Kinda Better Thursday

The heat was on at work today, and I'm ending the night in a better mood than yesterday, that's for sure. Just work itself wasn't great, and I continue to PMS, sooooo. . .what can you do (except post the to-do list) --

Work – As I said, work wasn’t GREAT – while it was decently quiet (and warm), I ended up spending most of the day investigating credit-card-related bullshit (certain things are not coming through when they should be, and I have to track down when the problem started now). Which is never a fun way to spend your day at work. Add in that traffic coming in and going home wasn’t great, and – bleh. At least tomorrow’s Friday. . .

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with Oxventure: Deadlands, “Forty Times A Killer, Part II!” We picked up with Senator Waxman complaining about the pause in his procedure – Edie coldly asked him if he was aware the fellow in the other tube was a fellow human being, and Waxman said yes, a fellow human being who didn’t have ten thousand dollars. Silas growled that the guy was an asshole, prompting Waxman to protest he was a United States Senator –

Cue Silas declaring “I didn’t vote for you” and decking him back into the tube, knocking Waxman unconscious. He then began looking for a “reverse” function on the machine – it quickly became apparent that the only way to reverse the procedure would be to reverse the people, however. Edie was all for shoving Ducrow in there and giving her whatever Edie had picked up from her little minion Harker, but Silas wasn’t sure if they could get her into a tube. The pair began asking where the hell Ducrow even was – Silas was once again unable to intimidate anyone into giving him anything (the orderlies clearly thought that they’d be shoved in the tubes if they talked), but Edie turned on the charm for the man who had already been distracted by her beauty, Sweet William, claiming they were here to warn Ducrow about enemies looking to hurt her, and got him to explain that Ducrow basically spent all of her time in the basement, doing her work, and that the access was through a painting in the main foyer. Edie thanked him, getting him to blush (Mike: “If he wasn’t a horrible person, this would be adorable”), and she and Silas began pondering whether to go down to the basement or get Ducrow to come up here. Andy mentioned at this point that the “receptacle” man in the other tube had woken up and was pounding weakly on the glass; the senator was still unconscious; and Sweet William the orderly was looking for breath mints. Edie reminded him that there were two orderlies –

Andy responded that no, there was only one in this room. Cue an alarm going off and a huge metal shutter slamming over the door as Ellen and Mike didn’t ACTUALLY facepalm, but looked a lot like they wanted to. XD However, it quickly became apparent that there wasn’t going to be anyone coming to investigate the treatment room right away – there weren’t enough people on the staff. Silas decided to use the time productively and dragged Senator Waxman over to the “receptacle” tube while urging the man inside to go into the “donor” tube. Once the switch had been made, Silas pulled the lever, and over the course of a few minutes the man was restored to full health while Waxman basically melted like a candle. Edie also took a quick trip inside the “donor” tube to heal up whatever Harker had given her, which caused Waxman’s face to slough off his skull, followed shortly by the rest of his flesh. XD Edie and Silas were appropriately horrified, even if they felt the senator rather deserved it – Silas even pointed out that melting was an ironic way for a guy named Waxman to go, which earned him a benny. XD The former victim, Robert, thanked them for helping him and explained that he’d lived in Sublimity Falls as the local locksmith until he was snatched and used as a disease receptacle. Silas asked if he’d ever seen Ducrow, but Robert admitted he hadn’t. Silas began wondering if Ducrow could be somehow lured up here and shoved in a tube to get a taste of her own medicine (though Edie pointed out that the only thing they had for the other tube right now was the remains of Waxman, which neither of them wanted to touch), and Edie got Sweet William to call Ducrow over the intercom system in an attempt to impress her.

Ducrow was like “I’m not budging during a security lockdown, do you think I’m an idiot” and closed communications. Seems like they would have to go to her! Fortunately, there was a big old air vent in the wall of the room that they could use to climb through (rather than trying to escape through the intercom system – to be fair, I guess we don’t know how big the speaking “tubes” are for that!) – and while Silas couldn’t wrench the front grill off, he COULD ask Robert to see if he could somehow open it. Robert could (being a locksmith, he didn’t even need to roll), and Edie got Sweet William to give them a boost up into it. She then told him that he really needed to spend some time ruminating on the sort of thing he’d helped do, getting him to look at Waxman’s remains as an example – William promptly failed the Fear roll at looking at the melted corpse and retreated to a corner, gibbering. *shrug* At least he’s out of the way!

With that sorted, the trio of Edie, Silas, and Robert (newly armed with ANOTHER gun Edie had hidden on her – girl, why the hell were you relying on the DERRINGER?!) worked their way through the vent, following it into the main corridor – where Silas promptly tried to kick open another grill. This time he succeeded – but as it was a mere single success, Andy ruled that he managed to knock down the entire section they were in. Edie promptly asked Robert if he was okay – Silas was like “hey,” and Edie was like “you CAUSED it, I’ll ask you SECOND.” Everyone was fine except for a few bruises –

However, unfortunately, Silas hadn’t thought their escape through, as those big metal security shutters proved to be over every door in the corridor, including the one back outside. Edie and Silas began looking around desperately for a way out – Silas’s failure had his hat get stuck over his eyes again, while Edie was able to see a sign pointing down one branch of the T-corridor at the back indicating that the security office was that way. The trio promptly headed there, and after a very brief run in with the other orderly that resulted in a pissed-off Silas uppercutting him out of his shoes and leaving him in an unconscious heap on the floor, they reached the security office!

Which also had a metal shutter over the door. Silas decided he had had enough and tried to lift it – and on a really good Athletics roll. . .managed to get it up about an inch off the ground. XD That was enough for him to hear the ramblings of some old guy inside, wondering what the hell had triggered the lockdown – Silas immediately demanded to be let in, and when asked who he was, claimed to be Sweet William. Causing Ellen to crack up. XD Naturally, the security guard wasn’t falling for it, as Silas didn’t sound anything like Sweet William – Edie tried to help him cover by saying that he’d seen some shit recently, and so the security guard put Silas to a test – if he really was Sweet William, what was his favorite lunch? Silas said “one of my lovely packed lunches with a pot of hummus” and slid the lunch Victoria had made him earlier (complete with empty hummus pot) under the door –

And on a SPECTACULAR Persuasion roll, convinced the security guard this was Sweet William’s lunch. The guy opened the door, and Silas immediately rugby-tackled him. XD Which, thanks to a poor Fightin’ roll on Silas’s part, actually resulted in the guard, who looked at least ninety, holding his own. XD Fortunately Edie (who’d just been standing there watching this in shock) stepped in and managed to tackle the old guy into a chair, where he promptly surrendered. They asked him if he knew what kind of things were going on in this hospital, and he said no, he just took care of security and suchlike. Edie promptly painted the lockdown as the fault of the late Senator Waxman, saying that he’d been rude to the staff, nearly killed poor Robert here, and assaulted Sweet William. The security guard was horrified (“a bad politician!”) and wanted to give Waxman a piece of his mind and his fist – it took Edie a few tries to get him to understand the guy was dead. XD Once he did comprehend that, though, they were able to get him to lift the lockdown and send a little note to Ducrow that everything was fine again.

And so it was back to the reception area, where they had one more person to get past – the receptionist! Fortunately Edie was able to use the same story about Waxman going a bit rogue on him, and get him to leave his post for a bit to get her a nice hot tea to settle her nerves. Once he was gone, the group located the most likely painting to be a secret door (a floor-to-ceiling number with some scuff marks in front of it) – Silas found the hidden catch on the side with a good roll, and the group descended into Ducrow’s lair! I left it on Andy describing the basement as positively medieval, which, honestly, would you expect anything less from a disease pit. . . We’ll see how the pair (and Robert) handle Ducrow and collect their bounty tomorrow!

2. Write Marie’s requested gift fic: Check – I chatted a bit with Marie about what she wanted, and that proved to be making a new partner for her OC Madeline (as she’d gone off the original idea for Madeline’s boyfriend). She liked the idea of Madeline getting involved with a rocker (of any gender), so (after getting a description of the features Madeline would like) I whipped up a story about Madeline going to a club to see a new band, spotting the bass guitarist at the bar afterward, and working up the courage to say “hi” while dealing with a crush. :p Feels a little rough at the moment, but it’s just the first draft – I’ll whip it into shape next week. :p

3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – got in two videos tonight, look at me go –

A) First up, something I spotted in the Recommendeds and had to check out – “Paralives - Gameplay Overview” by, well, Paralives! XD Paralives, in case you don’t know, is an indie life Sim game in development that a lot of people are hoping is going to be the first real competitor for The Sims franchise, and this was their first video featuring actual gameplay (pretty much all of their other videos have been focused on build mode and their version of CAS). The video followed Anisa as she moved into a new place, found a job, started making friends, and eventually found herself a crush. A crush that got her a job at the local high school as a music teacher, no less. XD It was a pretty fascinating look at what they think gameplay is going to be like – how you choose a Parafolk’s personality (and how you level it up), how you start group interactions, how conversations work, how skilling up works, how jobs work. . .it’s a lot different than The Sims, that’s for sure! Best of all, the video ended with the reveal that, apparently, the first Early Access version of the game will be coming out sometime in 2025! So we’ve got about a year to go before we can actually play some Paralives! I am cautiously intrigued – the systems of the game don’t look too hard to pick up, but I am eager to see more of them and how they’re actually going to work. . .

B) And second up, actually from my Subs, we had Josh Way and “SCREEN TIME: Argylle Review!” Another one of his movie reviews, this was his first openly negative review, as he didn’t particularly enjoy this one. He admitted that he went into it annoyed because he was sick of seeing the trailer, and his experience was a bit off thanks to sitting next to two people who were EXTREMELY into the movie (to the point of repeating trailer lines whenever they happened), but the movie just did not gel with him. He took pains not to spoil it, but he said that while the movie has a great cast and a great director, the actual story and writing has some big cracks in it. Revelations feel unearned; characters don’t have anything to actually do, and – very importantly – the books that the movie itself revolves around just aren’t very good, at least in his opinion. He doesn’t want to yuck the yum of anyone who DID enjoy it, but his personal recommendation is to stream it or see it on a plane or something if you MUST watch it. Give yourself the option to get away from it if you don’t like it. *nods* Wise words.

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check, whew –

Victor Luvs Alice – Finished off my latest collection of Valicer In The Dark Not-Incorrect Quotes and queued that up for Friday, then did my Song Saturday post about Miley Cyrus’s “Used To Be Young,” as that song has now been tied in my mind to an older Victor, Alice, and Smiler retiring after their last score proved they’re not as young as they used to be. :) So yeah, that’ll wrap up this VITD-themed week on my tumblr nicely!

Valice Multiverse – One anon ask about how much blood there is in a human’s body – enough to paint a shed, apparently (approximately 1.2 to 1.5 gallons as per the ask). Naturally I had to have Malkavian!Alice answer that one with “hopefully your son doesn’t get any ideas about how to paint any sheds you may own.” XD Good stuff.

*nods* I'm pretty happy with that -- felt good to finally get my VLA queue done! Keeping ahead of that has been a problem lately. . .but now it is time for bed, as I still have one day of work left to get through. Meh. *shakehead* Night all!