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Welp, That Was A Waste Of A Sunday
Jan. 5th, 2025 11:48 pmYeah, the day started off on the not-great side with me getting up later than I wanted (which is my own fault, granted, as I didn’t get to bed until 2:30 AM) – and then, while I was getting my breakfast, my mother making an unwanted comment about how she wasn’t trying to be cruel, but I needed to lose some weight. Which – I dunno, just smacked straight into a lot of feelings about how I feel like my life, and frankly the world at large, has just been going downhill for a while now and meant that I spent a good portion of the morning crying in my room. And then a good portion of the afternoon after lunch sitting around trying to muster up the desire to actually do anything. I managed it in the end, barely – mostly by throwing out the idea of gaming and writing and instead just making sure I went into the new week with a “clean slate” in regards to YouTube (getting my Watch Later cleaned out and keeping up with the usual Sunday Two), but...fucking hell. I really could have done without any of that. *shakehead* Anyway -- what I did get up to today --
Tumblr: I wasn’t particularly productive over here thanks to the aforementioned late wake-up and crying, but I got a couple of things done –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – The one thing I managed to do this morning was fix up a few typos in my VITD Advocates write-up post. It’s not much but I’m counting it, damn it.
Valice Multiverse – And I had one ask for the queue over here from toonsisters, who just sent a bunch of memes in a “meme storm.” The Cuddlepile group was most amused, with Victor identifying with an “anxious owl” meme; Smiler claiming ownership of a “baby Yoda/Grogu devouring a twenty-piece nugget box” meme; and Alice deciding that left her with a cute “cat going ‘blep’” meme. *nods* I’ll take that.
YouTube: As stated, this is what I ended up spending most of my day on, and at the very least, I was very successful in making sure I didn’t have anything hanging over my head here –
A) First up, once I’d finally clawed my way at least partially out of the old depression hole, we had the latest from Petey Plays It – “That One Time I Got Into A Relationship With The Grim Reaper | Super Sim Series 16!” Yes, Tina was back for the new year for more Super Sim shenanigans, these ones all themed around the new gameplay added with the Life & Death expansion pack! Today’s episode featured –
I. Tina deciding to enter the Reaper career after all after rejecting it last episode, and reaping her way all the way to the top (despite an unfortunately glitchy first day where she was tasked with reaping four Sims while out on assignment but only being able to find three), getting fancy new robes and the “Grim’s Right Hand” trait, which makes her truly deathproof. No more needing to rely on her fancy jewelry to keep death away!
II. Tina completing both the tarot card collection (including doing all the favors for the various members of the Order of Lenore) and the Freezer Boney collection (which was SUPPOSED to be one of the rewards you got from the Reaper’s Rewards Login challenge thing, but apparently you can just buy them in Build/Buy mode now? O.o At any rate, she bought one of each swatch to celebrate her promotions in the Reaper career). Though rather than using her collection to make the fancy Lady Ravendancer Goth tarot deck (allowing her to summon the woman herself as a ghost whenever she wished, among other things), she ended up buying it from the Rewards store because of that bug that un-completes collections whenever you go to live on a university campus without the entire collection in your inventory. Like to see THAT fixed at some point too, Sim Gurus!
III. Tina also completing both the Ghost Historian and Bestselling Author aspirations, gaining the ability to make better friends with ghosts via the “Ghost Whisperer” trait and to capture the essence of a Sim’s life in a book with the “Poetic” trait – the latter being used to make a book about Sally’s life, just in case the woman SOMEHOW ended up dead again and needed a way to resurrect herself. Because you never know in this game!
IV. Tina officially adding Sergio to her household as a playable ghost and encouraging him on his Soul’s Journey by helping him through a couple of aspirations...only to swap to encouraging him to move on to the Great Beyond once he reached that state in his journey. Because A, she really wanted to be rid of him for good, and B, it would score her yet another reward trait, “Perspectives of Death,” that would help her deal with grief and boost her own gains in her Soul’s Journey (though, admittedly, she’d already maxed out everything she could do as a living Sim regarding that – but it’ll be useful for the next time she ends up as a ghost!) Sergio was convinced, and now all that’s left of him is his plumbob, sitting in Tina’s inventory. ...the whole thing was funnier than it sounds here, I promise. :p
V. And Tina – well, romancing the Grim Reaper. XD Because she found them mysterious and beguiling, and because Lady Ravendancer Goth’s ghost got her all worked up about romance when she summoned her, and also because it sure didn’t hurt her promotion chances in the Reaper career! Though once she actually got the trait she wanted by maxing out the career, she was like, “Shit, did I really start a relationship with the Grim Reaper? How the fuck am I going to get out of THIS one?!”
...the comments under the video are all like “DOUBLE DOWN AND HAVE THEIR BABY SO SOMEONE IN THE FAMILY HAS THE ‘GRIMBORN’ TRAIT YOU COULDN’T GET.” XD I mean, it does seem like a logical thing to do in this messed-up series, AND Tina DOES have family-related aspirations to complete at SOME point, sooo… We’ll see what ACTUALLY happens next episode!
B) Then it was time for the final video that was currently cluttering up my Watch Later – “CaFae Latte Season 13 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! This episode featured a woman stupidly getting Bob and Cyrus to stay after closing to make her big order by promising them a big tip, only to go “oh, did I do that? I don’t recall” afterward (resulting in Bob cursing her to never be able to eat out again until she respects food service employees more); a dude needling Bob for donating to the Trevor Project while only letting someone promoting Men’s Mental Health Month put a flyer up on the door – only for the Mental Health dude to smack him down verbally (Bob was very impressed); Cyrus and his buddies going on a road trip and getting mugged – only to utterly DESTROY the mugger (his bud Kenny filmed it and it went viral); Bob, JC, and Nicole having to deal with a mother who angrily asked Bob to give her her “real” son back when she learned her kid, Ben, had autism (Bob told the mother a thing or two and gave Ben a fairy blessing while Nicole gave him loads of resources and some good luck charms); and Bob meeting with a historian to talk about the US Civil War, which ended up with her bitching about this pair of gay guys on the Union side who met during combat but who insisted on tiptoeing around each other for five months before getting together (it drove her MAD XD). I do love these skits, they’re a lot of fun. Just sometimes hard to fit in around everything else I want to do!
C) Then, after supper, it was time to start the Sunday Two with the latest from GrayStillPlays – “When YouTube sponsorships ruin your life,” aka Gray plays Happy Wheels! Guessing this is now a regular Sunday feature, which I have no problem with. Best boards tonight were “Santa’s Last Dash” by Explorer Guy Real (where Gray had to have Santa and his two elves fly through the night and deliver the last few presents before heading through an ice cave dodging falling icicles to get to the win); “SLENDERMAN” by MAXIMPIG (where Segway Nixon had to go through the forest collecting the Slendy notes before backing away VERY rapidly from a Slenderman and his spinning katanas – Gray notably found that you could win while DEAD if Slenderman pushed you all the way back to the beginning); and “Honey, I’m Broke!” by Dylan Snider (which saw Bike Dad and Tom Hardy go into a beehive and dodge bees throwing coins and “Rain Shallow Legends” ads to confront the CEO of Honey, who was revealed to be an old crypto mascot – the context being, “Honey” – a popular YouTube sponsor – was recently revealed to be a scam and stealing cash from creators), which all had excellent production values. Though shout-out to the multi-level bottle run and the harpoon dodge that did NOT provide handy lasers to show where the harpoons were going to shoot too – both excellent stuff, and it was very amusing to see Gray panic in the latter. XD
D) And finally, we had Jon of Many A True Nerd and “Fallout: London - Part 24 - My 'Fair' Lady!” The continuing adventures of Lady Aria and Kiera as they –
I. Met with Penelope, who as it turned out wanted to elevate Aria to respectability to restore her own social standing (she’d made some bad decisions and was currently being shunned by her old friends; she figured if she could turn Aria into a respected woman-about-town, her friends would be curious and want to talk to her again)! Becoming a respectable citizen in Westminster involved three things –
a. One, buying a house in town – the very house that Aria had already cleared of Cavaliers for that nice Officer Kevin earlier (the one who told her about the petition to get into Parliament). It was up for auction, so Aria went there (murdering some more Cavaliers on the way with Scaramanga), checked the place out, then – after chatting briefly with Penelope’s footman – cased the competition. She was able to get two of them to go away with her natural Luck and some drug-enhanced Perception, but the third was immune to anything but Charisma, which she couldn’t boost to the necessary level. Fortunately the third ALSO had an upper spending limit of 3,000 tickets, which she confessed to in the auction, so Aria was able to outbid her by saying she’d pay 4,000 (with poor Perceptionless Jon missing that she could have just paid 3,001 with her Scrounger perk because he misread it). This got her the house, but it also cost her all her money because Jon ALSO misinterpreted Penelope saying that she’d cover anything Aria couldn’t afford as she would pay for ALL of the expenses. Whoops. Oh Jon. XD
b. Two, find a worthy and fashionable cause to support by going down to the Wellington Arch and hearing out the people there! There were the Rationists, demanding extra teacakes with their rations; the 99ers, who sought to save paper and ink in government by changing the sentence for indentured servitude from 100 years to 99 years; and the Suffragists, who were all about giving Westminster Thamesfolk citizens the vote! As the first two causes were complete nonsense, Aria went with the Suffragists. Makes sense, honestly – some of her first friends in the city were the residents of Thameshaven, so yeah!
c. Three, join a social club by heading to another meeting spot to speak with Baroness Robin Bettencourt about her Mugwumps Society (for those looking for power and influence), Earl Alan Wakefield about his Aluminum Chapeaus (conspiracy theorists – and yes, the name WAS a play on “tinfoil hats”), and Madam Coates about the Tea & Garden Club (support good gardens). After speaking to them, Aria decided she wanted to throw her lot in with the Chapeaus (makes sense, she loves a good hat), and for her initiation hunted down a pigeon for Wakefield to examine and find evidence for his theory that pigeons were secretly in league with umbrella makers. XD I mean, the pigeon body she found was that of an Angel Cyberpigeon, so he’s going to find SOME evidence of a conspiracy – just not the one he thinks. XD But she got him what she wanted, and he handed her an aluminum hat (which does boost her intelligence, but isn’t as nice as her bearskin) and a membership!
And so the quest ended happily, with Aria becoming officially respectable (complete with a mention in the local paper), and Penelope sending her a thank-you letter and 3,100 tickets, more than making up for the money she lost buying her crappy house on the edge of town. XD Yay!
II. Went to see Tenpenny to talk about his urgent message – turned out he’d been exposed as the person behind the London Eye’s destruction, so he was fleeing to Americaand into Fallout 3. However, with his home under watch by plainsclothes guards, he needed Aria’s help to pull off his great escape – namely, she had to meet with his contact in Eastminster, Emil, to make sure everything was in order. Aria thus headed over there to meet with the guy (using Scaramanga to give a Post Boxer a very bad day on the way) –
Aaaand was instead met with a bunch of mercs that she had to murder. Turns out Emil hired them to make sure Aria was the real deal. Aria was annoyed, but confirmed she was there to help with Tenpenny’s escape; Emil in turn told her that he had the boat ready, but he wasn’t quite satisfied with the pay Tenpenny was offering for the job and needed extra inducement to make the journey. Her choices were to get him one uniform each from the Tommies, the 5th Column, and Camelot; ten mittenlurk eggs; or just pay him half of what Tenpenny was paying her (2,500 tickets, so Emil was asking for 1,250) up front. Aria was like “I know EXACTLY where to get mittenlurk eggs, give me a second” and popped up to the top of the map, where she’d previously found a TON of mittenlurks. She snatched ten eggs no problem up there and returned to Emil in glory – he accepted his bounty and told her that all she needed to do now was escort Tenpenny through Westminster, then into the sewers into Eastminster, before popping back up where he’d parked the boat. Easy peasy, right?
And – yeah, it kind of was! Aria was successfully able to get Tenpenny through Westminster with no issue, and while they were assaulted by ghouls in the sewer, Scaramanga was able to make short work of them. She even got a fun new toy off an early Legendary – a Staggering Zap Machine Gun! Niiice. :D They did have a bit of trouble with bounty hunters right as they exited the sewers, but not only did Scaramanga continue proving its worth, turns out Tenpenny is VERY deadly with an umbrella. Who knew? XD So Tenpenny was successfully bundled onto his ship to the good old USA, and Aria headed off with not only a bunch of tickets, but ANOTHER new gun – The Queen’s Gambit, which looks like a very stylish and very powerful sniper. *nods* I approve muchly.
III. Returned to Camden to track down Apache Alice (after a quick jaunt to Thameshaven to check out the new guns’ stats and put a scope on the Gambit) and see what she needed in return for putting her signature on Aria’s petition! They found her hanging out in the Cyberfox club, an old converted tube station full of pounding beats and colorful lights, and she informed Aria that she wouldn’t be putting her name down for any old sod – only a fellow Pistol. Aria was like “okay then, how do I join,” and Alice told her that she needed to hang around, talk to people, get a feel for what the group was like. And then added, “Oh, and if you could maybe clear out those Hooligans who got past our guards and set up shop in the old school, that would very helpful too.”
Aria knew a hint when she heard one and promptly headed off to Arlington School and the Anarch Tower that was next to it! Fortunately the Hooligans hanging around within both structures were just basics – Aria cleared out the tower with Scaramanga first, then proceeded to take out most of the people in the school itself with her Sacrificial Blade to save ammo. The only one who needed something a bit stronger was their leader, Edwina the Silent – and the minute Aria broke out the Queen’s Gambit, well, she was no longer an issue. :D That gun may be horrible when it comes to reloading, but it certainly stops everything in its tracks! And Aria got a THIRD new toy while murdering all those enemies, thanks to a Legendary Radroach – a Never Ending Shortround Musket Pistol! Another gun that hits pretty hard – and, thanks to the Never Ending effect, avoids the reloading woes that her previous musket pistol had. So THAT should be worth keeping around, yes. :)
And so the episode ended with Aria and Kiera getting ready to return to Alice and tell her the good news about the school! Next time, we’ll see if that’s enough to get Aria her signature, or if Alice has any other jobs that need doing!
Workout: I did get back on the bike this evening, pedaling my way through “100 Dangerous Doodles,” aka the compilation of Gray playing drawing games! Well, sort of – while the first game was a legit drawing game, with Gray having to get a variety of yellow vehicles past various obstacles to the winning flag by drawing them the right path (he was very pleased to both get himself a cat motorcycle from the random draw and finish a level by filling a pit with the word YEET), the SECOND game was Dumb Ways To Die, which is one of those minigame collections where you have to save bean-people from the consequences of their own actions via things like tapping on the screen to shoo piranhas away from a bean dancing in the water, or drawing a circle to slow down a bean spinning in a tumble dryer, or filling in the missing letters in the word “patience” to stop a bean trying to go through a railroad crossing too soon. Naturally Gray was murdering beans as often as he was saving them. XD But yeah, not exactly a drawing game! We’ll see if he gets back to the actual theme of the compilation tomorrow!
*nods* Not the day I was hoping for -- but then again, I did say that I was considering wiping out the Watch Later last night, so I guess I did accomplish ONE of my stated goals. And it's nice to not have that hanging over my head. And now it's time for me to go to bed, happily NOT as late as I have some Sundays. Night all!
Tumblr: I wasn’t particularly productive over here thanks to the aforementioned late wake-up and crying, but I got a couple of things done –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – The one thing I managed to do this morning was fix up a few typos in my VITD Advocates write-up post. It’s not much but I’m counting it, damn it.
Valice Multiverse – And I had one ask for the queue over here from toonsisters, who just sent a bunch of memes in a “meme storm.” The Cuddlepile group was most amused, with Victor identifying with an “anxious owl” meme; Smiler claiming ownership of a “baby Yoda/Grogu devouring a twenty-piece nugget box” meme; and Alice deciding that left her with a cute “cat going ‘blep’” meme. *nods* I’ll take that.
YouTube: As stated, this is what I ended up spending most of my day on, and at the very least, I was very successful in making sure I didn’t have anything hanging over my head here –
A) First up, once I’d finally clawed my way at least partially out of the old depression hole, we had the latest from Petey Plays It – “That One Time I Got Into A Relationship With The Grim Reaper | Super Sim Series 16!” Yes, Tina was back for the new year for more Super Sim shenanigans, these ones all themed around the new gameplay added with the Life & Death expansion pack! Today’s episode featured –
I. Tina deciding to enter the Reaper career after all after rejecting it last episode, and reaping her way all the way to the top (despite an unfortunately glitchy first day where she was tasked with reaping four Sims while out on assignment but only being able to find three), getting fancy new robes and the “Grim’s Right Hand” trait, which makes her truly deathproof. No more needing to rely on her fancy jewelry to keep death away!
II. Tina completing both the tarot card collection (including doing all the favors for the various members of the Order of Lenore) and the Freezer Boney collection (which was SUPPOSED to be one of the rewards you got from the Reaper’s Rewards Login challenge thing, but apparently you can just buy them in Build/Buy mode now? O.o At any rate, she bought one of each swatch to celebrate her promotions in the Reaper career). Though rather than using her collection to make the fancy Lady Ravendancer Goth tarot deck (allowing her to summon the woman herself as a ghost whenever she wished, among other things), she ended up buying it from the Rewards store because of that bug that un-completes collections whenever you go to live on a university campus without the entire collection in your inventory. Like to see THAT fixed at some point too, Sim Gurus!
III. Tina also completing both the Ghost Historian and Bestselling Author aspirations, gaining the ability to make better friends with ghosts via the “Ghost Whisperer” trait and to capture the essence of a Sim’s life in a book with the “Poetic” trait – the latter being used to make a book about Sally’s life, just in case the woman SOMEHOW ended up dead again and needed a way to resurrect herself. Because you never know in this game!
IV. Tina officially adding Sergio to her household as a playable ghost and encouraging him on his Soul’s Journey by helping him through a couple of aspirations...only to swap to encouraging him to move on to the Great Beyond once he reached that state in his journey. Because A, she really wanted to be rid of him for good, and B, it would score her yet another reward trait, “Perspectives of Death,” that would help her deal with grief and boost her own gains in her Soul’s Journey (though, admittedly, she’d already maxed out everything she could do as a living Sim regarding that – but it’ll be useful for the next time she ends up as a ghost!) Sergio was convinced, and now all that’s left of him is his plumbob, sitting in Tina’s inventory. ...the whole thing was funnier than it sounds here, I promise. :p
V. And Tina – well, romancing the Grim Reaper. XD Because she found them mysterious and beguiling, and because Lady Ravendancer Goth’s ghost got her all worked up about romance when she summoned her, and also because it sure didn’t hurt her promotion chances in the Reaper career! Though once she actually got the trait she wanted by maxing out the career, she was like, “Shit, did I really start a relationship with the Grim Reaper? How the fuck am I going to get out of THIS one?!”
...the comments under the video are all like “DOUBLE DOWN AND HAVE THEIR BABY SO SOMEONE IN THE FAMILY HAS THE ‘GRIMBORN’ TRAIT YOU COULDN’T GET.” XD I mean, it does seem like a logical thing to do in this messed-up series, AND Tina DOES have family-related aspirations to complete at SOME point, sooo… We’ll see what ACTUALLY happens next episode!
B) Then it was time for the final video that was currently cluttering up my Watch Later – “CaFae Latte Season 13 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! This episode featured a woman stupidly getting Bob and Cyrus to stay after closing to make her big order by promising them a big tip, only to go “oh, did I do that? I don’t recall” afterward (resulting in Bob cursing her to never be able to eat out again until she respects food service employees more); a dude needling Bob for donating to the Trevor Project while only letting someone promoting Men’s Mental Health Month put a flyer up on the door – only for the Mental Health dude to smack him down verbally (Bob was very impressed); Cyrus and his buddies going on a road trip and getting mugged – only to utterly DESTROY the mugger (his bud Kenny filmed it and it went viral); Bob, JC, and Nicole having to deal with a mother who angrily asked Bob to give her her “real” son back when she learned her kid, Ben, had autism (Bob told the mother a thing or two and gave Ben a fairy blessing while Nicole gave him loads of resources and some good luck charms); and Bob meeting with a historian to talk about the US Civil War, which ended up with her bitching about this pair of gay guys on the Union side who met during combat but who insisted on tiptoeing around each other for five months before getting together (it drove her MAD XD). I do love these skits, they’re a lot of fun. Just sometimes hard to fit in around everything else I want to do!
C) Then, after supper, it was time to start the Sunday Two with the latest from GrayStillPlays – “When YouTube sponsorships ruin your life,” aka Gray plays Happy Wheels! Guessing this is now a regular Sunday feature, which I have no problem with. Best boards tonight were “Santa’s Last Dash” by Explorer Guy Real (where Gray had to have Santa and his two elves fly through the night and deliver the last few presents before heading through an ice cave dodging falling icicles to get to the win); “SLENDERMAN” by MAXIMPIG (where Segway Nixon had to go through the forest collecting the Slendy notes before backing away VERY rapidly from a Slenderman and his spinning katanas – Gray notably found that you could win while DEAD if Slenderman pushed you all the way back to the beginning); and “Honey, I’m Broke!” by Dylan Snider (which saw Bike Dad and Tom Hardy go into a beehive and dodge bees throwing coins and “Rain Shallow Legends” ads to confront the CEO of Honey, who was revealed to be an old crypto mascot – the context being, “Honey” – a popular YouTube sponsor – was recently revealed to be a scam and stealing cash from creators), which all had excellent production values. Though shout-out to the multi-level bottle run and the harpoon dodge that did NOT provide handy lasers to show where the harpoons were going to shoot too – both excellent stuff, and it was very amusing to see Gray panic in the latter. XD
D) And finally, we had Jon of Many A True Nerd and “Fallout: London - Part 24 - My 'Fair' Lady!” The continuing adventures of Lady Aria and Kiera as they –
I. Met with Penelope, who as it turned out wanted to elevate Aria to respectability to restore her own social standing (she’d made some bad decisions and was currently being shunned by her old friends; she figured if she could turn Aria into a respected woman-about-town, her friends would be curious and want to talk to her again)! Becoming a respectable citizen in Westminster involved three things –
a. One, buying a house in town – the very house that Aria had already cleared of Cavaliers for that nice Officer Kevin earlier (the one who told her about the petition to get into Parliament). It was up for auction, so Aria went there (murdering some more Cavaliers on the way with Scaramanga), checked the place out, then – after chatting briefly with Penelope’s footman – cased the competition. She was able to get two of them to go away with her natural Luck and some drug-enhanced Perception, but the third was immune to anything but Charisma, which she couldn’t boost to the necessary level. Fortunately the third ALSO had an upper spending limit of 3,000 tickets, which she confessed to in the auction, so Aria was able to outbid her by saying she’d pay 4,000 (with poor Perceptionless Jon missing that she could have just paid 3,001 with her Scrounger perk because he misread it). This got her the house, but it also cost her all her money because Jon ALSO misinterpreted Penelope saying that she’d cover anything Aria couldn’t afford as she would pay for ALL of the expenses. Whoops. Oh Jon. XD
b. Two, find a worthy and fashionable cause to support by going down to the Wellington Arch and hearing out the people there! There were the Rationists, demanding extra teacakes with their rations; the 99ers, who sought to save paper and ink in government by changing the sentence for indentured servitude from 100 years to 99 years; and the Suffragists, who were all about giving Westminster Thamesfolk citizens the vote! As the first two causes were complete nonsense, Aria went with the Suffragists. Makes sense, honestly – some of her first friends in the city were the residents of Thameshaven, so yeah!
c. Three, join a social club by heading to another meeting spot to speak with Baroness Robin Bettencourt about her Mugwumps Society (for those looking for power and influence), Earl Alan Wakefield about his Aluminum Chapeaus (conspiracy theorists – and yes, the name WAS a play on “tinfoil hats”), and Madam Coates about the Tea & Garden Club (support good gardens). After speaking to them, Aria decided she wanted to throw her lot in with the Chapeaus (makes sense, she loves a good hat), and for her initiation hunted down a pigeon for Wakefield to examine and find evidence for his theory that pigeons were secretly in league with umbrella makers. XD I mean, the pigeon body she found was that of an Angel Cyberpigeon, so he’s going to find SOME evidence of a conspiracy – just not the one he thinks. XD But she got him what she wanted, and he handed her an aluminum hat (which does boost her intelligence, but isn’t as nice as her bearskin) and a membership!
And so the quest ended happily, with Aria becoming officially respectable (complete with a mention in the local paper), and Penelope sending her a thank-you letter and 3,100 tickets, more than making up for the money she lost buying her crappy house on the edge of town. XD Yay!
II. Went to see Tenpenny to talk about his urgent message – turned out he’d been exposed as the person behind the London Eye’s destruction, so he was fleeing to America
Aaaand was instead met with a bunch of mercs that she had to murder. Turns out Emil hired them to make sure Aria was the real deal. Aria was annoyed, but confirmed she was there to help with Tenpenny’s escape; Emil in turn told her that he had the boat ready, but he wasn’t quite satisfied with the pay Tenpenny was offering for the job and needed extra inducement to make the journey. Her choices were to get him one uniform each from the Tommies, the 5th Column, and Camelot; ten mittenlurk eggs; or just pay him half of what Tenpenny was paying her (2,500 tickets, so Emil was asking for 1,250) up front. Aria was like “I know EXACTLY where to get mittenlurk eggs, give me a second” and popped up to the top of the map, where she’d previously found a TON of mittenlurks. She snatched ten eggs no problem up there and returned to Emil in glory – he accepted his bounty and told her that all she needed to do now was escort Tenpenny through Westminster, then into the sewers into Eastminster, before popping back up where he’d parked the boat. Easy peasy, right?
And – yeah, it kind of was! Aria was successfully able to get Tenpenny through Westminster with no issue, and while they were assaulted by ghouls in the sewer, Scaramanga was able to make short work of them. She even got a fun new toy off an early Legendary – a Staggering Zap Machine Gun! Niiice. :D They did have a bit of trouble with bounty hunters right as they exited the sewers, but not only did Scaramanga continue proving its worth, turns out Tenpenny is VERY deadly with an umbrella. Who knew? XD So Tenpenny was successfully bundled onto his ship to the good old USA, and Aria headed off with not only a bunch of tickets, but ANOTHER new gun – The Queen’s Gambit, which looks like a very stylish and very powerful sniper. *nods* I approve muchly.
III. Returned to Camden to track down Apache Alice (after a quick jaunt to Thameshaven to check out the new guns’ stats and put a scope on the Gambit) and see what she needed in return for putting her signature on Aria’s petition! They found her hanging out in the Cyberfox club, an old converted tube station full of pounding beats and colorful lights, and she informed Aria that she wouldn’t be putting her name down for any old sod – only a fellow Pistol. Aria was like “okay then, how do I join,” and Alice told her that she needed to hang around, talk to people, get a feel for what the group was like. And then added, “Oh, and if you could maybe clear out those Hooligans who got past our guards and set up shop in the old school, that would very helpful too.”
Aria knew a hint when she heard one and promptly headed off to Arlington School and the Anarch Tower that was next to it! Fortunately the Hooligans hanging around within both structures were just basics – Aria cleared out the tower with Scaramanga first, then proceeded to take out most of the people in the school itself with her Sacrificial Blade to save ammo. The only one who needed something a bit stronger was their leader, Edwina the Silent – and the minute Aria broke out the Queen’s Gambit, well, she was no longer an issue. :D That gun may be horrible when it comes to reloading, but it certainly stops everything in its tracks! And Aria got a THIRD new toy while murdering all those enemies, thanks to a Legendary Radroach – a Never Ending Shortround Musket Pistol! Another gun that hits pretty hard – and, thanks to the Never Ending effect, avoids the reloading woes that her previous musket pistol had. So THAT should be worth keeping around, yes. :)
And so the episode ended with Aria and Kiera getting ready to return to Alice and tell her the good news about the school! Next time, we’ll see if that’s enough to get Aria her signature, or if Alice has any other jobs that need doing!
Workout: I did get back on the bike this evening, pedaling my way through “100 Dangerous Doodles,” aka the compilation of Gray playing drawing games! Well, sort of – while the first game was a legit drawing game, with Gray having to get a variety of yellow vehicles past various obstacles to the winning flag by drawing them the right path (he was very pleased to both get himself a cat motorcycle from the random draw and finish a level by filling a pit with the word YEET), the SECOND game was Dumb Ways To Die, which is one of those minigame collections where you have to save bean-people from the consequences of their own actions via things like tapping on the screen to shoo piranhas away from a bean dancing in the water, or drawing a circle to slow down a bean spinning in a tumble dryer, or filling in the missing letters in the word “patience” to stop a bean trying to go through a railroad crossing too soon. Naturally Gray was murdering beans as often as he was saving them. XD But yeah, not exactly a drawing game! We’ll see if he gets back to the actual theme of the compilation tomorrow!
*nods* Not the day I was hoping for -- but then again, I did say that I was considering wiping out the Watch Later last night, so I guess I did accomplish ONE of my stated goals. And it's nice to not have that hanging over my head. And now it's time for me to go to bed, happily NOT as late as I have some Sundays. Night all!
