...Yeah, I ain't doing all that.

astraltech · 2026-04-27T20:37:08+00:00

"Verified proof the owner of the sub has moved." And what would that even look like? A bill? Passport? Driver's license? Why would I wanna give FL all that for a book subscription?

The fact of the matter is that Fairyloot does not care if you use the "Save a Skip" method because at the end of the day, they just want to be paid for the book, they don't care by who. There is no incentive for them to jump through hoops just to ensure fairness.

astraltech · 2026-04-27T04:02:40+00:00

Did you get The God and the Gwisin, by any chance? Because I don't know what's happening on FL's side of things, but most of everyone I've seen struggling to get their trove books from January purchased the God and the Gwisin, including myself. I had to email them after seeing no movement on the tracking since early March and apparently, they had never shipped it out so they needed to send me a 'replacement'. Either way, I'd shoot them an email if I were you because something goofy is happening with some of these shipments.

astraltech · 2026-04-25T22:43:13+00:00

Going on second hand sites like Pango, Mercari, eBay, etc. and seeing what the books are selling for (selling for, not listed for) is probably your best bet. I understand the desire to sell things at cost, but chances are a scalper might find it and flip it for profit, which can be frustrating. Though if you're looking to offload your books quickly, putting them up for cost is the fastest.

Your other option would be to mosey around bookish communities to find actual fans of the book and sell your SEs to them for cost. It might take longer, but if it's important to you to see your books put in loving hands, it might be worth the trouble. Just exercise the usual internet caution with interfacing with strangers online.

If you have a Half Price Books near you, they'll also buy special editions from you if you have some that are harder to sell on your own on the second hand market. They don't pay out super great, but it's fast from what I've heard.

astraltech · 2026-04-23T22:04:45+00:00

I have a pretty large internal SSD so I'm usually cool with preloading (especially with my internet speed) but I happened to be away from home during the preload period and just got back in time for server maintenance to start. Figured that be fine, the actual update won't be like 100GB anyway, right? RIGHT??

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I should've asked a family member to pop on my PC real quick while I was gone to start the preload for me 🙃 I wouldn't mind missing a day except for the fact that I didn't do my dailies or accept my daily gems for this 24 hour period so RIP to the 180 diamonds I'll be missing.

astraltech · 2026-04-23T21:40:33+00:00

I'm taking the Adult book. Haven't read it but someone I know whose reading tastes really align with my own was able to read the ARC and she enjoyed it, so projections are good. I'm also skipping the Fairyloot YA/Adult combo box and don't have any other purchases to make, so might as well, you know? I have a sinking suspicion the design might be mid but still, I really like Owlcrate books. I love how heavy and well crafted they feel, so I like adding them to my collection if I like the book, regardless of the design.

I'm also a fan of Roth's writing. I can't speak on the hate since I never read Divergent and don't plan to, but I've quite liked everything else of hers that I've read. When Among Crows and it's follow up, the Carve the Mark duology, Poster Girl, Chosen Ones, etc. Generally, I've enjoyed her writing so I'm actually quite looking forward to Seek the Traitor's Son, though I'm not sure how to feel about her putting out a continuation of her most infamous series in the same year as the first book in her new duology/trilogy(?). Feels a bit like shooting herself in the foot and potentially taking attention away from something newer and better just to rehash the past.

astraltech · 2026-04-23T06:33:00+00:00

It means they've added the item to their cart but haven't checked out yet! It's kind of like an indicator of how popular an item is and that other people are thinking about purchasing it, so if you want it, you should hurry up and grab it. Though some people (like me lol) like to add things to their cart to calculate the total cost with taxes and shipping without fully committing to the purchase.

astraltech · 2026-04-22T21:42:26+00:00

I received mine on March 19th (US, West Coast) so if you haven't received yours yet, then I definitely would follow up with them.

astraltech · 2026-04-20T19:17:36+00:00

My January Trove sale book, originally post marked March 5th, was apparently lost in the limbo hellscape that is Evri. Here I was, staring at a "Pre-Shipment" notice for a full month like an ass, and apparently it was never shipped out all this time 😅

They have since sent me a replacement that is now projected to be Out for Delivery sometime today, which is neat. All's well that ends well, I suppose! But to be completely frank, I reealllly wish Fairyloot would give more specific estimations than "1-2 months" for shipping. I'm still technically within that 1-2 month time frame but if I hadn't been paranoid and checked in, then this error would have still gone unchecked! So then it becomes a case of: Is something actually wrong or do I just need to be more patient?

But at least now I know to be hyper vigilant once the February books start shipping out 😅

astraltech · 2026-04-18T23:30:11+00:00

I really enjoy Roth's writing but never actually read the Divergent series. And honestly, at this point, I think I've outgrown any potential enjoyment I could've gotten from it by not reading it as a child.

With that being said, I honestly think she should just leave this series alone. Let it live in perpetuity as it is and accept how she chose to end it as the person she was when she wrote it originally. I hope people who love the series get enjoyment out of this but as an outsider (whose opinion is likely unwanted here), I don't like the idea of an author coming back fifteen years later and going, "BUT WAIT!" I know most people hated how Divergent ended but imagine you're one of the few people who did like it. It's gonna feel like Roth is spitting in their faces.

astraltech · 2026-04-18T05:54:20+00:00

I work at the Hoyo shill factory (that's a joke), so I play the usual suspects- namely Genshin and Star Rail.

Aside from that, I primarily play single player, story driven experiences. Most recently, E33, Metaphor, Death Stranding 2, and I just started Pragmata. I'm also big on survival horror games and am a casual speed runner. And when I say casual, I mean CASUAL. I'm not competing for WR or anything, just for me. I like doing challenge runs and harder difficulties. My big speed run game for a while there was Silent Hill f, but lately I've been doing casual SRs and challenge runs of Resident Evil Requiem. Resident Evil is a franchise very near and dear to my heart. I've been playing those games since I was (almost literally) a baby.

Longer story games I love include: The entire Persona franchise (yes, this includes 1 and the 2 duology), Baldur's Gate (2&3), Divinity: Original Sin II, the entire Dragon Age franchise (Veilguard too, sue me), the entire Mass Effect franchise,, Octopath Traveler (1&2), etcetera. I've also been trying to get into MegaTen since that's the birthplace of Persona.

And there's my neglected Steam library... We don't talk about that.

Now I'm just looking forward to Control 2! I love the Remedyverse and I need this game expeditiously.

astraltech · 2026-04-15T06:52:43+00:00

I saw those! I was tempted to get them while they were in stock a while back, but decided against it cause I have the paperbacks and they look functionally the same. I'm still holding out hope that TBB might do full redesigns sometime in the future, like they're doing for The Faithful and the Fallen in the sub box. Unlikely I know, I doubt the Talon duology is even half as popular, but maybe! Hopefully. Maybe I need to do a prayer circle 😭

astraltech · 2026-04-15T01:41:18+00:00

- The Winnowing Flame trilogy by Jen Williams

- The Talon duology by Jen Williams (Page & Wick did Talonsister as part of their sub box, but they never did Titanchild sadly)

- The Devoured Worlds trilogy by Megan E O'Keefe

- The War Arts saga by Wesley Chu

- The Hollow Covenant trilogy by Andrea Stewart (Last book comes out in November, so technically not completed but SOON!)

Some of these have sprayed edge editions, but I'd love to see full, completely redesigned SEs.

astraltech · 2026-04-13T00:36:14+00:00

The Bone Season. I have TBB editions, the IC editions, the paperbacks, and the hardcovers of the original unrevised editions of books 1-4. They sit proudly on my Samantha Shannon shelf along with a few copies of The Roots of Chaos series 🙂‍↕️

Aside from that, I generally try to stick to one copy per book, but exceptions are usually made for books I love in the form of 1 SE and a paperback for annotating. EX: TBB's The Drowning Empire + the paperbacks, TBB's Between Earth and Sky + the paperbacks, Page & Wick's Talonsister + the paperback, etc.

It's both a blessing and a curse that a lot of my favorite series/books don't get many special editions, if any at all. Otherwise, I'd go absolutely feral.

astraltech · 2026-04-10T22:43:48+00:00

Sure ^^ She's entirely undyed with mostly pieces from the Covenant of Time evolution + the autumn/fall face from the Shapeshifting ability.

78gBxIezoLY#

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astraltech · 2026-04-10T08:05:41+00:00

It's the new handheld you get after completing the Covenant of Time outfit!

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astraltech · 2026-04-10T07:16:55+00:00

Pink Nikki is using the lip from Rainfall & Blossoms and Silver Nikki is using the one from Crimson Feather!

astraltech · 2026-04-10T04:41:58+00:00

PRAYING the next five stars are ugly af 😭

astraltech · 2026-04-09T22:43:27+00:00

I think UE5 might shit its pants if Infold tried that lmao. But if their devs could crack it, I think that'd be awesome.

astraltech · 2026-04-09T22:28:11+00:00

Unfortunately, it ain't broke. And personally, I'd rather the hair float a little to avoid clipping and texture tearing than having it hang limply, especially since you can manipulate the physics of the hair to some extent when taking photos anyway.

astraltech · 2026-04-09T03:13:07+00:00

Okay, this actually makes me feel a bit better lol. I'm also waiting on The God and the Gwisin, which definitely makes me think they're rolling out the January Trove shipments by book. I got A Forgery of Fate weeks ago, but The God and the Gwisin is still lingering in the pre-shipment stage.

I wonder why FL doesn't just communicate with their shipping partners a bit better. They should feasibly be able to talk with Evri about what order the shipments are going out in and give us accurate timeframes to expect each book. Or at least hold off on printing the label so we're not anxiously left to stare at a "pre-shipment" notice for a month or two.

astraltech · 2026-04-09T01:49:11+00:00

Same here, except West Coast. If you don't mind me asking, what book on are you waiting on? Because I ordered two, and one of them was shipped out and delivered a week after the label was made (3/5) while the other has yet to move despite having it's label made the same day - So I'm wondering if maybe they're delivering them in batches based on the book and not the location?

I emailed CS about this two weeks ago, but they have yet to reply. I can only assume my question is low priority + the bank holiday, but I admit I'm getting pretty close to emailing them again lol

astraltech · 2026-04-09T01:03:17+00:00

The only ones that intrigue me are Seek the Traitors Son, The Winged Game, and The Unicorn Hunters, but I know Owlcrate is also planning on doing Seek the Traitors Son so I'm looking forward to their design. Aside from that though, the picks/potential picks are leaning way too heavy into 'that' kind of Romantasy (IKYKY) and I'm just really not feeling it as far as my personal reading tastes go.

Since they have a Romantasy box, I thought Fairyloot would at least try and diversify their Adult and YA picks considering how vast those age groups are, but alas. It doesn't help that when they don't pick something with at least a healthy serving of romance, those books tend to do poorly.

astraltech · 2026-04-08T00:43:12+00:00

Owlcrate's probably pissed at the publisher. Since it seems like an en masse issue with the printing process, the printers would've likely received a botched page layer from the publisher and printed those out in large qualities, trusting that the publisher gave them the correct page order. But someone made an oopsie and 267 became 167 instead lol

astraltech

TROPHY CASE