Bad Brain Thursday
May. 29th, 2025 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, I was having some real problems staying focused earlier tonight -- my brain was revving off in a bunch of different directions (trying to figure out stuff for Tav!Smiler and my potential "Starting As Teens" Valicer Save), and it caused some nasty delays while I tried to wrangle it into submission. At least I did get everything I wanted to get done, done...
Work – An okay day – I ran some more credit card reports for Fiscal (tracking down some ACH returns for them); I took a few calls from people I’d e-mailed about failed credit cards the previous day and redid some gifts, along with updating a guy’s pledge payments; and I did some roster maintenance that came in with the exceptions, marking people “dead” or “inactive.” I also had to attend Talky Coworker’s little retirement party, with my boss making a big speech about how long she’s been working there and her insisting on giving me a hug. *grumbles* I did at least get cake out of it, I guess...still, very glad tomorrow is her last day. Hopefully it’ll be a decent Friday to end the week!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, and back to Proxy Gate Tactician’s channel to watch:
A) “Can You Beat Baldur's Gate 3 Without Using Duplicate Actions?” – Proxy seeing if he could get to the end of the game and save Faerun from the Netherbrain (aka the Absolute) while only using anything and everything that could count as an “action” exactly once. Meaning he got one jump, one shove, one cast of every spell, one use of every weapon attack, one use of every scroll (so long as he hadn’t already used the relevant spell), one use of every special arrow...the list went on and on. As you might expect, this meant that he had to plan his trip through the game very carefully to avoid wasting actions and to get the most out of each action he took. Especially when it came to traversing the multiple platforming jumping puzzles that the game likes to throw at you, since, you know, one jump. XD However, Proxy is a smart boy, and managed to pull it off via a combination of tactically planning his moves; letting the NPCs do all the work whenever possible (though this did NOT work in Moonrise Towers, let me tell you – those Harper allies who were supposed to help him storm the place died FAST); avoiding trouble by avoiding sidequests; doing horrible things to his companions (letting Wyll die in the opening fight with the goblins at the tiefling’s gate so he didn’t waste any actions trying to save him; completing the gauntlet of Shar without Shadowheart so he didn’t waste any actions getting her Shar’s special spear, causing her to leave permanently in a huff; and deliberately getting Astarion and Gale killed – Astarion to fix a bug, Gale to slip out of a cutscene and cheese the final boss fight a bit) –
Aaaand counting actions that did pretty much the exact same thing but had different names as different actions. XD Meaning class respecs for him and his party to get access to actions that functioned identically to stuff he had already used was a key part of his strategy. *shrug* I mean, I guess if they’re powered by different sources (a wizard’s magical “Ice Knife” versus a Way Of The Four Elements Monk’s ki-powered “Blade Of Rime”), they ARE technically different things, so – yeah, we’ll let you have this one, Proxy. XD But yeah, he played it cool and clever (except when bugs like “these enemies can SOMEHOW start targeting you even if you’ve protected yourself against that very thing with the ‘Sanctuary’ spell” screwed up his plans – he managed to figure out how to stop them ruining his action economy after a few reloads, though), did a little bit of cheesing near the end, and successfully defeated the brain, having taken 230 unique actions and used 23 unique items along the way! *nods* Nice work, Proxy – I look forward to watching your other challenge runs!
B) “Can you run faster than a Cheetah in Baldur's Gate 3?” – Proxy deciding to see if he could design a BG3 character whose movement speed was faster than that of a cheetah’s! And as it turned out, he could, though it definitely took some doing. Proxy started by calculating the base speed of a human character in the game – they can move 9 meters every (canonically) six-second-long turn in combat, which mathed out to an average speed of 5.4 km/hr – then began stacking on every freaking bonus he could find to increase that. From making his character a Wood Elf Barbarian with a bit of Rogue and Monk in them to take advantage of all the racial and class bonuses that gave him, to finding any and all gear that had some sort of movement bonus – or, in one case, gave him extra actions so he could use “Dash” on himself repeatedly to stack its effect – to having Gale cast good old “Longstrider” (which increases the distance one can move in a turn) on him and chugging a Potion Of Speed, Proxy was able to make his character (under VERY specific circumstances, mind) move at 273 km/hr – which is in fact TWICE a cheetah’s max speed (they top out at 120 km/hr). So yeah – it takes some very careful character building and more than a bit of cheesing, but it is possible to build an EXTREMELY speedy character in BG3. Fun times!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check, though WHOO BOY was it a struggle. I got to it late because the Bad Brain Times I mentioned above made writing up the summaries of Proxy’s videos take WAY LONGER than it should have, and THEN it took me a while to actually get GOING on the writing as I couldn’t figure out how to start what I wanted to write. Once I got past the initial block, though, the words started flowing, which was a relief. I was really scared there that I wasn’t going to get ANYTHING done. *shakes head* Come on, brain, the Valicer In The Dark stories are supposed to be the EASY ones!
Anyway – what I ended up doing tonight was revising what I wrote yesterday (with Victor saying he wasn’t going to take up Elder Gutknecht on his offer of Whisper training and Smiler and Alice both being very “???” about it) and adding two entirely new flashback scenes! One of Victor actually seeing one of the Advocate Whispers, Neil, summon lightning and being like “O.O want” about it, and one of the gang actually integrating themselves into Elder Gutknecht’s magical cloaking wards (the details of which were obtained via a deal with a devil) and Victor feeling the magic thrumming through the air and being like “...I think I want to know more about this.” Because I really wanted to sell how much Victor actually does want to learn about Whisper stuff, and I wasn’t sure the previous stories had shown that well enough. And, well, flashbacks are a tried-and-true game mechanic in Blades In The Dark, so I might as well integrate them into my fics. :p Tomorrow we’ll see about actually continuing the chapter, though – Victor and Alice need their clothes back for a start!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – got to it MUCH later than expected thanks to my brain having Focusing Problems, but I did get to “CaFae Latte Season 54 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi, like I’d hoped. This episode featured:
A) The introduction of new character Oscar, a very Minnesotan man who is a bit of a motormouth, but in a very lovable way. :) He showed up for a job interview with Bob at the same time an asshole customer showed up while Nicole was talking to Cyrus about meeting JC’s family (explaining that part of the reason she pushed for it was because she’s been kept as a “dirty little secret” by a partner before and – even though she knew that’s not what JC was doing – not meeting the family has left a bad taste in her mouth ever since) and said he was surprised that her boyfriend let her talk to other guys. Because apparently a woman sharing words with a man is a sure sign she’s gonna cheat on you. Nicole gave him the business, and Bob gave him a curse (unable to find a girlfriend for seven years, until he realizes women are people and not pets), before grabbing JC and proceeding to the interview table
B) Oscar’s job interview, which featured more of his ramblings as he talked about how he’s been surviving as a homeless person (mostly couch-surfing with friends while doing odd jobs like shoveling sidewalks in winter), how he knows Lindsey (from the food shelf, once helped defend her from someone who was angry she couldn’t make them a charm (girl WANTS to give them out to everyone, but simply doesn’t have the resources)), and how he keeps up his energy despite how much being homeless drains one (he likes having things to do, especially if they help people, as that nourishes the soul, and that helps nourish the body). It was enough to make Bob and JC go “when can you start?” :)
C) Oscar’s first morning on the job, with Cyrus showing him the ropes and whatnot – and noting that Husniya was supposed to be in like a half-hour ago...cue the poor woman rushing in to explain one of her baby twins is sick and they had to take an emergency ride to the hospital to get the medicine the poor kiddo needed. Oscar immediately told her that it was fine, they didn’t open for 15 minutes, so she should get a coffee and put her feet up, before heading to the bathroom so he didn’t have to break the groove later. Husniya was like “...I would commit atrocities for that man.” XD
D) JC checking in after the morning rush, being surprised to see Rethu working (he got called in after Bob decided to let Husniya have the rest of the day off to be with her sick kid) and checking in with Oscar (he was tired, but still trucking). Oscar deciding to spend his last five bucks on coffee prompted the pair to let him know about the food and drink policies for employees (you can snag like three or four drinks for free, and sneak food off the baking sheets, just don’t do it to excess), while Oscar asking about Rethu’s pin change (he came in with the “World’s Best Aunt” pin, then changed it to “World’s Best Uncle”) prompted them to explain to him about Rethu’s genderfluidity (the pin being a good indicator of which pronouns to use, though “they/them” were always acceptable). Oscar apologized if his question was insensitive, saying he tried to keep himself informed but the stuff he read was probably out of date and it was hard to keep up with all the changes, and Rethu and JC assured him it was fine, everything DID change a lot and it was hard to keep up. Which led to a discussion of Cyrus’s pride pins on his hat, and thus to a discussion of Rethu’s demisexuality...and Oscar having a little revelation about himself when told that not everyone needs to have that emotional connection to want to “canoodle.” XD As Rethu put it, “welcome to the queer club.” XD
E) And Oscar, after getting a very distracted Drek (who didn’t realize it was almost 2 PM) to take a break, meeting Ben, the autistic kid semi-regular, and him telling Oscar and JC about his project for his public speaking class – all about a cult that some angel formed by claiming to have healing powers, and how it got exposed and broken up after the angel tried to kill a reporter who’d figured out they were a fraud. Oscar was utterly disgusted by the angel’s behavior – almost as if he was taking it a little personally...and he and JC were both annoyed at the speech class guy telling Ben his “O”s were too Minnesotan. “What a dooooouchebag,” as JC said. XD
Lovely stuff, as always! I am delighted to make Oscar’s acquaintance, and even more delighted to anticipate the next video, in which we will see JC’s parents and learn Oscar’s deal...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing to do on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), but I had two asks on Valice Multiverse to pop into the queue:
A) One from an anon commenting on how “sitting on a throne of lines” is an odd statement, as lies are not actually something you can build furniture from – Cuddlepile!Alice explained that it wasn’t meant to be taken literally, but used as a way to build up an image of someone reaping rewards they hadn’t earned from falsehoods, while Smiler pointed out that the very fact that lies cannot be used to build thrones added an extra element of the throne being in danger of collapsing once someone noticed what it was made of wasn’t real
B) And one from The Satirical Demon asking another “caffeinated drinks” question – namely, if any of my core three muses like trying out different brands and cafes, or whether or not they like sticking to their tried-and-true places. I couldn’t resist answering for the whole OT3, and said that Victor likes sticking to his “tried-and-true” cafes; Alice is a little more adventurous, but also likes sticking to what she knows (especially if they know her and her mental health problems); and Smiler likes to try out new things, but always has a home base to fall back on (adding in the tags that, since they WORK at a cafe in my modern AU, it’s probably that place :p).
Nice to get some engagement around here again. :)
*nods* There we are -- aaaand thanks to the bad brain, I am up way too late, and must now immediately go to bed. *sigh* Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow -- damn period, screwing up my focus...night all!
Work – An okay day – I ran some more credit card reports for Fiscal (tracking down some ACH returns for them); I took a few calls from people I’d e-mailed about failed credit cards the previous day and redid some gifts, along with updating a guy’s pledge payments; and I did some roster maintenance that came in with the exceptions, marking people “dead” or “inactive.” I also had to attend Talky Coworker’s little retirement party, with my boss making a big speech about how long she’s been working there and her insisting on giving me a hug. *grumbles* I did at least get cake out of it, I guess...still, very glad tomorrow is her last day. Hopefully it’ll be a decent Friday to end the week!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, and back to Proxy Gate Tactician’s channel to watch:
A) “Can You Beat Baldur's Gate 3 Without Using Duplicate Actions?” – Proxy seeing if he could get to the end of the game and save Faerun from the Netherbrain (aka the Absolute) while only using anything and everything that could count as an “action” exactly once. Meaning he got one jump, one shove, one cast of every spell, one use of every weapon attack, one use of every scroll (so long as he hadn’t already used the relevant spell), one use of every special arrow...the list went on and on. As you might expect, this meant that he had to plan his trip through the game very carefully to avoid wasting actions and to get the most out of each action he took. Especially when it came to traversing the multiple platforming jumping puzzles that the game likes to throw at you, since, you know, one jump. XD However, Proxy is a smart boy, and managed to pull it off via a combination of tactically planning his moves; letting the NPCs do all the work whenever possible (though this did NOT work in Moonrise Towers, let me tell you – those Harper allies who were supposed to help him storm the place died FAST); avoiding trouble by avoiding sidequests; doing horrible things to his companions (letting Wyll die in the opening fight with the goblins at the tiefling’s gate so he didn’t waste any actions trying to save him; completing the gauntlet of Shar without Shadowheart so he didn’t waste any actions getting her Shar’s special spear, causing her to leave permanently in a huff; and deliberately getting Astarion and Gale killed – Astarion to fix a bug, Gale to slip out of a cutscene and cheese the final boss fight a bit) –
Aaaand counting actions that did pretty much the exact same thing but had different names as different actions. XD Meaning class respecs for him and his party to get access to actions that functioned identically to stuff he had already used was a key part of his strategy. *shrug* I mean, I guess if they’re powered by different sources (a wizard’s magical “Ice Knife” versus a Way Of The Four Elements Monk’s ki-powered “Blade Of Rime”), they ARE technically different things, so – yeah, we’ll let you have this one, Proxy. XD But yeah, he played it cool and clever (except when bugs like “these enemies can SOMEHOW start targeting you even if you’ve protected yourself against that very thing with the ‘Sanctuary’ spell” screwed up his plans – he managed to figure out how to stop them ruining his action economy after a few reloads, though), did a little bit of cheesing near the end, and successfully defeated the brain, having taken 230 unique actions and used 23 unique items along the way! *nods* Nice work, Proxy – I look forward to watching your other challenge runs!
B) “Can you run faster than a Cheetah in Baldur's Gate 3?” – Proxy deciding to see if he could design a BG3 character whose movement speed was faster than that of a cheetah’s! And as it turned out, he could, though it definitely took some doing. Proxy started by calculating the base speed of a human character in the game – they can move 9 meters every (canonically) six-second-long turn in combat, which mathed out to an average speed of 5.4 km/hr – then began stacking on every freaking bonus he could find to increase that. From making his character a Wood Elf Barbarian with a bit of Rogue and Monk in them to take advantage of all the racial and class bonuses that gave him, to finding any and all gear that had some sort of movement bonus – or, in one case, gave him extra actions so he could use “Dash” on himself repeatedly to stack its effect – to having Gale cast good old “Longstrider” (which increases the distance one can move in a turn) on him and chugging a Potion Of Speed, Proxy was able to make his character (under VERY specific circumstances, mind) move at 273 km/hr – which is in fact TWICE a cheetah’s max speed (they top out at 120 km/hr). So yeah – it takes some very careful character building and more than a bit of cheesing, but it is possible to build an EXTREMELY speedy character in BG3. Fun times!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check, though WHOO BOY was it a struggle. I got to it late because the Bad Brain Times I mentioned above made writing up the summaries of Proxy’s videos take WAY LONGER than it should have, and THEN it took me a while to actually get GOING on the writing as I couldn’t figure out how to start what I wanted to write. Once I got past the initial block, though, the words started flowing, which was a relief. I was really scared there that I wasn’t going to get ANYTHING done. *shakes head* Come on, brain, the Valicer In The Dark stories are supposed to be the EASY ones!
Anyway – what I ended up doing tonight was revising what I wrote yesterday (with Victor saying he wasn’t going to take up Elder Gutknecht on his offer of Whisper training and Smiler and Alice both being very “???” about it) and adding two entirely new flashback scenes! One of Victor actually seeing one of the Advocate Whispers, Neil, summon lightning and being like “O.O want” about it, and one of the gang actually integrating themselves into Elder Gutknecht’s magical cloaking wards (the details of which were obtained via a deal with a devil) and Victor feeling the magic thrumming through the air and being like “...I think I want to know more about this.” Because I really wanted to sell how much Victor actually does want to learn about Whisper stuff, and I wasn’t sure the previous stories had shown that well enough. And, well, flashbacks are a tried-and-true game mechanic in Blades In The Dark, so I might as well integrate them into my fics. :p Tomorrow we’ll see about actually continuing the chapter, though – Victor and Alice need their clothes back for a start!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – got to it MUCH later than expected thanks to my brain having Focusing Problems, but I did get to “CaFae Latte Season 54 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi, like I’d hoped. This episode featured:
A) The introduction of new character Oscar, a very Minnesotan man who is a bit of a motormouth, but in a very lovable way. :) He showed up for a job interview with Bob at the same time an asshole customer showed up while Nicole was talking to Cyrus about meeting JC’s family (explaining that part of the reason she pushed for it was because she’s been kept as a “dirty little secret” by a partner before and – even though she knew that’s not what JC was doing – not meeting the family has left a bad taste in her mouth ever since) and said he was surprised that her boyfriend let her talk to other guys. Because apparently a woman sharing words with a man is a sure sign she’s gonna cheat on you. Nicole gave him the business, and Bob gave him a curse (unable to find a girlfriend for seven years, until he realizes women are people and not pets), before grabbing JC and proceeding to the interview table
B) Oscar’s job interview, which featured more of his ramblings as he talked about how he’s been surviving as a homeless person (mostly couch-surfing with friends while doing odd jobs like shoveling sidewalks in winter), how he knows Lindsey (from the food shelf, once helped defend her from someone who was angry she couldn’t make them a charm (girl WANTS to give them out to everyone, but simply doesn’t have the resources)), and how he keeps up his energy despite how much being homeless drains one (he likes having things to do, especially if they help people, as that nourishes the soul, and that helps nourish the body). It was enough to make Bob and JC go “when can you start?” :)
C) Oscar’s first morning on the job, with Cyrus showing him the ropes and whatnot – and noting that Husniya was supposed to be in like a half-hour ago...cue the poor woman rushing in to explain one of her baby twins is sick and they had to take an emergency ride to the hospital to get the medicine the poor kiddo needed. Oscar immediately told her that it was fine, they didn’t open for 15 minutes, so she should get a coffee and put her feet up, before heading to the bathroom so he didn’t have to break the groove later. Husniya was like “...I would commit atrocities for that man.” XD
D) JC checking in after the morning rush, being surprised to see Rethu working (he got called in after Bob decided to let Husniya have the rest of the day off to be with her sick kid) and checking in with Oscar (he was tired, but still trucking). Oscar deciding to spend his last five bucks on coffee prompted the pair to let him know about the food and drink policies for employees (you can snag like three or four drinks for free, and sneak food off the baking sheets, just don’t do it to excess), while Oscar asking about Rethu’s pin change (he came in with the “World’s Best Aunt” pin, then changed it to “World’s Best Uncle”) prompted them to explain to him about Rethu’s genderfluidity (the pin being a good indicator of which pronouns to use, though “they/them” were always acceptable). Oscar apologized if his question was insensitive, saying he tried to keep himself informed but the stuff he read was probably out of date and it was hard to keep up with all the changes, and Rethu and JC assured him it was fine, everything DID change a lot and it was hard to keep up. Which led to a discussion of Cyrus’s pride pins on his hat, and thus to a discussion of Rethu’s demisexuality...and Oscar having a little revelation about himself when told that not everyone needs to have that emotional connection to want to “canoodle.” XD As Rethu put it, “welcome to the queer club.” XD
E) And Oscar, after getting a very distracted Drek (who didn’t realize it was almost 2 PM) to take a break, meeting Ben, the autistic kid semi-regular, and him telling Oscar and JC about his project for his public speaking class – all about a cult that some angel formed by claiming to have healing powers, and how it got exposed and broken up after the angel tried to kill a reporter who’d figured out they were a fraud. Oscar was utterly disgusted by the angel’s behavior – almost as if he was taking it a little personally...and he and JC were both annoyed at the speech class guy telling Ben his “O”s were too Minnesotan. “What a dooooouchebag,” as JC said. XD
Lovely stuff, as always! I am delighted to make Oscar’s acquaintance, and even more delighted to anticipate the next video, in which we will see JC’s parents and learn Oscar’s deal...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing to do on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), but I had two asks on Valice Multiverse to pop into the queue:
A) One from an anon commenting on how “sitting on a throne of lines” is an odd statement, as lies are not actually something you can build furniture from – Cuddlepile!Alice explained that it wasn’t meant to be taken literally, but used as a way to build up an image of someone reaping rewards they hadn’t earned from falsehoods, while Smiler pointed out that the very fact that lies cannot be used to build thrones added an extra element of the throne being in danger of collapsing once someone noticed what it was made of wasn’t real
B) And one from The Satirical Demon asking another “caffeinated drinks” question – namely, if any of my core three muses like trying out different brands and cafes, or whether or not they like sticking to their tried-and-true places. I couldn’t resist answering for the whole OT3, and said that Victor likes sticking to his “tried-and-true” cafes; Alice is a little more adventurous, but also likes sticking to what she knows (especially if they know her and her mental health problems); and Smiler likes to try out new things, but always has a home base to fall back on (adding in the tags that, since they WORK at a cafe in my modern AU, it’s probably that place :p).
Nice to get some engagement around here again. :)
*nods* There we are -- aaaand thanks to the bad brain, I am up way too late, and must now immediately go to bed. *sigh* Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow -- damn period, screwing up my focus...night all!
