Wet And Miserable Sunday Outside
Jan. 28th, 2024 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickThough fortunately the extremely poor weather outside (we had a little bit of everything -- rain, freezing rain, sleet, and snow) did not translates to bad times inside -- I had a couple of frustrating moments, but overall it was a decent day --
Tumblr: Not as productive on here as I would have liked, but I got a few things done –
Victor Luvs Alice – Caught up on my dash and started my “BG3 Tav!Smiler” post for Wednesday before lunch – took me a while to get going, but I’ve made a decent start! Hopefully I can get some more done tomorrow after work. . .
Valice Multiverse – Had two anon asks to throw into the queue – one about the British calling underwear “pants” and whether that mean trousers were “overpants” (yes, to Smiler), and one about using linseed oil to fry food instead of thin paint (Alice cautioned against it). Nice and easy stuff!
Fallout 4: Back to the post-apocalyptic Commonwealth today with Victor and Deacon, having a reasonably productive day exploring around Kendall Hospital –
A) Picked up right where I left off before my extended dalliance with BG3, outside of the office building where a bunch of raiders had made their base near Kendall. The door into the building inside the main “plaza” of the camp led into a rubble-strewn room with an elevator and one raider atop a high platform – Victor easily took him out, then took the elevator up to the next floor, where a little creeping and a sneak attack took out the raider waiting in what looked like an old reception area of sorts (at least, there was a desk that looked reception-y). There were two doors leading out of this room, one to the left directly across from the raider, and one to the right around the corner the raiders had constructed with their barricades. I had Victor loot the raider (getting a Revolutionary Sword off his body!), then – after a bathroom break – head out the door to the left. That lead out onto the elevated walkway connecting the building to the one across from it, where a couple of raiders had been shooting Victor and Deacon – I took the opportunity to look their corpses, then explored the other side of the walkway. Nothing too interesting, it turned out – just a little living area with a bed, a trunk (with some halfway-decent armor), some chems, and a chem bench (where I had Victor combine some drugs to sell later). Victor thus backtracked and went out the OTHER door, which led out onto a little plaza with another raider roaming around on the opposite side. Victor tried to avoid her notice, but no dice – she spotted them, and he was forced to blast her with the Two-Shot, killing her instantly. Good thing too, as she was JUST getting ready to throw a frag grenade – she dropped it at her feet when she died, so a couple of seconds afterward, her corpse went flying briefly. XD Victor explored the little plaza on the side, looting the corpse and disarming a mine right outside another one of the entrances/exits to the base –
B) And then, after having him eat a cram sandwich to briefly increase his carry weight a bit, the game informed me he was tired, and I decided that the boys could camp out in the base for the night! After all, they’d just cleared it, so they knew it was safe. I thus had Victor and Deacon loop around back to where they’d started, where Victor took a moment to scrap some of the armor and guns he’d picked up at his portable workbench (none of them were really much good for anything – though I did end up keeping the sword and giving it to Deacon just because); unload some junk onto Deacon; and – because I was already scrolling through the “Misc” menu looking for his tent – read Deacon’s “recall code!” Which was a little scrap of paper saying “you can’t trust everyone.” XD I never knew if he actually put a fake code on there or what – guess not! I had Victor stuff that back in his pocket and pull out his tent, then hit the sheets right before 9 PM in-game.
C) Aaand he promptly woke up just before 5 AM in the middle of a giant thunderstorm. Because apparently it has to be as rainy in the Commonwealth as it is in real life. *grumble* However, I wasn’t going to let a bunch of rain stop Victor and Deacon from reaching Kendall, so I had Victor pack up his tent and set off! After taking a moment to check out the building across the way from the camp (just decorative, aw), the pair headed up the road, where – taking shelter from the storm under the covered walkway around ANOTHER building – I spotted a Raider Psycho wandering in and out of the shell of a wrecked bus.
And I thought, “You know what, I keep saying I’m going to use it and I never do, to the point where I seriously thought about giving it back to Deacon – let’s start using Deliverer, starting with this guy.” So I had Victor whip out the custom 10mm and line up all the shots on the guy!
It – took exactly one to kill him. XD Forgot for a minute that I’m in a relatively low-level area at Level 41. XD Well, at least he died quickly – and hey, something about the kill (maybe finally using the special Railroad gun he gave me) prompted the game to tell me Deacon admired me! So that was nice!
D) All right, enough lollygagging around – time to get to Kendall! The boys continued up the street, raided some nearby dumpsters, then worked their way around to the emergency entrance of the hospital, which was littered with various skeletons, courtesy of an ambulance that had either been in the middle of admitting someone or that had crashed during the bomb drop. As Victor crept closer, though, VATS informed me of the existence of a bloatfly nearby, lingering over a corpse near the back. I had Victor creep forward, line up a shot, and kill the little fucker –
And then BUGS. BUGS FUCKING EVERYWHERE. That bloatfly had a lot of friends, it seems – both other bloatflies AND bloodbug hatchlings! Fortunately for my continued sanity, this is where the Deliverer full-on proved its worth – because it takes so little AP cost to fire the stupid thing, you can line up LOADS of shots with it! And because there were so few enemies, it didn’t take more than one shot to kill them. So Victor was able to kill the first initial wave of bloatflies all in one VATS round without breaking a sweat! :D And it didn’t take much to get the remaining bugs cleared out either! Okay, I am now officially a Deliverer fan – the Two-Shot may pack a hell of a bunch, but if you have a lot of enemies in front of you, especially weaker ones, the Deliverer is where it is at.
E) Anyway, with the bugs dead, it was time to wander around looting all the corpses for meats, glands, and proboscises – plus get whatever was useful off the bodies of the two raiders and one settler they’d been nomming on. Near where the initial bloatfly had been, I found a door barred from the inside and some steps going up (and the official “you found this location” spot to mark it on my map) – mounting the steps brought me to a dead brahmin with another bloodbug hatchling feasting on it, which was easily taken care of. VATS also told me there was a Legendary Ghoul Roamer nearby, but it clearly hadn’t seen Victor yet, and I THOUGHT it was safely in the nearby cemetery, so I resolved not to worry about it and instead concentrated on exploring the outside of the hospital as the rain FINALLY let up in-game. Found the main doors in (next to a Railroad safehouse sign, which was interesting) and a little pathway around the side, which led to an outdoor patio area with some good loot. Unfortunately, picking up said loot made Victor overweight, and when I looked around for Deacon, he was nowhere to be found. Laser fire in the direction from which I’d came alerted me to the fact that he might be picking a fight with some of the locals, so I had Victor hobble back around –
Just in time to see a whole fucking parade of ghouls. With not one, but TWO fucking Legendary Ghoul Roamers among them.
Welp – first things first, Victor found his one thing of Grilled Radstag and horked that down so he had the extra carry weight to move normally. Then he grabbed Deliverer and started lining up ALL THE SHOTS EVER. Fortunately, the lightweight little gun did the job, and while Victor did have to hop over the wall next to the walkway to avoid a ghoul charge when a couple of them came back around, he managed to take them all out without incident, not getting swiped ONCE. :D Deacon finally showed back up again as Victor started looting the bodies (wonder if he got downed while Victor was off exploring), and I had Victor offload a bunch of junk onto him so that he’d still be able to move once the extra carryweight wore off – including the Martyr’s Raider Chest Piece and the Powered Raider Right Arm he found on the Legendary ghouls. Decent effects (Martyr’s enables slow-motion when you’re at 20% or less health, and Powered increases your action point refresh speed), but both on trash bits of armor, meh. I’m starting to feel a little bit like Jon of Many A True Nerd here.
F) And then, right after taking all of Victor’s junk, Deacon decided he wanted to have a heart-to-heart – namely, he wanted to tell Victor the “truth” about the Railroad. Said “truth” being that he was one of the original founders, sixty years ago, and he just lets Desdemona LOOK like she’s the big boss, and that the Railroad is actually way bigger than anyone suspects because they’re all in separate cells, and that they’re working for a better, brighter Commonwealth while defending against the Institute, and – yeah, it’s all a load of crap. XD I had Victor “play along” by taking all the “ask more questions” options until Deacon couldn’t keep up the bullshit, then amusedly note that traveling with him was never a dull moment. Deacon said he was happy to entertain, but that he had a point to his little ramble there – that you should never listen to what a faction tells you that they do. Instead, you look at what they’re actually doing and make your choices based on that. Victor curiously asked for Deacon’s assessment of the other factions in the Commonwealth – happily, Deacon said that he loves what Victor’s doing with the Minutemen, though he also admitted that, historically, they’re basically just a police force. (We’re trying to do better, Deacon!) He also said that he had an okay experience with the BOS back on an op in the Capital Wasteland, but he is not a fan of the organization now that Maxson is in charge, and of course he hates the Institute. But he stressed that it’s not about HIS opinion, it’s about VICTOR’S, and that he just hopes the guy makes the right choice when the time comes. I mean, I’m almost certainly gonna go Minutemen for my ending route, but I promise I’ll continue aiding the Railroad even then, Deacon. :)
G) Affinity talk over, and outside thoroughly checked for goodies, it was time to head inside the hospital! The door Victor had found led into a storage space, with a door into the main hallways nearby – and a terminal-locked door right next to it. Victor easily cracked the terminal and opened the door – unfortunately, it opened to reveal a fallen shelf, meaning it was really hard for Victor to get a bead on the raider inside with Deliverer. So I instead had him go around, where he was able to sneak around behind one of the counters in what I ASSUME was some sort of cafeteria area and sneakily take out a raider lounging there, before going through a hole in the wall to take out the raider in the room he found before. Then it was back around to unlock a door into the main raider base and take out a few more raiders (one Legendary sneakily, the rest not so much) and a turret. The Legendary, amusingly, had a Ghoul Slayer’s Metal Left Leg on him – not the greatest Legendary effect in the world, but also very appropriate given the ghoul massacre that had just happened outside. XD I had Victor start looting bodies and start looking around –
H) Only to discover not only a dead synth, but a whole PILE of dead Railroad Agent corpses stuffed in a bin near the big bonfire the raiders had put up in the center of the room. I was like “bwuh?” but then remembered, “Oh, yeah, this is part of a later Railroad mission, isn’t it? Well, maybe I can skip ahead when I take the actual mission then.”
I certainly hope so, because this is the spot Carrington was going to send me to. I just confirmed it on the Wiki – this is the former Augusta safehouse! The place Victor is supposed to visit next in the Railroad questline! *facepalm* For fuck’s sake – I might as well have picked up the dead drop tape before moving out! Gosh darn it. . .not a big deal in the grand scheme of things (especially if the game does not force me to revisit the location – though it might to spawn in something that wasn’t available before), but still. Would have liked to have figured that out before I came running in here!
I) Anyway – I didn’t make THAT connection until after I stopped playing. While playing, I just took note of all the dead Railroad agents, then continued exploring, working my way into the gift shop, then through a hole in the wall into a bathroom, before finally ending up back in the main room (scrapping all the leather armor Victor had picked up at an armor bench while I was there). I wasn’t sure where the heck I was supposed to go from there to find the chems, though, so I had Victor turn off every quest in his Pip-Boy except that one so I could better follow the marker. To my confusion, it took me back outside –
And over to the door barred from the inside. Ah, okay, so it’s at the very END of the dungeon. I had Victor go back in and start looking for ways around that I might have missed –
J) And found some stairs by the book return machine shoved in the corner! The ones going down led straight into rubble, but the ones going up were good. Victor ascended to the second floor (which, thanks to partially collapsing, had turned into a mezzanine level), looted the bodies up there (another dead raider, turret, and synth), then found a working elevator. He and Deacon took that to the sixth floor, which greeted them with a corner that turned directly into a turret. Victor fortunately took it out before it could activate (seriously, Deliverer is doing the job here), did a little exploring, then went down the hole right in front of the turret to find a kitchen, a room where they shoved all the baby cribs (aka Victor’s least-favorite room), and a little reception area complete with bell you could ring. I had Victor avoid said bell, though, as there were also some raiders around – couldn’t figure out where they were, but I could hear their barks. I ended up parking in him in the kitchen to end the playsession – that spot I knew was safe, and it’s a good jumping-off point for the next time. You know, if I don’t leave and just go get the dead drop tape. *sigh* I’ll get it afterward and see if it insists I go back to Kendall – come on, game, I’ve already seen the corpses! Please cut me a break.
Writing: Another Fallout Sunday, another update to the FO4 Playthrough Progression! And today’s update was damn near identical to what I did in the game above, with just the obvious change of “Alice is there and helping out” (she took down one of the raiders in the hospital after getting upset by the giant bonfire of bodies he helped set up) and a few minor tweaks for realism and suchlike (like Victor dropping what he was trying to loot to go back and shoot the ghouls menacing Alice and Deacon – who was explicitly beat up by them in this version, to reflect my theory that I couldn’t find him before because he’d been downed – instead of eating magical food that upped his carry capacity). Oh, and the gang realizing that Kendall Hospital is also Augusta Safehouse when Victor found the bin full of Railroad Agent bodies and Deacon recognized a couple of people, then ran outside and found the sign marking the location as a safehouse (I tried to imply that in this universe, the plank of wood it was marked on had been knocked over). The reason Deacon didn’t IMMEDIATELY recognize it was simply because there are a LOT of hospitals in this game and he just confused a couple in his head. Which, honestly, fair. XD But yeah, other than that, pretty much the same as above – exploring the office building and clearing the remaining raiders; murdering bugs and ghouls with the power of Deliverer; and getting into the hospital and taking out the raiders there while exploring the place looking for the chem stash. *nods* Always nice when I can just follow the game easy-peasy!
YouTube: Well, I once again had to babysit the beginning of my Many A True Nerd video for the week (I can’t PROVE football games make my YouTube buffering speed tank, but I don’t think they help, so glad the season is almost over), but I did manage to watch my usual Sunday Two, yay –
A) Started off with GrayStillPlays and “I found a game that is morally bankrupt,” aka Gray plays Comics Bob! This is one of those simple mobile games where you have to solve “puzzles” by selecting the correct item of two choices – sometimes the sensible item is the correct one, sometimes the ridiculous item is the correct one. You choose wrong, you fail and die. For whatever reason, this game is set in a Flintstones-style Stone Age, with you playing through the adventures of a hot woman in a pink leopard-print bikini loincloth and her goofy-looking paramour (I presume the titular “Bob”). Levels include helping the woman escape from Jason Vorhees’s Saw dungeon by grappling over traps and finding the right way to power a mine cart (hint, it’s not with a rocket); helping the man catch his dinner for the local restaurant, which ends up with him dragged into the water and having to get help from a disembodied whale tail by picking the right fish (the wrong one just tries to eat his head); helping the man prove to the woman that her new sexy date is a saber-toothed tiger in disguise (by dropping something heavy on his tail); helping the man steal a ring from the local museum by giving a statue some sick beats to listen to and freezing the local dinosaur skeleton; helping the man rescue the kidnapped woman from a pterodactyl’s nest BY SUMMONING ALIENS TO ABDUCT HER; and helping the woman escape the aliens by making eyes at an alien who wants to put her in a jar (and then bodyslamming him and putting HIM in the jar) and slapping a steering wheel on the alien ship console to drift it away from running into meteors. It’s – it’s a very weird game, as Gray said. Repeatedly. As he desperately searched for wrong options to see the characters suffer. As he does. XD
B) And then it was time for Jon and “Fallout 4: Sim Settlements 2 - Part 21 - Winner Jakes All!” This episode was pretty much all about Mayor Bob rescuing Jake from his kidnapping by the Gunners, and what a fun ride that was –
I. After reminding us about Jake’s (and the Comm Hub’s) kidnapping, and failing to get a copy of Jake’s scarf to wear in his memory from the tailor down the road because said tailor was not in his shop (apparently Aiden was right to call the town a “ghost town” – then again, I think they’re all supposed to be helping get salvage right now), Bob talked to Aiden, who told him to sort through the remains of the guy Jake ashed while fighting back against his kidnappers. This allowed Bob to find a note from a Captain Algernon, with his orders for taking Jake – basically, the Gunners knew Jake had a contact in Diamond City, went and got the information about where Jake was from said contact, and then came and collected Jake and his equipment. The one good thing about the note was that it specified Jake was to be brought in alive and conscious – Algernon didn’t want any “rough stuff.” So at least Bob could be reasonably sure his friend was still among the living. Aiden asked if Bob knew who Jake’s contact in Diamond City was, as questioning them was definitely the next step to finding Jake –
And thanks to Idiot Savant, Bob did indeed know who it was – The Ron! Information broker extraordinaire! The coolest cat around! And, because this was the “Idiot Savant” answer, Bob chose to tell Jake this by saying “Meow.” XD Aiden was appropriately confused and annoyed and headed out, saying he had some errands to run and would catch up with Bob later. Jon fully expected not to see him again. XD
II. All right, so Bob’s quest was clear – head to Diamond City and ask The Ron “What The Hell?” Along the way, though, he decided to stop by Starlight Drive-In to turn in his latest Minutemen quests to Sub-Mayor Preston (and get “Old Guns” from him in return – Jon indicated that one will be done at some point in the future to get some artillery going, as that’s fun), and head to College Square and clear out the ghouls there to get enough XP to level up to level 38! No Legendaries, unfortunately, but he DID get himself the first rank of the “Penetrator” perk, which allows you to shoot body parts through cover at cost of decreased accuracy, and target normally-hidden weak points (like the fusion core on a suit of power armor when the owner of said suit of power armor was standing up against a wall). He is looking forward to playing around with that!
Anyway – with that sorted, it was into Diamond City, where – after a quick stop at the doctor to take care of all those rads he picked up last time – he went to go confront The Ron. . .who was lying in a broken in the middle of his office, bleeding all over his suit and with his wig knocked off. Turns out the Gunners tortured the info out of him (he tried to resist, but the pain got too bad in the end), and then broke his legs as a “thank you.” Bob gave him a stimpack to help him keep going and brought him up to speed on Jake’s kidnapping – The Ron thought Jake was a goner, but mentioned that the tough that worked him over mentioned Malden Middle School. Which in the base game is just a small secret vault that’s been taken over by the Gunners, but in this mod is apparently a lot more! And even better, Bob had already visited the location (and then run away because there were VERY high-level Gunners in there)! The Ron suggested that if he was going in, he should go in stealthily, and told him to take some Stealth Boys he had hidden in his office. Bob did that and went to leave –
Only to run into Aiden outside. Turns out his “errands” included secretly following Bob and eavesdropping on his conversation. And he was glad he did, because he’d been thinking about Bob and Jake, and decided that they were clearly not involved with the Gunners, and mostly decent about taking care of themselves and their settlers (Jake’s recent kidnapping excluded). So he wanted to team up and rescue Jake together. Bob put on his Ultra Charisma Outfit of fancy red dress and fancy hat and confirmed he was on the level with a Charisma check (Aiden just loves giving Gunners awful days), and agreed to meet him over by the school.
III. With Jake’s probable location found and back-up secured (and the game providing Bob with some Advanced Farm plot types and a “glue shack” plot type (which is a special farm plot that provides glue ingredients and, when upgraded, straight-up vegetable starch)), the next step was for Bob to get to Malden. Jon had him follow the river up by Mass Fusion and Goodneighbor, taking out a Legendary Super Mutant Skirmisher (which only had a Troubleshooter’s Machete on him – and Jon wasn’t about to start using melee weapons on ROBOTS if he could help it) and picking up the plans to the nuclear-powered printing press for Alyssa in the Boston Bugle Building along the way (fortunately only involved fighting one robot). He stayed the night at Bunker Hill after crossing the bridge and killing a Legendary Mongrel (for a VATS Enhanced Submachine Gun – good legendary effect, TERRIBLE weapon), then made his way over to County Crossing the next day and from there followed the road to Malden, with one quick detour to get the final holotape in “The Lost Patrol” questline (well, technically it should be the FIRST tape you find, but Bob just stumbled across this quest while doing other quests, so he hadn’t found the original blast site before). He cleared some ghouls and super mutants, then found his way over to Aiden, who was staying in the building across from the school. He told Bob that he wasn’t used to working with others anymore, and that he’d let Bob be the commanding officer and come up with the plan. Aiden was all for murder, while Jon wasn’t sure if that or stealth would be a better option – he decided they should keep it flexible, and the two prepared to go down and break into the Vault –
IV. Only to be immediately met at the entrance by a Gunner called Wise. Who promptly mistook them for new conscripts. Bob and Aiden played along (Bob managing to pass an orange speech check WITHOUT his lovely dress, as the game wouldn’t let him change) – Wise told them that, since the base was on a partial lockdown thanks to their “guest,” they had to put on their uniforms and stow all their outside weapons or be shot on sight. Bob was a little reluctant, but decided to try and keep up the deception to have an easier time getting in and saving Jake – and when he went to stow his gear, he was allowed to keep one melee weapon and a pistol, allowing him to keep his Instigating 10mm in case of trouble. It wasn’t much, but it was something!
Thus sorted, the pair entered the vault, where they discovered that the only way to get to Jake was to get through a door that required a “lab access” card. Bob wandered around and found the shooting range, and thought maybe he had to do that to get the card – but when he went upstairs, he found some higher-ranked Gunners, one of whom informed him he wasn’t supposed to be there and threatened to report him. Bob’s attempts to explain he was new and apologize didn’t fly – but, fortunately, getting big and brassy DID, and he was able to go and get his key card before fleeing. After gaining access to the lab area, he then decided to try and get the Science Bobblehead in the vault before finding the next card for the next card reader –
Only to get caught AGAIN by a higher-ranking Gunner. Fortunately, THIS time Bob had an easy speech check with an excuse thanks to his “Scrounger” trait – namely, he could pretend to be Maintenance doing a check! The guy bought it, and Bob was allowed to wander freely, getting the Bobblehead – and, amusingly, right next to it, the keycard he needed anyway. He and Aiden thus progressed deeper into the vault, until Aiden commented that he heard something –
V. Cue cutscene! I still find it awesome this mod has stuff like CUTSCENES. But yes, this brought us up to the office where Jake was being held, with a Gunner named Berman beating him up and trying to get him to talk about the Comm Hub. Captain Algernon forced him to stop, declaring that even if Wes controlled the Gunners, HE was in command here and that Berman was defying HIS orders in contradiction of the chain of command. He dismissed the guy and apologized to Jake, saying he’d find him some Med-X for the pain –
But before he could do that, in came Bob and Aiden, ready to save the day! Algernon asked how they got in there and if they’d hurt any of his men – Bob assured him they were all fine, and Algernon told them that he wanted to talk. Bob was fine with doing things diplomatically and let Algernon give his little speech – turns out, what’s been going on is that Wes is working with an “unnamed benefactor” (bets on it being the Institute?) to make the Gunners more powerful and expand their reach. However, in the process, he’s turned them away from the old, more honorable traditions and values the Gunners used to embody. Not everyone agrees with this direction, Algernon among them, and he’s been actively working to try and slow down or sabotage some of Wes’s activities. Which actually included Jake’s kidnapping – Algernon wanted both Jake and the Comm Hub brought to his vault, but Berman from before defied orders and brought the Comm Hub straight to Wes at one of the Gunner safehouses (he’s not sure which one, but he’s willing to find out). The Gunners want the Comm Hub for the same reason Jake wants it – better communications. If they can figure out how to work the Comm Hub or replicate it, they’ll be able to maintain radio contact with the areas they have conquered and REALLY start expanding. Aiden wasn’t sure he trusted Algernon (as he WAS a Gunner – and when he introduced himself, Aiden said he was an ex-Minuteman, which makes me think Quincy is an Important Part of his Inevitable Tragic Backstory), but Bob was still willing to be diplomatic – especially since, midway through the conversation, Algernon released Jake from his bonds in good faith. He agreed to help Algernon if Algernon helped him, and Algernon agreed to come and tell them once he found out anything on where the Comm Hub might be (especially since he doesn’t expect to be a captain much longer after all this). He left them alone to make their escape – Aiden said he would stick around and shadow him, make sure he was really doing what he said he would be doing. Bob was fine with that, as it meant having multiple spies on the inside. :p
And so the episode ended with Bob and Jake managing to escape the vault without any trouble (which was good, as Jake grabbed a Gatling laser off the wall before they headed out in case there was any XD). He vanished as the quest completed, presumably being teleported back to Concord – and next week, Bob will be joining him there, to see where they go from there, and to clear out any other non-Algernon-aligned Gunners. And meet the technician that Algernon said he sent back to the shop, which, I suspect is going to be a very interesting meeting for Jake. . .we’ll see what happens next week!
Workout: Back on the bike today, and back to the GrayStillPlays compilation “Testing 100 Cars in GTA 5!” Got through the “thick and thin cars” episode (where Gray had to guide super-thin and super-wide cars through one of Alex’s killer courses, with an ultra-wide version of his favorite pink super-car winning once he figured out how to balance it on the final chassis slide) and about a third of the “inverted super-ramps” episode (where Gray was sent a series of steeper and steeper hills, ramping off the ends to fly at ludicrous speeds to different painful challenges – I got through the very first bit, where Gray had to use the Draugur to complete an alcohol-themed wall ride, leap-frog, and spiral (all made from giant beer bottle props), which took AGES because, well, the Draugur is not a great wall-riding car XD). Good stuff – we shall return to it next Sunday!
*nods* Not too shabby, though I wish I'd had more focus for my tumblr drafting this morning. . .then again, I woke up early and never really went back to sleep, so I was groggy for a good while, unfortunately. Ugh. Hoping to sleep better tonight, since, you know, I have to drive to work in the morning. Unless we get a lot of snow overnight. Which we might do. *shrug* We'll see what happens -- I'm not holding my breath. Night all!
Tumblr: Not as productive on here as I would have liked, but I got a few things done –
Victor Luvs Alice – Caught up on my dash and started my “BG3 Tav!Smiler” post for Wednesday before lunch – took me a while to get going, but I’ve made a decent start! Hopefully I can get some more done tomorrow after work. . .
Valice Multiverse – Had two anon asks to throw into the queue – one about the British calling underwear “pants” and whether that mean trousers were “overpants” (yes, to Smiler), and one about using linseed oil to fry food instead of thin paint (Alice cautioned against it). Nice and easy stuff!
Fallout 4: Back to the post-apocalyptic Commonwealth today with Victor and Deacon, having a reasonably productive day exploring around Kendall Hospital –
A) Picked up right where I left off before my extended dalliance with BG3, outside of the office building where a bunch of raiders had made their base near Kendall. The door into the building inside the main “plaza” of the camp led into a rubble-strewn room with an elevator and one raider atop a high platform – Victor easily took him out, then took the elevator up to the next floor, where a little creeping and a sneak attack took out the raider waiting in what looked like an old reception area of sorts (at least, there was a desk that looked reception-y). There were two doors leading out of this room, one to the left directly across from the raider, and one to the right around the corner the raiders had constructed with their barricades. I had Victor loot the raider (getting a Revolutionary Sword off his body!), then – after a bathroom break – head out the door to the left. That lead out onto the elevated walkway connecting the building to the one across from it, where a couple of raiders had been shooting Victor and Deacon – I took the opportunity to look their corpses, then explored the other side of the walkway. Nothing too interesting, it turned out – just a little living area with a bed, a trunk (with some halfway-decent armor), some chems, and a chem bench (where I had Victor combine some drugs to sell later). Victor thus backtracked and went out the OTHER door, which led out onto a little plaza with another raider roaming around on the opposite side. Victor tried to avoid her notice, but no dice – she spotted them, and he was forced to blast her with the Two-Shot, killing her instantly. Good thing too, as she was JUST getting ready to throw a frag grenade – she dropped it at her feet when she died, so a couple of seconds afterward, her corpse went flying briefly. XD Victor explored the little plaza on the side, looting the corpse and disarming a mine right outside another one of the entrances/exits to the base –
B) And then, after having him eat a cram sandwich to briefly increase his carry weight a bit, the game informed me he was tired, and I decided that the boys could camp out in the base for the night! After all, they’d just cleared it, so they knew it was safe. I thus had Victor and Deacon loop around back to where they’d started, where Victor took a moment to scrap some of the armor and guns he’d picked up at his portable workbench (none of them were really much good for anything – though I did end up keeping the sword and giving it to Deacon just because); unload some junk onto Deacon; and – because I was already scrolling through the “Misc” menu looking for his tent – read Deacon’s “recall code!” Which was a little scrap of paper saying “you can’t trust everyone.” XD I never knew if he actually put a fake code on there or what – guess not! I had Victor stuff that back in his pocket and pull out his tent, then hit the sheets right before 9 PM in-game.
C) Aaand he promptly woke up just before 5 AM in the middle of a giant thunderstorm. Because apparently it has to be as rainy in the Commonwealth as it is in real life. *grumble* However, I wasn’t going to let a bunch of rain stop Victor and Deacon from reaching Kendall, so I had Victor pack up his tent and set off! After taking a moment to check out the building across the way from the camp (just decorative, aw), the pair headed up the road, where – taking shelter from the storm under the covered walkway around ANOTHER building – I spotted a Raider Psycho wandering in and out of the shell of a wrecked bus.
And I thought, “You know what, I keep saying I’m going to use it and I never do, to the point where I seriously thought about giving it back to Deacon – let’s start using Deliverer, starting with this guy.” So I had Victor whip out the custom 10mm and line up all the shots on the guy!
It – took exactly one to kill him. XD Forgot for a minute that I’m in a relatively low-level area at Level 41. XD Well, at least he died quickly – and hey, something about the kill (maybe finally using the special Railroad gun he gave me) prompted the game to tell me Deacon admired me! So that was nice!
D) All right, enough lollygagging around – time to get to Kendall! The boys continued up the street, raided some nearby dumpsters, then worked their way around to the emergency entrance of the hospital, which was littered with various skeletons, courtesy of an ambulance that had either been in the middle of admitting someone or that had crashed during the bomb drop. As Victor crept closer, though, VATS informed me of the existence of a bloatfly nearby, lingering over a corpse near the back. I had Victor creep forward, line up a shot, and kill the little fucker –
And then BUGS. BUGS FUCKING EVERYWHERE. That bloatfly had a lot of friends, it seems – both other bloatflies AND bloodbug hatchlings! Fortunately for my continued sanity, this is where the Deliverer full-on proved its worth – because it takes so little AP cost to fire the stupid thing, you can line up LOADS of shots with it! And because there were so few enemies, it didn’t take more than one shot to kill them. So Victor was able to kill the first initial wave of bloatflies all in one VATS round without breaking a sweat! :D And it didn’t take much to get the remaining bugs cleared out either! Okay, I am now officially a Deliverer fan – the Two-Shot may pack a hell of a bunch, but if you have a lot of enemies in front of you, especially weaker ones, the Deliverer is where it is at.
E) Anyway, with the bugs dead, it was time to wander around looting all the corpses for meats, glands, and proboscises – plus get whatever was useful off the bodies of the two raiders and one settler they’d been nomming on. Near where the initial bloatfly had been, I found a door barred from the inside and some steps going up (and the official “you found this location” spot to mark it on my map) – mounting the steps brought me to a dead brahmin with another bloodbug hatchling feasting on it, which was easily taken care of. VATS also told me there was a Legendary Ghoul Roamer nearby, but it clearly hadn’t seen Victor yet, and I THOUGHT it was safely in the nearby cemetery, so I resolved not to worry about it and instead concentrated on exploring the outside of the hospital as the rain FINALLY let up in-game. Found the main doors in (next to a Railroad safehouse sign, which was interesting) and a little pathway around the side, which led to an outdoor patio area with some good loot. Unfortunately, picking up said loot made Victor overweight, and when I looked around for Deacon, he was nowhere to be found. Laser fire in the direction from which I’d came alerted me to the fact that he might be picking a fight with some of the locals, so I had Victor hobble back around –
Just in time to see a whole fucking parade of ghouls. With not one, but TWO fucking Legendary Ghoul Roamers among them.
Welp – first things first, Victor found his one thing of Grilled Radstag and horked that down so he had the extra carry weight to move normally. Then he grabbed Deliverer and started lining up ALL THE SHOTS EVER. Fortunately, the lightweight little gun did the job, and while Victor did have to hop over the wall next to the walkway to avoid a ghoul charge when a couple of them came back around, he managed to take them all out without incident, not getting swiped ONCE. :D Deacon finally showed back up again as Victor started looting the bodies (wonder if he got downed while Victor was off exploring), and I had Victor offload a bunch of junk onto him so that he’d still be able to move once the extra carryweight wore off – including the Martyr’s Raider Chest Piece and the Powered Raider Right Arm he found on the Legendary ghouls. Decent effects (Martyr’s enables slow-motion when you’re at 20% or less health, and Powered increases your action point refresh speed), but both on trash bits of armor, meh. I’m starting to feel a little bit like Jon of Many A True Nerd here.
F) And then, right after taking all of Victor’s junk, Deacon decided he wanted to have a heart-to-heart – namely, he wanted to tell Victor the “truth” about the Railroad. Said “truth” being that he was one of the original founders, sixty years ago, and he just lets Desdemona LOOK like she’s the big boss, and that the Railroad is actually way bigger than anyone suspects because they’re all in separate cells, and that they’re working for a better, brighter Commonwealth while defending against the Institute, and – yeah, it’s all a load of crap. XD I had Victor “play along” by taking all the “ask more questions” options until Deacon couldn’t keep up the bullshit, then amusedly note that traveling with him was never a dull moment. Deacon said he was happy to entertain, but that he had a point to his little ramble there – that you should never listen to what a faction tells you that they do. Instead, you look at what they’re actually doing and make your choices based on that. Victor curiously asked for Deacon’s assessment of the other factions in the Commonwealth – happily, Deacon said that he loves what Victor’s doing with the Minutemen, though he also admitted that, historically, they’re basically just a police force. (We’re trying to do better, Deacon!) He also said that he had an okay experience with the BOS back on an op in the Capital Wasteland, but he is not a fan of the organization now that Maxson is in charge, and of course he hates the Institute. But he stressed that it’s not about HIS opinion, it’s about VICTOR’S, and that he just hopes the guy makes the right choice when the time comes. I mean, I’m almost certainly gonna go Minutemen for my ending route, but I promise I’ll continue aiding the Railroad even then, Deacon. :)
G) Affinity talk over, and outside thoroughly checked for goodies, it was time to head inside the hospital! The door Victor had found led into a storage space, with a door into the main hallways nearby – and a terminal-locked door right next to it. Victor easily cracked the terminal and opened the door – unfortunately, it opened to reveal a fallen shelf, meaning it was really hard for Victor to get a bead on the raider inside with Deliverer. So I instead had him go around, where he was able to sneak around behind one of the counters in what I ASSUME was some sort of cafeteria area and sneakily take out a raider lounging there, before going through a hole in the wall to take out the raider in the room he found before. Then it was back around to unlock a door into the main raider base and take out a few more raiders (one Legendary sneakily, the rest not so much) and a turret. The Legendary, amusingly, had a Ghoul Slayer’s Metal Left Leg on him – not the greatest Legendary effect in the world, but also very appropriate given the ghoul massacre that had just happened outside. XD I had Victor start looting bodies and start looking around –
H) Only to discover not only a dead synth, but a whole PILE of dead Railroad Agent corpses stuffed in a bin near the big bonfire the raiders had put up in the center of the room. I was like “bwuh?” but then remembered, “Oh, yeah, this is part of a later Railroad mission, isn’t it? Well, maybe I can skip ahead when I take the actual mission then.”
I certainly hope so, because this is the spot Carrington was going to send me to. I just confirmed it on the Wiki – this is the former Augusta safehouse! The place Victor is supposed to visit next in the Railroad questline! *facepalm* For fuck’s sake – I might as well have picked up the dead drop tape before moving out! Gosh darn it. . .not a big deal in the grand scheme of things (especially if the game does not force me to revisit the location – though it might to spawn in something that wasn’t available before), but still. Would have liked to have figured that out before I came running in here!
I) Anyway – I didn’t make THAT connection until after I stopped playing. While playing, I just took note of all the dead Railroad agents, then continued exploring, working my way into the gift shop, then through a hole in the wall into a bathroom, before finally ending up back in the main room (scrapping all the leather armor Victor had picked up at an armor bench while I was there). I wasn’t sure where the heck I was supposed to go from there to find the chems, though, so I had Victor turn off every quest in his Pip-Boy except that one so I could better follow the marker. To my confusion, it took me back outside –
And over to the door barred from the inside. Ah, okay, so it’s at the very END of the dungeon. I had Victor go back in and start looking for ways around that I might have missed –
J) And found some stairs by the book return machine shoved in the corner! The ones going down led straight into rubble, but the ones going up were good. Victor ascended to the second floor (which, thanks to partially collapsing, had turned into a mezzanine level), looted the bodies up there (another dead raider, turret, and synth), then found a working elevator. He and Deacon took that to the sixth floor, which greeted them with a corner that turned directly into a turret. Victor fortunately took it out before it could activate (seriously, Deliverer is doing the job here), did a little exploring, then went down the hole right in front of the turret to find a kitchen, a room where they shoved all the baby cribs (aka Victor’s least-favorite room), and a little reception area complete with bell you could ring. I had Victor avoid said bell, though, as there were also some raiders around – couldn’t figure out where they were, but I could hear their barks. I ended up parking in him in the kitchen to end the playsession – that spot I knew was safe, and it’s a good jumping-off point for the next time. You know, if I don’t leave and just go get the dead drop tape. *sigh* I’ll get it afterward and see if it insists I go back to Kendall – come on, game, I’ve already seen the corpses! Please cut me a break.
Writing: Another Fallout Sunday, another update to the FO4 Playthrough Progression! And today’s update was damn near identical to what I did in the game above, with just the obvious change of “Alice is there and helping out” (she took down one of the raiders in the hospital after getting upset by the giant bonfire of bodies he helped set up) and a few minor tweaks for realism and suchlike (like Victor dropping what he was trying to loot to go back and shoot the ghouls menacing Alice and Deacon – who was explicitly beat up by them in this version, to reflect my theory that I couldn’t find him before because he’d been downed – instead of eating magical food that upped his carry capacity). Oh, and the gang realizing that Kendall Hospital is also Augusta Safehouse when Victor found the bin full of Railroad Agent bodies and Deacon recognized a couple of people, then ran outside and found the sign marking the location as a safehouse (I tried to imply that in this universe, the plank of wood it was marked on had been knocked over). The reason Deacon didn’t IMMEDIATELY recognize it was simply because there are a LOT of hospitals in this game and he just confused a couple in his head. Which, honestly, fair. XD But yeah, other than that, pretty much the same as above – exploring the office building and clearing the remaining raiders; murdering bugs and ghouls with the power of Deliverer; and getting into the hospital and taking out the raiders there while exploring the place looking for the chem stash. *nods* Always nice when I can just follow the game easy-peasy!
YouTube: Well, I once again had to babysit the beginning of my Many A True Nerd video for the week (I can’t PROVE football games make my YouTube buffering speed tank, but I don’t think they help, so glad the season is almost over), but I did manage to watch my usual Sunday Two, yay –
A) Started off with GrayStillPlays and “I found a game that is morally bankrupt,” aka Gray plays Comics Bob! This is one of those simple mobile games where you have to solve “puzzles” by selecting the correct item of two choices – sometimes the sensible item is the correct one, sometimes the ridiculous item is the correct one. You choose wrong, you fail and die. For whatever reason, this game is set in a Flintstones-style Stone Age, with you playing through the adventures of a hot woman in a pink leopard-print bikini loincloth and her goofy-looking paramour (I presume the titular “Bob”). Levels include helping the woman escape from Jason Vorhees’s Saw dungeon by grappling over traps and finding the right way to power a mine cart (hint, it’s not with a rocket); helping the man catch his dinner for the local restaurant, which ends up with him dragged into the water and having to get help from a disembodied whale tail by picking the right fish (the wrong one just tries to eat his head); helping the man prove to the woman that her new sexy date is a saber-toothed tiger in disguise (by dropping something heavy on his tail); helping the man steal a ring from the local museum by giving a statue some sick beats to listen to and freezing the local dinosaur skeleton; helping the man rescue the kidnapped woman from a pterodactyl’s nest BY SUMMONING ALIENS TO ABDUCT HER; and helping the woman escape the aliens by making eyes at an alien who wants to put her in a jar (and then bodyslamming him and putting HIM in the jar) and slapping a steering wheel on the alien ship console to drift it away from running into meteors. It’s – it’s a very weird game, as Gray said. Repeatedly. As he desperately searched for wrong options to see the characters suffer. As he does. XD
B) And then it was time for Jon and “Fallout 4: Sim Settlements 2 - Part 21 - Winner Jakes All!” This episode was pretty much all about Mayor Bob rescuing Jake from his kidnapping by the Gunners, and what a fun ride that was –
I. After reminding us about Jake’s (and the Comm Hub’s) kidnapping, and failing to get a copy of Jake’s scarf to wear in his memory from the tailor down the road because said tailor was not in his shop (apparently Aiden was right to call the town a “ghost town” – then again, I think they’re all supposed to be helping get salvage right now), Bob talked to Aiden, who told him to sort through the remains of the guy Jake ashed while fighting back against his kidnappers. This allowed Bob to find a note from a Captain Algernon, with his orders for taking Jake – basically, the Gunners knew Jake had a contact in Diamond City, went and got the information about where Jake was from said contact, and then came and collected Jake and his equipment. The one good thing about the note was that it specified Jake was to be brought in alive and conscious – Algernon didn’t want any “rough stuff.” So at least Bob could be reasonably sure his friend was still among the living. Aiden asked if Bob knew who Jake’s contact in Diamond City was, as questioning them was definitely the next step to finding Jake –
And thanks to Idiot Savant, Bob did indeed know who it was – The Ron! Information broker extraordinaire! The coolest cat around! And, because this was the “Idiot Savant” answer, Bob chose to tell Jake this by saying “Meow.” XD Aiden was appropriately confused and annoyed and headed out, saying he had some errands to run and would catch up with Bob later. Jon fully expected not to see him again. XD
II. All right, so Bob’s quest was clear – head to Diamond City and ask The Ron “What The Hell?” Along the way, though, he decided to stop by Starlight Drive-In to turn in his latest Minutemen quests to Sub-Mayor Preston (and get “Old Guns” from him in return – Jon indicated that one will be done at some point in the future to get some artillery going, as that’s fun), and head to College Square and clear out the ghouls there to get enough XP to level up to level 38! No Legendaries, unfortunately, but he DID get himself the first rank of the “Penetrator” perk, which allows you to shoot body parts through cover at cost of decreased accuracy, and target normally-hidden weak points (like the fusion core on a suit of power armor when the owner of said suit of power armor was standing up against a wall). He is looking forward to playing around with that!
Anyway – with that sorted, it was into Diamond City, where – after a quick stop at the doctor to take care of all those rads he picked up last time – he went to go confront The Ron. . .who was lying in a broken in the middle of his office, bleeding all over his suit and with his wig knocked off. Turns out the Gunners tortured the info out of him (he tried to resist, but the pain got too bad in the end), and then broke his legs as a “thank you.” Bob gave him a stimpack to help him keep going and brought him up to speed on Jake’s kidnapping – The Ron thought Jake was a goner, but mentioned that the tough that worked him over mentioned Malden Middle School. Which in the base game is just a small secret vault that’s been taken over by the Gunners, but in this mod is apparently a lot more! And even better, Bob had already visited the location (and then run away because there were VERY high-level Gunners in there)! The Ron suggested that if he was going in, he should go in stealthily, and told him to take some Stealth Boys he had hidden in his office. Bob did that and went to leave –
Only to run into Aiden outside. Turns out his “errands” included secretly following Bob and eavesdropping on his conversation. And he was glad he did, because he’d been thinking about Bob and Jake, and decided that they were clearly not involved with the Gunners, and mostly decent about taking care of themselves and their settlers (Jake’s recent kidnapping excluded). So he wanted to team up and rescue Jake together. Bob put on his Ultra Charisma Outfit of fancy red dress and fancy hat and confirmed he was on the level with a Charisma check (Aiden just loves giving Gunners awful days), and agreed to meet him over by the school.
III. With Jake’s probable location found and back-up secured (and the game providing Bob with some Advanced Farm plot types and a “glue shack” plot type (which is a special farm plot that provides glue ingredients and, when upgraded, straight-up vegetable starch)), the next step was for Bob to get to Malden. Jon had him follow the river up by Mass Fusion and Goodneighbor, taking out a Legendary Super Mutant Skirmisher (which only had a Troubleshooter’s Machete on him – and Jon wasn’t about to start using melee weapons on ROBOTS if he could help it) and picking up the plans to the nuclear-powered printing press for Alyssa in the Boston Bugle Building along the way (fortunately only involved fighting one robot). He stayed the night at Bunker Hill after crossing the bridge and killing a Legendary Mongrel (for a VATS Enhanced Submachine Gun – good legendary effect, TERRIBLE weapon), then made his way over to County Crossing the next day and from there followed the road to Malden, with one quick detour to get the final holotape in “The Lost Patrol” questline (well, technically it should be the FIRST tape you find, but Bob just stumbled across this quest while doing other quests, so he hadn’t found the original blast site before). He cleared some ghouls and super mutants, then found his way over to Aiden, who was staying in the building across from the school. He told Bob that he wasn’t used to working with others anymore, and that he’d let Bob be the commanding officer and come up with the plan. Aiden was all for murder, while Jon wasn’t sure if that or stealth would be a better option – he decided they should keep it flexible, and the two prepared to go down and break into the Vault –
IV. Only to be immediately met at the entrance by a Gunner called Wise. Who promptly mistook them for new conscripts. Bob and Aiden played along (Bob managing to pass an orange speech check WITHOUT his lovely dress, as the game wouldn’t let him change) – Wise told them that, since the base was on a partial lockdown thanks to their “guest,” they had to put on their uniforms and stow all their outside weapons or be shot on sight. Bob was a little reluctant, but decided to try and keep up the deception to have an easier time getting in and saving Jake – and when he went to stow his gear, he was allowed to keep one melee weapon and a pistol, allowing him to keep his Instigating 10mm in case of trouble. It wasn’t much, but it was something!
Thus sorted, the pair entered the vault, where they discovered that the only way to get to Jake was to get through a door that required a “lab access” card. Bob wandered around and found the shooting range, and thought maybe he had to do that to get the card – but when he went upstairs, he found some higher-ranked Gunners, one of whom informed him he wasn’t supposed to be there and threatened to report him. Bob’s attempts to explain he was new and apologize didn’t fly – but, fortunately, getting big and brassy DID, and he was able to go and get his key card before fleeing. After gaining access to the lab area, he then decided to try and get the Science Bobblehead in the vault before finding the next card for the next card reader –
Only to get caught AGAIN by a higher-ranking Gunner. Fortunately, THIS time Bob had an easy speech check with an excuse thanks to his “Scrounger” trait – namely, he could pretend to be Maintenance doing a check! The guy bought it, and Bob was allowed to wander freely, getting the Bobblehead – and, amusingly, right next to it, the keycard he needed anyway. He and Aiden thus progressed deeper into the vault, until Aiden commented that he heard something –
V. Cue cutscene! I still find it awesome this mod has stuff like CUTSCENES. But yes, this brought us up to the office where Jake was being held, with a Gunner named Berman beating him up and trying to get him to talk about the Comm Hub. Captain Algernon forced him to stop, declaring that even if Wes controlled the Gunners, HE was in command here and that Berman was defying HIS orders in contradiction of the chain of command. He dismissed the guy and apologized to Jake, saying he’d find him some Med-X for the pain –
But before he could do that, in came Bob and Aiden, ready to save the day! Algernon asked how they got in there and if they’d hurt any of his men – Bob assured him they were all fine, and Algernon told them that he wanted to talk. Bob was fine with doing things diplomatically and let Algernon give his little speech – turns out, what’s been going on is that Wes is working with an “unnamed benefactor” (bets on it being the Institute?) to make the Gunners more powerful and expand their reach. However, in the process, he’s turned them away from the old, more honorable traditions and values the Gunners used to embody. Not everyone agrees with this direction, Algernon among them, and he’s been actively working to try and slow down or sabotage some of Wes’s activities. Which actually included Jake’s kidnapping – Algernon wanted both Jake and the Comm Hub brought to his vault, but Berman from before defied orders and brought the Comm Hub straight to Wes at one of the Gunner safehouses (he’s not sure which one, but he’s willing to find out). The Gunners want the Comm Hub for the same reason Jake wants it – better communications. If they can figure out how to work the Comm Hub or replicate it, they’ll be able to maintain radio contact with the areas they have conquered and REALLY start expanding. Aiden wasn’t sure he trusted Algernon (as he WAS a Gunner – and when he introduced himself, Aiden said he was an ex-Minuteman, which makes me think Quincy is an Important Part of his Inevitable Tragic Backstory), but Bob was still willing to be diplomatic – especially since, midway through the conversation, Algernon released Jake from his bonds in good faith. He agreed to help Algernon if Algernon helped him, and Algernon agreed to come and tell them once he found out anything on where the Comm Hub might be (especially since he doesn’t expect to be a captain much longer after all this). He left them alone to make their escape – Aiden said he would stick around and shadow him, make sure he was really doing what he said he would be doing. Bob was fine with that, as it meant having multiple spies on the inside. :p
And so the episode ended with Bob and Jake managing to escape the vault without any trouble (which was good, as Jake grabbed a Gatling laser off the wall before they headed out in case there was any XD). He vanished as the quest completed, presumably being teleported back to Concord – and next week, Bob will be joining him there, to see where they go from there, and to clear out any other non-Algernon-aligned Gunners. And meet the technician that Algernon said he sent back to the shop, which, I suspect is going to be a very interesting meeting for Jake. . .we’ll see what happens next week!
Workout: Back on the bike today, and back to the GrayStillPlays compilation “Testing 100 Cars in GTA 5!” Got through the “thick and thin cars” episode (where Gray had to guide super-thin and super-wide cars through one of Alex’s killer courses, with an ultra-wide version of his favorite pink super-car winning once he figured out how to balance it on the final chassis slide) and about a third of the “inverted super-ramps” episode (where Gray was sent a series of steeper and steeper hills, ramping off the ends to fly at ludicrous speeds to different painful challenges – I got through the very first bit, where Gray had to use the Draugur to complete an alcohol-themed wall ride, leap-frog, and spiral (all made from giant beer bottle props), which took AGES because, well, the Draugur is not a great wall-riding car XD). Good stuff – we shall return to it next Sunday!
*nods* Not too shabby, though I wish I'd had more focus for my tumblr drafting this morning. . .then again, I woke up early and never really went back to sleep, so I was groggy for a good while, unfortunately. Ugh. Hoping to sleep better tonight, since, you know, I have to drive to work in the morning. Unless we get a lot of snow overnight. Which we might do. *shrug* We'll see what happens -- I'm not holding my breath. Night all!
