Pretty Okay Monday
Jan. 22nd, 2024 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickHad a VERY cold start (in the teens!), and there were a few annoyances here and there, but I've had much worse starts to the week --
Work – Surprisingly quiet Monday – mostly because neither of my coworkers were in due to some form of illness. So it was just me at the front, keeping busy by pulling reports, doing the GL, answering the phone the few times it rung, and putting on all the checks that came in today. Got me through the day without issue! Shame that I then went out to the parking lot and found that someone had parked in the half-cleared space to me on such an angle I had to some EXTREMELY CAREFUL wiggling to get out without actually hitting them. Put my mood right in the gutter. *sigh* But yeah, overall, not a bad day at work – we’ll see if I’m still flying solo tomorrow!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – I am back to Oxventure: Deadlands with its second episode, “Dead Man’s Worth!” As it turns out, this campaign IS running like the Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark one, with smaller groups of players taking on different missions instead of everyone playing every time. *shrug* I’m here for it – worked in BitD, after all! So yes, this particular bounty starred Nate, Garnet, and Delacy (I was spelling it wrong last time, could have SWORN it had an “e” – sorry LUKE), and started with them hanging out in the parlor at Victoria’s house as they waited for her to come back from a fact-finding mission on their first target, Benjamin Bellows. This involved Nate eating beans in the messiest manner possible; Delacy getting increasingly annoyed and grossed out by Nate’s bean-eating; and Garnet playing Solitaire, betting against herself. It was also established that she CAN use her Huckster powers to make the cards bounce around like they do in Windows Solitaire when you win, but she was avoiding that for now because neither Nate or Delacy were aware of her Huckster status (mostly because they were outside when the Sasquatch from last episode got burst, and Silas has been basically been taking the credit by not shutting up about how he landed a shot on the creature). Shame. XD
Anyway, Victoria showed up with a few papers and such, including her old bounty poster for Ben so they’d know what he looked like (prominent teeth, snub nose), and gave them the scoop – Ben Bellows is apparently a nasty piece of work who likes tormenting people, and after he left the gang, he found his way into the Army to indulge his urges. He actually managed to attain the rank of General while he was there, and happily abused it to take over towns, strip them of anything valuable, and then move on. In retirement, he’s set up his own little fiefdom a few hours’ train ride from Croyt’s Wrath, called Dead Man’s Worth (title drop!). Victoria had gotten them train tickets, and told them that how they handled murdering him was up to them – all she required was that they bring back a particular ring that all of the gang members wear, showing their former allegiance. Delacy was like “do you HAVE to have this ring” (whether because he was nervous about actually murdering someone, because he wanted to hawk the ring, or because he was hoping to just do it from far away and then run was not clarified), but Victoria was insistent – she’s been burned a few too many times by bounty hunters saying they’d killed him and taking her money before she found out the truth. She HAS to have that ring as proof. Garnet decided that was fair and told the others that they should stop at the “dry goods” store to get some supplies before they headed out – after all, it’s not like any of them just came with fifty feet of hempen rope on them. XD (D&D joke, in case you’re wondering – all the Oxventurers always have rope on them because it’s standard Adventurer Gear.) This led to everyone figuring out just what it was they DID have on them – Nate’s worldly possessions consisted of a bunch of tins of beans wrapped up in a bindle on his shovel; Delacy had his gun Rooster and some dynamite (“so nobody set me on fire”); and Garnet had an antique pack of cards, her book of games, some cash (she refused to tell anyone how much), and a horse SOMEWHERE. It’ll probably pop out of a bush at some point. XD It was decided that they at least needed rope and jerky to supplement all this –
And so it was off to the store! With Delacy giving poor No-Security-Deposit Bill at the stables a mean look on the way to make sure he knew to take good care of his beloved horse Humble Ned (living the high life in the equivalent of a horse Jacuzzi). After seeing the goods on offer (and realizing that they could expense everything by putting it all on Victoria’s tab), the gang ended up getting their rope, a few different kinds of jerky, a nice hunting knife, some bedrolls, and a cookpot (because Delacy decided to be nice to Nate for five seconds and encourage him to eat his beans hot, aw). Thus supplied, the group forewent going to the “wet goods” store next door (which was mostly tropical fish and soup by the handful) and instead headed straight for the train. As they were going along, Delacy decided to check if Dead Man’s Worth actually had a stop or not – it did not, though there was a way to get there from the nearby town of Aberline. Garnet called the conductor over to see where exactly Dead Man’s Worth was in relation to Aberline – he explained it was a short ride back from the main stop, and that the only reason DMW was even on the map was because they took in freight and goods from time to time – there’s a train yard for freight trains, just nothing for passenger trains. His talk about couriers coming to the town with things that the townsfolk needed inspired the group to pretend to be couriers themselves. . .an idea they discussed with the conductor in earshot. XD Garnet quickly shooed him away so they could talk in peace, and Nate came up with the idea that they pretend to be not just couriers, but traders, trying to peddle new kinds of jerky. Of course, that required them to come up with a name for their business, which was – harder than expected. Especially since Luke a) insisted on roleplaying Delacy not knowing anything about trading and thus not contributing to the conversation and b) only able to think of “Jerkin’ It” anyway because his brain. XD Nate ended up stammering out “The Fabulous Jerk Sisters” – then, when Andy gave him five seconds to come up with something better, ended up going with “Meat Strips du Jour.” XD Well, it’s at least better than a masturbation joke. XD
With that sorted, the train passed by Dead Man’s Worth (Delacy pointed out they could tuck and roll here, but Nate informed him of how, at his age, anything and everything was liable to break his hip, a fact that shocked Delacy as he didn’t know hips could break), and pulled into Aberline. Fortunately for the group, front and center was a little stage with a sign on it saying it was for Dead Man’s Worth, and a rather despondent driver sat in the front. Garnet informed him that they were about to make his day and that they needed passage to the titular town, and the driver informed her in turn it would be a dollar each. Delacy tried to get him to put it on Victoria’s tab, only to learn that no, not everyone in the world knows who their patron is. Poor kid was quite embarrassed. Nate instead decided to barter, offering him some of the “continental jerky” they were pretending to peddle (Delacy adding it was from “Paris, [small print] Texas”) –
And rolled well enough on his Persuasion roll that, when he handed over the sample, the driver nearly had a foodgasm. Turns out the jerky in the dry goods store was stored next to the opium, so there was a BIT of cross-contamination. XD The driver happily agreed to take them in exchange for a bag of jerky, and spent most of the trip gobbling down jerky and going into a haze while Garnet did most of the actual driving. XD Delacy and Nate sat in the back, with Delacy asking Nate about his persuasive powers – Nate put it down to knowing that everyone wants something (for example, Bill back in Croyt’s Wrath doesn’t want to be shot again, hence why he pampers Humble Ned) and the fact that he was very old and thus people let him get away with a lot. XD I left it with the gang arriving at the edge of Dead Man’s Worth (a small place of about a hundred people, dominated by a large Victorian manor on a small rise and a statue in the middle of town), propping up the now-insensate driver in his seat and pinning a note to him asking him to stick around, there’d be more jerky in it for him if he did. XD We’ll see how their initial foray into town goes tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “Start At The Beginning. . .Sort Of”: Check – I have started Chapter 3, with Victor, Alice, Smiler, and Emily arriving in Brightstone (courtesy of a gondolier who charged an extra fee for not telling the Spirit Wardens about Emily), and – after orienting themselves and having a little bit of a near-miss with Emily maybe getting a little life-sucky – are on their way to find the Everglots! Soon we shall have wedding reception chaos starring a very angry, very electric ghost. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – just GrayStillPlays tonight, with “Cars vs U Turns in GTA 5!” Another Alex Torture Board that warned Gray right at the start he’d need TWO cars to finish this one! So Gray had to find a PAIR of cars that could get through the following challenges –
I. Plywood U Turns – a pair of U-turns made of plywood, put together in an S-bend. Painful but doable if your car wasn’t too heavy. Like, you know, the six-wheeled arena car Gray immediately chose as his first ride. XD
II. “U Turn” Speedrun – a large U-turn that Gray had to do in sixteen seconds or a billboard wall for the in-game booze brand of choice came up. Difficult, but manageable so long as his back end didn’t keep skidding out.
III. “U Turn” Wallrides – a set of extremely wavy U-turns that all had small walls in the middle of the actual turn, forcing Gray to pop down, wall-ride the inside of the curve, then pop back up again. Not exactly EASY, but most of the cars given to him were decent wall-riders, and he had forty seconds to complete the course, so it wasn’t a huge problem.
IV. U Turns But There Is No Road – a set of floating platforms doing their OWN U-turns that Gray had to travel across, transferring from platform to platform as they connected and dodging the various obstacles in his way (like a tire-popping helicopter and a circling plane). And did I mention the platforms all got smaller and smaller as he continued on? This one was pretty damn painful to poor Gray. . .
V. U Turns But You Can’t Really Turn – two sets of flying U-turns – one flying away from the starting point, the other flying away from the ending point – that met in the middle, with Gray having to ride the one, then IMMEDIATELY swing himself around 180 degrees so he could get on the other and do its little S-bend all the way to the end. This one? This one FUCKING HURT. Gray was like “I haven’t had two challenges kick my ass in a row like this in a WHILE” after he finally beat it.
VI. The “?” Holes – and this is where it go interesting, because after “U Turns But You Can’t Really Turn,” there was a sign saying “get a second car,” a large drop, then a short trip across the ocean to a little platform island with a box with two holes in it. Gray had to figure out what to do with these holes, and how they related to him needing two cars to complete the challenge.
So – what two cars ended up buddying together to get Gray through this? Well, for the first run, Gray tried out cars ranging from the six-wheeled arena car (as stated, couldn’t even get past the plywood), to Mom’s car (just couldn’t do the speedrun U-turn), to a super car (juuust too wide to make it across the increasingly-small platforms on “There Is No Road”) to a roll-cage car (juuuust too slow to keep up with the flying U-turns in “You Can’t Really Turn”). To my delight, the ultimate winner turned out to be the Deluxo (since Gray could abuse its hover capability to get more speed when he needed it and make the 180 spin that the “You Can’t Really Turn” flying U-turns required) – but obviously, the Deluxo couldn’t fit in the holes at the end. So what could?
The Bandito RC car, of course! Gray was baffled as to how it could complete any of the challenges beyond the initial “Plywood U Turns” since it’s a tiny RC car and thus not that fast – but as it turned out, Alex had set up the board specifically so the Bandito could cheat every challenge! Can’t do the speedrun in the sixteen seconds allowed? The billboard wall Alex put up actually has a gap just big enough for the Bandito to jump through! Can’t wallride like the big cars on the wallride section? The gaps are actually just short enough for the Bandito to jump if lined up right! Can’t keep up with the flying U-turns? The gap between the start and end points CAN be jumped if timed right so that the Bandito lands on one of the regenerators embedded in the U-turns as the one coming in arrives and can immediately jump again onto the road? And, of course, it could fit in the holes – provided it was ferried across the water on the hood of the Deluxo! XD Of course, after all that, Gray was NOT picking the wrong hole, so – after affirming that Alex had NOT put invisible walls around the other side of the box – he swam around and determined that the right hole had a little extra ledge that he could jump off of and into the win. So he went back around and did just that. XD Whew – that was a PAINFUL one! But also a delightful one. Glad to see Gray and Alex can still come up with new ideas for Gray Torture!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A for tonight, as I only had Victor Luvs Alice to worry about, and my big Chill Valicer Save update is all set already – I instead spent a little time making sure I was fully caught up on my dash. Now I can start fresh for the rest of the week!
*nods* Not too shabby. And now it is time for me to go and get some sleep and prepare to do it all again tomorrow. Because this is life when you're a grown-up. *shrug* Night all!
Work – Surprisingly quiet Monday – mostly because neither of my coworkers were in due to some form of illness. So it was just me at the front, keeping busy by pulling reports, doing the GL, answering the phone the few times it rung, and putting on all the checks that came in today. Got me through the day without issue! Shame that I then went out to the parking lot and found that someone had parked in the half-cleared space to me on such an angle I had to some EXTREMELY CAREFUL wiggling to get out without actually hitting them. Put my mood right in the gutter. *sigh* But yeah, overall, not a bad day at work – we’ll see if I’m still flying solo tomorrow!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – I am back to Oxventure: Deadlands with its second episode, “Dead Man’s Worth!” As it turns out, this campaign IS running like the Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark one, with smaller groups of players taking on different missions instead of everyone playing every time. *shrug* I’m here for it – worked in BitD, after all! So yes, this particular bounty starred Nate, Garnet, and Delacy (I was spelling it wrong last time, could have SWORN it had an “e” – sorry LUKE), and started with them hanging out in the parlor at Victoria’s house as they waited for her to come back from a fact-finding mission on their first target, Benjamin Bellows. This involved Nate eating beans in the messiest manner possible; Delacy getting increasingly annoyed and grossed out by Nate’s bean-eating; and Garnet playing Solitaire, betting against herself. It was also established that she CAN use her Huckster powers to make the cards bounce around like they do in Windows Solitaire when you win, but she was avoiding that for now because neither Nate or Delacy were aware of her Huckster status (mostly because they were outside when the Sasquatch from last episode got burst, and Silas has been basically been taking the credit by not shutting up about how he landed a shot on the creature). Shame. XD
Anyway, Victoria showed up with a few papers and such, including her old bounty poster for Ben so they’d know what he looked like (prominent teeth, snub nose), and gave them the scoop – Ben Bellows is apparently a nasty piece of work who likes tormenting people, and after he left the gang, he found his way into the Army to indulge his urges. He actually managed to attain the rank of General while he was there, and happily abused it to take over towns, strip them of anything valuable, and then move on. In retirement, he’s set up his own little fiefdom a few hours’ train ride from Croyt’s Wrath, called Dead Man’s Worth (title drop!). Victoria had gotten them train tickets, and told them that how they handled murdering him was up to them – all she required was that they bring back a particular ring that all of the gang members wear, showing their former allegiance. Delacy was like “do you HAVE to have this ring” (whether because he was nervous about actually murdering someone, because he wanted to hawk the ring, or because he was hoping to just do it from far away and then run was not clarified), but Victoria was insistent – she’s been burned a few too many times by bounty hunters saying they’d killed him and taking her money before she found out the truth. She HAS to have that ring as proof. Garnet decided that was fair and told the others that they should stop at the “dry goods” store to get some supplies before they headed out – after all, it’s not like any of them just came with fifty feet of hempen rope on them. XD (D&D joke, in case you’re wondering – all the Oxventurers always have rope on them because it’s standard Adventurer Gear.) This led to everyone figuring out just what it was they DID have on them – Nate’s worldly possessions consisted of a bunch of tins of beans wrapped up in a bindle on his shovel; Delacy had his gun Rooster and some dynamite (“so nobody set me on fire”); and Garnet had an antique pack of cards, her book of games, some cash (she refused to tell anyone how much), and a horse SOMEWHERE. It’ll probably pop out of a bush at some point. XD It was decided that they at least needed rope and jerky to supplement all this –
And so it was off to the store! With Delacy giving poor No-Security-Deposit Bill at the stables a mean look on the way to make sure he knew to take good care of his beloved horse Humble Ned (living the high life in the equivalent of a horse Jacuzzi). After seeing the goods on offer (and realizing that they could expense everything by putting it all on Victoria’s tab), the gang ended up getting their rope, a few different kinds of jerky, a nice hunting knife, some bedrolls, and a cookpot (because Delacy decided to be nice to Nate for five seconds and encourage him to eat his beans hot, aw). Thus supplied, the group forewent going to the “wet goods” store next door (which was mostly tropical fish and soup by the handful) and instead headed straight for the train. As they were going along, Delacy decided to check if Dead Man’s Worth actually had a stop or not – it did not, though there was a way to get there from the nearby town of Aberline. Garnet called the conductor over to see where exactly Dead Man’s Worth was in relation to Aberline – he explained it was a short ride back from the main stop, and that the only reason DMW was even on the map was because they took in freight and goods from time to time – there’s a train yard for freight trains, just nothing for passenger trains. His talk about couriers coming to the town with things that the townsfolk needed inspired the group to pretend to be couriers themselves. . .an idea they discussed with the conductor in earshot. XD Garnet quickly shooed him away so they could talk in peace, and Nate came up with the idea that they pretend to be not just couriers, but traders, trying to peddle new kinds of jerky. Of course, that required them to come up with a name for their business, which was – harder than expected. Especially since Luke a) insisted on roleplaying Delacy not knowing anything about trading and thus not contributing to the conversation and b) only able to think of “Jerkin’ It” anyway because his brain. XD Nate ended up stammering out “The Fabulous Jerk Sisters” – then, when Andy gave him five seconds to come up with something better, ended up going with “Meat Strips du Jour.” XD Well, it’s at least better than a masturbation joke. XD
With that sorted, the train passed by Dead Man’s Worth (Delacy pointed out they could tuck and roll here, but Nate informed him of how, at his age, anything and everything was liable to break his hip, a fact that shocked Delacy as he didn’t know hips could break), and pulled into Aberline. Fortunately for the group, front and center was a little stage with a sign on it saying it was for Dead Man’s Worth, and a rather despondent driver sat in the front. Garnet informed him that they were about to make his day and that they needed passage to the titular town, and the driver informed her in turn it would be a dollar each. Delacy tried to get him to put it on Victoria’s tab, only to learn that no, not everyone in the world knows who their patron is. Poor kid was quite embarrassed. Nate instead decided to barter, offering him some of the “continental jerky” they were pretending to peddle (Delacy adding it was from “Paris, [small print] Texas”) –
And rolled well enough on his Persuasion roll that, when he handed over the sample, the driver nearly had a foodgasm. Turns out the jerky in the dry goods store was stored next to the opium, so there was a BIT of cross-contamination. XD The driver happily agreed to take them in exchange for a bag of jerky, and spent most of the trip gobbling down jerky and going into a haze while Garnet did most of the actual driving. XD Delacy and Nate sat in the back, with Delacy asking Nate about his persuasive powers – Nate put it down to knowing that everyone wants something (for example, Bill back in Croyt’s Wrath doesn’t want to be shot again, hence why he pampers Humble Ned) and the fact that he was very old and thus people let him get away with a lot. XD I left it with the gang arriving at the edge of Dead Man’s Worth (a small place of about a hundred people, dominated by a large Victorian manor on a small rise and a statue in the middle of town), propping up the now-insensate driver in his seat and pinning a note to him asking him to stick around, there’d be more jerky in it for him if he did. XD We’ll see how their initial foray into town goes tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “Start At The Beginning. . .Sort Of”: Check – I have started Chapter 3, with Victor, Alice, Smiler, and Emily arriving in Brightstone (courtesy of a gondolier who charged an extra fee for not telling the Spirit Wardens about Emily), and – after orienting themselves and having a little bit of a near-miss with Emily maybe getting a little life-sucky – are on their way to find the Everglots! Soon we shall have wedding reception chaos starring a very angry, very electric ghost. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – just GrayStillPlays tonight, with “Cars vs U Turns in GTA 5!” Another Alex Torture Board that warned Gray right at the start he’d need TWO cars to finish this one! So Gray had to find a PAIR of cars that could get through the following challenges –
I. Plywood U Turns – a pair of U-turns made of plywood, put together in an S-bend. Painful but doable if your car wasn’t too heavy. Like, you know, the six-wheeled arena car Gray immediately chose as his first ride. XD
II. “U Turn” Speedrun – a large U-turn that Gray had to do in sixteen seconds or a billboard wall for the in-game booze brand of choice came up. Difficult, but manageable so long as his back end didn’t keep skidding out.
III. “U Turn” Wallrides – a set of extremely wavy U-turns that all had small walls in the middle of the actual turn, forcing Gray to pop down, wall-ride the inside of the curve, then pop back up again. Not exactly EASY, but most of the cars given to him were decent wall-riders, and he had forty seconds to complete the course, so it wasn’t a huge problem.
IV. U Turns But There Is No Road – a set of floating platforms doing their OWN U-turns that Gray had to travel across, transferring from platform to platform as they connected and dodging the various obstacles in his way (like a tire-popping helicopter and a circling plane). And did I mention the platforms all got smaller and smaller as he continued on? This one was pretty damn painful to poor Gray. . .
V. U Turns But You Can’t Really Turn – two sets of flying U-turns – one flying away from the starting point, the other flying away from the ending point – that met in the middle, with Gray having to ride the one, then IMMEDIATELY swing himself around 180 degrees so he could get on the other and do its little S-bend all the way to the end. This one? This one FUCKING HURT. Gray was like “I haven’t had two challenges kick my ass in a row like this in a WHILE” after he finally beat it.
VI. The “?” Holes – and this is where it go interesting, because after “U Turns But You Can’t Really Turn,” there was a sign saying “get a second car,” a large drop, then a short trip across the ocean to a little platform island with a box with two holes in it. Gray had to figure out what to do with these holes, and how they related to him needing two cars to complete the challenge.
So – what two cars ended up buddying together to get Gray through this? Well, for the first run, Gray tried out cars ranging from the six-wheeled arena car (as stated, couldn’t even get past the plywood), to Mom’s car (just couldn’t do the speedrun U-turn), to a super car (juuust too wide to make it across the increasingly-small platforms on “There Is No Road”) to a roll-cage car (juuuust too slow to keep up with the flying U-turns in “You Can’t Really Turn”). To my delight, the ultimate winner turned out to be the Deluxo (since Gray could abuse its hover capability to get more speed when he needed it and make the 180 spin that the “You Can’t Really Turn” flying U-turns required) – but obviously, the Deluxo couldn’t fit in the holes at the end. So what could?
The Bandito RC car, of course! Gray was baffled as to how it could complete any of the challenges beyond the initial “Plywood U Turns” since it’s a tiny RC car and thus not that fast – but as it turned out, Alex had set up the board specifically so the Bandito could cheat every challenge! Can’t do the speedrun in the sixteen seconds allowed? The billboard wall Alex put up actually has a gap just big enough for the Bandito to jump through! Can’t wallride like the big cars on the wallride section? The gaps are actually just short enough for the Bandito to jump if lined up right! Can’t keep up with the flying U-turns? The gap between the start and end points CAN be jumped if timed right so that the Bandito lands on one of the regenerators embedded in the U-turns as the one coming in arrives and can immediately jump again onto the road? And, of course, it could fit in the holes – provided it was ferried across the water on the hood of the Deluxo! XD Of course, after all that, Gray was NOT picking the wrong hole, so – after affirming that Alex had NOT put invisible walls around the other side of the box – he swam around and determined that the right hole had a little extra ledge that he could jump off of and into the win. So he went back around and did just that. XD Whew – that was a PAINFUL one! But also a delightful one. Glad to see Gray and Alex can still come up with new ideas for Gray Torture!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A for tonight, as I only had Victor Luvs Alice to worry about, and my big Chill Valicer Save update is all set already – I instead spent a little time making sure I was fully caught up on my dash. Now I can start fresh for the rest of the week!
*nods* Not too shabby. And now it is time for me to go and get some sleep and prepare to do it all again tomorrow. Because this is life when you're a grown-up. *shrug* Night all!
