Volta and the rest of the weekend :)
Busy weekend. Friday night we drove to my parents' place to crash (it's 20 minutes from the Volta 1-day site), a plan which was marred only by both sarrciano and I forgetting our contacts at home, so we had to drive back there, resulting in a somewhat later bed-time than was optimal.
Saturday was Volta. The weather was pretty awful, but we mostly managed to stay on top of it via continuous consumption of fluids, and a hilarious field fight.
- "I need you to regrow my arm."
- a couple of fun mods with a mechanic that I am probably going to steal, where one person was blindfolded and having to solve puzzle-like things by being instructed by another person on the mod. The first one involved placing dice with different-colored sides on a very small panel in a specific configuration. The second involved solving a crossword puzzle using cards with letters on them. They were both kinda challenging, though the second was really mean (it took us a while to figure out the trick that took the puzzle from 'simple but impossible to complete' to 'very complicated but solvable'). Anyway, was fun stuff. :)
- Cynnir and Omi 'competing' for townsfolk for their mods. And much apologizing to each other as things kept coming up that necessitated stealing people out of each other's groups.
- Watching Shoshoto after he came back from a mod, still possessed by the spirit of his ancestor (who apparently decided the best way out of the mod was to double-tap another PC with deaths, get someone up to act as a speed bump for him, and bolt), and trying to figure out what exactly to do about it while chatting with him.
- The 'corrupted spring' fight. When this was mentioned early in the day, I was like, "OK, corrupted spring, there will be a puddle of black fabric somewhere on the field and we fight around it. Got it." Later in the day, when it was mentioned again, there was something about the way the hook mentioned it that made me think a bit, and warn someone not to change into their clean clothes beforehand. Then, as we're walking out to the fight, the hook mentions 'corrupted/pure' fruits, and asks who doesn't want to be hit by them. We got to the field, and there was a normal sprinkler (the kind that shoots in a circle around it) out in the middle of the field, and water balloons scattered on the ground, ready for throwing. Much silliness ensued, and it was great (and the water was cold! Yay!).
- Several of us accidentally stumbling over (literally) the solution to a mod.
- Some conversations I had leading up to the Beast fight. Was interesting to get a lot of different perspectives on what was coming up.
- Awful squalor during the fight. Thank you Volta staff. Wish I'd gotten to see the end of it, but a bunch of us beating ourselves up on the path as we realized what happened was nearly as good.
- Nightshine picking me up and swinging me around while congratulating/thanking me for beating the Beast. :)
By which I mean we slept in pretty late (again at my folk's house), then drove back home. We sort of sat like lumps for a few hours, then managed to motivate ourselves to go meet some friends to see Captain America.
Captain America was awesome. I loved the way they portrayed his personality, and that when he made a team, you really got the sense that it was a team, and not 'Captain America + others'. The pacing of the movie was really well done, very little (if any) downtime, and the period stuff was pretty solid. You know, aside from the disintegrating lasers. (It did occur to me, watching it, that a laser that disintegrates you is super-intimidating, but if it's rate of fire isn't any better than a normal gun, a bullet will kill you just as dead.) Anyway, really good show, and I am really excited for the Avengers stuff.
After that, did dinner at NYAJ (found out that they have a special deal with the theater where you can go there and buy tickets to the movie at a discount with your meal, which is cool), and ice cream at a Friendly's Express (still slower than just about any restaurant I've been to).
We got back later than we intended, but it was a great day overall.
Saturday was Volta. The weather was pretty awful, but we mostly managed to stay on top of it via continuous consumption of fluids, and a hilarious field fight.
- "I need you to regrow my arm."
- a couple of fun mods with a mechanic that I am probably going to steal, where one person was blindfolded and having to solve puzzle-like things by being instructed by another person on the mod. The first one involved placing dice with different-colored sides on a very small panel in a specific configuration. The second involved solving a crossword puzzle using cards with letters on them. They were both kinda challenging, though the second was really mean (it took us a while to figure out the trick that took the puzzle from 'simple but impossible to complete' to 'very complicated but solvable'). Anyway, was fun stuff. :)
- Cynnir and Omi 'competing' for townsfolk for their mods. And much apologizing to each other as things kept coming up that necessitated stealing people out of each other's groups.
- Watching Shoshoto after he came back from a mod, still possessed by the spirit of his ancestor (who apparently decided the best way out of the mod was to double-tap another PC with deaths, get someone up to act as a speed bump for him, and bolt), and trying to figure out what exactly to do about it while chatting with him.
- The 'corrupted spring' fight. When this was mentioned early in the day, I was like, "OK, corrupted spring, there will be a puddle of black fabric somewhere on the field and we fight around it. Got it." Later in the day, when it was mentioned again, there was something about the way the hook mentioned it that made me think a bit, and warn someone not to change into their clean clothes beforehand. Then, as we're walking out to the fight, the hook mentions 'corrupted/pure' fruits, and asks who doesn't want to be hit by them. We got to the field, and there was a normal sprinkler (the kind that shoots in a circle around it) out in the middle of the field, and water balloons scattered on the ground, ready for throwing. Much silliness ensued, and it was great (and the water was cold! Yay!).
- Several of us accidentally stumbling over (literally) the solution to a mod.
- Some conversations I had leading up to the Beast fight. Was interesting to get a lot of different perspectives on what was coming up.
- Awful squalor during the fight. Thank you Volta staff. Wish I'd gotten to see the end of it, but a bunch of us beating ourselves up on the path as we realized what happened was nearly as good.
- Nightshine picking me up and swinging me around while congratulating/thanking me for beating the Beast. :)
By which I mean we slept in pretty late (again at my folk's house), then drove back home. We sort of sat like lumps for a few hours, then managed to motivate ourselves to go meet some friends to see Captain America.
Captain America was awesome. I loved the way they portrayed his personality, and that when he made a team, you really got the sense that it was a team, and not 'Captain America + others'. The pacing of the movie was really well done, very little (if any) downtime, and the period stuff was pretty solid. You know, aside from the disintegrating lasers. (It did occur to me, watching it, that a laser that disintegrates you is super-intimidating, but if it's rate of fire isn't any better than a normal gun, a bullet will kill you just as dead.) Anyway, really good show, and I am really excited for the Avengers stuff.
After that, did dinner at NYAJ (found out that they have a special deal with the theater where you can go there and buy tickets to the movie at a discount with your meal, which is cool), and ice cream at a Friendly's Express (still slower than just about any restaurant I've been to).
We got back later than we intended, but it was a great day overall.