character saturday: breezy boy

The other half of the NPCs turned PCs from last week. And this one I honestly had more of a take on creating. Plus I was very pleased by the results.

To tell the truth, this is just a tweak of Havoc. Because I have so many nicely posed and detailed characters that it just makes sense to use those as a starting point for new characters. Especially when the character probably won't otherwise see the light of day.

The result of this though was that this character just spoke to Fluffy (even if he missed some of the details)... which I was pleased by since I also made up the character sheet mostly out of nothing.

Anyway...

Lasagne soup this week... and a very good version of same.

This week's Mini Media Reviews...

I started with the miniseries The Line Of Beauty, based on the book of the same name by Alan Hollinghurst. Now I've never read the book, but I have read The Swimming Pool Library, a couple of times I think. And the issue generally with Hollinghurst that while he's writing about a specific time, place and social group in gay British history, his books are often very fucking depressing mixed with some fairly graphic sex scenes. This was very much that. A lot of horrible people being horrible to each other and the occasional sex scene. Kinda hard to watch, especially at the end when everything goes to hell. 

Next up on the Hard To Watch scale, the second season of In The Flesh. Still very good. Still a very clear queer allegory. But also an allegory to the general rise of conservatism. Kinda sad that they never got the third season that they were setting up for, because there's a whole secondary plotline in this season that really goes nowhere without it.

Lastly, Lovecraft Country. Which was fascinating, but I will fully admit, is a full 80% less Lovecraftian than I was perhaps expecting. It's also very Racism is Bad M'kay... again, not a bad thing, it's just occasionally a little heavy handed with the 1950's of it all. Narratively it is a little bit of a mess, it's based on what is essentially a book of interconnected short stories, so the story does swing around wildly from one thing to another. I also don't particularly like how it treated the small amount of queer content, based on the time period and the character involved.

I've reached that point in Red Dead Redemption 2 where the rollercoaster has started the long descent into terror and grief and badness. And it's kind of amazing. The disconnect between the actual story beats and the open world stuff is still staggering to me though. Major story events will happen and nobody around you really seems to react all that much.

I will say that some of the best side story missions are happening currently. Ones that have an actual emotional impact. Whereas I really don't want to do the main story quests at the moment. Especially because the game likes to mark a certain NPC as the one to talk to and they don't get a whole sentence out before somebody else comes up to talk to you and gives you a whole different mission. It gets annoying.

I also supposedly still have 30% of the game left to play.

Speaking of rollercoasters... This is your TMI warning... feel free to skip over this next bit.

I'm going through a very slutty phase right now hehe. I'm basically had more gentleman callers since Mother's Day than I've had for like several months previous. Admittedly, I didn't really have many callers before that. But I did host a very sexy straight boy who was half my age last Saturday night. And yesterday I finally got to hook up with a guy I've been lusting after for a very long time (I don't even want to say how long honestly). We've chatted back and forth several times, but he's about half an hour away from me, so it just never came together. Until yesterday. Damn but he was worth the wait and the slightly terrifying drive on the freeway. 

Interestingly a couple of the other guys who came to play have expressed an interest in a return visit. So, fingers crossed.

Thus endeth the TMI.

There was no Friday Night DnD this week... for reasons. I was a little wiped out after the fun morning honestly, so an early night didn't hurt. 

Anyway...

Not much to report from today. Just the supermarket really.

movies: the sheep detectives

The trailer to The Sheep Detectives basically sold this movie to me back when it first dropped. I didn't expect it to, but it was actually really charming and looked like a good time.

The movie itself ends up being much more rounded and deeper than I was expecting it to be. I thought it was mostly going to be a big broad comedy, and there are parts of that, but it's also thoughtful and emotive.

The cast, both live action and voice acting are mostly strong. I will say that Hugh Jackman who plays the shepherd has kind of fallen a little our of favour with me of late, for no real reason beyond perhaps movie choices I have no interest in. But his role, though not extensive is good.

I did think that the character of the police officer, played by Nicholas Braun was a little cringy at the beginning, but once they get past the "police man doesn't know how to police" thing, he gets significantly better.

I think the weakest element might be Molly Gordon. She just kind of... exists in the scenes that she's in.  

There are a few loose threads in the story that don't really get properly picked up or resolved properly, I assume they're leftover elements from the original book this is based on where they spent more time. And I have to say that the "gotcha" clue at the end that reveals the killer is so legitimately wrong and ridiculous and absolutely does do the thing the movie says that it did. It's literally impossible. Which is kind of annoying that nobody picked up on that at any point during the adaptation and went "this is just impossible". But it's not enough to ruin the movie for me. But enough for a raised eyebrow in the general direction of the director, screenwriter and the original author.

Overall it's quite good and got me a bit emotional by the end.

yani's rating: 4 nighttime books out of 5

character saturday: in memorium

A moment of silence for an imaginary fallen soldier... fallen imaginary soldier... whatever. This was not actually the plan for today's DnD Character Colouring Book. There were two characters, I planned on doing the other one. But then this one died during the game.

I will say that the problem with putting a character in chainmail and her not having any hair does lead to a slightly less interesting look overall. It just feels... not unfinished exactly, just slightly lacking somehow. Maybe it's the blonde. I don't know that I had originally envisaged her as a blonde, but I wanted something to contrast with my boy Whisper. Guess it doesn't really matter one way or another now.

More on her untimely demise later...

Anyway...

This week's soup was another go at Minestrone. A more successful one, but still not perfect. Possibly because I didn't drain the kidney beans.

Mini Media Reviews for this week goeth thusly.

Buddy Daddies. An anime about two absolutely Not Gay No Homo assassins who live together and raise the child of one of their victims together as co-parents. It's The Odd Couple meets Three Men and a Baby meets something with assassins in it.

Robot Dreams. This is SO DAMN GOOD. You wouldn't think a Spanish movie over 100 minutes long with no dialogue about an anthropomorphic dog in 1980's New York who builds a robot and becomes best friends with it and then loses said robot would be as damn good as it is. Just a 100 minute movie with no dialogue could be a stretch. But I was enthralled the whole time. And the end kinda wrecked me.

The Serpent Queen. Season 1 anyway. The tale of Catherine de Medici, but with a slightly modern spin. With some breaking of the fourth wall and very clearly taking some liberties with history. And while I knew the name, I don't think I really knew who she actually was. Or where she actually fit into history. Which was interesting. Some great performances too, especially from the younger Catherine.

Also, much Red Deading was done. I am still only 49% of the way through the story, and 60% overall done. Mostly because I did a bunch of sidequest stuff this week.

This week's Friday Night DnD was a little bit different. We did a "meanwhile" adventure. We left the usual party and went back to my original character Whisper and had him go on a sidequest with a bunch of low level NPCs played by the party.

Honestly, they probably should have been a little bit higher level than they actually were.

Given that both of the Level 1 characters got one shotted by the creature we were fighting and then Süthen (who I was running alongside Whisper, and who Whisper had been having a Friends With Benefits relationship with... because he is my Disaster Bisexual character) got charmed, couldn't do anything, rolled a Nat 1 on her first death save (meaning two failures) and then rolled below the level she needed on the second save after two of us failed on a Medicine check to stablise her.

And I'm just now remembering that Whisper has the ability to reroll a failed save and because I haven't played him in weeks I totally forgot... so that's not going to haunt him later. Honestly, it will probably haunt me more than him.

Interestingly, while I kind of wasn't really on board for the idea of doing this "meanwhile" adventure, not least of all because it meant that me, as a Level 8 character was running around with two Level 1s and a Level 2. It seemed a little... unfair. But it turns out the others were very much on board. So we might revisit them. I still don't really see the point, if we choose not to go back to the hub town with the main characters, then we just don't get any of that story. And I'm fine with that. But we'll see what happens.

Anyway...

Today was very On Task, because we had things we needed to do after the supermarket. Nothing much to report for the start of the day, but afterwards we tootled down the road to the movies. More on that shortly.

It was a nice change of pace though. 

character saturday: poison lady

This week's DnD Character Colouring Book is what happens when Fluffy says words on the drive home after Friday Night DnD (last week... or maybe the week before, I forget).

I don't remember how we got there, but we were talking about Noble characters, and that I would do something outside the box with one. Which I've already done with both Lady Ovelia and Whipmaster Demyan, and, honestly, when we were talking about it, I'm pretty sure we were both thinking about a male character. It was only later that I realised that it would definitely be a female character. And then I remembered about the Fire Knives, "a syndicate of noble-born assassins, extortionists, enforcers, and spies based out of Westgate". Sounds pretty much perfect, honestly.

The top is one that I normally wouldn't use, but it just worked for her. Especially when I used the leather texture. She definitely has a collection of hidden blades about her person, but I can't decide whether the gold accent on her chest is actually a hidden blade or the handle of a whip, probably with a metal thong... and yes, I just looked it up, that's what the main flexible part of a whip is called.

But, you know, mostly poison. Which works perfectly with the 2024 Assassin subclass.

Will she ever show up in a game, probably not. But it was a fun exercise.

Anyway...

Chicken and Rice soup this week. Always a strong addition to the rotation.

This week's Mini Media Reviews... we start off with William Tell from 2024. Haven't heard of it? Yeah, there is definitely a reason for that. It's beautifully shot, but a lot of the actors aren't great. It definitely gave a lot of attractive young men a paycheck and an IMDB credit though. It's not terrible, it's just lacking.

Next up was the "second season" of Ranking of Kings. Because it's not really a second season, it's not a continuation of the story, it's basically just a season full of things that feel like they were cut out of the original season for time/story purposes. Or just that people involved had a bunch of ideas left over that they wanted to do things with. Strange. Not bad, just strange.

Red Dead Redemption 2 continues. I'm about 45% through the story, not rushing it, just enjoying doing whatever I feel like doing at the time. And because I was still fucking around with it when Fluffy got to my place of Friday, we solved an issue that I'd been having with the Legendary Fish (basically I was equipping the bait not the lure, thinking that having the lure visible on screen was the same thing). After we workshopped the issue, I caught three of the Legendary Fish within 10 minutes.

Friday was Chiro Day. Always good for a monthly tune-up. Afterwards I did some wandering around and did some Looking At Things. Stopped off at the library briefly to return something.

Friday Night DnD didn't happen. Mr had something come up last minute. So Fluffy and I did movies instead. He inflicted Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island on me. Let me be controversial yet brave... I know that's considered "one of the good ones", but yeah, it wasn't doing it for me.

We did follow that up with The African Queen. Because I love to expand Fluffy's experience with the classics. Also, it's just a damn good movie.

Anyway...

The usual Supermarket Saturday. Then we took a trip down to Kmart because I wanted to look at their candles again. Because candles. I got a popcorn/butter scented candle.

And that's that.

character saturday: the fledgling

The last of the supporting cast of Icewind Dale Rangers for today's DnD Character Colouring Book... the reason that Brother Ardu was trapped outside the region, the new apprentice that he went to collect in Luskan, Swift. Now, I know that I had an earlier design of this character, but he looked totally different and I'm pretty sure had a different name. And I don't think that I ever actually posted that version. Or if I did, I can't remember what his name was.

I made this version a member of the Emerald Enclave, because that seems like a thing that the Rangers probably need on staff.

This is also of those models that I might recycle later for other things, because I quite like the way the face came out.

Anyway...

Last Sunday's trip to the supermarket was... somewhat excruciating. With the combination of people who definitely would have been in the supermarket on Saturday, the people that actually shop on a Sunday, and just the general chaos of it all, I was very glad when it was over.

This week's soup, likewise, suffered slightly from the chaos of Sunday. Because I had intended to make minestrone... and functionally made minestrone, but picked up a soup pack which has extra veg that I generally don't add to minestrone, so by the time I was done with it on Monday night and sat down to a bowl of it, it was just not quite doing it for me for a number of reasons. So I blended the whole thing... noodles, bacon, veg, the lot. It wasn't stunning, but it was much improved.

The Mini Media Reviews for this week goeth thusly...

First the anime series Ranking of Kings. The first season thereof anyway. It was interesting. But it was one of those things where, as soon as I stopped watching it, I mostly forgot about the majority of the details. It was interesting enough, and the fact that it didn't really settle on any of the villains being just villains, instead making them complex, was certainly interesting. And I have the second season to watch, just for completeness sake.

Next up, In The Flesh, which ended up being a three part mini series rather than a full season of TV. But very, very, very good. Very nuanced and full of allegory. The fact that it didn't get much love before I saw some clips from it on Instagram is something of a shame.

The Red Dead Redemptioning has continued. I'm still only 35% of the way through the story, but I'm essentially making my own fun and doing all of the side missions. The list of Quality of Life issues continues to mount. It's almost like they created a living breathing world to surround the player and then forgot that the player is actually supposed to then interact with the things that are happening, rather than just passively watch 90% of the interactions happen without even being able to comment on them to the participants afterwards.

Also the fact that there is no way to sell guns that you pick up off the ground doesn't make a lot of sense. Either don't make them able to be picked up, or make the gun merchants buy them for parts or something.

I also miss just finding some wacky missions while roaming around the wilderness like in the first game. This game takes itself entirely too seriously. To it's own detriment, honestly.

But the fun I'm making for myself I'm enjoying.

Friday Night DnD was... transformative. Literally. My girl Molly got herself somewhat transformed after choosing to absorb some power from a giant green emerald. Because of course she did. The entire point either of my characters in this adventure was to access the Body Horror Table that I know was in the book when I glanced at it when it first came out. With Whisper it would have been much harder to do, or required a different approach. Molly both has no impulse control but also really only altruistic motives, at the same time as having a desire to go off and be Queen of the Goblins when this adventuring thing is all over.

It's the simple things.

Anyway...

Today, fingers, toes, eyes and intentions crossed, we finally had the break to actual Autumn weather, although I did think this before. We may also slide straight out of Autumn and into Winter without passing Go honestly.

So we didn't do much more than shopping, calm, sparsely populated shopping. Oh, the joys.

And that was it really.