#i'll be able to snag at least one copy

[applealchemist]

FINALLY A PATCH I CAN SKIP (3.1) ANAXA WILL COME HOME IN 3.2

imagine if they reran dr ratio with anaxa.... (my stellar jades and my resin would be crying)

[sheliesshattered]

We had a fabulous time visiting Batuu yesterday! Our outfits were comfortable and functional and well suited to what turned out to be a relatively cold and cloudy day in southern California. Disney cast members definitely seemed to interact with us more because we made the effort to dress up, and we got some lovely compliments from other guests, too. We were even gifted some BSO credit coins by random strangers who liked our outfits!

It was Jack's first visit to Batuu, and while I did get to spend a little bit of time there with my mom in October, this was my first opportunity to really explore the entire area, browse through the shops, and sample all the food and drinks available. It was at least as cool as my first impression of it back in October, and Jack was impressed and delighted by all of it. We spent a good portion of the day just admiring all the details and world-building and excellent sets.

Jack has requested no photos, but I did manage to snag this pic of him blocking the camera like a victim of the paparazzi, lol.

But look at those pleats! Both Jack and I are so pleased with how they turned out. Several of the Resistance jackets on display in the Rise of the Resistance queue had similar pleat details, and it was fun to look at them up close.

Over this last weekend and all the way up to late Monday night, I was able to add a few last details to our outfits. I finally adjusted the chain length of my dangley earrings and glued the leather cording wraps to the back of my kyber crystal necklace so that it wouldn't slip out. While I had the glue out, I figured I'd take a stab at making some spat-type things to cover the lacings of my tall Doc Marten boots. I was completely winging it from start to finish, but I'm really happy with how they turned out!

The spats are made from some left over suede I've had in my stash for literally more than 20 years now -- it's been used for an Aragorn vest for Jack, a couple of bags for me, and the inner layers of the big wedge shaped piece on my Oswin belt. And I still have some left over! Maybe I'll make myself a belt pouch to match these spats at some point in the future.

The narrow end of each spat tucks under the laces closest to the toe of my boot, and theoretically secures to itself with a hook and eye, though I found the hook didn't really hold from that angle, and really wasn't necessary anyway. The straps then velcro around the back of my leg, at the lowest point of the bend of my ankle, and right at the top of the boot, so that the strap sits just above the top edge of the boot in the back, which helps keep it from slipping down.

To make these I really just draped scrap suede on my boot while wearing it, started cutting it to the shape I thought might make sense, then copied that over for a second spat. I measured how much I would need for the straps and how much of an overlap I wanted for the velcro, then cut out all those pieces and glued them together using E6000 -- which works wonderful for adhering velcro to suede and suede to suede, but is a bit more iffy with the metal hooks and eyes (one eye popped off when I was taking off the spat at the end of the night, but since it wasn't staying hooked anyway, I'm not fussed).

Despite being such a quick off-the-cuff project, the spats worked out great, and added that last little bit to my outfit by covering the laces of my boots. They're visible in the third photo, the full-length shot in front of the door (and in the video below), and I think they add an understated bit of texture difference in all the black-on-black there, in addition to obscuring the modern look of the boots a bit.

Besides those detail bits for me, I also made a pair of little pockets for Jack's jacket, to hold 'code cylinders'. It's a tiny detail that really makes the jacket look that much more Star Wars-y, and the cylinders themselves are empty and their tops unscrew, so the space can actually be functional, too. (Currently they're filled with gum!)

And at Jack's request, I threw together a quick insert for the zipper section on his collar that used to hold the hood before we removed it. The hood was making the collar too puffy, but without it the collar didn't have enough body to stand up on its own.

I took some measurements, then cut a piece of cotton duck canvas (that I had originally bought to cover the zippers on my Moment vest, before I changed gears and made the Batuu vest instead) to the right length and about three times the height of the interior of the hood section. I did a simple zigzag tri-fold on the height, ironed it flat, and marked some guide lines perpendicular to the length. Then it was just a simple process of quilting the three layers together by machine sewing in short vertical rows ~1cm apart.

The quilting gave the canvas even more stiffness, and after that point it absolutely did not want to fold or droop along the short vertical axis. I slipped it into the former hood pocket (after snipping one corner to fit around the snap I hadn't accounted for), zipped it closed, and gave the whole collar area a quick pressing. It's removable if we ever need to, completely washable, and keeps the collar standing upright without looking too stiff. Jack was very happy with the result.

With our outfits finally done, we headed into the park around mid-morning, with a plan to stay late. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with Batuu Bounding at Disneyland (which is notoriously a bit more hit-and-miss than Batuu East, in Florida), but we got through security without incident and through the rest of the park without anyone commenting on our outfits. We saw someone else wearing the same leather-look leggings as me, and a guy wearing similar jacket and pants to Jack (but without the pleating), which made us feel like we didn't look too weird, by general Disneyland standards.

Once we were in Batuu, though, our bounding definitely got noticed more. A couple of fellow guests complemented our outfits (including the kind strangers who gave us the coins!), and cast members seemed way more interested in interacting with us in-character. I got to bring up a bit about the history I'd made up for Samæni Ray -- which led to one cast member later referring to me and Jack as "my friends from Denon!" All of the prep and character design made it a lot easier to think on my feet in those little improv interactions.

One cast member in particular kept finding us throughout the day, just suddenly appearing out of nowhere it felt like, and kept trying to sell us a speederbike that totally wasn't a broken down lemon.

Later in the day, he kind of sold us out to Kylo Ren and a pair of stormtroopers (but like, in a fun way, lol) which led to an intense interaction with Kylo Ren right up in both my face and Jack's. Kylo Ren is tall, and the voice and the mask and the body language was all perfect up close. There was a bit of nervous laughter on our part, but we kept our cool and convinced Ren that that since we'd only just arrived on Batuu from Denon, we couldn't possibly know anything about any Resistance activity in Black Spire Outpost.

We were way too in the moment to get any photos, but because we were dressed up and Kylo Ren was so much up in our faces, we did draw a bit of a crowd, so for all I know other people may have taken pictures or videos of the event, lol. My family has a saying about 'look hard' rather than take photos, and it was definitely that for us.

Overall the whole day was wonderful, and we ended up spending nearly 12 hours in Batuu without leaving once. I got to pilot the Falcon multiple times (though I can't really say I've gotten any better at it, lol), and got to try out gunner and engineer, too. We managed to ride Rise of the Resistance both during the day and again after dark, explore every part of Black Spire Outpost in detail, learn to play Sabacc with a cast member, have drinks at Oga's, and eat a bunch of really tasty, really well-presented food.

All together it was an excellent, excellent birthday. And we're already talking about when we might want to go back again.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #267

Today, J was supposed to fly over with one of his pilot friends to Great Barrington, where his plane is. From there, J flew his plane to the usual small airport that he uses.

I'm pleased (and extremely relieved!!) to report that J made it back without incident, and the plane is in the hangar now, where it belongs.

J also took a few pretty cool pictures along the way to Great Barrington:

I waited at the usual small airport for J to get back. We drove there, and then he and his pilot friend flew out to Great Barrington in the club plane. I stayed behind to wait. I played a lot of Dead Cells.

...Guess who's got 5 Boss Cells now. 😁

At 5 Boss Cells, a new mechanic called The Malaise is introduced. And it's a little yellow bar that fills up slowly as you navigate the level, right over your hit point bar. The more enemies there are in the level, the faster it fills. It stops filling once 90% of the enemies in the level are defeated. Most foods will fill up your malaise meter as well.

The higher your malaise meter is, the harder the enemies hit you, the faster they hit you, and the higher the chance new ones will spawn near you randomly, and the higher the chance that one might randomly turn into an Elite.

...So, essentially, at higher levels, I get to have shiny new enemies to bash with my lovely shield! Which means more gold for me!! The increased strength and increased attack speed are non-issues compared to the increased amount of loot I'll get; all I have to do is improve my skills! Extra enemies means extra loot, faster attack speeds means I'll be able to parry them faster, and extra damage done by them just means I'll have to try a little harder not to get hit!

So essentially, the Malaise meter is a blessing in disguise; all it's gonna do is make me a better player, if I let it!

...I am disappointed to tell you, though, that I can't give you any more pictures of the Brother Sun book. I didn't realize that it's still protected by copyright. If I put up pictures of this book for you, I run the risk of my whole collection of letters being taken down and deleted, and not being able to write any more of them in this space; I can't have that. So I removed the photos that were in the previous three letters. I'm sorry.

But don't fret, though; I'm going to get another English copy of The Neverending Story, and I'm going to see about trying to get permission to read it out loud for you. It's easily my favorite book; I'd love to read it to you.

...But... just in case I don't get that permission... I also snagged a Japanese copy for you - just in case I ever get to see those very important people again. I have a couple more very small trinkets in mind to give to you, just in case...

...I wanna be able to do things like read books to you and show you things to watch and things to play, but... copyright law is a thing. You have to watch out for it. Otherwise, people will sue the pants right off of you.

...But don't fret!!! I can still take plenty of pictures for you. And... maybe they're not as nice as the ones taken by Mr. Dennis Stock, and maybe they don't come with cool quotes written by great people... So... I guess you'll have to settle for my silly writings and my silly pictures instead, and... I really am sorry about that; truly, lots of far awesome-er (that's a word now; I decided it) people than me should be trying to help you. But I'm here. Or at least, I'm trying to be here. And maybe that can count for something, if you'll allow it:

...Will you take my hand and walk with me for a little while and maybe also sing a silly little song with me so that you can remember that things are good, even if sometimes they're also difficult and scary? Because when we do the things together, the good things become nicer, and the difficult, scary things become not so bad.

I know that a lot of the people in your life before dropped the ball on you, because they were taught a false version of strength that told them it's best to deal with things alone. But you know... I think some of those people are trying to learn from their mistakes. And even if they weren't, then if you'll look around a little, outside of the toxic social circles you grew up in... you'll find lots of healthy people who won't drop the ball on you. One of those people is writing a new letter to you every day. 😉

In any case, J and I decided to get pizza on the way home. The pizza is to celebrate both his big victory of getting the plane in the hangar without incident, and also to celebrate my little victory of getting 5 Boss Cells. It was very good:

...Victory pizza is the best pizza. Maybe you can get some once you're not locked away at the Northern Crater, or at the Edge of Creation, or... wherever the heck you are.

...Please come home soon, okay? And please come home safe. The people who care about you miss you a whole lot.

Anyhoot, I suppose that's all I've got for you, for today. I hope you liked some of the pictures.

Please stay safe out there, whatever it is you're doing, okay? Make kind and good decisions, both towards yourself and towards everything around you. Be brave. Set healthy boundaries. Take care of your body and your mind, okay? I don't wanna think about you being mean to yourself like you were in that damnable library...

I love you. I'll write to you again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

[dirtyoldmanhole]

revelation 2.0 playthrough is ... going!

basically have worked my way from the ninja forests all the way up to White Flames, writing in the fanfic chapters all the way ~ doing it at the same time has been absolutely wonderful since I've been able to slide in setting descriptions I would have completely forgotten otherwise. for example, the opera town's yellow skies and brick buildings, very different than Notre Sagasse despite both being "towns around Nohr's borders"...

The team's doing a bit better; picked up Charlotte and Benny who are both almost promoted, Orochi is a one-woman armor nuke, Gunter is somehow a viable tank, still deciding if I want to invest in Shigure as a mage nuke, Renia is a shockingly good assassin on wings, etc. Knowing a few of late-game Rev's maps being annoying as fuck without flyers, I'm trying to beef up the number of flyers in my group.

(btw Charlotte's attacking sprite expression is fucking hilarious. decided i was going to train her on the spot with that lul)

Snagged this screenshot when Camilia was talking about who the previous three people were that successfully completed the Rainbow Sage's trials before Corrin --

-- and I know gunterfuckers have collectively headcanon'd this third person that went to the Rainbow Sage as Gunter, to no one's surprise. :P

Honestly, I agree, there's a lot of tertiary evidence that points it this way (motive for wanting to kill Garon, motive also for anonymity, the timing works out, "knight" being a pretty consistent descriptor for him vs human!Anankos who also has a motive, ruling out all the other major people (knight not being another royal), though I do wish there was more from Nintendo. I might try to check the Pelucid Crystal artbook to see if there's any references ...

I'll write up the A-S meta at some point soon, and then we'll be getting into the fun (painful) part of Revelation past Black Flames ~ >:)

also confirmed my old 3DS works and have snagged an IRL copy of Conquest ~ so it'll be really cool at least having one playthrough in the works on the original platform, as much fun emulating is. :> plus it'll be a needed emotional breather between lategame!rev.

[my-sweet-prince-fan]

Shopping Spree!

You typically stay at home with your partner or your days off do not align. But today, you decide to take him to town!

Lambert wanted to take you to the designer row, the best for his love, but instead you insisted to go around main street with all of their "cheap" and "gimmicky" items. How does he feel experiencing simple pleasures?

A new book from your favorite author is dropping today! While standing in line to snag a copy, Chezem becomes your errand boy. Grabbing things for you while talking about the author's other works and fun facts. Chezem finds out why you want the book and...

You saw a new crane machine shop open next to the dessert shop on Main Street. Nagit laughed and was determined to go. The plan was to win something and celebrate with parfaits. How well will that go for the two of you?

He'd much prefer to get some snack foods and run around in the sun. But today, you inform him of a little weight lifting contest for a grand prize. "I'm more of a runner than weight lifter, but I'll give it a try." Will Alvah be able to shape up?

He loves spending time with you, no matter where or when. You decide to indulge him whenever possible, by taking him around the local market or Main Street. A melancholy washes over the two of you. You never know what Jun's thinking...

The two of you are always walking around Main Street, you enjoy window shopping for each other! This time, the two of you wanted to check out a new restaurant. A nice day out, you have lunch on the patio. How does he react when people keep coming up to you to compliment your outfit?

Ivan works around the clock, that is the way of a butler. After getting married, you urged him to take (at least) one day off, with consent by the king. You decide to splurge on Ivan, buying him something subtle.

His majesty always splurges you whenever he can. He was surprised when you requested to spend time with him. He asks you where you'd like to go - taking him to Main Street. He's willing to buy anything you desire! But what if you want something he can't buy...?

Thank you for reading! This idea came to me while I was thinking about spending time with my significant other :)

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

Well, okay, SO. I do have all the physical books, because I love them, but my e-books were all downloaded off Z-Lib, hehe. If you have an email I can use, I'll send you the PDFs (which you can read dead easy on any computer) or the ePUBs (which do need a specific reader program, but there's a bunch of basic ePUB readers for cellphone and computer). Just let me knoowww~~~

Ahhh, that would be amazing, thank you so much!

Unfortunately my computer and phone are both AGONIZINGLY slow at reading PDFs. At least with Adobe Acrobat. I haven't tried with Firefox's new built-in PDF reader yet! But PDF is pretty universal and I don't have the memory on my phone for a new app to read ePUBs, heh. I can try with the PDFs! I'll dm you my email address.

One more question! I don't have the money to snag the physical copies, but once I do (because there are Very Few Times in my life when I'll be taking three trips in as many months like I will have done by the end of October, and inevitably I should have More Money soon), is there anywhere you'd recommend buying them? My default is to buy them from ThriftBooks, because they seem to be available there.

But if there's a way to support the author directly, I'd like to be able to do so!

[senstless]

My thoughts on the Common Fire Cards from a Bronze Perspective

New Cards Released

I'm back with another post focused on digging through the rebellion series focused from my bronze level account and which cards I think will be most useful, and which cards I'll be targeting goodbye first. This is only my first initial analysis and clearly as Time progresses, strategies evolve and new ones reveal themselves I am likely to look back on this in a year or two and have a vastly different opinion.

This time I decided to dig into the common fire cards and review them I believe there are six parts for me to review and dig into so let's get started and see what we have...

GOBALANO SOLIDER

When I first saw this card scrolling through the list, I did not think it was hopefully useful given it's low health and only one melee damage, but my opinion is starting to change as I have face lineups with it and it had a much bigger impact than I expected.

Getting a melee boost up to two and having both ambush and sneak is a deceptively impressive tact especially considering its speed is 4 and is likely to be in the first attackers in the first round. When paired with other sneak melee attack cards what I have noticed is it sometimes has the ability to do four damage in the first couple rounds, especially low man around and when combined with a few other snake really cards most of my team is disappeared before it even had a chance to attack with my first monster.

NIMBLEDOOK SCOUT

Initially I was thinking this would be one of my least used cards. While it does have backfire and a decently high speed it's low health means it's initially in my mind sort of a niche card that can help deter some they lay or snipe cards and potentially do some return damage. The more I play and the more I understand that there is a massive focus and benefit on weapons training, especially weapons training a card twice with two different attack styles this one is becoming much more interesting given it's two mana costs and high speed. It could get both arrows and magic added to it be one of the first to attack going to be hard to hit. This is pretty intriguing as I think fire has a weapons training to arrow attacker, plus there is the neutral magic weapons trainer. This would be great for a low amount of build with weapons training.

KHA'ZI FIRE MAGE

Probably one of my cards that I will use the least until I get a better feel for it. While the four mana cost is fair given its attack speed and health I am typically not a fan of scatter shot, and not being able to count on a attack going a certain direction will likely steer me away. It does have Dodge which in some cases certainly seems much higher than a 25% chance to be missed, but it's at least there. So far this is probably my least favorite common given everything else.

CHAOS ORC

Could be a true powerhouse, and really make fire that melee heavy dominant splinter it used to be way back in the beta days. This card, Plus tarsa, plus a lot of sneak and ambush cards can create a devastating lineup. The prices don't seem to be too bad on this one so it might be one of the first ones I snag up at 10 cents a copy

DOLFAR DARFLAK

Another dual mana summoner, this time it's fire and death. This seems to be a bit more aligned with what I would think of as complimentary, at least for melee focused cards. There's a lot of good combination of cards that I can see something from both teams to put something together, although I'm not sure many of those scenarios outweigh the pros of playing a summoner that boosts the cards. I haven't seen a lot of these cards in action yet so I don't have a whole lot to analyze with, but I am sure that rule sets will be released for these are super powerful. I have never regretted owning a summoner, even if it's for a specialized match where it's key.

BREWMASTER ARBAZAS

Overall I've been loving the new set as I get a chance to play some of the cards, rent some and figure out what's going to be the most important for me. I have not bought any as of yet as there is a fine line between filling keyholes in your collection and waiting for the prices to fall to a more normalized level before buying in. I have 60 to $70 ready to invest but given the prices of some of these cards I won't be able to get more than a handful and I have quite a few to get to complete my set and compete.

~~@senstless

[readingrobin]

Bookworm 12, 37, 43

12. Favorite horror book(s).

Right now, I think I'm going to go with The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I don't think I've ever read anyone else who can masterly convey dread and an oncoming sense of doom like her. She writes in such an atmospheric way that really sticks with you. This book literally haunts you by the time its finished and you're only left to wonder what really happened, if you can trust anything you have just read.

37. The only example of your least favorite trope being written in such a way that you enjoyed it.

The love triangle in The Iron Fey series is the only one I'll ever able to stomach. I think its because the love interests were friends before meeting the MC, had a falling out, and eventually became friends again by the time the series end. There wasn't this prolonged sense of drama between the two, plus they had conflict between them that wasn't just about who wanted her more. They were actually allowed to be people apart from the MC.

43. Title of a book you own that's in the worst physical condition you have. Explain what happened to it. Post a picture if you want.

I have a very battered first edition copy of The Name of the Wind, original cover and all. It originally belonged to my library, and I was able to snag it as it was being weeded since I worked in the collection department at the time. It is absolutely falling apart with loose pages, a broken binding, and spotted with colors that I don't think books should be spotted with. But, this is a book that had been loved by an entire community for ten years. I remember as a page how often it would be checked out, it would seldom stay on the shelf for more than a couple weeks. I call it my velveteen rabbit book and I'm glad that it is able to have a restful, comfortable retirement on my bookshelf. One day I would love to have it signed, if it would be able to last the journey.

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