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crossover_chickYes, while I managed to get to bed around 1:30 AM and get about 8 hours sleep for a change (I did briefly wake up around 7:50 AM, but I managed this time to just roll over and go back to sleep), and there were no medical emergencies at any point today (though I guess yesterday's thing was more of a pseudo-emergency -- which is good, not complaining), I also ended up completely skipping Fallout 4 AND writing in favor of a day spent mostly on the YouTubes. Which I suppose isn't horrible, but I do miss my game, and I do prefer to do SOMETHING writing-related each day (that isn't related to just summarizing my day, I mean). Though, on the other hand, I have been PMSing greatly, and I FINALLY got my period tonight (right after supper, in fact), so maybe it's for the best I took today off to just focus on videos. *shrug* At any rate, here's what I DID get done today --
Tumblr: Pretty decent day over here – while nothing happened on Valice Multiverse, I got all five of my Chill Valicer Save posts for this upcoming Wednesday updated with image alt text and tags over on Victor Luvs Alice (about three and a half before lunch, then the remaining one and a half after). And then tonight, I did some dash catch-up and reblogged a looot of stuff –
A) A post celebrating the anniversary of the “They’re Taking The Hobbits To Isengard” dance video/meme, which is NINETEEN YEARS OLD today, damn O.O (the passage of tiiiiiime D: )
B) A post about how comments on fanfics are always appreciated by authors (both a reminder to others to comment and a reminder to myself to comment more on stuff)
C) A poll about if you’ve ever had your picture taken with a celebrity (I answered yes, because I have – that 2008 picture of me, Christopher Lloyd, Jeffrey Weissman, Claudia Wells, and Bob Gale :) )
D) A post by Satirical showing his latest acquisition (The Book Of Bill from Gravity Falls) with a couple of his plushies, jokingly blaming them for the purchase (I commented that one plushie looked more excited than the other XD)
E) A gif of a shooting star that someone said to reblog for all your wishes to come true (fuck it, I can use all the help I can get)
F) And a photo post of a fancy “Corsican Vendetta” fold-out knife with a floral handle and an inscription on the blade that translates to “may all your wounds be mortal” (I figured Alice would love it)
So yeah, decently busy on there. XD At least I’m prepared for the big Chill Valicer Anniversary Spookfest Group Date update later this week!
YouTube: As indicated above, today was all about clearing out the ‘Tube stuff, with me emptying my Watch Later as well as keeping up with my usual Sunday Two –
A) First up, another Babish Culinary Universe video I saw in my Recommendeds and had to check out – “Portillo's Chocolate Cake Milkshake | Anything with Alvin!” Featuring Alvin Zhou, a dude from Buzzfeed’s food channel who apparently does some series over here in Babish’s kitchen, recreating a chocolate cake-based milkshake from a restaurant called Portillo’s in Chicago. As in, they put a hunk of chocolate cake into the fucking cup and blend it with vanilla soft-serve and a fudge sauce. Alvin’s version was even more decadent, as he made a lovely homemade chocolate cake (using mayo as a substitute for the butter and oil), a chocolate buttery frosting, and a homemade fudge sauce (which he foolishly tried to reduce down in the microwave – there was a very messy bowl afterward, and when he poked it with his whisk, it bubbled alarmingly), then used a bunch of leftover vanilla ice cream from a video from Babish ranking various brands’ vanilla ice creams to make the shake. And then served the shake with another slice of cake on top. XD His opinion was that the shake was a BIT too sweet and strong (he thinks he used either too much cake or too much syrup in the initial blend, which an actual employee of the restaurant basically confirmed in a comment – the smaller size only gets a half-slice), so he watered the shake down with some skim milk and served it in smaller glasses with little cake “ice cubes” for the rest of the crew. And then gave everyone some cake to take home. :) Very sweet, if I may say so. :p
B) Then we had the video that has been dogging me for the past few days – Jon’s “Fallout: London - Part 4 - Medical Malpractice!” Featuring the continuing adventures of Lady Aria as she searches for information about her origins and braves the dangers of post-apocalypse London! Here’s how that went down in this episode –
I. Aria started in Thameshaven, selling a few more items for ticket cash (and discovering that gold bar she picked up on the Cutty last week is apparently more steel than gold; Jon was like “huh”) and modifying some of the guns she’d picked up (the flare gun does good damage when you change it over to buckshot AND is lighter than the shotgun to boot, while the musket gun can be changed to a variety of new forms (like a laser rifle, or a blunderbuss that shoots junk – perfect for an Alice build, I’d say) but doesn’t really get any damage increases, so Jon left it alone for now) before deciding to test out her new arsenal on the bloatfly Bloatmother over in Fesco’s. Because apparently she cannot leave well enough alone. XD It was a tough fight, though fortunately Aria’s decision to molotov the giant bug first resulted in it losing its wings and getting trapped in a place where Aria and Churchill could attack it – maybe not with IMPUNITY, but it was a lot easier for Aria to get to cover in between shots, that’s for sure. On the other hand, killing it spawned bloatflies and bloatlarva (which Jon found disgusting) and Aria discovered the “you won the area” chest was actually in a room the Bloatmother couldn’t have reached anyway, sooo… *shrug* She got XP and a free suppressor for her sniper out of it, at least!
II. With that side quest over with, Aria headed off to Rotherhithe to see if she could find Archie, the kid Rachel had mentioned might be able to help her last time (who apparently was running from one of the same underground labs Aria came from when he came across The Ferryman), living with the Thamesfolk there. She soon discovered a heavily-flooded town with a crashed plane atop it, at least one mirelurk – sorry, MITTENLURK as per the mod – in it – and no people that she could see. Jon was slightly worried that everybody in the settlement was already dead thanks to those mysterious infestations all the Thamesfolk settlements are having to deal with until she actually worked her way over to the plane via the various bridges all over the place and met a dude named Morgan outside it. Turns out the Thamesfolk were all holed up in the plane because of an infestation of mittenlurk nests in the town – and because he had to stand watch outside, Morgan couldn’t take care of said nests. Aria thus earned access by navigating around the town (making very sure to stay out of the heavily-radioactive water) and locating all the nests, smashing up the larva that hatched and stealing the eggs that didn’t (and coming across one trader, Sandy Shores, who’d stayed out for retail purposes – unfortunately she wouldn’t buy the eggs once poor Aria got overloaded). Once that was done, it was into the plane, where she found Archie hanging out watching some more ‘lurk eggs in the front. She passed on Rachel’s message about being sorry it didn’t work out and asked him his story – turns out Archie’s a scavenger whose main talent is lockpicking. He was out with a group of friends and a new guy, Lazarus the ghoul, one day on a supply run, looking for underground bunkers Lazarus apparently had the blueprints for – only to get caught and gassed by a bunch of scientists for getting too close to their lab. Archie woke up in a cell with Lazarus and managed to pick the lock and escape up a secret ladder with him (walking right past some scientists too busy with their experiments), but they ran in separate directions once the guards started chasing them, and Archie doesn’t know what became of him or his other friends. Aria asked if he’d be willing to retrace his steps to find the spot where he escaped from, and Archie admitted he would, just so he could see if he could rescue his buds. They’d need The Ferryman’s help to get to the right spot, though, so Archie told her to go talk to him first. And to return the gun that The Ferryman had given him, which was just too big for Archie’s small hands (“The Ferryman’s Friend,” which apparently has a weird smell but also better damage than her standard 9mm, so Aria was more than willing to take it). Aria agreed –
III. And so it was back to Thameshaven to find The Ferryman! Who, having recovered, was out by his boat on the river nearby. Aria tried to return his gun, but The Ferryman said to keep it – which was good, as Aria had just spent some of her precious resources on improving it – and then asked if he’d be willing to take Archie across the Thames again. The Ferryman said he would, as it would be good for his conscience – Aria was like “???” and The Ferryman explained that, despite having saved the kid from those creepy guards, he felt bad that he hadn’t been able to find a good living situation for the kiddo yet. He just wanted to see the boy safe somewhere, is all. Jon said “you’re a good egg” –
And then had Aria explain that they were looking for the lab he escaped from so she needed Archie to retrace his steps right back into danger. XD Fortunately The Ferryman was still willing to help out – though Aria had to do something for him first. Namely, open a gate nearby that the nearby Hooligans had closed while setting up a raider base there. Aria easily navigated the quiet base to get to the button she needed to push, and then did some careful parkour onto a nearby lamppost and into the boat, because sometimes Jon is good at games. XD The Ferryman then proceeded to take Aria through the flooded raider base to the embankment on the other side, while Aria took out the Hooligans firing on them with the Ferryman’s Friend, blowing them up with explosive canisters whenever she could. It was all very delightfully theme-park-ridey. :D They got through with a minimum of injury, happily, and the Ferryman dropped her off on the embankment on the other side and told her to find a safe way across the Thames, and that he and Archie would meet her at the dock (a storm was apparently whipping up, and the Ferryman didn’t rate their chances going across the Thames with THREE people in the boat). He specifically warned her against using the Tower Bridge if she could avoid it, as apparently that location is controlled by the Beefeaters, a bunch of cannibals. He then took his leave, heading off to get Archie –
IV. And Aria headed deeper into London, looking for the best way across the Thames! First, she found a Decrepit Residence that contained a lovely well-fed cat; a bloody skeleton (perhaps explaining why the cat was so well-fed); a “Ranger Ridiculous” magazine (which saw her get +5% critical damage with ballistic weapons); and – most importantly – a package from Fesco’s that was specifically horse meat. Jon immediately ranked the mod “Mod Of The Year” just for properly referencing the Tesco’s horse meat scandal (some years back, horse meat found its way into some of their lasagnas, there was a major THING about it). XD Then, after getting her horse meat, she continued on and found Guy’s Hospital –
And from there, there remains of The Shard! AKA the very place she escaped from in the beginning of the game! Which did kind of imply that she could just go down the elevator in there and check out the secret labs down there herself, but Jon decided that he’d do the proper story beats and go meet The Ferryman and Archie later. Instead, he decided to try and raid Guy’s Hospital to see if he could get any medical supplies –
V. Leading to Lady Aria walking straight into a war between the Hooligans and a bunch of Protectrons in there. Oh, and at least one feral ghoul in the basement. Aria tried to take her chances by hiding from enemies as she worked her way around, and then trying to set up a choke point down in the basement to gun people down from with the help of her trusty dog, but soon discovered the enemies in there were WAAAAY too tough for her and had to leg it sharpish to avoid being turned into fiery mincemeat. She managed to hide long enough that she could go back and loot the bodies of the people she DID manage to kill (and rescue poor injured Churchill), then got out of there SHARPISH. The episode ended with Jon musing that, now that he was past the tutorial bit, the game was probably going to start kicking his ass, so maybe it would be better to avoid Tower Bridge and its cannibals…
And then going “but they’re Beefeaters – what if they have proper beefeater hats?” So next time, to keep up with fashion, Aria is going to take on a gang of cannibals just to see if they have any headwear she wants. XD Jon, keeping his priorities in Fallout games straight! I’m looking forward to that next week. :)
C) Then it was over to the Subs for the latest from GrayStillPlays – “Playing life on hardcore mode,” aka Gray plays Ragdoll Break: Kick Loser! Though the game actually involves breaking STICKMEN, so its title is a bit of a misnomer. :p Anyway, the game consisted of various levels with a stickman (sometimes hanging from a random rope, sometimes placed randomly in the scene) and some sort of threat against him – a floor of spikes, a bunch of fire, a random tree, a helicopter with whirling blades, a random rock, a random icy rock, a pair of spring-loaded punchy fists, an open manhole, a set of stairs, a set of lasers, an angry hive of hornets, and a pair of TNT barrels, among other things. Gray’s job was to drag the stickman into the hazards in such a way that bits of him fly off. Though sometimes the hazards did nothing and he just had to bang him against the wall until he ripped off his head. And sometimes the stickman accidentally fell out of the level while Gray was flinging him around, landed on the invisible conveyor belt down there, and got mulched by unseen forces. ...this is a game that was not playtested very well, is what I’m saying. :P But it was fun, especially with the various ridiculous expressions the stickman sported (sometimes he was sweating with fear, sometimes he was just confused, and sometimes he was even enjoying life until Gray ruined it), and we do love when Gray gets to smash a fictional person up just because he can. I mean, there was a time when playing stickman destruction games was a major feature of his channel! Good days, those…
D) And finally, this evening, it was back to Jon of Many A True Nerd for the latest episode in the Sunday Fallout Series – “Fallout 4: Sim Settlements 2 - Part 48 - You're Gunner Regret That!” Featuring the continuing adventures of Mayor Bob as he starts building a proper army and begins the good fight against the Gunners! Or maybe the awkward fight against the Gunners, given how things went this episode –
I. First things first, though – things began with an official meeting of the department heads at HQ (with Cassandra sitting half-in Lupe in a way that made it look like she was on Lupe’s lap, oh Bethesda) so everyone could meet Salvador, their new military expert, and decide on a few things. Like, uh, what the hell their faction’s actual NAME was, because one of Salvador’s men had asked, and Sal had realized he had no answer. XD Bob considered his options and ended up picking “Commonwealth Curators” from the list of suggestions as it sounded nice and fancy. And we all know how much Jon loves being fancy (see: Lady Aria shooting up a bunch of people on a boat to get their nice hats). It was also revealed that Aiden and Cassandra were having some serious disagreements on how they should be treating the Gunner prisoners in the infirmary, with Aiden feeling they needed to be locked up and Cassandra saying the “catch and release” program of the Nightingales had served her well in the past and she saw no reason to change. This caused Mansfield to suggest that, instead of letting the Department Heads go off willy-nilly, it was time to set up some official policies, and Jake to update a terminal in the room so Bob could do just that – Jon wanted a somewhat more nuanced approach (treat them in a secure location, interrogate them, then let them go), but the game didn’t offer that for the first policy, so he had Bob side with Cassandra as he didn’t feel good about not treating prisoners. This opened up the “Ideologies” section of the game, with Bob able to use that terminal to call HQ meetings with his Dept Heads and any allies, and see what they thought of various policies! Like, say, whether or not civilians should fight in the upcoming skirmishes – Bob INITIALLY tried to go “the civilians should help with the fighting and defend their homes, this is the fucking post-apocalypse after all” but after EVERYONE (including the visiting Fiona) was like “excuse you,” he reluctantly changed it to “okay they should evac and let the soldiers do the fighting.” He DID at least get his somewhat more nuanced approach to enemy prisoners, though, going “okay, we keep them prisoners but make sure to treat their wounds” – everyone was like “eh, not sure, but we’ll follow your lead,” which Bob decided was good enough. XD
II. With his first few policies in place (and people already grumbling about his leadership), Bob then headed down to the hangar level to chat with Salvador, who told him that meeting his team had helped to quell some of his worries about how competent Bob actually was, aw. XD He then explained that they definitely needed specific Outposts to house and train their new troops (like the makeshift one Bob set up previously on Spectacle Island), and asked Bob to choose a location to set up their first one. Jon had HOPED to use Jamaica Plain for that purpose, but it was currently under Gunner occupation, so he tried to back out of the conversation to get some time to think –
Only for Salvador to say, “All right then, I will meet you there.” A puzzled Bob was like “meet you WHERE?” but fortunately the quest log revealed that canceling out of the list of locations without picking just sent Salvador to Spectacle Island automatically. Which, fine, as previously stated Bob already had an Outpost there – might as well make it an Official Third Act Military Outpost!
III. But first – Bob wanted to take a gander at what occupied settlements actually looked like, and see what he could do on his own to take them back. So he teleported over to the Institute, then out to the CIT Ruins to check on Hangman’s Alley, which was noted to be occupied. Sure enough, there were a whoooole bunch of Gunners in there –
But very unfortunately for them, Hangman’s Alley is a very small settlement where people have to be crowded tightly together, and Bob knew about the “upstairs” entrance, which gave him the high ground. Cue Bob tossing grenades and putting his Explosive Sniper to good use, and clearing the Gunners out of there without much issue. Helped by them trying to throw grenades back at him, only to accidentally blow some of their own people up. XD Pleased with a job well done (and discovering that he couldn’t summon troops to “officially” take the place back because it was already listed as part of his empire), Bob started over toward Jamaica Plain via Big Jon’s Salvage –
And ran into a Gunner patrol on the roads. The fight against this lot went a little messier, mostly because Bob was attacked midway through by a Gunner Assaultron he’d managed to miss during his initial fight, but he quickly secured some cover and high ground in the actual building in the salvage yard, and took them all down without too much issue. He noted that even small Gunner patrols could be mean if you weren’t careful and continued on his way to scout on Jamaica Plain –
IV. And found that yes, it was teeming with Gunners. And also some dude named Randy Adams, whom Bob did not recognize, but who was named and in green, so he was probably important. Bob chose not to engage with him just yet, though, and instead whipped out his binoculars to mark some Gunners and then fired off a flare to summon his men!
The game responded, “Uh, you don’t have any of those yet, remember?” XD Bob realized that Salvador’s men must have been a loan and decided to assault the Gunners himself, using his beloved Explosive Sniper. Due to the fact that he’d come in from across town instead of directly in front of the settlement (because the settlement is only one small corner of Jamaica Plain for some reason), he was able to get in some nice sneaky shots from across the way at first – and then a dude in power armor managed to get around him and blow up the car he was using for cover, and Bob had to PsychoJet himself up to get the guy. And then he managed to kill all the Gunners –
Only to find the SETTLERS were trying to kill him because he accidentally hit some of them. ...I mean, it wasn’t as bad as that time he nuked Starlight Drive-In with artillery to try and save them from Gunner occupation in the early game? XD Bob managed to defuse the situation with some murder, and eventually cleared the area of enemies. Leaving only a bunch of not-so-captive Captives whom he wasn’t sure what to do with. Because he didn’t have a proper army to free them and keep the settlement cleared of Gunner influence. Bob slowly realized that when his people opposed his policy of telling the civilians to fight, maybe they were talking about HIM. XD
V. Well, time to try and fix this mess by actually going through the “building an army” tutorial! Bob thus made his way over to Spectacle Island to meet Salvador, who told him that the first thing to do would be to set up a War Planner’s Desk. Bob was willing –
But unable, as it turns out he didn’t have the resources. Because Spectacle Island was never linked into the trade routes. Bob was specifically short screws and circuitry – and while he eventually found screws poking around one of the abandoned boats in the area, he wasn’t able to locate any circuitry. Fortunately, he had an idea on where to find some –
The FMS Northern Star! You know, the ship normally full of Norwegian Ghouls that his Dept Heads had specifically told him had been taken over by the Gunners. Because Bob figured that where there are Gunners, there are robots, and where there are robots, there is circuitry. So he swam over there and snuck in with intent to kill some Gunners and their bots –
And after a brief and unpleasant interlude with massive amounts of radiation and fighting a mirelurk hunter, that’s exactly what he did! Because, hilariously, he accidentally came in the “back way” on the ship and thus was able to get the high ground on the Gunners without much issue. XD They did have some serious firepower with them, including an Annihilator (an extra-nasty Sentry Bot), but Bob’s grenades and explosive bullets did the job, and he was able to take down everything and snag the necessary circuitry from the Annihilator. XD Oh Bob – always doing things the hard way.
VI. With his necessary supplies grabbed, Bob returned to Spectacle Island and officially set up his War Planner’s Desk, turning Spectacle Island into a proper Military Outpost. Salvador informed him the next step was to secure some troops and gave him a Recruitment Clipboard with which to conscript people (Jon: “Could we maybe not call it that, it gives me bad vibes”). Bob thus went around officially recruiting everyone already AT the outpost (since it only made sense), then made his way over to The Castle and grabbed some more potential soldiers from there (since THAT only made sense as well – the Minutemen ARE supposed to be a militia!). He then reported back to Sal, who encouraged him to build Outposts all across the Commonwealth so they’d always have soldiers ready for attack, then asked if Bob was ready to mount a counteroffensive against the Gunners. Bob was like “I’ve been doing that all episode, so yeah” –
But before Salvador could tell him his idea, Aiden radioed in to let them know that the Gunners had seized a settlement near the HQ – specifically EGRET TOURS MARINA. AKA Bob’s beloved capital city. Salvador was like “okay, first things first, let’s liberate Egret Tours,” to which Bob was like “FUCK YES WE WILL.” XD They thus headed over there with their troops –
VII. Where Bob had the sudden and unpleasant realization that most of these people were civilians with no real armor and pipe weaponry if anything. He was suddenly like “please stay back and leave this to me, guys, you’re gonna get killed.” XD But game was gonna game, and so the “army” stormed Egret Tours as the civilians did their best to evacuate (Bob, watching STRONG run away from the action, was like “I am REALLY REGRETTING bowing to my Dept Heads on this now”). Now, on the plus side, the assault went well (Bob killing a lot of Gunners with the help of his explosive ammo and good old Dogmeat, who chose to stay and chomp people), and Bob ended up getting an S rank due to none of his people even getting injured!
On the minus side – remember how the settlers at Jamaica Plain got mad at Bob because he hit some of them by accident? Yeah, same thing happened here – and Egret Tours has a LOOOT more people. Even little Cola the French Bulldog was angry at Bob and started biting him! D: Worse yet, Salvador – who Bob was supposed to talk to after the assault – fell through the planet and was under the map, meaning that Bob couldn’t even turn in his quest. Bob thus just booked it, resolving to wait the required three days so all the people there would chill out and to STOP USING THE EXPLOSIVE SNIPER IN THESE SORTS OF SITUATIONS. Because while it’s fantastic for clearing out enemies, Jon is pretty sure the splash damage from the exploding bullets is what’s causing his settler problems. *nods* Again, not as bad as the time he called artillery fire on his own people, but still…
VIII. And so the episode ended with Bob returning three days later to find that the settler population no longer hated him (yay) and that Salvador was finally above ground again (double yay), but that Egret Tours had apparently converted itself to an Outpost on its own without his input (boo – though maybe they were trying to protect themselves from Bob more than the Gunners XD). Bob tracked down Salvador, who told him that NOW the time had come to launch a counterattack against the Gunners – specifically to seize the Gunner camp that had the jet fuel that boat from last time had been transporting and to take it for their own! Bob was game, but a little nervous about the fact that he was expected to properly lead this assault, and decided that, before he did anything, he was going to get some new recruits and then figure out how the hell to properly OUTFIT his army. Because, as someone noted in the comments, it seems like the mod missed a beat there – Salvador probably should have insisted on everybody getting proper weapons and armor before they did any attacking! Though tonally I think it’s okay that the army was a little ragtag when they went to free the Marina – after all, it had only just been established, and the taking of Egret Tours was a surprise. But yeah, before any more shenanigans next Sunday, Bob, get your people some proper guns at least!
Workout: Back on the bike again, and back with the GrayStillPlays compilations, tackling “100 Cars vs Impossible Odds!” Which is a nearly three-hour-long collection of Gray putting cars through various forms of torture in GTA V, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing any James Turner this week. XD As usual for the GTA compilations at least, the video started with a bit of new content – namely, Gray having to see which of a selection of vehicles could get through nine increasingly harsh hydraulic presses, starting with one that couldn’t even reach the top of the shorter cars and ending with one that was ready to flatten you without mercy. Most of the cars died after Press #5, though shockingly the cybertruck actually made it past #6, and the half-track truck nearly went all the way (getting shoved through the MAP at one point, then teleported back into the challenge) before dying right before #9. The ultimate winner? Our beloved Not-So-Failbox the Sherp! :D Mostly because this thing takes AGES to actually show damage – and given the way it was bouncing through some of the presses, I think those giant wheels actually help absorb some of the shock. So yes, Sherpy wins another one! :D As for the actual compilation, I’m a good chunk of the way through the first video, which was Gray taking on what I believe was the first “layers” challenge (where he had to get a car through a variety of dynamic props in under two minutes and twenty seconds) – so far, he’s discovered that cars have a LOOOT of problems with sandcastles and cow fences. XD We’ll where it comes from here tomorrow!
Whew! I think that's enough summing up YouTube videos for one night. XD And now I am off to bed, because I do have work in the morning. Wish I didn't, but what can you do. Night all!
Tumblr: Pretty decent day over here – while nothing happened on Valice Multiverse, I got all five of my Chill Valicer Save posts for this upcoming Wednesday updated with image alt text and tags over on Victor Luvs Alice (about three and a half before lunch, then the remaining one and a half after). And then tonight, I did some dash catch-up and reblogged a looot of stuff –
A) A post celebrating the anniversary of the “They’re Taking The Hobbits To Isengard” dance video/meme, which is NINETEEN YEARS OLD today, damn O.O (the passage of tiiiiiime D: )
B) A post about how comments on fanfics are always appreciated by authors (both a reminder to others to comment and a reminder to myself to comment more on stuff)
C) A poll about if you’ve ever had your picture taken with a celebrity (I answered yes, because I have – that 2008 picture of me, Christopher Lloyd, Jeffrey Weissman, Claudia Wells, and Bob Gale :) )
D) A post by Satirical showing his latest acquisition (The Book Of Bill from Gravity Falls) with a couple of his plushies, jokingly blaming them for the purchase (I commented that one plushie looked more excited than the other XD)
E) A gif of a shooting star that someone said to reblog for all your wishes to come true (fuck it, I can use all the help I can get)
F) And a photo post of a fancy “Corsican Vendetta” fold-out knife with a floral handle and an inscription on the blade that translates to “may all your wounds be mortal” (I figured Alice would love it)
So yeah, decently busy on there. XD At least I’m prepared for the big Chill Valicer Anniversary Spookfest Group Date update later this week!
YouTube: As indicated above, today was all about clearing out the ‘Tube stuff, with me emptying my Watch Later as well as keeping up with my usual Sunday Two –
A) First up, another Babish Culinary Universe video I saw in my Recommendeds and had to check out – “Portillo's Chocolate Cake Milkshake | Anything with Alvin!” Featuring Alvin Zhou, a dude from Buzzfeed’s food channel who apparently does some series over here in Babish’s kitchen, recreating a chocolate cake-based milkshake from a restaurant called Portillo’s in Chicago. As in, they put a hunk of chocolate cake into the fucking cup and blend it with vanilla soft-serve and a fudge sauce. Alvin’s version was even more decadent, as he made a lovely homemade chocolate cake (using mayo as a substitute for the butter and oil), a chocolate buttery frosting, and a homemade fudge sauce (which he foolishly tried to reduce down in the microwave – there was a very messy bowl afterward, and when he poked it with his whisk, it bubbled alarmingly), then used a bunch of leftover vanilla ice cream from a video from Babish ranking various brands’ vanilla ice creams to make the shake. And then served the shake with another slice of cake on top. XD His opinion was that the shake was a BIT too sweet and strong (he thinks he used either too much cake or too much syrup in the initial blend, which an actual employee of the restaurant basically confirmed in a comment – the smaller size only gets a half-slice), so he watered the shake down with some skim milk and served it in smaller glasses with little cake “ice cubes” for the rest of the crew. And then gave everyone some cake to take home. :) Very sweet, if I may say so. :p
B) Then we had the video that has been dogging me for the past few days – Jon’s “Fallout: London - Part 4 - Medical Malpractice!” Featuring the continuing adventures of Lady Aria as she searches for information about her origins and braves the dangers of post-apocalypse London! Here’s how that went down in this episode –
I. Aria started in Thameshaven, selling a few more items for ticket cash (and discovering that gold bar she picked up on the Cutty last week is apparently more steel than gold; Jon was like “huh”) and modifying some of the guns she’d picked up (the flare gun does good damage when you change it over to buckshot AND is lighter than the shotgun to boot, while the musket gun can be changed to a variety of new forms (like a laser rifle, or a blunderbuss that shoots junk – perfect for an Alice build, I’d say) but doesn’t really get any damage increases, so Jon left it alone for now) before deciding to test out her new arsenal on the bloatfly Bloatmother over in Fesco’s. Because apparently she cannot leave well enough alone. XD It was a tough fight, though fortunately Aria’s decision to molotov the giant bug first resulted in it losing its wings and getting trapped in a place where Aria and Churchill could attack it – maybe not with IMPUNITY, but it was a lot easier for Aria to get to cover in between shots, that’s for sure. On the other hand, killing it spawned bloatflies and bloatlarva (which Jon found disgusting) and Aria discovered the “you won the area” chest was actually in a room the Bloatmother couldn’t have reached anyway, sooo… *shrug* She got XP and a free suppressor for her sniper out of it, at least!
II. With that side quest over with, Aria headed off to Rotherhithe to see if she could find Archie, the kid Rachel had mentioned might be able to help her last time (who apparently was running from one of the same underground labs Aria came from when he came across The Ferryman), living with the Thamesfolk there. She soon discovered a heavily-flooded town with a crashed plane atop it, at least one mirelurk – sorry, MITTENLURK as per the mod – in it – and no people that she could see. Jon was slightly worried that everybody in the settlement was already dead thanks to those mysterious infestations all the Thamesfolk settlements are having to deal with until she actually worked her way over to the plane via the various bridges all over the place and met a dude named Morgan outside it. Turns out the Thamesfolk were all holed up in the plane because of an infestation of mittenlurk nests in the town – and because he had to stand watch outside, Morgan couldn’t take care of said nests. Aria thus earned access by navigating around the town (making very sure to stay out of the heavily-radioactive water) and locating all the nests, smashing up the larva that hatched and stealing the eggs that didn’t (and coming across one trader, Sandy Shores, who’d stayed out for retail purposes – unfortunately she wouldn’t buy the eggs once poor Aria got overloaded). Once that was done, it was into the plane, where she found Archie hanging out watching some more ‘lurk eggs in the front. She passed on Rachel’s message about being sorry it didn’t work out and asked him his story – turns out Archie’s a scavenger whose main talent is lockpicking. He was out with a group of friends and a new guy, Lazarus the ghoul, one day on a supply run, looking for underground bunkers Lazarus apparently had the blueprints for – only to get caught and gassed by a bunch of scientists for getting too close to their lab. Archie woke up in a cell with Lazarus and managed to pick the lock and escape up a secret ladder with him (walking right past some scientists too busy with their experiments), but they ran in separate directions once the guards started chasing them, and Archie doesn’t know what became of him or his other friends. Aria asked if he’d be willing to retrace his steps to find the spot where he escaped from, and Archie admitted he would, just so he could see if he could rescue his buds. They’d need The Ferryman’s help to get to the right spot, though, so Archie told her to go talk to him first. And to return the gun that The Ferryman had given him, which was just too big for Archie’s small hands (“The Ferryman’s Friend,” which apparently has a weird smell but also better damage than her standard 9mm, so Aria was more than willing to take it). Aria agreed –
III. And so it was back to Thameshaven to find The Ferryman! Who, having recovered, was out by his boat on the river nearby. Aria tried to return his gun, but The Ferryman said to keep it – which was good, as Aria had just spent some of her precious resources on improving it – and then asked if he’d be willing to take Archie across the Thames again. The Ferryman said he would, as it would be good for his conscience – Aria was like “???” and The Ferryman explained that, despite having saved the kid from those creepy guards, he felt bad that he hadn’t been able to find a good living situation for the kiddo yet. He just wanted to see the boy safe somewhere, is all. Jon said “you’re a good egg” –
And then had Aria explain that they were looking for the lab he escaped from so she needed Archie to retrace his steps right back into danger. XD Fortunately The Ferryman was still willing to help out – though Aria had to do something for him first. Namely, open a gate nearby that the nearby Hooligans had closed while setting up a raider base there. Aria easily navigated the quiet base to get to the button she needed to push, and then did some careful parkour onto a nearby lamppost and into the boat, because sometimes Jon is good at games. XD The Ferryman then proceeded to take Aria through the flooded raider base to the embankment on the other side, while Aria took out the Hooligans firing on them with the Ferryman’s Friend, blowing them up with explosive canisters whenever she could. It was all very delightfully theme-park-ridey. :D They got through with a minimum of injury, happily, and the Ferryman dropped her off on the embankment on the other side and told her to find a safe way across the Thames, and that he and Archie would meet her at the dock (a storm was apparently whipping up, and the Ferryman didn’t rate their chances going across the Thames with THREE people in the boat). He specifically warned her against using the Tower Bridge if she could avoid it, as apparently that location is controlled by the Beefeaters, a bunch of cannibals. He then took his leave, heading off to get Archie –
IV. And Aria headed deeper into London, looking for the best way across the Thames! First, she found a Decrepit Residence that contained a lovely well-fed cat; a bloody skeleton (perhaps explaining why the cat was so well-fed); a “Ranger Ridiculous” magazine (which saw her get +5% critical damage with ballistic weapons); and – most importantly – a package from Fesco’s that was specifically horse meat. Jon immediately ranked the mod “Mod Of The Year” just for properly referencing the Tesco’s horse meat scandal (some years back, horse meat found its way into some of their lasagnas, there was a major THING about it). XD Then, after getting her horse meat, she continued on and found Guy’s Hospital –
And from there, there remains of The Shard! AKA the very place she escaped from in the beginning of the game! Which did kind of imply that she could just go down the elevator in there and check out the secret labs down there herself, but Jon decided that he’d do the proper story beats and go meet The Ferryman and Archie later. Instead, he decided to try and raid Guy’s Hospital to see if he could get any medical supplies –
V. Leading to Lady Aria walking straight into a war between the Hooligans and a bunch of Protectrons in there. Oh, and at least one feral ghoul in the basement. Aria tried to take her chances by hiding from enemies as she worked her way around, and then trying to set up a choke point down in the basement to gun people down from with the help of her trusty dog, but soon discovered the enemies in there were WAAAAY too tough for her and had to leg it sharpish to avoid being turned into fiery mincemeat. She managed to hide long enough that she could go back and loot the bodies of the people she DID manage to kill (and rescue poor injured Churchill), then got out of there SHARPISH. The episode ended with Jon musing that, now that he was past the tutorial bit, the game was probably going to start kicking his ass, so maybe it would be better to avoid Tower Bridge and its cannibals…
And then going “but they’re Beefeaters – what if they have proper beefeater hats?” So next time, to keep up with fashion, Aria is going to take on a gang of cannibals just to see if they have any headwear she wants. XD Jon, keeping his priorities in Fallout games straight! I’m looking forward to that next week. :)
C) Then it was over to the Subs for the latest from GrayStillPlays – “Playing life on hardcore mode,” aka Gray plays Ragdoll Break: Kick Loser! Though the game actually involves breaking STICKMEN, so its title is a bit of a misnomer. :p Anyway, the game consisted of various levels with a stickman (sometimes hanging from a random rope, sometimes placed randomly in the scene) and some sort of threat against him – a floor of spikes, a bunch of fire, a random tree, a helicopter with whirling blades, a random rock, a random icy rock, a pair of spring-loaded punchy fists, an open manhole, a set of stairs, a set of lasers, an angry hive of hornets, and a pair of TNT barrels, among other things. Gray’s job was to drag the stickman into the hazards in such a way that bits of him fly off. Though sometimes the hazards did nothing and he just had to bang him against the wall until he ripped off his head. And sometimes the stickman accidentally fell out of the level while Gray was flinging him around, landed on the invisible conveyor belt down there, and got mulched by unseen forces. ...this is a game that was not playtested very well, is what I’m saying. :P But it was fun, especially with the various ridiculous expressions the stickman sported (sometimes he was sweating with fear, sometimes he was just confused, and sometimes he was even enjoying life until Gray ruined it), and we do love when Gray gets to smash a fictional person up just because he can. I mean, there was a time when playing stickman destruction games was a major feature of his channel! Good days, those…
D) And finally, this evening, it was back to Jon of Many A True Nerd for the latest episode in the Sunday Fallout Series – “Fallout 4: Sim Settlements 2 - Part 48 - You're Gunner Regret That!” Featuring the continuing adventures of Mayor Bob as he starts building a proper army and begins the good fight against the Gunners! Or maybe the awkward fight against the Gunners, given how things went this episode –
I. First things first, though – things began with an official meeting of the department heads at HQ (with Cassandra sitting half-in Lupe in a way that made it look like she was on Lupe’s lap, oh Bethesda) so everyone could meet Salvador, their new military expert, and decide on a few things. Like, uh, what the hell their faction’s actual NAME was, because one of Salvador’s men had asked, and Sal had realized he had no answer. XD Bob considered his options and ended up picking “Commonwealth Curators” from the list of suggestions as it sounded nice and fancy. And we all know how much Jon loves being fancy (see: Lady Aria shooting up a bunch of people on a boat to get their nice hats). It was also revealed that Aiden and Cassandra were having some serious disagreements on how they should be treating the Gunner prisoners in the infirmary, with Aiden feeling they needed to be locked up and Cassandra saying the “catch and release” program of the Nightingales had served her well in the past and she saw no reason to change. This caused Mansfield to suggest that, instead of letting the Department Heads go off willy-nilly, it was time to set up some official policies, and Jake to update a terminal in the room so Bob could do just that – Jon wanted a somewhat more nuanced approach (treat them in a secure location, interrogate them, then let them go), but the game didn’t offer that for the first policy, so he had Bob side with Cassandra as he didn’t feel good about not treating prisoners. This opened up the “Ideologies” section of the game, with Bob able to use that terminal to call HQ meetings with his Dept Heads and any allies, and see what they thought of various policies! Like, say, whether or not civilians should fight in the upcoming skirmishes – Bob INITIALLY tried to go “the civilians should help with the fighting and defend their homes, this is the fucking post-apocalypse after all” but after EVERYONE (including the visiting Fiona) was like “excuse you,” he reluctantly changed it to “okay they should evac and let the soldiers do the fighting.” He DID at least get his somewhat more nuanced approach to enemy prisoners, though, going “okay, we keep them prisoners but make sure to treat their wounds” – everyone was like “eh, not sure, but we’ll follow your lead,” which Bob decided was good enough. XD
II. With his first few policies in place (and people already grumbling about his leadership), Bob then headed down to the hangar level to chat with Salvador, who told him that meeting his team had helped to quell some of his worries about how competent Bob actually was, aw. XD He then explained that they definitely needed specific Outposts to house and train their new troops (like the makeshift one Bob set up previously on Spectacle Island), and asked Bob to choose a location to set up their first one. Jon had HOPED to use Jamaica Plain for that purpose, but it was currently under Gunner occupation, so he tried to back out of the conversation to get some time to think –
Only for Salvador to say, “All right then, I will meet you there.” A puzzled Bob was like “meet you WHERE?” but fortunately the quest log revealed that canceling out of the list of locations without picking just sent Salvador to Spectacle Island automatically. Which, fine, as previously stated Bob already had an Outpost there – might as well make it an Official Third Act Military Outpost!
III. But first – Bob wanted to take a gander at what occupied settlements actually looked like, and see what he could do on his own to take them back. So he teleported over to the Institute, then out to the CIT Ruins to check on Hangman’s Alley, which was noted to be occupied. Sure enough, there were a whoooole bunch of Gunners in there –
But very unfortunately for them, Hangman’s Alley is a very small settlement where people have to be crowded tightly together, and Bob knew about the “upstairs” entrance, which gave him the high ground. Cue Bob tossing grenades and putting his Explosive Sniper to good use, and clearing the Gunners out of there without much issue. Helped by them trying to throw grenades back at him, only to accidentally blow some of their own people up. XD Pleased with a job well done (and discovering that he couldn’t summon troops to “officially” take the place back because it was already listed as part of his empire), Bob started over toward Jamaica Plain via Big Jon’s Salvage –
And ran into a Gunner patrol on the roads. The fight against this lot went a little messier, mostly because Bob was attacked midway through by a Gunner Assaultron he’d managed to miss during his initial fight, but he quickly secured some cover and high ground in the actual building in the salvage yard, and took them all down without too much issue. He noted that even small Gunner patrols could be mean if you weren’t careful and continued on his way to scout on Jamaica Plain –
IV. And found that yes, it was teeming with Gunners. And also some dude named Randy Adams, whom Bob did not recognize, but who was named and in green, so he was probably important. Bob chose not to engage with him just yet, though, and instead whipped out his binoculars to mark some Gunners and then fired off a flare to summon his men!
The game responded, “Uh, you don’t have any of those yet, remember?” XD Bob realized that Salvador’s men must have been a loan and decided to assault the Gunners himself, using his beloved Explosive Sniper. Due to the fact that he’d come in from across town instead of directly in front of the settlement (because the settlement is only one small corner of Jamaica Plain for some reason), he was able to get in some nice sneaky shots from across the way at first – and then a dude in power armor managed to get around him and blow up the car he was using for cover, and Bob had to PsychoJet himself up to get the guy. And then he managed to kill all the Gunners –
Only to find the SETTLERS were trying to kill him because he accidentally hit some of them. ...I mean, it wasn’t as bad as that time he nuked Starlight Drive-In with artillery to try and save them from Gunner occupation in the early game? XD Bob managed to defuse the situation with some murder, and eventually cleared the area of enemies. Leaving only a bunch of not-so-captive Captives whom he wasn’t sure what to do with. Because he didn’t have a proper army to free them and keep the settlement cleared of Gunner influence. Bob slowly realized that when his people opposed his policy of telling the civilians to fight, maybe they were talking about HIM. XD
V. Well, time to try and fix this mess by actually going through the “building an army” tutorial! Bob thus made his way over to Spectacle Island to meet Salvador, who told him that the first thing to do would be to set up a War Planner’s Desk. Bob was willing –
But unable, as it turns out he didn’t have the resources. Because Spectacle Island was never linked into the trade routes. Bob was specifically short screws and circuitry – and while he eventually found screws poking around one of the abandoned boats in the area, he wasn’t able to locate any circuitry. Fortunately, he had an idea on where to find some –
The FMS Northern Star! You know, the ship normally full of Norwegian Ghouls that his Dept Heads had specifically told him had been taken over by the Gunners. Because Bob figured that where there are Gunners, there are robots, and where there are robots, there is circuitry. So he swam over there and snuck in with intent to kill some Gunners and their bots –
And after a brief and unpleasant interlude with massive amounts of radiation and fighting a mirelurk hunter, that’s exactly what he did! Because, hilariously, he accidentally came in the “back way” on the ship and thus was able to get the high ground on the Gunners without much issue. XD They did have some serious firepower with them, including an Annihilator (an extra-nasty Sentry Bot), but Bob’s grenades and explosive bullets did the job, and he was able to take down everything and snag the necessary circuitry from the Annihilator. XD Oh Bob – always doing things the hard way.
VI. With his necessary supplies grabbed, Bob returned to Spectacle Island and officially set up his War Planner’s Desk, turning Spectacle Island into a proper Military Outpost. Salvador informed him the next step was to secure some troops and gave him a Recruitment Clipboard with which to conscript people (Jon: “Could we maybe not call it that, it gives me bad vibes”). Bob thus went around officially recruiting everyone already AT the outpost (since it only made sense), then made his way over to The Castle and grabbed some more potential soldiers from there (since THAT only made sense as well – the Minutemen ARE supposed to be a militia!). He then reported back to Sal, who encouraged him to build Outposts all across the Commonwealth so they’d always have soldiers ready for attack, then asked if Bob was ready to mount a counteroffensive against the Gunners. Bob was like “I’ve been doing that all episode, so yeah” –
But before Salvador could tell him his idea, Aiden radioed in to let them know that the Gunners had seized a settlement near the HQ – specifically EGRET TOURS MARINA. AKA Bob’s beloved capital city. Salvador was like “okay, first things first, let’s liberate Egret Tours,” to which Bob was like “FUCK YES WE WILL.” XD They thus headed over there with their troops –
VII. Where Bob had the sudden and unpleasant realization that most of these people were civilians with no real armor and pipe weaponry if anything. He was suddenly like “please stay back and leave this to me, guys, you’re gonna get killed.” XD But game was gonna game, and so the “army” stormed Egret Tours as the civilians did their best to evacuate (Bob, watching STRONG run away from the action, was like “I am REALLY REGRETTING bowing to my Dept Heads on this now”). Now, on the plus side, the assault went well (Bob killing a lot of Gunners with the help of his explosive ammo and good old Dogmeat, who chose to stay and chomp people), and Bob ended up getting an S rank due to none of his people even getting injured!
On the minus side – remember how the settlers at Jamaica Plain got mad at Bob because he hit some of them by accident? Yeah, same thing happened here – and Egret Tours has a LOOOT more people. Even little Cola the French Bulldog was angry at Bob and started biting him! D: Worse yet, Salvador – who Bob was supposed to talk to after the assault – fell through the planet and was under the map, meaning that Bob couldn’t even turn in his quest. Bob thus just booked it, resolving to wait the required three days so all the people there would chill out and to STOP USING THE EXPLOSIVE SNIPER IN THESE SORTS OF SITUATIONS. Because while it’s fantastic for clearing out enemies, Jon is pretty sure the splash damage from the exploding bullets is what’s causing his settler problems. *nods* Again, not as bad as the time he called artillery fire on his own people, but still…
VIII. And so the episode ended with Bob returning three days later to find that the settler population no longer hated him (yay) and that Salvador was finally above ground again (double yay), but that Egret Tours had apparently converted itself to an Outpost on its own without his input (boo – though maybe they were trying to protect themselves from Bob more than the Gunners XD). Bob tracked down Salvador, who told him that NOW the time had come to launch a counterattack against the Gunners – specifically to seize the Gunner camp that had the jet fuel that boat from last time had been transporting and to take it for their own! Bob was game, but a little nervous about the fact that he was expected to properly lead this assault, and decided that, before he did anything, he was going to get some new recruits and then figure out how the hell to properly OUTFIT his army. Because, as someone noted in the comments, it seems like the mod missed a beat there – Salvador probably should have insisted on everybody getting proper weapons and armor before they did any attacking! Though tonally I think it’s okay that the army was a little ragtag when they went to free the Marina – after all, it had only just been established, and the taking of Egret Tours was a surprise. But yeah, before any more shenanigans next Sunday, Bob, get your people some proper guns at least!
Workout: Back on the bike again, and back with the GrayStillPlays compilations, tackling “100 Cars vs Impossible Odds!” Which is a nearly three-hour-long collection of Gray putting cars through various forms of torture in GTA V, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing any James Turner this week. XD As usual for the GTA compilations at least, the video started with a bit of new content – namely, Gray having to see which of a selection of vehicles could get through nine increasingly harsh hydraulic presses, starting with one that couldn’t even reach the top of the shorter cars and ending with one that was ready to flatten you without mercy. Most of the cars died after Press #5, though shockingly the cybertruck actually made it past #6, and the half-track truck nearly went all the way (getting shoved through the MAP at one point, then teleported back into the challenge) before dying right before #9. The ultimate winner? Our beloved Not-So-Failbox the Sherp! :D Mostly because this thing takes AGES to actually show damage – and given the way it was bouncing through some of the presses, I think those giant wheels actually help absorb some of the shock. So yes, Sherpy wins another one! :D As for the actual compilation, I’m a good chunk of the way through the first video, which was Gray taking on what I believe was the first “layers” challenge (where he had to get a car through a variety of dynamic props in under two minutes and twenty seconds) – so far, he’s discovered that cars have a LOOOT of problems with sandcastles and cow fences. XD We’ll where it comes from here tomorrow!
Whew! I think that's enough summing up YouTube videos for one night. XD And now I am off to bed, because I do have work in the morning. Wish I didn't, but what can you do. Night all!
