Happy (belated) new year everyone!

I’ve had a very very busy two months and haven’t really had the time to update my site much at all. There’s a lot of stuff I want to write but just not enough time. I’m currently working on a lot of different things between me and my partner’s new comic, my visual novel, a doujin, merch for cons, and I’ve been taking on commissions too. I’m stretched thin right now but hopefully things will be more chill come July/August!

Artwork & Merch

I designed a couple of new things recently that are now on my shop!

I spent a lot of time on the Needy Streamer and Summer Hikaru Died pieces. My goal for 2026 was to get better at fast, simple art, and improve with gestures and poses. But, well, I ended up rendering these pieces anyway. I can't help myself, it's my favourite part of the process. I especially liked drawing the Kangel and Ame-chan piece - I love when anime girls' boobs touch and squish against each other.

I’ve also done two cons so far in 2026, I’ll talk a bit about them!

Megacon Dublin 2026

Megacon is a corpo con, so not the most interesting, but we don’t have many events in Ireland so it’s always nice to do one in my own country and catch up with local friends!

I took part in two stamp rallies; a Vocaloid rewind stamp rally, in which we all drew pieces based on different Vocaloid songs released in 2025, and a BLVN stamp rally. I drew two prizes for the Vocaloid rally, but one didn’t arrive in time… In fact none of them arrived in time, but I was able to print one from home lol. My printer is local and in my city, but somehow my order got lost and never arrived… It was a whole ordeal lol. For the BLVN stamp rally, I drew a Shimbashi and Oosaki badge from Ooe!

Overall, it was kinda a chill event, I didn’t stray from my booth too much and just hung out with my friends. I don’t even have any booth pics and didn’t cosplay lol but I do have pictures of from the meals I ate.

Akumakon Galway 2026

Akumakon is always one of my favourite cons of the year, I’m always so delighted to get in! My friend from France, Cley, came to visit for this one so we had a lot of stuff planned before, during, and after the con. The trek from Belfast to Galway is super long – about 6 hours? It took 2 train journeys and we fought for our lives to get our luggage onboard, but overall, it was pretty smooth! I was travelling and rooming with my girlfriend Sarah, and then our friends Cley and Amy, so it was a fun journey, and even more fun just hanging out in the hotel room together!

Set up starts pretty late on the Friday for Akumakon, so we were setting up from about 5pm until 9pm before going out for a dinner we booked with a bunch of friends.

I was in three stamp rallies for this con - A Needy Girl Overdose one, a Summer Hikaru Died one, and a Sopranos one. A bunch of my friends have been super into The Sopranos lately, so me and my gf have also been getting into it. At the time of writing this, I'm on season 4 episode 4. It's so good!! I can't stop watching it. I love Carmela, Dr Melfi, and Paulie. Our stamp rally was Maid Café themed, so I drew Tony's crew in maid aprons in the Lucky Star style. Everyone just made little stickers and badges for this one, so it was free for people to take part in and receive prizes. All the prize packs were claimed for every stamp rally I was in!

I cosplayed both days for this con too! On Saturday I did a Silent Hill f cosplay group with Sarah and our friend Lauren, who was Fox Mask. Then on Sunday I cosplayed Tamamori from Koshotengai no Hashihime, but I was cosplaying alone and no one recognised my cosplay ... Maybe for Dokomi I’ll meet other Hashihime cosplayers!

Saturday night was Valentine’s, so it was impossible to get a restaurant booking anywhere, so we stayed in and had a hotel room party, watching stupid YouTube videos and eating spice bags. Then on Sunday night we watched Flubber and Lake Mungo in the hotel room. Fun weekend!!!

We had a little time to explore Galway on Monday too, so we did some touristy stuff - like getting some Claddagh jewellery and going to Murphy's ice cream. Their butterscotch ice cream is so good... I got it twice over the weekend.

Personal

I got to see Machine Girl again in January! Their new album was pretty good but I'm not crazy about it, but their concerts are always great live, the energy is so good. I also just am so happy they keep coming to Ireland! So many bands just completely skip over us. I was so mad this year when Kikuo did another Europe tour, but skipped Ireland despite having two sold out shows last time. It's like bands are just allergic to playing here, it sucks, it's pretty tiring - and way too expensive - to fly to another country every time an artist I like is playing. So I'm happy I've gotten to catch Machine Girl three times so far, in my own country. Also, on the way back from Dublin, I tried Taco Bell for the first time, and I've been craving it soooo badly ever since... I've heard it's not the same here compared to America, though, so if I ever visit the US I'll have to try it to compare.

Also I got super into Lamento in January. I love it so much. I’ve been pretty stressed out so the game’s relaxing atmosphere and romantic storyline has been very comforting to me. Rai’s route was my favourite, and I really really love Konoe. I’ve only played Sweet Pool (a long time ago) in terns of other Nitro+Chiral games, but still, Konoe is probs my favourite N+C protag. I do plan to re-play sweet pool some day though, and I’ll be playing Slow Damage soon because my gf wants me to cosplay with her!

Here’s some Lamento sketches!

And ONE MORE THING!!! MIKU EXPO EUROPE 2026!!!!!!!!! I KNEW IT'D BE ANNOUNCED SOON BUT STILL, YAY!!!!!

I got VIP for London, and regular standing for Paris! I'm so excited!!! I wish I could just go to Vocaloid concerts forever. November feels so so far away.

For fun I made up a delusional setlist wishlist for Miku Expo 2026. This is just compromised of songs that have actually been performed live already before - I could go way more delusional. Looking at it now, I'd really love for the Kaito song to be Electric Weekend Zone! Would also love the RinLen song to be Fake Heart. We usually get some English song debuts for Expo, so I'd love to see those ones! Also really really hoping we get to see Teto. I wouldn't be surprised if we got Mesmerizer. But I would love to have Don't Believe in T if we were gonna get a MikuTeto song... Also, I saw they got Ai Dee for Miku Expo Asia and that'd make me go insane too. Honestly, there's so many songs I'd love to see, I'll just be happy to have as few repeat songs from previous years or concerts I've been to as possible. There are still so many songs I have to see!!!!!

Also, for our Wowaka song, I am PRAYING for World's End Dancehall! I've already seen Rolling Girl, and have seen Unknown Mother Goose twice. I love them but I need to see World's End Dancehall! Though

I keep track of every single Vocaloid song I've seen live (although I forgot to write down the ones I saw at IA's concert during summer...) because I'm insane. So here they are if anyone's curious lol. Love these songs but praying None of them show up for Miku Expo 2026. (Though ngl I wouldn't complain about seeing Call! or Roki again...)

Anyways!! Super super excited for Miku Expo!! Attending Vocaloid concerts is my absolute favourite thing to do. I'm excited to design some freebie stickers or badges to give away.

I have another few blog posts planned - I want to write about some of the VNs I've been reading more in depth ... But for now goodbye, here's a song!