photo saturday: tricksy girl

This week's DnD Character Colouring Book takes another leaf out of the 2024 rules, when I started playing around with the idea of a Goliath Cleric. Trickery Cleric to be exact. Because, honestly, it's a Cleric subclass I've never played but really want to.

And now that Goliath are more "Giant themed", the idea of meshing Cloud Giant Goliaths and the Trickery Domain kind of seemed like a perfect fit. Especially since Cloud Giants themselves are known to wear masks, and I really wanted to play around with the fox mask. So I leaned much more into Giant lore and Giant gods rather than anything that has previously Goliath lore. Seemed more fun (because honestly, the Goliath gods are kind of dull, and they definitely lack a Trickery god).

Which led me to discover the Giant goddess Diancastra, who is both a minor Trickery goddess, a minor fertility goddess but also seems to be something of a goddess of pleasure.

So I ended up imagining Zovi (pronounced somewhat like "Sophie" said with an accent... although right now, I'm not completely sure where I got that name... and if it actually means something, because generally they do) as being a major flirt who might spend time in a tavern finding somebody to appreciate pleasure with... hence this alternate outfit.

The Bearmother nickname was taken from one of the previous edition tables of Goliath nicknames, my thought being that at some point she rescued a bear cub after it's mother was killed and raised it, earning her the nickname, but it also had a double meaning of her being fiercely protective of the people under her care.

Anyway...

This week has been... a lot.

So, soup this week was... kind of slightly less soup and more just pasta sauce with noodles... or technically my Lasagne Soup. Very thick, but tasty as fuck.

This week was also my Rental Inspection... so Monday I did a deep clean of the kitchen, Tuesday I did my usual "stack things on the bed, clean everything else"... which was made slightly more difficult when I discovered that I'd stepped on a small piece of glass, and without realising what it was, went to brush it off my foot, resulting in me slicing my thumb in a very shallow cut that bled like a mofo... right next to where I accidental sliced the heel of my thumb with a tin can lid on Sunday night... and also scraped the back of my heel while moving furniture around.

Basically I was a mass of minor cuts and scrapes for much of this week... just what you want when trying to clean things.

Once I had finished tidying, there was a prolonged period of Laying The Fuck Down because my body was Not Having It.

Then Wednesday I ran the vacuum over the carpet for the last time and made myself scarce.

I started with an early morning wander around Kmart, then took myself off to visit one of the other two libraries near me. Turns out the one I ended up at was only slightly bigger than the one down the street from me, so after taking a look around I ended up back at the one in Burnside where I hung out for a couple of hours.

It was, as always, nice to come home to a tidy house knowing that the inspection had been done.

But, I'll be honest, I was kind of wiped out because my back had already been grumbling and cleaning never helps.

This week's Mini TV Series Review is the third and fourth seasons of Westworld. So, in the last two weeks I have mainlined somewhere in the vicinity of 36 hours of Westworld. My brain definitely faces the other way now.

But I adored the first three seasons. The fourth season... yeah, not as much. The fourth just felt confusing for the sake of being confusing. But the third season was brilliant. Sadly the end of the fourth sets up for the fifth season that it seems might never happen. I hope it does so that the creators do get a chance to make that final season at some point, even if it ends up being something like a graphic novel. Because I do want to know how the story ends.

Will it makes sense when it does? Fucked if I know... but I want to go on the journey anyway.

There was no Friday Night DnD again this week, so instead Fluffy and I did Movie Night... and I got to introduce him to The Witches of Eastwick. So that was a fun evening.

Anyway...

Today wasn't much of anything... we did the supermarket and that was it really. I did break out the yarn I used to make Ma's scarf the other week and start on a pair of cuff/gloves to match. And we just kind of sat around and watched things on YouTube and nattered a bit until I'd crocheted a chunk of the first cuff, before I sent Ma home.

So that was it really.

photo saturday: lavender wanderer

Sometimes I like to go really left field from the implied archetype of a class. This week's DnD Character Colouring Book is one of those. And also another in the list of possible characters for the new 2024 rules.

Admittedly, I don't much care for what they did to the Ranger in the new rule set. Mostly because they attempted to improve the class by making a spell into a class feature, which I'm never a fan of. But I do like the way that Kellen turned out. And I do like a character almost entirely in purple.

He's also a jeweller... and his spellcasting focus is the brooch made to look like lavender. And the walking stick has a sword inside it.

Fey Wanderer Rangers can also cast the Summon Fey spell without a spell slot... And while I've played around with that spell before, on another purple-clad character...

Originally I was going somewhere else with this idea, but then I made one of these little friends and realised it would be fun if they were essentially either identical triplets (ala Snap, Crackle and Pop) or that it was the one fey who changed personality. But I also named them after three of the four fairies from Midsummer Night's Dream.

Anyway...

This week's soup wasn't anything major... just vegetable and rice with some chorizo... which made it pleasantly spicy without being too much.

There wasn't so much Mini Movie Reviews this week as there was Mini TV Series Review... two seasons of Westworld. As I mentioned last week, I was revisiting the first season to refresh my memory for the second... and I'm glad I did, because I really only remembered a couple of things from the end of that season.

The second season is... a strange animal. It does a thing with non-linear narrative that I'm not sure is completely necessary. Or, it doesn't do quite enough with it overall. There were some nice moments throughout though, even if there were certain characters I would happily see the back of. But, you know, narrative conflict and tension and whatnot.

I am interested to see where they go with the third and fourth seasons... which I will be mainlining this week.

Given that next week is my rental inspection, I took a little ride to dispose of the old TV and the busted vacuum cleaner. And given that a bunch of places only took TVs, I ended up at the Bunnings on South Road. It was nice to come home to not having a bunch of useless stuff taking up space.

I also crocheted Ma a ribbed scarf using some of the "make a granny square" yarn she got from Spotlight a while ago. And, I'll be honest, when I first saw that yarn my reaction was instantly to want to make something from it that that wasn't a granny square at all. And so, I got my wish. Personally I didn't like the colours of this particular yarn, but then the scarf came out really well. It was also relatively easy to do, since I've done a bunch of stuff in this ribbing stitch at this point.

Anyway...

Today was fairly standard Saturday... after the supermarket, I showed Ma the aforementioned scarf and when she was okay with the width of it, I sewed the two ends together to make infinity scarf. I'll be honest, that's always the weakest part for this... it really should be crocheted together, but I tried that too on mine and it just didn't work properly. It also didn't help that the yarn I ended up using to stitch it together was bright red, but I was stitching through areas that were not, in fact, bright red. But, you know, Ma didn't mind. And it's done now.

Afterwards, we did take a trip to Spotlight for the Looking At Things. And deciding not to buy more yarn because I absolutely do not need more, since I haven't used up the stuff I already have.

But that was it really.

photo saturday: one slippery boy

Sometimes at a DnD table there's a dumb joke that becomes another dumb joke that turns into the idea of an NPC that turns into what could be a potential character.

So a conversation about a "dry sense of humor" turned into somebody asking whether or not another character was "moist", as in "not dry", but because that player had been sitting there at the table the whole time, listening to the earlier conversation even though their character wasn't there, they shot back with "no, I know Moist, they're a [insert euphemism for sex worker here]"... I don't remember exactly what term was used, but we both pretended not to understand what they were referring to, and it was all a bit silly.

And then, the following day, as is his want, Fluffy sent me his Hero Forge idea of the character... which... I mean... we've already covered how I mostly feel about that... so, naturally, I sidetracked during last week's post and threw together a better version and sent it to Fluffy. But, of course, we never accept a first draft. And bits of it weren't sitting right. So there was a slight redesign. Mostly a recolour to be fair. And some Photoshop fuckery. And about 300 minor tweaks, and a couple of slightly larger ones.

Thus, we find ourselves at Moist. Non-binary bisexual disaster. Or at least that's the version in my head.

Whether or not his subrace, background, class or subclass are correct or not I can't say. I could also see him as a College of Dance Bard. I also don't feel like he's my character to play. To redesign, yes. To reshape, yes. But I feel like this might be Fluffy's particular dumpster fire.

Mostly though, I'm very pleased with his face. Which was very much a part of the redesign. And might have been mildly inspired by somebody from the gay end of Twitter. Or at least the tongue thing was. It totally works though.

Anyway...

This week was Tuna Mornay... and not a bad one. Instead of rolling the dice and adding random amounts of spices, I made a spice mix first... which reduced some of the "rip the back of your head off" that often happens... but also, maybe I was a little too cautious. It was still tasty though.

This week's Mini Movie Reviews are two thirds "movies I've already seen", being the two Spider-verse movies (Into and Across). It's been a minute since I've seen either of them, and never watched them back to back. And while I love both of them, I think I like the second one more visually, and the first one more for the fact that it tells a complete story and doesn't stop halfway through with a "To Be Continued" title card.

Then it was the "thematic sequel" to Murder By Death... The Cheap Detective. It's not actually a sequel, because while it has a number of the same actors, the same writer and the same director, and Peter Falk is playing a parody version of Humphrey Bogart, they're not exactly the same character.

But this movie is what happens when you take The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca and Chinatown and throw them in a blender. And then tone down the racism in Murder By Death to negligible levels. I mean, there's still not none, but there isn't a character in yellow-face.

I then rounded out the week by revisiting the first season of Westworld with the intent to then watch the other three seasons, since I've never seen them. It's a very different experience rewatching a series with an element of mystery to it, even if you don't remember all the details, given you know where it ends.

So that's potentially going to be all I'm watching (instead of movies) for the next couple of weeks.

Friday Night DnD was slightly unexpected. Because that happens sometimes when you get to a roleplay moment as a character and instead of zigging left you suddenly zag right. Made for an interesting scene though.

Anyway...

Today wasn't really all that different from last week... we did the supermarket, then we went back to Big W, this time to replace my busted vacuum cleaner, because I have a rental inspection at the end of the month. Is it a known brand? No. Will it last as long as the old one? Absolutely not. Will it get me through? Yes.

The other question I don't 100% know the answer to is "will it fit in the wardrobe where I kept the old one? No idea. But probably.

And that's it really.

photo saturday: smiling assassin

We're dipping back into the Potential 2024 DnD Character Colouring Book this week. Because I fucking love a dragonborn. I've only played a couple, but they've both ended up as characters that I really enjoyed. And, of all the D&D dragons, the copper dragon has always been my favourite. So I really want to play a copper dragonborn in the new rules.

And given that Hero Forge hasn't converted the dragonborn head over to the Face Customiser, but she still came out looking pretty good considering.

I also like an atypical rogue. So a friendly, charlatan assassin is right in my wheelhouse. And this post absolutely came together in a way that made me instantly get a sense of who she is.

Because I have friends, associates and contacts in the lowest of places, I may have gotten an look at the 2024 Players Handbook before the book is released to all of the great unwashed, and discovered that rogues can now use whips. And what is more ridiculous than an assassin with a whip. So dumb. So Raali absolutely uses a whip. Will I actually end up doing that if I made this character, I dunno, but it would be real damn tempting.

I also have... A Series Of Opinions About Some Of The Choices In The New Players Handbook. Which I won't go into, but I definitely have them about certain elements. Mostly the things I have opinions about are easily handwaved or ignored, but still.

There is also a lot of stuff that I am Very Excited About. Which, mostly, outweighs the other stuff.

Anyway...

This week's soup was me mashing together the idea of ragu and my lasagne soup. Or, you know, making lasagne soup but with diced beef instead of mince. In any case, it was fucking delicious, even if I did accidentally give myself minor third degree burns when a very hot piece of noodle came into contact with my lip. Owie.

You know what's fun... when you have eight books that have been "In Transit" from the library for about a week and a half and only two of them show up by the end of the week. Urgh. So, that's why this week's Mini Movie Review is only two movies. Because I kept expecting other things to show up, and nothing had done before Friday.

What we did have was Murder By Death from 1976. It's a weird movie that often doesn't make a lot of sense, but is doing so intentionally. Also, some egregious Yellow Face makeup/performance from Peter Sellers, which is an incredibly yikesy. Otherwise, it's silly, fun, nonsense with an amazing cast.

The other movie was the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Did I previously say "fuck Guardians" because it was the only Marvel movie I hadn't caught up on and didn't intend to? Yes, yes I did. However I picked it up when I was at the library a week ago because nothing else I'd ordered had some in and it was just sitting there. And I was planning to watch it on Monday... didn't watch it. Planned to watch it on Tuesday... didn't watch it. Finally just gave up and watched it on Wednesday night.

I have... Thoughts, Feelings and Opinions. Firstly, I didn't see (and now won't both) the Guardians Christmas Special, so it turns out that I missed out on a little context for this movie. But not enough for it to matter. 

Did I spend the first part of this movie siding with Will Poulter's Adam Warlock and enjoyed watching him smack the living shit out of the Guardians as a group? Yes, yes I did. Did I want to shove Chris Pratt AND Starlord's fucking entitled asses into the nearest airlock and eject him into space for full 90% of this movie? Yes, yes I did. Did I fail to really give a shit about Rocket and his Tragic Backstory? Yes, I really did. Do I only know about some of these new characters because of my continued obsession with Marvel Snap? Yes, absolutely. Did the movie slightly win me over by the end, and I'm okay with most of how it ended? Slightly. 

Would I have been unhappy to see Starlord die at the end, no. But at least they didn't get him and Gamora back together, because then I would have lobbed my remote at the TV. Making her come around to him even a tiny bit was bad enough, because that was some White Straight Male Privilege Bullshit right there. Sure, you loved the other version of Gamora, but she died. Think of this Gamora as her identical twin sister who you have literally never met before and who doesn't like you. Now relook at all your behaviour and understand what as asshole you are.

But now I am absolutely officially done with Guardians movies. We closed out the storyline, resolved all the stuff that needed to get resolved, I don't need to revisit these characters unless they happen to show up in somebody else's better movie, and then I will roll my eyes and move on.

So that was movies.

Otherwise, Friday was Chiro Day. So I did my usual wander around town, looked at a few things or rather looked for some things that aren't available yet, and came home.

Friday Night DnD was not exactly what I was expecting. I had thought we were going to go dashing off to have important conversations in far off places, and what we actually did was solve a bunch of riddles (thankfully, easily... or at least one of the three of us knew the answer, even when the other two were stumped). And finding out that when your BBEG has access to a future predicting oracle, you were always preordained to be the ones to get in the way of her plans.

So, you know, that was novel.

Anyway...

Today was relatively chill. But it always feels like I haven't really bought very much when I decide to make something like Tuna Morney instead of soup. Mostly because I buy minimal vegetables.

After unpacking and futzing around a little, we went to Big W to find me a replacement for my hair/beard trimmer which is currently dying. I had looked in the city, but they were more than I really wanted to pay. Will this not last anywhere near as long as one of those? Probably. But so long as it does what I need it to do for now, it's fine.

We also poked around the Christmas decorations, because, yes, as I have said before, I am Part of the Problem. But, honestly, it was all pretty fucking ugly.

So that was it really.