Mostly Okay Wednesday
Aug. 27th, 2025 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickThere was an annoying moment or two, as shall be detailed in the below write-ups, but overall I'd say this was an all right day, which is good for midweek --
Work – Not a great day at work, I’m sorry to report. :( The morning was fine, if a little slow – I pulled the usual morning reports; I fixed an error I made in yesterday’s reversals (forgot to change the source code so the new one-time gift went to the right campaign); I looked for potential duplicates among the new donors added during this year’s Appeal; and I took a phone call from the final person I’d called about having an overpayment on their pledge, who confirmed it was fine if we kept the money. Unfortunately, in the afternoon, while I was working on the daily obituaries, I got a call from a donor who’d just gotten a pledge billing and wanted to set up his pledge on automatic payments like he’d originally intended (original card got stolen). I thus opened up his pledge in a batch and went to update his card (after a little confusion about what he wanted to do regarding the installments) –
Aaand the stupid online processor threw up an error when I hit the “Submit” button. And then wouldn’t let me try again. Meaning I had to log into the main online site AGAIN and update the man’s card there. Which led to me discovering that his pledge had been deleted entirely (it should have just been paused). And then it wouldn’t let me set up a new one because his chosen payment schedule went past the end of the calendar year. *sighs heavily* I contacted our online provider to try and get them to set up the pledge, but who knows if they’ll get to it with any urgency. I’m just so sick of shit going wrong with them… At least I did manage to finish the obituaries in the end. And I got a cupcake with my lunch because it was my coworker’s birthday today and the assistant director brought in gluten-free cupcakes for her. Still, very glad that tomorrow is my last day this week! Fingers crossed I come in and find that pledge sorted...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, and back to “Alien The Roleplaying Game: Evolved Edition | Oxventure One-Shot ft. Natural Six!” Singleton (Jane), Hirsch (Doug), MacWhirr (Aoife), and Holroyd (Andy) made it through the end of Act 2 and into Act 3 today, which involved:
A) MacWhirr banging on the glass of the surgery lab as the result of a stress roll (meaning she made a worryingly loud noise in a situation where quiet is key) demanding to see Komiskey’s shuttle keycard to make sure it was undamaged – Komiskey produced it, though she seemed rather put out by MacWhirr’s demands (likely because she just wanted OUT already). Singleton asked how she even got locked in, and Komiskey reiterated that the door just locked when the base went into lockdown. Fortunately, there was a manual override by the door, which Hirsch was able to use to free her. Komiskey was so grateful, she handed over the keycard when MacWhirr demanded it with minimal fuss. She was all for leaving immediately, but MacWhirr decided to check out the surgery first…
And discovered, on the other side of the big table, a dead facehugger. Not that she knew what it was specifically – but she, and the others, knew that when the original infectee, Russ Jordan, was brought in, he apparently had something like this on his face. And when questioned, Komiskey admitted she didn’t actually remember what happened before she woke up in the surgery with the alarms going off… The group, extremely worried, forced Komiskey to get into the medical pod so they could x-ray her and see if there was anything inside her they should know about –
Aaaaand then couldn’t figure out how to operate it, because nobody rolled a success on the roll to figure it out. XD The most they accomplished was Holroyd scoring a line into the side of her arm with a laser by pressing a random button. They attempted to use “he’ll keep pressing random buttons until you tell us how to operate this thing” as a threat, but it didn’t come off, and they reluctantly let her out and agreed to take her with them. I am pretty sure all of our players were thinking “we are going to regret this.” XD
B) The gang thus leaving the surgery room – after Hirsch unwisely stomped the dead facehugger, sending acid blood spraying all over the place, though through sheer LUCK not on his leg – and making their way back to the main Med Lab via the stasis room (which had a bunch of facehuggers in tubes – presumably the “samples” Komiskey and Miranda were sent to collect – which were very much ALIVE, as one demonstrated when MacWhirr got close to its prison)...only to discover the Xenomorph they’d fought before sniffing around, having been attracted by MacWhirr’s loud banging earlier. Fortunately, it had not noticed them, allowing Holroyd to ambush with his pipe and smash it over its stupid head again –
And kill the fucking thing! :D Yes, apparently it was down to its last two hit points from the earlier scrap, and Holroyd’s pipe attack – which was only meant as a distraction to allow the others to get away – took those right off! He even managed to avoid the acid splash with his android reflexes (aka, Andy was able to use a trait of his, “Resilient,” to negate the damage he would have taken via dice roll). Hirsch, who’d been giving Holroyd shit this entire time and refusing to get his name right, actually came up and patted him on the back before telling him “Good job, Holroyd.” Holroyd was thrilled and called Hirsch his best friend – Hirsch told him not to push it. XD Holroyd also FINALLY got his hands on the fire ax he’d been coveting all this time, as his pipe had melted from the all the acid blood, and MacWhirr was like “he’s EARNED it” to Singleton – the paranoid Singleton handed it over with poor grace, but she did hand it over. Yay. :)
C) The gang thus entering Act 3 by exiting the med lab and heading for the casino via the skywalk! Along the way, spotting a Xenomorph clambering over the rooftops outside, which was disheartening. :( Even more disheartening was when they reached the casino doors and opened them –
Only for the bodies of those five colonists they saw on the personal data transmitter tracker terminal earlier to come tumbling out. D: As you might imagine, that added muchly to everyone’s stress! (Except Holroyd, who just took another sip of margarita. XD) Fortunately, they were able to pick their way through the corpses quietly (though Hirsch had to push himself, which just stressed him out more) and into the balcony level of the casino. Peering down onto the main floor revealed that scary shadow that had been there previously on the CCTV footage was gone, which – good news in one way (maybe whatever made it left, as Holroyd suggested), bad news in another (now they had no idea where the thing that made it was). There was a brief discussion about whether or not they should try to save Hirsch’s friend Wes (last seen in one of the supply areas) or just head straight for the landing pad – Holroyd was like “if Wes dies, then Hirsch may have an opening for a best friend,” only to change his tune when Hirsch lifted his gun menacingly. XD Anyway, Hirsch was pretty adamant about saving his poker buddy, and the others quickly realized they had to go downstairs anyway to reach the emergency exit that would put them out near the landing pad, so they could at least look for Wes on the way. Decision made, they started down –
And both MacWhirr and Singleton ended up getting facehuggers on their stress dice while making the Observation roll Mike called for. Leading to Singleton dropping the revolver Hirsch gave her, causing it to skid down the stairs –
And MacWhirr to just straight up trip and tumble down the stairs bodily. XD Cue her losing one health – and as she only has three hit points, that is NOT good. However – as she ALSO got two successes on that Observation roll – after hitting the bottom of the stairs, she happened to look up and see another Xenomorph curled up against the ceiling in a corner. One that had NOT actually noticed them yet. So she did the only thing that she could do –
She rolled onto her front, pulled her bolt gun, and screamed “LIGHT IT UP!” to the others as she fired! She managed to score a couple of hits thanks to pushing herself, but another bad stress roll meant that she managed to clock herself in the jaw with the bolt gun’s recoil in the process. Singleton, next in the order, chose to just run forward, grab her gun, and then get into cover behind a roulette wheel, because like fuck was she going into this fight unarmed –
And when I left off, the alien had climbed down from the ceiling and was preparing to attack the unfortunate MacWhirr! Tomorrow, we see if we have our first player character death as a result! Like I said, the woman only has three hit points, and she’s already lost one...
2. Update my BG3 Smiler Master Doc: Check – took me a little longer to get to than I anticipated (I got distracted by the BG3 Wiki, as you do), but I did get in some writing via adding a section to the Tav Smiler section detailing their backstory! I’m not quite done yet, but I’ve gotten through:
A) Their early years with Kellard Kelman, local physician of the town of X’s Sector, who was tasked by the corrupt mayor to keep the citizens happy and compliant, and did a shitty job of it – also established he performed brain surgery on Smiler’s birth mother (who now has a name – Margaret!) when she showed signs of post-partum depression after having Smiler, turning her into a vegetable (and yes, this IS canon to any other “child of Kelman” Smiler)
B) Their decision to run away at 12, which saw them escape into the wilderness, only to get lost and find themselves running low on supplies...and then get contacted by the eldritch being of happiness known as Mar-Mal, who offered a pact – Smiler agrees to spread happiness in their name and help them become more attuned to this plane of existence, and Mar-Mal agrees to help them and give them magic once they’re attuned enough; Smiler, desperate and feeling no malice from the being, agreed
C) Smiler being discovered by merchants Matt and Carol Alton shortly thereafter (who followed the sound of their hysterical laughter as Mar-Mal poured a bit of their power into them, leaving them with their bright glowing yellow eyes), who took them home with them to the village of Tower’s Garden, and soon after adopted them. :) Also Smiler meeting Matt’s brother Felix E. Lated, a traveling bard, and being inspired by his stage name to name themselves – well, Smiler XD
Not bad, eh? Just need to get to the point where they became a traveling alchemist! And, uh, add some notes on what they’ve done so far in the game. ^^; Nothing major, just keeping track of what they’ve gotten through level-ups and some major events – “Saved Us,” “Saved Shadowheart,” “Recruited Shadowheart,” things like that. Not planning on doing a full-on fanficcy write-up like I am with Fallout 4! I can only have one of those going at a time, and FO4 got dibs.
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: No check – mostly because, out of annoyance out of everything I’ve heard about YouTube’s bullshit lately, I limited my watching to just the Oxventure Alien video during my workout. I – didn’t really miss it that much, I must say. Mostly because I was busy either looking at the BG3 Wiki or answering comments on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” Chapter 5. :P Still, I would like to keep up on stuff like Cafae Latte compilations and Jon of Many A True Nerd’s weekly Fallout videos, so I’m gonna have to figure out a way to watch my stuff that makes it feel less icky. Heard some good stuff about a program called “Freetube,” gonna have to look into it...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about today, and I dropped some stuff from my drafts into my queue for the next couple of days:
A) A piece of Alice: Madness Returns fanart by vvevelur featuring a bloodied, smiling Alice in front of a Cheshire grin for Thursday (which was posted on my birthday last year, so it’s about time I got around to properly reblogging it)
B) And a bunch Moist von Lipwig cartoons based around John Mulaney quotes by littlesmartart for Friday (because you can’t go wrong with fun cartoons of Discworld characters)
Still haven’t figured out Song Saturday, but it should probably be Londerland Bloodlines-related again – I’ll have to go through the tag and see what I like!
Other: It was a pretty nice day today – mostly sunny, not too warm, and no humidity – so we did indeed head out and play beanbags after I got home. And while Dad managed to dominate the first two games, I just barely managed to pull myself out of a losing streak to win the third (though it helped that Dad managed to whiff his own final throw on that game!). Mom, meanwhile, stayed solidly second until that last game, where her beanbag game just went off a cliff. *shakehead* It happens! Final scores were me 3-3-W; Dad W-W-2; Mom 2-2-3. We’ll see if things even out more tomorrow!
*nods* Yeah, overall a solid day. But now it is time to head to bed and get some sleep. One last workday to get through -- hopefully it shall not be a shitshow! Night all!
Work – Not a great day at work, I’m sorry to report. :( The morning was fine, if a little slow – I pulled the usual morning reports; I fixed an error I made in yesterday’s reversals (forgot to change the source code so the new one-time gift went to the right campaign); I looked for potential duplicates among the new donors added during this year’s Appeal; and I took a phone call from the final person I’d called about having an overpayment on their pledge, who confirmed it was fine if we kept the money. Unfortunately, in the afternoon, while I was working on the daily obituaries, I got a call from a donor who’d just gotten a pledge billing and wanted to set up his pledge on automatic payments like he’d originally intended (original card got stolen). I thus opened up his pledge in a batch and went to update his card (after a little confusion about what he wanted to do regarding the installments) –
Aaand the stupid online processor threw up an error when I hit the “Submit” button. And then wouldn’t let me try again. Meaning I had to log into the main online site AGAIN and update the man’s card there. Which led to me discovering that his pledge had been deleted entirely (it should have just been paused). And then it wouldn’t let me set up a new one because his chosen payment schedule went past the end of the calendar year. *sighs heavily* I contacted our online provider to try and get them to set up the pledge, but who knows if they’ll get to it with any urgency. I’m just so sick of shit going wrong with them… At least I did manage to finish the obituaries in the end. And I got a cupcake with my lunch because it was my coworker’s birthday today and the assistant director brought in gluten-free cupcakes for her. Still, very glad that tomorrow is my last day this week! Fingers crossed I come in and find that pledge sorted...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – back on the bike, and back to “Alien The Roleplaying Game: Evolved Edition | Oxventure One-Shot ft. Natural Six!” Singleton (Jane), Hirsch (Doug), MacWhirr (Aoife), and Holroyd (Andy) made it through the end of Act 2 and into Act 3 today, which involved:
A) MacWhirr banging on the glass of the surgery lab as the result of a stress roll (meaning she made a worryingly loud noise in a situation where quiet is key) demanding to see Komiskey’s shuttle keycard to make sure it was undamaged – Komiskey produced it, though she seemed rather put out by MacWhirr’s demands (likely because she just wanted OUT already). Singleton asked how she even got locked in, and Komiskey reiterated that the door just locked when the base went into lockdown. Fortunately, there was a manual override by the door, which Hirsch was able to use to free her. Komiskey was so grateful, she handed over the keycard when MacWhirr demanded it with minimal fuss. She was all for leaving immediately, but MacWhirr decided to check out the surgery first…
And discovered, on the other side of the big table, a dead facehugger. Not that she knew what it was specifically – but she, and the others, knew that when the original infectee, Russ Jordan, was brought in, he apparently had something like this on his face. And when questioned, Komiskey admitted she didn’t actually remember what happened before she woke up in the surgery with the alarms going off… The group, extremely worried, forced Komiskey to get into the medical pod so they could x-ray her and see if there was anything inside her they should know about –
Aaaaand then couldn’t figure out how to operate it, because nobody rolled a success on the roll to figure it out. XD The most they accomplished was Holroyd scoring a line into the side of her arm with a laser by pressing a random button. They attempted to use “he’ll keep pressing random buttons until you tell us how to operate this thing” as a threat, but it didn’t come off, and they reluctantly let her out and agreed to take her with them. I am pretty sure all of our players were thinking “we are going to regret this.” XD
B) The gang thus leaving the surgery room – after Hirsch unwisely stomped the dead facehugger, sending acid blood spraying all over the place, though through sheer LUCK not on his leg – and making their way back to the main Med Lab via the stasis room (which had a bunch of facehuggers in tubes – presumably the “samples” Komiskey and Miranda were sent to collect – which were very much ALIVE, as one demonstrated when MacWhirr got close to its prison)...only to discover the Xenomorph they’d fought before sniffing around, having been attracted by MacWhirr’s loud banging earlier. Fortunately, it had not noticed them, allowing Holroyd to ambush with his pipe and smash it over its stupid head again –
And kill the fucking thing! :D Yes, apparently it was down to its last two hit points from the earlier scrap, and Holroyd’s pipe attack – which was only meant as a distraction to allow the others to get away – took those right off! He even managed to avoid the acid splash with his android reflexes (aka, Andy was able to use a trait of his, “Resilient,” to negate the damage he would have taken via dice roll). Hirsch, who’d been giving Holroyd shit this entire time and refusing to get his name right, actually came up and patted him on the back before telling him “Good job, Holroyd.” Holroyd was thrilled and called Hirsch his best friend – Hirsch told him not to push it. XD Holroyd also FINALLY got his hands on the fire ax he’d been coveting all this time, as his pipe had melted from the all the acid blood, and MacWhirr was like “he’s EARNED it” to Singleton – the paranoid Singleton handed it over with poor grace, but she did hand it over. Yay. :)
C) The gang thus entering Act 3 by exiting the med lab and heading for the casino via the skywalk! Along the way, spotting a Xenomorph clambering over the rooftops outside, which was disheartening. :( Even more disheartening was when they reached the casino doors and opened them –
Only for the bodies of those five colonists they saw on the personal data transmitter tracker terminal earlier to come tumbling out. D: As you might imagine, that added muchly to everyone’s stress! (Except Holroyd, who just took another sip of margarita. XD) Fortunately, they were able to pick their way through the corpses quietly (though Hirsch had to push himself, which just stressed him out more) and into the balcony level of the casino. Peering down onto the main floor revealed that scary shadow that had been there previously on the CCTV footage was gone, which – good news in one way (maybe whatever made it left, as Holroyd suggested), bad news in another (now they had no idea where the thing that made it was). There was a brief discussion about whether or not they should try to save Hirsch’s friend Wes (last seen in one of the supply areas) or just head straight for the landing pad – Holroyd was like “if Wes dies, then Hirsch may have an opening for a best friend,” only to change his tune when Hirsch lifted his gun menacingly. XD Anyway, Hirsch was pretty adamant about saving his poker buddy, and the others quickly realized they had to go downstairs anyway to reach the emergency exit that would put them out near the landing pad, so they could at least look for Wes on the way. Decision made, they started down –
And both MacWhirr and Singleton ended up getting facehuggers on their stress dice while making the Observation roll Mike called for. Leading to Singleton dropping the revolver Hirsch gave her, causing it to skid down the stairs –
And MacWhirr to just straight up trip and tumble down the stairs bodily. XD Cue her losing one health – and as she only has three hit points, that is NOT good. However – as she ALSO got two successes on that Observation roll – after hitting the bottom of the stairs, she happened to look up and see another Xenomorph curled up against the ceiling in a corner. One that had NOT actually noticed them yet. So she did the only thing that she could do –
She rolled onto her front, pulled her bolt gun, and screamed “LIGHT IT UP!” to the others as she fired! She managed to score a couple of hits thanks to pushing herself, but another bad stress roll meant that she managed to clock herself in the jaw with the bolt gun’s recoil in the process. Singleton, next in the order, chose to just run forward, grab her gun, and then get into cover behind a roulette wheel, because like fuck was she going into this fight unarmed –
And when I left off, the alien had climbed down from the ceiling and was preparing to attack the unfortunate MacWhirr! Tomorrow, we see if we have our first player character death as a result! Like I said, the woman only has three hit points, and she’s already lost one...
2. Update my BG3 Smiler Master Doc: Check – took me a little longer to get to than I anticipated (I got distracted by the BG3 Wiki, as you do), but I did get in some writing via adding a section to the Tav Smiler section detailing their backstory! I’m not quite done yet, but I’ve gotten through:
A) Their early years with Kellard Kelman, local physician of the town of X’s Sector, who was tasked by the corrupt mayor to keep the citizens happy and compliant, and did a shitty job of it – also established he performed brain surgery on Smiler’s birth mother (who now has a name – Margaret!) when she showed signs of post-partum depression after having Smiler, turning her into a vegetable (and yes, this IS canon to any other “child of Kelman” Smiler)
B) Their decision to run away at 12, which saw them escape into the wilderness, only to get lost and find themselves running low on supplies...and then get contacted by the eldritch being of happiness known as Mar-Mal, who offered a pact – Smiler agrees to spread happiness in their name and help them become more attuned to this plane of existence, and Mar-Mal agrees to help them and give them magic once they’re attuned enough; Smiler, desperate and feeling no malice from the being, agreed
C) Smiler being discovered by merchants Matt and Carol Alton shortly thereafter (who followed the sound of their hysterical laughter as Mar-Mal poured a bit of their power into them, leaving them with their bright glowing yellow eyes), who took them home with them to the village of Tower’s Garden, and soon after adopted them. :) Also Smiler meeting Matt’s brother Felix E. Lated, a traveling bard, and being inspired by his stage name to name themselves – well, Smiler XD
Not bad, eh? Just need to get to the point where they became a traveling alchemist! And, uh, add some notes on what they’ve done so far in the game. ^^; Nothing major, just keeping track of what they’ve gotten through level-ups and some major events – “Saved Us,” “Saved Shadowheart,” “Recruited Shadowheart,” things like that. Not planning on doing a full-on fanficcy write-up like I am with Fallout 4! I can only have one of those going at a time, and FO4 got dibs.
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: No check – mostly because, out of annoyance out of everything I’ve heard about YouTube’s bullshit lately, I limited my watching to just the Oxventure Alien video during my workout. I – didn’t really miss it that much, I must say. Mostly because I was busy either looking at the BG3 Wiki or answering comments on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” Chapter 5. :P Still, I would like to keep up on stuff like Cafae Latte compilations and Jon of Many A True Nerd’s weekly Fallout videos, so I’m gonna have to figure out a way to watch my stuff that makes it feel less icky. Heard some good stuff about a program called “Freetube,” gonna have to look into it...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about today, and I dropped some stuff from my drafts into my queue for the next couple of days:
A) A piece of Alice: Madness Returns fanart by vvevelur featuring a bloodied, smiling Alice in front of a Cheshire grin for Thursday (which was posted on my birthday last year, so it’s about time I got around to properly reblogging it)
B) And a bunch Moist von Lipwig cartoons based around John Mulaney quotes by littlesmartart for Friday (because you can’t go wrong with fun cartoons of Discworld characters)
Still haven’t figured out Song Saturday, but it should probably be Londerland Bloodlines-related again – I’ll have to go through the tag and see what I like!
Other: It was a pretty nice day today – mostly sunny, not too warm, and no humidity – so we did indeed head out and play beanbags after I got home. And while Dad managed to dominate the first two games, I just barely managed to pull myself out of a losing streak to win the third (though it helped that Dad managed to whiff his own final throw on that game!). Mom, meanwhile, stayed solidly second until that last game, where her beanbag game just went off a cliff. *shakehead* It happens! Final scores were me 3-3-W; Dad W-W-2; Mom 2-2-3. We’ll see if things even out more tomorrow!
*nods* Yeah, overall a solid day. But now it is time to head to bed and get some sleep. One last workday to get through -- hopefully it shall not be a shitshow! Night all!
