Krogoth and I are playing through a co-op campaign of Baldur's Gate 3 (incidentally, the reason I stopped writing last October). He's a human barbarian and I'm a half-elf bard. So far, he has: 
- gotten annoyed at Shadowheart for constantly missing with sacred flame
- been extremely put-off by Astarion 
- killed the two tieflings guarding Lae'zel 
- looted every vase and lit every candle in Wither's crypt
- ran right by the grove, figuring that he could "go back later after finishing exploration" 
- killed two cultists of the Absolute

This is a playlist for my d&d character.



1. Northwest Passage: And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west. Tris came from a community of caravan merchants. 

2. Gimme Shelter: Ooh, see the fire is sweepin' our streets today... gimme shelter, or I'm gonna fade away. A mad lich, Raven, raided her caravan with fireballs. Her parents and her younger sister were slain, leaving her the sole survivor. 
 
3. Winterbreak: You're wondering how to leave it here, and I haven't seen you since last winter break. Tris took shelter with the Order of the Silver Dragon, a chivalric society devoted to justice. There, she fell in love with another squire, Ella. It didn't last. 

4. Keep the Car Running: If some night I don't come home Please don't think I've left you alone... keep the car running. Tris didn't quite fit in with the Order after that. After a string of anger management issues, she decided to leave to seek her glory elsewhere, promising to return and receive her knighthood. She soon met up with a group of adventurers called the Last Resort, including Carric, Audra, Xavril, and Resha. 

5. Hand of Sorrow: The child without a name grew up to be the hand, to watch you, to shield you or kill on demand. After a few years of adventuring, Tris found that her sister, Mariel, had survived under the tutelage of the lich responsible for the caravan attack. Unfortunately, this happened while Mariel was leading a gang of pirates to raid a settlement. During the attack, Audra's sister was kidnapped. 

6. Storyteller: And all along she asked why love wasn't worth a fight - was it worth her fight? Eventually, the party made their way to the Ravenspire to rescue Audra's sister, and Tris reunited with Mariel. Mariel had read Tris's published novel recounting her adventures in the meantime, and had grown cynical in her training. But when it came down to it, Mariel sided with the party against Raven. However, this mission was not without price, and Xavril was lost. 
 
7. Numbers: Be careful who you're thinking will save you in the end - maybe we're all just waiting for one beautiful friend. Party tensions increased as the party ventured into the desert of Farrell to deal with Resha's wayward mentor, and then to the jungles of Syland attend Carric's sister's wedding. Carmilla and Fendrell, a pair of twins sharing a single body, also joined the party.  

8. Delete Forever: Lying so awake, things I can't escape - lately I just turn 'em into demons. Flew into the sun, fucking heroin - lately I just turn 'em into reasons and excuses. Tris turned to taking drugs to deal with Xavril's death and intraparty stress 

9. Stray Italian Greyhound: Oh no not now, please not now, I just settled into the glass half empty. Tris began to develop feelings for Carmilla: feelings that she just could not figure out how to deal with. The two of them went on a few dates. Eventually, the party managed to acquire a second body for Carmilla, temporarily losing Resha in the process. 

10. The (Shipped) Gold Standard: I wanna scream "I love you" from the top of my lungs, but I'm afraid that someone else will hear me You can only blame your problems on the world for so long before it all becomes the same old song. Tris's racial insecurities, drug issues, shock of losing party members, and lingering lich threat caught up with her. She rejected Carmilla, ran away from the party, and regretted it almost immediately afterwards. 

11. Calling the Rain: Heed, it's like calling the rain, it's like bearing in pain, like embracing life and decaying in death. Tensions on the continent of Suzoa came to a boil as the wizard Lady Zolera tried to gain control of the Arcane Well. Tris couldn't leave her party members behind to deal with that threat alone. She put aside her issues and returned to the party. Facing the Arcane Well, she had a realization that she wanted to survive and wash away the evil and corruption in the world and herself, and live life fully. 

12. For Me, This is Heaven: When the time we have now ends, when the big hand goes round again, can you still feel the butterflies? Can you still hear the last goodnight... If I don't let myself be happy now, then when? Tris took up Lady Zolera's newly vacated seat on the council and used her good publicity as a published author to correct the direction of the empire. Years later, she regained enough confidence to ask Carmilla if maybe she wanted to give things another try. And Carmilla said yes. 

The game ended on Saturday, and I'd had enough time between the DM's initial announcement in February and now to deal with my feelings. I'm happy with how it ended. Big fucking shoes to fill though. And also a little embarrassed about how deeply I cared. Like, this was the game where I would get intrusive thoughts at 2AM and be unable to sleep.

It was also the one where, like, I could not figure out how to talk to girls, specifically one girl, and was just kicking myself for weeks afterwards for mucking up the in-game relationship. The two characters got together in the end, though, several decades in the future and offscreen, kind of like Laura and Cassandra at the end of Wicked + Divine. And I was just so... gratified when I realized that, yeah, that was the case, my knight got a happy ending. 

I'll post the final playlist with a breakdown later because it won't make sense later without it. 

I think I'm going to the concert in September. 

Past: Emperor, reversed - I interpret this as a loss of authority, 
Present: Chariot - movement. pragmatism. a healthier type of leadership than the emperor? 
Future: Temperance, reversed - i interpret this one as a drinking problem that this person has  
Influences: Page of cups - burgeoning emotional development, or this person has a drinking buddy? 
Outcome: Death - WELP, i mean I know change is in this person's future already, I was just really hoping that the cards would have something more reassuring in store

 

What has become of me, that I am now a person who bought bikinis from the bikini shack at full price? 

Why is it that shops with the nomenclature noun-building are so appealing? 

Wonton Hut
Dumpling House 
Pizza Hut
Bikini Village
Spaghetti Factory? 
Cheesecake Factory? 
Condom Shack???  (RIP) 

I gotta go pick up a cat tree in Barrie tomorrow morning but I can't sleep. 

Incoming
- Shelley's PC's backstory
- the peace conference
- bikinis
- EH brief
- Irving study
- Dundas study

Outgoing
- THE STORY
- me, ON VACATION 
- this year's tax stuff 
- Bloor study




Past: The sun reversed. High expectations. Creativity. Icarus.
Present: page of coins reversed. Hard work. 
Future: eight of coins reversed. Mastery 
Influences: six of cups reversed. I love this card but not in this position. Looking backwards. Loss. 
Outcome: high priestess reversed. Secrets. superego. Pretension. 

  

I learned recently that one of my acquaintances from university dated a high schooler, and then married them (after high school). He was 26 when they met -_-

My parents gave me several boxes of tissues, several years ago. I'm just about finishing up the last box. 

There's a perforation on the back, to attach to one of those tissue dispensers in bathrooms. 

The copyright is 1984, Facelle Company Ltd. 

Facelle was acquired by P&G in 1991.  

There's no moral to the story, I just think it's neat I've been using tissues older than I am. 

my wayward darling's still haunting my dreams 
though years ago you left me on my own
i only see you in the inbetweens 

we gave them to the funeral machine
yet after they'd been burnt down to the bone
my wayward darling's still haunting my dreams 

usually you look like you're about eighteen
please, you're far too young for the great unknown
i only see you in the inbetweens. 

if this be my angel, come to redeem
then might my reckoning be yet postponed?
my wayward darling's still haunting my dreams 

but now you visit less and less, it seems
i fear you'll finally leave me all alone
i only see you in the inbetweens. 

so if times when i wake i also scream 
it's because i've awoken, but you won't:
my wayward darling's still haunting my dreams
i only see you in the inbetweens. 

these are the halcyon days of summer
the sweet interregnum before the fall 
when we spin the evenings' wine-dark colours
into a tapestry of myth and thrall 

when autumn overcomes the final masque,
will you shed any tears for who we were? 
will you carry the fire? will you look back?
or will you burn your robes and ne'er return?

perhaps i ought to have left you, my dear
rather than follow you to summer's end
blessed be those who burn on solstice pyres
and not those still afraid to call you friend

come winter, i hope i still think of you
and that you will think fondly of us too.  


[coronach for a teenage witch?]