Kinda Gloomy Saturday

Weatherwise anyway -- it was pretty cloudy all day, and we don't think that it got quite as warm as they said it was going to get. Though it definitely got warm enough for some of the snow to melt -- the patio looked pretty wet when I glimpsed it when Dad went outside to make sure the garage's back door was locked. Slowly but surely getting evidence that this snow is going to go away! My parents ended up spending most of their day on the couch watching their shows, while I spent mine working on my tumblrs, playing Baldur's Gate III, and watching some stuff on YouTube --

All of which I will have to tell you about tomorrow as it is so late and I just cannot finish all my write-ups in time. Especially since it's Spring Forward day and thus it's about to be 3 AM, not 2 AM... *sigh* This is what I get for playing BG3 AND watching a longer-than-usual CaFae Latte compilation video in the same day. Anyway, watch this space for the full write-up of what I did today tomorrow. Night for now, and remember to set your clocks ahead!

EDIT 3/8/2026: Welp, as it turned out, part of the problem was ALSO the fact that I was just about to get my period -- fucker showed up late this morning. >( Fortunately I listened to my body's warning signals and had a pad in when it did, but -- ugh. I may possibly elaborate on that more in today's actual entry -- in the meantime, here's the write-up of the things I did yesterday:

Tumblr: Had a pretty decent day over on the old tumbls –

Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – I am pleased to report that I managed to update two of my drafts over here today –

A) I properly wrote up the “Victor, Alice, Smiler, and the rest of the party encounter Mirkon being lured by the harpies in the Secluded Cove – and after seeing the harpy music charming Alice and Smiler and starting to affect the others, Victor gets mad and uses one of his own Duskwallian spells to open up a portal to the Void Sea over the rock the harpies are hiding on, leading to three of them getting snatched by a leviathan and the fourth deciding to cut her losses and flee” scene in my latest “VITD Meets BG3 Not-Incorrect Quotes/Shitposts Collection” post, complete with Victor screaming after the fleeing harpy “YEAH, SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!!!” and Gale trying to ask Wyll if that was Hadar, only for Wyll to go “FUCK NO.” XD Honestly, this post is pretty close to done, I think – I just need to edit all the scenes in it now and do some proper tags for it! …and then maybe start a FOURTH post of scenes like this, because I really want to do a scene of Victor, Alice, and Smiler delightedly eating rat to SOMEONE’S surprise in the game, but this particular post is getting a little long. XD

B) And I worked a bit on the “Valicer Eats God” post where I’m trying to turn my OT3 into muppety menaces from the RPG Eat God! I didn’t make a huge amount of progress, but I did:

I. Decide that Victor’s third Trait, to go with the already-selected “Fast Feet” and “Sticky Steps” should be either “Dexterous Digits” or “Lanky Limbs” – though I’m leaning toward the latter, as “Dexterous Digits” allows those who have it to pull off all sorts of sleight-of-hand stuff, and I don’t think that’s really Victor-ish, whereas “Lanky Limbs” just gives him a hell of a lot of reach, and Victor IS quite lanky! (I did also briefly consider “Aquatic Aspect” to cover the fact that he’s the son of fish merchants, but quickly discarded it – being associated with fish is more his PARENTS’ thing than his, and I still want to do a kind of mothman look for him)

II. Come up with an Expression (a short sentence on how the Trait informs her personality) for Alice’s “Menacing Missiles” Trait (which allows her to file natural projectiles at people – I’m thinking an organic version of her Cards from the first game): “Most problems go away if you pepper them with enough projectiles (aka throw enough shit at them).” XD I mean, you can’t say she’s wrong, especially when it comes to the problems she faces in her games!

III. Also come up with an Expression for Smiler’s “Vile Venom” Trait (which allows them to inject people with a hallucinogenic substance – Joy Serum, natch): “If I can make people feel happy with one jab, why shouldn't I?” Feels in-keeping with a Smiler who’s based a little more on the ride’s actual themeing than most of my others!

So that’s good – I would like to get this post sorted sooner rather than later!

Valice Multiverse – And over here, I actually had an anon ask to answer! From, uh, yesterday, but I forgot to check this account last night because nothing has been happening on it for just about two weeks, soooo… *shrug* Anyway, the ask was a fake news report talking about how a woman was arrested after “breaking into a home to eat cereal and pet the homeowner's dog.” She was caught at the kitchen table chowing down on Fruity Pebbles, and admitted to consuming marijuana before the incident. XD I had Londerland Bloodlines!Alice reply that she could totally believe the woman had had weed before committing that crime, yes...but that it was also nice to have a relatively wholesome crime on the news for a change, as it was normally a lot more depressing. A sentiment that both Victor and myself (in the tags) totally agreed with. *sigh* I’d kill for more silly, relatively-harmless stuff like that in the news...

Baldur’s Gate III: Well, after a week of watching the people behind the Origin companions play their first-ever game of proper D&D (and poor Theo Solomon learning the dice hate him almost as much as Larian seems to hate his character), it was only natural that I’d return to the realm of Faerûn this Saturday to have some more adventures with Tav Smiler and their companions! Today’s session consisted mainly of the gang searching the harpy hangout for goodies, followed by Smiler having a very interesting experience with Gale back at camp – let me tell you all about it:

A) I picked things up at the little beach of the Sheltered Cove, with Smiler and company having just saved Mirkon from a terrible fate by slaughtering the harpies luring him to his doom. And as the tiefling kid was officially out of danger, and Gale was officially out of “hi you’re gaining approval with me at a staggering rate” stories, it was officially time to loot the bodies! I thus had the gang search the corpse of each harpy, looking for goodies –

And ending up sorely disappointed. >( True, the harpy right next to Smiler on the beach had 28 gold on her, which wasn’t bad, but the one that Astarion killed up on the ledge overlooking the water had naught but a bone on her person (which Smiler didn’t take because we already had a couple of bones taking up space in the camp chest), and the one in the water and the one lying on the lower ledges of the big pointy rock island they’d called their own both had absolutely nothing. >( Like, Smiler and friends did all that back and forth, climbing up and down twisted roots and wading through nearly-waist-deep water, for no benefit! Or, at least, that’s what I thought –

Until I spotted a wooden chest lying near the water’s edge on the opposite side of the big pointy rock island. I had the group approach it cautiously, just in case it was trapped, but fortunately it proved to be completely benign, and provided them with the following:

I. 30 XP as they approached it for – unknown reasons. O.o Like, seriously, no clue why the gang got a bunch of XP there – possibly it was the game having a Johnny-come-lately moment and suddenly giving me some location discovery XP? Or there’s some other trigger that dumps XP on you for finding that chest...I mean, I’m not complaining, I’m TRYING to get everyone up to Level 4, but still. Just odd.

II. 60 gold pieces – hooray, the gang’s personal stash continues to grow! Their ability to buy things is restored! XD

III. And the “Hat of the Siren’s Call” – a fancy cap from my big old “extra equipment” mod by GraphicFade that grants the wearer the Sonic Blast cantrip! Which is a custom cantrip where you release a cone of sound that inflicts thunder damage on enemies and – if they fail their Constitution saving throws – pushes them three meters away from you. Potentially useful!

So yeah, that was a halfway decent reward for fighting all those harpies. *nods* Thank you chest – and GraphicFade, of course. :P

( You lot all know how wordy I get now )

YouTube: I’m happy to report that I was able to fit in two videos this evening instead of just the one (though, given I’m posting all this the following day, maybe I should have just focused on one):

A) “7 Times The Real Ending Was Hidden in DLC: Commenter Edition” by OXBox! Andy, Jane, and Mike talking about more of those times where the real ending to a video game’s story was hidden in downloadable content – or, in the case of the last entry, Fable, which was released before DLCs were really a thing, an entirely new version of the game you had to buy – as per the comments on their last video! Examples included:

I. Thought Dead Rising 4 ended with Frank sacrificing himself to the zombie horde to make sure his friends Brad and Vick got out of Willamette in time? Nope – as per the “Frank Rising” DLC, he ended up turned into a sort of super-zombie with special powers, managed to regain some control of his faculties with the help of science, got cured and returned to being a human, escaped the town, and then – depending on how many wasps you collected during the whole thing – either retired from the public eye and had nightmares about being a zombie for the rest of his life, or wrote a best-selling book about his time as a zombie and helped expose the government’s involvement in the zombification incident.

II. Thought Fable ended with with a big boss fight against the fully-human Jack of Blades? Nope – as per the enhanced edition Fable: The Lost Chapters, that was only round one, and to truly stop his reign of terror, the Hero had to fight him again, this time with Jack in the form of a dragon! And then take his mask and either consign it to the lava...or claim it himself and become a worse villain than Jack ever was…

III. Thought Dragon Age: Inquistion ended with Solas firmly on your side in sealing the breaches in the Veil separating the regular world and the spirit world? Nope – as per the “Trespasser DLC,” he’s actually the avatar of the elven god of BETRAYAL, and was hoping to rip the Veil fully asunder – at least, until his initial plan to give his magical orb to the big bad of the main game went wrong. Thus justifying Jane’s decision to have him live in the library and never come out on missions because she hates his stupid bald head. XD

Bottom line? You can never truly trust a game to end satisfyingly if the company behind it thinks they can make more money by hiding it in the DLC and forcing you to pay a few extra bucks for it. Because capitalism. *serious nod*

B) And “CaFae Latte Season 84 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! Which featured more Adventures In Opposing ICE by the CaFae Latte regulars, including:

I. Oscar on aerial ICE-watching duty, reporting in to Andy about how the truck he was tailing had just stopped for gas at a station with a “DON’T TREAD ON ME” sign in the window (after being refused service at an earlier station) and letting him know the coordinates so David and Asif could add it to their “places to boycott” list. Which, as he noted, was pretty close to CaFae Latte...he then continued following the truck as it made its way toward the very street CaFae was on (wondering if they were going after the Mexican restaurant across the way again) –

Only to be told off by a seraph ICE agent also in the skies, telling him to get out of their airspace, he was interfering with an investigation. Cue Oscar blowing the hell out of his whistle and getting into a little bit of a scrap with the guy, then phoning Bob to let her know ICE was coming –
While the ICE seraph tried to shoot him in the back! D: Fortunately he missed because Oscar’s friends loaded him up with good luck charms, but fucking hell, poor Oscar!

( Because these always get long too )

...yeah, you see why I couldn't do all that last night. Especially with the time shift. *sigh* Anyway, talk to you all this evening, where hopefully I WON'T be staying up half the night doing write-ups...