kingandy | Katy And Andy Save Maelstrom

We saved the day! Well, the photoshoot at least. Thanks to us they had enough people to actually take some photos, and (at one point) a camera with which to take them. As I type I am waiting for said pictures to upload, then I shall mail Lex to let her know so that she can grab them. This may happen tomorrow. Many thanks to

stsquad for giving me webspace, NTL refuse to let me upload that large a file on the basis that they are twats --

-- Wait, I've missed out an important detail. Oh yes! Today

bacony and I went to a photoshoot for nouveau LRP concern, Maelstrom (site not yet live at time of writing). It was great fun. I got to dress up in all manner of posh kit and makeup - including a long naval coat of the type I was thinking of for one of my characters, and I'm quite pleased to see they really do exist. People kept telling me I looked great, really great, no really, and there was much marching up and down in front of video cameras and other recording devices. Our only reward for this was the thought that maybe, just maybe, we will look good enough to be put into the promotional materials. If all goes well we will be included in the actual player's guide, then all manner of frothing fanboys will be looking at us at the point of ejaculation. I think that's a good thing, though by this point I've rather lost track.

There were six of us in total, which meant we were able to set up several different costume groups and shoot them all in one go, then pop back to the changing room for changing ... apparently the day before there were only three or four peoples so things were a lot more hectic. We were startled to learn that people are not more eager to get in on this. Photoshoot! Promotional materials! Touch the hem of the Volcano God's tunic! (The Volcano God was not himself there but he spoke through

grendelchild to wish us well.)

Near the end of the shoot the (spare) batteries on the digital camera ran out. Luckily I was able to produce my own digital camera from the folds within my voluminous cloak. Had I not, we would not have been able to take any photographs of the Bird People, which would have annoyed me since I had got all made-up by that point.

Katy bought me lunch and dinner, which seemed fair considering that I drove her down there. I haven't worked out exactly how much petrol I used but it probably came out about even. The most annoying part of the day happened at McDonald's Restaurant, in the toilets - they had some bizarre sink-analogue things that operate similar to those intelligent hand driers. Only these didn't just notice when you put your hand under them and turn themselves on. They noticed your hand-insertion, then doled out a precise amount of liquid soap - presumably calculated by analysing your hands and determining exactly how dirty you were - then directed a high-powered jet of superheated water onto your hands. This continued until it decided you'd had enough water to clean yourself, at which point it started blowing on your hands to dry them. The whole process was very disturbing and wrong.

That aside - we saved the day! And now the upload has finished, it is time for bed. Boing.

Update: Seems that some people have located the pictures ... I shan't move them unless Alex complains, but I will warn you that the pictures are large. The whole lot comes to about 15MB, so if you're on dialup you might find it quicker to wait for the January mailshot.