schneefink

We've now played four half-day sessions of our "Stars Without Number" campaign and I'm having a lot of fun.

Our party owns and operates a mining ship, and our first two sessions featured quite a bit of asteroid mining, and also a rescue mission and exploration. Then the space pirates attacked! Not us directly but the space station we are currently based at, so we helped fight them off. And then our latest session was mostly shopping & intel gathering & planning: it sounds like there's an entire fleet of pirates, likely from outside the system, and they've sabotaged and possibly taken over several stations/planets/routes. We'll find out more next time!, which sadly won't be until September because of vacations.

I really like my character. I'm a teleporter! (Talk about wish fulfillment.) Partial psychic/partial expert, because I thought being a full psychic would be overwhelming and I was mostly interested in one discipline anyway. Being able to teleport is so cool. I can teleport 1000 kilometres already and take three people with me.
I'm also really happy with my role in the party. In our main campaign I'm the youngest cat in a group of older and more headstrong cats, which I found difficult sometimes. This time I decided to play a character with more authority, and I've enjoyed it a lot. While all of our party members own the ship together and have equal say, on the bridge I'm the captain; and more importantly, I'm the one keeping track of our money and inventory. (Idk why our GM was surprised that I made a budget and business plan after the first session ^^ )
Our DM told us to prepare back-up characters in case we die, and I did, but I really hope I survive. I even ordered a nice mini figure for her :) As a party I think we've good odds of survival: we have a medic, a biopsionic (=healer), and I can teleport us out in emergencies. Fingers crossed.

I also really enjoy the system, both the setting and mechanically. Playing in a sci-fi world is a welcome contrast after around three years playing in a fantasy world as cats. And playing someone with supernatural abilities feels especially cool after three years as a non-magical archer.
One thing I didn't expect to enjoy this much is leveling up. In our previous system we earn adventure points and we can spend those on improving abilities/skills/etc., but it's more gradual, which tbh makes more sense in-universe. Buuut, leveling up just feels cool. Especially when I can pick new abilities.
What I like less is how ship combat works. So far it's been a little tedious as it seems like half the party always has very little to do; but I suspect that's also because our combat options as a mining ship are limited. We'll see how it goes. We just upgraded our weapons because of the pirates.

Once again our GM has underestimated how long it'll take us to get through his plot so we'll have to see how far we get/what happens when our fifth cat comes back from her year abroad. But until then I really look forward to our next adventures.

The promised part 2 of MCYT AUFest Battleship recs! I still have a few dozen works bookmarked to read later, but this felt like it was hanging over my head so I wanted to get it done, especially since I easily had enough for a list. There might even be a part three, but no promises.

( 9xfic, 2xwebweave, 2xart; Hermitcraft, Life Series, QSMP, DSMP, MCYT RPF )

I wrote eleven fics for MCYTblr Aufest Battleship. Eleven! And I actually like all of them and am even proud of some. Go me!

A Cast of His Face for Kaesa, Hermitcraft
1k, Bdubs/Etho, fantasy AU
Summary: Twelve days, five hours, and twenty-two minutes after Etho died, he walked into Bdubs' office.
Author's Note: The first fic I wrote for this event. I had the idea for a story combining Major Character Death + cloning + paperwork and this came out. I tried for a combination of funny and heartbreaking, and from the comments I succeeded :)

Undeath Certificate for salemoleander, Hermitcraft
0.3k, Cub&Cleo, afterlife
Summary: There's been an error with the paperwork regarding Cleo's afterlife.
Author's Note: Another case of "I looked at a tag combination and got an idea I really liked," in this case immortality + deity AU + paperwork. Perfectly suited for ZombieCleo, of course, and manager Cub.

In the Oldest Cell for januarymorning, Hermitcraft
1.6k, Grian/Cub/Scar, fantasy AU outsider PoV
Summary: I'd been alone in my cell for fourteen years when they finally threw someone else in with me again. An avian, with red and purple and blue feathers.
Author's Note: Same thing again. I loved coming up with stories for specific words even back in school. And writing low pressure first person outsider PoV was fun and surprisingly easy.

The Last Task in Grumbot for Kaesa, Hermitcraft
0.9k, Grian & Mumbo & Scar, among us mech AU
Summary: Mumbo had insisted on checking on Grian's mech one last time.
Author's Note: We were getting closer to the end of the board and needed more hits on Major Character Death, among us AU, mech AU, darkfic, and a few others, so this happened. Also featuring tasty betrayal.

Who will you eat tomorrow so we can rule together for zoewinter1, Hermitcraft
0.3k, Docm77, Among Us AU
Summary: The massive solar storm that made it necessary for all planetary bases to evacuate to the orbital station was the best thing that could have happened for Doc's cover. The dragon was a nice bonus.
Author's Note: We were close to clearing the board and needed more Among Us AU, iirc I wrote this on my way to work on public transport. Did not expect to write vore tbh ^^ and I had never written Docm before but I think it came out well.

I wrote these first five fics in four days btw. Something in the lava down in the Nether.

Soulmate Bond (Homebrew) for ggumdrop, Hermitcraft
0.6k, Cub & Scar, D&D AU
Summary: "Cub, I need you to listen to me."
"Who are you?“"
"I'm your soulmate. That's why you can hear me even in the antimagic field."
As soon as the voice mentions being your soulmate, you recognize where it's coming from: there's a tug inside of you, an invisible string connecting you to someone else. (Don't worry about it, it's homebrew.)
Author's Note: I rested during the first boss fight but came right back for the second board, and I think the idea of using 2nd person PoV for a D&D-style narration was cool. (I wrote parts of this during my lunch break at work. Seriously what was in that lava.)

Sounds So Splendid for zoewinter1, Life Series
0.3k, Gem & Scott & Impulse, space opera AU
Summary: “Impulse. We're a rock band on a space station. Why in the never-ending event horizon have you signed us up to be background musicians for an opera?"
“Because of the tax break, of course."
Author's Note: Iirc someone mentioned hitting space opera by having an actual opera in space somehow and I could not resist. I was also glad to get a hit on "taxes," I would have been disappointed otherwise. And I was particularly happy with the title for this one.

Teammates for Life for Sharo, Hermitcraft/MCC
0.8k, Cub&/Scar, canon divergence
Summary: Scar is anxious to meet his MCC teammate Cubfan135 for the first time.
Author's Note: I thought "canon divergence" and "different first meeting" would go very well together, thought of Convex, and then of MCC. I had fun with this one, especially making up a history for AU Cub (yes he won Minecraft Monday together with Techno, because I said so.) I had to do research!, look up MCC records and stuff, that was fun too.

A Dangerous Prize for Alice_not_Alice, Hermitcraft
4.2k, Etho & Cleo, fantasy AU
Summary: King Ren gives Cleo to General Etho as a war prize, not knowing that there are plans in motion.
Author's Note: Alice likes fae!Etho, fey bargains, power imbalances, situations where Character A is compelled by outside forces to hurt or bind Character B, and a bunch of other tasty things, and I was planning to write them something from the beginning. It took a while to finish because I had to figure out the ~scale, but I was happy with the roles I found for the characters. My one contribution to the grand battle against the Wither Storm.

The Upside of the Downside for Odaigahara, Hermitcraft
2.9k, Grian/Cub/Scar, Pyre fusion
Summary: As the Nightwings' Reader, Grian has a difficult choice to make before his first Liberation Rite. Who should have the chance to be freed from their exile? Cub and Scar would make the decision easier, if he could believe them.
Fusion with Pyre (Video Game)
Author's Note: Speaking of fics that I planned early, took me a while to figure out, and where I was happy with the roles I found for the cast: this one. I saw "video game fusion," looked at my Steam library, saw "Pyre," and could not get the idea out of my head. And it seems like I succeeded in making it understandable for people without knowledge of the game, which is good. I really like how the fusion turned out and might even be thinking of writing more in this AU one day (will probably not happen but who knows.)
I was very efficient with tags on this one considering how long it is (I got 27), that also felt good.

Potato Blossom Magic for im_always_stressed, Dream SMP
0.4k, Technoblade/Philza, sex pollen aftermath
Summary: Admittedly, out of everyone to get caught in a potato blossom cloud with, Philza wasn't the worst option.
Author's Note: We were very close to finishing the third board and sex pollen was one of the few tags still needed. I don't remember how I got the idea for this Techno/Phil snippet (which I wrote on my phone during my commute) but it was fun. It's been a while since I watched either of them so I rewatched parts of Techno's turtle stream and was reminded just how great they were together.

Aand that's it! 11 works and 13.469 words in total, over 17 days. I had such a great time. Hermitcraft is now my most-written fandom on AO3 with 20 works, followed by SGA with 17.

And I could not resist signing up for multifandom Battleship, which starts this weekend. I'm planning to take it a little slower, and I still need to add more prompts, but I also wasn't planning to do this much for MCYT Battleship so who knows.

The main gameplay phase of mcytblraufest Battleship is over. Team Nether! *raises fist in triumph* We finished third (out of five teams), and we fully cleared all three boards, before work reveals even. I had such a great time on my team, with our two strider mascots Dirk Slow and Aragorn Steady. Massive props to the mods, everything ran very smoothly. In the first board every field had very cool flavor text even, and the bosses were very cool (we defeated the Wither Storm!)

I ended up with ten (!!!) gifts!
And I'm proud to say that despite that I reached my semi-serious goal of creating more gifts than I received. Though if I get more treats after this I'll give up. I've never received so many comments on one day as I did yesterday, it was great.

My wonderful gifts:
Sharp teeth and spring rain by Anonymous, Hermitcraft SMP
3.4k, Mumbo & Etho, fantasy AU, platonic kink
Summary: That anticipation, now cooled, mingled with fresh dread as the blank, flat space on the horizon tore open.
A thousand-year old dragon emerged from the void and blocked out the sun with his wings.
Mumbo gulped.
“Oh, Gem!” he fretted. “You expect me to dom that?”
Why I love it: Excellent premise, very cool worldbuilding, great character voices and development of their relationship.

Careful People by Kaesa, Hermitcraft SMP
1.3k, Cleo/Etho, cyberpunk AU post-divorce
Summary: "We'll be careful," says Etho.
"We're not careful people," Cleo reminds him.
"Maybe we know better now!"
Why I love it: I love the banter. Them. So divorced and yet.

( seven more shorter ones and one piece of art under the cut because this got long )

The three weeks of the event were very intense. Multifandom Battleship starts soon and I don't think I'll sign up for it even though I had a great time last year, but that'd be a bit too much. Unless...

And now, off to read more from the collections! All Ages and 18 Plus, almost 1.200 works in total already, and there are still almost two weeks of the anon period.

One of my favorite things about not having plans and not having to study is that I can do things spontaneously, like meet up with friends to go shopping and have food and then go for a walk to see some sheep and goats that I had no idea were there so my biologist friend could delightedly poke at the dung to find beetles.
One of my favorite things about staying at my friends' house for a few days is that I don't have "I should do chores/clean/tidy" run in the back of my head at all times. I still found things to procrastinate on - an exchange letter, leaving fic comments etc - but overall it was very relaxed. I'm getting better at Beat Saber.

Books I read recently:
The Burning Kingdoms trilogy by Tasha Suri: The Jasmine Throne, the Oleander Sword, the Lotus Empire. This series has been on my to-read list for a while and I finally got around to reading it. I enjoyed it a lot! I enjoyed the Indian-inspired setting and the complicated politics of it with many different groups, and I liked the development of the main characters both separately and together. ( Spoilers )

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett: I enjoyed this much less than the first book in the series, sadly. At one point I complained to LB, who's actually worked at a university, that I thought the portrayal of academia was unrealistic, and he said that it's not that unrealistic provided the character in question is a bit of an asshole. ( Spoilers )

The Firm by John Grisham: The first non-SFF book I read since April 2022, according to Goodreads, wow okay. And the first non-SFF novel since February 2022. I decided to read it because the lecturer of one of my business law classes mentioned it, and I didn't give up early even though the writing is clunky. In the first half I really liked the slowly growing sense of creeping dread from the dangers the reader sees but the main character doesn't. ( Spoilers: that was the best part ) I don't regret that I read it but only because now I know.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins: I started with this one instead of "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" because I got this one first from the library, but in hindsight I wonder if that was a mistake. It worked on its own but I strongly suspect I missed many connections. Conversely, it's been many years since I read the original trilogy but there were almost too many connections and similarities for my taste, it seemed a bit repetitive. To be fair there's only so many ways the Hunger Games can differ. ( Spoilers )

I cooked! Literally. (It took a surprising amount of effort not to address a non-existent "chat" here xD) There's a completely arbitrary (and very silly) distinction in my brain about what counts as "proper" cooking, and most of what I prepare for myself doesn't or barely counts. But today I made a pasta-tomato-ham casserole, which undoubtedly is proper cooking, and it was very good.
I really wanted to properly cook something because I'm currently house-sitting and the house has a very well stocked kitchen - I'm envious of their spice selection - but it turns out that not having my own tools, like working scales, and knowing where everything is is a disadvantage and it about evens out. (Most of these spices I don't even know what to do with tbh.)

I've also played quite a bit of Beat Saber already. Got a some expert level completions, but only managed normal for other songs. It's nice to play outside, too.

I've barely seen the skunk I'm house-sitting for, he's still in his winter phase apparently and eats little and mostly sleeps all day, and the one time he saw me he ran away. Nothing to worry about, according to his owners; he's getting old for a skunk, too. Beforehand I was mildly apprehensive about him demanding lots of attention, now I'm more worried that I wouldn't even notice if something was wrong.

Last weekend I played Islets, an indie metroidvania by the same solo dev who made Crypt Custodian. I only meant to try it out on Saturday and ended up playing for six hours, and then I finished the next day with 95% completion. It was a lot of fun! Importantly, movement feels good, and the exploration is fun. I played on easy because there were some bullet hell bosses and I don't like those, but on easy it was fine.

L and I are both out of practice when it comes to, uh, sailing the high seas, so when we wanted to watch Pride we walked over to the local library and borrowed the DVD. (The library has two entire #BookTok shelves btw.) Which turned out to be a great choice because we really enjoyed the DVD extra about the actual history. Finding out that there were actual LGSM members walking in the march at the end made it even better.

Such a good movie. Even before I watched it, a gif set of the ending (which of course I can't find again rn) was one of the few things on Tumblr to reliably get me teary-eyed. (The other one being the story of the RMS Carpathia.) Learning about the characters that were based on real people, and their fates, and then of course of the waves resulting from their actions, was a very good finish. (I was slightly embarrassed that I didn't remember where I knew Gethin's actor from until I read Andrew Scott in the end credits.)


I agreed to house&pet-sit a couple of times for friends that are leaving for a three week vacation next week, so on Monday I got the introduction to the house. I expected that I would most look forward to spending time in the garden and/or pool, and also take advantage of the fancy kitchen, maybe the Xbox Gamepass or Switch, but that's before I got the introduction to the VR glasses. Now I suspect I will spend a significant amount of time playing Beat Saber. You have lightsabers! And move to the music! Idk maybe the shine will wear off quick but I'm really looking forward to playing.

My gf and I went on a guided tour about bird voices today. I had a good time :) Even though my body is clearly in ~vacation crash mode, as in "oh I can relax now? Excellent, you don't need that energy anyway, I can go back to being (half-)sick."
The guide said there are even more birds audible in the morning than in the evening, but it was more than enough for me, I already struggled enough with telling them apart and remembering their calls. There might be a handful I might be able to recognize now maybe, like the chiffchaff and the spotted woodpecker, and some others I'll suspect a lot, like the blackbird and the chaffinch and the great tit and the blackcap (I didn't even remember hearing about that last one but they clearly sing frequently and prettily.)
For fifteen minutes it was also much harder to hear the birds because of the church bells, I didn't even realize that was longer than usual until about halfway through and then someone said why.
We also saw several wild boars! Saw them quite well even, since I conveniently had binoculars with me (borrowed from my mom.) And we saw a caterpillar that seemed to float in the air above the path, meters away from any trees.

I'm glad I managed to watch Conclave before the actual one happened ^^ A very pretty movie. Good cinematography - if I knew more about movies I would probably have better words for it, but I liked how they used colors and space. The ritualistic environment was also very good. I already knew who would become pope in the end but none of the details. It took me a while to be able to tell all the faces/characters apart at first but I managed in time to follow the plot.
( Spoilers )

It's one of those no-brain days, but it's almost the end of the month and I appreciated the excuse for "productive procrastination": it's monthly recs time. Four excellent Hermitcraft fics.

attempt thirty-three by Bee_4
13.6k, Joe &Cleo&Cub& Scar gen, time loop
Summary: A glimpse at the thirty-third time Joe Hills has woken up on Monday at 6:00 AM, and the attempt he makes to stop doing that, ideally, or at least get closer to a state where he doesn't have to live these four days ever again.
Why I love it: Heartbreaking, with just enough funny moments to make it better/worse and just enough hope at the end not to make it a tragedy, and a fantastic Joe voice.

fault lines by januarymorning
24.8k, Xisuma/Evil X (background polyhermits), NSFW
Summary: For a moment Xisuma feels as though the world has dropped out from under him— as though he has been sundered from it, and there is nothing below or around him as far as the eye can see— as though there is no anchor and nothing to grab hold of, only himself and a vastness on all sides. This world that he has built, the world his players have built— negligible, at best, hardly realer than a flicker on a silver screen. It would crumple like wet paper, if he told it to.
He is the universe cradling his players, holding them in his palm above a silence that’d claim them if he let it claim them. It would have had Scar. It would have had Cleo. It would have Joe, now, if he allowed it. They are so terribly fragile.
-
aka 4 times xisuma gets propositioned by his players who are expecting him to make use of certain admin privileges, and he is really not whatsoever interested in hurting them even though he theoretically should be according to some people. and 1 time that is, uh, NOT what happens.
Why I love it: Exploration of and different takes on admin powers on Minecraft servers are always interesting, and this one is great and gave me many Xisuma feelings.

so enlist every ounce of your bright blood by springbeetle
5.3k, Grian/Scar&Cub, captivity
Summary: “Actually, I was thinking of building a permit office,” Scar said carefully, and Grian’s feathers bristled up. “Don’t freak out, though, okay? I’m not reusing ideas, never, perish the thought. We’re free thinking men, I’m taking inspiration. Opening doors to new experiences, really— digging deep.”
The basement, then. Grian skittered his gaze away from Scar’s, stared at one of their shulker boxes and envisioned the contents with gusto. He’d gotten fantastic at counting his inventory if he was having trouble thinking correctly, within the boundaries their new admins preferred. He had to keep his thoughts in order if he was going to come up with phrases like well, batter my fish sticks and fry me at the fair— the one time he’d tried that one out, Scar had laughed so hard that he’d fallen off a battlement and died, and One had punished Grian for the delay. Clearly he needed better material.
“And here I thought vex didn’t need to open doors,” he said lightly.
“Oh, we don’t, really,” Scar said, and alright, that was Cub. Cub was here. Cub was here.
Why I love it: Grian and Scar are captives of the Watchers and they do their best to make it through; Cub ~attempts a rescue. Hurts so good.

Snapshots from a Hermitcraft Wedding by Vanyel
2.3k, Ren/Doc, fluff
Summary: Making it official. Because they can.
Why I like it: Something light and sweet to end the list on.

After a long day of classes (on a bank holiday, too) I treated myself to some grapefruit + nougat ice cream and then planned to spend some time reading, do some housekeeping in preparation for hosting a guest (very exciting), and then write some overdue review posts, maybe prepare some recs if I'm feeling ambitious.

Instead I spent most of the evening continuing to play Astalon: Tears of the Earth. I'd seen it recommended quite a few times on r/metroidvania and I was very curious, so when I saw it was on sale I bought it even though it's not entirely smart to start a new game 2.5 weeks before an exam. Ah well.

You play as a group of three adventurers in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that investigate (read: fight their way through) a tower from which comes a substance poisoning their village. One of them sold his soul to the titan of death, and in exchange every time you die you are transported back to the entrance of the tower.

I also saw it described as a "metroidvania with roguelite elements," which made me a bit skeptical because the other game that claims that is Dead Cells and that didn't convince me when I briefly tried it. But that description isn't really accurate because it doesn't have the procedural generation of a roguelike, it has the exploration of a metroidvania, and that's my favorite part of the genre. It just doesn't have checkpoints and very little healing. But there's plenty of shortcuts to unlock so landing back at the beginning is much less frustrating than I'd feared. And unlocking shortcuts is very satisfying; the exploration is satisfying in general, with plenty of secrets to discover. Plus, there are not that many but enough character interactions that I care about the characters as well.

After about eight hours I've beaten three bosses (one of them I'm pretty sure is optional) and discovered around 35% of the map. ( Spoilers )