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loki,
pb no j

(no subject)

Chewy has a "Chewy Claus" thing around this time of year where you can help your pet(s) write a letter to Santa. How good they've been, whether they prefer treats or toys, and a free-answer "what would you ask for if you could have anything".

Last year I did it and at the end of December got a "sorry the sleigh missed you, here's a coupon code if you want to buy anything". And supposedly they donate food to pets in need for every letter submitted, so why not.

This year, I did it ... and today a box came addressed to Phoebe and Loki. (!!)

There was a dog toy that was a "lunch box" with a rope handle, and a green apple plushy and a juice-box plushy with Velcro to attach to the front of the lunchbox. Al three items contain squeakers. (So far, they are still intact, though the white parts of the juice box are rather, erm, dingy. That tends to happen with her toys, but it's impressive for 8 hours.)

There was a cat toy that was sushi themed (including a green wasabi packet) and has catnip in. Loki is mostly nocturnal these days but I put them in a cat bed that sits on my bed and when I came back in later, one was on the floor... so either he loves it or hates it, lol. Also a food purée treat thing similar to churu, though he's iffy about food.

There was an ornament, metal I think, with a sleigh and presents and "Chewy Claus 2025", which is now on my desk tree.

And there was a card with the cutest illustration of Chewy Claus helpers, and a handwritten note wishing them holiday cheer.

I'm a little astonished because I honestly hadn't expected to get anything, but it was a cute surprise!

Edit: Loki definitely likes. I may regret having them on the bed at the same time I am... lol

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Lurking in my drafts

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Silksong: the "epilogue"

I played very little Silksong in the past 1-2 weeks and did pretty much everything I wanted to in my first playthrough (before the DLCs come out) so now is a good time to post the "epilogue" notes.

( Things I did after the true ending )

( Some more thoughts )

( LPs I watched )

I already know what I want to play next: Hades 2, of course. (But probably not this year, I have a huge backlog of books etc.)

Entry tags:

shiny mathy rocks

(no subject)

We're on the final boss fight of the campaign. Said boss is hovering over a deep pit -- bad for melee, unless they have some form of flight.

My character rolls the highest initiative.

She is a L20 owlin monk. She has flight. She also has a) 70 feet of movement per turn, and b) magic items (and a feat) that gives extra damage for distance moved in a straight line just before the attack. Oh, and a potion that does bonus

First roll hit a nat 20.

Rolling 20 means damage dice are doubled; if you would normally do 2d6, on a crit you roll 4d6. Between the damage roll (doubled), the extra monk ability I always like to throw in (also doubled, plus poison for a round), and the bonus damage for straight lines (doubled), I did 119 points of damage.

I also have a feat that says if I get a critical hit, all attacks against that creature have advantage until my next turn.

So... a pretty good start.

I love this character.

(...I got a crit the next turn too.)

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(no subject)

So my plan of quitting Duo at 4K days has gone from "vaguely in the future" to, uh, tomorrow.

It feels weird. And me being me, I'm second guessing myself. But then in a matching exercise it gave me patada (kick, as far as I can tell a noun) on the Spanish side and "to give somebody the push" on the English side, and that is a) a British phrase for firing someone, b) that is a verb, c) an unlikely translation, and d) completely novel to me both in general and on Duo and thus unhelpful for learning.

So, tomorrow is my last session and then I'm done.

Entry tags:

books,
musical

Mar-i-a The-re-sia, M.T.

I'm feeling better, but I went to the doctor's office and to the pharmacy and to the store this morning and afterwards I was absolutely wiped.

Too tired to catch up on chores just yet, but I can start catching up on reviews, at least.

Three weeks ago, friends and I went to see Maria Theresia the musical at Ronacher. I rarely go see musicals in Vienna; the last one was the Falco musical in the same place around 1-2 years ago, both of them premiered there. I enjoyed "Rock Me Amadeus" more than expected, so I was very curious about a new one about empress Maria Theresia. A key figure of Austrian history; I only remembered bits and pieces of what I learned about her at school and during museum visits etc, but I briefly looked at her Wikipedia page beforehand just in case.

I had a good time! The beginning was the weakest part imo, but then it picked up the pace and focus. Of course they took plenty of liberties with historical facts but that was inevitable. I liked the music (not especially memorable but I am also not great at remembering music in general tbf) and staging, and especially some of the things they did with the lights. I found Falco too loud in places, but not this one, possibly because we sat further back.

( Spoilers )

Afterwards I was in the mood to read a book about the Habsburgs, and the only one currently available as an ebook from the library was one about "scandalous love affairs of the Habsburgs," by Hanne Egghardt. Fortunately a quick stop to any romanticizing of the Habsburgs through sheer, hm, mundanity. It features several scandalous affairs throughout the centuries, from the wife of the emperor falling in love with and almost certainly having an affair with her sister-in-law, to Napoleon's widow having kids with a general sent to look after her, to several archdukes falling in love with "commoners" - with varying degrees of happy endings that all showcase why such relationships were viewed with much skepticism.
It was often mentioned that these nobles had allowances of specific sums of money that all sounded like a lot, but I have no context how much so-and-so thousand guilders were worth back then so I couldn't say whether they were extremely rich or just moderately wealthy for their station.

Entry tags:

hermitcraft,
recs

November recs: 3x Hermitcraft 1x Life series

I'm sick (uuugh), but it's November 30th and I don't want to fail my monthly rec challenge now. So you get four Hermitcraft recs without a larger theme. 1 art & 3 fic (1 space AU & 2 admin power games, one of them a Life series crossover.)
I don't think canon knowledge is required for any of them: definitely not the first two, and I think the important parts of the other two become clear very quickly.

in too deep by

modest_starr
digital art, Geminitay
Summary: additional tags: Imminent Character Death, she is literally drowning, Hallucinations, Eye strain, highly saturated colors, Hermitcraft Season 10, Anthropologist Geminitay, Sea Monsters
Why I like it: The tags say "hallucinations" but I also really like the idea of scientist Gem looking too deep. Very cool colors.

Why is everyone sucking Farlands' dick over their new ship??? by

Kaesa
6k, SF AU, implied Scar/Grian, social media outsider PoV with in-universe RPF
Summary: Hey, uh, what's with everyone losing their minds over Farlands' Good Times? I thought we all agreed Farlands was evil incarnate? Last big colony mission they launched, even half the people at Brave Voyages were like "wow so sick of Farlands' bullshit, hope Farlands explodes," but this thing has been around for less than a year and people HERE are like, writing romantic poetry about it? Can someone explain? Obviously I too am fascinated by whether they're using tuned mass dampers or something else to keep the gravity steady, and the reflex rewiring they have to do to the pilots to get something that big through hyperspace is wild, but uh. This is not that.
A forum thread from the future.
Why I love it: Reccing part 2 here so I have a good reason to rec the series when it's done; I also recommend part 1 but I like this one even better. Scar is a Pilot, which means he controls a spaceship with his brain, and Grian is his doctor. Very cool worldbuilding and very funny.

feeling a gold hand unfolding on me by

springbeetle
3.3k, Grian & Xisuma, non-sexual kink (body modification, admin powers)
Summary: It was daylight, not that you could tell from the enclosed room Xisuma had teleported Grian into. A bright, fantastic Hermitcraft day, his friends bustling about the server engaged in activities, cheerfully oblivious to what Xisuma and Grian were about to do in this room together. To what Xisuma was about to do to Grian.
Most Hermits weren’t big on tradition, when you got down to it. They’d been around too long, seen enough of the universe to have set preferences about their bodies, or they had their own plans for each season. Scar and Cub had recently finished with their predatory ConVex business, for instance, and Cleo kept her zombieness– zombitude? Zombiehood?-- firmly under her own control, and the less said about Joe’s usual brand of shenanigans, the better.
So it had been unusual, having a new player such as Grian bring the concept up in the roundabout fashion he had, side-eyeing Xisuma like he wasn’t sure whether Xisuma would just snatch him up one day, like he was checking off a box on some haphazard to-do list-- like he’d smacked himself on the helmet and gone oh, silly me, that’s right! I forgot to modify Grian to my personal preferences last month!
Why I like it: Wonderful take on admin Xisuma taking care of his player even with an unusual request. I like how Xisuma needs the encouragement and reassurances to keep going but he does enjoy getting into his evil role when he feels comfortable and he is good at it, too. And Grian is very good at prodding him just enough and having to admit he doesn't not want this, delicious.

a weave that can be unpicked by

strifetxt
3.4k, Scar&/Grian, Third Life
Summary: Grian's eyes widen. “Wait, did you think I’d made a plug-in to force players into turning hostile?”
Scar blinks. “Didn’t you?”
“Wh— No, of course not!”
“Oh.” Scar deflates, but then, just as quickly, perks back up. “Could you though?”
Or: Scar has some ideas to make Third Life more fun. Grian has some concerns.
Why I like it: Excellent recursive fic of the above, and another case of a player prodding an admin into using their powers on them. I love the intimacy of the admin power used on a willing subject.