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.

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.

character saturday: lonely ranger

Ahhh... Brother Ardu. The accidental love interest of my actual player character, Leif. And the existing Icewind Dale Ranger who wasn't in Icewind Dale during the campaign. He also didn't show up in the group shot for that reason, but got his own post.

Honestly, his makeover was mostly the horns and a slight muting of the colour scheme. Plus some very drastic guyliner and freckles. It's funny looking back on the previous post where I talk about what I thought the relationship was between Leif and Ardu, and the fact that having been separated for two or more years and just having that realisation slam into Leif at a certain point. That they'd both been dancing around the idea of being a couple of an unspecified amount of time before that, and after everything Leif had been through, he had no more time for that.

Anyway...

Whoever put this order in for Summer 2: Electric Boogaloo needs to get a refund immediately. Supposedly the issue is that high pressure systems that should be moving through and bringing colder weather along behind them are... getting stuck... for some reason. Not a fan. This shit should have been going on in mid March, not late April. I want long pants and getting cozy... I don't want this.

Soup this week... yeah, I still made soup, even though the weather is not soup orientated at all... chicken noodle. So basically chicken soup, but I've taken to adding broken up spaghetti to it, gives you those big thick noodles rather than the little titchy ones you usually get in chicken noodle. Strong recommend.

This week's Mini Media Reviews...

Marlowe is... an exercise in wasted potential. You have actual Raymond Chandler novels you could have based this one. Instead you base it on somebody copying his style. So we're already at an interpretation of an interpretation. I have to assume the novel this is based on was bad. Because this is just bad. By the time the movie is wrapping up I was like "wait, that's it, that's the whole story?". It just plods along without really every rising above workmanlike.

Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins... is a serviceable action movie. I don't really care about any of the GI Joe of it all, it's literally the least interesting part. But as a generic action movie, this kinda slaps.

Now... it's time to be controversial yet brave once again. I finally got around to watching The Mighty Nein, the animated series very, very, very loosely based on Critical Role's second season, and, without doubt, the best of the Critical Role campaigns. The series is... bad. Well, kinda. For someone who loves the campaign, it's bad. I fully understand that, especially in the beginning, M9 were really just bumbling along and accidentally getting involved in things without meaning to. Which doesn't make for great narrative television. So they've basically reimagined the entire foundation of the show. Characters arcs are showing up in the first season that don't show up until much later in the series. But the first season of the show is 8 episodes and takes in the first 13 episodes of the campaign. Which is... insane. If Amazon is just throwing money at them, they're still going to have to cull major story arcs in order to not have this thing run for 30 seasons.

But the end of the eight episodes, I just ended up mad at the show. The animation is beautiful, of course, much more anime themed than Vox Machina. But the story is just... not what I want.

I've also been playing a lot of Red Dead Redemption 2. But, not really the actual story. I don't much care about the story right now. I'm busy doing the things I want to do. Which mostly revolves around hunting right now.

And occasionally trying to squeeze my horse, full of perfect quality hides, between two other horse riders on a very narrow trail, clipping one of the horses, being launched off my horse over the two riders, getting up, having them start to shoot me, hearing cougar growl offscreen and then having a cougar literally launch themself at my face, and then die... not from the cougar but from being shot in the head.

The game looked me dead in the eye and went "fuck your whole deal".

Friday Night DnD was good... we managed to softshoe, sidestep or otherwise obfuscate our way through a few encounters (by design) thanks to some smart thinking on my part, not to toot my own insane goblin horn or anything. Wow, that's a sentence that doesn't make any sense out of context.

Anyway...

So... today was cancelled on account of public holiday. I went and did a mini shop on Friday to get me through today, and Ma is coming down tomorrow morning to do the actual shopping.

character saturday: gnomic greasemonkey

So, Brocc Ironhide has been through a number of iterations. I'm not sure this is his final form, although he's a Icewind Dale Ranger ongoingly. The vest isn't 100% correct though. We'll get there... the right item will drop eventually.

I also, once again, lament the lack of art for Steel Defenders in general. I'm also not 100% sold on what form his Defender is. Sure, the animal idea is fun and all, but I also go... but why would you replicate an animal when you could make something weird. And then I remember the Horizon video games exist. But also, The Wrong Trousers from Wallace and Grommit exist. But also, just a big metal dude.

Thus, right now, he has Schrodinger's Defender. It exists in all possible forms in potentia.

Also, he's definitely the one responsible for everybody in the Rangers having their own personalised cup/mug. Definitely Potter's Tools proficiency. His being his name in Common and Dwarvish.

Anyway...

Potato and Kransky soup this week. I think I ended up defaulting back to old quantities, because I definitely made a little too much. Tasty as hell though.

This week's Mini Media Reviews...

Firstly, know that if I was doing a fully review of the first two movies from this week (either together or individually), it would be one of those long and ranty ones.

I'm going to try and keep this concise.

Wicked and Wicked: For Good. It's incredibly stupid that the first movie's title card says Wicked: Part 1 and the second one is Wicked: For Good. That about coveys the level of... just not paying attention to the overall details. Secondly, this should not have been two movies.

A lot of the issues I have with it exist in the original book. You're going to do a prequel for an existing well loved classic. Sure, you were one of the first to do this in the modern era, but then you don't really pick a lane between the version from the movie and the version from the book. So you do neither successfully.

Every character in this is a full asshole. Up to and including Elphaba, who, admittedly, has reasons for being an asshole, and is the least asshole out of everybody, but still. Nobody comes out of this being unproblematic. Well, except maybe the goat.

Grande and Erivo are amazing singers. But a lot of the music is decidedly mid. The only good songs are What Is This Feeling, Popular and For Good. And the movies don't understand that the reason that there is a five minute music break at this point is the story is to allow the production of a stage show to happen. People need to change costumes, sets need to be moved around, things need to happen. We can absolutely trim that fat in a movie.

The first 19 or so minutes of the first movie is one musical number. Excessive.

I have made my feelings about Grande's cold dead shark eyes well known over time. Very little about this movie changed those feelings. But both of them do well in the last 20 minutes of the movie. Basically from For Good onwards.

The first movie is entirely too Patriarchy Bad and leans entirely too hard on the current politican climate. The second movie is too busy trying to cram in Wizard of Oz references and making [spoiler alert] Elphaba literally the origin of all three of Dorothy's companions. Stupid.

I spent almost all of the first movie just being mad at the movie. I'm not going to say that it was bad, just that I was mad at it the entire time. So much so that my jaw was sore by the end from clenching it the whole time.

The second movie more made me roll my eyes at how stupid all the decisions were.

Also, Goldblum and Yeoh are horrifically miscast and I will never understand why anybody finds Bailey anything other than a very basic white man.

Thus endeth the rant.

Next up, I rewatched both Into and Across the Spider-verse. Both of which I have already reviewed on the blog.

Lastly Lost Illusions, based on a novel by Honoré de Balzac. I do love a good historical French drama. Especially starring hot French boys. So that was fun.

I also played quite a bit of Red Dead Redemption 2 this week. Yeah... the game that that game thinks it is is not the game that I actually want to play. And it wasn't until I had a conversation with Fluffy last night that I realised that this game WANTS to be Western Grand Theft Auto, but somehow managed to make being bad not actually enjoyable in game. Because as soon as you're bad it costs you money to clear your bounty.

Also, there are so many quality of life things that just bug me. NPC collision detection. Especially once you're actively talking to that NPC. I was walking along talking to a dude after he asked me to accompany him back to town and he walked into my horse, screamed and ran off. My guy... I did literally nothing, you terrified yourself. Also, when somebody else rams their horse directly into my horse and then gets mad at me for it. So I'm just pottering around, doing the things I want to do, being very good, and just absolutely hating Dutch the whole time because I know how the first game started and what a piece of trash he actually is.

For what the game wants to be, I dislike it, but I am enjoying just wandering around (albeit incredibly slowly, because moving around is likewise stupid) doing the things I want to do and enjoying the pretty scenery.

Friday I finally got to see Owl Girl and the new baby after a number of false starts on both of our parts. And also take her the blanket I crocheted for him. Which she loved, obvs. It was a pleasant, if short, meet up.

Friday night was also DnD Night, and I kept being vaguely surprised that the crypt we were exploring kept having coffins in every room. But only for like a fraction of a second each time.

Anyway...

Today was... more stressful than it needed to be, for a variety of reasons. However, we did the supermarketing, noting that next week being Anzac Day means the shops are closed on Saturday (boo), so we might need to do it on Sunday instead. We also dropped into Haighs for broken Easter Egg right after the supermarket, and got some first try. Bonus.

Afterwards I had to upgrade the iOS on Ma's phone, not a difficult job but one that just takes for fucking ever.

And afterwards to went to Spotlight to poke around the special they have on yarn at the moment. 

character saturday: moth kitty

So, we're still in Icewind Dale Rangers territory for this week's DnD Character Colouring Book. And I'm not gunna lie, for the most part with Tabaxi characters, I just keep reusing existing versions and tweaking them, because why remake the wheel. And this remake of Cuts Like A Knife is very much a remake of a character I made for something else. I just changed some of the details and accessories.

And then added a fuckton of lunar moths. Because Swarmkeeper Rangers live in my brain rent free. And what's better as a swarm for someone who lives in a location where the run doesn't really shine than a bunch of moths. Honestly, I do kind of wish that the subclass had thought more about the implications of the line... "While you're alive, the swarm remains in your space, crawling on you or flying and skittering around you within your space."

So, just all the time. Always. Pooping. Swarm. Having sex. Swarm. Swimming. Swarm.

I do kind of prefer there being an activation trigger of some kind. Because I've always thought of this subclass in terms of Mushizō from Ninja Scroll... like, the most horrifying version of this idea. But not a constant swarm at all times.

Anyway...

Normally in March there is a week where it goes very specifically from Summer to Autumn. That week seems to have only really happened this week. 

Vegetable soup with brown rice this week. Tasty, but ugly as fuck.

The Mini Media Reviews for this week are something of a mixed bag.

We start with The Garden of Words. I'm not completely sure that this anime counts as "a movie". Because it's literally only 46 minutes long. Also, Japan... can we not make movies about teenagers and adults "falling in love"? Can we just manage that? As, like, a bare minimum. And having the adult be a literal teacher at the boy's school (albeit one he doesn't recognise for some reason). Like, you could have done literally anything else other than that. Do better. And it's disappointing because it's a beautiful looking "movie".

Doubly annoying because it's the same creator who did Your Name and Suzume, both of which were amazing.

After that, I can really only blame myself. Fant4Stic. And I refuse to call it anything else. Wow... even if the studio took this off Trank and recut it and reshot a bunch of it, I find it incredibly hard to believe that this shit show was ever good. Because the script and the performances are just awful. Not even the raw charisma of Michael B Jordan can save this dumpster fire.

Last up was Lady Jane, which is a movie from 1986 that I've been aware of for a long time but never seen. And a very early movie for both Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes. Is it very melodramatic and not at all historically accurate in a lot of the details? Yes on both counts. But still enjoyable.

Friday was Chiro Day... and also Doing A Lot Of Things In Town Day.

I swapped out one of the video games Fluffy got me for my birthday for two other games. Bonus. I also wandered around the library in town and picked up a bunch of stuff, then grabbed a couple of things in Kmart.

Friday Night DnD was another big fight followed by a lot of Seeing Terrifying Things. Good times.

Anyway.

We've reached the weekend where they just choose to block off a bunch of roads in Norwood so that people can go eat food on a medium strip in order to celebrate football or some bullshit. Fuck literally all the way off.

So basically we did the supermarket and called it a day.

character saturday: fey wanderer

Happy Easter or whatever.

Another Icewind Dale Ranger for this week's DnD Character Colouring Book. The fairy ranger Thorn Ravenwood. And, of course, a Fey Wanderer Ranger. And much improved over the previous version.

Anyway...

Lasagne Soup again this week. A little more liquidy this time, but still great. It's never not good honestly.

Mini Media Reviews for this week include finishing off Season 2 of Alex Rider. It is fascinating to see their version of the Stormbreaker story, since I remember that probably the best, since the movie is also based on the same plot. Still decent though.

I did attempt to watch Assassin's Guild. I literally gave up after about 7 minutes. Because while they had a decent budget they spent none of it on the actors and very little on the script. Also this is one of a collection of movies written, directed and starring the same guy. And that never ends well.

Next up was something I picked up at the library just based on vibes (and the fact that Gillian Anderson was in it), The Crimson Petal and the White. Quite good, a little intense at times... and there were weirdly a few plot threads that seemed like they were going to go somewhere and just never got picked up. But still enjoyable.

Lastly, Tales from the Loop. Based on the artwork by Simon Stålenhag of the same name. Oh my god. So damn good. Like, somewhat depressing, very much a meditation on sadness, very slow, very thoughtful, and some of it (especially episode 2) was very, very hard to watch, but in a good way. There were many times where I thought "oh, the happy ending version of this would be X" and then that ending never happens. And yes, I actively sobbed through the last episode. Very strong recommendation. Keep tissues handy.

Sadly, after trying all the tips and tricks for getting God of War Ragnarok to load on my PS4, I had to admit defeat. I might try again with the only other copy in the library network once it's back on the shelf since that library isn't that far away.

Friday Night DnD was... a late scratching. Like literally Fluffy had walked in my house but hadn't yet sat down late. So we just did a movie night instead. A Very Cary Grant movie night. Bringing Up Baby, which I realised What's Up Doc really stole a lot of their playbook from. And then To Catch A Thief, expanding Fluffy's Hitchcock repertoire.

Anyway...

I say this every year. People just be losing their damn minds in the supermarket on Easter Saturday. Sure, maybe you actually give a shit about Easter Sunday and do something. But the shops have been closed for a single day, why you all crazed?

We did survive though.

And that was it really.

character saturday: rune boy

Here he is. Chane Leger, the boy who started this whole current reboot project for the Icewind Dale Rangers. The old version used a lot of the old chunky armor, and it just wasn't doing it. So we have this version instead.

Do I think that wearing that much metal on your body/face in an environment where there's a lot of snow and ice and cold is a bad plan? Possibly. I suspect there is probably a lot of frost that forms on the chainmail in front of his face. I do like the helmet though. I just wish we had a better lantern. But the snowball is cute enough.

Also, Chane definitely has both red hair, some kind of beard, and a terrible French accent. Because the only French accent that I can do is terrible.

Anyway...

I made possibly the best chicken soup this week. Even though I forgot to get the chicken out of the freezer until lunchtime on Monday. I did the usual thing and just broke up some various leftover pasta (some various widths of spaghetti, some fettuccine) into small pieces and used that.

This week's Mini Media Reviews. I started with the mini series Leonardo. Decent, not stunning. And honestly, if this is based at all on historical accounts of da Vinci, then it seems like he might have been kind of an asshole. It's also a "murder mystery" based on completely made up stuff about a work of art that is lost to history. Also, Freddy Highmore is an executive producer on this... and also stars in it... in a role that he just seems completely miscast in. Mostly because putting Highmore in a fake beard and leather pants just looks... weird.

I followed that up with a season and a half of Alex Rider. I read all the books when I was in my early 20's, I quite enjoyed Stormbreaker (and just now remembering that that movie is 20 years old this year). This is a much more... realistic. Less James Bond and more Jason Bourne perhaps. Now, I know I've read the two books these first two seasons are based on, but as I said, not for at least 20 years, maybe closer to 25. So I don't really remember where the original plot goes. But it does feel a little bit like they're... not padding out the universe, but at the very least stretching out the available story to fit the eight 45 minute episode season. It's also slightly interesting that they chose to go to the second book for the first season and then pivoted back to the first book for the second season. So they pull some of the details of how Alex becomes a spy from the first book and bolt it onto the first season. Then fill in some of the second season with what basically amounts to Alex's PTSD. They also add in a best friend for Alex who is... honestly he's the nerdy, slightly pointless, best friend from every British show about teens. It's giving Sid from Skins.

It's not bad though.

I also finished God of War this week. I really, really enjoyed it. Sure, I already knew the ending. And in my brain I'd had some of the sequel game that I'd seen played mixed up with the first game, but I liked it a lot. So much so that I ordered the sequel from the library. And it turns out, my local library had a copy of the shelf. Bonus. Well... except that it seems like it won't load the last little bit from the disc for some reason. Bollocks.

Monday required another visit from my landlord. Because one of my taps just decided that it didn't need to turn off properly because the washer was completely shredded. Thankfully it didn't take that long for him to fix it once he got here.

Friday Night DnD... we basically did a big prolonged fight scene the whole session with a brief break in the middle. The second half of which was us fighting a large collection of goo balls that shat out little fleshy pyramids that tried to eat our faces. Good times. Thankfully we had a handy Water Elemental that literally saved our asses. It was a good session overall. Plus we levelled up. Woo.

Anyway.

Today was a fairly average supermarket adventure.

Then afterwards we took a little side trip to Big W to look at their fitted sheets. So there's that about that.

character saturday: hidden half-orc

Another Icewind Dale Ranger for this week's DnD Character Colouring Book. This time, the half-orc Gloomstalker Ranger, Snow. Because if you haven't seen the sun in a long time, why not be the subclass designed to work in low light.

Snow was one of the ones that I remade a while ago. At some point I was just scrolling past and decided that I was tired of looking at the old version. It may have been after that particular mask came out. It is also fun being able to make an entirely white stealthy character because they're running around in snow.

The idea with Snow was also that him being a half-orc was going to be a reveal. He's help out the party with some encounter and then take his mask off. Not a giant reveal, I grant you.

Anyway.

This week had a lot going on. Let's start with the easy stuff.

 I started soup season. Because I'm tired of inventing things to make. So I went back to minestrone. Well, my version of minestrone. Damn good though.

This week's Mini Media Reviews started with finishing up the last season of Snowpiercer. Damn it's a good show. I mean, occasionally frustrating, but so well done. But it's basically a show where the problems all stem from Entitled Straight White Men. Story literally checks out.

I also watched the National Theatre Live version of The Importance of Being Earnest. I'm very familiar with the story, but this is the first time I've seen the full and complete version, which was 3 hours long. Generally it was very good. Excellent costumes and sets, there were some directing choices I was less set on.

I also watched Ron's Gone Wrong. Which was actually both different than I expected but also better than I thought it was going to be. It is a little bit "hey kids, stop being so into social media and take your face out your phone". Actually, it's a lot that. It's very on the nose. But it also manages to be pretty good.

Last up was the first season of The Knick. Which was rough. Good, but rough. Which is to be expected when you're watching a show set in 1900 about doctors... because doctors knew what the fuck they were doing, and also full of racism and several other isms and more drug use than I was expecting.

So, the rest of the week was... a collection of things.

I made the LEGO Toothless on Sunday, while watching Earnest. And honestly, it took me longer than the 3 hours of Earnest. 

But before that I wanted to move the Wall-E LEGO from my bedside table to the living room, which meant I needed to put something else away in it's box in the wardrobe. During which I managed to step back off the two step stepladder that I have and break the glass in one of the big pieces of art in the bedroom. Not really a good start to sitting down to build LEGO. Much fucking around with broken glass was required. On the plus side, I neither injured myself nor the art. Well, I got a minor cut from the glass after the fact, but that was fixed with a band aid.

So Monday I needed to go and run some errands, and it turned out that Frame Connection, where Ma and I went a number of times in the Before Times, was just down the same street. I got a quote for the glass, did my other errand and then stopped off at the tyre store on the Parade and set "hey, I have a really embarrassing problem, I can't work out how to put the air in my tyres". The very nice man took my car keys, disappeared in the car for a couple of minutes, came back and told me that the tyres were supposed to be at 32 PSI, and they were at 12. Yep, story checks out. So thank you Mr Tyre Man.

Tuesday the landlord came to fix the bedroom window. So, at least that's done. Thursday I went back to order the glass. I had expected that it would take a couple of days. No, they did it on the spot. Gotta love that.

Also this week I attempted to start The Witcher 3. For a variety of reasons I just did not click with it. Part of that was the game just did various things that annoyed me, part of it was the combat was needlessly complicated right off the bat, and the movement... I have never before been made nauseous by a game. The movement in this made me start feeling sick. And once the game dumped me out of the tutorial and into the game itself, I played for maybe 3 minutes before nopeing the hell out of it and deleting the game.

Instead I installed God of War. And I'm loving the hell out of that. Which is slightly weird because the personalities of Kratos and Geralt are not miles apart. But Geralt just annoyed me from the jump.

I do know a number of the reveals from God of War though, just from being a person who exists on the internet. Plus being a person who knows things about Norse mythology. Or some combination of the two.

Friday Night DnD was more dungeon exploration. And pressing the big red button only to find that the button is going to kill us. We have survived thus far though.

Anyway.

Today had a non zero amount of ignoring the election. Because Ma and I did postal voting.

Otherwise it was just the usual supermarket stuff. And then taking a quick trip to Spotlight just for looking at things. Nothing hugely exciting. 

character saturday: leadership realness

Happy Birthday to me. I am now as old as there are weeks in the year. Do with that what you will.

Now, we've done the Icewind Dale Rangers before. But I accidentally gave a bunch of them a makeover. I went into Hero Forge with the intent of doing something else altogether, and got distracted by the very old model of one of them. I'd already given a couple of them a makeover, but never posted those and realised how shitty some of the other ones looked.

My favourite of the bunch though was the leader of the Rangers, Dreth. Partially because I always liked him as an NPC during that game, he was also the only one I didn't make up, but rather the one that DM Fluffy made up.

I'd done a partial makeover of him, but still didn't love the finished one. Weirdly, taking his hat off and putting a slight smile on his face make me instantly fall in love with him.

Anyway...

Let's start with Mini Media Reviews for this week. The theme of the week? Snowpiercer. All Snowpiercer, all week. And I still have half of the final season to go this weekend.

And damn it's good. Like really, really good. It's also incredibly intense at times. But the writing and the performances are fantastic. It takes a very special kind of show to have me wishing a character would be killed off in the first season and then have that same character being literally my favourite character in the show by the fourth season.

I'll be sad to get to the end to be honest. But I hope it ends on both a "finished" note (as in, the show was planned to run four seasons, it ran four seasons and ended, rather than it just randomly got cancelled after a season ended) and also a satisfying note. Even if that last bit is achieved by a "some amount of time later" flash forward in the last 10 minutes.

This week I also made tuna mornay. Not the spiciest of versions, but tasty.

Friday I went out to get my Birthday Boost Juice, because I love getting strangers to wish me Happy Birthday. It's a very niche kink. I also picked up Untitled Goose Game and basically knocked the game over in one sitting.

Friday Night DnD was also Birthday Night DnD. Fluffy showed up at my place with a present, but honestly, the bag the present came in was almost more exciting that the present itself. Which says everything about the bag and nothing about the present. The bag was a Toothless bag, just his big dumb face, which is currently hanging from a doorknob across the room where I can see it.

The actual present was The Witcher 3 and God of War. Fluffy was quick to point out they were preowned versions, which is totally fine. Now whether or not I'll vibe with them, who can say. I am going to start with Witcher, partially because I've watched someone play a good chunk of the first third or so of God of War. Which also makes me glad I knocked Goose Game on the head earlier in the day.

It was fascinating that when I opened the present from Mr and Mrs... it was the Toothless Lego set. Which I absolutely did not expect. But just funny that both of the presents had a Toothless themed element.

Also cheesecake. 

The actual game was more exploration of the dungeon complex we were in last week. We're also finally starting to get to the weirder elements of the adventure, which is good.

Anyway...

Today wasn't particularly exciting. Mostly because I honestly wasn't really all that bothered. We did the supermarket thing, I got my Birthday Scone from Baker's Delight. We didn't really have any other plans, and I'll be honest, I wasn't really bothered about going out to lunch or anything because that would have required killing at least a couple of hours.

character saturday: devoted dragonborn

It's been a hot minute since Zzilar, aka Two-zies ("two z's, at the front" as he usually introduces himself), has featured in a DnD Character Colouring Book. Way back in the Photoshop colour days. This version does look a little older and a little more regal if I'm honest.

Does it say something about my brain right now that I'm posting paladins? Do with that what you will.

Anyway...

I worked out that the correct alternative to "pasta bake" is just a variation on my lasagne soup. So that was this week.

My Mini Media Reviews for this week start with Your Name. A strange one, but I did have a little bit of a teary moment at the end.

I followed that up with my second attempt to get through the French version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Not because the move is 3 hours long, but because the last time I tried the disc had huge scratches and became unwatchable. This time the disc had a very minor scratch... and the same problem occurred. In roughly the same spot in the movie. So clearly those discs are just cursed. But I did mange to find a way to finish watching it (thanks Reddit). The ending feels a little... soft. But overall it's quite good. So long as you can let go of the fact that they're clearly using modern prosthetics for some of the "disguised as somebody else" scenes while the movie is trying to tell you that those are hard masks. But overall I liked it.

And rounding out the week was the first season of Snowpiercer. The TV show. And I quite enjoyed it. Will definitely be watching the rest of the series.

Friday was Chiro Day... and then Friday Night DnD happened. We're on a dungeon crawl. We finished out on the verge of totally fucking up a sassy medusa. Good times.

Anyway...

Today was the usual supermarket followed by a wild goose chase. Well, more a Looking For Things In Places Where Things Were Not.

Because it turns out there are only a few places that sell the foil covers you put over the steering wheel. And none of those places were the ones we went to. So there's that. 

character saturday: my favourite little scoundrel

Sometimes you just need your charming, talkative, meddling, protective, lying little scoundrel of a character. I realised that while I've posted various images of him, I never posted just the solo version since he got his new face.

And I just need some Peregrin "Pery to my friends" Swiftfoot energy this week.

He's a design that I look at and think "you know, I should really redo a lot of you because that armor is the very early stuff and it's janky as hell". And I think I tried at some point, and it just... didn't come out like him. For better or for worse, or until Hero Forge completely redesign those armor pieces, this is him.

And I'm not gunna lie. I do miss him. There are only a couple of characters that I miss and that really live in my head rent free. Pery is absolutely one of them. For all the reasons previously discussed.

Anyway.

For the purposes of keeping this as on ongoing diary of sorts, but also not getting into certain things, this is me reminded myself that This Week Was The Week Were All The Things Happened. Or at least started to happen. The Process Begineth. And you survived.

Unnecessarily cryptic, yes. But honestly, I also don't really want to go over it in detail anyway. Just know that it's all good and positive. And let's move on.

This week was Toona Noodle Doo. It's not thrilling, it's just easy.

The Mini Media Reviews for this week were...

Bad Guys 2. Unlike the first one, which was a primer for Furrys with a Praise Kink, the sequel was... boring? And more than a little unfocused. Like I never completely understood why the "bad guy" was doing the thing they were doing. Not The Bad Guys... but the actual villain. I mean superficially I got it, but if that was all it was, it was a little weak.

Tomb Raider. Not the Angelina Jolie ones, the 2018 Alicia Vikander one. Now I fully understand that that movie is based on the rebooted games from the same period. But in that case, both that game and this movie are absolutely somebody's kink. Just a young woman being tortured (not literally, but not not literally) and moaning a lot. The problem is that the plot just feels like a shitty remake of the Angelina ones. Or at least it just made me want to rewatch those ones.

And then I rewatched Murder By Death. Still weird, still very racist, still fairly funny.

I also finished the poncho I've been working on for a while now. And for a change, I actually finished an article of crocheted clothing and didn't immediately frog the whole thing and start over. How useful it's actually going to be once we get to winter remains to be seen. But at least I like the finished product. And if I needed to make a change or two (like actually turn the "sleeves" into a tube), that's still doable.

There was no Friday Night DnD this week because Mr and Mrs were otherwise occupied. Which was also fine, because I'm not sure I had the mental bandwidth anyway.

Anyway...

Rain. Humid, humid rain. Which woke me up at 5am. Because it was loud and heavy. Currently we just have Wet Air. Hopefully that will lessen slightly if the big rain that's supposed to happen in the next hour and a half actually does it's thing.

Thankfully everything we needed to do today either happened indoors or else during the lulls in the rain. So that was helpful.

Otherwise it was just the supermarket.

And then some general Doing Of Things. Including applying for postal voting for Ma and I. Because fuck going on the day and fuck having to deal with what happened last time. No thank you. I mean, I barely care anyway, because the whole thing is essentially bullshit, but I'll do what's required. Just on my terms.

That was it really. 

character saturday: wilderness wanderer

I'm feeling in the need of some deeply caring gnomish Mom energy right now. So we're dipping back into Friday Night DnD History for this week's DnD Character Colouring Book with Quillamina Silverthread.

The end of game, unfrozen, off to wander the wastes Quill. Complete with the staff she picked up during the campaign. Which isn't magical at all from memory, just a memory of lost members of her circle.

Weirdly original Quill is one of the last of the "coloured by Photoshop" models and the one that it took a while before I was happy with the Hero Forge colour version. I do think I'm finally happy with this version though.

Anyway...

Can I just take a moment to scream existential dread into the void without needing to explain myself? Can I just do that real quick?

[sustained screaming into the void in the manner of existential dread]

Thank you. 

I had another go at Cowboy Rice Salad this week, using actual brown rice. Which I always forget takes forfuckingever to cook. But it was quite good. Even if I ended up doing the reheating trick for the majority of the week.

I also finished Ghost of Tsushima. Overall I was mostly pleased with the game, although a number of pain points exist for me that stop it being a truly excellent game. Part of that is around some of the way quests are laid out, and just how infuriating I found some of the characters.

The game is incredibly beautiful though. And worth playing.

In other Mini Media Reviews... 

I started out with Penguin Highway... which is a deeply, deeply weird movie... that is entirely too focused on a 10 year old boy obsessing over breasts. And less focused on, you know, the penguins.

Next up was And Then They Were None from 1974. The third version of that story that I've seen, and honestly, the worst. Even if it does star two Bond villains. The hotel location is gorgeous though.

Then it was time for Ballerina, a John Wick spin off movie. That wasn't written as a spin off, it was written as it's own thing... honestly, I think that the drama surrounding the making of the movie might be more interesting than the movie itself. It just really lacks something compared with the John Wick movies. Ana de Armas does her level best, but she can't save a fairly generic script. It also makes the mistake of trying to explain some of the stuff that the John Wick movies absolutely didn't attempt to and didn't need to.

Not terrible, just not great.

I did also discover that the 2001 movie Josie and the Pussycats is free on YouTube, so I absolutely took a journey back to the deeply, deeply early 2000's that is that movie. And, while everything about that movie is intensely, violently of it's era, but the story holds up surprisingly well.

Friday Night DnD was us finally ending an NPC that has been a pain in our collective asses. But also funny, because at this point, because of character turnover, there's only one character in the current party who actually knows who the hell the NPC is. Which did lead to a tiny bit of cognitive dissonance.

But she did mess with the wrong group of people and we happily handed her her ass.

Anyway...

Today was...  a series of things that happened.

My brain was a little fried this morning, so everything was like 15% harder than it needed to be.