Busy Monday
Dec. 12th, 2022 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickNo delays this morning -- at least not for me, a few schools had 'em. Fortunately the snow wasn't bad enough to screw up traffic any worse than usual on my route, and coming home was actually pretty easy, so that was nice. But the rest of my day was, as the title states, busy --
Work – Another annoying day, I am sad to say – mostly because the credit card company AGAIN uploaded a bunch of stuff on Sunday, meaning I had two GLs to get through, not one, and they were both fairly complicated in working out the deposit totals and suchlike. Add in nonsense like refunds not showing correctly, and – yeah. I’m hoping the week improves from here, but we’ll see. . .
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike today, and onto the next Live Oxventure – “Tome Sweet Tome!” Having wrecked any chance to relax back in Wilmington Spa, the gang had moved onto a different tourist trap – Folk’s Bounty, home of a wizard (no, not Corazon’s “nemesis” Binbag – this one was called Trashsack XD) with a magical book that makes real whatever he writes within! Naturally the place was really peaceful and idyllic until this lot walked in. XD Dob was eager for a dip and immediately dived into the ornamental pond in the middle of the square, hoping to maybe catch one of the koi inside, while Corazon set up a sun-lounger and Egbert got everybody umbrella drinks despite it being nine in the morning. Dob then rolled a crit 1, leading to him inhaling both one of the koi and enough water to keep it alive, all stuffed into one lung. Corazon was unimpressed, to say the least. XD Merilwen used Speak With Animals to check in on the carp, who was just happy to discover it wasn’t in Dob’s stomach, while Egbert poured Dob’s umbrella drink into his OTHER lung at his request. XD Dob, I would say I have no idea how you’re still alive, but your backstory has you fucking recovering from RABIES, so I’m guessing you’re actually indestructible.
Anyway – the gang was naturally curious about Trashsack and his magic book (and how they might get a chance to use it), and fortunately they’d arrived just around the time that he held his daily audiences with the townsfolk to get their requests! Trashsack (who wore a beautiful blue robe and a newsboy cap) set up on the village green, and villagers began approaching, starting with one man asking that his fallen doorway be repaired. Trashsack assured him that it would be done – maybe not right away, but it would be done. Corazon was suspicious, and with a good Wisdom/Perception check, was easily able to suss out that Trashsack was trying to cover for something.
Egbert, on a crit 1 Wisdom/Perception check (or, technically, a crit zero – he subtracts one for all Wisdom rolls, remember?), became convinced that Trashsack was actually evil and going to make EVERYONE’S doorways fall in, and rushed up to stop him. He didn’t rush up particularly effectively though, and a poor Strength roll meant he just kind of limply grabbed Trashsack’s arm and started flailing it about. Trashsack was bemused, to say the least. XD Corazon got Egbert to let him go, and Dob stepped up to make a request – could Trashsack write in his book that there was a SECOND book that belonged to Dob, so he could ease troubles elsewhere? Trashsack quickly blamed the tourist board of the town, saying that they wouldn’t let him write anything in the book that might stop the tourist trade, blame capitalism. Egbert was like “surely you could also add in that Folk’s Bounty keeps its tourist trade,” but Trashsack refused to get into the logic. XD He said they all seemed like nice people (earning a look from Prudence) and that if they would be willing to wait until after he’d heard all requests, he would happily talk shop with them. The gang agreed, seeing a great opportunity to observe him at work – a few rolls later, Prudence in particular pointed out how fearful and anxious the guy looked whenever he wrote down a request on his scroll. Merilwen immediately guessed that he’d lost the book somehow, and a plan was hatched to get him drunk and see what he spilled. XD
And so, once he was done with his duties, Dob scooped up Trashsack and took him to the local tavern, Winifred’s – run by Winifred, funnily enough. Dob gaslighted the poor woman into thinking he was a regular in an attempt to make Trashsack feel like they were more trustworthy or something, then rolled a crit 1 to eat bar snacks without them being stolen by the fish in his lung and ended up with halved speed because the damn fish got so full. XD By contrast, Corazon went for the more direct “we’re adventures, we solve problems like lost books” approach, which proved much more effective. Trashsack admitted he’d lost the book, though when the Oxventurers tried to claim that him not writing in the book during his audience was a dead giveaway, he clarified that he never did that anyway – people got too many ideas about trying to steal it. (In fact, that’s what he thought Egbert was trying to do, very poorly.) And steal it someone had – mostly because Trashsack made the rather poor decision of going to the pub with the book to fulfill everyone’s requests (apparently this is his routine, as he can write in it that he gets all the free drinks he wants and that they can’t throw him out until late), gotten quite drunk, passed out in the alley outside, and woken up with it missing (along with his wallet and shoes). The gang decided that checking the tavern lost-and-found was worth doing and had Winifred look for any books that might have been left behind – she had a seven-volume treatise on turnips that Egbert took (to put with his umbrella full of bees, his “glad you’re better” gift from Prudence ages ago). They also asked if anything unusual had happened since the book went missing, which no – unless that “Ray” Dob keeps mentioning was somehow written out of existence without Trashsack’s knowledge. . . XD Anyway, he said that he’d reward them handsomely for finding the book for him (he was offering money, but Corazon instead argued that they all got to write and draw one thing in the book; Trashsack was amendable, but only if he got to vet the wishes), but asked that they also help him keep up appearances by fulfilling a few key requests while they were at it – fix that guy’s fallen-down doorway; bake bread for the local baker, who can’t actually bake anything; and find someone to marry the local dowager widow (Dob claimed that finding Ray and bringing him back would fix that). The gang agreed, and it was time to burst dramatically into the alley and examine the crime scene!
. . .everyone rolled miserably, causing Johnny to remark it was a wonder they managed to FIND the alley. Prudence, as the only one in double digits (and then only BARELY with an eleven), managed to find some impressions where Trashsack initially fell in a drunken stupor and then was rolled over to be robbed while the others roped off the crime scene with hempen rope painted yellow-and-black and unsold Beeples’ merch (yes, THAT’S back XD). Merilwen abruptly recalled the existence of Katy Pearlhead and asked Dob where she was – Dob said that “she has a sixth sense for us having adventures” and thus was back at the koi pond, trying to stay out of it. They talked him into Messaging her and asking if she’d stolen anything – as it turned out, she had, but only some unshelled pistachios. Dob reveled in the crunch as she ate them (completely weirding out Johnny XD). Dob asked if she could check up on the local thieves, which she agreed to, then they had a cutesy “you stop Messaging” first end-of-conversation, with Dob accidentally Messaging her again after she hung up. Corazon, hurt that Dob had asked Katy to look into the local thief scene before him, promptly began looking for thieves’ signs – a good roll meant that he found a long screed by a disappointed thief talking about how all the fun is taken out of stealing when your victim can just have the item instantly replaced. So there are thieves here, and it seems they’re unhappy with how contented this place is. . .
But first, sidequests! I left it with Corazon summing up the tasks set to them by Trashsack – doorway, bread, widow. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow!
2. Continue writing gift fics: Check – did the rough draft of my friend Marie’s today! She’s one of my regular tumblr RP partners, and she told me to surprise her, so I did a follow-up to a just-for-fun thread we did where Madeline kept stealing Alice’s clothes, so the ladies went out thrifting. Victor made some gentle fun of his daughter’s monochromatic fashion sense, saying she got it from her mother (who in London is famous for her black-and-white stripes) – only to be reminded HE doesn’t dress particularly colorfully either. XD That just leaves one rough draft to go – hopefully Ace gets back to me soon!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – three Subs videos and bonus OXmas, no problem –
A) Started early because I had a few minutes and I wanted to make DAMN sure I got this one sorted – so yes, right before my workout, watched OXBox and “XMAS CHALLENGE DAY 3! Disney Dreamlight Valley Selfie Challenge | Tournament of Champions 2022!” This was a relatively simple and straightforward challenge between Luke and Ellen, using someone’s “endgame” save (I’m not sure whose) – run around the map and take as many selfies with Disney characters as possible! The characters didn’t have to be specifically POSING, but you did have to get their entire face in the selfie box, and they had to be FACING the camera. However, you were allowed to count multiple characters in one shot (for example, both Luke and Ellen were able to get snaps with Mother Gothel and Merlin in the same selfie, and that counted as two for each of them). It was a tight contest, with Luke getting an early lead with Maui from Moana appearing right in front of him when he started, and Ellen really struggling to get a proper selfie with Remy from Ratatouille (because, being a rat, he’s so close to the ground) during her go, but in the end, Ellen triumphed with fourteen snaps to Luke’s twelve. It was a fun little contest, though, and the pair got some pretty hilarious pictures. Ellen’s one of Mickey mid-blink (with his eyes JUST squinted open) was the best, though. XD
B) Then, after supper and writing, started in the Subs with the latest from Josh Way – “SKETCHY: Quaxly from Pokémon Scarlet/Violet!” Keeping up with his Duckember with a duck-themed Pokemon from the latest generation of games, as suggested by his kid. Apparently he’s got a video coming up of him drawing her three favorite Pokemon for her, aww. :) Very cute, very fast, not much else to say. :p
C) Then it was time for Call Me Kevin and his latest – “The Sims game with a wild storyline!” AKA Kevin tries one of the Sims 2 spinoff games (which I believe were made specifically for laptops), The Sims Life Stories! Specifically, he played Riley’s story, which involved her going to live with her aunt, who disappeared for most of the story while Riley was torn between two men, local hottie Mickey and old flame Dylan. As it turned out, though, the reason the aunt had disappeared was because Dylan had kidnapped her, and he was trying to woo Riley so he could marry and murder her for her money. And his accomplice, Agora, was set the task of seducing Mickey – Riley ended up bursting into their wedding to tell him what had happened, and after Agora was arrested, Mickey proposed to Riley right there in the park’s bathroom, and they ended up having twins together to end the story mode of the game. This was all bizarre and soap-opera-y enough, but when you added in Kevin’s antics. . . I mean, the dude started out by constantly calling emergency services when there was no emergency and getting fined to the point where they were taking all his stuff to pay the fines; updated Riley’s look with camo face paint and a propeller hat (making Mickey hate her); set the house on fire; and managed to BREAK THE GAME by inviting Mickey over before he was SUPPOSED to. XD And then after he restarted, he still managed to do stuff like sell every present she got (plus all the trees outside) to fund buying a load of bowling alleys for the back garden, and actually accidentally killed Riley after a fateful woohoo with Dylan because he kept letting her get to near-starving. And then ended the video by semi-deliberately killing Riley with a fire, leaving Mickey with their twin girls Dylan and Hairdryer. XD Basically, this game is a perfect match for Kevin and I hope to see more. XD
D) And finally we had GrayStillPlays and “When you slice completely through earth,” aka Gray plays Slice It All! Gray has gone from spinning guns yesterday to spinning knives today, in a mobile game where you must flip your knife through a course of cuttable objects and cut as many of them as possible. Objects range from stacks of rainbow cake, to colored pencils, to stacks of off-brand Oreos (topped with apples for some reason), to bricks (also rainbow), to chocolate bars (also rainbow), to lollipops (also rainbow), to – look, there’s a lot of food. And treasure chests in the special golden caves. And the occasional woman with an apple on her head. And knives range from random kitchen knives, to lightsabers, to hobby horses with bladed manes. Gray had a lot of fun flipping and cutting his way through each course, though he found getting just the right multiplier at the end difficult. It’s all rigged anyway, Gray – don’t sweat it. :P
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Like 95% check – I got an early start on the Chill Save update this morning for Victor Luvs Alice, finishing off the half-completed second post’s text and tags and starting on the third’s; then this evening after YouTube I came back to it and got through the third and fourth posts and MOST of the fifth. I’ve got like a couple of paragraphs to wrap things up and the tags to do, and then that’ll be ready for Wednesday. Whew! Makes me glad next week is a “look at how I prettied up the house” update and probably two posts at most, depending on how many pictures I want to show off. But yeah, just gotta finish off that final post tomorrow, and we’re golden, yay.
Not bad, not bad. And now it is time to get to bed and get some sleep in preparation for the next work day, meh. At least it's just this week and three days next week. . .and Moose, I promise I'll get to your messages tomorrow, I just didn't have time tonight. Night all!
Work – Another annoying day, I am sad to say – mostly because the credit card company AGAIN uploaded a bunch of stuff on Sunday, meaning I had two GLs to get through, not one, and they were both fairly complicated in working out the deposit totals and suchlike. Add in nonsense like refunds not showing correctly, and – yeah. I’m hoping the week improves from here, but we’ll see. . .
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike today, and onto the next Live Oxventure – “Tome Sweet Tome!” Having wrecked any chance to relax back in Wilmington Spa, the gang had moved onto a different tourist trap – Folk’s Bounty, home of a wizard (no, not Corazon’s “nemesis” Binbag – this one was called Trashsack XD) with a magical book that makes real whatever he writes within! Naturally the place was really peaceful and idyllic until this lot walked in. XD Dob was eager for a dip and immediately dived into the ornamental pond in the middle of the square, hoping to maybe catch one of the koi inside, while Corazon set up a sun-lounger and Egbert got everybody umbrella drinks despite it being nine in the morning. Dob then rolled a crit 1, leading to him inhaling both one of the koi and enough water to keep it alive, all stuffed into one lung. Corazon was unimpressed, to say the least. XD Merilwen used Speak With Animals to check in on the carp, who was just happy to discover it wasn’t in Dob’s stomach, while Egbert poured Dob’s umbrella drink into his OTHER lung at his request. XD Dob, I would say I have no idea how you’re still alive, but your backstory has you fucking recovering from RABIES, so I’m guessing you’re actually indestructible.
Anyway – the gang was naturally curious about Trashsack and his magic book (and how they might get a chance to use it), and fortunately they’d arrived just around the time that he held his daily audiences with the townsfolk to get their requests! Trashsack (who wore a beautiful blue robe and a newsboy cap) set up on the village green, and villagers began approaching, starting with one man asking that his fallen doorway be repaired. Trashsack assured him that it would be done – maybe not right away, but it would be done. Corazon was suspicious, and with a good Wisdom/Perception check, was easily able to suss out that Trashsack was trying to cover for something.
Egbert, on a crit 1 Wisdom/Perception check (or, technically, a crit zero – he subtracts one for all Wisdom rolls, remember?), became convinced that Trashsack was actually evil and going to make EVERYONE’S doorways fall in, and rushed up to stop him. He didn’t rush up particularly effectively though, and a poor Strength roll meant he just kind of limply grabbed Trashsack’s arm and started flailing it about. Trashsack was bemused, to say the least. XD Corazon got Egbert to let him go, and Dob stepped up to make a request – could Trashsack write in his book that there was a SECOND book that belonged to Dob, so he could ease troubles elsewhere? Trashsack quickly blamed the tourist board of the town, saying that they wouldn’t let him write anything in the book that might stop the tourist trade, blame capitalism. Egbert was like “surely you could also add in that Folk’s Bounty keeps its tourist trade,” but Trashsack refused to get into the logic. XD He said they all seemed like nice people (earning a look from Prudence) and that if they would be willing to wait until after he’d heard all requests, he would happily talk shop with them. The gang agreed, seeing a great opportunity to observe him at work – a few rolls later, Prudence in particular pointed out how fearful and anxious the guy looked whenever he wrote down a request on his scroll. Merilwen immediately guessed that he’d lost the book somehow, and a plan was hatched to get him drunk and see what he spilled. XD
And so, once he was done with his duties, Dob scooped up Trashsack and took him to the local tavern, Winifred’s – run by Winifred, funnily enough. Dob gaslighted the poor woman into thinking he was a regular in an attempt to make Trashsack feel like they were more trustworthy or something, then rolled a crit 1 to eat bar snacks without them being stolen by the fish in his lung and ended up with halved speed because the damn fish got so full. XD By contrast, Corazon went for the more direct “we’re adventures, we solve problems like lost books” approach, which proved much more effective. Trashsack admitted he’d lost the book, though when the Oxventurers tried to claim that him not writing in the book during his audience was a dead giveaway, he clarified that he never did that anyway – people got too many ideas about trying to steal it. (In fact, that’s what he thought Egbert was trying to do, very poorly.) And steal it someone had – mostly because Trashsack made the rather poor decision of going to the pub with the book to fulfill everyone’s requests (apparently this is his routine, as he can write in it that he gets all the free drinks he wants and that they can’t throw him out until late), gotten quite drunk, passed out in the alley outside, and woken up with it missing (along with his wallet and shoes). The gang decided that checking the tavern lost-and-found was worth doing and had Winifred look for any books that might have been left behind – she had a seven-volume treatise on turnips that Egbert took (to put with his umbrella full of bees, his “glad you’re better” gift from Prudence ages ago). They also asked if anything unusual had happened since the book went missing, which no – unless that “Ray” Dob keeps mentioning was somehow written out of existence without Trashsack’s knowledge. . . XD Anyway, he said that he’d reward them handsomely for finding the book for him (he was offering money, but Corazon instead argued that they all got to write and draw one thing in the book; Trashsack was amendable, but only if he got to vet the wishes), but asked that they also help him keep up appearances by fulfilling a few key requests while they were at it – fix that guy’s fallen-down doorway; bake bread for the local baker, who can’t actually bake anything; and find someone to marry the local dowager widow (Dob claimed that finding Ray and bringing him back would fix that). The gang agreed, and it was time to burst dramatically into the alley and examine the crime scene!
. . .everyone rolled miserably, causing Johnny to remark it was a wonder they managed to FIND the alley. Prudence, as the only one in double digits (and then only BARELY with an eleven), managed to find some impressions where Trashsack initially fell in a drunken stupor and then was rolled over to be robbed while the others roped off the crime scene with hempen rope painted yellow-and-black and unsold Beeples’ merch (yes, THAT’S back XD). Merilwen abruptly recalled the existence of Katy Pearlhead and asked Dob where she was – Dob said that “she has a sixth sense for us having adventures” and thus was back at the koi pond, trying to stay out of it. They talked him into Messaging her and asking if she’d stolen anything – as it turned out, she had, but only some unshelled pistachios. Dob reveled in the crunch as she ate them (completely weirding out Johnny XD). Dob asked if she could check up on the local thieves, which she agreed to, then they had a cutesy “you stop Messaging” first end-of-conversation, with Dob accidentally Messaging her again after she hung up. Corazon, hurt that Dob had asked Katy to look into the local thief scene before him, promptly began looking for thieves’ signs – a good roll meant that he found a long screed by a disappointed thief talking about how all the fun is taken out of stealing when your victim can just have the item instantly replaced. So there are thieves here, and it seems they’re unhappy with how contented this place is. . .
But first, sidequests! I left it with Corazon summing up the tasks set to them by Trashsack – doorway, bread, widow. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow!
2. Continue writing gift fics: Check – did the rough draft of my friend Marie’s today! She’s one of my regular tumblr RP partners, and she told me to surprise her, so I did a follow-up to a just-for-fun thread we did where Madeline kept stealing Alice’s clothes, so the ladies went out thrifting. Victor made some gentle fun of his daughter’s monochromatic fashion sense, saying she got it from her mother (who in London is famous for her black-and-white stripes) – only to be reminded HE doesn’t dress particularly colorfully either. XD That just leaves one rough draft to go – hopefully Ace gets back to me soon!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – three Subs videos and bonus OXmas, no problem –
A) Started early because I had a few minutes and I wanted to make DAMN sure I got this one sorted – so yes, right before my workout, watched OXBox and “XMAS CHALLENGE DAY 3! Disney Dreamlight Valley Selfie Challenge | Tournament of Champions 2022!” This was a relatively simple and straightforward challenge between Luke and Ellen, using someone’s “endgame” save (I’m not sure whose) – run around the map and take as many selfies with Disney characters as possible! The characters didn’t have to be specifically POSING, but you did have to get their entire face in the selfie box, and they had to be FACING the camera. However, you were allowed to count multiple characters in one shot (for example, both Luke and Ellen were able to get snaps with Mother Gothel and Merlin in the same selfie, and that counted as two for each of them). It was a tight contest, with Luke getting an early lead with Maui from Moana appearing right in front of him when he started, and Ellen really struggling to get a proper selfie with Remy from Ratatouille (because, being a rat, he’s so close to the ground) during her go, but in the end, Ellen triumphed with fourteen snaps to Luke’s twelve. It was a fun little contest, though, and the pair got some pretty hilarious pictures. Ellen’s one of Mickey mid-blink (with his eyes JUST squinted open) was the best, though. XD
B) Then, after supper and writing, started in the Subs with the latest from Josh Way – “SKETCHY: Quaxly from Pokémon Scarlet/Violet!” Keeping up with his Duckember with a duck-themed Pokemon from the latest generation of games, as suggested by his kid. Apparently he’s got a video coming up of him drawing her three favorite Pokemon for her, aww. :) Very cute, very fast, not much else to say. :p
C) Then it was time for Call Me Kevin and his latest – “The Sims game with a wild storyline!” AKA Kevin tries one of the Sims 2 spinoff games (which I believe were made specifically for laptops), The Sims Life Stories! Specifically, he played Riley’s story, which involved her going to live with her aunt, who disappeared for most of the story while Riley was torn between two men, local hottie Mickey and old flame Dylan. As it turned out, though, the reason the aunt had disappeared was because Dylan had kidnapped her, and he was trying to woo Riley so he could marry and murder her for her money. And his accomplice, Agora, was set the task of seducing Mickey – Riley ended up bursting into their wedding to tell him what had happened, and after Agora was arrested, Mickey proposed to Riley right there in the park’s bathroom, and they ended up having twins together to end the story mode of the game. This was all bizarre and soap-opera-y enough, but when you added in Kevin’s antics. . . I mean, the dude started out by constantly calling emergency services when there was no emergency and getting fined to the point where they were taking all his stuff to pay the fines; updated Riley’s look with camo face paint and a propeller hat (making Mickey hate her); set the house on fire; and managed to BREAK THE GAME by inviting Mickey over before he was SUPPOSED to. XD And then after he restarted, he still managed to do stuff like sell every present she got (plus all the trees outside) to fund buying a load of bowling alleys for the back garden, and actually accidentally killed Riley after a fateful woohoo with Dylan because he kept letting her get to near-starving. And then ended the video by semi-deliberately killing Riley with a fire, leaving Mickey with their twin girls Dylan and Hairdryer. XD Basically, this game is a perfect match for Kevin and I hope to see more. XD
D) And finally we had GrayStillPlays and “When you slice completely through earth,” aka Gray plays Slice It All! Gray has gone from spinning guns yesterday to spinning knives today, in a mobile game where you must flip your knife through a course of cuttable objects and cut as many of them as possible. Objects range from stacks of rainbow cake, to colored pencils, to stacks of off-brand Oreos (topped with apples for some reason), to bricks (also rainbow), to chocolate bars (also rainbow), to lollipops (also rainbow), to – look, there’s a lot of food. And treasure chests in the special golden caves. And the occasional woman with an apple on her head. And knives range from random kitchen knives, to lightsabers, to hobby horses with bladed manes. Gray had a lot of fun flipping and cutting his way through each course, though he found getting just the right multiplier at the end difficult. It’s all rigged anyway, Gray – don’t sweat it. :P
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Like 95% check – I got an early start on the Chill Save update this morning for Victor Luvs Alice, finishing off the half-completed second post’s text and tags and starting on the third’s; then this evening after YouTube I came back to it and got through the third and fourth posts and MOST of the fifth. I’ve got like a couple of paragraphs to wrap things up and the tags to do, and then that’ll be ready for Wednesday. Whew! Makes me glad next week is a “look at how I prettied up the house” update and probably two posts at most, depending on how many pictures I want to show off. But yeah, just gotta finish off that final post tomorrow, and we’re golden, yay.
Not bad, not bad. And now it is time to get to bed and get some sleep in preparation for the next work day, meh. At least it's just this week and three days next week. . .and Moose, I promise I'll get to your messages tomorrow, I just didn't have time tonight. Night all!
