at first because I wasn't sure the size of our cage was big enough for two guinea pigs. When my younger brother mentioned he was alone in the pet store now (the other guinea pig had also been bought), I caved and let him buy the other one. They're getting along for now, but I'll be keeping an eye out to see if they bite each other or anything.

My patience is still frayed from Cindy's death, and it's slow to return to normal with stress from work just getting worse. I keep saying it, but I really need a vacation -- and I should really mention it at my next one-on-one ... which has thankfully been rescheduled for tomorrow instead of Monday. The random template update requests today irritated and stressed the heck out of me, and then there's the added stress of knowing a new contractor needs to be onboarded and it'll likely be me doing the training. Ugh. Just ugh.

I need to do things on the RP front too. Luceti character relationship blurbs, informational posts, etc. I usually have fun doing those things, but work has me passing out before I ever get back to my personal laptop. Hopefully I'll be able to relax with the new event coming up.

...At least Minato has his sword now? I still need to finish that thread so I'm not wasting Leon's time. My castmates must think I'm full of fail with my slowness.

Currently playing Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. DQ5 has been interesting because of the conversational aspect, but my favorite thing so far is probably how it relates to DQ4 with the Zenithian legend. Very neat.

I still need to buy Ace Attorney Investigations and update my PSP to play Half-Minute Hero. Slowly but surely.

Explanation: I was really bored last night. Or maybe inspired.

...Let's go with bored.

Crap, it's almost 4 AM. 8| That one project took way too long, even with changing the editing scope. It's a good thing that my sleeping schedule sucks! :)

Welcome to herrjustice, terra, whiteadelphi, manlidere, dynast_harmonia, ladynadiad, and marbles_chan from the Luceti friending meme! As you can see, my LJ is very open, so ... there's little benefit in being on my flist! But I appreciate you being here all the same.

Quick intro: I'm Athena, and I'm not my characters. I say this because I have this feeling that I'm somehow intimidating, and that may be because of my characters. I mostly talk about life, RP, video game fandom, and fanfiction.

I've been horrible with my RPing lately, and I totally blame the holidays. There have also been a ton of family events (birthdays, baptism, etc.) keeping me busy, so I haven't been feeling up to RP when I do get time to sit in front of the computer. And then there's work, which I already addressed in the first paragraph of this entry. I need to reply to my logs for Damned most of all, since those have been delayed since before Christmas. Then I need to get Minato positioned so he can pick up his Evoker from Abe before running into Souji.

... ...In other news, I've finished Dragon Quest IV! I've attempted to finish the game on the original NES and at least three times as an NES ROM, but I just kept running into issues -- losing the cartridge, hard drive failure, blah blah blah... It's always been the one Dragon Warrior/Quest game I felt compelled to finish; I think the chapters really made the difference for me. And Torneko Taloon's awesome. I need to finish the extra chapter, and then I can put the game to rest.

I'm in the process of waiting for more doujinshi. EMS shipping is always crazy, but I'm hoping to get everything by ... Tuesday. Yes, that would be nice. Four Suikoden III doujinshi and two Legendia anthologies.

Back to work. Let's see how much I can do before I need sleep.

Luceti: Added some Suikoden people to Albert's relationship list. I'm still mulling over how to save the old profiles for people who need updated relationship blurbs. Need to make lists for Walter (Shirley, Senel, Stella, Razette, Minato, Haruki, Guy, Ted) and Leon (Lymle, Haruki, Alfons, Senel, Estelle, FF8!Raine, Guy). List of Walter's former acquaintances: Colette, Ahiru, Elda, Norma, Leon, Ruto, Aigis, Musette and baaaawwwww

Damned: Minato's knocked out. \o/ I don't have to do anything until the end of the week. And he got to cause some damage and freak people out.

I've been wanting to eat a lot in the last 24 hours. Sheesh. Pizza, cereal, salad. Siiigh. And I'm putting off cooking chicken noodle soup. Maybe it's the cold weather or something.

My brother thinks I should join a gym. I have no idea what that really means. I don't doubt that I could use a gym membership, but what does it mean to join a gym? Do you fill out a bunch of papers, get a membership card, and pay monthly for said membership? I'm one of those people who feel awkward exercising outdoors (unless it's an outright outdoor sport, like soccer or football [yes I used to like playing football hush] or something), so ... yeah. I'd probably be different if I didn't share an apartment with my brothers, or if we had a house instead. We don't have enough room for me to properly exercise.

... ...And now that I'm in the process of visiting a gym website, a customer representative popped up in live chat to talk with it. Pressured much? *scared*

In other news, going to a baby shower for my cousins this weekend. They're expecting twins in ... January, I believe it is now.

On the roleplaying front, I've been designing room layouts for Albert, Raine, and Genis' house. Sapph and Marbles did their characters' rooms, and then Sapph also helped with the living room, dining room, and kitchen. I was trying to design the outside of the house, but I started going, "durrr, maybe I should actually finish the insides first." The only thing left to do is the kitchen.

And there's a Yuber in Luceti now. The very idea of him being around scares me, because it complicates Albert's position a lot. Hopefully the muse doesn't drive himself into a nervous wreck and suicide on me. 8|;

( The Enneagram Test /hi5 to Kukki )

It's pretty accurate, though some of the childhood things don't quite fit. And there's nothing about how much one can angst about being too logical. 8( *ANGSTS LIKE A HALF-VULCAN*

Still very busy. My manager should be coming back soon from PTO, and then I'll hopefully be free from all this extra work. And then I'll just be "busy" instead of "very busy." :|b

I'm very happy to be RPing with Caesar again. ♥ I just hope my RP canon isn't too fml for her. There didn't seem to be any issues with it, but I worry since Albert doesn't come across as an angstbucket. And he shouldn't, other than the whole thing about already establishing Caesar is his weakness. *headdesk* It's been so long that I've forgotten these things. I really need to write them down. So I'll try to make use of that long-ignored musebox.

I've been Damned. It's been pretty cool. tl;dr.

Going to the parents' house this weekend. Older brother's gonna go fishing, and it's ... just been a long time since I've been home. I think the last time I've been there was ... July 3. Wow.

Just a quote resulting from digging around other comms that I'm not even a member of. :|;

Arisato, I cannot allow you to stay in Yukari's body any longer. This is against S.E.E.S. policy.

Ganked from numerous people. ...This was surprisingly hard to do with Albert. :|;

( RP Character Expression Meme )

A: People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blog and replace any question that they dislike with a new, original question.

B: Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that Don't tag who tagged you.

( Since I was tagged by Suzu... )

And I'm doing this other one because it looked fun...

From your current fandoms, make a list of 6 pairings you love, 6 pairings you dislike or could care less about, 6 pairings you used to like but have lost touch with, and 6 pairings you're curious about! You don't need to stick with only canon pairings, but please make sure the characters are from the same canon!

Then feel free to explain them, or ask your friends to pick which ones they would like to hear your views on or just put this up to share with all!

( Suikoden )

( Tales of Legendia )

( Luceti )

Since I've never talked about it, some belated stuff...

Valentine's Day event @ Luceti: Walter/Leon. Sephiroth/Albert. Reno/Ruto. Yes. Hilarious, hot, and snarky. I'm glad that people started shipping them right after that event -- there's nothing that I find more flattering in RP than playing characters well enough to get people to stalk them. ^^ Even though I think my Reno is sub-par. *winces*

ToDR: I need to get back involved here, at least a little. :|; I guess it doesn't help that my Tales muses are currently few and quiet. Oddly enough, my most recent activity was a fail thread with a Casey RPer. *winces again* Ugh, I shouldn't be RPing Yeager at all.

Travian: So I've gotten roped into playing the leader of a top 10 alliance while the leader is busy IRL. I don't like it; I hate doing all of this IGMing and looking up players who try to apply into the alliance. Hopefully I won't have to deal with applications now that I'm in talks with a small group who Wow together and want to be in a Travian alliance together. I'm really understating the amount of stress this game is giving me. :|;;

LORD: I've been playing it again! I don't really ... know why, but I felt like getting into it. I think this is the most I've stayed with a single character. Pfft. Maybe I'll get to change classes and soon.

Caesar: I'm such a weirdo when it comes to RPing Albert and Caesar. I love the interactions, and I'm sad to lose another Caesar to interact with. :( Oh well. It's okay. Albert's got some great interactions over in Luceti. I can't wait until he gets to talk to Genis in-depth about Raine's ... issues.

Real life: ...Really, not exciting at all and for once, I'm glad about it. I spent three weeks with my parents, and now I'm back at the apartment with my brothers. I think we're going to get snow this weekend? And I believe we're also going to go snowboarding.