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Welp This Evening Got Away From Me
Apr. 9th, 2024 11:56 pmAs they tend to do -- at least I did get pretty much everything I wanted to get done, done --
Work – Work wasn’t TOO bad – my coworker came in late and left early because of various appointments, but it wasn’t a particularly busy day on the phone, so that was all right. I spent most of the day wrestling with the QC file that was sent over yesterday and amassing a metric fuck-ton of reversals to correct various errors that I’ll have to start working through tomorrow. Also took one credit card pledge and put on one check. :p So yeah, I’ve definitely had days worse, but I’m not looking forward to doing all those reversals tomorrow. . . At least the weather today was really nice! High 60s/low 70s and sunny. :) We’ll take it, especially since it’s supposed to cool back down to mid-50s tomorrow. Meeh.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “D&D But. . .Everyone Has Amnesia, Part Two!” I picked up with the gang still fighting the harpies in the crevasse, with Tiddles having unsuccessfully tried to nail the one currently enchanting Red in the throat with a rock. The one remaining harpy tried unsuccessfully to ensorcell Man-Bird, and initiative order wrapped back around to Red, who – while under the harpy’s control – had to do her best to get as close to the beautiful music as possible. Fortunately, she was allowed to make another Wisdom saving throw before she flung herself into the crevasse, and THIS one came off, allowing her to shake off her enchantment. Angry and still out of range of Burning Hands, she chose to reach deep within herself and search for another forgotten power –
And came up with Fangs Of The Fire Snake, a super-punch that allowed her to extend her unarmed strikes by at least ten feet (and Luke was willing to fudge it even more under the circumstances) AND, on a successful hit, inflict fire damage upon the unfortunate target. Thus armed, she purposefully leapt into the crevasse, landing on the ledge that the harpies were on and (after searching what memory she had to determine if harpies could be reasoned with – answer: no) basically obliterating one with her fiery fist, sending it toppling into the ocean below as a burning corpse. One harpy immediately decided that she was out and took to wing, but the other insisted on sticking around –
Just in time for Man-Bird to reach inside himself and discover he had the ability to Command! This is a spell that allows the caster to issue a one-word command that, unless resisted with a Wisdom saving throw, must be obeyed. Egbert has famously used it to get Jacques Darkfall, the guy trying to poison Mistmire, to strip mid-fight, and to stop a boss fight in the prison they infiltrated basically in its tracks by getting the boss to surrender. XD Man-Bird decided that he was going to use it to tell the harpy to “Run” –
Cue Mike making a joke about how cruel it was to tell a flying creature to “run” and mimicking a harpy toddling along on its back legs. Causing Luke to decide “that’s too funny not to use” and promptly having just that happen, with the running harpy going straight off the ledge and into the water. XD It didn’t DIE, but it certainly was no longer interested in the trio! The three congratulated each other on their excellent work and helped each other up onto the other side of the crevasse, where Luke immediately worried me by asking if they felt like they’d built up a proper comradery. You don’t ask that unless you have horrible news for these amnesiacs in the future. . . Anyway, they replied yes, and decided to continue on by foot, since Tiddles was now feeling much better. They spent some time climbing over the rocky terrain, following whatever natural path they could find (Tiddles getting a memory of frying up fish on his father’s fishing boat as a child, with his dad teaching him how to navigate by the stars), and eventually came across the settlement they’d found before –
Which was rapidly revealed to be little more than abandoned ruins. They wandered around for a while, with Man-Bird finding some secret documents marked in strange signs that he could read for some reason (though he failed the Wisdom check to figure out WHY he could read them) – they turned out to be things like the schedule of the tides and predicted weather and stuff of that nature. Things that would be good for smugglers, basically – and one of the maps they’d found DID warn that smugglers frequented this island. . .there was also a very crude map, with a certain cave entrance marked upon it. The trio made note of that and continued wandering, coming across a ruined chapel. This is where the firelight seemed to be coming from earlier, so Tiddles decided to try and use his amazing perception to see what was inside. Unfortunately, a middling roll meant that he could only hear some scratching within, confirming there was someone or something inside. The gang decided to try and sneak inside to see who it was – middling rolls from Tiddles and Man-Bird meant that they, upon poking their heads in through the door, saw an aarakocra in a fancy military uniform warming himself at a fire with his back to them.
And on a critical 1, Red poked her head in, immediately zeroed in on the fire, and shouted “WARM!” XD The aarakocra lieutenant (for that is who he was, as he revealed later – as they pronounced it “left-tenant,” let’s call him Left) spun around, spotted the trio –
And immediately praised Man-Bird for capturing the two surviving prisoners. Yes, it appears that while Tiddles and Red are indeed criminal scum, Man-Bird was one of their GUARDS. Left told Tiddles and Red to get in the corner, but Man-Bird interjected that they wouldn’t be any trouble – they were rather nice, actually, and not dangerous at all! Red immediately went “WARM!” again, causing Luke to crack up and grant Jane inspiration. XD Left saw this differently and immediately became suspicious – and more suspicious when he couldn’t find a “Man-Bird Birdman” in the muster he was carrying. Man-Bird was forced to admit that he had no idea who he was to avoid getting stabbed, and after a moment of confusion, Left determined that Man-Bird must be a “drowser” – aka, a guard who made use of the “nemmersign” that they use to remove prisoner memories in order to help get to sleep after a long day of guarding (as having your memories removed apparently makes you tired – the guards then touch the sign again to regain their memories the next day). He cheerfully told Man-Bird he was an idiot, but he could make it up to him by helping him tie up these reprobates and then reporting back to the Captain. Man-Bird kept trying to defend his new friends, but Left was insistent on them either getting tied up, or dying along with Man-Bird –
And that’s when Tiddles jumped in to tell Left where exactly North was and how many hours it was until sundown. XD You see, Mike had decided to quietly scratch off another ability for Tiddles while Man-Bird and Left were conversing, and came up with Keen Mind, which allows him to just automatically know these things. Luke threw Tiddles a bone and had Left look in the direction he pointed, distracting him for an instant – unfortunately, Tiddles’s attempt to punch him out resulted only in a light toebean slap. Leaving him no better off than before –
Except. As it turns out, Keen Mind gives its user one more special ability – the ability to perfectly remember anything they’ve seen or heard within a month’s time. Luke was like “well, if I’d read THAT far down, I would have deleted that bit!” XD However, he hadn’t, so he allowed Tiddles to remember a bunch of important stuff – namely, that he’d been helping lead a rebellion against the mysterious Duke in the city they’d originally come from (with the help of a mole in the Duke’s security – Red?), and that it apparently hadn’t gone well, as he’d been stuck in solitary confinement on the ship as a blue-tier prisoner (with the rest of the prisoners wearing red, and the guards yellow). Armed with this knowledge, he attempted to intimidate Left (who was threatening him with his sword), reminding the trembling aarakocra that he was well-connected and it could go badly for Left’s family if he killed him.
Left was immediately like “how DARE you” and stabbed him for eleven points of damage. XD Fortunately Red and Man-Bird immediately leapt to his aid – Left made one more appeal to Man-Bird to rejoin the guard’s side, saying that if he helped him kill the prisoners, then there would be promotions and bonuses in it for him. Man-Bird wasn’t keen, though, and thus another fight began! With Man-Bird getting first go thanks to a nat 20, and reaching deep inside himself for more power –
And coming up with Thaumaturgy. Which does things like make your voice boomy and scary, changes the appearance of your eyes for a minute, makes flames flicker, or can conjure up ominous whispers. Basically, it’s good for intimidation and basically nothing else – I can see why Prudence doesn’t usually bother with it. We’ll see what Man-Bird does with it, and if it helps at all in the upcoming fight, tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of”: Check – though rather than picking up where I left off with the trio, I ended up going all the way back to the beginning and FINALLY writing out a prologue that I’m happy with! I’ve always felt like this story needed a prologue of some kind to sort of introduce readers to the universe, but my original ideas of “overwrought flowery introduction to Duskwall” and “something more appropriate for an epistolary fic made up of fake letters and the like” just never came together. Fortunately, recently I had a third idea – “flash forward to a veteran bluecoat telling a rookie about the Three Pillars, causing the rookie to wonder how the hell these three even met.” And when I wrote it out – it worked! I’m actually happy with it! Feels like it introduces these versions of Alice, Victor, and Smiler pretty effectively, and gives an idea of the kind of world they live in. I’ll have to edit it again later, of course, but for now, this will do!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – two in, two out –
A) First up, we had the Josh Way of the day – “Fun With Shorts: Battle at Barnaby Bend!” AKA the return of the absolutely ridiculous Lone Ranger cartoon from the 60s to the line up! :D This time featuring the Lone Ranger and Tonto up against a group of height-challenged bandits who got around bouncing on springs attached to their feet. Yes, REALLY. As you might imagine, this made the titular battle utterly bonkers, and afford Josh the opportunity to let rip with some delightful riffs, including some classic call-backs to MST3K and Coily The Spring Sprite. XD Ah, I’ve missed this absolutely bonkers cartoon and its dedication to utter weirdness – hopefully more will be forthcoming in the future!
B) And second, we had GrayStillPlays and “Evolving shopping carts to impossible extremes,” aka Gray plays Shopping Cart Hero 5! Yes, this game had at least five sequels – and THIS one brought us into the third dimension, with our stick figure protagonists (they were just rounder, more solid stick figures) now using their shopping cart to get into and traverse a carnival so they could go on the rides. XD Upgrades in this one included the standard “better wheels” (including a hover upgrade), rockets (they continue to be not safe!), and “death-defying tricks” (like the Superman hanging off the back, or the handstand atop the basket), along with a variety of groupies to help boost your style (ranging from “boring” and “average” groupies to aliens and jesters – all of which could have their bonuses boosted by cups of coffee), but also included getting a kite to attach to your cart to send it flying farther, a boxing glove that I THINK was meant to punch people but which Gray used to keep himself going when he slowed down so he could chase that extra distance, and a cannon that, when sufficiently charged, could send you flying for that all-important extra airtime. By the time Gray ended with the gang playing on the log flume, his stick figure guy and his friends were getting over 2,500 distance per run and making absolutely MAD banana coins from all the trick and style bonuses Gray had picked up. I’m glad he’s found a new series where he can have fun doing all the upgrades and then watching the numbers go waaaaay up. XD Sometimes, the best answer to what ails you is to pull up an old converted Flash game and strap rockets to a golden shopping cart containing a golden groupie, an alien, and a jester. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check, though it was a bit of a race to the finish –
Victor Luvs Alice – Very busy night over here – not only did I have to sort out my queue for the rest of the week, I ALSO had two anon asks about Valicer stuff (one suggesting a “Smiler working for the Ministry” AU, the other asking if I ever intended to write multichapter Valicer stuff) to answer. (They’re coming in fast and furious all of a sudden!) I managed to get the image alt text and tags on my “mini VITD lookbook” post for tomorrow done, and throw that in the queue along with the “Smiler’s Otherland: Weapons” post for Thursday and some art I reblogged of a very unique (and gloppy) Smiler OC for Friday, and the very beginning of my Song Saturday post (Skrillex’s “Bangarang,” as I now associate that with the trio fighting together with their Wonderland weapons) for, well, Saturday. Still gotta finish that last one up, but that can happen tomorrow!
Valice Multiverse – On the other hand, things remain pretty much dead over here, so I just threw a random meme about singing into the queue and called it a night. *shrug* Sometimes it’s simple.
Whew! Busy indeed, as you can see. And now it's time to head to bed so I can prepare to do it all over again tomorrow. :p Night all!
Work – Work wasn’t TOO bad – my coworker came in late and left early because of various appointments, but it wasn’t a particularly busy day on the phone, so that was all right. I spent most of the day wrestling with the QC file that was sent over yesterday and amassing a metric fuck-ton of reversals to correct various errors that I’ll have to start working through tomorrow. Also took one credit card pledge and put on one check. :p So yeah, I’ve definitely had days worse, but I’m not looking forward to doing all those reversals tomorrow. . . At least the weather today was really nice! High 60s/low 70s and sunny. :) We’ll take it, especially since it’s supposed to cool back down to mid-50s tomorrow. Meeh.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “D&D But. . .Everyone Has Amnesia, Part Two!” I picked up with the gang still fighting the harpies in the crevasse, with Tiddles having unsuccessfully tried to nail the one currently enchanting Red in the throat with a rock. The one remaining harpy tried unsuccessfully to ensorcell Man-Bird, and initiative order wrapped back around to Red, who – while under the harpy’s control – had to do her best to get as close to the beautiful music as possible. Fortunately, she was allowed to make another Wisdom saving throw before she flung herself into the crevasse, and THIS one came off, allowing her to shake off her enchantment. Angry and still out of range of Burning Hands, she chose to reach deep within herself and search for another forgotten power –
And came up with Fangs Of The Fire Snake, a super-punch that allowed her to extend her unarmed strikes by at least ten feet (and Luke was willing to fudge it even more under the circumstances) AND, on a successful hit, inflict fire damage upon the unfortunate target. Thus armed, she purposefully leapt into the crevasse, landing on the ledge that the harpies were on and (after searching what memory she had to determine if harpies could be reasoned with – answer: no) basically obliterating one with her fiery fist, sending it toppling into the ocean below as a burning corpse. One harpy immediately decided that she was out and took to wing, but the other insisted on sticking around –
Just in time for Man-Bird to reach inside himself and discover he had the ability to Command! This is a spell that allows the caster to issue a one-word command that, unless resisted with a Wisdom saving throw, must be obeyed. Egbert has famously used it to get Jacques Darkfall, the guy trying to poison Mistmire, to strip mid-fight, and to stop a boss fight in the prison they infiltrated basically in its tracks by getting the boss to surrender. XD Man-Bird decided that he was going to use it to tell the harpy to “Run” –
Cue Mike making a joke about how cruel it was to tell a flying creature to “run” and mimicking a harpy toddling along on its back legs. Causing Luke to decide “that’s too funny not to use” and promptly having just that happen, with the running harpy going straight off the ledge and into the water. XD It didn’t DIE, but it certainly was no longer interested in the trio! The three congratulated each other on their excellent work and helped each other up onto the other side of the crevasse, where Luke immediately worried me by asking if they felt like they’d built up a proper comradery. You don’t ask that unless you have horrible news for these amnesiacs in the future. . . Anyway, they replied yes, and decided to continue on by foot, since Tiddles was now feeling much better. They spent some time climbing over the rocky terrain, following whatever natural path they could find (Tiddles getting a memory of frying up fish on his father’s fishing boat as a child, with his dad teaching him how to navigate by the stars), and eventually came across the settlement they’d found before –
Which was rapidly revealed to be little more than abandoned ruins. They wandered around for a while, with Man-Bird finding some secret documents marked in strange signs that he could read for some reason (though he failed the Wisdom check to figure out WHY he could read them) – they turned out to be things like the schedule of the tides and predicted weather and stuff of that nature. Things that would be good for smugglers, basically – and one of the maps they’d found DID warn that smugglers frequented this island. . .there was also a very crude map, with a certain cave entrance marked upon it. The trio made note of that and continued wandering, coming across a ruined chapel. This is where the firelight seemed to be coming from earlier, so Tiddles decided to try and use his amazing perception to see what was inside. Unfortunately, a middling roll meant that he could only hear some scratching within, confirming there was someone or something inside. The gang decided to try and sneak inside to see who it was – middling rolls from Tiddles and Man-Bird meant that they, upon poking their heads in through the door, saw an aarakocra in a fancy military uniform warming himself at a fire with his back to them.
And on a critical 1, Red poked her head in, immediately zeroed in on the fire, and shouted “WARM!” XD The aarakocra lieutenant (for that is who he was, as he revealed later – as they pronounced it “left-tenant,” let’s call him Left) spun around, spotted the trio –
And immediately praised Man-Bird for capturing the two surviving prisoners. Yes, it appears that while Tiddles and Red are indeed criminal scum, Man-Bird was one of their GUARDS. Left told Tiddles and Red to get in the corner, but Man-Bird interjected that they wouldn’t be any trouble – they were rather nice, actually, and not dangerous at all! Red immediately went “WARM!” again, causing Luke to crack up and grant Jane inspiration. XD Left saw this differently and immediately became suspicious – and more suspicious when he couldn’t find a “Man-Bird Birdman” in the muster he was carrying. Man-Bird was forced to admit that he had no idea who he was to avoid getting stabbed, and after a moment of confusion, Left determined that Man-Bird must be a “drowser” – aka, a guard who made use of the “nemmersign” that they use to remove prisoner memories in order to help get to sleep after a long day of guarding (as having your memories removed apparently makes you tired – the guards then touch the sign again to regain their memories the next day). He cheerfully told Man-Bird he was an idiot, but he could make it up to him by helping him tie up these reprobates and then reporting back to the Captain. Man-Bird kept trying to defend his new friends, but Left was insistent on them either getting tied up, or dying along with Man-Bird –
And that’s when Tiddles jumped in to tell Left where exactly North was and how many hours it was until sundown. XD You see, Mike had decided to quietly scratch off another ability for Tiddles while Man-Bird and Left were conversing, and came up with Keen Mind, which allows him to just automatically know these things. Luke threw Tiddles a bone and had Left look in the direction he pointed, distracting him for an instant – unfortunately, Tiddles’s attempt to punch him out resulted only in a light toebean slap. Leaving him no better off than before –
Except. As it turns out, Keen Mind gives its user one more special ability – the ability to perfectly remember anything they’ve seen or heard within a month’s time. Luke was like “well, if I’d read THAT far down, I would have deleted that bit!” XD However, he hadn’t, so he allowed Tiddles to remember a bunch of important stuff – namely, that he’d been helping lead a rebellion against the mysterious Duke in the city they’d originally come from (with the help of a mole in the Duke’s security – Red?), and that it apparently hadn’t gone well, as he’d been stuck in solitary confinement on the ship as a blue-tier prisoner (with the rest of the prisoners wearing red, and the guards yellow). Armed with this knowledge, he attempted to intimidate Left (who was threatening him with his sword), reminding the trembling aarakocra that he was well-connected and it could go badly for Left’s family if he killed him.
Left was immediately like “how DARE you” and stabbed him for eleven points of damage. XD Fortunately Red and Man-Bird immediately leapt to his aid – Left made one more appeal to Man-Bird to rejoin the guard’s side, saying that if he helped him kill the prisoners, then there would be promotions and bonuses in it for him. Man-Bird wasn’t keen, though, and thus another fight began! With Man-Bird getting first go thanks to a nat 20, and reaching deep inside himself for more power –
And coming up with Thaumaturgy. Which does things like make your voice boomy and scary, changes the appearance of your eyes for a minute, makes flames flicker, or can conjure up ominous whispers. Basically, it’s good for intimidation and basically nothing else – I can see why Prudence doesn’t usually bother with it. We’ll see what Man-Bird does with it, and if it helps at all in the upcoming fight, tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of”: Check – though rather than picking up where I left off with the trio, I ended up going all the way back to the beginning and FINALLY writing out a prologue that I’m happy with! I’ve always felt like this story needed a prologue of some kind to sort of introduce readers to the universe, but my original ideas of “overwrought flowery introduction to Duskwall” and “something more appropriate for an epistolary fic made up of fake letters and the like” just never came together. Fortunately, recently I had a third idea – “flash forward to a veteran bluecoat telling a rookie about the Three Pillars, causing the rookie to wonder how the hell these three even met.” And when I wrote it out – it worked! I’m actually happy with it! Feels like it introduces these versions of Alice, Victor, and Smiler pretty effectively, and gives an idea of the kind of world they live in. I’ll have to edit it again later, of course, but for now, this will do!
3. Keep up with YouTube Subs: Check – two in, two out –
A) First up, we had the Josh Way of the day – “Fun With Shorts: Battle at Barnaby Bend!” AKA the return of the absolutely ridiculous Lone Ranger cartoon from the 60s to the line up! :D This time featuring the Lone Ranger and Tonto up against a group of height-challenged bandits who got around bouncing on springs attached to their feet. Yes, REALLY. As you might imagine, this made the titular battle utterly bonkers, and afford Josh the opportunity to let rip with some delightful riffs, including some classic call-backs to MST3K and Coily The Spring Sprite. XD Ah, I’ve missed this absolutely bonkers cartoon and its dedication to utter weirdness – hopefully more will be forthcoming in the future!
B) And second, we had GrayStillPlays and “Evolving shopping carts to impossible extremes,” aka Gray plays Shopping Cart Hero 5! Yes, this game had at least five sequels – and THIS one brought us into the third dimension, with our stick figure protagonists (they were just rounder, more solid stick figures) now using their shopping cart to get into and traverse a carnival so they could go on the rides. XD Upgrades in this one included the standard “better wheels” (including a hover upgrade), rockets (they continue to be not safe!), and “death-defying tricks” (like the Superman hanging off the back, or the handstand atop the basket), along with a variety of groupies to help boost your style (ranging from “boring” and “average” groupies to aliens and jesters – all of which could have their bonuses boosted by cups of coffee), but also included getting a kite to attach to your cart to send it flying farther, a boxing glove that I THINK was meant to punch people but which Gray used to keep himself going when he slowed down so he could chase that extra distance, and a cannon that, when sufficiently charged, could send you flying for that all-important extra airtime. By the time Gray ended with the gang playing on the log flume, his stick figure guy and his friends were getting over 2,500 distance per run and making absolutely MAD banana coins from all the trick and style bonuses Gray had picked up. I’m glad he’s found a new series where he can have fun doing all the upgrades and then watching the numbers go waaaaay up. XD Sometimes, the best answer to what ails you is to pull up an old converted Flash game and strap rockets to a golden shopping cart containing a golden groupie, an alien, and a jester. XD
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check, though it was a bit of a race to the finish –
Victor Luvs Alice – Very busy night over here – not only did I have to sort out my queue for the rest of the week, I ALSO had two anon asks about Valicer stuff (one suggesting a “Smiler working for the Ministry” AU, the other asking if I ever intended to write multichapter Valicer stuff) to answer. (They’re coming in fast and furious all of a sudden!) I managed to get the image alt text and tags on my “mini VITD lookbook” post for tomorrow done, and throw that in the queue along with the “Smiler’s Otherland: Weapons” post for Thursday and some art I reblogged of a very unique (and gloppy) Smiler OC for Friday, and the very beginning of my Song Saturday post (Skrillex’s “Bangarang,” as I now associate that with the trio fighting together with their Wonderland weapons) for, well, Saturday. Still gotta finish that last one up, but that can happen tomorrow!
Valice Multiverse – On the other hand, things remain pretty much dead over here, so I just threw a random meme about singing into the queue and called it a night. *shrug* Sometimes it’s simple.
Whew! Busy indeed, as you can see. And now it's time to head to bed so I can prepare to do it all over again tomorrow. :p Night all!
