character saturday: genderswap swashbuckler

So there are some characters where you just need to make an adjustment and then instantly realise that it was the right choice.

Thus was the case with Pearl. Now I'd already updated her hair after I posted that previous version, because the white dreads weren't working for me, so she ended up with red hair with a white streak, potentially that streak was going to widen over time.

But part of the reason that I was leaning towards a female barbarian was firstly, female barbarian, but secondly, because I was working on that idea while playing my, at the time, male character. Then Molly happened. So I started wondering about rejigging Pearl somewhat. And while I considered playing around with the background and maybe the subclass, I just wanted to see what Pearl might look like as a man. But then the skin tone was bothering me, and he needed new hair... 

Weirdly the face didn't get much of an update, but somehow (possibly because of the skin tone) Finn came out looking less harsh. It could also be the eyes. 

Thus Finn was born. The name took a minute. He went through a couple of iterations of name, and yes, he's fully aware that as somebody who grew up on a fishing boat and then became a sailor, the name Finn has inherent comedy value. But if you think you've got a joke he hasn't already heard, give it your best shot.

I think this is also the first character I've made with a hairy chest (at least a visible one). Well, other than Wrath from forever ago, but he was more an idea than a fully fledged character. But it's mostly because we still don't have body hair decals in Hero Forge (because clearly we need yet another set of shitty swords instead). So I fudged this in Photoshop. And once I'd done it, he stopped looking right without it. Now, sure, he should actually have hairy arms too, but I couldn't really be bothered with that specific level of detail.

But once I'd finished fussing with the details, before I even settled on a name, I realised that he was the correct answer. I liked Pearl, she could have been fun to play, but I think I instantly got Finn. And yes, some of the things I got are perhaps details pulled from other elements of pop culture. Finn wants to remind you he's a captain, even if he's currently sans ship. Finn doesn't get angry when he rages, he gets a little crazed, laughing into battle.

DM Fluffy also gave me a couple of little tidbits on Friday night when I mentioned the change that will probably factor into the Finn of it all. I honestly can't remember a time when I've just gender swapped a character like this without also essentially rebuilding them. And nothing about Pearl's build or backstory changed with the switch to Finn, just the cosmetic details.

Anyway...

It was yet another various of minestrone for soup this week. They're always just a little different, but generally good.

The Mini Media Reviews for this week should have included Stray, the video game about a little orange cat and it's robot buddy... but I just don't enjoy the "combat" sections of the game, so I don't think I'm going to finish it. It's not like I don't know how it ends, I've seen videos of people playing the whole game, so I'm not really missing out on anything. It just turns out it's not really my thing.

Otherwise it was The Batman earlier in the week. Quite possibly the worst movie I've seen in a while. And definitively the worst Batman movie ever. When you have your Batman just walking through the front door or places, or just wandering around following Jim Gordon around a crime scene you've absolutely fucked up. Also the editing and cinematography are awful... and if I actually notice, they're real bad. Basically every single decision was the wrong answer on a multiple choice quiz. Emo Bruce Wayne? No. Wayne Manor being an unused set from Harry Potter? No. Andy Serkis as Alfred? No. Batman continually taking his outfit off to motorbike through the streets? No. Disguising The Riddler's identity with no actual payoff? No. Actually, The Riddler in general? No. Also, the movie being 3 hours long and literally nothing happening the whole time? No.

Actually that last one might be one of the more egregious ones. It barely has anything I would classify as "an action scene", or at least an actual scene that isn't unintentionally a comedy. Because this Batman has never heard of a window or a skylight and only walks through the front doors of locations.

Also, RPatz does his very best with the terrible material he's been given, and he is good, but he Zoe Kravitz somehow have negative chemistry... they're both very charismatic people, they just somehow repel each other.

Otherwise I finished The Nevers. The lack of Whedon (problematic as he may be) did make itself felt between the first and second halves, I'll be honest. It was still good, don't get me wrong. It just occasionally lacked some... sparkle. Some of the characters just felt a little flat. But because they knew they were only getting a single season, they did manage to wrap up the story in a way that did leave room for the possibility of continuing while still feeling narratively satisfying.

There was a fair bit of running around earlier in the week, as has been the norm for the past few weeks, so I decided to bookend that with another trip to the sauna for Bear Night. Not quite as successful a night as the last time, and I think it will be a minute before I go again. Maybe on a special occasion.

Friday Night DnD featured a brief crossover to the "other party", and Molly managed to develop a third eye. Because why not.

Anyway...

Not a lot to report from today, it decided to start raining just after we finished at the supermarket, so there wasn't much incentive to go anywhere.

character saturday: fashionable lady

There are some characters I can't help going back to and tinkering with. Especially when new Hero Forge items appear that are much more in line with how I actually envisaged the character. Or just put a new spin on somebody.

Especially since I always described this character as "if dwarves had fashion models, she would be one". 

So this week's DnD Character Colouring Book is a return to Lady Ovelia Opalfist... a character who is dead and gone, but even so, deserved a new outfit. This is the third version... the first being back in the actual hand (Photoshop) colouring days. The second version I was very happy with at the time. And I still like it, but then they dropped the new "Strappy Corset" and the Victorian/Edwardian inspired "Sleeved Fitted Shirt", and here we are. The colour zones on the shirt aren't perfect, but I had absolutely pictured her wearing a corset not dissimilar to this ones, so the overall look definitely works. Even if I did have to slightly cheat the long sleeves with a set of gloves.

There may also be some backstage tinkering to add a brooch to the neck of her shirt, just because that feels right to me... and I'd need to look it up, but her trinket might have been a Dwarven made brooch.

Anyway...

There are times when I really shouldn't follow a soup recipe I find on Instagram. It wasn't bad, per say. It wasn't a disaster... it was just... really fucking boring. Which is kind of what happens when you make the thing I've basically been referring to as chowder, but you leave out either chicken or chorizo or both. It was an experiment that I won't be repeating.

The Mini Media Reviews for this week start with Ammonite. A movie that is somewhat the lesbian equivalent of The History of Sound from the week before... but slightly worse in that the two main characters are actually real people this time but the lesbianism and their relationship are all an invention of writer/director Francis Lee... which kind of deflated the movie somewhat for me. But both Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan are excellent.

Next up was the first half of the first and only season of The Nevers. A very Joss Whedon show. Good though, as his stuff very often is. This is also the last show he worked on before all the allegations about him came to light, and I don't think he worked on the second half at all. But a number of other familiar behind the scenes names from Buffy and other projects were also on this, and the sixth (and possibly best of the first half arc) episode is fully written by Jane Espenson, which doesn't surprise me in the slightest. So we'll see how the second half arc works out, given that it was made a couple of years later. Hopefully they manage to wrap up some of the ideas since they knew it wasn't going ahead.

Just as a sidebar, and for various reasons, I've spent entirely too much time this week in healthcare professional's offices, getting poked and prodded and tested and stabbed with needles. With at least one more to come next week.

Speaking of, Friday was also Chiro Day.

Friday Night DnD was... slightly weird, because it turns out that last week's guest star wasn't all she appeared to be. And most of the dungeon felt strangely empty, partially because we avoided a couple of combat encounters that we really didn't have to do. So we're definitely in the final act. 

Anyway...

Not much to report from the Supermarket Safari, although the nice folks who make the coffee I like have made a refill so I don't have to keep buying big glass jars, since I have so fucking many of them at this point it's getting ridiculous. Although, for unexplained reasons, the coffee comes in jars that are either 200g or 400g... the refill was 300g... [confused face].

Afterwards we did a trip to Kmart to look at fitted sheets... but the problem with having looked online is when the colour on the website doesn't actually match the colour the item is in person. So I might still end up with it, because it's the best option without spending entirely too much money, but it does come back to my general complaint with bedding manufacturers who don't seem to believe that colour exists. And strong colours exist. And some of us actually want strong colours and not neutral on neutral on neutral. Because that's fucking boring.

But I've complained about that a number of times. 

character saturday: mutant molly

Once upon a time, Molly was a crazy, loner hermit who hid from the goblin tribe she was raised in and only really talked to the voices in her head. Oh, and her cranium rat familiar.

Now Molly has weird flesh wings (that only make her hover right now), can kind of see backwards in time a little bit, if she gives herself a bit of a headache and is technically leader/queen of the aforementioned goblin tribe... even if she has to beat them into submission when she goes back. 

Hero Forge doesn't quite have the tools to make the weird subdermal bone lumps that go along the border of her face and jaw... so I had to make do with the spider eye lumps.

I do love her. She's very different to a lot of the other character's I've played, especially with the Friday Night gang. She just takes things at face value for the most part, and isn't easily insulted, mostly because she really isn't paying attention, and also it doesn't bother her anyway. She has her friends, she has her purpose, she's content.

It's also fun because my original intent for this campaign was to lean into the body horror of this campaign with my boy Whisper. For him it would have been definite body horror, he wouldn't have been enjoying the changes... whereas Molly is running at these changes full force with her whole ass, because she wants the power that goes along with them, for several different reasons. Not least of all because she will be a Goblin Queen.

Anyway...

This week was Lasagne Soup. Always a very good choice. As well as being one that really comes together relatively quickly.

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

Kung Fu Panda 4. Wow...  you really know something has gone downhill when the majority of the supporting cast from the previous three movies are just not around. But this is... just a pale intimidation of the previous three movies. The villain never really feels like much of a character, the whole thing just feels very first draft.

By comparison, The History of Sound is... spectacular. Well... it's soft and slow and sad and very much a lamentation on both a gay relationship and a particular time and place in America (New England in the 1910's). I definitely cried, but it was such a beautiful movie, I was very happy I watched it.

And lastly, the final season of Versailles.  Damn it's a good show. At times frustrating, because the characters are very clearly making bad decisions, but that's also the nature of the beast... and definitely shows that all of the actors are incredibly good. You can also very much see the money on the screen.

There was very little Red Dead 2 this week. I wandered around doing some bits and pieces I hadn't gotten around to up until that point, and there are still a couple of things I wanna do that are somewhat tedious. But I'm generally as done as I'm gunna be.

I did order something short in from the library just to give me something else to play... I might also fuck around with Two Point Hospital after that. I think it's gunna be a minute before I attempt Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which is currently sitting under Red Dead 2 by the TV.

I bought some new jeans this week. Nothing fancy, but the jeans I generally wear just around the house are too big and thus not comfortable. So I stopped into Target on Monday and picked up just a very basic pair. Which, also, are a size smaller than all my current jeans. Go me.

I also, for various reasons, stopped by the Sexual Health Clinic and got tested, as well as getting my first Mpox shot. So there's currently a sore spot on my arm and I'm patiently waiting for my results.

Friday Night DnD had a guest star. A friend of Mr's... and it was mostly innocuous. We did finally meet our first mindflayer though... and nearly killed it... if only I'd gone straight for the Wand of Magic Missiles and not tried to get fancy in the first round of combat. Ah well, there will be other opportunities.

Anyway...

Today was a bit of a later start. Which was fine.

After the supermarket, we trundled down the road to Spotlight, because I'm real fucking tired of the cheap bedding I bought that turned out to be completely polyester and thus not real nice to sleep in often times. I did spot a decent enough one on special that is poly/cotton, so I grabbed that. I just need a trip to Big W to grab a fitted sheet... even if those ones only come in very boring colours. Better than the shitty and cheap or stupidly expensive ones at Spotlight.

I also grabbed a new body pillow, because the foam in mine is clearly deteriorating at a rate of knots.

character saturday: crazy eyes

You know what's weird... in all this time I've never even made a model of this character. I've made models of other characters from this group, but never her. I get why... 

This is Masika's boo-thing. And literal psycho. And also not my character.

She seemed perfectly reasonable until the first major combat we ever did, when afterwards she went around and collected eyes from the dead bodies. Which none of us saw thanks to a sandstorm.

She became Masika's boo-thing almost by accident. It's a long story, but Masika warned her not to get in her way... because that's who Masika is. If you cross her, it's gunna go bad for you. But our girl chose to smile and kiss Maskia on the cheek. And it slightly rewired Masika's brain a little bit.

So there was a session that we both missed. I don't know why, it was a thousand years ago. But I had a conversation with the other player about whether or not the two of them were hooking up while the others were away. To which, of course, the answer was yes.

The two of us didn't tell the others, we just would occasionally add in details hinting that we were hooking up, generally when most folks weren't paying attention. It did eventually come out though, but after a much longer period of time than I expected.

And from that point on, they were just together. Masika was something of an anchor to stop her from floating off into really weird spaces. But eventually the phrase "make good choices" became the default saying between them. Their relationship was... complicated and often dramatic. As you would expect from the two most dramatic people at the table.

I did realise when I came to fill out the details of this that I have either forgotten the details or else never knew the details of her character. Which would make sense given the player.

Anyway...

It's been a weird week. I'mma just say that. It will cover a multitude of sins.

This week was Beef Soup. Basically what it says on the tin. A very broth forward soup with some beef. It was good. I do like a very brothy soup every now and then.

The Mini Media Reviews for this week goeth thusly.

Sometimes you watch a thing you know you know is going to be questionable, because it's going to be questionable. And, honestly, it's not that bad.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is a Very Guy Ritchie Movie. It's Arthur as a gangster. It's Arthur raised by sex workers in London. It's also a movie where the first ten minutes are literally a fucking Lord of the Dreams Fever Dream that does not in any way match up with the rest of the movie.

It was amusing to me to see Charlie Hunnam and Aiden Gillan on screen together again. Since they haven't been on screen together since the original UK version of Queer As Folk.

The rest of the week was basically the second season of Versaille. Which is still very good. Very twisty and turny. And I know it's not going to happen, because monarchy... but sometimes I just want the king to get over himself.

Due to lack of Friday, I watched Gods of Egypt on Friday night. And yes, I did watch a YouTube video about "Shitty Mythology Movies" recently and that explains a lot about a number of my movie choices of late. 

As I said to Fluffy after I was done...

Welp... that was... not anywhere near as much of a dumpster fire as I was expecting... 

It's very "standard 80's fantasy movie" bad

Because it really is. It's trying something, it does that thing mostly successfully. However that thing is not to be culturally sensitive or have a movie that takes place in an actual historical setting. This is another planet... a planet called Egypt. And yes, some of the CGI is m'eh... but a lot of it is just fine. Also, the likelihood that there is an extensive amount of Rule 34 content about interactions between Horus and the human thief Bek is... essentially 100%. Because giant god, tiny human porn literally has to exist. Especially considering the Brenton Thwaites of it all.

I can now officially announce that I have finished Red Dead Redemption 2. I mean, I've completed 100% of the story. There's still game there. So I'm not necessarily going anywhere immediately. And I might work on an overall review in the background for a bit... because I have many thoughts about the game generally. But I was still surprised to find myself getting emotionally effected during the final mission.

As I said earlier, no Friday Night DnD this week.

Anyway...

Ma wasn't feeling well this week, so she called this morning and asked me to go up to her place to do the shopping. So that wasn't how I expected the morning to go.

Also there's nothing weirder than walking around a different branch of the same supermarket you always go to and discovering that 90% of the stuff is just in a completely different place for no well explained reason.

So a short morning overall... because I just did the things I needed to do and then came home. 

character saturday: scarlet trickster

I could legitimately make a whole cast of characters out of the thieves guild that my boy Whisper is a part of. I already have him as a sorcerer, there's the NPC that turned into a rogue PC, Hark/Herald. But after what happened to Whisper's graph paper fuckbuddy, we probably needed a cleric, just in case.

And of course the easiest way to introduce a potential cleric is to lean on The Crimson Gentlemen. Because Trickery Clerics exist.

Originally he had a slightly different name, pulled from the list of Timelord names. But I realised as I was putting the finishing touches on the image earlier that a title that indicates that he's a sailor or pirate or privateer doesn't really match up with his general vibe. So I went looking at religious titles.

And of course The Cardinal works on a couple of levels. Because Cardinals are clergy who dress in red. Also they act as an advisor, which would work for this character also.

Now, is The Cardinal kind of a recycled pose/mini based on a previous NPC. Yes. As I've said previously, why not recycle things I've already made if they aren't really going to see an active life as a character.

My thought process is also that he's actually wearing Glamored Studded Leather to stand in for the usual Crimson Gentlemen uniform.

Have I complained any time recently that we need better buckler shields from Hero Forge. Because this is the only one we currently have.

Anyway...

This week's soup was Tomato, Chicken and Rice. Always a good option.

The Mini Media Reviews start off with acknowledging that I've been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 for a full two months at this point. I'm very near the end of the epilogue story and honestly having a great time encountering all of the locations that I semi remember from the first game. Certain locations just stuck in my mind, and once I saw them again I had such a nostalgia rush.

I still have major issues with the fact that the game narrative and the game's open world are at odds with each other. Because the story wants to believe that John, the epilogue character, is desperate for cash because you no longer have access to Arthur's money and have taken out a bunch of loans to buy land and build a house... but with very little effort just bopping around the map I could pay off all of those loans instantly. And the game narrative does not care. It has very specific ideas about how and when I can do things that will pay back those loans and the amount of disposable income in my pocket matters not one bit.

Likewise, because you're running around the main main from the first game, just in an earlier timeframe, there really aren't story missions or things that you can really do. Narratively it also doesn't make that much sense that you're already running around the location that you then "discover" in the first game.

Now, do I want them to actually remaster the old game with the engine from this game? Yes, yes I fucking do. Because I'd play the shit out of it.

Do I want an offshoot game about Sadie Adler, a side character from this game... fuck yes. Honestly that would have made brilliant DLC. Because she's doing a bunch of bounty stuff in the background, and shows up occasionally in the post game... and it would be so easy to do a couple of storyline chains with her, maybe add a large number of bounty targets... stuff like that.

In other media...

I watched Cyrano from 2021 with the ever talented Peter Dinklage. Don't get me wrong, it's a terrible movie. It's a musical that absolutely should not be a musical. Not least of all because every single song is instantly forgettable. But it would have been such a good straight drama. Also, I had a specific issue when the trailer for it first came out... Dinklage was 52 when this was made. Bennett, who plays Roxannne, was 33... an age gap of 19 years. The character's are canonically "childhood friends". Ummm... what? He was a full adult when she was a child. At no point were they ever children at the same time. Even worse when the other lead is 27.

I followed that up with another viewing of The Wild Robot. God that's such a good movie. I will also say that the point in the movie where I loose it isn't actually the end. It's the flight training montage. Yup. It was also interesting seeing it again now having read the books.

I rounded out the week with the first season of Versaille. Having recently watched The Serpent Queen... I was very on board for more royal French hijinks. Even if there's about 100 years difference between the two kings.

But it's very bitchy and full of court intrigue and sexy fun and all the good stuff. I already have the second season to watch this week and the third season is on it's way. Plus it doesn't hurt that the actor playing the king is real damn hot.

Otherwise this week was... odd. And tiring. Less so Monday, because public holiday.

But Tuesday and Wednesday I had to go Do A Thing. Which admittedly took less time each day than I was expecting, but was also just borderline annoying enough to be a capital t Thing. Sadly it will keep being A Thing for several weeks.

As a result, I gave myself a little reward on Wednesday night and let Slut Winter (as I'm now calling it for at least the foreseeable future) continue with a trip to the sauna. Which, if mentions on the blog are to be believed, I haven't been to since 2016. Which is entirely plausible. I think there might have been a visit in mid 2017, but nothing since then.

Partly I went because it was the twice a month Bear Night... which I used to attend when it was on Sunday afternoons/evenings... the Wednesday thing is a little less chill, and in this particular instance a little more sparsely populated. Did I have fun? I did. I ran into the guy who told me about it, who it turns out I'd hooked up with at some point at Portrush Road... and have literally no memory of. Whoops... I'mma bad slut. He didn't much seem to care honestly, and we had an enjoyable little play session... it was also nice to have somebody I could circle back to and gossip with at various points.

It was interesting seeing the changes they've made, although the ones upstairs, not really a fan... the ones downstairs, fan... except for all the big screen playing porn everywhere... gay men at a sauna are like Mogwai... we no like bright light. Big porn TV... bright light, bright light.

It's also slightly strange to me that the silver hair I now have added to the scruff beard I've been sporting since 2017 plus the fact it was Bear Night might have helped fill out my dance card a little more than usual. Or it was just me having no fucks left to give. Or both.

It did lead to some interesting instances.

But the following day I was wandering through the Gentlemen's Apps and noticed not one, not two, but three of the guys I'd interacted with the previous night... one of whom I immediately messaged because I wanted me some more of that thank you. Which might happen. We'll see. It was very much one of those instances where the guy says something about himself in conversation and you think "yeah, that explains those four or five things I was wondering about... makes perfect fucking sense".

But suffice to say, Slut Winter continues. Hopefully to transition into the much more alliterative Slut Spring.

Friday Night DnD was... the third dungeon in a row. Yep, another big map full of corridors and grey rooms of various sizes. So just combat after combat after combat... my least favourite part.

It wasn't terrible, it's just gotten a little bit samey... but thus is the prewritten adventure.

Anyway...

Today... rain. Honestly, we had all the rain a week ago, then it was actually really pleasant this week. Today. Rain. All morning. So basically it was just a supermarket morning, and I sent Ma home in between bouts of rain. 

character saturday: gentleman bandit

So almost immediately after posting last week's "sketch" of my Red Dead 2 Dragonborn, I fully revised him and came up with something much more appropriate to both my actual RD2 look for Arthur as well as being less of just a mash up of two previous characters.

There would probably be a big heavy leather coat that went over this to count as "armour" though. It would also be nice if Hero Forge had better jackets... And also the ability to have more than two layers. But that's a problem for another day.

And the shirt isn't perfect, but the number of shirts that actually work with that necklace is a very short list.

I also realised that he was definitely a Ranger/Rogue hybrid. Or maybe even just a ranger.  

Anyway...

This week's soup was actually tuna mornay... perhaps not the spiciest version. And it always starts out spicy and then mellows out during the week.

Mini Media Reviews for this week...

Red Dead 2 continues in the post game content. Did I get a little emotional at certain points when John encounters people that had a connection with Arthur... yes, yes I did. Mostly notably the woman who Arthur encounters in the late game and teaches how to survive. Just seeing her thriving was almost enough.

Otherwise... I finished the second season of The Alienist. Much of what I said last week followed through the last couple of episodes. Honestly, the whole season would have benefited from a little condensing, because I was kind of over it a little the end.

Speaking of things that were... questionable. The Legend of Hercules. Now, I knew going in that that was going to be questionable. But it managed to sink to even lower than I expected.

Followed by Legion of Super-Heroes. Which was... okay. The character of Kara/Supergirl was slightly annoying, and the whole beginning section was kind of unnecessary set up. But it was fine.

It wasn't a good run because next up was High Society. Now, I absolutely adore The Philadelphia Story, love it. And this is the exact same story. Allegedly. It's the same story with all the joy and fun sucked out of it. Because they really just cram a bunch of songs in that don't actually have anything to do with the plot and don't advance the story in any way. It also refocuses the plot around the two men.

Fortunately I got to A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Which was actually really lovely. I spent the first half an hour with a big dumb smile on my face, and the ending got surprisingly emotional based on where we started out.

Last up I watched Sabrina, the original 1954 version. As as much as I like Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, I wanted to slap every single character. Because everybody acts dumb in that movie. Plus the age gap love story thing is always weird.

In the TMI section of the blog... the slutty phase somewhat continued. Not to quite the degree as last week. And the universe is clearly up to something, because I also managed to hook up with somebody who I've seen around online for a very long time.

It was a weird week generally all things considered. Winter just appeared, and with it large amounts of rain.

There was no Friday Night DnD this week, which I knew was happening, but had forgotten until midway through the week. And because Fluffy has the constitution of a frail Victorian orphan, and the weather was as previously indicated, we didn't to movies either.

Anyway...

Today was Ma's pre birthday... As in, it's her birthday tomorrow.

So we did the supermarket thing, and then afterwards we went to San Churro for brunch. Which turned out to be a good choice because today is also National Churro Day, which meant that the first 1000 customers got an order of free churros. But mostly I was there for the Spanish Hot Chocolate.

Not very exciting, but enjoyable. 

character saturday: dragonborn cowboy

We can blame Fluffy once again for this week's DnD Character Colouring Book. Admittedly, I did just smush together Professor Jhar from 2023 and Roscoe Brushgather from last year... I even pinched Roscoe's background.

Any why, you ask, did I need a dragonborn cowboy?

Because I finished the main story in Red Dead Redemption 2 on Friday. And I cried. Oh, how I cried. Fully on chin quiver cry. Damn it's a good game. That I've been playing since at least April 11 based on the first achievement I got. I did a White Hat run, and I could consider trying to play a Black Hat run at some point. But it would be a long while. And I'd probably just run the story missions straight through without wandering off as I'm want to do.

The main character, Arthur is so well written, well acted, such a good character that while Fluffy and I agreed last night that he would be almost impossible to really do as a DnD character, there is certainly a vibe your could bring across, as well as some of the minor details.

And when a sad, mournful song came on the supermarket playlist this morning, I did idly wonder how you would put together that character. What race works... I mean human is too obvious. What races say that kind of complicated but honorable man that Arthur is... gotta be dragonborn.

I will admit, that this is probably not the final version of the idea. The costume isn't completely working for me, but it worked well enough for a proof of concept for the time being. So our boy Anthar might be back. Especially since I just realised he should have the Criminal background, not the Outlander one.

Anyway...

Chicken noodle soup this week. Good, not overly memorable, and I was a little distracted while making it, but it was nice and brothy, which is always nice.

This week's Mini Media Reviews.

Firstly, let's circle back to Red Dead Redemption 2. A game that absolutely fights with itself between the wonderful story elements and the actual gameplay. Oh, there's a cut scene featuring a massive confrontation between two characters? Oh, I can't actually talk to either of them about it except in the most generic terms? Oh, there are story threads left all over the place? Oh, there was so much care and attention put into this one random event, but these other 9 things are largely thrown away without much care or thought? Oh, there is very clearly another 25 hours of gameplay that got cut at some point and never saw the light of day. Dangling threads a plenty.

The game really comes into it's own in the third act honestly. Once something specific happens to Arthur, it changes his complete outlook, and potentially that of many players, that's where I feel like the game really hits it's stride. So much incredible writing.

It just needs to occasionally get out of it's own way.

I watched Morbius. I don't necessarily get the problem everybody had with it at the time. It's not amazing, sure, but it's mostly servicable. And the effects are pretty decent. The problems generally tend to be when you hire Jared Leto, and to a lesser degree, Matt Smith, I just spend the whole time just seeing the actors. Not that, honestly, many of the Marvel movies manage that in any great way. But it was kind of prevalent here. So perfectly watchable.

Next up, Red Sparrow. Goddamn, Jennifer Lawrence is just amazing. If there's a weak point here, it's absolutely Joel Edgerton, but as they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. Long, but brilliantly acted and still managed to slightly surprise me at the end.

Then there was The House With A Clock In Its Walls. Entirely too long a title... and honestly, barely really even a clock. But a very decent family movie. Jack Black doesn't Jack Black too hard and Cate Blanchett meets him on a level playing field. Decent.

I got most of the way through the second season of The Alienist, which it turns out that I have actually read, but have absolutely no memory of. This season is decent though. I still think that Fanning is absolutely the weak link in the cast, much like the first season. She just has one singular expression regardless of what is going on.

Moving along somewhat...

I did the big rental inspection clean up on Sunday and Monday and then took myself out of the apartment on Tuesday morning, first to Kmart, where I found the Waffle Pants. Can I just pontificate about the Waffle Pants from Kmart for a second please? They're technically "sleep pants" and they have a matching long sleeved top, but I knew of the pants from a guy on Twitter, and when I felt how ridiculously soft and amazing they were, I had to buy them immediately. Best decision I've made in a minute. Literally do yourself a favour.

Also, remember how I said last week that I was "going through a very slutty phase right now"... yeah, Last Week's Yani did not know the literal half of it. Usual TMI rules apply.

I may hosted several different gentlemen this week, hooked up with the same guy three different times, had one of the guys from last week back for a return visit, and a second return visitor from a while back over at the end of the week. I may have had to start making a list to keep the order of things sorted in my head.

Did I wear myself out a little by the end of the week? Yes. Did I have a hell of a good time? Also yes.

Friday Night DnD happened... it was a near miss, but we got there.

It was supposed to be a quick wrap up with the secondary group of characters and then back to the main group... turned out to be the opposite. But we got there eventually. My boy Whisper now runs a town. And my girl Molly's new terrifying flesh wings are... good for hovering. Which, honestly, is about what I expected.

Anyway...

Today was somewhat dodging between buckets of rain.

We did the supermarket thing, came back to mine, big rain. Went off to Kmart to get a second set of the Waffle Pants, big rain. And it's been doing big rain on an off all afternoon. 

 

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.