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Fucking Mouse Sunday
Jun. 8th, 2025 11:47 pmYeah, this was far from my most productive Sunday, and a lot of the blame for that could be laid at the foot of my damned mouse, which was EXTRA glitchy today. (The rest of the blame could be laid at the feet of me being extra tired and rather distracted by certain thoughts this morning involving Victor getting his brain lovingly melted.) Like, trying to move any windows or highlight text or do just about ANYTHING that required a single click was a pain in the fucking ass bar none. It got so bad, in fact, that I ended up telling Dad at lunch --
Prompting him to ask me if I wanted a new mouse, and me to go "yeah, I do, let me research what I want first." Meaning a decent portion of my afternoon was spent looking up gaming mice and settling on the Logitech G502 HERO mouse (since it seemed to have the most good reviews out of the bunch); figuring out with my parents when we were going to GET the mouse (I was okay with going out today, but Dad pointed out that we could have some issues with beach traffic since it was actually a nice day today; ended up with Mom agreeing to go pick up the mouse from Best Buy after she went and visited one of her friends); and finding out if we could get a certain coupon to use on the mouse if Mom brought my old Alienware one in to be recycled (which took WAAAY too much time to determine, thanks to horrible phone menus and a Live Chat guy on the Best Buy site who just did NOT get what we were asking -- he eventually said that trading in the Alienware mouse should get us the coupon, but we'll see). *sighs* Why is everything such a fight these days...well, hopefully it all works out for the best, and tomorrow I'll have a mouse that does NOT randomly act like I'm double or triple-clicking when I'm just trying to do stuff on the computer. Fingers crossed!
Anyway -- while the majority of my Sunday was taken up with The Mouse Issues, I did manage to accomplish some stuff:
...which I will have to do tomorrow, as it's nearly 12:40 AM and I HAVE to go to bed. *grumbles* I'll edit this thing tomorrow morning with the actual write-up -- for now, night all!
7:45 AM 6/9/2025: Okay, managed to finish off the last bit of the Sunday write-up -- here's what I did:
Tumblr: Well, it was another “nothing’s happening on The Valice Multiverse” day, and there really wasn’t much going on over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) either (didn’t help that I had a VERY late start thanks to a slow morning). But, if nothing else, I sorted out the pictures and started the very first draft of the “hey, the Polyheart OT3 house is done!” post over on VLA(NS). I didn’t get very far, mind – thanks to my mouse issues, rearranging the pictures the way I wanted them was something of a nightmare – but I have all the screenshots plus a tiny bit of starter text. Here’s hoping I can use some of my extra free time this week to get that properly sorted!
Writing: As I didn’t do any gaming thanks to The Mouse Issues (yes, I play Fallout 4 with my old XBox 360 controller, but I have to use the mouse to get into the game, and I didn’t want to deal with any misclicks opening up extra windows or any of that bullshit), I did indeed spend my afternoon working on a rough draft of my friend Nebby’s birthday fic (it’s coming up fast on the 22nd!). And it’s an interesting one – when I asked her about it a few days ago, she told me she wouldn’t mind seeing my Valicer trio getting involved somehow with the events of her “MediEvil Resurrection II” story (where she’s rewriting the events of MediEvil II in order to bring the action back to Gallowmere, like in the first game, and develop the relationship between protagonist Dan and his love interest Kiya the Egyptian princess mummy) and gave me a few ideas of where they could show up. And I ended up glomming onto them getting involved in the fight in the freakshow/circus that one of the protagonists, Professor Kift (the guy who brought Dan back from the dead in the first place), works for in Chapter 2. Mostly because I couldn’t stop picturing Alice as a knife-thrower at said circus. XD So yeah, after a couple of false starts, I managed to whip up a fic where Alice (indeed a knife-thrower), Smiler (does an alchemy show on the exhibition street), and Victor (a visitor who lingered late) got trapped in the freakshow when all the horrible magical bullshit went down (imp stole one of the professor’s spellbooks, long story) and found themselves watching Dan fight the recently-zombified “Pincushion” freak (a giant fat man bristling with swords...who, unfortunately for Dan, knew how to use them). Alice ended up throwing a knife to help Dan avoid getting beaten by his foe, then asking Kift – who showed up shortly thereafter to shoot the zombie so Dan could finally get the upper hand – if she and her friends could hang out with them. Kift was slightly uncertain, but Alice was like “I’m the best knife-thrower in the place; Smiler has all their alchemicals on them and isn’t afraid to use them; and Victor apparently fought a guy with a sword while armed with a fork once, so he can’t be useless in a fight.” Kift: “...I’ll see what Dan thinks.” XD Hopefully Nebby will like it once it’s all cleaned up!
YouTube: Another Sunday, another episode of Fallout: London with Jon of Many A True Nerd – specifically, “Fallout: London - Part 46 - Best Served Cold!” The adventures of Lady Aria and Mad Jack as they took out the people who made Mad Jack’s life a hell when he was a little boy! Even if Jon was rather concerned that all this violence wasn’t REALLY going to be good for Mad Jack’s psyche...anyway, this trip hunting down the worst of the worst in London involved:
A) The pair meeting up at The Pilgrim, the location of Jack’s old gym, where Mad Jack told Aria about their targets – James Goodrich, AKA “The Professor,” the inventor of all the torture devices at the camp (like the slave collars and the cattle prods and whatnot); The Meat Merchant, the guy who took all the corpses of the dead slaves and disposed of them (Jack never actually met the guy, but he’d heard rumors that he was butchering up the bodies and selling them to the Beef Eaters for a profit); Myra Lane, the head prison guard at the camp (who really enjoyed punishing people when they crossed her); and Jonah “The Gent,” the leader of the whole operation (and thus, in Jack’s eyes, the one most responsible for everything). They all sounded like utterly horrible people who genuinely deserved to die for what they’d done to children, that’s for damn sure! Even if Jon was not pleased by Mad Jack talking about how he wanted to see the look on Myra’s face when he was the one doing the punishing midway through. “No going into this talking about how much we want to see these people suffer, Jack! No!” XD
B) The pair traveling to Bromley to take out the first man on the list, “The Professor” – he proved to be camped out on a rooftop, in the middle of a whole bunch of Hooligans. Upon initially spotting him, Aria noted that not only was he not immediately hostile, he also appeared to be cowering in fear, like he was the victim of the raiders rather than a fellow member. And when she and Jack approached after killing their way through all the Hooligans, he insisted that they had the wrong guy and to please give him a chance to explain. Aria, very sure that they wanted to kill the RIGHT person if they were doing any killing, agreed to hear him out, prompting him to spin a tale about how he was the son of a caravan trader, who’d fallen on hard times and had thus chosen to live here in isolation for the past 46 years. And that there was no way he could have done all the heinous crimes they were accusing him of – why, he knitted, wasn’t that enough proof of his innocence? Mad Jack, however, immediately declared he was lying –
And that’s when “The Professor” started cackling madly, revealed that he’d used that story to buy enough time to set up his “last resort,” then declared he’d see them in hell before setting off a suicide bomb. Cue poor Aria getting blown to pieces as she couldn’t get away fast enough (though, interestingly, JACK survived the explosion, as per the “death cam”). Fortunately, being a Bethesda protagonist, Aria could just rewind time to before the conversation – and on the SECOND go-round, she happily called “The Professor” out on his shit and handed him over to Jack, who took him out with one solid axe blow as the dude pissed himself. *nods* Most righteous, Jack – most righteous.
C) The pair then traveling to Camden to track down The Meat Merchant (with Jon taking a moment to note with delight the next Vagabond quest popping up in Aria’s log), who was apparently working as a barber not far from Cyberfox. However, this mission required a bit more finesse than the last one, as Mad Jack didn’t actually know what the Merchant looked like – he’d never met him in person. All he had to go on was his friend’s extremely vague description – brown hair and average height. So he asked Aria to confirm that this guy was the one they were looking for before they did any killing. Aria was more than fine with that, and they entered the barbershop –
To find three members of the Wells family waiting within. Aria reasoned that, since all the horrible stuff happened to Jack when he was a kid, the most likely candidate to be the Meat Merchant was the oldest one of the lot, patriarch Todd – and noted with her keen Perception that he had some awfully beat-up hands for a barber. Todd attempted to explain that he’d been a farmhand before his change in careers, and that he was originally from Borehamwood – but Aria, suspicious and facing down an Intelligence check, did some drugs and put on Merlin’s fancy beret, and got the clarity of mind needed to point out that the farms in Borehamwood had been the first to fall to the radiation. Todd quickly claimed that he was actually from Bournebridge – but when Aria said that he couldn’t keep running from the people he killed, he reflexively protested that he’d been on disposal before trying to cover up the slip. It was too little too late, however, and after conferring with Jack, Aria prepared to put Todd down –
Only for him AND the other two members of the Wells family, Artie and Ruby, to all go hostile. Aria hastily took out Todd, which caused Artie and Ruby to flee...and Mad Jack to chase after them. He returned after a few minutes, but the other two very much did not. And while Jon couldn’t PROVE that he’d hunted them down and murdered them...yeah, he was a bit concerned Jack might have gone too far there. To be fair, Jon, YOU could have had Aria order him to stay before he went tearing off...then again, I shouldn’t judge, I know how fiddly the Fallout interface can be.
D) The pair then heading to Wimbledon to track down Myra Lane, who had apparently set up a camp for herself not far from the Tennis Museum. Once they found the place, they were greeted at the entrance by a raider named Byron, who recognized Mad Jack and warned him that if he was there for Myra, he wasn’t going to get her –
Because she already had too many husbands and none of them got enough time with her as it was! XD Yeah, uh, it appeared after the dissolution of the slaver camp, Myra had set up her own little harem of adoring husbands to keep herself safe and entertained. Mad Jack was VERY flustered by this, while Aria decided to go ahead and antagonize Byron by saying Myra would probably like Jack better than him –
Only to immediately regret all her decisions when the entire camp went hostile. XD She managed to hold her own against the Husband Legion for a little while, while Jack found and wailed on Myra herself, but a well-tossed molotov made it so she had to rewind time for herself again. She still chose to antagonize Byron, but THIS time made sure to get to cover faster, and was able to take out all the husbands while Mad Jack took down Myra. She didn’t immediately die, though, instead just sprawling on the ground with a quest marker over her head. Aria took that to mean that she had something to say and, after finishing off the last of the boytoys, went over to talk to her –
Only to find that Myra just got up and regarded her silently. Wouldn’t speak at all. And a reload didn’t fix the problem. So Aria just shot her in the head. XD Sorry, Myra – I know it’s not your fault your AI bugged out, but you should have spoken up sooner if you wanted to live longer!
E) The pair then heading to find Jonah “The Gent” where he’d holed up in a squatter’s den near Voxtel, with a whole bunch of Hooligans. Jack and Aria managed to take all his cronies out without TOO much issue (beyond Jack getting in the way of Aria running away from a land mine she’d accidentally set off – and then saying “hey, you stepped on an explosion,” causing Aria to be like “I KNOW”), and Aria found Jonah all the way on the top floor, holed up in an apartment with his pet radger (rad badger), Buttons. Jonah said some very nasty things to Jack and Aria and ordered Buttons to kill them – Aria thus concentrated on taking out Buttons, confident that Mad Jack had Jonah handled –
Only to find that Jack was nowhere to be seen. Turns out his pathfinding had gotten a little confused and he hadn’t actually come upstairs with her. Aria thus had to run back down the stairs to HIM, chased by Jonah, so he could actually get the climatic kill on the man who made his life hell. *facepalm* Oh, the Bethesda was really Bethesdaing at times in this video…
F) Aria checking in with Mad Jack to make sure he really did feel better, because she knew she had a complicated relationship with violence and killing and all thanks to his upbringing...only for Jack to tell her that he felt great and that he was sure the world was a better place without those people in it. XD He did, however, reveal to her that he’d lied about the note. Not about its existence, fortunately (THAT would have been a worrying twist), but about how many addresses had been on it. For it seems that his old buddy had ALSO included the address of their old orphanage in the list...with a note stating they hadn’t been STOLEN from it, they’d been SOLD by it. Mad Jack didn’t really want to believe it, but said he wouldn’t really be able to put things to rest until he got to the bottom of this final mystery and asked if Aria was still in. Aria was of course like “heck yes – this is the one part of this mission where I am all FOR some bloody murder.” XD So they headed over to the nearby Ross Home for Orphaned Boys –
Only to find nothing but a pile of rubble. Jack was quite surprised, but said that they needed to find the headmistress, Dr. Ainsley Ross, if she was still around, as he was sure she could set them straight on what happened. After all, he remembered her being so warm and kind – the closest thing he ever had to a mother! Jon was immediately like “oh, this isn’t going to end well…” Anyway, Aria and Jack thus proceeded to poke around the wreckage –
And found a dead Tommy in there. With a note from one former General Asquith, saying that they’d heard some worrying rumors about the place and he was empowering this Tommy to look into the matter. And that, if he didn’t find anything here, that he should check out the Bankside Power Station in Southwark (right behind the Globe Theater), as they’d found evidence that whatever was going on in the orphanage was related to whatever was going on there. The pair thus headed over there and fought their way through dozens of Industrialists before reaching the inner sanctum of one Dr. Ross –
And there found a very cold woman who, upon being questioned by Jack (who was still sure she’d tell him she hadn’t sold him and his brothers off), calmly informed him that yes, she HAD sold them to the slavers – and that in fact she’d given him growth hormone ever since he was a baby to make him a more valuable bit of property. And that she’d happily burned down the orphanage once the Tommies started nosing around. And that she had a very powerful rifle in her desk if he or Aria planned to make any moves against her. A furious Jack declared she was going to die today, and Dr. Ross did indeed grab her gun –
And then Aria shot her a few times with the freezing 9mm and she ended up dying in a single VATS round while lying frozen on the floor. XD Aria happily claimed her rifle (a Gauss rifle, nice), then checked in with Jack again, acknowledging that he had to be in shock – Jack confirmed that he was going to need some time to process this, but thanked her for helping him do all this in the first place, saying she was the best mate he’d ever had. :) He even tried to give her his staggering boxing gloves, Judy & Diane, as a reward – Aria, however, took one look at that 31 damage and was like, “thanks, but you keep them.” XD However, she was very happy with his companion perk, “Fisticuffs,” which she received straight afterward – gave her +50% more damage dealt and +50 damage resistance when facing three or more opponents (kind of like Preston’s perk in main Fallout 4). And given MOST opponents come in groups in this bloody game – yeah, that is going to be VERY handy for Aria as she starts wrapping up her adventures!
G) And finally, the pair swinging by the Swan & Meiter to check in with Gaunt and get the measure of his big plan to finally get the upper hand in the Vagabonds’ war against the Syndicate on the Isle of Dogs! Which, unsurprisingly, involved Aria going on another murder spree, as Gaunt informed her over a game of pool that he wanted her to slaughter three of the tacticians in the Syndicate, the three who’d helped one Thomas Black orchestrate the “Red Treaty” and kill his father – lieutenants John Lockheed, Enforcer Sinclair, and Pieter the Fence. And he wanted her to be big and showy about it all too, doing it in public and in her Vagabond best (aka the hat he gave her), so people would know that whoever crossed the Vagabonds would bring fury down upon them. Though he was also nice enough to warn her that this was very dirty business he was sending her on, and to expect Syndicate enforcers hunting her the minute she pulled the trigger on the first. Aria indicated she understood and asked where she could find her targets – Gaunt informed her that his lieutenants had leads on the men, and pointed her to good old “Chill” Winston to get the skinny on Lockheed. So yeah – next week, Aria chats with Winston and starts her next set of assassinations! And we’ll see if Jon remembers that he was hoping to have Gaunt REMOVED as leader thanks to his revenge-loving ways...though maybe the lieutenants will have some thoughts about that when Aria talks to them to get her missions...
Workout: Hopped back on the bike this evening to start this week’s workouts with some OXBox Hitman goodness: “HITMAN JAMES BOND | Let's Kill Mads Mikkelsen | Elusive Target The Banker!” An extremely new Elusive Target (as in, apparently this DLC was announced and dropped FRIDAY, with this video having been posted SATURDAY – they really saw this thing come up and went “well, that’s our weekend sorted” XD) based on the Bond movie Casino Royale, in honor of developer IO doing a Bond game! Complete with that movie’s main villain, La Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen, making an appearance as a banker with criminal world ties, who must win a high-stakes VIP poker game to earn the money he needs to pay off his debts to the ex-fascist dictator Murillo. 47’s job – to make sure La Chiffre doesn’t win that money and does not survive the night! Andy was on the controls for this one, with Jane and Mike watching on and offering support, and they followed the mission story which saw 47 sneak his way into the VIP game to win all the bananas and make sure La Chiffre got murdered by his exiled dictator partner (this is apparently the one that follows the plot of the movie the closest). How did it go? Well, let me give you a few quick highlights:
A) Andy started things off by dressing 47 in the exact same outfit that La Chiffre was wearing, as an intimidation tactic of sorts (though he later regretted that he couldn’t have walked in wearing the clown outfit Mike loves so much)
B) Given three options for getting an invite to the all-important poker match, Andy going with killing an ex-informant for 47’s CIA buddy Mr. Smith (for once fully clothed and NOT in immediate danger that 47 had to save him from) – 47 remarking on how weird it was to see Smith with all his clothes on made Jane and Mike go “hang on a second, WHO is this guy again??” XD
C) Everyone being very deeply suspicious about how easily 47 was let up into the VIP lounge after presenting an invitation that didn’t even have his name on it (though the guard did radio La Chiffre to okay it), and berating 47 for letting his guard down and actually drinking his champagne when he met La Chiffre for a pre-game chat – sure enough, after the first round (in which La Chiffre managed to fake everyone out with a fake tell and win the game), it was quickly revealed that 47 had been poisoned and he had to rush out of the room and down to the shed by the carpark for the antidote. The gang was like “Oh no, we’ve been hitmanned ourselves!” and “well, that’s kind of what you get for wanting to impress Mads Mikkelsen.” XD
D) Mike, at one point after 47 antidoted himself, noting that if he’d been the one at the controls, he would have already tossed an explosive duck at the problem and called it a day XD
E) 47 ultimately winning the whole pot by first bribing, and then threatening, the dealer to stack the deck in his favor, and then following La Chiffre to the attic room where he was meeting Murillo to see the execution first-hand – unfortunately, he got caught by a wandering guard while crouching down behind some boxes, and got gunned down on the stairs, meaning Andy failed the mission – snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, as Mike put it
F) Andy THEN going into the “Elusive Target Arcade” and redoing the mission, THIS time just waiting at the door and continually opening it so he could see the execution from afar...then, because nobody liked that the ex-dictator wasn’t one of the targets (though apparently you kill him in a DIFFERENT mission), sneaking in, taking the guy out, then running away in a hail of gunfire. XD Happily, this time he survived, and managed to get out the front gate to end the mission!
G) Andy getting the rank “Flexible Murderer” and a new personal best of zero stars at the end XD
So yeah – required a little trip into an alternate timeline via the arcade, but we got there in the end! Oh, I do love watching these three play Hitman – even if it’s just one of them on the controls, the commentary from the other two is always delightful. XD Excellent stuff!
Other: We did indeed play beanbags, as the weather was nicer today – and once again, Mom had a great game, winning three out of five rounds and only coming last once, while Dad and I struggled to keep up! I ended up having a slow climb to a final victory (where I beat Dad by a single point!), while poor Dad had a crash from glory and only somewhat recovered at the end. Final scores were me 3-3-2-2-W; Dad W-2-3-3-2; and Mom 2-W-W-W-3. *shrug* What can I say – she’s on a hot streak! We’ll see if things change the next time we play!
Not bad -- not GREAT, but I'm glad that I hit all the usual stuff. And now I have to run off to work -- tonight, I'll tell you all about that, and my attempts to celebrate Victor's birthday! (Usual stuff -- watch some Victor clips, listen to some CB music, write some Victor-related stuff, read some Victor-related fanfic if I can. Don't think I'll be able to get to a Victor-related game, though.) Bye!
Prompting him to ask me if I wanted a new mouse, and me to go "yeah, I do, let me research what I want first." Meaning a decent portion of my afternoon was spent looking up gaming mice and settling on the Logitech G502 HERO mouse (since it seemed to have the most good reviews out of the bunch); figuring out with my parents when we were going to GET the mouse (I was okay with going out today, but Dad pointed out that we could have some issues with beach traffic since it was actually a nice day today; ended up with Mom agreeing to go pick up the mouse from Best Buy after she went and visited one of her friends); and finding out if we could get a certain coupon to use on the mouse if Mom brought my old Alienware one in to be recycled (which took WAAAY too much time to determine, thanks to horrible phone menus and a Live Chat guy on the Best Buy site who just did NOT get what we were asking -- he eventually said that trading in the Alienware mouse should get us the coupon, but we'll see). *sighs* Why is everything such a fight these days...well, hopefully it all works out for the best, and tomorrow I'll have a mouse that does NOT randomly act like I'm double or triple-clicking when I'm just trying to do stuff on the computer. Fingers crossed!
Anyway -- while the majority of my Sunday was taken up with The Mouse Issues, I did manage to accomplish some stuff:
...which I will have to do tomorrow, as it's nearly 12:40 AM and I HAVE to go to bed. *grumbles* I'll edit this thing tomorrow morning with the actual write-up -- for now, night all!
7:45 AM 6/9/2025: Okay, managed to finish off the last bit of the Sunday write-up -- here's what I did:
Tumblr: Well, it was another “nothing’s happening on The Valice Multiverse” day, and there really wasn’t much going on over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) either (didn’t help that I had a VERY late start thanks to a slow morning). But, if nothing else, I sorted out the pictures and started the very first draft of the “hey, the Polyheart OT3 house is done!” post over on VLA(NS). I didn’t get very far, mind – thanks to my mouse issues, rearranging the pictures the way I wanted them was something of a nightmare – but I have all the screenshots plus a tiny bit of starter text. Here’s hoping I can use some of my extra free time this week to get that properly sorted!
Writing: As I didn’t do any gaming thanks to The Mouse Issues (yes, I play Fallout 4 with my old XBox 360 controller, but I have to use the mouse to get into the game, and I didn’t want to deal with any misclicks opening up extra windows or any of that bullshit), I did indeed spend my afternoon working on a rough draft of my friend Nebby’s birthday fic (it’s coming up fast on the 22nd!). And it’s an interesting one – when I asked her about it a few days ago, she told me she wouldn’t mind seeing my Valicer trio getting involved somehow with the events of her “MediEvil Resurrection II” story (where she’s rewriting the events of MediEvil II in order to bring the action back to Gallowmere, like in the first game, and develop the relationship between protagonist Dan and his love interest Kiya the Egyptian princess mummy) and gave me a few ideas of where they could show up. And I ended up glomming onto them getting involved in the fight in the freakshow/circus that one of the protagonists, Professor Kift (the guy who brought Dan back from the dead in the first place), works for in Chapter 2. Mostly because I couldn’t stop picturing Alice as a knife-thrower at said circus. XD So yeah, after a couple of false starts, I managed to whip up a fic where Alice (indeed a knife-thrower), Smiler (does an alchemy show on the exhibition street), and Victor (a visitor who lingered late) got trapped in the freakshow when all the horrible magical bullshit went down (imp stole one of the professor’s spellbooks, long story) and found themselves watching Dan fight the recently-zombified “Pincushion” freak (a giant fat man bristling with swords...who, unfortunately for Dan, knew how to use them). Alice ended up throwing a knife to help Dan avoid getting beaten by his foe, then asking Kift – who showed up shortly thereafter to shoot the zombie so Dan could finally get the upper hand – if she and her friends could hang out with them. Kift was slightly uncertain, but Alice was like “I’m the best knife-thrower in the place; Smiler has all their alchemicals on them and isn’t afraid to use them; and Victor apparently fought a guy with a sword while armed with a fork once, so he can’t be useless in a fight.” Kift: “...I’ll see what Dan thinks.” XD Hopefully Nebby will like it once it’s all cleaned up!
YouTube: Another Sunday, another episode of Fallout: London with Jon of Many A True Nerd – specifically, “Fallout: London - Part 46 - Best Served Cold!” The adventures of Lady Aria and Mad Jack as they took out the people who made Mad Jack’s life a hell when he was a little boy! Even if Jon was rather concerned that all this violence wasn’t REALLY going to be good for Mad Jack’s psyche...anyway, this trip hunting down the worst of the worst in London involved:
A) The pair meeting up at The Pilgrim, the location of Jack’s old gym, where Mad Jack told Aria about their targets – James Goodrich, AKA “The Professor,” the inventor of all the torture devices at the camp (like the slave collars and the cattle prods and whatnot); The Meat Merchant, the guy who took all the corpses of the dead slaves and disposed of them (Jack never actually met the guy, but he’d heard rumors that he was butchering up the bodies and selling them to the Beef Eaters for a profit); Myra Lane, the head prison guard at the camp (who really enjoyed punishing people when they crossed her); and Jonah “The Gent,” the leader of the whole operation (and thus, in Jack’s eyes, the one most responsible for everything). They all sounded like utterly horrible people who genuinely deserved to die for what they’d done to children, that’s for damn sure! Even if Jon was not pleased by Mad Jack talking about how he wanted to see the look on Myra’s face when he was the one doing the punishing midway through. “No going into this talking about how much we want to see these people suffer, Jack! No!” XD
B) The pair traveling to Bromley to take out the first man on the list, “The Professor” – he proved to be camped out on a rooftop, in the middle of a whole bunch of Hooligans. Upon initially spotting him, Aria noted that not only was he not immediately hostile, he also appeared to be cowering in fear, like he was the victim of the raiders rather than a fellow member. And when she and Jack approached after killing their way through all the Hooligans, he insisted that they had the wrong guy and to please give him a chance to explain. Aria, very sure that they wanted to kill the RIGHT person if they were doing any killing, agreed to hear him out, prompting him to spin a tale about how he was the son of a caravan trader, who’d fallen on hard times and had thus chosen to live here in isolation for the past 46 years. And that there was no way he could have done all the heinous crimes they were accusing him of – why, he knitted, wasn’t that enough proof of his innocence? Mad Jack, however, immediately declared he was lying –
And that’s when “The Professor” started cackling madly, revealed that he’d used that story to buy enough time to set up his “last resort,” then declared he’d see them in hell before setting off a suicide bomb. Cue poor Aria getting blown to pieces as she couldn’t get away fast enough (though, interestingly, JACK survived the explosion, as per the “death cam”). Fortunately, being a Bethesda protagonist, Aria could just rewind time to before the conversation – and on the SECOND go-round, she happily called “The Professor” out on his shit and handed him over to Jack, who took him out with one solid axe blow as the dude pissed himself. *nods* Most righteous, Jack – most righteous.
C) The pair then traveling to Camden to track down The Meat Merchant (with Jon taking a moment to note with delight the next Vagabond quest popping up in Aria’s log), who was apparently working as a barber not far from Cyberfox. However, this mission required a bit more finesse than the last one, as Mad Jack didn’t actually know what the Merchant looked like – he’d never met him in person. All he had to go on was his friend’s extremely vague description – brown hair and average height. So he asked Aria to confirm that this guy was the one they were looking for before they did any killing. Aria was more than fine with that, and they entered the barbershop –
To find three members of the Wells family waiting within. Aria reasoned that, since all the horrible stuff happened to Jack when he was a kid, the most likely candidate to be the Meat Merchant was the oldest one of the lot, patriarch Todd – and noted with her keen Perception that he had some awfully beat-up hands for a barber. Todd attempted to explain that he’d been a farmhand before his change in careers, and that he was originally from Borehamwood – but Aria, suspicious and facing down an Intelligence check, did some drugs and put on Merlin’s fancy beret, and got the clarity of mind needed to point out that the farms in Borehamwood had been the first to fall to the radiation. Todd quickly claimed that he was actually from Bournebridge – but when Aria said that he couldn’t keep running from the people he killed, he reflexively protested that he’d been on disposal before trying to cover up the slip. It was too little too late, however, and after conferring with Jack, Aria prepared to put Todd down –
Only for him AND the other two members of the Wells family, Artie and Ruby, to all go hostile. Aria hastily took out Todd, which caused Artie and Ruby to flee...and Mad Jack to chase after them. He returned after a few minutes, but the other two very much did not. And while Jon couldn’t PROVE that he’d hunted them down and murdered them...yeah, he was a bit concerned Jack might have gone too far there. To be fair, Jon, YOU could have had Aria order him to stay before he went tearing off...then again, I shouldn’t judge, I know how fiddly the Fallout interface can be.
D) The pair then heading to Wimbledon to track down Myra Lane, who had apparently set up a camp for herself not far from the Tennis Museum. Once they found the place, they were greeted at the entrance by a raider named Byron, who recognized Mad Jack and warned him that if he was there for Myra, he wasn’t going to get her –
Because she already had too many husbands and none of them got enough time with her as it was! XD Yeah, uh, it appeared after the dissolution of the slaver camp, Myra had set up her own little harem of adoring husbands to keep herself safe and entertained. Mad Jack was VERY flustered by this, while Aria decided to go ahead and antagonize Byron by saying Myra would probably like Jack better than him –
Only to immediately regret all her decisions when the entire camp went hostile. XD She managed to hold her own against the Husband Legion for a little while, while Jack found and wailed on Myra herself, but a well-tossed molotov made it so she had to rewind time for herself again. She still chose to antagonize Byron, but THIS time made sure to get to cover faster, and was able to take out all the husbands while Mad Jack took down Myra. She didn’t immediately die, though, instead just sprawling on the ground with a quest marker over her head. Aria took that to mean that she had something to say and, after finishing off the last of the boytoys, went over to talk to her –
Only to find that Myra just got up and regarded her silently. Wouldn’t speak at all. And a reload didn’t fix the problem. So Aria just shot her in the head. XD Sorry, Myra – I know it’s not your fault your AI bugged out, but you should have spoken up sooner if you wanted to live longer!
E) The pair then heading to find Jonah “The Gent” where he’d holed up in a squatter’s den near Voxtel, with a whole bunch of Hooligans. Jack and Aria managed to take all his cronies out without TOO much issue (beyond Jack getting in the way of Aria running away from a land mine she’d accidentally set off – and then saying “hey, you stepped on an explosion,” causing Aria to be like “I KNOW”), and Aria found Jonah all the way on the top floor, holed up in an apartment with his pet radger (rad badger), Buttons. Jonah said some very nasty things to Jack and Aria and ordered Buttons to kill them – Aria thus concentrated on taking out Buttons, confident that Mad Jack had Jonah handled –
Only to find that Jack was nowhere to be seen. Turns out his pathfinding had gotten a little confused and he hadn’t actually come upstairs with her. Aria thus had to run back down the stairs to HIM, chased by Jonah, so he could actually get the climatic kill on the man who made his life hell. *facepalm* Oh, the Bethesda was really Bethesdaing at times in this video…
F) Aria checking in with Mad Jack to make sure he really did feel better, because she knew she had a complicated relationship with violence and killing and all thanks to his upbringing...only for Jack to tell her that he felt great and that he was sure the world was a better place without those people in it. XD He did, however, reveal to her that he’d lied about the note. Not about its existence, fortunately (THAT would have been a worrying twist), but about how many addresses had been on it. For it seems that his old buddy had ALSO included the address of their old orphanage in the list...with a note stating they hadn’t been STOLEN from it, they’d been SOLD by it. Mad Jack didn’t really want to believe it, but said he wouldn’t really be able to put things to rest until he got to the bottom of this final mystery and asked if Aria was still in. Aria was of course like “heck yes – this is the one part of this mission where I am all FOR some bloody murder.” XD So they headed over to the nearby Ross Home for Orphaned Boys –
Only to find nothing but a pile of rubble. Jack was quite surprised, but said that they needed to find the headmistress, Dr. Ainsley Ross, if she was still around, as he was sure she could set them straight on what happened. After all, he remembered her being so warm and kind – the closest thing he ever had to a mother! Jon was immediately like “oh, this isn’t going to end well…” Anyway, Aria and Jack thus proceeded to poke around the wreckage –
And found a dead Tommy in there. With a note from one former General Asquith, saying that they’d heard some worrying rumors about the place and he was empowering this Tommy to look into the matter. And that, if he didn’t find anything here, that he should check out the Bankside Power Station in Southwark (right behind the Globe Theater), as they’d found evidence that whatever was going on in the orphanage was related to whatever was going on there. The pair thus headed over there and fought their way through dozens of Industrialists before reaching the inner sanctum of one Dr. Ross –
And there found a very cold woman who, upon being questioned by Jack (who was still sure she’d tell him she hadn’t sold him and his brothers off), calmly informed him that yes, she HAD sold them to the slavers – and that in fact she’d given him growth hormone ever since he was a baby to make him a more valuable bit of property. And that she’d happily burned down the orphanage once the Tommies started nosing around. And that she had a very powerful rifle in her desk if he or Aria planned to make any moves against her. A furious Jack declared she was going to die today, and Dr. Ross did indeed grab her gun –
And then Aria shot her a few times with the freezing 9mm and she ended up dying in a single VATS round while lying frozen on the floor. XD Aria happily claimed her rifle (a Gauss rifle, nice), then checked in with Jack again, acknowledging that he had to be in shock – Jack confirmed that he was going to need some time to process this, but thanked her for helping him do all this in the first place, saying she was the best mate he’d ever had. :) He even tried to give her his staggering boxing gloves, Judy & Diane, as a reward – Aria, however, took one look at that 31 damage and was like, “thanks, but you keep them.” XD However, she was very happy with his companion perk, “Fisticuffs,” which she received straight afterward – gave her +50% more damage dealt and +50 damage resistance when facing three or more opponents (kind of like Preston’s perk in main Fallout 4). And given MOST opponents come in groups in this bloody game – yeah, that is going to be VERY handy for Aria as she starts wrapping up her adventures!
G) And finally, the pair swinging by the Swan & Meiter to check in with Gaunt and get the measure of his big plan to finally get the upper hand in the Vagabonds’ war against the Syndicate on the Isle of Dogs! Which, unsurprisingly, involved Aria going on another murder spree, as Gaunt informed her over a game of pool that he wanted her to slaughter three of the tacticians in the Syndicate, the three who’d helped one Thomas Black orchestrate the “Red Treaty” and kill his father – lieutenants John Lockheed, Enforcer Sinclair, and Pieter the Fence. And he wanted her to be big and showy about it all too, doing it in public and in her Vagabond best (aka the hat he gave her), so people would know that whoever crossed the Vagabonds would bring fury down upon them. Though he was also nice enough to warn her that this was very dirty business he was sending her on, and to expect Syndicate enforcers hunting her the minute she pulled the trigger on the first. Aria indicated she understood and asked where she could find her targets – Gaunt informed her that his lieutenants had leads on the men, and pointed her to good old “Chill” Winston to get the skinny on Lockheed. So yeah – next week, Aria chats with Winston and starts her next set of assassinations! And we’ll see if Jon remembers that he was hoping to have Gaunt REMOVED as leader thanks to his revenge-loving ways...though maybe the lieutenants will have some thoughts about that when Aria talks to them to get her missions...
Workout: Hopped back on the bike this evening to start this week’s workouts with some OXBox Hitman goodness: “HITMAN JAMES BOND | Let's Kill Mads Mikkelsen | Elusive Target The Banker!” An extremely new Elusive Target (as in, apparently this DLC was announced and dropped FRIDAY, with this video having been posted SATURDAY – they really saw this thing come up and went “well, that’s our weekend sorted” XD) based on the Bond movie Casino Royale, in honor of developer IO doing a Bond game! Complete with that movie’s main villain, La Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen, making an appearance as a banker with criminal world ties, who must win a high-stakes VIP poker game to earn the money he needs to pay off his debts to the ex-fascist dictator Murillo. 47’s job – to make sure La Chiffre doesn’t win that money and does not survive the night! Andy was on the controls for this one, with Jane and Mike watching on and offering support, and they followed the mission story which saw 47 sneak his way into the VIP game to win all the bananas and make sure La Chiffre got murdered by his exiled dictator partner (this is apparently the one that follows the plot of the movie the closest). How did it go? Well, let me give you a few quick highlights:
A) Andy started things off by dressing 47 in the exact same outfit that La Chiffre was wearing, as an intimidation tactic of sorts (though he later regretted that he couldn’t have walked in wearing the clown outfit Mike loves so much)
B) Given three options for getting an invite to the all-important poker match, Andy going with killing an ex-informant for 47’s CIA buddy Mr. Smith (for once fully clothed and NOT in immediate danger that 47 had to save him from) – 47 remarking on how weird it was to see Smith with all his clothes on made Jane and Mike go “hang on a second, WHO is this guy again??” XD
C) Everyone being very deeply suspicious about how easily 47 was let up into the VIP lounge after presenting an invitation that didn’t even have his name on it (though the guard did radio La Chiffre to okay it), and berating 47 for letting his guard down and actually drinking his champagne when he met La Chiffre for a pre-game chat – sure enough, after the first round (in which La Chiffre managed to fake everyone out with a fake tell and win the game), it was quickly revealed that 47 had been poisoned and he had to rush out of the room and down to the shed by the carpark for the antidote. The gang was like “Oh no, we’ve been hitmanned ourselves!” and “well, that’s kind of what you get for wanting to impress Mads Mikkelsen.” XD
D) Mike, at one point after 47 antidoted himself, noting that if he’d been the one at the controls, he would have already tossed an explosive duck at the problem and called it a day XD
E) 47 ultimately winning the whole pot by first bribing, and then threatening, the dealer to stack the deck in his favor, and then following La Chiffre to the attic room where he was meeting Murillo to see the execution first-hand – unfortunately, he got caught by a wandering guard while crouching down behind some boxes, and got gunned down on the stairs, meaning Andy failed the mission – snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, as Mike put it
F) Andy THEN going into the “Elusive Target Arcade” and redoing the mission, THIS time just waiting at the door and continually opening it so he could see the execution from afar...then, because nobody liked that the ex-dictator wasn’t one of the targets (though apparently you kill him in a DIFFERENT mission), sneaking in, taking the guy out, then running away in a hail of gunfire. XD Happily, this time he survived, and managed to get out the front gate to end the mission!
G) Andy getting the rank “Flexible Murderer” and a new personal best of zero stars at the end XD
So yeah – required a little trip into an alternate timeline via the arcade, but we got there in the end! Oh, I do love watching these three play Hitman – even if it’s just one of them on the controls, the commentary from the other two is always delightful. XD Excellent stuff!
Other: We did indeed play beanbags, as the weather was nicer today – and once again, Mom had a great game, winning three out of five rounds and only coming last once, while Dad and I struggled to keep up! I ended up having a slow climb to a final victory (where I beat Dad by a single point!), while poor Dad had a crash from glory and only somewhat recovered at the end. Final scores were me 3-3-2-2-W; Dad W-2-3-3-2; and Mom 2-W-W-W-3. *shrug* What can I say – she’s on a hot streak! We’ll see if things change the next time we play!
Not bad -- not GREAT, but I'm glad that I hit all the usual stuff. And now I have to run off to work -- tonight, I'll tell you all about that, and my attempts to celebrate Victor's birthday! (Usual stuff -- watch some Victor clips, listen to some CB music, write some Victor-related stuff, read some Victor-related fanfic if I can. Don't think I'll be able to get to a Victor-related game, though.) Bye!
