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Well Today Didn't Go To Schedule
Aug. 3rd, 2024 11:02 pmYes, today ended up being a day where Everything Was Late -- except this entry, which I have deliberately started early so I can try and get my thoughts together a bit better. What happened was, I woke up late because I made the mistake of binging Ghostbusters stuff on TV Tropes and went to bed around 2:15 AM (whoops); then we ended up eating lunch really late because my parents were working on their moongate project, followed by my dad going to go mow a neighbor's lawn (Mom and I finally cracked at 2:30 PM and ate our leftover pizza from last night -- for reference, we usually eat lunch at 1 PM); and then we had dinner a bit late because Mom was still waiting on her oven fries to cook (admittedly only by about ten minutes, so that wasn't a big deal). But yeah, just -- the timing of my whole day was thrown off by all this. But despite that, I still got everything I wanted to get done, done --
Tumblr: Got the Saturday basics accomplished over here –
Victor Luvs Alice – I got to this later than I planned thanks to my late awakening – but I also STAYED on later than planned thanks to how late we ate lunch. Meaning I was able to keep up on my dash (mostly), and clean up the main text and get the tags done on all five of my upcoming Chill Valicer Save update posts (the ones covering the incredibly laggy store day that the trio had before their Spookfest date). So I’m glad of that at least. :) I also posted a link to the latest chapter of “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of” this evening – see the “Writing” section below. :D
Valice Multiverse – Nothing happening over here (what is new), so I just queued up a reblog of the post about the latest chapter of “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of.” *shrug* It’s something!
Sims 4: Hopped into the game a little after 3:30 PM because of all our various delays today, which is very late indeed for me – fortunately my only plans were to work on my Ministry of Joy nightclub build, and that I did indeed do! Here’s how that went –
A) First off, though, a bit of weirdness when I first went into the game – remember how they were doing the “Happy At Home” log-in event a little while back, where if you logged in enough over a certain period of time, you could claim a variety of rewards, from a new CAS necklace to a new compact bar to a vending machine? I never actually bothered claiming anything because I didn’t really want any of what was offered (and also I don’t want them to offer log-in rewards like they’re a mobile game), but when I opened up the game, it told me that I had six rewards claimed. O.o However, as I understand it from reading the comments under onlyabidoang’s YouTube video on the subject, claiming these rewards proved rather glitchy (like, people who DID claim them could then suddenly have their progress on getting the rewards reset for no real reason), so I’m guessing the game trying to give me some when I DIDN’T claim them is related to that. I certainly didn’t see any of the fabled rewards in my build catalog (though admittedly, I wasn’t really looking), so I’m going off the assumption that Sims 4 was drunk today and telling me I had stuff I didn’t actually own. Because this game sometimes.
B) Anyway – after I went “??? ...eh” at that, I proceeded into the Wiped Windenburg building save to work on the MOJ! My main goal was to decorate the place a bit more, but I did a few other things too –
I. I pulled the entire building forward on the lot! Because I felt like it was set WAAAAY too far back and needed to be closer to where Sims actually spawn in/walk up in the greater neighborhood area. This necessitating me filling in the grassy gaps left behind from the move with the nice black parquet flooring I’m using around the exterior, but that wasn’t too much of an issue. Still not sure why hitting SHIFT while placing the tiles doesn’t actually work to fill in the gaps all in one go, but – *shrug* Ah well.
II. I recolored the hot tub on the roof to the “black on top, white on the bottom” swatch instead of the other way around – it just looked better, you know?
III. Speaking of the rooftop area, I put a couple of black-and-white counters up there next to the loungers by the hot tub with a drinks tray (the “Summer Drinks” one with the lemonade pitcher) and the ice cream maker on them to provide a “snack station” for people hanging out there! Because who doesn’t like nice summery drinks or ice cream? :) I also put some fun butterfly lawn sign decorations and flower lights around the hot tub itself, and one of the fancy City Living outdoor light strings (you know, the kind that look like Christmas lights strung from a pole – you get matching blank poles to put on the other end of the string for “support” purposes, or when you want to end a string of lights) at the “entrance” to the hot tub area in the bright purple and yellow swatch. Both to have some proper outdoor lighting out there and to make a cool sort of arch for Sims to walk through as they enter that particular spot. :) I mean, I think it looks fun!
IV. I also put a counter with a popcorn maker in the karaoke room upstairs so that room would have a snack station too, by the door to and from the arcade room. Looks a touch weird right now, but I’m sure I can find a way to make it work a little better! I just want snacks upstairs, you know? So visiting Sims don’t have to go down to the bar if they want to eat or drink.
V. I ended up turning the photo booth by the bathrooms around so the back of it was up against the stairs to the second level and the front of it faced out into the room toward the dance floor – after a lot of dithering, I have decided that it really does look better that way, and it freed up some wall space for decorations.
VI. I added a third four-seater table to the bar/food area by the bathrooms and adjusted the placement of all the tables slightly to make sure it fit in well and was properly centered in a nice triangle configuration with the other four-seater tables (the private two-seater by the stairs remained how it was, though I did pull it away from the wall slightly when I put a rather large picture over it). Because I felt like I needed at least ONE more table for Sims to sit at – this is supposed to be a busy place, after all!
C) As for the decorating, after a bit of a slow start, this ended up going quite well! I ended up having to get rid of some stuff (like the rainbow strip wall hangings I had in there previously – just couldn’t find a good place for ‘em), but I found plenty of fun decals and colorful pictures and whatnot to fill in the gaps. I won’t go through EVERYTHING I added, but some significant items of note include –
I. Putting the two pride flags (the “inclusive” pride flag and the non-binary pride flags” up by the dance floor, along with some fun decals and signs that I felt suited that area
II. Putting a big picture of nectar being swirled in a glass (in the yellow swatch, of course) behind the two bars and moving the two nectar/juice displays appropriately
III. Putting a fire extinguisher sign above the fire extinguisher by the bars, and putting a light switch by the door in the bathroom, just for funsies – it’s the little things
IV. Putting the weird spinny wall decoration thing (I believe it comes with Eco Lifestyle?) in the bubble blower room, along with some nice tapestries and a geometric wall hanging thing that I felt looked good in there
V. Putting a nice colorful poster of everyone in the world getting along by the bathroom door (it’s normally an unlock you get from being in the Politician career, but I really liked the look of it – had to size it up a little, though, it’s really small)
VI. Putting a bunch of gaming posters in the arcade room, including one signed one that’s normally an unlock by the foosball table (naturally it’s the soccer-related poster XD), plus some nice decals on the wall by the stairs of floating hot-air balloons and the like – I also threw some colorful rugs in there so everybody could be comfy while they game
VII. Similarly, putting a bunch of DJ posters in the karaoke room, including the “plumbob prism” poster that I believe is a play on a Pink Floyd album cover, and a couple of rugs under where the singers stand in the big old karaoke machine and under the audience seating area
VII. And putting a security camera over the front door in the yellow swatch after seeing that and thinking “hey, aren’t security cameras a big thing with the actual Ministry of Joy in the park?” Might as well keep on-brand!
So yeah – maybe I didn’t get to spend QUITE as much time in the game as I might have liked thanks to this day being a day where Everything Happened Late, but I still feel like I accomplished a lot, and I’m quite pleased with how this build is coming! I still need to finish sorting out the light situation (just realized I never replaced the plain saucer lights upstairs, and I still need to do more outdoor lighting on the roof)...and I should really put some bathroom-type rugs near the hot tub, shouldn’t I? That would be nice. And I still want to do figure out something to do with the rest of the lot… Point is, there’s still some stuff that needs to be tweaked, but we’re getting closer to me calling this “done” all the time! :)
Writing: Had a good solid day with my Valicer In The Dark universe today –
A) I updated my write-up on The Advocates cult in my “playbooks/notes/worldbuilding” doc a little before lunch – I was browsing the “Blades In The Dark” subreddit to keep myself occupied, found a thread about someone trying to figure out how you sold “Faith” as a scoundrel’s “Vice,” read through it, saw someone suggest having any skeptical players look at page 305 in the book to see just how creepy cult practices in the game were, and went and did just that out of curiosity. Which led me to decide on what specific rituals and such the Advocates do, based on the ones mentioned on that page! Advocate activities now specifically include pleasure-based orgies (not just sex stuff, though that is a thing – mainly they just throw wild parties) and painting their sacred sites in special ways (like with yellow-and-black stripes and their swirly-eyed grinning logo) to properly consecrate them to their god. Speaking of which, I also found a table about what features to give summoned horrors a few pages up from the “forgotten gods and cult practices” one, and pulled a few traits out of that to apply to good old Mar-Mal – specifically “Twisting Machinery” and “Hypnotic Lights.” Because, well. What could be more appropriate. XD
B) And then, this evening, I did my final editing pass on Chapter 4 of “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of” and got it posted on AO3! This is the chapter that basically sets the trio’s lives as scoundrels in motion, after one of the cops investing Barkis’s corpse finds what looks like proof he was a Spirit Warden (one of the folks who take care of ghosts and the dead in this setting, they’re important folks) and suddenly the three get accused of murdering him because the Bluecoat in charge, Tannen, doesn’t believe a ghost could have offed him. Leading to Alice doing some spectacular stabbing and the trio having to run from the police. I hope you all like it – I’m honestly rather proud of the chase sequence in this one!
YouTube: Started later than I wanted (but what else is new, particularly today), but I got what will now be my usual Saturday Two in –
A) First up, the Saturday GrayStillPlays – “Every time I crash my brakes get worse!” A fresh and shiny GTA V torture board, this one gave Gray a selection of cars ranging from a hot pink quad to a mint green super car and challenged him to complete two brake-based courses –
I. Enhanced Braking On A Twisting Tightrope Type Of Thingy With The Balls n 69 – Bit of a mouthful of a title, yes. XD Anyway, the gist of this one was that Gray had to take his chosen car back and forth across a pair of narrow platforms, knocking balls off the end of each before returning to the middle. Said platforms regularly rotated (well, they popped in and out of existence in a manner similar to rotating) around the middle, with one path sporting a pair of slow-down circles and another a weebmill’s spinning blades right in front of one of the balls just to make things harder for Gray. Gray had to knock off all the balls without falling off the course whenever it rotated – and every time he failed and respawned in the same car for another go, his brakes got worse, as per the title of the video! They started at 100 power (which was actually way BETTER than normal brakes – Gray could stop on a dime and reverse at light speed, which was interesting) and went down 10 every time he respawned, until he picked a new car. Gray not only went through his entire lineup of cars SUPER quickly on this challenge (with only the mint green car making it to the end and the teleporter to the next bit), he also learned that having the best brakes was often actually a BAD thing, as he went so fast whenever he reversed he quickly lost control of his vehicle, which led to more crashes and more respawns (and if he busted up a vehicle enough, it WOULDN’T respawn, meaning he had to be careful with his cars). He eventually managed it in the mint green mobile at about 70 or so brake power, and finally was allowed to move onto the next challenge –
II. Three Chaoseses For The Price Of 1 – Okay, this one was both simple and complicated (as opposed to the above, which was just complicated). The simple part – Gray had 50 seconds to navigate a bunch of roads in the desert area of the map, avoiding walls and yeeters as he raced toward the win. The complicated part – he had 6 “Brake Tokens,” and every time he crashed, one was deducted (though it didn’t take effect until he respawned for another go). And every time he lost a token, his brakes got worse and worse until he finally had none at all. Oh, and as per the title of the challenge, he had to do this while THREE chaos effects were firing off – a rocket rain, a meteor shower, and a whale fall. Meaning Gray had a LOOT of shit to either crash into or that was ready to crash into him. Needless to say, by the time he finished the course, he had absolutely no brakes and was just relying on raw speed and agility to see him through. XD Oh man – Gray is SO LUCKY this course was only two challenges! Though he is less lucky in that I noted the extra-fast reverse from having really good brakes was interesting and suggested that be incorporated into some sort of future challenge. XD We’ll see if Alex and company listen, or if they have enough ways to torture Gray that they don’t need my help! (Probably the latter, but still. :p)
B) And second up, the Saturday Jon of Many A True Nerd – “Fallout: London - Part 2 - Gone To The Dogs!” With the continuing adventures of Lady Aria as she desperately tried to find medical attention and an explanation for why she woke up in a tube in a secret underground lab under the Shard! Which I am not going to recap in excessive detail because I’m really trying to break that habit as the recaps take up SOOO much of my time. Let’s just cover the absolute basics –
I. Lady Aria opened the episode fighting off some bugs in a Scottish garage (Jon had to take off a British point for the “ladybug” enemy, as they call them “ladybirds” in England, but deeply enjoyed the pun on Iron Brew being called “Ion Brew” in this world) and some Hooligans (which scored her a pool cue and some leathers better suited for traipsing around in).
II. She then stumbled across the Prilladog Chum Factory – and a bulldog that was being menaced by a bunch of strays outside, with a guard asking her to help protect “Churchill.” She did so by whacking the mongrels with her pool cue – only to learn later that said mongrels were the guard’s OTHER dogs, meaning he was pissed off about her killing them. Fortunately he calmed down and realized she couldn’t have known, and offered to let her adopt Churchill, since the other dogs kept bullying the poor thing and he didn’t really have the time in his schedule to look after him properly. Jon was like “YES PLEASE,” and so Lady Aria got herself the English version of Dogmeat. :D His face is very crumply and Jon loves it.
III. Lady Aria then went into the factory to see what was what, which led to her encountering her first trader (a lady who sold the factory’s products and would only barter for other food in return); checking out some terminals and discovering that the factory was trying out “alternate protein sources” due to a lack of available brahmin beef (aka there was a small but significant chance the tins now contained human); and getting involved in a dispute between Allen, a worker riling up the other workers by demanding they fight for their basic human rights (like proper breaks, and three tickets an hour pay, and – I think I heard this right, no more amputations, eek) and the boss, Harvin, who considered Allen very bad for morale and his profits, and wanted to make him disappear with the help of someone who had no ties to the factory. After a quick chat with both Harvin and Allen, Lady Aria ended up siding with Allen on the basis of “if I kill Harvin, I will be able to loot his magnificent top hat.” So that’s what she did. XD She also got 100 tickets (the local currency), all the tins of dog food in the room, and access to the weapons bench in the corner, which allowed her to stick a blade on her pool cue and turn it into a proper spear. So that was all good. :P
IV. Lady Aria then continued her journey to the settlement of Thameshaven (the location of a doctor and perhaps a solution to the mysteries of her origin) by visiting the local Fesco supermarket (the Fallout version of the British Tesco supermarket). Jon was hopeful that he’d find horse lasagna in there (a joke referencing a scandal where horsemeat ended up in lasagna due to a distributor selling it as regular beef) – but instead all Lady Aria found in there was a bunch of bloatflies. And their horrible Bloatqueen. Which she had to run around as she tried to get into the pharmacy looking for drugs to help with her health situation, only to discover nothing of the kind inside. Figures. Also, she got badly irradiated right before going inside by splashing around in the Thames after exploring a nearby boat and discovering the river was SUPER radioactive, AND she discovered that dog food, while good for keeping her health up, was also VERY addictive and did bad things to her AP, so now part of her reward for helping out Allen is functionally useless. Bleh.
V. Lady Aria eventually escaped the Fescos and found her way over to where the entrance to Thameshaven should be – only to find a barricade guarded by a group called the “Tommys.” Fortunately the one she spoke to, Randeep, was a perfectly reasonable guy and told her that the Thamesfolk had locked down their little settlement because some sort of “pest problem” had gotten out of hand – and while he would like to give them a hand, the orders from on high were very clear that they weren’t to assist. (Plus it sounds like the Thamesfolk tend to keep to themselves, away from outsiders, anyway, so maybe they wouldn’t WANT the help.) Lady Aria was like “but my health is so poor” so Randeep suggested that if she REALLY had to, she could brave going in through the south entrance. So she went and did just that –
And found it a half-flooded, partially-collapsed mess full of various monsters! Including horrible giant leeches, ech. >( On the plus side, she did at least score an actual GUN out of an unlocked safe in the first room. And discovered what probably happened to the Thamesfolk thanks to a handy terminal – basically, the underground station their ancestors sheltered in during the bombs leaked, and since the water of the Thames is so radioactive, they all mutated. Jon’s of the opinion the various stations are going to be the British equivalent of the Vaults, with accidental (or possibly deliberate) “experiments” going on in each. Should be fun to see if he’s right!
VI. And the episode ended with her finding the leader of the Thamesfolk, Rachel, arguing with another about whether or not they should just abandon Thameshaven and “The Ferryman” to save everyone else – and yes, the Thamesfolk are indeed fish people, complete with what one could call an Innsmouth Look. Lady Aria explained her deal to them – that she needed a doctor and answers – and Rachel said that Aria helped out their boy The Ferryman with their pest problem in the main residential areas, she’d be happy to tell her all about where she got the blueprints showing the secret Shard lab that she sold to Sebastian Gaunt and his crew. (In fact, she was nice enough to say that normally she’d just TELL Aria what the deal was, but she and her people were desperate for help with their issues, so…) Aria has agreed, and next week, we will watch her descend an elevator shaft to find The Ferryman and help him out! And hopefully find some Rad-Away, because ouch, she is SO irradiated...
Okay, fine, that last write-up was still rather long, but I am TRYING, darn it. :p I am also trying to get to bed earlier, so I am going to attempt to do that now (helps that I'm not on TV Tropes at the moment, I think). Hopefully Sunday will be better and allow me to stick more to my usual schedule -- goals include getting as much image alt text sorted on my Chill Valicer Save drafts over on Victor Luvs Alice; playing Fallout 4 and building Jezebel her body so I can advance the Mechanist questline already; updating the FO4 Playthrough Progression doc appropriately; getting in a workout; and keeping up with the Sunday GSP & MATN pair. Hopefully all achievable -- especially if I manage to wake up a little earlier. :p Night all!
Tumblr: Got the Saturday basics accomplished over here –
Victor Luvs Alice – I got to this later than I planned thanks to my late awakening – but I also STAYED on later than planned thanks to how late we ate lunch. Meaning I was able to keep up on my dash (mostly), and clean up the main text and get the tags done on all five of my upcoming Chill Valicer Save update posts (the ones covering the incredibly laggy store day that the trio had before their Spookfest date). So I’m glad of that at least. :) I also posted a link to the latest chapter of “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of” this evening – see the “Writing” section below. :D
Valice Multiverse – Nothing happening over here (what is new), so I just queued up a reblog of the post about the latest chapter of “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of.” *shrug* It’s something!
Sims 4: Hopped into the game a little after 3:30 PM because of all our various delays today, which is very late indeed for me – fortunately my only plans were to work on my Ministry of Joy nightclub build, and that I did indeed do! Here’s how that went –
A) First off, though, a bit of weirdness when I first went into the game – remember how they were doing the “Happy At Home” log-in event a little while back, where if you logged in enough over a certain period of time, you could claim a variety of rewards, from a new CAS necklace to a new compact bar to a vending machine? I never actually bothered claiming anything because I didn’t really want any of what was offered (and also I don’t want them to offer log-in rewards like they’re a mobile game), but when I opened up the game, it told me that I had six rewards claimed. O.o However, as I understand it from reading the comments under onlyabidoang’s YouTube video on the subject, claiming these rewards proved rather glitchy (like, people who DID claim them could then suddenly have their progress on getting the rewards reset for no real reason), so I’m guessing the game trying to give me some when I DIDN’T claim them is related to that. I certainly didn’t see any of the fabled rewards in my build catalog (though admittedly, I wasn’t really looking), so I’m going off the assumption that Sims 4 was drunk today and telling me I had stuff I didn’t actually own. Because this game sometimes.
B) Anyway – after I went “??? ...eh” at that, I proceeded into the Wiped Windenburg building save to work on the MOJ! My main goal was to decorate the place a bit more, but I did a few other things too –
I. I pulled the entire building forward on the lot! Because I felt like it was set WAAAAY too far back and needed to be closer to where Sims actually spawn in/walk up in the greater neighborhood area. This necessitating me filling in the grassy gaps left behind from the move with the nice black parquet flooring I’m using around the exterior, but that wasn’t too much of an issue. Still not sure why hitting SHIFT while placing the tiles doesn’t actually work to fill in the gaps all in one go, but – *shrug* Ah well.
II. I recolored the hot tub on the roof to the “black on top, white on the bottom” swatch instead of the other way around – it just looked better, you know?
III. Speaking of the rooftop area, I put a couple of black-and-white counters up there next to the loungers by the hot tub with a drinks tray (the “Summer Drinks” one with the lemonade pitcher) and the ice cream maker on them to provide a “snack station” for people hanging out there! Because who doesn’t like nice summery drinks or ice cream? :) I also put some fun butterfly lawn sign decorations and flower lights around the hot tub itself, and one of the fancy City Living outdoor light strings (you know, the kind that look like Christmas lights strung from a pole – you get matching blank poles to put on the other end of the string for “support” purposes, or when you want to end a string of lights) at the “entrance” to the hot tub area in the bright purple and yellow swatch. Both to have some proper outdoor lighting out there and to make a cool sort of arch for Sims to walk through as they enter that particular spot. :) I mean, I think it looks fun!
IV. I also put a counter with a popcorn maker in the karaoke room upstairs so that room would have a snack station too, by the door to and from the arcade room. Looks a touch weird right now, but I’m sure I can find a way to make it work a little better! I just want snacks upstairs, you know? So visiting Sims don’t have to go down to the bar if they want to eat or drink.
V. I ended up turning the photo booth by the bathrooms around so the back of it was up against the stairs to the second level and the front of it faced out into the room toward the dance floor – after a lot of dithering, I have decided that it really does look better that way, and it freed up some wall space for decorations.
VI. I added a third four-seater table to the bar/food area by the bathrooms and adjusted the placement of all the tables slightly to make sure it fit in well and was properly centered in a nice triangle configuration with the other four-seater tables (the private two-seater by the stairs remained how it was, though I did pull it away from the wall slightly when I put a rather large picture over it). Because I felt like I needed at least ONE more table for Sims to sit at – this is supposed to be a busy place, after all!
C) As for the decorating, after a bit of a slow start, this ended up going quite well! I ended up having to get rid of some stuff (like the rainbow strip wall hangings I had in there previously – just couldn’t find a good place for ‘em), but I found plenty of fun decals and colorful pictures and whatnot to fill in the gaps. I won’t go through EVERYTHING I added, but some significant items of note include –
I. Putting the two pride flags (the “inclusive” pride flag and the non-binary pride flags” up by the dance floor, along with some fun decals and signs that I felt suited that area
II. Putting a big picture of nectar being swirled in a glass (in the yellow swatch, of course) behind the two bars and moving the two nectar/juice displays appropriately
III. Putting a fire extinguisher sign above the fire extinguisher by the bars, and putting a light switch by the door in the bathroom, just for funsies – it’s the little things
IV. Putting the weird spinny wall decoration thing (I believe it comes with Eco Lifestyle?) in the bubble blower room, along with some nice tapestries and a geometric wall hanging thing that I felt looked good in there
V. Putting a nice colorful poster of everyone in the world getting along by the bathroom door (it’s normally an unlock you get from being in the Politician career, but I really liked the look of it – had to size it up a little, though, it’s really small)
VI. Putting a bunch of gaming posters in the arcade room, including one signed one that’s normally an unlock by the foosball table (naturally it’s the soccer-related poster XD), plus some nice decals on the wall by the stairs of floating hot-air balloons and the like – I also threw some colorful rugs in there so everybody could be comfy while they game
VII. Similarly, putting a bunch of DJ posters in the karaoke room, including the “plumbob prism” poster that I believe is a play on a Pink Floyd album cover, and a couple of rugs under where the singers stand in the big old karaoke machine and under the audience seating area
VII. And putting a security camera over the front door in the yellow swatch after seeing that and thinking “hey, aren’t security cameras a big thing with the actual Ministry of Joy in the park?” Might as well keep on-brand!
So yeah – maybe I didn’t get to spend QUITE as much time in the game as I might have liked thanks to this day being a day where Everything Happened Late, but I still feel like I accomplished a lot, and I’m quite pleased with how this build is coming! I still need to finish sorting out the light situation (just realized I never replaced the plain saucer lights upstairs, and I still need to do more outdoor lighting on the roof)...and I should really put some bathroom-type rugs near the hot tub, shouldn’t I? That would be nice. And I still want to do figure out something to do with the rest of the lot… Point is, there’s still some stuff that needs to be tweaked, but we’re getting closer to me calling this “done” all the time! :)
Writing: Had a good solid day with my Valicer In The Dark universe today –
A) I updated my write-up on The Advocates cult in my “playbooks/notes/worldbuilding” doc a little before lunch – I was browsing the “Blades In The Dark” subreddit to keep myself occupied, found a thread about someone trying to figure out how you sold “Faith” as a scoundrel’s “Vice,” read through it, saw someone suggest having any skeptical players look at page 305 in the book to see just how creepy cult practices in the game were, and went and did just that out of curiosity. Which led me to decide on what specific rituals and such the Advocates do, based on the ones mentioned on that page! Advocate activities now specifically include pleasure-based orgies (not just sex stuff, though that is a thing – mainly they just throw wild parties) and painting their sacred sites in special ways (like with yellow-and-black stripes and their swirly-eyed grinning logo) to properly consecrate them to their god. Speaking of which, I also found a table about what features to give summoned horrors a few pages up from the “forgotten gods and cult practices” one, and pulled a few traits out of that to apply to good old Mar-Mal – specifically “Twisting Machinery” and “Hypnotic Lights.” Because, well. What could be more appropriate. XD
B) And then, this evening, I did my final editing pass on Chapter 4 of “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of” and got it posted on AO3! This is the chapter that basically sets the trio’s lives as scoundrels in motion, after one of the cops investing Barkis’s corpse finds what looks like proof he was a Spirit Warden (one of the folks who take care of ghosts and the dead in this setting, they’re important folks) and suddenly the three get accused of murdering him because the Bluecoat in charge, Tannen, doesn’t believe a ghost could have offed him. Leading to Alice doing some spectacular stabbing and the trio having to run from the police. I hope you all like it – I’m honestly rather proud of the chase sequence in this one!
YouTube: Started later than I wanted (but what else is new, particularly today), but I got what will now be my usual Saturday Two in –
A) First up, the Saturday GrayStillPlays – “Every time I crash my brakes get worse!” A fresh and shiny GTA V torture board, this one gave Gray a selection of cars ranging from a hot pink quad to a mint green super car and challenged him to complete two brake-based courses –
I. Enhanced Braking On A Twisting Tightrope Type Of Thingy With The Balls n 69 – Bit of a mouthful of a title, yes. XD Anyway, the gist of this one was that Gray had to take his chosen car back and forth across a pair of narrow platforms, knocking balls off the end of each before returning to the middle. Said platforms regularly rotated (well, they popped in and out of existence in a manner similar to rotating) around the middle, with one path sporting a pair of slow-down circles and another a weebmill’s spinning blades right in front of one of the balls just to make things harder for Gray. Gray had to knock off all the balls without falling off the course whenever it rotated – and every time he failed and respawned in the same car for another go, his brakes got worse, as per the title of the video! They started at 100 power (which was actually way BETTER than normal brakes – Gray could stop on a dime and reverse at light speed, which was interesting) and went down 10 every time he respawned, until he picked a new car. Gray not only went through his entire lineup of cars SUPER quickly on this challenge (with only the mint green car making it to the end and the teleporter to the next bit), he also learned that having the best brakes was often actually a BAD thing, as he went so fast whenever he reversed he quickly lost control of his vehicle, which led to more crashes and more respawns (and if he busted up a vehicle enough, it WOULDN’T respawn, meaning he had to be careful with his cars). He eventually managed it in the mint green mobile at about 70 or so brake power, and finally was allowed to move onto the next challenge –
II. Three Chaoseses For The Price Of 1 – Okay, this one was both simple and complicated (as opposed to the above, which was just complicated). The simple part – Gray had 50 seconds to navigate a bunch of roads in the desert area of the map, avoiding walls and yeeters as he raced toward the win. The complicated part – he had 6 “Brake Tokens,” and every time he crashed, one was deducted (though it didn’t take effect until he respawned for another go). And every time he lost a token, his brakes got worse and worse until he finally had none at all. Oh, and as per the title of the challenge, he had to do this while THREE chaos effects were firing off – a rocket rain, a meteor shower, and a whale fall. Meaning Gray had a LOOT of shit to either crash into or that was ready to crash into him. Needless to say, by the time he finished the course, he had absolutely no brakes and was just relying on raw speed and agility to see him through. XD Oh man – Gray is SO LUCKY this course was only two challenges! Though he is less lucky in that I noted the extra-fast reverse from having really good brakes was interesting and suggested that be incorporated into some sort of future challenge. XD We’ll see if Alex and company listen, or if they have enough ways to torture Gray that they don’t need my help! (Probably the latter, but still. :p)
B) And second up, the Saturday Jon of Many A True Nerd – “Fallout: London - Part 2 - Gone To The Dogs!” With the continuing adventures of Lady Aria as she desperately tried to find medical attention and an explanation for why she woke up in a tube in a secret underground lab under the Shard! Which I am not going to recap in excessive detail because I’m really trying to break that habit as the recaps take up SOOO much of my time. Let’s just cover the absolute basics –
I. Lady Aria opened the episode fighting off some bugs in a Scottish garage (Jon had to take off a British point for the “ladybug” enemy, as they call them “ladybirds” in England, but deeply enjoyed the pun on Iron Brew being called “Ion Brew” in this world) and some Hooligans (which scored her a pool cue and some leathers better suited for traipsing around in).
II. She then stumbled across the Prilladog Chum Factory – and a bulldog that was being menaced by a bunch of strays outside, with a guard asking her to help protect “Churchill.” She did so by whacking the mongrels with her pool cue – only to learn later that said mongrels were the guard’s OTHER dogs, meaning he was pissed off about her killing them. Fortunately he calmed down and realized she couldn’t have known, and offered to let her adopt Churchill, since the other dogs kept bullying the poor thing and he didn’t really have the time in his schedule to look after him properly. Jon was like “YES PLEASE,” and so Lady Aria got herself the English version of Dogmeat. :D His face is very crumply and Jon loves it.
III. Lady Aria then went into the factory to see what was what, which led to her encountering her first trader (a lady who sold the factory’s products and would only barter for other food in return); checking out some terminals and discovering that the factory was trying out “alternate protein sources” due to a lack of available brahmin beef (aka there was a small but significant chance the tins now contained human); and getting involved in a dispute between Allen, a worker riling up the other workers by demanding they fight for their basic human rights (like proper breaks, and three tickets an hour pay, and – I think I heard this right, no more amputations, eek) and the boss, Harvin, who considered Allen very bad for morale and his profits, and wanted to make him disappear with the help of someone who had no ties to the factory. After a quick chat with both Harvin and Allen, Lady Aria ended up siding with Allen on the basis of “if I kill Harvin, I will be able to loot his magnificent top hat.” So that’s what she did. XD She also got 100 tickets (the local currency), all the tins of dog food in the room, and access to the weapons bench in the corner, which allowed her to stick a blade on her pool cue and turn it into a proper spear. So that was all good. :P
IV. Lady Aria then continued her journey to the settlement of Thameshaven (the location of a doctor and perhaps a solution to the mysteries of her origin) by visiting the local Fesco supermarket (the Fallout version of the British Tesco supermarket). Jon was hopeful that he’d find horse lasagna in there (a joke referencing a scandal where horsemeat ended up in lasagna due to a distributor selling it as regular beef) – but instead all Lady Aria found in there was a bunch of bloatflies. And their horrible Bloatqueen. Which she had to run around as she tried to get into the pharmacy looking for drugs to help with her health situation, only to discover nothing of the kind inside. Figures. Also, she got badly irradiated right before going inside by splashing around in the Thames after exploring a nearby boat and discovering the river was SUPER radioactive, AND she discovered that dog food, while good for keeping her health up, was also VERY addictive and did bad things to her AP, so now part of her reward for helping out Allen is functionally useless. Bleh.
V. Lady Aria eventually escaped the Fescos and found her way over to where the entrance to Thameshaven should be – only to find a barricade guarded by a group called the “Tommys.” Fortunately the one she spoke to, Randeep, was a perfectly reasonable guy and told her that the Thamesfolk had locked down their little settlement because some sort of “pest problem” had gotten out of hand – and while he would like to give them a hand, the orders from on high were very clear that they weren’t to assist. (Plus it sounds like the Thamesfolk tend to keep to themselves, away from outsiders, anyway, so maybe they wouldn’t WANT the help.) Lady Aria was like “but my health is so poor” so Randeep suggested that if she REALLY had to, she could brave going in through the south entrance. So she went and did just that –
And found it a half-flooded, partially-collapsed mess full of various monsters! Including horrible giant leeches, ech. >( On the plus side, she did at least score an actual GUN out of an unlocked safe in the first room. And discovered what probably happened to the Thamesfolk thanks to a handy terminal – basically, the underground station their ancestors sheltered in during the bombs leaked, and since the water of the Thames is so radioactive, they all mutated. Jon’s of the opinion the various stations are going to be the British equivalent of the Vaults, with accidental (or possibly deliberate) “experiments” going on in each. Should be fun to see if he’s right!
VI. And the episode ended with her finding the leader of the Thamesfolk, Rachel, arguing with another about whether or not they should just abandon Thameshaven and “The Ferryman” to save everyone else – and yes, the Thamesfolk are indeed fish people, complete with what one could call an Innsmouth Look. Lady Aria explained her deal to them – that she needed a doctor and answers – and Rachel said that Aria helped out their boy The Ferryman with their pest problem in the main residential areas, she’d be happy to tell her all about where she got the blueprints showing the secret Shard lab that she sold to Sebastian Gaunt and his crew. (In fact, she was nice enough to say that normally she’d just TELL Aria what the deal was, but she and her people were desperate for help with their issues, so…) Aria has agreed, and next week, we will watch her descend an elevator shaft to find The Ferryman and help him out! And hopefully find some Rad-Away, because ouch, she is SO irradiated...
Okay, fine, that last write-up was still rather long, but I am TRYING, darn it. :p I am also trying to get to bed earlier, so I am going to attempt to do that now (helps that I'm not on TV Tropes at the moment, I think). Hopefully Sunday will be better and allow me to stick more to my usual schedule -- goals include getting as much image alt text sorted on my Chill Valicer Save drafts over on Victor Luvs Alice; playing Fallout 4 and building Jezebel her body so I can advance the Mechanist questline already; updating the FO4 Playthrough Progression doc appropriately; getting in a workout; and keeping up with the Sunday GSP & MATN pair. Hopefully all achievable -- especially if I manage to wake up a little earlier. :p Night all!
