I'll Take This Wednesday
Feb. 21st, 2024 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWasn't perfect, but it was all right, as my to-do list proves --
Work – Another “meh” Wednesday – lot of credit card calls today, along with some phone shenanigans around lunchtime that made it difficult to get one lady’s gift going (she eventually gave up on the credit card thing entirely because of the trouble). When I wasn’t taking calls, though, I didn’t have a lot to do – resorted again to looking up random obituaries to see if we had them in the system or not. And tracking down the obituaries of already-marked-deceased people to add any necessary biographical information and track down duplicates. *shrug* It’s SOMETHING, at any rate! We’ll see if anything more exciting happens tomorrow.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – pedaled my way through the following tonight –
A) The end of Oxventure: Deadlands, “More Wonders Than There Are In The Heavens, Part I!” With the Rex Randall Memorial Parade keeping the crowd busy (and Edie telling Delacy in no certain terms that he was to keep the fact that he was the one who shot the guy through the throat to himself), Edie, Delacy, and Bison Billie headed backstage (or I guess back-tent) to where all the performers were discussing what went right and what went wrong. Bison Billie took a moment to stop and ask an unconscious Jed (the guy who fell wrong off the fake train heist) how the hell he could do that trick so many times and ALWAYS miss his mark, then told him to take two weeks off to heal up once he did come around. He’s fair for his day. XD With that settled, Billie asked if Edie and Delacy were up for some reconnaissance on the World’s Hyperion Fair, as it seemed the place was closing up for the night – Edie was all for it, and Delacy was willing to do things Bison Billie’s way. Which, fortunately, included taking the guy’s advice on maybe being less open about their business being killing people, because that might end up in HIM being killed. (Because, you know, being a thirteen-year-old, Delacy had never thought much about his OWN mortality before.) Billie also made a small request before they headed out – if, at all possible, please let him land the killing blow. Edie and Delacy were fine with that, though Delacy pointed out that they had to take a ring off Hildy’s corpse – Billie was like “yeah, that’s cool, I just want her to die.” Really makes you wonder how Aunt Hildy wronged Billie. . . Thus in agreement (and with Billie dangling a contract of her own in front of Edie, should she want it), the gang headed out through the back of the “backstage” tent and into the Hall of Oddities!
Which, Andy stressed, was a LOT creepier in the dark, with the gramophone grinding out creepy circus music because it hadn’t been wound in a while. XD The group began working their way through the various relics and oddities on display (Delacy assuring Billie that the Fiji mermaid wasn’t real, though Billie was of the opinion that it COULD be – after all, who knew how many varieties mermaids came in? And also the alcohol it was preserved in was a FINE vintage, they had to knick some of that too) –
And came, once again, on the hand that might belong to Wild Bill Hickok. Delacy looked at it again, then turned to the others and said that he wanted to take it with them – if it was Wild Bill Hickok’s hand, then he wanted to return it to the guy’s grave, as he felt it being here was disrespectful; if it wasn’t, then he didn’t want people getting cheated out of their money by not seeing the real deal. Billie encouraged him to follow his heart and do what he had to do – and do it fast, because that hand had been soaking in water for three days now and was probably starting to rot. XD (Andy gave Jasper a well-earned benny for that.) Delacy rolled JUST well enough to hoist up the enormous jar the hand was in, and Billie, seeing him struggling, grabbed a nearby sack and reached in to take out the hand so Delacy could carry it easier –
Cue the hand COMING TO LIFE, RUNNING UP HIS ARM, AND TRYING TO STRANGLE HIM. Deal initiative! XD Everyone was freaking out as the hand attempted to throttle poor Bison Billie, but fortunately Delacy was up first in the turn order, and decided to do what he did best – shoot the damn thing off his hero. He got Billie to drop his own hands and turn to the side, and – after spending a few bennies on less-than-adequate rolls – managed to blast off the hand, putting a hole straight through its palm. The hand did not like that and skittered up Delacy to throttle him – it managed to shake the poor kid, but fortunately on a successful Vigor roll from Delacy, didn’t inflict any further damage. Billie was up next in the turn order, and – knowing that he wasn’t NEARLY a good a shot as Delacy – chose to return the favor by using his raw strength to tear the hand off the kid’s neck, then drop it to the ground and STAMP on it. An extremely good Strength roll pulverized the hand and took them out of combat – Billie offered Delacy the shattered wreck, and Delacy decided it COULDN’T have been Hickok’s hand simply because, well, they’d be dead if it was. XD So he tossed it away, and the group prepared to move on –
Only to hear a shout of “Who goes there?” from the midway. Because, right, Delacy fired a VERY LOUD gun in the process of saving his hero. XD Andy, just to be mean, left the episode there – we’ll see if the heroes are on the verge of capture or not next week when we start Part II! (Second episode’s just a LITTLE bit too long to cram into Thursday and Friday.)
B) “I Raised A Near-Perfect Infant Despite A Broken Mother | Super Sim Series 2” by Petey Plays It! Having finished my Oxventure for the week, I thus moved onto some Sims stuff, with the next episode of Petey’s Super Sim series! This one covered his Super Sim Tina’s infancy, which was – well. Rather grueling, honestly – not only did Petey have to cram a LOT of infant milestones into a short period of time (to give Tina a head start on her toddler skills), he ALSO had to make sure Tina’s attachment with her mother was high enough so that she got the “Top-Notch Infant” trait (because obviously a Super Sim has to be a Top-Notch Infant, otherwise, what’s the point). AND he had to do so with an infant that was Intense, a Picky Eater, Loved Wake-Up Time, and Hated To Be Held. AND with a mother that, thanks to her own rapid-aging process, still had her own Infant Quirks that she would express from time to time by flopping on the floor in a glitchy infant pose and hiccuping or farting. XD AND he had to contend with the fact that Tina was potentially corrupted as the game kept prompting him to delete her when he moved mother and daughter into their new save file. . .but as he said, it’s not The Sims 4 if you’re not dealing with a potentially game-breaking bug! XD And so he persevered, having Tina get loads of fine and gross motor control milestones (and a few social ones when he recalled that, oh, yes, probably a good idea to interact with the child) while having her mother devour fruitcake and make money selling honey and beeswax. Tina aged up at the end of the episode with most of her milestones, a head start in a couple of toddler skills, and – happily – the desired “Top-Notch Infant” trait! Plus, when Petey randomized her toddler trait, he got Angelic, which – after dealing with the constantly-cranky infant Tina – must have felt like Will Wright himself was smiling down upon him. XD Next episode, we’ll see if he manages to make Tina a “Top-Notch Toddler” as well. . .
2. Continue writing “Start At The Beginning. . .Sort Of”: Check – yes, I chose to finish up the bit I was working on here today, rather than switching back to “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland!” Mostly because completing the scene I was working on (the end of the chase sequence that makes up most of Chapter 4) meant that I’d complete the chapter. . .and that meant I’d be in an excellent position to work on something else for a little while. Namely, the prompts I have collected for the upcoming “OT3 Week” on tumblr in mid-March. I wanted to get a jump on those shorts, and I’m already at a mid-chapter break in LB:DQ Chapter 1 right now, so – perfect opportunity! *thumbs up*
So yeah, today was all about wrapping up the latest chapter, with Alice, Victor, and Smiler putting as much distance between themselves and the specter feasting on the unlucky Sergeant Tannen as possible, then discussing the fact that Victor can now just see ghosts all the time. Leading to Smiler speculating that Victor’s now got a “ghost mind” – aka his starting special ability on his Whisper playbook. XD When I get back to this in a couple weeks’ time, we’ll start Chapter 5, with the gang entering Six Towers and discovering their lair. . .in the meantime, though, time for fun with prompts! :)
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – another GrayStillPlays-only day, with the latest in Alex Torture Boards – “Long cars vs loops in GTA 5!” Because I guess Alex couldn’t think of any weird stairs today. :P But he certainly came up with some painful loops for Gray to test all the longest cars in the game against –
I. Tightrope Present Loop – a narrow loop made out of the “bunch of presents” asset, that required Gray to go around it and then launch himself onto the next platform, because of course there was a jump at the end. This one proved SURPRISINGLY tricky just because of how narrow it was and how much speed it required – a lot of the cars simply could NOT get up there!
II. Consecutive Upward Loops – a series of four loops in yellow, gray, green, and black, that formed a sort of staircase for Gray to climb in the form of “go around this loop, launch yourself directly upward onto the next one, try to keep your speed so you stick to the loop, rinse and repeat.” So I guess Alex DID think of some weird stairs today! XD At any rate, Gray had to climb the loops in order to reach the teleporter to the next section, and let me tell you, he did NOT enjoy the experience. Not at ALL.
III. Oval Loop – exactly what it said on the tin, a squashed oval loop with an anti-cheat invisible wall in the middle. The easiest loop of the lot – provided you had the right car, of course. . .
IV. Loop That Loops – Oh, this one was interesting. This was a loop that, when Gray entered it via teleported, began looping ITSELF around the central bar that it was hanging from – basically, while Gray was driving around the circle, it was spinning around this bar, forcing him to make constant changes to adjust to the moving floor beneath him. The only way out was to get lucky and be in the right place as the loop passed through the teleporter at the very top of its arc. Fortunate that Gray is VERY good at wall rides, as he needed ALL those skills to make it around this loop!
V. Gap Loop – And for the big finale, a loop worthy of a thumbnail image – a big, wide loop with a giant gap right at the top that Gray had to jump – and a HELICOPTER hovering in place right at the end of that gap that Gray had to avoid. Oh, and another anti-cheat invisible wall running through it to make sure Gray didn’t try to just jump to the win. XD If he wanted the win, he had to brave the blades!
So – how did the long cars do? Well, neither the bus nor the frankly scary-looking arena tractor trailer that spewed fire could make it around the Tightrope Present Loop, and almost everything else got stopped by the Consecutive Upward Loops, with only two cars making it past. The CANIS truck made it through the upward loops, but was stymied by the Oval Loop, as it just didn’t have the stick –
Leaving the “FUTURE” blue and pink long super-car to make it through all the challenges and claim the crown! Not without a LOT of crashing and failing, of course (and FIVE MINUTES spent wallriding in the Loop That Loops), but it got there in the end! Proving once again that, if you give Gray long enough, he WILL knock down a concrete wall by smacking his head against it. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – being Wednesday, I only had Victor Luvs Alice to worry about tonight. Got the queue speed reset to one so the Nick Valentine fanart and my gift-fic to Marie posted on the right days, then went through my Song Saturday tag for a while before stumbling across “Fair” by The Amazing Devil and deciding I had to reblog that because that is THE feels song for an OTP. (Though sadly not an OT3 – I can’t figure out how to Valicer it up. It’s really just made for a couple – ah well, there will be other songs.) So that’s my VLA queue all set through the end of the week, yaaay~
*nods* I will take that! And now it's time to head to bed and prepare to do it all again tomorrow, with slight variations. Night all!
Work – Another “meh” Wednesday – lot of credit card calls today, along with some phone shenanigans around lunchtime that made it difficult to get one lady’s gift going (she eventually gave up on the credit card thing entirely because of the trouble). When I wasn’t taking calls, though, I didn’t have a lot to do – resorted again to looking up random obituaries to see if we had them in the system or not. And tracking down the obituaries of already-marked-deceased people to add any necessary biographical information and track down duplicates. *shrug* It’s SOMETHING, at any rate! We’ll see if anything more exciting happens tomorrow.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – pedaled my way through the following tonight –
A) The end of Oxventure: Deadlands, “More Wonders Than There Are In The Heavens, Part I!” With the Rex Randall Memorial Parade keeping the crowd busy (and Edie telling Delacy in no certain terms that he was to keep the fact that he was the one who shot the guy through the throat to himself), Edie, Delacy, and Bison Billie headed backstage (or I guess back-tent) to where all the performers were discussing what went right and what went wrong. Bison Billie took a moment to stop and ask an unconscious Jed (the guy who fell wrong off the fake train heist) how the hell he could do that trick so many times and ALWAYS miss his mark, then told him to take two weeks off to heal up once he did come around. He’s fair for his day. XD With that settled, Billie asked if Edie and Delacy were up for some reconnaissance on the World’s Hyperion Fair, as it seemed the place was closing up for the night – Edie was all for it, and Delacy was willing to do things Bison Billie’s way. Which, fortunately, included taking the guy’s advice on maybe being less open about their business being killing people, because that might end up in HIM being killed. (Because, you know, being a thirteen-year-old, Delacy had never thought much about his OWN mortality before.) Billie also made a small request before they headed out – if, at all possible, please let him land the killing blow. Edie and Delacy were fine with that, though Delacy pointed out that they had to take a ring off Hildy’s corpse – Billie was like “yeah, that’s cool, I just want her to die.” Really makes you wonder how Aunt Hildy wronged Billie. . . Thus in agreement (and with Billie dangling a contract of her own in front of Edie, should she want it), the gang headed out through the back of the “backstage” tent and into the Hall of Oddities!
Which, Andy stressed, was a LOT creepier in the dark, with the gramophone grinding out creepy circus music because it hadn’t been wound in a while. XD The group began working their way through the various relics and oddities on display (Delacy assuring Billie that the Fiji mermaid wasn’t real, though Billie was of the opinion that it COULD be – after all, who knew how many varieties mermaids came in? And also the alcohol it was preserved in was a FINE vintage, they had to knick some of that too) –
And came, once again, on the hand that might belong to Wild Bill Hickok. Delacy looked at it again, then turned to the others and said that he wanted to take it with them – if it was Wild Bill Hickok’s hand, then he wanted to return it to the guy’s grave, as he felt it being here was disrespectful; if it wasn’t, then he didn’t want people getting cheated out of their money by not seeing the real deal. Billie encouraged him to follow his heart and do what he had to do – and do it fast, because that hand had been soaking in water for three days now and was probably starting to rot. XD (Andy gave Jasper a well-earned benny for that.) Delacy rolled JUST well enough to hoist up the enormous jar the hand was in, and Billie, seeing him struggling, grabbed a nearby sack and reached in to take out the hand so Delacy could carry it easier –
Cue the hand COMING TO LIFE, RUNNING UP HIS ARM, AND TRYING TO STRANGLE HIM. Deal initiative! XD Everyone was freaking out as the hand attempted to throttle poor Bison Billie, but fortunately Delacy was up first in the turn order, and decided to do what he did best – shoot the damn thing off his hero. He got Billie to drop his own hands and turn to the side, and – after spending a few bennies on less-than-adequate rolls – managed to blast off the hand, putting a hole straight through its palm. The hand did not like that and skittered up Delacy to throttle him – it managed to shake the poor kid, but fortunately on a successful Vigor roll from Delacy, didn’t inflict any further damage. Billie was up next in the turn order, and – knowing that he wasn’t NEARLY a good a shot as Delacy – chose to return the favor by using his raw strength to tear the hand off the kid’s neck, then drop it to the ground and STAMP on it. An extremely good Strength roll pulverized the hand and took them out of combat – Billie offered Delacy the shattered wreck, and Delacy decided it COULDN’T have been Hickok’s hand simply because, well, they’d be dead if it was. XD So he tossed it away, and the group prepared to move on –
Only to hear a shout of “Who goes there?” from the midway. Because, right, Delacy fired a VERY LOUD gun in the process of saving his hero. XD Andy, just to be mean, left the episode there – we’ll see if the heroes are on the verge of capture or not next week when we start Part II! (Second episode’s just a LITTLE bit too long to cram into Thursday and Friday.)
B) “I Raised A Near-Perfect Infant Despite A Broken Mother | Super Sim Series 2” by Petey Plays It! Having finished my Oxventure for the week, I thus moved onto some Sims stuff, with the next episode of Petey’s Super Sim series! This one covered his Super Sim Tina’s infancy, which was – well. Rather grueling, honestly – not only did Petey have to cram a LOT of infant milestones into a short period of time (to give Tina a head start on her toddler skills), he ALSO had to make sure Tina’s attachment with her mother was high enough so that she got the “Top-Notch Infant” trait (because obviously a Super Sim has to be a Top-Notch Infant, otherwise, what’s the point). AND he had to do so with an infant that was Intense, a Picky Eater, Loved Wake-Up Time, and Hated To Be Held. AND with a mother that, thanks to her own rapid-aging process, still had her own Infant Quirks that she would express from time to time by flopping on the floor in a glitchy infant pose and hiccuping or farting. XD AND he had to contend with the fact that Tina was potentially corrupted as the game kept prompting him to delete her when he moved mother and daughter into their new save file. . .but as he said, it’s not The Sims 4 if you’re not dealing with a potentially game-breaking bug! XD And so he persevered, having Tina get loads of fine and gross motor control milestones (and a few social ones when he recalled that, oh, yes, probably a good idea to interact with the child) while having her mother devour fruitcake and make money selling honey and beeswax. Tina aged up at the end of the episode with most of her milestones, a head start in a couple of toddler skills, and – happily – the desired “Top-Notch Infant” trait! Plus, when Petey randomized her toddler trait, he got Angelic, which – after dealing with the constantly-cranky infant Tina – must have felt like Will Wright himself was smiling down upon him. XD Next episode, we’ll see if he manages to make Tina a “Top-Notch Toddler” as well. . .
2. Continue writing “Start At The Beginning. . .Sort Of”: Check – yes, I chose to finish up the bit I was working on here today, rather than switching back to “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland!” Mostly because completing the scene I was working on (the end of the chase sequence that makes up most of Chapter 4) meant that I’d complete the chapter. . .and that meant I’d be in an excellent position to work on something else for a little while. Namely, the prompts I have collected for the upcoming “OT3 Week” on tumblr in mid-March. I wanted to get a jump on those shorts, and I’m already at a mid-chapter break in LB:DQ Chapter 1 right now, so – perfect opportunity! *thumbs up*
So yeah, today was all about wrapping up the latest chapter, with Alice, Victor, and Smiler putting as much distance between themselves and the specter feasting on the unlucky Sergeant Tannen as possible, then discussing the fact that Victor can now just see ghosts all the time. Leading to Smiler speculating that Victor’s now got a “ghost mind” – aka his starting special ability on his Whisper playbook. XD When I get back to this in a couple weeks’ time, we’ll start Chapter 5, with the gang entering Six Towers and discovering their lair. . .in the meantime, though, time for fun with prompts! :)
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – another GrayStillPlays-only day, with the latest in Alex Torture Boards – “Long cars vs loops in GTA 5!” Because I guess Alex couldn’t think of any weird stairs today. :P But he certainly came up with some painful loops for Gray to test all the longest cars in the game against –
I. Tightrope Present Loop – a narrow loop made out of the “bunch of presents” asset, that required Gray to go around it and then launch himself onto the next platform, because of course there was a jump at the end. This one proved SURPRISINGLY tricky just because of how narrow it was and how much speed it required – a lot of the cars simply could NOT get up there!
II. Consecutive Upward Loops – a series of four loops in yellow, gray, green, and black, that formed a sort of staircase for Gray to climb in the form of “go around this loop, launch yourself directly upward onto the next one, try to keep your speed so you stick to the loop, rinse and repeat.” So I guess Alex DID think of some weird stairs today! XD At any rate, Gray had to climb the loops in order to reach the teleporter to the next section, and let me tell you, he did NOT enjoy the experience. Not at ALL.
III. Oval Loop – exactly what it said on the tin, a squashed oval loop with an anti-cheat invisible wall in the middle. The easiest loop of the lot – provided you had the right car, of course. . .
IV. Loop That Loops – Oh, this one was interesting. This was a loop that, when Gray entered it via teleported, began looping ITSELF around the central bar that it was hanging from – basically, while Gray was driving around the circle, it was spinning around this bar, forcing him to make constant changes to adjust to the moving floor beneath him. The only way out was to get lucky and be in the right place as the loop passed through the teleporter at the very top of its arc. Fortunate that Gray is VERY good at wall rides, as he needed ALL those skills to make it around this loop!
V. Gap Loop – And for the big finale, a loop worthy of a thumbnail image – a big, wide loop with a giant gap right at the top that Gray had to jump – and a HELICOPTER hovering in place right at the end of that gap that Gray had to avoid. Oh, and another anti-cheat invisible wall running through it to make sure Gray didn’t try to just jump to the win. XD If he wanted the win, he had to brave the blades!
So – how did the long cars do? Well, neither the bus nor the frankly scary-looking arena tractor trailer that spewed fire could make it around the Tightrope Present Loop, and almost everything else got stopped by the Consecutive Upward Loops, with only two cars making it past. The CANIS truck made it through the upward loops, but was stymied by the Oval Loop, as it just didn’t have the stick –
Leaving the “FUTURE” blue and pink long super-car to make it through all the challenges and claim the crown! Not without a LOT of crashing and failing, of course (and FIVE MINUTES spent wallriding in the Loop That Loops), but it got there in the end! Proving once again that, if you give Gray long enough, he WILL knock down a concrete wall by smacking his head against it. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – being Wednesday, I only had Victor Luvs Alice to worry about tonight. Got the queue speed reset to one so the Nick Valentine fanart and my gift-fic to Marie posted on the right days, then went through my Song Saturday tag for a while before stumbling across “Fair” by The Amazing Devil and deciding I had to reblog that because that is THE feels song for an OTP. (Though sadly not an OT3 – I can’t figure out how to Valicer it up. It’s really just made for a couple – ah well, there will be other songs.) So that’s my VLA queue all set through the end of the week, yaaay~
*nods* I will take that! And now it's time to head to bed and prepare to do it all again tomorrow, with slight variations. Night all!
