Angel’s Month Indulgence #1
Feb. 11th, 2026 05:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lovelyangel |
As noted Last Year, some special goodies were available for pre-order in Japan, and those items were delivered to my home a week ago (Wednesday, February 4).
My twin biases in TWICE are Sana and Momo – and those women are also two of the three members of TWICE’s Japanese sub-group, MISAMO. So I do whatever I can to support Misamo, even if their music doesn’t quite match my listening preferences.
So my order included:
Misamo PLAY DVD/CD set
MISAMO visuals are the best, so I always get any DVD or Blu-ray that I can. I’ve been too busy to view the DVD. The videos will be stuck in my backlog for a while.
Warner Japan doesn’t offer much in the way of extras. The oversize box (with cover photo) includes a large (10.75" x 7.5") but thin (32 pp) photobook/lyrics book – along with a matching (same size) poster. A single, small, random photocard was included. A CDJapan-only bonus was a round compact mirror with photo back and clear vinyl case.
 |
Misamo PLAY CD
The music CD that is included with the MISAMO DVD doesn’t have the three solo songs. How annoying. So I had to buy a separate CD to get all the recorded songs. Warner Japan, always stingy with bonuses, provided just a single, random photocard. The CDJapan-only bonus was another round, compact mirror with photo back and clear vinyl case.
As a lifelong Gunbuster fan, my order included a special reissue:
Sound Collection of Gunbuster 3-CD set
This CD box set completes my collection of Gunbuster CDs, and I’m eager to listen to the whole thing – even though it’s a superset of my other CDs. I think there are new (to me) sound clips – and I add good ones to the sound library on Belldandy to replace system sounds. Anyway, I’m super happy to have completed my Gunbuster audio collection – a nice compliment to my complete video collection.
Angel Overwhelmed
Feb. 11th, 2026 05:07 pmlovelyangel |
Things are troubled but not quite dire here. I’ve had a catastrophic failure of the external SSD that holds my Lightroom library. Normally I’d take a timeout and begin work on a lengthy rebuild. However, this happened just one day before the start of the Portland Winter Light Festival, and I’m a photographer for the festival – so I had to do an emergency restore of a 9-month-old Lightroom backup so that I could process photos starting last Friday.
PDXWLF runs for nine days (nights, actually), and I have photo commitments for six of those nights (including tonight). PDXWLF is the worst (most difficult, least satisfying) of the photography I do each year – and it’s more of a chore than anything. Even after the event is over after this Saturday, I’ll have a huge amount of photos to process. There are deadlines.
I’ve talked with tech support for my dead drive, and there is almost no hope of recovering the data. (There is a very slim chance, but I’ve studied the tool, and I’m not optimistic at all. I’ll explain on another day.) Basically, there’s nine months of work that is lost and would have to be recreated – in my spare time, of course. This includes all my 2025 Oregon Country Fair, Portland Saturday Market 2025, Portland Farmers Market 2025, Kumoricon 2025, and TWICE concert photos. 😔
In the meantime, my library cleanup/organization is on hold. And there is a lot remaining to do.
LiveJournal Scrapbook/Photos download hasn’t received attention, either.
Maybe the only good thing is that I finished compiling a big, electronic stack of documents that I’ve sent to my tax accountant. This was right on my ideal schedule – and three weeks ahead of last year.
If I slowed down and stopped to think, I’d know how much of a mess everything is right now – so I’m not going to do that. There’s no time to be depressed. For now, I have to get ready for another photo outing tonight.
Wednesday reading
Feb. 11th, 2026 07:07 pmredbirdJanuary was rereading, and not much of that: Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold, and Sorcery and Cecilia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer: the latter was a read-aloud, with Cattitude and Adrian switching off depending on which character the letter was from.
I also bounced off a couple of rereads, and read news and other articles online.
Just finished:
Grown Wise, by Celia Lake: another of her Albion historical romances, set in a fantasy Britain with a middle-sized community of people who use or are aware of magic. This one is set a couple of years after World War II, and people are dealing with both individual loss and trauma, and the war's effects on the land. I enjoyed this, but I don't know whether it would be confusing as a starting point. (It's the first in a new series of these books, which might help.)
I also bounced off a couple of rereads, and read news and other articles online.
Just finished:
Grown Wise, by Celia Lake: another of her Albion historical romances, set in a fantasy Britain with a middle-sized community of people who use or are aware of magic. This one is set a couple of years after World War II, and people are dealing with both individual loss and trauma, and the war's effects on the land. I enjoyed this, but I don't know whether it would be confusing as a starting point. (It's the first in a new series of these books, which might help.)
[picspam] from yesterday's trudge in the rain
Feb. 11th, 2026 10:48 pmkaberett
(Which last I took in part because A only discovered last week that many snowdrops have decorative green bits on their frilly inner noses, courtesy of a waist-high planter outside one of our local pubs!)
posting by email
Feb. 11th, 2026 03:45 pmjuan_gandhiYou can post to dreamwidth via email:
https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=195
It’s Groundhog Day Again…but Worse – DORK TOWER 10/02/26
Feb. 11th, 2026 06:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
dorktower_feed
Most DORK TOWER strips are now available as signed, high-quality prints, from just $25! CLICK HERE to find out more!
Also, here’s last June’s comic, so you don’t need to seek it out:
HEY! Want to help keep DORK TOWER going? Then consider joining the DORK TOWER Patreon and ENLIST IN THE ARMY OF DORKNESS TODAY! (We have COOKIES!) (And SWAG!) (And GRATITUDE!)
Another Repeat SF Bundle - Neon City Overdrive
Feb. 11th, 2026 06:35 pmffuturesThis is a repeat offer of the cyberpunk RPG Neon City Overdrive from Peril Planet, last offered in May 2022
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2026NeonCity
Last time I said "Since I received this at about midnight and it only runs for a week I haven't had much time to take a detailed look. It's a system that looks reasonably playable, it's drawing on all the usual cyberpunk sources, and it's pretty cheap. I'm not sure I actually NEED another cyberpunk game, given how many I already own, but if you just want to dip your toes in the water I think it's worth a look. The usual caveat - I get to see this stuff without having to pay for it, if you don't your mileage may differ."
Since then I've taken a more detailed look - artwork is good (and credited to humans, not AI), and mostly avoids the tropes of the genre. Layout is a bit flashy but readable, and there is an emphasis on story-telling rather than rules. I think it's definitely a good one for a quick look at the genre.
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2026NeonCity
Last time I said "Since I received this at about midnight and it only runs for a week I haven't had much time to take a detailed look. It's a system that looks reasonably playable, it's drawing on all the usual cyberpunk sources, and it's pretty cheap. I'm not sure I actually NEED another cyberpunk game, given how many I already own, but if you just want to dip your toes in the water I think it's worth a look. The usual caveat - I get to see this stuff without having to pay for it, if you don't your mileage may differ."
Since then I've taken a more detailed look - artwork is good (and credited to humans, not AI), and mostly avoids the tropes of the genre. Layout is a bit flashy but readable, and there is an emphasis on story-telling rather than rules. I think it's definitely a good one for a quick look at the genre.
(no subject)
Feb. 11th, 2026 01:15 pmmajuMy little computer seems to have recovered slightly. Yesterday I couldn't get it to start at all, eventually, after having it start and then crash more than once. This morning Violet was filling in time (because we had an ice storm last night and there was a two-hour delay for school) and wanted to use that computer. (She has been using it to write various things in Google Drive.) I told her she could use it, if it would start, so she turned it on and it seemed fine at first. After maybe five minutes it crashed again, and we saw not just the blue screen of death but also a red screen of death and a green screen of death, all flashing on repeat. She said she'd never seen a computer crash so hard. So we shut it down and she did something else for a while, but then she wanted to try it again and this time it not only started up just fine, it didn't crash while she was using it. I absolutely don't trust it not to keep randomly crashing though.
Yesterday evening we went out for dinner, to Chilli's, which doesn't serve chile as far as I can tell. My son in law had intended for us to go to a ramen place a couple of minutes away, but when we got there we found it's closed on Tuesday's, so when Aria suggested Chili's we decided that would be a good alternative. I had a Cajun pasta dish with grilled chicken which was very tasty, but later in the evening I was incredibly thirsty so I guess it had a lot more salt in it than I realised.
I suddenly seem to be needing less sleep than I used to. I've had a few extra short nights over the last couple of weeks but I'm not feeling particularly tired even though on the nights when I slept better I still didn't sleep more than about 7 hours. Last night I fell asleep not long after 9 but I was awake at 3:30 am and didn't feel the need to go back to sleep again (after lying awake for about half an hour trying to sleep).
This afternoon the temperature is actually a few degrees above freezing. I think this is the first time it's been this warm for at least two weeks. I've just been outside to start my car and let it run for a while, just to keep the battery on its toes. I also moved it forward a few inches; I would have moved in a bit further but my son in law has parked one of their cars very close to mine.
This morning Violet and I were looking at the plastic keyboard covers I keep on any computer I own and noticing which keys were more worn than the rest. Unsurprisingly, the e looks like it gets a lot of use, as does the n and the i. However, I was puzzled that the c also looks to get a lot of use - until I went to copy something and realised how much I use ctrl + c.
Yesterday evening we went out for dinner, to Chilli's, which doesn't serve chile as far as I can tell. My son in law had intended for us to go to a ramen place a couple of minutes away, but when we got there we found it's closed on Tuesday's, so when Aria suggested Chili's we decided that would be a good alternative. I had a Cajun pasta dish with grilled chicken which was very tasty, but later in the evening I was incredibly thirsty so I guess it had a lot more salt in it than I realised.
I suddenly seem to be needing less sleep than I used to. I've had a few extra short nights over the last couple of weeks but I'm not feeling particularly tired even though on the nights when I slept better I still didn't sleep more than about 7 hours. Last night I fell asleep not long after 9 but I was awake at 3:30 am and didn't feel the need to go back to sleep again (after lying awake for about half an hour trying to sleep).
This afternoon the temperature is actually a few degrees above freezing. I think this is the first time it's been this warm for at least two weeks. I've just been outside to start my car and let it run for a while, just to keep the battery on its toes. I also moved it forward a few inches; I would have moved in a bit further but my son in law has parked one of their cars very close to mine.
This morning Violet and I were looking at the plastic keyboard covers I keep on any computer I own and noticing which keys were more worn than the rest. Unsurprisingly, the e looks like it gets a lot of use, as does the n and the i. However, I was puzzled that the c also looks to get a lot of use - until I went to copy something and realised how much I use ctrl + c.
In Many Ways the Greatest Self-Portrait I’ve Ever Taken
Feb. 11th, 2026 05:00 pmscalziwhatever_feed
I think this photo captures many things, about me, about my cat, and about the relationship between the two of us. I don’t know how much more can be said. This photo may, in fact, be perfect.
— JS
Ted Lasso
Feb. 11th, 2026 04:07 pmwatervoleHaving zero interest in football, I never would have tried a comedy series based around an American football coach working for an English soccer team...
But 'Replyhazy' suggested I try it while I have Apple TV, and I absolutely love it! It's funny, it's warm-hearted and it has some great characters.
It may not be realistic, but most of the characters are really thoughtful about their relationships - men actually listen to what their girlfriends are telling them and act maturely.
Friendships are built that really have meaning. Villains are relatively few, but they make up for it by being delightfully over the top. Anthony Head, as the football club owner's ex-husband, does a wonderful job as a charming, womanising scumbag!
I think my favourite character is actually Trent Crimm, the newspaper reporter. acted by James Lance. He starts as a minor character, only in some episodes, and is a full-time regular by the end of series 3.
But there are lots of great characters who you grow to love and appreciate.
I even enjoyed watching the football....
Rewiring Democracy Ebook is on Sale
Feb. 11th, 2026 02:48 pmschneier_no_tracking_feedI just noticed that the ebook version of Rewriring Democracy is on sale for $5 on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, Google Play, Kobo, and presumably everywhere else in the US. I have no idea how long this will last.
Also, Amazon has a coupon that brings the hardcover price down to $20. You’ll see the discount at checkout.
Prompt Injection Via Road Signs
Feb. 11th, 2026 12:03 pmschneier_no_tracking_feedInteresting research: “CHAI: Command Hijacking Against Embodied AI.”
Abstract: Embodied Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises to handle edge cases in robotic vehicle systems where data is scarce by using common-sense reasoning grounded in perception and action to generalize beyond training distributions and adapt to novel real-world situations. These capabilities, however, also create new security risks. In this paper, we introduce CHAI (Command Hijacking against embodied AI), a new class of prompt-based attacks that exploit the multimodal language interpretation abilities of Large Visual-Language Models (LVLMs). CHAI embeds deceptive natural language instructions, such as misleading signs, in visual input, systematically searches the token space, builds a dictionary of prompts, and guides an attacker model to generate Visual Attack Prompts. We evaluate CHAI on four LVLM agents; drone emergency landing, autonomous driving, and aerial object tracking, and on a real robotic vehicle. Our experiments show that CHAI consistently outperforms state-of-the-art attacks. By exploiting the semantic and multimodal reasoning strengths of next-generation embodied AI systems, CHAI underscores the urgent need for defenses that extend beyond traditional adversarial robustness.
News article.
« Wintry mix »
Feb. 11th, 2026 05:57 amsoemandA “wintry mix” forecast always feels like meteorology throwing up its hands. I don’t remember hearing it much before this year, but it perfectly captures the uncertainty of those near‑freezing days when 10 mm of sleet could just as easily become 10 cm of snow. A few degrees decide everything, and the term admits exactly that.
Just One Thing (11 February 2026)
Feb. 11th, 2026 12:00 amnanila posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
dug a hole in the garden and buried a scream
Feb. 10th, 2026 10:22 pmwychwoodCandle update: my candle parcel sat in the depot for ten days and then they emailed me to say that I was being refunded. At no point did anyone say anything about trying to deliver it. Also, they don't re-send undelivered parcels and the sale is over so I can't re-order without paying a bunch more money. I did burn the candle my dad gave me, but it was horribly sooty (black snot!! it was like being in London before the congestion charge, only worse!). On the other hand, it also burned super fast (maybe eight hours total time for a candle that looked like it ought to do more like thirty), so it was over fast. Now I'm back to the IKEA tea lights.
Sunday night I went to see Florence + the Machine, and that was fabulous. I wasn't, like, super hyped up by it, but it was deeply engrossing somehow; the gig went by really fast, and her music is just so good. She didn't do either of the songs I was really hoping for ("You Can Have It All" and "Kraken") but everything she did do was great. The stage show was great. And the mixing wasn't terrible - like, pop gigs always seem to be mixed so that you can feel the bass in every individual bone in your body but also can't hear the lyrics, and that was absolutely a problem for the opening act (Paris Paloma) who seemed cool and might be good except I couldn't actually hear her. But Florence was mostly audible. Of course, with a voice like that she has an advantage...
I had Monday off to recover after the late night (concert finish: about 22:45; reached car park around 23:00; left car park around 23:45... always so great) but was back at work today. On Friday I finally finished a horrible task I'd been putting off, so now I'm trying to catch up with the eight million other things I'd been ignoring; I managed to empty my inbox, but only by moving everything into a new set of folders so that I only have to confront one set of them at a time. Also deleted a lot of duplicates (emails from earlier in a chain, etc), things relating to the Horrible Task, and so on, so the many folders only have about 80 emails left instead of the 150 I started the morning with. Then I realised that there's a whole new Horrible Task with a tight timeline, so that's going to be fun for tomorrow.
But I did achieve some small household tasks, cleared out a few personal emails, and only ignored reality to lie in bed with a book a little bit this evening. Maybe I'll even manage the washing up before I go to sleep, it could happen.
Sunday night I went to see Florence + the Machine, and that was fabulous. I wasn't, like, super hyped up by it, but it was deeply engrossing somehow; the gig went by really fast, and her music is just so good. She didn't do either of the songs I was really hoping for ("You Can Have It All" and "Kraken") but everything she did do was great. The stage show was great. And the mixing wasn't terrible - like, pop gigs always seem to be mixed so that you can feel the bass in every individual bone in your body but also can't hear the lyrics, and that was absolutely a problem for the opening act (Paris Paloma) who seemed cool and might be good except I couldn't actually hear her. But Florence was mostly audible. Of course, with a voice like that she has an advantage...
I had Monday off to recover after the late night (concert finish: about 22:45; reached car park around 23:00; left car park around 23:45... always so great) but was back at work today. On Friday I finally finished a horrible task I'd been putting off, so now I'm trying to catch up with the eight million other things I'd been ignoring; I managed to empty my inbox, but only by moving everything into a new set of folders so that I only have to confront one set of them at a time. Also deleted a lot of duplicates (emails from earlier in a chain, etc), things relating to the Horrible Task, and so on, so the many folders only have about 80 emails left instead of the 150 I started the morning with. Then I realised that there's a whole new Horrible Task with a tight timeline, so that's going to be fun for tomorrow.
But I did achieve some small household tasks, cleared out a few personal emails, and only ignored reality to lie in bed with a book a little bit this evening. Maybe I'll even manage the washing up before I go to sleep, it could happen.
[food] chickpea chaat
Feb. 10th, 2026 10:38 pmkaberettI actually made this as a protein to go with Meera Sodha's winter pilau, after An End Of Breakfast Dal went really well and for the purposes of using up the chaat masala I made for The Ongoing Cook All The Book Project, freely adapted from a number of recipes (which were The First Few Search Results when I prodded the internet). A is sufficiently convinced that I provide notes herewith in service of being able to repeat it in future.
( Read more... )
(no subject)
Feb. 10th, 2026 02:56 pmmajuI spent way more time today than I wanted to, trying to revive my small Dell computer when it kept crashing. I encountered a lot of behind-the-scenes screens which were not helpful, and I've now declared that computer officially dead. It's exactly the same model of computer which S had; S's died last year so I've been kind of expecting mine to follow suit. We only bought these computers in mid-2023, so I can't say I'm very impressed with them. I've ordered a small Google Chromebook as a replacement. I was looking at a small Acer Chromebook, since I've had good luck with Acers before, both Chromebooks and Windows, but the Google Pixel weighs less so I went with that although it was about $100 more expensive.
This afternoon my new card table arrived (I ordered it last week to do puzzles on) so it's now set up in the one remaining spare corner of my basement, next to the small wooden table which is now my dedicated sewing table. I was using the one table for both sewing and puzzles, but it's a pain having to move the sewing machine somewhere else to make room for a puzzle so I decided to get a second table for everything that's not sewing.
Living in this basement is showing me that I can live reasonably comfortably in a small space, although it would be better with more storage for clothes. The few things that I wear all the time are either in drawers in the small chest of drawers beside the bed or hanging on a clothes rack under one of the windows, while everything else is stashed away in suitcases. Everything else that's not in storage that is. If the room next door was a kitchen rather than the girls' art room, this could be a completely self-contained apartment. (Not that I would want to live here for the rest of my life.)
This afternoon my new card table arrived (I ordered it last week to do puzzles on) so it's now set up in the one remaining spare corner of my basement, next to the small wooden table which is now my dedicated sewing table. I was using the one table for both sewing and puzzles, but it's a pain having to move the sewing machine somewhere else to make room for a puzzle so I decided to get a second table for everything that's not sewing.
Living in this basement is showing me that I can live reasonably comfortably in a small space, although it would be better with more storage for clothes. The few things that I wear all the time are either in drawers in the small chest of drawers beside the bed or hanging on a clothes rack under one of the windows, while everything else is stashed away in suitcases. Everything else that's not in storage that is. If the room next door was a kitchen rather than the girls' art room, this could be a completely self-contained apartment. (Not that I would want to live here for the rest of my life.)
🧠
Feb. 10th, 2026 03:41 pmsoemandJust finished a 1,500-line code review and my brain is now a NullPointerException. I've stared at so many brackets I'm starting to see code in my peripheral vision. Accepting donations of Monster, ibuprofen, or a complete memory wipe. LGTM? More like 'Let God Take Me' at this point.
The Big Idea: Kristina W. Kelly
Feb. 10th, 2026 07:12 pmscalziwhatever_feed
Nothing beats away a dreary February day like curling up with a cozy fantasy novel. Even better when that novel is a sapphic love story with iguana, cat, and mushroom people! Grab a seat by the fire and a cup of hot chocolate (or tea) and listen to author Kristina W. Kelly’s Big Idea as she shows you the magical world of Tea Tale.
KRISTINA W. KELLY:
What happens when you second guess who you are? When you begin to rethink what really defines you? What happens when your faith betrays you, lies, and hides truths?
Everything begins to crumble. Like a sea cliff battered by eons of waves.
And if you’re Divine, your magic goes haywire and you start to wonder if you can hear animals talk. You change. You become. Maybe not something new, but someone different.
The idea for Tea Tale started simple: I wanted to feature my favorite beverage—tea—, pay homage to my favorite video games (as I did with the first book in the series, Tavern Tale), and set it all in winter. Of course, I needed to carry through the subplots and address some of the unanswered questions from that first book. What emerged was a quest to sprinkle religious betrayal over a sapphic pairing within the framework of Role Playing Games (RPGs).
Divine is a healer. Or was a healer. Her path used to be clear: serve the Goddess of Souls by caring for the living. She’d influence emotions, heal wounds, shield others from harm. The teachings of her temple always seemed contradictory to the way she lived, though.
Her temple, like all the temples in Trelvania, said that non-humans—races like the Iguions (iguana-like bipeds), the Kellas (feline humanoids), and Thospori (think mushroom warriors)—couldn’t receive the blessings from the deities. Simply because they were non-human. Oh, the temples said something about how non-humans don’t have magical power, of course, so that’s why they couldn’t be on the receiving end of magic. But Divine had healed a Kellas child. She had healed an Iguion adult. She had done what was supposed to be impossible. Forbidden.
When I was growing up, I was taught that I was born evil. A child tainted and only by a blood sacrifice could I be saved from these sins I hadn’t even committed. These same people told me that because I was a woman, despite my music education degree, I couldn’t lead the church orchestra. I could help in the nursery with the babies, though. All the other jobs were for men. I was led to believe that god thought I wasn’t equal or as capable because of my gender. Those same people decreed “love your neighbor”, but showed that only counted for some of the population. Even though the greatest command was love, people couldn’t love whomever they wanted.
Whether sudden or gradual, I eventually found myself changed. I had sought experts who studied the historical context and the translations that made sense in that period, not a modern view. I discovered that sentences I had etched into my brain weren’t even in the texts we had been reading and that books were left or added depending on the particular flavor of faith. I learned about the practices of different cultures and religions and the history of the one I’d known. I found people who were exploring their spiritually like I was and discussed their journeys. And I began to explore who I was without all of the baggage, shame, and fear I’d been taught.
When the community you trusted had it wrong, how do you replace that feeling of community? These questions I’ve been asking you, reader, is what I attempted to capture in Tea Tale. Yes, Tea Tale is cozy fantasy, but with a sip of religious oppression.
The faire in Tea Tale is inspired by holiday events in MMORPGs and one of my favorite RPGs ever, Chrono Cross. There’s special games, unique items, decorations, and event food like the Millennial Fair in Chrono Cross. Divine’s tasting tea by the fire and listening to musicians. When she helps prepare the Sultry Sapphire tavern for the Midwinter Nights Faire, the notes of RPG influences really come through. I love a good quest chain in video games, where my character runs around the city helping ten people just to get five mushrooms back to the first quest-giver. Divine’s tasks become more tasks—side quests—as she also tries to find a gift for her romantic interest.
But while Divine does all of that, she’s also struggling to understand her magic when it seems to be acting contrary to what her temple taught her.
Just like I sought experts, Divine seeks experts to understand how magic really works in her world and how she connects to it. She talks to the non-humans who are, quite frankly, oppressed by the temples of Trelvania and uncovers that the truths her temples spout might not be the whole story. She grapples with what it means to have lived so many years within an organization that didn’t respect her enough to tell her the truth. And if she’s not that person, she wants to discover who she is.
Divine tackles replacing her religious community with those around her who support her without expecting something in return. Like me, she befriends those who are questioning the same ideas she is, or find friends who have never followed the temples. Ordinary people who come together to make a difference. A community and a found family.
Tea Tale focuses on people coming together during their Midwinter Nights Faire to enjoy each other, get creative through poetry and music, and spread joy through gift giving, food, and hot drinks. From Divine’s love interest, Saph, donating food to those in need, to Divine advocating for change in the way non-humans are treated, the characters find small ways to collectively be impactful. “If no one is being a voice,” Divine thinks, “then I should. Someone must do something.”
At its heart, Tea Tale is full of magic, tea, and cozy moments. One of the things I love about modern RPGs is that the games give your character the option to pick any love interest they want. The world of Tea Tale is just like that—it’s a queer normative. But just like life, there are lies and injustices to chip away at to free who we want to be.
I’m still learning every day who I am. It’s ok to change. To become different as I grow. If we can surround ourselves with love, empathy, and patience we can find our true power. We can crack the deceit wide open and find warmth and friendship. Together, we lay those broken pieces, starting a foundation where others can feel safe to be who they want to be while sipping hot tea that smells of lavender and vanilla. When faced with lies and disparity…become someone different.
Tea Tale: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Space Wizards