Non-Fallout Sunday
Jun. 29th, 2025 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYes, in a possibly-shocking turn of events, I ended up NOT watching Jon's latest Fallout: London video tonight, even though it was actually pretty short (only 32 minutes). Reason? Well, it took me longer than anticipated to do some of my write-ups and answer Moose's messages (as you will see below) -- and while I was showering after my workout, it suddenly hit me that I also still hadn't written anything on "The Van Dort Vacancy." So after supper, I looked at what I still had to do, and quickly realized that working on my story and watching Jon's latest FO:L episode were mutually exclusive. And when it came down to it --
I wanted to write more on "The Van Dort Vacancy" more. So the FO:L video went into my Watch Later, and there was no YouTube at all tonight. *sigh* What I should have done was make the FO:L video my workout video, as it was actually uploaded in time for that once...but hindsight is twenty-twenty. At least this upcoming week is a short week, and I'll have some extra time over my long weekend to catch up! Maybe I can make it my workout video on Friday, in fact, it's short enough to fit into a bike session...we'll see!
In the meantime, here's what I did accomplish today:
Tumblr: Welp, nothing happened on Valice Multiverse today – which is absolutely fine, as I was busy enough over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)! I had an extremely productive couple of hours over there before lunch, in fact (partially helped by the fact that lunch was late today, admittedly, but still):
A) First, I reblogged some stuff I’d seen on my dash that I’d been meaning to get to, including:
I. TheSatiricalDemon doing a silly post where Victor and Gef The Talking Moongoose (a goofy cryptid important to “Beneath A Broken Sky,” his eldritch hellworld Valice story) shared some dialogue from Deltarune, the episodic sequel to smash hit Undertale, with Victor being surprised to hear from Gef while in the Dark World, and Gef assuring him he (Gef) had some time before he “dissipated.” I’m not familiar with Deltarune at all, so I have no idea what this is all about, but I like Satirical and his stuff, so I felt I ought to reblog just because of that :) Solidarity!
II. A comic by “heyitsjaki” featuring Gale of Baldur’s Gate III setting up a (literally) magical moment in what I believe was supposed to be the Shadow-Cursed Lands so he could finally tell Jaki’s Tav how he felt about her – only to be left hanging because Jaki ended up getting distracted flirting with the projection of himself Gale sent to fetch her. As the caption said, Gale somehow managed to roll both a Nat 1 AND a Nat 20 on “impressing his crush.” XD Really beautiful artwork, and a lot of fun!
III. A post by “greelin” simply saying “to bite. fondly” and its follow-up about how “love is stored in the throat offered willingly AND in the teeth sinking in. Or something.” This just spoke to me as a Valice/Valicer mood when I saw it on my dash – specifically, a “Londerland Bloodlines”-related one, given how happily Victor allows Alice to drink from him (and will allow Smiler to do the same later, if I ever get to that installment in the series). There’s just something about Victor so willingly offering himself up to his loves, even when he knows Alice or Smiler could really hurt him if the wanted… Though I admitted in the tags that it’s quite possible I just feel this way because I gave Victor a thing for having his neck nibbled. XD Still good!
IV. And a poll by “writerpolls” about what boon you would pick from the magical tree that gives writers magical bonuses ranging from “never having writer’s block again” to “being paid five cents for every word of sincere creative writing you write!” I unfortunately found it too late to vote, but I reblogged it anyway to rant in the tags about how I would have chosen the first option, “Time pauses when you get in the writing flow for as long as you’re in the flow” in a HEARTBEAT. Because my problem, always, is that I never have enough time to do everything I want to do, especially when it comes to my writing. If I could have time just pause every time I was really in the groove – hooo boy, you’d have already seen a lot more Valicer In The Dark from me, that’s for sure! Plus proper longform stories for a bunch of the other ideas in my head. *sigh* Why is this tree not real?
B) I also liked one post for later – a set of Dead Boy Detectives screenshots with tumblr text posts pasted onto them (a common meme format over there). Reason? I looked at the text posts included, and thought, “You know, if I clipped those out, I think I could do something with my Valicer trio with them…” So yeah, perhaps that’s a project for the long weekend. :P
C) I then decided that, since I actually had a spare moment, I should make a post that I’ve been meaning to make for a while – specifically, pleading with the larger tumblr community for help in figuring out what’s going on with my Sims 4 Smiler’s suddenly-non-glowing yellow eyes and how to fix it! Because every time I try to find a fix, or some CC yellow glowing eyes, I come up short. I’ve talked about the issue before on here, but if you want a refresh, complete with visual aids, the post is here for your perusal. I don’t know if I’m going to get any response at all (remember how happy I was to get two whole votes on my poll regarding what I should do class-and-background-wise for my Tav!Smiler in BG3?), but it’s out there now, so I can at least say I tried. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that either someone DOES give me some advice, or that the July 1st patch fixes this issue!
D) And finally, right before we ate, I started working on another post I’ve been meaning to write up for a while in my drafts – one explaining my ideas for my hopeful Teen Valicer Save file! Covering how I think this file is going to be exactly the right level of complex for me not to get overwhelmed (unlike some of my past challenge ideas – I did love throwing overly-complicated rules into those), and some of what I want to do with my beloved OT3 as they brave high school, college, and whatever lies beyond! I got up to talking a bit about what I want to do with Smiler specifically before lunch happened – hopefully tomorrow I can work on it some more so I can use it as my post for this Wednesday’s queue!
Whew – lot going on over here today! But it felt good to make progress on some stuff that’s been sitting around in the back of my head for ages!
Superliminal: I played through the “Cubism” level today in my search for collectibles – in fact, I played through it twice, because the guide I was using to collect all said collectibles for some reason didn’t have them listed in order of where they were in the level (instead grouping them via category), so I had to use the level select to go through it again and get the chess pieces I missed the first time. *grumbles* Guide creator, you let me down here! But I did get everything in the end, including:
A) The constellation room – which was hidden in the darkness beside the entrance to the backstage area that leads to the level proper (it’s just past the reception area, with a sign in it warning you of upcoming dice); you have to turn around and go to the left of the doorway into the shadows, and that leads you down a dark hallway into the star-filled room! The constellation this time was a coffee cup – took me a minute to get the stars lined up properly, but it wasn’t very hard to do. :) I like these rooms – all the stars everywhere are so pretty!
B) The pink king chess piece – stuck in the vent in the room where, when you try to pick up the die to form a stair up to the exit up on the ledge, you find it’s in two pieces. The best way to get at it, as per my guide, is to bring the die you used to get up onto the ledge in the previous puzzle room into the two-piece die room, then use that and the two die halves to form a big stairway up to the vent so you can peek in and click on it. The guide said you have to get really close, but I found that as long as you’re close enough to see it, you should be able to click it.
C) The pink queen chess piece – hidden atop another rectangular vent piece in the backstage room past the bit where you have to drop through a hole in the floor to proceed (because picking up the die in the hallway picks up a chunk of floor with it, and if you try to continue through the art gallery, you come to a taped-off doorway you can’t go through), just next to the soda vending machine. The guide recommended that you bring the grate from the vent you have to slip through to access the room to form a ramp up to the piece – I managed to get my grate the right size, but couldn’t get it at QUITE the right angle, so I had to jump up and down atop the grate a few times before I managed to successfully click on the piece and collect it. At least I know that’s a viable strategy for some of the harder stuff to get!
D) The first blueprint of the level – hidden in the room with all the dice that, when you try to pick them up, prove to be instead the tips of big hunks of wood that you can slide either up and down or left and right (with the way you get out of the room being to slide one die into the floor, then slide another one across the room over it to form a platform you can jump off of to reach the ledge where the exit is). The blueprint is stored atop a vent high up on the wall that, when you click on it, proves to be another wood chunk you can slide in and out – the guide said that the best way to reach was to get out of the room, grab the rubber duck out of the bucket in the backstage area just past it (where it’s floating around on the water the bucket’s collected under a drip), then take it back into the room and make it big before getting it to fall in a position where you can climb up it and onto the extended vent to see the blueprint. Which is a task and a half, let me tell you, because not only does the rubber duck squeak adorably whenever you pick it up, it also bounces around much less adorably whenever you let it go! It took a bit of doing for me to get it both big enough AND to land in a position where I could climb it! But I succeeded after a few tries and a bunch of duck bouncing, and I collected the blueprint –
Aaaand I just realized that there’s probably a way easier way to do this – get atop the die that you need to slide into the floor to escape the room, and pull it up underneath you until you reach the vent. Because I’m pretty positive the game will happily let you manipulate things you’re standing on. *facepalm* Well, nothing to do about it now!
E) And the second blueprint of the level – hidden atop the big ledge in the final room of the level, which normally you can’t get up onto because there’s nothing you can use to climb up there (no dice or pieces of same that you’re allowed to pick up). As per the guide, I beat this restriction by grabbing one of the cubes that the first big die in the previous room breaks into when you try to use it to climb up another ledge and taking it with me as I made my way into the second big die and down the drop into the final room that it hides (again, weird game) to use as a stair. And to my delight, once I got atop that ledge, I not only found the blueprint around the corner, but also a fire extinguisher to empty! :D Because I’m still trying to get the achievement for emptying all of THOSE too. So yes, nice bonus, that!
So yay, another level cleared! Totally cleared, in fact, as – as per the level select screen – I’d gotten everything in there except the chess pieces when I had to do my second run. Still missing a fire extinguisher somewhere in “Optical,” though...and a bunch of stuff in future levels, but we’ll worry about THOSE when we get to them. Anyway, here is my list of Other Fun Stuff I found in the level while going around solving puzzles and trying to get goodies:
I. I noticed last time that the computer in the reception area you go through while on your way to the levels proper shows a chess game between a handful of pink and blue pieces, with a bunch of other “invisible” pieces shown only via outline; however, when I looked at it this time, I realized that I think it updates to show what pieces you have collected/can collect in previous levels! Because the chess game on the computer screen this featured a blue pawn, a blue knight, and a pink rook, and – okay, my guide says that the pieces you can get from the previous level are a blue pawn, a blue knight, and a pink pawn, but it’s possible whoever made it didn’t get a good look at the rook chess piece. (In fact, thinking about it, I’m not sure if that “king” I picked up really was a king, or a bishop…) The point is, I think the computer keeps track of your chess collectibles! I’ll have to check again when I pass through reception on my way into the “Blackout” level next time – would be neat if the image DOES update to show what pieces you’ve collected!
II. I advanced my ongoing quest to learn all the “tag lines” of the various sodas dispensed by the vending machines you find in reception and the backstage areas by purchasing and reading the cans for “Random Soda” (whose tag line is, appropriately, just a bunch of question marks – “???????????????”) and “Mini Soda” (“The North Star Drink,” apparently – and yes, when it gets vended, it is EXTREMELY tiny). Just gotta do “Water Soda” now!
III. However, while getting my initial soda, I also learned that you can read at least some of the tag lines on the buttons for the various sodas on the vending machine itself, if you get up REALLY close to it – and that the one for “Diet Soda” is different on its button! The can just reads “Smooooooooooth!” but the button reads “Made with real avocados!” Referencing the fact that it’s in a light green can, I guess. I wonder why they changed it on the can itself? Mystery for the ages…
IV. There’s an interesting-looking wiring diagram by a “Dr. K” in the side office where you find the first cube in the first room of the level proper...along with a gap in the wall that really SEEMS like it should lead to a secret, but does not. I would have stuck something fun in there myself!
V. And in the floor crawlspace area you have to walk through, there’s three things you can pick up and take with you into the next room if you so choose – the grate over the vent you need to crawl though; a big golden chess piece, lurking in the darkness; and the light illuminating the vent! I knew about the grate and the chess piece, but I don’t think I ever really realized you could take the light with you too. I wonder if it would have been easier to climb up THAT to the queen chess piece…
And there you have it – another level of the Superliminal Collectibles Run completed! Next time, we take on the horror-themed level “Blackout,” and I read through the entire section in my guide BEFORE starting to play so I can get everything in one run. :P
Writing: I may have got to this late, but I got to it, typing up another page on “The Van Dort Vacancy!” This chunk featured Alice changing into the servant’s dress Smiler grabbed for her at the end of the last page, commenting on how this wasn’t how she expected to spend her day, and how she’d love to keep the dress if she could, given how nice it was (Cheshire let her know that if she did her job well, she’d be rewarded – though she shouldn’t assume the “job” was the one in front of her – an annoyed Alice was like “enjoying confusing me again, I see”); Alice seeing Smiler in their Van Dort livery and being like “it is very weird to see you in anything other than yellow or black” (a sentiment Smiler themselves agreed with); and the pair getting their aprons on while Alice prepared to stow her bag with their clothes in an empty cubby, talking about how Victor would probably help them get the bag back later, and how angry he seemed about Barry the butler calling them “not the same caliber” as the guests...which led to them admitting to each other that they weren’t exactly keen on leaving him here, given his parents decided to throw a party for the upper crust rather than dedicating all their resources to finding their son. Alice isn’t sure what they can do about it, though...meaning tomorrow, Smiler shall remind her that Elder Gutknecht’s house can TECHNICALLY fit three...
Workout: Back on the bike tonight, and back with the Oxventure channel as I finally started “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 1: Folkmoot!” The first episode of the first season of their new Oxventure D&D series (now that the original “Oxventurers’ Guild” characters have been largely retired apart from the occasional live show), featuring a whole new setting and a whole new set of weirdos to cause chaos within it. And judging by what Johnny told us about the world and the special homebrew mechanics they’re using, there’s going to be a loooot of chaos… The first half-hour or so that I pedaled through today featured:
A) Johnny introducing everyone to the world of Heorth, a land rich in magic that was once ruled by giants; then colonized by the Wild Folk once they went away; then found by the “common folk,” who – after a some initial troubles – found a way to live in peace with the Wild Folk in the eleven regions that made up the land (Wyrdwood, pronounced “weirdwood,” being the central one). Things were great for centuries, with the common folk living in harmony with their fey neighbors thanks to various bargains and treaties they’d worked out, and using magic to do things like make their horses run supernaturally fast for long periods of time without injury, or speed the growth and yield of crops –
Aaand then some sort of mysterious sonic boom seemed to split the sky, and after that, magic became incredibly unstable, prone to causing weird and random side effects when cast. The infrastructure of Heorth promptly collapsed, so reliant was it on magic, and the titular “folkmoot” was called in Wyrdwood so people could come and discuss the problem and how to fix it. Because it needs very badly to be fixed – both to save the roads and crops and whatnot, but ALSO because the various bargains they’ve struck with the Wild Folk require magic to be renewed…
B) Everyone introducing their new characters, who found themselves on the road to the folkmoot for one reason or another:
I. Luke is Happen, a human Swarmkeeper Ranger (constantly surrounded by little sprites with very big eyes and LOTS of teeth) who lives in the Balewood, another part of Heorth, and is part of a religious order that venerates the goddess of luck and thus rejoices in the extremes of good luck AND bad luck – he was on the road (or in a hedge beside it, technically) because, well, order in his order was breaking down, with arguments breaking out in the aftermath of magic breaking, and he wanted to venture out and find a way to fix things and restore peace
II. Jane is Willowfine, an aasimar (aka a partial angel, with soft feathers growing from her shoulders and star-shaped freckles) cleric from the village of Langtree in Fenfold – she was on the road because she’d been sent by the Great Mother of her village to see what had happened to magic and how to fix it, because without it, her village would be ruined
III. Andy is Robin Oatcake, a human commoner (aka someone with NO special skills at all) from Wenlock, a village in the east – he was on the road because weird shit had been happening to him lately (like waking up in strange places, or people straight-up disappearing around him), and when he went to the local apothecary and had his sickness drawn out and put into a goat, the goat somehow ended up taking over his house. As in, it took over the lease and everything. XD So Robin decided to set off and see the world, and hopefully figure out what was happening to him along the way! Also, worth noting that he has interesting two-toned hair – one side blond, one side black. I wonder if that will be important in any way…
IV. Ellen is Cressida Blackwater, a human-elf hybrid wizard from the port town of Metan-Sei – she was on the road because she was fleeing the town after the failure of magic caused the spells on the money in the bank she and her family managed to fail, leading to a lot of townsfolk suddenly losing a lot of cash. Which, um, as you might expect, they were not happy about. In fact, one was unhappy enough that he cursed Cressida – and because of the instability of magic, that caused her to grow a pair of ram’s horns. She pretty much hopped the first carriage out of there after that!
V. And Mike is Lug, a firbolg (according to dnd5e.wikidot.com, these are “distant cousins of giants” – oooh – who have a strong connection to nature; looks-wise he’s a blue-gray humanoid with long ears, as per his character art) barbarian who lived in the Wyrdwood itself and helped guide people through it for a small fee – he was on the road because...well, he was being chased by ten angry farmers with various farming implements, who thought he was responsible for the breaking of magic and wanted to kill him as a result. Uh-oh.
C) Everyone meeting via the medium of seeing Lug being chased by the farmers, which resulted in –
I. Lug getting pulled into the hedges by Happen, who proceeded to get very up close and personal with the unnerved barbarian because he wanted to bask in his aura of bad luck; Lug ALSO did not like Happen’s little sprite friends with all the teeth
II. Robin attempting to send the farmers off in the wrong direction, only to roll poorly on the Charisma check to convince them; fortunately the farmers rolled poorly on their attack roll, meaning Robin only got a light clout around the ear for saying that maybe the guy went up into the sky XD
III. Cressida attempting to cast the “Friends” cantrip to make the farmers more agreeable while talking to them, only for the NPC she was talking to to roll a nat 20 on resisting her magic (though he at least did still talk with her, explaining about why they wanted to kill the firbolg for apparently helping break magic). This at least allowed Johnny to explain the “magic debt” system they were using for this campaign, where every spell someone casts increases their “debt” to magic, and then at the end of each session everyone who has a magical debt has to roll the terrifyingly big D100. If they roll their number or under, Johnny will present them with an envelope, and the next time they do magic, they must open the envelope to discover what the consequences will be. Johnny said that SOME of the consequences might be good, or at least a mix of good and bad, but my money’s on most of them being bad…
IV. Robin attempting to pretend to search the hedge that Lug and Happen were hiding in to give them time to escape – only for Happen to yank HIM into the hedge too XD
V. Willowfine desperately trying to distract the farmers with a long rambling story about firbolgs and how they couldn’t possibly be responsible for the breaking of magic – and actually rolling well enough on the Charisma check to keep their attention despite them angrily demanding moments earlier that everyone either help them search or get out of their way XD
VI. And Happen, realizing the men weren’t going away anytime soon, popping out of his hedge and casting Web upon them, snaring all but the two strongest and starting combat! So far, Happen’s taken a sickle to the shoulder (thrown, causing a nasty gash by his collarbone), while Willowfine has avoided injury, but had the chainmail under her robes revealed, causing the farmers to think she’s a brigand and this was some sort of ambush. I left it off with the turn order turning to Lug – we’ll see how he handles these men, and where the story goes from here, tomorrow!
Other:
-->Despite the hot weather, we did get out for beanbags (it wasn’t oppressively humid and there was a bit of a breeze, plus we play in the shade of the house, so it wasn’t horrible out there) – and I ended up having a really good day this time winning three out of five games, yay! :D One in three throws no less! Dad won the other too, and Mom...well, poor Mom did her best. XD Final scores were me 2-W-W-3-W; Dad W-2-2-W-2; Mom 3-3-3-2-3. I’ll take that, especially after how shitty I did on Friday! Though hopefully if we play tomorrow, Mom will get a win – it’s more fun if everybody wins a round.
-->And despite getting to it a bit later than I wanted and getting interrupted midway through working on the second message because of the above beanbags, I did answer all of Moose’s messages, hooray! Didn’t want to leave them sitting around any longer – ball’s in your court, Moose!
Whew! You see why I didn't have the time to watch any videos. Hell, I'm STILL going to bed later than I should just because it took me that long to finish up all that! Yeah, delaying the further adventures of Lady Aria was definitely the right idea...anyway, yes, I need to go get some sleep, since I DO have work in the morning! Night all!
I wanted to write more on "The Van Dort Vacancy" more. So the FO:L video went into my Watch Later, and there was no YouTube at all tonight. *sigh* What I should have done was make the FO:L video my workout video, as it was actually uploaded in time for that once...but hindsight is twenty-twenty. At least this upcoming week is a short week, and I'll have some extra time over my long weekend to catch up! Maybe I can make it my workout video on Friday, in fact, it's short enough to fit into a bike session...we'll see!
In the meantime, here's what I did accomplish today:
Tumblr: Welp, nothing happened on Valice Multiverse today – which is absolutely fine, as I was busy enough over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)! I had an extremely productive couple of hours over there before lunch, in fact (partially helped by the fact that lunch was late today, admittedly, but still):
A) First, I reblogged some stuff I’d seen on my dash that I’d been meaning to get to, including:
I. TheSatiricalDemon doing a silly post where Victor and Gef The Talking Moongoose (a goofy cryptid important to “Beneath A Broken Sky,” his eldritch hellworld Valice story) shared some dialogue from Deltarune, the episodic sequel to smash hit Undertale, with Victor being surprised to hear from Gef while in the Dark World, and Gef assuring him he (Gef) had some time before he “dissipated.” I’m not familiar with Deltarune at all, so I have no idea what this is all about, but I like Satirical and his stuff, so I felt I ought to reblog just because of that :) Solidarity!
II. A comic by “heyitsjaki” featuring Gale of Baldur’s Gate III setting up a (literally) magical moment in what I believe was supposed to be the Shadow-Cursed Lands so he could finally tell Jaki’s Tav how he felt about her – only to be left hanging because Jaki ended up getting distracted flirting with the projection of himself Gale sent to fetch her. As the caption said, Gale somehow managed to roll both a Nat 1 AND a Nat 20 on “impressing his crush.” XD Really beautiful artwork, and a lot of fun!
III. A post by “greelin” simply saying “to bite. fondly” and its follow-up about how “love is stored in the throat offered willingly AND in the teeth sinking in. Or something.” This just spoke to me as a Valice/Valicer mood when I saw it on my dash – specifically, a “Londerland Bloodlines”-related one, given how happily Victor allows Alice to drink from him (and will allow Smiler to do the same later, if I ever get to that installment in the series). There’s just something about Victor so willingly offering himself up to his loves, even when he knows Alice or Smiler could really hurt him if the wanted… Though I admitted in the tags that it’s quite possible I just feel this way because I gave Victor a thing for having his neck nibbled. XD Still good!
IV. And a poll by “writerpolls” about what boon you would pick from the magical tree that gives writers magical bonuses ranging from “never having writer’s block again” to “being paid five cents for every word of sincere creative writing you write!” I unfortunately found it too late to vote, but I reblogged it anyway to rant in the tags about how I would have chosen the first option, “Time pauses when you get in the writing flow for as long as you’re in the flow” in a HEARTBEAT. Because my problem, always, is that I never have enough time to do everything I want to do, especially when it comes to my writing. If I could have time just pause every time I was really in the groove – hooo boy, you’d have already seen a lot more Valicer In The Dark from me, that’s for sure! Plus proper longform stories for a bunch of the other ideas in my head. *sigh* Why is this tree not real?
B) I also liked one post for later – a set of Dead Boy Detectives screenshots with tumblr text posts pasted onto them (a common meme format over there). Reason? I looked at the text posts included, and thought, “You know, if I clipped those out, I think I could do something with my Valicer trio with them…” So yeah, perhaps that’s a project for the long weekend. :P
C) I then decided that, since I actually had a spare moment, I should make a post that I’ve been meaning to make for a while – specifically, pleading with the larger tumblr community for help in figuring out what’s going on with my Sims 4 Smiler’s suddenly-non-glowing yellow eyes and how to fix it! Because every time I try to find a fix, or some CC yellow glowing eyes, I come up short. I’ve talked about the issue before on here, but if you want a refresh, complete with visual aids, the post is here for your perusal. I don’t know if I’m going to get any response at all (remember how happy I was to get two whole votes on my poll regarding what I should do class-and-background-wise for my Tav!Smiler in BG3?), but it’s out there now, so I can at least say I tried. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that either someone DOES give me some advice, or that the July 1st patch fixes this issue!
D) And finally, right before we ate, I started working on another post I’ve been meaning to write up for a while in my drafts – one explaining my ideas for my hopeful Teen Valicer Save file! Covering how I think this file is going to be exactly the right level of complex for me not to get overwhelmed (unlike some of my past challenge ideas – I did love throwing overly-complicated rules into those), and some of what I want to do with my beloved OT3 as they brave high school, college, and whatever lies beyond! I got up to talking a bit about what I want to do with Smiler specifically before lunch happened – hopefully tomorrow I can work on it some more so I can use it as my post for this Wednesday’s queue!
Whew – lot going on over here today! But it felt good to make progress on some stuff that’s been sitting around in the back of my head for ages!
Superliminal: I played through the “Cubism” level today in my search for collectibles – in fact, I played through it twice, because the guide I was using to collect all said collectibles for some reason didn’t have them listed in order of where they were in the level (instead grouping them via category), so I had to use the level select to go through it again and get the chess pieces I missed the first time. *grumbles* Guide creator, you let me down here! But I did get everything in the end, including:
A) The constellation room – which was hidden in the darkness beside the entrance to the backstage area that leads to the level proper (it’s just past the reception area, with a sign in it warning you of upcoming dice); you have to turn around and go to the left of the doorway into the shadows, and that leads you down a dark hallway into the star-filled room! The constellation this time was a coffee cup – took me a minute to get the stars lined up properly, but it wasn’t very hard to do. :) I like these rooms – all the stars everywhere are so pretty!
B) The pink king chess piece – stuck in the vent in the room where, when you try to pick up the die to form a stair up to the exit up on the ledge, you find it’s in two pieces. The best way to get at it, as per my guide, is to bring the die you used to get up onto the ledge in the previous puzzle room into the two-piece die room, then use that and the two die halves to form a big stairway up to the vent so you can peek in and click on it. The guide said you have to get really close, but I found that as long as you’re close enough to see it, you should be able to click it.
C) The pink queen chess piece – hidden atop another rectangular vent piece in the backstage room past the bit where you have to drop through a hole in the floor to proceed (because picking up the die in the hallway picks up a chunk of floor with it, and if you try to continue through the art gallery, you come to a taped-off doorway you can’t go through), just next to the soda vending machine. The guide recommended that you bring the grate from the vent you have to slip through to access the room to form a ramp up to the piece – I managed to get my grate the right size, but couldn’t get it at QUITE the right angle, so I had to jump up and down atop the grate a few times before I managed to successfully click on the piece and collect it. At least I know that’s a viable strategy for some of the harder stuff to get!
D) The first blueprint of the level – hidden in the room with all the dice that, when you try to pick them up, prove to be instead the tips of big hunks of wood that you can slide either up and down or left and right (with the way you get out of the room being to slide one die into the floor, then slide another one across the room over it to form a platform you can jump off of to reach the ledge where the exit is). The blueprint is stored atop a vent high up on the wall that, when you click on it, proves to be another wood chunk you can slide in and out – the guide said that the best way to reach was to get out of the room, grab the rubber duck out of the bucket in the backstage area just past it (where it’s floating around on the water the bucket’s collected under a drip), then take it back into the room and make it big before getting it to fall in a position where you can climb up it and onto the extended vent to see the blueprint. Which is a task and a half, let me tell you, because not only does the rubber duck squeak adorably whenever you pick it up, it also bounces around much less adorably whenever you let it go! It took a bit of doing for me to get it both big enough AND to land in a position where I could climb it! But I succeeded after a few tries and a bunch of duck bouncing, and I collected the blueprint –
Aaaand I just realized that there’s probably a way easier way to do this – get atop the die that you need to slide into the floor to escape the room, and pull it up underneath you until you reach the vent. Because I’m pretty positive the game will happily let you manipulate things you’re standing on. *facepalm* Well, nothing to do about it now!
E) And the second blueprint of the level – hidden atop the big ledge in the final room of the level, which normally you can’t get up onto because there’s nothing you can use to climb up there (no dice or pieces of same that you’re allowed to pick up). As per the guide, I beat this restriction by grabbing one of the cubes that the first big die in the previous room breaks into when you try to use it to climb up another ledge and taking it with me as I made my way into the second big die and down the drop into the final room that it hides (again, weird game) to use as a stair. And to my delight, once I got atop that ledge, I not only found the blueprint around the corner, but also a fire extinguisher to empty! :D Because I’m still trying to get the achievement for emptying all of THOSE too. So yes, nice bonus, that!
So yay, another level cleared! Totally cleared, in fact, as – as per the level select screen – I’d gotten everything in there except the chess pieces when I had to do my second run. Still missing a fire extinguisher somewhere in “Optical,” though...and a bunch of stuff in future levels, but we’ll worry about THOSE when we get to them. Anyway, here is my list of Other Fun Stuff I found in the level while going around solving puzzles and trying to get goodies:
I. I noticed last time that the computer in the reception area you go through while on your way to the levels proper shows a chess game between a handful of pink and blue pieces, with a bunch of other “invisible” pieces shown only via outline; however, when I looked at it this time, I realized that I think it updates to show what pieces you have collected/can collect in previous levels! Because the chess game on the computer screen this featured a blue pawn, a blue knight, and a pink rook, and – okay, my guide says that the pieces you can get from the previous level are a blue pawn, a blue knight, and a pink pawn, but it’s possible whoever made it didn’t get a good look at the rook chess piece. (In fact, thinking about it, I’m not sure if that “king” I picked up really was a king, or a bishop…) The point is, I think the computer keeps track of your chess collectibles! I’ll have to check again when I pass through reception on my way into the “Blackout” level next time – would be neat if the image DOES update to show what pieces you’ve collected!
II. I advanced my ongoing quest to learn all the “tag lines” of the various sodas dispensed by the vending machines you find in reception and the backstage areas by purchasing and reading the cans for “Random Soda” (whose tag line is, appropriately, just a bunch of question marks – “???????????????”) and “Mini Soda” (“The North Star Drink,” apparently – and yes, when it gets vended, it is EXTREMELY tiny). Just gotta do “Water Soda” now!
III. However, while getting my initial soda, I also learned that you can read at least some of the tag lines on the buttons for the various sodas on the vending machine itself, if you get up REALLY close to it – and that the one for “Diet Soda” is different on its button! The can just reads “Smooooooooooth!” but the button reads “Made with real avocados!” Referencing the fact that it’s in a light green can, I guess. I wonder why they changed it on the can itself? Mystery for the ages…
IV. There’s an interesting-looking wiring diagram by a “Dr. K” in the side office where you find the first cube in the first room of the level proper...along with a gap in the wall that really SEEMS like it should lead to a secret, but does not. I would have stuck something fun in there myself!
V. And in the floor crawlspace area you have to walk through, there’s three things you can pick up and take with you into the next room if you so choose – the grate over the vent you need to crawl though; a big golden chess piece, lurking in the darkness; and the light illuminating the vent! I knew about the grate and the chess piece, but I don’t think I ever really realized you could take the light with you too. I wonder if it would have been easier to climb up THAT to the queen chess piece…
And there you have it – another level of the Superliminal Collectibles Run completed! Next time, we take on the horror-themed level “Blackout,” and I read through the entire section in my guide BEFORE starting to play so I can get everything in one run. :P
Writing: I may have got to this late, but I got to it, typing up another page on “The Van Dort Vacancy!” This chunk featured Alice changing into the servant’s dress Smiler grabbed for her at the end of the last page, commenting on how this wasn’t how she expected to spend her day, and how she’d love to keep the dress if she could, given how nice it was (Cheshire let her know that if she did her job well, she’d be rewarded – though she shouldn’t assume the “job” was the one in front of her – an annoyed Alice was like “enjoying confusing me again, I see”); Alice seeing Smiler in their Van Dort livery and being like “it is very weird to see you in anything other than yellow or black” (a sentiment Smiler themselves agreed with); and the pair getting their aprons on while Alice prepared to stow her bag with their clothes in an empty cubby, talking about how Victor would probably help them get the bag back later, and how angry he seemed about Barry the butler calling them “not the same caliber” as the guests...which led to them admitting to each other that they weren’t exactly keen on leaving him here, given his parents decided to throw a party for the upper crust rather than dedicating all their resources to finding their son. Alice isn’t sure what they can do about it, though...meaning tomorrow, Smiler shall remind her that Elder Gutknecht’s house can TECHNICALLY fit three...
Workout: Back on the bike tonight, and back with the Oxventure channel as I finally started “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 1: Folkmoot!” The first episode of the first season of their new Oxventure D&D series (now that the original “Oxventurers’ Guild” characters have been largely retired apart from the occasional live show), featuring a whole new setting and a whole new set of weirdos to cause chaos within it. And judging by what Johnny told us about the world and the special homebrew mechanics they’re using, there’s going to be a loooot of chaos… The first half-hour or so that I pedaled through today featured:
A) Johnny introducing everyone to the world of Heorth, a land rich in magic that was once ruled by giants; then colonized by the Wild Folk once they went away; then found by the “common folk,” who – after a some initial troubles – found a way to live in peace with the Wild Folk in the eleven regions that made up the land (Wyrdwood, pronounced “weirdwood,” being the central one). Things were great for centuries, with the common folk living in harmony with their fey neighbors thanks to various bargains and treaties they’d worked out, and using magic to do things like make their horses run supernaturally fast for long periods of time without injury, or speed the growth and yield of crops –
Aaand then some sort of mysterious sonic boom seemed to split the sky, and after that, magic became incredibly unstable, prone to causing weird and random side effects when cast. The infrastructure of Heorth promptly collapsed, so reliant was it on magic, and the titular “folkmoot” was called in Wyrdwood so people could come and discuss the problem and how to fix it. Because it needs very badly to be fixed – both to save the roads and crops and whatnot, but ALSO because the various bargains they’ve struck with the Wild Folk require magic to be renewed…
B) Everyone introducing their new characters, who found themselves on the road to the folkmoot for one reason or another:
I. Luke is Happen, a human Swarmkeeper Ranger (constantly surrounded by little sprites with very big eyes and LOTS of teeth) who lives in the Balewood, another part of Heorth, and is part of a religious order that venerates the goddess of luck and thus rejoices in the extremes of good luck AND bad luck – he was on the road (or in a hedge beside it, technically) because, well, order in his order was breaking down, with arguments breaking out in the aftermath of magic breaking, and he wanted to venture out and find a way to fix things and restore peace
II. Jane is Willowfine, an aasimar (aka a partial angel, with soft feathers growing from her shoulders and star-shaped freckles) cleric from the village of Langtree in Fenfold – she was on the road because she’d been sent by the Great Mother of her village to see what had happened to magic and how to fix it, because without it, her village would be ruined
III. Andy is Robin Oatcake, a human commoner (aka someone with NO special skills at all) from Wenlock, a village in the east – he was on the road because weird shit had been happening to him lately (like waking up in strange places, or people straight-up disappearing around him), and when he went to the local apothecary and had his sickness drawn out and put into a goat, the goat somehow ended up taking over his house. As in, it took over the lease and everything. XD So Robin decided to set off and see the world, and hopefully figure out what was happening to him along the way! Also, worth noting that he has interesting two-toned hair – one side blond, one side black. I wonder if that will be important in any way…
IV. Ellen is Cressida Blackwater, a human-elf hybrid wizard from the port town of Metan-Sei – she was on the road because she was fleeing the town after the failure of magic caused the spells on the money in the bank she and her family managed to fail, leading to a lot of townsfolk suddenly losing a lot of cash. Which, um, as you might expect, they were not happy about. In fact, one was unhappy enough that he cursed Cressida – and because of the instability of magic, that caused her to grow a pair of ram’s horns. She pretty much hopped the first carriage out of there after that!
V. And Mike is Lug, a firbolg (according to dnd5e.wikidot.com, these are “distant cousins of giants” – oooh – who have a strong connection to nature; looks-wise he’s a blue-gray humanoid with long ears, as per his character art) barbarian who lived in the Wyrdwood itself and helped guide people through it for a small fee – he was on the road because...well, he was being chased by ten angry farmers with various farming implements, who thought he was responsible for the breaking of magic and wanted to kill him as a result. Uh-oh.
C) Everyone meeting via the medium of seeing Lug being chased by the farmers, which resulted in –
I. Lug getting pulled into the hedges by Happen, who proceeded to get very up close and personal with the unnerved barbarian because he wanted to bask in his aura of bad luck; Lug ALSO did not like Happen’s little sprite friends with all the teeth
II. Robin attempting to send the farmers off in the wrong direction, only to roll poorly on the Charisma check to convince them; fortunately the farmers rolled poorly on their attack roll, meaning Robin only got a light clout around the ear for saying that maybe the guy went up into the sky XD
III. Cressida attempting to cast the “Friends” cantrip to make the farmers more agreeable while talking to them, only for the NPC she was talking to to roll a nat 20 on resisting her magic (though he at least did still talk with her, explaining about why they wanted to kill the firbolg for apparently helping break magic). This at least allowed Johnny to explain the “magic debt” system they were using for this campaign, where every spell someone casts increases their “debt” to magic, and then at the end of each session everyone who has a magical debt has to roll the terrifyingly big D100. If they roll their number or under, Johnny will present them with an envelope, and the next time they do magic, they must open the envelope to discover what the consequences will be. Johnny said that SOME of the consequences might be good, or at least a mix of good and bad, but my money’s on most of them being bad…
IV. Robin attempting to pretend to search the hedge that Lug and Happen were hiding in to give them time to escape – only for Happen to yank HIM into the hedge too XD
V. Willowfine desperately trying to distract the farmers with a long rambling story about firbolgs and how they couldn’t possibly be responsible for the breaking of magic – and actually rolling well enough on the Charisma check to keep their attention despite them angrily demanding moments earlier that everyone either help them search or get out of their way XD
VI. And Happen, realizing the men weren’t going away anytime soon, popping out of his hedge and casting Web upon them, snaring all but the two strongest and starting combat! So far, Happen’s taken a sickle to the shoulder (thrown, causing a nasty gash by his collarbone), while Willowfine has avoided injury, but had the chainmail under her robes revealed, causing the farmers to think she’s a brigand and this was some sort of ambush. I left it off with the turn order turning to Lug – we’ll see how he handles these men, and where the story goes from here, tomorrow!
Other:
-->Despite the hot weather, we did get out for beanbags (it wasn’t oppressively humid and there was a bit of a breeze, plus we play in the shade of the house, so it wasn’t horrible out there) – and I ended up having a really good day this time winning three out of five games, yay! :D One in three throws no less! Dad won the other too, and Mom...well, poor Mom did her best. XD Final scores were me 2-W-W-3-W; Dad W-2-2-W-2; Mom 3-3-3-2-3. I’ll take that, especially after how shitty I did on Friday! Though hopefully if we play tomorrow, Mom will get a win – it’s more fun if everybody wins a round.
-->And despite getting to it a bit later than I wanted and getting interrupted midway through working on the second message because of the above beanbags, I did answer all of Moose’s messages, hooray! Didn’t want to leave them sitting around any longer – ball’s in your court, Moose!
Whew! You see why I didn't have the time to watch any videos. Hell, I'm STILL going to bed later than I should just because it took me that long to finish up all that! Yeah, delaying the further adventures of Lady Aria was definitely the right idea...anyway, yes, I need to go get some sleep, since I DO have work in the morning! Night all!
