[083] Ninety-five-year-old reprints

Came home from hospital movie night (Tree of Life was exactly as WTF and Terrence Malick-y as I was led to believe, but I quite liked it) completely drained because today was a deceptively long day. Had some pretty grand plans to tag and read ALL THE SotPs, but then I completely checked out and watched random silent films on YouTube for over an hour instead, so that is now my game plan for when I get home from work tomorrow.

Filed under Things That Are Weirdly, Ridiculously Attractive To Me, Apparently: Buster Keaton in a wedding dress.

I think it's definitely time for sleep now.

As you were, citizens.

[158] [122] [037] [280] [362] Progress! Horrible, swampy progress!

Erring on the side of caution now, are we? Fare thee well, strange marsh creature, may you live on in mystery!

And putting this here where I'll see it so I don't forget to do these things yet again when I get home from work: Amazon, calendar, nickels. Don't forget!

The ground under your feet becomes softer and softer, until with each step you are sinking into black mire up to your knees. It is very tiring to keep going, and you begin to worry; the whole landscape is water-covered with only the occasional clump of reeds breaking the surface. Still, you press on resolutely until brought up short by the sight of a flaying tentacled arm unfolding out of the black water in front of you. Another arm reaches out before a hideous octopus-like beast with dark-green lumpy skin rises slowly into the air on its six arms. It is the loathsome SLIME SUCKER and you must fight it. Since you do not have a spear, you must fight it with your sword.

SLIME SUCKER (Skill 10, Stamina 9)

Ho-lee fuck, this fight. Your attack is down by an additional 2 points, because of your tiredness and lack of mobility, and I'm not gonna sugarcoat things, you got your ass kicked left, right, and centre. Still, you are nothing if not a trooper, and you managed to scrape by with a few freakishly lucky hits to survive.

You wipe the thick blood off your sword and trudge off west again, wondering what other creatures might be lurking in the black waters of the marshland.

Although you are expecting some terrible beast to rise out of the water, everything remains calm. Gradually the ground becomes firmer underfoot and soon you are out of the water and walking through thick mud. Keeping a watchful eye on the terrain and sky, you are unaware of the disgusting soft bodies clinging to your legs. It is only when you notice some discomfort that you look down to see the GIANT LEECHES wrapped around your calves.

FOUR OF THEM. Fuckin' swamps, man, this place blows. Since you don't have any salt to get them off your leg because the Pygmies stole all your stuff, I'm gonna ding you an extra stamina point here, in addition.

After checking yourself carefully to make sure you are finally rid of the parasites from the marsh, you continue west across the muddy plain. Ahead you see two hills and you decide to walk towards the gorge dividing them.

The ground rises and you are at last away from the difficult terrain - the jungle and marsh are behind you. Grass and flowers make the island appear lush and beautiful, but you know you cannot afford to relax. It is not long before you reach the gorge and see that it runs between several hills in a westerly direction.

Poll #10342

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 6

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Now what?

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Walk down the gorge.
3 (50.0%)

Climb the hill to your right.
3 (50.0%)

[084] Reprints

Can genuinely not seem to decide whether the last couple of days have actually been consistently awful and draining, or if I'm just moody and little things are pissing me off and requiring way more energy than they should. Either way, yesterday I did banking-type things and got some affairs in order, so now I'm going to self-medicate with a bit of retail therapy (holy mixed metaphors, Batman) by hitting up Amazon (and knocking out Mother's Day presents while I'm at it) and getting Reggie some paid time.

Now to convince myself that he doesn't actually need 250 icons and that's just his own love of his face talking.

Then the tackling of the inbox, then hopefully I'll still have enough brain matter left between my ears to go through everyone's SotPs.

And also I need to work out somewhere in there.

And make some supper, I guess.

Uuuuuuugh.