Happy Chill Easter!

Yeah, I actually managed to stay calm throughout the day today! I must have used up all my grouchiness earlier in the week. XD Or maybe this is just a side effect of me being off my period in full. . .either way, even if we didn't end up doing anything for Easter (it being too cold for mini-golf meant we didn't even really acknowledge it), I still had a good day --

Tumblr: Did the majority of a dash-and-tags catch-up on Victor Luvs Alice before lunch (made it to the “vtmb” tag, where I got a bit distracted by someone’s Sims 4 recreation of one of their vampires and the various CC links included in the description), then finished up right after lunch with “the smiler,” “alice madness returns,” and “corpse bride” tags. :) Then took a little time after FO4 (below) to quickly get in all the pictures for the Chill Valicer Save update for this week into my drafts with some starter text – only FOUR posts this week, shock and horror. XD Gonna concentrate on getting those done and finishing up the Friday Valicer In The Dark Playbooks post tomorrow!

And as for Valice Multiverse – uh, pretty much nothing going on there, and I couldn’t think of any good fandom reblogs, so – yeah, just left it as is. We’ll see if anything happens on Tuesday!

Fallout 4: Pretty simple day out in the Commonwealth for Victor and Nick today, with me mostly focusing on getting as close to Nordhagen as possible –

A) Started out in the raider camp where we left off last time, with me using the weapons bench there to take a look at the new Penetrating Plasma gun Victor had picked up – it’s a good weapon, though he’s going to need Science! 4 before he can get the most out of it. I took a moment to check the Perk Chart in the Pip-Boy – he can get Gun Nut 4 and Armorer 4 both at level 39, and Science! 4 at level 41. So I guess when I hit level 39, I know exactly where my next three perk points are going!

B) However, Victor’s only level 33 right now, meaning that if I want to get closer to those perks (and any other perks I may want to take between then and now – I DO want at least one rank of Demo Expert for the visible grenade throwing arc, and of course more Strong Back), I gotta kill some enemies and complete some quests! So it was back on the road, with Victor and Nick heading back into South Boston! Though, as I was heading in the general direction of Hester’s Electronics, I noticed what looked like a scrapyard off the main road and figured I might as well check it out –

Only to hear a Legendary Raider yelling at me. Turns out we were right next to the raider encampment that had been built on Andrew Station. Nick let me know where the Legendary guy was by firing his shotgun at the dude – a quick switch to the Mighty Sniper took him out with a nice headshot. I then switched over to the Combat Shotgun to take out the two dogs that came charging at us, and the rest of the raiders as they popped out of the woodwork (plus their turret). Finally trakced down the final guy on the roof, then located the Legendary’s corpse – dude had a Cunning Synth Left Arm on him! This boosts Agility and Perception by a point each – nice, but what I’m currently wearing boosts Strength and Endurance, which might be more important right now. We’ll see how I feel going forward!

C) With the raiders dead, it was time to do a bit of looting – getting anything interesting or useful off the corpses, raiding the trash bins and bathrooms (lots of good stuff in those!), checking the one working terminal (unfortunately all it did was control the turret), and cracking open a safe (lots of ammo, yay). Once all the goodies were collected (and some stuff offloaded onto Nick), I had Victor set out again, looping around some buildings until he reached the robot buddy patrolling near the broken bit of elevated highway near Hester’s Electronics. Continued on from there into downtown south Boston, keeping close to the waterfront –

D) And then, right by a red beached boat, Nick said something about an enemy – and I turned to see a LEGENDARY GLOWING RADSCORPION coming at us. I quickly yanked up VATS and fired my Two-Shot at the right claw –

ONE HIT KILL! :D Oh, you better believe I saved after that. XD Radscorpion ended up having nothing more interesting than some meat and a Penetrating Meat Hook on it – good, but as I’m not really a melee player, only interesting as something to sell later. Still, not gonna complain about taking down a Legendary Glowing Radscorpion with a single shot! Or I guess technically a double shot. . .oh Two-Shot, you’re my favorite. :D

E) With that taken care of, I sent Victor and Nick further into the city, cutting around the Shamrock Taphouse by going into the rubble – only to run into a bunch of super mutants by Hub 360. I ended up killing a bunch of mutant hounds and a Brute while Nick used his shotgun to handle some mutants up-top. . .and then Victor got the “you have to go to the bathroom” notice and I had to retreat backwards to find some flat road so he could use his port-a-potty. *facepalm* Fortunately the enemies didn’t follow him back there, and he was able to poop in peace. I guess Nick took care of them before they could get me! Thanks Nick!

F) Anyway – had the poop, then had Victor rejoin Nick and reorient himself by Hub 360 (with a dead raider outside, though I don’t know if he was supposed to be a super mutant victim or the other guy Nick was shooting at). I determined I was near Goodneighbor, and as Victor was tired, decided to make that my next destination. Wound through the streets until I found the entrance (ONCE AGAIN I found the back of the place before the front), then headed straight for KLE0 and Daisy to do some shopping. With KLE0, I had Victor trade a bunch of ammo he wasn’t using (2mm electromagnetic cartridges, mini nukes, missiles, flamer fuel, gamma rounds, 5mm rounds, a bunch of .38 rounds) plus the Penetrating Meat Hook to her for .50 ammo and plasma cartridges (nice even fair trade), then got a LOT of useful junk off of Daisy (some duct tape and anything I could find with aluminum, crystal, fiberglass, or fiber optics in it – plus a kickball for some spare rubber) in exchange for selling her antibiotics, spare food, and a bit of Jet (actually made a profit on that one!). With that sorted, I watched Nick berate a deadbeat client he’d spotted lingering near the shops (apparently he’d found the drifter’s doll, and she hadn’t paid him yet – I’d never seen that interaction from him before, so it was interesting), then dragged the now-exhausted Victor over to the Hotel Rexford to rent his customary room as the staff argued with each other (Markowski complaining to Stan about how looking at him reminds him of the good old days when he had a proper crew, then reassuring the guy that it’s all right; Fred insisting Claire likes him and Claire saying that thanks to him, only deadbeats come to the hotel anymore). Fun times. XD

G) Anyway, Victor went to bed at 7:30 PM, so he was up pretty early at 2:30 AM – I had him leave his room, then do some fiddling on his portable workbench – namely, looking at the Cunning synth left arm and the two alternate chest plates he’d picked up. I’m still not sure about the Cunning left arm – it can be upgraded for decent protection, but I’m still not sure the +1 Agility and Perception is better than +1 Strength and Endurance. As for the chest plates, the leaded combat armor one can be upgraded to decent levels, but I don’t think it’s better than the Destroyer one I’ve got on. The Sturdy Synth one, though. . .that can go up a LOT, and might be worth ditching the “damage from humans reduced by 15%” effect of the Destroyer. I dunno yet, though, and I still need more fiberglass to get it all the way up anyway, so I gave everything back to Nick in the end. I’ve got the workbench in case I want to switch out anything on the fly!

H) With that taken care of, I sent Victor and Nick back out into the world at large at about 5:41 AM (finding a dead settler right outside Goodneighbor – not sure what happened to them, but I took what was on the corpse). From there, it was over to the Old Corner Bookstore, then past the USS Constitution on its new perch, then past the Old North Church, straight to the water front (which was – bubbling in a rather concerning way O.o). I followed that for a bit, heading for the nearby bridge –

When I remembered “Oh yeah, we’re near Pickman’s – didn’t I leave some stuff in the dumpsters over there?” So I went back and checked (encouraged by the MASSIVE FIREFIGHT that seemed to be happening SOMEWHERE nearby and clearly involved what appeared to be nukes). I did indeed leave some stuff the dumpsters over there, but it was nothing I really wanted, so I left it, avoided the massive firefight (seriously, have NO idea where it was – somewhere deeper in the city but close enough to hear all the screaming and whatnot!) and took Victor and Nick across the bridge, over to the Weatherby Savings and Loan (where poor Lookout was still patrolling. . .and where I found some military-grade duct tape in a wrecked desk, score!). I saved and quit right next to the bridge on the other side of the building, looking out across the water in the general direction of where I want to go – according to my map, I should hit County Crossing first, and from there I can follow the road past the Revere Satellite Array in the general direction of Nordhagen. :) Progress!

Writing: Sunday means it’s FO4 Playthrough Progression Day! Today’s entry was pretty much identical to what happened in the actual game above, just with a little extra flavor text – like Nick realizing they’re right on top of Eddie Winter’s hideout after they kill the raiders at Andrew Station, and Victor consoling him that they’ve at least gotten rid of the guy’s guards; Victor commenting how much he loves the Two-Shot Combat Rifle when he uses it to take down the Legendary Glowing Radscorpion (and Nick agreeing); and Alice commenting from her sleeping bag that Nick is never going to see his deadbeat client with the doll again when she promises to get the money for him as soon as possible and then skedaddles – and Nick, remembering that Alice is mildly psychic thanks to her Malkavian powers, asking if she means that in a “the client will now forever avoid me” way or a “the client will soon die” way (I didn’t know myself, so Alice didn’t get a clear answer from Wonderland XD). But yeah, just lots of the gang traveling; killing a few raiders, super mutants, and that radscorpion; stopping at Goodneighbor to do their shopping and get a room; checking over the various guns and armor that Victor has collected; and then traveling some more until they reached the Savings and Loan (with no Lookout sadly patrolling outside anymore since they reunited him with his crew in my fanfic universe). Easy peasy lemon squeezy, yay. :)

YouTube: Kept up with Gray and Jon, and TECHNICALLY watched some OXBox RE4 Remake content, so technical win –

A) Started off with the Subs and GrayStillPlays – “When your car can end humanity with one click,” aka Gray Plays Earn To Die 2! Remember that game he played where you were someone trying to get to a plane to escape the zombie apocalypse, and you had to run over zombies and destroy scenery to earn money to get new cars and trick them out with all the latest zombie-killing equipment? Yup, this is the sequel, and now you’re driving to Florida in cars ranging from essentially a dune buggy, to an ice cream truck, to a big old van, to a fire truck, to a dump truck. And you can upgrade them with armor, blades, weights (to help you plow through obstacles), boosts of various types, and various bigger and bigger guns. The levels are longer, the zombies are meatier, the explosions more frequent, and your car actually takes damage and can fall apart as you go through the level! It was a true delight for the senses as Gray mowed down zombies, earned cars, and then kitted them out for maximum undead carnage – especially when he accidentally managed to glitch out his money once and thus get a bunch more upgrades a LOT sooner. :D He did eventually make it to Florida and get to plow through zombies in the fully-upgraded dump truck – and then drive the resultant smoking wreck (just the two front wheels and the cab) to the shipping container boat that would take him to freedom. XD Great stuff – you gotta love him showing off a silly game that knows it’s silly and is just gonna take full advantage of it.

B) Then it was over to the Watch Later for that OXBox RE4 Remake fun – “11 Best Secrets and Hidden Easter Eggs in the Resident Evil 4 Remake!” Yeah, still haven’t gotten to their actual LP yet, but I was able to enjoy THIS, at least. XD Some of my favorites included the fact that, in a later chapter, Leon can backtrack to Salazar’s throne and sit on it in an appropriately regal pose as chickens run around him; Ashley references the famous “master of unlocking” line when she unlocks a door for you at one point; you can egg Salazar’s portrait to deface it (in fact, it’s a special request from the merchant!); and you can get an achievement for throwing a grenade in Salazar’s mouth during his boss fight called “You Talk Too Much!” As Andy said, an achievement for something you wanted to do anyway is the best kind of achievement. XD Ahh, good stuff.

C) And finally, it was time for the weekly Jon video – “Fallout: Tale of Two Wastelands - Part 24 - The Full Story of the Enclave!” Yes, as indicated last week, today Jon went hunting the Enclave all over the DC Wastes to see what they were up to and to get a better picture of what the hell they were trying to do – mostly because the main plot missions don’t do a very good job of this, despite them being the main antagonists from the moment they rock up, take over the purifier, and kill your dad. But if you take a moment to explore and find all their little camps, then you can get at least some idea of what’s going on with them. The key points being:

I. There is a split in the faction! This is actually something that’s covered by the main plot missions, in that the two main baddies of the Enclave, President Eden and Colonel Autumn, hate each other and refuse to work together (you learn this when you meet Eden in all his technological glory – yeah, spoiler alert, he’s a computer). But there’s a few hints that there’s a split before you learn this in the plot – namely, while Autumn and his faction are all about getting control of the purifier to use it as leverage to control the locals, Eden and anyone still loyal to him are all about wiping out all those who are “genetically noncompliant” – basically anyone who’s been touched by radiation damage and thus is at risk for mutating, even if they’re not actually a ghoul. And how are those in Eden’s Enclave accomplishing this? By setting up small camps on the roads to monitor the movement of the locals; forcing people to stop for “genetic compliance” testing (and using purified water rations to reward people for complying quietly); detaining those who fail the test in holding cells (either official or makeshift), and then flamethrowering them on the regular when the cells get full or when the detainees get too “LET ME OUT.” Jon showed off a couple of these camps, including a soldier flambeing unlucky detainees (a feral ghoul, a regular ghoul, and a full-human wastelander) and the terminal with their orders. It paints a fascinating picture of this faction going around destroying the wasteland one shipping container full of people at a time. :( (One of the comments even added that, if you look at these camps, the holding cells provided seem DELIBERATELY small, meaning that the cells get full very quickly – like the computer making the decisions realized this is a perfect loophole to allow it to commit genocide without LOOKING like it’s committing genocide.)

II. They’re actually useful in getting rid of some of the tougher enemies! Yes, much like how when the Brotherhood of Steel rocks up in FO4, you can find BOS patrols around the Commonwealth taking out threats like super mutants and feral ghouls, when the Enclave appear, certain dangerous areas get less dangerous because Enclave vertibirds and patrols are scripted to appear there and start taking out enemies. Jon visited a few dangerous areas with a lot of super mutants to show this off – yes, okay, the super mutants DID usually end up the victors, but they took heavy losses in the process. Especially during a fight on the steps of the Capitol Building where a deathclaw was brought to the fight (yes, the Enclave will bring deathclaws with them to fights – remember that for later). Resulted in wibbly corpses and everything! But yes, the Enclave do have a purpose beyond “being the horrible main baddies,” and sometimes it’s to wipe out some of the threats giving you a problem during your travels!

III. They’re not having it all their own way – and sometimes it’s to be WIPED out by those threats. Jon showed off a few key moments of “the Enclave aren’t dominating the DC Wasteland like they’d hoped” – a decimated camp unwisely built above some Yao Guai tunnels (aka the Enclave ticked off some huge bears), and a vertibird trying to show their air superiority getting blasted out of the sky by super mutants. The Enclave are doing DECENTLY well in the DC Ruins, to be sure, especially their Hellfire troops, but they’re not unstoppable! (As per Wanda managing to pick them off constantly.)

IV. And most importantly – they’re not just committing slow genocide, they’re doing science! Mostly to facilitate the genocide. Because, you know, they ARE evil. But yes, there’s a few experiments you can find if you know where to look! Jon showed off a camp where one of the officers inside of it has a special RHO-chip card that keeps the turrets in that camp from firing on her – or whoever else is holding the card, such as Wanda after she nailed the lady in the head (sadly, it only works on THAT camp and no others – Jon considered that a wasted opportunity); then another where the Enclave had set up a camp near a giant crater full of radiation, with hazmat-suited scientists inside – turns out they were there to raid an army truck in the crater that was carrying alien blaster rounds (in one of the little reminders that, oh yeah, aliens are totally a thing in the Fallout universe and the US government was studying them); then another where they were studying the local wildlife (in surprising detail; the terminals in these camps are a great source of info on where the various mutated beasts come from and what their physiology is like) and looking for special abilities to splice into other creatures; and finally another at the Deathclaw Sanctuary – he previously declined to go there because, you know, full of Deathclaws, but now that the Enclave was there, he was ready to rock up and take a look. Mostly because a) the Enclave soldiers were killing most of the deathclaws for him –

And b) because he could show off how the Enclave are trying to MIND-CONTROL deathclaws. With little mind control helmets. Apparently trying to control deathclaws is one of their ongoing projects – in Fallout 2, they tried increasing their intelligence, only for the intelligent deathclaws to tell them to fuck off and then try to form their own society in the abandoned Vault 13, so now they’re just resorting to straight-up mind control. And looking at the other creatures in the area to see how they can beef up the mind-controlled deathclaws even more. It’s pretty fascinating stuff. And a deeper dive into the Sanctuary netted Wanda some nice new weapons off the Enclave corpses – “Jack,” a special bonus crit chance Ripper chainsaw, and “Vengeance,” a – well, it’s a gun Jon used in one of his previous LPs, but I’m not entirely sure what it is or what it does, hang on. *looks up on Wiki* Oh, it’s a fucking Gatling laser. Fully automatic and has some very high DPS. Yes, this is a very good gun to find in a cave full of deathclaws! Also got the Endurance bobblehead, which is nice.

So yes, by traveling around the Wasteland and exploring the Enclave camps (after slaughtering all the personnel within, of course), you can get an idea of the Enclave’s aims in the DC ruins, and what their end goals are. Jon’s personal theory is that, with the Brotherhood of Steel catching up to them in the tech wars, they’re desperate to find a way to keep their tech lead – or, at least Eden’s group is. Autumn’s group is more about adapting to the situation they find themselves in and figuring out how to control the unwashed masses instead of just slaughtering them. It’s all pretty fascinating stuff, and a good look into a group I didn’t know much about, because – well. Enclave never shows up in Fallout 4. So I appreciated the history lesson! And next week is a mystery because Jon hasn’t decided what he’s going to do yet – looking forward to whatever he picks!

Workout: Back on the bike tonight, officially starting the next Oxventure story arc – “Legacy of Dragons!” With episode one, “Shell Shock!” Having quickly fled the Honeymoon Village in the wake of the “lift accident” that killed Bush Ranger and Carlos (and somehow led to the death of A. A. Tompkin and the theft of much valuable, blood-spattered food), the gang set up a sulfur-and-bones bonfire outside of a tavern some ways down the road – the bones being provided by Egbert, who was happily chomping down on some ribs. (There were a few questions asked about what kind of ribs they were and how he was eating so much, and it was canonically decided Egbert has parasites. Andy was like “isn’t it great to see what we add to the canon.” XD) The bonfire was to summon Bismuth, who came flying in and crashed right into it to gobble down a bunch of bones and sulfur before noticing oh hey, the others were here. After a quick recap of how far into her big news they’d gotten (basically, that them setting Liliana on the big old white dragon up the mountain near Necropolis-On-Sea as a distraction during “Dine Hard” had had unexpected consequences), Bismuth suggested they go into the tavern and hire the private dining room to talk away from prying eyes. Corazon immediately rolled to look for prying eyes, got a nat 20, and realized Bismuth just wanted to gobble up more bones and sulfur while they went inside. Egbert, seeing how much she was scarfing down, promptly decided they were in an eating contest and chowed down on a bunch of bones and sulfur himself – one bad Consitution roll later, all his parasites were dead. Dob suggested holding a burial the next time he pooped, and Corazon made it very clear he was not having a funeral for Egbert’s shit. XD

ANYWAY – the gang did eventually get inside, where Bismuth hired the back room and set up the G’eth version of a projector (an oil lamp behind a giant lens to illuminate a big wall of pressed wax you could scratch things into) while the gang had drinks (wine, ale, wine and ale in Dob’s case – and he also overtipped the barmaid, as was his wont). Once everything was settled, Bismuth explained that she’d gone up the mountain to see what had become of the dragon after Liliana was done with it – no body, but a LOT of blood, so if it hadn’t died up there, it had definitely dragged itself off to die in a hole somewhere. Dob was horrified because it hadn’t really registered with him before that Liliana had almost certainly killed the dragon, while Corazon was thrilled because that meant the dragon’s hoard was unguarded! Bismuth confirmed that was the case, but said it was probably not a good idea to go up the mountain while Liliana still held the house (oh, by the way, she’s FINE under her new mistress, thanks for asking), and that there was an additional wrinkle –

Cue Bismuth unhinging her jaw and somehow managing to hork up FIVE DRAGON EGGS. I mean, I guess it’s canon that she can transform herself as needs be, but damn. And on top of that, four of the eggs were plain white, as you might expect – but the fifth one was GOLD. Cue Johnny dropping a bit of G’eth lore – namely, that golden dragons have been extinct on Geth for at least three centuries, meaning this rare color aberration is a BIG DEAL. Corazon immediately saw a fresh new money-making opportunity in selling the eggs, but the others were having none of it – particularly Dob, who was determined to do right by SOME orphans, and Prudence, who wanted to see if they could literally raise a dragon army. XD Corazon, blinded by his greed, tried to scoop the egg into his coat even as Merilwen named it “Simon” in honor of her dead cat friend (changing it to “Symon” on Dob’s suggestion a moment later so it was more dragony) and attempted to flee –

Cue Egbert pulling out Misty Step to stop him by teleporting in front of the door. Everyone was shocked because, well, when Egbert actually USES his paladin magic, he means BUSINESS. Corazon rolled a 2 to try and get past him and thus basically just got clotheslined by the dragonborn. XD Egbert explained what his problem was with just selling the golden egg – namely, that his old order, Le Dragon D’Or, will be very interested in it, as their name literally translates to “Golden Dragon” (in Tabaxi, because it’s vaguely French like all Tabaxi in this universe – inspiration get for Mike) and they kind of worship them. So maybe they shouldn’t just go around selling it willy-nilly. (Corazon was like “what do you care, you have your purple cow order now, go find a purple cow egg” – Egbert was like “well, if you find one of those, tell me” while Bismuth cautioned against picking those up. XD) The gang also quickly named the OTHER eggs so Corazon wouldn’t try to sell those – the white ones are now Corazon Jr., Iron Jr. (after the fish man that Dob temporarily adopted), Orphan’s Bane Jr. (after Dob’s own nickname, given his little INCIDENT with the skeletons), and Bloodwing (not after anyone, Prudence just laid claim to one).

With Corazon’s desire to sell all the eggs dampened, and Dob having confirmed with a good Wisdom roll that they are hardy eggs and won’t hatch until they’re properly incubated in a high heat source, the task now became “try to get the eggs out of the tavern.” (They’d already had ONE close call with the barmaid on the other side of the door, after all.) It was suggested putting them back into Bismuth, but Dob was reluctant, as he didn’t want to put all their eggs into one Bismuth (inspiration!) – also, she’s old, frail, and has duties at Necropolis-On-Sea. Bismuth was a bit insulted, but admitted that Liliana DID have her altering all of Corazon’s clothes to fit her. Corazon was appalled, while everyone else admitted Lilana would probably look great in them. XD Egbert took Bismuth outside to give her a helpful boot in the right direction, then talk turned to how they could get the eggs out of there. First thought so far is to disguise them as owlbear eggs – smuggling those is very illegal, sure, but it’d probably get them in less trouble than dragging around DRAGON eggs. Merilwen has an idea of what an owlbear egg SHOULD look like, which is useful – but the trouble is going to be hiding the gold one. . .we’ll see how THAT pans out tomorrow! I already have my suspicions about the barmaid and HER true loyalties. . .though maybe I’m reading into that a bit much. :p

Other: Answered Moose’s messages, w00! Now hopefully I can do Ace’s FF.net PM in good time as well. :p

Not bad, not bad at all! And now I only have one day left of my long vacation. . .it's been a little more up and down with the stress levels than I'd like, but it's also all still been better than work. Hoping to make the most of my last day with some more Sims 4, some more Valicer Polyship week prompts, getting my tumblr posts for the week ready, and maybe even watching some OXBox RE4 LP. We can but hope! And it all starts with going to bed a little earlier, so -- night all!