Lady Luck is Kind:

The monthly refresh in Heaven Burns Red got me a lot of loot, which quickly transitioned into 6 new SS Memoria.  None of them were actually new, though, so instead I got 5.5 limit breaks of powerful old SS Memoria instead.  Swimsuit Karen got her level 1 limit break, base Yotsuha her level 2, ninja Mari her level 3, swimsuit Tama her level 1, and base Tama her level 1.  Base Chie got halfway to her level 4 limit break.

What's most impressive about this haul is all of these SS Memoria are already heavy hitters in predesigned squads.  It's like the game knew what would help me out most and gave me exactly what I wanted.  I mean, I guess if I was being picky I'd rather the game had given me all-new SS Memoria, or a level 4 upgrade, but the ones I got are way better than what you'd expect from pure randomness.

Of course, until I actually level these characters up it doesn't much matter that they got their limit breaks, so my newfound strength won't show up immediately.  But what a haul considering I didn't have to pay a dime for it.

I am a little distraught that I can't purchase any more miracle bells through the crystal exchange.  I was counting on them to get me more reversions.  But now I see that reversions are a precious resource that can't actually be divvied out willy-nilly.  There's no reliable way to get my hands on more bells, as far as I know there's just the 3 bells you can get during events -- and there's a finite number of events in the game.  A pretty small number too. . .

I got Ichiko, Isuzu, Yuina, Sumomo, Hisame, Karen and Megumi their 'skillful means' skill.  I should probably move on to farming a new skill orb boss already, though it's hard to argue any skill is as useful as skillful means.

I defeated Flat Hand for the first time without having to resort to a stat boost, making Apophis the last anachrony that can stymie me in any way.

I maxed out my elemental rings, now I have 6 +4 rings of all types.  It's a shame because I like the caverns of cultivation for their speedy encounter rate that is great for increasing skill levels, but the main loot of the dungeon, the rings, is now useless to me. . .

Meanwhile, I promoted Long Long Spell to 5-star, demoting Ami from FF8 to 4-star to make room.  It's another case of a vocal upstaging an instrumental, part of a long-term trend dedicated to making the top tier more emotional.  This also promoted Jun Maeda into the position of the 6th best composer by points, 944 vs. Yasunori Nishiki's 938 points at 7th place.  What a well deserved victory for Jun Maeda, who can never receive enough praise for what he's done.

According to the latest statistics, people in the USA have a 1 in 87 chance to die by suicide, a 1 in 57 chance to die by drug overdose (which is also suicide), a 1 in 238 chance to die by gun assault (which every other civilized country has an obvious solution for but we don't.), and a 25% chance for girls to be sexually abused by the age of 18. (a much higher rate than the global average).  As usual the USA fertility rate hit an all-time low this year.  The obesity rate is 40%.

America is still a nightmare hellscape, nothing has changed under Trump.  Nothing can change, because various judges have overruled every single act Trump attempts to take.  Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the House and the Senate has the filibuster rule so Congress can't do anything either.  No matter how bad things get Americans aren't ready to vote for serious change.  Obama was able to win a filibuster-proof Senate majority, but Republicans haven't had something like that since the 1920's.  So I sit here on my video-game playing throne watching the country burn.