The Monthly Report: July 2025
Enduring
Welcome to The Monthly Report section of the Warthog Report, where I talk about what was posted last month and plans for this month.
Last Month
How do I begin to talk about the limbo that was last month? I am normally not one to share much about my personal life here, but due to corporate and bureaucratic nonsense I no longer have a home. It’s not a matter of money, I have had a nice new residence lined up for months but have been gatekept from it by people refusing to do their jobs.
There is no danger of me ending up on the street, but my sanity has been wounded and is continuing to be assaulted with every passing moment that lacks news. This should have all been resolved in May. It’s July.
Yet thanks to my preparation I was able to keep to my deadlines even while stuck in purgatory. For June I talked about the musical Maybe Happy Ending. Some of its songs still feel a bit too relevant to my situation for me to listen to at the moment.
For a focused one act musical, it also has some remarkable world building, where the implications of a few lines do much to paint a picture of the wider world these characters exist in. It wasn’t necessary, but the implications about the setting fascinate me, even as I feel some guilt for fixating on things that don’t matter to the core arc of the story.
Meanwhile with the hiatus from May my post on PAX East ended up being published here well after the event. It already feels like it happened even longer ago than it actually did. Which is why it’s good to have a reminder of how things went.
Also in contrast to the show floor, I felt the panels were much more interesting this year. Normally only a few interest me, here I had quite a few I wanted to go to. A common theme of the panels that interested me was learning about ways to interact with games, be it different styles for running tabletop games or speedrunning.
I also stepped beyond the normal posting schedule to return to the world of A Marriage of Body and Soul with Drabbles of Body and Soul, a set of ten drabbles checking back in with Simon and Beleth.
“My queen, I suggest you prepare to leave for the aquarium now.” Beleth’s advisor, Athenodoros, had quickly taken to a personal assistant like role once summoned. The word queen was starting to feel more fitting, but Simon wasn’t entirely used to it.
Meanwhile Kazuko’s story in Battles Beneath the Stars got started with two chapters published in June. It was nice to finally get started on her story and the ideas for it I’ve been waiting to dig into.
Feriel: So you’re fighting for a chance to return home?
Kazuko: Yep. Of course even if I lose I can still find something else, but it’d be really impressive if I came back having won an entire tournament, don’t you think? It’d show them how useful I am.
This Month
For all that I’ve been dealing with personally, my publishing schedule has stayed on track and I expect it to stay that way. Yet if something happens that makes me miss a deadline, I hope the previous section has made the reason why clear. I’ll be fighting to avoid that however.
In lighter news, I’ll be running a tournament for Merfight at Beach Episode, which is a big fighting game event. It’s not on the level of something like EVO, but still the sort that people stay at hotels for. This will be my first time playing such a role at an event like that. And hopefully this long nightmare will have ended by then.
That’s all for now. Thank you for being subscribed to the Warthog Report.
I’m sorry about the setbacks with your home and I hope things are resolved soon ❤️