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Warm Warm Friday
Jun. 5th, 2026 11:51 pmTemperatures got well up into the 90s today, with the saving grace being that it wasn't humid -- but that is due to change tomorrow, bleeeh. I could feel it coming on earlier tonight, and I do not approve. >( At least it's only supposed to be one day...we hope... Anyway, here's how my Friday (which was spent largely in the AC, I admit) went:
Work – I had an extremely quiet day at the office today – I did the GL, which barely took an hour; I worked on my list of potential “new donors” that my supervisor gave me, seeing who was truly new and who wasn’t (and merging the “wasn’t”s); I helped my coworker look up a couple of things; and I did a reversal to apply someone’s payment to their pledge at the end of the day. Phone didn’t ring once, and I got out at 3:30 PM with minimal problems. *shrug* Fine by me! And now I have four whole days off, yay~
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – my final night on the bike this week saw me pedal my way through –
A) “CaFae Tales: Carmilla” by C. M. Alongi! Because I did want to watch it, I just didn’t have the time before. Anyway, this episode of the CaFae cast telling/summarizing stories featured Nicole showing up to the cafe looking for escapism – and when Bob replied that the coffee shop was not a “bar, marijuana cafe, or opium den” (JC: “They still have that last one??”), clarifying that she wanted a book recommendation. Specifically for something both queer and horror, because her brain was doing funny things given the current state of the world. Cue Janine, resident trans vampire badass, wandering in while JC was talking about how, at least in horror movies, the monster usually gets killed at the ninety-minute mark – and, after being brought up to speed on what they were talking about, recommending and recapping Carmilla, the lesbian vampire horror novella that was published about a decade before Dracula! Which featured:
I. JC wondering how Carmilla even got published, given it was written during a time that was very unfriendly to queer stuff – Janine explained that, by the standards of the time, Laura and Carmilla’s relationship was simply queer-coded, with enough plausible deniability for the author to get away with it (though she admitted that in a MODERN context, these ladies might as well be waving lesbian flags), with Nicole adding that it probably didn’t hurt that the lesbian vampire was the villain and received her comeuppance at the end
II. JC being absolutely astonished by the opening, where Laura and her father receive a letter from her friend Bertha’s father informing them that Bertha has died under mysterious circumstances to some fiend, and that he will tell them all once he finishes some business he has in a couple of months – causing them to believe that she’d probably picked up a disease from a traveler – and complaining that the letter is full of red flags and that an autopsy would definitely show Bertha had been attacked or something! Cue Janine and Bob both being like “the ones born after the advent of vaccines and modern medicine are so spoiled” and having to explain to them that most people in history didn’t die of old age, but rather disease, infection, and occasionally mysterious causes no one could figure out. Janine herself admitted to having mortal friends back then who passed away without her ever figuring out why. So yeah, not weird at all that Laura and her dad wouldn’t question Bertha’s mysterious death much!
( JC continues to react in interesting ways to Janine’s Carmilla recap )
B) And “Shadowheart's Hidden Score | "Nightsong Points" Explained” by SlimX! A guide to gathering Baldur’s Gate III’s secret “Nightsong Points” that help determine how faithful Shadowheart is to her goddess, Shar, and thus how prone she is to wanting to murder the Nightsong, aka Dame Aylin, when the party finds her in the Shadowfell in Act 2. Gather at least four, and she develops some serious doubts about her faith, which can unlock new content and conversations. There’s six on offer:
I. One that can be gained when Shadowheart reveals how she became a Sharran in the first place, showing the player character the cult saving her from a wolf in the forest via tadpole memory sharing (a scene which ITSELF is triggered by earning “Wolf Dream” points – this woman has so many points to earn to unlock stuff! Fortunately you only need three and they’re much easier to get – for example, freeing her from her pod in the tutorial gets you one off the bat) – in the resultant conversation, you have to pick the option pointing out that the memory showed her wearing a Moonstone, which is something Selunites wear. This is normally only available if you pass a passive Intelligence (Religion) check to remember that followers of Selune have a “coming of age” ritual where their kids must find their way home after being left in the woods, but you can make sure the option comes up by opening a special Selunite chest in the owlbear cave – there’s a scroll in there that details the ritual, and as long as you read it, your character will remember it and get the option to point out the Moonstone, earning a Nightsong Point.
II. A second can be gained in that same conversation later, after Shadowheart talks about how the Mother Superior made her who she is, including punishing her when she failed her (which was often) – point out that it sounds like abuse, and while Shadowheart will deny it at the time, she will rack up another Nightsong Point for later.
( Racking Up The ‘Don’t Kill Aylin’ Points )
2. Continue writing Chapter 1 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Hollywood’s Deluded Depths”: Check – used my extra free time this afternoon to get this done before my workout for a change! So that was nice. Today’s page-and-a-bit covered:
A) Alice leaving Isaac’s office and heading back up the alley after agreeing to get his video tape for him – and somehow managing to keep a hold on her temper until she was back on the street. The minute she was far enough away, though, she immediately starting ranting about how “LaCroix never called any of the jobs he sent me on tribute” and how Isaac just had to sneak a “cross me and I’ll kill you” into their conversation. Because yes, she is pretty tired of being treated like this by all the leaders of the various factions around L.A.! Wouldn’t you be?
B) Alice getting interrupted in her rant outside the Cavoletti Cafe by Victor appearing and going “...I assume the meeting didn’t go well?” She admitted to him that it had gone well enough for Isaac at least, and explained how she had to play errand girl and fetch a movie he’d bought recently by visiting the local internet cafe and logging into a certain computer to get an e-mail that would tell her the pick-up point. Victor was rather confused by all this fuss for a movie and asked what it was about – Alice confessed she didn’t know, just that it was clearly not something that you could pick up at the local video store. Meaning, yes, she was wondering if Isaac had her picking up some porn. XD She just didn’t want the confirmation if so! (Interestingly, she IS technically right – the movie Isaac wants is being sold as a snuff film, which is a type of porn. A really dark, horrible type of porn, but still.)
C) Victor noting that, even if that is the case, it’s probably the easiest job Alice has received in a fortnight – and Alice agreeing and making it clear that she didn’t mind doing an errand for Isaac (she’s used to being bossed around by her elders), what she minds is the whole “tribute” nonsense. Him making it sound like she’s a peasant doing her lord a favor really rubbed her the wrong way – especially since, as previously noted, LaCroix has never pulled that shit, preferring to pretend they have a nice healthy employer/employee relationship. The Queen of Hearts agreed that someone telling her that she has to pay them “tribute” really does seem more suited for Princes rather than Barons, prompting Alice to note that that was the crux of her dislike – Isaac complaining about the Camarilla and calling LaCroix names (even if she agrees LaCroix should be called names), then turning around and acting just like him! Basically, it just made her think the Anarchs were total hypocrites, less concerned with pulling down the Ivory Tower then getting their own crack at the top floor. Which – yeah, probably is the case for SOME of them, but I wouldn’t let the Downtown Anarchs hear you say that, Alice – they’d be even MORE pissed with you than normal. :p
D) And Victor saying he was sorry and that he’d hoped things would go better for her – Alice said she’d hoped so too, even though she wasn’t sure why, as things so rarely go right for her. She then said that at least she and Isaac had an understanding – she gets him the tape, he agrees to talk to her about the Nosferatu, she gets out of his domain as soon as she can – and asked Victor if he’d seen the internet cafe she was supposed to go to. Victor admitted he hadn’t, as he’d only just left the motel, informing her that they were staying in Room 3 (the Easter Egg room in the game) and that he’d had a little trouble getting the door to shut on his way out (a reference to how you trigger the Easter Egg the room tells you about – open and shut a door in the motel a lot). Alice said they’d have to tell the management about that before the night was out, and then asked if Victor wanted to get a bite to eat since they were in front of the cafe, as she sure as hell didn’t mind making Isaac wait a little longer. Victor was a bit hesitant, not wanting her to get in trouble, but admitted that he was hungry –
And I left off on someone saying in an astonished voice “Victor?” Next time, a certain Victoria Everglot enters the scene! That’ll be fun to write… :P
3. Watch something on YouTube: No check – between Game Night (Clue this evening – Dad was the champ, winning three games, but Mom and I each managed to win one...granted, my win came from a lucky guess after six minutes, but still XD) and the Workout Video Write-Ups, I simply did not have the time. Hopefully I can catch up on at least the latest OXBox list video over my long weekend!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – still all set on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), still had nothing happening over on Valice Multiverse. *shrug* How it goes sometimes!
...and because of various distractions, it is now nearly 2:30 AM and I really ought to go to bed. ^^; Goals for tomorrow include working on my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts; playing some Baldur's Gate III and bringing the gang back over to the Grove to introduce Karlach to Dammon; and keeping up with whatever pops up on the old YouTubes tomorrow. All achievable goals, I hope -- if I don't sleep the day away, of course. :p Or end up puking because apparently Mom threw up earlier today for unexplained reasons... Keep your fingers crossed! Night all!
Work – I had an extremely quiet day at the office today – I did the GL, which barely took an hour; I worked on my list of potential “new donors” that my supervisor gave me, seeing who was truly new and who wasn’t (and merging the “wasn’t”s); I helped my coworker look up a couple of things; and I did a reversal to apply someone’s payment to their pledge at the end of the day. Phone didn’t ring once, and I got out at 3:30 PM with minimal problems. *shrug* Fine by me! And now I have four whole days off, yay~
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – my final night on the bike this week saw me pedal my way through –
A) “CaFae Tales: Carmilla” by C. M. Alongi! Because I did want to watch it, I just didn’t have the time before. Anyway, this episode of the CaFae cast telling/summarizing stories featured Nicole showing up to the cafe looking for escapism – and when Bob replied that the coffee shop was not a “bar, marijuana cafe, or opium den” (JC: “They still have that last one??”), clarifying that she wanted a book recommendation. Specifically for something both queer and horror, because her brain was doing funny things given the current state of the world. Cue Janine, resident trans vampire badass, wandering in while JC was talking about how, at least in horror movies, the monster usually gets killed at the ninety-minute mark – and, after being brought up to speed on what they were talking about, recommending and recapping Carmilla, the lesbian vampire horror novella that was published about a decade before Dracula! Which featured:
I. JC wondering how Carmilla even got published, given it was written during a time that was very unfriendly to queer stuff – Janine explained that, by the standards of the time, Laura and Carmilla’s relationship was simply queer-coded, with enough plausible deniability for the author to get away with it (though she admitted that in a MODERN context, these ladies might as well be waving lesbian flags), with Nicole adding that it probably didn’t hurt that the lesbian vampire was the villain and received her comeuppance at the end
II. JC being absolutely astonished by the opening, where Laura and her father receive a letter from her friend Bertha’s father informing them that Bertha has died under mysterious circumstances to some fiend, and that he will tell them all once he finishes some business he has in a couple of months – causing them to believe that she’d probably picked up a disease from a traveler – and complaining that the letter is full of red flags and that an autopsy would definitely show Bertha had been attacked or something! Cue Janine and Bob both being like “the ones born after the advent of vaccines and modern medicine are so spoiled” and having to explain to them that most people in history didn’t die of old age, but rather disease, infection, and occasionally mysterious causes no one could figure out. Janine herself admitted to having mortal friends back then who passed away without her ever figuring out why. So yeah, not weird at all that Laura and her dad wouldn’t question Bertha’s mysterious death much!
( JC continues to react in interesting ways to Janine’s Carmilla recap )
B) And “Shadowheart's Hidden Score | "Nightsong Points" Explained” by SlimX! A guide to gathering Baldur’s Gate III’s secret “Nightsong Points” that help determine how faithful Shadowheart is to her goddess, Shar, and thus how prone she is to wanting to murder the Nightsong, aka Dame Aylin, when the party finds her in the Shadowfell in Act 2. Gather at least four, and she develops some serious doubts about her faith, which can unlock new content and conversations. There’s six on offer:
I. One that can be gained when Shadowheart reveals how she became a Sharran in the first place, showing the player character the cult saving her from a wolf in the forest via tadpole memory sharing (a scene which ITSELF is triggered by earning “Wolf Dream” points – this woman has so many points to earn to unlock stuff! Fortunately you only need three and they’re much easier to get – for example, freeing her from her pod in the tutorial gets you one off the bat) – in the resultant conversation, you have to pick the option pointing out that the memory showed her wearing a Moonstone, which is something Selunites wear. This is normally only available if you pass a passive Intelligence (Religion) check to remember that followers of Selune have a “coming of age” ritual where their kids must find their way home after being left in the woods, but you can make sure the option comes up by opening a special Selunite chest in the owlbear cave – there’s a scroll in there that details the ritual, and as long as you read it, your character will remember it and get the option to point out the Moonstone, earning a Nightsong Point.
II. A second can be gained in that same conversation later, after Shadowheart talks about how the Mother Superior made her who she is, including punishing her when she failed her (which was often) – point out that it sounds like abuse, and while Shadowheart will deny it at the time, she will rack up another Nightsong Point for later.
( Racking Up The ‘Don’t Kill Aylin’ Points )
2. Continue writing Chapter 1 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Hollywood’s Deluded Depths”: Check – used my extra free time this afternoon to get this done before my workout for a change! So that was nice. Today’s page-and-a-bit covered:
A) Alice leaving Isaac’s office and heading back up the alley after agreeing to get his video tape for him – and somehow managing to keep a hold on her temper until she was back on the street. The minute she was far enough away, though, she immediately starting ranting about how “LaCroix never called any of the jobs he sent me on tribute” and how Isaac just had to sneak a “cross me and I’ll kill you” into their conversation. Because yes, she is pretty tired of being treated like this by all the leaders of the various factions around L.A.! Wouldn’t you be?
B) Alice getting interrupted in her rant outside the Cavoletti Cafe by Victor appearing and going “...I assume the meeting didn’t go well?” She admitted to him that it had gone well enough for Isaac at least, and explained how she had to play errand girl and fetch a movie he’d bought recently by visiting the local internet cafe and logging into a certain computer to get an e-mail that would tell her the pick-up point. Victor was rather confused by all this fuss for a movie and asked what it was about – Alice confessed she didn’t know, just that it was clearly not something that you could pick up at the local video store. Meaning, yes, she was wondering if Isaac had her picking up some porn. XD She just didn’t want the confirmation if so! (Interestingly, she IS technically right – the movie Isaac wants is being sold as a snuff film, which is a type of porn. A really dark, horrible type of porn, but still.)
C) Victor noting that, even if that is the case, it’s probably the easiest job Alice has received in a fortnight – and Alice agreeing and making it clear that she didn’t mind doing an errand for Isaac (she’s used to being bossed around by her elders), what she minds is the whole “tribute” nonsense. Him making it sound like she’s a peasant doing her lord a favor really rubbed her the wrong way – especially since, as previously noted, LaCroix has never pulled that shit, preferring to pretend they have a nice healthy employer/employee relationship. The Queen of Hearts agreed that someone telling her that she has to pay them “tribute” really does seem more suited for Princes rather than Barons, prompting Alice to note that that was the crux of her dislike – Isaac complaining about the Camarilla and calling LaCroix names (even if she agrees LaCroix should be called names), then turning around and acting just like him! Basically, it just made her think the Anarchs were total hypocrites, less concerned with pulling down the Ivory Tower then getting their own crack at the top floor. Which – yeah, probably is the case for SOME of them, but I wouldn’t let the Downtown Anarchs hear you say that, Alice – they’d be even MORE pissed with you than normal. :p
D) And Victor saying he was sorry and that he’d hoped things would go better for her – Alice said she’d hoped so too, even though she wasn’t sure why, as things so rarely go right for her. She then said that at least she and Isaac had an understanding – she gets him the tape, he agrees to talk to her about the Nosferatu, she gets out of his domain as soon as she can – and asked Victor if he’d seen the internet cafe she was supposed to go to. Victor admitted he hadn’t, as he’d only just left the motel, informing her that they were staying in Room 3 (the Easter Egg room in the game) and that he’d had a little trouble getting the door to shut on his way out (a reference to how you trigger the Easter Egg the room tells you about – open and shut a door in the motel a lot). Alice said they’d have to tell the management about that before the night was out, and then asked if Victor wanted to get a bite to eat since they were in front of the cafe, as she sure as hell didn’t mind making Isaac wait a little longer. Victor was a bit hesitant, not wanting her to get in trouble, but admitted that he was hungry –
And I left off on someone saying in an astonished voice “Victor?” Next time, a certain Victoria Everglot enters the scene! That’ll be fun to write… :P
3. Watch something on YouTube: No check – between Game Night (Clue this evening – Dad was the champ, winning three games, but Mom and I each managed to win one...granted, my win came from a lucky guess after six minutes, but still XD) and the Workout Video Write-Ups, I simply did not have the time. Hopefully I can catch up on at least the latest OXBox list video over my long weekend!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – still all set on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), still had nothing happening over on Valice Multiverse. *shrug* How it goes sometimes!
...and because of various distractions, it is now nearly 2:30 AM and I really ought to go to bed. ^^; Goals for tomorrow include working on my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts; playing some Baldur's Gate III and bringing the gang back over to the Grove to introduce Karlach to Dammon; and keeping up with whatever pops up on the old YouTubes tomorrow. All achievable goals, I hope -- if I don't sleep the day away, of course. :p Or end up puking because apparently Mom threw up earlier today for unexplained reasons... Keep your fingers crossed! Night all!
