Windy Sort Of Stormy Friday
Apr. 1st, 2022 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickAs in, it rained really hard, but only in short bursts -- like, it was pouring when I left for work this morning, but then stopped by the time I GOT to work, then poured again for a little while this afternoon, and then again after I got home. Weather be weird, yo.
Anyway, I did do things today, and I have my report for you here:
Work – Quiet most of the day, though there was an unfortunate theme of “things taking longer than I expect,” notably with the GL this morning (more bits to gather than anticipated, plus a credit card call), and then with putting on the checks we received this evening (I was waiting to let my supervisor know about one, and he had a meeting that ran WAY late). Ended up leaving late because of it, ugh. Hate that. >( But I’m home now, and I have a nice non-cleaning weekend ahead of me, yay!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another day on the bike, finishing up the Oxventure “Faire Trial!” After telling all the people overfeeding Seal Gaiman that hey, the seal ate earlier, don’t be fooled by those big seal eyes, Egbert approached the final obstacle of the gauntlet – the intensely magical little old lady. Who proved to be the Ultimate Pamphleting Challenge – a grumpy old woman who does not like cold-callers or evangelicals trying to convert her, and can vaporize anyone who annoys her. Egbert’s response to this?
Sit down and ask her about herself. Like, genuinely starting a conversation. This completely threw the woman, who apparently does not get this much from the paladins going through the course, and she admitted to being lonely and having regrets. Egbert told her about the whole incident with Victor Dietrich (she thought it was horrible, but she said that while laughing, so. . .) as one of his own regrets, and then introduced her to Seal Gaiman, letting her give him some pets. The woman, amazed, asked if he intended to hand over a pamphlet – he said he would leave one, but she’s under no obligation, if she ends up using it for fire fuel, that’s fine. And so she took one.
THE CROWD WENT WILD. Apparently this woman has never accepted a pamphlet before. And he didn’t even need any magical help from his friends! :D Egbert even let her keep Seal Gaiman for a while, so he’d have someone looking after him while he went on to the final trial – The Arena! A giant coliseum just full of people, with a big sandy floor for fighting –
And, as the portcullis went up on the other side, a GIANT FUCKING MINOTAUR. Brawlin’ Stan, apparently – yeah, I thought that Egbert was going to fight a displacer beast, as per the carnival game Dob played, but no, the clue was the PLUSHY Dob won, which was, indeed, of Stan. (Prudence also got a giant novelty drinking horn with his image when Corazon went for snacks.) Naturally this situation required a bunch of initiative rolls to figure out how to deal with it. And Egbert actually ended up going pretty late in the roll order, which allowed his friends to really soften up Stan for him. In order:
1. Corazon, on his turn, used his Mage Hand spell to hit Stan STRAIGHT IN THE BALLS. Apparently you’re not SUPPOSED to be able to attack with it, but Johnny said “screw it, roll me a d6 and add one,” which gave Stan six points of testicular trauma.
2. Merilwen, next, transformed back into an elf – and cast Spike Growth on the area right in front of Stan. Spike Growth, as it turns out, not only creates giant horrible spikes that can really horribly rend someone’s flesh should they move through it, but it isn’t immediately OBVIOUS those spikes are there. (This is how the Meat Grinder of yore worked so well, I believe – well, that and the grease.) Stan failed the roll to see that the spikes were there and thus charged right through them – and Merilwen rolled enough damage that he basically COMPLETELY DESTROYED HIS HOOVES. Like, he was down to his ankles. Gah.
3. Dob, next, asked if the minotaur was a humanoid – Johnny, after some thought (technically they’re monstrosities, but they have human mothers) ruled that he was, or at least close enough.
Dob promptly cast “Crown of Madness” on the poor bastard (Johnny JUST failing their save), threw his plushy into the ring, and got Stan to attack it in a haze of madness instead of Egbert. The crowd, although rather disturbed by the Meat Grinder Part Deux, loved it as apparently the pounding he was giving that plushy was his signature move. XD
4. Egbert, finally getting a go, was like “wtf is happening” and decided to try and end things peacefully by getting Stan in a choke hold. Johnny ruled that he could try, but Egbert only got a nine on his roll and was instead swatted away as Stan continued wailing on the plushy.
5. And finally, we came to Prudence, who was like “I don’t know what to do, all of my spells would be really obviously me and explicitly evil!” I mean, she was all FOR Eldritch Blasting poor Stan, but she was still struggling with her urge not to give the game away for Egbert (though given "Crown of Madness," she was like "are we even still DOING stealth" too). . .
And then Luke suggested Prudence look into her Puzzle Palantir, aka Orb Baby, for guidance.
Prudence instead took it out AND LOBBED IT AT STAN, under the excuse that everyone’s throwing shit onto the coliseum floor now. She rolled well enough for the orb to roll up to Stan and just barely touch him –
And then SUCK HIM IN THROUGH A TINY HOLE, BASICALLY EATING HIM.
Uh – yeah, combat over. Naturally, the ref was all to ready to run in and declare this a disqualification with his red flags. . .but luck of luck, Stan’s manager ran in first and literally threw in the towel, declaring that Egbert had won, just PLEASE let Stan go! Poor Egbert was forced to admit he had no idea how to do that – and then, when the manager started bemoaning the loss of his merchandising deals, tried to set himself up as a new client. XD The ref furiously told Egbert that yes, he’d won on that technicality, he was still a paladin, but he personally NEVER wanted to see Egbert there again, so don’t forget your damn forms! Max backed this up, adding that Egbert needed to talk to HIM about merchandising, leave poor Stan’s manager alone. Egbert promised them to do better about forms and went to collect the now-very-stuffed Seal Gaiman, while Prudence got her happy eldritch Orb Baby back. End of adventure! XD That was fantastic – I’m really looking forward to the next stream now. :D
2. Finish editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica’s Vale Of Tears”: Check! *blows fanfare* With the final page-and-a-bit of Bertram Tung discovering that Alice has accidentally ghouled someone who is worth literally hundreds of millions of dollars, and thus would have been some hot fucking property for the local vampire elite otherwise, we have completed the first part of the “Londerland Bloodlines” series! (Well, except for final posting edits, but close enough!) Tops out at exactly 212 pages, nice. Current plan is to take a bit of time in April to finish up “Learn to Love Again,” then post this chapter to AO3, and then – well. Time for “Downtown Queensland!”
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Two-in, two-out. . .plus a distraction. . .
A) What I actually started with was a series of videos from Linkara – apparently his April Fool’s thing this year is an “analog horror” miniseries he’s been working on in secret, called “Winter of ‘83.” It’s about the town of Fawn Circle in Minnesota, and about how a bunch of the people living there just disappeared one January in 1983. The series is basically chunks of found footage from the subsequent investigation. What seems to be happening is something to do with a literally malicious winter? I’m not sure – I’ve only watched the first four segments so far – but the key takeaways are there’s a mansion on the edge of town (used to be the mayor’s residence) that is being rented by some science types and which seems to have some sort of winter storm in the basement? Also the town was expecting a big old blizzard, and already had inadequate snowplows to deal with it, and the local TV station, Channel 83, is dying because they have a terrible old transmitter that doesn’t reach very far and are struggling to stay relevant. Also people keep hijacking the signal – like some folks apparently trapped in the basement of the mansion. Also some cameraman’s girlfriend got possibly murdered by an evil snowman. Not sure. *shrug* I’ll continue with it tomorrow, they’re in a convenient playlist, but – yeah, given I’m already feeling creeped out, might be better to watch the rest of this in the light.
B) Fortunately, over in my actual Subs was stuff that was actually funny – like Fun With Shorts! Showing off an old previously-Paetron-exclusive, “Enforcing Rules and Procedures,” a plant supervisor training film! Which is mostly about one guy being called off to various handyman jobs in a plant without his supervisor’s permission because said supervisor is so rarely at his desk to give permission. First time got him in trouble, but SECOND time, one of the bigwigs showed up to personally thank him for abandoning his post and fixing a broken assembly line, meaning the supervisor’s tirade was stopped before it could even begin. There wasn’t really much in the way of actual training, but there was a lot in the way of “screw machine” with “Peter” or “feeder” attachment jokes. XD A true classic of the Shorts!
C) And then we had GrayStillPlays and more of Arm Simulator! That mobile game where you are a physics-defying arm performing various tasks ranging from playing physical Tetris and clearing some lines, to feeding your girlfriend a hot dog on a fork, to punching out your ex, to yanking your girlfriend out of a washing machine (or, if you’re Gray, trying to shove her further in), to SAVING YOUR DOG FROM BEING ABDUCTED BY ALIENS BY BACKHANDING THE SPACESHIP. Also, there was a few cat-themed levels all about breaking shit. Gray was deeply amused. XD As was I – horrible wiggle arm is great and I want more of it.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check-in-progress – left this a bit late thanks to the Linkara stuff and visiting TV Tropes. Some fandom stuff for Valice Multiverse, as I have no asks or anything – and a song I like from the radio for Song Saturday on Victor Luvs Alice because no only has the Wyrd Sisters tumblr not posted the latest video – I can’t either! The link turns red and refuses to embed. O.o Have no clue why. . .so it’s “Complete Mess” by 5 Seconds Of Summer instead. *shrug*
Yeah, been a bit of a distracted night, I'm afraid -- between TV Tropes, trying to keep up with various messages, and trying to get queues done. . .not a great focusing night. But I shall endeavor to get it all done before bedtime regardless! And as for tomorrow's to-dos:
1. Work on tumblr drafts, particularly FO4-themed Smiler
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs, the Plumbella in the Watch Later, and "Winter of '83"
3. Play Sims 4 and start Smiler's college "years"
. . .and since I'm giving myself a bit of a "break day" when it comes to writing after finishing "Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica's Vale of Tears," I guess we'll just keep it at that! Though we'll see how far I get through Linkara's new thing -- could be it'll disturb me too much and I'll have to look up plot synopses after the fact. *shrug* I am not immune to the psychological horror.
I'm also not immune to keeping up on friend chats and stuff, so time to head out -- night all!
Anyway, I did do things today, and I have my report for you here:
Work – Quiet most of the day, though there was an unfortunate theme of “things taking longer than I expect,” notably with the GL this morning (more bits to gather than anticipated, plus a credit card call), and then with putting on the checks we received this evening (I was waiting to let my supervisor know about one, and he had a meeting that ran WAY late). Ended up leaving late because of it, ugh. Hate that. >( But I’m home now, and I have a nice non-cleaning weekend ahead of me, yay!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another day on the bike, finishing up the Oxventure “Faire Trial!” After telling all the people overfeeding Seal Gaiman that hey, the seal ate earlier, don’t be fooled by those big seal eyes, Egbert approached the final obstacle of the gauntlet – the intensely magical little old lady. Who proved to be the Ultimate Pamphleting Challenge – a grumpy old woman who does not like cold-callers or evangelicals trying to convert her, and can vaporize anyone who annoys her. Egbert’s response to this?
Sit down and ask her about herself. Like, genuinely starting a conversation. This completely threw the woman, who apparently does not get this much from the paladins going through the course, and she admitted to being lonely and having regrets. Egbert told her about the whole incident with Victor Dietrich (she thought it was horrible, but she said that while laughing, so. . .) as one of his own regrets, and then introduced her to Seal Gaiman, letting her give him some pets. The woman, amazed, asked if he intended to hand over a pamphlet – he said he would leave one, but she’s under no obligation, if she ends up using it for fire fuel, that’s fine. And so she took one.
THE CROWD WENT WILD. Apparently this woman has never accepted a pamphlet before. And he didn’t even need any magical help from his friends! :D Egbert even let her keep Seal Gaiman for a while, so he’d have someone looking after him while he went on to the final trial – The Arena! A giant coliseum just full of people, with a big sandy floor for fighting –
And, as the portcullis went up on the other side, a GIANT FUCKING MINOTAUR. Brawlin’ Stan, apparently – yeah, I thought that Egbert was going to fight a displacer beast, as per the carnival game Dob played, but no, the clue was the PLUSHY Dob won, which was, indeed, of Stan. (Prudence also got a giant novelty drinking horn with his image when Corazon went for snacks.) Naturally this situation required a bunch of initiative rolls to figure out how to deal with it. And Egbert actually ended up going pretty late in the roll order, which allowed his friends to really soften up Stan for him. In order:
1. Corazon, on his turn, used his Mage Hand spell to hit Stan STRAIGHT IN THE BALLS. Apparently you’re not SUPPOSED to be able to attack with it, but Johnny said “screw it, roll me a d6 and add one,” which gave Stan six points of testicular trauma.
2. Merilwen, next, transformed back into an elf – and cast Spike Growth on the area right in front of Stan. Spike Growth, as it turns out, not only creates giant horrible spikes that can really horribly rend someone’s flesh should they move through it, but it isn’t immediately OBVIOUS those spikes are there. (This is how the Meat Grinder of yore worked so well, I believe – well, that and the grease.) Stan failed the roll to see that the spikes were there and thus charged right through them – and Merilwen rolled enough damage that he basically COMPLETELY DESTROYED HIS HOOVES. Like, he was down to his ankles. Gah.
3. Dob, next, asked if the minotaur was a humanoid – Johnny, after some thought (technically they’re monstrosities, but they have human mothers) ruled that he was, or at least close enough.
Dob promptly cast “Crown of Madness” on the poor bastard (Johnny JUST failing their save), threw his plushy into the ring, and got Stan to attack it in a haze of madness instead of Egbert. The crowd, although rather disturbed by the Meat Grinder Part Deux, loved it as apparently the pounding he was giving that plushy was his signature move. XD
4. Egbert, finally getting a go, was like “wtf is happening” and decided to try and end things peacefully by getting Stan in a choke hold. Johnny ruled that he could try, but Egbert only got a nine on his roll and was instead swatted away as Stan continued wailing on the plushy.
5. And finally, we came to Prudence, who was like “I don’t know what to do, all of my spells would be really obviously me and explicitly evil!” I mean, she was all FOR Eldritch Blasting poor Stan, but she was still struggling with her urge not to give the game away for Egbert (though given "Crown of Madness," she was like "are we even still DOING stealth" too). . .
And then Luke suggested Prudence look into her Puzzle Palantir, aka Orb Baby, for guidance.
Prudence instead took it out AND LOBBED IT AT STAN, under the excuse that everyone’s throwing shit onto the coliseum floor now. She rolled well enough for the orb to roll up to Stan and just barely touch him –
And then SUCK HIM IN THROUGH A TINY HOLE, BASICALLY EATING HIM.
Uh – yeah, combat over. Naturally, the ref was all to ready to run in and declare this a disqualification with his red flags. . .but luck of luck, Stan’s manager ran in first and literally threw in the towel, declaring that Egbert had won, just PLEASE let Stan go! Poor Egbert was forced to admit he had no idea how to do that – and then, when the manager started bemoaning the loss of his merchandising deals, tried to set himself up as a new client. XD The ref furiously told Egbert that yes, he’d won on that technicality, he was still a paladin, but he personally NEVER wanted to see Egbert there again, so don’t forget your damn forms! Max backed this up, adding that Egbert needed to talk to HIM about merchandising, leave poor Stan’s manager alone. Egbert promised them to do better about forms and went to collect the now-very-stuffed Seal Gaiman, while Prudence got her happy eldritch Orb Baby back. End of adventure! XD That was fantastic – I’m really looking forward to the next stream now. :D
2. Finish editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica’s Vale Of Tears”: Check! *blows fanfare* With the final page-and-a-bit of Bertram Tung discovering that Alice has accidentally ghouled someone who is worth literally hundreds of millions of dollars, and thus would have been some hot fucking property for the local vampire elite otherwise, we have completed the first part of the “Londerland Bloodlines” series! (Well, except for final posting edits, but close enough!) Tops out at exactly 212 pages, nice. Current plan is to take a bit of time in April to finish up “Learn to Love Again,” then post this chapter to AO3, and then – well. Time for “Downtown Queensland!”
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Two-in, two-out. . .plus a distraction. . .
A) What I actually started with was a series of videos from Linkara – apparently his April Fool’s thing this year is an “analog horror” miniseries he’s been working on in secret, called “Winter of ‘83.” It’s about the town of Fawn Circle in Minnesota, and about how a bunch of the people living there just disappeared one January in 1983. The series is basically chunks of found footage from the subsequent investigation. What seems to be happening is something to do with a literally malicious winter? I’m not sure – I’ve only watched the first four segments so far – but the key takeaways are there’s a mansion on the edge of town (used to be the mayor’s residence) that is being rented by some science types and which seems to have some sort of winter storm in the basement? Also the town was expecting a big old blizzard, and already had inadequate snowplows to deal with it, and the local TV station, Channel 83, is dying because they have a terrible old transmitter that doesn’t reach very far and are struggling to stay relevant. Also people keep hijacking the signal – like some folks apparently trapped in the basement of the mansion. Also some cameraman’s girlfriend got possibly murdered by an evil snowman. Not sure. *shrug* I’ll continue with it tomorrow, they’re in a convenient playlist, but – yeah, given I’m already feeling creeped out, might be better to watch the rest of this in the light.
B) Fortunately, over in my actual Subs was stuff that was actually funny – like Fun With Shorts! Showing off an old previously-Paetron-exclusive, “Enforcing Rules and Procedures,” a plant supervisor training film! Which is mostly about one guy being called off to various handyman jobs in a plant without his supervisor’s permission because said supervisor is so rarely at his desk to give permission. First time got him in trouble, but SECOND time, one of the bigwigs showed up to personally thank him for abandoning his post and fixing a broken assembly line, meaning the supervisor’s tirade was stopped before it could even begin. There wasn’t really much in the way of actual training, but there was a lot in the way of “screw machine” with “Peter” or “feeder” attachment jokes. XD A true classic of the Shorts!
C) And then we had GrayStillPlays and more of Arm Simulator! That mobile game where you are a physics-defying arm performing various tasks ranging from playing physical Tetris and clearing some lines, to feeding your girlfriend a hot dog on a fork, to punching out your ex, to yanking your girlfriend out of a washing machine (or, if you’re Gray, trying to shove her further in), to SAVING YOUR DOG FROM BEING ABDUCTED BY ALIENS BY BACKHANDING THE SPACESHIP. Also, there was a few cat-themed levels all about breaking shit. Gray was deeply amused. XD As was I – horrible wiggle arm is great and I want more of it.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check-in-progress – left this a bit late thanks to the Linkara stuff and visiting TV Tropes. Some fandom stuff for Valice Multiverse, as I have no asks or anything – and a song I like from the radio for Song Saturday on Victor Luvs Alice because no only has the Wyrd Sisters tumblr not posted the latest video – I can’t either! The link turns red and refuses to embed. O.o Have no clue why. . .so it’s “Complete Mess” by 5 Seconds Of Summer instead. *shrug*
Yeah, been a bit of a distracted night, I'm afraid -- between TV Tropes, trying to keep up with various messages, and trying to get queues done. . .not a great focusing night. But I shall endeavor to get it all done before bedtime regardless! And as for tomorrow's to-dos:
1. Work on tumblr drafts, particularly FO4-themed Smiler
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs, the Plumbella in the Watch Later, and "Winter of '83"
3. Play Sims 4 and start Smiler's college "years"
. . .and since I'm giving myself a bit of a "break day" when it comes to writing after finishing "Londerland Bloodlines: Santa Monica's Vale of Tears," I guess we'll just keep it at that! Though we'll see how far I get through Linkara's new thing -- could be it'll disturb me too much and I'll have to look up plot synopses after the fact. *shrug* I am not immune to the psychological horror.
I'm also not immune to keeping up on friend chats and stuff, so time to head out -- night all!
