character saturday: boat-hat and frogs

Weirdly, I thought I'd revisited this particular character at some point after his first appearance in DnD Character Colouring Book... you know, back when I was actually colouring them by hand in Photoshop. I did give him a do-over once things went to colour, but I went back and redid him again for this iteration. Is there that much of a point to it being as he's a character that I'm probably never going to get to play again? Not really. Do I enjoy doing it anyway? Yes.

Also, it lines up with the idea that he keeps finding more interesting or newer bits of clothing and armour and swapping it out... not that it's BETTER, just different.

To steal from the last post about him...

Firstly there's Vrak. Vrak is a fighter/rogue/ranger goblin who likes to lick things. He licks things he doesn't understand, in an effort to understand them. He licks things that may or may not be food. He licks things he absolutely should not lick. Vrak is a licker. It's what he does.

Vrak also put his armour together from whatever he could steal, scavenge or otherwise acquire, so none of it matches. And when tasked with an adventure that would take him onto the high seas, his only stipulation was that he wanted a "boat hat". Later he turned said "boat hat" into a magical boat hat that he can make produce a frog up to three times a day. This, obviously, involved him licking the inside of the hat, amongst other things.

And as far as I can tell at this point, Vrak's main aim in life is to Be Useful. So he's the character who will not necessarily attack the enemy, but instead go and assist one of his new friends. His ranger spells aren't the premier choices (Goodberry and Speak with Animals), but they suit him. 

 I do love the idea of him ending up as a Swarmkeeper Ranger and being perpetually surrounded by little spectral frogs. I also like the idea of him just lifting up his hat and his swarm of frogs just falling out of it. And even though I have his subclasses listed, I don't think he actually got to high enough level to trigger any of them... I think the last time I played him he was Fighter 2, Rogue 2, Ranger 2. So his full deal wouldn't kick in until Level 9.

What's super weird is that I now can't remember what he looked like before the hat. I think he was supposed to have a mask or a animal skull face plate or something (I have a vague memory of a frog skull helmet), but that never quite worked for me. The hat suits him much better.

Anyway.

Turns out that sweet potato soup isn't as good as regular potato soup. It was decent... but it just wasn't really my thing.

Thursday Night DnD was great... Was that because it was mostly a roleplay session? Yes. Was it because the session let me have a moment with another player who I always enjoy roleplaying with? Also yes. Was it also because it resulted in having another one on one roleplay moment with DM Fluffy on Friday to wrap up my character's bit of storyline without having to make the rest of the table sit through that.

Friday Night DnD was a return after two weeks off. And somehow, for some reason, I never printed off my character sheet after we leveled up last game. I leveled up, I just never printed it. Stupid me. Thankfully I had enough time before the game to borrow Mr's computer and do myself a serviceable version for the evening. Once again, also very much a Talking About Things session. But we very much organised ourselves into a party when, at this point, we didn't have much of a reason to be (outside of "because that's what the adventure says happens").

Anyway...

Not much to report for today... although I did get my hands on the tea I tried to get at Coles last week (turns out that it wasn't actually available until the beginning of last week), so very excited about that, given that I've been waiting for this tea to show up in Australia since 2020.

But nothing else beyond general supermarketry.

character saturday: shadow guy

Sometimes you just end up with the most basic or perhaps most on-the-nose version of a character when you're fucking around. So today's DnD Character Colouring Book is dedicated to that idea.

It started, as many things do, with the idea of a sorcerer. A Shadow Sorcerer specifically. And so, the most on-the-nose version of that is a shadow-skinned tiefling wearing all black/dark grey.

I don't hate it as an idea. I also worked out, after the fact, that if I used him as a replacement character for the Friday night game, he would absolutely be part of Mr Grumpypants' backstory in some way and the two of them would potentially hate each other.

Anyway...

This week's soup was beef and rice... and very thick, because I put not only the rice but also some cornflower, because it was a little thin before I did that. Yeah, turns out two different thickening agents make for thick soup, who would have guessed.

Thursday Night DnD was good... between the massive amounts of rain that had continued throughout the day. But DM Fluffy pulled a bait and switch on my character, which made me [confused labrador face.gif] both during the game, directly after the game and the day after the game. So, you know, the same thing I did to him during Witchlight.

The less said about the fact that I then came home and managed to spill milk all over the kitchen counter and floor and then had to mop and clean and it was a whole thing and didn't end up being able to do what I was going to do with the milk... the better.

Friday was Chiro Day, so, there's that.

Friday Night wasn't DnD... but it was Slightly Unfulfilling Board Game Night. And I can't even be salty about it, because it was my choice of board game and it was just a little... m'eh. And then we followed that up not actually playing a game but just asking each other pop culture trivia questions from the cards. Can I remember the name of the game? No. It was green though. Oh, there it is... it was Geek Out.

So basically we sat around asking questions like "Two Comic Book Characters with Red Hair" (Wally West/Kid Flash, Roy Harper/Arsenal, Jimmy Olsen, M'gann M'orzz/Miss Martian, Mera, Kate Kane/Batwoman, Archie Andrews, etc) or "Two Named Disney Kings/Princes" (Prince Eric, Prince Charming, King Stefan, Prince Adam (Beast), King Fergus, etc). Which was fun. Even if I disagreed with the game's stated interpretation of "franchise".

Anyway...

Today was more or less a rerun of last weekend. Although we did go to the new Coles in Norwood... which is lovely and shiny and new and it still won't make me want to shop there, but it's good that it's there for those times when the Foodland doesn't have specific things I want.

Then we did a brief trip to a different Kmart, in order to try and find something for Ma that it turns out nobody has because it's on clearance. So that was a lot of sound and fury signifying not much of anything.

character friday: hot boy warlock

So, sometimes you just fuck around and make a Hot Boy Sorcerer... and then later you think... how about that, but recoloured and rethemed as a warlock.

Which is how we started out with Sabola Black (and when I looked up what the name Sabola meant, I discovered that Past Me is an asshole, because it means "pepper"... so... basically Black Pepper)... and end up with Lucca LeClaire. And Lux. And then realise that you probably don't really want a warlock for your backup character. But at least this one is more of a fully formed idea.

Also, I need to make a character who has a pseudodragon familiar at some point. Because 75% of the warlocks I design end up as Pact of the Chain and 75% of those end up with pseudodragons. What can I say... tiny dragons are my jams.

I am leaning very much in a sorcerer direction though for an actual back up.

Anyway.

I think I said this last time, but part one of the secret of Pea and Ham soup is mint. I mean, you know, beyond the obvious. And part two, now that I can't easily get my hands on ham steaks, using kransky as the ham portion works really well.

It was good soup.

Thursday Night DnD also happened. So, mark that one down in your notebooks. Granted, we'll be off the first Thursday in July, but fingers crossed we might be able to make it to that point. The game itself was decent... some bandits learned that when they get told they should walk away, they should walk away. Also, I would have been in a lot of trouble without some temporary hit points I got.

Friday... everybody decided that they didn't want to play with me. So, it was supposed to be Chiro Day, but I got a message first thing to say that my Chiro was sick. So that's going to be next Friday instead.

And then Mr cancelled Friday Night DnD at about 4pm. So I had freshly baked bread to dip in my soup.

Anyway.

Today was things and also stuff.

Supermarket. I'm making up a beefy tomato-y soup this week, so wish me luck with that. We also somehow saved more money than we've saved in weeks at the supermarket and also spent more money. So I don't know what happened there.

Then we wanted to go to Kmart because I wanted some slippers. And came away with many really warm things. So bonus points there. My feet are currently very warm.

So, that's that.

movies: spider-man - across the spider-verse

I'm still slightly annoyed that I never got the opportunity to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in cinemas. Because I was blown away when I finally saw it.

So, believe me when I say that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse knocks that first movie completely on it's ass as far as visuals are concerned.

It is not hyperbole to say that legitimately any single still from this movie is an absolute work of art. You could also play this movie with no sound or no dialogue (well, maybe keep the music) and it would not only work, but it would be beautiful to look at.

Also, something something, there will be spoilers of a mild variety.

I can very much track the moment when I realised "oh, this movie is going to be breathtaking"... and that was when the Da Vinci Vulture showed up in Spider Gwen's universe. It's not a spoiler, it literally happens almost at the start of the movie.

But just looking at every single different art style that is blended and merged and overlaid and still feels like a coherent visual theme but at the same time being legitimately different and unique. They did it with the first movie, but that was other styles stepping into the consistent world of Miles' art style. This is taking Miles and the others into multiple different universes and realising that Spider Gwen's universe is water colours (there is a moment when her backgrounds start to run... that is... breathtaking), whereas Miles lives in a halftone dots universe, but it's also the tiny things like the very specific way that Jessica Drew Spiderwoman's eyebrows are drawn, or basically everything about Spider Punk and the total 90's shit show that is Ben Reilly's Scarlet Spider. And that's just the beginning.

I also love that this story is more centered around at first Spider Gwen, then, when we get to Miles and his universe, it's more about the relationship between him and his mother rather than him and his father like the last movie.

It should also be pointed out that I did not know going in that this was the first part of two part story, hence the movie ends with a "To Be Continued" screen. I was not expecting it and that legitimately made me throw up my arms and say "WHAT?!" somewhat louder than I'd intended. Which did get a laugh from the entire row of preteen boys in the back of the theatre.

But as such, it doesn't feel quite right to judge this movie too harshly on it's story, since it's essentially the first half of longer story. It doesn't wrap the story up, it legitimately stops with plot still in motion, things unresolved, tasks still yet to undertake.

Having said that, compared to what we have right now in Across, the story of Into the Spider-Verse is a tighter, more well crafted one. Not least of all because it takes just under two hours to tell a complete story. Across the Spider-Verse is going to take at least four or five hours to tell it's story, taking into account the probably length of the Beyond the Spider-Verse movie to come. Will they work as well when they're combined? I don't know yet. But I do know that they'll never be as tight and concise as Into, just because they can't be.

Also, once again, from someone who never really notices music in movies... the music in this movie is fantastic. Could I point to an actual song and say "I know what that song is without looking it up"? No, no, I could not. But as with Into, the music in Across definitely fits the vibes of the movie.

Everyone does a great job with the voice acting, from Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld as Miles and Gwen respectively, through to Luna Lauren Velez as Rio, Miles' Mom, Karan Soni as Mumbattan Spider-Man, Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie Brown/Spider Punk and Jason Schwartzman doing his very Schwartzman thing as villain Spot.

Visually, this movie gets 42 out of 5. Because, you know... well, actually, if you know, you know. And the story is good, I just don't think it kicks that element out of the park in the same way as Into. So, while they will get the same score, consider this one below Into on the list. I reserve the right to adjust that opinion after Beyond comes out.

It is though, the most visually stunning Spider-Man movie... or possibly just movie, full stop, period... I've seen in a very, very long time.

yani's rating:5 Spider-Persons out of 5

character saturday: sixty-ish percent of thirty percent

Am I going to get in some amount of trouble for this week's DnD Character Colouring Book? We'll see I guess. But also this is what happens when you're in a DnD group and people make their characters in Hero Forge and you think... well, you think that clearly they don't spend as much time in Hero Forge as you. Also that bad design hurts your eyes and your brain. And also, they're straight men, what do they know from fashion.

But also, you think, well, that's your character, you do your own thing, they look however you want them to look.

So then maybe you just get inspired to Fuck Around And Find Out what your own version of their characters might look like, for your own, you know, edification. And just purely as an experiment, because, you know, why not. And maybe that will be the way that you'll proceed to see said characters in your own head, because nobody lives there other than you (well, you and all the voices... hey guys) and you can have whatever head canon you like.

Also, yes... I like knee boots. What of it. I actually didn't completely realise they both had similar lengths of boots until after both of the models were done.

This is also why names have been changed to protect the innocent... or possibly the guilty. Or maybe me, or just because it's funny.

So we have Mr Grumpypants, a tiefling fighter with Some Definite Issues™ and a big old sword. Which has a name, because of course it does. But, issues. Because, I mean, a tiefling who makes it look like his broken horns are perpetually on fire. Yeah. That screams maybe Daddy Issues, maybe Dead Wife Issues, maybe Betrayed by Everyone He Trusted Issues. Maybe Impulse Control Issues. Who knows. We're filing that one under "Issues". And who is definitely a criminal, no matter what he tells you. Definitely a criminal. 100%.

And then we have Huntress, which is the first Gender Swap character for that particular player, so that's new and exciting. As is the "Sounds a bit French, is it German, could it just be getting late and the accent is sliding around" accent. But also, when it says that a wood elf has "copper skin", they don't mean that literally. Like the "copper dragonborn" skin tone in Hero Forge, which is also fucking terrible BTW. They mean, "medium brown skin tone with a very, very slight hint of a reddish caramel" that is "commonly found among those with Middle Eastern and South Asian heritage". But, you know, that's fine too. Is my version a little dark... maybe.

But when you combine these two with my Bird Boy... well, you've got the 30 Percenters. Which isn't so much an "In Universe" name as a "Meta Universe" name.

Yeah, I'm going to get in so much trouble.

Do I care? Not so much.

Anyway.

I have, several times this week, considered collecting two of every type of animal, possibly in some kind of ark like structure, you know, just in case. Because of all the rain. Of which there as been a considerable amount, but also like, quite heavy versions of same.

What I will say, is that I'm actually glad I'm no longer in the Portrush Road apartment with the occasionally and intermittently leaking roof. Because that would have sucked.

This week's soup was... Chicken and Barley... essentially. Although it was one of those soups where I changed the way I was slicing the vegetables up about halfway through... so most of it was kind of julienned, but the first few not so much.

It was overall decent though.

Thursday Night DnD actually happened and everyone was in attendance. Which is a rarity these last few weeks.

Friday Night DnD was good... well, our first real kind of exploration of a full on combat/dungeon. It went... interestingly. See also Tiefling With Issues. But it did end up being something of a late night, since we were deep in the combat and it made more sense to finish it than try and pick up mid-fight next week.

Anyway.

Today was first supermarketry... then we went to the movies and followed it up with some lunch on The Parade to celebrate Ma's birthday this week.

Also, note to self. Yes, you are correct that there is a reason that you're not a huge fan of the movie theatre on the Parade. Not the cinema itself, that's fine. But the fact that our visit coincided with a birthday party of about 15 preteen boys.... all jacked up on sugar on a Saturday morning. And going to the same movie as us. No bueno.

Afterwards lunch was good, then Ma toddled off home.

Oh, also, and for reasons I don't quite understand, the place where some of my blog images used to be is no longer there, the work around I tried for my "current moods" didn't work... so that's the end of that I guess. At some point I'll summon up the interest to actually modify the blog layout.

photo saturday: peacocking it

Some left over Wonderwalls content this week... so, behold, some weirdly angled flying peacock action. And if you've never seen a peacock flying, you're missing out. How much, I don't know exactly, but some at the very least.

Anyway.

This week's soup was kinda sorta minestrone. By which I mean that I start with the idea of minestrone and just stick whatever I happen to feel like/have bought that week. Mostly this week that was broccolini. But I also put some baby spinach in, which worked pretty well.

Thursday Night DnD actually happened. But it was only four of us plus DM Fluffy... which is, you know, always more chill, but something we can only do a limited number of times when there isn't actively plot happening. But there was some weirdness and some interesting moments.

Friday Night DnD was more fun. We also leveled up between last game and this one... and again after this game... but that's a feature, we level up pretty fast for the first few levels, then it tapers off. Also, the Big Tigger Energy continues. With a side order of Talking Too Much and Talking Too Fast.

Essentially I'm kind of exploring the idea of "what does a high intelligence, average/low wisdom and charisma character feel like?"... So he gets ideas and needs to run all the way to the end of the idea before he can put that idea to one side and pick up a new one.

What I've also noticed is that I end up leaning forward and kind of hunching as a way to get into the roleplay headspace... which is less good for my actual spine. So we might need to adjust that going forward. I think it's essentially part of the earnestness that he seems to have, but also, in-world, I feel like maybe it's because he's spent the last several years living and working with people a couple of feet shorter than himself, so he's used to crouching and leaning down to talk to people.

Also, the group vibe is just different from anything we've done before. We'll have to see how that pans out as we move forward.

Anyway.

Today was basically just the supermarket. We originally had other plans, but the vibe wasn't really there.

So we'll potentially do things next week.

Oh, and it turns out that the old blog mood images are very dead. Which is just great. So, let's try a whole other way of doing it that might just annoy the hell out of me.

Current mood:

character saturday: big tigger energy

So... I'm only slightly making Last Week Yani a liar... because while this is a DnD Character Colouring Book... this is only a slightly altered version of a character that has already appeared. And it's not so much a revisit as it is me having finished the character and finally debuted him at the Friday Night table this week.

And not much about him changed really, beyond the accessories and his character background.

But more on that in a bit.

Anyway...

The issue with essentially making up soup every week is that when it's really, really good... it's very hard to replicate, because I never make exactly the same soup ever again. Which is not a problem I had this week, but potentially a problem that Future Me is going to have when trying to replicate this week's Potato, Bacon and Leek soup.

Because it was pretty damn good.

Thursday Night DnD is... cursed. No game again this week because of reasons.

Friday Night DnD was actually DnD again. And the start of a new campaign, with Mrs in the DM chair again. It was also the debut of Hali. I've said before that sometimes I don't really, properly know who the hell a character is until I sit down at the table and open my mouth and they come roaring out.

Hali was one of those. It was also "helped" by the fact that I sat out for the first part of the game while the others finished up some last minute Session Zero stuff... and while I couldn't hear most of what went on (predominantly through the ongoing conversation with a cat), I did hear Fluffy using the accent I'd been toying around with... so that went out the window and I had no idea what I was going to do for a voice or anything. And then I sat down at the table, opened my mouth and basically Big Tigger Energy came tumbling out. Not quite as much of the slight himbo vibe of Tigger, but definitely the bounce. Very... this...

He is cheerful, outgoing, competitive in a friendly way, and has complete confidence in himself.

He has the bounce. And there's a little bit of darkness there too, which is fun. Fluffy is the one who called out the Tigger connecting which is good, because now I have a go-to for getting to his personality and a benchmark to aim for.

The group dynamic seems interesting. And Mr is playing his first female character which was a surprise, given I kind of expected it to be a little bit of a Sausage Fest.

Of course, I couldn't roll for SHIT last night. I think the dice were sulking because they're the ones I bought for myself for Christmas and they've been sitting in my fancy dice container since then. So I think my first... three rolls were all under 10 and three fairly important rolls later were also sub 10. Doesn't bode well really.

It's also fun that I'm the weirdest race in the group... or, you know, I'm just the only non Players Handbook race.

So we'll see what happens I guess.

Anyway.

Today wasn't especially exciting... the usual supermarketry and that was it really.

Brief sidebar... I don't know if the place that hosts my mood images is completely dead or just currently down. And, honestly, the idea of going back through 4000+ posts and fixing them is too much to consider right now, so if they stay down I might have to upload them to Google, but if they're gone in old posts, they might just have to stay gone.

Current mood:

character saturday: lord shadow

So, first off... I really want to play a Shadow Sorcerer at some stage. But this was more a tone poem for DnD Character Colouring Book while playing with particular outfits in Hero Forge.

But I like the combination of the outfit in black and grey and the magic in blue and purple.

Beyond that, as I said, it's mostly a thought experiment.

Secondly, this might be the last Colouring Book entry for a hot minute. At least until Hero Forge releases the Face Customiser and I loose my tiny mind redoing everyone's faces. Of course, I also reserve the right to go back on that idea if they release something cool I want to do a character for.

Anyway...

I had a red hot go at Lasagne Soup again this week. I did try it once before, last year I think, and it was a success. Although this time I kind of made it up as I went and didn't follow a specific recipe. So, mostly it was kind of just pasta sauce with broken up lasagne noodles. Tasty as hell though.

We'll file the rest of this week under "Flat".

Thursday Night DnD and Friday Night Probably Not DnD were both cancelled.

But Friday was also Chiro Day... so I did my monthly trek into town and the associated Wandering Around Looking At Things that comes afterwards.

Anyway...

Today was basically just the supermarket because the weather decided that we needed All The Rain this morning.

Oh, and brief rant. Remember how a couple of weeks ago I lost the ticket for the car park and had to pay for a replacement. Just to add insult to injury, last week, as I approached the barrier it just raised up on it's own before I scanned the ticket, which it does from time to time. And then today it also just opened on it's own. Which I just call rude. You couldn't have done the day I lost my ticket?

Granted it was too late by that point. And would I have been even more annoyed if I'd paid for a replacement ticket, gotten up to the gate and it had just opened, yes. But it's the principle of the thing.

Anyway...

Current mood:

character saturday: decopunk valet

Is this week's DnD Character Colouring Book pure fantasy? Is it Steampunk? Is it Decopunk? Is it Rococopunk? Is it all of those things and also slightly none of them? Is it a ceramic Warforged who is decorated in some form of blue and white china patterning? Do I imagine that the face would look like actual pottery painting that I couldn't find a way to appropriately replicate? The answer to all of these things is possibly yes.

But here we have Six. Thus called because they are marked somewhere on their body as either 1/6 or 6/6, as in either the first or the sixth from a set of six. I haven't really decided yet. And I'm also not sure if they're actually a limited edition piece, or something weird happened and their ceramic body was actually repurposed/reformed from limited edition tea service set. Likewise, I think if I followed this idea all the way to the end, the markings would be different across the body. Maybe filling out more of a limb or being more delicate or something. I don't know.

I also kind of dig the idea that they only have a face when they need one. When they're in combat for example, the face goes completely blank. And afterwards the markings on the side of the head swim across the face (a little like Rorschach from Watchmen) and create a simple face.

However, I feel like he's a much more High Magic kind of character. As in, from a time when magic was basically modern science. And he was somebody's personal valet and bodyguard. Like, he could prepare and serve you high tea and also murder a whole room full of people if necessary.

And I like that.

Anyway.

This week's soup of choice was Boring Vegetable Soup. It wasn't great, it wasn't terrible, it was just boring. But it was also filling, so I'm not really going to complain.

Thursday Night DnD was... [insert travelling montage]. Which is never the most exciting of sessions, but I also don't hate them.

Friday Night Not DnD was the last of the HeroQuest adventures for now. And we won. Which, really, surprised nobody. Given that we've been mostly walking through the adventures. Not to say that they weren't enjoyable or interesting, but I'm not sure we've been overly challenged by any of them since maybe the first couple. We also totally geared ourselves up and did all the "correct" things in order to kick the ass of every single adventure.

Team KillBox for the win!

Whether or not we actually start the new DnD campaign next week depends on the DM, but if not, we'll just pick something from the extensive selection of board games.

Anyway.

Not really much excitement today... basically just the supermarket run.

Current mood:

character saturday: reprise boys

A little reprise for our return to DnD Character Colouring Book... 

This is Macabe's third appearance, and as much as I liked the high collared previous version, that didn't come sleeveless as standard, but I like this version of the tattoos more. Would I still like a high necked undershirt under the armour? Yes, yes I would. But I'll live with this version for now.

Likewise this is Fenris's third showing, although the outfit mostly remained the same. This new version is the vest, gloves and boots from a new set... and an older set of pants.

Also, it's very weird going back and looking at the self colouring versions I was so very proud of at the time and thinking "well, that looks like absolute trash".

Anyway...

This week's soup was a not too bad chowDAH... although there ended up being a lot of it.

Oh, and for the first time since I bought them, I had to finally charge my Bluetooth headphones this week. Which is fairly impressive, even if I'm not using them all the time.

This week's Thursday night DnD... actually happened, so that's unusual. We're still in the early stages of Getting The Plot Happening, but it's good overall.

Friday night Not DnD also happened. We're nearly at the end of this little between campaign diversion, and it's been fun, if, you know, a little overly simple once we all tricked ourselves out with weapons that can do damage diagonally and every possible piece of armour we could get our hands on.

Anyway...

Today was basically just the supermarket, followed by a brief to Haighs afterwards.

Current mood: