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I'd like to know because I'd like to get it BACK. I mean, I know part of the problem today is that I'm on my period, and that's fucking with my head some, but. . .why does everything take longer than I think it's gonna? *sigh* Well, I'm running late on this update, so let's just throw what I've got out there --
Work – Well, it didn’t have a great start, what with people riding my ass during my commute and arriving at work to find our database website down (don’t let your security certificate lapse, people!), but it wasn’t too bad after that. Couple of credit card phone calls, the usual review of what the credit card company has not yet done, looking up stuff for people. . .the usual! I’ve had worse Mondays at work. AND we got the confirmation of a long 4th of July weekend and half-day Fridays in summer, so there's a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak!
Beanbags – Very nice day, warm but with low humidity, so of course we ventured out into the backyard for beanbags! (I even got to try out the hammock we got Dad for Father’s Day yesterday briefly.) And damn, did I have a good day – won ALL THREE games, two of them with a TEN on the last throw! Poor Mom and Dad were struggling, let me tell you. XD Final scores were me W-W-W; Dad 2-3-2; Mom 3-2-3. I know I say I like it when we each win one, but it is also nice to be the champ. XD
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike post-beanbags to finish off the Oxventure Stream speed quest “Fast and Furriest!” We caught up with the gang as they agreed that Merilwen’s inability to cast Animal Friendship on the bear probably meant it was some sort of werebear or other “humanoid currently in bear form.” Also that there was no spell for human friendship, only putting in the effort to be a good friend. The More You Know~ With that established, Corazon grabbed a barrel of rum from the tavern, posing as a “rum inspector” (to be fair, the townsfolk – in their faux-Transylvanian accents, btw – pointed out themselves that the Oxventurers had never introduced themselves, so for all they knew he WAS a rum inspector), Egbert summoned Dogbert because yay awesome mastiff steed, and the gang – as soon as the Transylvanian rooster crowed, and the mayor started yelling about the mess left in the town square – set out on Dogbert and Bearilwen to track the fish stew trail!
As you might imagine, this was a pretty easy trail to track. XD The fish stew led them first to a pile of shed bear fur (which Dogbert rolled around in), and then – after a tracking roll (which resulted in Bearilwen getting distracted by a nice tree for rubbing herself up against and everyone else being like “Merilwen the trail is RIGHT THERE”) – looped back around into town. Hmmm! The gang thus returned to town, pretending to the mayor that they were TOTALLY coming back to clean up the mess she was now sweeping up with a broom (Corazon using Minor Illusion to help reinforce the idea that they WERE going to tidy up) and observing the townsfolk going about their morning routines. A guy with a loincloth immediately caught their attention, but it soon became apparent he was just taking a bath. No, the real culprit, as Corazon and Prudence discovered thanks to some good rolls –
Was the local blacksmith! Hammering away on a cold forge. Prudence and Corazon promptly rocked up to ask him about his new blacksmithing technique, and Corazon deployed some bear puns to gauge the blacksmith’s reaction. First reaction – just some general shifty-eyed “oh crap they’re onto me.”
Second reaction? Turning part bear and chomping Prudence’s arm nearly off. She naturally was not happy about this, and the others set off in pursuit as the werebear attempted once again to flee. Roll initiative! Egbert got highest score and ATTEMPTED to do a cool flying tackle off Dogbert’s back, but ended up just doing a kind of awkward forward roll and ending up at the werebear’s feet. Dob, who’d tried to cast Sleep before combat started, elected to follow through with that plan and attempted to send the wearbear to sleep – unfortunately, some low rolls meant he didn’t even blink. Fortunately, he proved much less resistant to Corazon casting Grease at his feet and stacked it into the pavement, where Prudence then got him with one of a pair of Agonizing Blasts right in the snoot. (Merilwen was accidentally skipped during all this and for some reason didn’t speak up – maybe because the adventure was so time-sensitive.) And then it was back around to Egbert –
Who decided “I’m a dragon, I can breathe fire, the grease will make it worse, let’s do this.” Merilwen was like “Uh, remember what happened the last time I did a fire spell in grease?!” but Egbert reminded her that he’s fire resistant, so he’ll be fine! And, thanks to a lucky roll on a D4, he was. XD They ended up ruling Egbert could roll six D6s for the damage instead of just three because of the grease, and the werebear was pretty thoroughly cooked. He transformed back and begged for mercy, as the rest of the townsfolk gathered around and started forming a mob. Dob managed to cast Calm Emotions on the crowd (and possibly Prudence, who was still VERY sour about her arm), and the werebear noted he was wealthy and asked if he gave them a bunch of money if they’d help protect him from the townsfolk, which won Prudence and Corazon over to his side. They walked him back to his blacksmith shop (the mayor hitting the werebear with a broom in frustration) and collected their money –
And then Dob, to calm things down, told the townsfolk to let their werebear blacksmith live in peace here (as he’d still wanted to be part of the community, he just couldn’t resist the lure of the bins), or the Oxventurers would come back and kill them all. And then got a nat 20 on the Charisma/Intimidation roll. XD So the speed quest ended with all the townsfolk terrified of them, the blacksmith 200 gold poorer and at least medium-well-done from Egbert’s fire breath, and, oh yes, Prudence POSSIBLY infected with Bear Lycanthropy (which she was absolutely thrilled about). Fast and Furriest indeed! Tomorrow, straight into the next one, with “Snow Mercy!”
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check! Alice has finished her conversation with Terrence and Van (learning what “Elysium” is to a Camarilla vampire, and that havens are generally considered such), and is taking a cab back to Santa Monica to hop on her boat and head to the Elizabeth Dane! Courtesy of a certain cabdriver. XD But first, she’s got some people to meet on the beach. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Only one-third check tonight, unfortunately – between my writing always taking longer than I think it’s gonna take (especially when you add in summing up the Oxventure from my workouts), and having a long video to catch up on, I only got through one of the three unwatched in my Subs. But I DID take care of the longest – the final build video from James Turner for Werewolves, the library lot! Which is in fact something of an “everything” lot, as it also includes gym equipment PLUS both the old giant observatory and the new small telescope (Werewolves-specific version, of course). James built it as a big abandoned factory, using some stock footage of an old saw mill as his guide, and it came out really well! The top floor has lots of open exposed bits, yellow metal columns and spandrels everywhere, and everything is brick and full of old broken-down junk. There’s even a little “sewer” running under it all to “connect” it to the nearby bar lot! So that’s neat! :D It’s been a trip to watch all these lots come together – James struggled at times, but everything ended up looking super cool in the end. Again, REALLY wish I could confirm he was properly paid for this work, because he’s damn well earned it.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – finished the text on my Chill Save update for this Wednesday on Victor Luvs Alice! Took a while, but I did it. So at least that’s ready to go – now I just have to remember to put Nebby’s fic in the drafts/queue as well tomorrow, and I can start getting this week’s queue going tomorrow evening!
Well, at least I got most of the important stuff sorted. . .and now it's time to scoot off to bed, as I do very much have a full work week this week (plus a cleaning Saturday, uuugh). Just remember, Vic, you got a long weekend coming up next week. . . Night all!
Work – Well, it didn’t have a great start, what with people riding my ass during my commute and arriving at work to find our database website down (don’t let your security certificate lapse, people!), but it wasn’t too bad after that. Couple of credit card phone calls, the usual review of what the credit card company has not yet done, looking up stuff for people. . .the usual! I’ve had worse Mondays at work. AND we got the confirmation of a long 4th of July weekend and half-day Fridays in summer, so there's a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak!
Beanbags – Very nice day, warm but with low humidity, so of course we ventured out into the backyard for beanbags! (I even got to try out the hammock we got Dad for Father’s Day yesterday briefly.) And damn, did I have a good day – won ALL THREE games, two of them with a TEN on the last throw! Poor Mom and Dad were struggling, let me tell you. XD Final scores were me W-W-W; Dad 2-3-2; Mom 3-2-3. I know I say I like it when we each win one, but it is also nice to be the champ. XD
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike post-beanbags to finish off the Oxventure Stream speed quest “Fast and Furriest!” We caught up with the gang as they agreed that Merilwen’s inability to cast Animal Friendship on the bear probably meant it was some sort of werebear or other “humanoid currently in bear form.” Also that there was no spell for human friendship, only putting in the effort to be a good friend. The More You Know~ With that established, Corazon grabbed a barrel of rum from the tavern, posing as a “rum inspector” (to be fair, the townsfolk – in their faux-Transylvanian accents, btw – pointed out themselves that the Oxventurers had never introduced themselves, so for all they knew he WAS a rum inspector), Egbert summoned Dogbert because yay awesome mastiff steed, and the gang – as soon as the Transylvanian rooster crowed, and the mayor started yelling about the mess left in the town square – set out on Dogbert and Bearilwen to track the fish stew trail!
As you might imagine, this was a pretty easy trail to track. XD The fish stew led them first to a pile of shed bear fur (which Dogbert rolled around in), and then – after a tracking roll (which resulted in Bearilwen getting distracted by a nice tree for rubbing herself up against and everyone else being like “Merilwen the trail is RIGHT THERE”) – looped back around into town. Hmmm! The gang thus returned to town, pretending to the mayor that they were TOTALLY coming back to clean up the mess she was now sweeping up with a broom (Corazon using Minor Illusion to help reinforce the idea that they WERE going to tidy up) and observing the townsfolk going about their morning routines. A guy with a loincloth immediately caught their attention, but it soon became apparent he was just taking a bath. No, the real culprit, as Corazon and Prudence discovered thanks to some good rolls –
Was the local blacksmith! Hammering away on a cold forge. Prudence and Corazon promptly rocked up to ask him about his new blacksmithing technique, and Corazon deployed some bear puns to gauge the blacksmith’s reaction. First reaction – just some general shifty-eyed “oh crap they’re onto me.”
Second reaction? Turning part bear and chomping Prudence’s arm nearly off. She naturally was not happy about this, and the others set off in pursuit as the werebear attempted once again to flee. Roll initiative! Egbert got highest score and ATTEMPTED to do a cool flying tackle off Dogbert’s back, but ended up just doing a kind of awkward forward roll and ending up at the werebear’s feet. Dob, who’d tried to cast Sleep before combat started, elected to follow through with that plan and attempted to send the wearbear to sleep – unfortunately, some low rolls meant he didn’t even blink. Fortunately, he proved much less resistant to Corazon casting Grease at his feet and stacked it into the pavement, where Prudence then got him with one of a pair of Agonizing Blasts right in the snoot. (Merilwen was accidentally skipped during all this and for some reason didn’t speak up – maybe because the adventure was so time-sensitive.) And then it was back around to Egbert –
Who decided “I’m a dragon, I can breathe fire, the grease will make it worse, let’s do this.” Merilwen was like “Uh, remember what happened the last time I did a fire spell in grease?!” but Egbert reminded her that he’s fire resistant, so he’ll be fine! And, thanks to a lucky roll on a D4, he was. XD They ended up ruling Egbert could roll six D6s for the damage instead of just three because of the grease, and the werebear was pretty thoroughly cooked. He transformed back and begged for mercy, as the rest of the townsfolk gathered around and started forming a mob. Dob managed to cast Calm Emotions on the crowd (and possibly Prudence, who was still VERY sour about her arm), and the werebear noted he was wealthy and asked if he gave them a bunch of money if they’d help protect him from the townsfolk, which won Prudence and Corazon over to his side. They walked him back to his blacksmith shop (the mayor hitting the werebear with a broom in frustration) and collected their money –
And then Dob, to calm things down, told the townsfolk to let their werebear blacksmith live in peace here (as he’d still wanted to be part of the community, he just couldn’t resist the lure of the bins), or the Oxventurers would come back and kill them all. And then got a nat 20 on the Charisma/Intimidation roll. XD So the speed quest ended with all the townsfolk terrified of them, the blacksmith 200 gold poorer and at least medium-well-done from Egbert’s fire breath, and, oh yes, Prudence POSSIBLY infected with Bear Lycanthropy (which she was absolutely thrilled about). Fast and Furriest indeed! Tomorrow, straight into the next one, with “Snow Mercy!”
2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check! Alice has finished her conversation with Terrence and Van (learning what “Elysium” is to a Camarilla vampire, and that havens are generally considered such), and is taking a cab back to Santa Monica to hop on her boat and head to the Elizabeth Dane! Courtesy of a certain cabdriver. XD But first, she’s got some people to meet on the beach. . .
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Only one-third check tonight, unfortunately – between my writing always taking longer than I think it’s gonna take (especially when you add in summing up the Oxventure from my workouts), and having a long video to catch up on, I only got through one of the three unwatched in my Subs. But I DID take care of the longest – the final build video from James Turner for Werewolves, the library lot! Which is in fact something of an “everything” lot, as it also includes gym equipment PLUS both the old giant observatory and the new small telescope (Werewolves-specific version, of course). James built it as a big abandoned factory, using some stock footage of an old saw mill as his guide, and it came out really well! The top floor has lots of open exposed bits, yellow metal columns and spandrels everywhere, and everything is brick and full of old broken-down junk. There’s even a little “sewer” running under it all to “connect” it to the nearby bar lot! So that’s neat! :D It’s been a trip to watch all these lots come together – James struggled at times, but everything ended up looking super cool in the end. Again, REALLY wish I could confirm he was properly paid for this work, because he’s damn well earned it.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – finished the text on my Chill Save update for this Wednesday on Victor Luvs Alice! Took a while, but I did it. So at least that’s ready to go – now I just have to remember to put Nebby’s fic in the drafts/queue as well tomorrow, and I can start getting this week’s queue going tomorrow evening!
Well, at least I got most of the important stuff sorted. . .and now it's time to scoot off to bed, as I do very much have a full work week this week (plus a cleaning Saturday, uuugh). Just remember, Vic, you got a long weekend coming up next week. . . Night all!
