Hoooooly frick, it's March already?! Damn, someone tell time to slow down already! @_@;

So yeah, as previously stated, I was out of town again for several days and got back last night. Getting real tired of those little trips to Mississippi, but eh, I'll deal. On the bright side, and I hope I'm not jynxing myself here, my mental health has been at least marginally better this past week compared to the previous several. I still haven't written that one vent story, but I've developed it more in my head, in a direction that has helped somewhat, odd as that sounds. It's very tempting to talk about it here but, again, if and when I post it, I don't want it associated with my main online identity, for various reasons. All I'll say is it is has far darker and more serious elements than anything I'd normally write and it'll involve severe trauma, violence, reincarnation, and at least pseudo-redemption and reconciliation. 

But back to lighter things. I've been getting some writing done on my more usual stuff. I'll be uploading that next part of Milo & Ikarsi's story tonight, and finishing up the next MHO chapter as well! Constantly having things bounce around in my head, both for MHO and little short stories and stuff. Lots of things I can't wait to get to in the former! Just gotta get through all the stepping stones to those big parts, hehe.

I'm actually strongly considering splurging on a special commission for MHO at some point, but I need to do a few things before I do that. First I have to finalize the ref sheets for Lykou and Kuna, which may take a bit. So far, I'm not satisfied with how Lykou's head looks in the refsheet compared to that new cover pic I did. Plus I'm still waffling on some elements of Kuna's design. And when I do finish that, I need to find an artist that's open for commissions, can give me a good time estimate for completion (would like to have it line up with when the story reaches a certain point), has a price that I can afford (don't worry, not cheaping out, especially for something this special; just have to keep it within a budget), and a style that I think would really suit the pic I have in mind. Gonna start browsing around soon. I have a few pipe dream "gee I wish" artists in mind, but either they're not doing commissions, are sadly out of my range, or both. Heh, would really be something if I could get Zeta-Haru, since rereading their Weekend comics is part of what prompted me to start MHO in the first place, and I think their style would be great for it. Ah well. 

But yeah, not doing it anytime soon, but going to at least start shopping around. Won't "pull the trigger" so to speak until I at least start the next episode, and that's still a bit away. 

On that note, I'm not sure how much further to go with Downtime before I transition to the next episode. It's definitely strayed from the original vague notion of "low key misadventures and downtime between Lykou and Kuna", and I wish I could more easily go back and change the name of the episode, but ah well. In future theoretical incarnations of MHO (RPG, visual novel, comic, or whatever format it takes) I may rename it to something like "Discoveries", "Perspectives", or something involving a play on the word "transformations". Maybe a mix of the above, hehe. 

Just for a bit of insight: for some episodes I have a more clear concept in mind than others. This one definitely started off more along the lines of "hey, here's a collection small, fragmented ideas that don't fit elsewhere that I can stick between cute, playful, and intimate moments between the boys" and grew more beyond that when suddenly I thought of some other ideas as well as fun things to connect them all better. I literally didn't even conceive of the whole thing with Gleam and the true nature of the valley until after I'd already started the arc, but then immediately realized the potential and just had to do it. And I'm really glad I did, hehe. 

I definitely want Gleam around for a bit, but, without going into spoilers, the boys do also need to be alone again for certain key chunks of the story. Don't worry, not planning anything tragic! I actually have a really fun idea for how she'll eventually split off from them, and she'll definitely be able to visit them again later on. But for now, I do have more adventures involving all three of them in mind as well. Mostly smaller ones, but hopefully lots of fun nonetheless. She's really bonding with them, after all!