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.