Still Freaking Humid Out
Aug. 11th, 2022 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickI am so tired of it being sticky and miserable. Especially with me being on my period and thus being even MORE affected by it. *heavy sigh* I prefer summer to winter, but it definitely has its downsides sometimes. Hmph. At least I managed to get some better sleep last night. . .
All right, enough bitching -- here's the to-do list for the day:
Work – Quiet-ish day – a little more activity on the phones, and the GL was complex enough and I was interrupted enough that it took me pretty much the whole morning. And then in the afternoon there was some more credit card nonsense, which really annoyed me. *sigh* But it wasn’t a particularly stressful day, just a slightly irritating one. Certainly better than it COULD have been with me on my own!
Beanbags – Not today, due to a combination of a) the heat might not be at its worst, but it’s still FREAKING sticky out (humidity, go AWAY) and b) it’s pre-season football time and Dad wanted to watch the first game, which meant we needed to eat earlier, which meant I needed to work out earlier, so there wasn’t really time anyway. *shrug* We should be able to get it in tomorrow! Depending on the weather, of course. . .
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike to wrap up the Oxventure “Silent Knight!” With Egbert, Prudence, and Dob watching over their paladin prisoner as he was thrown back into the tickle pit, Corazon and Merilwen made their way over to the platform erected on the castle for the mayor’s speech, figuring the guy must have done something to that. And indeed he had – a couple of good investigation rolls allowed them to spot that the struts holding up the platform had been almost completely sawn through! Corazon, having gotten the higher roll, swooped out there on a rope in a really cool way for a closer look and found one of the rhyming taunts that the paladin had left – unimpressed, he decided to put his time watching other people fix his ship to use and try repairing the struts with some borrowed boards. Fortunately he rolled well (I guess he did actually help a time or two) and managed to shore them up so Marisa’s speech wouldn’t end with a fatal collapse. Yay!
With that sorted, the focus shifted back to the trio and their prisoner, who had been tickled until he screamed again and thus was ready to be a little more forthcoming about all his evil plans. He asked which ones they’d found already, and Prudence outlined how they’d dumped the poisoned wine, fixed whatever happened at the mayor’s platform (since like Corazon and Merilwen she was certain he’d done something to it), and found his little perch with the bow (the guy asked what they’d done with it, and Prudence said they’d smashed it – who cares if it was expensive, who in their party uses bows anyway? And here I interject that she has a point – Merilwen may be upset about losing the bow, but HOW OFTEN does she actually shoot things?). The paladin then repeated the couplet about high up and down low, and made a significant nod at the castle –
Cue Ellen figuring out that he meant the old pit BELOW the castle that the Order had used to – uh – I actually don’t recall, it was either to punish loud people or to keep the owlbear contained, and Andy having to remind her that Merilwen can’t hear any of this. XD Fortunately Prudence Messaged Merilwen the couplet to get her opinion, and Merilwen was able to indicate for them to come up to the castle and investigate the pit. They did so, dragging their prisoner behind them –
And found a bunch of really dry tinder in there, branching off into a series of tunnels the guy had dug out around it. Investigating revealed that it wasn’t rigged to explode – rather, it was set up to be a hot but fast burn (with a comparison being made to a deliberately set forest fire, the kind that cleanses a lot of dead stuff so new life can come in). And all those tunnels were held up with wooden struts. . .figuring he was planning on either collapsing just the castle or the whole freaking town by burning down their supports from under them, Merilwen cast Create Water and made everything FAR too damp to burn. The paladin was quite put out, especially when they found his final note and then his timed fuse failed to go off. He reluctantly “admitted” in text form that “well, you got me,” and everyone started celebrating. Just in time for everyone to start celebrating OUTSIDE too, as it seemed Marisa had just finished her speech, and all the villagers were calling for the paladinatas!
And THEN Corazon, who has been paying special attention to all these notes and rolled well on a Wis/Per check, noticed the way the guy wrote “Well” on his note – namely, it was in italics. Panic ensued as they realized there was yet another trap, and started speculating what it could be. A puzzled Alfred was like “there’s no well in town, so it COULD just be sarcasm” –
And then Merilwen noticed the way the guy was smirking at the call for the paladinatas and realized – well. Her INITIAL guess of “THE PALADINATAS ARE ACTUAL PALADINS GOING TO ATTACK THE TOWN” got a baffled quirked eyebrow, but there was definitely SOMETHING going on with them! Prudence pointed out that they’d been tasked with helping to fetch them anyway and thus knew where they were being stored, so – after taking just a moment to have Egbert run the paladin over all their feet so they could all kick the paladin in the crotch (well, Prudence only landed a light tap on the bum thanks to a bad roll, while Egbert just sent the guy FLYING) – they rushed out to get them –
Too late. Because who should already be there but Bill, eager to help, dragging them out and tossing one down the grease slide, to go over the spikes set up before the now-empty tickle pit and get torn to pieces so everyone could get at the supposed sweets inside. Merilwen, still not quite sure what was going on but knowing the paladinata had to be stopped, used her Thorn Whip spell to try and snag it, while Corazon tried to help with his Mage Hand.
Both rolled poorly, meaning Merilwen JUST missed with the whip while Corazon’s Mage Hand basically just offered helpful encouragement in the form of a thumb’s up. XD Her whip did snag the back of the paladinata’s head, though, revealing that instead of candy, it was full of black powder – yup, this baby was explosive! Corazon tried casting Featherfall on it, which did at least slow it down, but didn’t fully stop it – it was still going decently fast. Desperate, Merilwen launched herself onto the slide and tried to slide after it to catch it and soak it like she did the previous trap.
ANOTHER bad roll! Poor girl stacked it straight into the paladinata and started riding it like the bomb in Dr. Strangelove. Johnny asked everyone else if they had any ideas, and noticed that Egbert seemed to want to say something. That something?
“So I have Misty Step.”
Misty Step allows one to instantly move to any unoccupied area up to thirty feet away.
EGBERT CAN FUCKING TELEPORT. AND HAS BEEN ABLE TO SINCE LEVEL FIVE. TWENTY STORIES AGO.
Cue a brief break in the action as everyone cracked up over the fact that this is a thing. XD It seriously was fantastic. Anyway, he FINALLY put it to good use by using it to flash step over to Merilwen and the paladinata and just kick it out from under her. Merilwen went into the tickle pit through the spikes (failing her Dex saving throw but only taking seven points of painful piercing damage), while Prudence used her Thaumaturgy to do a scary voice and clear the area of impact, and the paladinata, propelled very powerfully by the force of Egbert’s kick, bounced and exploded harmlessly in midair, knocking over a few overeager revelers but not actually killing everybody.
Cue Bill sending down another one! Fortunately, Egbert was actually doing okay keeping his feet on the slide and was able to just catch it before it could even get near the spikes – but Prudence had started coming up with a plan, so Johnny had Bill toss one more just so he could see what it was she was going to do. Turns out it was “cast Hunger of Hadar and send the explosive paladinata into the outer darkness.” XD It certainly saved the town, but Cthulhu wasn’t exactly pleased. XD And after that, Johnny allowed Corazon and Dob to stop Bill, via Corazon choking him out and Dob getting the next paladinata away from him. :p The baffled townsfolk began gathering again, wondering what had happened – the Oxventurers revealed themselves as the real deal and explained that they’d saved the town again, with Marisa backing them up.
And then reminding them that they’d promised to replace the giant cask of wine. Fortunately Future Dob is an excellent public speaker and managed to convince the townsfolk to just grab all their own spirits and combine them to make a new giant thing of alcohol (a dirty pint, or as it is now known in this world, “Inkwater Punch” – Dob even flavored it like mulled wine for everybody), and further distracted them by hitting Egbert with a stick again and getting him to vomit candy all over the place. XD Corazon ALSO insisted on putting on a Beeples concert to entertain everybody (THE JOKE WILL NEVER DIE), and Merilwen did some tricks with Wildshape to impress everyone with her catness and bearness. XD And so Inkwater had a very successful and happy Sun’s Turn festival, with everyone getting ABSOLUTELY WASTED. XD Oh, that was a good one. :D I love the Oxventure, seriously.
2. Continue writing “As Long As You Love Me”: Check – managed a full page today, yay~ But yes, today featured Victor finding Enchanted on the TV and thinking about the weird parallels between him and Robert – at least, in the general sense of “having your life turned upside-down by a girl for whom the universe works in a different way.” And he’s starting to wonder why the universe apparently picked him to accompany Alice on her adventures. . .right before Alice yelps from too-cold water and he jumps to his feet to help. XD Victor, honey, I think you’re missing what’s right in front of you. (Admittedly you’re also here to help with a specific murder, but one thing at a time.)
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Substitution check, due to the fact that I didn’t have any subs today – Thursday on a week where Kevin’s uploading Mon-Weds-Fri! But I did have some OXBoxtra lists to watch:
A) On OXtra, we had “7 Brutal Bosses with Hilariously Weak Second Forms” – Luke and Andy taking us through those bosses who, after the first round, accidentally totally nerfed themselves. Oogie Boogie in the original Kingdom Hearts goes from trapping our heroes on a roulette wheel and pelting them with explosive dice to merging with his own house and ending up completely inert as they break all his weird purple weak spots; Ogre from Tekken 3 goes from a powerhouse able to punch you into pudding into a strange demonic form that can be easily punched into pudding; and Old King Allant in Demon Souls goes from kicking your ass and draining your levels as a horrible humanoid to – flopping around almost helplessly as a horrible slug-thing. Yes, one of the Souls games gives you a final boss with an easier second form. We are as confused as you.
B) And on OXBox, we had “7 Heartbreaking Fights That Made You Kill a Player Character” – Luke and Andy again taking us through those games where you play as multiple characters – that is, until the game pulls the rug out from under you and forces you to pick one to fight and kill the others. Sometimes it’s obvious it’s coming – LEGO Star Wars letting you play as both Obi-Wan AND Anakin Skywalker in the prequel levels before pitting them against each other in the famous duel – sometimes it’s a complete shock – A Way Out abruptly revealing that one of the two con friends who have just killed a crime lord together, Vincent, is in fact an undercover cop, sending actual con Leo into a rage and starting a deadly shoot-out. And sometimes the game hides the secret best ending where you DON’T have to murder your buds under the option entitled “Deathwish” to make you think you have to kill one or the other – isn’t that right, GTA V? (Though according to the comments, Andy commenting that “Deathwish” sounds like you get Franklin, the character who has to make the choice, killed wasn’t actually far off – apparently that ending WAS supposed to kill him off, and you actually finished the game as his friend Lamar. Personal issues with Lamar’s voice actor intervened, though, and instead we got the “team up against the world” ending, which I’m sure was an improvement on the original idea.)
C) And then, because it was Recommended to me and only three minutes, I watched the latest from Simmer Erin – “NEW PARALIVES LIVE MODE PREVIEW (REACTION) -AUGUST 2022!” Her reaction to the latest tiny teaser clip of how Live Mode might look in the upcoming Paralives, with one of their testing characters, Sebastian, talking on a phone as the user queues up him using the toilet. And then moves that interaction in the queue. Everything is of course still in development, and nothing major was shown beyond that, but honestly? Just being able to reorder actions in the character’s queue without having to cancel all the ones before the action you want would be HUGE. Erin was pretty impressed with the clip for what it was too. :) Here’s hoping it all continues to go well, Paralives!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – one ask reply in the queue for Valice Multiverse, plus a quick convo over there with one of my partners about a starter she plans to write tomorrow for a new AU. So that’s something to look forward to, anyway!
Not too shabby -- and we're already at the end of the week, and another half-day Friday! Hopefully it goes well. . .and hopefully it DRIES OUT. Ugh. . .night all!
All right, enough bitching -- here's the to-do list for the day:
Work – Quiet-ish day – a little more activity on the phones, and the GL was complex enough and I was interrupted enough that it took me pretty much the whole morning. And then in the afternoon there was some more credit card nonsense, which really annoyed me. *sigh* But it wasn’t a particularly stressful day, just a slightly irritating one. Certainly better than it COULD have been with me on my own!
Beanbags – Not today, due to a combination of a) the heat might not be at its worst, but it’s still FREAKING sticky out (humidity, go AWAY) and b) it’s pre-season football time and Dad wanted to watch the first game, which meant we needed to eat earlier, which meant I needed to work out earlier, so there wasn’t really time anyway. *shrug* We should be able to get it in tomorrow! Depending on the weather, of course. . .
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike to wrap up the Oxventure “Silent Knight!” With Egbert, Prudence, and Dob watching over their paladin prisoner as he was thrown back into the tickle pit, Corazon and Merilwen made their way over to the platform erected on the castle for the mayor’s speech, figuring the guy must have done something to that. And indeed he had – a couple of good investigation rolls allowed them to spot that the struts holding up the platform had been almost completely sawn through! Corazon, having gotten the higher roll, swooped out there on a rope in a really cool way for a closer look and found one of the rhyming taunts that the paladin had left – unimpressed, he decided to put his time watching other people fix his ship to use and try repairing the struts with some borrowed boards. Fortunately he rolled well (I guess he did actually help a time or two) and managed to shore them up so Marisa’s speech wouldn’t end with a fatal collapse. Yay!
With that sorted, the focus shifted back to the trio and their prisoner, who had been tickled until he screamed again and thus was ready to be a little more forthcoming about all his evil plans. He asked which ones they’d found already, and Prudence outlined how they’d dumped the poisoned wine, fixed whatever happened at the mayor’s platform (since like Corazon and Merilwen she was certain he’d done something to it), and found his little perch with the bow (the guy asked what they’d done with it, and Prudence said they’d smashed it – who cares if it was expensive, who in their party uses bows anyway? And here I interject that she has a point – Merilwen may be upset about losing the bow, but HOW OFTEN does she actually shoot things?). The paladin then repeated the couplet about high up and down low, and made a significant nod at the castle –
Cue Ellen figuring out that he meant the old pit BELOW the castle that the Order had used to – uh – I actually don’t recall, it was either to punish loud people or to keep the owlbear contained, and Andy having to remind her that Merilwen can’t hear any of this. XD Fortunately Prudence Messaged Merilwen the couplet to get her opinion, and Merilwen was able to indicate for them to come up to the castle and investigate the pit. They did so, dragging their prisoner behind them –
And found a bunch of really dry tinder in there, branching off into a series of tunnels the guy had dug out around it. Investigating revealed that it wasn’t rigged to explode – rather, it was set up to be a hot but fast burn (with a comparison being made to a deliberately set forest fire, the kind that cleanses a lot of dead stuff so new life can come in). And all those tunnels were held up with wooden struts. . .figuring he was planning on either collapsing just the castle or the whole freaking town by burning down their supports from under them, Merilwen cast Create Water and made everything FAR too damp to burn. The paladin was quite put out, especially when they found his final note and then his timed fuse failed to go off. He reluctantly “admitted” in text form that “well, you got me,” and everyone started celebrating. Just in time for everyone to start celebrating OUTSIDE too, as it seemed Marisa had just finished her speech, and all the villagers were calling for the paladinatas!
And THEN Corazon, who has been paying special attention to all these notes and rolled well on a Wis/Per check, noticed the way the guy wrote “Well” on his note – namely, it was in italics. Panic ensued as they realized there was yet another trap, and started speculating what it could be. A puzzled Alfred was like “there’s no well in town, so it COULD just be sarcasm” –
And then Merilwen noticed the way the guy was smirking at the call for the paladinatas and realized – well. Her INITIAL guess of “THE PALADINATAS ARE ACTUAL PALADINS GOING TO ATTACK THE TOWN” got a baffled quirked eyebrow, but there was definitely SOMETHING going on with them! Prudence pointed out that they’d been tasked with helping to fetch them anyway and thus knew where they were being stored, so – after taking just a moment to have Egbert run the paladin over all their feet so they could all kick the paladin in the crotch (well, Prudence only landed a light tap on the bum thanks to a bad roll, while Egbert just sent the guy FLYING) – they rushed out to get them –
Too late. Because who should already be there but Bill, eager to help, dragging them out and tossing one down the grease slide, to go over the spikes set up before the now-empty tickle pit and get torn to pieces so everyone could get at the supposed sweets inside. Merilwen, still not quite sure what was going on but knowing the paladinata had to be stopped, used her Thorn Whip spell to try and snag it, while Corazon tried to help with his Mage Hand.
Both rolled poorly, meaning Merilwen JUST missed with the whip while Corazon’s Mage Hand basically just offered helpful encouragement in the form of a thumb’s up. XD Her whip did snag the back of the paladinata’s head, though, revealing that instead of candy, it was full of black powder – yup, this baby was explosive! Corazon tried casting Featherfall on it, which did at least slow it down, but didn’t fully stop it – it was still going decently fast. Desperate, Merilwen launched herself onto the slide and tried to slide after it to catch it and soak it like she did the previous trap.
ANOTHER bad roll! Poor girl stacked it straight into the paladinata and started riding it like the bomb in Dr. Strangelove. Johnny asked everyone else if they had any ideas, and noticed that Egbert seemed to want to say something. That something?
“So I have Misty Step.”
Misty Step allows one to instantly move to any unoccupied area up to thirty feet away.
EGBERT CAN FUCKING TELEPORT. AND HAS BEEN ABLE TO SINCE LEVEL FIVE. TWENTY STORIES AGO.
Cue a brief break in the action as everyone cracked up over the fact that this is a thing. XD It seriously was fantastic. Anyway, he FINALLY put it to good use by using it to flash step over to Merilwen and the paladinata and just kick it out from under her. Merilwen went into the tickle pit through the spikes (failing her Dex saving throw but only taking seven points of painful piercing damage), while Prudence used her Thaumaturgy to do a scary voice and clear the area of impact, and the paladinata, propelled very powerfully by the force of Egbert’s kick, bounced and exploded harmlessly in midair, knocking over a few overeager revelers but not actually killing everybody.
Cue Bill sending down another one! Fortunately, Egbert was actually doing okay keeping his feet on the slide and was able to just catch it before it could even get near the spikes – but Prudence had started coming up with a plan, so Johnny had Bill toss one more just so he could see what it was she was going to do. Turns out it was “cast Hunger of Hadar and send the explosive paladinata into the outer darkness.” XD It certainly saved the town, but Cthulhu wasn’t exactly pleased. XD And after that, Johnny allowed Corazon and Dob to stop Bill, via Corazon choking him out and Dob getting the next paladinata away from him. :p The baffled townsfolk began gathering again, wondering what had happened – the Oxventurers revealed themselves as the real deal and explained that they’d saved the town again, with Marisa backing them up.
And then reminding them that they’d promised to replace the giant cask of wine. Fortunately Future Dob is an excellent public speaker and managed to convince the townsfolk to just grab all their own spirits and combine them to make a new giant thing of alcohol (a dirty pint, or as it is now known in this world, “Inkwater Punch” – Dob even flavored it like mulled wine for everybody), and further distracted them by hitting Egbert with a stick again and getting him to vomit candy all over the place. XD Corazon ALSO insisted on putting on a Beeples concert to entertain everybody (THE JOKE WILL NEVER DIE), and Merilwen did some tricks with Wildshape to impress everyone with her catness and bearness. XD And so Inkwater had a very successful and happy Sun’s Turn festival, with everyone getting ABSOLUTELY WASTED. XD Oh, that was a good one. :D I love the Oxventure, seriously.
2. Continue writing “As Long As You Love Me”: Check – managed a full page today, yay~ But yes, today featured Victor finding Enchanted on the TV and thinking about the weird parallels between him and Robert – at least, in the general sense of “having your life turned upside-down by a girl for whom the universe works in a different way.” And he’s starting to wonder why the universe apparently picked him to accompany Alice on her adventures. . .right before Alice yelps from too-cold water and he jumps to his feet to help. XD Victor, honey, I think you’re missing what’s right in front of you. (Admittedly you’re also here to help with a specific murder, but one thing at a time.)
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Substitution check, due to the fact that I didn’t have any subs today – Thursday on a week where Kevin’s uploading Mon-Weds-Fri! But I did have some OXBoxtra lists to watch:
A) On OXtra, we had “7 Brutal Bosses with Hilariously Weak Second Forms” – Luke and Andy taking us through those bosses who, after the first round, accidentally totally nerfed themselves. Oogie Boogie in the original Kingdom Hearts goes from trapping our heroes on a roulette wheel and pelting them with explosive dice to merging with his own house and ending up completely inert as they break all his weird purple weak spots; Ogre from Tekken 3 goes from a powerhouse able to punch you into pudding into a strange demonic form that can be easily punched into pudding; and Old King Allant in Demon Souls goes from kicking your ass and draining your levels as a horrible humanoid to – flopping around almost helplessly as a horrible slug-thing. Yes, one of the Souls games gives you a final boss with an easier second form. We are as confused as you.
B) And on OXBox, we had “7 Heartbreaking Fights That Made You Kill a Player Character” – Luke and Andy again taking us through those games where you play as multiple characters – that is, until the game pulls the rug out from under you and forces you to pick one to fight and kill the others. Sometimes it’s obvious it’s coming – LEGO Star Wars letting you play as both Obi-Wan AND Anakin Skywalker in the prequel levels before pitting them against each other in the famous duel – sometimes it’s a complete shock – A Way Out abruptly revealing that one of the two con friends who have just killed a crime lord together, Vincent, is in fact an undercover cop, sending actual con Leo into a rage and starting a deadly shoot-out. And sometimes the game hides the secret best ending where you DON’T have to murder your buds under the option entitled “Deathwish” to make you think you have to kill one or the other – isn’t that right, GTA V? (Though according to the comments, Andy commenting that “Deathwish” sounds like you get Franklin, the character who has to make the choice, killed wasn’t actually far off – apparently that ending WAS supposed to kill him off, and you actually finished the game as his friend Lamar. Personal issues with Lamar’s voice actor intervened, though, and instead we got the “team up against the world” ending, which I’m sure was an improvement on the original idea.)
C) And then, because it was Recommended to me and only three minutes, I watched the latest from Simmer Erin – “NEW PARALIVES LIVE MODE PREVIEW (REACTION) -AUGUST 2022!” Her reaction to the latest tiny teaser clip of how Live Mode might look in the upcoming Paralives, with one of their testing characters, Sebastian, talking on a phone as the user queues up him using the toilet. And then moves that interaction in the queue. Everything is of course still in development, and nothing major was shown beyond that, but honestly? Just being able to reorder actions in the character’s queue without having to cancel all the ones before the action you want would be HUGE. Erin was pretty impressed with the clip for what it was too. :) Here’s hoping it all continues to go well, Paralives!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – one ask reply in the queue for Valice Multiverse, plus a quick convo over there with one of my partners about a starter she plans to write tomorrow for a new AU. So that’s something to look forward to, anyway!
Not too shabby -- and we're already at the end of the week, and another half-day Friday! Hopefully it goes well. . .and hopefully it DRIES OUT. Ugh. . .night all!
no subject
Date: 2022-08-13 12:41 am (UTC)And for the record SupaTeen Sim is dating Cassandra Goth lol.
no subject
Date: 2022-08-14 03:42 am (UTC)And heh, nice~