UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

9 thoughts on “558 – Cotton Clad Calamity”

  1. Raznaak

    Yup, he’s a bastard XD

  2. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Are those pajamas available in XXXL in the gift shop?

  3. Otaku

    It’s been a while, so let me ask: Did we get a reason for him to WANT Susie dead? Not to backseat, but if we didn’t, I’m worried were about to move into “Stupid Evil” territory. Now, stupid happens, don’t get me wrong. It’s not bad storytelling for that to be the case here.

    You’ve just done a good job NOT having that be a driving factor, so the “Kill off the stars of my successful reality TV show.” seems shortsighted, otherwise. Oh, I guess I could be mistaken about the in-story reality TV show’s success. Like, if the company behind them is losing money, or they think a change in management at the ranch would make the whole thing more popular/profitable, then I can see the above scenario happening as well.

    I REALLY think I’m just forgetting something important, but that I don’t have time to deep dive to remind me of, hence the comment. >_<

    1. Deoxy

      It certainly has been stretched out over quite a while, but there have definitely been hints from quite near the beginning that whoever is running the reality TV show definitely wants her dead.

      But I certainly don’t recall any reason why.

      1. Clint

        Yeah it’s fair to not remember since it’s been a hot minute (many, many minutes) but if you feel like a refresher the most relevant bits would be the beginning of Episode 8 and the end of Episode 15. We haven’t explicitly spelled out exactly what The Exec means by his “side hustle” or who was on the other end of that phone call, though.

        I’m hoping that when the whole thing is eventually available it will make sense, or at least enough sense to have hung this narrative on.

        1. Otaku

          Thanks for the replies, Deoxy and Clint. Yeah, I’d totally forgotten about those things. Good to know!

  4. Evervigilant

    Seems about time for the two people who aren’t there to make a surprise entrance as the ace Susie didn’t even know she had.

  5. Scarsdale

    There’s still 3-5 people on her side that might be planning something. This guy is a megalomaniac with a god complex, so letting him think he’s the sharpest tool in the shed sets him up for a fall. Everything depends on those cameras, and I suspect their little stop over by the charging coffins had something to do with her actual plan, not the one the a-hole thinks it is.

  6. lyra

    Really enjoyed the opening of Zombie Ranch. I like the combination of the western setting with the zombie concept, it gives the story a really distinctive atmosphere. I’m a freelance illustrator and animator, and I’d be interested in seeing how some of these scenes could translate into motion, especially as a short animated teaser or character scene.

    If you’re ever interested in something like that, you can reach me here:

    IG: eve_verse_
    Email: [contact.lilaclines@gmail.com](mailto:contact.lilaclines@gmail.com)
    Discord: Lyralilac_

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558 – Cotton Clad Calamity
Posted on August 26, 2026 by Dawn

What would you call this? Armchair assassination? Merk-from-home?

Well, Suzie ain't dead (or undead) quite yet, so we'll just have to see if his gloating is justifiable.

Suzie meets Cthulhu

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Clint

So I mentioned the Secret World Legends launch in last week’s blog, and not to be ones to encourage everyone else to run off the cliff while I stay back, Dawn and I spent a bit of quality time with it. She pretty much was able to recreate her character from the old version of the game, but while I was happy enough recreating the appearance of my own former character, the new gameplay for his concept was frustrating. I found myself falling back on the side vanity project where, noting that SWL has but one body type for ladies and it’s a pretty skinny one, I tried my hand at creating Suzie. And then Suzie ended up proving more fun to play, and since running multiple alternate characters in SWL still isn’t all that great (and with some of the new free-to-play modifications is arguably worse), well, there I was guiding our intrepid zombie rancher through killing a ton of zombies. Not as much of a buyer’s economy for zeds in The Secret World.

A nice feature of the revamp though was that Funcom does seem to have followed through on their pledge to make content more accessible, insofar as allowing for more solo or small group play. They’re not even calling it an MMORPG any more, instead opting for the term “shared world action RPG”. SWARPG? (‘Scuse me.)

Belching jokes aside, what this meant in practice is that Dawn and I were able to team up and finally successfully run through a “dungeon” scenario we’d never been able to get through before because frankly we’re just antisocial like that. And that was pretty damn cool, because we got to watch this happen (and you’ll get to listen to Dawn’s commentary):

Don’t worry, Suzie survived that crash and proceeded to shoot that overgrown octopus in the face.

Now it’s not really Cthulhu, the game calls it an “Ur-Draug” and it’s actually a fairly small specimen of one… yet ’tis still impressively large and intimidating to fight, and it’s kind of cool that the game will insert your custom character into dramatically rendered cutscenes like the above.

Uniquely mind-shattering? No, but that’s cool, too. If a game allows you to customize your character then personally I think one of the joys it should be providing is getting to watch that character fight and explore and, yes, occasionally try not to get eaten by Cthulhu. It’s of course fun of a different sort to play, say, Geralt of the Witcher series, and they might all still call you Shepherd regardless of how you look, but I wonder if y’all out there are of a mind with me that customization can definitely add something to a game experience? And if so, what are your tendencies? Do you try to create yourself? Someone you know? A favorite fictional character, whether your own or another’s creation? Just something as weird as possible? And do you hold with a similar choice across various genres and settings, or do you change it up?

Meanwhile, if you’re curious Dawn has uploaded the entire “dungeon run” to her Twitch channel, though just as a warning it’s about an hour long and not always riveting — in particular she ends up a distant spectator through about half of the final battle, which was unfortunate as you will only occasionally be able to see Suzie shooting Cthulhu–err, the Ur-Draug–in the face. You’ll also only rarely be able to hear me since I wasn’t on mic, just talking to her from across the room. But there’s plenty of seaweed-strewn undead and other nasties to give you a taste of how SWL plays.

Twitch TV video – “Dead in the Water”