Hey, Look, New Icon

New icons, in fact -- I was checking mine to make sure they all showed up correctly after reading some of the comments on the latest "code push" post from support, and I figured "since I'm here" and uploaded a couple of the other Valicer trio icons I made while trying to decide on what my "OT3" icon should be. (The other icon is them in their party clothes.) I mean, I have the space now, might as well use it! Especially on Valicer stuff.

Anyway -- today was better than yesterday, though marred somewhat by the fact that I stayed up too late last night and thus spent a decent portion of the day feeling groggy. Though I don't think the fact that I'm pretty certain I'm PMSing helped either...tiredness is one of my symptoms. As is distraction/lack of focus, which I had in spades today. *grumble* But I still got stuff done, despite my brain --

Tumblr: Actually had a decently productive day over here –

Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Had a bit of a struggle with the tireds and the distracteds this morning, but I did wrangle my brain enough to get some stuff done in my drafts –

A) I got another section done in the “VITD Pets” post, covering Dogmeat and how he joins the Three Pillars as part of my rewrite of the “When Freedom Calls” quest for Valicer In The Dark! Which, uh, necessitated figuring out a lot more of how that quest is going to go. And trying not to get distracted by the idea that Duskwall might have something equivalent to gas stations for the toffs who ride around in electroplasmic powered carriages. I think I did a halfway-decent job, though – the “Quincy Massacre” is now the result of the local equivalent of the Gunners getting hired as mercenaries to do some union-busting activities on Quincy Street in Coalridge and getting a little too into the whole “threatening disobedient workers’ friends and family” to the point of murdering people. Preston got involved as one of the local Bluecoats, trying to restore order, only for one of his own squadmembers to decide he wanted to play on the Gunners’ side and killing the rest of the squad. Preston basically grabbed who he could from the street (Mama Murphy, Sturges, and Jun and Marcy Long) and booked it, hoping to get someone to safety. Trouble is, Mama Murphy is known for being a bit psychic, and the gang leader of a bunch of former workers from the Corvega Electroplasmic Carriage factory wanted to kidnap her for her insights. So once Preston and his little group of refugees outran the Gunners, they had those assholes to deal with. They holed up in the old museum to get away from them, and Preston sent the dog that had been traveling with them out to get help. Dogmeat thus went out, found the Three Pillars, and got them to come back and help drive away the gang – only for a deathclaw (in this world, a horror from the Deathlands that somehow got into the sewer system – I’m picturing a “glowing” variant for maximum creepy factor) to appear and complicate things… It all ends happily, with the deathclaw being defeated, the refugees brought to safety, and Dogmeat joining the Three Pillars as another pet as he bonded with Victor – but yeah, it’s a lot! You can see why it took me a while to write up!

B) And I threw a few more ideas into the “BTTF/Valicer Ghostbusters 1984 & 2016 Mash-Up AU” post, such as –

I. Figuring out when Doc came up with the idea of “busting” ghosts instead of just studying them (after the Library Ghost incident that got him fired from the college he was working at, thinking about how the staff there was probably hoping he was coming to get rid of the ghost, not study it)

II. Confirming that Clara is getting at least part of the “Dana Barrett” role from the original 1984 movie (she lives in the haunted apartment and gets Zuul in her fridge – luckily for her, she does NOT get possessed by it later because I have different ideas in mind)

III. Figuring out how to get Victoria and Emily involved (they both apply for the receptionist/office assistant job Doc advertises, and Doc is like “you know what, it probably makes sense for us to have two people” and hires both – if anyone does the Janine “WE GOT ONE” yell for the first bust, it’ll be Emily)

IV. Working out the ladies’ first bust (Doc insists they know how to use the equipment, and when a ghost shows up at a gig of Marty’s that he’s helping do the special effects for, Clara, Jennifer, Victoria, Emily, and Alice have to rush to the rescue since obviously Doc and Marty don’t have their equipment and Victor and Smiler are otherwise occupied)

V. Deciding that the jumpsuits start out as the 1984 plain brown and get upgraded to the slightly-fancier 2016 tan with orange stripes by Clara and Victoria (who bond over sewing skills)

VI. Deciding that we have a double climax, with Clara, Jennifer, Victoria, and Emily closing a ghost vortex by chucking one of the cars into it (and Emily ending up with blue hair and skin when she falls in and has to be rescued) a la the 2016 movie, and Doc, Marty, Victor, Alice, and Smiler taking down Gozer and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man on the roof of the haunted apartment building a la the 1984 movie

*whew* That’s more than I thought I added! At least it’s good progress… Now I just have to arrange it into neat, comprehensible paragraphs. I – suspect that’ll take a while. :p

Valice Multiverse – And over here, I had three things to pop into the queue tonight –

A) A continuation of my VITD/BABS thread with Satirical Demon, where Dommik told Alice that Daniel only paints things on the walls when his patron wills it (and that they have a special room in the cabin for it) – Alice was like “at least you’re prepared?” – and N said that taking Daniel to the MOJ while he’s like this (it’s apparently a side effect of getting more knowledge from said patron) might be beneficial, if the facilities are adequate – Smiler assured N that they had plenty of rooms for people “not themselves” and that no one should bother Daniel so long as they were sure he was happy. Dr. Daniel himself, meanwhile, was spouting things like “IT’S CALLED A MANIC EPISODE AND YOU’RE GETTING THREE MORE SEASONS! HA HA!” while Victor was was like “...guess he is laughing…” XD Fun times!

B) An anonymous ask about how you may be a Noughties Kid (one from the 2000s) if you went to see Snow Dogs or Kangaroo Jack because you thought they had talking animals – the Cuddlepile trio responded with “we never actually saw those movies” (Alice wasn’t even sure she’d ever heard of Snow Dogs), though Smiler at least vaguely remembered that the trailer for Kangaroo Jack featured a rapping kangaroo, and that they later read something that this was one dream sequence in an otherwise fairly realistic movie, so… *shrug* Sorry anon – I am very much not a Noughties Kid, and neither are my characters!

C) And some fanart by Toonsisters of Victor and Victoria as Steven Universe gem people – Victor was a tall Pearl, while Victoria was a very short Sapphire. Very cute, even if the now-dramatic height difference between the two made me giggle. XD

Baldur’s Gate III: ...so after a bit of mental back-and-forth with myself when game-playing time rolled around, I decided that I really wanted to continue with where I left off in BG3 today instead of jumping back into FO4 – after all, Tav!Smiler was trying to find a way to save poor Shadowheart from her mind flayer pod, while Sole!Victor was only heading to Diamond City to offload a bunch of goods before meeting up with a ghoul who intends to trick him into invading mayor Hancock’s vault in Goodneighbor. :P Plus, well, I’ve got a lot of hours in FO4, while I barely got to play any BG3 at all before mod woes made me stop. So rather than return to the Wasteland today, it was back to Faerun to finish off the Nautiloid tutorial dungeon! And I’m pleased to report that went pretty well –

A) Picked up where I left off yesterday, with Smiler having learned that there was something missing from the console next to Shadowheart’s pod, which was preventing it from working. I had them check the nearby “sacrificed cultists” (who were alive, but utterly oblivious to the world thanks to having had their mental faculties sapped by the mind flayers), then the console near them – unfortunately, Smiler was unable to pass any of the Arcana checks necessary to figure out what any of the sigils above the three buttons on it actually said. Now, I knew that messing with any of those buttons was likely to wake the cultists and make them hostile, providing a fight with some nice XP –

But Shadowheart was fully in her “Damn it!/Let me out!” vocal loop, and I knew that was going to get old quick. Mostly because it got old the first time I played. :p So after a quick check of the desk on the other side of the room (which had a mind flayer manuscript, a Dark Mind in a jar (you can plug this into another machine in Act Two, I think), a pretty burnished necklace, and a locked fancy box that I couldn’t find the key for), I had Smiler and company head through the sphincter door (ew) into the next room over! This room contained a fast-moving intellect devourer scrambling around; a couple of dead thralls; a big old chest –

B) And a woman in a mind flayer pod. A woman that I remembered quite well, because this poor woman turns into a mind flayer if you poke at the console near her pod. Quite unfortunately for her, though, I consider poking at that console and the characters getting a very good look at what might be in store for them if they can’t get those damn tadpoles out of their brains to be a good story beat, so… *grimace* Yeah, Smiler went over and poked at the console. Though, interestingly, when they went to investigate, they were able to decipher what the sigil over the button on this one said – “Perfect.” Which makes a disturbing sense, as mind flayers do seem to consider themselves much more perfect than other races, on the whole. The jury is very much out on that, you brain-eating assholes.

Anyway – woman was transformed into a mind flayer, and Smiler and Lae’zel were both horrified by it, as they might well be. The rest of their time in the room was spent collecting stuff – a gold key (for the box on the desk) off one dead thrall, and an Eldritch Rune (for Shadowheart’s console) and a garnet ring off the other; a Slave Mind brain-in-a-jar for later off the floor nearby; and all the custom Faerun dyes I downloaded along with a couple of health potions out of the big fancy cartilaginous chest! Which also had the “Song and Steel” bard equipment I downloaded in its own fancy box within, but I want to try and discover that stuff more naturally out in the world, so I let that be. The dyes, though – yeah, Smiler’s going to need a glow-up on their bard jerkin as soon as possible, let me tell you. :p (Though I think you only get one of each dye, so I may want to save it for something a bit better than what they’ve currently got? I mean, I should be able to purchase more later, but I don’t know when...hmm...)

C) With the looting done, Smiler took one last look at the newborn mind flayer, then headed back into the other room, ready to free Shadowheart! Once they unlocked the box on the desk with their fancy gold key and got 16 gold and an onyx out of it, anyway. XD Once they’d pocketed all that, I had Smiler drop the Eldritch Rune in the socket in the console next to her, then quicksaved as Smiler wondered if using it would also force poor Shadowheart to change or not so I could redo the Arcana roll for examining the console if necessary. Fortunately, Smiler smashed it with a 17, so they were adequately assured that using the console wouldn’t transform Shadowheart, and thus went ahead and willed the pod to open. (SO afraid I was going to get a 1 on that roll and critically fail a Difficulty 2 check…) For some reason, the game skipped the short cutscene where Shadowheart falls out of the pod, but other than that, the rescue went off seamlessly! :D Smiler promptly went to check on Shadowheart, and after a quick conversation (where they learned through the tadpole link that Shadowheart was thankful but wary of them because of Lae’zel’s presence – she accused them of keeping dangerous company, and Smiler said that dangerous company’s what you need in a fight, which Shadowheart had to admit was logical), Shadowheart joined the party! With a mysterious artifact in her possession, which she insisted was “nothing” when Smiler asked. Sure, Shadowheart, sure… Lae’zel insisted the gang press on to the helm, which Shadowheart was in full agreement with –

D) But first, cultist fight! Because more XP is never a bad thing. :p I had the group thus go to the cultist console, and (after using Shadowheart to try and figure out the various sigils – she failed all three Arcana checks too) press the button to wake the two up for battle! Hilariously, US ended up first in the initiative order – they didn’t have enough movement to actually reach either cultist for a claw attack, though, so I had them scramble around for a better position. Shadowheart was next, and smashed the nearer of the two cultists over the head with her mace, killing him instantly. :) Lae’zel was next, and as she didn’t have the movement to kill the remaining cultist with her sword, she instead shot him with her longbow, hitting him but only injuring him, not killing him. Smiler tried a shot from their light crossbow next – again, they scored a hit but didn’t kill the guy. I had them move over by Shadowheart for a better position, then let the cultist have his turn –

And the jerk ran up and tried to Acid Splash both Smiler and Shadowheart! Fortunately they made their saves and thus took no damage. :p Us tried to claw the guy, but missed – Shadowheart fortunately was able to smack him again with her mace, and Lae’zel finally finished the fight with her sword. Whew! Expected those guys to be a bit easier… Still, what matters is that they went down, and without getting a successful hit in. *nods* Smiler looted the bodies – 4 gold and a candle off the Acid Splash guy, 3 gold and a bottle off the other one – then led the way through the next room (with Lae’zel and Shadowheart having their first argument of many) –

E) And to the helm! Where they encountered the few remaining mindflayers in a pitched battle with the devils of Avernus. One told the “thralls” to connect the nerves on the transponder at the front of the room and get them out of there already –

But, well, there were some hellbeasts standing in the way that had to be taken care of first. Fortunately, the big bad commander, Zhalk, was busy having a pretty pitched battle against the one surviving mindflayer, so the gang only had to deal with the lesser imps and hellboars – but as they only had fifteen turns to take care of all their enemies before the ship crashed with them on it and rendered everything they’d done moot, that was quite enough! How’d it go for them? Well:

Turn One: Us was ONCE AGAIN first in the initiative order (well, after Zhalk, but we’re not counting him) and went after a nearby imp, injuring it but not killing it. Lae’zel went next and charged a hellboar, taking it out with a single swipe of her sword – unfortunately, the most direct path took her over some fiery spots, meaning she accidentally set herself on fire in the process. Ouch. Smiler, meanwhile, started for the transponder and took a potshot at the next imp with their crossbow – the imp then attempted to attack Lae’zel, but fortunately missed.

Turn Two: Us scrambled forward to follow Smiler to connect the nerves; Lae’zel took a bit more burning damage but was able to heal herself with her “Second Wind” special ability and followed the group; Shadowheart did a bit of looting (finding only a shortsword, which she couldn’t use) before also moving forward; and Smiler was able to shoot down that troublesome imp and continue leading the way to the transponder!

Turn Three: Mostly just everyone scrambling forward toward the transponder while the mind flayer and Zhalk kept each other busy, though I did make sure to have Lae’zel quickly loot any corpses she passed (getting a light crossbow and a peridot, nice). Smiler also checked a cambion corpse (no dice) and shot another imp.

Turn Four: Things got a bit interesting here – Us once again just went forward, while Lae’zel grabbed a bloodstone off a mind flayer corpse before using her bow to shoot another imp. The other hellboar in the area took offense to this and tried to gore her, but critically missed, hah. Shadowheart wasn’t in a position to attack anything (she doesn’t have any ranged weapons to start with), so I just had her move up, then – after the final imp missed an attack on Us – I had Smiler try to take out the hellboar with their rapier –

And miss, bleh. Slightly annoyed, I had them inspire Lae’zel again instead – might as well use the power of good music to make sure SOMEONE in this room can hit what they’re aiming at!

Turn Five: Us was a good brain-friend and scratched the hellboar, then Lae’zel burned her inspiration to make sure she killed it before doing a little last bit of looting (snagging a topaz off a final mind flayer corpse). Shadowheart then ran over and murdered the final imp in their way –

And Smiler used “Dash” to essentially SPRINT to the transponder and trigger the all-important “escaping Avernus” cutscene! So they made it with ten turns to go, nice. (Though part of me can’t help but think it must be SO much more dramatic if you linger long enough to murder all the things and make it with just one.) Anyway, Smiler connected some random nerves to get them out of Literal Hell –

F) Aaaand cue another dragon showing up to toast the place and send the damaged Nautiloid tumbling through the space between worlds, and Smiler tumbling all around the cabin! And if that wasn’t bad enough, once it finally ended up back in Faerun (with a bunch of potentially plot-important characters watching it crash and burn), poor Smiler got knocked out of the ship through a hole in the wall and started plummeting toward the unforgiving ground below –

Only for something to catch them right before they could smash their head open. They ended up being much more gently dropped onto the beach, where they woke up the next morning physically fine but well aware that the clock was ticking on their transformation into a mind flayer. They needed to figure out where they were, they needed to figure out if any of their allies had survived, and they needed to find help and a healer –

But, before any of that, they needed to level up! Because all the fighting on the Nautiloid had gotten them up to Level 2 (and 16 HP, which is good, because previously they only had 9). :) I promptly had them multiclass into an Alchemist Artificer (with the ability to make experimental elixirs and replicate magic items that last until a long rest), then – after some pondering, chose “Dancing Lights” (which makes pretty lights that light up a 9m area) and “Poison Spray” (which creates a cloud of noxious gas) for their new cantrips; “Sanctuary” (which protects Smiler or an ally from being targeted by enemies unless they start attacking) and “Feather Fall” (makes Smiler and allies immune to fall damage) for their new spells; and “Armor of Tools” (which lets them use their Intelligence modifier for Dexterity rolls) and “Enhanced Arcane Focus” (which improves their spell attack rolls by +1) for their “infusions,” which is a special extra thing Artificers get. :) I thought those were all good, and at least SOMEWHAT in-keeping with Smiler’s theme (though “Feather Fall” was chosen more for its utility than anything).

And with that, I saved and exited, with Smiler on the beach, gazing out across the water and wondering what next! I’ll tell you what next, Smiler – it’s going over and waking up Shadowheart, then exploring the beach and figuring out where the hell you are!

Writing: Okay so – technically, I didn’t do any writing, since I didn’t update the FO4 Playthrough Progression (no FO4) nor work on either of my other stories. BUT, since I DID do a halfway-decent write-up of the VITD version of “When Freedom Calls” up in my VLANS drafts, I think I can count that, at least partially. It’s another story idea that I can properly update in my master doc, at any rate! (Though I’ll have to do it tomorrow, as it’s gotten pretty late here.)

YouTube: Happily, I was able to get in my standard Sunday Two tonight –

A) First up, we had GrayStillPlays and “When you run the squid games,” aka the latest installment of Happy Wheels Sunday! And while the episode was named after the Squid Game board Gray played (which saw Segway Nixon take a spear to the groin multiple times), the REAL stars of this episode were the heavily-detailed “Construction Site” and “Pogo Circus” boards by cedricbb2014, and the equally-detailed “GTA VC Panzer HD” collab board by MICKY_ORTON and his friends! All of them were beautiful to look at (the GTA one especially), with the Cedric boards being absolute parkour torture-fests for Gray (forcing him to use his brain and plan his routes and jumps carefully, lest he get shoved into a cement mixer by a bulldozer or take a Ferris wheel battle axe to the skull), and the GTA board being just a fun time driving a tank through Vice City and blowing up cars (Gray was delighted at how little it took to make a car explode). We do love to see a Happy Wheels board with production values! Good work, all of you!

B) And second up, we had Jon of Many A True Nerd and “Fallout: London - Part 26 - Hostile Witness!” The continuing adventures of Lady Aria and Kiera as they –

I. Entered Lewisham to get that missing weapon shipment for Captain Reasonable of Camden in exchange for his endorsement – only to immediately run into “Bookie” the ghoul, who offered Aria a challenge – lug a big heavy sack to the top of the nearby Ravensbourne Construction Site and hang it on a hook up there. If she survived the trip up, she could keep all the tickets in the footlocker up there; if she didn’t, well...he won, she dead. Aria was like “sounds like an obvious trap, but if we’re just talking Hooligans, it should be fine, hit me” –

And then it turned out that Bookie was not only willing to murder her for the slightest rules infraction, including things he just thought were infractions, he was only giving her thirty seconds to get that sack without even telling her where it was. Fortunately it had a quest marker, so Jon was able to get her to go grab it within the time limit, but THEN it turned out this sack was so heavy that it slowed Aria’s gait to a crawl, even though she wasn’t actually overweight. Which seemed like it might be a problem…

But then Aria just pulled out the good old Instigating Combat Shotgun and started shooting at anything that moved, and it turned out that even with her movement speed nerfed, no Hooligan could actually give her trouble. XD She got to the top without much issue, finding along the way a TARDIS; two Legendaries that had duplicates of stuff she already owned (a Sprinter’s Riot Police Left Leg and an Instigating Shotgun); a better chest piece in a chest; and a magazine that gave her energy weapons +5% critical damage. And then she hung the sack on the hook –

And a startled Bookie yelled up to her, “uh, I didn’t expect you to actually make it, so – yeah, you’ve probably noticed there’s no reward. Congrats anyway! Bye!” And ran before she could find him. XD Ah well, she got some good gear and XP out of the whole ordeal, at least!

II. Found their way to the police station to get those guns! Which proved to be home to another load of Hooligans, figures. Aria just set about slaughtering them all, as she does (using the Sacrificial Blade as much as possible as to not waste good ammo) – but while she was doing so, working her way down through the holes in the floor, she ran into a certain someone sitting on a bench: BOOKIE. Turns out this is where he ran off to trying to avoid Aria’s wrath! Aria attempted conversation with him, since he was non-hostile, but when he refused to talk, she just shot him in the head. *shakehead* Sorry, Bookie – you should have offered another quest if you wanted to live!

Anyway – Aria soon cleared the place of Hooligans (including their leader, Zone End, and a Legendary that gave her a Plasma-Infused Double-Barreled Shotgun – Jon wondered if the extra plasma damage applied to every pellet, like how the explosive effect does on Explosive Shotguns), then, thinking the guns were locked into some cells with some feral ghouls, turned off the power box at the end of a hallway to let them all out and kill them so she could search. As it turns out, the guns were NOT in any of the ghoul cells – but turning off the power did open up the Chief Inspector’s room back up on the first floor. And when she backtracked up there and checked it out, Aria found the box of guns she needed! Hooray! And all it took was a bit of wanton murder. :D

III. Stopped by the local pub, the Bishop’s Toe (well, once Jon actually located the entrance – it was set back a bit from the street, so it escaped his notoriously low Perception), which led to Aria killing more Hooligans, discovering rad barrels in the basement and a note on the staff terminal that the owners tried mixing sewage water into the drinks to try and keep the place functional during rationing (ewwwwww), and finding the Agility coaster for +1 to that stat; and the local Pindar, which led to Aria killing YET MORE Hooligans (both on the way there, which netted her a VATS Enhanced Machete, and in the upper levels of the Pindar) and some feral ghouls (in the lower levels), and finding a very dramatic tape from one Dr. Featherstonehaugh, who declared that she and her fellow doctors did NOT appreciate being forced into this gilded prison, and that they were going to force their way out to return to their families, threat of nuclear annihilation be damned! Given Aria found that tape very near a skeleton in a lab coat, Jon doesn’t think they got very far. :( Fallout London can be very sad sometimes.

IV. Stopped briefly at Thameshaven to whack the Sacrificial Blade on the VATS Enhanced Machete (meaning Aria could murder Hooligans even faster), then returned to Camden to give the guns to Captain Reasonable! He gave them the monkey (500 tickets) AND The Clash – a machine gun that he wanted to get rid of because it was a present from that asshole councilor Malcolm. Aria took it and stowed it away for later (as automatic guns aren’t really her style), then headed back to check in with Alice and turn in her first two endorsements. Alice in turn told her to go see one John Strutter, who had an issue of some kind, but Alice refused to say what. Aria was mildly suspicious, but went back to the Catacombs and knocked on his door –

And discovered John Strutter was a ghoul, who was apparently having problems with the missing Malcolm! (Jon, upon seeing the initial “let me in, it’s about your problems with Malcolm” dialogue option, was like “Nobody’s mentioned a Malcolm???” which made me go “JON.” XD I mean, yes, perhaps he was talking about how Alice didn’t actually SAY his problem was with Malcolm, but – you JUST heard Reasonable slagging Malcolm off, dude! XD) Seems the old former corrupt councilhead forged Strutter’s signature on a few things while he was doing all his embezzling, and while most people accepted Malcolm was a rotter and that Strutter was probably innocent, he needed some proper proof to truly clear his name. Stutter was thus holed up in an office, going through boxes upon boxes of council paperwork looking for proof, and gave Aria two options to help him out and get his endorsement: one, find Malcolm and get him to sign the confession statement he’d prepared, or two, help him find some files that could prove his innocence once and for all. Now, as it turned out, when Aria started asking more questions, Jon discovered she had two dialogue options (one linked to her level 2 “Idiot Savant” perk, one linked to her level 9 Luck) to point out a box with exactly the files Strutter needed. However, Jon was determined to actually go and meet Malcolm and get his side of the story, so these were ignored – an action that Jon would eventually come to regret…

V. Tracked down Malcolm to see what he had to say for himself and get him to sign that confession! After a false start where Jon sent Aria and Kiera down into a small section of the same sewer in Eastminster that they’d just traversed with Tenpenny because he’d misread his map (though the trip did net Aria “Edith’s Trumpet,” which may be important later), the pair were able to track down Malcolm in the Two Westminster Chairmen pub! Malcolm was hanging around upstairs with his new toff “friends” near his room – and when Aria approached him, she discovered that even her relatively meager Strength of 5 would be enough to intimidate the guy into signing the confession. However, Jon wanted to see what the dude’s reaction was to John Strutter’s name, so he went with that option instead –

Turns out Malcolm’s reaction was “Oh, him? Screw him – life isn’t fair, I’m not signing that, goodbye.” And Aria could not convince him otherwise. Annoyed, she tried breaking into his room to steal some documents instead – but while she was able to get the door open, she was very much unable to get his safe open, as it was Master locked. So, thoroughly frustrated, she got out her new VATS Enhanced Sacrificial Blade and whacked Malcolm up, figuring that would solve everybody’s problems –

Only for the game to give Jon a message saying, “Hey, the Pistols may think he’s an asshole, but they wanted him alive, so by killing him, you’re now their enemy.” Jon was like “WHY,” but sighed and rewound time so Aria could just properly threaten the guy into signing. Malcolm tried to give her a counter-offer of doing a job for him, delivering some packages to his friends T0M, D1CK, and H4RRY, with pamphlets and such they could distribute to try and clear his name – but while Aria heard him out out of curiosity, the minute he revealed that all he could offer her was technical ownership of his old flat, she was like, “nope, I have property all over the town, should have offered me a nice hat” and made him sign. Which he did so very grumpily, as you might imagine. :p She then grabbed the nearby Barter coaster (5% lower prices at shops, nice) and headed back to Strutter to give him the confession and the good news –

And then he asked her what she said to Malcolm to get his signature. And Aria, too nervous to admit she threatened him (and relatively secure in the knowledge that Malcolm wouldn’t be coming back to Camden to rat her out) lied and said she managed to convince him it was the honorable thing to do. Strutter was like “sounds fake, but that’s his signature, so okay” and gave her 500 tickets, his endorsement, and a guilt complex. XD Should have went with one of those first two speech checks, buddy! But what was done was done, so Aria went back to Alice, who officially welcomed her into the Pistols, gave her the keys to her new flat (because it turns out the Pistols provide housing to all their members anyway) –

And, most importantly, finally signed her damn petition. XD Meaning she just has one more signature to go! So next week, Aria and Kiera travel back to Hackney to help the people living there with their problems and get that final signature from their leader! Should be fun. :)

Workout: Back on the bike this week, starting things off by catching up with the latest GrayStillPlays compilation – “I built a DYI rocket and this happened!” The way he titled it, I thought this was an extra-long video about one game, but nope – this is a collection of videos on some of the various rocket-based and/or vehicle-building-based games he’s done in the past! I started with him building cursed rockets to send into space and crash into the moon (culminating in him building the world’s widest rocket just to send it up, turn it around, and crash it into the earth at top speed), and I’ve gotten most of the way through him sending various creatures (including a strange cursed Muppet-thing, a hot dog, and a Doge) riding rockets into the depths of space, dodging anti-air missiles as he seeks to blow up the farthest thing from his starting point (so far that has been some sort of weird desert area). We’ll see what else is included in this collection tomorrow – I know I saw one of the “shopping cart racer” games and “human vehicle” games, so things are gonna get weird! Well – weirder. :p

And when the hell did it become 1:35 AM?! *sigh* Very glad this is a holiday weekend...all right, I'm heading to bed before I stay up way too late again. Goals for tomorrow: more drafting on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler); probably just playing more Baldur's Gate III since I seem to be in that kind of mood this weekend; working more on "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland;" getting in a workout; and keeping up with Gray and/or clearing out my Watch Later (depending on what happens). We'll see if these are achievable goals -- night all!