
Oh, how Iโve waitedโฆ


Oh, how Iโve waitedโฆ
Otome collection continues to grow! ๐โจ
Well, it is done. I finished the last fandisc of this wonderful series, the first otome series that I ever played. In the post below I’ll share my favorite moments and CGs of this fandisc and some final thoughts on the series overall. After my husband brought me into the wonderful world of visual novels with the treat that was Ever17, this was a great introduction to the otome subgenre!
This post contains spoilers for Code: Realize ~Guardian Of Rebirth~ soโฆ donโt read it if you plan to play it!!
Happy April, everyone! Boy, this was one stressful week, but it did have good moments regardless. Not only was our house painted this week, but we cleaned the back porch (a grueling task every time as you might recall) I was on my period for half the week, had to do our taxes, go to an appointment at the Social Security Administration office, I visited my mom to celebrate her birthday, and went on a couple of outings with my husband and our partner.
So if you are among the multiple people I’ve left on read these past few days… I am so sorry, and you are still on my mind, and not forgotten… it’s been a heck of a week… I’ll be catching up with messages as the week rolls on.
I also played a lot of Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ (I’m on Cantarella’s story right now) and we are watching Tenchi Muyo so I felt the above GIF was appropiate. ^_^
Monday was fairly quiet. I worked on commissions and did housework, but was a bit subdued due to my period. Our house began to be prepped for painting on this day.
For lunch, I made toasted rice balls for our partner and I. He’d never had them before.
Got to use my new Bluey plate, cutlery and bowl, so that made me happy.
And speaking of Bluey –here is a coloring book I got recently:
The pages are kinda thin, so I’ll just scan and reprint on thicker paper when I want to color it. This is actually how I preserve most of my coloring books, including many vintage ones!
Tuesday was the Social Security appointment (for my name change). It went smoothly, other than the security guard at the entrance being so intimidating towards everyone, especially older people who could not understand English nor understand what was going on. Even though inside plenty of signage indicates accommodating if you need an interpreter, the officer was aggressive and angry towards these poor mostly Latin people who barely spoke English and were so confused and even frightened by his demeanor. ๐
Once that was done, I walked to Target. I saw these traffic cones on the way that grass had grown right through. Seems the grass around them was mowed without the cones being moved a few times. I thought it looked interesting enough for a picture:
By the time I got home, a lot of progress had been done on the house painting. Here is a before and after at that point in time (I’ll have a final update next week):
I didn’t have much time to admire the house. I had to finish all my chores, and pack, and then our partner drove me to my mom’s. She and I went to dinner pretty soon after I got there to celebrate her birthday:
I had primavera pizza! It’s my favorite because it has egg:
Once we got home, my mom opened her birthday present. Christopher bought her a laptop (her computer was ANCIENT). She was really happy –Sweeney tested it immediately! Meanwhile, Shampoo enjoyed laying on a crinkly paper bag. To each their own.
Wednesday was my mom and I’s usual peaceful morning of TV, mate, and conversation. I also drew and played a bit of Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ here and there.
Gumdrop had his first taste of mate!
My mom had a really big surprise for me! She was able to find my favorite childhood cookies, which I have not had for over twenty years!
They have zodiac signs on them:
A close similar cookie was Pepperidge Farm’s chessmen chocolate cookies, but I think they were discontinued in my area a long time ago. I can’t find them anywhere anymore. Anyway, my mom got me like three bags of these, so that was a wonderful surprise!
For Wednesday night dinner, my mom made fries (my favorite)!
As if that weren’t enough, she made a legit Argentinean bizcochuelo for dessert, another big treat. The mix was yet another childhood favorite that she was able to acquire recently through a shopping service.
After dinner, my guys picked me up. At home I had yet another wonderful surprise waiting for me! At first I couldn’t find Yoshi anywhere and I was sure our partner had hidden him or placed him in some sort of unfortunate situation, as he tends to do to my toys. But Yoshi turned out to be waiting for me on my desk, and he was holding the Limited Run visual novel I’ve been begging Christopher for!
It’s The House In Fata Morgana. I’ve heard many good things about it.
That, and watching TV and cuddling all together, made for a wonderful end to my day.
I forgot to share this other surprise my mom gave me during my visit! Last time she got me the Mafalda figure and magazine. This time it was Manolito:
On Thursday I walked to Target to pick up an online order. I wanted to get one of these dino clickers, mostly as a desk fidget toy. His head and legs click when you move them. He’s really cute.
For date night, I made another massive snack spread, while the guys continued playing Kirby and I watched. Didn’t get quite so drunk on this day, but it was still a nice time.
Also, on this day, more engines arrived!
They are so, SO well made, utterly perfect in every way! I received Thomas, Percy, Gordon, and my favorite boy, James!
The facial expressions are great; Percy’s in particular is hilarious:
I wish they’d given James his angry face, but I love them all.
Can’t wait to get my hands on Henry, and Cranky when they remake him too.
Since we had our date night in on Thursday, Friday was our day out. First we went out to ramen!
The atmosphere outside was spooky. Not only was it rainy, but the Everglades were on fire, and you could clearly see the smoke amidst the clouds. Our car was covered in ash!
After lunch we went to Monster MiniGolf. It was really fun! We took this photo of one of the animatronics:
I don’t even know who won. I just know it wasn’t me and I had lots of fun. Before going home, we passed by Dollar Tree, where I got a couple of Arthur puzzles, a giant dinosaur coloring book, and a velvet dino coloring stand:
I also got a little bandana for my Grogu:
Then we went home to bed and watched TV for ages, it was very cozy. ๐ฅฐ
Saturday was exhausting. I did lots of chores, and helped a bit with the porch cleaning (I did a bigger amount of that yesterday, but on Friday our partner did most of the remaining cleaning). Then I put all the furniture back. It looks wonderful, even if it was a lot of work:
I also redecorated the litter box area a bit. ๐ธ Some things still need to be hung back up (a lot was taken down due to the painting) but there’s only so much time in a single week…
The porch and chores such as laundry basically took my entire day, but I was able to relax a little in the evening.
On Sunday our partner and I went on a little solo date, it’s not a common occurrence since we generally prefer to do everything the three of us together, but Christopher had been desperately craving some alone time to just veg at home without us being our usual obnoxious selves around him. ๐
We went to the Perez Art Museum Miami, and to Wynwood for lunch and a little ice cream. We saw some cool stuff but I didn’t get any photos other than these:
After that we were on a quest to find fancy soaps, which we didn’t find, but I got these cool crayons:
Then I made dinner and we just relaxed. That was the end to a week that was at times fun, at times stressful, but good overall, as most weeks have been lately. There’s a lot of love in our home and I feel very lucky, even if things are hectic sometimes and it seems like we never stop doing things. ๐
This was a super productive Sunday! I got art done, lots of housework, progress on a book chapter, and even got some gaming in. All the while, since noon, the house was imbued with the smell of BBQ pork being cooked in the smoker on the porch. It was heavenly! The pork cooked for, I think, about nine hours? It was a lot of work. I myself don’t have the patience to baby meat for that long, but I admit I really enjoyed the results of my partners’ hard work. ๐
I’m still trying to get through Sholmรจs’ route. I’m so done with this fandisc, lol. But I want to finish it.
There was also homemade mac ‘n cheese, with which I helped a little. It was pretty decadent.
The meat was literally falling apart, it was incredible.
Had a little wine with it too! After waiting and smelling it for so many hours we were dying to eat. Tomorrow night we are having it again, but on tacos!
It was another lovely evening. Most of all, I was glad that I got some book progress in.
I came to visit my mom this week! Our visiting schedule has mostly resumed, with COVID thankfully winding down. She ordered coxinhas again and we had them for dinner.
Below are some spoilers for Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ soโฆ donโt read any more if you plan to play it!!
In the evening I played Wintertide Miracles a little more.
Recently I finished Finis’ route/scenario, it was very sweet, with some beautiful art…
And some pretty funny moments, adding to prior ones.
Currently I’m on Shรณlmes route. I’m kinda ready to be done with this fandisc if I’m honest, I have so many other games I’m super excited to play, which unlike this fandisc have choices/things to actually do, lol. Plus, I find Shรณlmes kind of boring, generally… I do like it when he’s jealous though.
Also, this was hilarious. Good old Impey.
For a late lunch today, my mom made the rest of the Giacomo Capelettini that she bought for my last visit. Again, a huge treat to enjoy this taste from my childhood!
For dessert we had flan made by the same person who made the coxinhas. It was incredible!
We watched The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which my mom has been watching for a while but I am new to –I loved it, I’m sure Christopher will be hooked too if he starts watching it.
Anyway, now that I’m back home, I have to unpack!
Christopher’s back from his Texas business trip! He got here yesterday in the afternoon. I missed him tons. Kotoko did too, she lay on his chest immediately and wouldn’t stop giving him love bites:
As always he brought me a little souvenir:
The other day I bought this Crayon Shin-Chan chocolate egg at Kimchi Mart. It was exactly like a Kinder egg and the toy inside was of really high quality!
Today one of the new otomes for the Switch that I’ve had on pre-order came in. It’s Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani.
I’m really looking forward to playing it. Otome Kitten wrote a great in-depth review as always.
I’ll close this post with a pic of Celeste and my snack for today, a green tea bread from Kimchi Mart.
I hadn’t had these in a while. Hokkaido cream buns are my favorite but they were out of stock.
Hi everyone! Today was pretty good. I got a lot of YCH progress done, so if all goes well, tomorrow I should be posting six finished commissions. And you know, today we’re officially 25 days away from Christmas day!
Even though I was alone today too, I didn’t feel lonely and really enjoyed my entire day. I went on my long walk, went to Target, got to have UberEats, had a looong Zoom call with Christopher before bed and got to watch our friend work while I worked on commissions too which was wonderful and made it so I wasn’t one bit lonely at all.
Anyhow –here’s today’s snack!
I wasn’t expecting to find licensed Hercules fanfiction at Target, so I couldn’t pass it up…
It has surprisingly good reviews on Amazon. I’m looking forward to reading it.
This was my outfit for today. I really, REALLY liked how this looked on me. I’ve worked so hard on my body, for months now, and I continue to do so. To be truly happy in my own skin again is a wonderful feeling. I haven’t feel comfortable wearing something like this since I was in my early 20s.
My studio felt so cozy and Christmasy while I worked, so I took a picture…
Getting UberEats for myself is a rare treat that only tends to happen when Christopher travels. I ordered from Pincho Factory and it was delicious, though I can feel my skin suffering for it already… ๐ซ
At bedtime, I played more Wintertide Miracles. And, I completed Impey’s First Christmas scenario.
Below are some spoilers for Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ soโฆ donโt read any more if you plan to play it!!
This was, by FAR, my favorite scenario yet. Everything I loved about Impey in previous routes was intensified here. I’ve said it before, but I love how flustered he gets when the MC decides to be forward with him, considering how overly affectionate and over-the-top he always is. After declaring his love for her hundreds of times, when she actually asks to hear him say it, he loses his shit so much that he quite literally runs away from her in an incredibly awkward, very un-Impey-like fashion.
I also LOVE the MC’s ocassional loss of temper towards him, even the one odd tsunderey moment. She doesn’t act this way toward any of the other LI’s in any scenario. Her personality definitely changes the most when she is with Impey, including her interests towards machinery.
As far as her demeanor, I believe in the previous fandisc (or maybe it was the main story?) she violently hits him over the head with a book for falling asleep at the wrong time or something, which is SO unlike the very gentle MC. She’s much more entertaining when she’s with him.
That aside, can we take a moment to admire the backgrounds in this fandisc? They are beautiful.
Anyway, it was a lovely scenario… over much too soon.
Now I just have Victor left (sigh. SIGH. Not a Victor fan.) Then I guess I’ll do the triangle scenario, I’m curious about that.
Today I had a day/evening all to myself, so I kinda partied a little bit! ๐ To begin with, I got myself all set up in the movie room, with Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ on the projector:
With all of the Christmas decorations, especially the Christmas village, it really added to the wintertide atmosphere of the game.
I brought Grover and Bowser Jr. to keep me company so I wasn’t as lonely:
And I had a little feast set out all for myself:
Below are some spoilers for Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ soโฆ donโt read any more if you plan to play it!!
I decided to play Lupin’s First Christmas scenario tonight. While Lupin isn’t my favorite LI, I really enjoyed his scenario. It was very cute, and the CGs were beyond beautiful. Here are some of my favorites.
As I play more and more scenarios, little brother Finis continues to be the absolute highlight. I just love him. I love his interactions with everyone. Moments like these are pure gold:
I decided to tackle Impey’s route next. I’m not sure why I did Lupin before Impey, since Impey is my 3rd favorite LI in Code: Realize, but even that has changed now. I wasn’t as crazy about Saint Germain in this fandisc, and I realized during this scenario that I like Impey even more than I remembered.
Even on my Guardian of Rebirth and Future Blessings playthroughs, I found Impey very, and I mean very reminiscent of someone I love, even more so in Wintertide Miracles, so I’m enjoying playing his scenario a lot. It’s been enough to bump up Impey to my second favorite, or perhaps even tie him with Van Helsing. Sorry, Van. ๐
I have not, on the whole, been a big fan of the “from the LI’s perspective” stuff in Wintertide Miracles. In general I am not a fan of being in the LI’s POV at all. But Impey is the exception: even more than the other LIs, what goes through his heart and mind is so different from what his goofy, never-serious, over-the-top demeanor shows, that the contrast in seeing his thoughts is irresistible, as are moments like these, since he so rarely makes these facial expressions…
For the same reason, I love his seriousness in the scenes where he is discussing engineering stuff with Nemo, and all other nonsense is out of his mind, even the MC temporarily, even though he’s thinking about her the rest of the time. Impey has a passion that none of the other characters has to the same extent, IMO, all making a wonderful contrast with his everyday goofy demeanor. Even more so, the banter between him and Lupin is so… SO familiar to me… ๐ I find it so utterly endearing. It’s almost to a T exactly like that between my husband and our dear friend, uncannily so, even.
I’m still taking my time with Impey’s scenario, and this fandisc in general, but it also happened to contain my favorite Finis moment yet. The MC forces poor tsundere Finis to tell her that he loves her, and incredibly, he does say it (wow!):
…only for the MC to confirm it doesn’t feel quite the same when her little brother says it, as opposed to when Impey does (WOW). I forgot to screencap that, but Finis’ pure rage and embarrassment at his sister’s let-down reaction to him voicing his feelings with so much difficulty is the funniest thing I’ve seen in any Code: Realize game yet, I actually laughed out loud. ๐คฃ
Bonus Finis moment that I loved:
What an adorable, overprotective little shit.
That was all the playing I got done for today. It’s rare that I’m home alone at night, so it’s always kind of exciting, until I have to go to bed. I hate being all alone at night in this big house, it’s a bit scary, I suppose… at least I had both Kotoko and Rosie with me. Rosie cuddled right on the pillow:
Tomorrow I’m going to work some more on commissions. I hope everyone has had a great start to their week!
Hello everyone! I hope you had a Thanksgiving weekend as wonderful as mine was. I wore my new white boots for the first time on Thanksgiving Day. I was so happy with my entire outfit:
Grover was my travel companion. It turns out if I bring down the cup holder, it makes a perfect little seat for Grover to be strapped in, seatbelt and all.
Thanksgiving was a bit less hectic, more peaceful than other years. A baby was born in the family on Thanksgiving Day so several family members were missing. Plus, some were not there due to just, family drama… ๐ it was a really nice meal together though. This was our spread, behind the table where we actually ate:
The weather was absolutely lovely, cool and overcast. After the dishes were done, we left Grandma’s house in Port St Lucie for my mom in law’s house. We did a quick stop at Big Lots first since it was the only open store. Christopher let me take a little Yoshi but in the end my mom in law was the one who bought it for me:
Once at the house, we got comfortable and our friend started mixing drinks. It was really cute to see his reaction to my mom in law’s roommate’s pomeranian; I’d completely forgotten that it would be there, and Christopher didn’t say anything on purpose, since our friend has a little pom of his own that he adores. The resident pom, Panda, was very happy with all the extra attention:
My mom in law made all the cats say hello to him too so they would stop being scared of his voice (because he doesn’t usually visit so they weren’t used to him). It didn’t really work, but Momo sat on him for a polite 30 seconds:
This evening was the most fun I had. We played Mario Party and Pictionary (it was my first time playing that) and I had two Mojitos which kind of destroyed me. This picture was taken earlier in the night. I was so happy to see Christopher smiling and having fun.
Naturally, he won at Mario Party, he usually does.
Christopher took this photo of me a bit later; I think I was well into my second drink by then and every time it was my turn to draw I basically dragged myself across the floor to the board. I half-slept between turns (pictured) and by the time I had to get up the next morning (at 4am!) for Black Friday, I was still kinda drunk.
It was the first time I went to sleep drunk and woke up drunk, but I didn’t have a bad hangover and I didn’t throw up. So… all in all, not too bad. ๐
As mentioned above, we were all up at around 4:00am. Black Friday in Sebastian is very chill… no lines, no stress, pretty relaxed employees too. Sometimes they even give out free hot chocolate and things like that. We went to Walmart, to Best Buy, to Petsmart, where I got a few presents for the cats…
…then to breakfast (McDonald’s) and to Home Depot. We then went to a few furniture stores, and by this point, while I’d fully sobered up from the night prior, everyone was starting to feel sleepy, myself included. Christopher passed out in one of the stores:
Ultimately a couch was purchased, and we went back to the house for a pizza lunch and nap. Later that day, a TV was purchased too, and a new Switch. Then we went to Makoto’s for dinner, a long-awaited highlight of this trip.
Once everything was set up, we played Pictionary and Mario Kart (well… I played Pictionary… by the time Mario Kart was underway I was passed out on the floor. I didn’t even make it fully through my second Mojito this time), but it’s okay, Grover can finish it for me…
Saturday was a little more relaxed. Christopher and I cuddled for a while before I got up, and then I went to get bread so my mom in law could make French toast. We had a nice relaxing breakfast. At some point we went out one more time, and my mom in law got me the new walking shoes I so desperately needed. Also, Grandma and I went to Michaels, and I got Mandalorian advent calendars for me and my sis in law. Here’s mine on the wall:
We left around four in the afternoon, and got home a little past six. After that, the three of us still hung out a few hours, had dinner, and watched Cowboy Bebop. Then we dropped our friend off and Thanksgiving weekend was truly over, since I’ll be spending all of tomorrow unpacking and catching up on chores.
On the drive back, I completed Saint Germain’s story in Wintertide Miracles.
Below are some spoilers for Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ soโฆ donโt read any more if you plan to play it!!
I don’t know why, but I didn’t like it so much. He was all whiny and full of feelings the entire route. I don’t mind that with other LIs, and he’s certainly that way at times in the original game too, but I always enjoyed how he could be a little scary, even playfully during Future Blessings, and you never really knew what he was thinking. I don’t know, I found him a bit “much”. Regardless, here’s a couple of screenshots of parts I liked:
Finis is always fun, though. I think he will end up being the best part of the fandisc for me.
Something I forgot to share in my “before leaving” post is this Sesame Street Christmas Treasury I got. I meant to read it during the trip, just as I meant to play more of Wintertide Miracles, but in the end I was just too entertained enjoying my time with family.
This book is lovely, with illustrations from multiple eras. The vintage ones are my favorites.
I guess I’ll wrap it up here, tomorrow and Monday are going to be really busy for me. Plus, I’ll be releasing a new YCH, so please look forward to that. Talk to you all later!