#New Chapter of Life

[sakkaira]

『まぁ、いいか。人生の次の章へ進む時だ。』

Romaji ¬ Maa, iika. Jinsei no tsugi no shou (h)e susumu toki da.

Translation ¬ Well, whatever. It's time to move onto the next chapter in life.

[musicprincess1990]

Hi, everyone. It's me, the author who consistently drops the ball on updating her fics. The last few months have been a challenge, to say the least. I've been struggling with my job, fighting to keep my spirits up while sitting at a desk and hating it, lying to myself and everyone around me by telling them I was fine, that I could make it work, that I was happy.

Well, I got fired yesterday. The reason is legitimate, and my own fault. My manager and HR director were very kind about it, and I'm glad I had the chance to work for and with so many good people. And while I'm deeply sad and angry at myself for squandering it, I'm also choosing to see this as a turning point.

No more offices. No more 9 to 5. No more "fake it 'til you make it."

I'm going to "live by my pen." It's past time I finally write that book I've been dreaming of writing for years. No more excuses. If I fail, then I fail, and find a new way to pick myself up. But I'd rather try and fail than spend one more minute regretting. I'm over it.

Does this mean I'm going to have updates for you? Well... maybe. I will do my very best. And I certainly have the free time now, for a while at least. I greatly appreciate the kind comments and check-ins I've received over the last few months. Even though I don't always reply, they do mean a great deal.

Final note: I'm officially a massive fan of 401ks. While I would prefer not to cash it put, that's money that can pay my bills and keep me solvent in the months to come while I get my life sorted out. I'll miss that, as self-employment doesn't offer that, but I'm glad I have that money to use now. Whether you believe in God or not, this is a miracle, and I am counting my blessings. This doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Anyway, thank you for coming to my TED talk. Much love to any and all of you who have stuck around and waited for my flaky ass to get to it. 😂❤️

[officialbraincells]

I just realized that May's gonna end tomorrow. A month later I won't be here at my home anymore. I have to face the world and it's challenges. Rather than being excited about this new chapter of my life, I am actually quite sad. There's sorrow and some fear buried within me that I only feel late at night.

[forgetmenot-mymoon]

Eulogy for the living

I think about you a lot. I know you will never read this and if you do, you’ll hate it. We knew each other for two years. A long time I loved you and your bird. You say I loved the bird more and honestly I think I did. And I’m not sorry, he was such a good bird that you’ve taken from me. You’ve taken a lot. Not to say I haven’t taken from you. However I don’t understand you. I can’t say I know what happened. I can’t even say I’ve missed it. I’ve surpressed a lot- I’ve surpressed a lot in my life-

People always leave, it’s life. I’ve spent my life wanting to stop that inevitable. However it never works, promises get broken, fights are fought.

So now that you are finally out of my life after that final click, (Thank god for the block button.)

I think I will accept people leave and instead of trying to prevent it, I will try to make the goodbye good. I will try to make it happen naturally as it can, I will try to make it so we don’t vilinaize eachother.

Can good goodbyes sometimes be worse? Yes but at least we don’t hate eachother, at least we won’t wish death on each other.

And I won’t know for sure if it’s worse without experimenting.

Experimenting is a bit cruel? I guess but we all do it. I once had a friend that dated someone because she was curious, and usually I experiment how people react to certain things to see what’s bad or good. Not even consciously. Of course we also observe but experimenting is a part of life in a way-

Oh I got off track huh? You remember I use to do that a lot don’t you? Is this for you? No it’s for me. I’m going to start making goodbyes good, I’m going to grow and change and people will leave. They will always leave, however life goes on. You think it won’t but it always does, that’s what’s funny about life.

[galaghiel]

Both Jack and Maddie stared at him, speechless. Silence blanketed the lab, everything but Danny’s strangled crying, his hand pressed over the muzzle as if to hide it. No- to hold it still, to still the dozen wicked barbs that were digging into his tongue, probably ripping it with each sob.

a little sketch of @liketolaugh-writes amazing one-shot fanfic that you can read here

[ruporas]

… and it all came flowing to his brain, three years of his youth. (ID in alt)

[remanence-of-love]

[kimtaegis]

Destination: your heart Estimated Time of Arrival: whenever you need him ➤ for @jung-koook ♡

[wasyago]

the brainrot won

[thoughtsthatstayedwithme]

[ghirahimbo]

evil time loop escape conditions where you can't get out until you've fuucked up your life in the most spectacular way possible, confident that the next night will reset the slate as usual.

instead, the next day comes.

[purplebehittindifferent]

I have added a quirky comment here for the last year and a half, however now… I have no words.

jk I have all these words 👇

I know it is very bitter sweet, but this is the end of Reconnecting. Thank you all for coming along on this journey with me. I plan on making a behind the scenes video on my YT sometime soon. Feel free to send any asks you have I want to answer them all!

Please know I am not going to dissapear! I still plan on making content consistently, and my original comic RULE 5 is already underway, and if you’d like I’m certainly not against writing some exposition fics for Reconnecting 💜

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Prev (3::8) / This is the End 💜

[kray-zay]

designs for a Transformers horror AU thing I was working on but shelved for the time being to work on my other main tf au project.

Thought I just shared these freaks without context. rest of the art and writing for this project prob not gonna be posted until/if I start working on it again.

Bonus little dude, he a part of a diagram explaining some lore but it doesn't make a ton of sense without knowing other lore from this AU I haven't shared.

[starry-bi-sky]

mmmmmm read a disciple shen yuan/shizun luo binghe fanfic about two days ago where the first chapter was the Immortal Conference arc, and SQQ was the one who had to be pushed into the abyss (he was still the villain) except Luo Binghe was refusing and was like, lowkey losing his mind about SQQ being so close to the edge. SQQ ended up having to be the one to fall in himself because of the system's punishment system. The rest of the fic is leading up to that moment. But like, MMM i've been obsessively thinking about that first chapter for DAYS ever since.

now i've been in svsss for a grand total of *checks watch* a week. but god obsessed with that. I want to write/read a fic where disciple SQQ goes a little nuts down there. Like keep all of the things that make SQQ, SQQ, but just. Throw in a little bit more trauma in there. A little bit of a mental break. Let him go a little nuts as a treat. Just a tad unhinged. I wanna see him go, just a little, "god fuck it, i've tried so hard to change this shitty story's outcome and it feels like everything i've done has been for nothing. I'm going to die in this world no matter what I do, I've been doomed from the start, so might as well die the way I want to." and he just, breaks a little! Under all the stress.

He still retains the traits that makes shen yuan, shen yuan, like his overwhelming kindness. But he's just! yk. A little less patient. Paranoid. Jumpy. Colder. A little more aloof and closed off. A little more Shen Jiu. He's no asshole child abuser, but he was a Number One Hater in his past life and he's leaning into that old habit a little more now.

(On a totally coincidental not-at-all related note, there's not enough SJ-and-SY-are-the-same-people fics out there that i've found. This is totally unrelated...)

The Endless Abyss turns the mind into an over-sharpened blade, and SQQ is both fascinated and perhaps a little excited to explore a place that doesn't have a lot of info on it in the mortal realm, but still terrified out of his mind. And he's no Luo Binghe, he doesn't have the sheer brute strength and power to just bulldoze his way through, so he has to be a lot more sneaky and cunning if he wants to survive.

The fic itself role-swapped LBH and SQQ so that SQQ was the half-demon (which lowkey fucks) and LBH the human, but I'm equally-if-not-more obsessed with the idea that LBH remains the half-heavenly demon and SQQ the human. If only because I keep thinking about SQQ befriending some demons (particularly and specifically a group of succubi) and they grow very attached to this Human Cultivator so through magic plot stuff they create some kind of seal/illusion/talisman that makes SQQ appear as a demon because a human cultivator in the endless abyss may as well be the equivalent of putting a giant neon target on your back.

And iirc Shen Jiu was taught demonic cultivation by that one guy(?? i've only been here a week so im not caught up in ALL of the lore yet) so that could totally happen here.

(On the other end of the realms, poor Shizun Luo Binghe is just. losing his fucking mind over losing his most precious and beloved disciple. About .5 seconds from burning down the peaks himself. somebody sedate him.)

The Endless Abyss sucks and SQQ is having a really terrible time and can feel himself going lowkey mad, but also holy shit look at all this WORLD-BUILDING. look at all this flora and fauna, and oh if he had the equipment for it he'd be writing all of this down. ALL OF IT. He was kinda-sorta-already planning on never leaving the Abyss as some sort of fucked up self-exile and self-preservation thing, but now he might? actually just?? never leave if he can help it, like he lowkey likes it down here.

anyways the next time anyone ever sees SQQ again he's got hair so long its almost touching the ground and he's either in rags and half-feral or he's been completely dolled up by his adoptive succubi sisters and still about three seconds from biting anyone who tries to touch him. (he's also lowkey trying to book it back down to the abyss even if he has desperately missed all of his friends and shizun)

[facets-and-rainbows]

Update from Kazue Katoh's Twitter

The Blue Exorcist hiatus will be extended for another month (through the November issue)

[Drawing of Katoh apologizing] Sorry for all the delays!

As Blue Exorcist celebrates its 15th anniversary, I'm taking my first ever unplanned three-month break from publishing it. I think it's about time to share more information on the situation with my readers...It's a personal matter but I'd like to tell you.

I was actually diagnosed with an illness at my regular checkup in March, and I've spent the last few months working in between hospital visits.

I've finished surgery, which went well, and I've been discharged for the time being, but I needed extra time for post-op treatment so I'm going to have to extend the hiatus.

It's ended up as a long 3-month wait, and I'm sorry about that!

I'll be keeping my exact diagnosis private for now, but in my case it shouldn't be life-threatening with proper treatment.

I'm currently back to work and feeling good, so don't worry too much!

[Drawing of Katoh in a hospital bed] I actually got excited for my first hospitalization, and my first surgery, and my first general anesthesia, and my first catheter... Maybe it's a manga artist thing. I had my catheter removed by a nurse who apparently reads Blue Exorcist, haha, nothing can scare me anymore (*Catheter=a tube that goes directly in the urethra) (Nurse: Take a deep breath and I'll take it out when you exhale...)

[Drawing of Katoh at the gym] I got back to the gym 3 days after I was discharged from the hospital! They said exercise will be good for my recovery.

The current plan is:

Next month: There will be no Blue Exorcist chapter in the November issue of Jump SQ (which comes out in October), but I'm drawing a new poster for it!

The month after next: Blue Exorcist is scheduled to return in the December issue of Jump SQ (which comes out in November.)

At any rate, I'll be continuing treatment alongside work for a while, so there may be times when that impacts my work and makes you all worry...Apologies in advance! My soul couldn't rest if I died before finishing Blue Exorcist, so I'm hoping to stick around and keep drawing it while I continue my treatment.

All this has just been spurring on my inconsistency as an author, but I hope you'll stick with Blue Exorcist going forward!

Kazue Katoh, Sept 4, 2024

[Drawing of Katoh making a determined little fist] And take care of yourselves too! Get your annual checkups!