On a wing to a strange and wondrous place

Unloading the dishwasher in my parents' house this morning, I heard my mum calling from upstairs. I went to see what was up.

There was a robin in my childhood bedroom?? Perching on the curtain rod??? Fluttering around the room??? At one point it landed on a toy elephant; at one point it buzzed the top of my head. I hadn't realised that robins were able to hover, but I got a very close-up look at one hovering today!

I wasn't able to get great pictures - I didn't want to spend too much time messing around with my phone camera when I suspected the robin would prefer to leave immediately - but here are a couple of shots that will hopefully convey some element of the 'holy shit, there's a bird in the house' experience I just had:




An extremely confusing and magical experience! More magical for me than for the robin, I suspect. It's now flown safely out of the window.

I'm still in the process of losing my mind over a fake videogame, but I can spare a moment to talk about a real game that people have actually played. I recently finished Astro Bot!

This game is ludicrously charming. All the fun references to PlayStation hardware and games! All the cute little robot animals everywhere!

This is not a comparison I would have expected to draw, but it reminds me a little of Horizon Zero Dawn: a world where animals essential to the ecosystem have been replaced by robots with animal behaviours.

Being a little arsehole who punches everyone is both encouraged and surprisingly adorable in this game. You can also do a cute little dance at any time!

I unlocked a new star system and checked its name.

Riona: The Tentacle System?
Ginger: Ooh, Riona's favourite.

This is the reputation I have amongst my friends.

I entered one optional world, saw Teddie of Persona 4 being abducted by a spaceship, went 'ugh, Teddie?? I don't want to rescue you' and immediately left the planet.

I'm cuddling a robot cow!! This is the best game ever made.

I came across Pyramid Head, and, you know, I'm not sure I want to collect this bot.

Oh, God, I'd forgotten that the robots awaiting rescue twerk when you get close. You could have given me five years to prepare, and I still would not have been ready for Pyramid Head twerking in my face.

When I'm looking for something new to play, I often fixate on the idea of playing something I might end up writing fanfiction for; I tend not to pick up games that are light on story and character. Somewhere along the way, I forgot that it's also good to play a game just because it's fun. Not everything has to inspire creativity! Sometimes you just want to sit down and have a good time with a well-crafted videogame.

(And hang out with a bunch of cute little robots. I don't generally consider myself a big robot fan! But I find these ones enchanting.)