I suppose it has been awhile since the last real update. First of all, the general forum has died. As someone who was a regular for about a year or two, I honestly can't say I'm that sad to see it go. I met some fun people on there for sure, but as I talked about in my 2023 update, I just wasn't really vibing with the community anymore. Even after trying to give it another go around the beginning of this year, I still wasn't really feeling it like I used to. Something definitely changed.

Hell, just before it shut down, I was considering just not posting on there anymore and fading away to focus on my content/OCs. I'm thankful for the opportunities it gave me, though. Interacting with the community like that made me brave enough to post said content to my account, despite my lack of skills, resources, and general knowledge. I feel it's thanks to those interactions and collaborating with the users there that I've gotten 145 fans so far. Fact that I've got so many feels kinda criminal considering so many better artists struggle to get even a fraction of that, but I'm grateful for it. In spite of my dying interest in it, I'm ultimately glad for my experiences there.

Guess the decision to not post on there anymore was made for me, eh? I feel this was inevitable, as I think that Tom's probably been wanting to shut down the forums for awhile. Just a total waste of resources, bandwidth, and manpower that's better served elsewhere. Also, between you and me, I think he was kinda embarrassed of the little community that formed around it, which I can't really blame him for.

Is that it? Well, this sorta leads into the more important update. With the general forum dead and buried, you might see this account go under a bit of a rebrand at some point. I'm not sure what direction I want this rebrand to go in yet, but I feel a bit restricted by my current identity. I don't think I'll do anything as drastic as a rename, but maybe lighten up on the Metal Sonic theming at least. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but I don't want people to think that's all I'm about, y'know?

See, now I'm all about my OCs (mostly two of them). Speaking of which, what's next for them? I dunno, I don't really have like a huge plan or anything right now. I just make things as they come to mind. Nothing's really been grabbing me, making me think, "OH DAMN WHAT AN IDEA I MUST DRAW THAT NOOOOOOW."

The other day I noticed I surpassed last year's submissions count in just a fraction of the time, so I've been pretty active lately. Right now, I'm just chillin'. It's been nice taking a bit of a break, but more content is sure to come.

I love these characters a lot, more than I can really do them justice. Seeing people respond positively to them despite that has been so validating. Sincerely, I'd like to thank everyone for the support. I've even had some friends draw them entirely unprompted, which means a lot to me. I save every bit of art they get too.

All in all, that's the current update. At least as far as NG goes. If you're at all curious about how things are going for me outside of here, I'll just say that things are pretty good right now.

I feel like I say this every time I dump a metric ton of thoughts into one news post, but nobody's gonna read all of this lmao. Thanks if you do, though. Hope your day is going well.