More Early Wrap-Ups!

Though admittedly this is partially because I focused on getting my review done for Chapter 4 of "Beneath a Broken Sky" over other stuff. . .I really wanted to do it today, and it's easier for me if I focus on one Important Text Item per evening! Especially since I should be right on the verge of my damn period, meaning focus is at a real premium right now. . .bleh. We'll see what happens tomorrow! In the meantime, though, I have a to-do list:

Work – Quiet day today – handful of credit card calls, a few things with the credit card people (those missing gifts have been posted at least), and then pretty much all the rest was roster maintenance. *shrug* I’ll take it! Though it looks like the next mailing is going out soon, so that’ll be fun. . .

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike tonight, and onto Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark – “First Flight Of The Sparrowhawk!” And this is the one that Kasimir has been dreading, because in this adventure it’s just him and Barnaby. XD Barnaby, of course, was absolutely delighted to hang out with Kasimir, and insisted on dragging him off to a gambling house to meet his cousin Percy Pommeroy, one of those weedy sorts who always has a cold. Barnaby was in his element in the gambling house – having finally healed up from the exhaustion of helping Lilith drag that fancy anchor up from the depths and getting punched at Zillah’s fight club (aka Mike had a really good healing roll as one of his free downtime actions), he got down to some very efficient carousing and cleared all his lingering stress from his lovely crimes (and of course being kidnapped) in moments (aka Mike ALSO completely cleared his stress with a really good stress roll as his OTHER downtime action). Kasimir, meanwhile, was feeling rather out of place, but at least was sporting a nice shiny coat from his time vetting the veterinarians of Volisport to see who was keen on some off-the-books human surgery (what Johnny used THEIR free downtime action for – almost found that new doctor!). XD

Anyway – the pair met Percy at the card table, where Percy began talking about how boring his life was and sort of hinting that he had a secret to share, if anyone was interested. Barnaby managed to Sway him into revealing it – Percy was getting into Volisport’s illegal racing scene! He’d stumbled across a woman named Hicks who’d promised to get him in for a large cash down payment, and now he was going down to Six Towers tomorrow at midnight to have his very first race! Kasimir, having recognized Hicks’s name as a notorious con artist and get-rich-quick schemer, and wanting to try and get to the sucker before she could, was very keen on them joining Percy for his little illegal race, as was Barnaby, who pointed out to Percy that he wouldn’t have told them if he hadn’t, on some level, wanted them to tag along. Percy admitted it would be nice to have people cheering him on and/or keeping an eye on him (revealing he’d even made team uniforms!), so soon enough it was settled that they’d go along with Percy as his secret criminal masterminds. They hashed out the details over cards (with Barnaby forcing Kasimir to get up and get the drinks – Kasimir got up groaning very loudly about his leg and bringing the drinks one at a time, making sure his was the biggest whiskey on the table; Barnaby was utterly oblivious to the passive aggression XD), and once they had the address of the warehouse it was all kicking off at, and had spent the next morning nursing their hangovers and having brunch, off they trotted the following afternoon to check it out! Barnaby insisted on going first to Survey the place –

And managed to draw attention to himself sneaking around with an ill-timed burp from his brunch. XD Catching the attention of two people sitting on a giant crate nearby playing dice – some shabby-looking fellow and a woman dressed as a pirate. The woman came up to Barnaby to demand to know who he was and why he was there – Barnaby explained that he was an “independent contractor” (since his chosen moniker of “The Butcher” made her initially think he was with her companion Hank as one of the Billhooks gang), and was just around looking for work. The woman was clearly suspicious of this well-dressed weirdo wanting to do crime – fortunately this is when Kasimir stepped in and explained that Barnaby was a useless sod down on his luck, and that Kasimir had sort of taken him under his wing to stop him just getting smacked over the head and having his possessions robbed off him. There was a LOT about Barnaby being utterly useless. XD Kasimir did hint that he was good for schmoozing the better-heeled members of Volisport, though, while he himself was good at crowd control, which got the woman’s attention. This was in fact Hicks herself, and after sending Hank away into the warehouse, she told them about how she’d gotten into the illegal racing scene – apparently she’d told some rich sucker, Lord Pom-something (Pommeroy? No, Pomeranian, thanks Kasimir), that she could get him in, he’d given her loads of money, and she’d decided to try it out for real! Fortunately not the INCREDIBLY illegal snail-racing Luke had previously established was a crime punishable by death without trial (thanks to an aging emperor who became obsessed with his pet snails at the end of his life; the thrill of the race is trying to get your snail to go as SLOW as possible, all the while knowing that if you’re caught by the Bluecoats, that is IT) – no, this was vehicle-racing! And the particular vehicle in question needed four people to run it, and as it turned out, Hicks was short two people (her own crew members had never shown up for whatever reason). Barnaby and Kasimir agreed to join up for the duration of the race, and Barnaby got Kasimir with his bad leg to push the crate containing said vehicle, the Sparrowhawk, into the warehouse with Hicks. (TV Tropes suggested this might have been revenge for all the “useless” comments, but I totally took it as just Barnaby being Barnaby. XD)

Anyway, they got the crate inside (though Kasimir was absolutely worn out by the experience), and upon looking around the warehouse and seeing the others working on their vehicles, it became apparent that this was a hot air balloon race! Between themselves, the Red Sashes gang, the Lampblack gang, the Billhooks gang, and the Railjacks, the people who keep the trains of the Empire safe in the Deathlands. Hank, apparently in charge of this whole thing, got their names for the official roster, and while Barnaby and Hicks attempted to puzzle out the balloon (Barnaby insisting it couldn’t be THAT hard, you just put hot air in it), Kasimir decided to talk to the Railjacks because they actually looked like they knew what they were doing. XD We’ll see how that goes tomorrow! I’m looking forward to seeing how the race itself goes too – I mean, the title made it pretty obvious flight was going to be involved, but I thought it was going to be a PLANE, not a balloon. Then again, I guess “balloon” fits Volisport’s implied tech level a bit better. . .either way, I want to see what goes down! (Hopefully not the balloon.)

2. Continue writing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice had a nice short boss fight today with Kanker, mostly due to the fact that she, unlike the actual protagonist of VTMB, can make use of those meat hooks hanging from the ceiling of his little “chapel.” And make use of them she DID, by baiting Kanker into jumping at her (after shooting him a couple of times) and impaling him through his lower jaw with one. Just long enough for her to get around him and shoot him twice in the back of the head to reduce him to dust. I mean, she’s already slinking through the sewers, AND she has the horrible plague house and Bishop Vick with his Celerity and his shotgun coming up – I can cut her a little break here!

3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – two easy ones to knock out today –

A) “SKETCHY: Wade from U.S. Acres” by Josh Way! Another short video from his Duckember advent calendar, with – well, look at the title. XD U.S. Acres being Jim Davidson’s OTHER comic strip, set on a farmyard, because back in the day he DID want to occasionally break away from his money-making cartoon cat. :p Josh remembered being a big fan of Garfield as a kid (and enjoying U.S. Acres well enough), and considers it a good way to get kids into cartoon and cartooning. Though he is glad that his daughter likes Calvin & Hobbes better. XD

B) “Any challenge you draw comes alive” by GrayStillPlays! This was Car Drawing Challenge, where you had to draw a “car” to complete various challenge courses, such as making it over various gaps, working your way over and through various cogs, and forcing your way through various bits of destructible scenery. The game wanted you to do simple lines, but Gray being Gray, he spent a lot of time drawing various stick creatures, shotguns, dragons with gingivitis, toilets, and off-brand Doritos. As a result, it took him about nine minutes (of an about-sixteen minute video) to figure out that the wheels on his creations were NOT being placed randomly, but instead were going at the beginning and end of his line, and thus it was his own fault that they kept ending up inside of his half-eaten donuts and Pac-Man heads. XD He got it eventually, though, and started drawing things that actually WORKED for the courses. Like dead stick figures! Or squiggly spoons of sadness! Or a single dot because he actually let go of the virtual pen too soon, only for that dot to actually make it across! XD It was very silly fun and I enjoyed it. :p

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – got this done early on Victor Luvs Alice, putting my six-part Chill Valicer Save update and my “Valicer In The Dark” AU write-up into that queue for Wednesday and Thursday respectively – still deciding on my Friday! As for Valice Multiverse, there wasn’t really anything going on there when I checked (though I did catch up on some messages with an old partner), so I ended up just throwing my original Valicer Incorrect Quotes post in that queue. Because Valicer stuff is now a possibility on that blog, so I might as well let everyone know what the vibes are. XD

Not bad, not bad. . .and now it is time to wrap up here and head to bed. After putting a pad in, lest my period arrive in the middle of the night. *grumble* Biological systems suck sometimes, yo. At least we're approaching the halfway point of the week now -- night all!