Well, I just got through with what I've been calling "a werewolf weekend," where I tried to watch a werewolf movie every night. So I've seen Cursed and Ginger Snaps, now. Cursed was actually surprisingly good. The werewolf looked decent and the movie was a laugh riot, not because it was terrible, but because it was actually well-written to be so. Between the "How did you know?" conversation (which Sapph called, making me laugh uncontrollably through the whole thing), to the "best part of being a fairy" line, there were parts that you just couldn't help but burst out in laughter at. The end was kind of eh, but I guess not everybody is like Sapph and I, rooting for the happy werewolf family.

Ginger Snaps was a totally different sort of werewolf movie. Much more of a thinker than what I was expecting. And now I have learned a disconcerting amount of information about PMS that I'd hoped to avoid amassing until I had a good reason to do so. (For those of you who haven't been paying attention, that means "until I have a girlfriend and must deal with it first hand.") It wasn't really bad, I mean, how often do you shout "listen to the drug dealer!" during a movie? It was just very different than what I expected to see. And if you wanted a movie where most of the characters seem to be on drugs, this is one for you. Only the father seemed to be a normal human being. The mother was on some sort of crazy concoction, like taking Zoloft™ and meth at the same time or something. She was insane. I will see the sequel out of more than a dedication to the sub-genre, and I might rewatch this one. I'll bet it'll seem way more interesting to me now that I know what to expect.

In other news, I'm way behind in homework (like usual), putting a lot of stress on me for Spycraft this week (again). I'm trying to stat up "the Ninja," a European mercenary who pretty much fights like a huge ninja ("two ninjas taped together to make one big ninja"). Only he's got an invisibility suit and an electrified nine-ring broadsword. He's designed to actually be able to handle my players, most specifically Donovan and Rattlesnake. If all goes well, they'll get a big showdown with him while the others are distracted with other business. But before I can do that, I have to get the ninja ready (including naming him once and for all), and redo a batch of rules, including the Shinobi "turn invisible" power, which is totally broken. I wish SpyCraft 2.0 was solid. It's got some great parts, and it's a quality system, but it's incredibly frustrating for me, because I used SpyCraft 1's frontloaded weirdness for everything. This is almost all missing from SpyCraft 2.0, and what's there tends to be very badly broken. And they can't for the life of them publish any books on time. <sigh>

Finally, I've about got the script reworked for Sapph for the prologue on our new project. I had it done, but it was essentially written in XML, which I found very clear, but he did not, so I'm rewriting it in a more traditional form. I find it more difficult to follow, but I'm a programmer, not an artist, so I'll do what he wants with it. I'm getting worried about my abilities for this project. I mean, I'm pretty good at manipulating reactions, just ask my players. I had them jumping at shadows two missions ago, even doing stuff that I imitated as, "I am Galstaff, hitman of light! I intimidate the darkness!" And they're still freaked out enough to pull their guns when they hear the laughter of children. Good times. So anyway, I can manipulate reactions just fine, but I am significantly less sure of my abilities in manipulating emotions. And if I'm going to be writing this project properly, I have to be able to manipulate the emotions of the readers. Now, don't take that the wrong way, everybody does that, that's part of what makes a good story, the fact that you feel for the characters. I just don't know if I can do it. I guess we'll see.

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