Scaramouche, Scaramouche

So we're having a warm spell (typical of March--though whether it'll stay warm is anyone's guess sdfgjkhsdf) and all the snowdrops and crocuses and jacinths and stuff are poking their little green pointy selves out of the ground! Some of the more daring trees are budding, too. Green is happening! ERMAGERD! ABRUPT AND UNEXPECTED VERDANCY!

(Also evidence of how few people in this neighbourhood clean up after their canines. The local park is very much studded with--yeah.)

The ubiquitous random-ass Toronto moss that pops up in pointless places never actually died, so it's still green, but it's always thus, so it doesn't count as ABRUPT AND UNEXPECTED VERDANCY.

Ah, yes. Snow is melting, cardinals are loud, blue jays are loud, sparrows are--still fat, pigeons still look stunned, and today I witnessed, at close range, a crow divebombing into a puddle for no reason except that he could and the little punkass splashed me on the way out.

It's March Break, so the high school across the road is quiet; they're re-doing the roof on it, ans thus every so often a mixture of miscellaneous wood, gravel, paper, junk, WTF, and assorted smithereens rains down out of the junk chute and into the dumpster below. I have no idea why this is as funny as it is. I blame my lack of sleep.

...Cardinals are really loud when they sing right outside a window, by the way. Usually they're just all up in the trees and bushes by my building, but this morning one of them decided he liked the acoustics of my balcony and sang at the top of his avian lungs for an hour around six.

Then at seven there was a sparrow fight.

Then at eight I had to get up, and there was still a sparrow fight...

They stopped when I opened the balcony door and sternfaced at them.

So! Yeah! HOW IS EVERYONE ELSE? HAVE YOU GUYS ALSO GOT ABRUPT AND UNEXPECTED VERDANCY?

...I am so caffeinated right now. A medium coffee does THIS to me. XD But, really, I didn't have much other choice. It was this, or being mostly dead.

So hi. :D

(cred for title goes to IvoryTower 'cos she r0xx0rz)

So last night I decided I'd run the Icecrown Dungeon Threebie to see if I could (yes, I'm level 90, but I'm also the RNG's favourite kickball--and I tend to underestimate myself a lot, haha), and I could, and it was fun.

Wrath wasn't perfect, and ICC is the bluest blue thing to ever blue out of blueville. The Alliance-side version of this dungeon run contributed to the Jaina derail in obnoxious ways, and the Horde-side isn't perfect about Sylvanas either. Uther kind of sounds like a douche to me in places, which mehhh. Pit of Saron is a bit counterintuitive to navigate if you're not used to it and misread the map; I ran up the hill instead of around the corner and then went 'oh right, uh...' Also? BRONJAHM DESERVES MORE LOVE. (And a VA who's not pasty godDAMN. Sorry, Metzyboy, but you're about as brown as me--which is to say, absolutely not. Sit down son.) Because he's the hardest-working man in Icecrown. ;p Also, these three dungeons feel kind of brief? I know I'm vastly overlevelled, and that this is sort of a three-in-one dungeon--like, one piece of the icecrown Threebie is not equivalent to one quarter of Auchindoun's complex--but it still seems oddly configured? I'm not sure if there's another dungeon grouping that does this... I dunno. YMMV. To me the pieces felt a little shortish in length and I prolly would have made them separate and not a three-in-one if that was possible without breaking flow. I dunno. It just felt kind of oddish. Others may well disagree and I totally accept that and defer to their greater experience. XD

But. Gripes aside? Wow. The atmosphere. THE LOREGASM. And the end of the dungeon triad flossing christ.

Overall: It's fun stuff. I know I'm not qualified to make major lore judgements or difficulty judgements, and I won't do either. This is just my rambling observations, personal opinions and nattering. :D

So, piece by piece:

( take your life, take your soul, everything's out of control )

Hey look, Zalera shenanigans!

1) Oh check it, the shamaness laughs too in this, and not necessarily at the same time Zal himself does. She has a little giggle herself (into his shoulder XD) before they both LOL. Hmm. XD This kind of lends some weight to my theory that there's something more going on there than the traditional Ivalese idea of their relationship.

2) That lvl 1 death thing that does in Balthier - check out the rood inverse on the onryou-type skull. XD

3) Aww, look at their exeunt omnes pose. XD SO MUCH DRAMA QUEENING. But on the 'ooh' side - they both react. Not at the same time either. Zalera's waaaargh happens before the shamaness's. And she hugs him when she's sniffling and he pats her hair. Zalera, how the hell do you manage to be cute, you're a deathy thing. XD But oh god the scenery chewing "LA, I DIE" - hee.

Zalera, stop somehow managing to be cute. XD

Hahaha YAY THINGS THAT SUPPORT TENEBROUS'S CRACK I am such a nerd, oh, such a nerd. But goddamn, this keeps on happening XD; Their relationship does NOT look like how the game's common lore describes it. She pretty clearly has her own will and voice and Zalera doesn't just see her as a weapon. This isn't out of character for an Ivalice Alliance game, since disinformation and obfuscation and the search for the actual truth is a pretty big part of those games' plotlines.

...Pretzeltown, I can't find the entry I made when I talked about the dang Ladies. XD

ETA: And someone in my head just said the shamaness (Korone in Tenebrous) is one of the Dark Lady's daughters or granddaughters. I wouldn't be totally surprised.

ETA 2: GODDAMN IT MATEUS IS THE SAME WAY! Seriously, if the goddess is supposed to be a @_@ thrall, WHY does she chant the spell (silently, but still - and it's ENTHUSED chanting) of one of the bigass attacks Mateus does, and why does she 'ohoho' LAUGH when the attack goes off, and why does she have an AH GODDAMN IT scream when the battle ends? There are two voices there, in the laugh and the defeated yell. Mateus-the-armour's underlays Mateus-the-goddess's.

I shouldn't be surprised that Ivalice's in-game lore is whacked out, but...STILL!