Today, We Are a Productive Human™.

emphasis on "productive", kinda

After finding out that my weird cold was, in fact, The Virus What Must Not Be Named, I pouted a lot.

I do that sometimes.

I also slept roughly 11/12ths of every day and spent the other 1/12 coughing so hard that I could see imaginary stars in my peripheral vision. My throat was a little sore (probably from coughing), and I had a little fever one day. Other than that, though, it was really just the sleeping.

A couple days back, I felt vaguely human. Or at least mostly human, with only a small percentage of embodied slime mold. Since most of my internet friends warned me that if I tried to do All The Things¹, I would end up flat on my back on a one-way recidivist trip to Snot Town…I sat very still and did a whole lot of catching up on my rather extensive Watch Later list on youtube.

But as I’m also oppositionally defiant on the best of days, my brain got super bored of sitting there watching things and started to think things². And after a video about pareidolia — the phenomenon whereby humans see other humanlike or animal faces in random patterns or inanimate objects, like seeing Jesus in the burn pattern on your toast — I had the thought:

what if those faces were actually entities…watching US?

And the resulting project sort of just fell out of my head fully-formed, like Athena popping out of Zeus’s forehead, minus the weird zit jokes that could be made from the myth.

And THUS, I give you:

Other than being a candidate for the longest solo RPG title ever, it’s a fun little solo walking game where you’re tasked with finding anomalies in your area, recording them with the Agency’s capture device (a.k.a. your camera), and determining which one of them is the one with nefarious intent.

Since it’s a walking game, the real-world component is a big part of it — but YOU get to decide how epic to make it. You can take on a whole region, walk around your city block, or stay in your house and find the anomalies there. You can take photos or draw them, use the included logsheets or use scrap paper or a notebook, and there’s even an extra-credit project for all of you who miss being on the Dean’s List.

Note: there is no actual religious content, but I do recommend toast. Because carbs are awesome.

I got so excited when I finished it that I immediately bought physical copies at Mixam. (The same place I had Coddiwomple printed, so it’s quality stuff.). I only got a handful since I have to move any leftover inventory in just a few short months³, but the downloadable version is either here at itch.io or here at etsy, if you want to pick one up⁴.

Clearly, I need to get sick more often if it means I actually finish things⁵.

All games aside, I haven’t been all that productive.

Oddly enough, being sick meant that lifting heavy boxes was right out the window, so packing’s at a standstill for the moment.

There was an incident with a rat in the nighttime, but I’m saving that for another day. There’s been yet another development on that front, and I’ve decided that while rats may not be the most intelligent creatures on the planet, they might be the most persistent. I’d almost rather have them do calculus.

Speaking of the move, I hit my target date for whining and have flipped into excited tourist mode. Or, rather, existential dread but holding what might be a tiny spark of hope in one palm. Either way.

I’ve found a whole SLEW of things I want to do, and see, and play at. I’ve decided that if I can’t wear my beloved sweaters more than once a year, I get a new wardrobe⁶. And I even bought a book with all the geology of Texas so I can find wild clay.

If I’m gonna do this thing, I’m going to do it all the way.

So that’s what’s been up lately.

Now that I’m less slothy and nearly back to fightin’ speed, I’ll get back to spilling all the beans about all the other stuff going on, soon. Maybe even tell you about the potential artist residency….⁷

But for now, all the talk of toast is making me want bread.

Carbs. Mmm.

1. I miss Allie Brosh, y’all.

2. This is rarely a good sign.

3. insert panic noises here

4. and if so, thank you. you are objectively a better human being than most. :)

5. I think that normally, I get like half-way through a thing and have so much energy that my brain’s all like I HAVE OXYGEN! LET’S GO PLAY OVER THERE!. Living with ADHD is fun. FUN I TELL YOU.

6. I mean, sure, it’s out of necessity, since even the summers here in the PNW aren’t usually scorchers. But that’s not the point. Focusing on the positive, et. al..

7. OOOOOH, MYSTEEERIOUS