Backed Up Backup Sunday
May. 11th, 2025 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickAs indicated by the subject line, I did finally remember to make my backups today -- and as also indicated by the subject line, it took me a LOT LONGER THAN PLANNED to complete them. Mostly because my Documents folder took AGES to back up, thanks to also being full of back-ups (namely, old Sims 4 back-ups -- I really should get rid of some of those). Good thing I started the back-up process as early as I did! *grumbles* This wasn't a problem for MOST of the day, I admit, but it started getting kind of annoying/nerve-wracking around the time that I had to go downstairs and work out. Mostly because the timing meant that I would have no time to write up what I'd done for the day BEFORE said workout. Meaning I was going to have to squeeze it all in after supper -- while also trying to sum up Jon's Fallout: London video of the week. Meaning, as usual, it's a late Sunday night for me. *sigh* Always something... Anyway, here's the stuff I accomplished today --
YouTube: Got in my standard Sunday Two today, thanks to having the time to catch up on the extra video I had laying around in my Subs –
A) First up, this afternoon, I managed to catch up on yesterday’s GrayStillPlays – “Testing Round vs Square vs Triangle Wheels in GTA 5!” With Gray having been sufficiently tortured by each type of wheel on its own, the GTA team decided it was time to put all three shapes up against each other in a point-based team challenge! Each wheel shape got a small team of vehicles – including such classics as the truck with the giant cross-shaped wheels made up of little squares; both the regular side-by-side and the square-wheeled side-by-side; and the triangle-wheeled trike and the regular-wheeled trike – and Gray chose vehicles from each team to try and complete the challenges presented to him. Whichever vehicle won the challenge got its team a point, and whoever had the most points at the end “designed their wheels correctly,” as Gray said. XD And before you ask, no, the terrible triangle-wheeled vehicles did not get a single point. XD Instead, in order, we had:
I. Gray having to get a vehicle across a pair of very uneven cube “tightropes,” with the gaps in between each cube getting bigger and bigger the farther he went! This challenge claimed the lives of many vehicles, but the Square Wheels team won it thanks to the giant cross-shaped wheels of their pickup truck
II. Gray having to get a vehicle up a set of three increasing-steep slopes (30 degrees, 40 degrees, and 53 degrees) – BUT not only did he have to climb the slope, he had to stop at a particular spot in the middle before the road rotated out from under him, then wait briefly for a wall to go down before he could proceed up the slope. Basically, he had to pick a car that was fast enough to get to the safe spot, AND had both the grip and the acceleration to stay in the safe spot for a second before completing the climb. This was another one that claimed many many cars, but eventually the Round Wheels won it with the superior traction of one of their sports cars
III. Gray then having to get a vehicle down a VERY steep slope, jump over a gap containing his mortal enemy a wind turbine, and then skid to a stop on an icy incline before going off the end so he could get picked up by the teleporter attached to a nearby circling helicopter. Once again, many cars gave their lives trying to complete this challenge (hell, the regular old trike BLEW UP after running over Gray’s throat), but the Round Wheels also took this one after the regular side-by-side, after many failures to make the jump, finally got over the windmill gap and just stopped DEAD on the ice, slope and slipperiness be damned. Gray was very surprised given its earlier missteps XD
IV. Gray then having to climb up ANOTHER incline, this one decently steep AND covered in increasing numbers of rotating LEGO bumps, that went faster and faster as he got further and further up. This one didn’t claim quite so many cars – mostly because Gray didn’t try that many before finding the winner, but it took out a few, including the regular pickup and the side-by-side, before the big cross-shaped wheels of the Square Wheels truck easily conquered the bumps and got another point for its team
V. And finally, Gray having to drive down a ninety-degree drop and through the thumbnail hole center of a Weebmill to get to the teleporter that lead into the win. The trick here was that he had to hug the road if he wanted to get through the hole – if his car ended up flying, he was toast. And many, many cars did end up flying – but do you want to know what won it?
The trike. Not the triangle-wheeled one, that was a disaster, but the regular one, which is usually ALSO a disaster. In fact, Gray was making fun of it for being absolutely useless the whole video – but it turns out this fucker has a secret gift, and that gift is sticking to the roadway during sheer drops. Gray was utterly GOBSMACKED to discover there was something this meme vehicle could do right. XD But yeah, the trike making that drop meant that the round wheels won the challenge, three points to two! And the trike gets inducted into the “Fail Vehicle That Turns Out To Have At Least One Special Hidden Talent” club! I’m sure the Sherp will enjoy the company. :)
B) And then, tonight, we had the usual Sunday offering from Jon of Many A True Nerd – “Fallout: London - Part 42 - Face The Music!” The continuing adventures of Aria and Mad Jack as they set about enacting Smythe’s four-part cunning plan to become Lord Chancellor (aka the person in charge of the judiciary system), which will apparently allow her to suppress certain Parliamentary procedures for mysterious reasons. Hmmm...welp, Jon knew this was the Evil Faction Of Evil when he had Aria join it! :p Anyway, after reading through Smythe’s dossier, our pair of fancy hat friends managed to complete three of the four steps in this week’s episode, and even had time for a little musical distraction along the way –
I. Step One: Obtain a royal appointment to the position of Lord Chancellor for Smythe by blackmailing one Baroness Brenda Beaumont with a holodisc of her correspondence with her Thamesfolk lover! Aria thus headed off to Brenda’s quarters, which proved to be inside none other than Buckingham Palace. Aria was delighted and spent some time looking around, finding an appropriately throne-like chair to crouch on (as the game wouldn’t let her sit on it properly), and stealing some souvenirs, including a fancy Sunday Bonnet for Mad Jack. XD Eventually, though, she made her way over to Brenda, and found the woman was very reluctant to hand over the appointment, citing Smythe’s refusal to put anything in writing, and noting that even ASKING for the appointment was a serious offense. Aria tried noting that Smythe was a great statesperson, but Brenda refused to budge, so Aria told her “well, that’s your decision, but if you stick with it, this tape will be made public.” Brenda backed down pretty quickly after that, terrified of ruining her family, and Aria walked out of the palace with appointment in hand!
II. Step Two: Get an official seal put on the appointment by Baron Earle Winthrop – a dissolute rich boy whose profile indicated could be easily manipulated by appealing to whatever ephemeral desire was ruling him this week. Or just straight-up overpowered physically, if it came to it. XD Fortunately, it did not come to that – Aria tracked down Earle playing a late-night game of tennis around the back of his townhouse (in the same area where she helped save that old lady’s cat once, in fact), flattered him by saying she couldn’t believe his young opponent had trounced him, then – when he attempted to get her to retrieve some high-class gin to replace his lost booze collection in exchange for the seal – used her Black Widow wiles to get him to just put the seal on the appointment right away. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Though it’s really lucky she’s got that Lovecraftian Presence on her side, because otherwise I don’t think Aria would be passing some of these skill checks. :p
III. Step Three: Go to the Royal Albert Hall and murder an up-and-coming barrister and anti-indentured servitude crusader, Cecily Sugar, to intimidate her patron, Baron Nigel Honeysett – the only man who had the power to look into the details of Smythe’s appointment and thus cause trouble. However, when Aria arrived at the Hall to enact Step Three, she was met by one Clive Allsop at the door, who immediately informed her that she was his only hope. A puzzled Aria was like “??? Beg pardon?” and Clive explained that he was a classic music composer, looking to spread his music to the masses. He’d been hanging around the Royal Albert Hall with his orchestra, trying to find a member of the British Broadcasting Ministry (the BBM, the in-game equivalent to the BBC) to give their demo tape to. However, none had appeared, so now he and his colleagues had decided that straight-up breaking into the BBM building and gently forcing them to listen to the record was their only option – and Aria looked like she’d be perfect back-up for such a mission! XD I mean, she DOES go around with big old spiked shoulder pads, a fancy mask, and a crown on her head, so she definitely gives off the right “intimidating but fancy” vibes. :P Aria was somewhat tempted, but had to know what was in it for her first – Clive tried to tempt her with the knowledge that she’d be contributing to the culture of British music for years to come, but when she just stared at him silently, he said “yes, fine, there are tickets in it for you.” XD He then informed her that the building’s security was entirely robotic, so if they could keep all murder to non-human entities only, that would be swell –
Before whipping out a cricket bat and taking off in the general direction of the BBM, followed by three fancily-dressed ladies wielding their own improvised weapons. Aria was like “shit – better follow them so they don’t die” and hurried after the group, and – after a quick stop at the Oxford Circus and Oxford Street so Jon could gush about how accurate everything was (he apparently worked in this area at the past, and he was really impressed with the level of detail on display) – joined them in the BBM, shooting the various protectrons trying to stop these musical invaders. After a bit of fighting, they made it to the central room, where station manager Patel Rayner shut off the remaining security before demanding to know who they were and why they were there. Clive introduced himself and explained he was there to deliver a demo tape – Patel was like “seriously?” but allowed Clive into the room when he pleaded with her, admitting it had been a while since they’d had any fans. Clive asked her to introduce him to one Bradley Fortworth, the man in charge of playing the music –
And Patel said “Uh, I can’t really do that – because he’s a computer.” Yes, as it turned out, Bradley Fortworth was a giant super computer! And while Patel could play the tape for him, she could not force him to put it on the air – he had a mind of his own, and they’d lost the manual on how to control him years ago. Aria was like “well, I don’t see the problem – just give the computer your record and see what he thinks” –
Cue Clive revealing that, unfortunately, the record he brought with him got smashed during their attack on the robot security. :( Fortunately, though, he knew the location of a copy – Empire Records, in Lewisham! He’d posted one to them ages ago in hopes of getting a deal, but they’d never actually responded to him. He asked Aria to retrieve it for him – she agreed, and after a quick chat with Patel to learn more about Bradley (apparently he was a computer system designed to help keep the public informed and chill should disaster strike, hooked up like two minutes before the bombs fell – a “Keep Calm And Carry On” machine, as per Jon), headed over to Lewisham to find the store! Turns out it was part of a row of trashed stores that some Hooligans had set up camp in – Aria easily took out the raiders, retrieved the record (which was still stuck in the letterbox in the front door), and even grabbed a nice patched suit for Mad Jack to wear to go with his lovely new bonnet. She then returned in glory to the BBM, where Clive thanked her extremely profusely, officially named the tune “Ode To The Wayfarer,” and asked Aria to present it to Bradley, as he felt she should have the honor after all the trouble she’d gone to. Aria was only too happy to, and gave the demo to the supercomputer –
Only for Bradley to go “thanks, but I want to know if this is truly the kind of music that should be added to the archive of cultural history in my records.” Fortunately, having talked to Patel, Aria had an idea of what Bradley wanted to hear, and told him that the piece had been composed to bring joy to the hearts of British citizens; that “she’d” composed it to add to Britain’s legacy of great art; and that the emotion associated with the composition was “contentment.” Bradley accepted all this, and told her that he’d found the piece worthy and would add it to his line-up. :) Clive’s composition thus went out across the airwaves, and Clive thanked Aria all over again before giving her 150 tickets. A fairly paltry sum, in the scheme of things, but Aria liked the dramatic dude, and thus was happy to have helped him. :) (And we’re all happy that it turned out his music was actually pretty good and not shit like you expect in these situations!)
IV. With that sorted, it was time to enact Step Three: Kill Cecily Sugar for real. Aria and Mad Jack this proceeded back to the Royal Albert Hall, where – after getting past a suspiciously-lax security guard – they arrived to find Cecily preparing to participate in a debate. However, before the speeches could kick off, the power went out. Giving Aria a minute and thirty seconds to set up Cecily’s death before the electrician fixed the power. Aria thus started poking around, looking for a spot to set down a bomb (since the brief had indicated that she’d be exploding Cecily, and everyone else on stage) –
But while checking out Cecily’s podium, she was given the opportunity to look at the microphone. And with her decent Perception, she quickly found a faulty fuse in it that, if overloaded, could give Cecily a fatal shock and kill her much more quietly and cleanly. Aria thus used her Charisma to fake being security to get past the electrician; used her Idiot Savant powers to flip a random switch and trust it was the right one; then headed into the audience to watch the debate once the power came back on. Turned out to be about indentured servitude, with Cecily arguing for reducing how long people could be put into servitude – at least, until she was fatally electrocuted by her own podium. Jon was immediately like “oh, damn it, she’s a decent person and I’m the bad guy for killing her, aren’t I?” *shakehead* Jon, again, you KNEW Angel was the Evil Faction Of Evil WHEN YOU JOINED THEM. And it’s worth noting that his guilt did NOT stop him from stealing the suit off her corpse and giving it to Mad Jack so he’d look even snazzier. XD Jon, seriously, never change. XD
Anyway – with three out of four steps in the plan successfully completed, Jon decided it was best to call it a part there! Next week, Aria and Mad Jack attend Cecily’s funeral (as apparently that’s something that has to happen as part of the Cunning Plan), and hopefully Aria gets to kick off Jack’s companion quest! Because he DID tell her he had something to get off his chest when they were in the BBM, and that generally means it’s time for an Important Companion Conversation. Should be fun! And probably extremely heartfelt, given what we already know of Jack’s backstory...
Tumblr: Nothing happened over on Valice Multiverse today, but I did get some stuff done over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) this afternoon, while waiting for the interminable backups to finish backing up –
A) I straight-up reblogged a couple of posts in an attempt to be a little more active generally:
I. A poll asking what kind of phone background you have from my friend Squid (I chose the “an image of something I am a fan of” option and elaborated in the tags that it’s one of my Sims 4 screenshots, of Smiler and Victor about to have a New Year’s kiss while Alice looks on with a big grin)
II. And a post about how “writing is just sitting in front of a computer and making up problems for imaginary people while ignoring your own. fun and casual hobby.” (by user nondelphic) from my friend Newt (because yes, that is definitely The Writing Mood)
B) I went through all my tracked tags and threw three things into my drafts for later queuing:
I. User gllerr’s drawing of the Male Gangrel Fledgling from Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines – it was really well done, and I have some nostalgia for that particular Fledgling because Harry the Gangrel was the star of my very first playthrough :)
II. User itshypnos-is’s drawings of keychain designs for important VTMB locations – a scuffed-up one for Pawnshop Lodgings, the location of the Fledgling’s first haven; a “nice on one side, bloody and creepy on the other” one for Ocean House Hotel, home of the famous “ghost murder stalking you through the building” quest; a fancy one for Skyeline Apartments, the location of most Fledglings’ second haven (featuring the TV newsman on the reverse side); and finally a ticket-shaped one for the Nocturne Theater (where the Fledgling nearly gets decapitated) for “Hell At The Hallowbrook Hotel” (referencing the late-game quest where the Fledgling must take on the Sabbat in their base of operations). All really nice and clever stuff, perfectly fitting each location!
III. And a text post from user smilerkisser: “if i'm not supposed to be attracted to the rollercoaster then why'd you make it so attractive huh.” Because I saw that and immediately thought of how my OT3 came be – namely, Victor decided he wanted the roller coaster I was having him and Alice ride be their third. *facepalm* I mean, I’m happy he did, but still. It’s one of more ridiculous ways to come by a ship!
C) And I worked just a little bit on my “How To Write Smiler” post, adding in an extra link to my various masterposts of Valicer prompt fanfic (for the various Polyship and OT3 weeks and the recent Multiamory Month). I would have linked the masterposts all separately, but there’s at least five of them now, soooo… ^^;
Not a huge amount of work, but hey, it kept me busy!
Workout: Back on the bike to start this week’s daily exercise sessions, pedaling my way through –
A) The entirety of “When you become the Pope” by GrayStillPlays! Today’s Sunday Happy Wheels offering, this proved to be a longer-than-usual video because he had some longer-than-usual challenges to struggle through. Some real tests of his determination in this one! My personal favorite boards included:
I. The opening bottle flip, where almost everything was themed around the mighty Yeet – Gray not only got a bottle on “The Real Yeet” immediately, he also got a bottle returned to him perfectly by the spinning protective shield AROUND “The Real Yeet!” Also eventually he got the win :P
II. “The Bacon Test,” which proved to be a weird little two-part bike fight against various people armed with various blades, which ended with Gray taking a trip to outer space – despite it not actually featuring bacon, Gray quite enjoyed the journey
III. A challenge specifically for Gray that featured Bike Dad dropping off a platform into a giant cloud of homing mines that he had to get through to reach the win...which Gray ended up winning on his first try XD
IV. A giant ramp jump where you had to land in a VERY specific area to win – Gray, thanks to his boundless enthusiasm, ended up both going too low AND too high before he finally managed to fling himself into the winning area
V. And the Dylan Snider board at the end, featuring Bike Mom having to bike her way past a church shooting deadly bibles at her, up the stairway to Heaven through an avalanche of letters, past the sword-wielding cardinals of Heaven, and then down into the Sistine Chapel to run over the members of the conclave and get her baby son declared Pope. Given how many times Gray killed this lady in his attempts to beat the board, she DESERVED to get her son named Pope. XD
Good stuff, as always! There’s a reason Happy Wheels always keeps showing up on this channel. :)
B) The first ten minutes of “Baldur's Gate 3 But it's Only Bad Choices” by OXtra! A two-hour-and-twenty-minute livestream Luke and Ellen did of the beginning of BG3 (in the Virgin Media “Gamepad” in London’s O2), featuring “Shove Everything” Fighter Luke and “I Have Not Actually Played This Game” Warlock Ellen. XD The conceit of the stream was that, whenever they were provided with a list of choices to take in the game, Ellen – as the newbie – would pick whichever one she thought was the worst, and they would roll with that to see what happened. Thus making all the more experienced BG3 players in the audience really, really twitch. XD So far, we’ve just gotten through them introducing their characters, watching the opening cutscenes, and popping out of their pods on the Nautiloid, with Luke failing to shove Ellen but Ellen managing to successfully Eldritch Blast Luke (after a misfire that hit his pod instead). XD I look forward to seeing just how poorly things go from here – according to the rules of the stream, their intention WASN’T just to shove companions down chasms and such, but looking at the comments, it looks like that goes out the window pretty early on. XD (And hey, as a bonus, thanks to Ellen’s class, I’ll be able to see how Warlocks work in the tutorial fights – important information, given I’m going to be changing Tav!Smiler’s base class to that!)
Other: And here we have the last three important things of note –
I. I spent most of the time before lunch (after starting the back-up process) answering Moose’s latest set of messages, so that’s all set, at least. Hopefully your keyboard isn’t still acting up, Moose!
II. I also took the time to answer a PM from a reviewer who recently left some short reviews on a couple of my old BTTF fanfics, and was thrilled to get a response from me and wanted to send me something longer now that she knew I was still active. It was a very sweet PM, praising the fics and my writing style and all that –
It just also said she was surprised to get a response back from the author of the twenty-year-old fanfics she’d read. And that some of my fics were almost as old as HER. I – you know, I KNEW I’d been doing this for a while, but – still. Had to take a moment and be like O.O about that before answering. XD
III. And, while I was waiting for the backups, I took a moment to reread a fic I first read at my lunchbreak at work so I could give it a proper review – “A Light In The Storm,” a Severance fic by Alooxis! Featuring an AU post-canon situation where the Outies can switch on the Innies at will (thanks to a court order forcing Lumon to provide that tech), and Innie!Mark getting terrified by his very first thunderstorm. Fortunately he was hanging out with his sister Devon at the time, and she managed to help him through it. It’s a very sweet fic, and I was glad to finally give it a comment saying so – as was the author, who just commented back thanking me for my kind words. :) Hopefully I can sneak in some time to reread and comment on some other fics that have been sitting in the mental backlog soon!
Okay -- definitely took me longer than I wanted, but not as long as I feared. Small mercies. Still, I have got to get off NOW if I want to get any halfway decent sleep, so -- night all!
YouTube: Got in my standard Sunday Two today, thanks to having the time to catch up on the extra video I had laying around in my Subs –
A) First up, this afternoon, I managed to catch up on yesterday’s GrayStillPlays – “Testing Round vs Square vs Triangle Wheels in GTA 5!” With Gray having been sufficiently tortured by each type of wheel on its own, the GTA team decided it was time to put all three shapes up against each other in a point-based team challenge! Each wheel shape got a small team of vehicles – including such classics as the truck with the giant cross-shaped wheels made up of little squares; both the regular side-by-side and the square-wheeled side-by-side; and the triangle-wheeled trike and the regular-wheeled trike – and Gray chose vehicles from each team to try and complete the challenges presented to him. Whichever vehicle won the challenge got its team a point, and whoever had the most points at the end “designed their wheels correctly,” as Gray said. XD And before you ask, no, the terrible triangle-wheeled vehicles did not get a single point. XD Instead, in order, we had:
I. Gray having to get a vehicle across a pair of very uneven cube “tightropes,” with the gaps in between each cube getting bigger and bigger the farther he went! This challenge claimed the lives of many vehicles, but the Square Wheels team won it thanks to the giant cross-shaped wheels of their pickup truck
II. Gray having to get a vehicle up a set of three increasing-steep slopes (30 degrees, 40 degrees, and 53 degrees) – BUT not only did he have to climb the slope, he had to stop at a particular spot in the middle before the road rotated out from under him, then wait briefly for a wall to go down before he could proceed up the slope. Basically, he had to pick a car that was fast enough to get to the safe spot, AND had both the grip and the acceleration to stay in the safe spot for a second before completing the climb. This was another one that claimed many many cars, but eventually the Round Wheels won it with the superior traction of one of their sports cars
III. Gray then having to get a vehicle down a VERY steep slope, jump over a gap containing his mortal enemy a wind turbine, and then skid to a stop on an icy incline before going off the end so he could get picked up by the teleporter attached to a nearby circling helicopter. Once again, many cars gave their lives trying to complete this challenge (hell, the regular old trike BLEW UP after running over Gray’s throat), but the Round Wheels also took this one after the regular side-by-side, after many failures to make the jump, finally got over the windmill gap and just stopped DEAD on the ice, slope and slipperiness be damned. Gray was very surprised given its earlier missteps XD
IV. Gray then having to climb up ANOTHER incline, this one decently steep AND covered in increasing numbers of rotating LEGO bumps, that went faster and faster as he got further and further up. This one didn’t claim quite so many cars – mostly because Gray didn’t try that many before finding the winner, but it took out a few, including the regular pickup and the side-by-side, before the big cross-shaped wheels of the Square Wheels truck easily conquered the bumps and got another point for its team
V. And finally, Gray having to drive down a ninety-degree drop and through the thumbnail hole center of a Weebmill to get to the teleporter that lead into the win. The trick here was that he had to hug the road if he wanted to get through the hole – if his car ended up flying, he was toast. And many, many cars did end up flying – but do you want to know what won it?
The trike. Not the triangle-wheeled one, that was a disaster, but the regular one, which is usually ALSO a disaster. In fact, Gray was making fun of it for being absolutely useless the whole video – but it turns out this fucker has a secret gift, and that gift is sticking to the roadway during sheer drops. Gray was utterly GOBSMACKED to discover there was something this meme vehicle could do right. XD But yeah, the trike making that drop meant that the round wheels won the challenge, three points to two! And the trike gets inducted into the “Fail Vehicle That Turns Out To Have At Least One Special Hidden Talent” club! I’m sure the Sherp will enjoy the company. :)
B) And then, tonight, we had the usual Sunday offering from Jon of Many A True Nerd – “Fallout: London - Part 42 - Face The Music!” The continuing adventures of Aria and Mad Jack as they set about enacting Smythe’s four-part cunning plan to become Lord Chancellor (aka the person in charge of the judiciary system), which will apparently allow her to suppress certain Parliamentary procedures for mysterious reasons. Hmmm...welp, Jon knew this was the Evil Faction Of Evil when he had Aria join it! :p Anyway, after reading through Smythe’s dossier, our pair of fancy hat friends managed to complete three of the four steps in this week’s episode, and even had time for a little musical distraction along the way –
I. Step One: Obtain a royal appointment to the position of Lord Chancellor for Smythe by blackmailing one Baroness Brenda Beaumont with a holodisc of her correspondence with her Thamesfolk lover! Aria thus headed off to Brenda’s quarters, which proved to be inside none other than Buckingham Palace. Aria was delighted and spent some time looking around, finding an appropriately throne-like chair to crouch on (as the game wouldn’t let her sit on it properly), and stealing some souvenirs, including a fancy Sunday Bonnet for Mad Jack. XD Eventually, though, she made her way over to Brenda, and found the woman was very reluctant to hand over the appointment, citing Smythe’s refusal to put anything in writing, and noting that even ASKING for the appointment was a serious offense. Aria tried noting that Smythe was a great statesperson, but Brenda refused to budge, so Aria told her “well, that’s your decision, but if you stick with it, this tape will be made public.” Brenda backed down pretty quickly after that, terrified of ruining her family, and Aria walked out of the palace with appointment in hand!
II. Step Two: Get an official seal put on the appointment by Baron Earle Winthrop – a dissolute rich boy whose profile indicated could be easily manipulated by appealing to whatever ephemeral desire was ruling him this week. Or just straight-up overpowered physically, if it came to it. XD Fortunately, it did not come to that – Aria tracked down Earle playing a late-night game of tennis around the back of his townhouse (in the same area where she helped save that old lady’s cat once, in fact), flattered him by saying she couldn’t believe his young opponent had trounced him, then – when he attempted to get her to retrieve some high-class gin to replace his lost booze collection in exchange for the seal – used her Black Widow wiles to get him to just put the seal on the appointment right away. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Though it’s really lucky she’s got that Lovecraftian Presence on her side, because otherwise I don’t think Aria would be passing some of these skill checks. :p
III. Step Three: Go to the Royal Albert Hall and murder an up-and-coming barrister and anti-indentured servitude crusader, Cecily Sugar, to intimidate her patron, Baron Nigel Honeysett – the only man who had the power to look into the details of Smythe’s appointment and thus cause trouble. However, when Aria arrived at the Hall to enact Step Three, she was met by one Clive Allsop at the door, who immediately informed her that she was his only hope. A puzzled Aria was like “??? Beg pardon?” and Clive explained that he was a classic music composer, looking to spread his music to the masses. He’d been hanging around the Royal Albert Hall with his orchestra, trying to find a member of the British Broadcasting Ministry (the BBM, the in-game equivalent to the BBC) to give their demo tape to. However, none had appeared, so now he and his colleagues had decided that straight-up breaking into the BBM building and gently forcing them to listen to the record was their only option – and Aria looked like she’d be perfect back-up for such a mission! XD I mean, she DOES go around with big old spiked shoulder pads, a fancy mask, and a crown on her head, so she definitely gives off the right “intimidating but fancy” vibes. :P Aria was somewhat tempted, but had to know what was in it for her first – Clive tried to tempt her with the knowledge that she’d be contributing to the culture of British music for years to come, but when she just stared at him silently, he said “yes, fine, there are tickets in it for you.” XD He then informed her that the building’s security was entirely robotic, so if they could keep all murder to non-human entities only, that would be swell –
Before whipping out a cricket bat and taking off in the general direction of the BBM, followed by three fancily-dressed ladies wielding their own improvised weapons. Aria was like “shit – better follow them so they don’t die” and hurried after the group, and – after a quick stop at the Oxford Circus and Oxford Street so Jon could gush about how accurate everything was (he apparently worked in this area at the past, and he was really impressed with the level of detail on display) – joined them in the BBM, shooting the various protectrons trying to stop these musical invaders. After a bit of fighting, they made it to the central room, where station manager Patel Rayner shut off the remaining security before demanding to know who they were and why they were there. Clive introduced himself and explained he was there to deliver a demo tape – Patel was like “seriously?” but allowed Clive into the room when he pleaded with her, admitting it had been a while since they’d had any fans. Clive asked her to introduce him to one Bradley Fortworth, the man in charge of playing the music –
And Patel said “Uh, I can’t really do that – because he’s a computer.” Yes, as it turned out, Bradley Fortworth was a giant super computer! And while Patel could play the tape for him, she could not force him to put it on the air – he had a mind of his own, and they’d lost the manual on how to control him years ago. Aria was like “well, I don’t see the problem – just give the computer your record and see what he thinks” –
Cue Clive revealing that, unfortunately, the record he brought with him got smashed during their attack on the robot security. :( Fortunately, though, he knew the location of a copy – Empire Records, in Lewisham! He’d posted one to them ages ago in hopes of getting a deal, but they’d never actually responded to him. He asked Aria to retrieve it for him – she agreed, and after a quick chat with Patel to learn more about Bradley (apparently he was a computer system designed to help keep the public informed and chill should disaster strike, hooked up like two minutes before the bombs fell – a “Keep Calm And Carry On” machine, as per Jon), headed over to Lewisham to find the store! Turns out it was part of a row of trashed stores that some Hooligans had set up camp in – Aria easily took out the raiders, retrieved the record (which was still stuck in the letterbox in the front door), and even grabbed a nice patched suit for Mad Jack to wear to go with his lovely new bonnet. She then returned in glory to the BBM, where Clive thanked her extremely profusely, officially named the tune “Ode To The Wayfarer,” and asked Aria to present it to Bradley, as he felt she should have the honor after all the trouble she’d gone to. Aria was only too happy to, and gave the demo to the supercomputer –
Only for Bradley to go “thanks, but I want to know if this is truly the kind of music that should be added to the archive of cultural history in my records.” Fortunately, having talked to Patel, Aria had an idea of what Bradley wanted to hear, and told him that the piece had been composed to bring joy to the hearts of British citizens; that “she’d” composed it to add to Britain’s legacy of great art; and that the emotion associated with the composition was “contentment.” Bradley accepted all this, and told her that he’d found the piece worthy and would add it to his line-up. :) Clive’s composition thus went out across the airwaves, and Clive thanked Aria all over again before giving her 150 tickets. A fairly paltry sum, in the scheme of things, but Aria liked the dramatic dude, and thus was happy to have helped him. :) (And we’re all happy that it turned out his music was actually pretty good and not shit like you expect in these situations!)
IV. With that sorted, it was time to enact Step Three: Kill Cecily Sugar for real. Aria and Mad Jack this proceeded back to the Royal Albert Hall, where – after getting past a suspiciously-lax security guard – they arrived to find Cecily preparing to participate in a debate. However, before the speeches could kick off, the power went out. Giving Aria a minute and thirty seconds to set up Cecily’s death before the electrician fixed the power. Aria thus started poking around, looking for a spot to set down a bomb (since the brief had indicated that she’d be exploding Cecily, and everyone else on stage) –
But while checking out Cecily’s podium, she was given the opportunity to look at the microphone. And with her decent Perception, she quickly found a faulty fuse in it that, if overloaded, could give Cecily a fatal shock and kill her much more quietly and cleanly. Aria thus used her Charisma to fake being security to get past the electrician; used her Idiot Savant powers to flip a random switch and trust it was the right one; then headed into the audience to watch the debate once the power came back on. Turned out to be about indentured servitude, with Cecily arguing for reducing how long people could be put into servitude – at least, until she was fatally electrocuted by her own podium. Jon was immediately like “oh, damn it, she’s a decent person and I’m the bad guy for killing her, aren’t I?” *shakehead* Jon, again, you KNEW Angel was the Evil Faction Of Evil WHEN YOU JOINED THEM. And it’s worth noting that his guilt did NOT stop him from stealing the suit off her corpse and giving it to Mad Jack so he’d look even snazzier. XD Jon, seriously, never change. XD
Anyway – with three out of four steps in the plan successfully completed, Jon decided it was best to call it a part there! Next week, Aria and Mad Jack attend Cecily’s funeral (as apparently that’s something that has to happen as part of the Cunning Plan), and hopefully Aria gets to kick off Jack’s companion quest! Because he DID tell her he had something to get off his chest when they were in the BBM, and that generally means it’s time for an Important Companion Conversation. Should be fun! And probably extremely heartfelt, given what we already know of Jack’s backstory...
Tumblr: Nothing happened over on Valice Multiverse today, but I did get some stuff done over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) this afternoon, while waiting for the interminable backups to finish backing up –
A) I straight-up reblogged a couple of posts in an attempt to be a little more active generally:
I. A poll asking what kind of phone background you have from my friend Squid (I chose the “an image of something I am a fan of” option and elaborated in the tags that it’s one of my Sims 4 screenshots, of Smiler and Victor about to have a New Year’s kiss while Alice looks on with a big grin)
II. And a post about how “writing is just sitting in front of a computer and making up problems for imaginary people while ignoring your own. fun and casual hobby.” (by user nondelphic) from my friend Newt (because yes, that is definitely The Writing Mood)
B) I went through all my tracked tags and threw three things into my drafts for later queuing:
I. User gllerr’s drawing of the Male Gangrel Fledgling from Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines – it was really well done, and I have some nostalgia for that particular Fledgling because Harry the Gangrel was the star of my very first playthrough :)
II. User itshypnos-is’s drawings of keychain designs for important VTMB locations – a scuffed-up one for Pawnshop Lodgings, the location of the Fledgling’s first haven; a “nice on one side, bloody and creepy on the other” one for Ocean House Hotel, home of the famous “ghost murder stalking you through the building” quest; a fancy one for Skyeline Apartments, the location of most Fledglings’ second haven (featuring the TV newsman on the reverse side); and finally a ticket-shaped one for the Nocturne Theater (where the Fledgling nearly gets decapitated) for “Hell At The Hallowbrook Hotel” (referencing the late-game quest where the Fledgling must take on the Sabbat in their base of operations). All really nice and clever stuff, perfectly fitting each location!
III. And a text post from user smilerkisser: “if i'm not supposed to be attracted to the rollercoaster then why'd you make it so attractive huh.” Because I saw that and immediately thought of how my OT3 came be – namely, Victor decided he wanted the roller coaster I was having him and Alice ride be their third. *facepalm* I mean, I’m happy he did, but still. It’s one of more ridiculous ways to come by a ship!
C) And I worked just a little bit on my “How To Write Smiler” post, adding in an extra link to my various masterposts of Valicer prompt fanfic (for the various Polyship and OT3 weeks and the recent Multiamory Month). I would have linked the masterposts all separately, but there’s at least five of them now, soooo… ^^;
Not a huge amount of work, but hey, it kept me busy!
Workout: Back on the bike to start this week’s daily exercise sessions, pedaling my way through –
A) The entirety of “When you become the Pope” by GrayStillPlays! Today’s Sunday Happy Wheels offering, this proved to be a longer-than-usual video because he had some longer-than-usual challenges to struggle through. Some real tests of his determination in this one! My personal favorite boards included:
I. The opening bottle flip, where almost everything was themed around the mighty Yeet – Gray not only got a bottle on “The Real Yeet” immediately, he also got a bottle returned to him perfectly by the spinning protective shield AROUND “The Real Yeet!” Also eventually he got the win :P
II. “The Bacon Test,” which proved to be a weird little two-part bike fight against various people armed with various blades, which ended with Gray taking a trip to outer space – despite it not actually featuring bacon, Gray quite enjoyed the journey
III. A challenge specifically for Gray that featured Bike Dad dropping off a platform into a giant cloud of homing mines that he had to get through to reach the win...which Gray ended up winning on his first try XD
IV. A giant ramp jump where you had to land in a VERY specific area to win – Gray, thanks to his boundless enthusiasm, ended up both going too low AND too high before he finally managed to fling himself into the winning area
V. And the Dylan Snider board at the end, featuring Bike Mom having to bike her way past a church shooting deadly bibles at her, up the stairway to Heaven through an avalanche of letters, past the sword-wielding cardinals of Heaven, and then down into the Sistine Chapel to run over the members of the conclave and get her baby son declared Pope. Given how many times Gray killed this lady in his attempts to beat the board, she DESERVED to get her son named Pope. XD
Good stuff, as always! There’s a reason Happy Wheels always keeps showing up on this channel. :)
B) The first ten minutes of “Baldur's Gate 3 But it's Only Bad Choices” by OXtra! A two-hour-and-twenty-minute livestream Luke and Ellen did of the beginning of BG3 (in the Virgin Media “Gamepad” in London’s O2), featuring “Shove Everything” Fighter Luke and “I Have Not Actually Played This Game” Warlock Ellen. XD The conceit of the stream was that, whenever they were provided with a list of choices to take in the game, Ellen – as the newbie – would pick whichever one she thought was the worst, and they would roll with that to see what happened. Thus making all the more experienced BG3 players in the audience really, really twitch. XD So far, we’ve just gotten through them introducing their characters, watching the opening cutscenes, and popping out of their pods on the Nautiloid, with Luke failing to shove Ellen but Ellen managing to successfully Eldritch Blast Luke (after a misfire that hit his pod instead). XD I look forward to seeing just how poorly things go from here – according to the rules of the stream, their intention WASN’T just to shove companions down chasms and such, but looking at the comments, it looks like that goes out the window pretty early on. XD (And hey, as a bonus, thanks to Ellen’s class, I’ll be able to see how Warlocks work in the tutorial fights – important information, given I’m going to be changing Tav!Smiler’s base class to that!)
Other: And here we have the last three important things of note –
I. I spent most of the time before lunch (after starting the back-up process) answering Moose’s latest set of messages, so that’s all set, at least. Hopefully your keyboard isn’t still acting up, Moose!
II. I also took the time to answer a PM from a reviewer who recently left some short reviews on a couple of my old BTTF fanfics, and was thrilled to get a response from me and wanted to send me something longer now that she knew I was still active. It was a very sweet PM, praising the fics and my writing style and all that –
It just also said she was surprised to get a response back from the author of the twenty-year-old fanfics she’d read. And that some of my fics were almost as old as HER. I – you know, I KNEW I’d been doing this for a while, but – still. Had to take a moment and be like O.O about that before answering. XD
III. And, while I was waiting for the backups, I took a moment to reread a fic I first read at my lunchbreak at work so I could give it a proper review – “A Light In The Storm,” a Severance fic by Alooxis! Featuring an AU post-canon situation where the Outies can switch on the Innies at will (thanks to a court order forcing Lumon to provide that tech), and Innie!Mark getting terrified by his very first thunderstorm. Fortunately he was hanging out with his sister Devon at the time, and she managed to help him through it. It’s a very sweet fic, and I was glad to finally give it a comment saying so – as was the author, who just commented back thanking me for my kind words. :) Hopefully I can sneak in some time to reread and comment on some other fics that have been sitting in the mental backlog soon!
Okay -- definitely took me longer than I wanted, but not as long as I feared. Small mercies. Still, I have got to get off NOW if I want to get any halfway decent sleep, so -- night all!
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