Posts made by surreality

Even a bit of normal journalism is like that. My father handled sports for the local paper for over 30 years; while he was assigned to a variety of teams and had friendships with a number of the owners/managers/players through the years, it was still pretty scattered without being freelance.

(In part, this could be because he was never actually a sports fan to become a 'fan follower' in that respect; this is ultimately why he did so well and they kept him where he was for so long. He actually had really wanted to write movie reviews.)

@lithium Oh, absolutely. I dunno if it and my HOLY SHIT ITALIAN-ness cross-blasted each other that I haven't gotten that, but I also tweeze religiously and am prepared to wax unto oblivion.

Now? I just get The Demon Hair. The 'I have checked and there is nothing, my makeup is done, I am ready to go out for one of the rare things I have to look good for' and then I find that fucker. I'll be scratching my chin or something, and I feel it, and I know that little bastard was not there when I left the house twenty minutes ago, and it's obviously huge. Like, where the HELL did that thing come from, and/or how the hell did someone affix a snake-in-the-can prank to my chin?! I am then guaranteed to spend the next ten minutes trying to catch and yank it with my fingernails in a moving car, fucking up my makeup completely in the process.

I got all the worst hair genes from the rest of my family, so it might be the one other place I got relatively lucky. My father? Super Italian. Furry enough to be hunted for his pelt -- but thick wavy jet black hair. Did I get that? NO. <grumble> My mother? Only has to shave her legs and underarms twice a year, as her hair is so fine and light. Did I get that? NO. <grumble grumble> I have the wispiest head hair ever, get visible stubble within hours of shaving my legs, and we will just say I know well the screams of the damned from waxing.

The only known perk is that on my father's side of the family, their hair goes SHINY FAIRY SPARKLE WHITE rather than grey, and mine's doing that under all the dye. We literally didn't notice for a couple years because of said dye, until it really grew out once and suddenly I wondered why my scalp and temples were very literally glittering in the sun so much they had sparkle-dazzle-bokeh-flares in a photo the husband took. That can hurry on up any day now, really; it will make my 'Mother of Cats' GoT parody shirt one heck of a lot funnier.

@carex I keep the politics talk to a dull roar, since I avoid the politics forum. But that's the same reason we don't put out signs.

I mean, I hate to say it, but... I don't know why we'd have to. We're a respectively a green haired forty-something artist and a massage therapist always dressed in geekery of some sort. This is really not a hard guess for anybody to make.

There's a lot of split ticket voting than is likely the average nowadays here, though, to be honest, since Delaware (with a few notable not-witch exceptions) tends to turn out moderates from whatever official party they're representing. Which, y'know? It's so refreshing in this day and age.

@carex We get something similar to that. Our neighborhood is always split about right down the middle.

We are the only house that never has a sign.

Every four years, we get all the squint from all the neighbors.

(Thankfully, our county is super moderate whichever way the wind ultimately blows, so it's not the warzone you'd expect it to be, but that month or two every four years is awwwwwwwkward.)

@ixokai We don't have the face-shaving thing to worry about. And that's daily fuss. We only have to wear makeup when we care; y'all tend to get yelled at if you don't shave. So I kinda wobble on this one.

Women may have other weird expectations re: body hair management, but we don't have to put sharp things on our faces every day. I don't envy that!

@saulot Probably predictably, more on the weekends from what I've seen than during the week. Many of the planned events are earlier night (around 8pm EST) and don't run too late into the night, but people tend to be around and willing to play later than that. The people typically willing to do pick-up scenes and run with an idea do tend to be around chatting late into the night and are awake and available and usually willing to do stuff.

It's probably worth peeking in during the hours you're considering for a few nights to see what's going on around then, though, for the best readout. (People are pretty chill and will hang with guests in a non-awkward way, fwiw. So if you did this, it wouldn't be suddenly the land of awkweird silence, and you might be able to establish a few hooks to jump in with if you pick up one of the roles in the process.)

@tnp I agree on this one heartily.

Though in all sincerity, I'd love to see an all around revision of the various +help help +shelp +help bb (and the list just goes on and on) commands for MUX. We are really at the point at which a game needs a +help file just to list where all the other variants of +help and what they cover are.

I'm guessing this is a 'share the moments of cringe'/'that awkward moment when... ' stories spot, but I could be wrong.

(Have been in the situation above, though; it was non-fun. Empathy wince offered in earnest.)

@thesuntsar If you can afford it, go to MAC. They can match anybody, I swear to you. I was the same way until I found them. (I'm usually super pale, but have olive/gold undertones instead of pinks or neutrals.)

Bonus, they have a kind of compact that is a powder you can brush or sponge on, but you can also apply it with a damp brush or fingertip to use as a concealer. I lost mine a ways back so I can't tell you the name of it, but I think it's what they call the 'Studio Fix Powder Foundation' now. It's $30, but it lasts for-frickin'-ever, and that $30 for a spot on match is way better than trying 5 different Revlons and Maybellines and so on just hoping there's something that maybe might work then don't.

Seriously, this is the color I end up needing from them: https://www.maccosmetics.com/product/13847/251/products/makeup/face/foundation/studio-fix-powder-plus-foundation#/shade/NC10 (and then the NC20 or C35 in the summer/when I get more sun, but I have always been too lazy to go get one of those and DAYSTAR BAD, everything evens out more when I have gotten sun anyway so it's less a concern.)

@ixokai I'm still out of the loop today, but should be on tomorrow. (Medication, giving it its time, just in case, and finishing helping my mother move her studio around in emergency mode -- they had a roof leak problem that's eaten me all week as we go through all of her stuff and wash and sort what's live and what's waterlogged to death. All I need is for the fainting to kick in mid-scene or something, right? Heh.) Should be around all Sunday and after that as well. If luck holds, I may be able to be around tonight. I would LOVE to get more of the Eclipse folks together in general, since everyone we have actually is great from all I've seen of the players involved.

I would really love that, especially since IC Pandora is a HUGE fan of all things arts; she pretty much worships creativity (as much as a synth can worship anything) as it's one of those things they really just can't do, so it's something she reveres enormously. She's one of those big-eyed fangirl sorts of all the artists and performers 'cause to her, that may as well be actual magic. Another reason she's happy to run around sorting M&Ms.

@ixokai Pandora/Visionary (formerly Dahlia in the Isle story). SRs are Adlai Kolvek, Mia, and Kira.

I am pretty sure I'm the one that makes sure your M&Ms are properly sorted IC; Pandora's the talent manager (read: a synth that is impossible to offend as performers throw vases at her in fits of pique) at the Eclipse, so we have easy excuses to hang out and do stuff!

@botulism said in Horror MUX:

Activity has advantages.

...and this may sound 'duh', but it's not: the main advantage of activity is... activity.

There have only been a handful of event scenes, but there are a lot of scenes being roleplayed. The latter -- like any game -- is the bulk of the RP occurring.

Doing something means you're getting to do something. It's not some mysterious formula to crack, nobody has to invite you, you don't need to sacrifice a goat to Baal. Really. Honest. Grab somebody idling and available and say, "Hey, let's find a thing to do!" and odds are pretty good that your characters or one of your SRs has some means of connecting up somewhere to do something. It may not be world-altering, no, but most of the things going on that 'the "lucky/favored/blessed" people' are doing aren't world-altering. They're having conversations, they're going out for drinks, they're -- gasp, horror -- engaging in BaRP. All things any hypothetical you can do, too.

Seriously, if anybody out there is envious of BaRP, I have a ridiculous flirt bot that will be happy to keep you company and talk serious philosophy with you while not being able to turn off her Jessica Rabbit programming for a hot second while the WTF compounds by the second. (Alas, not a stripper ninja. Sorry if this disappoints.) Want a chance to audition for the casino stage? Hit me up! Wanna throw a drink on a notorious jerk who let most of a colony mission die? Poke me; that SR's suits are still too clean, and if you're W-Y seeking a living, breathing cautionary tale to talk to to try to warn you away from impending disaster (to no avail)? He'd love to talk to you. Need a mousy wandering tech geek? Page at will. Plain-spoken grumpy cat in leather? Same deal. Want to philosophize about synths at arcane length? All the to you, please page!

If this is what you're missing -- and it is the bulk of what's going on when there's not a large event scene being run for a group -- I will happily be your huckleberry if I'm available.

I only bite on the forum.

@admiral said in Horror MUX:

@kanye-qwest You can tell who the clique is by who upvotes every single post in this thread praising the game.

Yeah, glad I left. You guys can fuck right off.

I upvote pretty much every damned thing in this thread because I wholeheartedly support this game, the ideas behind it, and how hard Botulism works to keep things moving; that if something goes wrong, she owns it without juvenile whining or complaint, and works her dang ass off to improve. We need more of this in the hobby, not less. No one makes no mistakes, and the real proof of someone's personal character is what they do when it happens. Botulism has shown herself to be someone who takes responsibility, listens, asks for feedback in an open, public, and even-handed way, and works hard to do better the next time.

Full disclosure: I'm 'The Visionary' over there.

Yep, I absolutely got to do something really cool in the first story. Then my character died while I was asleep RL not twelve hours later and I was 100% down with that. I'd gotten to do a cool thing and wanted to make sure I was out of the way of everyone else getting their chance to do a cool thing, too. I'm in the low key group this time as well -- by request -- for the same reasons, and because I'm still catching up with and debugging stuff with the wiki, and felt like contributing what little I can to a project I believe is great and has a lot of promise was a more important way to spend my time this round than lookin' for some kind of virtual glory.

Still gonna upvote all the positivity in the thread, and examples of intelligent questions and well-intentioned critique/etc. 'Heather' me for it all you like.

@sunnyj Surprisingly? Not so much. People are really working their flaws, and being reasonably specific with their areas of specialty.

And more than that, people are really PLAYING their flaws well, and to fun effect. There's no 'winning' mindset going on, really, beyond people scrambling for some kind of temporary solution to buy everyone some time to get away or live on until morning, rather than looking for miracle cures through their combination of stat maxes.

(And, fwiw, The Director is REALLY awesome at turning even those rare wonder rolls into a new complication for everyone to face as a consequence rather than a 'yay, the day is saved, and now nobody has anything else to do!' That is super epic.)

@auspice Back in the 90s, friends of mine thought it would be entertaining to see what would happen if they slipped some to me for my birthday -- only mentioning this after they had done so.

I spent several hours totally fascinated by the bathroom tiles playing hopscotch and the shower curtain breathing and wouldn't let anyone in the bathroom for like... five hours.

They weren't as amused after that, since the house only had the one bathroom.

They finally pried me out of there by reminding me that my computer had an animated fractal generator on it, which resulted in my very first case of qwertyface.

@auspice Maybe we need an OD channel. That'd be lovely.

@auspice Not gonna lie, popcorn time in the Observation Deck is joy.

I mean, who doesn't 'no, no, don't split the party!' or 'awwww, damn, they're gonna get it... ' at horror movies?

Cheering on fellow players going through the classic horror tropes is a lot of fun, it really is.

My husband likes to do the whole 'but they're open another half hour!' bullshit, because he does not get this, and it drives me crazy. I've managed to educate him out of most of it, but still have to remind him much more than I'd like. There's a reason I steer him toward the 24 hour diner a lot.

@auspice I honestly loved this season of Legends for being just. so. dang. goofy. It being so unserious made it much more entertaining on the whole.

Before, it was trying to be serious and failing and falling totally flat to the point of none-fucks-given. Embracing the absurdity, taking it out to tango, and being completely ridiculous works for it much better, at the very least. It's stupid, sure, but it's very cheerfully stupid in a way that somehow became endearing. It gets increasingly goofy and self-mocking until the finale, which... I did not know I had been waiting all my life to see that, but I apparently was.

Also, this season was like a love letter to my childhood with all the references and parodies. They hit me square in the inner child like whoa.

@zombiegenesis Pickup RP tends to be available much of the time. There are some folks around most times of the day, and willing to do stuff, even outside ST'd scenes. People are chill and willing to do things. It would be worth a shot? If things don't work out, you can always drop easily between stories and still have a story under your belt with stuff going on over that month or so to see if there are enough others in cooperative timezones to stick with it longer term. (Not gonna lie, that bit is handy!)