Slightly Less Busy Tuesday
Jan. 6th, 2026 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickLike, I was still busy, but I felt like there was less that I absolutely had to get done today, which was nice. Means I'm a little less stressed heading to bed! *nods* Anyway, here's the write-up:
Work – It was another day of catching up with everything at the office, as you might expect after so much time away! The main things I accomplished today were:
A) Going through all the failed credit card payments and contacting everyone who needed contacting (which fortunately wasn’t too many people)
B) Checking the previously-missing credit card payments that the credit card company FINALLY posted...and discovering two of them were posted incorrectly, forcing me to do some reversals >( *grumblemutter*
C) Taking a couple of calls from people needing to update their credit cards and helping them redo their missed final payments on their pledges...discovering in the process that something our credit card company said would turn off because it was screwing up some of our payments recently was still on >( *GRUMBLEMUTTER*
D) Getting through as much of the “overpayments on pledges and one-time gifts to the wrong campaign” report as I could, researching why people might have overpaid (usually because their payments end up being processed after the billings go out and thus they think they owe more than they do) and correcting the one-time gifts so they were posted to the right campaign
So yeah – day didn’t go by QUITE as quickly as it did yesterday (looking through all those overpayments was tedious work), but it did go by. And while my morning commute was a mess of traffic (accident further down the highway causing backup, city workers choosing rush hour to clean up a road, the usual “the last two stoplights before the parking lot are NOT well-synced” bullshit), my evening commute was nice and quick. :) We’ll see how tomorrow goes – we’ve got some potential for a little ice build-up tonight, so I just hope the roads are clear for my morning commute!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – I appropriately pedaled my way through another chunk of “KIDS ON BIKES – A Twixtmas Disappearance | Oxventure Holiday Special” by Oxventure tonight! Tonight’s ride featured:
A) The kids trying to escape the Yule Cat, only to have it zip around them and block the door – and then, after Keegan explained its whole deal (it hunts children who don’t get new clothes for Christmas), cleverly exchanging clothes as belated Christmas presents! Starting with Corey yanking off his socks and presenting them to Keegan. XD Keegan gave him a scarf in return, then Corey gave Tori some gloves while Tori wrapped her scarf around Rollo’s neck. And this –
Worked! Seriously, the minute they’d all participated in the clothing exchange, the cat chilled out and headed over to sleep in one of the bigger enclosed arcade machines (because even a big cat likes to go in a box XD). Corey examined it for signs of being a man in a costume, only to realize that no, this was genuinely a giant otherworldly cat, which naturally rattled him a bit –
While Tori immediately got out her disposable camera and tried to get a picture. She sadly failed the roll, but only just, which led to the cat waking up and objecting to her picture taking, resulting in her taking a slightly-blurry picture that Ellen said her friends would accuse of just being a shadow or a cat that was really close to the camera. But when she eventually got a blog and put it up there, she’d get some hits! At any rate, the kids decided that now was the time to leave the arcade…
Well, until Corey spotted the Mortal Kombat II machine. Cue him and Keegan excitedly whispering about how they’d heard that if you pressed a certain button on the start screen you could get a secret match and other such video game legends, before remembering “oh yeah, giant potentially killer cat” and deciding to come back to play it later (Corey has it on his Megadrive, but it’s the bloodless version, so that’s no fun). XD
B) The kids leaving the arcade – which prompted Ellen to ask them to make a Flight roll. Which Corey, Keegan, and Rollo all passed –
But poor Tori failed, leading to her being suddenly kidnapped by a set of 13 speedy gnomes as they left! The other kids were like “HEY!” and promptly started chasing the gnomes on their bikes (Rollo grabbing Tori’s) as they ran up the pier – Corey tried to do a cool skid into them, but a bad roll meant he decked it and got laughed at, while Keegan tried to grab Tori’s hand, but only JUST missed. Tori (screaming “I knew it was gnomes!” the whole time) attempted to escape on her own, but while she managed to give one a good elbowing, she was unable to free herself. She instead demanded to know who they were –
And got the answer of “We’re the Yule Lads, taking you to Gryla!” Because yes, if you have the Yule Cat, you have to have its little troll family as well! Fortunately, shortly after this, Corey (using his Treasure Hunter special ability) was able to find something to stop the Yule Lads – a special tripwire catapult thing that he won from the pier, and was able to throw at the Lads to trip them up and get them to drop Tori. The embarrassed Lads ran off, back the way the kids had come, and the others made sure Tori was all right – which she was, luckily. Corey promptly told her that “Mum said not to get kidnapped.” XD Siblings...
C) The kids deciding to pursue the Lads on their bikes – which initially involved dropping Rollo off with the security guard so he could take him home (direct quote from Mike: “What I love about the 90s is that we're willing to turn children over to strange men. I'm sure that'll continue.”), but then – after Keegan explained a bit more about the Yule Cat and how it hung out with the Yule Lads and this terrible child-eating troll woman (Tori: “She eats and kills kids?!” Keegan: “Well, they don’t survive being eaten…”), and they realized that the “gnomes” had come from one of Rollo’s neighbor’s houses (with Rollo explaining that it belonged to a woman who came to stay in Milton-on-Sea in the winter) – deciding that they ought to take him along as he might be important. The problem was, he didn’t have a bike…
So instead they got him to stand with one leg in each milk crate attached to Tori and Keegan’s bikes, with Corey riding in the middle, like they were doing a weird motorcycle stunt. XD This went better than you might expect, though the poor kid did end up doing the splits at one point when Keegan (and Corey) biffed a Flight roll to see how fast they were going, while Tori succeeded with an eleven. XD Fortunately Corey was able to help support Rollo, and Tori’s Knack for Bike Tricks helped save the day. Still, nobody though to have poor Rollo just SIT BEHIND one of them? Weird kids. XD
D) The kids encountering little six-year-old Emily again on their way back to Rollo’s street, bawling her eyes out – and when they asked if she’d seen the Yule Lads, she sobbed that they’d taken Sarah! :O Which was of course horrible –
So naturally Corey asked why Emily didn’t do anything to save her. Because a six-year-old should be able to take on thirteen troll-gnome things. XD Tori naturally followed up by asking Emily how much they’d paid her to look the other way, and Corey – now totally on board with Tori’s conspiracy theories after all he’d seen – upped the ante by accusing her of being a crisis actor. Which, as you might imagine, just made her cry all the harder. They did at least promise her that they would save Sarah –
Right before Corey said “and then you can work through your guilt in your own time.” XD Ellen’s faces during that section were priceless, let me tell you.
E) The group arriving at Rollo’s street (which, after some discussion on whether it was “Little Italy” or “Lamplight St,” was declared to be “Roman Rd” to keep everyone happy) and pulling up to the mysterious old lady’s house – to discover the gnomes outside were all missing. The quartet thus snuck around the side and found themselves with a tall fence, which fortunately had a gate in it, but unfortunately was locked from the other side. Corey offered Keegan a boost over the fence so he could unlock it for them –
And then Corey got a roll of 1 and Keegan a roll of 10 thanks to exploding dice, so what actually happened is Corey put his hands on the ground, and Keegan stepped on them before leaping over the fence with ease. Leaving Corey both feeling redundant and with crushed hands. XD Keegan then let everyone into the back yard, and they snuck up to the house, with Tori pushing her face up against one of the windows –
And, on a good Grit roll, managing to keep it together as she saw a big gloomy kitchen with a fire and a cauldron; the Yule Lads causing mischief around the place (sniffing spoons and whatnot); poor little Sarah in the corner, frozen in terror – and the massive, hulking craggy form of Gryla the troll herself. Tori being Tori, she naturally decided to get another picture as Gryla turned toward her a bit (with Jane assuring Ellen that she was not using the flash) –
And, on another good roll, it was determined that this snap would come out perfectly once developed! If the government didn’t steal the film, of course. XD But yeah – as Corey said, the next edition of Tori’s zine was going to be the best one ever!
F) The kids conferring and – after discovering a cat flap in the door – hatching a plan: Keegan would go around the front and play “Knock Down Ginger” – we in the States would more likely know it as Ding-Dong-Ditch, only you knock instead of ring the doorbell – on Gryla to distract her, while Corey would sneak in through the cat flap to rescue Sarah (as Tori had been in enough danger, and Rollo was having an existential crisis from earlier being asked what message he’d like them to pass onto his mum should he die, saying that he was sorry for saying he didn’t want a jumper and now he’d want a jumper every year, and Corey being like “but you’ll be dead, Corey – should she leave it on your grave?” in response XD). Keegan’s portion of the plan went off flawlessly – he’s had a lot of inadvertent practice playing Knock Down Ginger thanks to being a shy kid who wants to make friends but often loses his nerve after knocking – with him knocking on Gryla’s door, then hiding behind a giant inflatable snowman in the next yard over –
And when I left off, Andy was preparing to roll to see how Corey did at sneaking in through the cat flap! Which, unfortunately, is normal-cat-sized, not Yule-Cat-sized (there’s a reason it’s been sleeping in the arcade), so it’s not going to be as easy as the kids might have hoped to get in. Tomorrow, we finish this off and see how the kids defeat the Yule Cat’s troll companions! They’d better hope the troll husband isn’t around in this version…
2. Work on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” Chapter 6: Check – edited another page of Malk!Alice’s Adventures In Downtown Los Angeles, featuring:
A) Strauss calling LaCroix on his flip phone (which he’s just learned how to use) and letting him know what Alice found in the abandoned hospital and the fate of the Haunted LA crew, along with confirming that Pisha did not present herself to him as per Camarilla law
B) Strauss subsequently letting Alice know that LaCroix has authorized her to do whatever she thinks is necessary to take care of the Pisha problem as quickly as possible, as he’s eager to get that sarcophagus – and assuring her that, yes, this does include straight-up killing Pisha if she so chooses, though he asked her to please do so quietly so they didn’t have more shit to cover up to protect the Masquerade (Alice was happy enough to agree)
C) And Alice taking the opportunity to ask Strauss about why she might have seen one of Victor’s memories when she fed on him earlier (though she didn’t actually name Victor – she just said it was a guy she found who really enjoyed being fed on), and why she’s been feeling perkier ever since, and Strauss cheerfully taking the opportunity to tell her about a new phenomenon they’ve noticed recently while feeding – Resonance! AKA that Vampire: The Masquerade V5 mechanic I’m stealing where, if you feed from someone experiencing a strong emotion, it can boost specific Disciplines related to the emotion. Because I actually kind of like it and think it fits with the video-gamey vibes of “Londerland Bloodlines.” :p Though I am tweaking it slightly to make it so all Resonances boost all Disciplines a little, simply because I want to have Alice use Victor’s super-happy blood to boost her Obfuscate in the upcoming run through the museum even if technically she’s got the wrong Resonance for that (Obfuscate is boosted by SAD emotions). I left off with Strauss describing the four categories of Resonance to Alice – Choleric, for angry emotions; Melancholy, for sad ones; Phlegmatic, for calm ones; and Sanguine, for happy and romantic – or “romantic” – ones. :p Tomorrow, we finish up his explanation, and Alice sets off to figure out what to do about Simon Milligan – because of course he must be dealt with before Pisha...
3. Watch something on FreeTube: Check – I watched two somethings, in fact –
A) “Changes to the Channel” by C. M. Alongi! Informing us of, well, changes coming to her YouTube channel, courtesy of TikTok being a little fucking bitch and sneakily changing their monetization structure back to the one that gives creators way less money – you know, the one that had her so worried while she was wrapping up all the Heart of Iron Kickstarter rewards. She’s not panicking this time because she’s not in the middle of mailing fifty million things and prepping for a book tour, but she did decide that she just cannot rely on TikTok for her income anymore. So while she won’t be fully stepping away from that platform, she will be:
I. Posting fewer full skits on TikTok and doing more “TikTok Sounds,” whatever those are (I’m not on the platform)
II. Trying her best to do more longform content on YouTube by, hopefully, adding a weekly Monday video to her upload schedule! (And if you’re wondering “why longform stuff, why not just post all the skits to YouTube Shorts?” – she already crossposts them, and they don’t really help with monetization.) Her plan is to kick things off with a “behind the scenes” video, then do what she calls “CaFae Tales” – her reenacting the various stories and myths she read to research her beloved series, while the CaFae cast serves as narrators and commentators (for example, her planned first story, “The Well Of Youth,” will be narrated by Bob, with JC and Cyrus offering commentary). Which sounds really fun! She also hopes to get “CaFae Legends,” her promised “in-depth look at the various magical beings and tales behind the skits” series, off the ground – it’s just she and Video Editor Nic didn’t realize when they started that the episodes would turn into, basically, documentaries, each an hour long (split into two thirty-minute parts). She still plans to DO it, but it’ll be coming slower, with the first one either later this month or in February.
So yeah – seems like we can expect a lot of new content in the future! Even as we get fewer CaFae Latte skits overall, sadly...but I don’t blame her for wanting to step away from TikTok a bit, given how they’re screwing her over. And I appreciate that she does not want to go the sponsorship route – she doesn’t want to promote something that’s actually shit, or have to do commercials over the content she wants to do, or force people to buy things (that isn’t HER OWN books and merch, anyway). Though she will happily promote her Patreon – and her upcoming Kickstarter for the new Monstrous book she’s working on releasing. Which, quite fair enough. :p I seriously wish her luck with all this – she deserves a lot better than what TikTok is giving her, that’s for damn sure. >(
B) And “Fallout: New Vegas - Intro // Remastered to 4K, 60FPS” by Witchhunter’s Fallout Lab! Because I really like the intro to this game and I wanted to watch it while being able to hear the actual narration about what’s going on in the Mojave around the time the poor Courier gets shot a little better. XD I already described this pretty well in my write-up the other day about finally getting F:NV running, but here’s a fun bonus fact for you: the very start of the cinematic makes you think you’re looking at the night sky above New Vegas, then pulls out to show that you’re actually looking at a picture of the Lucky 38 in its pre-War heyday. And this picture happens to have some text on it, which reads: “Viva Las Vegas! 2025!!”
Yup, seriously. I know it’s 2026 now, but I bought it in 2025! XD I just thought it was funny that the picture referenced that particular year. Wonder how far everything had gone to shit in the Fallout universe by that point!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing happening on Valice Multiverse again, but I got three things queued up on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) –
A) A two-picture gifset of Fat Larry from VTMB by ohmicorazon for Wednesday
B) Some fanart shipping Vault Boy and Nuka Girl from the Fallout series by phoneyotc for Thursday
C) And a snippet of Malkavian fledgling dialogue from VTMB (“Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Beckett! Why am I clapping?”) for Friday
Yeah, kind of acknowledging/celebrating working on “Londerland Bloodlines” again and obtaining Fallout: New Vegas with this week’s queue. :P Now I just have to find a Song Saturday to round things out...
*nods* Not too shabby! But now I should really head to bed, because I really DO need to try and get some more sleep. Woke up early twice this morning -- once to use the bathroom, and once because my dad was dry-heaving. *sighs* He's got a doctor appointment on the 13th, and hopefully someone will listen to him when he says that his stomach is fucked up now. *shakehead* And on THAT lovely note -- night all!
Work – It was another day of catching up with everything at the office, as you might expect after so much time away! The main things I accomplished today were:
A) Going through all the failed credit card payments and contacting everyone who needed contacting (which fortunately wasn’t too many people)
B) Checking the previously-missing credit card payments that the credit card company FINALLY posted...and discovering two of them were posted incorrectly, forcing me to do some reversals >( *grumblemutter*
C) Taking a couple of calls from people needing to update their credit cards and helping them redo their missed final payments on their pledges...discovering in the process that something our credit card company said would turn off because it was screwing up some of our payments recently was still on >( *GRUMBLEMUTTER*
D) Getting through as much of the “overpayments on pledges and one-time gifts to the wrong campaign” report as I could, researching why people might have overpaid (usually because their payments end up being processed after the billings go out and thus they think they owe more than they do) and correcting the one-time gifts so they were posted to the right campaign
So yeah – day didn’t go by QUITE as quickly as it did yesterday (looking through all those overpayments was tedious work), but it did go by. And while my morning commute was a mess of traffic (accident further down the highway causing backup, city workers choosing rush hour to clean up a road, the usual “the last two stoplights before the parking lot are NOT well-synced” bullshit), my evening commute was nice and quick. :) We’ll see how tomorrow goes – we’ve got some potential for a little ice build-up tonight, so I just hope the roads are clear for my morning commute!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – I appropriately pedaled my way through another chunk of “KIDS ON BIKES – A Twixtmas Disappearance | Oxventure Holiday Special” by Oxventure tonight! Tonight’s ride featured:
A) The kids trying to escape the Yule Cat, only to have it zip around them and block the door – and then, after Keegan explained its whole deal (it hunts children who don’t get new clothes for Christmas), cleverly exchanging clothes as belated Christmas presents! Starting with Corey yanking off his socks and presenting them to Keegan. XD Keegan gave him a scarf in return, then Corey gave Tori some gloves while Tori wrapped her scarf around Rollo’s neck. And this –
Worked! Seriously, the minute they’d all participated in the clothing exchange, the cat chilled out and headed over to sleep in one of the bigger enclosed arcade machines (because even a big cat likes to go in a box XD). Corey examined it for signs of being a man in a costume, only to realize that no, this was genuinely a giant otherworldly cat, which naturally rattled him a bit –
While Tori immediately got out her disposable camera and tried to get a picture. She sadly failed the roll, but only just, which led to the cat waking up and objecting to her picture taking, resulting in her taking a slightly-blurry picture that Ellen said her friends would accuse of just being a shadow or a cat that was really close to the camera. But when she eventually got a blog and put it up there, she’d get some hits! At any rate, the kids decided that now was the time to leave the arcade…
Well, until Corey spotted the Mortal Kombat II machine. Cue him and Keegan excitedly whispering about how they’d heard that if you pressed a certain button on the start screen you could get a secret match and other such video game legends, before remembering “oh yeah, giant potentially killer cat” and deciding to come back to play it later (Corey has it on his Megadrive, but it’s the bloodless version, so that’s no fun). XD
B) The kids leaving the arcade – which prompted Ellen to ask them to make a Flight roll. Which Corey, Keegan, and Rollo all passed –
But poor Tori failed, leading to her being suddenly kidnapped by a set of 13 speedy gnomes as they left! The other kids were like “HEY!” and promptly started chasing the gnomes on their bikes (Rollo grabbing Tori’s) as they ran up the pier – Corey tried to do a cool skid into them, but a bad roll meant he decked it and got laughed at, while Keegan tried to grab Tori’s hand, but only JUST missed. Tori (screaming “I knew it was gnomes!” the whole time) attempted to escape on her own, but while she managed to give one a good elbowing, she was unable to free herself. She instead demanded to know who they were –
And got the answer of “We’re the Yule Lads, taking you to Gryla!” Because yes, if you have the Yule Cat, you have to have its little troll family as well! Fortunately, shortly after this, Corey (using his Treasure Hunter special ability) was able to find something to stop the Yule Lads – a special tripwire catapult thing that he won from the pier, and was able to throw at the Lads to trip them up and get them to drop Tori. The embarrassed Lads ran off, back the way the kids had come, and the others made sure Tori was all right – which she was, luckily. Corey promptly told her that “Mum said not to get kidnapped.” XD Siblings...
C) The kids deciding to pursue the Lads on their bikes – which initially involved dropping Rollo off with the security guard so he could take him home (direct quote from Mike: “What I love about the 90s is that we're willing to turn children over to strange men. I'm sure that'll continue.”), but then – after Keegan explained a bit more about the Yule Cat and how it hung out with the Yule Lads and this terrible child-eating troll woman (Tori: “She eats and kills kids?!” Keegan: “Well, they don’t survive being eaten…”), and they realized that the “gnomes” had come from one of Rollo’s neighbor’s houses (with Rollo explaining that it belonged to a woman who came to stay in Milton-on-Sea in the winter) – deciding that they ought to take him along as he might be important. The problem was, he didn’t have a bike…
So instead they got him to stand with one leg in each milk crate attached to Tori and Keegan’s bikes, with Corey riding in the middle, like they were doing a weird motorcycle stunt. XD This went better than you might expect, though the poor kid did end up doing the splits at one point when Keegan (and Corey) biffed a Flight roll to see how fast they were going, while Tori succeeded with an eleven. XD Fortunately Corey was able to help support Rollo, and Tori’s Knack for Bike Tricks helped save the day. Still, nobody though to have poor Rollo just SIT BEHIND one of them? Weird kids. XD
D) The kids encountering little six-year-old Emily again on their way back to Rollo’s street, bawling her eyes out – and when they asked if she’d seen the Yule Lads, she sobbed that they’d taken Sarah! :O Which was of course horrible –
So naturally Corey asked why Emily didn’t do anything to save her. Because a six-year-old should be able to take on thirteen troll-gnome things. XD Tori naturally followed up by asking Emily how much they’d paid her to look the other way, and Corey – now totally on board with Tori’s conspiracy theories after all he’d seen – upped the ante by accusing her of being a crisis actor. Which, as you might imagine, just made her cry all the harder. They did at least promise her that they would save Sarah –
Right before Corey said “and then you can work through your guilt in your own time.” XD Ellen’s faces during that section were priceless, let me tell you.
E) The group arriving at Rollo’s street (which, after some discussion on whether it was “Little Italy” or “Lamplight St,” was declared to be “Roman Rd” to keep everyone happy) and pulling up to the mysterious old lady’s house – to discover the gnomes outside were all missing. The quartet thus snuck around the side and found themselves with a tall fence, which fortunately had a gate in it, but unfortunately was locked from the other side. Corey offered Keegan a boost over the fence so he could unlock it for them –
And then Corey got a roll of 1 and Keegan a roll of 10 thanks to exploding dice, so what actually happened is Corey put his hands on the ground, and Keegan stepped on them before leaping over the fence with ease. Leaving Corey both feeling redundant and with crushed hands. XD Keegan then let everyone into the back yard, and they snuck up to the house, with Tori pushing her face up against one of the windows –
And, on a good Grit roll, managing to keep it together as she saw a big gloomy kitchen with a fire and a cauldron; the Yule Lads causing mischief around the place (sniffing spoons and whatnot); poor little Sarah in the corner, frozen in terror – and the massive, hulking craggy form of Gryla the troll herself. Tori being Tori, she naturally decided to get another picture as Gryla turned toward her a bit (with Jane assuring Ellen that she was not using the flash) –
And, on another good roll, it was determined that this snap would come out perfectly once developed! If the government didn’t steal the film, of course. XD But yeah – as Corey said, the next edition of Tori’s zine was going to be the best one ever!
F) The kids conferring and – after discovering a cat flap in the door – hatching a plan: Keegan would go around the front and play “Knock Down Ginger” – we in the States would more likely know it as Ding-Dong-Ditch, only you knock instead of ring the doorbell – on Gryla to distract her, while Corey would sneak in through the cat flap to rescue Sarah (as Tori had been in enough danger, and Rollo was having an existential crisis from earlier being asked what message he’d like them to pass onto his mum should he die, saying that he was sorry for saying he didn’t want a jumper and now he’d want a jumper every year, and Corey being like “but you’ll be dead, Corey – should she leave it on your grave?” in response XD). Keegan’s portion of the plan went off flawlessly – he’s had a lot of inadvertent practice playing Knock Down Ginger thanks to being a shy kid who wants to make friends but often loses his nerve after knocking – with him knocking on Gryla’s door, then hiding behind a giant inflatable snowman in the next yard over –
And when I left off, Andy was preparing to roll to see how Corey did at sneaking in through the cat flap! Which, unfortunately, is normal-cat-sized, not Yule-Cat-sized (there’s a reason it’s been sleeping in the arcade), so it’s not going to be as easy as the kids might have hoped to get in. Tomorrow, we finish this off and see how the kids defeat the Yule Cat’s troll companions! They’d better hope the troll husband isn’t around in this version…
2. Work on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” Chapter 6: Check – edited another page of Malk!Alice’s Adventures In Downtown Los Angeles, featuring:
A) Strauss calling LaCroix on his flip phone (which he’s just learned how to use) and letting him know what Alice found in the abandoned hospital and the fate of the Haunted LA crew, along with confirming that Pisha did not present herself to him as per Camarilla law
B) Strauss subsequently letting Alice know that LaCroix has authorized her to do whatever she thinks is necessary to take care of the Pisha problem as quickly as possible, as he’s eager to get that sarcophagus – and assuring her that, yes, this does include straight-up killing Pisha if she so chooses, though he asked her to please do so quietly so they didn’t have more shit to cover up to protect the Masquerade (Alice was happy enough to agree)
C) And Alice taking the opportunity to ask Strauss about why she might have seen one of Victor’s memories when she fed on him earlier (though she didn’t actually name Victor – she just said it was a guy she found who really enjoyed being fed on), and why she’s been feeling perkier ever since, and Strauss cheerfully taking the opportunity to tell her about a new phenomenon they’ve noticed recently while feeding – Resonance! AKA that Vampire: The Masquerade V5 mechanic I’m stealing where, if you feed from someone experiencing a strong emotion, it can boost specific Disciplines related to the emotion. Because I actually kind of like it and think it fits with the video-gamey vibes of “Londerland Bloodlines.” :p Though I am tweaking it slightly to make it so all Resonances boost all Disciplines a little, simply because I want to have Alice use Victor’s super-happy blood to boost her Obfuscate in the upcoming run through the museum even if technically she’s got the wrong Resonance for that (Obfuscate is boosted by SAD emotions). I left off with Strauss describing the four categories of Resonance to Alice – Choleric, for angry emotions; Melancholy, for sad ones; Phlegmatic, for calm ones; and Sanguine, for happy and romantic – or “romantic” – ones. :p Tomorrow, we finish up his explanation, and Alice sets off to figure out what to do about Simon Milligan – because of course he must be dealt with before Pisha...
3. Watch something on FreeTube: Check – I watched two somethings, in fact –
A) “Changes to the Channel” by C. M. Alongi! Informing us of, well, changes coming to her YouTube channel, courtesy of TikTok being a little fucking bitch and sneakily changing their monetization structure back to the one that gives creators way less money – you know, the one that had her so worried while she was wrapping up all the Heart of Iron Kickstarter rewards. She’s not panicking this time because she’s not in the middle of mailing fifty million things and prepping for a book tour, but she did decide that she just cannot rely on TikTok for her income anymore. So while she won’t be fully stepping away from that platform, she will be:
I. Posting fewer full skits on TikTok and doing more “TikTok Sounds,” whatever those are (I’m not on the platform)
II. Trying her best to do more longform content on YouTube by, hopefully, adding a weekly Monday video to her upload schedule! (And if you’re wondering “why longform stuff, why not just post all the skits to YouTube Shorts?” – she already crossposts them, and they don’t really help with monetization.) Her plan is to kick things off with a “behind the scenes” video, then do what she calls “CaFae Tales” – her reenacting the various stories and myths she read to research her beloved series, while the CaFae cast serves as narrators and commentators (for example, her planned first story, “The Well Of Youth,” will be narrated by Bob, with JC and Cyrus offering commentary). Which sounds really fun! She also hopes to get “CaFae Legends,” her promised “in-depth look at the various magical beings and tales behind the skits” series, off the ground – it’s just she and Video Editor Nic didn’t realize when they started that the episodes would turn into, basically, documentaries, each an hour long (split into two thirty-minute parts). She still plans to DO it, but it’ll be coming slower, with the first one either later this month or in February.
So yeah – seems like we can expect a lot of new content in the future! Even as we get fewer CaFae Latte skits overall, sadly...but I don’t blame her for wanting to step away from TikTok a bit, given how they’re screwing her over. And I appreciate that she does not want to go the sponsorship route – she doesn’t want to promote something that’s actually shit, or have to do commercials over the content she wants to do, or force people to buy things (that isn’t HER OWN books and merch, anyway). Though she will happily promote her Patreon – and her upcoming Kickstarter for the new Monstrous book she’s working on releasing. Which, quite fair enough. :p I seriously wish her luck with all this – she deserves a lot better than what TikTok is giving her, that’s for damn sure. >(
B) And “Fallout: New Vegas - Intro // Remastered to 4K, 60FPS” by Witchhunter’s Fallout Lab! Because I really like the intro to this game and I wanted to watch it while being able to hear the actual narration about what’s going on in the Mojave around the time the poor Courier gets shot a little better. XD I already described this pretty well in my write-up the other day about finally getting F:NV running, but here’s a fun bonus fact for you: the very start of the cinematic makes you think you’re looking at the night sky above New Vegas, then pulls out to show that you’re actually looking at a picture of the Lucky 38 in its pre-War heyday. And this picture happens to have some text on it, which reads: “Viva Las Vegas! 2025!!”
Yup, seriously. I know it’s 2026 now, but I bought it in 2025! XD I just thought it was funny that the picture referenced that particular year. Wonder how far everything had gone to shit in the Fallout universe by that point!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing happening on Valice Multiverse again, but I got three things queued up on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) –
A) A two-picture gifset of Fat Larry from VTMB by ohmicorazon for Wednesday
B) Some fanart shipping Vault Boy and Nuka Girl from the Fallout series by phoneyotc for Thursday
C) And a snippet of Malkavian fledgling dialogue from VTMB (“Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Beckett! Why am I clapping?”) for Friday
Yeah, kind of acknowledging/celebrating working on “Londerland Bloodlines” again and obtaining Fallout: New Vegas with this week’s queue. :P Now I just have to find a Song Saturday to round things out...
*nods* Not too shabby! But now I should really head to bed, because I really DO need to try and get some more sleep. Woke up early twice this morning -- once to use the bathroom, and once because my dad was dry-heaving. *sighs* He's got a doctor appointment on the 13th, and hopefully someone will listen to him when he says that his stomach is fucked up now. *shakehead* And on THAT lovely note -- night all!
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Date: 2026-01-10 10:42 pm (UTC)I hope that made sense. My brain isn't working today.