Just Caught The 10:04 On 10/04!
Oct. 4th, 2022 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickGranted, this post will be going up much later than that, but hey, at least I got the right timestamp. XD Anyway, it's been another busy evening, so let me give you the to-dos round-up:
Work – Mostly quiet day, up until the point where one of the supervisors (the one who is not out sick anymore) gave me and my coworker each a list of people to call for an event they’re doing an hour and a half before closing. Which of course meant that suddenly there were people calling IN as well, and – hmph. Just not a particularly pleasant way to end the day, is what I’m saying. Also traffic going home was again miserable, but not QUITE as much as yesterday – got home eight minutes earlier and got to take the highway. *shrug* Small mercies, I suppose.
Beanbags – Nope – miserable rainy cold day, and tomorrow’s supposed to be more of the same, as I believe I stated yesterday. And as Mom is going out to dinner with a friend on Thursday – well, beanbags may be transitioning to a weekend thing just because of the weather.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, pedaling my way through the first half of the second episode of the Oxventure Orbpocalypse, “Epic Jail!” Which started with an amusing animated recap of the first episode – I’d missed their sprites switching between different faces in front of various stock backgrounds. XD Anyway, having successfully been hired on as guards (Corazon, Prudence, Egbert) or arrested for assaulting the new guards (Dob, Merilwen), the gang spent the night in the town (the guard trio in decent rooms; the prisoner duo on terrible flea-infested straw), and in the morning headed out to the terrible jail Alcataz on their respective airships! On the guard one, the head of the new guards – the one who beat Dob about the head with a drumstick, now officially called Drumsticks because apparently that is his thing – gave a long and informative bit of exposition to the guard trio about how the prison was set up a bit like a marble run (long swooping staircases on each side) and how patrolling it worked (basically circling up and down the floors); how there WAS a dumbwaiter in the middle for lifting up supplies, but it was small and couldn’t handle a lot of weight, otherwise CRASH; how there was a two-key system for all cells, so they’d be patrolling in pairs; where the drawbridge to the guards’ quarters was set up; etc. Corazon asked him if they had a central guard office in the prison tower – Drumsticks said sort of; the lowest level was a sort of office, but it was where they kept the magical artifact powering the prison. Yes, apparently the Astors acquired the orb’s cone thing at great expense to avoid having to pay for candles or anything like that, because you know, for-profit prison. :p Corazon ALSO attempted to give himself the nickname “Thighs” because he was eating a lot of chicken thighs like Drumsticks eats a lot of drumsticks, but Drumsticks was like “you can’t just give YOURSELF a nickname, it’ll come to you.” And then they had an eating contest of sorts, which Corazon lost. XD Egbert asked if the prison really was inescapable – Drumsticks admitted there were rumors of someone who’d gotten out with the help of a funny wig, but they were unsubstantiated. (Also he refused to nickname Egbert “Diligence” afterward.) Dob Messaged Prudence around this point because he was bored (he and Merilwen being chained the hold of the other prison ship); Prudence Messaged back to let him know everything they’d learned (aka “brackets: what Johnny just said”) and thus prevent weird meta-gaming. XD
And shortly thereafter, they ended up at the jail! The guard trio was taken to get sorted out for their first shift, while the prisoner duo had their weapons confiscated (Johnny AGAIN referencing how Merilwen could have had a BETTER BOW if Egbert hadn’t kicked it off a tower back in Inkwater), had stagnant water sloshed over there, and then were shoved in a cell. Dob immediately pulled out the harmonica he had “hidden” and started playing a tune to set the mood. XD He then started looking around the cell, and found a pile of bones – hey, he still has some spell slots available, might as well cast Speak With Dead! Fortunately the animated spirit of the bones was happy to share information, especially after he and Dob shared a bitching session about Drumsticks. XD The bones told them that, in order to pull off a proper prison escape, they’d need to target three prisoners in particular: one, a girl nicknamed Hella who apparently summoned a giant magical storm to destroy her hometown and can manipulate time (Andy put in that “Life is strange” – guess which video game they’re referencing there :p) – she’d be useful if they could get her on sides; one, a guy named Sully, whom everyone just seems to like and who would happily take advantage of any and all escape efforts, so he’d be very useful if they could get him on sides; and one, another unnamed man, who – well. Who is a giant cannibal who in fact ate the guy Dob was talking to. XD Apparently it took him chowing down on sixty cellmates before the guards finally realized he should be given his own cell. Now he’s kept quiet by being given “breaded man-shapes” (essentially chicken nugget gingerbread people) – but if they were to stop coming, oh, he would throw a fit. Dob thanked the spirit and released it, and he and Merilwen hunkered down for the moment.
Smash cut to the guard trio getting their assignments – Corazon and Prudence (aka “Hungry For Chicken” and “Silent But Pointy”) were paired and told to start on the floor below, while Drumsticks himself took Egbert (“. . .I’ll keep working on it”) as partner (his last having died of death) to start patrol on this floor. Corazon and Prudence took the opportunity to immediately work their way down to where Dob and Merilwen were, and used the excuse of confiscating Dob’s “contraband” harmonica to get into the cell and start exchanging information (also, Corazon gave Dob a dagger – though he did stick it where Dob, um, hid the harmonica). It was confirmed that the artifact was at the bottom of the tower, but that was an unknown number of levels down, so they needed a good distraction. (That wasn’t going to the infirmary because this place very much does not have one. Dob kind of wished they’d told him that BEFORE he stabbed himself with the dagger Corazon gave him. XD) The prisoner across the way started taking an interest in the proceedings about then –
And wouldn’t you know it, it was Sully! Merilwen and Dob promptly told Corazon and Prudence they wanted this guy on their team, and Corazon said he’d let Sully out if he helped them out with a distraction. Sully said he would, so Corazon tossed some bits of bones out of the chicken thigh he was eating (because he’s not giving up potentially being called “Thighs,” damn it – Dob at least was nice enough to do so) over so Sully could pick his lock. To their mild horror, he got himself out and just scampered away – but apparently he’s better at sneaking or knows some secret passages or something, because he didn’t set off the alarm just yet. So that’s interesting. . .
And then we smash cut back to Egbert and Drumsticks on the upper floor, with Egbert asking Drumsticks how best to beat people. Drumsticks was only too happy to give a demonstration and got Egbert to open the cell of an inmate. Johnny had him dramatically raise the truncheon to wallop the prisoner –
And Egbert just let the door shut and peaced out. XD Leaving Drumsticks locked in the cell of the prisoner he’d just brutalized. A big, burly prisoner with a cell full of dishes covered with the remains of breaded man-shapes. XD Egbert IMMEDIATELY was like “wait, no, I COULDN’T have known I was locking him in with a cannibal” and Johnny assured him that this wouldn’t count against his atonement. XD
Anyway, Egbert started heading down and rejoined the others, who filled him in, and Dob got the location of Hella, the other prisoner they needed to find, from a fellow inmate, who said she was good at manipulation – apparently she gets these dreamy looks and then just says EXACTLY what will make you think better of her. XD She was three floors down, so the guard trio decided to just pretend they were escorting the prisoner duo somewhere, with Corazon putting Dob in the full Hannibal Lecter stretcher gear. XD Hell on the stairs, but it got the job done. Where I left it off, they’d gotten down one floor all right – we’ll see if anything interesting happens on the second one! And how many Life Is Strange jokes that I just won’t get will be cracked once they reach Hella. XD
2. Continue writing “As Long As You Love Me”: Check – we have started the final chapter of this fleshed-out version of the story, with Victor arriving at St. Sebastian Hospital ready to find Alice! And let me tell you, things are going his way – not only was his cab fare the exact amount the previous ride prepaid (though Victor did give him $28 bucks as a combination “pay-it-forward” and tip), he also entered the hospital and IMMEDIATELY got mistaken for a visiting med student and absorbed into the group touring the place, only to get a chance to quietly peel off when one of them accidentally ran into a nurse, distracting everyone. And he’s just about to get a tip about a really great vending machine on a certain floor. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: TECHNICAL check – Call Me Kevin uploaded another one of his “Full Game LPs” that clocked in at an hour, which was JUST too long to watch tonight – so I did Gray and something that popped up in the Recommendeds. I’m hoping I can watch that CMK video tomorrow, then pair Wednesday’s Gray up with Thursday’s Kevin to stay on track. We’ll see! In the meantime –
A) Started with a Plumbella offering (she’s back after a mental health break) – “Must Have Mods that massively improve The Sims 4!” This one focused on mods she considers more bugfixes or “quality of life” mods – stuff like “Better Sleep Autonomy,” which makes it so Sims will sleep more consistently through the night; “Better Build Buy,” which allows you to sort out the Build/Buy catalog and see debug and live edit objects automatically; “The Personality Mod,” which gives Sims Sims 2 (and more)-inspired personality traits that, when paired with Missy Hissy’s custom wants, gives Sims, well, more personality; and “High Quality Map Replacements,” which just makes the in-game maps look nicer. :p Always nice to get a few new mod recommendations! And she’s promised a gameplay-focused sequel later. . .
B) Then it was over to the Subs for GrayStillPlays and “I found a MOON WATER SLIDE in GTA 5!” Which is a real example of a title that does NOT give you the whole truth because WHOOO BOOY, DID ALEX BRING HIS A GAME THIS EPISODE. First, Gray had to go up a ramp in his car and land perfectly on the target above the water slides. Then he had to slide down a bunch of slides into the middle of the black hole/moon/whatever it was in the middle, then take the car inside up the sides and basically invert-ramp-himself into the teleporter atop it. That brought him to the first in the following series of wall rides from hell:
I. A MOVING wall ride where Gray had to dodge the squares set around the moving track (he compared it to Geometry Dash) and hit the checkpoint that appeared JUST RIGHT to get teleported to the next one
II. Another moving wall ride where the twist was he had to do a bunch of thumbnail holes through a variety of objects – IN REVERSE, because they were all coming up from BEHIND him, and also the board had a few “back to the beginning” teleporters seeded on it along with the proper checkpoint
III. A third moving wall ride where the track under him was going in reverse SO FAST that if he slackened his speed or hit something, he would immediately be CATAPULTED backwards, and his only hope to stay on the board was to hit the boosts that came around every so often. Did I mention he STILL had to make through a handful of thumbnail holes, AND do a transfer down, AND do ANOTHER round of all this to make it to the checkpoint? He finally found a way on the lower section by letting the checkpoint come to him in “Reverse Thumbnail Hole” style like the previous ride
IV. A circle with a trio of teleporting ramps, all of different heights and colors, that would launch Gray up to pick one of four spinning teleporters within the circle – some of which would dump him back at the beginning, some of which would put him at the bottom of the circle so he could use it as a loop-de-loop to launch through a thumbnail hole and into another checkpoint
V. A FOURTH moving wall ride where the trick was you had to find the bits of the board that were actually real, because certain sections you would fall through. Alex’s tip was “stick to purple,” but in fact Gray learned you had to cross over and ride above or below the yellow strips on the board. Alex, Alex, Alex – straight-up lying to Gray? Naughty~
VI. Another non-moving wall ride with a bit of an optical illusion element, where you had to ride down narrower and narrower strips of color, avoiding the boxes and gaps in the wall, before transferring down and doing a wall ride along the strip of roadway above the OCEAN that this was all hovering above, before going up as bit to do a TRANSFER into ANOTHER wall ride which just got smaller and smaller before launching Gray into a tube with a teleporter that he could only access by getting out of his car
VII. Another actual water slide section, where Gray had to yeet himself down a slide – into the wall ride where you had to stay on/near yellow or otherwise you’d fall through the board; here he had to time slide so he went through a fake purple section and got yeeted into a party tube in the ocean with a teleporter at the bottom.
And then, and only then, did the agony end, as Alex gave Gray the supercar with the pink smoke and, instead of an actual win, the chance to once again yeet himself out of existence. XD Whew! That was a ride, and not just for Gray. Alex always makes the best boards, I swear.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check! On both blogs too –
Victor Luvs Alice – we have the four-post Chill Save update for tomorrow, then a post of video game memes for Thursday and a post of some top-tier ship dynamics I love for Valice for Friday!
Valice Multiverse – three ask replies, yay! One involving how to play Monopoly backwards. XD
And now it's time for me to head to bed and try and get some sleep. Midpoint of the week tomorrow! Hopefully the traffic gets a little better. . .night all!
Work – Mostly quiet day, up until the point where one of the supervisors (the one who is not out sick anymore) gave me and my coworker each a list of people to call for an event they’re doing an hour and a half before closing. Which of course meant that suddenly there were people calling IN as well, and – hmph. Just not a particularly pleasant way to end the day, is what I’m saying. Also traffic going home was again miserable, but not QUITE as much as yesterday – got home eight minutes earlier and got to take the highway. *shrug* Small mercies, I suppose.
Beanbags – Nope – miserable rainy cold day, and tomorrow’s supposed to be more of the same, as I believe I stated yesterday. And as Mom is going out to dinner with a friend on Thursday – well, beanbags may be transitioning to a weekend thing just because of the weather.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, pedaling my way through the first half of the second episode of the Oxventure Orbpocalypse, “Epic Jail!” Which started with an amusing animated recap of the first episode – I’d missed their sprites switching between different faces in front of various stock backgrounds. XD Anyway, having successfully been hired on as guards (Corazon, Prudence, Egbert) or arrested for assaulting the new guards (Dob, Merilwen), the gang spent the night in the town (the guard trio in decent rooms; the prisoner duo on terrible flea-infested straw), and in the morning headed out to the terrible jail Alcataz on their respective airships! On the guard one, the head of the new guards – the one who beat Dob about the head with a drumstick, now officially called Drumsticks because apparently that is his thing – gave a long and informative bit of exposition to the guard trio about how the prison was set up a bit like a marble run (long swooping staircases on each side) and how patrolling it worked (basically circling up and down the floors); how there WAS a dumbwaiter in the middle for lifting up supplies, but it was small and couldn’t handle a lot of weight, otherwise CRASH; how there was a two-key system for all cells, so they’d be patrolling in pairs; where the drawbridge to the guards’ quarters was set up; etc. Corazon asked him if they had a central guard office in the prison tower – Drumsticks said sort of; the lowest level was a sort of office, but it was where they kept the magical artifact powering the prison. Yes, apparently the Astors acquired the orb’s cone thing at great expense to avoid having to pay for candles or anything like that, because you know, for-profit prison. :p Corazon ALSO attempted to give himself the nickname “Thighs” because he was eating a lot of chicken thighs like Drumsticks eats a lot of drumsticks, but Drumsticks was like “you can’t just give YOURSELF a nickname, it’ll come to you.” And then they had an eating contest of sorts, which Corazon lost. XD Egbert asked if the prison really was inescapable – Drumsticks admitted there were rumors of someone who’d gotten out with the help of a funny wig, but they were unsubstantiated. (Also he refused to nickname Egbert “Diligence” afterward.) Dob Messaged Prudence around this point because he was bored (he and Merilwen being chained the hold of the other prison ship); Prudence Messaged back to let him know everything they’d learned (aka “brackets: what Johnny just said”) and thus prevent weird meta-gaming. XD
And shortly thereafter, they ended up at the jail! The guard trio was taken to get sorted out for their first shift, while the prisoner duo had their weapons confiscated (Johnny AGAIN referencing how Merilwen could have had a BETTER BOW if Egbert hadn’t kicked it off a tower back in Inkwater), had stagnant water sloshed over there, and then were shoved in a cell. Dob immediately pulled out the harmonica he had “hidden” and started playing a tune to set the mood. XD He then started looking around the cell, and found a pile of bones – hey, he still has some spell slots available, might as well cast Speak With Dead! Fortunately the animated spirit of the bones was happy to share information, especially after he and Dob shared a bitching session about Drumsticks. XD The bones told them that, in order to pull off a proper prison escape, they’d need to target three prisoners in particular: one, a girl nicknamed Hella who apparently summoned a giant magical storm to destroy her hometown and can manipulate time (Andy put in that “Life is strange” – guess which video game they’re referencing there :p) – she’d be useful if they could get her on sides; one, a guy named Sully, whom everyone just seems to like and who would happily take advantage of any and all escape efforts, so he’d be very useful if they could get him on sides; and one, another unnamed man, who – well. Who is a giant cannibal who in fact ate the guy Dob was talking to. XD Apparently it took him chowing down on sixty cellmates before the guards finally realized he should be given his own cell. Now he’s kept quiet by being given “breaded man-shapes” (essentially chicken nugget gingerbread people) – but if they were to stop coming, oh, he would throw a fit. Dob thanked the spirit and released it, and he and Merilwen hunkered down for the moment.
Smash cut to the guard trio getting their assignments – Corazon and Prudence (aka “Hungry For Chicken” and “Silent But Pointy”) were paired and told to start on the floor below, while Drumsticks himself took Egbert (“. . .I’ll keep working on it”) as partner (his last having died of death) to start patrol on this floor. Corazon and Prudence took the opportunity to immediately work their way down to where Dob and Merilwen were, and used the excuse of confiscating Dob’s “contraband” harmonica to get into the cell and start exchanging information (also, Corazon gave Dob a dagger – though he did stick it where Dob, um, hid the harmonica). It was confirmed that the artifact was at the bottom of the tower, but that was an unknown number of levels down, so they needed a good distraction. (That wasn’t going to the infirmary because this place very much does not have one. Dob kind of wished they’d told him that BEFORE he stabbed himself with the dagger Corazon gave him. XD) The prisoner across the way started taking an interest in the proceedings about then –
And wouldn’t you know it, it was Sully! Merilwen and Dob promptly told Corazon and Prudence they wanted this guy on their team, and Corazon said he’d let Sully out if he helped them out with a distraction. Sully said he would, so Corazon tossed some bits of bones out of the chicken thigh he was eating (because he’s not giving up potentially being called “Thighs,” damn it – Dob at least was nice enough to do so) over so Sully could pick his lock. To their mild horror, he got himself out and just scampered away – but apparently he’s better at sneaking or knows some secret passages or something, because he didn’t set off the alarm just yet. So that’s interesting. . .
And then we smash cut back to Egbert and Drumsticks on the upper floor, with Egbert asking Drumsticks how best to beat people. Drumsticks was only too happy to give a demonstration and got Egbert to open the cell of an inmate. Johnny had him dramatically raise the truncheon to wallop the prisoner –
And Egbert just let the door shut and peaced out. XD Leaving Drumsticks locked in the cell of the prisoner he’d just brutalized. A big, burly prisoner with a cell full of dishes covered with the remains of breaded man-shapes. XD Egbert IMMEDIATELY was like “wait, no, I COULDN’T have known I was locking him in with a cannibal” and Johnny assured him that this wouldn’t count against his atonement. XD
Anyway, Egbert started heading down and rejoined the others, who filled him in, and Dob got the location of Hella, the other prisoner they needed to find, from a fellow inmate, who said she was good at manipulation – apparently she gets these dreamy looks and then just says EXACTLY what will make you think better of her. XD She was three floors down, so the guard trio decided to just pretend they were escorting the prisoner duo somewhere, with Corazon putting Dob in the full Hannibal Lecter stretcher gear. XD Hell on the stairs, but it got the job done. Where I left it off, they’d gotten down one floor all right – we’ll see if anything interesting happens on the second one! And how many Life Is Strange jokes that I just won’t get will be cracked once they reach Hella. XD
2. Continue writing “As Long As You Love Me”: Check – we have started the final chapter of this fleshed-out version of the story, with Victor arriving at St. Sebastian Hospital ready to find Alice! And let me tell you, things are going his way – not only was his cab fare the exact amount the previous ride prepaid (though Victor did give him $28 bucks as a combination “pay-it-forward” and tip), he also entered the hospital and IMMEDIATELY got mistaken for a visiting med student and absorbed into the group touring the place, only to get a chance to quietly peel off when one of them accidentally ran into a nurse, distracting everyone. And he’s just about to get a tip about a really great vending machine on a certain floor. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: TECHNICAL check – Call Me Kevin uploaded another one of his “Full Game LPs” that clocked in at an hour, which was JUST too long to watch tonight – so I did Gray and something that popped up in the Recommendeds. I’m hoping I can watch that CMK video tomorrow, then pair Wednesday’s Gray up with Thursday’s Kevin to stay on track. We’ll see! In the meantime –
A) Started with a Plumbella offering (she’s back after a mental health break) – “Must Have Mods that massively improve The Sims 4!” This one focused on mods she considers more bugfixes or “quality of life” mods – stuff like “Better Sleep Autonomy,” which makes it so Sims will sleep more consistently through the night; “Better Build Buy,” which allows you to sort out the Build/Buy catalog and see debug and live edit objects automatically; “The Personality Mod,” which gives Sims Sims 2 (and more)-inspired personality traits that, when paired with Missy Hissy’s custom wants, gives Sims, well, more personality; and “High Quality Map Replacements,” which just makes the in-game maps look nicer. :p Always nice to get a few new mod recommendations! And she’s promised a gameplay-focused sequel later. . .
B) Then it was over to the Subs for GrayStillPlays and “I found a MOON WATER SLIDE in GTA 5!” Which is a real example of a title that does NOT give you the whole truth because WHOOO BOOY, DID ALEX BRING HIS A GAME THIS EPISODE. First, Gray had to go up a ramp in his car and land perfectly on the target above the water slides. Then he had to slide down a bunch of slides into the middle of the black hole/moon/whatever it was in the middle, then take the car inside up the sides and basically invert-ramp-himself into the teleporter atop it. That brought him to the first in the following series of wall rides from hell:
I. A MOVING wall ride where Gray had to dodge the squares set around the moving track (he compared it to Geometry Dash) and hit the checkpoint that appeared JUST RIGHT to get teleported to the next one
II. Another moving wall ride where the twist was he had to do a bunch of thumbnail holes through a variety of objects – IN REVERSE, because they were all coming up from BEHIND him, and also the board had a few “back to the beginning” teleporters seeded on it along with the proper checkpoint
III. A third moving wall ride where the track under him was going in reverse SO FAST that if he slackened his speed or hit something, he would immediately be CATAPULTED backwards, and his only hope to stay on the board was to hit the boosts that came around every so often. Did I mention he STILL had to make through a handful of thumbnail holes, AND do a transfer down, AND do ANOTHER round of all this to make it to the checkpoint? He finally found a way on the lower section by letting the checkpoint come to him in “Reverse Thumbnail Hole” style like the previous ride
IV. A circle with a trio of teleporting ramps, all of different heights and colors, that would launch Gray up to pick one of four spinning teleporters within the circle – some of which would dump him back at the beginning, some of which would put him at the bottom of the circle so he could use it as a loop-de-loop to launch through a thumbnail hole and into another checkpoint
V. A FOURTH moving wall ride where the trick was you had to find the bits of the board that were actually real, because certain sections you would fall through. Alex’s tip was “stick to purple,” but in fact Gray learned you had to cross over and ride above or below the yellow strips on the board. Alex, Alex, Alex – straight-up lying to Gray? Naughty~
VI. Another non-moving wall ride with a bit of an optical illusion element, where you had to ride down narrower and narrower strips of color, avoiding the boxes and gaps in the wall, before transferring down and doing a wall ride along the strip of roadway above the OCEAN that this was all hovering above, before going up as bit to do a TRANSFER into ANOTHER wall ride which just got smaller and smaller before launching Gray into a tube with a teleporter that he could only access by getting out of his car
VII. Another actual water slide section, where Gray had to yeet himself down a slide – into the wall ride where you had to stay on/near yellow or otherwise you’d fall through the board; here he had to time slide so he went through a fake purple section and got yeeted into a party tube in the ocean with a teleporter at the bottom.
And then, and only then, did the agony end, as Alex gave Gray the supercar with the pink smoke and, instead of an actual win, the chance to once again yeet himself out of existence. XD Whew! That was a ride, and not just for Gray. Alex always makes the best boards, I swear.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check! On both blogs too –
Victor Luvs Alice – we have the four-post Chill Save update for tomorrow, then a post of video game memes for Thursday and a post of some top-tier ship dynamics I love for Valice for Friday!
Valice Multiverse – three ask replies, yay! One involving how to play Monopoly backwards. XD
And now it's time for me to head to bed and try and get some sleep. Midpoint of the week tomorrow! Hopefully the traffic gets a little better. . .night all!
