October Artworks

New Merch

I drew Me-tan and XP-tan first. You ever get really motivated by spite? Some youtuber recently put out a pretty bad video about Os-tan and I got so mad about it I had to spend time lovingly drawing my girls lol. I was happy with how they turned out, especially XP-tan! I usually struggle to draw her but she turned out to be my favourite out of the two!

Then I drew the Triple Baka girls in jersey made fashion! When I posted my PVC Vocaloid charms online, I kept getting comments like "Why did you draw Gumi instead of Neru!!!". I just kind of chose Gumi because she's my personal favourite, but realised oh yeah, this is like 2/3rds of the Triple Baka trio lol. So I decided to draw some merch of them! I love drawing Neru but she generally doesn't sell well, so I couldn't make 50pcs of a PVC charm of her. I'd never sell them all! Anyways, all this new merch is up on my shop now that MCM is over! I don't have many Sonico charms left, but I made sure to keep aside a decent amount of the other stuff!

MCM London - October 2025

And so!! After so much prep and stress, MCM London finally happened! I was absolutely ecstatic about having a booth for this con. I never get accepted to Artist Alley. I have applied twice per year, every year, since 2017 and only gotten a table once. I got a Corp booth one time split between 3 people to try it out - never doing that again btw, don't recommend Corp at all - and somehow got a Retail table last year. Which was great money wise, but the vibes were absolutely grim. I was surrounded by AliExpress crap and the AI grifter across from me was beefing with me all weekend too, long and crazy story for another day. I again was rejected for Artist Alley this year, but my girlfriend was accepted, so we were able to split a booth! I just can not tell you how happy I was to be in Artist Alley after doing both Corp and Retailers. Being around people who actually have a passion for what they are doing and creating is so much more fun.

My booth was a lil messy but I haven't fully figured out how to display my new stuff yet... I keep wanting to do a total revamp of my setup, but when it comes to cons, by the time I get to thinking about it I have already put all my money into stock, flights, hotels, etc...

When I look at my booth there is a lot of old stock I really want to retire, so I really want to draw a lot now that I'm finished Uni and have a totally fresh table!

Anyways, we arrived to London on Thursday for set up. We had to get a 6am flight and I had stayed up late the night before packing, so I was soooo tiiiiredddd... I was really happy when we got to the hotel we were able to check in early, so we just immediately went for a nap and took a shower! We took our time getting to set-up, and ended up setting up until we got kicked out hahahaha.

The con started on Friday morning and pretty much from the moment the doors opened it was BUSYYY. I was really happy because all the first people who came to my booth were Ooe fans who knew I had Ooe merch! It was so nice to talk to other fans I really love this visual novel T___T I was so grateful that they would immediately seek me out.

I was in one stamp rally for this con! At a couple of cons over the past year I took on waaay too much work for stamp rallies - like between 3-5 stamp rallies per con. So I'm only allowing myself max 2 per con now lol. I actually wasn't going to join one for MCM, but my friend basement_vermin invited me and Sarah to a Summer Hikaru Died rally and I couldn't say no! A couple of my other friends from mainland EU were a part of it, also. So it was nice to be included as the token Irish people lol. The stamp rally card was so cool - our stamps were all parts of the map, and the image would be completed when all stamps were collected!

It was nice how many of my friends from outside Ireland/UK were at MCM! On top of that, a lot of American artists were there? So it was nice to be able to buy from them and not have to pay crazy shipping costs haha.

Friday was super successful and fun, and afterwards we met with our friend - also a lesbian named Sarah - to get dinner at my fav restaurant once again... Beautiful Beijing Dumpling in London Chinatown... I LOVE XIAO LONG BAO SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

I had intended to cosplay with my gf on Saturday, but when I got back to the hotel from town I ate cake, watched the RedLetterMedia Halloween episode, and passed out... So I didn't have time to style my wig lol.

Saturday was just as busy as Friday - going by my card sales on the day, even busier, actually! I didn't get much time away from my table all weekend tbh, I didn't even get to go to some of my friends' booths to say hi. I was able to go and do bits and pieces of shopping and visiting friends, me and Sarah would take turns covering the booth, but it was so consistently busy we never left each other alone for too long!

Normally for MCM I like going to the afterparty, or going to big group dinners with friends, but this year I was so exhausted lol. We didn't even go into the city on Saturday night, we went back to the hotel room and ordered food and watched Shrek 1 and 2... I also styled my wig!

Me and Sarah were discussing which characters from Ooe would like Shrek. We agreed Shimbashi would really love it because he's such a romantic, but wouldn't easily admit to it. Oosaki would really like it too. Ariake wouldn't care much for it, but he'd pretend to for Oosaki. Shijoumae would really like it. Aomi would be really sick of watching it because he probably had to watch it so many times with his students on like, days before a holiday where the teacher would just let you watch a movie. Takeshiba would fucking love Shrek he'd be very enthusiastic about it and would watch it with his daughter. So yeah we didn't go out to party but we made our own fun lol

On Sunday, me and Sarah cosplayed Shimbashi and fem Oosaki!

Our friend Opal was cosplaying Aomi too, so we got some pics together!3 Ooe cosplays in the same room can you believe it!

Not many people recognised our cosplays, but it was nice when people did!! Sunday was a crazy busy day. Usually Sunday would be a bit quieter, but at MCM it was such a rush. I think because the day was shorter - it closed at 5pm iirc - people were kinda rushing around buying. This con was so busy, I worked so much for it and it paid off, all my new stuff was my most popular. Also, I don't do London cons much - last one I did was MCM last October, a whole year ago - so a lot of my stuff was new to the people there! I think it was my most successful con to date? Which I was very happy about because I had a lot of bills to pay afterwards! I had such a nice time, too. I had so many really nice customers talking to me about stuff I liked. I met so many fans of Ooe and Umineko !! It's almost a shame the con was so busy I couldn't yap much. I met some really beautiful Umineko cosplayers on Saturday I wished I could have talked to more!

I won't get my hopes up for it, but I really hope I get accepted to the May MCM. I want to have more energy and party and hang out in cosplay outside!!

On Sunday evening, we met up with our friend Cig for dinner and went to Coco Ichibanya! Warm curry on a cold night after a weekend of hard work... Nothing beats it..!!

I'll update this post later with my con haul, I gotta take a pic of it still.

I guess one kinda negative thing about MCM is just how like. Business-y some people can be ? I think there are a lot of people who solely rely on cons for income and put so much stock into this one con and then when they're there they are so concerned about making money, they aren't even enjoying it. It happens a lot when I go to UK cons that artists I don't even know just like... Come to my booth and complain about money and how the con isn't going as well as they hoped to me. Which idk, I don't really like talking about money like that a lot in general, but especually with strangers.

I think a lot of younger artists haven't done their time working shitty retail jobs etc before being able to make art full time. It took me 5 years to be able to quit doing shitty retail jobs and be able to do art full time but even now if things ever stop going so well, I'll have to go back to another job. Whether I like it or not that's just how things are.

I think a lot of people don't realise that you can't rely on events for income. Anything can happen: they can be cancelled, you could get rejected, you could get a shitty location. I really think you need to be earning enough to support yourself just by yourself online, through your shop/commissions/etc, before quitting your day job. Cons are a nice bonus but you have to bare minimum cover your living expenses and rent without them !!! I feel like a some people may burn themselves out very very quickly if they keep doing this and see conventions as life or death rather than something fun to do while meeting other fans.

I don't think conventions should just be big glorified shopping malls! I think there should actually be less merchants and more space for free events, activities, fan meets etc for attendees! I think first and foremost they should be about having fun and meeting other fans, and not for businesses to make profit! Attendees already pay so much money on their tickets, accommodation, transport, etc. I feel very lucky that people are willing to spend money on my artwork even after spending money just to be there. But it is not a requirement!

Personal Stuff!

Soo this month was all kind of work work work for MCM so I didn't do a whole lot. But I did go to see Lady Gaga in Manchester with my gf, which was amazing!! I think it was the biggest concert I had ever been to, the venue was huge and it was totally packed. I'm used to seeing bands for €20 in small venues so it was crazy to see. She put on such an amazing show, she is just. Such an artist. It was great to see! Our only problem was getting home... We had to travel to Manchester to see her bc she had no Ireland dates on her tour. On our way back to the airport, the train we were on struck & killed someone so the train became a crime scene and didn't move for 2 hours. We missed our flight, and it was the only one for the day... So I had to spend a lot of money I did not have getting a flight from a different airline. T___T IT .. WAS VERY STRESSFUL !!!

Also, something very. Odd happened which I can't talk about yet. In my previous blog post, I was talking vaguely about some issues I've had with the community and people's perceptions of me etc... I was going to delete that post pretty quickly because it wasn't really anything well thought through, was just kind of venting. But everything I've said just kind of became relevant again and it's pretty bad but also you kind of have to laugh about it? I hopefully will be able to talk about it soon.

And then! Oíche Shamhna! Halloween! I had plans for Halloween this year - I was supposed to be going to Manchester again to see Birthday Massacre with some friends. But well, when I got back from MCM, I had to book my flights for Geek Days in Lille and Doujima in Singapore, then pay rent, and pay some misc bils, and well. All my money is just gone now hahaha. I unfortunately had to cancel the trip, which I was sad about, but honestly I've been really sick since getting back from MCM so it's probably for the best. I don't think I'd enjoy being at a concert right now. Instead, I organised something last minute with some friends at home! We just hung out and watched horror movies - Ghostwatch and Bad Taste - and we did a gingerbread house decorating contest. I had a really nice time! I hadn't seen my friends in ages because of how busy I've been, so I was very happy to spend some time just chilling with friends.

Also, I read Uuultra C in October! I wanted to read another ADELTA visual novel. And despite Hashihime sitting on my desktop unopened for 4 years, for some reason I decided to read UruC next lol. It's nice and short so I was able to get through it quickly. I wrote more thoughts about it in my media log, but I really enjoyed it! I found out how to mirror my desktop screen so I've been reading visual novels on my phone and iPad. Because I've been working so much my body has been pretty sore and stiff so I've been taking a lot of baths with muscle relaxing salts. And I pretty much read all of UruC in the bath tub (across multiple baths lol). It's revolutionary. Bath time is also visual novel time for me now. I've started Chrono Jotter now so yaoi bath time has become yuri bath time. Excited to get stuck into it!

Anyways! That's all for now! Next event I'm at is DCAF in Dublin! I'll be selling only original works, comics, zines, and prints at it!

Signing off with a song!