It Was Monday

And as I'm updating late, I'll let my to-do list do the talking:

Work – Work itself was quiet – most of the back office people were missing in action, so it was another day of doing the GL, taking care of a few exceptions sent from the processors, and doing more exceptions. Nothing special.

The ride home, on the other hand. . . I don’t know if it was the result of an accident or all the freaking road work happening at all hours around here these days or WHAT, but traffic was backed up all to hell on my usual route, so I was forced to cut through the city and get stuck in the traffic THERE. Left the work parking lot around 4:33 PM, didn’t get home until 5:10 PM. For a ride that generally takes twenty minutes to a half-hour! *huffs* And now I get to wonder if it’s going to be like that all fucking week. . .

Beanbags – Nope – gloomy, cold (even my mother, who is notoriously hot all the time, was wearing a sweater), windy, and of course I got home late because of the above traffic bullshit. I doubt we’ll be playing until Thursday – it’s supposed to be a bit rainy and gloomy and generally miserable for the next two days, then we get a brief break of mild weather before a middling weekend. *shrug* We’ll see what happens!

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike tonight for the second half of the first episode of the Oxventure Orbpocalypse, “Sphere We Go!” Having been reminded of Bob’s existence, Dob told him that the group was happy to have him along as a guild member, but they were breaking into the world’s most dangerous jail now, so if he wanted to call it quits, nobody would think any –

Bob was totally on board with this. XD Corazon was like “why did you invite him along, he’s gonna die” and Dob retorted “I didn’t think he’d say yes!” XD They nearly tried to ditch Bob by letting him go back through the dungeon backwards, but decided that was too mean/probably a bit too lethal, given some of the traps, and instead let him come out with them as they found the lever that opened a wall onto the entrance. They exited into the bright sunshine, where Dob tried a different tactic to get rid of Bob – put him on Seal Gaiman-sitting duty. He tried to frame it as something only the bravest Oxventurer could do, but Bob saw through that, and things got so awkward so fast that Dob ended up volunteering himself for seal duty. And then almost cast Sleep on Bob (from a fourth-level spell slot, which apparently superpowers it a bit) so he could run away. XD He thought better of it (aka Luke declared that bit non-canon), and the group took Bob with them to town so they could see about securing transportation to the nearest town to Alcataz –

Only for Bob to somehow get his hands on throwing knives and start chucking them at an old lady to help get them to the prison faster. Apparently doing one dungeon crawl with the Oxventurers has wobbled his internal moral compass badly. XD Dob DID cast Fourth-Level Spell Slot Sleep on Bob at this point, causing him to fall unconscious mid-throw, and the gang used up most of the minute that he was asleep crafting a nice note saying that they’d gone on without him, and to stay where he was because trying to follow them into the prison would go poorly for him, hugs and kisses! XD And then they all scattered right before he woke up, and the heartbroken look on his face as he puzzled out the note meant that Dob had to ask someone to restrain him before he went back for the poor guy. (Which Corazon provided by pinning his arms to the wall, hell-O tumblr XD) Apparently he felt guiltier about this than he did about the orphanage with the orphan mortar back in Bumble. XD (Though let’s be fair, that was more the skeletons' fault than his.)

Anyway – with Bob finally sorted, the group considered their travel options, and decided on a stagecoach with a cannon atop it, as Egbert had been keen on being fired out of a cannon, and this way they could all play with it and him while also having a long rest. They ended up in an isolated town where, if you were a teenager with far-flung friends, you would hate growing up – Bedford. Methinks Johnny had some issues to work out with their hometown. XD Anyway, it was a dull place where most of the population helped feed the Astors’ horrible prison machine (literally and figuratively) – the gang found the local tavern, The ‘Ship (with an airship on the sign), and Corazon asked the bartender about possible work as a guardsman at the prison while buying some pints (which came out horrible as they were being pulled through an Astor brand spigot XD). Turns out he was just in time to audition – the Astors always need more guards, but the airships only go out every four months, so your chances to get hired are limited. Passing the test is easy too – you just have to prove you can shout well enough and beat people with a truncheon. Corazon relayed this information back to the others, saying they could probably all audition for guards if they wanted, but Dob felt it imperative they have people on both sides of the bars to get as much information as possible. They’re not sure where the cone they need is, after all! Everyone then tried to recall what they’d seen in the orb’s little magic hologram – Prudence, Corazon, and Dob eventually remembered it was somewhere downstairs, probably in a guards’ room, while Merilwen, thanks to a twenty, also remembered seeing lines coming out of it. They deduced from that it might in fact be the prison’s magical power source! (Egbert was once again busy feeding a Scotch egg to Seal Gaiman. XD) But Dob still wanted to do the “prisoners” thing, so the gang broke into two teams, Team Guard – Corazon, Prudence, and Egbert – and Team Prisoner – Dob and Merilwen. Team Guard went to apply for the newest guard posts and aced their yelling-and-beating “exam,” with Prudence impressing them so much with her spinning “Tasmanian Devil” truncheon technique they gave her a “show” promotion to “extra-good” guard and a nicer truncheon. And Team Prisoner, in an attempt to get arrested for a “victimless” crime –

Attacked their own guild members as they came out of the guard house! XD Apparently it doesn’t count if it’s in the Guild. Dob in particular took a swing at whoever was nearest – and, thanks to her armor class exactly matching his strength attack roll, hit Prudence, bloodying her nose but otherwise doing no other damage (which is good, as Prudence is DEFINITELY going to remember that). Corazon wrestled him to the ground while Merilwen jumped on Egbert – and a low Wisdom roll from him meant that he didn’t realize he wasn’t actually being attacked and tried to pile-drive her. XD Fortunately he rolled poorly on the attack roll, and Merilwen wasn’t actually hurt, though she quickly faked that she was. A guardsman on his lunch break ran over to see what was happening, informed Team Guard that they were hired, and Team Prisoner that they were arrested and going to Alcataz. Dob promptly tried to talk up his friends as good guards and got beaten about the head with a chicken drumstick. XD Which, actually, is kind of a punishment for him, as he’s (at least mostly) vegetarian. But yeah, long and short of it – the gang is going to Alcataz! Tomorrow, we start episode 2, “Epic Jail!”

2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – having picked up the Patty sidequest, Alice is now on her way back to the Skyeline apartment, musing about how she likes the idea of the Anarch cause, but not necessarily any of the Anarchs themselves. XD And about her relationship with Victor, and how the other vampires seemed to think of ghouls as lesser. . . Yeah, she’s having some conflicted feelings about that whole mess, as you might imagine. But she’s determined not to treat him as just the “hired help,” which is good. Trust me, Alice, you’ll be glad you welcomed him into your unlife. :) Especially since Cheshire just hinted he’s that “bonus” person you can trust you got from Rosa. . .

3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – just one in the Subs today, which is good because I did have tumblr queue stuff to sort out (see below) – GrayStillPlays and “NOOB vs PRO vs HACKER in draw climber!” Yes, Gray has found a game (the aforementioned Draw Climber) that combines stupid mobile racing games with stupid mobile drawing games, in that you are a thing – a cube, a rabbit in a magician’s hat, an alien, a house, a traffic cone, etc – racing against another thing (I’m not sure if it’s against bots or humans), and you have to draw your legs/wheels/whatnot as the race goes on to conquer the terrain (ranging from stairs, to water pits, to bridges, to big gaps to get over). Gray’s strategy was to draw the stupidest thing he could think of and see if it worked – and I have to say, nine times out of ten, it DID. Dude was just blazing along on double-YEET legs, or booking it on very poorly done cans of Bud Light. XD even just a simple “alligator teeth” scribble gave him loads of good airtime and excellent climbing ability. Occasionally things would let him down (there was this one steep staircase that none of his normal scribbles could conquer), but for the most part, he left the competition in the dust with his badly-drawn Floridas, lightning bolts, stacks of money, and fishbowls. XD Good stuff!

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – having one in the Subs was handy for this! Managed to get the text for my three remaining Chill Save posts all typed up, w00. :) Plus answered all of Moose’s latest messages, yay. Hooray for catching up on things!

So yeah, largely productive day, but super frustrating because of that traffic. *huffs* Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow afternoon. . .I know the roadwork has gotta be done, but MAN is it screwing everything up with my trips to and from work. *sigh* Four more days before the long weekend -- night all!