10:04 Timestamp For September 5th!
Sep. 5th, 2023 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickBecause, despite appearances, I am still a Backie and thus like doing this sort of thing for the big BTTF dates. XD Though, before I tell you about my day, a very non-Backie-related question -- I want to add a Valicer OT3 icon to my set on here, to replace one that I don't really use anymore. But I have three possibilities so far, and I'm having trouble deciding. So I put it to the group -- which one of these three do you guys like best?
1.
2.
3.
Thank you for your time -- now, the actual to-do/day-sum-up list for my Tuesday --
Work – A somewhat busier than I expected day, with a number of people calling in with various problems for me to resolve and various bits of roster maintenance to complete, along with the GL. Which, on the one hand, was good because it made the day go by when I expected it to drag; on the other hand, it was bad because everything kept happening while I was trying to do something else. *shakehead* But I got through it and got home –
Where I immediately had to go out again with Mom so we could vote in the RI primaries for whoever’s replacing David Cicilline. Voting itself just took a couple of minutes – the worst part was the ride up and back, because, you know, traffic. But we made it, and we did our civic duty, hooray. Good to have that over with.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with Oxventure Presents Blades In The Dark – “Magic, Ghosts, Danger And Death!” Having gotten a solid engagement roll for once, Luke set the scene for the crew – Edvard and Zillah had successfully navigated the difficult climb up to the chimneys spewing poisonous gasses out into the deathlands and dropped in the WMM-R, who clanged and clonged his way to the spot where the vent went horizontal instead of vertical. Edvard used his cool tablet to activate him and direct him further down the vent, hoping to find the place from whence all the poisonous steam and smoke was coming from and turn it off. And he did indeed find it, when the WMM-R accidentally fell into the Exhaust Filtration Room, a big hot place full of pipes that filtered the waste generated by the Barricade and vented it off to different spots (like, usable water went one way, various particulates went another, etc) –
And staffed by a whole CREW of Wonderful Mechanical Men, each stamped with the Astor logo. Seems like Astor was very busy after getting the head of the first Wonderful Mechanical Man from Kelly! Zillah was charmed by the Astor Mechanical Men (AMMs, we’ll call them), while Edvard was understandably livid. Edvard’s first thought was to try and get his WMM-R out of there –
But Zillah insisted on poking at the tablet, causing the WMM-R to make some random noises and flail his arms. The AMMs promptly zeroed in on the “Unknown Unit” –
Aaaand cut action back to Kasimir, Lilith, Barnaby, and the NPCs! Thanks to the sixa on the engagement roll, Kasimir got a head’s up from Coleridge the Ghost Seagull that there were people coming and was able to get everyone to hide behind a big rock. Peeking out revealed that the people were a pair of Red Sashes, clearly doing a patrol they’d done a hundred times and were very bored with. The gang could also see the door relatively nearby, manned by some other Red Sashes. Kasimir was immediately like “oh good, an opportunity to maim some people and take their disguises,” with Barnaby being like “yes, good, you and LILITH take their disguises, I am NOT surrendering this coat after all the others I’ve lost.” (Andy: “Does Barnaby count as a point of load?” XD) Kasimir was fine with this and enlisted Mumbles to help him take down the patrol to get their kit, specifying to everyone’s favorite murder-child that he’d like her to go non-lethal just in case. Mumbles admitted that she wasn’t the best at that, but she’d try! Cue Kasimir basically straight-up YEETING the child at the guards –
And Mumbles getting an arm around both their necks, taking them down with her weight and knocking them out, and then HAMSTRINGING them so they couldn’t walk. Kasimir, who is sensitive about this kind of thing thanks to his leg, was like “thank you small murder child, have some horrible peanut brittle my ghost seagull already ate the soul of” (as he wasn’t giving her the GOOD stuff after that display!). XD But it did the job, and Lilith and Kasimir were able to get the guards out of sight behind a rock and take their outfits.
Back to Team Chimney, Edvard managed to use a good Tinker roll to convince the WMM-R that here was the role of a lifetime – pretending to be the AMMs’ new foreman, sent down from Astor himself! The roll was only a five, though, and Luke declared the complication to be the WMM-R getting way too into this role and being a lot harder to control. WMM-R did take control of the situation beautifully, though, terrifying the AMMs into compliance by declaring he was sent both to increase productivity and streamline staff. With the room now acting under WMM-R’s orders, Edvard had it look around for any controls that might stop the flow of poisonous gasses out the chimney, even for a bit, so he and Zillah could get inside. There was indeed a valve that could be turned, and after forcing Edvard to promise that he’d give him the ability to love, the ability to tell jokes, and that Edvard would serve as his test subject for jokes and give him honest critique (and no, he couldn’t build another WMM to do it for him – Andy was like “this wasn’t even a Devil’s Bargain!”), the WMM-R ordered it shut off, allowing Zillah and Edvard to descend into the chimney if they so chose. There WAS an access ladder, but it was VERY rusty, so Zillah used some load to produce a grappling hook on a good-sized length of rope and secured the grapple bit on the chimney so they could use the rope as a sort of ladder. Zillah started down no problem, but Edvard didn’t have her prowess – and a poor roll on what everyone decided was “Skirmish” (as BITD doesn’t really have stats for this kind of thing) led to him looking down at the wrong moment, getting vertigo, and nearly plummeting to the bottom. Zillah was able to catch him, but just barely, and he DID end up swung into the wall, causing Level 1 Harm. Ouch! But she got a good grip on him and continued down slowly, into the depths of the vents. . .
Back with Team Ground Patrol (to Major Tom), as Kasimir and Lilith changed into their disguises, Lilith floated the idea of pretending to be their prisoner to Barnaby – or, better yet, faking that he’d turned turncoat and was ready to help the Brighteners. After all, doing so would probably allow him to go find that lunch he was so eager to have. XD Barnaby was like “sure, I can do that,” but Eleanor and Kelly were insistent on finding a way inside too (Eleanor to help destroy the Barricade, Kelly to take her promised walk into the gap). After an initial “well, just wait for the squawking of the ghost seagull” idea, it was decided that the best thing to do would be to have them play dead, and have Barnaby stroll up with Lilith and Kasimir as two Red Sashes from the city attack (as Kasimir realized the guards on the door wouldn’t recognize them from the guard rotation, meaning they couldn’t sneak in THAT way), announce that he’d joined their side, and that as a peace offering, here were the corpses of Ellie and Kelly. Barnaby was all for this plan and strolled up to the door, bright as brass, before cheerfully informing the guards that he’d joined the “winning side,” and here are the corpses of Ellie and Kelly, they wouldn’t even be DEAD if not for him, so let him in please? And one Sway roll enhanced by gurkey energy later –
They believed him! Because the die that got away from Mike proved to be a six. XD The Sashes were of course a LITTLE confused about all of this, but were willing to accept Fake!Sash Lilith’s word that Barnaby was telling the truth, at least enough to bring them all down to the actual Barricade to speak with the bosses (as this was above THEIR pay grade, definitely). So everyone bundled themselves into the lift (as that was what was right behind the doors) and started down. To pass the time, Barnaby chatted with the guards, asking what was going on – the guards said they weren’t sure, but Astor had demanded extra security. Barnaby mentioned that he’d had breakfast with him before, and one of the guards eagerly asked if Barnaby could put in a good word for him and his ossillatronic nose clippers. Barnaby promised the guard, Morvin, that he would, taking the prototype, which was a terrifying electric clipper tube. I think that’s going to go somewhere unfortunate on someone at some point. XD
Back with Team Chimney, Zillah managed to get them to the bottom safely, and they crawled their way to the room with the AMMs, with Edvard getting his WMM-R to convince them to shut themselves off because of the new “Mandated Breaks” initiative from the office – helps cut down on wear and tear on the parts. The AMMs complied, and Edvard and Zillah were able to get into the room with no trouble.
Where they immediately proceeded to have a communication breakdown, as Zillah was focused on the fact that they should probably vent the explosive gasses out the chimney before a) anyone noticed and/or b) something exploded, while Edvard was like “we probably shouldn’t do that right now, because that will make the room too hot for us to exist in.” Luke got them back on the same page, and they agreed to find an escape route, THEN open the valve again and book it before explosions and/or superheating occurred. I left it there with the pair looking for exits – we’ll see how that goes for them tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – continuing editing the first draft of the “Alice drinks Victor’s blood for the first time” scene I wrote up ages ago today, with Alice managing to get Victor to relax after his accidental stiffie-popping, then taking the blood from his arm instead –
Only to discover that holy fuck, Victor tastes good. Like, REALLY, REALLY good. Like “best blood she has ever had” good. Like “best thing she has ever had” good. Dude is a grade-S+ blood vintage, is what I’m saying. And Alice was thoroughly enjoying her drink –
Until the image of a dog popped into her mind from seemingly nowhere. Which has left her quite confused. Cheshire’s told her to ask Victor about it, but I suspect the answer is just going to confuse her more. XD You’ll get to the bottom of this eventually, Alice!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – again, just GrayStillPlays to watch tonight, with “I ended homelessness with one click,” aka Gray plays Happy Wheels! Today’s adventures in Gray’s Tuesday game of choice included a bottle flip where Gray aimed to get a bottle down a tube so it could officially be a “newborn bottle” (he also managed to bottle-flip a bottle on its mouth on a random static chain suspended from the ceiling); an “expossible” pogo challenge (featuring spikes, mines, harpoons, and Gray getting it on the second try); a “try to live” course with Segway Nixon having to survive hazards such as being yeeted at high speed into a wall, being harpooned when he tried to take a shortcut, and being shot out of a cannon (Gray did indeed live long enough to see the end, though – eventually XD); a “glitch” harpoon run with a spiked floor that Gray somehow won despite practically dissolving at the end (his bike wheel must have touched the winning area for JUST long enough); the world’s most dangerous escape from a Wal-Mart (featuring deadly harpoons versus trash cans, rickety structures laced with mines, and wrecking balls that lacked the will to live until Gray got JUUUST close enough to lose his head); a chill “parkour across this mysterious green line and collect the yellow circles” course (which made Gray hungry for onion rings); Bike Dad having to work his way past the hobos of HW City after they took over (featuring Gray getting a table with a tv with a battleaxe atop it yeeted at him in the first minute, and Bike Dad killing himself on an elevator of death by jumping at JUST the wrong time); another “jump Pogo Man into the world’s most dangerous win” that told you to save your replay if you won without dying or losing any limbs (Gray booped the mine atop the separating wall onto the mines lining the win, tricked the harpoons and crossbows into firing early, won, and saved his replay); an “upgraded” rope swing featuring a retractable rope that Gray had to hold onto, a couple of conveyors dangerously close to spikes, and cannons that didn’t QUITE get Gray to the ending point as he went in the last one a bit scrunched up (he was able to wiggle his way to the win, though); the terrifying carnage of a spike mine run – that is, a pedal across a field of spikes laced with soooo many mines (this board gave Gray sooo much trouble just from the mines flying EVERYWHERE – he eventually flutter-kicked his way to victory, but it was HARD); and finally Dylan’s Weekly Board, featuring Gray in a battle tank armed with a crossbow traversing a war-torn landscape before going up against some other tanks with battle axes (it took Gray a while to figure out how to use his crossbow, meaning it took him a while to figure out how to win in the final battle). Very fun stuff, as usual!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check, yay –
Victor Luvs Alice – Finished up the alt text and tags on the final Chill Valicer Save post for this week, then shot all those into the queue, along with a reblog of an “always I am thinking about these characters” post (with Victor, Alice, and Smiler mentioned in the tags) and a set of Actually Incorrect Valicer Quotes I made with a generator a little bit ago and have been sitting on for a while. So THAT’S all set for now!
Valice Multiverse – Two ask replies for the queue, one about coffee shop AUs and one about pronouns, both of which featured Smiler in their answers. Nice to get them out and about over there more!
Whew -- busy Tuesday, but now I'm pretty much caught up on stuff, yay. Meaning it's time to go to bed and get ready to do, if not all, most of it again tomorrow. XD We'll see how that goes -- night all!
1.
2.
3.
Thank you for your time -- now, the actual to-do/day-sum-up list for my Tuesday --
Work – A somewhat busier than I expected day, with a number of people calling in with various problems for me to resolve and various bits of roster maintenance to complete, along with the GL. Which, on the one hand, was good because it made the day go by when I expected it to drag; on the other hand, it was bad because everything kept happening while I was trying to do something else. *shakehead* But I got through it and got home –
Where I immediately had to go out again with Mom so we could vote in the RI primaries for whoever’s replacing David Cicilline. Voting itself just took a couple of minutes – the worst part was the ride up and back, because, you know, traffic. But we made it, and we did our civic duty, hooray. Good to have that over with.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with Oxventure Presents Blades In The Dark – “Magic, Ghosts, Danger And Death!” Having gotten a solid engagement roll for once, Luke set the scene for the crew – Edvard and Zillah had successfully navigated the difficult climb up to the chimneys spewing poisonous gasses out into the deathlands and dropped in the WMM-R, who clanged and clonged his way to the spot where the vent went horizontal instead of vertical. Edvard used his cool tablet to activate him and direct him further down the vent, hoping to find the place from whence all the poisonous steam and smoke was coming from and turn it off. And he did indeed find it, when the WMM-R accidentally fell into the Exhaust Filtration Room, a big hot place full of pipes that filtered the waste generated by the Barricade and vented it off to different spots (like, usable water went one way, various particulates went another, etc) –
And staffed by a whole CREW of Wonderful Mechanical Men, each stamped with the Astor logo. Seems like Astor was very busy after getting the head of the first Wonderful Mechanical Man from Kelly! Zillah was charmed by the Astor Mechanical Men (AMMs, we’ll call them), while Edvard was understandably livid. Edvard’s first thought was to try and get his WMM-R out of there –
But Zillah insisted on poking at the tablet, causing the WMM-R to make some random noises and flail his arms. The AMMs promptly zeroed in on the “Unknown Unit” –
Aaaand cut action back to Kasimir, Lilith, Barnaby, and the NPCs! Thanks to the sixa on the engagement roll, Kasimir got a head’s up from Coleridge the Ghost Seagull that there were people coming and was able to get everyone to hide behind a big rock. Peeking out revealed that the people were a pair of Red Sashes, clearly doing a patrol they’d done a hundred times and were very bored with. The gang could also see the door relatively nearby, manned by some other Red Sashes. Kasimir was immediately like “oh good, an opportunity to maim some people and take their disguises,” with Barnaby being like “yes, good, you and LILITH take their disguises, I am NOT surrendering this coat after all the others I’ve lost.” (Andy: “Does Barnaby count as a point of load?” XD) Kasimir was fine with this and enlisted Mumbles to help him take down the patrol to get their kit, specifying to everyone’s favorite murder-child that he’d like her to go non-lethal just in case. Mumbles admitted that she wasn’t the best at that, but she’d try! Cue Kasimir basically straight-up YEETING the child at the guards –
And Mumbles getting an arm around both their necks, taking them down with her weight and knocking them out, and then HAMSTRINGING them so they couldn’t walk. Kasimir, who is sensitive about this kind of thing thanks to his leg, was like “thank you small murder child, have some horrible peanut brittle my ghost seagull already ate the soul of” (as he wasn’t giving her the GOOD stuff after that display!). XD But it did the job, and Lilith and Kasimir were able to get the guards out of sight behind a rock and take their outfits.
Back to Team Chimney, Edvard managed to use a good Tinker roll to convince the WMM-R that here was the role of a lifetime – pretending to be the AMMs’ new foreman, sent down from Astor himself! The roll was only a five, though, and Luke declared the complication to be the WMM-R getting way too into this role and being a lot harder to control. WMM-R did take control of the situation beautifully, though, terrifying the AMMs into compliance by declaring he was sent both to increase productivity and streamline staff. With the room now acting under WMM-R’s orders, Edvard had it look around for any controls that might stop the flow of poisonous gasses out the chimney, even for a bit, so he and Zillah could get inside. There was indeed a valve that could be turned, and after forcing Edvard to promise that he’d give him the ability to love, the ability to tell jokes, and that Edvard would serve as his test subject for jokes and give him honest critique (and no, he couldn’t build another WMM to do it for him – Andy was like “this wasn’t even a Devil’s Bargain!”), the WMM-R ordered it shut off, allowing Zillah and Edvard to descend into the chimney if they so chose. There WAS an access ladder, but it was VERY rusty, so Zillah used some load to produce a grappling hook on a good-sized length of rope and secured the grapple bit on the chimney so they could use the rope as a sort of ladder. Zillah started down no problem, but Edvard didn’t have her prowess – and a poor roll on what everyone decided was “Skirmish” (as BITD doesn’t really have stats for this kind of thing) led to him looking down at the wrong moment, getting vertigo, and nearly plummeting to the bottom. Zillah was able to catch him, but just barely, and he DID end up swung into the wall, causing Level 1 Harm. Ouch! But she got a good grip on him and continued down slowly, into the depths of the vents. . .
Back with Team Ground Patrol (to Major Tom), as Kasimir and Lilith changed into their disguises, Lilith floated the idea of pretending to be their prisoner to Barnaby – or, better yet, faking that he’d turned turncoat and was ready to help the Brighteners. After all, doing so would probably allow him to go find that lunch he was so eager to have. XD Barnaby was like “sure, I can do that,” but Eleanor and Kelly were insistent on finding a way inside too (Eleanor to help destroy the Barricade, Kelly to take her promised walk into the gap). After an initial “well, just wait for the squawking of the ghost seagull” idea, it was decided that the best thing to do would be to have them play dead, and have Barnaby stroll up with Lilith and Kasimir as two Red Sashes from the city attack (as Kasimir realized the guards on the door wouldn’t recognize them from the guard rotation, meaning they couldn’t sneak in THAT way), announce that he’d joined their side, and that as a peace offering, here were the corpses of Ellie and Kelly. Barnaby was all for this plan and strolled up to the door, bright as brass, before cheerfully informing the guards that he’d joined the “winning side,” and here are the corpses of Ellie and Kelly, they wouldn’t even be DEAD if not for him, so let him in please? And one Sway roll enhanced by gurkey energy later –
They believed him! Because the die that got away from Mike proved to be a six. XD The Sashes were of course a LITTLE confused about all of this, but were willing to accept Fake!Sash Lilith’s word that Barnaby was telling the truth, at least enough to bring them all down to the actual Barricade to speak with the bosses (as this was above THEIR pay grade, definitely). So everyone bundled themselves into the lift (as that was what was right behind the doors) and started down. To pass the time, Barnaby chatted with the guards, asking what was going on – the guards said they weren’t sure, but Astor had demanded extra security. Barnaby mentioned that he’d had breakfast with him before, and one of the guards eagerly asked if Barnaby could put in a good word for him and his ossillatronic nose clippers. Barnaby promised the guard, Morvin, that he would, taking the prototype, which was a terrifying electric clipper tube. I think that’s going to go somewhere unfortunate on someone at some point. XD
Back with Team Chimney, Zillah managed to get them to the bottom safely, and they crawled their way to the room with the AMMs, with Edvard getting his WMM-R to convince them to shut themselves off because of the new “Mandated Breaks” initiative from the office – helps cut down on wear and tear on the parts. The AMMs complied, and Edvard and Zillah were able to get into the room with no trouble.
Where they immediately proceeded to have a communication breakdown, as Zillah was focused on the fact that they should probably vent the explosive gasses out the chimney before a) anyone noticed and/or b) something exploded, while Edvard was like “we probably shouldn’t do that right now, because that will make the room too hot for us to exist in.” Luke got them back on the same page, and they agreed to find an escape route, THEN open the valve again and book it before explosions and/or superheating occurred. I left it there with the pair looking for exits – we’ll see how that goes for them tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – continuing editing the first draft of the “Alice drinks Victor’s blood for the first time” scene I wrote up ages ago today, with Alice managing to get Victor to relax after his accidental stiffie-popping, then taking the blood from his arm instead –
Only to discover that holy fuck, Victor tastes good. Like, REALLY, REALLY good. Like “best blood she has ever had” good. Like “best thing she has ever had” good. Dude is a grade-S+ blood vintage, is what I’m saying. And Alice was thoroughly enjoying her drink –
Until the image of a dog popped into her mind from seemingly nowhere. Which has left her quite confused. Cheshire’s told her to ask Victor about it, but I suspect the answer is just going to confuse her more. XD You’ll get to the bottom of this eventually, Alice!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – again, just GrayStillPlays to watch tonight, with “I ended homelessness with one click,” aka Gray plays Happy Wheels! Today’s adventures in Gray’s Tuesday game of choice included a bottle flip where Gray aimed to get a bottle down a tube so it could officially be a “newborn bottle” (he also managed to bottle-flip a bottle on its mouth on a random static chain suspended from the ceiling); an “expossible” pogo challenge (featuring spikes, mines, harpoons, and Gray getting it on the second try); a “try to live” course with Segway Nixon having to survive hazards such as being yeeted at high speed into a wall, being harpooned when he tried to take a shortcut, and being shot out of a cannon (Gray did indeed live long enough to see the end, though – eventually XD); a “glitch” harpoon run with a spiked floor that Gray somehow won despite practically dissolving at the end (his bike wheel must have touched the winning area for JUST long enough); the world’s most dangerous escape from a Wal-Mart (featuring deadly harpoons versus trash cans, rickety structures laced with mines, and wrecking balls that lacked the will to live until Gray got JUUUST close enough to lose his head); a chill “parkour across this mysterious green line and collect the yellow circles” course (which made Gray hungry for onion rings); Bike Dad having to work his way past the hobos of HW City after they took over (featuring Gray getting a table with a tv with a battleaxe atop it yeeted at him in the first minute, and Bike Dad killing himself on an elevator of death by jumping at JUST the wrong time); another “jump Pogo Man into the world’s most dangerous win” that told you to save your replay if you won without dying or losing any limbs (Gray booped the mine atop the separating wall onto the mines lining the win, tricked the harpoons and crossbows into firing early, won, and saved his replay); an “upgraded” rope swing featuring a retractable rope that Gray had to hold onto, a couple of conveyors dangerously close to spikes, and cannons that didn’t QUITE get Gray to the ending point as he went in the last one a bit scrunched up (he was able to wiggle his way to the win, though); the terrifying carnage of a spike mine run – that is, a pedal across a field of spikes laced with soooo many mines (this board gave Gray sooo much trouble just from the mines flying EVERYWHERE – he eventually flutter-kicked his way to victory, but it was HARD); and finally Dylan’s Weekly Board, featuring Gray in a battle tank armed with a crossbow traversing a war-torn landscape before going up against some other tanks with battle axes (it took Gray a while to figure out how to use his crossbow, meaning it took him a while to figure out how to win in the final battle). Very fun stuff, as usual!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check, yay –
Victor Luvs Alice – Finished up the alt text and tags on the final Chill Valicer Save post for this week, then shot all those into the queue, along with a reblog of an “always I am thinking about these characters” post (with Victor, Alice, and Smiler mentioned in the tags) and a set of Actually Incorrect Valicer Quotes I made with a generator a little bit ago and have been sitting on for a while. So THAT’S all set for now!
Valice Multiverse – Two ask replies for the queue, one about coffee shop AUs and one about pronouns, both of which featured Smiler in their answers. Nice to get them out and about over there more!
Whew -- busy Tuesday, but now I'm pretty much caught up on stuff, yay. Meaning it's time to go to bed and get ready to do, if not all, most of it again tomorrow. XD We'll see how that goes -- night all!
