The Wait Comes To A Close Tomorrow
Jan. 22nd, 2026 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickThey're FINALLY doing Dad's biopsy tomorrow morning -- and, depending on how his potassium and oxygen levels look afterward, he might be able to come home tomorrow afternoon. If not, it's likely he'll be released Saturday. *sigh* Good to finally know WHEN the hell it's going to be done already...granted, then we'll have to wait for the results, but -- still. At least we can get him out of the hospital and back home and be a little bit less stressed out! And then we can go from there. *nods*
As for today, it was another pretty quiet day around the house -- dusted the living room for Mom, then just hung out as I have been doing. Got a fair amount of stuff done here on the computer, though:
Tumblr: In an increasingly-rare turn of events, I ended up accomplishing something on BOTH my tumblrs today –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Got a couple of things done over here before (and a bit during) lunch –
A) First, I finished drafting out the “Valicer As Text Posts” post I started working on yesterday! :) Turns out alt-texting all the images didn’t take as long as I thought (even with me going back to make sure all the alt text was consistent across the images). So that’s all sorted, complete with tags. Dunno when it’s going up, but it’s ready to go whenever I choose to slap it in the queue!
B) And second, I worked some more on the draft of my “The Miseries Of Margaret Kelman” post explaining who Smiler’s birth mother is and what happened to her in all those universes where Smiler needs a birth mother – updating the introduction, adding links to the parts that reference various posts I’ve made in the past about Smiler, and writing down the few facts that I know about her (namely, she’s the parent who Smiler gets most of their looks from; she met Kelman when she was very lonely and found herself charmed by his awkwardness and desire to help people – then she married him and learned he was a monster; and she struggles with depression, which is probably why KELMAN was attracted to HER – free test subject!). Slowly but surely bringing this one together!
Valice Multiverse – And I dropped one ask in the queue over here tonight – an anon who went “God gave me two hands so I can pet two cats at the same time. But I got three cats, because the nature of man HUBRIS!” Cuddlepile!Alice promptly told them to get a fourth cat so they’d have an equal number of cats per hand, then to alternate petting them as to keep cat jealousy to a minimum. Because Alice thinks having more cats is a good thing, no matter if it is hubris. XD Fun little ask! (Technically I had a second one, but that was a super-long conspiracy-theory bullshit thing about the moon being a fake projection in the sky that I had no idea how to answer, so I deleted it. Please, folks, send me silly asks over stupid ones!)
Writing: Made sure to get in about a page’s worth of edits on Chapter 3 of “The Van Dort Vacancy” before diving into my video gaming today – which consisted of:
A) Alice and Smiler completing their disguises with aprons and looking for a cubby to shove Alice’s bag into, as they didn’t know what else to do with it, with Smiler stating that they were sure Victor would make everything right in the end – after all, he seemed to have a vested interest in making sure they were welcome
B) Smiler asking Alice if she too didn’t feel great about leaving Victor behind in the mansion, and Alice admitting she did not, but stating they didn’t seem to have much of a choice about it...only for Smiler to point out that they already knew Elder Gutknecht’s place could house three people, and Gutknecht really wanted Victor as an apprentice…
C) Alice firmly telling Smiler “he already said no,” only for Smiler to shoot back “look me in the eye and tell me he wasn’t lying” and rant for a moment about how they KNEW Victor really wanted that Whisper training, and how they felt they should encourage him to do what makes him happy, backed up by the Insane Children –
Only for Alice to point out that they couldn’t FORCE Victor to do anything, and that she was not in favor of mucking about with anyone’s free will – especially not after Bumby. Causing the Children to hide behind the changing room curtain and Smiler to assure her they didn’t want to make Victor do anything...they just felt like it went against everything they were as an Advocate and a friend to leave him in a place where they were sure he’d be miserable. :(
D) And Alice telling Smiler that, unfortunately, making a hard decision like that was just life sometimes, before reminding them that Victor still wanted to be friends, so at least they’d have plenty of chances to relieve his unhappiness, before reminding them they’d better get back to the kitchen before Mrs. Pemberly came looking for them.
*nods* A solid page, I feel – even if it took me a little longer to edit than I really wanted thanks to me struggling to get Smiler’s speech about how they were SURE Victor actually wanted to be a Whisper just right. Got there in the end, at least! And tomorrow, the pair re-enter the kitchen and prove their chops to the head cook – quite literally, in Alice’s case. XD Looking forward to it!
Fallout: New Vegas: As per the prophecy, I returned to the adventures of my Courier Victor today – but, uh, he and I both had a bit of a rough time of it this session, I must admit. Let me explain:
A) I picked up where I left off on Sunday, with Victor hanging out by one of the wells in Goodsprings Source (the big rocky area where Goodsprings gets its water from), having been given the task of finding a broc flower in the cemetery and a xander root by the schoolhouse so Sunny Smiles could show him how to craft stuff at campfires and thus he could complete the second tutorial quest. Before I sent him to get those items, though, I first spent some time looking through both the Mod Configuration Menu and the Tweaks menu in “Settings” to see if there was anything in either that allowed me to turn on some simple survival mechanics. Reason being, I’ve been playing with a survival mod in Fallout 4 for so long that it now feels weird to have a version of Victor who doesn’t need to eat or drink or sleep –
But I keep looking at Hardcore Mode, which would automatically give me those mechanics, and going “do I really want to turn you on?” Because while that mode making it so stimpacks and Rad-Away heal over time instead of instantly wouldn’t be a problem – I’m used to those mechanics from FO4 – the fact that it also makes ammo have weight just might, given “Agua Fria” has made poor Victor more weedy than USELESS STEVE. *shakehead* Damn JSawyer and company, forcing realistic carry weight limits on us… Anyway, I unfortunately didn’t find anything in either menu for just turning on the need to eat, drink, and sleep periodically – though I did note that “Agua Fria” seems to slow down how fast hunger, thirst, and exhaustion accumulate in Hardcore Mode (the thresholds to reach the point where each starts affecting your SPECIAL stats are higher than in vanilla). Meaning...hmmm. If I could find an option to turn off ammo weight, OR edit Victor’s carry capacity to give him like an extra 50 units...we’ll see how I feel the next time I play!
B) With that taken care of, I had Victor set off on his grand quest to find the plants Sunny had tasked him with locating! I had him switch to his 9mm pistol (figuring I ought to give the lighter gun a try at some point), then work his way through the big old rock formations that make up the Source, stopping by the gecko corpses he found to make sure he’d gotten everything off them, before eventually sending him up a little hill toward the decayed wreck of what I presumed had been once a house – it was down to the empty frame, so it was a bit hard to tell. Next to that, at the end of the road, was a little shack with some cute Christmas lights strung across the front, and an American flag (Fallout edition – the blue part has one central star surrounded by a ring of smaller ones instead of the traditional 50 little stars) hanging beside the door – looking at the door revealed that it was the home of Victor The Securitron! Well, good to know where that is then. And better yet, next to the shack, across from the decaying house frame, was a building that looked an awful lot to me like a schoolhouse. A check of Victor’s map confirmed that this was one of the places he was meant to go, so I had him sneak a little closer –
Only to see a few ticks of red pop up on his little compass. Oh dear. I had him very cautiously creep forward, VATS scanning for trouble (well, when I wasn’t accidentally hitting the “switch POVs” button – between that and constantly accidentally bringing up the “gun wheel” while trying to make Victor crouch, I’m starting to wonder if I should remap some controls), and eventually spotted two Giant Mantis Nymphs wandering in the grass outside. Victor had a pretty poor chance to shoot them at the range he was at, though, so I had him get a little bit closer –
Only for him to go into [CAUTION]. Oh dear. I quickly had him fall back to give himself an extra second to prepare, then got out the Varmint Rifle again because he needed better range, even if it ate up more of his action points. Another VATS scan of the slowly-approaching nymph revealed that Victor had the best shot at shooting its right “arm” (as the game called it), so after fiddling with the joystick trying to pick that body part again, I had Victor shoot –
And, with a nice dramatic camera angle, the nymph went down! :D Victor then got a little closer until he could get a better look at the second one, and took that one down as well, with the same shot to the right pincer. :D Very satisfying, that! He thus headed into the schoolhouse yard, grabbed some mantis forelegs off the dead nymphs, then harvested the xander root he needed from around the big stump near the front door (next to the fallen tree). Item one – get!
C) Having gotten half of the required ingredients for whatever Sunny Smiles wanted him to craft, Victor set out to get the other half at the local cemetery. This was at the other end of town, up a small hill – Victor thus made his way down the main road past the Prospector Saloon and up toward the hill. As he prepared to climb, though, another tick of red appeared on his compass. A quick look ahead revealed a little bark scorpion scurrying toward him, ready to try and sting him. Victor did not feel like getting stung, so he loosed a couple of shots at its stinger –
But, unfortunately, he didn’t have quite as much success shooting the scorpion as he had shooting the mantises, and thus the next couple of minutes consisted of Victor rapidly backing away from his foe and taking a few potshots as he waited for his AP to build up enough to shoot it again! Fortunately he was able to stay out of stinging range, and his potshots ended up murdering it as he was backed up near the wagons by the saloon. Victor, pleased with his kill, took its poison gland, then headed back up the hill, this time in sneak mode so he’d have a better chance of knowing when something was going to put him in danger. This time he made it to the top and the cemetery without any issue –
Where he found a bunch of bloatflies, AKA proof God hates the Fallout universe, flying over the graves. Fortunately, they weren’t paying much attention to Victor, being more concerned with being bloated and flies, so Victor was able to line up a VATS shot on one hovering above the graves to the left without any issue –
And, to my delight, the shot turned out to be a Sneak Attack Critical! :D I didn’t expect to get one of those so early in the game! The blast DID catch the attention of the bloatfly that had been hovering next to it (naturally) – fortunately, it ended up staying pretty still as it tried to get a bead on Victor, so he was able to take it out with a manual shot. He checked the corpses for goodies – just some bloatfly meat on one – then crept around to get a better angle on the two remaining flies buzzing around the place. The first was hanging out by the grave with the Goodsprings snowglobe on it – as it was staying surprisingly still, I decided to have Victor chance another manual shot –
And he got another Sneak Attack Critical! And then a THIRD when, with a lucky blast, he took out the wings of the bloatfly hovering around at the opposite end of the cemetery! I was very happy with that, believe you me! :D Feeling like a million bucks, I directed him over to the corpse of the crippled-wing bloatfly to see what he could get off it –
D) And realized that he’d killed it – right next to his own grave. Because, yes, you can find your own damn grave in this game. It’s not much, admittedly – a big rectangular hole in the ground right near the back edge of the cemetery, near the “Keep Out” sign that warns you away from wandering into giant radscorpion territory – but still. I had to have Victor stop and stare at it for a moment, because – well, you would, wouldn’t you?
(Headcanon that this Victor has nightmares about being buried alive – accepted.)
Anyway, after the Required Moment Of Existential Crisis, Victor set about gathering everything he needed from the cemetery, including:
I. Seven “distinctive cigarette butts” from next to his grave – very important evidence that Benny was there and was the one who shot him (and as I don’t know if Victor will have the Speech necessary to sway Swank once he gets to The Tops, having evidence of Benny’s wrongdoing on him is crucial)
II. Some more bloatfly meat from the fly he killed near the snowglobe grave (the one by his own didn’t have anything – cheap-ass bloatfly)
III. The Goodsprings Snowglobe from the snowglobe grave (good cash if we sell it to Jane at the Lucky 38, and I just like collectibles)
IV. And – after going around the cemetery looking for interesting plants growing anyway – the needed broc flowers, which happened to be growing by a little tree near the fence, not far from Victor’s grave (at least Victor was going to be buried in a nice spot? ^^;)
Hooray – both quest items got, along with some other useful odds and ends! I had Victor reward himself by taking a moment to admire the glowing lights of the far-off New Vegas Strip on the horizon from next to the “Keep Out” sign:
You’ll get there eventually, Victor! I have no idea when, but – eventually! XD
E) Having picked up both root and flower, it was time for Victor to head back to the Source and Sunny to learn how to combine them into something useful! After a quick check of his Pip-Boy clock just to see how late it was (3:19 AM on 10/21/2281 – well, he’s been unconscious for a couple of days, so I’ll allow him staying up all night just this once :p), I had him head down the hill and into the desert bordering Goodsprings, figuring it wouldn’t take long to get back to the wells and Ms. Smiles (if you’re nasty). However, on the way down, I spotted a coyote wandering around the scraggly grass and rocks on the edges of town. “Okay, that’s not too bad – as per Jon’s various F:NV series, they’ll leave you alone if you leave them alone,” I thought. “Still, better put Victor into sneak mode, just in case.” He thus got down and started crouchwalking his way into the wilderness –
Only to suddenly rapidly end up in [CAUTION] – and when I paused, trying to figure out what had detected him, [DANGER]. Startled, I spun around, trying to figure out what was so objecting to his presence...and lo and behold –
IT WAS A. GIANT. FUCKING. RADSCORPION. Apparently having teleported from Useless Steve’s save five years ago into my current one! D: I quickly tried to shoot it in the stinger, but Victor’s bullets did almost nothing, and the scorpion lashed out and stung him, reducing him to a mere ONE HP. “Welp, Victor’s dead,” I thought, preparing for the inevitable –
But then I figured, “Oh, I should at least give him a fighting chance, shouldn’t I?” So I had him use a stimpack, drink the antivenom he got from Doc Mitchell’s, chug some purified water for extra healing, then switch over to his 9mm pistol in the hopes that he’d be able to get off more shots with it, before getting out of his Pip-Boy and backing up fast. Unfortunately, what worked with the bark scorpion did NOT work with the giant radscorpion, and – as I’d suspected – Victor was killed very quickly by another whack of the monster’s tail. *shakehead* Fucking radscorpions man – they will fuck you up! At least I don’t think they can burrow into the ground to get at you in this game…
F) Anyway – fortunately for me and Victor, the game had autosaved right when he went and looked at the lights of New Vegas by the “Keep Out”. He promptly backed the HELL away from that sign (into a bunch of empty Sunset Sarsaparilla bottles and tin cans littering the ground that I hadn’t noticed before – I had him grab a couple of the latter as potentially useful), went into sneak mode, and THIS time crept down the road into town, keeping WELL away from potential Goodstings territory. He managed to make it to the little farm behind Trudy’s saloon without incident – from there, he cut down the little “alley” between the saloon and the general store, then crossed the road and passed by the pen of brahmin and bighorners (who fortunately didn’t object to his presence) before successfully making it back to the Source. As daylight started to return, he wove his way through all the big rocky formations there, past the geckos and the wells he and Sunny had successfully defended, and finally (as per the indicated destination on his map) down a nearby little cliff into what looked like some sort of old campground area – there was an old campfire next to Victor on his left, and an extinguished bonfire next to a camper in front of him. There was also a radio, playing some of those New Vegas tunes – Victor found it to his right, next to a toolbox that contained some duct table, some scrap metal, and a sensor module. *shrug* Welp, nobody seemed to own those, so Victor was going to have them! He then straightened up and started looking for Sunny and Cheyenne –
And didn’t see them. Because, um, well, in Fallout: New Vegas, while you get a quest marker on your map to show you where to go, you do not get one in the in-game world. Meaning Victor had to find the pair on his own –
Meaning he was dependent on my directionless ass. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I am NOT good at navigating in video games. It is VERY easy for me to get turned around and miss things! Accordingly, despite Victor’s Pip-Boy indicating he was basically right on top of Sunny, I could not spot her no matter where I looked. Baffled, I started poking around the area, waiting for some hunters and their dog to pass before heading for the bonfire in front of him –
G) And then. After checking out the bonfire, seeing no signs of Sunny, and moving a few steps further into the desert, the game suddenly stopped me with a pop-up, inquiring if I’d like to change Victor’s name or rebuild him as a character. “Holy shit – I hit the tutorial wall already??” I thought, startled. “Well, all right then – I did want to see if I could add ‘Wild Wasteland’ to his list of traits, given I have that tweak that’s supposed to make it free...let’s chose ‘Rebuild Character,’ then choose ‘Change Traits’ from the menu that I’m sure is going to –
“...why am I looking at Victor in the Reflectron again?”
Yup – as it turns out, when you say “I’d like to rebuild my character,” the game forces you to go through ALL the stages of character creation ALL OVER AGAIN. Starting with changing your character’s face. Which I didn’t want to do – but I was so surprised by being in character creation again that I started going through the screens –
And, with an unwise flick of a joystick on the “Presets” screen, ACCIDENTALLY COMPLETELY UNDID EVERYTHING I’D DONE TO MAKE VICTOR LOOK EVEN A BIT LIKE VICTOR. *facepalm* So I had to spend a good few minutes redoing his face! Fortunately for me, the experience of having to remake Tav Smiler a few times in Baldur’s Gate III meant that, when I first designed Courier Victor, I took copious notes on where all the sliders in character creation should be, just in case I ever had to restart and remake him. Came in fucking handy there, let me tell you! *sigh* Seriously, why wasn’t there a SECOND menu asking exactly what you wanted to customize so I could have avoided this whole situation…
Anyway. I eventually got Victor’s face sorted again (even managed to add some slightly-darker undereye circles thanks to playing around a bit more with the various skin tints this time around), then moved onto reassigning his SPECIAL stats (again, glad I made sure to take such good notes the first time around), reviewing his skills (fortunately the game DIDN’T move my tagged skills, so I was good) there, and then FINALLY to repicking his traits. Allowing me to confirm that I could add “Wild Wasteland” to the list without it taking up a trait point, and thus giving Victor that trait along with “Skilled” and “Small Frame.” Meaning now he’ll have all the weird and wacky and fun Wild Wasteland stuff. *facepalm* All that to add one trait...my fault for not picking it in initial character creation, I suppose, but STILL.
H) With THAT finally sorted (and his skills and such checked to make sure they were all the right numbers), I was like “okay, this session is starting to run a bit longer than planned – but I am not quitting for the day until I fucking find Sunny. There’s no way she would actually force you to leave the tutorial area if you’re still doing tutorial stuff, so she has to be around here SOMEWHERE! Let me hop on this rock over here and see if I can–”
“Oh. She’s right over there.”
Yes, in a move worthy of -1 Perception Jon, I’d managed to completely miss that Sunny was, essentially, RIGHT NEXT TO VICTOR! Due west of the camper that he’d spotted earlier. *facepalm* In my defense, it was dark in the game, and I already warned you all that I’m utterly directionless. Anyway, I had Victor head over to her at last, where she checked out his ingredients and told him that he should be just fine, before informing him that they were going to be making something called “Healing Powder” before encouraging him to “Go on over to that campfire now. Give it a try.” Victor thus did so, activating the smoldering fire –
And getting to see the campfire crafting menu for the first time! As you might expect, it mostly allows you to make food and other such items, though there was a section for tanning gecko hides and the like. Victor thus made two doses of the healing powder (as he’d gathered enough xander root and broc flowers to do so), then went ahead and grilled up a few gecko steaks, since he had the meat on him (I had him cook half, and keep half in reserve in case I found another recipe for him to try). Once he was done, Sunny praised his efforts as “not bad” and declared that “All it takes to make a recipe is the right ingredients and the right know-how.” Well, and the right skills, Sunny, though I guess that falls under “know-how.” She then went on to say that it wouldn’t always be a campfire Victor needed – like, say, if he needed to do something with his guns or ammo – but that the important part was that he remembered that it was always the same idea no matter what he was crafting. He just had to find the right place to set up shop. *nods* Already got that, Sunny – I’m a veteran of FO4’s even more advanced crafting system – but thank you.
And with that, the actual tutorial parts of the tutorial quests were over! Sunny told Victor she hoped that was enough to get him started, and said she was heading back to the saloon, adding “Hope I didn’t miss anything good on the jukebox. Cheyenne would never forgive me.” She then asked Victor to do her a favor – make sure to say hi to Trudy, bartender at the Prospector Saloon and “town mom,” as she likes to meet newcomers, and would be annoyed at Sunny if she didn’t encourage him to come around. She then headed off, back to town –
And I saved and quit, because that was quite enough F:NV for me for one day, thanks. XD Oh boy – I get the feeling that would have been a rather more productive session if not for me looking for easy survival stuff, the giant radscorpion, and me running into the tutorial barrier and having to redo Victor’s whole deal. *shakehead* But at least the tutorial is pretty much done – next time, Victor heads back to Goodsprings to say hello to Trudy and properly end the second tutorial quest, and we start getting into the good stuff with the Powder Gangers threatening the town...
Workout: Got back on the bike again tonight, wrapping up “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 2 - Armed But Not Dangerous” as I pedaled my way through roughly 500 calories! The final thirty minutes or so of the second episode of The Adventures Of Useless Steve consisted of –
A) Useless Steve successfully rescuing Deputy Beagle and accidentally luring all the convicts in the big room of death he was trying to avoid out through the door he’d just lockpicked one-by-one after killing the one convict who’d come into Beagle’s room to use the stove...in front of the big open doors leading into the room of death. Meaning his fellow convicts kept passing by the doorway, seeing him, and coming to investigate. It all worked out just fine in the end, but MAN Jon was stressing during the whole mess. XD
B) Useless Steve then checking in with Beagle about the guy who shot him (advancing the main quest) and learning that Primm needed a new sheriff or someone else interested in upholding the law – he was pretty sure he could get the NCR to send in some more troops to restore order, but decided to go out into the plains to chase some easy XP before doing so (possibly in hopes of a level-up). He thus proceeded to:
I. Visit the Nevada Highway Patrol office (after watching the Powder Gangers who were supposed to fight the other gang members outside get instead killed by a local feral ghoul), murdering the Jackals and the mantis nymphs inside to get his hands on the Guns And Bullets skill book (increasing Guns by 3) and the precious drugs inside – he then proceeded to get his shit wrecked by the Jackal Gang Leader who was hanging out outside, but eventually he managed to murder her and her friend
II. Cross the Ivanpah Dry Lake, avoiding the ants around the place (who were fortunately mostly chill), to watch the fight between Tomas and Jacqueline (the latter trying to kill the former for his lucky necklace, apparently – which I believe was made out of Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps) – Tomas eventually triumphed, and Steve had a quick chat with him before looting Jacqueline’s body for her caps...and then murdering Tomas and looting his body for his. Because Steve wants the Pew-Pew gun you get for turning in 50 of them, damn it!
III. Enter Nipton to talk to the Legion and get the “Cold, Cold Heart” quest to tell the NCR how they sacked the place...completely forgetting he was currently wearing NCR armor. XD Cue Steve having to retreat in a hail of gunfire, then come back in regular leather armor to actually get Vulpes Invicta to talk to him and give him the quest
IV. And finally enter the Mojave Outpost to tell the guy at the entrance about how the Legion sacked Nipton (for 250 XP and a level-up to Level 4 – boosting Sneak and Speech to 15 each and Energy Weapons and Guns to 10 each, and getting him another level of Intense Training to bring Endurance up to 2, allowing him to get another implant in the future), before going to Ranger Ghost and telling her about Nipton, auto-completing her “Keep Your Eyes On The Prize Quest” for another pile of XP, yay!
C) Useless Steve then using the power of grabbing things to quietly take an Explosives skill book behind the bar in the Outpost barracks to a place where he could steal it without being detected (very overpowered, the ability to pick things up and move them without NPCs even noticing), before picking up a quest to kill a bunch of ants on the highway from Ranger Jackson and trying to barter with Major Knight about sending more troops to Primm; as it turned out, his Barter skill wasn’t quite up to the task even with his trading gear – BUT, because he’d already helped out Ranger Ghost, he could point out “hey, I’ve helped out here – send some troops down to Primm and it’ll help fortify your position,” which did the same thing. Yay! We love alternate dialogue options to achieve your goals!
D) Useless Steve then going to the highway and killing all the ants there for Ranger Jackson (which mostly went well, with the help of a few sneak attack criticals from the Abilene BB Gun and his beloved Q-35 – though he did nearly get chomped by the one remaining giant soldier ant when it started chasing him during one of his terrifyingly-slow reload animations), before returning to the Outpost to get his reward – a service rifle and a load of armor-piercing rounds for it, meaning he had another decent weapon that could get past enemies in tougher armor (like the Jackal Gang Leader that managed to kill him once)
E) Useless Steve then swinging by Primm to talk to Lieutenant Hayes there and finish up the quest to get Primm someone willing to uphold law and order, which got him another level-up to Level 5, which he used to get Energy Weapons up to 16 and Guns up to 15 so he could start more effectively using his new weaponry
F) Useless Steve then finishing things off by wandering off the beaten path near California Sunset Drive-In to show off why there are so many feral ghouls in this particular area when they’re not as common in the rest of the game – basically, there’s a huge toxic pool full of rads nearby, the Mesquite Mountains Crater, which spawns at least two Feral Ghoul Reavers, who are NASTY little fuckers who managed to kill Useless Steve a couple of times in the final few minutes of the episode. Fortunately for him, every time Jon reloaded, the Reavers seemed to get dumber and start running off in the wrong direction. And why did Steve even go there? Well, one, to show it off, as Jon was pretty sure a lot of people hadn’t even seen it –
And two, because there’s a building there, Hell’s Motel, with a Crazed Mr. Handy inside – but also a Medicine skill book (as the place apparently used to be a clinic for ghouls, before they all went feral and killed their doctor), which Steve managed to grab on his second attempt (the first was cut short by the Reavers following him inside and murdering him when his foot got stuck on the rail over the stairs). Meaning the episode ended with Steve managing to boost his Medicine skill a little – which feels ironic, given how many times he died before getting it. XD
Fun times, as usual. XD Looking forward to starting Episode 3 next week, which will see Useless Steve wandering in the general direction of Novac! Can’t wait to see what shenanigans he gets up to there. XD
FreeTube: Managed to find the time to squeeze in this week’s OXtra list tonight: “7 Games Where Your Choices Actually Mattered!” Featuring Ellen and Mike talking about those times when games gave you a choice – and it turned out to have a surprisingly major effect on the game world! Unlike most video game choices, which result in pretty local changes, if any at all. Decide to take a gamble on Barnum, an entrepreneur who speaks like Carpenter from Alice: Madness Returns with fifty dozen made-up/weirdly combined words, and give him 5,000 gold to turn a ruined settlement into the medieval fantasy equivalent of a theme park? Turns out he actually DOES renovate the town – not into a theme park, but a nicer settlement, with happier citizens, and gives you your money back PLUS interest! Choose, as Chris, to point the gun at Ashley during the Saw-esque fake murder trap scene in Until Dawn? Welp, congratulations, you’ve just guaranteed that when he’s being chased by the wendingos later in the game, Ashley will NOT let him into the cabin because she is, understandably, still nursing a grudge. Decide to help Songbird escape the corrupt government in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty rather than turn her over to Reed, aka Cybernetic Idris Elba? Guess what – you get to go to the MOON! On a mission to cure her neural degradation, admittedly, but still! (Though, if you’re into last-minute betrayals, you can then turn her over to Reed anyway to get help with your OWN neural degradation...which ends up getting rid of all your cool implants AND Johnny Silverhand, aka Keanu Reeves. ...somehow I don’t think a lot of players chose that option. :P) Point is, these games will actually change quite a bit in response to your actions – and isn’t that what we like to see in a video game? ...well, a video game set up to change like that, anyway. If A:MR suddenly allowed me to change how the story went, I’d be worried my game had gotten possessed. (Though if it gave me more options for Bumby murder, I’d probably live with it.)
And I've officially stayed up later than I probably should have again, though not quite as late as I have been some nights. *shrug* Okay then. So yeah, I'm off to bed -- tomorrow, we'll see what happens with the biopsy and Dad coming home. I'm definitely going to be getting a workout and editing more of "The Van Dort Vacancy" -- I'm HOPING to also get in another Baldur's Gate III session and have Smiler chat with Sazza, but we will see what happens there. *nods* Night all!
As for today, it was another pretty quiet day around the house -- dusted the living room for Mom, then just hung out as I have been doing. Got a fair amount of stuff done here on the computer, though:
Tumblr: In an increasingly-rare turn of events, I ended up accomplishing something on BOTH my tumblrs today –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Got a couple of things done over here before (and a bit during) lunch –
A) First, I finished drafting out the “Valicer As Text Posts” post I started working on yesterday! :) Turns out alt-texting all the images didn’t take as long as I thought (even with me going back to make sure all the alt text was consistent across the images). So that’s all sorted, complete with tags. Dunno when it’s going up, but it’s ready to go whenever I choose to slap it in the queue!
B) And second, I worked some more on the draft of my “The Miseries Of Margaret Kelman” post explaining who Smiler’s birth mother is and what happened to her in all those universes where Smiler needs a birth mother – updating the introduction, adding links to the parts that reference various posts I’ve made in the past about Smiler, and writing down the few facts that I know about her (namely, she’s the parent who Smiler gets most of their looks from; she met Kelman when she was very lonely and found herself charmed by his awkwardness and desire to help people – then she married him and learned he was a monster; and she struggles with depression, which is probably why KELMAN was attracted to HER – free test subject!). Slowly but surely bringing this one together!
Valice Multiverse – And I dropped one ask in the queue over here tonight – an anon who went “God gave me two hands so I can pet two cats at the same time. But I got three cats, because the nature of man HUBRIS!” Cuddlepile!Alice promptly told them to get a fourth cat so they’d have an equal number of cats per hand, then to alternate petting them as to keep cat jealousy to a minimum. Because Alice thinks having more cats is a good thing, no matter if it is hubris. XD Fun little ask! (Technically I had a second one, but that was a super-long conspiracy-theory bullshit thing about the moon being a fake projection in the sky that I had no idea how to answer, so I deleted it. Please, folks, send me silly asks over stupid ones!)
Writing: Made sure to get in about a page’s worth of edits on Chapter 3 of “The Van Dort Vacancy” before diving into my video gaming today – which consisted of:
A) Alice and Smiler completing their disguises with aprons and looking for a cubby to shove Alice’s bag into, as they didn’t know what else to do with it, with Smiler stating that they were sure Victor would make everything right in the end – after all, he seemed to have a vested interest in making sure they were welcome
B) Smiler asking Alice if she too didn’t feel great about leaving Victor behind in the mansion, and Alice admitting she did not, but stating they didn’t seem to have much of a choice about it...only for Smiler to point out that they already knew Elder Gutknecht’s place could house three people, and Gutknecht really wanted Victor as an apprentice…
C) Alice firmly telling Smiler “he already said no,” only for Smiler to shoot back “look me in the eye and tell me he wasn’t lying” and rant for a moment about how they KNEW Victor really wanted that Whisper training, and how they felt they should encourage him to do what makes him happy, backed up by the Insane Children –
Only for Alice to point out that they couldn’t FORCE Victor to do anything, and that she was not in favor of mucking about with anyone’s free will – especially not after Bumby. Causing the Children to hide behind the changing room curtain and Smiler to assure her they didn’t want to make Victor do anything...they just felt like it went against everything they were as an Advocate and a friend to leave him in a place where they were sure he’d be miserable. :(
D) And Alice telling Smiler that, unfortunately, making a hard decision like that was just life sometimes, before reminding them that Victor still wanted to be friends, so at least they’d have plenty of chances to relieve his unhappiness, before reminding them they’d better get back to the kitchen before Mrs. Pemberly came looking for them.
*nods* A solid page, I feel – even if it took me a little longer to edit than I really wanted thanks to me struggling to get Smiler’s speech about how they were SURE Victor actually wanted to be a Whisper just right. Got there in the end, at least! And tomorrow, the pair re-enter the kitchen and prove their chops to the head cook – quite literally, in Alice’s case. XD Looking forward to it!
Fallout: New Vegas: As per the prophecy, I returned to the adventures of my Courier Victor today – but, uh, he and I both had a bit of a rough time of it this session, I must admit. Let me explain:
A) I picked up where I left off on Sunday, with Victor hanging out by one of the wells in Goodsprings Source (the big rocky area where Goodsprings gets its water from), having been given the task of finding a broc flower in the cemetery and a xander root by the schoolhouse so Sunny Smiles could show him how to craft stuff at campfires and thus he could complete the second tutorial quest. Before I sent him to get those items, though, I first spent some time looking through both the Mod Configuration Menu and the Tweaks menu in “Settings” to see if there was anything in either that allowed me to turn on some simple survival mechanics. Reason being, I’ve been playing with a survival mod in Fallout 4 for so long that it now feels weird to have a version of Victor who doesn’t need to eat or drink or sleep –
But I keep looking at Hardcore Mode, which would automatically give me those mechanics, and going “do I really want to turn you on?” Because while that mode making it so stimpacks and Rad-Away heal over time instead of instantly wouldn’t be a problem – I’m used to those mechanics from FO4 – the fact that it also makes ammo have weight just might, given “Agua Fria” has made poor Victor more weedy than USELESS STEVE. *shakehead* Damn JSawyer and company, forcing realistic carry weight limits on us… Anyway, I unfortunately didn’t find anything in either menu for just turning on the need to eat, drink, and sleep periodically – though I did note that “Agua Fria” seems to slow down how fast hunger, thirst, and exhaustion accumulate in Hardcore Mode (the thresholds to reach the point where each starts affecting your SPECIAL stats are higher than in vanilla). Meaning...hmmm. If I could find an option to turn off ammo weight, OR edit Victor’s carry capacity to give him like an extra 50 units...we’ll see how I feel the next time I play!
B) With that taken care of, I had Victor set off on his grand quest to find the plants Sunny had tasked him with locating! I had him switch to his 9mm pistol (figuring I ought to give the lighter gun a try at some point), then work his way through the big old rock formations that make up the Source, stopping by the gecko corpses he found to make sure he’d gotten everything off them, before eventually sending him up a little hill toward the decayed wreck of what I presumed had been once a house – it was down to the empty frame, so it was a bit hard to tell. Next to that, at the end of the road, was a little shack with some cute Christmas lights strung across the front, and an American flag (Fallout edition – the blue part has one central star surrounded by a ring of smaller ones instead of the traditional 50 little stars) hanging beside the door – looking at the door revealed that it was the home of Victor The Securitron! Well, good to know where that is then. And better yet, next to the shack, across from the decaying house frame, was a building that looked an awful lot to me like a schoolhouse. A check of Victor’s map confirmed that this was one of the places he was meant to go, so I had him sneak a little closer –
Only to see a few ticks of red pop up on his little compass. Oh dear. I had him very cautiously creep forward, VATS scanning for trouble (well, when I wasn’t accidentally hitting the “switch POVs” button – between that and constantly accidentally bringing up the “gun wheel” while trying to make Victor crouch, I’m starting to wonder if I should remap some controls), and eventually spotted two Giant Mantis Nymphs wandering in the grass outside. Victor had a pretty poor chance to shoot them at the range he was at, though, so I had him get a little bit closer –
Only for him to go into [CAUTION]. Oh dear. I quickly had him fall back to give himself an extra second to prepare, then got out the Varmint Rifle again because he needed better range, even if it ate up more of his action points. Another VATS scan of the slowly-approaching nymph revealed that Victor had the best shot at shooting its right “arm” (as the game called it), so after fiddling with the joystick trying to pick that body part again, I had Victor shoot –
And, with a nice dramatic camera angle, the nymph went down! :D Victor then got a little closer until he could get a better look at the second one, and took that one down as well, with the same shot to the right pincer. :D Very satisfying, that! He thus headed into the schoolhouse yard, grabbed some mantis forelegs off the dead nymphs, then harvested the xander root he needed from around the big stump near the front door (next to the fallen tree). Item one – get!
C) Having gotten half of the required ingredients for whatever Sunny Smiles wanted him to craft, Victor set out to get the other half at the local cemetery. This was at the other end of town, up a small hill – Victor thus made his way down the main road past the Prospector Saloon and up toward the hill. As he prepared to climb, though, another tick of red appeared on his compass. A quick look ahead revealed a little bark scorpion scurrying toward him, ready to try and sting him. Victor did not feel like getting stung, so he loosed a couple of shots at its stinger –
But, unfortunately, he didn’t have quite as much success shooting the scorpion as he had shooting the mantises, and thus the next couple of minutes consisted of Victor rapidly backing away from his foe and taking a few potshots as he waited for his AP to build up enough to shoot it again! Fortunately he was able to stay out of stinging range, and his potshots ended up murdering it as he was backed up near the wagons by the saloon. Victor, pleased with his kill, took its poison gland, then headed back up the hill, this time in sneak mode so he’d have a better chance of knowing when something was going to put him in danger. This time he made it to the top and the cemetery without any issue –
Where he found a bunch of bloatflies, AKA proof God hates the Fallout universe, flying over the graves. Fortunately, they weren’t paying much attention to Victor, being more concerned with being bloated and flies, so Victor was able to line up a VATS shot on one hovering above the graves to the left without any issue –
And, to my delight, the shot turned out to be a Sneak Attack Critical! :D I didn’t expect to get one of those so early in the game! The blast DID catch the attention of the bloatfly that had been hovering next to it (naturally) – fortunately, it ended up staying pretty still as it tried to get a bead on Victor, so he was able to take it out with a manual shot. He checked the corpses for goodies – just some bloatfly meat on one – then crept around to get a better angle on the two remaining flies buzzing around the place. The first was hanging out by the grave with the Goodsprings snowglobe on it – as it was staying surprisingly still, I decided to have Victor chance another manual shot –
And he got another Sneak Attack Critical! And then a THIRD when, with a lucky blast, he took out the wings of the bloatfly hovering around at the opposite end of the cemetery! I was very happy with that, believe you me! :D Feeling like a million bucks, I directed him over to the corpse of the crippled-wing bloatfly to see what he could get off it –
D) And realized that he’d killed it – right next to his own grave. Because, yes, you can find your own damn grave in this game. It’s not much, admittedly – a big rectangular hole in the ground right near the back edge of the cemetery, near the “Keep Out” sign that warns you away from wandering into giant radscorpion territory – but still. I had to have Victor stop and stare at it for a moment, because – well, you would, wouldn’t you?
(Headcanon that this Victor has nightmares about being buried alive – accepted.)
Anyway, after the Required Moment Of Existential Crisis, Victor set about gathering everything he needed from the cemetery, including:
I. Seven “distinctive cigarette butts” from next to his grave – very important evidence that Benny was there and was the one who shot him (and as I don’t know if Victor will have the Speech necessary to sway Swank once he gets to The Tops, having evidence of Benny’s wrongdoing on him is crucial)
II. Some more bloatfly meat from the fly he killed near the snowglobe grave (the one by his own didn’t have anything – cheap-ass bloatfly)
III. The Goodsprings Snowglobe from the snowglobe grave (good cash if we sell it to Jane at the Lucky 38, and I just like collectibles)
IV. And – after going around the cemetery looking for interesting plants growing anyway – the needed broc flowers, which happened to be growing by a little tree near the fence, not far from Victor’s grave (at least Victor was going to be buried in a nice spot? ^^;)
Hooray – both quest items got, along with some other useful odds and ends! I had Victor reward himself by taking a moment to admire the glowing lights of the far-off New Vegas Strip on the horizon from next to the “Keep Out” sign:
You’ll get there eventually, Victor! I have no idea when, but – eventually! XD
E) Having picked up both root and flower, it was time for Victor to head back to the Source and Sunny to learn how to combine them into something useful! After a quick check of his Pip-Boy clock just to see how late it was (3:19 AM on 10/21/2281 – well, he’s been unconscious for a couple of days, so I’ll allow him staying up all night just this once :p), I had him head down the hill and into the desert bordering Goodsprings, figuring it wouldn’t take long to get back to the wells and Ms. Smiles (if you’re nasty). However, on the way down, I spotted a coyote wandering around the scraggly grass and rocks on the edges of town. “Okay, that’s not too bad – as per Jon’s various F:NV series, they’ll leave you alone if you leave them alone,” I thought. “Still, better put Victor into sneak mode, just in case.” He thus got down and started crouchwalking his way into the wilderness –
Only to suddenly rapidly end up in [CAUTION] – and when I paused, trying to figure out what had detected him, [DANGER]. Startled, I spun around, trying to figure out what was so objecting to his presence...and lo and behold –
IT WAS A. GIANT. FUCKING. RADSCORPION. Apparently having teleported from Useless Steve’s save five years ago into my current one! D: I quickly tried to shoot it in the stinger, but Victor’s bullets did almost nothing, and the scorpion lashed out and stung him, reducing him to a mere ONE HP. “Welp, Victor’s dead,” I thought, preparing for the inevitable –
But then I figured, “Oh, I should at least give him a fighting chance, shouldn’t I?” So I had him use a stimpack, drink the antivenom he got from Doc Mitchell’s, chug some purified water for extra healing, then switch over to his 9mm pistol in the hopes that he’d be able to get off more shots with it, before getting out of his Pip-Boy and backing up fast. Unfortunately, what worked with the bark scorpion did NOT work with the giant radscorpion, and – as I’d suspected – Victor was killed very quickly by another whack of the monster’s tail. *shakehead* Fucking radscorpions man – they will fuck you up! At least I don’t think they can burrow into the ground to get at you in this game…
F) Anyway – fortunately for me and Victor, the game had autosaved right when he went and looked at the lights of New Vegas by the “Keep Out”. He promptly backed the HELL away from that sign (into a bunch of empty Sunset Sarsaparilla bottles and tin cans littering the ground that I hadn’t noticed before – I had him grab a couple of the latter as potentially useful), went into sneak mode, and THIS time crept down the road into town, keeping WELL away from potential Goodstings territory. He managed to make it to the little farm behind Trudy’s saloon without incident – from there, he cut down the little “alley” between the saloon and the general store, then crossed the road and passed by the pen of brahmin and bighorners (who fortunately didn’t object to his presence) before successfully making it back to the Source. As daylight started to return, he wove his way through all the big rocky formations there, past the geckos and the wells he and Sunny had successfully defended, and finally (as per the indicated destination on his map) down a nearby little cliff into what looked like some sort of old campground area – there was an old campfire next to Victor on his left, and an extinguished bonfire next to a camper in front of him. There was also a radio, playing some of those New Vegas tunes – Victor found it to his right, next to a toolbox that contained some duct table, some scrap metal, and a sensor module. *shrug* Welp, nobody seemed to own those, so Victor was going to have them! He then straightened up and started looking for Sunny and Cheyenne –
And didn’t see them. Because, um, well, in Fallout: New Vegas, while you get a quest marker on your map to show you where to go, you do not get one in the in-game world. Meaning Victor had to find the pair on his own –
Meaning he was dependent on my directionless ass. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I am NOT good at navigating in video games. It is VERY easy for me to get turned around and miss things! Accordingly, despite Victor’s Pip-Boy indicating he was basically right on top of Sunny, I could not spot her no matter where I looked. Baffled, I started poking around the area, waiting for some hunters and their dog to pass before heading for the bonfire in front of him –
G) And then. After checking out the bonfire, seeing no signs of Sunny, and moving a few steps further into the desert, the game suddenly stopped me with a pop-up, inquiring if I’d like to change Victor’s name or rebuild him as a character. “Holy shit – I hit the tutorial wall already??” I thought, startled. “Well, all right then – I did want to see if I could add ‘Wild Wasteland’ to his list of traits, given I have that tweak that’s supposed to make it free...let’s chose ‘Rebuild Character,’ then choose ‘Change Traits’ from the menu that I’m sure is going to –
“...why am I looking at Victor in the Reflectron again?”
Yup – as it turns out, when you say “I’d like to rebuild my character,” the game forces you to go through ALL the stages of character creation ALL OVER AGAIN. Starting with changing your character’s face. Which I didn’t want to do – but I was so surprised by being in character creation again that I started going through the screens –
And, with an unwise flick of a joystick on the “Presets” screen, ACCIDENTALLY COMPLETELY UNDID EVERYTHING I’D DONE TO MAKE VICTOR LOOK EVEN A BIT LIKE VICTOR. *facepalm* So I had to spend a good few minutes redoing his face! Fortunately for me, the experience of having to remake Tav Smiler a few times in Baldur’s Gate III meant that, when I first designed Courier Victor, I took copious notes on where all the sliders in character creation should be, just in case I ever had to restart and remake him. Came in fucking handy there, let me tell you! *sigh* Seriously, why wasn’t there a SECOND menu asking exactly what you wanted to customize so I could have avoided this whole situation…
Anyway. I eventually got Victor’s face sorted again (even managed to add some slightly-darker undereye circles thanks to playing around a bit more with the various skin tints this time around), then moved onto reassigning his SPECIAL stats (again, glad I made sure to take such good notes the first time around), reviewing his skills (fortunately the game DIDN’T move my tagged skills, so I was good) there, and then FINALLY to repicking his traits. Allowing me to confirm that I could add “Wild Wasteland” to the list without it taking up a trait point, and thus giving Victor that trait along with “Skilled” and “Small Frame.” Meaning now he’ll have all the weird and wacky and fun Wild Wasteland stuff. *facepalm* All that to add one trait...my fault for not picking it in initial character creation, I suppose, but STILL.
H) With THAT finally sorted (and his skills and such checked to make sure they were all the right numbers), I was like “okay, this session is starting to run a bit longer than planned – but I am not quitting for the day until I fucking find Sunny. There’s no way she would actually force you to leave the tutorial area if you’re still doing tutorial stuff, so she has to be around here SOMEWHERE! Let me hop on this rock over here and see if I can–”
“Oh. She’s right over there.”
Yes, in a move worthy of -1 Perception Jon, I’d managed to completely miss that Sunny was, essentially, RIGHT NEXT TO VICTOR! Due west of the camper that he’d spotted earlier. *facepalm* In my defense, it was dark in the game, and I already warned you all that I’m utterly directionless. Anyway, I had Victor head over to her at last, where she checked out his ingredients and told him that he should be just fine, before informing him that they were going to be making something called “Healing Powder” before encouraging him to “Go on over to that campfire now. Give it a try.” Victor thus did so, activating the smoldering fire –
And getting to see the campfire crafting menu for the first time! As you might expect, it mostly allows you to make food and other such items, though there was a section for tanning gecko hides and the like. Victor thus made two doses of the healing powder (as he’d gathered enough xander root and broc flowers to do so), then went ahead and grilled up a few gecko steaks, since he had the meat on him (I had him cook half, and keep half in reserve in case I found another recipe for him to try). Once he was done, Sunny praised his efforts as “not bad” and declared that “All it takes to make a recipe is the right ingredients and the right know-how.” Well, and the right skills, Sunny, though I guess that falls under “know-how.” She then went on to say that it wouldn’t always be a campfire Victor needed – like, say, if he needed to do something with his guns or ammo – but that the important part was that he remembered that it was always the same idea no matter what he was crafting. He just had to find the right place to set up shop. *nods* Already got that, Sunny – I’m a veteran of FO4’s even more advanced crafting system – but thank you.
And with that, the actual tutorial parts of the tutorial quests were over! Sunny told Victor she hoped that was enough to get him started, and said she was heading back to the saloon, adding “Hope I didn’t miss anything good on the jukebox. Cheyenne would never forgive me.” She then asked Victor to do her a favor – make sure to say hi to Trudy, bartender at the Prospector Saloon and “town mom,” as she likes to meet newcomers, and would be annoyed at Sunny if she didn’t encourage him to come around. She then headed off, back to town –
And I saved and quit, because that was quite enough F:NV for me for one day, thanks. XD Oh boy – I get the feeling that would have been a rather more productive session if not for me looking for easy survival stuff, the giant radscorpion, and me running into the tutorial barrier and having to redo Victor’s whole deal. *shakehead* But at least the tutorial is pretty much done – next time, Victor heads back to Goodsprings to say hello to Trudy and properly end the second tutorial quest, and we start getting into the good stuff with the Powder Gangers threatening the town...
Workout: Got back on the bike again tonight, wrapping up “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 2 - Armed But Not Dangerous” as I pedaled my way through roughly 500 calories! The final thirty minutes or so of the second episode of The Adventures Of Useless Steve consisted of –
A) Useless Steve successfully rescuing Deputy Beagle and accidentally luring all the convicts in the big room of death he was trying to avoid out through the door he’d just lockpicked one-by-one after killing the one convict who’d come into Beagle’s room to use the stove...in front of the big open doors leading into the room of death. Meaning his fellow convicts kept passing by the doorway, seeing him, and coming to investigate. It all worked out just fine in the end, but MAN Jon was stressing during the whole mess. XD
B) Useless Steve then checking in with Beagle about the guy who shot him (advancing the main quest) and learning that Primm needed a new sheriff or someone else interested in upholding the law – he was pretty sure he could get the NCR to send in some more troops to restore order, but decided to go out into the plains to chase some easy XP before doing so (possibly in hopes of a level-up). He thus proceeded to:
I. Visit the Nevada Highway Patrol office (after watching the Powder Gangers who were supposed to fight the other gang members outside get instead killed by a local feral ghoul), murdering the Jackals and the mantis nymphs inside to get his hands on the Guns And Bullets skill book (increasing Guns by 3) and the precious drugs inside – he then proceeded to get his shit wrecked by the Jackal Gang Leader who was hanging out outside, but eventually he managed to murder her and her friend
II. Cross the Ivanpah Dry Lake, avoiding the ants around the place (who were fortunately mostly chill), to watch the fight between Tomas and Jacqueline (the latter trying to kill the former for his lucky necklace, apparently – which I believe was made out of Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle caps) – Tomas eventually triumphed, and Steve had a quick chat with him before looting Jacqueline’s body for her caps...and then murdering Tomas and looting his body for his. Because Steve wants the Pew-Pew gun you get for turning in 50 of them, damn it!
III. Enter Nipton to talk to the Legion and get the “Cold, Cold Heart” quest to tell the NCR how they sacked the place...completely forgetting he was currently wearing NCR armor. XD Cue Steve having to retreat in a hail of gunfire, then come back in regular leather armor to actually get Vulpes Invicta to talk to him and give him the quest
IV. And finally enter the Mojave Outpost to tell the guy at the entrance about how the Legion sacked Nipton (for 250 XP and a level-up to Level 4 – boosting Sneak and Speech to 15 each and Energy Weapons and Guns to 10 each, and getting him another level of Intense Training to bring Endurance up to 2, allowing him to get another implant in the future), before going to Ranger Ghost and telling her about Nipton, auto-completing her “Keep Your Eyes On The Prize Quest” for another pile of XP, yay!
C) Useless Steve then using the power of grabbing things to quietly take an Explosives skill book behind the bar in the Outpost barracks to a place where he could steal it without being detected (very overpowered, the ability to pick things up and move them without NPCs even noticing), before picking up a quest to kill a bunch of ants on the highway from Ranger Jackson and trying to barter with Major Knight about sending more troops to Primm; as it turned out, his Barter skill wasn’t quite up to the task even with his trading gear – BUT, because he’d already helped out Ranger Ghost, he could point out “hey, I’ve helped out here – send some troops down to Primm and it’ll help fortify your position,” which did the same thing. Yay! We love alternate dialogue options to achieve your goals!
D) Useless Steve then going to the highway and killing all the ants there for Ranger Jackson (which mostly went well, with the help of a few sneak attack criticals from the Abilene BB Gun and his beloved Q-35 – though he did nearly get chomped by the one remaining giant soldier ant when it started chasing him during one of his terrifyingly-slow reload animations), before returning to the Outpost to get his reward – a service rifle and a load of armor-piercing rounds for it, meaning he had another decent weapon that could get past enemies in tougher armor (like the Jackal Gang Leader that managed to kill him once)
E) Useless Steve then swinging by Primm to talk to Lieutenant Hayes there and finish up the quest to get Primm someone willing to uphold law and order, which got him another level-up to Level 5, which he used to get Energy Weapons up to 16 and Guns up to 15 so he could start more effectively using his new weaponry
F) Useless Steve then finishing things off by wandering off the beaten path near California Sunset Drive-In to show off why there are so many feral ghouls in this particular area when they’re not as common in the rest of the game – basically, there’s a huge toxic pool full of rads nearby, the Mesquite Mountains Crater, which spawns at least two Feral Ghoul Reavers, who are NASTY little fuckers who managed to kill Useless Steve a couple of times in the final few minutes of the episode. Fortunately for him, every time Jon reloaded, the Reavers seemed to get dumber and start running off in the wrong direction. And why did Steve even go there? Well, one, to show it off, as Jon was pretty sure a lot of people hadn’t even seen it –
And two, because there’s a building there, Hell’s Motel, with a Crazed Mr. Handy inside – but also a Medicine skill book (as the place apparently used to be a clinic for ghouls, before they all went feral and killed their doctor), which Steve managed to grab on his second attempt (the first was cut short by the Reavers following him inside and murdering him when his foot got stuck on the rail over the stairs). Meaning the episode ended with Steve managing to boost his Medicine skill a little – which feels ironic, given how many times he died before getting it. XD
Fun times, as usual. XD Looking forward to starting Episode 3 next week, which will see Useless Steve wandering in the general direction of Novac! Can’t wait to see what shenanigans he gets up to there. XD
FreeTube: Managed to find the time to squeeze in this week’s OXtra list tonight: “7 Games Where Your Choices Actually Mattered!” Featuring Ellen and Mike talking about those times when games gave you a choice – and it turned out to have a surprisingly major effect on the game world! Unlike most video game choices, which result in pretty local changes, if any at all. Decide to take a gamble on Barnum, an entrepreneur who speaks like Carpenter from Alice: Madness Returns with fifty dozen made-up/weirdly combined words, and give him 5,000 gold to turn a ruined settlement into the medieval fantasy equivalent of a theme park? Turns out he actually DOES renovate the town – not into a theme park, but a nicer settlement, with happier citizens, and gives you your money back PLUS interest! Choose, as Chris, to point the gun at Ashley during the Saw-esque fake murder trap scene in Until Dawn? Welp, congratulations, you’ve just guaranteed that when he’s being chased by the wendingos later in the game, Ashley will NOT let him into the cabin because she is, understandably, still nursing a grudge. Decide to help Songbird escape the corrupt government in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty rather than turn her over to Reed, aka Cybernetic Idris Elba? Guess what – you get to go to the MOON! On a mission to cure her neural degradation, admittedly, but still! (Though, if you’re into last-minute betrayals, you can then turn her over to Reed anyway to get help with your OWN neural degradation...which ends up getting rid of all your cool implants AND Johnny Silverhand, aka Keanu Reeves. ...somehow I don’t think a lot of players chose that option. :P) Point is, these games will actually change quite a bit in response to your actions – and isn’t that what we like to see in a video game? ...well, a video game set up to change like that, anyway. If A:MR suddenly allowed me to change how the story went, I’d be worried my game had gotten possessed. (Though if it gave me more options for Bumby murder, I’d probably live with it.)
And I've officially stayed up later than I probably should have again, though not quite as late as I have been some nights. *shrug* Okay then. So yeah, I'm off to bed -- tomorrow, we'll see what happens with the biopsy and Dad coming home. I'm definitely going to be getting a workout and editing more of "The Van Dort Vacancy" -- I'm HOPING to also get in another Baldur's Gate III session and have Smiler chat with Sazza, but we will see what happens there. *nods* Night all!
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