Tag: monkeycat towers

I guess this was the wrong day to wear my pro-procrastination shirt.

Slept way in but then was able to save some time on shopping because there probably haven’t been any new books delivered since Tuesday.

Watched (anime): Bungo Stray Dogs 4.11-13: more villains who have always existed yet were written into existence days ago, finally someone willing to monologue about the villains’ plan, but then the end of the season! Although this is 13 episodes and where we should be at the midpoint, so it’s probably annoying marketing splitting season 4 into two.

Read (manga): Spy Classroom vol 2 (SeuKaname, Takemachi, Tomari): The girls still have not gotten one over on their teacher, but it’s time for the suicide mission anyway! After hearing about the great spies who failed at it before.

Read (novel): Any Minor World (Craig Schaefer): Same setting as most of Schaefer’s books, a hardboiled private eye gets mixed up with the criminal cartel that tries to control the multiverse and a dame who is already entangled with some of the less pleasant parts of it (think Gotham but with more supernatural horror). Colorful villains, desperate chases, redemption, betrayal, subway trains to hell.

Written (game design): 409:

My bullshit definitely includes people becoming able to use magic
after getting exposed to the supernatural or otherwise traumatized,
and this coming with some kind of curse that makes normal people
not want them around so they’re pushed to the edges of society. At
least part of the curse is susceptibility to turning into a monster,
either through one’s own wickedness or through being cursed or
whatever. (Note that meeting a vampire’s cursed eyes is definitely
exposure to the supernatural, so one is immediately vulnerable.)
Every person is equally susceptible to this; there’s no lineage
that has more or less magic than any other, although in-world that
may not be apparent. In fact, I’m pretty against any plot tokens
being passed down by blood, even if characters want to be weird
about it.

PCs can have whatever role in society they’re permitted, but
fundamentally they ain’t right and are going to end up, sooner or later,
as the ones dealing with problems that ain’t right. So what are those
problems and where do they come from? Monsters that used to be people,
obviously, and monsters that are still technically people (the wealthy
and powerful, insert Leverage intro here), and sometimes the two working
together. I mentioned interdimensional incursions as a source of
monsters before, and still like strange creatures from the higher realms
(although I’m less sure about PCs being able to do much about them,
because, higher realms). Living dungeons are also good, although they
need some kind of different spin than in 13th Age. A good source of
problems, though, possibly as good as pre-apocalyptic ruins? Also
there’s probably something about dimensions trying to invade and
corrupt each other with vacuoles (completely independent of anything their
inhabitants might want).

Living dungeons don’t have to be interdimensional. Maybe the ancient
layer of fallen heavenly palaces is rebuilding itself upward. Maybe it’s
just the regular D&D Underdark expanding upward in search of water or
plants. This might be the kind of thing that needs a list of 1d12
anticanon possibilities.

There’s a particular kind of player (I heard, from a friend) that will
want to play a monstergirl from a living dungeon. I should probably
figure out what to do about that.

This answers the question of whether to apocalypse, at least. We have
weird stuff from other places, not other times, at least mostly.

They aren’t real whales, but they are real sharks!

It’s Saturday, but I don’t have work for ages, so I didn’t do any weekly shopping. I did get a sandwich from the very crowded deli; it was pretty good. I did not accomplish anything today

Watched (anime): Bungo Stray Dogs 4.9-10: Yosano’s backstory, and a lot more doom that we know was conjured out of nothing.

Read (graphic novel): Doughnuts and Doom (Balazs Lorinczi): A witch who’s bad at magic and a hopeful rock star get off to a rocky start over cursed doughnuts, but band together (SWIDT) to defeat bureaucrats and obscurity and lack of smooches.

Written (game design): 155:

(Every time I see a module that says “easily compatible with OSR
systems”, I wish I could come up with a system I liked that used those
same numbers but in a different way. This certainly isn’t it, though (AC
-> Readiness? Meh, and OSR is all about the stats anyway). Maybe
someday, but probably not.)

Every time I see a game with a post-apocalyptic/ancient world fantasy
(Worlds Without Number, Godbound, Numenera, Ex Tenebris, so many) I
think “I want to do that” but it’s just because I like the aesthetic,
not because I have anything particularly brilliant to do with it,
certainly not compared to those games. On the other hand, apparently
there’s a reasonable demand… On yet another hand, it does have
potential problems with the setting making sense, but that’s nothing new
for fantasy. Argh! I have no idea where to go from here.

Happy happy Ken-day!

I did some regular shopping, but then we went out for an early dinner at a restaurant Ken likes, saw the rare and elusive Non-beast, went back to their place so Marith and Dave and I could watch some anime while digesting, then had cake and very bad singing and very good friendship.

Watched (anime): Bungo Stray Dogs 4.7-8: Oh, right, they’re being framed and hunted, but all of it may be the result of reality manipulating artifacts. Not that that helps.

Read (manga): FAIL.

Written (game design): 243:

I consolidated most of the actions mentioned earlier into:
– Act Undetected
– Analyze Something Complex
– Befriend Someone
– Build, Repair, or Sabotage Something
– Influence Someone
– Mingle with the Crowd
– Patch Someone Up
– Read Someone or a Situation
– Scour a Place for Information
– Scramble Around
– Spout Lore
– Travel to a Different Place
– Work Magic

Analyze and Read could be consolidated, but technical vs social may
be a distinction worth preserving, so we’ll leave them separate for
now. Scour is also in that space but again, distinct enough we’ll keep
it for now. “Go shopping” doesn’t need to be an Action; looking for stuff
is Scour, haggling is Influence or Befriend, buying things from the
standard equipment list at the listed price is whatever. So that’s
thirteen Actions, plus Act Under Pressure.

“Spot trouble before it strikes” isn’t an Action because it’s reactive,
based on Readiness. “Make a daring escape” is mostly a combat Action, so
maybe it’s time to think about those.

– make a daring escape
– strike at a weak spot
– stand in defense of someone
– block passage
– stop someone in their tracks
– recover and reorient
– push through an obstruction
– strike from ambush
– snipe from a distance
– blaze away
– team up on someone
– terrorize someone into flight or surrender
– stop the fight to parley
– take cover
– duel someone one-on-one
– form a shield wall
– push someone around
– use the environment as a weapon
– take out a bunch of mooks at once
– blow up an area
– curse an enemy
– bless an ally
– move around while avoiding attack

I’m sure there are more I’ll think of later.

Loving homes for all rescue animals!

Did the usual lazing-in and shopping and reading Katalepsis and watching anime at Dave’s place.

Watched (anime): Bungo Stray Dogs 4.5-6: Rampo wraps up the mysterious murder of the murder mystery, and gets a clue for the next plot against the Armed Detective Agency, which turns out to not help very much against them being completely framed.

Read (manga): FAIL.

Written (game design): 128:

Oh, right, Last Breath. That definitely establishes something about the
setting, but I’m not sure it’s inconsistent with everything else we
want, so we can leave it for now.

The other basic moves are arguably the core of Dungeon World, and I
already ripped them off. The whole melee fighting/running to block
somebody/shooting somebody that I spent so much anguish on come directly
from Hack and Slash, Stand in Defense, Volley. We kind of reject Discern
Realities in favor of the GM just telling the players stuff. Not sure
about Spout Lore; maybe it should be automatic like Discern Realities,
but in accordance with “draw maps, leave blanks” maybe it’s fine as is?

None of this feels like it’s getting anywhere with XZQJY. Bah.

Humans, huh? Seem sus to me.

Watched (anime): Bungo Stray Dogs 4.2-4: End of the flashback, Rampo has triumphed and the detective agency can be formed. Back in the present day, Kunikida’s in jail because of the girl who exploded, and the enemy has a paranormal specifically tuned against Rampo. I suspect this will not avail them.

Read (manga): How Do We Relationship? vol 2 (Tamifull): Well, they figured out having sex, but there are still a lot of people who may not be cool with lesbians, because Japan, and also there’s jealousy and a new friend with a loud voice and no filter whatsoever.

Written (game design): 390.

Happy happy Rachelday!!

Went to Rachel’s party, it was full of people I know to varying small degrees (or not at all) and also food. Told some people about my brilliant plan to combine hit points and initiative (although not the person I imagined explaining it to, because he would have mocked it), did not find any new gamers for after the Bertanis abandon us. Mostly talked to Dave.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 24: Dumplings! Also a plan for dealing with Falin’s problem, but it’s the end of the anime, so you’ll have to go to the manga to find out if it works!

Watched (anime): Bungo Stray Dogs 4.1: Flashback to when the president and Rampo were starting the agency, with almost-monochrome art so you know it’s The Past.

Read (short): “Sharp Undoing” (Natasha King): What if headware, but with as much security as electronics have today?

Read (manga): Cheerful Amnesia vol 3 (Tamamushi Oku): Further life of the horny amnesiac airhead and her girlfriend who she doesn’t remember sleeping with but is overwhelmed by. Also incidental characters, who often try to help, but she is so beyond help.

Written (game design): 295:

The main mechanics at this time are:
DOING THE THING
– Difficulty starts at 0 if you have all of
– Appropriate background
– Proper tools and materials
– Ample time
– Trouble-free work environment
– Difficulty increases by 1 or more for each that you’re lacking
– If Difficulty is 4+, you can’t do the thing until you address some of
these problems
– Otherwise, roll d20s equal to Difficulty and compare to Action rating
– 1 die above Action rating: fail OR succeed with consequences
– 2 or more dice above Action rating: fail with consequences

TBD: opposed rolls

FIGHTING THE GUYS
– Start of round: everyone rolls Readiness dice (d8s)
– From lowest to highest roll (later reductions don’t matter):
– Declare action – attack that guy, defend this guy, steal the
maguffin, etc. Can move one zone to do it, or two zones if running
(halve Readiness)
– Anyone who hasn’t declared yet can declare to help or interfere
– Once everyone has declared, resolve it all
– Assign each of your attack dice to somebody you were engaged with this
turn and roll it
– If somebody attacks you, you can (and probably should) spend your
Readiness 1-for-1 to counter the attack
– If you counter it all, great!
– If there’s any attack left, roll the Wound die (d10). Add the remaining
attack, subtract your armor
– If 1+, take a wound
– If 11+ take 2 wounds
– Wounds go into your inventory, possibly displacing gear
– Every Wound is +1 Difficulty to all Actions
– At 2+ Wounds, spend Harmony every round to not pass out

TBD: ranged attacks, stopping someone with ranged attacks, pushing and
shoving, spells, area effect attacks, Wound die on non-animals, special
effects of weapons

I dunno, manne. Maybe instead of taking D&D out of D&D, I should have
taken D&D out of Dungeon World.

Blehhhhhhhhhhhh.

Took four more bags to the used book store, but got almost two bags back. On the one hand, I am starting to scrape the bottom of things they want, but on the other hand, I think the new buyer both rejected more and paid less for what they did take compared to what the regular buyer would have done. Not sure if I should bring these books back when the regular buyer returns, or just store them with the rest to dispose of in some other fashion.

Started reading The Horror From the Hills (Frank Belknap Long) while waiting for my books to be processed, because it’s allegedly an important Cthulhu Mythos work, but it was so horrifying racist I did not want to spend even a couple of bucks on it.

Also shopped for groceries and read Katalepsis and got sweaty and stupid.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 22-23: Senshi’s backstory, at long last! Also mushroom transformation shenanigans.

Read (manga): When the Villainess Seduces the Main Heroine vol 2 (Kasai Fujii): Our loving couple continue to be absolutely mad for each other, and also meet a couple of other beautiful women who incidentally have beef with them. Still ridiculous.

Read (novel): Dungeon Spiteful (Melissa McShane): LitRPG from the perspective of a local companion of the isekai’d Earthling, who at least also has her own stuff going on with getting a class that everyone thinks is useless. She figures out its utility in just a few chapters, which makes me think the people of this world are not that bright overall. First book of a series but I doubt I care.

Written (game design): 404:

So magic, what does it even? Or rather, since we’ve established
that there is no distinction between magic and non-magic, what does
an adept get in exchange for falling out of sync with the universe,
or abrading their soul, or whatever? It’s definitely how they can
slice a giant tree in half with a single sword stroke, or absorb
the impact of any fall by rolling once, or walk on new-fallen snow
without leaving footprints, or any of that stuff. What about wizards
(spell-casters? magicians? sorcerers?)? We don’t need them to throw
death rays or fireballs, at least not primarily, since we have guns
and bombs and aren’t even measuring a character’s worth by whether
they can meet the damage-per-round quota. (At least, I hope we’re
not, but perhaps that’s wishful thinking.)

Even setting aside damage-dealing spells, most D&D spells are for
casting in combat, taking just a single eye of newt and a few seconds
of abracadabra and lasting for seconds or minutes (maybe hours if
we go back to 3E). Some buffs, mostly to combat power; lots of
debuffs likewise; reshaping the battlefield (durations mostly too
short to be useful otherwise); healing both HP and statuses;
transportation; and utility spells to get rid of obstacles (locked
doors, darkness, uncooperative NPCs, etc). How much of this noncombat
stuff we want available to PCs affects all the earlier blather about
resource limits: when a wizard can duplicate the effects of any normal
tool with magic, allocating inventory slots to tools is less
interesting.

Are we starting with already too many assumptions? Do we want wizards
who cast discrete spells, each with a specific effect? Or ones that
have more free-form control over an element? Summon creatures to
do things? Nothing but telekinesis? Only enchanting objects, nothing
on the fly? Do we want them to do it with a quick abracadabra or
harsh look, or full magic circles with candles and lunar phases?

Digressing because there are too many options for wizards and I
can’t pick one or even a finite number: is “adepts” a good name for
people who can spend MP? It reminds me of Earthdawn, which uses it
pretty much exactly that way, so could be either good or bad.
“Magic-users” is taken, alas. “Initiates” since being initiated
into a magical society is the socially-acceptable way of becoming
one?

I used paper bags to take books to the used book store, but then had to take more than a quarter of them back home. Used reusable bags for grocery shopping and taking watermelon snacks to anime.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 20-21: The party tries to integrate Izutsumi the ninja, with limited success, but then they get to the Heart(?) of the Dungeon(?). Not sure how they’re going to end this, since this like volume 6 of the manga and we’re almost done with the season.

Read (graphic novel): Huda F Are You? (Huda Fahmy): Autobiographical story of a hijabi Muslim girl who moves to Dearborn, which despite being full of Muslims is not any less horrible, because being a teenager always sucks (Had time to read all of this while waiting for my books to be processed at the used bookstore, so I didn’t buy it, but not bringing a book in is as good as getting rid of one, right?)

Written (game design): 343:

Do we need a list of actions? (Eventually.) Do we need a better name for
them? (Absolutely.)

    • Attune to the Flow of the Universe – see the unseen, recharge MP
    • Craft Something – build a shelter, repair armor, smith a sword
    • Creep Around – hide, sneak, grab things when no one’s watching
    • Get Over There – leap chasm, swim moat, climb cliff
    • Heal an Affliction – wounds, disease, poison, curses
    • Issue Commands – lead troops, interrogate prisoners, orate stirringly
    • Mingle with Crowd – blend in, don’t stand out, pick up gossip
    • Put On a Show – bardic performance, distraction for the ambush
    • Scavenge Something Up – search the room, hunt for food
    • Sway Hearts and Minds – make friends, subtly grill people, seduce dragons
    • Tinker With a Machine – pick locks, disarm traps without wrecking them
    • Wrangle a Beast – befriend wild animal, bait for guard manticore

That’s 12, which is about the smallest number I was expecting, so I’m
probably forgetting something. I could add some for doing fancy combat
tricks in melee/ranged/magical combat, but I bet we could fold that into
the attack roll.

These all have an implicit “under pressure” attached, since if you have
an appropriate background, all the needed tools, and ample time (ie, 0
difficulty), you don’t have to roll and it doesn’t matter what your
rating is.

Another thing that makes no difference when coding the video game
version but could matter to players: does every character have a rating
in every action, or is there a default for everything they don’t
specifically have? For that matter, does everybody have the same set of
actions? Maybe some characters have special ones like “Perform Ritual to
Empower Equipment Against Demons” or whatever their special deal is. We
don’t want those to overlap with the basic moves, though; narrative
positioning to use those in weird ways is the province of abilities
(which also need a better name).

NPCs can definitely have just the important actions and one for
Everything Else, to keep the load on the GM low.

I like tapioca, but I might be weird.

Took four bags including all my D&D3/3.5 books to the used bookstore and got nothing back, yay. Successfully shopped for lunch and groceries and books, which was enough errands for one day. Marith is back from the fjords and also not dead from travel, so we were able to visit people and hear about Ayse’s new job and how humans are the worst part, and also about Jus’s love life and how humans are the worst part.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 19: A new ninja joins the party! Also, dream magic.

Read (manga): FAIL.

Written (catgirl): 205.

Not sure those two really go together (I said, in a sentence fragment).

Tried to get runs and sets together for the used book store, which seemed to work pretty well.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 17-18: More interparty wrangling with Shuro’a and Kabru’s teams, a big Falin reveal, intraparty conflict with dopplegangers.

Read (novella): Exit Strategy (Martha Wells): Conclusion of the initial plot arc. Mensah is the best, but Murderbot is really the best.

Written (catgirl): 259.

And yet I did not play Perils & Princesses!

I did go to the farmer’s market, check on Ayse & fam’s cats, and eat fresh veggies and cheese with Marith.

Watched (live-action TV): Leverage 1.1: Rewatched to see who the recurring character at the end of season 4 was. Oh, that guy. Yeah, fuck him. Also, Parker was a lot sexier in the premier. Not intrinsically, but she had more sexy scenes.

Written (catgirl): 191.

Also World Telecommunication Day and National Walnut Day.

Only failed a little at taking the bus to the used book store, and ended up on the same bus as Dave, who was on his way to play board games with people who had suddenly found room in their schedules. Only failed a little at the used book store, but I couldn’t fold up all my bags for the return journy, which was annoying. The bus failed me on the way back, so I was at lunch like an hour later than I had hoped, but it worked out okay.

Marith was dead from mucus or travel or something, so I made my own way to the Eurovision party and we ate many foods and made technology bend to our whims.

Watched (live-action TV): Eurovision Song Contest 2025: There were fae and wacky legs and a Polish lady who sang while dangling from rings despite being 52, at least two performances that had to be bowdlerized, some eye candy for Ken, gender of assorted densities, etc. Israel’s song was so boring that none of us felt bad about booing them, but they came in second anyway. The actual winner was deserving of victory.

Written (catgirl): 135.

Yep, there it is! Still not a velociraptor.

I used the Miracle of the Wheel to take four whole bags of books to the used book store this time, and also set out at a more auspicious hour, so I was able to get everything sorted and go shopping and get lunch without dying despite the busses being all messed up due to some kind of running cult observance.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 15-16: More monsters, more oppression for Marcille, but also the return of Falin’s admirer and his ninja ladies, and a glimpse of the new, improved Falin.

Read (short): “Lady Antheia’s Guide to Horticultural Warfare” (Seanan McGuire): Looked this up to tell someone who had read Overgrowth, ended up rereading it. Changing the setting to modern for the longer, more serious, version was probably the right choice, but that means no ray guns.

Written (catgirl): 298. Hey, that’s more than 250!

Also Astronomy Day, probably equally illegal now.

Despite Marith not executing the farmer’s market plan and the the busses being messed up for some kind of event, I managed to take two bags of books to the used book store and return with zero bags of books. That set lunch back quite a ways, but I didn’t starve, and did shop. Marith also did not execute the anime plan, because she has to travel with her horrible mother in like a month, but Jus invited me over so I went to entertain her and Dave. Then the busses were messed up in the normal way for that late at night, so I didn’t get home until a million o’clock at night, but that’s fine.

Watched (anime movie): Puella Magi Madoka Magica Rebellion: The third movie, which takes place after the TV series instead of retelling the same story. It is hallucinatory and doomed, for reasons that make sense in the end. No, more doomed than that. Possibly more hallucinatory than that, too.

Written (catgirl): 132.

Also Hug a Friend Day, National Pretzel Day, National Veterinary Day, and of course Independent Bookstore Day. Sadly, there was nothing I wanted at the bookstore this week, but there has been before and will be again.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 12-14: Quest complete! Story’s finished, right? …oh. Also, flashback to Kabru and his followers.

Read (nothing): Nothing, but I have made a huge dent in my physical TBR pile and didn’t buy anything new today, so I’m probably fine.

Written (catgirl): 171, some of it even story and not just notes.

Er, I mean Easter.

Coworker N is still on vacation, so I had to work 7-13:00. Bah, early! But there wasn’t too much work to do, and the next person logged in punctually, so I was able to trundle down to Monkeycat Towers have Easter dinner with friends and search for the lost art of conversation. It was also very nice, although I feel bad for not being cool or doing things.

Read (manga): Dandadan vol 12 (Yukinobu Tatsu): Alien invasion! Astral travel! It’s pretty much the next part of what was going on in vol 11.

Read (anthology): Revisionary: Four Tales of the Mythos (Moe Lane):More or less the Cthulhu Mythos, anyway. Four stories of terrible things that happen to those who mess with things beyond human ken (cursed books, death-world monsters, interdimensional visitors, New England, etc).

Written (catgirl): 143 more of worldbuilding notes.

Also Garlic Bicycle Day.

Slept in too much, but made the bus to shopping with about one minute to spare. Also gave a little old lady directions.

In the afternoon, I was functional enough to go over to Monkeycat Towers to help dye eggs and clean out leftover adobo. It was very nice, because friends are good.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 10-11: Finally, the red dragon!

Read (manga): Reincarnated as a Sword vol 1 (Yuu Tanaka, Tomowo Maruyama, Llo): A random schmoe isekai’d into a magic sword and an orphaned 12-year-old catgirl team up to be highly OP in a generic litRPG world.

Read (novel): Castaways (Craig Schaefer): Teenagers in magic school, in the same setting as the Daniel Faust etc books. Kids who don’t have any better options get sucked into another dimension and enrolled in a magic school that even they can tell is not a shining example of the genre. Bullying, dangerous magic, hardass teacher, reformed serial killer teacher, dangerous wildlife, going off-campus once a year to shop, all the standard tropes. Also interdimensional zwilniks and girl-smooches.

Written (catgirl): 107. This trend is in the wrong direction.

Musk is doing his best to make it suck, but his shitshow is transient.

Once again slept until 1030, then got up and did some shopping.

Ken gave us delicious chicken adobo (probably not cockatrice), and we talked to Ayse about kitchen history because Dave was surprised at the lack of kitchens in Ptolus apartments. It was a nice visit.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 8-9: The undine, and the gnomes and Nomari. So far this seems to be following the manga pretty closely.

Read (manga): Asumi-chan is Interested in Lesbian Brothels! vol 2 (Kuro Ituski): A near-miss with meeting the girl she’s looking for, so she has to have a threesome and cosplay instead. Still completely lacking in redeeming social value.

Written (catgirl): 437 more of worldbuilding notes, but mostly lists of names.

If only! We could use a nice alien conquest about now.

Slept in as usual but instead of grocery shopping, I went to the rally downtown because seriously, fuck all those motherfuckers. The crowd was pretty old overall, but there were a few youngsters, so perhaps there is hope for the future. I tried leaving my phone behind, not because I expected trouble today, but to see if it worked, and yeah, it was fine. I think I was the only one who did, though.

Ayse is back from her expedition to Nashville, with bonus tornadoes. Er, stories of tornadoes, she did not bring any actual tornadoes.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 6-7: The one where they eat a mimic, and the one where they eat a kraken.

Read (manga): After God vol 2 (Sumi Eno): Less bizarre than the volume that introduced the weird elements, as is inevitable, but more gods and people getting massacred unexpectedly and even more gods and creepy powers and creepy people.

Written (catgirl): 157.

I wrote a little about mermaids before I even knew what day it was.

The busses are back since a court ordered the union to stop striking, so I was lazy about shopping.

Went to watch anime and get Ayse hugs but she was not there! She is in Nashville with her friend.

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 4-5: The one where orcs murder everybody, but they like Senshi.

Read (manga): The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor vol 3 (Anko Yuzu, Sarasa Nagase, Mitsuya Fuji): FIXME The conclusion of the skulduggery at the port, we find out more about the divine conflict, Jill kicks ass.

Written (catgirl): 212.

Also Buzzard Day (hi jill).

Busses still not running (just give the workers a fair contract already, management!) so I had to walk to shopping. It was okay, but on the way back, carrying bags in my hands was a pain. I don’t have a large backpack and wouldn’t want to carry refrigerated food for an hour without the insulated bag, so I guess I’ll try the miracle of the wheel next week.

My favorite web serial Katalepsis is back, so I was able to read the new chapter over sandwich as had become my habit. Go [NEW CHARACTER]!

Watched (anime): Delicious in Dungeon 2-3: Ah, the living armor. And it’s getting past the picking-on-Marcille-all-the-time phase, which is good.

Read (novel): The Tomb of Dragons (Katherine Addison): Third (and final?) book about the sad gay necromancer detective in the world of The Goblin Emperor. Perhaps he is less sad, now!

Read (manga): Creepy Cat vol 4 (Cotton Valent): Final volume! We find out where Creepy Cat and the Creepy Cats are from and what is up with all that. The end!

Written (catgirl): 128.

Go hippos! Eat the humans!

Coworker A who normally covers weekend days is out, so I had to be on call this PM. Only one case, which is a problem for Future Me (or maybe even Future Somebody Else) anyway.

Apparently Jus has dumped her girlfriend and gotten a boyfriend (who sounds very nice). I had to tease her about not being a very good lesbian.

Watched (anime): Bungo Stray Dogs 3.10-11 (35-36): Of course the solution they settle on is to go somewhere and murder each other. Good thing their subordinates are smarter, even if only slightly.

Read (manga): The Evil Secret Society of Cats vol 1 (Pandania): Four-panel comics about sentai supervillain cats plotting to distract and/or charm humans.

Written (game design): 268 somehow.

Also Abolition of Slavery Day, ahahahahaha.

Did my usual shopping, and also went to the hardware store because I had clever idea after the GM approved reskinning cloudkill to do cold damage.

Read (manga): Yakuza Reincarnation vol 8 (Hiroki Miyashita, Takeshi Natsuhara): Another corrupt enterprise unraveled by punching the people who deserve it, and also OP isekai magic.

Watched (anime): Bungo Stray Dogs 3.8-9: Another cunning plan to pit the Port Mafia and Armed Detective Agency against each other, but they have a cunning plan to thwart it! Maybe.

Written (game design): 186, still not making any actual progress. Maybe I should swap back to one of the other projects.

Another one that’s probably illegal now.

I got up and went shopping slightly earlier than usual, but did not accomplish anything with the extra time. Went to watch anime with peeps, and ended up watching more than usual because Ayse was too busy being an Internet Star to receive hugs.

Watched (anime): Bungo Stray Dogs 3.5-7: What, did you think the Guild was done for just because their giant flying whale crashed?

Read (manga): Dra-Q vol 1 (Chiyo): A vampire girl tries to go to human high school, and immediately falls in love with a total delinquent, breaks every rule of being in human society in the first chapter, runs into rampaging werewolves, etc. Gory and weird, but so far they seem to have a somewhat healthy romance?

Written (game design): 182

Thesauruses are great! Splendid! Glorious! Fantastic!

Monday is a holiday, so that’s when I should do my shopping for the week, but I was not able to break free from habit and ended up going and eating a cheesesteak and buying all the first new volumes of the year in a bunch of series I’m following.

Watched: Bungo Stray Dogs 3.3-4: Finished the flashback to how Dazai and Chuuya became partners, and resumed the aftermath of the Guild plotline, with a terrifying new opponent for the Port Mafia and the Armed Detective Agency.

Read (manga): Spy x Family vol 13 (Tatsuya Endo): Aftermath of last volume’s big fight, and then a bunch of stuff in people’s secret identities.

Written: 275.

Ew, who wants to hug boys? They have boy germs!

Watched: Bungo Stray Dogs 3.1-2: How Dazai and Chuuya originally teamed up. (Pretty sure it’s because Dazai’s boss ships them.) Also, shantytown in giant crater caused by superpower disaster, sure, whatever, but what is that thing next to it? They’ve mentioned foreigners, but is that a mistranslation?

Read: Katalepsis vol 1 (Hazel Young): This almost certainly deserved many many entries, since it’s allegedly 2.5 megawords, but I was not smart enough to record it earlier, and now it’s done. With this plot arc, anyway. Our heroine did the thing! It wasn’t easy! But it was amazing and non-Euclidian! The thing itself was not gay, but basically everything along the way was.

Read: Peach Boy Riverside vol 10 (coolkyousinnjya, Johanne): Surely there is no way this can turn out poorly.

Written: 123.

To celebrate, I ordered two hats. One is more outdoorsy, one is more fashiony.

Went for a stupid walk for my stupid mental and physical health, thought dumb things about D&D.

New Year’s fondue was very nice. We didn’t have Vivian, but we did have Earl and Cat, and Marith for a while. We ate cheese fondue, more cheese fondue, and chocolate fondue, searched for the lost art of conversation, and at midnight went out to admire the fireworks. Then we dispersed to our various beds. Friends are nice.

Read: Gamma Draconis (Benoist Simmat, Eldo Yoshimizu): Occult conspiracies across France and Japan, reaching to the highest levels of corporate power. Proper occult, too: it starts with stealing the shewstone of John Dee, so the hermetic secret society can contact intelligences from higher dimensions, etc.

Written: 185.

 

Hopefully panettone counts.

We actually managed to gather to play boardgames during the holidays! No Kelsey, but we had Brooks and Vivian (who is less imposing than I expected, but very cyberpunk) and delicious posole, and played Terraforming Mars and Poetry For Neanderthals and a new game called Inhuman Conditions about trying to figure out whether someone is a replicant. I am not a robot, or at least Professor Herman T Schnitzelweiner isn’t. It was fun!

Read: Peach Boy Riverside vol 9 (coolkyousinnjya, Johanne): Mikoto backstory.

Written: 135.

And Hanukkah and some other celebrations, I guess.

Went over to Monkeycat Towers for a delightful Christmas dinner and general friendshipness.It was delightful.

Read: Sirius (Ana C Sánchez): She’s a burned-out tennis star, she’s a rich girl who likes astronomy, together they commit crimes on each other. Well, not exactly, but they meet when Astronomy Girl mugs Tennis Girl. Lots of teen drama, etc.

Written: 212.

Celebrated by Ceil B DeMonkey and Akimori the Ninja Monkey, as well as many others!

Regular Saturday stuff. I didn’t go back to Shake Shack but maybe I should have.

Watched: Deca-Dence 11-12: Climactic kaiju fight! Which is important, but not really what saves the day. The end!

Read: Rainbows After Storms vol 1 (Luka Kobachi): Two high-school girls are dating, but they’re allegedly keeping it a secret. So far none of the other characters have called them on it, but it seems very unlikely no one has noticed them being extremely twitterpated and awkward. Very low-stakes slice-of-life.

Written: 146. I finished the vignette Marith made me write, now I have to write something else.