Rough Morning, Better Afternoon
Jan. 28th, 2026 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, it was a bit of a tough morning today, I have to say -- first, Mom told me shortly after I woke up that Dad had had a bad night last night (couldn't sleep much) and that he was panicking a bit about her possibly not being able to see him in the hospital, so she needed me to take the rest of the week off so she could use my car without having to worry about getting an Uber or anything. (Also that our road's condition remained shit -- seriously, it's apparently the one unplowed road in the city -- and that there were accidents all over the place, so she had to leave later than normal in the hopes they'd be cleared up by then.) Then, I had to text my coworkers to tell them that my mom needed me to take the rest of the week off (and that I was sorry this kept happening)...only for them not to get back to me right away. Which was both unusual and put me on edge because I thought, as per last night's entry, this was going to be the moment the patience ran out. Then I spent most of the rest of the morning in the basement, looking for a book Mom couldn't find but wanted to see if I could, only not to find it. It seemed to be shaping up to be a rather unpleasant day --
And then, after noon, I texted my supervisor again directly, and she told me that she'd just been caught up in meetings and that it was okay if I took the rest of the week off, stressing she knew that these were bad times for me and my family and that I had the time to burn (though to let her know this weekend if I needed yet more time, because then, as per procedure, we needed to discuss me having an Official Leave Of Absence. She stressed again it wouldn't affect my job, though, which was a relief). And then Mom and Dad FaceTimed me as Dad was getting his first dose of chemo to let me know things were going well in the hospital and to make sure I was doing all right. And then Mom came home letting me know that Dad was actually feeling really good after his first round of chemo, which was borne out when he FaceTimed us this evening and said he hadn't needed his pain meds since 2 PM because the pain under his arm was nearly gone! :) So yeah -- bad start, but a good finish. Hopefully tomorrow will be good all the way through, but we will see. Keep your fingers crossed!
Anyway -- while all that was going on, I managed to get some of my typical day off stuff done too. Let me tell you all about it:
Writing: I edited a pretty good-sized chunk of Chapter 3 of “The Van Dort Vacancy” today after lunch, covering:
A) Alice meeting Smiler by one of the sinks (while she washed a knife and they rinsed out a bottle), letting them know that Mrs. Pemberly was now on-board with them being new employees thanks to her chopping skills and their cleverly fixing that soup, admitting she would have never thought of honey to kill the acidic taste – Smiler explained it was something they picked up from helping their mum in the kitchen (and that there were a few different ways to do it, but they preferred honey), before confessing they hadn’t seen their mystery man; Alice said she hadn’t either but she’d let them know if she did
B) Alice going back to her chopping station while Smiler went to work on their cream sauce, slicing up some lovely juice shadefruits (the equivalent of the tomato in Duskwall) and wondering where the Van Dorts got such high-quality produce...only to get her answer when someone behind her complained about how they’d run out of berries for the tarts again and she did not have time for another trip to the greenhouse...followed by a familiar voice saying that he could go get her what she needed if she pointed him in the right direction…
C) Alice looking over her shoulder just in time to catch the mystery man getting a basket and directions to the Van Dort greenhouse from the grateful woman making the tarts (along with a warning that the toffs sometimes liked to tour it during these parties, so be polite to any visitors), before watching him vanish out one of the back doors (somehow not getting bumped or jostled by anyone else running around); Cheshire advised she pursue him, as he was pretty sure that the guy was not coming back
D) Alice making sure she wouldn’t be missed by finishing chopping up her shadefruits, then taking her messy cutting board and knife to the sink to wash them before wandering over to Smiler and their sauce to see how that was coming; Smiler finished it off with some thyme, and got Alice’s opinion on whether or not it was good (Alice confirming it was as delicious as their tea) before asking what she’d seen, and Alice told them about the mystery man going to the greenhouse – cue Smiler telling the guy working on the chicken beside them that the cream sauce was done and that they were helping “Allison” grab more vegetables from the greenhouse to cover their disappearance
Good stuff! I left off with the pair preparing to escape the busy kitchen – tomorrow, they wander off in the direction of the greenhouse, and Alice gets a shock when something she assumed to be a hallucination turns out to be anything but...
Fallout: New Vegas: Returned to the post-apocalyptic Mojave today to continue the adventures of Courier Victor – though, admittedly, today’s adventures consisted mostly of “having a couple of conversations, wandering around Goodsprings, and taking stuff from mailboxes.” Which I guess means it paired well with my Tav Smiler’s adventures in Baldur’s Gate III yesterday! XD Anyway, here’s how things went with a few more specifics:
A) I picked up right where I left off on Monday, with Victor having just arrived at Victor The Securitron’s (Victortron going forward) shack to find the bot himself idling outside, staring at his own wall. Victor went around the side and waited until Victortron turned toward him, then said hello – Victortron greeted him in turn with a warm “Howdy, partner! Might I say, you’re looking fit as a fiddle.” Victor acknowledged that was thanks to Victortron with a “Thanks for digging me out of that grave,” to which Victortron replied, “Don’t mention it! I’m always ready to lend a helping hand to a stranger in need.” Which is not what Trudy said about you, buddy, but you certainly helped Victor when he needed it, so we’ll let it slide. Victor then asked how Victortron even found him, and he explained that he’d been out for a “stroll” (air quotes because Victortron doesn’t actually have legs, he balances on one single wheel) when he heard a commotion up at the “bone orchard.” Upon checking, he “saw what looked like a bunch of bad eggs so I laid low. Once they’d run off, I dug you up to see if you were still kicking. Turns out, you were, so I hauled you off to the Doc right quick.” Victor followed up with, “Do you know who those men were who attacked me?” hoping for more information –
But Victortron had to admit, “Can’t say I’m familiar with the rascals. Some of the fine folks in town might be able to help you out with that.” Well, good thing Trudy already gave us some hints about where Benny and friends might be going! Victor, realizing the bot was probably not going to be any more help in his search, then admitted that he’d never seen a robot like Victortron before – Victortron informed him that “I’m a Securitron, RobCo security model 2060-B. If you ever see any of my brothers, tell them Victor says howdy.” Victor, curious, asked how Victortron had even ended up in Goodsprings then, and the bot explained that he’d “moseyed into town, oh, ten, fifteen years ago? Before that, I...hmm. I can’t quite seem to recall. Odd.” Yes, very odd...anyway, Victortron waved it away and declared that he found Goodsprings to be a “right peaceful town” and “as fine a place to settle as any.” And apparently he’s just been in town ever since! So it seems like this fellow did not arrive with a human owner, unlike what Trudy said. Hmmm. Curiouser and curiouser...good thing this machine of mystery seems to be on Victor’s side!
B) Having exhausted all conversation options with his mechanical name twin, Victor decided the next logical step was to have a poke around said name twin’s shack. He stepped inside (fortunately without any objections from Victortron), and found a tiny house with:
I. A bare-mattress bed tucked into the corner to the right, with a couple of bookshelves lined up against the wall past the foot containing things like scrap metal, ammo containers, and a radio playing some lovely tunes
II. A desk with a chair and another little stumpy bookcase with a broken TV and a fan on it pushed up back-to-back against a wood pillar in the center of the room
III. A red sitting chair by the door, and a couch facing the TV pushed up against the left wall
IV. A tiny kitchen area in the back on the left, with a big metal counter with some coffee-making stuff on it, an empty fridge missing a door, and a sink on the wall that was actually usable
V. And a bathroom in its own little room right of the kitchen nook, with a tub, some cleaning supplies, and the shattered remains of a toilet – I’d like to think Victortron accidentally broke that at some point XD
Anyway – much like Doc Mitchell’s house, none of this stuff was marked as specifically belonging to Victortron, so Victor could take what he pleased! However, mindful of his very weedy weight capacity, and not wanting to just steal all of his rescuer’s stuff, Victor contented himself with slurping some water out of the sink (because gotta keep that H20 need satisfied) and taking the weapon repair kit from the desk (because weapons need maintaining and repairing in this game – armor too) and a Stealth Boy from the ammo box in the kitchen (because FUCKING HELL, I would make Jon of Many A True Nerd SO sad if I didn’t grab that XD). Not much of a haul, but a very useful one – and it’s good to know where Victor can get a nice drink of water if he needs one!
C) Having gotten what he wanted out of Victortron’s house, Victor stepped outside, prepared to explore Goodsprings some more – starting with checking what might be in the mailbox outside the ruined remains of the house next to the shack, as watching MATN F:NV episodes have taught me that there’s often useful skill magazines in those. And indeed, when Victor opened it up, the mailbox proved to have a copy of ¡La Fantoma!, the magazine that temporarily boosts the Sneak skill! :D Plus a carton of cigarettes and a Nuka-Cola toy truck. Victor promptly decided to grab the lot –
And I decided it was time for him to wander the town and see what else he could find that was useful! He thus proceeded to:
I. Check out the other mailbox for the ruin on the OTHER side of Victortron’s shack, near the schoolhouse – this one had a baseball glove and an empty Nuka-Cola bottle in it. Nearly left them, but then went “nah, might be useful” and went back and took them
II. Head down the road and west at the intersection, toward the front of the schoolhouse – there was another ruined house across from there, with a copy of Locksmith Reader (the Lockpick skill magazine, natch) in its mailbox, and an empty Sunset Sarsaparilla bottle in the rubble piled up in the frame, both of which Victor grabbed. (He also managed to scare me by firing his varmint rifle, which I’d taken out in case of trouble, when I set my controller on my lap to make a note of what I’d found in the mailbox – apparently I must have leaned on the controller trigger. Note to self – make sure to PROPERLY pause the game before you make notes, Vic!)
III. Walk over to the boarded-up house next to the ruin and pick a barrel cactus fruit from the one growing outside – gotta make sure he has enough food and drink to keep himself healthy and negative-status-effect free!
IV. Head across the intersection again, this time going east, passing by another occupied house at the corner (with a guy out front tending a little garden full of maize and a handful of bighorners) before reaching another ruined house on the other side of the street – unfortunately, this one didn’t have anything good in its mailbox
V. Proceed to the end of the street, where he found a big mobile home parked outside another, pretty white boarded-up house – whose mailbox contained a bobby pin (for lockpicking), a Salesman Weekly (the Barter skill magazine), a cherry bomb, a coffee mug, and another empty Nuka-Cola bottle! You’d better believe Victor grabbed all of that – that’s a good haul! Definitely made up for the last one being empty!
VI. Check out the mobile home (completely empty, sadly), then start going around the corner of the boarded-up white house – only to spot a familiar figure leaning against the corner, smoking. That’s right, it was one Joe Cobb, leader of the local Powder Gangers group! Victor quickly scurried away before the guy could see him, as he did not want to tangle with them. (Or offer to help him – Victor is firmly on Ringo and Goodsprings’s side in the current feud!)
*nods* Not bad, not bad at all! We love a good skill magazine and potentially-useful junk. :) However, by this point, it was starting to get late, so I figured Victor might want to pause and find a place to sleep for the night –
But when I brought up his Pip-Boy to check what time it actually was, I was surprised to see on the map screen the Goodsprings Cemetery suddenly marked in red. O.o What was that all about? Puzzled, I had Victor wander back over toward the Saloon (where I was relieved to see Easy Pete hanging out in his usual chair outside with the settler Victor saved before – I was genuinely worried that giant radscorpion I’d seen before had found him!), then – after dropping a safety save – had him creep up the hill to the cemetery, gun in hand, to see if it being marked in red meant there was an enemy there or something. However, the “bone orchard” was in the same condition I left it, with just a few bloatfly corpses scattered about and nothing else of interest. So I have no idea why it was suddenly marked in red on Victor’s Pip-Boy map. *shrug* Must be something to do with one of my mods, but damned if I know which one! I’ll have to look at those “Tweaks” again, I’m pretty sure I saw something about marking things in red in that list…
D) Anyway – with the mystery of the Red Cemetery Map Marker on hold, I figured it was high time Victor got to bed and thus sent him back to town. He stopped briefly at the saloon to check in on Easy Pete (who had a tumbleweed caught on the porch next to him, amusingly), then – after checking the time (10:11 PM) and his FOD, H20, and SLP stats – had a very late supper of squirrel on a stick (which irradiated him very slightly, the hell – I don’t get why COOKED food is more radioactive in this game than raw ingredients) and a can of purified water standing by the general store before continuing on his search for a place to sleep. My initial thought was that I could just send him back to Doc Mitchell’s and have him curl up on the clinic bed in there (you know, the one he woke up in) –
But when I had him step inside and head for said clinic bed, I found that it was marked in red – which generally means “hey, someone owns this and will not appreciate you taking/using it.” Which was a bit of an issue. Puzzled, and slightly annoyed he couldn’t just go to sleep in the clinic bed (though I guess Doc M would need that for patients), I had him wander the house looking for any other beds he could use – unfortunately, the only other one I found was Doc M’s own bed, which, of course, was right out. And sadly, you cannot sleep on couches in this game, so bunking down in the Doc’s living room was out too. I briefly considered having him just talk to Doc Mitchell, who was up and wandering about, but I decided “Eh, it’s pretty late in-game and Victor REALLY should sleep” and left that for another time. Instead, I had Victor leave the house and hit the road again –
This time heading toward Victortron’s shack! Because, well, Victortron’s a Securitron, and they’re not exactly known for needing beds. Sure enough, Victortron was hanging around outside the shack when he arrived, and when Victor headed inside, the bed was open for napping in. I promptly had Victor climb in and bunk down for a nice solid six hours. *nods* So now he has a guaranteed place he can sleep, yay!
E) Victor got up the next morning (10/22/2281, if you’re curious) at 5:16 AM – I promptly had him get another drink from the sink to keep his H20 levels topped up, then sent him back out into the wasteland to try and find Sunny Smiles and see if she had any jobs that he could do that might earn him some XP and/or caps. Along the way, he wandered through town a bit, checking mailboxes and house ruins to see if he could find more goodies, which led to him picking up:
I. A copy of Fixin’ Things (the Repair skill magazine) from a mailbox in front of one of the houses near Victor’s shack
II. A copy of Patriot’s Cookbook (the Explosives skill magazine) from the mailbox of the house opposite the first
III. A second copy of Fixin’ Things in a mailbox in front of a boarded-up house around the back of the General Store (which had a windmill next to it and a couple of bighorners milling around near it – fortunately they were friendly enough)
IV. And a wrench out of a toolbox out of another “wrecked down to the frame” house nearby. *shrug* Never know when a spare tool might come in handy!
Returning to the main road also had him discover that, apparently, that settler he saved lives with that farmer who lives next door to the general store – at the very least, she was willing to help the guy in his garden:
I like the idea that they might be a couple. Makes Victor saving her feel even better. :) Anyway, after taking a moment to observe them so I could get my screenshot, Victor headed into the saloon, expecting to see Sunny by the pool table, just like yesterday –
Only for her not to be there. The only people around were the nameless settlers who helped filled out the town. Puzzled, I had Victor listen to the radio a moment (which featured Mr. New Vegas talking about how he shorted out a Vit-O-Matic trying to test his Charisma (hah), and the NCR getting their monorail into the Strip working again, with a spokesperson saying it was a good thing they did, as a more major failure would be impossible to repair due to a lack of parts (hinting at a mission where you can sabotage it for the Legion if you are so inclined)), wander the building to see if Sunny was somewhere else inside (nope), then head back out to look for her –
F) And then I went, “Hold on a second. I know that, to get the best result for Ghost Town Gunfight, you have to pass a series of skill checks to convince certain people to help you out. I know I have the Sneak necessary to convince Trudy to round up some townspeople and use her saloon as an ambush point, but what do the others need?” I thus got my phone and looked up the requirements – 25 Barter to convince Chet, owner of the General Store, to give the combatants free armor; 25 Explosives to convince Easy Pete to hand over the dynamite he has for the combatants to use; and – well, Doc Mitchell is a nice guy and immediately hands over three stimpacks when you ask him for aid, but one needs 30 Medicine to get him to hand over two doctor’s bags as well (which are a better healing item). And upon looking at those numbers, I realized something –
I could actually start the quest and get everyone to help! Because Victor found the Salesman Weekly and Patriot’s Cookbook skill magazines, which would allow him to boost his Barter and Explosives skills up to the required levels to pass the checks, and while he didn’t have the skill magazine for Medicine, Today’s Physician, Doc Mitchell sure did – and as nothing in his house is marked as his, well. Easy enough to pick it up and use it before the conversation! :D Delighted, I changed direction and had Victor head up to the Poseidon Energy gas station atop the hill overlooking the town, where – after raiding the vending machine outside for a couple of Sunset Sarsaparillas – he headed inside –
And was immediately greeted by Ringo pulling a gun on him and telling him, “That’s close enough. Who are you, and what do you want with me?” A frightened Victor hastily assured him, “I’m not an enemy, if that’s what you’re asking,” which fortunately caused the guy to relax. He promptly apologized about the gun, saying Victor caught him off guard –
G) And then went “We got off to a bad start. What say we start over with a friendly game of Caravan? You know how to play?” Which took me off guard because – okay, I knew from the wiki that “Caravan” is a mini-game you can play in F:NV, and that Ringo can teach you how to play it – but I didn’t expect him to do so this early in the game. I thought you had to offer to help him with the Powder Gangers first! However, as the offer had been made, I was like, “screw it – yeah, let’s play Caravan” and had Victor ask him what the rules where. He explained, “It’s a two-player game, and the winner takes the whole pot. You build a ‘caravan’ using the cards in your deck. The goal is to create caravan bids that beat your opponent’s bids, so there’s more strategy than luck involved” – adding that was why it would never appear in any casino – it was both too slow-paced and didn’t allow the house to get an edge. He then kindly handed Victor a holotape that better explained the rules and a spare deck of playing cards for him to build his deck from before asking if he felt like playing a game. Victor was like “sure, let’s play,” and Ringo reassured him that he wasn’t that good a player –
And so the mini-game began! Complete with explanatory pop-ups, which was good, because I wasn’t able to look at the holotape Ringo gave Victor before starting. XD I won’t go into all the rules here, but basically the game boils down to this:
I. You and your opponent decide how much you each want to wager, like in poker – your opponent starts with one bet, and you can match it or raise, until you’re both happy. Ringo wagered 53 caps, and I just had Victor match him, since he didn’t have a whole lot of money.
II. You then take a moment to build your deck – Caravan decks consist of at least 30 playing cards, which are then used to build your caravans in the main game. You can go through the cards you have one by one, or let the game randomize it – I had a little laugh at the fact that the cards Ringo had handed over were from The Tops casino (AKA Benny’s casino), then let the game randomize my deck, which resulted in 41 cards being chosen.
III. You and your opponent then lay down your first three cards – one per “lane.” This first card determines what the main suit of your caravan will be.
IV. You and your opponent then add a second card to your caravans – this one determines whether you will be playing the number cards in ascending or descending order. Each card after these two must either match the suit of the original card, or the ascending/descending order determined by the second card.
V. Play then continues with you and your opponent adding cards to your “caravans” to get their values in between 20 and 27, in order to win the imaginary “contract” each caravan is vying for. Each caravan is competing against the other in its specific lane. Number cards just straight up add their numbers to the value (with Aces equaling one), while the face cards and Jokers do special things (for example, Kings multiply the value of the cards below them).
VI. To win, you have to get at least two of your caravans to a value between 20 and 27 before your opponent’s caravans in the same lane. And, as Ringo stated, whoever wins takes all the caps – unless you want to go for another round, of course.
So yeah – it’s kind of a complicated game! Especially when you’re still getting used to the controls and figuring out which thumbstick moves the cards between caravans and such. XD As you might expect, Victor lost his very first round – though he did at least salvage a bit of dignity by getting one of his caravans up to 25 or so before Ringo could, meaning it wasn’t a complete rout. But yeah, play ended with Ringo taking the pot, and thus 53 of his precious caps (ouch) –
And then heading to his mattress behind the counter of the gas station and lying down for a nap at 10 in the morning. I didn’t know trouncing bad Caravan players tired him out so much. XD
And so the playsession ended with Victor hanging out in the gas station, looking at the junk on the shelves and waiting for Ringo to get up from his nap so they could talk about non-Caravan-related things. Next time, he’ll tell the guy about Joe Cobb and actually properly kick off getting the town ready for the gunfight against the Powder Gangers – hopefully it’ll go well! Better than Caravan, at any rate. XD
Workout: Another night on the bike, another night with Useless Steve as I pedaled my way through –
A) The end of “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 3 - Idiot Savant!” The last fourteen-or-so minutes of which featured –
I. Useless Steve finally killing the turret that was giving him so much trouble before (as he straight-up couldn’t hack it to make it his friend) and making his way up to the top of the Helios One tower – a dangerous trip that involved throwing multiple pulse grenades at a Mr. Gutsy in his way (mostly because he could never quite tell where it was to score a direct hit) and running from a whole gaggle of Protectrons (after he tried and failed to avoid the laser tripwire that released them all from their charging pods); he managed to survive everything, though, and was able to use the Poseidon Energy employee ID card he picked up along the way to activate the PYTHON Mr. Handy repair-bot to fix the problems with the mainframe he could not before powering said mainframe up and distributing electrical power to the whole Mojave, as per the request of the “Flowers of the Pock-lips.” XD
II. Useless Steve then heading out onto the observation deck and – when 9 AM rolled around – realigning all the mirrors to catch all that gorgeous, gorgeous sunlight (slightly blinding himself in the process, because it is BRIGHT), before discovering to his delight that you could fast-travel off said observation deck, meaning he didn’t have to go back inside the tower and fight his way down through all the robots! Yay!
III. Useless Steve then reporting to Dr. Rivas to get his reward, a nice skill book (presumably a Big Book Of Science)...only for Rivas to refuse to acknowledge that he’d done anything. Like, there was no option to turn in the quest at all. Jon went through the guy’s entire available dialogue tree. Either he’d bugged out or he wasn’t willing to reward a Low Intelligence character. Boo.
IV. ...Jon rewinding time via saves and having Useless Steve instead power up the ARCHIMEDES II super-weapon the power plant was attached to, because if he didn’t get his skill book he was getting his deadly orbital laser instead, damn it! (And then confirming that, no, Rivas was still bugged out and refusing to acknowledge anything had happened. Really hoping this doesn’t happen when I have Victor do this quest!)
V. And Useless Steve rewarding himself for a good job well done by going to the New Vegas Medical Clinic and getting the Agility implant to make himself a tiny bit more agile (though that bugged out a bit too, as for some reason he was straight-up not offered the chance to take the Strength or Endurance implants. Jon couldn’t figure out why. *shrug* At least the one he got helped boost his Guns and Sneak skills a tiny bit?
B) And the beginning of “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 4 - The Doomsday Device!” The first fifteen-or-so minutes of which featured –
I. Useless Steve beginning a quest to get a bunch of XP and actually level up his terrible terrible skills (and also to hopefully trigger Jon’s favorite line of dialogue in the game, which is apparently really hard to hear because it requires very specific conditions – including the powering-up of ARCHIMEDES II) by traveling to the 188 Trading Post and getting Veronica (the secret Brotherhood scribe) to travel with him! The recruitment involved him telling her that he’d heard the Brotherhood could shoot lasers from their eyes, which caused her to be like, “Well, you have completely defied my first impression of you.” XD Fortunately, this did not discourage her from traveling with him – maybe she just figured, “Well, this idiot is going to need help staying alive.” XD
II. Useless Steve making a quick detour back to the REPCONN HQ to pick up something he’d forgotten to grab the first time he visited – Nikola Tesla And You, the Energy Weapons skill book! Which was in the same room as he’d gotten his beloved Q-35, sitting on top of a safe – Jon had just completely forgotten it was there. Well, Jon, you and Steve both have horrendously low Perception, so maybe that’s only to be expected. XD (He also grabbed some microfusion cells for the road, though he refrained from picking up too many because, well, heavy ammo is heavy.)
III. Useless Steve and Veronica helping the NCR fight some Fiends near a sacked caravan (with Jon liking the fact that Steve can now PROPERLY use the Q-35 to commit murder) and then storming Allied Technologies and killing the giant ants inside (along with the Fiends that Veronica aggroed and who followed them through the door) so Steve could pick up some star bottle caps (Jon noting with amusement the pile of Sunset Sarsaparillas behind a certain desk, indicating that SOMEONE was really into the star cap promotion), ant nectar off the ants, and a Tales Of A Junktown Jerky Vendor skillbook to improve his Barter (because he will just take what he can get, damn it). Veronica proved to be an absolute BEAST with what I presume to be a Ballistic Fist, and her incredible ability to murder things prompted Jon to comment that this was why he was banning companions for most of this run – they just made things too easy!
IV. Useless Steve taking Veronica to McCarran to show her how the NCR was getting on (causing her to comment they had more troops here than she thought), then around to the science labs at the back of the building to get the Vault 22 quest and show her how the NCR was researching new technologies (causing her to annoyedly note that even the “stupid NCR” was investing in research and that her people were getting left in the dust), then finally over to Freeside to have a chat with the doctor in charge of the Followers Of The Apocalypse in the Old Mormon Fort, Julie Farkas, about leaving medical supplies (causing her to admit she was impressed with what the Followers were doing there). Reason? Doing so got three “Veronica points,” causing Veronica to admit she’s a member of the Brotherhood and start her personal quest to try and save the Brotherhood from itself, “I Could Make You Care!” Which should both provide a good amount of XP and hopefully some fun with Low Intelligence dialogue.
V. And Useless Steve taking Veronica to Hidden Valley and the secret Brotherhood Bunker, where she said what is now one of MY favorite lines in F:NV into the speaker by the interior door – “I’d like a large Atomic Shake and a Double Brahmin Burger. And easy on the agave sauce this time.” XD The guy who wanted a regular password from her wasn’t impressed with her shenanigans, but I was. I like you, Veronica, you’re all right. :P
So yeah – The Adventures Of Useless Steve continue apace! Tomorrow, we’ll continue with Episode 4 and see how Steve deals with the Brotherhood! I hope he annoys the hell out of them.
FreeTube: Managed to fit in one of the videos I’ve been trying to get to tonight – “CaFae Tales: the Fae Nurse” by C. M. Alongi! Which – okay, I thought I knew which fairy tale she was doing for this one – a story about a nosy woman who sees her neighbor use an ointment on her children’s eyes, rubs a bit on her own eye, and becomes able to see the hidden world of the fae...only to lose all sight in the eye altogether when she stupidly confronts her neighbor’s husband when she spots him invisibly stealing things in the market. But as it turns out, C. M.’s version was rather different… The video featured:
A) A pre-story warning about how this story dealt with abduction and rape due to the fact that it was written back in medieval times, when women were pretty much considered their husband’s property...which prompted a few comments saying, in essence, “Uh, your warning needs a warning – could you not use flashing lights, the migraine-sufferers and those with epilepsy will thank you”
B) JC and Cyrus talking about JC fighting a white supremacist in prison (about a year before JC met Cyrus and joined CaFae Latte), and JC asking him if he had any good fights with Fae supremacists, and Cyrus saying yeah...mostly because they were all very eager to throw hands once they learned he was mixed. Cue a shocked JC being like “you’re part human?!” and Cyrus confirming that his great-grandmother was a human woman...and that how she became part of his family tree was pretty fucked up…
C) Cyrus starting the actual story with a recap of his great-grandmother’s pre-Fae situation – living in Ireland when Christianity was talking hold and talking about the Fae would get you in real trouble, with an older sister who was a midwife. Said midwife sister was pretty horrified when the great-grandmother – let’s call her GG – revealed she was being courted by a Fae, noting that they didn’t know his intentions and that he could ruin her reputation or whisk her away, but GG was unconcerned, saying that all that just made him like any other man who might court her (given, the whole, you know, women treated like property thing). She was sure it would all be fine, whether it ended in marriage or a dalliance –
Cue JC being like “I am guessing it was not just a dalliance,” and Bob confirming that Fae men would take human women as concubines as a symbol of status in the Fae realm (as Fae women had rights and demanded respect) – either through the long con of a fake courtship, or straight-up mind control. JC was not particularly happy that Cyrus’s great-grandmother was essentially a sex slave – Cyrus wasn’t either, but pointed out that the human realm in that time period was really no better, with Bob adding that, given how many daughters were sold off by their fathers for wealth or business deals with no say in the matter, human trafficking was basically totally legal and accepted back then. JC considered it and admitted that, under the circumstances, yeah, maybe they would have run away with the hot Fae guy too
D) Cyrus continuing the story by talking about how GG disappeared one day, and how nobody could find her...and then, a year later, a mysterious man came to the midwife and told her that his wife was giving birth, and that she only trusted her sister to deliver the baby. (JC was like “girl, get your gun,” then revised to “sword, knife, pointy stick” when Bob reminded them that guns weren’t invented yet.) The midwife naturally went with the man, and was initially thrilled when she arrived at what looked like a gorgeous manor, with her sister dressed in an elegant nightgown on a beautiful bed, looking well-fed and healthy…
And then, after the baby was born, the Fae man gave her an ointment to rub all over the child to protect the newborn girl from disease (JC was like “was that really what it was?” but Cyrus confirmed it was, reminding JC fairies can’t lie, with Bob explaining various fairy medicinal magics and how there’s a special ointment for newborns that was developed especially for mixed human/fae children to keep them safe from disease). The midwife did so, but right near the end, got an itch in her right eye and rubbed it with her finger…
E) Resulting in her suddenly being able to see through the glamours the Fae man had put up with that eye, including the fact that she was in a cave, not a manor, and that her sister was lying on musty animal skins dressed in rags, not a fancy bed in a fancy nightgown. She managed to play off her surprise as tiredness to the Fae man, though – and when he tried to insist she stay for a meal, GG put her foot down, saying that her sister was the midwife for the village and that people depended on her, so she was not staying. (JC realized shortly thereafter “right, if you eat any Fae food, you’re trapped in the Fae realm because you can’t eat anything else” – Cyrus confirmed GG, who had been stuck there a year, would have died if she’d gone back to earth, and endangered her baby as well if there was no wet nurse around, while Bob confirmed that they now had ways to reverse the curse, but there was nothing that could be done back then. :( ) The midwife tried to insist on leaving with GG or the baby when the Fae man went to get his horse ready, but GG said she had to get away while she still could, and that the half-Fae baby would have a happier life in the Fae realm than she would, so...yeah. Midwife sister left her sister and niece behind, and was paid in five “gold coins” – actually pieces of bark – by the Fae man. JC was like “what an asshole,” but Cyrus was like “it gets worse…”
F) Cyrus finishing the main story by telling how the midwife saw the Fae man in the market a little while later and warned the merchant selling him apples that his money was no good, so she’d pay for the fruit, before demanding to know if her sister and niece were still alive. The Fae man said they were before pointing out he’d glamoured himself into another form for this shopping trip, so how the hell did the midwife know it was him? She said “I had my ways” –
But he quickly realized she’d touched her eye with the ointment when she had an itch – and ripped her eye out of her socket. Leaving her, naturally, unable to see through glamours anymore and with a need for an eyepatch. JC was absolutely horrified, as you might expect, but Bob admitted that was the guy being merciful – he could have killed her for using the Fae ointment, and none of the other Fae would have batted an eye. (...no pun intended.) JC was furious, being like “so after all this, the abuser just went free?!”
G) Leading to Cyrus and Bob telling the actual end of the story – namely, that GG’s daughter and grandson (Cyrus’s dad) ended up on the side of the human rebellion Bob joined when Cyrus was a kid, while the Fae man supported her Fae supremacist asshole royal family. Which led to him and Bob getting into a knife fight – and while she didn’t kill him, as he was more valuable as a prisoner to be ransomed, she did end up taking out of one HIS eyes. And then little Cyrus told him how badly he was treating his new human wife –
Leading her sending little Cyrus to the kitchens to get a snack while she went to work on another part of the Fae man’s body with a smaller knife. JC was delighted, while Cyrus told Bob, “You know, you didn’t have to send me away, I knew what you were doing.” Bob was like “let me pretend I was being a responsible adult there,” only for Cyrus to gleefully say, “Nope, fairies can’t lie.” XD
So yeah – very different from the fairytale I knew! Though I did like seeing the CaFae twist on the whole thing – and that Fae bastard get his. Looking forward to the next story!
*whew* And once again, doing all that led to me staying up later than I'd intended. Story of my life. At least I know I don't have to worry about work for the next couple of days... Anyway, I'm off to bed -- gotta do laundry for Mom tomorrow, but I'm also hoping to fit in some Baldur's Gate III, some more "The Van Dort Vacancy," another workout, and maybe another video or some work on my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) tumblr drafts -- we shall see. Night all!
And then, after noon, I texted my supervisor again directly, and she told me that she'd just been caught up in meetings and that it was okay if I took the rest of the week off, stressing she knew that these were bad times for me and my family and that I had the time to burn (though to let her know this weekend if I needed yet more time, because then, as per procedure, we needed to discuss me having an Official Leave Of Absence. She stressed again it wouldn't affect my job, though, which was a relief). And then Mom and Dad FaceTimed me as Dad was getting his first dose of chemo to let me know things were going well in the hospital and to make sure I was doing all right. And then Mom came home letting me know that Dad was actually feeling really good after his first round of chemo, which was borne out when he FaceTimed us this evening and said he hadn't needed his pain meds since 2 PM because the pain under his arm was nearly gone! :) So yeah -- bad start, but a good finish. Hopefully tomorrow will be good all the way through, but we will see. Keep your fingers crossed!
Anyway -- while all that was going on, I managed to get some of my typical day off stuff done too. Let me tell you all about it:
Writing: I edited a pretty good-sized chunk of Chapter 3 of “The Van Dort Vacancy” today after lunch, covering:
A) Alice meeting Smiler by one of the sinks (while she washed a knife and they rinsed out a bottle), letting them know that Mrs. Pemberly was now on-board with them being new employees thanks to her chopping skills and their cleverly fixing that soup, admitting she would have never thought of honey to kill the acidic taste – Smiler explained it was something they picked up from helping their mum in the kitchen (and that there were a few different ways to do it, but they preferred honey), before confessing they hadn’t seen their mystery man; Alice said she hadn’t either but she’d let them know if she did
B) Alice going back to her chopping station while Smiler went to work on their cream sauce, slicing up some lovely juice shadefruits (the equivalent of the tomato in Duskwall) and wondering where the Van Dorts got such high-quality produce...only to get her answer when someone behind her complained about how they’d run out of berries for the tarts again and she did not have time for another trip to the greenhouse...followed by a familiar voice saying that he could go get her what she needed if she pointed him in the right direction…
C) Alice looking over her shoulder just in time to catch the mystery man getting a basket and directions to the Van Dort greenhouse from the grateful woman making the tarts (along with a warning that the toffs sometimes liked to tour it during these parties, so be polite to any visitors), before watching him vanish out one of the back doors (somehow not getting bumped or jostled by anyone else running around); Cheshire advised she pursue him, as he was pretty sure that the guy was not coming back
D) Alice making sure she wouldn’t be missed by finishing chopping up her shadefruits, then taking her messy cutting board and knife to the sink to wash them before wandering over to Smiler and their sauce to see how that was coming; Smiler finished it off with some thyme, and got Alice’s opinion on whether or not it was good (Alice confirming it was as delicious as their tea) before asking what she’d seen, and Alice told them about the mystery man going to the greenhouse – cue Smiler telling the guy working on the chicken beside them that the cream sauce was done and that they were helping “Allison” grab more vegetables from the greenhouse to cover their disappearance
Good stuff! I left off with the pair preparing to escape the busy kitchen – tomorrow, they wander off in the direction of the greenhouse, and Alice gets a shock when something she assumed to be a hallucination turns out to be anything but...
Fallout: New Vegas: Returned to the post-apocalyptic Mojave today to continue the adventures of Courier Victor – though, admittedly, today’s adventures consisted mostly of “having a couple of conversations, wandering around Goodsprings, and taking stuff from mailboxes.” Which I guess means it paired well with my Tav Smiler’s adventures in Baldur’s Gate III yesterday! XD Anyway, here’s how things went with a few more specifics:
A) I picked up right where I left off on Monday, with Victor having just arrived at Victor The Securitron’s (Victortron going forward) shack to find the bot himself idling outside, staring at his own wall. Victor went around the side and waited until Victortron turned toward him, then said hello – Victortron greeted him in turn with a warm “Howdy, partner! Might I say, you’re looking fit as a fiddle.” Victor acknowledged that was thanks to Victortron with a “Thanks for digging me out of that grave,” to which Victortron replied, “Don’t mention it! I’m always ready to lend a helping hand to a stranger in need.” Which is not what Trudy said about you, buddy, but you certainly helped Victor when he needed it, so we’ll let it slide. Victor then asked how Victortron even found him, and he explained that he’d been out for a “stroll” (air quotes because Victortron doesn’t actually have legs, he balances on one single wheel) when he heard a commotion up at the “bone orchard.” Upon checking, he “saw what looked like a bunch of bad eggs so I laid low. Once they’d run off, I dug you up to see if you were still kicking. Turns out, you were, so I hauled you off to the Doc right quick.” Victor followed up with, “Do you know who those men were who attacked me?” hoping for more information –
But Victortron had to admit, “Can’t say I’m familiar with the rascals. Some of the fine folks in town might be able to help you out with that.” Well, good thing Trudy already gave us some hints about where Benny and friends might be going! Victor, realizing the bot was probably not going to be any more help in his search, then admitted that he’d never seen a robot like Victortron before – Victortron informed him that “I’m a Securitron, RobCo security model 2060-B. If you ever see any of my brothers, tell them Victor says howdy.” Victor, curious, asked how Victortron had even ended up in Goodsprings then, and the bot explained that he’d “moseyed into town, oh, ten, fifteen years ago? Before that, I...hmm. I can’t quite seem to recall. Odd.” Yes, very odd...anyway, Victortron waved it away and declared that he found Goodsprings to be a “right peaceful town” and “as fine a place to settle as any.” And apparently he’s just been in town ever since! So it seems like this fellow did not arrive with a human owner, unlike what Trudy said. Hmmm. Curiouser and curiouser...good thing this machine of mystery seems to be on Victor’s side!
B) Having exhausted all conversation options with his mechanical name twin, Victor decided the next logical step was to have a poke around said name twin’s shack. He stepped inside (fortunately without any objections from Victortron), and found a tiny house with:
I. A bare-mattress bed tucked into the corner to the right, with a couple of bookshelves lined up against the wall past the foot containing things like scrap metal, ammo containers, and a radio playing some lovely tunes
II. A desk with a chair and another little stumpy bookcase with a broken TV and a fan on it pushed up back-to-back against a wood pillar in the center of the room
III. A red sitting chair by the door, and a couch facing the TV pushed up against the left wall
IV. A tiny kitchen area in the back on the left, with a big metal counter with some coffee-making stuff on it, an empty fridge missing a door, and a sink on the wall that was actually usable
V. And a bathroom in its own little room right of the kitchen nook, with a tub, some cleaning supplies, and the shattered remains of a toilet – I’d like to think Victortron accidentally broke that at some point XD
Anyway – much like Doc Mitchell’s house, none of this stuff was marked as specifically belonging to Victortron, so Victor could take what he pleased! However, mindful of his very weedy weight capacity, and not wanting to just steal all of his rescuer’s stuff, Victor contented himself with slurping some water out of the sink (because gotta keep that H20 need satisfied) and taking the weapon repair kit from the desk (because weapons need maintaining and repairing in this game – armor too) and a Stealth Boy from the ammo box in the kitchen (because FUCKING HELL, I would make Jon of Many A True Nerd SO sad if I didn’t grab that XD). Not much of a haul, but a very useful one – and it’s good to know where Victor can get a nice drink of water if he needs one!
C) Having gotten what he wanted out of Victortron’s house, Victor stepped outside, prepared to explore Goodsprings some more – starting with checking what might be in the mailbox outside the ruined remains of the house next to the shack, as watching MATN F:NV episodes have taught me that there’s often useful skill magazines in those. And indeed, when Victor opened it up, the mailbox proved to have a copy of ¡La Fantoma!, the magazine that temporarily boosts the Sneak skill! :D Plus a carton of cigarettes and a Nuka-Cola toy truck. Victor promptly decided to grab the lot –
And I decided it was time for him to wander the town and see what else he could find that was useful! He thus proceeded to:
I. Check out the other mailbox for the ruin on the OTHER side of Victortron’s shack, near the schoolhouse – this one had a baseball glove and an empty Nuka-Cola bottle in it. Nearly left them, but then went “nah, might be useful” and went back and took them
II. Head down the road and west at the intersection, toward the front of the schoolhouse – there was another ruined house across from there, with a copy of Locksmith Reader (the Lockpick skill magazine, natch) in its mailbox, and an empty Sunset Sarsaparilla bottle in the rubble piled up in the frame, both of which Victor grabbed. (He also managed to scare me by firing his varmint rifle, which I’d taken out in case of trouble, when I set my controller on my lap to make a note of what I’d found in the mailbox – apparently I must have leaned on the controller trigger. Note to self – make sure to PROPERLY pause the game before you make notes, Vic!)
III. Walk over to the boarded-up house next to the ruin and pick a barrel cactus fruit from the one growing outside – gotta make sure he has enough food and drink to keep himself healthy and negative-status-effect free!
IV. Head across the intersection again, this time going east, passing by another occupied house at the corner (with a guy out front tending a little garden full of maize and a handful of bighorners) before reaching another ruined house on the other side of the street – unfortunately, this one didn’t have anything good in its mailbox
V. Proceed to the end of the street, where he found a big mobile home parked outside another, pretty white boarded-up house – whose mailbox contained a bobby pin (for lockpicking), a Salesman Weekly (the Barter skill magazine), a cherry bomb, a coffee mug, and another empty Nuka-Cola bottle! You’d better believe Victor grabbed all of that – that’s a good haul! Definitely made up for the last one being empty!
VI. Check out the mobile home (completely empty, sadly), then start going around the corner of the boarded-up white house – only to spot a familiar figure leaning against the corner, smoking. That’s right, it was one Joe Cobb, leader of the local Powder Gangers group! Victor quickly scurried away before the guy could see him, as he did not want to tangle with them. (Or offer to help him – Victor is firmly on Ringo and Goodsprings’s side in the current feud!)
*nods* Not bad, not bad at all! We love a good skill magazine and potentially-useful junk. :) However, by this point, it was starting to get late, so I figured Victor might want to pause and find a place to sleep for the night –
But when I brought up his Pip-Boy to check what time it actually was, I was surprised to see on the map screen the Goodsprings Cemetery suddenly marked in red. O.o What was that all about? Puzzled, I had Victor wander back over toward the Saloon (where I was relieved to see Easy Pete hanging out in his usual chair outside with the settler Victor saved before – I was genuinely worried that giant radscorpion I’d seen before had found him!), then – after dropping a safety save – had him creep up the hill to the cemetery, gun in hand, to see if it being marked in red meant there was an enemy there or something. However, the “bone orchard” was in the same condition I left it, with just a few bloatfly corpses scattered about and nothing else of interest. So I have no idea why it was suddenly marked in red on Victor’s Pip-Boy map. *shrug* Must be something to do with one of my mods, but damned if I know which one! I’ll have to look at those “Tweaks” again, I’m pretty sure I saw something about marking things in red in that list…
D) Anyway – with the mystery of the Red Cemetery Map Marker on hold, I figured it was high time Victor got to bed and thus sent him back to town. He stopped briefly at the saloon to check in on Easy Pete (who had a tumbleweed caught on the porch next to him, amusingly), then – after checking the time (10:11 PM) and his FOD, H20, and SLP stats – had a very late supper of squirrel on a stick (which irradiated him very slightly, the hell – I don’t get why COOKED food is more radioactive in this game than raw ingredients) and a can of purified water standing by the general store before continuing on his search for a place to sleep. My initial thought was that I could just send him back to Doc Mitchell’s and have him curl up on the clinic bed in there (you know, the one he woke up in) –
But when I had him step inside and head for said clinic bed, I found that it was marked in red – which generally means “hey, someone owns this and will not appreciate you taking/using it.” Which was a bit of an issue. Puzzled, and slightly annoyed he couldn’t just go to sleep in the clinic bed (though I guess Doc M would need that for patients), I had him wander the house looking for any other beds he could use – unfortunately, the only other one I found was Doc M’s own bed, which, of course, was right out. And sadly, you cannot sleep on couches in this game, so bunking down in the Doc’s living room was out too. I briefly considered having him just talk to Doc Mitchell, who was up and wandering about, but I decided “Eh, it’s pretty late in-game and Victor REALLY should sleep” and left that for another time. Instead, I had Victor leave the house and hit the road again –
This time heading toward Victortron’s shack! Because, well, Victortron’s a Securitron, and they’re not exactly known for needing beds. Sure enough, Victortron was hanging around outside the shack when he arrived, and when Victor headed inside, the bed was open for napping in. I promptly had Victor climb in and bunk down for a nice solid six hours. *nods* So now he has a guaranteed place he can sleep, yay!
E) Victor got up the next morning (10/22/2281, if you’re curious) at 5:16 AM – I promptly had him get another drink from the sink to keep his H20 levels topped up, then sent him back out into the wasteland to try and find Sunny Smiles and see if she had any jobs that he could do that might earn him some XP and/or caps. Along the way, he wandered through town a bit, checking mailboxes and house ruins to see if he could find more goodies, which led to him picking up:
I. A copy of Fixin’ Things (the Repair skill magazine) from a mailbox in front of one of the houses near Victor’s shack
II. A copy of Patriot’s Cookbook (the Explosives skill magazine) from the mailbox of the house opposite the first
III. A second copy of Fixin’ Things in a mailbox in front of a boarded-up house around the back of the General Store (which had a windmill next to it and a couple of bighorners milling around near it – fortunately they were friendly enough)
IV. And a wrench out of a toolbox out of another “wrecked down to the frame” house nearby. *shrug* Never know when a spare tool might come in handy!
Returning to the main road also had him discover that, apparently, that settler he saved lives with that farmer who lives next door to the general store – at the very least, she was willing to help the guy in his garden:
I like the idea that they might be a couple. Makes Victor saving her feel even better. :) Anyway, after taking a moment to observe them so I could get my screenshot, Victor headed into the saloon, expecting to see Sunny by the pool table, just like yesterday –
Only for her not to be there. The only people around were the nameless settlers who helped filled out the town. Puzzled, I had Victor listen to the radio a moment (which featured Mr. New Vegas talking about how he shorted out a Vit-O-Matic trying to test his Charisma (hah), and the NCR getting their monorail into the Strip working again, with a spokesperson saying it was a good thing they did, as a more major failure would be impossible to repair due to a lack of parts (hinting at a mission where you can sabotage it for the Legion if you are so inclined)), wander the building to see if Sunny was somewhere else inside (nope), then head back out to look for her –
F) And then I went, “Hold on a second. I know that, to get the best result for Ghost Town Gunfight, you have to pass a series of skill checks to convince certain people to help you out. I know I have the Sneak necessary to convince Trudy to round up some townspeople and use her saloon as an ambush point, but what do the others need?” I thus got my phone and looked up the requirements – 25 Barter to convince Chet, owner of the General Store, to give the combatants free armor; 25 Explosives to convince Easy Pete to hand over the dynamite he has for the combatants to use; and – well, Doc Mitchell is a nice guy and immediately hands over three stimpacks when you ask him for aid, but one needs 30 Medicine to get him to hand over two doctor’s bags as well (which are a better healing item). And upon looking at those numbers, I realized something –
I could actually start the quest and get everyone to help! Because Victor found the Salesman Weekly and Patriot’s Cookbook skill magazines, which would allow him to boost his Barter and Explosives skills up to the required levels to pass the checks, and while he didn’t have the skill magazine for Medicine, Today’s Physician, Doc Mitchell sure did – and as nothing in his house is marked as his, well. Easy enough to pick it up and use it before the conversation! :D Delighted, I changed direction and had Victor head up to the Poseidon Energy gas station atop the hill overlooking the town, where – after raiding the vending machine outside for a couple of Sunset Sarsaparillas – he headed inside –
And was immediately greeted by Ringo pulling a gun on him and telling him, “That’s close enough. Who are you, and what do you want with me?” A frightened Victor hastily assured him, “I’m not an enemy, if that’s what you’re asking,” which fortunately caused the guy to relax. He promptly apologized about the gun, saying Victor caught him off guard –
G) And then went “We got off to a bad start. What say we start over with a friendly game of Caravan? You know how to play?” Which took me off guard because – okay, I knew from the wiki that “Caravan” is a mini-game you can play in F:NV, and that Ringo can teach you how to play it – but I didn’t expect him to do so this early in the game. I thought you had to offer to help him with the Powder Gangers first! However, as the offer had been made, I was like, “screw it – yeah, let’s play Caravan” and had Victor ask him what the rules where. He explained, “It’s a two-player game, and the winner takes the whole pot. You build a ‘caravan’ using the cards in your deck. The goal is to create caravan bids that beat your opponent’s bids, so there’s more strategy than luck involved” – adding that was why it would never appear in any casino – it was both too slow-paced and didn’t allow the house to get an edge. He then kindly handed Victor a holotape that better explained the rules and a spare deck of playing cards for him to build his deck from before asking if he felt like playing a game. Victor was like “sure, let’s play,” and Ringo reassured him that he wasn’t that good a player –
And so the mini-game began! Complete with explanatory pop-ups, which was good, because I wasn’t able to look at the holotape Ringo gave Victor before starting. XD I won’t go into all the rules here, but basically the game boils down to this:
I. You and your opponent decide how much you each want to wager, like in poker – your opponent starts with one bet, and you can match it or raise, until you’re both happy. Ringo wagered 53 caps, and I just had Victor match him, since he didn’t have a whole lot of money.
II. You then take a moment to build your deck – Caravan decks consist of at least 30 playing cards, which are then used to build your caravans in the main game. You can go through the cards you have one by one, or let the game randomize it – I had a little laugh at the fact that the cards Ringo had handed over were from The Tops casino (AKA Benny’s casino), then let the game randomize my deck, which resulted in 41 cards being chosen.
III. You and your opponent then lay down your first three cards – one per “lane.” This first card determines what the main suit of your caravan will be.
IV. You and your opponent then add a second card to your caravans – this one determines whether you will be playing the number cards in ascending or descending order. Each card after these two must either match the suit of the original card, or the ascending/descending order determined by the second card.
V. Play then continues with you and your opponent adding cards to your “caravans” to get their values in between 20 and 27, in order to win the imaginary “contract” each caravan is vying for. Each caravan is competing against the other in its specific lane. Number cards just straight up add their numbers to the value (with Aces equaling one), while the face cards and Jokers do special things (for example, Kings multiply the value of the cards below them).
VI. To win, you have to get at least two of your caravans to a value between 20 and 27 before your opponent’s caravans in the same lane. And, as Ringo stated, whoever wins takes all the caps – unless you want to go for another round, of course.
So yeah – it’s kind of a complicated game! Especially when you’re still getting used to the controls and figuring out which thumbstick moves the cards between caravans and such. XD As you might expect, Victor lost his very first round – though he did at least salvage a bit of dignity by getting one of his caravans up to 25 or so before Ringo could, meaning it wasn’t a complete rout. But yeah, play ended with Ringo taking the pot, and thus 53 of his precious caps (ouch) –
And then heading to his mattress behind the counter of the gas station and lying down for a nap at 10 in the morning. I didn’t know trouncing bad Caravan players tired him out so much. XD
And so the playsession ended with Victor hanging out in the gas station, looking at the junk on the shelves and waiting for Ringo to get up from his nap so they could talk about non-Caravan-related things. Next time, he’ll tell the guy about Joe Cobb and actually properly kick off getting the town ready for the gunfight against the Powder Gangers – hopefully it’ll go well! Better than Caravan, at any rate. XD
Workout: Another night on the bike, another night with Useless Steve as I pedaled my way through –
A) The end of “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 3 - Idiot Savant!” The last fourteen-or-so minutes of which featured –
I. Useless Steve finally killing the turret that was giving him so much trouble before (as he straight-up couldn’t hack it to make it his friend) and making his way up to the top of the Helios One tower – a dangerous trip that involved throwing multiple pulse grenades at a Mr. Gutsy in his way (mostly because he could never quite tell where it was to score a direct hit) and running from a whole gaggle of Protectrons (after he tried and failed to avoid the laser tripwire that released them all from their charging pods); he managed to survive everything, though, and was able to use the Poseidon Energy employee ID card he picked up along the way to activate the PYTHON Mr. Handy repair-bot to fix the problems with the mainframe he could not before powering said mainframe up and distributing electrical power to the whole Mojave, as per the request of the “Flowers of the Pock-lips.” XD
II. Useless Steve then heading out onto the observation deck and – when 9 AM rolled around – realigning all the mirrors to catch all that gorgeous, gorgeous sunlight (slightly blinding himself in the process, because it is BRIGHT), before discovering to his delight that you could fast-travel off said observation deck, meaning he didn’t have to go back inside the tower and fight his way down through all the robots! Yay!
III. Useless Steve then reporting to Dr. Rivas to get his reward, a nice skill book (presumably a Big Book Of Science)...only for Rivas to refuse to acknowledge that he’d done anything. Like, there was no option to turn in the quest at all. Jon went through the guy’s entire available dialogue tree. Either he’d bugged out or he wasn’t willing to reward a Low Intelligence character. Boo.
IV. ...Jon rewinding time via saves and having Useless Steve instead power up the ARCHIMEDES II super-weapon the power plant was attached to, because if he didn’t get his skill book he was getting his deadly orbital laser instead, damn it! (And then confirming that, no, Rivas was still bugged out and refusing to acknowledge anything had happened. Really hoping this doesn’t happen when I have Victor do this quest!)
V. And Useless Steve rewarding himself for a good job well done by going to the New Vegas Medical Clinic and getting the Agility implant to make himself a tiny bit more agile (though that bugged out a bit too, as for some reason he was straight-up not offered the chance to take the Strength or Endurance implants. Jon couldn’t figure out why. *shrug* At least the one he got helped boost his Guns and Sneak skills a tiny bit?
B) And the beginning of “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 4 - The Doomsday Device!” The first fifteen-or-so minutes of which featured –
I. Useless Steve beginning a quest to get a bunch of XP and actually level up his terrible terrible skills (and also to hopefully trigger Jon’s favorite line of dialogue in the game, which is apparently really hard to hear because it requires very specific conditions – including the powering-up of ARCHIMEDES II) by traveling to the 188 Trading Post and getting Veronica (the secret Brotherhood scribe) to travel with him! The recruitment involved him telling her that he’d heard the Brotherhood could shoot lasers from their eyes, which caused her to be like, “Well, you have completely defied my first impression of you.” XD Fortunately, this did not discourage her from traveling with him – maybe she just figured, “Well, this idiot is going to need help staying alive.” XD
II. Useless Steve making a quick detour back to the REPCONN HQ to pick up something he’d forgotten to grab the first time he visited – Nikola Tesla And You, the Energy Weapons skill book! Which was in the same room as he’d gotten his beloved Q-35, sitting on top of a safe – Jon had just completely forgotten it was there. Well, Jon, you and Steve both have horrendously low Perception, so maybe that’s only to be expected. XD (He also grabbed some microfusion cells for the road, though he refrained from picking up too many because, well, heavy ammo is heavy.)
III. Useless Steve and Veronica helping the NCR fight some Fiends near a sacked caravan (with Jon liking the fact that Steve can now PROPERLY use the Q-35 to commit murder) and then storming Allied Technologies and killing the giant ants inside (along with the Fiends that Veronica aggroed and who followed them through the door) so Steve could pick up some star bottle caps (Jon noting with amusement the pile of Sunset Sarsaparillas behind a certain desk, indicating that SOMEONE was really into the star cap promotion), ant nectar off the ants, and a Tales Of A Junktown Jerky Vendor skillbook to improve his Barter (because he will just take what he can get, damn it). Veronica proved to be an absolute BEAST with what I presume to be a Ballistic Fist, and her incredible ability to murder things prompted Jon to comment that this was why he was banning companions for most of this run – they just made things too easy!
IV. Useless Steve taking Veronica to McCarran to show her how the NCR was getting on (causing her to comment they had more troops here than she thought), then around to the science labs at the back of the building to get the Vault 22 quest and show her how the NCR was researching new technologies (causing her to annoyedly note that even the “stupid NCR” was investing in research and that her people were getting left in the dust), then finally over to Freeside to have a chat with the doctor in charge of the Followers Of The Apocalypse in the Old Mormon Fort, Julie Farkas, about leaving medical supplies (causing her to admit she was impressed with what the Followers were doing there). Reason? Doing so got three “Veronica points,” causing Veronica to admit she’s a member of the Brotherhood and start her personal quest to try and save the Brotherhood from itself, “I Could Make You Care!” Which should both provide a good amount of XP and hopefully some fun with Low Intelligence dialogue.
V. And Useless Steve taking Veronica to Hidden Valley and the secret Brotherhood Bunker, where she said what is now one of MY favorite lines in F:NV into the speaker by the interior door – “I’d like a large Atomic Shake and a Double Brahmin Burger. And easy on the agave sauce this time.” XD The guy who wanted a regular password from her wasn’t impressed with her shenanigans, but I was. I like you, Veronica, you’re all right. :P
So yeah – The Adventures Of Useless Steve continue apace! Tomorrow, we’ll continue with Episode 4 and see how Steve deals with the Brotherhood! I hope he annoys the hell out of them.
FreeTube: Managed to fit in one of the videos I’ve been trying to get to tonight – “CaFae Tales: the Fae Nurse” by C. M. Alongi! Which – okay, I thought I knew which fairy tale she was doing for this one – a story about a nosy woman who sees her neighbor use an ointment on her children’s eyes, rubs a bit on her own eye, and becomes able to see the hidden world of the fae...only to lose all sight in the eye altogether when she stupidly confronts her neighbor’s husband when she spots him invisibly stealing things in the market. But as it turns out, C. M.’s version was rather different… The video featured:
A) A pre-story warning about how this story dealt with abduction and rape due to the fact that it was written back in medieval times, when women were pretty much considered their husband’s property...which prompted a few comments saying, in essence, “Uh, your warning needs a warning – could you not use flashing lights, the migraine-sufferers and those with epilepsy will thank you”
B) JC and Cyrus talking about JC fighting a white supremacist in prison (about a year before JC met Cyrus and joined CaFae Latte), and JC asking him if he had any good fights with Fae supremacists, and Cyrus saying yeah...mostly because they were all very eager to throw hands once they learned he was mixed. Cue a shocked JC being like “you’re part human?!” and Cyrus confirming that his great-grandmother was a human woman...and that how she became part of his family tree was pretty fucked up…
C) Cyrus starting the actual story with a recap of his great-grandmother’s pre-Fae situation – living in Ireland when Christianity was talking hold and talking about the Fae would get you in real trouble, with an older sister who was a midwife. Said midwife sister was pretty horrified when the great-grandmother – let’s call her GG – revealed she was being courted by a Fae, noting that they didn’t know his intentions and that he could ruin her reputation or whisk her away, but GG was unconcerned, saying that all that just made him like any other man who might court her (given, the whole, you know, women treated like property thing). She was sure it would all be fine, whether it ended in marriage or a dalliance –
Cue JC being like “I am guessing it was not just a dalliance,” and Bob confirming that Fae men would take human women as concubines as a symbol of status in the Fae realm (as Fae women had rights and demanded respect) – either through the long con of a fake courtship, or straight-up mind control. JC was not particularly happy that Cyrus’s great-grandmother was essentially a sex slave – Cyrus wasn’t either, but pointed out that the human realm in that time period was really no better, with Bob adding that, given how many daughters were sold off by their fathers for wealth or business deals with no say in the matter, human trafficking was basically totally legal and accepted back then. JC considered it and admitted that, under the circumstances, yeah, maybe they would have run away with the hot Fae guy too
D) Cyrus continuing the story by talking about how GG disappeared one day, and how nobody could find her...and then, a year later, a mysterious man came to the midwife and told her that his wife was giving birth, and that she only trusted her sister to deliver the baby. (JC was like “girl, get your gun,” then revised to “sword, knife, pointy stick” when Bob reminded them that guns weren’t invented yet.) The midwife naturally went with the man, and was initially thrilled when she arrived at what looked like a gorgeous manor, with her sister dressed in an elegant nightgown on a beautiful bed, looking well-fed and healthy…
And then, after the baby was born, the Fae man gave her an ointment to rub all over the child to protect the newborn girl from disease (JC was like “was that really what it was?” but Cyrus confirmed it was, reminding JC fairies can’t lie, with Bob explaining various fairy medicinal magics and how there’s a special ointment for newborns that was developed especially for mixed human/fae children to keep them safe from disease). The midwife did so, but right near the end, got an itch in her right eye and rubbed it with her finger…
E) Resulting in her suddenly being able to see through the glamours the Fae man had put up with that eye, including the fact that she was in a cave, not a manor, and that her sister was lying on musty animal skins dressed in rags, not a fancy bed in a fancy nightgown. She managed to play off her surprise as tiredness to the Fae man, though – and when he tried to insist she stay for a meal, GG put her foot down, saying that her sister was the midwife for the village and that people depended on her, so she was not staying. (JC realized shortly thereafter “right, if you eat any Fae food, you’re trapped in the Fae realm because you can’t eat anything else” – Cyrus confirmed GG, who had been stuck there a year, would have died if she’d gone back to earth, and endangered her baby as well if there was no wet nurse around, while Bob confirmed that they now had ways to reverse the curse, but there was nothing that could be done back then. :( ) The midwife tried to insist on leaving with GG or the baby when the Fae man went to get his horse ready, but GG said she had to get away while she still could, and that the half-Fae baby would have a happier life in the Fae realm than she would, so...yeah. Midwife sister left her sister and niece behind, and was paid in five “gold coins” – actually pieces of bark – by the Fae man. JC was like “what an asshole,” but Cyrus was like “it gets worse…”
F) Cyrus finishing the main story by telling how the midwife saw the Fae man in the market a little while later and warned the merchant selling him apples that his money was no good, so she’d pay for the fruit, before demanding to know if her sister and niece were still alive. The Fae man said they were before pointing out he’d glamoured himself into another form for this shopping trip, so how the hell did the midwife know it was him? She said “I had my ways” –
But he quickly realized she’d touched her eye with the ointment when she had an itch – and ripped her eye out of her socket. Leaving her, naturally, unable to see through glamours anymore and with a need for an eyepatch. JC was absolutely horrified, as you might expect, but Bob admitted that was the guy being merciful – he could have killed her for using the Fae ointment, and none of the other Fae would have batted an eye. (...no pun intended.) JC was furious, being like “so after all this, the abuser just went free?!”
G) Leading to Cyrus and Bob telling the actual end of the story – namely, that GG’s daughter and grandson (Cyrus’s dad) ended up on the side of the human rebellion Bob joined when Cyrus was a kid, while the Fae man supported her Fae supremacist asshole royal family. Which led to him and Bob getting into a knife fight – and while she didn’t kill him, as he was more valuable as a prisoner to be ransomed, she did end up taking out of one HIS eyes. And then little Cyrus told him how badly he was treating his new human wife –
Leading her sending little Cyrus to the kitchens to get a snack while she went to work on another part of the Fae man’s body with a smaller knife. JC was delighted, while Cyrus told Bob, “You know, you didn’t have to send me away, I knew what you were doing.” Bob was like “let me pretend I was being a responsible adult there,” only for Cyrus to gleefully say, “Nope, fairies can’t lie.” XD
So yeah – very different from the fairytale I knew! Though I did like seeing the CaFae twist on the whole thing – and that Fae bastard get his. Looking forward to the next story!
*whew* And once again, doing all that led to me staying up later than I'd intended. Story of my life. At least I know I don't have to worry about work for the next couple of days... Anyway, I'm off to bed -- gotta do laundry for Mom tomorrow, but I'm also hoping to fit in some Baldur's Gate III, some more "The Van Dort Vacancy," another workout, and maybe another video or some work on my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) tumblr drafts -- we shall see. Night all!
