rainbow character template

I've had this same blog template since the beginning of October 2014, and the header image itself was from June that same year. So it's been a hot minute (actually, it's more in the neighbourhood of 2,800,000 minutes).

And while I still love my Little Traveller, Lego isn't quite as big a part of my life right now.

But my DnD characters definitely are. And I've been playing with Hero Forge for my characters since the beginning, but then I discovered a tutorial about using their screenshot tool to then colour the images in Photoshop. Cue a whole new obsession.

After the first couple took me upwards of an hour and a half, I have it down to probably about 45 minutes now... depending on complexity.

I started playing around with coloured backgrounds, wallpaper for my laptop, that kind of thing. Which led me to the idea of adapting that design into a blog header, which then led to the blog header above. Which, while simple, I'm pretty proud of. And yes, I know that the green background doesn't have a correspondingly themed character, but there's reasons for that.

So, from left to right...

• Demyan - human noble cleric of Loviatar, Goddess of Pain
  Demyan is my dumpster fire. He's a total disaster and I could not love him more. He's a noble, worships a Lawful Evil goddess, a Grave Domain cleric who will definitely let you go unconscious before he bothers to heal you, has the upmost of contempt for most people and as such considers himself above everyone else... in short he's a total prick. But he's also insightful as fuck and protective of children and people who have won his favour. He's also one of the first characters that appeared in my head after I invented an NPC in a game and he just never left, just sat there insisting that I make him into a character. His personality only appeared when I played in a game with way too many other people, about half of which I didn't especially like playing with for various reasons. So it was too much fun to not show my displeasure via my character (without being a dick about it).
  
  
• Belben - halfling arcane trickster rogue
  My very first character, Belben will always be my favourite. He's also the reason I'm obsessed with halflings and have played five different halflings so far. And although it doesn't show in who he is now, his original DNA came about because I was reading a lot of Dashiell Hammett books and wanted an investigator character. He's a member of the enormous Beestinger clan, grew up in a bakery (and that was before I learned how to make bread), has five older sisters (although he never feels like "the baby"). While he could rob you blind, he's not that kind of rogue, he's much more interested in your secrets. He can also walk into a room and totally "Sherlock Holmes" the shit out of it. And I will say that my decision to give him Winged Boots was the best decision I ever made. He's my little bumblebee.
  
  
• Rain in the Night - tabaxi monk
  If all of my characters are some part of my personality turned all the way up to 15, Rain is my impulsiveness/impatience. He'll be fine up to a point and then he'll get bored and do the dumb thing. This is also aided by the fact that as a cheetah themed tabaxi (bipedal big-cat person) and a monk, he can, when necessary, run up to 270 feet inside six seconds (or 49km/h), which now includes along vertical surfaces and across water. I now tend to dig much deeper for character names, but he was literally named because I was making him at night during a big rainstorm.
  
  
• Khurg - champion orc fighter and barbarian
  Khurg is my big dumb boy. He's the character I've played mostly either when I've already played or run a particular adventure or I can't be bothered. Alternatively, sometimes I just want to play someone uncomplicated. I picked orc for him especially so that he was mechanically dumber than he could otherwise have been (since orcs have a -2 to their intelligence stat). He's also a character that partially showed up after me running a series of adventures that all had orc or ogre or other big dumb NPC characters. I also get to his character/voice by pushing my lower jaw forward and grunting... it just works. He's also the character that I had to include, even though he doesn't match his colour swatch, because everybody loves Khurg. And yes, he has "Friendly" embroidered into the front of his overalls... originally that was a piece of stone, but then I did a Christmas adventure and decided that one of Santa's helpers embroidered that for him.
  
  
• Oceanus - water genasi sailor and coastal druid
  Oceanus (Oh-see-ann-us... not any other variation of how you might pronounce that particular name, thank you very much) is Southern. My accept repertoire isn't enormous... I can do a decent accent from the American south though. And by decent, I mean often terrible, but a bad real world accent makes for a workable DnD accept. It also makes him often more laid back than I might otherwise play characters. He's also has a little bit of Big Dad Energy. I didn't want to play him that way, but maybe because I play him mostly with people roughly two decades younger than me, it's just what happens.
  
  
• Masika - former pirate fighter and storm sorcerer
  She was supposed to be my bad girl, my bitch, my character who didn't give a fuck and wasn't nice. But something happened to Masika when she travelled across the desert with a bunch of idiots, then continued to hang out with them for months and months and months. She ended up caring about them. And kind of ended up as either the bitchy older sister or occasionally the slightly exasperated and authoritative mother of the group. Well, except for the pretty but insane human girl PC she ended up fucking... their relationship has been weird and on-again, off-again, but still incredibly important to who both of those characters are now. She also has possibly the shortest temper of all my characters. If you fuck with what's hers, she will end up in spectacular fashion. She also once shaved her head after an altercation with an NPC. And in the most recent game we played, the reason we had to leave the city we'd been in before the start of the game was that Masika had an affair with a married noblewoman and needed to get out of town quick.
  
  
• Nightingale - drow elf bard violinist and dancer
  Surprisingly to the people who know how I play DnD, it took me 822 days to actually play a bard. Because, honestly, I think bards are incredibly boring. Or rather the scope of potential character concepts for them is very restrictive. And the subclasses aren't hugely varied in the way that they are for a rogue for example. So much so that taking any of three different subclasses wouldn't actually have changed my character concept in the slightest. Nightingale is also my first drow. Not for any particular reason, but personally I'd probably rather play a half-elf than a full elf. She also has a vague and non-specific Eastern European accent. And honestly, it took me a little while to work out who Nightingale actually was. Distilled down to her essence, she's a relapsing addict, she's someone who knows that she shouldn't Do Bad Things, but also knows that sometimes Doing Bad Things are the only way to get things done. Interestingly she's a character who will use sex and sexuality but isn't particularly interested in it (as opposed to, say, Masika), possibly because being a drow in the surface world, she's been fetishised and objectified by (mostly) men, but she comes from a culture where men have no real power.

And no the fact that the image is a little bit rainbow flag themed (or at least the 1978-1979 version with the turquoise stripe) isn't 100% coincidental, since a lot of my characters would probably identify as somewhere on the rainbow spectrum... but posting it just before Mardi Gras is just a happy accident.

Current mood:

photo saturday: museum style

Well that didn't go quite as planned.

I started out writing what became the OTHER post from today, thinking I would just phase it into the usual weekly roundup, before realising that no, it definitely needed to be it's own thing. So you get two posts today.

Let's see what else happened.

Oh, you know how I talked at length last post about the fact that I'd dyed my chair covers and they were possibly a little dark, but dark was just fine. They dried. They dried pink. A darker pink than they had been, but still pink. Well, looking at them, I honestly don't know what the fuck happened. But they're pink. Ish.

I'm guessing probably the ratio of dye to water and fabric was off. Who knows.

But they don't look bad.

Wednesday's DnD day game was decent, I gave up my arm (it grew back), we fought a dragon turtle, somebody died (nobody important, harsh but fair), my sailor got himself a folding boat. So a good time was had by all. And by all I mean me.

The evening game has it's own post... but it also means we're that much closer to me running the next campaign for the group. I have thoughts and plans.

This week Friday night got moved to Thursday night due to reasons, which was weird, but the game itself was pretty good. And we finally got to hell, which is the point of this particular game.

And I made sun dried tomato bread, which was really nice. I mean obviously, because sundried tomatoes are frequently awesome. But it was a good loaf.

Then Friday I had my updated chiro appointment after last weeks total failure. And because I'd made the appointment for 10:30 in the morning, I went for a wander afterwards and took a bunch of photos. It was nice, playing a little bit of home town tourist. Then I came home and the rest of the afternoon and evening was a big wack of nothing, since I'm used to going to DnD on Friday nights now.

Anyway... I survived.

Today wasn't especially thrilling. We did the usual supermarket thing, had a really, really good check out girly... she'd be a keeper, but as such we probably won't see her again any time soon.

Then we came back here, unpacked, did all the usual, and ended up doing a run back to Norwood to pick up a bunch of free stuff we got via their scratchcard promotion (woo, free shit), then stopped in at Spotlight to use a 40% off voucher Ma got, then we did a detour to a Woolworths store neither of us knew was there, before coming back here and calling it a day.

Current mood:

charlatan paladin to small town baker

The Out of the Abyss DnD game we've been playing since May 2018 (on and off, we ended up with a total of 42 sessions) came to an end this Wednesday.

And it didn't quite end the way I expected.

The two images above (made with Hero Forge and coloured by me in Photoshop) are both of my charlatan halfling paladin rogue... on the left as he was at the end of the game, and then on the right as he became 15 or so years later, a simple baker in a small town. In the space between those two images are the last ten minutes of the game where he managed to surprise me one last time.

He's done that a lot, young Peregrin Swiftfoot, formerly Obaris Beestinger, soon to be Peregrin Beestinger (it's a long story, but he walked away from his name and family, picked up and dropped names as he ran confidence scams up and down the coast, then found that he could be a better man and decided after the campaign that he'd grown enough to at least be a Beestinger again)... I would open my mouth on occasion and I wasn't the one talking, he was. I am so, so, so glad that I decided to play him in this campaign, he was so wonderfully complicated and complex and had more layers than I think any other character I've ever played. And he wouldn't have been any of those things in a different game.

He loved, he lied (oh, how he lied), he meddled (mostly in other people's love lives), he had enemies, he made a difference. And he made promises he didn't intend to keep, so many promises. But honestly, I realised a few games back that he actually had something of a deathwish, he didn't expect to actually get out of the final battle alive. He didn't think he deserved to. And it would also have meant he could have gotten out of all of those promises.

But that wasn't to be. He survived. So after we vanquished two of the most powerful of the demon lords of the abyss he pulled one final trick. Everyone was doing post game discussion, one of the antagonist NPCs he'd made a promise to came to gloat a little and remind him of his debt. And I opened my mouth to answer and Pery spoke instead. He said (slightly paraphrasing, I don't remember the exact wording) "You don't need to worry, Peregrin Swiftfoot will fulfil his promise". An oddly specific phrase, and given that Peregrin was only ever someone he was pretending to be, one of those wonderful weaselly phrases that has so many layers to it. I'd had the thought of what he could do earlier that afternoon, but I wasn't sure if I'd do it or not. That was when I knew.

A little bit after that I just said to the DM "I'm gunna walk away from the group". And then after some other back and forth I said that I was going to find one of the NPCs and get the package I left with him. It wasn't something I'd set up earlier, but I had laid in that NPC in a prior game, for other reasons.

It was when I said that I knew what he was going to do, the why came later, but the what was easy. He changed his gear from the flashy, eye-catching peacock of an outfit on the right to simple, stealthy garb. He left all his magical gear behind (well everything except his nightvision goggles), he left all his gear in fact, took his very full gold pouch and some diamonds and walked out of the camp, avoiding his friends.

Because of course he did. He'd been doing the same thing since he was 15. Running away when things went bad. He'd gotten in over his head, made promises he couldn't or wouldn't keep, and as I worked out later, was suffering from a massive case of impostor syndrome. He'd been pretending to be a better man, which had made him BE a better man, but now that was all coming to an end and he had no idea what to do next, no idea how to be the "hero" he'd been down in the Underdark once he was back in the real world. And he'd screwed up his relationship with the dwarven shield maiden in two different timelines, so much so that she left before the final battle without telling him.

So he ran.

Legitimately it was one of those moments when a character was so fully alive in my head that I didn't need to think about how he was going to do it all, I just knew.

I'd also written a "hey, I'm dead" letter to one of the players (because of course I did) which I ended up handing over because it was too good not to, and I also didn't have a "hey, I'm a shithead and I'm running" letter prepared. I think I threw him for a complete loop honestly, and I definitely need to have an in-character conversation with him at some point in the near future.

One of the other NPCs tracked me for a bit, but eventually I just asked her to give me an hour's head start, then bolted. And thanks to some interference from our cleric's god, I got sent to "a place Pery has felt at peace". Which is honestly a massive thought to process for that character, one I wasn't able to unpack until later. But he'd never felt at peace really. He'd spent his whole life gripping onto the edges of disaster by his fingernails, even when a con was going well, he knew that the whole thing could go south at a moment's notice, the wrong word, the wrong move and everything goes sour.

The only real times of late that he'd possibly been at peace were in the other timeline (yeah, we did just about everything in this campaign... demon slaying, multiple romance plotlines, visits to the library, alternate timelines and time travel) when he was with the dwarven shield maiden. But that proverbial ship had sailed, he screwed it up and she (probably, I need to check with the DM) died in that timeline, plus their relationship was never the same in this timeline.

So, in game I eventually came up with a place a couple of days journey from where he grew up, but I realised later that the god didn't send him to somewhere he had BEEN at peace, it sent him to somewhere he WOULD be at peace. To give him someone he could finally be completely honest with and who would love him even if he was a massive screw-up.

He ended up in that small town, literally crashing into (because that will happen if you go from riding a fey-horse at high speed to being teleported to another place) the half-elven owner of the tavern, who took one look at him, declared that Pery clearly needed a drink and took him in. Pery ended up telling him everything, something he normally wouldn't do, but definitely something he needed to do. They became friends, which transitioned into a easy relationship which transitioned into them getting married and adopting a young halfling boy after he lost his family. And Pery took his fistfuls of gold and renovated an old house in town into a bakery.

However when our DM asked where we were around 20 years after the end of the game, all I knew was that he would be married, working as a baker (he went a little crazy making bread in game around the same time I learned how to make bread IRL) in this little nowhere town, with fat muttonchop halfling sideburns, a little thicker around the middle (all that bread), showing off his original hair and eye colour... and happier than he had ever been in his life.

It wasn't until later I knew that he retained his paladin powers for the rest of his days, healed anyone in town who was injured, kept a diamond handy just in case of an accidental death, used his spells to defend the town, protect against disease or poison, was the one people came to to settle disputes, conducted weddings, naming ceremonies, was always good for an adventure story in the tavern of an evening, all that good small town stuff. And I gave him the zen circle tattoo because it's much harder to pretend to be someone else long term with a big chunk of black ink on your arm.

And so I retired him. Because there wasn't another option. For a character who started out face down in an alleyway with a knife in his back and inventing a whole new persona to escape, finding peace was the perfect end.

I'm gunna miss that charming, talkative, meddling, protective, lying little shit.

Current mood:

photo saturday: red and brown

All my everything is exhausted.

But, on the up side, my chair covers have now been dyed a deeper red colour... I'd almost call it a "red denim"... much better than the previous "red beige". Still not bright scarlet, but that ship has now officially sailed.

But back to the beginning.

What happened at the start of this week? Who the fuck knows... I did stuff, probably. I know I made veal schnitzel on Monday night using pulverised corn chips instead of breadcrumbs. I need to try it again with chicken... because chicken is just better than veal. Don't @ me.

Wednesday was a red letter day. To which you should apply the usual sarcasm filter. But I did have two DnD games for the first time since the beginning of November because my friends and acquaintances managed to remove their heads from their asses long enough for us to have a game. Yay. My character is an idiot and is in way over his head with multiple people, making promises he can't hope to fulfil. I have no earthy idea how or even if he's going to get out of it. And next week is going to be ostensibly around 4 hours of nothing but battle. Let's see how many times I die this time... and whether he chooses to come back.

There was also the Wednesday day game... which was decent. But without anything particularly special to report.

Thursday night was Board Game Night... and I might have reached my limit on irritating people for the week at that point... It was fine, don't get me wrong, but I got somewhat annoyed at one point. I didn't ruin the game though, and we were all still on speaking terms at the end of it. So, yeah.

However, Thursday night when I got home I was sitting watching YouTube and there was an ant on my arm. And then there was a second ant. And then a third ant. Three ants is never good. I still don't know exactly where they were coming from, but I went to town with the bug spray over the following 24 hours and the little bastards seem to have fucked right off.

Friday I started off by realising I had a fridge full of tomatoes, plums and peaches that were beginning to circle the drain a little bit, so I went a little nuts and went back to the peach, nectarine and tomato relish (which I've still never made directly from the recipe, but who cares) I've made a couple of times before and ended up with six jars of it.

And then I went above and beyond and made myself a label. With good reason, because I fully intend to give almost all of this batch away. Especially because I made it on Valentine's Day... which, as previous history on this blog will back up, I actively don't give a shit about, but it was nice to make something to give to friends for V-Day.

Around 4:30 I got a phonecall from my chiro... I totally forget to put Friday's appointment in my phone and hence didn't remember to show up. Totally stood her up. Whoops. I'll go and mea culpa next Friday.

I gave some of the relish away to the Friday night DnD group, along with making a loaf of cranberry bread. It was good, but it could have done with a teeny touch more water, because putting dried fruit in always soaks up more water than any other bread I've made thus far.

We stopped the DnD game at an appropriate point and broke out the Sheriff of Nottingham board game, which is awesome fun. Not least of all because I won.

But it did mean I didn't get home until 1am. Totally worth it.

Today as previously indicated, ended up with me up to my elbows in red fabric dye. Well, metaphorical elbows... mostly.

We did the usual shopping thing this morning... blah blah fruit and veg, blah blah dairy, blah blah grocery, blah blah bakery. Then back here for the unpacking and blah blah blah.

Then I went to town on the fabric dyeing. And this time I didn't have to stand at the stove and boil the ever loving shit out of it. Instead I just filled my red wheelie bin with water and fabric dye and salt (because of course) and threw in both of my chair covers and two old white Bonds teeshirts that I never wear because they're white Bonds teeshirts. And then spent an hour moving the fabric around.

And ended up with tingling fingers, very sore everything, slightly pink hands and best of all much darker red covers. Not the scarlet I was originally wanting, but I did the best with what I had and the outcome looks good, and better than the previous version. Oh and two somewhat dark coral-y Bonds teeshirts. I get why I think, the teeshirts were only picking up the leftover dye after most of it ended up in the covers.

Then of course I had to rinse and rinse and rinse and rinse and rinse and rinse and it makes me tired just thinking about it. And when I appeared to have gotten all the dye out from rinsing, I washed them in the bathtub and suddenly it was red dye everywhere all over again. Repeat until insane. And now I just need to wait for them to dry before I can put them back on the chairs.

After they were drying I went to do a fairly simple task, put some popcorn from a bowl into a smaller plastic container. Something I've done a version of a billion times. But my fingers and hands were so buggered I dropped the bowl and the popcorn went all over the floor. Le sigh.

I am too damn tired now to clean up, so that's a problem for tomorrow.

Current mood:

photo saturday: street pinks

This week was certainly drier than last week. Well, the weather outside was drier.

As for inside, I had an rental inspection on Thursday, so that included the usual "douse the bathroom and kitchen in a layer of water, then clean" along with "sweep, then vacuum then mop the floors". So I always end up a little wet around the gills by the end of it all.

Thankfully unlike before the last inspection, both sides of my face continued to be functional throughout the week.

But, rolling back for a second. Monday I did the tidying and organising I always tend to do during these things. I mean it's good that I have times when I can do that... the theme of this one seemed to mostly be "old DnD paperwork". And cleaning the kitchen for the first time (I kind of ended up doing it at least twice because I cleaned, used the stove, then had to clean again before giving up and only using the oven).

Then Tuesday was the long slow version of taking everything possibly up off the floor, putting it on my bed and then cleaning the bathroom and sweeping, vacuuming and mopping the floor. Which always sounds like it shouldn't take that long, and always takes waaaaaaaay longer than that.

Urgh.

As always, while I hate going through the process of moving all the furniture, mopping the floor and whatnot, the best feeling ever is when it's all done and everything looks clean and sparkling and lovely.

Actually, the best feeling is coming home AFTER the inspection to a clean house.

Anyway...

The inspection was Thursday... I finished cleaning on Tuesday. Wednesday was kind of a holding pattern day. I mean I went to DnD, so I was out of the house for most of the day, which was good.

I also had trouble sleeping Wednesday and Thursday nights... not sure why, maybe the weather?

Then I cleared out of the house on Thursday morning for a couple of hours... thank goodness for Burnside Library, podcasts and DnD module prep. That evening I made olive bread for Friday night.

Friday I finally got around to doing a ton of DnD paperwork, I finished up the olive bread and then Fluffy came down, we talked crap for a while as we often do and then headed out for board games instead of DnD because reasons. Still a good night, and I enjoy the boardgames... but DnD is generally just more fulfilling.

Today was rinse and repeat. We did the supermarket thing, came back here, and ended up doing a trip to Spotlight again... for no real reason honestly.

And that's it really.

Current mood:

photo saturday: blue and white

Several parts of this week could be best categorised as "Thanks, I hate it".

Tuesday night I got a confusing message from my friend who is part of the Wednesday night DnD game as well as hosting the board game fortnight sessions... I thought he was talking about the board game group, but he was talking about the DnD group... but I didn't realise that until one of the other people messaged me Wednesday morning. Urgh.

And, unsurprisingly, someone was trying to get the group to take it's thumb out of it's butt, however they wanted me to host... with less than 12 hours notice. Yeah, no.

But it was also too damn hot on Thursday to go to board games (since my car's aircon is shot), so I skipped that also.

Wednesday's day game wasn't horrible, I mean I didn't die this week, although there was a moment where it could be gone badly. But I just don't like the overall style of those particular modules. Brutal for the sake of brutal doesn't do it for me oddly enough. And I very much disliked the fact that player agency was taken away at the end of the adventure. Which is a shame because they're otherwise decently put together.

Afterwards a bunch of us sat around and chewed the fat on a laundry list of topics, which was fun.

Then, as previously mentioned, Thursday was just hot and gross.

Friday continued in the same vein, but with a side order of hideously humid. Which I hate more than just plain old heat. But then just after Fluffy arrived it started to rain. And I mean RAIN. Get some wood and start collating two of every animal kind of rain. But it didn't get any cooler... just wetter... so much wetter.

Which meant that was the weather in which we needed to drive into the hills. Argh.

And when the car suddenly decelerated every time I hit a patch of water, which I couldn't see, because the rain was so heavy I couldn't really see through the windshield, or even when I could, it was just basically a wall of water. Argh.

Then every time we came to a cross street, there seemed to be a torrent of water flowing across the road from the other direction. And occasionally there was so much water that half of the street was essentially flooded. Argh.

The key moment though, was when we were waiting at a set of traffic lights behind four or five other cars, waiting to turn left, watching a torrent of water flow across the street we were on, when a wheelie bin came floating down the road and stopped in from of the lead car. And of course nobody wanted to wade through ankle deep water to move it, so when the lights changed the cars just carefully drove around it, us included. Argh.

But we got there fine, beyond some frayed nerves. And the rain wasn't as horrific when we got up there, although it definitely kept raining for the rest of the evening.

In fact the rain kept going from Friday evening all the way through to maybe an hour and a half ago... so about 20 hours straight. Not as intensely the whole time, obviously, but still.

The Friday DnD game was good... some good roleplay moments, we're starting a new part of the story. The magic item I ended up picking might not be super useful, but it's thematic and given the reaction of the other two, it was worth getting for that alone.

Anyway.

Today wasn't much of anything. Ma had her haircut this morning, so I did solo shopping, came back here, blah blah blah. Killed time catching up on things on YouTube before Ma got here. And honestly neither of us really wanted to go anywhere because rain, so we faffed around a bit, then Ma went home.

And I have a rental inspection to prep for this week... fun.

Current mood:

photo saturday: horizontal

Well this week was certainly less stressful. Mostly because there were less people involved. Clearly not a coincidence.

I got my Instagram photo calendar from Social Print Studio this week... and then they featured my photo of it on their Instagram story because I used the phrase "so damn girthy" to describe it, which genuinely made me laugh. I mean I always forget how big it is before I get the new one... but then it is 365 (this year 366) pages long.

Wednesday was interesting... my halfling cleric lost her head... literally.

Yep, a combination of pulling a level she shouldn't, a failed roll to half the damage and a high roll from the DM and the blade trap too her head off.

I mean she'll get better, but it was still definitely a moment. I think I've mentioned this before, but it always amuses me that whenever a character death has happened to me, I'm always a lot calmer than everyone else around the table. Maybe it's because I know that it's not really a big deal in Adventures League, there's always a fix... but it is interesting to watch everyone else's reactions.

Thursday was Haircut Day... also known as Small Children Haven't Gone Back To School Yet But Are End Of School Holiday Crazy. Yeah. Some trying moments, and I came home with a number of stickers stuck all the way up the inside of my left arm.

Yeah, I wind them up somewhat, so it's partly my fault... and the end of school holidays is always a disaster.

Otherwise, haircut as usual... we went a little more silver with the colour, which translated to me having purple tips in my hair for two days. Not the worst thing in the world.

Friday's DnD was good... I made bread with those big chocolate buttons, and it was fucking amazing.

Otherwise we kind of put an end to what feels like the "first act" of the story, and we're off to new and exciting places. It's also weird because in game we've only really been together as a group for maybe 5-6 days... but we're kind of sharing things in character like we've been together for the couple of months we've actually been playing.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with that, and it's honestly part of the territory sometimes... but in the context of the story, it's a little weird.

Now we get to pick a magic item... and there are too many interesting choices honestly. So that's going to take a few days of thought.

We also ran "late"... I mean we usually end up at or around midnight, but when Fluffy and I got in the car to leave I was surprised to see it was after 12:30.

Worth it though.

Today wasn't much of anything really to be honest.

We did the supermarket thing... I had half a thought that I might make chilli this week... but then it's also going to get hot towards the end of the week, so maybe not?

Ma brought back my now, admittedly, pink chair covers. Yeah, they're basically pink. Also, having sat in them for several hours this afternoon I can tell you that both the fabric and the design of these is significantly less comfortable than the original chair. That's mostly because of the piping, which is just in places that catches my legs in about five places. Urgh.

So they don't look bad, they fit pretty well, they look cleaner and less worn... but whoever designed these over at IKEA needs a big old slap... or just to be made to sit in them for extended periods of time.

I mean it could be because these covers are made for the newer design of the chair... which doesn't LOOK different... but clearly must be.

Anyway.

After unpacking and whatnot, we headed out to Spotlight... for the 100th time recently... for reasons.

I did pick up some other red dye, I'm not in any great rush to dye it again, but I might get inspired.

Otherwise we pottered around Spotlight for a bit, came back here, faffed around a bit and then Ma headed home.

Current mood:

photo saturday: like a brick

The theme of this week was "Too Many Things" or "I'm an Introvert, Get Me Out of Here".

And it probably doesn't sound like all that much stuff... but it was mentally draining, while also not being completely the worst for large swaths of time.

So really, just file me under tired and cranky right now.

Things really picked up on Wednesday... DnD Day. The game was fine, but there were a couple of totally new people, one of whom was A Lot. In a "we really have to deal with this at the table" way. But not in a "fuck you solidly and never darken my door again" way.

Wow... I'm absolutely abusing quote marks today.

Anyway, he wasn't irredeemable, and I think we got him to settle down a little. But at the same time his character did step through a portal into the Feywild, aka the plane of Faerie, where he will undoubtedly end up as the pet human to some horrific fey creature.

And a better end to a character there has not been.

But because he was sitting next to me, and I was both trying to help him play his first game while at the same time trying to make sure he didn't ruin my enjoyment but without biting his head off, it was fucking draining.

Thursday afternoon I had my appointment at the Ear Nose and Throat doctor to deal with my ears. And that was great, it was fine, the doctor maybe wasn't as personable as the guy I used to go and see... but the main thing was that I swear it cost like twice as much. It probably didn't, but I swear it was definitely more expensive. Which isn't great, even if I get half of it back from Medicare. Half of a lot is still kind of a lot.

But at least I can hear all the things now. Too many things perhaps. But definitely all the things.

Then, because it didn't make a huge amount of sense to go all the way home from North Adelaide, then come back into the city to pick up my friend for Thursday boardgame night, I drove up to O'Connell Street and went to the bakery.

I fucking miss North Adelaide. Even if I was slightly disappointed by the quality of the stuff I got at the bakery (I'm guessing it might have been in the warming oven for a bit too long, given the time I went in), just sitting there in the window, looking out at places I've been quite literally 100 times before. I miss it.

After having what can best be described as a sad boi moment, I headed into the city, a little early admittedly, to pick up my friend, and ended up just sitting in the car for about half an hour.

Board Game (Fort)Night was good... we played the same thing as last fortnight, which was fun, but I am just really bad at it. There were some fun moments though, which makes a difference. And it's fortunately one of those games, for me at least, where even though I have no clue what I'm doing and don't get anywhere near winning, I still enjoy the journey. Which is good.

Friday was my Chiro appointment, the usual tuneup, but it also meant another trip into town, more people. Otherwise, unremarkable.

Then Friday night was ostensibly DnD Night, however Fluffy was interstate for reasons, so I went up anyway and we had a boardgame night, so two in two days. And once again, didn't win, didn't especially care. It was a good evening. Got home at like 12:30 I think.

Today was... exhausting. But not in the go places, see people way. Thank all the gods.

We started off with the usual supermarket thing. Honestly, I just want fucking soup weather back again. I'm already tired of having to work out how to feed myself on a day by day basis. I just want to cook once a week and be done. And have food that is as good at the end of the week as it is at the start.

But this isn't news. I've said this a bunch of late.

When we got back I did the usual unpacking and then we faffed around a bit... but given that neither of us wanted or needed to go anywhere, do anything or deal with people, I decided that I would much rather try and do this fabric dyeing thing we set into motion last week (dyeying the boring beige covers I got for my lounge chairs given the chairs are all fucked up now... and they no longer make those chairs in red, and I fucking love my chairs).

It was, in fact, A LOT.

Thankfully I have a giant metal pot that I pulled out of a dumpster outside of a restaurant renovation (if memory serves) in Norwood on a night out with Raury back in the day. I sometimes think that if I hadn't decided to pull that pot out of that dumpster, large chunks of my life would have been different going in the intervening 20 years. Seriously. That fucking thing has come in handy to soak my feet in both hot and cool water, to serve as an impromptu tin bath all those times the hot water stopped working, it's elevated my old evaporative cooler to the right height... and now it has served as a dye pot. And now the inside looks like I murdered a motherfucker. Granted a motherfucker with burgundy to purple-red blood. But yeah.

Theoretically that'll mostly come out... I'm just too fucking tired to even attempt that right now. And that's also why my apartment currently looks like a hot mess. Can't be arsed.

Anyway... made up the dye, used some old bamboo pieces I have to stir and agitate (which are now also stained in interesting and entertaining ways), put one whole cover and seat cushion in, brought the liquid up to while now quite a "rolling boil" the instructions called for, but definitely some very fucking hot liquid. The first one was a learning experience. I shouldn't perhaps have put a whole one in at once... plus I should have unzipped them properly, because air pockets were a very real and direct problem.

However, about 3+ hours later... I don't know, I honestly lost track of time... I had dyed two complete covers, two little "back pillow" cushions and two tea towels, because when you get a bunch of dye on a tea towel, what else can you do? I also used probably more water in a single day than I have ever used ever... because rinsing out dye take some time and some fucking water. And a lot of bending and stretching and picking up waterlogged fabric, which is heavy even when it's not that heavy really.

We wandered across the way to get some lunch, let the covers dry as much as we could within the timeframe, then Ma took it home to give it a proper run through the washer and whatnot. Because, let's be honest, I would have just let them dry and then put the wrinkly ass covers straight on the chairs. So I have to wait a week for completed chairs.

The downside to all of this? The fabric did not, under any possibly interpretation, turn bright red. I mean, yes, I got the red dye, not the scarlet dye, but still, it's a... pale burgundy. I mean not THAT pale, but it's also not a deep colour. It seemed like it would be deeper before I pulled it out... and the zipper definitely took on a ton of colour... but that's essentially dark burgundy purple.

So, yeah... I understand that the fabric started off as beige, it's a polycotton blend that may only have taken on colour in the poly part of the fabric, and I bought red dye, not scarlet. And maybe I could have left it in for even longer... but then it would have just gotten more burgundy.

I'm not disappointed, per say... for my first attempt at dyeing something with no real understanding of much of any of it... it didn't suck. It was exhausting as fuck.

And it's still better than the original beige covers. Also it doesn't mean I couldn't try again at a later point... or just go fuck it and try a black (no boil) dye instead.

And that's my week.

Current mood:

photo saturday: wall details

This week felt longer than it was for some reason... possibly because there wasn't a "holiday" in the middle of it.

I did need to contact my Ear Nose and Throat doctor for an appointment this week, only to discover that he has retired. So that meant I had to book an appointment with my GP in order to go in and get a new referral to another ENT. Blah.

And then of course they don't have an appointment before the end of the month, but I did do my usual "hey, put me on the cancellation list, and if you can squeeze me in earlier, great"... and of course, got another appointment at the end of next week instead. You gotta work it.

Anyway, thankfully the issue that flared up hasn't gotten worse, so while I still need to go, it's not quite as "argh, pain, annoyance, etc" as it could have been.

The weather also hasn't been able to make up it's mind this week, which is never good.

Wednesday was Daytime DnD... the evening collective will be getting a collective message probably tomorrow, basically just saying, "I presume we're starting again this week", and wait for somebody's brain to fall out of their ear.

The day game was... decent... ish. I mean the adventure was from Season 8, which is an overreaction to previous seasons and perceived problems that didn't actually exist, so it's TOO exploration and socially focused, and the players who don't excel at that stuff end up sitting around not getting involved. I am not one of those players.

But it wasn't the worst adventure either.

Thursday I revisited the peach, nectarine and tomato relish I adapted last year... and still didn't make it the way the recipe calls for. This one was peach, plum and tomato, and I added some chilli and ginger this time, plus a bunch of onions. I ended up with 5 jars of it, as opposed to last year's 3. And I still have one of those ones left.

Friday DnD was... slightly anticlimactic. I don't mean that in a mean or bad way... it's just that our DM just deus ex machina'd us out of the predicament we'd put ourselves in at the end of the last game. And yes, I might have done something similar in her position, but I had been kind of looking forward to seeing how, if at all, we managed to get out of it.

I mean, yes, we didn't all end up completely dead and wrecked... but still.

And my "murderess" character... yeah, she slit someone else's throat this week. This one she did with more purpose and less rage... but still to someone who had essentially "surrendered" to us, although he "deserved" it just as much. I spent a bunch of time thinking about her reasons after last week, and I now know the why for her actions. And yes, I'm aware of all the "air quotes" in that paragraph.

I've had characters who fall into place immediately, others that slowly become who they are over time, and then others who need a specific event (or events) for them to come into focus. I think she's the latter category. So we'll see what happens.

Oh and I made cranberry and walnut bread... pretty good honestly, I mean the cranberry is a classic, and the walnuts were a good addition.

Today was... irritating. Actually only partially.

The supermarket thing was about the usual. I still don't fucking know how to feed myself when it's not soup weather. I mean I do... but I get to the end of the week and have no anything nor the will to invent anything from nothing.

Afterwards we came back here and while I put things away and whatnot, I put the second part of the Doctor Who two parter on so Ma could rewatch it. I'm not super enthusiastic about the new series, mainly for the same reasons I wasn't enthusiastic about the last one. Too many uninteresting companions and a Doctor they don't quite seem to know what to do with.

Then we headed for IKEA. It wasn't a huge trip, but we picked up covers for my chairs (which will need dyeing because I'm not doing beige), I found a really cheap but decent looking plastic plant for the head of my baby Groot planter and grabbed a couple of magazine rack storage things, because you can never have enough of those.

Then we went to Kmart to pick up one of those cube "bookcases" for Ma... and then the self serve machine just had an existential crisis, wouldn't except cash, then freaked out and rebooted itself. It was... challenging.

From there it was a brief stop off at Officeworks just to drop off some printer cartridges for recycling, then detoured around to Spotlight to pick up the aforementioned fabric dye. That's going to be... an event. Thankfully I have a giant metal pot and a giant stove, so at least I can actually boil it as appropriate.

Yeah, pray for me.

And that was it.

Current mood:

photo saturday: random vignettes

Let's deal with this week in a sensible and orderly fashion...

Saturday night DnD was supposed to go in one direction and ended up going in a completely different direction, and my character ended up seducing one of the bad guys so we could capture him and use him as leverage. It was a good plan, and worked perfectly. Remember that when I get to Friday.

Sunday was regular.

Monday Ma called me first thing and said she wanted me to come with her while she bought a new bed. I really didn't need to be there, but I went anyway. The woman at the bed store was lovely, and now Ma is waiting on her first double bed in... 40+ years.

Tuesday, also known as New Years Eve has already been documented. But it wasn't much more than going through the motions.

Wednesday, aka New Years Day... likewise. And of course because it was a public holiday, no Wednesday DnD.

Thursday was TableTop Game Fortnight, and although I was hideously bad at it, I had a great time.

Friday was DnD Night again... and remember how I said we'd previously had a good plan that went well. We had a plan for last night. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it was a good plan. It went spectacularly pear shaped at a certain point. Lets be completely honest, it might have already gone pear shaped, but me killing the very pathetic bad guy that I think you're supposed to use to get past a much harder enemy further in was definitely a mistake.

In all the games of DnD I've played, I've killed a veritable fuckton of enemies... guards, bandits, cultists, spellcasters, undead, goblins, dragons, fighters of every kind, pirates and every kind of beast and monstrosity. I don't think I've ever murdered any of them essentially in cold blood. When they weren't actively fighting us. And I did it in a moment of anger from my character, which I think I can explain at the table, if not justify. But I legitimately had a moment afterwards when I definitely thought "wait, what did I just do?"...

Yeah, that one is going to stay with me for a while.

Don't get me wrong, it's going to be brilliant as far as character motivation and story moving forwards, but it also screwed over what we should have been able to do, and what we have to do next, so that sucks.

Whoops.

On the plus side, I made really good cheese bread.

Today wasn't too bad to be honest.

We did the usual supermarket thing... I feel like I didn't buy enough, because it feels like when it's not soup season, I've totally forgotten how the fuck to shop.

Then we took a detour to Haighs, and in the ongoing theme of the day, found that we were a week too late for the majority of the post Christmas bargains... or at least some of the good ones.

After unpacking we did the Big W, Target, Kmart triangle... ostensibly looking for bedding for Ma's new bed... but ended up mostly kicking tyres and looking through any of the post Christmas stuff, and found a few cute bits and pieces, including a tablecloth that turned out to be exactly twice as big as I need for my table, but still useful.

And that was it really.

Current mood: