The Wait Comes To A Close Tomorrow

They're FINALLY doing Dad's biopsy tomorrow morning -- and, depending on how his potassium and oxygen levels look afterward, he might be able to come home tomorrow afternoon. If not, it's likely he'll be released Saturday. *sigh* Good to finally know WHEN the hell it's going to be done already...granted, then we'll have to wait for the results, but -- still. At least we can get him out of the hospital and back home and be a little bit less stressed out! And then we can go from there. *nods*

As for today, it was another pretty quiet day around the house -- dusted the living room for Mom, then just hung out as I have been doing. Got a fair amount of stuff done here on the computer, though:

Tumblr: In an increasingly-rare turn of events, I ended up accomplishing something on BOTH my tumblrs today –

Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Got a couple of things done over here before (and a bit during) lunch –

A) First, I finished drafting out the “Valicer As Text Posts” post I started working on yesterday! :) Turns out alt-texting all the images didn’t take as long as I thought (even with me going back to make sure all the alt text was consistent across the images). So that’s all sorted, complete with tags. Dunno when it’s going up, but it’s ready to go whenever I choose to slap it in the queue!

B) And second, I worked some more on the draft of my “The Miseries Of Margaret Kelman” post explaining who Smiler’s birth mother is and what happened to her in all those universes where Smiler needs a birth mother – updating the introduction, adding links to the parts that reference various posts I’ve made in the past about Smiler, and writing down the few facts that I know about her (namely, she’s the parent who Smiler gets most of their looks from; she met Kelman when she was very lonely and found herself charmed by his awkwardness and desire to help people – then she married him and learned he was a monster; and she struggles with depression, which is probably why KELMAN was attracted to HER – free test subject!). Slowly but surely bringing this one together!

Valice Multiverse – And I dropped one ask in the queue over here tonight – an anon who went “God gave me two hands so I can pet two cats at the same time. But I got three cats, because the nature of man HUBRIS!” Cuddlepile!Alice promptly told them to get a fourth cat so they’d have an equal number of cats per hand, then to alternate petting them as to keep cat jealousy to a minimum. Because Alice thinks having more cats is a good thing, no matter if it is hubris. XD Fun little ask! (Technically I had a second one, but that was a super-long conspiracy-theory bullshit thing about the moon being a fake projection in the sky that I had no idea how to answer, so I deleted it. Please, folks, send me silly asks over stupid ones!)

Writing: Made sure to get in about a page’s worth of edits on Chapter 3 of “The Van Dort Vacancy” before diving into my video gaming today – which consisted of:

A) Alice and Smiler completing their disguises with aprons and looking for a cubby to shove Alice’s bag into, as they didn’t know what else to do with it, with Smiler stating that they were sure Victor would make everything right in the end – after all, he seemed to have a vested interest in making sure they were welcome

B) Smiler asking Alice if she too didn’t feel great about leaving Victor behind in the mansion, and Alice admitting she did not, but stating they didn’t seem to have much of a choice about it...only for Smiler to point out that they already knew Elder Gutknecht’s place could house three people, and Gutknecht really wanted Victor as an apprentice…

C) Alice firmly telling Smiler “he already said no,” only for Smiler to shoot back “look me in the eye and tell me he wasn’t lying” and rant for a moment about how they KNEW Victor really wanted that Whisper training, and how they felt they should encourage him to do what makes him happy, backed up by the Insane Children –

Only for Alice to point out that they couldn’t FORCE Victor to do anything, and that she was not in favor of mucking about with anyone’s free will – especially not after Bumby. Causing the Children to hide behind the changing room curtain and Smiler to assure her they didn’t want to make Victor do anything...they just felt like it went against everything they were as an Advocate and a friend to leave him in a place where they were sure he’d be miserable. :(

D) And Alice telling Smiler that, unfortunately, making a hard decision like that was just life sometimes, before reminding them that Victor still wanted to be friends, so at least they’d have plenty of chances to relieve his unhappiness, before reminding them they’d better get back to the kitchen before Mrs. Pemberly came looking for them.

*nods* A solid page, I feel – even if it took me a little longer to edit than I really wanted thanks to me struggling to get Smiler’s speech about how they were SURE Victor actually wanted to be a Whisper just right. Got there in the end, at least! And tomorrow, the pair re-enter the kitchen and prove their chops to the head cook – quite literally, in Alice’s case. XD Looking forward to it!

Fallout: New Vegas: As per the prophecy, I returned to the adventures of my Courier Victor today – but, uh, he and I both had a bit of a rough time of it this session, I must admit. Let me explain:

A) I picked up where I left off on Sunday, with Victor hanging out by one of the wells in Goodsprings Source (the big rocky area where Goodsprings gets its water from), having been given the task of finding a broc flower in the cemetery and a xander root by the schoolhouse so Sunny Smiles could show him how to craft stuff at campfires and thus he could complete the second tutorial quest. Before I sent him to get those items, though, I first spent some time looking through both the Mod Configuration Menu and the Tweaks menu in “Settings” to see if there was anything in either that allowed me to turn on some simple survival mechanics. Reason being, I’ve been playing with a survival mod in Fallout 4 for so long that it now feels weird to have a version of Victor who doesn’t need to eat or drink or sleep –

But I keep looking at Hardcore Mode, which would automatically give me those mechanics, and going “do I really want to turn you on?” Because while that mode making it so stimpacks and Rad-Away heal over time instead of instantly wouldn’t be a problem – I’m used to those mechanics from FO4 – the fact that it also makes ammo have weight just might, given “Agua Fria” has made poor Victor more weedy than USELESS STEVE. *shakehead* Damn JSawyer and company, forcing realistic carry weight limits on us… Anyway, I unfortunately didn’t find anything in either menu for just turning on the need to eat, drink, and sleep periodically – though I did note that “Agua Fria” seems to slow down how fast hunger, thirst, and exhaustion accumulate in Hardcore Mode (the thresholds to reach the point where each starts affecting your SPECIAL stats are higher than in vanilla). Meaning...hmmm. If I could find an option to turn off ammo weight, OR edit Victor’s carry capacity to give him like an extra 50 units...we’ll see how I feel the next time I play!

( Cut Time! )

Workout: Got back on the bike again tonight, wrapping up “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 2 - Armed But Not Dangerous” as I pedaled my way through roughly 500 calories! The final thirty minutes or so of the second episode of The Adventures Of Useless Steve consisted of –

A) Useless Steve successfully rescuing Deputy Beagle and accidentally luring all the convicts in the big room of death he was trying to avoid out through the door he’d just lockpicked one-by-one after killing the one convict who’d come into Beagle’s room to use the stove...in front of the big open doors leading into the room of death. Meaning his fellow convicts kept passing by the doorway, seeing him, and coming to investigate. It all worked out just fine in the end, but MAN Jon was stressing during the whole mess. XD

B) Useless Steve then checking in with Beagle about the guy who shot him (advancing the main quest) and learning that Primm needed a new sheriff or someone else interested in upholding the law – he was pretty sure he could get the NCR to send in some more troops to restore order, but decided to go out into the plains to chase some easy XP before doing so (possibly in hopes of a level-up). He thus proceeded to:

I. Visit the Nevada Highway Patrol office (after watching the Powder Gangers who were supposed to fight the other gang members outside get instead killed by a local feral ghoul), murdering the Jackals and the mantis nymphs inside to get his hands on the Guns And Bullets skill book (increasing Guns by 3) and the precious drugs inside – he then proceeded to get his shit wrecked by the Jackal Gang Leader who was hanging out outside, but eventually he managed to murder her and her friend

II. Cross the Ivanpah Dry Lake, avoiding the ants around the place (who were fortunately mostly chill), to watch the fight between Tomas and Jacqueline (the latter trying to kill the former for his lucky necklace, apparently – which I believe was made out of Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps) – Tomas eventually triumphed, and Steve had a quick chat with him before looting Jacqueline’s body for her caps...and then murdering Tomas and looting his body for his. Because Steve wants the Pew-Pew gun you get for turning in 50 of them, damn it!

III. Enter Nipton to talk to the Legion and get the “Cold, Cold Heart” quest to tell the NCR how they sacked the place...completely forgetting he was currently wearing NCR armor. XD Cue Steve having to retreat in a hail of gunfire, then come back in regular leather armor to actually get Vulpes Invicta to talk to him and give him the quest

IV. And finally enter the Mojave Outpost to tell the guy at the entrance about how the Legion sacked Nipton (for 250 XP and a level-up to Level 4 – boosting Sneak and Speech to 15 each and Energy Weapons and Guns to 10 each, and getting him another level of Intense Training to bring Endurance up to 2, allowing him to get another implant in the future), before going to Ranger Ghost and telling her about Nipton, auto-completing her “Keep Your Eyes On The Prize Quest” for another pile of XP, yay!

C) Useless Steve then using the power of grabbing things to quietly take an Explosives skill book behind the bar in the Outpost barracks to a place where he could steal it without being detected (very overpowered, the ability to pick things up and move them without NPCs even noticing), before picking up a quest to kill a bunch of ants on the highway from Ranger Jackson and trying to barter with Major Knight about sending more troops to Primm; as it turned out, his Barter skill wasn’t quite up to the task even with his trading gear – BUT, because he’d already helped out Ranger Ghost, he could point out “hey, I’ve helped out here – send some troops down to Primm and it’ll help fortify your position,” which did the same thing. Yay! We love alternate dialogue options to achieve your goals!

D) Useless Steve then going to the highway and killing all the ants there for Ranger Jackson (which mostly went well, with the help of a few sneak attack criticals from the Abilene BB Gun and his beloved Q-35 – though he did nearly get chomped by the one remaining giant soldier ant when it started chasing him during one of his terrifyingly-slow reload animations), before returning to the Outpost to get his reward – a service rifle and a load of armor-piercing rounds for it, meaning he had another decent weapon that could get past enemies in tougher armor (like the Jackal Gang Leader that managed to kill him once)

E) Useless Steve then swinging by Primm to talk to Lieutenant Hayes there and finish up the quest to get Primm someone willing to uphold law and order, which got him another level-up to Level 5, which he used to get Energy Weapons up to 16 and Guns up to 15 so he could start more effectively using his new weaponry

F) Useless Steve then finishing things off by wandering off the beaten path near California Sunset Drive-In to show off why there are so many feral ghouls in this particular area when they’re not as common in the rest of the game – basically, there’s a huge toxic pool full of rads nearby, the Mesquite Mountains Crater, which spawns at least two Feral Ghoul Reavers, who are NASTY little fuckers who managed to kill Useless Steve a couple of times in the final few minutes of the episode. Fortunately for him, every time Jon reloaded, the Reavers seemed to get dumber and start running off in the wrong direction. And why did Steve even go there? Well, one, to show it off, as Jon was pretty sure a lot of people hadn’t even seen it –

And two, because there’s a building there, Hell’s Motel, with a Crazed Mr. Handy inside – but also a Medicine skill book (as the place apparently used to be a clinic for ghouls, before they all went feral and killed their doctor), which Steve managed to grab on his second attempt (the first was cut short by the Reavers following him inside and murdering him when his foot got stuck on the rail over the stairs). Meaning the episode ended with Steve managing to boost his Medicine skill a little – which feels ironic, given how many times he died before getting it. XD

Fun times, as usual. XD Looking forward to starting Episode 3 next week, which will see Useless Steve wandering in the general direction of Novac! Can’t wait to see what shenanigans he gets up to there. XD

FreeTube: Managed to find the time to squeeze in this week’s OXtra list tonight: “7 Games Where Your Choices Actually Mattered!” Featuring Ellen and Mike talking about those times when games gave you a choice – and it turned out to have a surprisingly major effect on the game world! Unlike most video game choices, which result in pretty local changes, if any at all. Decide to take a gamble on Barnum, an entrepreneur who speaks like Carpenter from Alice: Madness Returns with fifty dozen made-up/weirdly combined words, and give him 5,000 gold to turn a ruined settlement into the medieval fantasy equivalent of a theme park? Turns out he actually DOES renovate the town – not into a theme park, but a nicer settlement, with happier citizens, and gives you your money back PLUS interest! Choose, as Chris, to point the gun at Ashley during the Saw-esque fake murder trap scene in Until Dawn? Welp, congratulations, you’ve just guaranteed that when he’s being chased by the wendingos later in the game, Ashley will NOT let him into the cabin because she is, understandably, still nursing a grudge. Decide to help Songbird escape the corrupt government in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty rather than turn her over to Reed, aka Cybernetic Idris Elba? Guess what – you get to go to the MOON! On a mission to cure her neural degradation, admittedly, but still! (Though, if you’re into last-minute betrayals, you can then turn her over to Reed anyway to get help with your OWN neural degradation...which ends up getting rid of all your cool implants AND Johnny Silverhand, aka Keanu Reeves. ...somehow I don’t think a lot of players chose that option. :P) Point is, these games will actually change quite a bit in response to your actions – and isn’t that what we like to see in a video game? ...well, a video game set up to change like that, anyway. If A:MR suddenly allowed me to change how the story went, I’d be worried my game had gotten possessed. (Though if it gave me more options for Bumby murder, I’d probably live with it.)

And I've officially stayed up later than I probably should have again, though not quite as late as I have been some nights. *shrug* Okay then. So yeah, I'm off to bed -- tomorrow, we'll see what happens with the biopsy and Dad coming home. I'm definitely going to be getting a workout and editing more of "The Van Dort Vacancy" -- I'm HOPING to also get in another Baldur's Gate III session and have Smiler chat with Sazza, but we will see what happens there. *nods* Night all!