(no subject)

[bjornwilde]

I think I've recovered from yesterday now. After forcing myself out side of the comfort bubble, I was left feeling kind of raw the rest of the day so it was a struggle to be human.

On Monday, I removed New Xkit from Tumblr and stopped following tags. This improved loading times and cut out the thing where they kept showing the same few posts which were tagged with the thing (on mobile). I miss checking up on the latest for whatever tag there was, but I don't miss the site loading and behaving in a more friendly manner. I think they just need to kill tags as they just don't work, imho.

Still enjoying The Palace Job, even if the team doesn't really seem to be at risk so far. Ultimately, I fear the book might suffer from too much competence, but it's still fun so far.

I'm going out of town this weekend, for my father's birthday. The big 75. Mostly looking forward to it, but a little anxious as well as my father and sister tend to be stubborn in the things they want and not as accommodating as they could be. Like family trumps everything, including minor details like not giving my child too much chocolate on Easter. /grump

So I keep thinking of new pups I want to play and make time for. I'm still not going to app them anywhere as I haven't finished their canons, but I've two I'm still looking at.

Merisiel Sillvari, is an iconic rogue character from the Pathfinder RPG. She's a main character in the comic, and there's an audio drama for me to listen to on Spotify. If I like the audio drama enough, there are two other audio dramas as well.

What I like about her: She's very much not human. I love that she isn't just pretty human with long, pointy ears. Like typically she is drawn with her skull shaped oddly and her eyes don't have sclera. I also like that she's canonically a lesbian.

I love the idea that she's an orphan who grew up with humans, even if it caused horrible things to her emotions. Basically, by the time she was a teen, she'd watched her parents growing old and dying. In fact everyone she knew from her childhood she got to watch grow old and die while she barely became an adult. Horrifying, but I love that they play with this aspect of immortality or long lived races.

Her childhood also means she values humans, which seems to be a rarity for elves in her world.

She is very child-like, which is how she deals with everyone growing old. She lives in the moment, stubbornly refusing to think of the future. She's also kind of like a female Legolas and she loves blades, like to a ridiculous degree. If you happen to know old comics, she has a pretty strong Poisonous Elves vibe going on.

Things I will likely do that aren't shown in canon: She never does magic, though elves do seem to have an innate sense of magic. I think I will have her potentially play with magic items though, if not learn some spells, because magic is fun.

Journal names I am playing with: aichmophiliac (love of blades), studied_the_blade or blade_lesbian (to play with the memes), or recycling lets_get_stabby since I doubt I'll every play Betty from Ratqueens.

Farideh is still sitting and staring at me, though I've taken a break from her canon. Four more books to read and I'll be picking up the next after I finish The Palace Job.

What I like About her: She's a kid who is trying to figure out who she is. She also is scared and vulnerable, yet wants to make the world a better place. Because of this, she had a moment of weakness or a failed wisdom check and made a pack with a devil. Partly this was to save her twin sister. What's odd about the pack is she didn't have to sell her soul for it; in fact there's some question if she as a soul, being a tiefling*. The pact is more like an alliance or promise. She agrees to be this devil's warlock and nothing else. In exchange she gets infernal, spell-like abilities. Of course, the devil thought he was getting an easily manipulated teen girl out of the deal....he quickly learned he made an error in which twin he chose.

The icing on the cake is that she now uses these abilities to make the world better and to protect those she cares about. She no longer sees herself has vulnerable. To her, the pact more as a tool much like a sword, than something that's corrupted her, though she is aware of the fine line she walks.

She also learns further magic in her travels and speaks a number of languages. Bonus point, she comes from the Forgotten realms game so i have more reference material than I could ever want.

*Tieflings are those who are born with signs of packs or relationships their ancestors made with devils. They typically have horns, inhumanly colored eyes, and can have tails and even wings.

Things I will likely do that are not canon: I'm not sure. Maybe have her learn more spells than they've shown so far? I'd also need to decide how strong her bond to the Infernal realms would work in a place like Milliways.

Journal name: I already have one, clever_eyes which is how her devil called her when he first met her. She has one gold eye and one silver, and is very smart and clever.

Funny, I  just realized both these ladies are orphans who were left in the respective villages as babes.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Ultimately, I fear the book might suffer from too much competence, but it's still fun so far.

I'm trying to remember if the stakes ever started feeling higher in this book -- maybe a little bit, but not appreciably? I reread my write-up of it, and in general this was a book that I enjoyed despite a multitude of things that would've normally turned me off, but it seems like one reason for that is that at some point I started enjoying it as a big dumb heist movie / sit-com rather than A Book.

I'm not familiar with Pathfinder RPG at all, but the orphan growing up among humans, consequently valuing humans more than other elves do, and love of blades you described for the character immediately made me think of Morrolan. It sounds like their personalities are very different, though.

[bjornwilde]

So far Palace job keeps having the cons seem to get into trouble but then almost deux machining out of it right away. But yes, dumb heist sit com is a great way to describe it. I'm having fun with the thrills and just enjoying the ride. = ]

Pathfinder is a D&D clone, and yes, Merisiel is so not Morrolan but they do have similar childhoods. Which reminds me I should get to the Khaven romances soon. Maybe I'll alternate with Farideh's books.

[hamsterwoman]

keeps having the cons seem to get into trouble but then almost deux machining out of it right away

Yeah, I think that basically continues throughout the rest of the book.

. I'm having fun with the thrills and just enjoying the ride. = ]

Enjoying the ride is how I felt about it too, exactly. It's fast enough that I never felt like stopping to think about the ridiculousness of the plot/characters/worldbuilding/etc. :P

Which reminds me I should get to the Khaven romances soon.

:D

[ceitfianna]

I hope the birthday stuff goes well and ooh these are both really interesting characters. I hope you toss one or the other of them into the sandbox.

I've never followed tags on Tumblr just people which works for me.

[bjornwilde]

I definitely mean to throw them both into a sandbox post when I have words again. Which, reading back on this post and remembering how often I’ve already edited it, I can see isn’t now.

I’m hoping a change of town for the weekend will clear the cobwebs.

Or maybe I should try and write some original stuff this weekend.

It’s funny comparing these two against each other, given their similar childhoods. Fariseh grew up with the fear of her heritage shoved down her throat and so is worried about being bad or proving “them” right, while Merisiel just wants to live in the moment and have fun, regardless of the consequences.

And I’m adjusting to not using tags. I got in the habit as a means of getting updates on my canons but I can get that from other sources.

[ceitfianna]

I find tags useful for searching among my own stuff or making it easy to search but I don't really trust them too much beyond as Tumblr isn't well organized.

[bjornwilde]

Tumblr is a fire hose of content isn’t it?

[ceitfianna]

It is, but I've found ways of using it that work for me. And I think I almost have a complete draft of my last chapter for my Leverage AU.