Flip Flop Bad Focus Day

"Flip Flop" because when I got up this morning, Mom revealed she wanted to go shopping in the morning, after I had breakfast and got dressed and all that, instead of in the afternoon (because it was supposed to thunderstorm -- we ended up getting a few rumbles and a few downpours, but nothing like last Friday, which pleases me), meaning instead of tumblr but no gaming, I had gaming but no tumblr; "Bad Focus" because, well, it's the second day of my period, and the distraction is incredibly real. *sighs* It's very frustrating when you're trying to do something and your hormones keep messing with your head, let me tell you...but I have wrestled them into submission enough to finish my write-ups, and shall now present them to you:

Shopping Trip: As stated above, Mom and I ended up going out to get new clothes for our upcoming trip before lunch instead of after (which, naturally, resulted in a late lunch because we were out longer than anticipated), hitting the Kohl’s and the Old Navy in one of the local shopping plazas. I can’t say it was a particularly fun trip – the plaza was busier than either of us would have liked; combing through the clearance sections in Kohl’s was a pain because every one was a mess of clothes of shoved together, with items on the wrong hangers (the one in Old Navy was nicer, but a lot smaller and everything in it more expensive, so); Mom managed to lose the $10 “Kohl’s Cash” coupon we got at the door of Kohl’s (some sort of anniversary promotion), meaning we couldn’t use it at the register; and the weather was utterly miserable – hot and sticky in the worst way. (Especially bad if you’re on your period and thus your internal temperature is all screwed up anyway!) Oh, and I discovered that apparently the AC in the truck doesn’t work properly unless the person in the front passenger seat nudges a certain wire under the dash into place with their foot, which was fun. >( But it was at least a fruitful trip, with me acquiring two pairs of shorts, a pair of pants, and (after a LOT of searching – I apparently need the widest ones available to be comfortable) a new pair of sneakers from Kohl’s, and a new tank top from Old Navy. And then Mom and Dad went out to a different Kohl’s in a different town after lunch, and she was able to find me a pair of white capris from the same people who made one of my pairs of shorts there. So between all those, a few of my t-shirts, and a couple of my nicer work tops (that Mom asked me to bring in case we go somewhere nice for dinner or something), I should be set for the trip! Now the trick is just figuring out how to pack them all up…

Baldur’s Gate III: ...look, what can I say, I really want to play this game whenever I get the chance! ^^; Plus I got on the computer kind of late – lunch was at 2 PM today thanks to the aforementioned shopping trip, so I didn’t boot it up until about 2:40 – and given how much of my afternoon even a short session of Fallout 4 can swallow (between playing the game, doing the write-up for you guys of what happened in the game, updating the FO4 Playthrough Progression with the “Fallout of Darkness” version of events, and then updating you guys on that and the differences between the FO4 PP and actual game)...yeah. Decided I would be better off playing a game that I could at least notionally sum up quicker! (Plus, yeah, I very much wanted to keep writing “The Van Dort Vacancy” today. What can I say, I love my crime trio!) So here’s what happened with my Tav!Smiler in Faerun today:

A) Started off in the Wilderness camp where I’d left the party at the end of the last session – after letting all the scenery pop back in (and going “awww, look, Shadowheart waters her plants!” while watching her tent reform), I took the Faerun Colors dyes out of Smiler’s personal pack and put them back in the camp chest, then had Shadowheart, Astarion, and Gale all head over to said chest to dye their clothes some appropriate colors:

I. Shadowheart, of course, dyed her armor in the colors of her goddess, Shar, meaning she’s sporting an even more gothy look than before

II. Astarion benefited from me having a slightly-updated version of the mod and was able to dye his clothes with the dye bearing his name – he too is now sporting a more goth look, with wine-red accents. It looks nice!

III. And Gale proved he’s not quite over his former goddess lover by dying his robe, boots, and new wizardy hat in Mystra’s blue – means he matches his tent quite well, honestly. XD I attempted to see if I could dye the green hand-grip on his staff as well, but the game told me that was an invalid item, sadly. Ah well, I tried!

I also checked out the two in-game notes that come with the dyes while I was doing all this – the first of which essentially goes, “hey, I don’t have the dyes spawn in the camp chest anymore to prevent duplicates if you already got them out of the tutorial chest, but if you need to find them, here are the various traders that have them across all three acts (list of the traders and where they can be found);” and the second of which essentially goes “if you would like to commission a dye or otherwise support me, this is my Ko-Fi account – also, here is an adorable ASCII picture of my beloved dog Sombra, who you will also be helping support by giving me money.” :) So that was nice!

B) After all the companions finished dying their clothes, I swapped back to Smiler to do a little more inventory management – specifically, rearranging the camp chest a bit so the dyes and associated notes, Peculiar Clothing Chest, gemstones, and jewelry were all in the top row, and all the Chests Of Smart Containers (including the one empty one and two full ones) were in the bottom row, and sending the two sets of thieves’ tools over to Astarion as he’s the Rogue and would be able to make the best use of them – then sent them around to have the usual “getting to know you” chat with all their companions:

I. First up was Shadowheart, as she was the closest, and also the companion with the most to say! Mostly because she’s at least somewhat main-quest-important. After she commented on Gale joining the group (“I’ve heard you can’t get blood from a stone, but apparently you can get a wizard from one” XD), Smiler opened by asking what she thought about everything that had happened to them so far – and when she was like “not THAT much has happened – what specifically do you mean?” clarifying that they were curious what thoughts she had on their “little stowaways.” Shadowheart was like “I don’t have to have thoughts on them – we know we need to rid ourselves of these wretched things, so let’s get to hunting down possibilities.” Smiler accepted that and asked what her plans were if and when they got the tadpoles removed – Shadowheart said that she’d head out on her own again (“not a slight on your company, of course”) and head home to Baldur’s Gate, as she had someone waiting there that she had to reach as soon as possible. Smiler commented that sounded personal and promised not to pry if she didn’t want to talk about it – Shadowheart thanked them and said it was a “delicate matter,” not appropriate for the current conversation. Smiler then inquired how they were holding up in her estimation – Shadowheart happily told them that they’d been a pleasant surprise, as she didn’t have much in the way of kindred spirits in her life, then followed that up with “Besides, you saved my life aboard the nautiloid. How can I do anything but sing your praises?” :) Smiler, encouraged, decided to ask if they could get to know each other a little more –

And Shadowheart politely shut them down with “Must we? No harm in a little mystery, don’t you think?” Smiler was like “all right, if you don’t want to, I won’t make you,” which she thanked them for and assured them that she thought they’d get on perfectly well. *nods* Productive conversation that added a little more information to Smiler’s journal about the “Daughter of Darkness” companion quest for Shadowheart, and got them a bit more approval with her for being respectful of her need for privacy. :) Yay!

II. Second was Astarion, who was doing some pretty impressive knife flips and brushing his hair to pass the time before Smiler came up to say hello. His conversation was the same short-and-sweet one I’ve had every time I’ve brought him to camp for the first time in the game – a derisive comment about how having to save Gale from his own portal was “hardly a promising introduction,” then telling Smiler that he was a magistrate back in the city when Smiler asked about him, deflecting further questions by saying it was all “rather tedious.” You’d think the golden child of the fandom would have a longer first conversation! That said, the best part of visiting Astarion this time around was looking at his little camp set-up –

And having a good laugh because Astarion’s supposed to be hiding the fact that he’s a vampire at this point in the game – and yet a good chunk of his shit has bloodstains all over it! XD Like, there’s a giant bloodstain on the rock he’s put his glass on, and bloodstains on his rug by a fancy chalice, and even a few bloodstains on the table behind him – next to a big red-tinged jar labeled “empty blood bank jar.” XD Dude, you are so lucky nobody is allowed to make a Perception Check to figure out what the hell you are early.

III. And third was Gale, who was waiting patiently among all his wizardy bits and bobs (he has a whole freaking desk at his campsite!) – and unlike Astarion, my conversation with him in this playthrough was quite different from previous ones! Because, in my previous playthroughs, Smiler always had a rank of whatever custom Artificer class I was using at the time when they spoke to him – and pretty much everyone who makes an Artificer class mod gives Artificers the [Wizard] dialogue options, meaning Gale always thought Smiler was a Wizard like himself and asked if they were particularly well-read (hoping they might be able to lend a hand with his Netherese Orb problem). THIS time around, though, thanks to me choosing to go Bardlock with Smiler, they approached Gale as a Warlock, which led to a very different conversation, quoted below (with additional commentary added by me; trust me, you’ll know what it is):

Gale: “You’re not versed in magic, are you?”

Smiler: “Not versed in magic? With the powers my patron grants me, I could write an epic.” Ignore the fact that I’m a level 2 warlock who knows four proper spells and has two spell slots

Gale: [a touch derisively] “Oh, I do apologize. I meant to ask: are you studied in magic. Namely: are you a wizard? Which you are not.” [more chill] “If you meet any elder wizards, let me know. There is a matter I’d like to seek advice on from a master.”

Smiler: … [goes into his campsite and steals his mugwort]

XD I mean, I knew that was coming, thanks to YouTube videos showing Gale’s reaction to other spellcasting classes (though I hadn’t seen the Warlock-specific line in action), but it was still amusing. If you’d been slightly politer, Gale, I would have let you keep your alchemy ingredient! Alas. :p

C) During the walk around camp to chat with everyone, I also had Smiler take a peek in the various crates and barrels around the place – most were empty, but there was a barrel between Astarion and Gale’s camp that contained some rotten cheese and a rotten tomato, ew. >( I don’t think I’ll be using those camp supplies, no! Gale’s own little patch also had a “rotting basket” with a rotting fish head in it (for Tara, Gale?), and a storage box with 27 gold and a Scroll of False Life – I had Gale go and get those after the conversation with Smiler so he’d have some pocket change and the scroll ready to either use or add to his spellbook later (as that’s a thing Wizards can do, lucky bastards). Once all the convos were done, Smiler then went and took a look at the “Invasion of the Sword Coast” map tucked away in that little tent with the desk and all the fake book stacks (they function as containers, not books, you see – handy to grab if you don’t have any Smart Containers like I do!), checked inside all the remaining containers in the area (nothing, bleh), and wandered around the edge of camp looking for any extra goodies they could pick up (I was half-hoping for some alchemical ingredients, but no such luck). All that walking around made me once again appreciate how pretty this camp is, though, so once I was sure I’d found everything in it, I had Smiler head over to the nearby waterfall and the log bridge that connects the main camp to the ruins where the Magic Mirror (which lets you change your Tav’s appearance if you so choose) lurks, got them into a good spot showing off the lovely scenery behind them –

And activated Photo Mode for the first time! Because I’ve been meaning to play around with it and see if I could get some fun shots of Smiler and their crew. Unfortunately, trying it out left me kind of unimpressed – while the controls weren’t that hard to figure out, I’m not sure I would call them “intuitive” (though that could be the period brain talking, I fully admit), and I found the facial expression options available kind of underwhelming. Specifically the “Happy” options, as my intent was to give Smiler a nice big grin, as I so often picture them with – but pretty much none of the smiles on offer were what I was looking for! Especially not the “laughing” face – you’d think that a face sporting a big open-mouthed laugh would be perfect for Smiler, but after snapping a picture of it, all I could think was “this looks weird.” :( I would say that I’m probably just too used to their Sims 4 version having much bigger, more cartoony expressions (plus the proper teeth – obviously I couldn’t give Smiler their buck front teeth in this world) – and I probably am, let’s be real here – but I’ve seen some very cute smiles on this Smiler during cutscenes – I’ve just never been quick enough on the draw with the “F12” screenshot button to grab one! Meeeh…anyway, here’s the better of the two “photo mode” pictures that I took, with Smiler just having a plain smiling face:



I will admit, I do appreciate that they were able to do a double-thumbs-up pose – that is indeed very Smiler. :P And the scenery is gorgeous. Still, hope I can snap a picture of one of the better “real” smiles in the world later!

D) With my adventures in Photo Mode over, it was time to return the party to their adventures – namely, get them on the path to the Ruined Chapel so they could pick up Withers! I thus had them head back to the now-stabilized Waypoint where they met Gale –

Aaand immediately got distracted by the fact that “oh hey, this would be a good spot for a group shot!” XD I thus had Smiler go back and forth a bit until I found a spot for them to stand where everyone was facing roughly the same direction, then snapped a quick picture of the four in their newly-dyed fits:



Don’t they look smart? I was very pleased with myself for a moment –

And then I remembered “Oh. Right. I wanted to give Astarion the Buccaneer Boots I picked up earlier.” *facepalm* I struggled for just a second about whether or not I wanted to trade out the boots I’d just dyed for the new ones, but the bonuses those boots give (extra force damage when using a “buccaneer weapon” – and daggers most certainly count – and +20 extra feet to movement) very easily and quickly won out. And when I put them on Astarion, I was pleased to see they were at least red – not the right SHADE of red, mind, but they at least SORT of fit with the rest of his outfit. *shakehead* Sorry Astarion – I’ll dye them the next time we hit camp!

E) ANYWAY – after getting that screeenshot, I finally continued on, having Smiler investigate a smashed-up cage and a torn-up net trap off to the side of the main path they were all on (causing them to wonder aloud who was setting all these traps) and snag a “rogue’s morsel” mushroom hidden in the scenery (alchemy stuff!) before sending them over to the chapel entrance with all their friends. And I was going to end it there, as it had been about an hour (made a proper save and everything) –

But then I was like “you know what, no – I want to play a little more for a change.” So play a little more I did, getting through:

I. The gang wandering around the balcony area, carefully avoiding the twisting vines on the ground and enjoying the view from the edge – and while Smiler and Shadowheart failed their Survival checks, Gale passed it and discovered a dig spot nearby! ...of course, none of the party had a shovel on them, so the dig spot remained undug, but at least it’ll be there and waiting when they DO acquire a shovel and can come back to look for goodies!

II. Smiler heading over to where Gimblebock and Taman were having their argument over whether or not to raid the recently-crashed Nautiloid wreckage (Gimblebock was for, Taman against) – Gimblebock, upon seeing them, told them that the ship was theirs, only for Smiler to use their massive Persuasion skills, coupled with a quick cast of Friends (for Advantage on the roll) and another dose of Shadowheart’s Guidance (for an extra 1D4 added to the end result), to convince him that the ship was full of monsters and that he and his buddies should stay far away from it. Gimblebock, Taman, and their two friends up on the side walls promptly ran off to find better pickings elsewhere, while Shadowheart complimented Smiler on their cunning. :) They are very good at talking people down, that’s for sure!

III. The gang then investigating the roof of the chapel, as I made them very carefully skirt that fragile hole in the middle of the little “plaza” where Gimblebock and Taman were arguing, and all the twisting vines around the place. There wasn’t a LOT of stuff to find, sadly, but they did acquire a few things, such as:

a. A dragon egg mushroom hiding in the grass starting to overgrow the upper section of the right-hand wall (more alchemy ingredients for Smiler, yay – pressing ALT to reveal stuff to pick up is going well, guys!)

b. A backpack by the bedrolls in the center area that contained a torch, a coil of rope, one bottle of Fireswill, a dagger, two sets of thieves’ tools, and a trap disarm kit (Smiler took the torch, rope, Fireswill, and dagger, while Astarion took the thieves’ tools and the trap disarm kit)

c. And a fish and a lemon stored in a crate up on the left-hand wall (I guess someone was planning a fancy dinner later? :P)

So yeah, worth it to poke around and try to find the secrets in the place! I ended up having the party park themselves just a little ways outside the door that leads inside the temple and to the graverobbers currently trying to break into it – next time I play, Smiler will talk their way in, and we’ll start fighting all these folks! Everyone could use the experience, after all. :p

Writing: Got another page done on “The Van Dort Vacancy” despite the period brain causing me trouble, yay. Today’s writing session featured:

A) Me trying out a couple of different versions of Kasimir doing the Ghost Contract thing (offering to shake Alice’s hand, only for Barnaby to ask if he was doing the “tattoo thing,” and Kasimir offering his hand in general, and Smiler striding in to take it), before deciding “wait, there’s three of them there, and he’d want to have a contract with all of them – I don’t know if you’re even allowed more than one at a time, and Kasimir probably wouldn’t consider the possible curse backlash on himself if he fucked up and mentioned them to the Bluecoats worth it.” So yeah, ended up with Kasimir considering his hand, then deciding against trying to use a Ghost Contract on any of them, confusing the trio with his mutterings about how it wasn’t worth it :P

B) Kasimir and Barnaby finally heading off, with Smiler giving them a final wave, before remarking to the others that “They were interesting!” Alice countered that Kasimir was interesting, but “Fortescue” just annoying XD

C) The trio talking about their less-than-perfect escape, with Victor assuring Alice and Smiler again that his parents will likely hush up the robbery a bit to avoid a scandal (they certainly don’t want people to know their own son robbed them!), and Smiler admitting that they got a bit nervous when Nell grabbed Victor’s arm, worried she was going to try and tow him back into the house – Victor admitted she was probably too much in shock for that, and thank the gods she was

D) Victor getting all excited as he realized he was finally free and going on about how he never has to think about the cannery again, or attend a society party he doesn’t care about, or get engaged without even meeting the woman he’s going to marry – instead, he can do what he likes, including learn magic! Alice noted this was the most they’d ever heard out of him at a stretch – Victor got a little embarrassed and apologized, but Smiler was like “don’t be sorry for being happy” and Alice quickly affirmed she hadn’t meant in a BAD way, she was just surprised :P

E) And the trio preparing to head back to Six Towers and their new home – with Alice once again reminding everyone that Elder Gutknecht has to approve them living there first. XD Don’t worry, Alice, he totally will! :P

Pretty good, especially with the distraction brain raging. *nods* Hooray for me :p

And that, along with many many distractions (including reading large parts of the BG3 Wiki and the "#bg3" tag on tumblr) was my day! And now it is once again far later than I should have stayed up, and I really need to get to bed. Tomorrow I'd like to work some on my tumblr drafts over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) (see about getting the "VITD Vs BG3 Part II" post sorted if I can) and continue writing -- but what I'd REALLY like to do is settle the YouTube Situation. Because not only is tomorrow Fallout Sunday, meaning I'll get another episode of Jon's F:NV YOLO Remastered series, I apparently ALSO have a new CaFae Latte compilation video to watch! So yes, the front end situation MUST be figured out! We'll see if I can get the old brainpan to focus on it tomorrow -- for now, night all!