Very Middling Saturday

I really do think I'm PMSing, as I'm thirstier than usual and I'm very easily annoyed lately, which did not contribute to a great day off. Like, it wasn't the worst, but -- here, let me tell you all about it --

Cleaning: Okay, I thought I was going to get an early start on this and finish with time to spare before lunch – but when I went to get the feather duster after having my breakfast, I found that the dish liquid pump had been shoved in next to it, and some of the dish liquid had gotten on one of the feathers. Cue me trying to wipe it off/out while grumbling about people not looking where they put things. >( Fortunately it was just in one section, and after I’d wiped that section a bit and dried out the area, it still worked just fine, but – eh. And then I had to pause to help my parents figure out how to reset something in my car (fortunately once we read the section in the book, they were able to just do it quickly while I got on with the cleaning), and then when I went to put my sheets in the hamper, Mom told me to just take them down and wash them, so I did (along with my hat, scarf, and gloves, since I figured they could all use a bath). And between that and a couple of other minor interruptions, the whole process ended up taking a lot longer than expected. *sigh* I got the dusting and Swiffering done before lunch at 1 PM, at least – had to finish up the vacuuming after eating and after getting the white stuff out of the dryer, since nobody had told me it was in there before. And then, of course, I had to move MY stuff to the dryer and get that out once it was ready… point is, I didn’t finish cleaning until about 2:20 PM, and I didn’t get my sheets and winter gear back until about 3:20 PM. *grumbles* At least I did get through my relisten of “The Astor Gambit” from Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark...even if I had go out and come back into the first video once because it started stuttering for no reason I could work out. Just let me listen to Edvard accidentally name his latest invention after himself while undercover at Astor Innoventions and Zillah choke a guard out with her thighs in a flooding bathroom in peace! (...it makes sense in context, please watch Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark.)

Tumblr: As usual for a Cleaning Saturday, I didn’t get anything done on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) beyond catching up on the dash, but I had some activity over on Valice Multiverse tonight –

A) One ask from Toonsisters indicating that an average conversation between her and Nell would consist of Nell essentially saying she’s a queen and Toonsisters responding she’s a cunt and golddigger – the Cuddlepile group cautioned that Nell would promptly hit back with her own nastiness, and thus she might want to invest in earplugs (as suggested by Alice) or maybe shout at her from a moving car (as suggested by Smiler). Toonsisters reblogged to say she didn’t care and that she’d hit back with the “low blow” of letting Nell know that Victor doesn’t love her and that she drove him away. ...Victor quietly said that that probably wouldn’t work, and Alice and Smiler promptly started cuddling him and let him know that, even if it didn’t get through to Nell, he still deserves to know SOMEONE cares about him.

B) A post Toonsisters tagged me in with a meme she made about how Nell sees herself (elegant Victorian lady) versus how the rest of the world sees her (elephant in a stupid costume). Cuddlepile!Alice agreed with the sentiment, though Smiler pointed out that they thought the elephant was in fact kind of cute, and it’s not like it chose its costume. Victor said that Nell does put on a performance whenever she dresses, though – mainly “look at all this expensive stuff I can afford,” as Alice guessed.

C) And an ask from Satirical Demon, where Nick from his “Beneath A Broken Sky” world was trying to wrangle a less-lucid-than-usual Dr. Daniel, who was apparently “doing things,” and trying to get Dommik and N (Daniel’s less-than-human partners) to pick him up – Dommik and N said “no, we let him loose for enrichment.” Valicer In The Dark!Smiler promptly suggested sending Dr. Dan over to their world so he could study all the various cults in Duskwall, while Victor facepalmed and Alice demanded to know what it was that Dr. Dan was DOING. XD Nick replied that mainly Dr. Dan was shouting random things and trying to spin in circles (with Dr. Daniel doing just that in a series of references to stuff I don’t know about :p) – I had to put my reply into the queue as I got to it very late, but Alice will be like “okay, that’s better than I was expecting,” Victor will be watching Dr. Dan in concern, and Smiler will suggest bringing him to the MOJ and putting him in a room for a while to get it out of his system. XD We’ll see if this goes anywhere further tomorrow!

Baldur’s Gate III: As you might expect given how long it took me to get all my cleaning and surprise laundry done, I got to this later than expected – but I did get to it, and got partway through the tutorial dungeon on the crashing Nautiloid ship! Here’s the summary:

A) Picked up with Smiler having just woken up in the initial pod room, with only their clothes, lute, and hand crossbow to their name – I had them explore around, checking out the other pods and looting the dead mindflayer, and the “desk” and chest up top. Got a piece of jade, a piece of onyx, and ten gold, nice.

B) Once I was sure I had found everything, I proceeded to the next room, with the remains of some of the mind flayer’s various experiments – including poor Myrnath, the high elf whose brain is our beloved companion Us! I had Smiler grab a couple more bits of gold off the dead goblin near the entrance; read all the various tablets (they’re very cool); practice examining things like the brain jars and tentacle aquariums (“mind flayer horticulture,” Smiler observed) by right-clicking on them (this is apparently a good thing to do in combat as it helps you learn what things you can attack are weak to, and what they’re resistant/immune to); then had them hop on the Neural Apparatus Elevator and ride up to the top to chat with Us and free them!

IT TOOK ME THREE FREAKING TRIES TO DO SO. *facepalm* What happened is, mindful of the fact that I might get some nasty dice rolls, I took a moment to do a save before kicking off the conversation. I then had Smiler greet Us, ask what they were and what they were so afraid of, before asking what they could to help. Us asked them to free them from Myrnath’s body (as their whole deal is they’re stuck inside his skull and can’t get out to properly grow their tentacles and legs and whatnot), so I had Smiler examine them with an Investigation roll, since that can reveal that Us is swollen and thus provide a Medicine check to get them out of there. Difficulty to beat was ten –

Aaaand Smiler got a six. With modifiers. Meh. “Well,” I figured, “there’s still the options to break the skull via Strength check or try to gently prise Us out via Dexterity check – let’s go Dex, Smiler’s a little better at that.” I thus picked that option and rolled the dice –

AND GOT A THREE. WITH MODIFIERS. And if you fail to pull Us out the first time, the game DOES NOT LET YOU TRY AGAIN – you’re told, essentially “the brain won’t budge” and your only options are to destroy Us or leave. I thus left –

And thus reloaded! I reinitiated the conversation with Us (learning in the process that you can actually fail the Perception check that comes up automatically to figure out what’s actually talking to you, losing out on the “brain quivers in anticipation” line), then – after looking it up – did a quicksave right before doing the Investigation check. THIS time Smiler succeeded that and was able to notice the brain swelling against the skull, which gave them access to the Medicine check! Which they not only had proficiency in, giving them a bigger bonus to add to the total, but ALSO had advantage on thanks to the situation, meaning they could roll two dice and take the higher. Meaning this should be an easy check to pass, right?

I GOT A FUCKING EIGHT WITH MODIFIERS. And as the difficulty check was once again a ten, Smiler was informed the swelling was too great and Us wasn’t coming out of that skull. Deeply annoyed by this point, I quickloaded and tried again –

And THIS TIME, I got 19 on the Investigation check, and 14 on the Medicine check, meaning Smiler FINALLY saved Us. *deep sigh* My plushy Us would have been so disappointed if I hadn’t managed that! Good thing third time’s the charm, eh?

C) ANYWAY – having finally saved Us, and rejected the opportunity to cripple them (this is a trap – if you do this, Us won’t turn on you if you decide to kill any of the other intellect devourers on the ship, but they will be a weaker companion when you get them as a summon later), Smiler agreed to team up with Us to head to the helm, where they were apparently needed to navigate their way out of their current location. Though not before a chat with Us about where they were (Avernus, First of the Nine Hells – you can see why they wanted to leave), why they’d been forced on the ship (to “love them” and give them a “gift”), and what had been put in their eye (aforementioned “gift,” which would make Smiler “so beautiful” and “so powerful”); me quicksaving so I didn’t have to go through those cursed Us-saving checks again; and me sending Smiler up and down the elevator a couple of times (first time, I had to go back up because I’d forgotten to check Myrnath’s corpse for goodies – nothing, damn; second time, I had to go back up because I’d accidentally stranded Us up there). But they eventually made it out onto the side of the ship, where they saw a bunch of imps and dragons flying around, having an epic battle with each other and the heavily-damaged Nautiloid –

And then, after Smiler ventured a little further ahead, flipping down from above came Lae’zel! Who was very ready to kill Smiler for being a thrall until their respective tadpoles linked their minds and made her realize that she was mistaken. Smiler was like “why did you think I was a thrall,” and Lae’zel explained the whole “we’re infected with mind flayer parasites and unless we escape and get rid of them, we’ll turn into mind flayers ourselves,” to which Smiler was like “oh shit D:” Fortunately Lae’zel had a plan – fight their way to the helm, take control of the ship, and find a safe realm to escape to! And first step in that plan?

Kill the three imps standing in their way! Fortunately, the initiative order meant that Smiler, Lae’zel, and Us all went first, and Smiler was able to examine one of the imps and determine they had no resistances and not a heck of a lot of health. They thus used a Piercing Shot on their hand crossbow to take out the imp farthest away from them before strumming their lute to give Lae’zel a shot of Bardic Inspiration. Lae’zel in turn rushed the nearer imp with her sword and slashed it in half; and Us finishing things off by clawing the final imp to death. :) Victory! Smiler then led everyone around the room to loot all the bodies (imps, dead thralls, and one incinerated mind flayer) – got two void bulb bombs, a skulll, and a Potion of Speed on the mind flayer; a scimitar on one of the imps (though I had Lae’zel take that, as it’s not one of the weapons Smiler is proficient with); a light crossbow on another imp; a hand ax off a third imp; a rapier off the thrall corpse closest to the “arterial mesh” climbing wall; and eight gold off various thrall corpses. Not a bad haul, especially since it got Smiler a better crossbow and two melee weapons, which they were definitely lacking!

D) Having finished their looting, the gang then proceeded up the arterial mesh – where they discovered they were in fact not finished with their looting, as there was a thrall body up here too. XD Smiler snagged an extra potion of healing, then led the way up a second arterial mesh and into the room beyond –

Where they discovered Shadowheart, trapped in her pod! She half-demanded, half-begged Smiler to free her – Lae’zel was all “we have no time for stragglers” but Smiler ignored that, instead looking for a latch on the pod. Not finding one, they assured Shadowheart they’d find a way to free her, and she directed them to check out the organic tech console nearby. Smiler obligingly examined said console, and realized there was an empty socket, which probably was where the power source was supposed to slot in…

And that’s where I decided to pause it for the day! Both because I didn’t want to go too late given how long these write-ups usually take me, and because my computer was getting a bit loud and I figured it would probably be smart to let the fan take a break. XD So Smiler’s currently in the process of trying to free Shadowheart – next time I play, hopefully I’ll make some progress on that, get all goodies, and actually make it to the helm!

Writing: Got another page on “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded” done, with Alice revealing that she doesn’t have much in the way of clothes, but she would like to get her diary and her family portrait if possible – and then going “yes, I’m not sure where it came from either” when Victor was ??? over her having a family portrait; Smiler discussing Victor’s ghost-sensing range, and Victor revealing that, according to Elder Gutknecht, it should be quite a bit bigger than the average Whisper’s thanks to his accidental marriage to Emily; and Gutknecht himself showing up on the scene, confirming there should be a measuring tape somewhere up there before asking Alice if she’s committed to stealing the ledger over killing Bumby – Alice’s response was “mostly, but if he gets in my way and I have a shot at him…” Which even Gutknecht will admit is fair. Still have to figure out how to get Sooty in here...I figure the raven has to show up around the time that Victor discovers a still-living caterpillar in his surprise loaf and decides he can’t eat any more of it, because then Smiler could conveniently give the rest to Sooty. Which would DEFINITELY make the bird that much more kindly inclined toward them…yeah, that should work nicely. *goes and notes that down in the actual story for later*

YouTube: WELP, GrayStillPlays uploaded ANOTHER video where the premise revolves around plugging prompts into ChatGPT and then doing things based on whatever idiocy it spits out tonight, so it turned out I only had to catch up with his video from yesterday – “When your roommate is a psychopath,” aka Gray plays Cursed Digicam! This is a really weird J-horror game about a grieving father, whose daughter died at the local park and whose ghost is apparently now haunting him, getting a special digital camera that can take pictures of spirits to get enough pictures of her to upload to a special website and hopefully put her spirit to rest. Except, when he starts taking pictures at the park, things rapidly start getting very creepy… I mean, until Gray starts opening his mouth and discussing what he’s seeing. Like commenting on how many body bags have appeared after a certain picture-taking session, or finding a spooky discount-Mickey mascot character floating around and yelling at them to leave him alone, or trying to get the silliest picture of the kid peeking at him from over a bathroom stall. You got the sense that even he was getting pretty freaked out by the end of it, though – it’s a genuinely fairly unsettling game. Also, as you might imagine, there is a twist at the end, and – I’ll say this: you can probably guess half the twist. The other half...well, you MIGHT be able to guess it, but it’s more likely you’ll be “oh shit” at the very end of the game. Or you might be as confused as Gray seemed to be, because – yeah, he’d been through a lot of freaky bullshit and sometimes it’s hard to put things together after that! But it was a good time, and makes me wish he’d just do more of these instead of the ChatGPT stuff. *huffs*

Aaaand, as usual, I've stayed up later than intended. *shakehead* At least this is a three-day weekend. Anyway, I'm off to bed -- tomorrow's goals including getting some drafting done on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler); playing Fallout 4 and getting Victor and company to Diamond City now that they've cleared out Monsignor Plaza; updating the FO4 Playthrough Progression doc appropriately; getting in a workout; and keeping up with -- well, Jon for sure. Keeping up with Gray really depends on what video he uploads. *grumbles* Night all!