![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And Lo, We Reach Freedom
May. 12th, 2022 11:47 pmMade it through my final day of work, yay -- and what weather to come home to! It's gone from crappy and cold to full-on heat and sunshine! And it's supposed to be like this all weekend! We'll see if that comes to pass, but still -- enjoying it while it's here. :)
As for my to-dos:
Work – Better than the rest of the week has been, that’s for sure! I had two major goals – finish the spreadsheet my boss sent me the other day, and post all the Easter collection stuff to the system – and I managed to finish them both, yay. Took pretty much the entire day, but apart from a couple of phone calls about credit card stuff and having to help my coworker pick up some gifts from downstairs, I wasn’t really interrupted. And now I am free for three days, yaaaay. Looking forward to it!
Beanbags – I mean, it feels like freaking SUMMER all of a sudden, of course we played! Unfortunately, I didn’t do so hot – my first game was my best, but Dad managed to snipe the win out from under me. :( Darn beanbags! Final scores were me 2-3-2; Dad W-2-3; Mom 3-W-W. At least she had a good showing! And I imagine I’ll be able to make up some ground tomorrow.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another afternoon on the bike, finishing off the Oxventure Stream “Bone To Pick!” Having done three tasks for the skeletons, the group naturally assumed that the adventure was coming to a close – but the skeletons were like “nope, there’s one more thing we’d like you to do.” After a brief break where the skeletons showed how easy it was to incapacitate a flumph by kicking it over (leading to Merilwen trying to turn the flumphs back rightside-up while Prudence kept turning them upside-down again), everyone hopped back in the hammer for a final trip. Corazon actually rolled well enough to win at pool this time, yay – though his victory was somewhat undermined by a) Egbert, Prudence, and Merilwen just straight-up not believing him and b) Dob saying that they’d each won a game and had one draw, so he was happy with that outcome. XD Also, Seal Gaiman SOMEHOW stitched all the skeleton hammocks together into one giant hammock to lounge in. XD I suspect the skeletons won’t be happy with that.
Anyway, eventually they were called out of the hammer again to find themselves on the outskirts of a town, in front of a strange building. With the skeletons strangely silent on where they were or what they were expected to do. After some confusion, Dob examined the building –
Orphanage. And the skeleton’s request? Knock it down. In fact, they went specific, saying the Oxventurers couldn’t do any good and couldn’t help anyone. (Realizing in the process that, hey, having to think through your commands so your lackeys won’t twist them is DIFFICULT, huh.) The gang huddled, trying to come up with a way to fulfill the command that either left things completely neutral or only did a little bad (well, except Prudence, who was all for committing lots of murders – everyone was like “you ALREADY spiralized Bryce, cool it!”). After banding around things like “destroy the orphanage and let the orphans run free as a bandit gang” and “try to find middling-to-bad parents for the orphans before knocking down the building,” the group settled on “dismantle the orphanage, then rebuild it nearby, only at least slightly worse” (Corazon was all for lowering the ceilings six inches). Merilwen decided the best way to get the kids out without “helping” them was to change into a bear and chase them out, and Dob promptly grabbed his hi-vis jacket and pretended to be a bear inspector, roping Corazon in to help him when the owner of the orphanage (who somehow very rapidly morphed into a Christopher Walken impression) started trying to protest (and also let it slip that they’d had bears in the orphanage before). The gang insisted the place be torn down and rebuilt, and so started a montage of the next six months, as Corazon ran a “brickstarter” for people to donate bricks (with the “stretch goals” being Dob having to retrieve various items from atop a very tall bookcase in the town square), everyone learned some architecture tips and tricks, and the orphanage was rebuilt as rather worse than before (lower ceilings, kinda smelly, the doors creak even when shut, and at least one bathroom is just gushing water). The skeletons declared this outcome “annoying,” which the gang said was basically the point, now you know how we feel. The skeletons agreed it was hard to be the bosses and that it was clearly more fun to be the skeletons, while the Oxventurers admitted that being a skeleton who twists the morals of whatever command they’re given is harder than it looks and they need to give the skeletons more credit. And a little more leeway to have fun with their commands.
And that is when the skeletons dropped the bombshell of “oh, just so you know, the blood ritual on us that allows us to move and talk and all that? Needs to be refreshed. Otherwise we all – including you guys – get sucked into the hammer and die when it explodes.” Yeaaah, turns out the skeletons were both trying to show the Oxventurers what it was like to be them, AND make it so they’d really want to save the skeletons. And themselves. Via the medium of an evil magic ritual. And with the deadline looming, there is no time to waste! At least Prudence is on board. XD So yeah, next week? We start the only Oxventure I currently know of that is a true direct sequel to the one before – “Bone 2 Pick!” Should be interesting. . .
2. Continue writing “As Long As You Love Me”: Check – Victor has expressed his growing confusion over Alice being nice to him when she just murdered all his kidnappers without a second thought, which has prompted Alice to try and explain her whole “holistic assassin” deal. As per usual, we have come to the “Alice summarizes her life so far so Victor can be horrified by her spending time in an asylum as a child and whatnot” section of my stories. XD Ah well, I try to make it interesting every time!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – another night with just one in the Subs itself and one bonus video to enjoy –
A) First up, the latest OXBox list: “7 Times Fans Had to Fix the Game!” Oh yes, it’s time for a list of games that either weren’t up to snuff when first released, or had fun playable stuff that had to be cut that fans wanted, so the fandom ended up fixing the game themselves. Yes, Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines was on this list – along with Daikatana (fans fixing the abysmal AI of the companions), Gothic 3 (fans fixing the loads of bugs that could prevent the game from letting you even MOVE in the opening tutorial (except by punching)), and – Super Mario 64? Yeah, apparently the game was going to have a co-op mode with Luigi that had to be cut when the hardware couldn’t stand up to both brothers roaming around, and the fans have now managed to restore it! Neat! But the real shocker of this list?
Not a single Bethesda game. Okay, Skyrim was FEATURED in the opening, but as an example of other kinds of mods people do – like turning the dragons into Thomas The Tank Engine. I was FULLY expecting at least one Fallout on that list – commenter’s edition?
B) And secondly, we went over to the Subs for Call Me Kevin: “I created a terrible America in Cities Skylines!” Sponsored by Fortnite. XD But yes, Kevin pulled out the USA island map that Gray likes so much and gave himself an hour to make a town across the states that would hopefully entice people to live there. First things first was to set up Poop Mountain – AKA, he forgot to properly set up the sewage system so it wasn’t poisoning the water, so he shoved the sewage pipes and a wind turbine in a high place and just let the poop flow. XD From there it was time to design the town – one main road with a couple of little side streets; plenty of sick citizens (though he did eventually crack and give them healthcare and fire prevention); coal plants and landfills (with housing nearby!); a new Poop Canyon (aka Poop Mountain began flooding and Kevin discovered big rocks were the cheapest way to create an artificial pond in what was once New Mexico); and lots and lots of bouncy castles to keep up morale. Sure, he had to take out a loan to dig out the bottom of Poop Canyon at one point to keep it from overflowing, but other than that, what could go wrong?
MULTIPLE TSUNAMIS. Apparently Kevin didn’t even set these off himself. XD One from either side, too – the first one washed away most of his town, hit Poop Canyon, then sent the sewage spiraling back toward the remaining citizens; the second Kevin attempted to stop via canals and flood walls, but only succeeded in directing it to a different part of the city. XD He DID managed to have a few citizens by the time his hour was up, though, so he did a nice fake commercial for the newly-named “American’t” using one of those old cowboy-type narrators to extol the virtues of the place. XD Honestly, for an Irishman living in Spain and using like a quarter of the American map? Accurate.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – three ask replies and a surprise thread reply over on Valice Multiverse! Which took longer than expected, but for one ask I had to summarize my Sole Survivor Victor’s backstory, so – yeah. All done now, though!
*nods* Not too shabby. And now I have the rest of the night to myself, basically -- and day-off to-dos for tomorrow!
1. Continue writing "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland"
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs
3. Either play Sims 4 and build the arcade, or Fallout 4 and find the statehouse
4. Work on tumblr drafts
5. Get in a workout
This all seems reasonable -- though it IS Friday the Thirteenth tomorrow, so we'll see what happens with that. :p But for now, either fic-reading or TV Tropes for me -- night all!
As for my to-dos:
Work – Better than the rest of the week has been, that’s for sure! I had two major goals – finish the spreadsheet my boss sent me the other day, and post all the Easter collection stuff to the system – and I managed to finish them both, yay. Took pretty much the entire day, but apart from a couple of phone calls about credit card stuff and having to help my coworker pick up some gifts from downstairs, I wasn’t really interrupted. And now I am free for three days, yaaaay. Looking forward to it!
Beanbags – I mean, it feels like freaking SUMMER all of a sudden, of course we played! Unfortunately, I didn’t do so hot – my first game was my best, but Dad managed to snipe the win out from under me. :( Darn beanbags! Final scores were me 2-3-2; Dad W-2-3; Mom 3-W-W. At least she had a good showing! And I imagine I’ll be able to make up some ground tomorrow.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another afternoon on the bike, finishing off the Oxventure Stream “Bone To Pick!” Having done three tasks for the skeletons, the group naturally assumed that the adventure was coming to a close – but the skeletons were like “nope, there’s one more thing we’d like you to do.” After a brief break where the skeletons showed how easy it was to incapacitate a flumph by kicking it over (leading to Merilwen trying to turn the flumphs back rightside-up while Prudence kept turning them upside-down again), everyone hopped back in the hammer for a final trip. Corazon actually rolled well enough to win at pool this time, yay – though his victory was somewhat undermined by a) Egbert, Prudence, and Merilwen just straight-up not believing him and b) Dob saying that they’d each won a game and had one draw, so he was happy with that outcome. XD Also, Seal Gaiman SOMEHOW stitched all the skeleton hammocks together into one giant hammock to lounge in. XD I suspect the skeletons won’t be happy with that.
Anyway, eventually they were called out of the hammer again to find themselves on the outskirts of a town, in front of a strange building. With the skeletons strangely silent on where they were or what they were expected to do. After some confusion, Dob examined the building –
Orphanage. And the skeleton’s request? Knock it down. In fact, they went specific, saying the Oxventurers couldn’t do any good and couldn’t help anyone. (Realizing in the process that, hey, having to think through your commands so your lackeys won’t twist them is DIFFICULT, huh.) The gang huddled, trying to come up with a way to fulfill the command that either left things completely neutral or only did a little bad (well, except Prudence, who was all for committing lots of murders – everyone was like “you ALREADY spiralized Bryce, cool it!”). After banding around things like “destroy the orphanage and let the orphans run free as a bandit gang” and “try to find middling-to-bad parents for the orphans before knocking down the building,” the group settled on “dismantle the orphanage, then rebuild it nearby, only at least slightly worse” (Corazon was all for lowering the ceilings six inches). Merilwen decided the best way to get the kids out without “helping” them was to change into a bear and chase them out, and Dob promptly grabbed his hi-vis jacket and pretended to be a bear inspector, roping Corazon in to help him when the owner of the orphanage (who somehow very rapidly morphed into a Christopher Walken impression) started trying to protest (and also let it slip that they’d had bears in the orphanage before). The gang insisted the place be torn down and rebuilt, and so started a montage of the next six months, as Corazon ran a “brickstarter” for people to donate bricks (with the “stretch goals” being Dob having to retrieve various items from atop a very tall bookcase in the town square), everyone learned some architecture tips and tricks, and the orphanage was rebuilt as rather worse than before (lower ceilings, kinda smelly, the doors creak even when shut, and at least one bathroom is just gushing water). The skeletons declared this outcome “annoying,” which the gang said was basically the point, now you know how we feel. The skeletons agreed it was hard to be the bosses and that it was clearly more fun to be the skeletons, while the Oxventurers admitted that being a skeleton who twists the morals of whatever command they’re given is harder than it looks and they need to give the skeletons more credit. And a little more leeway to have fun with their commands.
And that is when the skeletons dropped the bombshell of “oh, just so you know, the blood ritual on us that allows us to move and talk and all that? Needs to be refreshed. Otherwise we all – including you guys – get sucked into the hammer and die when it explodes.” Yeaaah, turns out the skeletons were both trying to show the Oxventurers what it was like to be them, AND make it so they’d really want to save the skeletons. And themselves. Via the medium of an evil magic ritual. And with the deadline looming, there is no time to waste! At least Prudence is on board. XD So yeah, next week? We start the only Oxventure I currently know of that is a true direct sequel to the one before – “Bone 2 Pick!” Should be interesting. . .
2. Continue writing “As Long As You Love Me”: Check – Victor has expressed his growing confusion over Alice being nice to him when she just murdered all his kidnappers without a second thought, which has prompted Alice to try and explain her whole “holistic assassin” deal. As per usual, we have come to the “Alice summarizes her life so far so Victor can be horrified by her spending time in an asylum as a child and whatnot” section of my stories. XD Ah well, I try to make it interesting every time!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – another night with just one in the Subs itself and one bonus video to enjoy –
A) First up, the latest OXBox list: “7 Times Fans Had to Fix the Game!” Oh yes, it’s time for a list of games that either weren’t up to snuff when first released, or had fun playable stuff that had to be cut that fans wanted, so the fandom ended up fixing the game themselves. Yes, Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines was on this list – along with Daikatana (fans fixing the abysmal AI of the companions), Gothic 3 (fans fixing the loads of bugs that could prevent the game from letting you even MOVE in the opening tutorial (except by punching)), and – Super Mario 64? Yeah, apparently the game was going to have a co-op mode with Luigi that had to be cut when the hardware couldn’t stand up to both brothers roaming around, and the fans have now managed to restore it! Neat! But the real shocker of this list?
Not a single Bethesda game. Okay, Skyrim was FEATURED in the opening, but as an example of other kinds of mods people do – like turning the dragons into Thomas The Tank Engine. I was FULLY expecting at least one Fallout on that list – commenter’s edition?
B) And secondly, we went over to the Subs for Call Me Kevin: “I created a terrible America in Cities Skylines!” Sponsored by Fortnite. XD But yes, Kevin pulled out the USA island map that Gray likes so much and gave himself an hour to make a town across the states that would hopefully entice people to live there. First things first was to set up Poop Mountain – AKA, he forgot to properly set up the sewage system so it wasn’t poisoning the water, so he shoved the sewage pipes and a wind turbine in a high place and just let the poop flow. XD From there it was time to design the town – one main road with a couple of little side streets; plenty of sick citizens (though he did eventually crack and give them healthcare and fire prevention); coal plants and landfills (with housing nearby!); a new Poop Canyon (aka Poop Mountain began flooding and Kevin discovered big rocks were the cheapest way to create an artificial pond in what was once New Mexico); and lots and lots of bouncy castles to keep up morale. Sure, he had to take out a loan to dig out the bottom of Poop Canyon at one point to keep it from overflowing, but other than that, what could go wrong?
MULTIPLE TSUNAMIS. Apparently Kevin didn’t even set these off himself. XD One from either side, too – the first one washed away most of his town, hit Poop Canyon, then sent the sewage spiraling back toward the remaining citizens; the second Kevin attempted to stop via canals and flood walls, but only succeeded in directing it to a different part of the city. XD He DID managed to have a few citizens by the time his hour was up, though, so he did a nice fake commercial for the newly-named “American’t” using one of those old cowboy-type narrators to extol the virtues of the place. XD Honestly, for an Irishman living in Spain and using like a quarter of the American map? Accurate.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – three ask replies and a surprise thread reply over on Valice Multiverse! Which took longer than expected, but for one ask I had to summarize my Sole Survivor Victor’s backstory, so – yeah. All done now, though!
*nods* Not too shabby. And now I have the rest of the night to myself, basically -- and day-off to-dos for tomorrow!
1. Continue writing "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland"
2. Keep up with YouTube Subs
3. Either play Sims 4 and build the arcade, or Fallout 4 and find the statehouse
4. Work on tumblr drafts
5. Get in a workout
This all seems reasonable -- though it IS Friday the Thirteenth tomorrow, so we'll see what happens with that. :p But for now, either fic-reading or TV Tropes for me -- night all!
