As it turns out, summer is still the worst, but I've got Coping Mechanisms, Baby

[timegoddessrose]

I'm learning how to embroider, which I'm pretty happy about. My grandmother is a seamstress and when I was a kid I wanted to learn how to sew, but I was a child with undiagnosed autism, plus two learning disabilities, and Grandma didn't know how to handle that/how to adjust her teaching to accommodate me. So, after several months of frustratingly crooked/uneven stitches that were not improving, it was decided that I simply had no talent for needlework of any kind. I accepted that, though I loved crafty things, I wouldn't be able to do any of them myself.

It was only as an adult in my late twenties that I took up crochet. It seemed like it would be easier to manage with my sensory and fine motor problems, which was absolutely true. But also, I was older and wiser, I knew where to search for resources that just didn't exist when I was a child. I was better at accommodating *myself*.

After gaining some proficiency with crochet, I wanted to learn embroidery. As with crochet, Mom used to embroider, so between her guidance and my own self-support, it's going well.

As it turns out, I deeply enjoy stereotypical "women's work," and I'm even decent at doing it. Big shock: women's work is actually quite difficult, requires patience and the development of skill sets, and is certainly not "idleness." One of my storytelling litmus tests nowadays, especially for high fantasy, is: Do characters often use sewing/knitting (it's always knitting for some reason...) as an example of wasting time/worthlessness? Example: "I won't knit by the fire while men fight for me." (Yes, the worst offender is, in fact, Game of Thrones. Surprise, surprise.)

Anyway. It's June and the average temperature is around 90 degrees. Usually, I would be miserable, but I am currently being mildly successful at keeping my mood buoyant through a combination of accepting that this is Not My Preferred Seasonal Environment, and so Things Will Suck, as well as keeping busy with aforementioned crochet and embroidery projects. Currently, I've started working on another blanket using a new granny square technique I learned recently because it's a large, time-consuming, and engrossing project, which is what I need in the summer (yes, I know, it's not technically summer yet. But as previously stated, the temp is regularly reaching high 80s/low 90s with assfuck % humidity, so it's summer; idk what the 'official' start date of summer is).

Obviously, I am also watching a lot of Critical Role, since it's what I have on while I crochet. I think I'm on episode 65 of C2? I've been power-watching recently, so the episode numbers have begun to blur. I've been really enjoying the party being in Xhorhas because a). this world-building and aesthetic is 100000% My Shit, b). Essek, and c). "main characters are socialized to hate the other, then they actually encounter the other and stuff gets complex" plots always fuck so hard, and I'm here for it. Also, the surprise domesticity of Essek gifting the party a house had me trembling. Caduceus' tree!!!!! The garden! The fairy lights!! Jester painting a flower mural for Yasha, my heart!!!!!!!!! So, uh, yeah. That gave me all the feels.

Comments

[juushika]

Over the last [mumbled length of time, probably a year?] I've been finding a lot of fulfillment in evening chores, of all things, for the predictable reason that having physical control over bettering one's environment and being able to put things from a "to do" into a "done" pile is satisfying, so I get that women's work feel. Have these things been used as a form of social control? absolutely yes, of course, sexism is real. But are they valuable? also yes! They require skill and attention and effort! Who knew.

I was better at accommodating *myself*.
<3

Your mention of Essek + Xhorhouse domesticity had me expecting a scene from way later in the campaign, and then I realized that the house is a major point of/tool for the M9 bonding with Essek. So I'm excited for you to keep watching, and to encounter those scenes, because it really only gets better!

Xhorhas was a turning point for me in C2 for a lot of the reasons you mention. It really feels like the M9 walked straight into the endgame areas of their world, in a good way--more challenging combat but also "further" into the plot, into the antagonist's characterization; it's so emblematic of the potential in TTRPGs, that players can sort of "skip ahead" and therefore alter a lot of the pacing that the DM, table, and in this also the audience might expect.

[timegoddessrose]

So far, Xhorhas is the Not-Bad-Actually-Good version of that earlier, awful (imo) pirate arc. It's the same innate mechanic of DnD--players making surprising, unpredictable, independent decisions that force the narrative/DM to swerve left instead of right--but in this case it's yielding results that skew more positively as a viewing experience.

Like, I have no doubt the pirate arc was fun to play if the table's effusive praise for it was any indication, but for me as a viewer it was a disastrous mess that nearly made me quit watching all together. Which is, I think, generally a struggle that C2 has, balancing good gameplay for the players vs. watchability for an audience.

At the moment, Xhorhas is turning out much better.

Question: Are you watching Calamity? Because I have...like...A LOT OF FEELINGS.

[juushika]

There's a number of elements that I like in the pirate arc, but as a whole I wasn't crazy about it either. The major difference between pirate and Xhorhas is that the former feels like a narrative detour*, where the latter is significant plot progression in an unexpected format, a sense that both characters and players/viewers are seeing a part of the world they weren't "supposed to" see (yet).

* Not for individual players, of course! And I love Travis having a major early arc to shine, especially as it differs from Grog in C1--that gave me a lot more patience for the arc than I would've had otherwise. But on the whole: a detour.

I'll be starting Calamity soon! I just finished catching up on EXU: the poodle arc. I love Aabria Iyengar's DMing style so, so much but also don't have a single funny bone in my body (also probably part of my beef with the C2 pirate arc), so it was a little bit of a slog to finish.