Tantai Jin Apologist

Decided to give The Plucky Squire a shot, because it had been sitting on my wishlist a while & was on sale. Wow. What a mistake.

At first it was small frustrations. Like the fact that the core concept of it being a playable storybook whare the pages turned, & you could leave the book to do things was, while interesting, made for a lot of stop-start-stop-start cutscenes & gameplay was a slog in places (move Item A, leave book, pick up Item B, re-enter book through different portal, put down Item B, pick up Item C, carry it elsewhere onto page & put it down in correct place to remove obstacle to get key, leave portal & go back to... etc etc). Also you have 2 other characters tagging along with you who do nothing, who follow so closely that they get in the damn way constantly. Like damn back off & give me some space! There's also a section where you get a bow to use, & aiming is ass, but it's a short section. Also the bits in 3D, where you leave the book to do some platforming, have a camera that is a nightmare. There was also a bug that completely blocked progression at one point (was completely unable to leave the page I was on, & for some reason the character could only face left), & though thankfully quitting & restarting fixed that. But there were some charming moments, some funny jokes & references, & by Chapter 6, with its metal music theme & aesthetic, it was growing on me.

And then the game throws you a rhythm minigame out of nowhere, using a character who has not been playable until now & has simply tagged along on the adventure, without telling you what you need to do. And while it was easy enough to figure out that there were only 2 buttons that did anything, & they both did the same thing (smashing a projectile thrown at you), it didn't seem to be having any effect. Smashing the things did nothing to the enemy's health bar, & enough hit me that I died quickly (couldn't see the path of most of them as they were thrown so high they went offscreen), so I must be doing something wrong, surely? Bearing in mind that otherwise, the game is stupidly easy. There's an invincibility mode where you get unlimited lives (which the game does not penalise you for using), sections featuring a new mechanic will have a little box telling you the relevant controls (sometimes that'll still display even on subsequent uses) & puzzle sections have an NPC sitting around who will give you hints for solving it (& really calling them 'hints' is an understatement). So this was an insane difficulty spike.

The first encounter is skippable, but the second is a boss fight, & the option to skip was greyed out. And it was worse because some of the projectiles this time were snakes that clung on to your weapon before being flung off, pretty much guaranteeing you'd be hit by the next projectile. Checked out a youtube vid & apparently there's meant to be a sort of halo around the pots being flung at you, that'll flash at the moment you're supposed to hit it, but I didn't get that. I tried quitting & restarting, but it made no difference.

Uninstalled the broken piece of shit. The fact that this got a nomination in the Indie Games category at The Game Awards, but Thank Goodness You're Here! didn't is an insult.

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Relationship(s): Ozai/Ursa, Ozai & his family, Ozai & his issues

Summary: This fic is about two things:

1) Treating Ozai as an actual character with motivations beyond simply Being Evil For The Sake Of Evilness, & dealing with his relationship with his family.
2) Making him suffer.

OR:

Ozai makes a deal with a spirit. It does not go well for him.

Chapter 1: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Chapter 2: Things Go Very Wrong

Chapter 3: Ozai Cries in This One

Chapter 4: Azula Gets to Bully Her Father (As a Treat)

Chapter 5: Ozai Gives His Son A Hug (Out of SPITE, But Still...)

Chapter 6: Azulon's A+ Grandparenting

Chapter 7: [insert that gif of the guy walking in with pizza & there's fire everywhere, but it's Iroh]

Chapter 8 - Knife Wife

Extract:

The letter he’d written had been a frustrating experience to write.

He had sat staring at the blank parchment, brush in hand, for what felt like hours. He refused to beg her to come home. It was too late. Far too late. He wanted her back so badly. She belonged to him. But he wasn't going to lower himself to begging, and he had balked at putting down in black and white that his wife hated him enough to abandon him, even though Ursa had surely painted a horrific picture of him for her parents.

After some thought, he eventually settled on, 'As you surely know, your daughter, Ursa, has chosen to return home. I would appreciate it if you could confirm that she has arrived safely.' There. Concerned, but not overly-emotional. He had sent it via one of the fastest messenger hawks they had.

A week later a servant had handed him a reply. Excitement had gripped him as he broke the seal and unrolled the scroll... Only to see a message from a complete stranger, telling him that the old couple who had lived in the house before them had died, and nobody had come by looking for them.

[ tip jar ]

Signed up to a challenge to write 250,000 words in 2025, & so far it's been a washout. I managed something in the first few days, even if it wasn't much, & was hoping to get into a steady groove. But I've been feeling like absolute crap for the last week & not exactly in the mood to write. I have the immune system of a tank so rarely get ill, so whenever I do feel really bad I know it must hit hard. It's not covid though. The only symptoms I have for that are the generic, vague ones that it shares with every other illness out there (oh, you have a cold? a cough? cant sleep (no shit you're not gonna sleep well like this)? Any time I've had so much as a sniffle the last few years I was running a covid test, & every single time its come up negative, even the one time I felt sure I had it & ran the test again the next day to be sure. And that was when I had a whole stack of tests (because I went in for one pack & the pharmacist pushed another on me because there were 2 packs of tests left in the box so giving me both meant he could get rid of the empty box). I am not wasting my time.

I have been doing my best to kill two birds with one stone though. If all I'm gonna be doing is vegging out under a blanket I may as well spend the time doing something that would otherwise distract me from writing. I stalled on Sackboy: A Big Adventure months ago because while I love the idea of platformers, in practice they are frustrating as fuck, especially boss fights. But it turns out there's an infinite lives setting. I've turned that on & now I'm actually able to make progress & the game is now both significantly more fun during the boss fights & the trickier platforming sections. Amazing how much better things are when you don't have to replay the whole bloody level because you took more than 3 hits.

Wandered down to a local event (basically an artisan/independent market with some entertainment), expecting I'd that I'd just wander round, maybe buy a brownie or two, maybe a lip balm because there was supposed to be a seller there who made them & I need some. The lip balm seller wasn't there, but I got a mug I'd been eyeing up at previous markets for half price (& it was £10 so that was a bargain). And there was a vintage stall in a separate room that I'm not sure was part of the same event that had cassette tapes! There were a few good ones, but at £2 that adds up if you're buying a couple, & most of them were good as in 'I kinda like the artist & it's a decent album I guess but I ain't exactly desperate'. Apparently they have a store, in a town that's not that far away, but I've never had reason to go there, so I'll go after christmas & see what their full selection is like, since I doubt they brought everything. I did buy a Queen greatest hits album, because there's just banger after banger with no dud tracks.

Holy shit Durham is expensive.

I fancied a day out & it apparently has a couple good shops for secondhand books & vintage clothing. I got an early bus & was running a little late, so decided to skip breakfast, figuring I'd grab something when I go there.

Huge mistake. Walked into a random cafe, not even a fancy one, checked the menu, & 8 QUID FOR A SANDWICH????? Sure it was described as a doorstop sandwich. But a sandwich is a sandwich. For that price you better have unicorn meat as a filling. Tried other places & same sort of shit. Even the cafe in the market hall, the sort of place you'd expect to be reasonably priced, was insane. I'm sorry but £7 for a panini?

I've never been so happy to see a Subway. Not exactly quality, but at least it was less than a fiver. Though getting anything there felt like getting blood out of a stone. Can I have a meatball marinara? No sorry meatballs aren't ready yet. Okay guess I'll have tuna. What bread? Oh no we don't have Italian herbs & cheese. Only 3 out of 7 breads available. Spinach leaves? Don't be silly. Your only leafy option is lettuce. Sauces? You have a choice of 3 & one has no visible label. Please I just want food. And it only occurred to me after I'd left & they'd started eating, but they never offered to toast it & I forgot to ask, so the sub was pathetic. And I had to leave to eat it even though it was freezing because inside there was just a single small table & no seating. Sure the place was tiny but they could surely fit a stool in? And the 2 employees seemed awkward at the idea of having customer. Was this a money laundering front or some shit?

Mentioned my frustrations to a woman working in a charity shop & she recommended a place which she swore had reasonable prices, giving me a convoluted series of directions to find it. Which I didn't bother trying to memorise as soon as she mentioned how great its brunch menu was. No place which has a brunch menu is in my budget.

On the plus side I finally found a copy of Tales from Watership Down! And I picked up a christmas present for my mam. So the trip was worth it at least.

Holy shit!

The railways are getting renationalised!?

Genuinely thought I was on some clown bullshit for even dreaming of this.

Technically it's not done-done, as they've got to consider amendments, & Charlie has to say yes, but it'd be wild for some amendments to completely torpedo the whole thing at this stage, & stupidity of still even having a monarchy aside, I can't imagine why this is something he'd throw a fit over.

Universal Basic Income next plz?

Microsoft celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Windows Insider Program by making the icons for Start & Search invisible on my taskbar I see. Well I suppose it keeps things interesting.

Finally got around to watching this & fuck this might be my fave cdrama. Everything about it was perfect. Signed up for 2 Broke Girls: Ancient China Edition, got 2 Broke Girls Crossed With Game of Thrones.

- Wow there was a *lot* going on here. Like they kept throwing new calamities & you wonder how the family will get through this one & they find a way super easy barely an inconvenience & then something else. Said like that, it sounds shit but fucking hell it was so stressful to watch. The panik-kalm-panik meme constantly. Speaking of good choices in narrative structure I love how they didn't drag Gu Yanxi's identity out for the sake of a late game shock twist. This gets revealed between the main couple pretty early on & they don't keep secrets (CHARACTERS COMMUNICATING WITH & TRUSTING EACH OTHER???? WHAT IS THIS?) & it's not treated as that big a deal. Oh you're a Commander of the Security Bureau & a prince? OK sure whatever not the wildest thing that's happened this week.

- Yay for female solidarity & the power of friendship & how so many of Hua Zhi's solutions to stuff involve working together with other people. Meanwhile the royal family are murdering each other in the background.

- Needed 3 pages of notes trying to keep the characters straight & it still took me till episode 10 to figure out Boli & Bolin were two different characters.

- Tensest cooking competition ever.

- The Hua mansion becoming the Home For Wayward Royals.

- Shaoyao stabbing *&* poisoning Shen Huan & he immediately decides she is The One. 10/10

- The women of the family all getting some kind of development & depth, all growing in confidence & going from thinking they can't possibly manage without the men in the family around to bossing them around when they come back & not taking any shit.

- Unironically love the scene where they're travelling & go 'Oh no it's getting windy!' but the wind itself & the associated debris has clearly been added in later because nobody's hair & clothes are being blown about & it's so goofy & I love it. Like the effects aren't bad & everyone is doing a good job of trying to convince the audience it's really windy but it's clearly not. A+ for effort guys.

- Wished we got more of Haoyue but I loved the way we got glimpses of the person underneath. In different circumstances she & Hua Zhi could have been good friends.

- Love the Emperor being like 'Wait, you acted to save my life even after I've tormented you & your family & ruined your lives?', & instead of trying to persuade him to free her she just goes, 'Nah fuck that it's just the assassination method involved a lot of collateral damage. Wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire actually'. Like girl gave away the last fuck she had to give. Just throw the old dynasty out & make her Empress cos that's some queen shit right there.

- New Emperor has customer service experience. I approve.

Holy shit. I just earned the Flawless trophy in Beat Saber, by getting SS rank on a song in Expert difficulty (with no modifiers allowed to boost scoring). I'd almost given up on that one, since I figured if I could hit that rank on any song it'd be Escape. It was that viral video that made me aware of the game in the first place, it was one of my favourite songs to play, & the first song that I got full combo on on Expert. I was able to full combo it & get an S rank with the Faster Song modifier, & could even manage the Even Faster Song without doing too badly, so as you can imagine I could play the unmodified song practically in my sleep. Yet I could never hit SS rank on it.

I figured that maybe I'd be lucky one day & increase my high score by the handful of extra points that were probably all that was between me & that top rank, but that was it.

And today I was browsing music packs, & decided to buy the song Good As Hell by some chick called Lizzo (I haven't really paid attention to mainstream music for a few decades now. Occasionally I'll get curious about an artist & investigate - which is why despite that hipstery-sounding declaration I do like Taylor Swift - but otherwise I leave it alone.) It just sounded like it'd be fun to play.

Gave it a halfarsed run-through on Hard & yeah it was as fun to play as I'd hoped, so I switched to play it on Expert, & just... hit the SS rank without even trying. Just breezed through the song, hitting every note perfectly, & achieved the rank just link that.

Still don't know what 'hair talls' are though.

( hello it's me )

Also: Proof I go outside occasionally

Went for a nice walk in some woodland & wandered around some 900 year old ruins.