Mostly Better Friday
Aug. 1st, 2025 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickThe weather was nicer -- some early rain, but then the sun came out and it was nice and bright without being either overly hot or humid -- my day was less irritating, and I had a good gaming session today. Major annoyance right now is one of my eyes being irritated for no reason I can guess. >( It's really tender and keeps tearing up, bleeh. Hopefully it'll be better in the morning! In the meantime, here is my write-up for the day!
Work – As stated, today was not nearly as annoying as yesterday – probably because it wasn’t as long. :P I spent a good chunk of the morning doing the GL, then most of the rest of the day catching up on other stuff – calling a lady back who’d left a few messages regarding updating her credit card on her Appeal pledge; making sure the guy who called in to update his card on his Capital Campaign pledge had the right number of payments scheduled; making sure I had properly updated my Spreadsheet of Credit Card Stuff and Document Of Credit Card Issues with the latest notes; fielding some questions from my coworker as she did some reversals and contacted a guy about a pledge overpayment; and – not long before we left – calling someone with an overpayment and setting them up with a refund (which involved refunding them the entire amount of their last payment and redoing it at the correct amount, which I trusted more than trying to do a partial refund). Nothing too painful, in the end! I was most annoyed about my commute home, honestly – traffic just STOPPED on the main drag at a certain point, which utterly confused and irritated me. But then again, that road is often a mess, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised...point is, I got through it all, and now it is the weekend, yay~
Fallout 4 – Had another successful Fallout Friday today, booting up the game right after I got home and sending Victor and Ada deeper into the Mechanist’s lair –
A) Picked up with where I left off last week, with Victor and Ada on some mysterious tracks in a mysterious partially-collapsed tunnel, in front of a mysterious shutter. I promptly had Victor press the button to open the mysterious shutter and prepared myself for a fight –
But rather than a wave of enemies, Victor was faced with the wreckage of a huge processing room of some kind! With giant metal mechanical arms dangling from wall-mounted tracks near the ceiling; piles of dirt and sludge and robot parts and various chunks of rusted metal (including at least one car shell) looming all around; dirty water sloshing around over the floor; the tracks from the tunnel stretching all the way across to the other side of the room, a few more carts filled with barrels and boxes rusting away on them –
And something with a bright red light for an eye patrolling the piles of dirt and rubble at the far end of the space. Aha – there were enemies in here, just as I suspected! I had Victor VATS it (learning it was a Cybermech Scrapbot in the process), then carefully move forward a bit...then – once he had a good shot – take it out with a single bullet from the Two-Shot! Which would have been more impressive –
Had I not realized an instant too late there was another gas leak in this room, just in time for everything in front of Victor to ignite in a massive fireball. O.O Fortunately, by sheer luck, Victor was JUST outside the danger zone, and I had him back up in a hurry as the flames consumed all the gas in the air, lingering briefly on the shell of the car before finally going out. Yeeps. O.O Well, that could have ended badly! Fortunately, instead it just looked kinda badass. XD Still, gotta be more careful looking out for these gas leaks!
B) With the flames out (and a second Scrapbot killed before it could lunge out at him and Ada from the fiery wreckage around them), Victor and Ada carefully proceeded forward, examining their surroundings for more trouble. Which led to them discovering that the metal boxes on the first cart were genuine containers and could be looted for goodies like an aluminum can, yay. XD Anyway, they’d gotten just past the second cart (which had no goodie containers, boo) when I noticed Victor’s [HIDDEN] brackets wobbling and began having him VATS the areas, looking for enemies. Sure enough, there was a Servomech Scrapbot playing dead among the rubble piles just ahead. I had Victor sneak forward juuust enough to trigger it to start moving (so it would be an enemy and not just a random bot – I worry that if I kill an enemy that’s still green, the game will go “that’s a murder, let’s add it to the stats” and I’d like to keep that number as low as possible, please), then kill the damn thing with another solid blast from the Two-Shot –
Only for Victor’s brackets to suddenly go from [HIDDEN] to [DANGER], and Ada to start going on about how there was something else nearby. I whipped Victor around to see another Scrapbot running in, having gotten the jump on him and Ada – but as the robot was, once again, focusing its efforts on Ada, Victor was easily able to take it out. It flew over a nearby rubble pile from the force of the shot, and after grabbing the ammo off its corpse, I turned back to the original hidden Servomech Scrapbot –
And immediately started laughing because it had gotten a bad case of Bethesda Physics and had literally started breakdancing. Like, seriously, it was spinning on top of its head just like those guys do. It eventually calmed down so I could raid its corpse for goodies, but man. XD One of the times I’ve wished I knew how to record myself playing video games so I could share the nonsense with you all! A screenshot wouldn’t have done it justice, trust me.
C) Once all the robot corpses had calmed down and been looted, I continued having Victor and Ada explore the space – the far end of the room past all their combatants contained the beginnings of another tunnel for the carts to go through on their tracks (blocked both by rubble and another metal shutter), with a mysterious unknown metal box above it, while to the right was a path through the water leading past some generators and up to a set of stairs. I thus turned right and had Victor and Ada make their way past the generators (noting with interest they were part of “Power Substation B,” aka the station that tried to horn in on Brandon McDaniel’s illegal cigarette vending machine grift) and up the stairs to “Facility Management.” Up top, past a very radioactive little hallway right behind the generators (I had Victor move fast, as you might imagine!), was a big sort of balcony area, with steam hissing up through the grating floor, plus a long room with a bunch of computer equipment and various containers to loot. I had Victor proceed down, grab and use some Rad-Away he found in one of the First Aid boxes (hey, we want him to be on top of his game, don’t we?), snatch some duct tape and vegetable starch out of a nearby toolbox (I guess they were experimenting with vegan glues? :P), pop open a novice-locked ammo box for, well, ammo (even if he can’t use it, he can always sell it) –
Then grab and play the Facilities Director holotape he found sitting on a cabinet next to the Facilities Management terminal! Turns out the director was a fellow named Tony Deluca, and the tape was all about him complaining about how the filtration system was on the fritz again, and how if people don’t stop smoking, he was going to sue for health benefits (before noting that THAT would never happen). He also said that he had a guy looking at the system, and if the fan needed to be replaced again, he was firing someone named “Fadley,” because the kid simply COULDN’T do the job, even if he was some hotshot’s son. *grimace* Hopefully the fan did not need to be replaced, as – knowing what I do about how corrupt every government institution was in the Fallout universe – I don’t think that would have gone down well for Tony! *shakehead* Anyway, I decided then to proceed on and see what lurked at the end of the room before checking out the terminal –
But as I started in that direction, I became aware of a certain wibbliness in the air. Yup, in keeping with Tony’s complaints about the filtration system being busted, there was another gas leak here! Glad I’d spotted this one early, I had Victor retreat to a safe distance before firing a shot into it to ignite the gas. Cue another air-cleansing fireball, and me being relieved I hadn’t been caught in the middle of it!
D) Since I’d already retreated, I decided it now made more sense for Victor to check out the terminal first instead of continuing onward right away, so once the fireball was burned out, I had Victor head back to the far end of the room and boot up the Facilities Management Terminal! However, there wasn’t that much interesting on it – just some reports on “Unit Tasks” (noting which robots had been assigned to which duties – one was helping with repairs (or possibly being repaired), one was on the loading dock, one’s mission to gather scrap had been aborted, and one’s mission to help with disposal had been completed); some “Repair Orders” (featuring a Protectron with a distorted voice, a Mr. Gutsy with a nonfunctional middle eyestalk, and a Protectron with a missing left leg from an assembly accident); and some “Facility Requests” (with an approved order from Production requesting various supplies like copper wire and steel sheets, and a pending order from R&D asking for autoclave bags, sharps bins, and some isopropyl alcohol). *shrug* I guess they can’t all have fun and/or interesting personal logs on them! Still a shame, though. With everything on the terminal examined, I had Victor proceed down to the end of the room, past the weapon bench and the lockers, and around the corner to see what was there –
Only to be jumpscared by another of the Mechanist’s eyebots! Who warned Victor that he may be getting closer, but the Mechanist was not about to falter! Her robots were going to make sure that the Commonwealth suffered no further harm – justice WOULD prevail! The robot then revved up its weapon, preparing to make a nuisance of itself –
Aaaand Victor easily shot it out of the sky. XD Like, I didn’t even have to use VATS (though that was partially because I’d had a brainfart moment regarding what button it was). As Ada said earlier, using eyebots for these messages wasn’t the brightest idea – they’re not exactly the sturdiest messengers! Victor thus looted the bot, stepped over it and proceed onward onto a small balcony –
Next to which was a big old platform. That was swaying a little dangerously. And that had a big old button on it. Indicating that it was something you rode across the top of the room.
Cue me being like “nope, Victor got tired recently, and if this turns out to be some sort of weird psuedo-on-rails shooting section, I want him in top form to handle this thing.” So I turned around and had Victor set up his tent and go to bed for a tight eight hours. :P Sorry Mechanist – I know you’re probably eager for our battle, but Victor’s gotta get his shut-eye!
E) After a solid snooze, Victor woke up refreshed and – well, desperately needing to go to the bathroom. *nods* I’ve been there, buddy. XD After using his port-a-potty in a safe spot near the edge of the room, I had him pack all his stuff up, then head to the platform, hop on, and press the button to ride the ride! With his gun at the ready, juuuust in case. However, as it turned out, there were no enemies lying in wait for him – the platform just took him and Ada across the room, past the inert industrial production arms and over to the big metal box over the tunnel I’d seen before –
Which now opened to reveal a room inside, with some repair equipment and robot parts scattered about! Victor and Ada headed in, raided it for goodies (Abraxo Cleaner and duct tape, yay), then headed around the U-Bend at the side –
To find another access port guarding another MST3K door! Ada opened it up, and they found themselves in another decrepit hallway, in front of some wire mesh fencing overlooking a big empty dark room. I was like “oh crap, have we reached the boss arena already? Is it time for the Mechanist fight? We’re apparently SUPER close to her, and I don’t know if I want to do the boss fight now or save it for a separate playsession…”
But no – as it turned out, there was no way to access the “boss arena,” sealed as it was behind metal grating and mag-lock doors. Instead, the duo found themselves following the hall around to another MST3K door, this one with a surgical bed next to it and a sign indicating it led into the Research Wing. Ada scanned the port; the door did its thing; and the pair cautiously entered a small reception/lab area, with some shelves and lockers with scientific equipment, a door into something called “Forfeiture” –
F) And a desk with a terminal on it! The Watch Station terminal, for Holding Cell A specifically. Victor grabbed all the drugs that were hidden in the desk, along with a Mr. Gutsy model (though I very deliberately avoided the holotape with a password to the “Forfeiture terminal”), then sat down and logged into the computer to see what was on it. Happily, this was a more interesting computer than the last, with four personal logs on it – three from an Army scrub named Broadrick, and one from his coworker Esteban –
I. The first from Broadrick talked about how a bunch more “subjects” had just arrived from one of the local prisons – he wasn’t sure what they’d done, but they had to be the worst of the worst society had to offer if they were being trucked here. He noted that the prisoners probably had no idea what they were in store for and how they would soon be wishing they’d served their sentence anywhere else.
II. The second from Broadrick talked about how rumors were going around among the guards that the prisoners were having their brains cut out and put into the robots or something like that – and how he didn’t know how to feel about that. Because, all right, he’d known they were being used as test subjects, and that the tests were intense, but the idea that they were just being straight-up cut to pieces...it didn’t really sit right with him. Because he’d joined the Army to serve his country and protect his fellow Americans, no matter what. He resolved to keep quiet for the moment, though.
III. The third from Broadrick talked about how the rumors had gotten worse, and that the prisoners were apparently planning on rioting – and that Broadrick couldn’t really blame them if that’s how they were being treated. Esteban told him to initiate a Gamma-IX alert, but Broadrick didn’t want to push that panic button unless he REALLY had to. Instead, he was going to go straight to General Rawlings and let him know that they needed to stop the experiments – prisoners or not, this was just too far!
IV. And the fourth, from Esteban, revealed that Broadrick had been reassigned out of the facility after his chat with the general (probably on latrine duty somewhere in Anchorage), and that Esteban had gotten his watch job and had happily initiated the Gamma-IX alert to stop the prisoners from rioting. Because he didn’t give a shit about the inmates – he only cared about getting the robobrains up and running as fast as possible to fight the enemy!
Basically, yeah, the whole thing was a warning that, if you grew a conscience in this universe, you were going to get fucked over, as only the shitheads got ahead. *sigh* Insert your own commentary about how much that’s like our current world here.
G) Terminal entries read, I had Victor explore the rest of the room, which resulted in him finding some more junk, a wrecked terminal on a desk, and a door leading to Holding Cell A and the Research Labs. As it was getting near the end of my playsession, though, I decided that Victor should go and check out “Forfeiture” first, and sent him back to open that door and poke his head in. Forfeiture proved to be a big room with a desk with another wrecked terminal on it (which confused me for a moment, because I thought there was a terminal to hack in this room?), some lockers and file cabinets (the latter of which contained a technical document, sweet), a wooden box that was full of plates for some reason (???) –
And a door into “Property Storage.” Which led into a very dark room with a vague impression of stuff inside. :p Once Victor put his Pip-Boy light on, though, I could see that it was full of shelves stacked with various boxes; some more lockers; ANOTHER box full of plates (why? I get this is where the prisoners had all their stuff stored, but who brings PLATES???); some suitcases (with clothes, bobby pins, and even some ammo inside); and a small selection of hats on one of the shelves (Victor is happy with his Silver Shroud hat, thanks :P). Oh, and a terminal next to another door, which I quickly realized was the one that the password was meant for. Despite being Master-locked, it was easily hacked (lots of good bits of junk code I could activate to remove dud passwords), and Victor soon got into the back room –
Where holy crap the goodies. :D TONS of ammo, a few weapons should you be inclined (including 10mm pistols and combat knives), chems ranging from Rad-X to Jet to Med-X, some pre-War money stuffed in a duffel bag, and even a gold bar in the open safe with the scientist skeleton next to it! I guess SOMEONE was trying to grab some last-minute necessities when the bombs hit. Victor happily scooped up as much ammo and as many drugs as he could carry (plus the gold bar, because that’s useful both for crafting and for trade) –
And I wrapped up the play session by having him head back out and around to the doors leading to Holding Cell A and the Research Labs! :D Next time, we go through those areas and see just what horrors science hath wrought! They’re going to be pretty horrific, that I can tell you now.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – one last ride on the bike this week, one last turn with “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 6: Shapes in the Mist!” With the final chunklet of the episode featuring –
A) The gang continuing their fight against the barksatyrs – or, to give them their canonical name, the Goodfellows (yes, mobster jokes were indeed made) – and their weird magically-animated bear-thing! Which included:
I. Willowfine’s Spirit Guardians utterly VAPORIZING four of the Goodfellows...but also causing something in her mind to crack, hampering her ability to tell truth from falsehood and deduce things about people. AKA, the envelope decreed that all of Willowfine’s Wisdom/Insight rolls would be made by Johnny, who would NOT be telling Jane what number they got – just informing her of the general vibes. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been – Johnny made it clear that this did not apply to ALL rolls involving the Wisdom stat, just Insight (meaning her cleric spells were safe) – but still. Poor Willowfine!
II. Johnny attempting to have the bear hit Happen with a vine tendril, but missing...and then remembering the bear was prone anyway, so all it could do was stand up. Though they made it stand up in a cool way, yanking out the arrows and breaking them in its hand-paws
III. Lug successfully sprinting over to the leader of the Goodfellows and grappling him, but not making the Intimidation check to get him to call off the monster, because poor Lug has very poor Charisma
IV. Cressida smacking the bear thing with a couple of Scorching Rays, then – taking advantage of the fact that she’s primarily an Illusion Wizard – using her bonus action to create a Minor Illusion of what SHE thought the Shimmering Lady looked like (kind of like her mother, with blond hair and shimmery blue highlights), calling out to the Goodfellows to let the people in the pit go so they could find her. Because, well, they were all in now, might as well work with what Happen yelled before! The Goodfellows surrounding the pit were taken in entirely and tried to get their leader over there, only to be confused to see him being apparently hugged by Lug…
V. Happen then ATTEMPTING to lunge at the bear with his shortswords to attack its head with the help of his sprites – but the die roll came up 1 (Praise Cadence), so instead the sprites bodied him directly into the bear’s mouth, where it chomped on him for 11 piercing damage. Happen was like “this is an excellent opportunity for me to test my faith.” XD
VI. The bear plunging one of its vine tendrils into the ground, where it emerged as a grasping vine that absolutely BODIED Cressida into the wall – knocking her unconscious, uh-oh (hilariously, the illusion actually stayed because it’s NOT a concentration spell – it just kinda stood there blankly instead)
VII. Morven, seeing the trouble her friends were in, hitting the bear with a fire-based Sorcerous Burst (which rolled over the bear’s back in a MOST epic fashion) and leaping into the pit to get more up close and personal with the problem
VIII. Willowfine ALMOST leaping into the pit to cast – don’t remember the name of the spell, but it stabilized Cressida so she at least wasn’t dying – only to remember that actually, with the pit now shallower, Cressida was in range without her leaping in
IX. And Lug finally bringing things to a close by succeeding his second Intimidation check to get the leader to call off the bear, causing the guy to let out a high-pitched noise that made the bear instantly stop what it was doing and return to being a collection of vines and planks covering the wall. A MUCH THICKER collection of vines and planks covering the wall, granted, as the pit was now shallower, but still. XD
B) Willowfine casting Aid on Cressida and Happen to boost their hit points (with Cressida finally waking up woozily...just in time to see a spectral rabbit hop into and meld with her shadow...being on five hit points, all she could manage upon seeing this was “bunny” XD) while the Goodfellows leader desperately pleaded with Lug (who was marching him to the edge of the pit) that this was all a misunderstanding. Lug let him go to explain himself, and he obligingly explained that they were just desperate to find the missing Shimmering Lady (as, without her presence in the river, the woods here were slowly dying – and I presume that they, as people, weren’t doing too well either), and had just automatically assumed that both North Team and this team had something to do with it. In fact, they captured this team mainly because the previous team did a runner (they never even got the bear set on them!) and figured that was some sort of admission of guilt. Johnny described them as being guilty, but less in the “we shouldn’t have done this” kind of way and more in the “we shouldn’t have gotten caught” kind of way. XD Lug said that they were only too willing to try and find the Shimmering Lady themselves – they could see how much trouble this part of the Wyrdwood was in – and the leader offered to personally escort them to where the North Team had disappeared, then (after Happen asked if he could lead them there to see what they could find), the river, so they could get an idea of what the hell was going on. He even let them have a nice rest, giving them a beautiful cold broth (unfortunately rather like the terrible soup from Oakburn) that allowed them to get all the benefits of a long rest from a short one, yay. :) Once everyone was sufficiently refreshed, they then headed out, with the leader bringing them to a spot near a steep hill, just around a tree –
Only to stop, confused. Because rather than the spot being empty, it was occupied. Occupied – by none other than the Poor Man in his tattered coat and weird-ass hat! O.O Morven was like “motherfucker.” XD
C) Johnny leaving things on a cliffhanger there and enacting the Rolling Rite – and while Morven, Willowfine, Cressida, and Lug all managed to avoid an envelope, Happen rolled poorly and thus received an envelope! Nobody’s sure if it will be a “Praise Cadence” moment or not when he opens it. XD
So yeah – pretty epic episode! Very glad we didn’t lose poor Cressida before the end of the first season, that’s for sure. XD And hey – looks like next week, we might actually get to learn what the Poor Man’s deal is! At least in part. I’m sure Morven is itching to shake the answers out of this guy. XD
2. Update the FO4 Playthrough Progression Doc: Check – I had to do it in two parts (doing roughly half before my workout, and the other half after dinner and game night), but I did get it done! And while it was pretty much the same as what I detailed above – the gang heading into the giant wrecked production room in Facilities and fighting the robots there (along with accidentally igniting a gas leak); making their way up to the upper offices and finding the holotape from Tony Deluca and the Facilities Management terminal (and DELIBERATELY igniting a gas leak); getting jumpscared by another Mechanist eyebot before shooting it; taking a rest before getting on the wibbly platform ride to the other side of the room just in case there were enemies to shoot (there weren’t, which completely confused them); and making their way into the Research Wing, where they found the logs of Broadrick on the Watch Station terminal and a goodies jackpot in the back of Forfeiture – there were of course a few small changes:
A) Because Alice was there with Victor and Ada in the fanfic version, she was the one to spot the patrolling Cybermech Scrapbot – and subsequently freaked out a bit when Victor fired on it and accidentally ignited the gas leak he realized was there too late. Victor profusely apologized to her once all robots were dead and the fires burned out, and Alice assured him she knew he hadn’t done it deliberately but to PLEASE be more careful; Victor promised, and – upon smelling gas in the upstairs room – made sure to tell Alice to skedaddle for a bit before he shot into the leak to ignite it and burn it up
B) Ada was the one to spot the scrapbot playing dead, and Alice was the one to take it out (Victor let her have the kill as a sort of apology for the “accidental fireball” thing). And then Ada took out the one that attacked them while they were distracted watching the first “breakdance” all on her own, no help from Victor required. Because she is a competent young robot woman, damn it. :P (And yes, I kept the breakdancing scrapbot – how could I NOT throw that in there?)
C) Given Esteban’s comment in the Watch Station Terminal’s entry about Broadrick probably getting latrine duty at some outpost in Anchorage, I thought it might be interesting if Victor had run into Broadrick at some point – so I made it canon that Broadrick was in fact assigned to Victor’s Canadian outpost (and was indeed on latrine duty). Victor remembered him as a quiet guy who never talked to anyone – just did his tasks and then went off to be alone. :( Alice comforted Victor by saying that Broadrick at least TRIED to make a difference, and that counts for something, but – yeah. I think they both found it extremely depressing!
D) And finally, the looting of the “reception area” of the Research Wing went a little differently, with Victor getting everything out of the Watch Station desk AFTER looking at the terminal (as I figured he and the others would be more interested in what’s on the terminal first), and using the holotape with the password he found at the desk on the Property Storage terminal to unlock the Room Of Goodies (because he didn’t need the hacking XP). He and his were even more confused by the boxes of plates in Forfeiture than I was, though – seriously, why PLATES, Bethesda? Wasn’t there ANY other junk you could put there??
Again, nothing major – well, nothing overtly major, anyway, as Victor knowing Broadrick is a pretty big change, but doesn’t have much of an effect on the current day. Given Broadrick is dead and all (unless I have him show up as a ghoul…) Anyway, I left things off there with them in the same spot as my in-game Victor and Ada – preparing to brave the horrors of Holding Cell A and the Research Labs! I don’t expect they will have a good time.
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Semi-check – I didn’t really have time tonight for a proper video (which was a shame, as Josh Way uploaded another riff AND Proxy Gate Tactician uploaded another video about the places in BG3), but I really wanted to watch something. So I went ahead and watched a trio of Shorts by dragonsdream! Because I enjoyed the last couple I watched to fill in a gap at the end of my workout. :) So tonight, we had –
A) “Auntie Ethel's best vicious mockery lines to companions | Baldur's Gate 3” – a collection of Auntie Ethel’s meanest insults to the companions when she uses the Vicious Mockery spell! Ranging from “Why would Shar love you when no one else does” to Shadowheart, to “I can smell what’s under those bandages, wizard. You’re all rot and ruin” to Gale, to “You’re one thirsty night away from betraying everyone” to Astarion. Basically, this bitch does NOT hold back when she brings out the magical mockery! The clips of all the companions looking upset were paired perfectly with this collection, let me tell you.
B) “Most adorable romance between companions in Baldur's Gate 3” – showing off a unique kiss Origin!Karlach (aka player character Karlach) can have with Wyll during the epilogue party if she romanced him – after talking about the cambions she’s slayed and their plans for the future (which include sneaking into Zariel’s private forge and snatching a smith to fix Karlach’s heart so she can live outside the hells), Wyll tells her “I love you. Hasn’t changed, never will” (or never “wyll” as the subtitles put it XD) and dramatically blows her a kiss, which Karlach catches and puts in her pocket before bouncing like a giddy schoolgirl. :D It’s delightfully cute, and really cements that they’d be a great couple.
C) And “The most overlooked cave in Baldur's Gate 3,” showing off where to find a little cave near the edge of the map (just beside a beach by the “Water Queen’s House,” presumably in Act 3), and what’s inside – a waterfall pouring through the skull of what I presume to be a dragon, or perhaps a sea creature. It’s very cool. :) Hopefully I remember to go check it out when I get to that point in the game!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – I didn’t have anything going on Valice Multiverse, and nothing to add to my queue this week for Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). Though I will have to see if I can get that photoset post I started, showing off the teen versions of Alice, Victor, and Smiler I made for my hypothetical Teen Valicer Save file, sorted this weekend – be nice to have it ready for next week if I can!
Other: A nice day meant we headed outside and played a few rounds of beanbags this afternoon – and this time, it was Dad’s turn to get second constantly while Mom and I traded wins and losses. XD Though I was the ultimate champ, winning two times out of three, so that was nice. :) Final scores were me W-3-W; Dad 2-2-2; Mom 3-W-3. We’ll see if the scores end up a little more even tomorrow!
Yeah, a pretty solid Friday -- though today's Fallout 4 session did make me realize something. Namely, that playing the game, then summarizing the game, then doing the FO4 Playthrough Progression write-up of the session, then summarizing THAT is always going to take loads of time. It doesn't matter what I do, it just is. Meaning -- as much as I like the alliteration of Fallout Friday, or pairing my playsession with the Fallout video Jon of Many A True Nerd posts every Sunday -- I really should be playing Fallout 4 on SATURDAYS. Simply because I don't work out on Saturdays, and thus have a little bit of extra time that I could spend on the above. So yeah, I think I'm going to move to that schedule going forward, see how that works. Not sure what I'll do with my remaining half-day Fridays, but I'm sure I'll think of something!
And with that, I should really head to bed -- it's a Cleaning (but not Laundry, yay) Saturday tomorrow, and I want to make sure I get up early enough to try and get that all done before lunch. Other planned activities include working some more on Smiler's Potion Caravan in Sims 4; writing some more on "The Van Dort Vacancy;" and hopefully managing to find the time to watch both Josh's latest riff and another OXBoxtra list video! We'll see what happens. Night all!
Work – As stated, today was not nearly as annoying as yesterday – probably because it wasn’t as long. :P I spent a good chunk of the morning doing the GL, then most of the rest of the day catching up on other stuff – calling a lady back who’d left a few messages regarding updating her credit card on her Appeal pledge; making sure the guy who called in to update his card on his Capital Campaign pledge had the right number of payments scheduled; making sure I had properly updated my Spreadsheet of Credit Card Stuff and Document Of Credit Card Issues with the latest notes; fielding some questions from my coworker as she did some reversals and contacted a guy about a pledge overpayment; and – not long before we left – calling someone with an overpayment and setting them up with a refund (which involved refunding them the entire amount of their last payment and redoing it at the correct amount, which I trusted more than trying to do a partial refund). Nothing too painful, in the end! I was most annoyed about my commute home, honestly – traffic just STOPPED on the main drag at a certain point, which utterly confused and irritated me. But then again, that road is often a mess, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised...point is, I got through it all, and now it is the weekend, yay~
Fallout 4 – Had another successful Fallout Friday today, booting up the game right after I got home and sending Victor and Ada deeper into the Mechanist’s lair –
A) Picked up with where I left off last week, with Victor and Ada on some mysterious tracks in a mysterious partially-collapsed tunnel, in front of a mysterious shutter. I promptly had Victor press the button to open the mysterious shutter and prepared myself for a fight –
But rather than a wave of enemies, Victor was faced with the wreckage of a huge processing room of some kind! With giant metal mechanical arms dangling from wall-mounted tracks near the ceiling; piles of dirt and sludge and robot parts and various chunks of rusted metal (including at least one car shell) looming all around; dirty water sloshing around over the floor; the tracks from the tunnel stretching all the way across to the other side of the room, a few more carts filled with barrels and boxes rusting away on them –
And something with a bright red light for an eye patrolling the piles of dirt and rubble at the far end of the space. Aha – there were enemies in here, just as I suspected! I had Victor VATS it (learning it was a Cybermech Scrapbot in the process), then carefully move forward a bit...then – once he had a good shot – take it out with a single bullet from the Two-Shot! Which would have been more impressive –
Had I not realized an instant too late there was another gas leak in this room, just in time for everything in front of Victor to ignite in a massive fireball. O.O Fortunately, by sheer luck, Victor was JUST outside the danger zone, and I had him back up in a hurry as the flames consumed all the gas in the air, lingering briefly on the shell of the car before finally going out. Yeeps. O.O Well, that could have ended badly! Fortunately, instead it just looked kinda badass. XD Still, gotta be more careful looking out for these gas leaks!
B) With the flames out (and a second Scrapbot killed before it could lunge out at him and Ada from the fiery wreckage around them), Victor and Ada carefully proceeded forward, examining their surroundings for more trouble. Which led to them discovering that the metal boxes on the first cart were genuine containers and could be looted for goodies like an aluminum can, yay. XD Anyway, they’d gotten just past the second cart (which had no goodie containers, boo) when I noticed Victor’s [HIDDEN] brackets wobbling and began having him VATS the areas, looking for enemies. Sure enough, there was a Servomech Scrapbot playing dead among the rubble piles just ahead. I had Victor sneak forward juuust enough to trigger it to start moving (so it would be an enemy and not just a random bot – I worry that if I kill an enemy that’s still green, the game will go “that’s a murder, let’s add it to the stats” and I’d like to keep that number as low as possible, please), then kill the damn thing with another solid blast from the Two-Shot –
Only for Victor’s brackets to suddenly go from [HIDDEN] to [DANGER], and Ada to start going on about how there was something else nearby. I whipped Victor around to see another Scrapbot running in, having gotten the jump on him and Ada – but as the robot was, once again, focusing its efforts on Ada, Victor was easily able to take it out. It flew over a nearby rubble pile from the force of the shot, and after grabbing the ammo off its corpse, I turned back to the original hidden Servomech Scrapbot –
And immediately started laughing because it had gotten a bad case of Bethesda Physics and had literally started breakdancing. Like, seriously, it was spinning on top of its head just like those guys do. It eventually calmed down so I could raid its corpse for goodies, but man. XD One of the times I’ve wished I knew how to record myself playing video games so I could share the nonsense with you all! A screenshot wouldn’t have done it justice, trust me.
C) Once all the robot corpses had calmed down and been looted, I continued having Victor and Ada explore the space – the far end of the room past all their combatants contained the beginnings of another tunnel for the carts to go through on their tracks (blocked both by rubble and another metal shutter), with a mysterious unknown metal box above it, while to the right was a path through the water leading past some generators and up to a set of stairs. I thus turned right and had Victor and Ada make their way past the generators (noting with interest they were part of “Power Substation B,” aka the station that tried to horn in on Brandon McDaniel’s illegal cigarette vending machine grift) and up the stairs to “Facility Management.” Up top, past a very radioactive little hallway right behind the generators (I had Victor move fast, as you might imagine!), was a big sort of balcony area, with steam hissing up through the grating floor, plus a long room with a bunch of computer equipment and various containers to loot. I had Victor proceed down, grab and use some Rad-Away he found in one of the First Aid boxes (hey, we want him to be on top of his game, don’t we?), snatch some duct tape and vegetable starch out of a nearby toolbox (I guess they were experimenting with vegan glues? :P), pop open a novice-locked ammo box for, well, ammo (even if he can’t use it, he can always sell it) –
Then grab and play the Facilities Director holotape he found sitting on a cabinet next to the Facilities Management terminal! Turns out the director was a fellow named Tony Deluca, and the tape was all about him complaining about how the filtration system was on the fritz again, and how if people don’t stop smoking, he was going to sue for health benefits (before noting that THAT would never happen). He also said that he had a guy looking at the system, and if the fan needed to be replaced again, he was firing someone named “Fadley,” because the kid simply COULDN’T do the job, even if he was some hotshot’s son. *grimace* Hopefully the fan did not need to be replaced, as – knowing what I do about how corrupt every government institution was in the Fallout universe – I don’t think that would have gone down well for Tony! *shakehead* Anyway, I decided then to proceed on and see what lurked at the end of the room before checking out the terminal –
But as I started in that direction, I became aware of a certain wibbliness in the air. Yup, in keeping with Tony’s complaints about the filtration system being busted, there was another gas leak here! Glad I’d spotted this one early, I had Victor retreat to a safe distance before firing a shot into it to ignite the gas. Cue another air-cleansing fireball, and me being relieved I hadn’t been caught in the middle of it!
D) Since I’d already retreated, I decided it now made more sense for Victor to check out the terminal first instead of continuing onward right away, so once the fireball was burned out, I had Victor head back to the far end of the room and boot up the Facilities Management Terminal! However, there wasn’t that much interesting on it – just some reports on “Unit Tasks” (noting which robots had been assigned to which duties – one was helping with repairs (or possibly being repaired), one was on the loading dock, one’s mission to gather scrap had been aborted, and one’s mission to help with disposal had been completed); some “Repair Orders” (featuring a Protectron with a distorted voice, a Mr. Gutsy with a nonfunctional middle eyestalk, and a Protectron with a missing left leg from an assembly accident); and some “Facility Requests” (with an approved order from Production requesting various supplies like copper wire and steel sheets, and a pending order from R&D asking for autoclave bags, sharps bins, and some isopropyl alcohol). *shrug* I guess they can’t all have fun and/or interesting personal logs on them! Still a shame, though. With everything on the terminal examined, I had Victor proceed down to the end of the room, past the weapon bench and the lockers, and around the corner to see what was there –
Only to be jumpscared by another of the Mechanist’s eyebots! Who warned Victor that he may be getting closer, but the Mechanist was not about to falter! Her robots were going to make sure that the Commonwealth suffered no further harm – justice WOULD prevail! The robot then revved up its weapon, preparing to make a nuisance of itself –
Aaaand Victor easily shot it out of the sky. XD Like, I didn’t even have to use VATS (though that was partially because I’d had a brainfart moment regarding what button it was). As Ada said earlier, using eyebots for these messages wasn’t the brightest idea – they’re not exactly the sturdiest messengers! Victor thus looted the bot, stepped over it and proceed onward onto a small balcony –
Next to which was a big old platform. That was swaying a little dangerously. And that had a big old button on it. Indicating that it was something you rode across the top of the room.
Cue me being like “nope, Victor got tired recently, and if this turns out to be some sort of weird psuedo-on-rails shooting section, I want him in top form to handle this thing.” So I turned around and had Victor set up his tent and go to bed for a tight eight hours. :P Sorry Mechanist – I know you’re probably eager for our battle, but Victor’s gotta get his shut-eye!
E) After a solid snooze, Victor woke up refreshed and – well, desperately needing to go to the bathroom. *nods* I’ve been there, buddy. XD After using his port-a-potty in a safe spot near the edge of the room, I had him pack all his stuff up, then head to the platform, hop on, and press the button to ride the ride! With his gun at the ready, juuuust in case. However, as it turned out, there were no enemies lying in wait for him – the platform just took him and Ada across the room, past the inert industrial production arms and over to the big metal box over the tunnel I’d seen before –
Which now opened to reveal a room inside, with some repair equipment and robot parts scattered about! Victor and Ada headed in, raided it for goodies (Abraxo Cleaner and duct tape, yay), then headed around the U-Bend at the side –
To find another access port guarding another MST3K door! Ada opened it up, and they found themselves in another decrepit hallway, in front of some wire mesh fencing overlooking a big empty dark room. I was like “oh crap, have we reached the boss arena already? Is it time for the Mechanist fight? We’re apparently SUPER close to her, and I don’t know if I want to do the boss fight now or save it for a separate playsession…”
But no – as it turned out, there was no way to access the “boss arena,” sealed as it was behind metal grating and mag-lock doors. Instead, the duo found themselves following the hall around to another MST3K door, this one with a surgical bed next to it and a sign indicating it led into the Research Wing. Ada scanned the port; the door did its thing; and the pair cautiously entered a small reception/lab area, with some shelves and lockers with scientific equipment, a door into something called “Forfeiture” –
F) And a desk with a terminal on it! The Watch Station terminal, for Holding Cell A specifically. Victor grabbed all the drugs that were hidden in the desk, along with a Mr. Gutsy model (though I very deliberately avoided the holotape with a password to the “Forfeiture terminal”), then sat down and logged into the computer to see what was on it. Happily, this was a more interesting computer than the last, with four personal logs on it – three from an Army scrub named Broadrick, and one from his coworker Esteban –
I. The first from Broadrick talked about how a bunch more “subjects” had just arrived from one of the local prisons – he wasn’t sure what they’d done, but they had to be the worst of the worst society had to offer if they were being trucked here. He noted that the prisoners probably had no idea what they were in store for and how they would soon be wishing they’d served their sentence anywhere else.
II. The second from Broadrick talked about how rumors were going around among the guards that the prisoners were having their brains cut out and put into the robots or something like that – and how he didn’t know how to feel about that. Because, all right, he’d known they were being used as test subjects, and that the tests were intense, but the idea that they were just being straight-up cut to pieces...it didn’t really sit right with him. Because he’d joined the Army to serve his country and protect his fellow Americans, no matter what. He resolved to keep quiet for the moment, though.
III. The third from Broadrick talked about how the rumors had gotten worse, and that the prisoners were apparently planning on rioting – and that Broadrick couldn’t really blame them if that’s how they were being treated. Esteban told him to initiate a Gamma-IX alert, but Broadrick didn’t want to push that panic button unless he REALLY had to. Instead, he was going to go straight to General Rawlings and let him know that they needed to stop the experiments – prisoners or not, this was just too far!
IV. And the fourth, from Esteban, revealed that Broadrick had been reassigned out of the facility after his chat with the general (probably on latrine duty somewhere in Anchorage), and that Esteban had gotten his watch job and had happily initiated the Gamma-IX alert to stop the prisoners from rioting. Because he didn’t give a shit about the inmates – he only cared about getting the robobrains up and running as fast as possible to fight the enemy!
Basically, yeah, the whole thing was a warning that, if you grew a conscience in this universe, you were going to get fucked over, as only the shitheads got ahead. *sigh* Insert your own commentary about how much that’s like our current world here.
G) Terminal entries read, I had Victor explore the rest of the room, which resulted in him finding some more junk, a wrecked terminal on a desk, and a door leading to Holding Cell A and the Research Labs. As it was getting near the end of my playsession, though, I decided that Victor should go and check out “Forfeiture” first, and sent him back to open that door and poke his head in. Forfeiture proved to be a big room with a desk with another wrecked terminal on it (which confused me for a moment, because I thought there was a terminal to hack in this room?), some lockers and file cabinets (the latter of which contained a technical document, sweet), a wooden box that was full of plates for some reason (???) –
And a door into “Property Storage.” Which led into a very dark room with a vague impression of stuff inside. :p Once Victor put his Pip-Boy light on, though, I could see that it was full of shelves stacked with various boxes; some more lockers; ANOTHER box full of plates (why? I get this is where the prisoners had all their stuff stored, but who brings PLATES???); some suitcases (with clothes, bobby pins, and even some ammo inside); and a small selection of hats on one of the shelves (Victor is happy with his Silver Shroud hat, thanks :P). Oh, and a terminal next to another door, which I quickly realized was the one that the password was meant for. Despite being Master-locked, it was easily hacked (lots of good bits of junk code I could activate to remove dud passwords), and Victor soon got into the back room –
Where holy crap the goodies. :D TONS of ammo, a few weapons should you be inclined (including 10mm pistols and combat knives), chems ranging from Rad-X to Jet to Med-X, some pre-War money stuffed in a duffel bag, and even a gold bar in the open safe with the scientist skeleton next to it! I guess SOMEONE was trying to grab some last-minute necessities when the bombs hit. Victor happily scooped up as much ammo and as many drugs as he could carry (plus the gold bar, because that’s useful both for crafting and for trade) –
And I wrapped up the play session by having him head back out and around to the doors leading to Holding Cell A and the Research Labs! :D Next time, we go through those areas and see just what horrors science hath wrought! They’re going to be pretty horrific, that I can tell you now.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – one last ride on the bike this week, one last turn with “Oxventure D&D: Wyrdwood | Chapter 6: Shapes in the Mist!” With the final chunklet of the episode featuring –
A) The gang continuing their fight against the barksatyrs – or, to give them their canonical name, the Goodfellows (yes, mobster jokes were indeed made) – and their weird magically-animated bear-thing! Which included:
I. Willowfine’s Spirit Guardians utterly VAPORIZING four of the Goodfellows...but also causing something in her mind to crack, hampering her ability to tell truth from falsehood and deduce things about people. AKA, the envelope decreed that all of Willowfine’s Wisdom/Insight rolls would be made by Johnny, who would NOT be telling Jane what number they got – just informing her of the general vibes. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been – Johnny made it clear that this did not apply to ALL rolls involving the Wisdom stat, just Insight (meaning her cleric spells were safe) – but still. Poor Willowfine!
II. Johnny attempting to have the bear hit Happen with a vine tendril, but missing...and then remembering the bear was prone anyway, so all it could do was stand up. Though they made it stand up in a cool way, yanking out the arrows and breaking them in its hand-paws
III. Lug successfully sprinting over to the leader of the Goodfellows and grappling him, but not making the Intimidation check to get him to call off the monster, because poor Lug has very poor Charisma
IV. Cressida smacking the bear thing with a couple of Scorching Rays, then – taking advantage of the fact that she’s primarily an Illusion Wizard – using her bonus action to create a Minor Illusion of what SHE thought the Shimmering Lady looked like (kind of like her mother, with blond hair and shimmery blue highlights), calling out to the Goodfellows to let the people in the pit go so they could find her. Because, well, they were all in now, might as well work with what Happen yelled before! The Goodfellows surrounding the pit were taken in entirely and tried to get their leader over there, only to be confused to see him being apparently hugged by Lug…
V. Happen then ATTEMPTING to lunge at the bear with his shortswords to attack its head with the help of his sprites – but the die roll came up 1 (Praise Cadence), so instead the sprites bodied him directly into the bear’s mouth, where it chomped on him for 11 piercing damage. Happen was like “this is an excellent opportunity for me to test my faith.” XD
VI. The bear plunging one of its vine tendrils into the ground, where it emerged as a grasping vine that absolutely BODIED Cressida into the wall – knocking her unconscious, uh-oh (hilariously, the illusion actually stayed because it’s NOT a concentration spell – it just kinda stood there blankly instead)
VII. Morven, seeing the trouble her friends were in, hitting the bear with a fire-based Sorcerous Burst (which rolled over the bear’s back in a MOST epic fashion) and leaping into the pit to get more up close and personal with the problem
VIII. Willowfine ALMOST leaping into the pit to cast – don’t remember the name of the spell, but it stabilized Cressida so she at least wasn’t dying – only to remember that actually, with the pit now shallower, Cressida was in range without her leaping in
IX. And Lug finally bringing things to a close by succeeding his second Intimidation check to get the leader to call off the bear, causing the guy to let out a high-pitched noise that made the bear instantly stop what it was doing and return to being a collection of vines and planks covering the wall. A MUCH THICKER collection of vines and planks covering the wall, granted, as the pit was now shallower, but still. XD
B) Willowfine casting Aid on Cressida and Happen to boost their hit points (with Cressida finally waking up woozily...just in time to see a spectral rabbit hop into and meld with her shadow...being on five hit points, all she could manage upon seeing this was “bunny” XD) while the Goodfellows leader desperately pleaded with Lug (who was marching him to the edge of the pit) that this was all a misunderstanding. Lug let him go to explain himself, and he obligingly explained that they were just desperate to find the missing Shimmering Lady (as, without her presence in the river, the woods here were slowly dying – and I presume that they, as people, weren’t doing too well either), and had just automatically assumed that both North Team and this team had something to do with it. In fact, they captured this team mainly because the previous team did a runner (they never even got the bear set on them!) and figured that was some sort of admission of guilt. Johnny described them as being guilty, but less in the “we shouldn’t have done this” kind of way and more in the “we shouldn’t have gotten caught” kind of way. XD Lug said that they were only too willing to try and find the Shimmering Lady themselves – they could see how much trouble this part of the Wyrdwood was in – and the leader offered to personally escort them to where the North Team had disappeared, then (after Happen asked if he could lead them there to see what they could find), the river, so they could get an idea of what the hell was going on. He even let them have a nice rest, giving them a beautiful cold broth (unfortunately rather like the terrible soup from Oakburn) that allowed them to get all the benefits of a long rest from a short one, yay. :) Once everyone was sufficiently refreshed, they then headed out, with the leader bringing them to a spot near a steep hill, just around a tree –
Only to stop, confused. Because rather than the spot being empty, it was occupied. Occupied – by none other than the Poor Man in his tattered coat and weird-ass hat! O.O Morven was like “motherfucker.” XD
C) Johnny leaving things on a cliffhanger there and enacting the Rolling Rite – and while Morven, Willowfine, Cressida, and Lug all managed to avoid an envelope, Happen rolled poorly and thus received an envelope! Nobody’s sure if it will be a “Praise Cadence” moment or not when he opens it. XD
So yeah – pretty epic episode! Very glad we didn’t lose poor Cressida before the end of the first season, that’s for sure. XD And hey – looks like next week, we might actually get to learn what the Poor Man’s deal is! At least in part. I’m sure Morven is itching to shake the answers out of this guy. XD
2. Update the FO4 Playthrough Progression Doc: Check – I had to do it in two parts (doing roughly half before my workout, and the other half after dinner and game night), but I did get it done! And while it was pretty much the same as what I detailed above – the gang heading into the giant wrecked production room in Facilities and fighting the robots there (along with accidentally igniting a gas leak); making their way up to the upper offices and finding the holotape from Tony Deluca and the Facilities Management terminal (and DELIBERATELY igniting a gas leak); getting jumpscared by another Mechanist eyebot before shooting it; taking a rest before getting on the wibbly platform ride to the other side of the room just in case there were enemies to shoot (there weren’t, which completely confused them); and making their way into the Research Wing, where they found the logs of Broadrick on the Watch Station terminal and a goodies jackpot in the back of Forfeiture – there were of course a few small changes:
A) Because Alice was there with Victor and Ada in the fanfic version, she was the one to spot the patrolling Cybermech Scrapbot – and subsequently freaked out a bit when Victor fired on it and accidentally ignited the gas leak he realized was there too late. Victor profusely apologized to her once all robots were dead and the fires burned out, and Alice assured him she knew he hadn’t done it deliberately but to PLEASE be more careful; Victor promised, and – upon smelling gas in the upstairs room – made sure to tell Alice to skedaddle for a bit before he shot into the leak to ignite it and burn it up
B) Ada was the one to spot the scrapbot playing dead, and Alice was the one to take it out (Victor let her have the kill as a sort of apology for the “accidental fireball” thing). And then Ada took out the one that attacked them while they were distracted watching the first “breakdance” all on her own, no help from Victor required. Because she is a competent young robot woman, damn it. :P (And yes, I kept the breakdancing scrapbot – how could I NOT throw that in there?)
C) Given Esteban’s comment in the Watch Station Terminal’s entry about Broadrick probably getting latrine duty at some outpost in Anchorage, I thought it might be interesting if Victor had run into Broadrick at some point – so I made it canon that Broadrick was in fact assigned to Victor’s Canadian outpost (and was indeed on latrine duty). Victor remembered him as a quiet guy who never talked to anyone – just did his tasks and then went off to be alone. :( Alice comforted Victor by saying that Broadrick at least TRIED to make a difference, and that counts for something, but – yeah. I think they both found it extremely depressing!
D) And finally, the looting of the “reception area” of the Research Wing went a little differently, with Victor getting everything out of the Watch Station desk AFTER looking at the terminal (as I figured he and the others would be more interested in what’s on the terminal first), and using the holotape with the password he found at the desk on the Property Storage terminal to unlock the Room Of Goodies (because he didn’t need the hacking XP). He and his were even more confused by the boxes of plates in Forfeiture than I was, though – seriously, why PLATES, Bethesda? Wasn’t there ANY other junk you could put there??
Again, nothing major – well, nothing overtly major, anyway, as Victor knowing Broadrick is a pretty big change, but doesn’t have much of an effect on the current day. Given Broadrick is dead and all (unless I have him show up as a ghoul…) Anyway, I left things off there with them in the same spot as my in-game Victor and Ada – preparing to brave the horrors of Holding Cell A and the Research Labs! I don’t expect they will have a good time.
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Semi-check – I didn’t really have time tonight for a proper video (which was a shame, as Josh Way uploaded another riff AND Proxy Gate Tactician uploaded another video about the places in BG3), but I really wanted to watch something. So I went ahead and watched a trio of Shorts by dragonsdream! Because I enjoyed the last couple I watched to fill in a gap at the end of my workout. :) So tonight, we had –
A) “Auntie Ethel's best vicious mockery lines to companions | Baldur's Gate 3” – a collection of Auntie Ethel’s meanest insults to the companions when she uses the Vicious Mockery spell! Ranging from “Why would Shar love you when no one else does” to Shadowheart, to “I can smell what’s under those bandages, wizard. You’re all rot and ruin” to Gale, to “You’re one thirsty night away from betraying everyone” to Astarion. Basically, this bitch does NOT hold back when she brings out the magical mockery! The clips of all the companions looking upset were paired perfectly with this collection, let me tell you.
B) “Most adorable romance between companions in Baldur's Gate 3” – showing off a unique kiss Origin!Karlach (aka player character Karlach) can have with Wyll during the epilogue party if she romanced him – after talking about the cambions she’s slayed and their plans for the future (which include sneaking into Zariel’s private forge and snatching a smith to fix Karlach’s heart so she can live outside the hells), Wyll tells her “I love you. Hasn’t changed, never will” (or never “wyll” as the subtitles put it XD) and dramatically blows her a kiss, which Karlach catches and puts in her pocket before bouncing like a giddy schoolgirl. :D It’s delightfully cute, and really cements that they’d be a great couple.
C) And “The most overlooked cave in Baldur's Gate 3,” showing off where to find a little cave near the edge of the map (just beside a beach by the “Water Queen’s House,” presumably in Act 3), and what’s inside – a waterfall pouring through the skull of what I presume to be a dragon, or perhaps a sea creature. It’s very cool. :) Hopefully I remember to go check it out when I get to that point in the game!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – I didn’t have anything going on Valice Multiverse, and nothing to add to my queue this week for Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). Though I will have to see if I can get that photoset post I started, showing off the teen versions of Alice, Victor, and Smiler I made for my hypothetical Teen Valicer Save file, sorted this weekend – be nice to have it ready for next week if I can!
Other: A nice day meant we headed outside and played a few rounds of beanbags this afternoon – and this time, it was Dad’s turn to get second constantly while Mom and I traded wins and losses. XD Though I was the ultimate champ, winning two times out of three, so that was nice. :) Final scores were me W-3-W; Dad 2-2-2; Mom 3-W-3. We’ll see if the scores end up a little more even tomorrow!
Yeah, a pretty solid Friday -- though today's Fallout 4 session did make me realize something. Namely, that playing the game, then summarizing the game, then doing the FO4 Playthrough Progression write-up of the session, then summarizing THAT is always going to take loads of time. It doesn't matter what I do, it just is. Meaning -- as much as I like the alliteration of Fallout Friday, or pairing my playsession with the Fallout video Jon of Many A True Nerd posts every Sunday -- I really should be playing Fallout 4 on SATURDAYS. Simply because I don't work out on Saturdays, and thus have a little bit of extra time that I could spend on the above. So yeah, I think I'm going to move to that schedule going forward, see how that works. Not sure what I'll do with my remaining half-day Fridays, but I'm sure I'll think of something!
And with that, I should really head to bed -- it's a Cleaning (but not Laundry, yay) Saturday tomorrow, and I want to make sure I get up early enough to try and get that all done before lunch. Other planned activities include working some more on Smiler's Potion Caravan in Sims 4; writing some more on "The Van Dort Vacancy;" and hopefully managing to find the time to watch both Josh's latest riff and another OXBoxtra list video! We'll see what happens. Night all!
