Contrails: May '26, Week 4

Minerva Murasaki
3 days ago
4 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

I forgot that the Vesak Day public holiday fell on a Monday this week, so I ended up spending my Monday as if it was a Sunday, only realizing that I had forgotten about my weekly post before I went to bed. 🤣🤣🤣 Oh well! Had a pretty good week, and I'd like to write all about it! ✨

🌙 Work as Minerva 🌙

Recorded, edited, and submitted my vocal lines for a collaboration, and practiced vocals for another. 🎉 Also worked on an arrangement, though I'm reminded that arranging music is difficult for me. 🙃 I'm still determined to find a sustainable and satisfying way for me to continue doing music, because just because I can do something doesn't mean I'd love it. 💔 For now, I want to give this project my best shot, then review it after it's completed to decide to how move forward.

For now, I'm glad that I have other projects with others to look forward to. It's a little less lonely, and I'm more motivated to work for a shared goal than one that's just my own. 💖

🎮 Gaming 🎮

This week turned out to be way more exciting on the gaming front than I expected. ✨🤔

Finished the current final main story quest for Windrose Early Access! While my friends were discussing how much damage they each did to the final boss, I wonder if they considered that I had made the call mid-fight for them to focus on damage and keeping distance while I purposely held aggro by walking into the boss, dodging 1HKO swipes. It's a team effort, so I did what I felt I was best at amongst us (because I was the only one who truly all-in on melee, parry and perfect dodging since we started on the game), but sometimes a little acknowledgement for my efforts would be nice. 🙃 Oh well! But I was glad that we cleared, and everyone was happy. 🎉 I have a side quest left, but I will probably wait for friends who want to catch up on the game to complete it.
I have developed an unhealthy admiration for the sound of 36-pounder cannons firing. 🙃 I miss the sound of the waves already, but I will settle for Spirit City for now! 💜
Not so much gaming, but having followed a friend's playthrough of the Danganronpa game series (including Ultra Despair Girls), we decided to rewatch Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School. I realized that when I first watched it, I lacked a lot of context from the first game, so a lot of story points from Danganronpa 3 didn't stick. I'm glad we're rewatching it now, and hopefully Danganronpa 2x2 releases at a time this year when our memories are still fresh! 🥺
Played more Divinity: Original Sin! I might have underestimated my progress point from the past, as I somehow remember some scenes as I discover them in this run. But since the game isn't fully linear, maybe I jumped ahead in the past? 🤔 No matter; I'm enjoying the game still! Even if my caster keeps dying during major fights. 🙃
A few weeks ago, a friend mentioned that they used to play Risk of Rain, so my partner decided to invite us to hang out over Risk of Rain 2. I played the game briefly several years ago, but the gameplay loop didn't really speak to me. What I learned this time round was that it's easy to pick up and put down, albeit being a time sink as each session can easily last over an hour if you're aiming to beat the final stage. More importantly, that who you play with can make the game a lot more enjoyable. 🥹💜
Did the quest for the FFXIV Make It Rain event. Got some cute rewards and bought some items from the Gold Saucer that were on discount.
Taken without filters. Oh how the game graphics have improved. 🥹🥹🥹
I'm not sure why there was no update on this, but I've been checking Sonic Racing: CrossWorld every weekend of May for the Puyo Puyo Festival. To my surprise, despite there being no announcement on Steam or SNS, it happened this weekend. My suspicion is that someone on the Sonic Racing team messed up and missed out on marketing this in-game event, resulting in fewer players than usual taking part. 🤔 Maybe as a result, my partner and I were on a crazy win streak, and we managed to claim all the festival rewards faster than usual.
The highlight of my week has to be playing Forza Horizon 6! I've had Forza Horizon 4 on my Steam wishlist for a long time, followed by Forza Horizon 5. When Forza Horizon 6 was announced, I wishlisted it too, but being unemployed has encouraged me to save whenever I can. I was mentally ready to give Forza Horizon 6 a miss too, but my partner decided to gift it to me as a surprise. 🥹 (Big thankies!!!💜) I rushed to boot up the game, switch off all the assists, and proceed to crash my car in the intro scene. 👍👍👍 I have no regrets switching off all the control assists because as difficult as it is to control the car only semi-intuitively without a driving rig, it allowed me to enjoy the subtle differences between each car. 🥹💜 Just like how I enjoy flying my solar ship in No Man's Sky in first person, I love the sight of a beautiful interior and the sound of the car engine and wheels responding to my input. Can't wait to play it more!
Edit: After checking, I technically still have Brake Lines on and am driving on Automatic, so there's still some assist on. I left these settings because I felt that they were things that you'd know how to manage when you have actually driven a car IRL before -- but I don't have a driver's license. 🙃