PMS Brain Into Period Brain

Yup -- ended up getting the full-on red curse today right before lunch. *sigh* Just figures, right? Though it does explain why I was so distracted yesterday from everything. . .anyway, this led to me skipping playing Fallout 4 (I was just too TIRED most of the day), so here's the alternate to-do list that features me spending a lot more time on tumblr and YouTube --

Tumblr: The Valice Multiverse remained dead today, but I had a really productive day on Victor Luvs Alice –

A) I caught up on my dash and tracked tags today before lunch (throwing a Smiler on-ride video, some VTMB fanart, some A:MR fanart, and an A:MR gifset into the drafts)

B) I answered the ask for “have you ever thought about a Hypothetical Smiler in Forgotten Vows Verse” after lunch (in more detail than I had planned O.o The ideas just kept coming fast and furious as I wrote!)

C) And I replied to that massive reblog from Magical Caffeine about her two AUs featuring the Forgotten Vows Verse characters either being thrown into another world, or having an OC of hers show up at the same time Doc and Marty from BTTF do and getting involved in their nonsense this afternoon (because it took me a WHILE to write up an equally-massive reply to her – had to make sure I got everything! Which was tough while fighting off the period tired. . .)

So yeah, at least I’m all caught up there! Though, uh, I didn’t actually do anything for Wednesday of this week yet. . .I’ll worry about that tomorrow!

Writing: Didn’t get much writing done today, admittedly, but I did update the “Valicer In The Dark” master doc with a few notes on the various Traumas that my trio either currently are dealing with (Alice) or will be dealing with in the future (Smiler and Victor). Specifically, I wrote up the description for Smiler’s unique “Possessed” Trauma, adapted from the “opening your mind to a Forgotten God” advanced play mechanics from the book (which gives Smiler the ability to call upon some of their god Mar-Mal’s power to stun enemies. . .at the cost of risking being possessed by them for the rest of the score); worked up some game mechanics for Alice’s “Haunted” Trauma (saying that it could randomly add or subtract a die from rolls, depending on whether I have Wonderland helping or hindering during the action); and talked about what Traumas would be appropriate for Victor to start (thinking “Obsessed” to make him a little too eager to gain more power as a Whisper, or “Paranoid” to make him a little too concerned with keeping him and his safe). It was something, and it’s good stuff to have for their character sheets!

YouTube: While my decision not to play video games mostly led to me plowing through some tumblr stuff I’d been meaning to get to, it also led to me getting in a few bonus videos and thus getting fully caught up on all the YouTube I wanted to watch –

A) First up, we had “⚠️The DEADLIEST Color You’ve Never Heard of 💜☠️ (London Purple)” by A Brush With Bekah! Linked in that really long “my Forgotten Vows AUs” reblog I answered today, this was a short video showing London Purple, a super-deadly arsenic-based powder that was the byproduct of making a specific purple dye that could be used as a lovely purple paint. And an insecticide, which is what it was actually marketed as (the tin advertised itself as being good for killing potato bugs). :p Bekah found this tin of the stuff on an “unnamed auction website” and (with LOTS of safety equipment on so she didn’t poison herself) showed us a sample and mixed it with a binder so we could see what it looked like as a paint. Pretty darn good, honestly – shame it’s so fucking poisonous that less than a teaspoon could kill you. Why does all the cool Victorian stuff have to be made out of poison?!

B) Then, this afternoon, I got to the OXBox list that I couldn’t watch yesterday – “7 Hardest Early Bosses That Unexpectedly Kicked Your Ass!” Which was another Jane/Luke collaboration (everyone else out this week?) talking about early bosses that served as SERIOUS wake-up calls to players that you are NOT as good at this game as you think you are. Think you’re ready for the run-and-gun shenanigans of Cuphead? Cagney Carnation of the first island is here to say “I don’t think so!” Think you’re ready for the punch-punch side-scrolling beat-em-up simplicity of Final Fight? Sodom of the second subway level is here to go “let’s see if you really are!” Think you’re ready for the open world RPG shenanigans of Elden Ring? Margit the Fell Omen is here to go “THIS IS A FROM SOFTWARE GAME, PREPARE TO FUCKING DIE.” XD Basically, these bosses are here to make sure you really do have the skills to take the game on – or to make you realize “okay, too hard for me, I’m out” if you don’t early enough that you don’t feel like you wasted too much time. Nice of them!

C) Then, tonight, we had GrayStillPlays and “Ending 1 billion lives with glucose,” aka Gray plays more Cookie Clicker! Specifically, Gray plays “Business Day”-themed Cookie Clicker, which is the April Fools version of the game that has you supposedly buying more “normal” stuff like “super markets” and “secret recipes,” though the veneer of normality is VERY thin. Anyway, in this episode, Gray activated a few cookie gods for people to worship up (boosting his autoclicker’s production and his various buildings’ production); played the stock market (buying nuts and sugar low and then selling high); started his own little garden full of wheat (which I think does increase your cookies per second); bought enough buildings to turn his milk red with – raspberries; opened his first cookie portal (since it was Business Day, this was done via starting a cookie television show); cast magic spells to increase his buffs and force golden contracts to appear; bought enough mines to hollow out the earth; and delighted in the power of the Frenzy, which massively increased cookie production for a short time (not that he needed the help, as he’s already making billions upon billions of cookies). Basically, Gray has totally gotten into this silly little clicker game, and it is great. I am hopeful for more episodes – especially since he has not yet started a certain apocalypse that can happen in this game. . .

D) And finally, we had Jon of Many A True Nerd and “Fallout 4: Sim Settlements 2 - Part 31 - This Army, Actually,” with Mayor Bob using the army he’d raised consisting of Minutemen, Commonwealth Police Department cops, and Brotherhood of Steel Soldiers to attack the Gunner Plaza and get his Comm Hub back! Though there were a few more steps to go through before they could rain hell upon the Gunners –

I. Step One – They needed to get the blueprints for the Gunner Plaza building, so they had an idea of what they were looking at, layout-wise. So we picked up with Bob and Lupe in Diamond City to go chat with The Ron and see what information he could get them. The Ron was fortunately more or less back to his old cool-cat swingin’ self, though he did get serious for a moment to tell Bob that he’s glad that Bob was able to rescue Jake, and that he’s extremely sorry for ratting them out in response to the torture and would do his best to make it up to them. Bob fortunately was very understanding (Jon was like “why should I expect you to hold out under TORTURE?”), and The Ron actually did pretty well in making up to him right away – when Lupe asked for whatever plans he had on the Plaza to help prepare for the attack, Ron was able to find some records for the old Galaxy News Network building (which was what the plaza was before the War and the Gunners) which included blueprints! Which he handed over free of charge, aw. And when Bob slapped on the old dress and asked if he could do better in response to seeing an orange speech check, The Ron admitted that he’d made an updated dossier on the big movers and shakers in the Gunner hierarchy and gave Bob a copy for his own perusal. So yeah – some good information from The Ron that is sure to come in useful later! Lupe told Bob that she’d be staying at The Ron’s place for a bit to mark up the blueprints with what she remembered of the Gunner’s various defenses and whatnot (if “Mr. Ron” was okay with that – he was, though he was bit grumbly as he told her it was “THE Ron”), and Bob prepared to return to Concord to chat with Jake –

II. Except, hang on – Shhandy, the little kid messenger from the Commonwealth Police Department was ALSO hanging around The Ron’s office! Once he was done with the Ron, Bob asked him what was up – apparently the CPD has tracked down that former Gunner gone rogue, The Butcher, and wanted Bob’s help in figuring out the best way to track him down! Bob was willing, but a) was a little busy with his whole “storm Gunners headquarters plan” and b) didn’t want to do any Butcher-arresting until he’d helped Simon secure his judge, which was going to be a separate long trip, so the news went into his back pocket for later. It’ll wait until the protagonist gets there!

III. Anyway – with the plans secured and Lupe marking them up, it was time for Bob to take a vertibird taxi over to Concord and chat with Jake at his place! Only to discover the place empty, and a note left for him by Jake’s ham radio, explaining Jake was off preparing with Aiden for the assault and that, once Bob was ready with his troops, he should just push a button to send a signal to let the pair know whatever soldiers Bob had gathered were on their way. Bob decided he was ready and pushed the button (despite the game giving him an “are you ABSOLUTELY SURE you want to do this” message), and then headed off to Egret Tours Marina to chill out for the two days it would take Jake to call him back and tell him everyone was in position. Why the Marina specifically? Well, besides being Bob’s capital town, and the new home of poor lonely Cola, it was ALSO just around the damn corner from Gunner Plaza, allowing Bob to sneak up and do some reconnaissance. All he saw on his initial sweep was the Gunner on the roof with the Fat Man that spawns in the base game, but Jon was certain the game would spawn in a lot more opposition once the actual assault was underway. . .

IV. Anyway – after spending a couple of days asleep at the Marina, Bob got the notice from Jake that they were ready for Step Two of the assault – having a group meeting at the car showroom near Fallon’s and discussing their entrance strategy! Bob was suddenly VERY GLAD he’d already cleared out the super mutants around there. XD He headed on over to meet up with his army (which had a brief freakout shortly after he arrived when a withered feral ghoul wandered too close to them), and inspected the troops (consisting of the top brass of the CPD; a couple of Brotherhood knights and a squire – aka a KID, what the fuck BOS; and the usual ragtag members of the Minutemen, which Jon was not impressed by) before chatting with Jake. He and Aiden confirmed that they were almost ready to go – they just needed to clear up a couple of minor details. First off, they had to figure out how to clear the giant minefield around the Plaza – their army wasn’t getting ANYWHERE until they took care of that. Fortunately Bob, as a Demo Expert, had an idea on how to clear it that could be summed up with “Boom” – and as it turns out, the team had already had that same idea! Specifically, Theresa (. . .no, I don’t remember who the hell she is either) and Lupe had snuck into the minefield and set up a bunch of mannequins that glowed and waved their arms and stuff to serve as a fake “invading army” for the Gunner with a Fat Man to shoot at, thus getting him to blow up the minefield and clear their way to the Plaza. Clever – Bob was suitably impressed (as was Jon). And second, they had to figure out what they did once they got into the Plaza –

Namely, did they go with Aiden’s plan to get up on the roof and slaughter as many Gunners as possible, or did they go with Jake’s plan to sneak in through the front door and set up a fake evacuation order, allowing any Gunners who didn’t want to fight to escape? Bob decided to question both sides, specifically to ask Aiden why he was so sure that killing them all was such a good idea. Aiden said he knew it sounded harsh, and he used to think the same way. . .at least, until the Quincy Massacre happened. Which he seems to consider his fault because he had a chance to deal with some Gunners drastically and chose to stay his hand. Aiden told Bob that he KNEW the Gunners were dangerous, and it would be better to take them out rather than let them run loose. And Bob had to admit, he had a point –

The problem was, Algernon was right there going, “I’d kind of prefer if you didn’t murder all the Gunners, please,” and Bob thought it a bad idea to go against his wishes. Add in that Jake’s plans had rarely steered Bob wrong, and Bob was willing to come down on Jake’s side and back the “get in the front door and do the evac order” plan. Though he started to rethink that plan when it became apparent that it meant he, Jake, and Lupe would be going into the Plaza alone, instead of bringing in their big army to provide cover fire and extra targets against any hostile Gunners inside. Whoops. XD

V. Still, the plan was set, so there was nothing to do but wait until nightfall. Bob sought out the nearest mattress to drop a nap and a safety save (as Jon had been previously warned by his commenters that the sheer size and scale of this fight meant that sometimes Fallout 4 would look at it, go “nope,” and crash and burn), then got into position to wait –

And thus, we moved onto Step Three – STORM THE PLAZA! The assembled troops hung back until the mannequins did their job and got the Fat Man Gunner to blow up the mines, then everyone rushed in to take on the first and second waves of Gunners defending the exterior (which included a few Legendaries, some very tough Corporals, and even a vertibird doing laps in the sky). Bob got very much into killing all the Gunners he could see – using PsychoJet to slow down time so he could get in more shots; bringing out Lorenzo’s Never-Ending Artifact Gun to explode a bunch of Gunners clustered next to each other; and even calling in an artillery strike on the front steps. He got so into it, in fact, that he headed straight up onto the roof the first chance got to do all the Gunner murder –

And it wasn’t until MUCH LATER that he remembered, “oh, wait, I backed JAKE’S plan, I’m supposed to be escorting him and Lupe into the front door to allow anyone who doesn’t want to fight to escape.” XD I mean, he did get TWO level-ups this episode from all the massive amounts of Gunner murder, but – still. I think you PROBABLY should have just gone with Aiden’s plan, Bob.

VI. Anyway – Bob stopped shooting the endlessly-spawning Gunners and got Jake and Lupe inside, where she hacked one of the main terminals to issue the evac order. Jake thanked her and told her to hang back and sit tight while they looked for the Comm Hub, while Lupe told him and Bob to check the newsroom, as she was pretty sure that’s where it would be set up. The boys thus proceeded deeper into the building, taking out any linger Gunners and defenses –

And finding their path to the newsroom blocked by a door that was chained up on the other side. Hmm. They wandered around trying to find a way around, and found an elevator in the back – however, the button to the second floor required them to have a keycard, and the button for the offices just plain didn’t work, so their only choice was to head into the basement. So they headed down that way –

Only to be confronted by Berman, who mocked them for sneaking into the building after causing a big explosion. Bob asked Jake if he had any preference how Bob handled this asshole – and when Jake said he didn’t, Bob took advantage of the fact that Berman had him mid-conversation to walk calmly around him to a far corner –

Where he could use Lorenzo’s gun to PHYSICS BLAST HIM TO DEATH. Yeah, THAT’S what you get for killing Old Paul, you asshole! Bob then went to loot the body and found a GNN keycard – along with a note saying “Algernon’s Orders.” O.o Bob was too distracted by the keycard to pay that any mind, though – Jake said it was probably the keycard that would get him upstairs, onto the second floor, and said that he would stay down in the basement and make sure no other Gunners tried to follow Bob up as he went after the Comm Hub. I think Bob would have preferred more IMMEDIATE back-up, Jake, but I didn’t write this mod, so. . . *shrug*

VII. With keycard secured, Bob headed back into the elevator and up to the second floor, where he managed to kill a few more Gunners before finally working his way back over to the newsroom, where Wes and a few of his cronies had locked themselves in. Wes emerged to confront Bob, introducing himself as the new future Governor of the Commonwealth and telling him that the Gunners would do more to restore the Commonwealth than he and Jake ever did – especially with the help of their mysterious employer, who apparently is willing to give them access to all SORTS of cool pre-War assets and stashes in exchange for a few missions here and there. Point was, Wes considered himself and his Gunners much better candidates for rebuilding the Commonwealth than Bob and Jake and their ragtag little team ever were –

Bob heartily disagreed and Lorenzoed them all to death. XD Which fortunately did NOT break the Comm Hub set up behind them. Or knock into oblivion the Small Guns Bobblehead on the desk. XD Bob reconvened with Jake in the main lobby – Jake was extremely enthusiastic about their win, but Aiden said that, even with the blow they’d dealt to their headquarters, they could not count the Gunners out just yet. After all, they’d allowed a bunch of them to escape. . . Jake said they could deal with that later and thanked Bob for all his help, saying that he considered him his closest friend – Bob replied that he saw Jake as like a brother to him, which, awww. :) We do love our Commonwealth Bros!

And so the episode ended with the Battle Of The Plaza completed, and Bob ready to go back to smaller missions – like helping the CPD recruit their first judge, and then take care of the Butcher! Though it is worth noting that, before he wrapped things up, Jon did say that he expected things to get worse before they got better. . .

Because, based on the information Wes gave in his little speech to Bob, he thinks the Gunners’ mysterious employer. . .is the ENCLAVE. O.O Well – we’ll see if he’s right on THAT eventually. In the meantime, though – Commonwealth Police Department! Much better than any real-life one!

Workout: Back on the bike this afternoon – but not back with James Turner. Yes, while he has a new mini-series about getting a household of all occults (and one regular Sim who occasionally turns into a temporary occult) going on, the episodes of that look like they tend to be longer than the “Every Lot Challenge Again” episodes (aka not so great for bookending the “main” workout video I watch each week), so I think I’m gonna save them up and watch them all together. Instead, I watched a video from OXtra that I’ve been meaning to check out – “Madame Web: 2 Truths 1 Lie!” AKA Ellen, having recently seen the Madame Web movie, makes Luke take a quiz about said movie where he has to discern which answer in a group of three is the lie – or, for a few of them, which one is the truth as Ellen flips the format. Making things harder was the fact that a couple of questions were fakes – that is, all three things are in fact true – and that the movie is incredibly stupid, making it much harder to sort fact from fiction. And a lot of the “lies” were in fact things that actually happened in the movie that Ellen just slightly tweaked – like, for one of the questions, she said that Madame Web regained faith in her precognitive ability after managing to save a squirrel; Luke deduced that was the lie, and Ellen said that in fact she saved a pigeon from flying into a window. XD Luke’s exaggerated response to the horrible ridiculousness of the movie was a delight (like Cassandra dumping the teenage girls she saved in a forest with no food or water! The famous “with great power comes great responsibility” line being flipped to “if you accept responsibility, you will get great power” or something like that! Cassandra attending Peter Parker’s baby shower because, despite this being a Sony production, this movie’s gotta be tied to the MCU!), as were Ellen’s little sly expressions whenever he picked something that actually happened, or fell afoul of one of her “Ellening” traps where all three answers were true. By the end he was flopped over on himself in the recovery position to stop the pain. XD Good stuff! Maybe I’ll just watch a few more OXtra videos that I normally don’t have time for to bookend things this week. . .

Aaaand I have officially stayed up too late for a Sunday night again and HAVE to go to bed NOW. *sigh* I have GOT to get my wordiness in these to-do lists under control already. . .night all!