predator/prey play, but like Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny.

... is this anything?

Me chaining: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!!

Me crocheting in that very chain: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.

I'm going to go to a writing event in FFXIV tonight! I'm a little thankful I'd been forgetting to post here about it. They moved the location, and I would have never known otherwise.

I've honestly been super excited since I found out about it earlier this week. And nervous. But I keep telling myself it's alright if I'm only a little social this evening. We're there to write, right? 

https://www.tumblr.com/necromeowncy/760158535144390656/attention-we-are-moving-the-location-of-this

y'all I made the mistake of telling my mom I was learning how to draw again

"Oh, you should draw me something for my birthday!"

her birthday is in two weeks. 🙃

+ my PC technically doesn't meet the minimum requirements for the game, but the benchmark said it'd be fine. I gave it a shot... and the game runs better than it did before. There was a couple of stutters on the first voiced cutscene, but it's been great otherwise. The load times on my HDD are now more manageable!

+ all the new DT areas are vibrant and gorgeous! They dont seem to be subject to the gray wash that has been such a problem in the past. What little I've been in the ARR areas since early access, it seems that it's been improved a bit as well, probably with update shaders. I can't wait to see how the graphics update improves the earlier content areas! I may not have to reinstall reshade after this lmao.

- speaking of shaders, I do notice this gridded one in the background sometimes during cutscenes. Idk if it's my hdd not loading it in as quickly as it should or something else, but it's very distracting. It seems to happen in areas with a lot of plants.

- my catboy looked uncomfortably like Matt Mercer, more than in the benchmark, so he has to have a new haircut for now.

+ the mounts have physics now. they tilt and wobble now when you turn in air, and some on the ground. it's a small thing, but helps the game feel so polished.

+ The camerawork in the Dawntrail cutscenes is SO. GOOD. I can't imagine what kind of new toys they have to play with now. I'm not particularly a fan of the Manderville quests, but I want to see what silly things can be done.

Also, while out of town I read The Faithful Dark by Cate Baumer and I'm feeling very Normal about it.

I initially picked it up because I saw an excerpt on Twitter of a caning scene between the two main characters. It's a gothic fantasy with a serial murder mystery, religious trauma, and corruption, and all the main characters are queer. Its dark, but not grimdark. Csilla (pronounced Chi-La) is the heroine with a trope I love: when a character is viewed as soft or weak because they care so much, but, in truth, they're stronger than tempered steel. The inquisitior priest that canes her in the scene mentioned above and the other POV character, Ilan, is such a little creature and I want to chew on him like a squeaky toy. The third main character, Mihály (pronounced Mi-high), unfortunately does not get written from his own POV, and having finished the book, I understand why. However, him being a chaotic fuckboy who causes Problems makes up for it. He's also an actual factual angel, btw.

I was worried about the heavy religious setting at first because Reasons, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. The fictional faith shares a few things with irl Catholicism: very rigorous structure with a Pope-like figure as the head, holy relics sometimes made from the body of saints, Inquisitiors, exorcisms/banishments of demons, and probably a few other things I missed in reading it in a sprint over two days. I wish there was more about the actual theology within the book as well.

The murder mystery is the weakest part of the story. It does layer into the corruption plot and the heroine's personal mystery, but it's not a whodunit. I was expecting more focus on solving the murders, but its ultimately there to give a reason for the main characters to work together.

It is also a love story. No, not a love story, but one of devotion, to faith, to their people, and to each other. There is a love triangle, however, but it is an actual triangle! Not two lines extending from a single point! Instead of making the asexual heroine choose, the author drops tasty, tasty ship-bait between the two men.

I want to re-read it, but either it'll be after I have time to let it percolate or before the author comes out with the sequel.

The Kindle ebook is on sale for Pride for only $3 USD, if that helps convince anyone to check it out. I can't seem to find it from any other retailers, however, if one is trying to avoid Amazon.