rionaleonhart: kingdom hearts: sora, riku and kairi having a friendly chat. (and they returned home)
On Saturday, I wandered down to a park and discovered there was a Polish cultural festival going on!


I had an ice cream, listened to some singing, watched some dancing, admired some traditional dress, wandered around the stalls. Did a definite double-take when I heard Hatsune Miku's version of the Finnish song 'Ievan Polkka', although I think that might have been someone playing music on their phone, rather than an official song choice of the Polish heritage festival.


I wasn't certain of the cultural relevance of Sonic the Hedgehog, but, hey, always happy to see him.

It felt impolite to photograph Sonic without buying something from the stall, so, in honour of the fact that I've been revisiting the Dragonriders of Pern series, I picked up a flexible little 3D-printed dragon!




Top: my dragon pictured with one of my paintings (my first painting, actually: the one that got me into painting!), the chunk of rose quartz I picked up when I visited the Science Museum with [personal profile] necrophilia, and the beautiful cross-stitch of James Sunderland that Tem gave me for Christmas.

Bottom: my dragon pictured with our cat Zuko, who does not understand why he's not allowed to bite it.


I've named my dragon Zephyrith, after the dragon I rode in an ILLEGAL PERN ROLEPLAYING GUILD on Neopets when I was a kid. (Anne McCaffrey didn't approve of fanfiction or roleplaying at the time, although she later relaxed her stance, so there was an illegal underground Pern roleplaying scene for a while.)

I brought Zephyrith home and showed her to my housemates, and they all wanted dragons of their own! So I quickly hurried back to the festival and bought three more dragons. We're a houseful of dragonriders now. Wait, does that make us a Weyr? We're a Weyr.
rionaleonhart: kingdom hearts: riku, blindfolded and smiling slightly. (we'll be the darkness)
The latest instalment in playing games so Tem can watch: we've started the Uncharted series! We're still on Drake's Fortune at the moment.

Because R2 is 'sprint' in The Last of Us but 'shoot' in Uncharted, I keep startling myself by accidentally firing my gun. I explained this to Tem.

Riona: So, if I ever fire my gun for no reason, I'm trying to run.
Tem: Ah, truly the American experience.

This playthrough contains a troubling amount of Tem laughing at me as I plummet to my death.

'You died so beautifully that time,' Tem commented at one point, as Nate fell lifeless into the ocean. 'Your arms were flung out, your leg was bent; it looked like a graceful ballet move. It was like the end of Swan Lake.'

Tem: You keep dying, but you get a tiny bit further each time.
Ginger: Just like Edge of Tomorrow.
Riona: Oh, wow, I would love to see Nate in an Edge of Tomorrow situation.

I've never previously considered putting Nate in a 'dying kicks you back' time loop, but he does seem like a fun character for it! I'd need more of a concept than that, though. I've been struggling a bit to come up with fic concepts lately; it's been a relatively slow writing year so far, although at least I've got my Final Fantasy VIII website to work on, so I don't feel like I haven't been doing anything creative.

'We've killed a lot of people,' Tem observed. 'We're such an upbeat, fun-loving guy in the cutscenes; we don't seem like the kind of person who'd shoot hundreds of people without hesitation. We don't even take a moment to reflect. Nate never goes, "Sorry, Elena; I need some time to sit with the weight of my sins."'

Riona: Why is there a guy pushing explosive barrels into the river? He was doing it even before he knew we were downstream. Is that just his job?
Tem: Well, someone's got to do it. Think of the fish.
Riona: Oh, yes, of course. We hate those fucking fish.
Tem: Those fish have had it easy for too long.

At one point, Nate launched himself in the wrong direction and fell to his death. I exclaimed, 'D—!' and then cut myself off. I was trying to scold Nate for jumping the wrong way: 'Nate!' But my instinct when scolding, it turns out, is to say the name of our evil cat: 'Dipper!'

Dipper's lovely. He's very friendly and gentle. But he is on a constant take-no-prisoners quest for food, and he will chew on anything he can get his paws on. I've had to stitch my bra straps together multiple times because Dipper keeps chewing through them. Nathan Drake, to my knowledge, has never done this.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (hope is all we have)
If you've been following this journal for a while, you've probably got an idea of what I talk about. I talk about videogames; I talk about television; I talk about my family and friends; I occasionally talk about language or writing.

Here is a load of rambling about birds.

I am by no means a bird expert or a serious birdwatcher, so I can't actually say anything insightful; I just like birds. They're cool, varied little living creatures that pop up all over the place, and it's fun to watch them move!

Here is an assortment of birds I've seen in London, and some brief thoughts on each of them. This is not a list of every bird I've seen in London; it's just the birds that came to mind while I was writing this entry. I'm still thinking of others, but it's too late; I've written the entry now! Sorry, thrush.

I don't know if any of this is worth reading, unless you're [personal profile] queenlua, but sometimes you just have to talk about birds.


My thoughts on the birds of London. )


I've just realised I haven't even got into water birds! But this entry is already too long, so I'll set those aside for now. I will mention, however, that a year ago I looked out of my window, saw a heron in flight, and for a moment I genuinely thought, I know dragons don't exist, but I have no idea what else that could be.
rionaleonhart: kingdom hearts: riku, blindfolded and smiling slightly. (we'll be the darkness)
More adventures in Final Fantasy XVI! I've just met Isabelle, crossed the checkpoint and reached the Veil.


Notes on Final Fantasy XVI. )


Every Final Fantasy has its own strengths and weaknesses, and it's always interesting to play a new one and discover what those are. From my experience of Final Fantasy XVI so far, I'd say it's strong on worldbuilding - the world is interesting and feels fleshed out - but a little weak on its characters and their interactions, although its excellent portrayal of body language helps. In many ways, it's sort of the opposite of Final Fantasy XV, which had a weak world but absolutely shone in its character interactions.

Interestingly, Final Fantasy XVI is really good at minor NPCs! It feels a bit like they put the same level of thought into every character, regardless of their importance to the narrative, resulting in minor characters that feel unusually fleshed out and major characters that feel a little flat.

Our cat Zuko is slightly obsessed with this game. When he hears me start playing, he'll come running to sit in front of the television and watch Clive move. Sometimes he tries to attack Torgal. Like Torgal, Zuko is grey and white and very fluffy, so maybe he feels his position in the household is threatened.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy viii: found a draw point! no one can draw... (you're a terrible artist)
I'm watching Tem play The Great Ace Attorney! We're very early in it - we're at the start of the second case and have just hit the first deduction sequence - but I'm enjoying it a lot.


A few notes on The Great Ace Attorney, with spoilers up to early in case two. )


On an unrelated note, I've been trying to write Squall/Zell, the first pairing I ever really shipped, and it's just impossible. Who's going to make the first move? Obviously not Squall. I can't picture Zell doing it either. It's hard to picture either of them even recognising any feelings they might have for each other, so I can't even write pining.

I used to be confused that Squall/Zell wasn't a bigger pairing, but it turns out it's physically impossible to write. I suppose that explains it.

Strictly speaking, I have written Squall/Zell once before - it was my first ever attempt at writing romance - but I was thirteen and it was dire. (It's only seven hundred words, but maybe I could do a miniature Old Fanfiction Book Club at some point.) Perhaps one day I'll manage to write something less terrible for these two; they deserve it!

I've been thinking a lot about Final Fantasy VIII lately. I've gone through so many fandoms over the years, but every so often my heart will fly back to this game; it's the single work of fiction that's most important to me and the one I'll always, always, always come back to. I've loved it for twenty years, and I'll love it for the rest of my life. These messed-up teenage mercenaries are a permanent part of me.

If you have something similar, I'd be interested to hear about it! What's the story your soul is anchored to?
rionaleonhart: okami: amaterasu is startled. (NOT SO FAST)
In our ongoing tradition of playing strange plot-twisty games together, Tem and I have finished World's End Club!

World's End Club is extremely weird. It feels very much like a murder game aimed at small children. My First Murder Game.

Tem pointed out that all the characters look like they could be Pokémon gym leaders, and xe's right. It's disconcerting.


Spoilers for World's End Club. )


World's End Club is not a very good game. It's awkward to play, the characters are largely one-note and the English voice acting is extremely variable. But I wasn't bored, so I'll consider it a success. I was extremely confused, but I wasn't bored.

Our cat Zuko wasn't bored either. He loved watching me play, and he went wild attacking the screen during one boss fight. It was delightful, even if I was concerned at points about whether our television would survive his interest.

Also, I've had the Go-Getters' Club theme stuck in my head for hours.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy versus xiii: a young woman at night, her back to you, the moon high above. (nor women neither)
Rei's girlfriend took a look at this journal and said, 'You can mention me by name, you know,' so she will henceforth be Tem!

Tem and I were reminiscing about the Silent Hill games, so I dug out my copy of Silent Hill 2, which I haven't replayed in well over a decade. I did make a brief effort a couple of years ago, but I abandoned it twenty minutes in because our late cat Mabel crept into the room and I realised she was terrified, poor thing.

Our current cats do not fear Silent Hill. I wonder what it was that upset Mabel. It must have been something about the noises. I wasn't expecting sounds designed to unsettle humans to be so scary for a cat.

I'm glad this game gave me a fondness for grey skies and ugly architecture. They're useful things to appreciate when you live in London.

Rei came in while James was first meeting Maria, watched for a moment and said, 'Wow, this game is really bad.' Both Tem and I were scandalised. Look, yes, you can tell it's from an era when videogame companies just cast whoever happened to be standing around the office rather than hiring actual voice actors, but Silent Hill 2 was hugely influential for a reason!

I accidentally said 'sorry, Mary' when I ran into Maria, and I feel that's very appropriate.

Ginger wandered in while I was playing and made the observation that, when using the steel pipe, James attacked by shoving it straight into the enemy's crotch. I was struck by the simultaneous, terrible realisation that a) Ginger was absolutely correct, and b) it was almost certainly an intentional animation choice.

The first time I played Silent Hill 2, I'd already thoroughly spoiled myself on everything, including how to get the various endings. (We had a PS2 magazine that detailed how to get the different endings in mirror print, which I thought was a clever way of making sure nobody accidentally spoiled themselves!) I very deliberately went for the Leave ending.

I'm trying not to deliberately influence the ending I get this time around, but it's tricky! I'm trying to play as I would if I had no idea what influenced the outcomes, but my heart still wants Leave. How am I supposed to know how often I'd heal myself if I didn't know it influenced the ending you get?

I've just realised I've already slipped up; I've been examining every item I obtain, except Angela's knife. I can't pretend that's natural, unspoiled behaviour. I suppose I'd better grit my teeth and take a look.

I still love James Sunderland. A constant beacon of reassurance, reminding me that, no matter how bad my decision-making is, there's always someone who's worse.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (let's go)
A long time ago, I posted here to say 'should I watch The Mentalist?' and half the comments said 'NO, WATCH PSYCH INSTEAD' and I went 'screw you, I'm watching The Mentalist.' One might wonder why I bothered asking the opinion of my flist if I was just going to ignore it.

I don't regret my decision to watch The Mentalist at all, but all the enthusiastic recommendations for Psych stuck in my mind, so I'm checking it out at last. Only took me a decade.

Riona: I'm not sure about Shawn. I think he's a bit too much of an arsehole for me.
Rei: He acts exactly like Patrick Jane. You love Patrick Jane.
Riona: Maybe I just don't like Shawn because he's not traumatised enough.

I've heard the character dynamics of Psych compared to Scrubs, and it was slightly weird to go in with the set of expectations that that creates. I wanted Shawn and Gus to love each other as much as JD and Turk do, and of course I was inevitably to be disappointed, because nobody has ever loved anyone as much as JD and Turk love each other.

'Turk, we're not married.'
'Dude, we're a little married.'
'I know. I love it.'


(There's a late Scrubs episode where JD says 'I love you more than Turk' to Elliot and I yelled 'NO YOU FUCKING DON'T' at the screen. While I do enjoy the implication that 'I love you more than Turk' is the most romantic thing JD could possibly say, that was absolutely, one hundred percent a lie. No question about it. I defy anyone to watch Scrubs and try to claim it was true.)

Given the JD-and-Turk comparisons I'd heard, it was a bit of a surprise that Gus plays the longsuffering straight man to Shawn's wackiness, whereas JD and Turk are both ridiculous and cheerfully enable each other in their ridiculousness (and JD would never delight in Turk's suffering the way Shawn does in Gus's). I am sort of shipping Shawn with poor longsuffering Gus, though.

Shawn and Lassiter's dynamic is also very different to JD and Dr Cox's. Lassiter genuinely seems to dislike Shawn; JD is important to Dr Cox, although Dr Cox would never admit it. Shawn enjoys pushing Lassiter's buttons; meanwhile, JD adores Dr Cox, craves his approval and pushes his buttons without intent, because Dr Cox is a man made entirely of buttons.

A cat features prominently in the fifth episode of Psych, and Zuko watched the episode in fascination for twenty solid minutes. Then the episode froze and he wandered off while I was restarting it, and I genuinely felt bad. He'd been enjoying the episode so much, and now he wasn't going to find out how it ended! Riona, Zuko is a kitten and he's not that invested in following procedural plots.

To be honest, I'm disappointed that the episode didn't end with Shawn deciding to keep the cat. I'm enjoying the show so far, but it was improved immeasurably by Shawn carrying a cat into all the crime scenes.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy vii remake: aerith looks up, with a smile. (looking ahead)
I've just come across the notes I made on the Final Fantasy XV boys when I first started playing the game and wanted to explain it to [archiveofourown.org profile] th_esaurus! I don't think I ever posted these here.

- Noctis, the prince. Gets prickly and defensive if you try to discuss anything of actual importance with him, because he hates thinking about things that matter (this is a pretty relatable quality, to be honest, but perhaps not a great one in a future ruler). His dearest ambition is to sleep for eighteen hours a day and eat nothing but burgers.

- Gladiolus, Noctis's bodyguard. Insists on having at least 50% of his upper body exposed at all times; if you choose not to have him in the outfit where he's got his jacket open, baring his chest, he'll switch to a tank top, baring his enormous muscular arms. He's generally pretty chill, but he got really pissed off with me when I drew my weapon carelessly (I was too close to Prompto and could have injured him). He has definitely fucked Noctis raw.

- Prompto, Noctis's schoolfriend. Inexperienced but enthusiastic. Admires all the others. Very much in love with Noctis, but hasn't realised yet because he thinks he's straight. At some point, Ignis is going to observe that there seems to be a theme developing in Prompto's photography, and Prompto is going to look at all his hundreds of photographs of Noctis and have an 'oh, my God' revelation.

- Ignis, raised from childhood to be Noctis's adviser. Detached, practical, speaks with a dodgy RP accent. Mothers everyone, but somehow it's creepy. At some point, I am convinced, Ignis murdered a man for no particular reason. Ignis was wearing an elegant suit and gloves. He looked deep into his victim's eyes as he choked the life out of him, and he felt nothing.


To be honest, these first impressions hold up pretty well, although I hadn't yet come to understand the depth of Prompto's insecurity and Ignis's loyalty. I still feel there's a good chance that Ignis is a murderer.

What good boys. What a great game.


If anyone was wondering, Dipper and Zuko seem to be getting along pretty well:




Zuko likes to cuddle up with you and purr and then zoom all over the house and knock every object that has the audacity to be on a table onto the floor. It's very strange that Dipper, Destroyer of Shoelaces is now the mature, responsible one.
rionaleonhart: okami: amaterasu is startled. (NOT SO FAST)
On the summer solstice, a young prince named Zuko entered our home.




I'm not sure we've named him appropriately. Kitten Zuko is extremely chill. I'm used to new cats hiding for a couple of days, but Zuko hid for four hours and was purring happily on my lap by hour five. He'll say hello to anyone who visits. Kitten Zuko doesn't give a shit about anything. His namesake, Prince Zuko of Avatar: The Last Airbender, gives every possible shit.

They can both control fire, though.




We got Zuko to keep our tabby Dipper company after the loss of his sister Mabel. Dipper was a bit alarmed by this miniature cat at first, but I think he's starting to warm up to the newcomer; he was grooming Zuko yesterday. He's a lot more confused than he was pre-Zuko, but he's definitely less lonely. I hope I'll have pictures of the two of them together to share before too long!
rionaleonhart: kingdom hearts: sora, riku and kairi having a friendly chat. (and they returned home)
I ask two things of Kingdom Hearts III:

- I want it to be heartfelt. I want it to love its characters, and to be having fun. I want it to feel something.
- I want it to be nonsense. If this game isn't absolute incomprehensible bullshit from start to finish, I'm demanding my money back.

Will this game fulfil my dreams?




It's time to find out.

I've now played through the opening of Kingdom Hearts III, and here are my thoughts so far! No major plot spoilers, but I'm putting these notes under a cut anyway, because I know a lot of you are planning to play this game and I don't want to give anything away. I've just finished the first gummi-ship segment.


First impressions of Kingdom Hearts III. )


This game is already fulfilling my dreams, and my drops, and my distances.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (just gonna reload while talkin' to you)
Our cat Mabel has a habit of adopting soft toys and moving them around the flat. This means I recently turned around and found Rei's Banette lying on the floor of my bedroom.

Banette, if you're unfamiliar with this particular Pokémon, is canonically a cursed, murderous soft toy.

I was not very happy.


I worried at the start of Red Dead Redemption II that I wouldn't get along with this game. It's starting to click for me now, but it's not fun, if that makes sense. It's engaging and ambitious and immersive and beautiful, but it doesn't actually feel good to play. As a Wild West simulator, it does pretty well; as a game, it struggles.

Everything that isn't actual gameplay is great! It's very strange. I'm enjoying it, but I'm confused.

I love my horse dearly. At first, in the mission where you go to the stables and are forced to buy a horse, I went WAIT, WHAT, NO, I ALREADY HAVE A HORSE, DON'T FORCE ME TO - and then I inevitably fell in love with the horse I bought. Her name is Kay and she's a very good girl. Being able to stroke your horse at will is a great addition.

If I wanted to worry about keeping my videogame protagonists fed, though, I'd buy a Tamagotchi. And I wish there were a way to make Arthur hold on to the weapons you've equipped him with rather than shoving them enthusiastically into his saddlebag whenever he strays within two miles of his horse.

I'm also extremely bad at this game! At one point the police were looking for me and I tried to get away from the scene of my crime and rode Kay straight into a tree. I flew off my horse, my horse fell over, and the police came up and shot me while I was trying to recover.

I'm glad there are moments of humour. I think my favourite thing in the game so far is in the mission 'A Quiet Time', when you're gearing up for a bar fight and it immediately cuts to all of you dancing together. I also love that one of the missions is just shovelling manure.

I fuss over my horse a lot. I'll stroke her when I'm about to mount her or have just dismounted; I'll go to greet her in the morning when Arthur's just woken up. My housemates have started to express discomfort with the way Arthur coos over her and calls her a good girl. 'It sounds sexual.' I refuse to be deterred.

You can keep a handful of additional horses in the stables, so I still have my first horse, who's named Marcus after The 100's Kane. The other horse I have in the stable is Lady, an American Standardbred. I saw a guy trying to get a stone out of his horse's hoof on the side of the road, and the horse kicked him to death, and I went 'hey, free horse, I'm sure I absolutely will not regret this.' She kicked me a couple of times as well, but we're friends now.


On a different note entirely: today I tried to find out some information about newts and learnt they're a type of salamander and went 'wait, what' because somehow I have gone three decades believing that salamanders are fictional.
rionaleonhart: okami: amaterasu is startled. (NOT SO FAST)
Oh, hey, I should share the good news!




One year ago, we were told that Mabel (left) had less than a year to live. Not only is she still going strong, but two days ago she had a heart scan and apparently the scan looked normal; the damage seems to have reversed itself! I had no idea this was a possibility. If we're lucky, perhaps she'll be yelling in my face while I'm trying to work for years to come.

She's the noisiest cat I've ever met, bless her. When I'm talking on the phone, she makes it her mission to get as close to the phone as possible and miaow very loudly into it, much to the alarm of whoever is on the other end.

Her brother Dipper, on the right, thinks he's a dog and is driven by an unshakeable determination to eat everything in sight. I have to hide my bras when I'm not wearing them, because otherwise, as I have unfortunately learnt from experience, he will go straight for them and chew through the straps. (He also once chewed through the laces on my only smart pair of shoes just before a job interview. Have you ever tried to sew up a shoelace? It's not easy!)

These cats are ridiculous. But they're so good.
rionaleonhart: final fantasy x-2: the sun is rising, yuna looks to the future. (Default)


It's been a rough few days. We've just learnt that Mabel, the little tabby here pictured wrapped around her enormous brother Dipper's shoulders, has a heart condition that means she's unlikely to see her second birthday. If we're lucky, we might have a few more months with her. She's home from the hospital, at least, and she seems happy enough now that she's on medication.

She's a good cat, and she loves me more than anyone could possibly deserve to be loved. I'd like someone to know she was here for a while.




(I say 'she's a good cat', but this is her usual position: sitting in front of my computer when I'm trying to work, yelling in my face. She's a nightmare. I love her so much.)