And A Productive Sunday

Thought it was a bad omen when early in the day the toilet clogged and I was unable to fix it, but then Dad was able to plunge it into submission, and everything was fine. *whew* Really, worst thing about the day was the fact that it was noticeably more humid than yesterday -- AC's back on tonight to make sure it is both cool AND dry enough to sleep. I am hopeful this will stop needing to be a thing soon!

Anyway, let's take a gander at the to-do list:

1. Write some more on "Learn To Love Again": Check – after some more conversation (including Alice telling Victor about a guy that’s been bothering her and Victor promptly trying to find a way to stop him, including making a formal complaint to the management on her behalf or – mostly said as a joke – punching him), the two have arrived in Hyde Park and are making their way down to the Serpentine! With Alice musing about how she’d like to live in Hyde Park if that were at all possible, and then thinking about how a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, like Victor’s Burtonsville, would actually be her ideal. *smirks* Look, this is kind of the “speedrun” version of their relationship, I’m allowed moments like these.

2. Watch at least two OXBox videos from the Watch Later, keep up on YouTube Subs, and watch Jon's FO4 YOLO video: Check! Got through all of the longest stuff, so I’m in a good spot to maybe sneak in a shorter video or two during the week – we’ll see how things go with the Subs. But for now –

A) Started this afternoon with my OXBoxing –

I. First, the longest of the videos – “Hitman 3 GLUTTONY ESCALATION: Feed the Pig! | Hitman 3 Seven Deadly Sins DLC!” Yes, it is Deadly Sins time again, with 47 now having to harvest ingredients for a pig in the China level (hanging out in the restaurant that’s a cover for the ICA facility, natch) making a delectable dish by killing certain pig-mask-wearing enemies in specific ways (white pig-masks are killed with a fishing-line garrote for fish, for example). Now, you think this would be simple – except MIKE was the one on the controller, meaning things got out of hand VERY fast. XD Here’s how he fared:

Level One – The pig demanded grapes and fish! Because – reasons. Fish proved to be super easy, as one of the fish-pigs was hanging out in the restaurant and either dropped two or glitched out when Mike gathered the ingredient, meaning he just had to go after the grape-pigs over in the secret lab of the mind-controlling asshole. This – proved to be somewhat harder, despite Mike trying his best to knock everyone out with a fire extinguisher before. Much time was spent hiding in a fly-infested dumpster while waiting for people to be woken up and bodies to be hauled off. XD But he eventually got both, gave them to the pig, and left on the train! One Star, Versatile Hands-On Assassin!

Level Two – The pig demanded meat bones and fish! Surf and turf, that makes more sense. This time, fish guy was in a slightly different spot, staring out the window with a bunch of witnesses around. Naturally Mike botched knocking out those witnesses, killed one with a cleaver, knocked out his actual target, accidentally killed ANOTHER fish-pig BEFORE he could actually wake up his original target, and had to hang out in the kitchen for ages while someone else woke up said target (complaining with Jane that yes, he should be allowed to garrote unconscious people). Eventually the pig was awoken, and Mike was able to harvest him and hunt down a third pig in the alleyway to complete his fish collection. From there, we had a small bloodbath getting into the secret ICA facility (turns out Mike had never actually used the route with the keypad, so Jane had to hastily tell him the code while he killed guards), then a slightly larger bloodbath as Mike hunted down bone-pig guards and cleavered them all to get their meat. He succeeded, though at the cost of getting shot at a few times and ending up very compromised with lots of non-target kills. ZERO stars, Adaptable Enforcer. XD

Level Three – The pig demanded grapes and bananas! It was immediately decided to go for the harder kills first, as bananas are ALSO in the ICA facility, on the lower levels. Mike picked up a screwdriver from the local arcade, but never ended up using it as he chose to instead just choke out the woman trying to remember the code, machete the first banana-pig while he was totally alone, then lure the second banana-pig into eating sedative gum off the floor (yes, really, it’s one of the rewards for playing the escalation) before charging in, having to punch out a bunch of witnesses, and slaughtering him before making a surprisingly easy escape. From there it was back to the grape pigs, where – let’s just say it went similarly to the first time, where Mike had to do a lot of non-target kills with a silenced pistol and spend a fair amount of time hiding in the dumpster. But he got his grapes, fed the pig, then tried to blow it up only to discover his remote-control duck just vanished once it got dumped in the pig’s pot. So he dropped the rest of the evidence in there too and fled on the train. Zero stars, Grim Reaper. And #888 on the world leaderboard, of 891. XD Oh Mike. Well, can’t say we are not entertained!

II. Then, a half-hour of “Bus Simulator 21: THE BAD BOY OF BUS DRIVING RETURNS (Bus Simulator 2021 Xbox Series X Gameplay)!” AKA Mike is back on the controls to simulate driving people around on a bus – the OXBus, no less! The creators of the game were kind enough to create for them a special OXBox skin for their bus, which everyone was very pleased by. Though, uh, Jane and Andy rapidly ended up much LESS pleased when it became apparently that Mike was taking the Speed approach to bus driving and happily doing things like going too fast, jumping the curb, hitting cars, poles, and pedestrians, and – worst of all – giving too much change to passengers buying tickets. XD Not to mention doing things like randomly abandoning his bus in the middle of the road to look at cool cars. It’s honestly a wonder that he was ever paid for his two loops round his route, really. And then they actually had him try a Speed challenge, only for him to be immediately foiled by a turn and then crashing into some other cars. Episode ended with Mike’s character just abandoning his bus and fleeing to the edge of the map with his weird, weird little running gait. Godspeed, Bad Boy of Bus Driving! We’ll see you next year for Bus Simulator 22!

B) Then, after supper, we started with James Turner and another episode of his “Every Lot Challenge” challenge! The one where his self-Sim is living on the worst lot in the world in StrangerVille. Though it should be said, he actually had a pretty okay episode this time! James was able to largely keep up with his needs, he got a new observatory to watch the sky and earn his Logic skill, he successfully completed two holidays, he managed to expand his house with a small second story to keep a new Listening Device hidden, he started the StrangerVille mystery and made friends with a bunch of the local military personnel, AND he got promoted twice! Which means he got to remove two more lot challenges – the random number generator picked “Wild Foxes” (not really an issue) and “Reduce and Recycle” (at least the outdoor trash can is back to bottomless!) On the minus side, though, he’s been having a LOT of earthquakes, got swarmed by bees and bitten by spiders, got another inheritance call that requires him to get married AGAIN, and had another lava bomb fire that scorched both his new observatory and his water collector. *shrugs* You win some, you lose some! But it seems like he’s finally getting a handle on living on this terrible, terrible lot. XD

C) After that it was Call Me Kevin and Potato Thriller Steamed Potato Edition – look, don’t ask me, I just watch these things. From what I can gather, the game is at least partly a parody of the famous P. T. demo that is all we have of what would have been the next Silent Hill game, but – okay, so it takes place in a world where some people are just sentient food; there a Potato Man serial killer being hunted down by a bounty hunter and his robot child; you can play the backstory of the potato man in mini-games that shows his turn to evil was falling in love with a lemon woman, only to lose her to a hot dog man; and apparently the ending (which Kevin looked up because he couldn’t figure out how to actually play the game) involves the robot child deep-frying himself. Also everyone is voiced by either the most bored voice actors in the world, or various robot voices. And the animation is frighteningly crappy. I THINK this is all deliberate and it’s intended as a comedy game, but – damn, is it awful. Poor Kevin had no idea where to go, what to do, or how to do it, and felt like he understood the game LESS after playing it rather than more. You and me both, Kevin – and I just watched you play it!

D) After that, GrayStillPlays abusing Minecraft some more actually served as a nice palate refresher. This one was a mod featuring Mr. Beast, whom I guess is some guy who gets people to play stupid games for money? In Gray’s case, he was playing stupid games for fat loot – like collecting 5 million dollars from his “money machine” in sixty seconds to get upgraded armor, or paying the guy a gold block for a custom mansion. He even got a Lamborghini sport car spawner for doing a race around a lightning-ridden course, complete with GTA-style checkpoints and boosts! XD Gray was very happy with all the goodies he got – hell, Mr. Beast, once he was upgraded, even provided a second Reginald so the original could have a friend! XD Sadly, he was not able to defeat the Ender Dragon by throwing money at her, but he was able to shoot her down with one of his ten thousand enchanted bows. And then Mr. Beast got arrested for tax evasion, leaving Gray with nothing more to do but drive the Lambo into the game-finishing portal. XD I don’t know anymore, I’m just here to watch this game suffer.

E) And finally, after consumption of cupcake (yeah, Mom made a few of those recently), it was time for Jon’s latest FO4 YOLO episode! Today was all about getting the XP to get those final two levels and get up to Science 4 to create a jetpack. This consisted of a few simple steps –

I. Go to Diamond City to make some frag grenades. This was more complicated than it sounds, because a) some local caravan guards were fighting something over at Chaos Junction; b) when Finalley arrived in Diamond City proper, a rad storm just popped up out of nowhere, forcing her to don her hazmat suit to do her crafting; c) when she went to leave, a raider or two wandered too close to Diamond City and triggered a firefight with security, forcing her to hide. She did manage to make the grenades, though!

II. Go to the Boston Airport and turn in “Liberty Reprimed” for a whole load of XP.

III. Go up to the Prydwen to get her final mission for the Brotherhood – “Blind Betrayal,” because that automatically starts after you finish “Liberty Reprimed.”

IV. Travel over to Listening Post Bravo (avoiding vertibirds, though hilariously forgetting to crouch-walk to check for enemies most of the way there), take out the security both on the roof and in the basement, then straight-up execute Danse. Because nothing matters more to Finalley than her own life and limbs, and just killing him for the Brotherhood is the easiest way to end the quest. Also she doesn’t even know Danse because she’s a companionless character and met him like twice.

V. Turn in “Blind Betrayal” for a nice load of XP, but VERY POINTEDLY do not take “Tactical Thinking” – or, at the very least, don’t speak to Kells about it. The reason? Taking “Tactical Thinking” makes the Railroad hostile, meaning Finalley’s stuck with a bunch of angry NPCs who might shoot at her while traveling around if they’re with that faction. With the quest at the first stage but in limbo, all that’s happened is PAM specifically won’t speak to her because she’s calculating odds on when the Brotherhood attack will happen. Nobody thinks Finalley has anything to do with it, so they’re still friendly/neutral. This ends Finalley’s association with the Brotherhood for now – though she WAS sure to take Danse’s power armor before she left.

VI. Stop back at home, then head over to Goodneighbor and pop a Stealth Boy at the entrance to make sure the entire citizenry is not hostile. Why would they be hostile? Because Finalley stole a bunch of drugs from one of their own by doing “Diamond City Blues,” and VERY OCCASIONALLY this makes the whole city mad at you. It’s apparently a known-but-never-fixed bug. Fortunately this was not the case, and Finalley was able to move on to –

VII. Talk to Bobbi No-Nose and do her quest, “The Big Dig!” Mostly because this is a pretty simple and straightforward quest through a series of mini-dungeons underground, with enemies consisting of mirelurks and ghouls, both enemies that Jon knows how to handle. Of course, this also involves dealing with Bobbi, Mel, and Mel’s robot Sonya, NPCs that could block Finalley’s retreat routes and draw unwanted attention. But Jon felt it was worth the risk, and fortunately once Mel was recruited (Finalley just bribing the guard) and they started on the journey, the stupid AI problems were kept to a minimum. There were even a number of legendaries along the way, though most of them had some pretty garbage gear. There WAS a Sentinel’s arm piece, though – and a Staggering Huge Flamer, which Jon shrugged and went “well, maybe.” XD Anyway, Finalley managed to fight her way through the enemies without issue, then use her beautiful red dress to convince Bobbi to just walk away so there was no firefight between her and Fahrenheit. Job done, load of XP from the quest and the enemies (particularly a good trigger of Idiot Savant), and Finalley was up to Level 59! Which meant she’d gone up to levels, which meant –

SCIENCE 4! The jetpack is within her reach! Better yet, after having FOUR DISEASES at the start of the episode (Lethargy, Parasites, Fatigue, and Insomnia), she’s down to just the latter two, meaning her own problem is needing longer, more frequent naps. Jon was thrilled and promised the creation of the ultimate power armor next time. Looking forward to it, buddy!

3. Play Bloodlines and open up Hollywood: Check! After telling Heather not to lure people back to the apartment and stopping by Mercurio’s to see if any new guns were available (no), Crystal returned Downtown and traded the fetish statue to Pisha for the Odious Chalice, before reporting to LaCroix about the stolen sarcophagus. He demanded she go down to Hollywood and talk to Isaac to figure out how to contact Gary, the Nosferatu primogen – after a quick chat with Jack at the Last Round about his reasons, she did just that. Naturally Isaac’s “greeter” found her and directed her to his haven – they talked, and Isaac demanded his tribute in the form of the tape. Crystal went and tracked down where the courier was hanging out (taking a moment to convince her old friend Samantha that no, she’s not actually Crystal, sorry), but only got that the tape was at “Ginger Swan’s” before the poor guy got murdered in the sewers. She went over to Isaac’s to ask about Swan, and learned she was a deceased movie star. I know the next step is to find the tape at her grave, but figured I could do some side stuff first. Namely, hit the Red Spot, sell some stuff, and get the “special” – in my case, a sledgehammer and some new clothes – then go to the Luckee Motel and finish off the serial killer quest! Crystal spotted Muddy being murdered and chased the serial killer back to the Salvage Brothers junkyard in Santa Monica. After a couple of reloads due to a) being killed and b) getting stuck because physics is jank in this game, Crystal confronted the serial killer and, after learning his reasons, told him to keep his nose clean or he’d get staked, because she didn’t have the persuasion to get him to re-examine his desires to kill criminals. (I spent my experience points on more hacking and lockpicking earlier).

And yeah, I forgot that counts as FAILING the quest, not completing it, so I decided to redo it and actually fight him, since, you know, badass Tremere and all. Turns out that Blood Theft doesn’t work as well on an enraged Gangrel as it does on broken ghouls, BUT a shotgun works wonders once he accidentally gets stuck on one of the barrels in the little arena. XD Finished him off, then decided to see if I could tell Arthur that Muddy was dead because I was curious – as it happens, he already knows and tells YOU, so that’s a cool little detail. :D Sent Crystal back to her haven to finish out the day by checking e-mails and checking in with Heather (telling her to shoot anyone who worries her in the head and then having some of her blood). Good day in the World of Darkness!

4. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, and back with Jon’s Original FO4 Playthrough! Started Episode 26 and Miss Jon going up against the Courser! After a stop back at Sanctuary Hills to move all of her good sniper rifle mods onto the new Penetrating sniper she’d picked up and to trade Hancock for Dogmeat (because Jon loves dogs and hates using companions for anything other than a distraction), it was off to the CIT Ruins to figure out where the Courser was! Past!Jon mistakenly thought the Courser was inside the ruins, but was quickly disabused of that notion when he stumbled into a fight between Super Mutants and synths within. Miss Jon took out as many enemies as she could find, then found her way back up to the roof, where she sniped raiders from above and made her way across the rooftops to Greentech Genetics!

And then Past!Jon instead went inside the nearby Kendall Parking garage and found a drifter who has been strapping land mines to mole rats. XD A stern warning from the game about not focusing on the main plot like he said he would, I guess. After killing the drifter and their pets, Miss Jon got back on task and headed inside Greentech, battling her way past rooms upon rooms of Gunners while Past!Jon bemoaned the fact that lockpicking harder safes doesn’t necessarily get you anything good (aka why he doesn’t focus on the perk these days) and that Fallout 4 really likes putting random enemies with stuff like missile launchers on high areas without giving you much warning. But despite incidents like these (and Dogmeat getting frozen by a cyro-mine AND set on fire by a Molotov at different points), she managed to successfully kill the Gunners and make her way to the elevator and the final area! And Past!Jon did get that recall code from Mama Murphy before she died, so this should be a pretty easy encounter. . .

5. Get more done with tumblr queues: Um, check. Like, really check.

Like, "I started last night on a huge creative high and got one mostly-drafted post edited and completed, wrote two entirely new ones, and drafted out some ideas for a third on Victor Luvs Alice" check.

Look, I don't know WHY I suddenly got a burst of inspiration and energy to do that last night between 12 AM and 1:30 AM, but it happened, I rode the high, I now have a few more posts in my drafts to work with in upcoming weeks. Didn't actually do anything else with VLA today, but I was able to get Valice Multiverse sorted -- just a couple of ask replies, nothing special.

So yeah, not a bad Sunday! Always nice to get everything you WANT to get done, done. *nods* And now I have to head to bed because it's the start of another work week. *heavy sigh* Gotta plan out my next day off, because while it isn't TOO bad currently, I expect to be pretty stressed out after a few full weeks. . . Night all!