iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Please maintain physical distance, I'm not ready for the collapse of all reality into a single point.

Covid era signage to maintain physical distance

Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Something unexpectedly intimate about stripping paint from a second hand miniature. The daubs of color floating off like dead skin in the isopropyl alcohol, the apparently enamel primer turning to grease, staining my fingers as I visit each of their decisions in reverse, unraveling it, art melting.

Close up of murky water in a jar of paint thinner, a pile of unidentifiable miniature robot details.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Oak & Iron ships of the line, beefing out my little Spanish squadron to nine boats in all. The OSL on these looks comical under the bright lights of my painting desk, but I'm very happy with how the photos came out.

Oak & Iron miniature ships of the line, painted to appear glowing from deck lanterns at night.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

"You remember baseball, don't you, Meg? You loved baseball as a girl. Try on your old mitt, there you go. Oh look! Here's your old cap. No? What about this soccer ball, give it a little kick!"

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Bzaapp! The pile of shame shrinks by about half a pound. Man this thing is top heavy!

Games Workshop Slann mage priest painted with an OSL lightning effect.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

I got some fluorescent paints to do OSL on miniatures, but I was struggling with blue. Why so dingy and flat? I'm laughing after watching a Vince Venturella video on fluo paints. "They're great," he says, "except blue," and he literally flicks it off his desk and doesn't mention it again.

Close-up of YouTube miniature painter Vince Venturella flicking a useless bottle of blue fluorescent paint off his desk.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

We Bury The Dead was very well done, but I can see why it did poorly, I don't think zombie genre audiences are expecting films about grief and closure. It's not the heart-pounding horror-survival most of the genre is doing.

Movie poster for We Bury the Dead, a woman with an axe faces a running zombie.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

"Nearly done these ships, I should look up where the flags go." <twenty minutes later> "Okay, nevermind. How about 'the top'. That should be fine."

Image of a model ship Linus Napoleonic Shipyard's absolutely festooned with flags. I think there's like 24 on there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4-6rtA6rH8

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Everything about the arrangement is trying to get every newton of the wind's force along the ropes, into the masts, and down into the hull to slice the keel through the water. Either that or making it sturdy enough not to blow apart like match sticks, or to make the constant adjustments possible.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

But as the standing rigging on my tiny models starts to stiffen my delicate little masts, I'm realizing.. that's what they were for. This whole thing is a huge arrangement of kites and prayers, forces barely counterbalanced.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Ships have a truly insane amount of rope on them, they look like they were rigged by funnel spiders. I bet you could just glue thread to every of corners it would look pretty good (to amateurs like me).

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

I'm used to arcade-level ship physics - the wind blows from somewhere, but the whole thing moves forward in whatever direction it's pointing like a slow motorboat. But the more I learn, the more I'm getting a visceral feel of the forces at play. This was very unexpected!

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

My friend Kit has introduced me to Oak & Iron, 1/600 scale 'age of sail' sea battles. I'm trying to really go big on my first squadron, so now I'm at the step of adding rigging to these tiny ships. When I started, I had no idea how rigging worked at all!

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

The audiobook of 'We are Legion (We are Bob)' really leans into the 'comic store guy' vibe of the narrator, highlighting the unintentional comedy that all you need to sort out humanity's problems is to put one former programmer (with some project management experience, let me tell you) in charge.

Cover of 'We Are Legion (We Are Bob)' by Dennis E. Taylor, showing a science fiction battle in an asteroid belt. pew pew

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Toronto folks looking for some zany live theatre featuring Chinese fables, head to Pu Songling at the Crow's Theatre. Minimal set brilliantly used, very physical performances. Tons of inspiring, weird tales. Cuddle up with a hopping corpse and get a facelift from one of the Ten Kings of Hell!

Two cast members pose for a promotional poster for Pu Songling.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

We watched the old Interview with the Vampire, then Prime decided to auto-play the TV show as a chaser. That's a hell of a contrast. Seeing TV Lestat made it all make sense, that guy totally kills that role. I thought we were going to get some Murdoch Mysteries villain, then he speaks.. jesus.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

My gosh this is entertaining, right up my alley. Insane amounts of gaming fodder. Also kind of depressing, because the stakes to those involved are rendered so well. Bracing myself for a dismal ending.

Cover of the book, 'There is no antimimetics division' by 'qntm'.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Could you build a 2D computer out of the minute gravitational interaction between photons, then send it out into space to wonder why you did that to it?

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

Hey, East Toronto folks in need of a last-minute gift, I stumbled on a whole display of @portablecity.bsky.social treasures at 'Arts Market' on Danforth. By Crom is amazing of course, but also zines galore and these beautifully soft illustrated maps to snuggle while daydreaming about elves.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

The banal threats of surburban life, however, unfold against a different backdrop. The night forest is replaced by an endless landscape of waiting rooms, photocopier nooks, stained rec rooms, and deserted retail space.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Musing on the 'back rooms' as a manifestation of the collective unconscious. When we're asleep, we're psychically alert for potential threats around us. For most of human history, we've been surrounded by wilderness, so in our dreams we prowl a night-black forest, lush and threatening. 🧵

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

The picture this all leaves me with is that Krull is more like a far-future Westworld than an inhabited planet. What's happened is the dynasty who owns GLAIVE, Inc. took their fortune and settled down somewhere nice for a few dozen generations of LARPing.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

The other thing is the Beast himself. Okay, he's an alien overlord with an army of lobsters with rayguns, but his real motives are clear—he's here to get with Lyssa. He'll call off the whole invasion if she'll role-play with him.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

In fact, it seems everybody is magical on Krull. Forget the glaive, when you get married, the power of love gives you a personal flamethrower spell.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

This was supposed to be the film's E.T. + flying bikes moment, but it's such a mundanely accessible option that it raises more questions than triumphant emotions.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Thieves are clearly magical in Krull. Knights can't get from one castle to another without being wiped out by random encounters on a trip to the next castle over, but when the party needs to cross the planet, the thieves are all, "Well, what about flying horses?" "Oh yeah, good idea."

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

This is all so unlikely that the obvious explanation is that Summon Spouse is a level three Thief spell, but Kegan rolled a 1, causing a magical mishap. The Beast tweaks the result and makes the spell turn out badly, just like he did when the emerald seer tried to scry on him.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

There's a strange moment where the party runs out of food in the middle of nowhere, so the bandit leader suggests another bandit call on his "wife". She shows up half an hour later with food for twenty people, and a cute friend who is a changeling assassin working for the Beast.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Okay, so the other weird thing about Krull is that the population of the planet seems to be about 150. Sure, there's a castle full of "knights", but there's no town, no farmland, no villages, and nobody visiting from those places. There are kings, but no subjects. Bandits, but no travelers.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

2. Ergo's only other magical ability is, well, changing shape. Guess who else does that?

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

I'll indulge a fan theory here: Ergo the Magnificent is a changeling, originally a servant of the Beast. Here's the evidence: 1. He flies in like a flare. The only other time we see anything like this is when the Beast's castle explodes and flare rain down from the upper levels.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

There is something really interesting happening with up and down. When the Beast dies, the pieces of his fortress fall ~up~ into space, which is such a fun choice. But when any of his minions dies, their body is immediately sucked into the ground. I love both of these, no idea if it makes any sense.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Wise old Ynir tells the hero, "He'll know when to use it," which is apparently NOT to even the odds against alien troops with energy weapons, tough luck there. Nope, the legendary death frisbee is just to cut through walls and smash brickwork. For all the fanfare, this is basically holy C4.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Also, the humans have "the glaive", which is interesting because of how little screen time it gets. There's a big show of retrieving it from a mountaintop spa where it's stored in hot glycerine (to stop it rusting?), but then the wise mentor tells the hero NOT to practice with it.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

At the same time, this isn't all one-sided. The one-eyed Cyclops people are known to be from from another planet. But topping everything is the prophecy that the protagonists' foretold son is going to rule the.. galaxy. Not the three duchies, not the known world, but the whole ~galaxy~?!

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

This bonkers culture clash is done more or less straight up. The invading army has energy weapons, power armor, and can fly just like Harkonnen soldiers! They're deployed from a fortress that can be anywhere. The enslaved worlds of course never had a chance.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

First of all, the pastoral fantasy world in the movie is part of an interstellar fabric of worlds. The Beast isn't (just) a demon, he's a literal alien in a teleporting space fortress made of anti-gravity stones. But what's interesting is that this isn't a WTF moment for everyone involved.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Watched Krull (1983) last night, and it's interesting to treat its rather odd worldbuilding as ~incompletely revealed~ rather than slapdash. There are some really interesting things about it.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Trilemma Adventures Compendium is the DTRPG deal of the day! This 2x ENnie award-winning book has 55 two-page adventure sites that you can immediately drop into your fantasy setting, or use as part of the embedded campaign setting. All for a measly nine bucks?! www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/2...

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

The whole Balrog-fighting thing was just an act of frustration, Gandalf had no idea he was going to pull it off, but his 381st try through Moria was the first time he'd saved all four hobbits and he wasn't going to lose them now. The Valar were so surprised it worked, they gave him a save point.

Gandalf in Moria, saying, "Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgement. Honestly, I’ve strangled that little twerp more times than I can count but for some reason I can’t get past Osgiliath if he’s dead. Just wait until you hear his fucking voice, it’s the worst!"

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

But this gave me a fun idea: Lord of the Rings, but done like Edge of Tomorrow. Gandalf is tasked with defeating Sauron, has no idea how to go about it, but every time he fails the he gets ~sent back~ to try again.

Movie still from The Two Towers showing Gandalf being resurrected

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 06/11/2025

Someone on FB asked, 'Why didn't the Fellowship simply take a boat to Mordor'?; the first reply is that meeting Nazgul at sea would suck. That's a great image, Gandalf trying to fend them off with magic light while the fell beasts slowly rip bits off the mast.. 🧵

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

Accidental cosplay at the optometrist. She gave me these crazy steampunk lens holders, they looked so odd I had to take a selfie. But with the mask I was already wearing, I looked like a tusken raider!

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

"Van Horn" setups feel smalltime, relevant only to those stuck in the same tidal pool. Trapped in mediocrity for lack of a ticket out. "Nathan" setups feel like the isolation is a temporary containment of powerful forces that could explode onto the scene and affect everything.

"Boy Kavalier" sits with his bare feet up on his desk, still from Alien: Earth.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

I'm watching Alien: Earth, and reflecting on how some "isolated eccentric" setups are really tense, others drag. 🧵

Scene from Twin Peaks, in the van Horn brothers' office.

Domnhall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac on a tense elevator ride, movie still from Ex Machina.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

For a while I've had this idea that I could simplify Epic: Armageddon a little bit with some custom dice, but I've never tried making some. It's apparently pretty straight forward with blank dice and iron-on transfer paper. Well.. 🧵

First draft of my (so-called) simplified Epic: Armageddon dice.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Pavers (made out of old Warmaster bases) on putty was my least favorite, but as I was shaving it down after it had dried I realized that carving mostly dry putty was pretty easy. That's what got me onto the fourth option, making a putty patty, letting it cure, then carving with a sharp knife.

Two miniatures bases, each with a flat patty of epoxy putty. Very much like an oreo with half the cookie removed.

The cured epoxy patties, carved to look like rough stone brickwork with an engraved center panel.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

By the time I was done I'd tried four different techniques: 1. Making bricks out of sprue 2. Sculpting with soft putty 3. Laying thin plastic 'pavers' on a bed of putty (not shown) 4. Carving a patty of putty (my favorite)

Photo of a plastic miniature vampire, standing on a scratch built base made from 'bricks' carved from plastic sprue.

Photo of a plastic miniature werewolf, standing on a scratch built base made from 'bricks' sculpted from soft putty.

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Michael Prescott (Trilemma) @fuseboy.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

This is what it was all in aid of, making custom bases for this pack of vampires. This is the first time I've made bases like this, so there was a whole bunch of learning.

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