A Tiny Bit Of Good News
Jan. 21st, 2026 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickMom and Dad finally got a chance to talk to the oncologists today, and we learned that -- while they think his current situation is the return of his 2024 colon cancer, having moved into other parts of his body -- they do not think his prognosis is quite so grim as we originally heard. The first doctor told us that if it was the colon cancer, he'd have weeks to live -- these guys, however, think that with the right outpatient treatment, he could have months, maybe even up to a year. Which is still not a lot of time, but is better than weeks! It's actually why he hasn't had the biopsy yet -- as he has a better outlook, they were prioritizing more advanced patients first. Though they HAVE promised it will happen Friday at the latest, so there's that. So yeah -- we still need to see exactly what we're looking at, but it looks like we'll have more time with him than originally expected. Which is a tiny sliver of hope we really needed right now.
Other than that news, it was a pretty quiet day around here -- I kept an eye on the house and did a load of laundry for Mom, along with getting through all of the following:
Tumblr: Just had Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about today (not that I usually have to worry about Valice Multiverse even on the days I DO check it), and I got two key things done before lunch:
A) First, because I never got around to it yesterday (by the time I remembered “oh, right, today’s Tuesday,” it was waaaay too late at night to set up any posts), I quickly threw some stuff in my queue this morning:
I. Some fanart of Alice from AMA/A:MR by rhythm10goku (featuring poor little Alice looking back at her burning house, having just escaped the blaze; adult Wonderland Alice in the Royal Suit dress, looking curiously off to the side; and another little Alice looking sad and nervous in a dark blue dress) for today
II. A Corpse Bride gifset by thespian-wallflower (featuring various key scenes from the movie, like Emily approaching Victor on the bridge, Scraps pulling himself together out of loose bones in front of Victor, and Victor and Victoria watching Emily’s butterflies fly up to the moon) for Thursday
III. And that art of Dr. Smiler (his Smiler OC) by iothesc I found yesterday (the feminine dark-skinned person with the cool glowing yellow streaks in their bangs and cute little Smiler hair ornament) for Friday
Because, of course, the theme of VLA(NS) must be kept to. *nods* I’ll figure out Song Saturday later!
B) And second, I started drafting out my “Valicer As Text Posts: The Return” post, which will feature the twelve “text post meme” pictures I made featuring my beloved trio (four each for Alice, Victor, and Smiler) back on Friday! When, you know, shit hit the fan and I needed very much to keep myself distracted! I’ve gotten through the introduction and the first two sets of “text post meme” images, each with a link above them indicating which OTHER “text post meme” collections I harvested the actual text posts from (because credit is important, and also I wouldn’t have harvested the text posts from those collections if I didn’t think those posts were also funny). Hoping to make a little more progress on that tomorrow – it’s going to be a long post (especially given my commitment to alt-texting the images), so it’ll probably take a bit.
Writing: Once again I decided it would be a good idea to get this done sooner rather than later, so after lunch (and folding up the laundry), I spent some time editing another chunk of Chapter 3 of “The Van Dort Vacancy!” Which covered:
A) Alice and Smiler fleeing into the hall after having been told by Mrs. Pemberly, the head cook of the Van Dort kitchen, “I don’t know if I believe you’re new servants yet, but we need the help, so get some uniforms on and we’ll discuss if you’re trying to sneak some Coin later” – Alice saidd that was a narrow escape, and that she’d been hoping the cook would be as easily charmed as June, and Smiler admitted they should have thought that the head cook would help with the hiring of kitchen staff, but it was the first lie that came to mind, so...good thing she needed their help more than knowing who they were!
B) Alice and Smiler entering the servants’ changing room, with Smiler grabbing Alice a dress and themselves a shirt and pants – Alice noted that the dress was shockingly fine fabric and that she hadn’t expected the Van Dorts to dress their staff so richly, and Smiler guessed that it was probably another way for them to show off how much money they had – “even our servants have incredibly nice clothes!”
C) Alice ducking into the little curtained area at the end of the room to change (leaving Smiler to change in the main area – Alice reminded them to close the door so they weren’t caught in their underthings, even if she believed they could talk their way out of that), and chatting with a couple of Wonderlanders about how disguising herself as a Van Dort servant was not how she expected to spend her day (Carpenter was like “would have been surprised if it was”); how yes, she was at least grateful that the servant’s dress was a nicer color than her old green one (and expressing shock over the fact that Joytide actually accepted it in trade for her old dress (the one Alice was wearing in the first chapter) – though yes, she intended to get it dyed, so…); and how she honestly wouldn’t mind keeping the dress if she could, since it was such lovely fabric and she actually kind of liked all the lace down the front (Cheshire told her that if she did her job well, she could be so rewarded – just not to assume the job was the one in front of her; Alice promptly rolled her eyes about him being deliberately confusing and said she’d do whatever job she had to to avoid being kicked out, and then talk to Victor about making the dress her reward)
D) And Alice emerging back into the main room once Smiler confirmed they’d changed too, and – upon being asked how they looked – admitting it was a little bizarre to see them in anything other than yellow or black; Smiler confirmed it was a little odd for them to be wearing something other than yellow or black (though they did confirm they had a purple shirt they broke out for parties), but that they could deal to avoid the wrath of Mrs. Pemberly.
*nods* I’m very happy with that – but then again, I’m always happy when I get to work on my Valicer In The Dark stuff. :) I left it with Smiler getting Alice an apron to complete her look – tomorrow, the pair finish “suiting up,” and have a little conversation about how they feel regarding leaving Victor behind in the Van Dort mansion… (Spoilers: they don’t feel great about it!)
Little Corners: Decided to give myself a break from long game write-ups today by continuing the cycle I started last Friday and playing my cute little sticker-book game instead of Fallout: New Vegas this afternoon (not that I didn’t WANT to get back to the adventures of Courier Victor, but – I also wanted to catch up on my OXBoxtra lists and maybe drag myself into bed closer to 1 AM than 2 AM tonight). However, today’s session of decorating adorable little corners with adorable little stickers kind of turned into a “good news, bad news” situation:
Good News: I finished my take on the Adventurer’s Tavern corner! Admittedly, the corner was almost done the last time I played – it really just needed a few more finishing touches to properly clutter the place up. Accordingly, I –
A) Put a little colorful cross pennant on the window, so we had one of each kind of pennant (cross, sword, dragon) in the room
B) Added some silverware to some of the table settings – a fork and a knife on either side of the big hunk of meat on the “window” table; a spoon beside the bowl of green mush on the “fireplace” table; and a fork in the pie tin, sticking a little into the remaining slice of pie, in the booth
C) Put a green apple in front of the seat closest to the door at the “fireplace” table, then a bruised pear at the seat closest to the bar – I have decided the group sitting there are into health food :p
D) Added a lute and a witch’s hat to the red backpack with a knife peeking out and the ax sitting at the very edge of the corner beside the “window” table, since I liked both items and wanted to use them (now we know what kind of party is sitting there)
E) Rearranged the items on the “window” table a bit – moving the money bag in front of the seat closest to the window, and putting the Big Brown Book Of Swords in front of the seat where the money was (because, given the way the book was facing, that was the best place to put it to suggest someone was actually reading it)
F) Adjusted the placement of the stools around the “fireplace” table slightly so I could fit a backpack behind the one closest to the bar, and shove the one closest to the fireplace/booth in a little bit more to suggest no one was sitting there; I also put a pitcher in front of that seat, since that part of the table was looking a little blank for my liking
G) Added a barrel with a little tap on it next to the bookcase “bar,” then stuck a tambourine atop it (we’ll pretend the owner is a retired bard and that’s his instrument) and put a spill below the tap to suggest either it or the barrel itself was leaking (just a little extra visual interest)
H) Put a little pile of coins on the corner of the bar, beside the first stool, to suggest someone paying for their drink (I also considered doubling up on bookcase stickers to make a thicker-looking bar near the beginning of the session, but ultimately decided against it as it looked too thick and too weird with the big line down the middle of the “counter” – plus I didn’t feel like replacing all the bottle stickers I’d already placed last time!)
I) Put a hole in the wall over the little picture of a guy with a sword by the fireplace, and stuck a knife into the wall next to the door, to give the walls a bit more character (it is an ADVENTURER’S tavern, after all – and we already have the ax sticking out of the picture of the dragon on the wall, so…)
J) And put a little toad under the “window” table, because now that I have a witch sitting there, they need a familiar :)
*looks up at that list* Okay, I guess that’s more than “a few” finishing touches. XD But it was all worth it – here’s the completed version of the Adventurer’s Tavern:
I think it looks pretty darn nice! :) Though I’m glad I got a picture of it when I did, because…
Bad News: Little Corners was acting a little screwy today, I’m sad to say. Specifically, the stickers were bugging out a bit – here’s what happened:
A) At the start of my session, when I went back into the Adventurer’s Tavern, I was surprised to see a bunch of stickers showing up on the wrong sheets – like, a sticker for a big pole with a table around it was on the sheet with all the pennants and books and barrels and whatnot, layered underneath the correct stickers. I was a little confused as to how that had happened, but figured the sticker sheets had just glitched out a bit, so – after confirming I didn’t want to double up on the bookcase “bar” to make it thicker, and realizing “oh hey, that cross pennant might look good over the window” – I spent a minute or two moving all the “misplaced” stickers back to where they ought to go.
B) Then, after finishing up the Tavern and taking the above screenshot, I was like, “Okay, before I go, let’s take a look at the next corner I want to do – the Overgrown Ruins.” So I saved where I was with the Tavern and moved to the main menu, where I started up a new corner and found the Ruins –
Except when I loaded into it, three stickers were already placed: my two tables and the bookcase “bar” from my Tavern corner. I was like “?!?! le fuck?” before going and reloading my Tavern build –
And finding my tables and bookcase “bar” missing! The stickers had just been yeeted from the build into the new corner! “Okay, I guess I’m quitting for the day and instead filing a bug report!” I thought, exiting out of the game and closing out of Steam to go find where I did that –
And then I realized, “Oh shit, I should have taken a screenshot.” So I reopened Steam and reloaded the game, vaguely wondering if the reload would fix things or if the situation would be even worse…
And it kind of fixed things. As in, the incorrect stickers were no longer in the Overgrown Ruins corner, but the tables and bookcase “bar” had not been restored to their proper positions in the Adventurer’s Tavern corner – instead, they’d been put back on their respective sheets. Oh, and some of the sheets were once again showing the wrong stickers in the wrong places when I scrolled through them – I took an F12 Steam screenshot instead of an official in-game one so you, and hopefully the developers, can see what I mean:
That sheet should NOT look like that! Fortunately, since the table and bookcase stickers were back on their sheets, I was able to put them back into the scene where they were supposed to go (saving the restored tavern under a different save file), but still. That is a weird and somewhat worrying glitch. And worst of all?
I’m having NO luck finding out how I contact the developers to let them know “hey, your stickers be a bit screwy.” The main site’s support page has a form that asks me what my budget is (suggesting it’s using the wrong template), and I can’t figure out how to contact them otherwise. O.o I like the game and I’d like to let them know it needs a patch! *shakes head* I’m sure I’ll find something, but it’s a little frustrating right now, that’s for sure.
Workout: Hopped back on the bike tonight, continuing with “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 2 - Armed But Not Dangerous!” AKA The Further Adventures Of Useless Steve, which included –
A) Useless Steve managing to get through the REPCONN building pretty easily, all things considered (Jenny Millet’s keycard unlocked a door that Jon wasn’t sure it would unlock; the scanning robots on the second floor were happy enough to accept him as Jenny due to him possessing her keycard; he was able to add his facial data to the database of employees thanks to the needed terminal being only Very Easy locked (meaning even he with his terrible Science could hack it); and – thanks to Fallout: New Vegas being very silly sometimes – his low Intelligence was no barrier to getting onto the third floor, as he just screamed “ICE CREAM!” at the Mr. Handy who confronted him, providing the correct password for access by pure accident), and pick up loads of goodies, including some very valuable pieces of power armor from the dead Brotherhood Paladins inside (though, given how heavy it was, inventory management and gulping down Buffout washed down with Scotch to boost his Strength proved to be a must), a bunch of pre-War money from the briefcase of Piers Isley (because they don’t use money to make beds in this game), and the Q-35 Matter Modulator, a unique plasma rifle that Useless Steve can actually wield because it only requires a Strength of 2 (it has lower damage than the standard rifle, but fires faster and has better critical damage – though the latter isn’t going to be of much use to Steve given how infrequently he’s going to get crits thanks to his abysmal Luck stat). Good haul out of that place!
B) Useless Steve then making the run toward the outskirts of New Vegas and the Gun Runners’ automated shop (run by a Protectron), which included:
I. Stopping at a few little shops along the way to unload a few items to get his weight down (like the baseball bat and dynamite he’ll never use)
II. Chugging a bottle of vodka by Aerotech when the Buffout and scotch ran out to perfectly balance his carry capacity and the weight he was lugging around (nice)
III. And stopping by the NCR Sharecropper’s farm to raid it for goodies (most notably, another Sneak skill book)
Before finally arriving at the shop itself and selling that power armor for every cap the robot had available – 1,000! Yes, hitting up REPCONN was a very lucrative side trip for Steve indeed!
C) Useless Steve then going to the Crimson Caravan Company to get the rest of his “thanks for saving me” reward from Ringo and sell a bunch of stuff – notably NCR dollars, cigarettes, and pre-War money – to Blake, before swinging by the New Vegas Medical Clinic to show off how a low-Intelligence character like himself can convince the nice doctor there to offer a 1,000-cap discount on the Intelligence-boosting implant (mainly by just proving how stupid he is by going “Oh, you sell plants too?” when she started talking about implants), allowing himself to raise his Intelligence up to 2 for a mere 3,000 caps instead of 4,000! Smart – well, relatively; Useless Steve is still dumb enough to get all the ridiculous low-Intelligence dialogue options, anyway. :p
D) Useless Steve then going to get the ACTUAL thing Jon sent him up here to get (because yes, the nice gun and the goodies to sell from REPCONN, the skill book from the sharecroppers, and the implant from the clinic were all just bonuses he was able to pick up along the way) – the Abilene Kid LE BB Gun out of Fields’ Shack! The unique variant of the BB Gun that is now Useless Steve’s go-to Sneak Attack Critical weapon! Why? Because this gun does 2-4 base damage (depending on your Guns skill) –
And 70 critical damage. It’s apparently the largest mismatch between base damage and critical damage in the GAME. And while it has its problems (namely, terrible accuracy/spread, as Useless Steve showed off a bit later shooting some cows, and using an ammo type that you cannot craft, you have to find or buy in the world), it’s still a solid bit of kit for someone like Useless Steve, who needs any advantage he can get! So yeah – Jon’s new plan was to use that gun for any sneak attacks Steve can pull off (as sneak attacks are always crits in this game), then finish enemies off with either the Q-35 or the 9mm pistol. *nods* Solid.
E) Useless Steve then going back to Goodsprings to get a few necessary bits and pieces (namely, Benny’s distinctive cigarette butts near his grave, to help convince Swank in The Tops of Benny’s wrongdoings, and some BB gun ammo (plus a spare BB gun for repair purposes) from Easy Pete’s old house) – only to discover ANOTHER giant radscorpion had moved in! Or possibly the old one had been magically resurrected, who knows. Point is, Goodsprings is now permanently home to a giant radscorpion and it’s all Useless Steve’s fault. (A wag in the comments commented that the town should be called “Goodstings” now, which I approve of. XD)
F) Useless Steve then finally returning to Primm with his new guns, and managing to get just enough XP from disarming mines (which doesn’t require a skill check, just that you be fast enough to hit the “disarm” button) to get up to Level 3, which saw Jon boost his Lockpick up to 23 (so it would be 25 with Easy Pete’s hat equipped, allowing him to do Easy locks), and his Speech up to 12 (as Steve really does need to start being able to talk his way past shit)
G) Useless Steve then managing to take out the convicts outside of the main casino; slip into the late Sheriff McBain’s house and rob it of useful ammo and guns (and a duster that might be useful for Speech checks later); get into the casino and talk to Johnson Nash, learning where to go next before selling him a bunch of stuff he didn’t need and buying some skill magazines and the damage upgrade mod for the plasma pistol (which means, between that, his Energy Weapons skill being 10 (twice his Guns skill), and needing to use up all that heavy microfusion cell ammo he was carrying, Steve is now officially an Energy Weapons guy); and get into the Bison Steve Hotel – where he immediately got into a gunfight with the convicts in the first room. On the plus side, he actually got a critical hit with his Q-35 on one of them, and we got to see the guy turn into goo! We love a good gooifying in these games. :p
H) And Useless Steve continuing on through the hotel, getting the Barter skill book in the gift shop and using his newly-boosted lockpicking to get through a door that allowed him to get straight to the captured Deputy Beagle rather than brave the final room of guys – I left off with Jon being briefly tempted to just kill Beagle and take his journal instead to avoid more confrontations with the bad guys, only to realize that Beagle was detecting him and thus he couldn’t get the sneak attack crit with his sneak attack crit gun. Meaning yes, Beagle must live. XD Sorry, Jon!
Fun stuff as always! And tomorrow, we should be able to finish off this episode and see how Useless Steve handles rescuing Beagle and resolving the situation in Primm! Looking forward to it. :)
FreeTube: Well, the workout write-up above took longer than anticipated, but I still had enough time this evening to catch up on the OXBox list from last week that I didn’t get a chance to watch previously – “7 Most Ridiculous Weapons You Had to Craft!” Andy and Mike going through those bizarre weapons in games that you had to make yourself, rather than the game just giving them to you. Find yourself in possession of a paddle ball game after winning at the arcades in Fallout 4’s “Nuka World” DLC? Why not locate a weapons workbench and spice up the ball by shoving some spikes or blades into it, or juice it up with some deadly Nuka-Cola-based explosive action to give enemies a truly ridiculous bad time? Got yourself a bog-standard spear and a mushroom in The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom? Why not use Link’s new Fuse ability to smash them together and create a deadly kebab that can also bounce enemies away from you with every hit? Stumble across a leaf blower and a sausage-shaped *ahem* “massager” in Dead Rising? Why not grab some duct tape and put them together to create the Super Massager and fire those sausages with deadly speed into the faces of zombies (who presumably die not only from the hit, but also from embarrassment)? Oh, you want to kill enemies with dignity? Pfft – what’s the fun in THAT? XD Not to mention, most of these weird weapons are in fact quite powerful, so – maybe leave the dignity at the door. You’ll feel much better that way.
*nods* Not bad -- and yes, it is MUCH earlier than I usually end an update these days right now, so I WILL be going to bed closer to 1 AM than 2 AM, yay. :p Tomorrow -- well, I expect there will be more waiting around for the biopsy to be done. I plan to keep busy by working more on my "Valicer As Text Posts" post in the Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) tumblr drafts; working on "The Van Dort Vacancy" Chapter 3 some more; playing more Fallout: New Vegas and coming to grips with my Courier Victor; getting in a workout; and hopefully squeezing in at least the latest OXtra list video -- we shall see. *nods* Night all!
Other than that news, it was a pretty quiet day around here -- I kept an eye on the house and did a load of laundry for Mom, along with getting through all of the following:
Tumblr: Just had Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about today (not that I usually have to worry about Valice Multiverse even on the days I DO check it), and I got two key things done before lunch:
A) First, because I never got around to it yesterday (by the time I remembered “oh, right, today’s Tuesday,” it was waaaay too late at night to set up any posts), I quickly threw some stuff in my queue this morning:
I. Some fanart of Alice from AMA/A:MR by rhythm10goku (featuring poor little Alice looking back at her burning house, having just escaped the blaze; adult Wonderland Alice in the Royal Suit dress, looking curiously off to the side; and another little Alice looking sad and nervous in a dark blue dress) for today
II. A Corpse Bride gifset by thespian-wallflower (featuring various key scenes from the movie, like Emily approaching Victor on the bridge, Scraps pulling himself together out of loose bones in front of Victor, and Victor and Victoria watching Emily’s butterflies fly up to the moon) for Thursday
III. And that art of Dr. Smiler (his Smiler OC) by iothesc I found yesterday (the feminine dark-skinned person with the cool glowing yellow streaks in their bangs and cute little Smiler hair ornament) for Friday
Because, of course, the theme of VLA(NS) must be kept to. *nods* I’ll figure out Song Saturday later!
B) And second, I started drafting out my “Valicer As Text Posts: The Return” post, which will feature the twelve “text post meme” pictures I made featuring my beloved trio (four each for Alice, Victor, and Smiler) back on Friday! When, you know, shit hit the fan and I needed very much to keep myself distracted! I’ve gotten through the introduction and the first two sets of “text post meme” images, each with a link above them indicating which OTHER “text post meme” collections I harvested the actual text posts from (because credit is important, and also I wouldn’t have harvested the text posts from those collections if I didn’t think those posts were also funny). Hoping to make a little more progress on that tomorrow – it’s going to be a long post (especially given my commitment to alt-texting the images), so it’ll probably take a bit.
Writing: Once again I decided it would be a good idea to get this done sooner rather than later, so after lunch (and folding up the laundry), I spent some time editing another chunk of Chapter 3 of “The Van Dort Vacancy!” Which covered:
A) Alice and Smiler fleeing into the hall after having been told by Mrs. Pemberly, the head cook of the Van Dort kitchen, “I don’t know if I believe you’re new servants yet, but we need the help, so get some uniforms on and we’ll discuss if you’re trying to sneak some Coin later” – Alice saidd that was a narrow escape, and that she’d been hoping the cook would be as easily charmed as June, and Smiler admitted they should have thought that the head cook would help with the hiring of kitchen staff, but it was the first lie that came to mind, so...good thing she needed their help more than knowing who they were!
B) Alice and Smiler entering the servants’ changing room, with Smiler grabbing Alice a dress and themselves a shirt and pants – Alice noted that the dress was shockingly fine fabric and that she hadn’t expected the Van Dorts to dress their staff so richly, and Smiler guessed that it was probably another way for them to show off how much money they had – “even our servants have incredibly nice clothes!”
C) Alice ducking into the little curtained area at the end of the room to change (leaving Smiler to change in the main area – Alice reminded them to close the door so they weren’t caught in their underthings, even if she believed they could talk their way out of that), and chatting with a couple of Wonderlanders about how disguising herself as a Van Dort servant was not how she expected to spend her day (Carpenter was like “would have been surprised if it was”); how yes, she was at least grateful that the servant’s dress was a nicer color than her old green one (and expressing shock over the fact that Joytide actually accepted it in trade for her old dress (the one Alice was wearing in the first chapter) – though yes, she intended to get it dyed, so…); and how she honestly wouldn’t mind keeping the dress if she could, since it was such lovely fabric and she actually kind of liked all the lace down the front (Cheshire told her that if she did her job well, she could be so rewarded – just not to assume the job was the one in front of her; Alice promptly rolled her eyes about him being deliberately confusing and said she’d do whatever job she had to to avoid being kicked out, and then talk to Victor about making the dress her reward)
D) And Alice emerging back into the main room once Smiler confirmed they’d changed too, and – upon being asked how they looked – admitting it was a little bizarre to see them in anything other than yellow or black; Smiler confirmed it was a little odd for them to be wearing something other than yellow or black (though they did confirm they had a purple shirt they broke out for parties), but that they could deal to avoid the wrath of Mrs. Pemberly.
*nods* I’m very happy with that – but then again, I’m always happy when I get to work on my Valicer In The Dark stuff. :) I left it with Smiler getting Alice an apron to complete her look – tomorrow, the pair finish “suiting up,” and have a little conversation about how they feel regarding leaving Victor behind in the Van Dort mansion… (Spoilers: they don’t feel great about it!)
Little Corners: Decided to give myself a break from long game write-ups today by continuing the cycle I started last Friday and playing my cute little sticker-book game instead of Fallout: New Vegas this afternoon (not that I didn’t WANT to get back to the adventures of Courier Victor, but – I also wanted to catch up on my OXBoxtra lists and maybe drag myself into bed closer to 1 AM than 2 AM tonight). However, today’s session of decorating adorable little corners with adorable little stickers kind of turned into a “good news, bad news” situation:
Good News: I finished my take on the Adventurer’s Tavern corner! Admittedly, the corner was almost done the last time I played – it really just needed a few more finishing touches to properly clutter the place up. Accordingly, I –
A) Put a little colorful cross pennant on the window, so we had one of each kind of pennant (cross, sword, dragon) in the room
B) Added some silverware to some of the table settings – a fork and a knife on either side of the big hunk of meat on the “window” table; a spoon beside the bowl of green mush on the “fireplace” table; and a fork in the pie tin, sticking a little into the remaining slice of pie, in the booth
C) Put a green apple in front of the seat closest to the door at the “fireplace” table, then a bruised pear at the seat closest to the bar – I have decided the group sitting there are into health food :p
D) Added a lute and a witch’s hat to the red backpack with a knife peeking out and the ax sitting at the very edge of the corner beside the “window” table, since I liked both items and wanted to use them (now we know what kind of party is sitting there)
E) Rearranged the items on the “window” table a bit – moving the money bag in front of the seat closest to the window, and putting the Big Brown Book Of Swords in front of the seat where the money was (because, given the way the book was facing, that was the best place to put it to suggest someone was actually reading it)
F) Adjusted the placement of the stools around the “fireplace” table slightly so I could fit a backpack behind the one closest to the bar, and shove the one closest to the fireplace/booth in a little bit more to suggest no one was sitting there; I also put a pitcher in front of that seat, since that part of the table was looking a little blank for my liking
G) Added a barrel with a little tap on it next to the bookcase “bar,” then stuck a tambourine atop it (we’ll pretend the owner is a retired bard and that’s his instrument) and put a spill below the tap to suggest either it or the barrel itself was leaking (just a little extra visual interest)
H) Put a little pile of coins on the corner of the bar, beside the first stool, to suggest someone paying for their drink (I also considered doubling up on bookcase stickers to make a thicker-looking bar near the beginning of the session, but ultimately decided against it as it looked too thick and too weird with the big line down the middle of the “counter” – plus I didn’t feel like replacing all the bottle stickers I’d already placed last time!)
I) Put a hole in the wall over the little picture of a guy with a sword by the fireplace, and stuck a knife into the wall next to the door, to give the walls a bit more character (it is an ADVENTURER’S tavern, after all – and we already have the ax sticking out of the picture of the dragon on the wall, so…)
J) And put a little toad under the “window” table, because now that I have a witch sitting there, they need a familiar :)
*looks up at that list* Okay, I guess that’s more than “a few” finishing touches. XD But it was all worth it – here’s the completed version of the Adventurer’s Tavern:
I think it looks pretty darn nice! :) Though I’m glad I got a picture of it when I did, because…
Bad News: Little Corners was acting a little screwy today, I’m sad to say. Specifically, the stickers were bugging out a bit – here’s what happened:
A) At the start of my session, when I went back into the Adventurer’s Tavern, I was surprised to see a bunch of stickers showing up on the wrong sheets – like, a sticker for a big pole with a table around it was on the sheet with all the pennants and books and barrels and whatnot, layered underneath the correct stickers. I was a little confused as to how that had happened, but figured the sticker sheets had just glitched out a bit, so – after confirming I didn’t want to double up on the bookcase “bar” to make it thicker, and realizing “oh hey, that cross pennant might look good over the window” – I spent a minute or two moving all the “misplaced” stickers back to where they ought to go.
B) Then, after finishing up the Tavern and taking the above screenshot, I was like, “Okay, before I go, let’s take a look at the next corner I want to do – the Overgrown Ruins.” So I saved where I was with the Tavern and moved to the main menu, where I started up a new corner and found the Ruins –
Except when I loaded into it, three stickers were already placed: my two tables and the bookcase “bar” from my Tavern corner. I was like “?!?! le fuck?” before going and reloading my Tavern build –
And finding my tables and bookcase “bar” missing! The stickers had just been yeeted from the build into the new corner! “Okay, I guess I’m quitting for the day and instead filing a bug report!” I thought, exiting out of the game and closing out of Steam to go find where I did that –
And then I realized, “Oh shit, I should have taken a screenshot.” So I reopened Steam and reloaded the game, vaguely wondering if the reload would fix things or if the situation would be even worse…
And it kind of fixed things. As in, the incorrect stickers were no longer in the Overgrown Ruins corner, but the tables and bookcase “bar” had not been restored to their proper positions in the Adventurer’s Tavern corner – instead, they’d been put back on their respective sheets. Oh, and some of the sheets were once again showing the wrong stickers in the wrong places when I scrolled through them – I took an F12 Steam screenshot instead of an official in-game one so you, and hopefully the developers, can see what I mean:
That sheet should NOT look like that! Fortunately, since the table and bookcase stickers were back on their sheets, I was able to put them back into the scene where they were supposed to go (saving the restored tavern under a different save file), but still. That is a weird and somewhat worrying glitch. And worst of all?
I’m having NO luck finding out how I contact the developers to let them know “hey, your stickers be a bit screwy.” The main site’s support page has a form that asks me what my budget is (suggesting it’s using the wrong template), and I can’t figure out how to contact them otherwise. O.o I like the game and I’d like to let them know it needs a patch! *shakes head* I’m sure I’ll find something, but it’s a little frustrating right now, that’s for sure.
Workout: Hopped back on the bike tonight, continuing with “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 2 - Armed But Not Dangerous!” AKA The Further Adventures Of Useless Steve, which included –
A) Useless Steve managing to get through the REPCONN building pretty easily, all things considered (Jenny Millet’s keycard unlocked a door that Jon wasn’t sure it would unlock; the scanning robots on the second floor were happy enough to accept him as Jenny due to him possessing her keycard; he was able to add his facial data to the database of employees thanks to the needed terminal being only Very Easy locked (meaning even he with his terrible Science could hack it); and – thanks to Fallout: New Vegas being very silly sometimes – his low Intelligence was no barrier to getting onto the third floor, as he just screamed “ICE CREAM!” at the Mr. Handy who confronted him, providing the correct password for access by pure accident), and pick up loads of goodies, including some very valuable pieces of power armor from the dead Brotherhood Paladins inside (though, given how heavy it was, inventory management and gulping down Buffout washed down with Scotch to boost his Strength proved to be a must), a bunch of pre-War money from the briefcase of Piers Isley (because they don’t use money to make beds in this game), and the Q-35 Matter Modulator, a unique plasma rifle that Useless Steve can actually wield because it only requires a Strength of 2 (it has lower damage than the standard rifle, but fires faster and has better critical damage – though the latter isn’t going to be of much use to Steve given how infrequently he’s going to get crits thanks to his abysmal Luck stat). Good haul out of that place!
B) Useless Steve then making the run toward the outskirts of New Vegas and the Gun Runners’ automated shop (run by a Protectron), which included:
I. Stopping at a few little shops along the way to unload a few items to get his weight down (like the baseball bat and dynamite he’ll never use)
II. Chugging a bottle of vodka by Aerotech when the Buffout and scotch ran out to perfectly balance his carry capacity and the weight he was lugging around (nice)
III. And stopping by the NCR Sharecropper’s farm to raid it for goodies (most notably, another Sneak skill book)
Before finally arriving at the shop itself and selling that power armor for every cap the robot had available – 1,000! Yes, hitting up REPCONN was a very lucrative side trip for Steve indeed!
C) Useless Steve then going to the Crimson Caravan Company to get the rest of his “thanks for saving me” reward from Ringo and sell a bunch of stuff – notably NCR dollars, cigarettes, and pre-War money – to Blake, before swinging by the New Vegas Medical Clinic to show off how a low-Intelligence character like himself can convince the nice doctor there to offer a 1,000-cap discount on the Intelligence-boosting implant (mainly by just proving how stupid he is by going “Oh, you sell plants too?” when she started talking about implants), allowing himself to raise his Intelligence up to 2 for a mere 3,000 caps instead of 4,000! Smart – well, relatively; Useless Steve is still dumb enough to get all the ridiculous low-Intelligence dialogue options, anyway. :p
D) Useless Steve then going to get the ACTUAL thing Jon sent him up here to get (because yes, the nice gun and the goodies to sell from REPCONN, the skill book from the sharecroppers, and the implant from the clinic were all just bonuses he was able to pick up along the way) – the Abilene Kid LE BB Gun out of Fields’ Shack! The unique variant of the BB Gun that is now Useless Steve’s go-to Sneak Attack Critical weapon! Why? Because this gun does 2-4 base damage (depending on your Guns skill) –
And 70 critical damage. It’s apparently the largest mismatch between base damage and critical damage in the GAME. And while it has its problems (namely, terrible accuracy/spread, as Useless Steve showed off a bit later shooting some cows, and using an ammo type that you cannot craft, you have to find or buy in the world), it’s still a solid bit of kit for someone like Useless Steve, who needs any advantage he can get! So yeah – Jon’s new plan was to use that gun for any sneak attacks Steve can pull off (as sneak attacks are always crits in this game), then finish enemies off with either the Q-35 or the 9mm pistol. *nods* Solid.
E) Useless Steve then going back to Goodsprings to get a few necessary bits and pieces (namely, Benny’s distinctive cigarette butts near his grave, to help convince Swank in The Tops of Benny’s wrongdoings, and some BB gun ammo (plus a spare BB gun for repair purposes) from Easy Pete’s old house) – only to discover ANOTHER giant radscorpion had moved in! Or possibly the old one had been magically resurrected, who knows. Point is, Goodsprings is now permanently home to a giant radscorpion and it’s all Useless Steve’s fault. (A wag in the comments commented that the town should be called “Goodstings” now, which I approve of. XD)
F) Useless Steve then finally returning to Primm with his new guns, and managing to get just enough XP from disarming mines (which doesn’t require a skill check, just that you be fast enough to hit the “disarm” button) to get up to Level 3, which saw Jon boost his Lockpick up to 23 (so it would be 25 with Easy Pete’s hat equipped, allowing him to do Easy locks), and his Speech up to 12 (as Steve really does need to start being able to talk his way past shit)
G) Useless Steve then managing to take out the convicts outside of the main casino; slip into the late Sheriff McBain’s house and rob it of useful ammo and guns (and a duster that might be useful for Speech checks later); get into the casino and talk to Johnson Nash, learning where to go next before selling him a bunch of stuff he didn’t need and buying some skill magazines and the damage upgrade mod for the plasma pistol (which means, between that, his Energy Weapons skill being 10 (twice his Guns skill), and needing to use up all that heavy microfusion cell ammo he was carrying, Steve is now officially an Energy Weapons guy); and get into the Bison Steve Hotel – where he immediately got into a gunfight with the convicts in the first room. On the plus side, he actually got a critical hit with his Q-35 on one of them, and we got to see the guy turn into goo! We love a good gooifying in these games. :p
H) And Useless Steve continuing on through the hotel, getting the Barter skill book in the gift shop and using his newly-boosted lockpicking to get through a door that allowed him to get straight to the captured Deputy Beagle rather than brave the final room of guys – I left off with Jon being briefly tempted to just kill Beagle and take his journal instead to avoid more confrontations with the bad guys, only to realize that Beagle was detecting him and thus he couldn’t get the sneak attack crit with his sneak attack crit gun. Meaning yes, Beagle must live. XD Sorry, Jon!
Fun stuff as always! And tomorrow, we should be able to finish off this episode and see how Useless Steve handles rescuing Beagle and resolving the situation in Primm! Looking forward to it. :)
FreeTube: Well, the workout write-up above took longer than anticipated, but I still had enough time this evening to catch up on the OXBox list from last week that I didn’t get a chance to watch previously – “7 Most Ridiculous Weapons You Had to Craft!” Andy and Mike going through those bizarre weapons in games that you had to make yourself, rather than the game just giving them to you. Find yourself in possession of a paddle ball game after winning at the arcades in Fallout 4’s “Nuka World” DLC? Why not locate a weapons workbench and spice up the ball by shoving some spikes or blades into it, or juice it up with some deadly Nuka-Cola-based explosive action to give enemies a truly ridiculous bad time? Got yourself a bog-standard spear and a mushroom in The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom? Why not use Link’s new Fuse ability to smash them together and create a deadly kebab that can also bounce enemies away from you with every hit? Stumble across a leaf blower and a sausage-shaped *ahem* “massager” in Dead Rising? Why not grab some duct tape and put them together to create the Super Massager and fire those sausages with deadly speed into the faces of zombies (who presumably die not only from the hit, but also from embarrassment)? Oh, you want to kill enemies with dignity? Pfft – what’s the fun in THAT? XD Not to mention, most of these weird weapons are in fact quite powerful, so – maybe leave the dignity at the door. You’ll feel much better that way.
*nods* Not bad -- and yes, it is MUCH earlier than I usually end an update these days right now, so I WILL be going to bed closer to 1 AM than 2 AM, yay. :p Tomorrow -- well, I expect there will be more waiting around for the biopsy to be done. I plan to keep busy by working more on my "Valicer As Text Posts" post in the Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) tumblr drafts; working on "The Van Dort Vacancy" Chapter 3 some more; playing more Fallout: New Vegas and coming to grips with my Courier Victor; getting in a workout; and hopefully squeezing in at least the latest OXtra list video -- we shall see. *nods* Night all!
no subject
Date: 2026-01-22 02:32 pm (UTC)Ugh....I hope you get some good news soon.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-23 04:50 am (UTC)To be fair, us learning that they don't think he's going to die nearly as soon as that first doctor suggested IS good news. We've been working under the assumption that the worst-case scenario was losing him within a couple of weeks -- now we're looking at months, and that's at least a little better. We'll take what we can get.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-23 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-24 04:43 am (UTC)