Decent Enough Monday
Jun. 5th, 2023 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWeather wasn't great, but other than that, I had a pretty good, productive day --
Work – Reasonably quiet Monday – I did the GL, I cleaned up a couple of duplicates, I took a few phone calls, I worked on a QC file for the latest round of thank yous, etc. Nothing to write home about beyond my coworkers being a bit annoyingly chatty. The early release was nice, though – traffic wasn’t utterly miserable, and I got home in good time. :) Now if only they could do that every day! No beanbags when I got back, though – it was kinda chilly and raining on and off all day, so it wasn’t good weather for it. In fact, it’s likely not to be good weather for it for the rest of the week, as we’ve got a chance of rain every day until the weekend! *shrug* We’ll see how it all pans out!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike again, and THIS time we started the latest Oxventure – the Live Show “Knight Shift!” After an opening where Corazon claimed rogues like himself were the best at everything, including being a dragonborn (Egbert allowed this and said he was second-best), volleyball, being Merilwen’s friend, and turning into a bear (Merilwen promptly said “not that kind of bare!” while shielding her eyes) Johnny set the scene for them all – they were in a tavern in the tiny hamlet of Piddleton, drinking beer that was – well. The place was called Piddleton. You tell me what kind of jokes they were making. XD (No idea of where this fit into the timeline vis-a-vis “Legacy of Dragons,” by the way – while “Snow Escape” could easily be fit into that bit of time where they were heading to find the Joyful Damnation after failing to find the frost dragon atop the frozen peak, this one didn’t have any hints at the start. I’m just gonna assume all the Live Shows fell into that time period of “getting these eggs to the Joyful Damnation” unless it is hinted otherwise/made clear they happened at a different time. Or I can ask the Oxventurers themselves at some point.)
ANYWAY, the jokes about drinking piss were interrupted by the arrival of some strange hovering infernal creature, hunched over and with a tongue moving independently of the rest of its mouth. It started to ask if anyone had seen a knight in exceptionally shiny armor, and was promptly shot by the barman. Dob told the guy “hey, cool it, this monster is a potential customer” and kindly healed the creature. In fact, by using a fourth-level spell slot for Heal Wounds, he actually ended up deaging the creature by a century and allowed Johnny to stop using the throat-straining creepy voice they were using before. XD The creature (who later said his name in Infernal translated to “James”) thanked him and repeated his request, explaining that the shiny knight he was looking for was one Algernon Castleton. Dob decided to ask around to see if anyone knew this shiny knight, while Corazon chose to just look for the guy –
And then it became a “bit,” with Merilwen listening for the knight, Prudence smelling for him, and Egbert tasting for him (as in, going around and licking everyone in the nearby vicinity). While Prudence and Egbert did not roll well (as well they shouldn’t – even with Egbert trying AGAIN after his initial failure), Dob’s “asking” got a fifteen, allowing him to confirm that the barman had seen Algernon recently; Merilwen’s “listening” got a 24 with modifiers, allowing her to hear the clinking and clanking of shiny armor; and Corazon’s nat 20 on “looking” allowed him to immediately ID a picture of Algernon in front of his home on the wall – it wasn’t a recent picture, but it at least let them know what he looked like, and Corazon recognized the little thatched cottage as one that they’d passed on the way in. Having determined that Algernon lived nearby, the group thought to ask James the infernal creature WHY he was asking after Algernon – turned out James lives in the nearby dungeon, guarding untold riches with a bunch of other monsters. Every day for thirty years, Algernon has attempted to delve into the dungeon and retrieve the riches, and every day for thirty years, he has been reduced to one hit point, limped home, and slept off his wounds, before coming back the next day for another go after the monsters have rearranged the dungeon to keep it fresh. (Dob and Corazon were like “okay, he must enjoy this as a sex thing” and James was like, “hey, one of the rules of the dungeon is no kinkshaming.” XD) However, Algernon didn’t show up today, and the monsters are actually a bit worried about him. Dob immediately declared that the Oxventurers would find Algernon and get him to dive into the dungeon again, which James was very grateful for. He went off to take advantage of his lovely deaged looks for as long as they would last (SOMETHING was gonna get kissed, at any rate), and the Oxventures proceeded off to the thatched cottage!
Where, inside, in a VERY bare room, Algernon Castleton himself sat, clanking and sighing. Merilwen made a joke about taking that as a “sigh-n” and Andy and Luke promptly began apologizing to the audience and telling them where to ask for refunds. XD Corazon booted open the door as adventurously as possible to try and help the knight regain his spark, but it didn’t really do the job – Algernon just wasn’t feeling it anymore. Dob and Corazon suggested that maybe the problem was that he’d delved into that dungeon all those times alone, and pretended that their group needed a good, strong, shiny leader to marshal their natural talents and teach them discipline (cue Dob casting Shatter on the guy’s wall). Algernon wasn’t fully sold, but quickly realized they weren’t going to drop it if he didn’t make an attempt, so got them to agree to one run through the dungeon, then they’d leave him alone. Corazon agreed to this, and after some shenanigans (namely Corazon playing with a morning-star he found on the wall and knocking Dob in the noggin – only for two damage, luckily – and Egbert licking Algernon’s armor for reference purposes and deciding, on a low roll, that obviously it tasted like strawberries), the group headed out to the dungeon!
A mere 30 feet from Algernon’s front door! XD Yeah, apparently Algernon set up camp in a lean-to by there thirty years ago and slowly built up his thatched cottage from there. The gang stepped inside and made a big to-do about finding one gold piece on the floor by your classic “scrub skeleton” in the entrance – then Corazon asked Algernon if he should check the stairs down into the dungeon proper for traps. Cue Algernon revealing probably part of the reason he hasn’t beaten this dungeon in thirty years – he didn’t know you could check for traps! The others told him how it worked and did some trap checking (with Corazon, hilariously, rolling really badly – he tried to play it off as “I’m deliberately being shit at it to make Algernon feel better) – everyone spotted a trick stair step that unleashed a boulder, and Merilwen, with the highest score, also spotted a cobweb with a hidden filament in it that would trigger a hidden blade trap. She stopped Corazon from walking straight into both (causing a few joking cries of “she’s turned on us!” until she explained), and Dob and Egbert played up how Algernon telling them to check for traps had saved their lives. A little too much, honestly – fortunately a good Wisdom roll from Dob made him realize he’d gone a bit far, and he dialed it back. Corazon, meanwhile, disarmed the traps with two 20-plus rolls, finding a way to cut the filament without triggering the blade track, and just booting the trick stair down into the next room.
Where a bunch of goblins were waiting! They were obviously a bit puzzled at a stair flying in and smashing the table they were sitting at – fortunately Dob, getting forward and crouching, was able to let them know that they were bringing Algernon back into the dungeon, and the goblins promptly got into position. They were all snarly and such when the Oxventurers descended into the room, but lit up when they saw Algernon and forced him to make a joke about his initials AC and how they made him hard to hit. XD Dob immediately saw an opportunity to cast Hideous Laughter and sneakily whispered a joke to them about defeating a bunch of clowns by “going for the juggler” – and then had to explain clowns to them. Fortunately they found the explanation hilarious – even while Corazon, a man of action, was booting them around the room. I left it with him having kicked one goblin into a wall, killing it instantly, and getting ready to boot another, while Algernon was like “at least this is all new material” about Dob’s terrible jokes and cleaved a goblin in two with his giant sword. XD We’ll see how the dungeon dive continues, and just how bad at it Algernon really is, tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “The Joker And The Queen”: Check – wrote the next section of the escape today, with Technician Silvestri showing Kelman and Wickerman the aftermath of Smiler’s “joy infusion” on the latest team sent to capture them. Technician Cundey’s painting stripes and smiley faces on the walls; Officer Norris and Agent Bagshaw are standing around laughing at each other; and Miles is a joyful stoned mess on the floor. Wickerman in particular found it all very unpleasant. XD Unfortunately, though, Silvestri ALSO showed Kelman where the Coaster Gang and Victor were going – specifically, into a hallway that was built as a potential trap for Nemesis, complete with a collapsing floor. Allowing Kelman to lock them into that hallway and open up the pit underneath them. *wince* Fortunately, there’s one more Coaster Gang member who hasn’t gotten a chance to show off upgraded powers – and given I still need to show off Air’s retheme into Galactica. . .well. I think the group will be fine. XD
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – tonight we had GrayStillPlays and “When mothers become criminals,” aka Gray plays Momlife Simulator! This was a particularly terrible mobile game with horrible creepy (and clippy – Dad’s shirt kept coming through his sweater vest every time he moved his arms) models, where a mother, upon being informed that she’d fucked up her son’s chances for college by being a terrible mom, got a chance from God himself to go back in time and redo it properly. Unfortunately, God didn’t realize Gray was controlling the mom, and thus “John” got renamed to “Destroye” (Roy for short) and raised to be as angry and strong as possible. Starting with giving him a butcher’s cleaver to play with when he was like three weeks old. XD Other horrible choices included deliberately giving Roy the wrong answers while quizzing him in math; prioritizing wiping down the work laptop over giving Roy medicine when he puked on it; giving Roy coffee when he said he was thirsty (resulting in the world’s most hyperactive child); spooking Roy when he asked to sleep in Mom and Dad’s bed because of monsters; letting him just eat candy he managed to sneak; and booing him when he performed a little dance for her. Oh, and pranking her mother-in-law in ways that REALLY should have resulted in the old woman’s death. XD End result was that Destroye was never going to get into college, and thus mother and son would be stuck in matching pirate outfits forever. XD You gotta love when Gray finds a shitty mobile game and somehow makes it super-fun just by going for as many ridiculous choices as possible.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – thanks to getting home early, I was able to finish up two more posts of the upcoming Chill Valicer Save update (Prank Day and the purchase of Moory the cow) before going downstairs to work out! And then, after GrayStillPlays, I managed to finish off the other two remaining posts, so all seven should be all set to be queued up for Wednesday now, yaay~
Not too shabby, no -- and it feels good to have that Chill Valicer Save stuff all sorted! :) And now it is time to head to bed and prepare for another, full day at work, meh. At least I have a lot more time off coming up soon -- we have officially had half-day Fridays for this summer confirmed, yay! :D So that's definitely something to look forward to. For now, good night!
Work – Reasonably quiet Monday – I did the GL, I cleaned up a couple of duplicates, I took a few phone calls, I worked on a QC file for the latest round of thank yous, etc. Nothing to write home about beyond my coworkers being a bit annoyingly chatty. The early release was nice, though – traffic wasn’t utterly miserable, and I got home in good time. :) Now if only they could do that every day! No beanbags when I got back, though – it was kinda chilly and raining on and off all day, so it wasn’t good weather for it. In fact, it’s likely not to be good weather for it for the rest of the week, as we’ve got a chance of rain every day until the weekend! *shrug* We’ll see how it all pans out!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike again, and THIS time we started the latest Oxventure – the Live Show “Knight Shift!” After an opening where Corazon claimed rogues like himself were the best at everything, including being a dragonborn (Egbert allowed this and said he was second-best), volleyball, being Merilwen’s friend, and turning into a bear (Merilwen promptly said “not that kind of bare!” while shielding her eyes) Johnny set the scene for them all – they were in a tavern in the tiny hamlet of Piddleton, drinking beer that was – well. The place was called Piddleton. You tell me what kind of jokes they were making. XD (No idea of where this fit into the timeline vis-a-vis “Legacy of Dragons,” by the way – while “Snow Escape” could easily be fit into that bit of time where they were heading to find the Joyful Damnation after failing to find the frost dragon atop the frozen peak, this one didn’t have any hints at the start. I’m just gonna assume all the Live Shows fell into that time period of “getting these eggs to the Joyful Damnation” unless it is hinted otherwise/made clear they happened at a different time. Or I can ask the Oxventurers themselves at some point.)
ANYWAY, the jokes about drinking piss were interrupted by the arrival of some strange hovering infernal creature, hunched over and with a tongue moving independently of the rest of its mouth. It started to ask if anyone had seen a knight in exceptionally shiny armor, and was promptly shot by the barman. Dob told the guy “hey, cool it, this monster is a potential customer” and kindly healed the creature. In fact, by using a fourth-level spell slot for Heal Wounds, he actually ended up deaging the creature by a century and allowed Johnny to stop using the throat-straining creepy voice they were using before. XD The creature (who later said his name in Infernal translated to “James”) thanked him and repeated his request, explaining that the shiny knight he was looking for was one Algernon Castleton. Dob decided to ask around to see if anyone knew this shiny knight, while Corazon chose to just look for the guy –
And then it became a “bit,” with Merilwen listening for the knight, Prudence smelling for him, and Egbert tasting for him (as in, going around and licking everyone in the nearby vicinity). While Prudence and Egbert did not roll well (as well they shouldn’t – even with Egbert trying AGAIN after his initial failure), Dob’s “asking” got a fifteen, allowing him to confirm that the barman had seen Algernon recently; Merilwen’s “listening” got a 24 with modifiers, allowing her to hear the clinking and clanking of shiny armor; and Corazon’s nat 20 on “looking” allowed him to immediately ID a picture of Algernon in front of his home on the wall – it wasn’t a recent picture, but it at least let them know what he looked like, and Corazon recognized the little thatched cottage as one that they’d passed on the way in. Having determined that Algernon lived nearby, the group thought to ask James the infernal creature WHY he was asking after Algernon – turned out James lives in the nearby dungeon, guarding untold riches with a bunch of other monsters. Every day for thirty years, Algernon has attempted to delve into the dungeon and retrieve the riches, and every day for thirty years, he has been reduced to one hit point, limped home, and slept off his wounds, before coming back the next day for another go after the monsters have rearranged the dungeon to keep it fresh. (Dob and Corazon were like “okay, he must enjoy this as a sex thing” and James was like, “hey, one of the rules of the dungeon is no kinkshaming.” XD) However, Algernon didn’t show up today, and the monsters are actually a bit worried about him. Dob immediately declared that the Oxventurers would find Algernon and get him to dive into the dungeon again, which James was very grateful for. He went off to take advantage of his lovely deaged looks for as long as they would last (SOMETHING was gonna get kissed, at any rate), and the Oxventures proceeded off to the thatched cottage!
Where, inside, in a VERY bare room, Algernon Castleton himself sat, clanking and sighing. Merilwen made a joke about taking that as a “sigh-n” and Andy and Luke promptly began apologizing to the audience and telling them where to ask for refunds. XD Corazon booted open the door as adventurously as possible to try and help the knight regain his spark, but it didn’t really do the job – Algernon just wasn’t feeling it anymore. Dob and Corazon suggested that maybe the problem was that he’d delved into that dungeon all those times alone, and pretended that their group needed a good, strong, shiny leader to marshal their natural talents and teach them discipline (cue Dob casting Shatter on the guy’s wall). Algernon wasn’t fully sold, but quickly realized they weren’t going to drop it if he didn’t make an attempt, so got them to agree to one run through the dungeon, then they’d leave him alone. Corazon agreed to this, and after some shenanigans (namely Corazon playing with a morning-star he found on the wall and knocking Dob in the noggin – only for two damage, luckily – and Egbert licking Algernon’s armor for reference purposes and deciding, on a low roll, that obviously it tasted like strawberries), the group headed out to the dungeon!
A mere 30 feet from Algernon’s front door! XD Yeah, apparently Algernon set up camp in a lean-to by there thirty years ago and slowly built up his thatched cottage from there. The gang stepped inside and made a big to-do about finding one gold piece on the floor by your classic “scrub skeleton” in the entrance – then Corazon asked Algernon if he should check the stairs down into the dungeon proper for traps. Cue Algernon revealing probably part of the reason he hasn’t beaten this dungeon in thirty years – he didn’t know you could check for traps! The others told him how it worked and did some trap checking (with Corazon, hilariously, rolling really badly – he tried to play it off as “I’m deliberately being shit at it to make Algernon feel better) – everyone spotted a trick stair step that unleashed a boulder, and Merilwen, with the highest score, also spotted a cobweb with a hidden filament in it that would trigger a hidden blade trap. She stopped Corazon from walking straight into both (causing a few joking cries of “she’s turned on us!” until she explained), and Dob and Egbert played up how Algernon telling them to check for traps had saved their lives. A little too much, honestly – fortunately a good Wisdom roll from Dob made him realize he’d gone a bit far, and he dialed it back. Corazon, meanwhile, disarmed the traps with two 20-plus rolls, finding a way to cut the filament without triggering the blade track, and just booting the trick stair down into the next room.
Where a bunch of goblins were waiting! They were obviously a bit puzzled at a stair flying in and smashing the table they were sitting at – fortunately Dob, getting forward and crouching, was able to let them know that they were bringing Algernon back into the dungeon, and the goblins promptly got into position. They were all snarly and such when the Oxventurers descended into the room, but lit up when they saw Algernon and forced him to make a joke about his initials AC and how they made him hard to hit. XD Dob immediately saw an opportunity to cast Hideous Laughter and sneakily whispered a joke to them about defeating a bunch of clowns by “going for the juggler” – and then had to explain clowns to them. Fortunately they found the explanation hilarious – even while Corazon, a man of action, was booting them around the room. I left it with him having kicked one goblin into a wall, killing it instantly, and getting ready to boot another, while Algernon was like “at least this is all new material” about Dob’s terrible jokes and cleaved a goblin in two with his giant sword. XD We’ll see how the dungeon dive continues, and just how bad at it Algernon really is, tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “The Joker And The Queen”: Check – wrote the next section of the escape today, with Technician Silvestri showing Kelman and Wickerman the aftermath of Smiler’s “joy infusion” on the latest team sent to capture them. Technician Cundey’s painting stripes and smiley faces on the walls; Officer Norris and Agent Bagshaw are standing around laughing at each other; and Miles is a joyful stoned mess on the floor. Wickerman in particular found it all very unpleasant. XD Unfortunately, though, Silvestri ALSO showed Kelman where the Coaster Gang and Victor were going – specifically, into a hallway that was built as a potential trap for Nemesis, complete with a collapsing floor. Allowing Kelman to lock them into that hallway and open up the pit underneath them. *wince* Fortunately, there’s one more Coaster Gang member who hasn’t gotten a chance to show off upgraded powers – and given I still need to show off Air’s retheme into Galactica. . .well. I think the group will be fine. XD
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – tonight we had GrayStillPlays and “When mothers become criminals,” aka Gray plays Momlife Simulator! This was a particularly terrible mobile game with horrible creepy (and clippy – Dad’s shirt kept coming through his sweater vest every time he moved his arms) models, where a mother, upon being informed that she’d fucked up her son’s chances for college by being a terrible mom, got a chance from God himself to go back in time and redo it properly. Unfortunately, God didn’t realize Gray was controlling the mom, and thus “John” got renamed to “Destroye” (Roy for short) and raised to be as angry and strong as possible. Starting with giving him a butcher’s cleaver to play with when he was like three weeks old. XD Other horrible choices included deliberately giving Roy the wrong answers while quizzing him in math; prioritizing wiping down the work laptop over giving Roy medicine when he puked on it; giving Roy coffee when he said he was thirsty (resulting in the world’s most hyperactive child); spooking Roy when he asked to sleep in Mom and Dad’s bed because of monsters; letting him just eat candy he managed to sneak; and booing him when he performed a little dance for her. Oh, and pranking her mother-in-law in ways that REALLY should have resulted in the old woman’s death. XD End result was that Destroye was never going to get into college, and thus mother and son would be stuck in matching pirate outfits forever. XD You gotta love when Gray finds a shitty mobile game and somehow makes it super-fun just by going for as many ridiculous choices as possible.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – thanks to getting home early, I was able to finish up two more posts of the upcoming Chill Valicer Save update (Prank Day and the purchase of Moory the cow) before going downstairs to work out! And then, after GrayStillPlays, I managed to finish off the other two remaining posts, so all seven should be all set to be queued up for Wednesday now, yaay~
Not too shabby, no -- and it feels good to have that Chill Valicer Save stuff all sorted! :) And now it is time to head to bed and prepare for another, full day at work, meh. At least I have a lot more time off coming up soon -- we have officially had half-day Fridays for this summer confirmed, yay! :D So that's definitely something to look forward to. For now, good night!
