Cause & Effect

I hate guilt. I hate people who use guilt. I don't care if they don't mean to -- guilt bites. It's my mother's weapon. I don't mind being asked to do chores while cholten99 is out gaming; it's fair enough, as I'm home and he's not. If he wants me to do chores, he can bloody well ask me if I mind doing chores instead of saying, "I'd give you a list of chores as long as my arm, but I don't want to ruin your relaxing day", particularly when he basically admits to the fact that his motivation for putting it that way was to guilt me into offering to do the bloody chores in the first place. I told him never to do that to me again -- calmly, but I suppose a little icily (not surprising, really, given that he ought to know by now how much I hate guilt and pressure) -- and he gave me this look and "Okaaay..." like I'm some hissy-fit-throwing lunatic. I really hate that.

Anyway, I've done about half the requested chores (cleaned the bathtub, hung up the wet laundry). I'll do the rest (making the bed, doing the washing up) later. Right now I'm in the process of doing some research for the Buffy RPG and chatting to friends. I haven't spoken to bluenote_bea in an age and I'm not going to cut short the conversation just because the bed needs making. Besides, I can wash up after dinner, when I'll be able to do it all at once.

As to the other thing, there's a whole slew of spells I want to 'research' (read: make up) to show Andy P before the next Buffy session. One I want to create takes the target's Strength and/or Dex down (haven't decided whether I want to hard-hit one Attribute or take down two at a go). One ups the caster's Perception for a day -- I'm thinking of moon-phasing that one or something to lower the Power Level. One's Jedi Mind Trick, but I'm not sure whether I want it to be limited to one suggestion or just take the target's Willpower down a few pegs. And the last one I've come up with so far is "The Flashbulb Effect". Basically, it'd be Violet shouting, "Shield your eyes!" and then FOOM! Big blinding burst of light -- very temporary but enough to necessitate adjustment time for anyone who still had their eyes open at the time.

And the research itself? Well, Google's all well and good, but I don't see why I should call up multiple herb-related searches when I can get all the information I need in one research session and copy/paste it into one easy-to-read file. So I'm pulling up herbs and their uses in just about every magical system I can think of (mostly voodoo and Wicca, to be fair, but what're you gonna do?). Then I'll have my nice tidy list and I'll be able to ref it whenever I want to make a new spell. Andy P really appreciates a well-made spell, and unusual ingredients do take a spell's Power Level down. Good to have a list.

Not much else going on today. Have every intention of sitting down in front of "Battle Royale 2" this evening (finally), but might wind up curling up with an old favourite like "A Fish Called Wanda" instead, or maybe some of those Angel eps. After all, it might be nice to return the box set to Kat at some point.