Pretty Chill Sunday
Jun. 5th, 2022 11:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickAlways like a nice, simple day off. Especially one where I make good progress on my to-dos:
1. Keep up with the FO4 Playthrough Progression: Check! As per my play session today, this was all about Victor, Piper, and Alice’s adventures in Goodneighbor – from watching Finn get stabbed, to going shopping, to hitting the Memory Den, to renting a room at the Hotel Rexford and discovering the Vault-Tec guy who got Victor to sign up for Vault 111 there. Choice bits only available in the fanfic verse were Alice confusing Hancock by being a talking sleeping bag comparing him to an Anarch baron after he knifed Finn for backtalking him and threatening Victor (aka the funny bit), and Victor having an even worse time at The Memory Den than in canon and actually breaking the bubble top by pounding on it in a panic attack (aka the sad bit – though it is followed up by him meeting Kent Connolly and getting to talk Silver Shroud with him, at least). Have left it off with Victor and company gearing up to talk to Hancock about Skinny Malone (and discover they walked right past where Nick was being held)! This’ll be fun. . .
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs, get something out of the Watch Later, and watch Jon's latest Fallout video: Check, though technically that last one got substituted in a very depressing way –
A) Started with the depressing one – Jon doing a very quick update about why there’s no Fallout video this week, because he’s mourning the death of his cat, Tabby. :( Poor thing was seventeen years old, had some chronic health conditions, and after a brief recovery, was doing so poorly that he, Claire, and the vet agreed it was better to put her to sleep. He’s happy that his kitty gets to live on through all the references and jokes he made about her on the channel, but as you might imagine, he’s not really in the right headspace to do funny Fallout videos right now. Totally understandable, poor guy. :(
B) Then, after supper, we moved onto the less-depressing OXBox video from the old WL – “VAMPIRE PARTY GONE WRONG | We Betray Everyone in Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong!” This was Jane playing the new game Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong, which has three protagonists working for the Prince of Boston, Hazel, to determine what caused a Code Red – a nasty Masquerade breach – in her city around the time of an important party to celebrate an alliance with the local Tremere Chantry. The majority of the video was focused on the adventures of Emem, the Toreador, as she tracked down all the clues to see if Journey, the party planner, was responsible for breaching the Masquerade to set up the party. Along the way, she accidentally killed a blood doll by feeding from him twice in succession, followed multiple trails of golden sparkles using her Auspex, did some light filing (or unfiling, as she was taking stuff), wandered around being catty to people, and ultimately decided to take Journey to see the Prince despite the fact that it might result in her death. And then they played as Leysha, the Malkavian, and went around ransacking everyone’s apartments, skulking around invisibly to spy on people, and stealing the documents that proved Journey was innocent and refusing to hand them over to the Prince. Because Andy and Mike were determined to throw everyone under the bus. XD It was a fun little romp, with Andy constantly pretending to misunderstand VTM stuff and saying vampires needed dining tables to lay out victims, and Mike complaining he needed to get bitten before the male-pattern baldness REALLY set in and that he didn’t think undeath would lead to this much filing and passive-aggression. And poor Jane just trying to get on with business while they urged her to take the stupidest options at every turn. XD Dunno if I’d call it the most fun game in the world, but I am intrigued – especially because of the Boston setting. Should I play this just for a bit of background on the situation in Boston that I could later use for anything I might write for Fallout of Darkness? I mean, it does at least establish Boston WAS a Camarilla city. . .
C) Then it was over to the Subs for Call Me Kevin and “Being a good student in Bully is hilarious!” Yes, Kevin is once again playing games incorrectly, and today he played Bully as a studious and dutiful student! XD “Studious and dutiful student” meaning going to every class and trying his best to succeed; trying to help one of the local nerds return his library books; refusing to punch bullies tormenting said nerd until it became obvious that he couldn’t progress in the mission without doing so – and then refusing to punch them until they attacked said nerd (and THEN kicking them repeatedly in the nuts); invading a bathroom and accidentally walking in on a tryst so the nerd could have a pee; changing into a muscle shirt (as in, a t-shirt with muscle patterns printed on it) and his tighty-whiteys to do some missions in the Girls’ Dorm (like stealing something from a cheerleader, or taking back a girl’s confiscated diary from the staff room – AFTER downing twenty sodas in a row) and get kisses; avoiding the prefects trying to get him to change back into his uniform; playing sniper for a guy trying to make a speech in front of his fellow nerds (and failing the first time because he couldn’t resist smacking HIM with the spitballs); ending up in a skeleton costume for Halloween and throwing a bunch of eggs at the guy asking him to throw eggs at other students; getting a bunch of flaming dog poo to put in front of the angry gym teacher’s room before pulling the fire alarm; and finally becoming the Red Ninja and learning how to spell “missile.” XD Yeah, a rather wobbly definition of “studious and dutiful,” but he did try as hard as he could in every class minigame! Plus he got two kisses, the respect of the nerds, and a cool muscle shirt. XD Kevin, what are we going to do with you. . .
D) And finally, we had GrayStillPlays and “Cursed things to do in happy wheels!” Which, yes, as you imagine, is more Happy Wheels. XD This one was interesting because there was only a handful of boards – you had The Required Bottleflip, which had things like Spleen’s Explosive Watermelons, a Rocket House, a Tunnel Monster, and a secret win that directed Gray to another level, the “Final Boss” level if you would (made by a bunchy of Gray’s fans); said “Final Boss” level, which had multiple ways to win, all of them EXTREMELY PAINFUL (Gray braved a harpoon run on wobbly logs, did a nasty spike slide, and launched himself over a fan to avoid being blown back to the start for a win – and also cannoned himself up top to THE WORLD’S LONGEST HW CRAWL, dragging himself forward on his single arm while the board creator talked about wanting to make HW levels that felt less samey and his hopes for his own top-down RPG, for a win – seriously, managing the cannons and then doing the crawl was most of the video); a triangle/circles/ball fall (where you had to avoid being impaled by triangles, work your way through the increasingly-tiny circles, then wriggle your way through the soccer ball pits while giant fans blew you upward); and a Black Friday Shopping board (where the goal was to get as much stuff for 90% off as possible – but not too much, because otherwise the game just stopped running). XD That second board REALLY showed off just how much pain the community is willing to put him through in these boards, and just how much pain Gray is willing to take to beat them. And that’s what makes his videos and his channel great. XD
3. Play Fallout 4 and send Victor and Piper to explore Goodneighbor: Check! Started Victor and Piper’s day with Victor checking out the plaque on the Old State House (the base of operations for Hancock and Goodneighbor), then sending him inside to get threatened by Finn. And then watch Finn get stabbed by Hancock for trying to pull the “insurance” grift and mouthing off to him afterwards. Victor was rather stunned by the whole “killing” thing, and admitted it all sounded like anarchy, which Hancock was fine with and Piper liked. . . Meaning the minute the conversation with Hancock ended, Piper’s second proper affinity chat started! :D I had Victor work through all her stories about being poisoned by crooked caravaners and nearly being killed by the Children of Atom, then pulled a quick outfit change and a quicksave before the final dialogue option to try a flirt. The first time, it didn’t go through, so I decided on one reload. . .
Second time was the charm! :D Piper got adorably flustered and I was very happy. I put Victor back in his regular gear after that and sent him shopping – he flubbed the persuasion check with KLE0 about her status as a “womanly robot,” but I decided to just go with that one. XD Sold KLE0 most of Victor’s gathered Legendary Gear, like the Punishing Chest Piece and whatnot – but I ended up keeping the Staggering Automatic Laser Pistol. That might be useful. Also got some more ammo off her, then poked around at the nearby guns workbench to see if there were any upgrades I wanted to do – everything is REALLY limited by adhesive stores, I must say! Then it was over to Daisy, where Victor expressed surprise anyone would scream at her before selling her some food and drugs he didn’t need and picking up tape and oil before doing some more cooking. I also went upstairs in both shops just for a poke, and found the “Join The Railroad” tape in KLE0’s “house” – so Victor shall be intrigued by that shortly!
And after that – Memory Den time! After Piper had finished interviewing some of the drifters, of course. :p Victor chatted with Irma and ended up paying 100 caps to relive seeing his wife get shot, poor guy. :( It’s for fic purposes, Victor! Also XP. At least Irma and Dr. Amari were extremely apologetic afterward. After a quick wander around the building, I sent Victor back outside, where he watched Hancock’s speech on the Institute before grabbing his new Heavy Combat Armor Right Arm and Heavy Metal Left Leg off Piper so he could improve them on his portable workbench and put them on as new regular gear. Very glad to find that his previous improvements to his old combat armor right arm could be put on the new heavy one – even if Victor’s REALLY lacking for carryweight now! Oof. . .
Not making things any easier was Victor ending up absolutely exhausted after all that crafting. I had him drag himself over to the Hotel Rexford to rent a bed (after Clair and Fred stopped arguing about chems, anyway), and sent him upstairs to get to his room –
And who should come out of one of the doors but the Vault-Tec Rep ghoul! For some reason I thought he had to be specifically triggered by a dialogue option, but nope! He expressed shock at seeing Victor, who did the same – Victor explained about the cryo pods, and Vault-Tec Rep was none too happy about it. However, Victor felt sorry for the guy after he said that no one wanted anyone with 200 years of Vault-Tec sales experience, and – with the help of another clothing change, and a quicksave for good measure – got him to go back to Sanctuary. And then it was time for bed in our own rented room, yay!
. . .woke up to a message saying Tenpines Bluff is under attack. *facepalm* Which is MILES away right now. Sorry, guys, I think you’re gonna have to settle this one on your own! I left it off with Victor having just exited the Rexford to see two of the Neighborhood Watch having gunned down a synth spy. I think next time, we may briefly visit Hancock, then it’s over to Park Street Station to actually save Nick!
4. Work on tumblr drafts: Check! Got the Victor Luvs Alice stuff done before lunch – caught up on dashboard and tags, did the text for the three posts comprising the “Smiler celebrates Harvestfest” Chill Save update, then did another post for more Valicer situations that are currently living rent-free in my head (like poor Victor getting crushed when both Alice AND Smiler sit on him like nosy cats, or Smiler being puzzled when their partners don’t automatically make fun of them for liking pineapple on pizza until Alice reminds them they didn’t grow up normally and aren’t aware that they “should”). So that’s all good! :) And then, this evening, got a few things done for Valice Multiverse – two ask replies in the queue, and a picture of a shirtless Victor someone did in the drafts. XD You all know what I like!
5. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike tonight for the Mandated Break Between Oxventures! XD Ended up watching, in order, The English Simmer look back at one of her old LPs for The Sims 3 Supernatural, with a focus on the werewolf character in it, Tate, now that Sims 4 Werewolves is on its way (she roasted her previous self for trying to pretend to be straight and for being kinda awkward, The Sims 3 for having honestly terrible werewolves – they don’t even LOOK like werewolves, they look like hairy humans with a bit of an underbite! – and Tate for being kind of a shit werewolf); the other half of the “8 tips for Alton Towers” video (these included not visiting Towers Trading, the big gift shop at the entrance, at the END of the day, because that’s when EVERYONE comes in; try to delay lunch until after one in the afternoon to avoid restaurant crowds; and join a long queue right before the park closes – they may stop letting people in after closing, but they will guarantee you a ride before they shut down the coaster); and a rewatch of the Alton Towers 40th Anniversary animation. :) Fun stuff all around!
Additionally:
-->Lovely day all day today (warm without being humid, though it was kinda windy), so we did indeed get to play beanbags – and I had the best day, winning three out of five games! :D Nice turnaround from yesterday! Poor Mom, though – she had a REALLY off day and lost EVERY SINGLE GAME. Ooof. Final scores were me W-W-2-2-W; Dad 2-2-W-W-2; Mom 3-3-3-3-3. Better luck tomorrow, Mom!
-->Answered my friend Ace’s latest FF.net PM, as is per usual for Sundays now~ Keeping up with it all!
*nods* Good, productive day, I'm happy. And now it's time to wrap up, because work tomorrow. Though at least it's a slightly SHORTER work day -- graduation season, so we have a couple of early release days, and tomorrow's one of them. Only a half-hour early, but it's something! *shrug* Night all!
1. Keep up with the FO4 Playthrough Progression: Check! As per my play session today, this was all about Victor, Piper, and Alice’s adventures in Goodneighbor – from watching Finn get stabbed, to going shopping, to hitting the Memory Den, to renting a room at the Hotel Rexford and discovering the Vault-Tec guy who got Victor to sign up for Vault 111 there. Choice bits only available in the fanfic verse were Alice confusing Hancock by being a talking sleeping bag comparing him to an Anarch baron after he knifed Finn for backtalking him and threatening Victor (aka the funny bit), and Victor having an even worse time at The Memory Den than in canon and actually breaking the bubble top by pounding on it in a panic attack (aka the sad bit – though it is followed up by him meeting Kent Connolly and getting to talk Silver Shroud with him, at least). Have left it off with Victor and company gearing up to talk to Hancock about Skinny Malone (and discover they walked right past where Nick was being held)! This’ll be fun. . .
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs, get something out of the Watch Later, and watch Jon's latest Fallout video: Check, though technically that last one got substituted in a very depressing way –
A) Started with the depressing one – Jon doing a very quick update about why there’s no Fallout video this week, because he’s mourning the death of his cat, Tabby. :( Poor thing was seventeen years old, had some chronic health conditions, and after a brief recovery, was doing so poorly that he, Claire, and the vet agreed it was better to put her to sleep. He’s happy that his kitty gets to live on through all the references and jokes he made about her on the channel, but as you might imagine, he’s not really in the right headspace to do funny Fallout videos right now. Totally understandable, poor guy. :(
B) Then, after supper, we moved onto the less-depressing OXBox video from the old WL – “VAMPIRE PARTY GONE WRONG | We Betray Everyone in Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong!” This was Jane playing the new game Vampire the Masquerade: Swansong, which has three protagonists working for the Prince of Boston, Hazel, to determine what caused a Code Red – a nasty Masquerade breach – in her city around the time of an important party to celebrate an alliance with the local Tremere Chantry. The majority of the video was focused on the adventures of Emem, the Toreador, as she tracked down all the clues to see if Journey, the party planner, was responsible for breaching the Masquerade to set up the party. Along the way, she accidentally killed a blood doll by feeding from him twice in succession, followed multiple trails of golden sparkles using her Auspex, did some light filing (or unfiling, as she was taking stuff), wandered around being catty to people, and ultimately decided to take Journey to see the Prince despite the fact that it might result in her death. And then they played as Leysha, the Malkavian, and went around ransacking everyone’s apartments, skulking around invisibly to spy on people, and stealing the documents that proved Journey was innocent and refusing to hand them over to the Prince. Because Andy and Mike were determined to throw everyone under the bus. XD It was a fun little romp, with Andy constantly pretending to misunderstand VTM stuff and saying vampires needed dining tables to lay out victims, and Mike complaining he needed to get bitten before the male-pattern baldness REALLY set in and that he didn’t think undeath would lead to this much filing and passive-aggression. And poor Jane just trying to get on with business while they urged her to take the stupidest options at every turn. XD Dunno if I’d call it the most fun game in the world, but I am intrigued – especially because of the Boston setting. Should I play this just for a bit of background on the situation in Boston that I could later use for anything I might write for Fallout of Darkness? I mean, it does at least establish Boston WAS a Camarilla city. . .
C) Then it was over to the Subs for Call Me Kevin and “Being a good student in Bully is hilarious!” Yes, Kevin is once again playing games incorrectly, and today he played Bully as a studious and dutiful student! XD “Studious and dutiful student” meaning going to every class and trying his best to succeed; trying to help one of the local nerds return his library books; refusing to punch bullies tormenting said nerd until it became obvious that he couldn’t progress in the mission without doing so – and then refusing to punch them until they attacked said nerd (and THEN kicking them repeatedly in the nuts); invading a bathroom and accidentally walking in on a tryst so the nerd could have a pee; changing into a muscle shirt (as in, a t-shirt with muscle patterns printed on it) and his tighty-whiteys to do some missions in the Girls’ Dorm (like stealing something from a cheerleader, or taking back a girl’s confiscated diary from the staff room – AFTER downing twenty sodas in a row) and get kisses; avoiding the prefects trying to get him to change back into his uniform; playing sniper for a guy trying to make a speech in front of his fellow nerds (and failing the first time because he couldn’t resist smacking HIM with the spitballs); ending up in a skeleton costume for Halloween and throwing a bunch of eggs at the guy asking him to throw eggs at other students; getting a bunch of flaming dog poo to put in front of the angry gym teacher’s room before pulling the fire alarm; and finally becoming the Red Ninja and learning how to spell “missile.” XD Yeah, a rather wobbly definition of “studious and dutiful,” but he did try as hard as he could in every class minigame! Plus he got two kisses, the respect of the nerds, and a cool muscle shirt. XD Kevin, what are we going to do with you. . .
D) And finally, we had GrayStillPlays and “Cursed things to do in happy wheels!” Which, yes, as you imagine, is more Happy Wheels. XD This one was interesting because there was only a handful of boards – you had The Required Bottleflip, which had things like Spleen’s Explosive Watermelons, a Rocket House, a Tunnel Monster, and a secret win that directed Gray to another level, the “Final Boss” level if you would (made by a bunchy of Gray’s fans); said “Final Boss” level, which had multiple ways to win, all of them EXTREMELY PAINFUL (Gray braved a harpoon run on wobbly logs, did a nasty spike slide, and launched himself over a fan to avoid being blown back to the start for a win – and also cannoned himself up top to THE WORLD’S LONGEST HW CRAWL, dragging himself forward on his single arm while the board creator talked about wanting to make HW levels that felt less samey and his hopes for his own top-down RPG, for a win – seriously, managing the cannons and then doing the crawl was most of the video); a triangle/circles/ball fall (where you had to avoid being impaled by triangles, work your way through the increasingly-tiny circles, then wriggle your way through the soccer ball pits while giant fans blew you upward); and a Black Friday Shopping board (where the goal was to get as much stuff for 90% off as possible – but not too much, because otherwise the game just stopped running). XD That second board REALLY showed off just how much pain the community is willing to put him through in these boards, and just how much pain Gray is willing to take to beat them. And that’s what makes his videos and his channel great. XD
3. Play Fallout 4 and send Victor and Piper to explore Goodneighbor: Check! Started Victor and Piper’s day with Victor checking out the plaque on the Old State House (the base of operations for Hancock and Goodneighbor), then sending him inside to get threatened by Finn. And then watch Finn get stabbed by Hancock for trying to pull the “insurance” grift and mouthing off to him afterwards. Victor was rather stunned by the whole “killing” thing, and admitted it all sounded like anarchy, which Hancock was fine with and Piper liked. . . Meaning the minute the conversation with Hancock ended, Piper’s second proper affinity chat started! :D I had Victor work through all her stories about being poisoned by crooked caravaners and nearly being killed by the Children of Atom, then pulled a quick outfit change and a quicksave before the final dialogue option to try a flirt. The first time, it didn’t go through, so I decided on one reload. . .
Second time was the charm! :D Piper got adorably flustered and I was very happy. I put Victor back in his regular gear after that and sent him shopping – he flubbed the persuasion check with KLE0 about her status as a “womanly robot,” but I decided to just go with that one. XD Sold KLE0 most of Victor’s gathered Legendary Gear, like the Punishing Chest Piece and whatnot – but I ended up keeping the Staggering Automatic Laser Pistol. That might be useful. Also got some more ammo off her, then poked around at the nearby guns workbench to see if there were any upgrades I wanted to do – everything is REALLY limited by adhesive stores, I must say! Then it was over to Daisy, where Victor expressed surprise anyone would scream at her before selling her some food and drugs he didn’t need and picking up tape and oil before doing some more cooking. I also went upstairs in both shops just for a poke, and found the “Join The Railroad” tape in KLE0’s “house” – so Victor shall be intrigued by that shortly!
And after that – Memory Den time! After Piper had finished interviewing some of the drifters, of course. :p Victor chatted with Irma and ended up paying 100 caps to relive seeing his wife get shot, poor guy. :( It’s for fic purposes, Victor! Also XP. At least Irma and Dr. Amari were extremely apologetic afterward. After a quick wander around the building, I sent Victor back outside, where he watched Hancock’s speech on the Institute before grabbing his new Heavy Combat Armor Right Arm and Heavy Metal Left Leg off Piper so he could improve them on his portable workbench and put them on as new regular gear. Very glad to find that his previous improvements to his old combat armor right arm could be put on the new heavy one – even if Victor’s REALLY lacking for carryweight now! Oof. . .
Not making things any easier was Victor ending up absolutely exhausted after all that crafting. I had him drag himself over to the Hotel Rexford to rent a bed (after Clair and Fred stopped arguing about chems, anyway), and sent him upstairs to get to his room –
And who should come out of one of the doors but the Vault-Tec Rep ghoul! For some reason I thought he had to be specifically triggered by a dialogue option, but nope! He expressed shock at seeing Victor, who did the same – Victor explained about the cryo pods, and Vault-Tec Rep was none too happy about it. However, Victor felt sorry for the guy after he said that no one wanted anyone with 200 years of Vault-Tec sales experience, and – with the help of another clothing change, and a quicksave for good measure – got him to go back to Sanctuary. And then it was time for bed in our own rented room, yay!
. . .woke up to a message saying Tenpines Bluff is under attack. *facepalm* Which is MILES away right now. Sorry, guys, I think you’re gonna have to settle this one on your own! I left it off with Victor having just exited the Rexford to see two of the Neighborhood Watch having gunned down a synth spy. I think next time, we may briefly visit Hancock, then it’s over to Park Street Station to actually save Nick!
4. Work on tumblr drafts: Check! Got the Victor Luvs Alice stuff done before lunch – caught up on dashboard and tags, did the text for the three posts comprising the “Smiler celebrates Harvestfest” Chill Save update, then did another post for more Valicer situations that are currently living rent-free in my head (like poor Victor getting crushed when both Alice AND Smiler sit on him like nosy cats, or Smiler being puzzled when their partners don’t automatically make fun of them for liking pineapple on pizza until Alice reminds them they didn’t grow up normally and aren’t aware that they “should”). So that’s all good! :) And then, this evening, got a few things done for Valice Multiverse – two ask replies in the queue, and a picture of a shirtless Victor someone did in the drafts. XD You all know what I like!
5. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike tonight for the Mandated Break Between Oxventures! XD Ended up watching, in order, The English Simmer look back at one of her old LPs for The Sims 3 Supernatural, with a focus on the werewolf character in it, Tate, now that Sims 4 Werewolves is on its way (she roasted her previous self for trying to pretend to be straight and for being kinda awkward, The Sims 3 for having honestly terrible werewolves – they don’t even LOOK like werewolves, they look like hairy humans with a bit of an underbite! – and Tate for being kind of a shit werewolf); the other half of the “8 tips for Alton Towers” video (these included not visiting Towers Trading, the big gift shop at the entrance, at the END of the day, because that’s when EVERYONE comes in; try to delay lunch until after one in the afternoon to avoid restaurant crowds; and join a long queue right before the park closes – they may stop letting people in after closing, but they will guarantee you a ride before they shut down the coaster); and a rewatch of the Alton Towers 40th Anniversary animation. :) Fun stuff all around!
Additionally:
-->Lovely day all day today (warm without being humid, though it was kinda windy), so we did indeed get to play beanbags – and I had the best day, winning three out of five games! :D Nice turnaround from yesterday! Poor Mom, though – she had a REALLY off day and lost EVERY SINGLE GAME. Ooof. Final scores were me W-W-2-2-W; Dad 2-2-W-W-2; Mom 3-3-3-3-3. Better luck tomorrow, Mom!
-->Answered my friend Ace’s latest FF.net PM, as is per usual for Sundays now~ Keeping up with it all!
*nods* Good, productive day, I'm happy. And now it's time to wrap up, because work tomorrow. Though at least it's a slightly SHORTER work day -- graduation season, so we have a couple of early release days, and tomorrow's one of them. Only a half-hour early, but it's something! *shrug* Night all!
