Return To Routine Monday
Jan. 5th, 2026 11:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYes, we're back to the normal grind as of today, as evidenced by the below write-up:
Work – Welp, I had my grand return to the office today after almost two full weeks off, and I spent almost the entire day doing GLs! Because while we were off work from Christmas Eve straight through January 4th, our processors and credit card people weren’t, and they uploaded some gifts while we were away. Mostly on December 30th, for some reason, unsure how that worked out. *shrug* But yeah, it meant that I had to go through and do a GL for each workday that we were out, and some of them took longer than others, so – yeah. Ate up pretty much my entire shift, apart from a few breaks to:
A) Take a call from a guy letting us know his father died last week and that he needed to shut down the recurring gift on his credit card as a result; I shut down the gift for him and made sure the dad was marked deceased in our system
B) Talk briefly with my old supervisor about a credit card gift he saw come in for the Foundation that he thought might appear on our GL – it did not, mostly because we have no Foundation-related “events” on our version of the credit card site, so he’ll have to talk to our provider about how that needs to be handled going forward
C) Call a guy in the afternoon who left us a message saying he needed to update his credit card while we were out – had to leave a message for him in return, but at least now he knows which number to contact!
D) And, after finally finishing all the GLs, spending the very end of the day pulling a report on which credit card payments failed over the long break – didn’t have time to look them up all up, but at least I have the report!
So yeah – definitely kept busy today! But on the plus side, it meant the day went by pretty fast, and the traffic both in and home wasn’t too bad, so – yeah. Not the worst return to the office! We’ll see what tomorrow’s like.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “KIDS ON BIKES – A Twixtmas Disappearance | Oxventure Holiday Special” by Oxventure! Today’s chunklet of the adventures of Tori, Corey, and Keegan as they tried to find Tori and Corey’s missing friend Christopher “Rollo” Williams-Fiarucci contained:
A) Some follow-up on the “Keegan’s Christmas involved him finding a pack of Rolos to eat because his parents were too busy working to give him presents” revelation – namely, Corey wondering if Keegan’s parents were too busy giving presents to fish; Tori becoming convinced Keegan’s parents were making super-soldier fish people; a fateful miscommunication regarding how you can’t really talk to fish making Corey think Keegan’s parents were fish; and Tori and Corey agreeing that Rollo was likely to have been abducted by Keegan’s parents as a test subject for their fish super-serum (though Corey allowed that there was probably a more rational explanation). XD Poor Keegan – he has terrible neglectful parents AND super-weird friends now!
B) The group pedaling off after the shape they saw at the end of the last chunk (Corey bragging that he has a ten-speed bike, while Keegan admitted he only had a six-speed...and then Mike said something that I could not for the life of me make out, but it made Ellen crack up and give him a free Adversity token) and encountering Sarah Smith and her friend Emily, who told them that they had seen the shape – Sarah said that it was like a big dog, while Emily insisted it had been a wolf (with both being like ??? when Corey asked if there was anything fishy about it). The girls indicated that it had run off toward the pier that Milton-on-SEA (misremembered the name of the town last time) was famous for – Corey thanked them very seriously for their help, while Tori told them that if the cops came around, they hadn’t seen anything. Sarah was confused, while Emily was delighted to help and gave her a salute. XD
C) The kids heading to the pier, and Corey telling Keegan all about his beloved “Atticus Thorndyke” series as they pedaled, talking about how Tiffany Carpenter, the author, puts out like 70 or so a year (Ellen decided they must be short books, and Andy, in character, insisted they were digestible), how he’d gotten some more for Christmas (Tori was basically like “Oh shit”), and – when Keegan made the mistake of expressing interest in some of the titles (like the “Doom Diner” and “Haunted Leg”) – offering to lend a book or two to Keegan...then come around the next day to see how he liked it and talk about it with him (Keegan: “...so it’s more like an assignment” Corey: “No, it’s FUN” Tori: [pedals faster])
D) The kids arriving at the deserted and closed-down pier, and finding the security guard for the place in his hut to ask him if he’d seen the shape – the security guard said no, and was very reluctant to get up and actually look at the tapes from the security camera to confirm that nothing weird had come down the pier. Cue Corey and Tori deciding that Tori should keep the guard busy while Corey snuck around to get the tape...then Andy seeing Jane’s “Charm” stat and hastily having the twins decide that maybe it would be better if COREY kept the guard busy while TORI snuck around to get the tape. XD Corey thus engaged the guard in conversation about how the guy’s nephew also loved the “Atticus Thorndyke” books (Tori was furious to learn her brother’s favorite books had other fans) and what titles the kid might like (as he was one of those kids who unfortunately had a birthday right after Christmas) while Tori attempted to sneak into the back –
Only for Jane to biff the roll, even with the help of some Adversity Tokens. (Jane noted that, no matter the system, her TTRPG characters were never stealthy.) Naturally, upon being caught, she got into an argument with the guard, accusing him of being a government drone, which completely confused him (as he didn’t work for the council) –
And then Corey instituted plan B and started yelling that the guard had hit him, over the guy’s protests that there was glass between them. The guy, flustered as hell, finally agreed to show them the security footage, and Corey smugly informed Tori that the technique was from an Atticus Thorndyke book. XD
E) The kids reviewing the footage with the guard on his shitty little TV – and spotting the shape flashing past not five minutes earlier. A shape that, strangely, the guard seemed unable to see – not even when Tori told him to rewind, freeze the frame, then shoved his face against the screen. Hmmm. The kids at least were able to see that, whatever it was, it headed into the arcade –
So Keegan asked the guard if he could be let into the building to play “contemporary game Street Fighter II.” XD The guard was of course initially reluctant, but a combination of Keegan and Tori telling him what a terrible Christmas Keegan had coupled with Corey starting to shout about how the guard kicked him convinced him to say they could sneak in the side entrance. Corey and Keegan promptly got down to the important work of figuring out how they were going to play Street Fighter II, to the point of essentially playing a hypothetical match before they even got in the arcade (Corey saying that he was going to do all sorts of cool combos and rolling his Brainy stat, while Keegan admitted he was just going to spam “Electricity” and rolling his Fight – Keegan won XD).
F) The kids entering the arcade through the staff room, and Corey and Keegan getting down to the important business of actually playing Street Fighter II, while Tori (who believes SFII is a tool to brainwash children into becoming child soldiers and that Capcom is a front for the world government) took Clive Barker and got down to the important business of finding clues. And, on a very good roll, she found ‘em, all right – huge scratches in the floor, leading to the door; a bit of fur caught on the twisty party of one of those old penny arcade machines; and – when she offered the fur to Clive Barker and had him follow the scent –
Rollo! Who was hiding between some of the really-old penny machines at the back (the ones the tourists still came to see) and crying – though not as loudly as Corey, having been defeated at SFII by Keegan (“You shouldn’t be allowed spam Electricity!”). Tori got the boys to come over, and Corey sobbed at them something about a big cat and about how he said he didn’t want socks for Christmas (Tori: “...who does??”) The trio managed to convince him to come out of his hiding spot, saying they’d help him…
And cue a growl behind them, and Rollo’s face melting into absolute terror. The trio turned around to be confronted with a MASSIVE cat, with huge yellow eyes, studying them intently. Corey asked Tori if she knew anything about this, and she said that she’d written about a beast from another country that was like a giant panther or jaguar, but that it shouldn’t be here, before getting excited that they had their own cryptid in town. Corey refused to believe it, while poor Rollo kept babbling on about socks –
Which prompted Keegan to remember a bit of folklore he’d heard while he and his parents were living in Iceland for a year and a half – about a monster called The Yule Cat. Yup, the fucking cat that eats kids who don’t get new clothes for Christmas made an appearance here too! O.O Was there some sort of Yule Cat renaissance this year that I missed?? Anyway, he passed on this information to the others, with Corey demanding to know how the Yule Cat could have gotten here and Keegan suggesting maybe it followed him from Iceland...before admitting that the plane they were on didn’t allow cats. XD Corey insisted that it was probably some property developer in a big cat costume trying to scare people away, but also insisted that they back away and out the door slowly from the monster, never breaking eye contact (and refusing to listen to Tori when she told him to unmask the “property developer” if he was so sure)…
And that’s where I left it! Seriously, though, two freaking holiday specials featuring the damn Yule Cat! Definitely one of those “if I had a nickel for everyone time X happened, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice” situations. *nods* Anyway, we’ll see how the kids handle THEIR Yule Cat situation tomorrow! Especially since it’s not just Rollo who didn’t get any clothes for Christmas – Keegan didn’t either...
2. Work on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” Chapter 6: Check – I got back to the adventures of Malkavian!Alice at long last tonight, picking up right where I left off before my long break: with Alice going to tell Strauss about Pisha and see what he thought about the whole situation. Accordingly, tonight’s writing session covered:
A) Alice heading to the Chantry (fortunately not meeting any other trouble along the way) and heading to the library, where she met Strauss and informed him that she had been on the way to get the Ankaran Sarcophagus as per LaCroix’s instructions, only for Wonderland to sidetrack her straight into the abandoned hospital, where she found a zombie-like vampire had murdered most of the crew of Haunted LA. Strauss took this revelation reasonably well, restricting his shocked reaction to just his eyes widening behind his glasses
B) Alice asking Strauss if Pisha really was a vampire, even with the whole “has to eat flesh” thing, and Strauss informing her about the existence of the Nagaraja bloodline, and how they came to be (basically a sect of Indian death-mages performed a ritual to transform at least some of their number into vampires, but the nature of the ritual and their magic meant they came out of the blood pool craving both flesh and blood)
C) Alice then asking Strauss if Pisha really needed to kill all those people – and Strauss telling her technically no, explaining that Nagaraja DO need to eat fresh raw flesh nightly, but do not have to seek out a new victim every night. Rather, thanks to the necromantic rituals they know, they can kill a person, then preserve the corpse to be fed on later, meaning one dead victim can provide them with roughly ten nights of sustenance. And that while Pisha murdering the three people in the camera crew meant that she’d created a “larder” of sorts that would allow her to avoid killing for a month, it also meant that she’d killed three people linked to a reasonably-popular local TV show, whose disappearances would be investigated. Which Pisha might not care so much about, but the other vampires sure did! Not to mention, he had no proof she’d done any of this with the permission of one Sebastian LaCroix…
Yeah – basically, Pisha did a Very Bad Thing in the eyes of the Camarilla! I left off with Strauss calling LaCroix to update him on the situation and confirm that Pisha didn’t even present herself to him when she arrived in the city – tomorrow, Alice gets carte blanche to take her out! Discreetly, of course – can’t go around risking the Masquerade any further, after all.
3. Watch something on FreeTube: Substitution check – my friend Ace told me they put up a new chapter on their latest fic, “A Familiar’s Private Chef” (a Good Omens/Campfire Cooking In Another World crossover, which has Crowley as a human surprise-transported to a mystical realm and forming a familiar contract with a fenrir, who of course is Aziraphale, on the strength of their delicious cooking – which is boosted by their ability to get ingredients from their homeworld thanks to a skill called “Online Retailer” (basically, they have magical Amazon)) a few days ago, right before New Year’s, and I’ve been meaning to read it properly and leave a comment on it ever since. So I took the time this afternoon to do so! *nods* It was a fun chapter, introducing the Wind Goddess Maggie, who is now as addicted to Anthony’s otherworldly food as anyone else – mostly because she’s been eating dried fruits and honey and wine for ages, so any other kind of food is a REALLY welcome treat! She utterly devoured his chocolate crepes and iced latte. XD Glad to have that off my plate!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Substitution check again – didn’t do anything with my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) queue, but I did reblog and respond to SatiricalDemon’s latest addition to his write-up of recreating Victor, Alice, and Smiler in the world of TTRPG Mortasheen! Which covered:
A) How Bumby could have killed off Alice’s family in any sort of “permanent” manner, given in Mortasheen, there is ALWAYS an appropriately mad-sciencey way to come back – basically, in addition to the fire damaging the vats that Alice’s family would use to regrow their bodies, he also stole the data drives for her parents and sister, meaning that if she DID try to regrow them, they wouldn’t have any of their memories. So Alice needs to kill him (however impermanently) and get those back if she wants her family back! (I commented that he’d found a pretty clever way to get around the fact that death is impermanent in this setting, that it was nice to learn more about how the whole resurrection process works, and that I did not like Bumby having those drives, as it felt like he’d use them for some sort of nefarious purpose…)
B) A rethought backstory for Orlock!Victor, restoring Nell and William’s status as his (admittedly adoptive, given how Orlock reproduction works) parents and making the inciting incident for him leaving his “hive” was having an engagement to Victoria Spikethrubody (god, I love Orlock last names XD) thrust upon him without warning – it seems that her adoptive parents, Maudeline Femursnap and Finis Headshot, creators of a “Think Tank” selling firearm gadgets (Finis’s passion), had fallen afoul of some failed experiments and needed a source of “Data” (which I guess functions like money in this world) to get back on their feet, and Nell had seen an opportunity to get in with their remaining business contacts to make Victor a true star in the Orlock world. So Victor was engaged to Victoria, without either of them getting a say in the matter, or even learning about it until they had dinner together – prompting Victor to pack his things and sneak away with the help of Sir Rhodes Glitterfin (despite the Vampire’s attempts to talk him out of it). (I strongly approved of the rejiggering of his backstory to make it more like the actual Corpse Bride canon, and of Finis and Maudeline’s business venture (saying it was a shame it ran into such trouble...before qualifying that, well, I don’t like them THAT much, so…). And of all the ridiculous last names, of course. XD)
C) And descriptions of Bumby and Victoria’s YGOREs – Bumby has a Painchild (a horrible little child-like shadow monster that likes causing pain and destruction) named Alistair who very much enjoyed helping Bumby “undo” the Liddell Lair, and helping him with all his evil schemes since; and Victoria has a Stingernail (which is a bit like a scorpion and can deliver paralyzing venom through their clawas) named – what else – Hildegarde, who was the “librarian” for her hive’s “databones” when Victoria was younger and chose to become her YGORE when she retired and Victoria expressed interest in starting her own archive. (I agreed that the Painchild was the perfect complement to Bumby and said that I didn’t want to know how it was helping him with his other schemes, and that I like the take on Hildegarde, noting that the canonical one probably would have appreciated claws with paralytic venom when Victoria was being forced to marry Barkis!)
So that was fun. :) I like how much thought he’s putting into this – Mortasheen may not be fully my thing, but it’s still interesting to learn about, and I enjoy seeing him enjoy it. :)
And there we have it, my day! And, in another return to routine, I'm late going to bed. *shakehead* Better correct that -- night all!
Work – Welp, I had my grand return to the office today after almost two full weeks off, and I spent almost the entire day doing GLs! Because while we were off work from Christmas Eve straight through January 4th, our processors and credit card people weren’t, and they uploaded some gifts while we were away. Mostly on December 30th, for some reason, unsure how that worked out. *shrug* But yeah, it meant that I had to go through and do a GL for each workday that we were out, and some of them took longer than others, so – yeah. Ate up pretty much my entire shift, apart from a few breaks to:
A) Take a call from a guy letting us know his father died last week and that he needed to shut down the recurring gift on his credit card as a result; I shut down the gift for him and made sure the dad was marked deceased in our system
B) Talk briefly with my old supervisor about a credit card gift he saw come in for the Foundation that he thought might appear on our GL – it did not, mostly because we have no Foundation-related “events” on our version of the credit card site, so he’ll have to talk to our provider about how that needs to be handled going forward
C) Call a guy in the afternoon who left us a message saying he needed to update his credit card while we were out – had to leave a message for him in return, but at least now he knows which number to contact!
D) And, after finally finishing all the GLs, spending the very end of the day pulling a report on which credit card payments failed over the long break – didn’t have time to look them up all up, but at least I have the report!
So yeah – definitely kept busy today! But on the plus side, it meant the day went by pretty fast, and the traffic both in and home wasn’t too bad, so – yeah. Not the worst return to the office! We’ll see what tomorrow’s like.
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “KIDS ON BIKES – A Twixtmas Disappearance | Oxventure Holiday Special” by Oxventure! Today’s chunklet of the adventures of Tori, Corey, and Keegan as they tried to find Tori and Corey’s missing friend Christopher “Rollo” Williams-Fiarucci contained:
A) Some follow-up on the “Keegan’s Christmas involved him finding a pack of Rolos to eat because his parents were too busy working to give him presents” revelation – namely, Corey wondering if Keegan’s parents were too busy giving presents to fish; Tori becoming convinced Keegan’s parents were making super-soldier fish people; a fateful miscommunication regarding how you can’t really talk to fish making Corey think Keegan’s parents were fish; and Tori and Corey agreeing that Rollo was likely to have been abducted by Keegan’s parents as a test subject for their fish super-serum (though Corey allowed that there was probably a more rational explanation). XD Poor Keegan – he has terrible neglectful parents AND super-weird friends now!
B) The group pedaling off after the shape they saw at the end of the last chunk (Corey bragging that he has a ten-speed bike, while Keegan admitted he only had a six-speed...and then Mike said something that I could not for the life of me make out, but it made Ellen crack up and give him a free Adversity token) and encountering Sarah Smith and her friend Emily, who told them that they had seen the shape – Sarah said that it was like a big dog, while Emily insisted it had been a wolf (with both being like ??? when Corey asked if there was anything fishy about it). The girls indicated that it had run off toward the pier that Milton-on-SEA (misremembered the name of the town last time) was famous for – Corey thanked them very seriously for their help, while Tori told them that if the cops came around, they hadn’t seen anything. Sarah was confused, while Emily was delighted to help and gave her a salute. XD
C) The kids heading to the pier, and Corey telling Keegan all about his beloved “Atticus Thorndyke” series as they pedaled, talking about how Tiffany Carpenter, the author, puts out like 70 or so a year (Ellen decided they must be short books, and Andy, in character, insisted they were digestible), how he’d gotten some more for Christmas (Tori was basically like “Oh shit”), and – when Keegan made the mistake of expressing interest in some of the titles (like the “Doom Diner” and “Haunted Leg”) – offering to lend a book or two to Keegan...then come around the next day to see how he liked it and talk about it with him (Keegan: “...so it’s more like an assignment” Corey: “No, it’s FUN” Tori: [pedals faster])
D) The kids arriving at the deserted and closed-down pier, and finding the security guard for the place in his hut to ask him if he’d seen the shape – the security guard said no, and was very reluctant to get up and actually look at the tapes from the security camera to confirm that nothing weird had come down the pier. Cue Corey and Tori deciding that Tori should keep the guard busy while Corey snuck around to get the tape...then Andy seeing Jane’s “Charm” stat and hastily having the twins decide that maybe it would be better if COREY kept the guard busy while TORI snuck around to get the tape. XD Corey thus engaged the guard in conversation about how the guy’s nephew also loved the “Atticus Thorndyke” books (Tori was furious to learn her brother’s favorite books had other fans) and what titles the kid might like (as he was one of those kids who unfortunately had a birthday right after Christmas) while Tori attempted to sneak into the back –
Only for Jane to biff the roll, even with the help of some Adversity Tokens. (Jane noted that, no matter the system, her TTRPG characters were never stealthy.) Naturally, upon being caught, she got into an argument with the guard, accusing him of being a government drone, which completely confused him (as he didn’t work for the council) –
And then Corey instituted plan B and started yelling that the guard had hit him, over the guy’s protests that there was glass between them. The guy, flustered as hell, finally agreed to show them the security footage, and Corey smugly informed Tori that the technique was from an Atticus Thorndyke book. XD
E) The kids reviewing the footage with the guard on his shitty little TV – and spotting the shape flashing past not five minutes earlier. A shape that, strangely, the guard seemed unable to see – not even when Tori told him to rewind, freeze the frame, then shoved his face against the screen. Hmmm. The kids at least were able to see that, whatever it was, it headed into the arcade –
So Keegan asked the guard if he could be let into the building to play “contemporary game Street Fighter II.” XD The guard was of course initially reluctant, but a combination of Keegan and Tori telling him what a terrible Christmas Keegan had coupled with Corey starting to shout about how the guard kicked him convinced him to say they could sneak in the side entrance. Corey and Keegan promptly got down to the important work of figuring out how they were going to play Street Fighter II, to the point of essentially playing a hypothetical match before they even got in the arcade (Corey saying that he was going to do all sorts of cool combos and rolling his Brainy stat, while Keegan admitted he was just going to spam “Electricity” and rolling his Fight – Keegan won XD).
F) The kids entering the arcade through the staff room, and Corey and Keegan getting down to the important business of actually playing Street Fighter II, while Tori (who believes SFII is a tool to brainwash children into becoming child soldiers and that Capcom is a front for the world government) took Clive Barker and got down to the important business of finding clues. And, on a very good roll, she found ‘em, all right – huge scratches in the floor, leading to the door; a bit of fur caught on the twisty party of one of those old penny arcade machines; and – when she offered the fur to Clive Barker and had him follow the scent –
Rollo! Who was hiding between some of the really-old penny machines at the back (the ones the tourists still came to see) and crying – though not as loudly as Corey, having been defeated at SFII by Keegan (“You shouldn’t be allowed spam Electricity!”). Tori got the boys to come over, and Corey sobbed at them something about a big cat and about how he said he didn’t want socks for Christmas (Tori: “...who does??”) The trio managed to convince him to come out of his hiding spot, saying they’d help him…
And cue a growl behind them, and Rollo’s face melting into absolute terror. The trio turned around to be confronted with a MASSIVE cat, with huge yellow eyes, studying them intently. Corey asked Tori if she knew anything about this, and she said that she’d written about a beast from another country that was like a giant panther or jaguar, but that it shouldn’t be here, before getting excited that they had their own cryptid in town. Corey refused to believe it, while poor Rollo kept babbling on about socks –
Which prompted Keegan to remember a bit of folklore he’d heard while he and his parents were living in Iceland for a year and a half – about a monster called The Yule Cat. Yup, the fucking cat that eats kids who don’t get new clothes for Christmas made an appearance here too! O.O Was there some sort of Yule Cat renaissance this year that I missed?? Anyway, he passed on this information to the others, with Corey demanding to know how the Yule Cat could have gotten here and Keegan suggesting maybe it followed him from Iceland...before admitting that the plane they were on didn’t allow cats. XD Corey insisted that it was probably some property developer in a big cat costume trying to scare people away, but also insisted that they back away and out the door slowly from the monster, never breaking eye contact (and refusing to listen to Tori when she told him to unmask the “property developer” if he was so sure)…
And that’s where I left it! Seriously, though, two freaking holiday specials featuring the damn Yule Cat! Definitely one of those “if I had a nickel for everyone time X happened, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice” situations. *nods* Anyway, we’ll see how the kids handle THEIR Yule Cat situation tomorrow! Especially since it’s not just Rollo who didn’t get any clothes for Christmas – Keegan didn’t either...
2. Work on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” Chapter 6: Check – I got back to the adventures of Malkavian!Alice at long last tonight, picking up right where I left off before my long break: with Alice going to tell Strauss about Pisha and see what he thought about the whole situation. Accordingly, tonight’s writing session covered:
A) Alice heading to the Chantry (fortunately not meeting any other trouble along the way) and heading to the library, where she met Strauss and informed him that she had been on the way to get the Ankaran Sarcophagus as per LaCroix’s instructions, only for Wonderland to sidetrack her straight into the abandoned hospital, where she found a zombie-like vampire had murdered most of the crew of Haunted LA. Strauss took this revelation reasonably well, restricting his shocked reaction to just his eyes widening behind his glasses
B) Alice asking Strauss if Pisha really was a vampire, even with the whole “has to eat flesh” thing, and Strauss informing her about the existence of the Nagaraja bloodline, and how they came to be (basically a sect of Indian death-mages performed a ritual to transform at least some of their number into vampires, but the nature of the ritual and their magic meant they came out of the blood pool craving both flesh and blood)
C) Alice then asking Strauss if Pisha really needed to kill all those people – and Strauss telling her technically no, explaining that Nagaraja DO need to eat fresh raw flesh nightly, but do not have to seek out a new victim every night. Rather, thanks to the necromantic rituals they know, they can kill a person, then preserve the corpse to be fed on later, meaning one dead victim can provide them with roughly ten nights of sustenance. And that while Pisha murdering the three people in the camera crew meant that she’d created a “larder” of sorts that would allow her to avoid killing for a month, it also meant that she’d killed three people linked to a reasonably-popular local TV show, whose disappearances would be investigated. Which Pisha might not care so much about, but the other vampires sure did! Not to mention, he had no proof she’d done any of this with the permission of one Sebastian LaCroix…
Yeah – basically, Pisha did a Very Bad Thing in the eyes of the Camarilla! I left off with Strauss calling LaCroix to update him on the situation and confirm that Pisha didn’t even present herself to him when she arrived in the city – tomorrow, Alice gets carte blanche to take her out! Discreetly, of course – can’t go around risking the Masquerade any further, after all.
3. Watch something on FreeTube: Substitution check – my friend Ace told me they put up a new chapter on their latest fic, “A Familiar’s Private Chef” (a Good Omens/Campfire Cooking In Another World crossover, which has Crowley as a human surprise-transported to a mystical realm and forming a familiar contract with a fenrir, who of course is Aziraphale, on the strength of their delicious cooking – which is boosted by their ability to get ingredients from their homeworld thanks to a skill called “Online Retailer” (basically, they have magical Amazon)) a few days ago, right before New Year’s, and I’ve been meaning to read it properly and leave a comment on it ever since. So I took the time this afternoon to do so! *nods* It was a fun chapter, introducing the Wind Goddess Maggie, who is now as addicted to Anthony’s otherworldly food as anyone else – mostly because she’s been eating dried fruits and honey and wine for ages, so any other kind of food is a REALLY welcome treat! She utterly devoured his chocolate crepes and iced latte. XD Glad to have that off my plate!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Substitution check again – didn’t do anything with my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) queue, but I did reblog and respond to SatiricalDemon’s latest addition to his write-up of recreating Victor, Alice, and Smiler in the world of TTRPG Mortasheen! Which covered:
A) How Bumby could have killed off Alice’s family in any sort of “permanent” manner, given in Mortasheen, there is ALWAYS an appropriately mad-sciencey way to come back – basically, in addition to the fire damaging the vats that Alice’s family would use to regrow their bodies, he also stole the data drives for her parents and sister, meaning that if she DID try to regrow them, they wouldn’t have any of their memories. So Alice needs to kill him (however impermanently) and get those back if she wants her family back! (I commented that he’d found a pretty clever way to get around the fact that death is impermanent in this setting, that it was nice to learn more about how the whole resurrection process works, and that I did not like Bumby having those drives, as it felt like he’d use them for some sort of nefarious purpose…)
B) A rethought backstory for Orlock!Victor, restoring Nell and William’s status as his (admittedly adoptive, given how Orlock reproduction works) parents and making the inciting incident for him leaving his “hive” was having an engagement to Victoria Spikethrubody (god, I love Orlock last names XD) thrust upon him without warning – it seems that her adoptive parents, Maudeline Femursnap and Finis Headshot, creators of a “Think Tank” selling firearm gadgets (Finis’s passion), had fallen afoul of some failed experiments and needed a source of “Data” (which I guess functions like money in this world) to get back on their feet, and Nell had seen an opportunity to get in with their remaining business contacts to make Victor a true star in the Orlock world. So Victor was engaged to Victoria, without either of them getting a say in the matter, or even learning about it until they had dinner together – prompting Victor to pack his things and sneak away with the help of Sir Rhodes Glitterfin (despite the Vampire’s attempts to talk him out of it). (I strongly approved of the rejiggering of his backstory to make it more like the actual Corpse Bride canon, and of Finis and Maudeline’s business venture (saying it was a shame it ran into such trouble...before qualifying that, well, I don’t like them THAT much, so…). And of all the ridiculous last names, of course. XD)
C) And descriptions of Bumby and Victoria’s YGOREs – Bumby has a Painchild (a horrible little child-like shadow monster that likes causing pain and destruction) named Alistair who very much enjoyed helping Bumby “undo” the Liddell Lair, and helping him with all his evil schemes since; and Victoria has a Stingernail (which is a bit like a scorpion and can deliver paralyzing venom through their clawas) named – what else – Hildegarde, who was the “librarian” for her hive’s “databones” when Victoria was younger and chose to become her YGORE when she retired and Victoria expressed interest in starting her own archive. (I agreed that the Painchild was the perfect complement to Bumby and said that I didn’t want to know how it was helping him with his other schemes, and that I like the take on Hildegarde, noting that the canonical one probably would have appreciated claws with paralytic venom when Victoria was being forced to marry Barkis!)
So that was fun. :) I like how much thought he’s putting into this – Mortasheen may not be fully my thing, but it’s still interesting to learn about, and I enjoy seeing him enjoy it. :)
And there we have it, my day! And, in another return to routine, I'm late going to bed. *shakehead* Better correct that -- night all!
