A Pretty Decent Sunday
Feb. 1st, 2026 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickDad was definitely doing better today -- he had a decent night's sleep last night, meaning he was a little more awake and active today, and he ate more too. I'm glad to see some progress! Now we just have to see how things go at his doctor's appointment tomorrow...hopefully well, or as well as they can go under the circumstances. *nods* We also had lovely pie for dessert, in a sort of belated birthday celebration for Mom, so that was nice. :) And as for my computer stuff, I had a pretty productive day overall --
Tumblr: Well, I ran out of time to take care of the ask I got on Valice Multiverse tonight, but I did at least have a decently productive time on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)! Well, sort of...while I didn’t actually do anything in my drafts over here, I did end up making some progress on this year’s set of Valicertines! Which is important, as Valentine’s Day is coming up fast. I spent the time before lunch looking through all my pictures of my old Chill Valicer Save (RIP), trying to find good ones and thinking “there’s got to be a way to use at least one of these pictures from an early trip to the Romance Festival Smiler took with Victor and Alice for Valicertine purposes” –
Then realized, “Hang on. If I take these two pictures of Smiler taking selfies with Victor and Alice, and pair them with a picture of Smiler looking at the in-game versions of the selfies on their old house wall, I could do the Now Traditional Valicertine’s Day Bonus Pic talking about ‘finding a polycule you can make memories with,’ perhaps...LOL, and then I could make fun of my tendency to take fifty million pictures of them together in later updates by finding some good pictures of all the in-game photographs I hung up around their house and going ‘so many fucking memories’ or something like that.” XD So yeah, I started making THAT image in Paint –
And then, while tracking down some screenshots of all the various photo collages I made for them for that, I stumbled across two pictures that I realized might make good regular old Valicertine’s! One of the trio hanging around in their swimwear with glasses of juice in Chestnut Ridge on one of their SimCity Founding adventures, which I turned into a Valicertine featuring the phrase “this is what Peak Polycule looks like” (it made me giggle), and one of the trio hanging out in the overlit back room of their old grocery store showing Victor flirting with Alice in a way that looked like he was flirting with Smiler too, which I turned into a Valicertine with Victor telling Smiler and Alice “you are the brightest things in my life” – before getting on me about how overlit the room and to tone it down when I got Paralives (again, just made me giggle). And I got most of the bonus image done too – found all the screenshots I wanted, now I just have to get them all nicely arranged on the background and finish off the text! But that’s something that can wait until next weekend. *nods* Still, good to be ahead of the game with these!
Portal 2: I returned to Aperture Science a bit later in the afternoon than I intended, thanks to the Valicertine stuff, but I also completed another four test chambers in about a half-hour, so it all worked out just fine. *thumbs up* Today’s tests included –
Chamber 5: The introduction of the aerial faith plate! Originally used to determine if test subjects could solve puzzles while flying through the air – according to GLaDOS, they could not. XD This chamber was pretty simple – you had a faith plate on either side of a big room filled with deadly water that would launch you across it in opposite directions (so the one at the entrance flung you to the exit, and vice-versa), with a third one in the middle. On the far side of the room was a big floor button that controlled the exit door, and a standing “cube release” button for the cube vent in the middle of the ceiling. Once you flung yourself over to that side, you could press the cube release button, which would, of course, release a cube –
Onto the middle aerial faith plate. Where it would bounce up and down forever. Meaning, to solve the puzzle, you had to launch yourself back across the room toward the entrance and catch the cube on the way. I was a little worried about this, as my track record for catching and holding onto objects while being flung through the air was not great in the original Portal (don’t ask me how many times I dropped the radios while trying to get them to midair transmission points) –
But, fortunately, Lady Luck smiled upon me, and I managed to get the timing right and grab the cube first try! And then successfully carry it back across and put it on the button to open the exit door – after taking a moment to use portals to kill GlaDOS’s latest security camera, of course. She repaid me by telling me an interesting science fact about how Chell was going to be breathing the same roomful of air for the rest of her life, thanks to it being easier to recycle the air down there than pump any fresh stuff in. XD
Chamber 6: The Advanced Aerial Faith Plates challenge, where you had to let yourself be launched across a series of them winding across a floor covered in deadly water in order to reach the other side – with a fling near the end thanks to one of the plates launching you at one of a pair of tilted portal-able platforms on the right side of the room. The first time I took the trip, though, I just landed on the platform and then used portals to get myself over to the other side of the room (since I could see it from my position)…
Only to be like, “Wait. I know the trick in this one is that you’re supposed to release a cube and have it follow the same path you did so you can put it on a floor button somewhere. So where’s the cube release button? For that matter, where’s the floor button??” Unable to find either on that side of the room, I portaled my way back to the beginning and took another look at the layout –
And saw the cube release button on an upper platform that I hadn’t properly clocked the first time around. Aha! I thus put the portals on the tilted platforms to properly perform the fling, and bounced myself up and over to there –
Where the game taught me, “Hey, if you need to zoom in, press the right bumper button,” and I realized that the floor button I needed to put the cube on was in an inaccessible area at the bottom of a drop – though, apparently, under a portal-able bit of ceiling. Hmmm. Deciding to worry about that later, I decided to instead concentrate on getting the cube, and hit the cube release button –
Only for GLaDOS, taking a break from picking up fifteen acres of broken glass by herself (as per her opening speech), to instead dump a bunch of garbage out of the chute and use the faith plates to fling it at Chell. XD However, I noticed that some of the garbage she was throwing included what I believe are called Edgeless Weighted Storage Cubes or the like – aka, balls – so I decided to try and get into position to catch one and see if I could use THAT to somehow solve the puzzle –
Only to forget just how much room I actually had on that top platform and fall off into the deadly water. XD Sorry Chell! Fortunately, the game is very generous with saves, and reloaded to right before I pressed the button and got the garbage dump. And even better, the retry allowed me to take another look at the ceiling above the floor button and go, “actually, wait – if that portal-able bit of ceiling is genuinely right above the button…” Leading to me slapping a portal up there before hitting the cube release button –
Leading in turn to the garbage being funneled directly onto the button instead of at Chell! :D Unfortunately, while one of the balls DID hit the button hard enough to press it, it immediately fell off and into the water below, and the only bit of garbage that stuck – an inactive turret – was too light to activate the button. Ah well. I had Chell hit the button again to actually get the cube, and that managed to hit the button and stay on it after its little bounce through the portal, opening the exit door. GLaDOS rewarded us for our hard work by going on about how, when she was talking about garbage standing around and being useless before flinging a bunch at us, she was talking about Chell – but since Chell didn’t respond, she was worried she hadn’t understood the metaphor. So she called her garbage a second time to justify “apologizing” for the initial garbage comment. :p
Chamber 7: The return of the laser – and the Companion Cube! Updated to match the new cube aesthetic, of course. Though, because GLaDOS is a vindictive bitch, the first time Chell hopped over the laser to grab the CC, she fizzled it. Then dropped another one. Then fizzled that one just as Chell started using it to solve the puzzle. XD Fortunately, she let Chell keep the third one so she could actually do science with it. Said science being:
I. Using the CC to block the laser going into the receiver across the room, to lower a platform that Chell could ride to the upper portion of the chamber
II. Using portals to get the CC out of the laser’s way and get up to the upper portion, which had two tilted portal-able platforms to Chell’s left, and a pair of raised platforms of different heights to Chell’s right, indicating flinging things had to happen
III. Using portals to grab the CC through the first tilted platform, then setting up a portal drop and carrying the CC through the first fling, up onto the lower of the two raised platforms, where a button waited; putting the CC on said button extended some panels which made a large landing platform on the edge of the second, higher raised platform
IV. Dropping down and setting up Fling #2 on the second tilted platform, then dropping down again and flinging herself onto the new landing spot, reaching the top of the second raised platform and the end of the test
V. Finally going down the corridor to the exit – and then being informed by GLaDOS that the emancipation grill (the thing that fizzles all portals, and any non-portal-gun object taken through it) at exit was broken, and that Chell was not to take anything with her. And I knew that she was going to fizzle the Companion Cube once I went back and got it and tried to take it into the elevator, because that’s what she does –
But, well, the computer’s been dead for who knows how long, and woke up to an utterly wrecked facility that she had to clean up, so I figured I’d let her have her fun. XD Thus, I obligingly had Chell put a portal on the wall of the corridor, head back and grab the CC, and then use the flinging portal to get into the corridor and try to bring the CC to the elevator. GLaDOS fizzled it right before Chell could step in, and commented, “I think that one was about to say ‘I love you.’” XD I don’t know if anything interesting happens if you just keep going to the elevator without getting the CC or not, but come on – how can you not go back for the Companion Cube, just to see what happens?
Chamber 8: And another laser chamber – this one with a twist! For you see, this chamber was divided into two, with an emancipation grill running down the center – with the laser and a redirection cube release button on one side of the grill, and the receiver and actual cube release chute on the other. Fortunately, the grill didn’t quite run ALL the way down the center – at the far end, near the exit door, was a little plastic window with a hole in it that one could shoot portals through. GLaDOS couldn’t watch this one because she had to fix the turbines – as she said “test on your own recognizance,” I obligingly had Chell portal her camera off the wall and fizzle it in the grill. XD From there, it was just a matter of passing through the grill; pressing the cube release button to get the redirection cube; firing a portal through the little hole and another next to the laser to go get the cube without having to pass through the grill; putting the redirection cube in front of the laser; hopping over the laser so I could pick up the redirection cube again and redirect the laser into the receiver; then walk through the grill and out the open door. Easy-peasy!
And that is where I left off – appropriately enough, right at the beginning of the next part of the game: “Chapter 3: The Return!” AKA, Wheatley may be reappearing next Sunday. :) We’ll see how far we get then!
Writing: Managed to fit in another page’s worth of edits on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” right before my workout – today’s session covered:
A) Alice ascending to the upper levels of the “employees only” parts of the museum, passing through a rather uninteresting hallway (with just some band posters and a utility closet with a vacuum) before reaching the top – and getting jumpscared by a big old mouth full of sharp teeth just to the right of the door
B) Alice angrily telling the assembled Wonderlanders that now was not the time to set monsters on her – only for Hatter, Carpenter, the Insane Children, and the Queen of Hearts to all go “that’s not one of ours;” cue Alice taking another look and realizing that the mouth belongs to a model of a Velociraptor and that it’s part of the real world
C) Cheshire responding to Alice’s question about how the raptor even got up there by directing her attention to a sticky note on the wall nearby, and Alice venturing out (after a quick look around and noting this museum seems to have no guards) and discovering via the note that it was a prank by someone named Stanley (that his coworker Daniela did not find very funny)...and that he apparently has a habit of leaving his keys lying around unattended
D) Alice deciding to search for Stanley’s keys but – acknowledging that she might run into Stanley himself, which would be bad – saying that she ought to keep her time in this hallway short; cue Rabbit being pleased by her finally seeing sense, Alice warning him he shouldn’t get used to it as sometimes the way of the turtle is better, Mock Turtle being like “but even I don’t think my way is best,” Alice pointing out he’s a mock turtle and thus at a disadvantage, then letting him know he’d proven himself very good at sailing, swimming, and crying, and Mock proudly saying that “No one can beat a mock turtle when it comes to tears”
*nods* Not bad! Glad to keep making some good forward progress on this. Tomorrow, Alice creeps around the dinosaur and explores the half-ring of a hallway she’s found herself in – and finds a very useful secret hiding place...
Workout/YouTube: It being Sunday, my ride on the stationary bike and my evening video watching featured the same video – “Fallout New Vegas: You Only Live Once Remastered - Part 28 - Blood Money” by Jon of Many A True Nerd! This week’s episode of the adventures of our favorite drunken melee courier, P. D. Shoot, included –
A) Jon opening the video by admitting that he probably fucked up picking “Bloody Mess” (which adds +5% flat damage to all weapons and makes enemies more likely to explode in showers of gore) over “Light Step” (which makes you unable to trigger mines or floor-based traps) as P. D.’s Level 28 perk, based on all the comments he’d read on the last video scolding him for doing so, and his own knowledge about his own lack of perception. Too late now to change it, but – he wanted everyone to know he knew that was likely to come back to bite him and they were right to scold him. (He also mentioned he could have grabbed “Purifier” instead as well, which grants +50% damage to all melee and unarmed attacks against ferals, super mutants, and all abominations – which includes Ghost People, one of the primary antagonists in “Dead Money” – but the reason he didn’t consider it was because he didn’t KNOW it worked on Ghost People, so – that one is fair enough.)
B) P. D. swinging by her quarters in the Lucky 38 to rearrange her inventory a bit (namely, drop off everything from “Honest Hearts” except Joshua’s armor and reclaim her Protonic Inversal Axe), then starting her quest to get a bunch of XP (as she needs to get up to Level 30 before even attempting “Dead Money”) by visiting the Aces Theater in The Tops and promising to find some new talent for Tommy Torini! In exchange for a 3% cut of the door, no less (could have been more, but P. D. has NOT been improving her Barter skill and thus couldn’t pass the check – good thing she’s more interested in the XP than the cash!). P. D. immediately went outside and recruited desperate comedian Billy Knight, who was standing RIGHT BELOW the fancy marquee for The Tops, within SIGHT of the casino. XD (Interestingly, she could have gotten HIM a better deal with better Barter skill as well...Barter is a more useful skill than you’d think in this game!) Amusingly enough, the marquee he was standing under immediately updated with his name once P. D. recruited him, before Billy even had a chance to get in the building. XD Guess Tommy knew the people would like him!
C) P. D. then returning to Freeside and heading over to the Atomic Wrangler (managing to sneak past the mugger who spawned in to rob her, because she is just that good) to pick up the next act for Tommy – Hadrian the ghoul! Another comedian who initially though P. D. was there to work as a professional heckler for him. P. D. played along for a moment, then explained she was there to hire him for The Tops, but Hadrian explained that he had a contract with the Garrets, and they weren’t about to just let him go. Fortunately, P. D. was both already friends with James Garret (having gotten him a FISTO) and had the Speech to convince him that Hadrian wasn’t a good fit for the place (though there was also a Barter option she could have used to convince him he was losing money from the people who wouldn’t come to see a ghoul!) – all she had to do was wait around a bit for him to wake up, have a quick chat, and Hadrian was free from his shitty job at the Atomic Wrangler and able to go work at The Tops! Yay!
D) P. D. then saying hello to James’s twin sister, Francine (who was very glad to hear that Benny had perished) and getting some work from her – go around town and shake down some people who’d run out on their tabs, back when the Garrets allowed such things! P. D. used her Speech to negotiate getting a 50% cut of each debt over the 25% Francine had offered, then accepted the job – while I noted that, again, if she’d had enough Barter skill, she could have used that instead…
E) P. D. then heading over to The King’s School of Impersonation to meet with The King (leader of the gang of Elvis Presley impersonators, it’s great), talking her way past Pacer (The King’s second-in-command) by saying she wanted to pay her respects and asking the most Elvis of the Elvises if he had any work for her. He did – investigate one of the bodyguards who hang out by one of the gates and offer to lead people through the town, Orris. Seemed like the man had been getting a looot of repeat business for some reason, and The King thought something was fishy about his operation. P. D. agreed to investigate and went over to hire Orris as a bodyguard –
And then (after getting presents from two members of the Kings in a row for helping out around town) managed to screw up the quest a little! Because, well, what’s SUPPOSED to happen is Orrin is supposed to run way ahead of his mark, then – near the end of his tour – fake a shootout around a corner with a few of his friends to make himself look like a hero and dazzle the rubes. However, because P. D. is the fastest bitch on the planet while crouching thanks to all of her various speed-boosting perks and power-ups, she was able to keep up with him – AND she did a dose of Turbo to slow Orris down just for funsies when he went down the street and to the corner where he tries to do the fake gunfight. Result? Orris juddering about and stopping once or twice as his AI got confused about the fact that P. D. was able to keep up with him –
And two genuine enemies spawning in right in front of the fake shootout and attack Orris. Apparently P. D.’s shenanigans ended up spawning in more muggers, but rather take on her, they went for the easier target. P. D. was able to fix things by doing MORE Turbo and using her Industrial Hand to saw the interlopers to death, and once the fight was over and Orris had stopped shooting, she was able to continue things as normal (using her high Intelligence to point out that Orris only shot three times, but there were four “dead” guys – he tried to play it off as shooting one guy through another – and her decent Medicine skill to confirm the “dead” people were in fact alive – oh, and guess what? If she’d had the Barter, she could have shaken Orris down for his money and stuff), but yeah. Lesson learned – don’t try to outpace Orris in this quest, especially with Turbo. Makes things go – wrong.
F) P. D. then locating the first of the Garret debtors, Lady Jane, in a little squatter camp on the other side of Freeside – Jane claimed she didn’t have the caps to cover the debt, but that if someone helped recover her caravan from a nearby cave, she could pay in full. Unfortunately for her, P. D. had the Perception to tell she was lying (if not the Barter to get some other goods off her to help pay), and Jane reluctantly handed over what she owed, saying that she’d needed that money to get home to California, but she’d find another way. Sorry, Lady Jane – P. D. is not interested in your sob stories!
G) P. D. then heading back to The King and letting him know about Orris’s fake heroics (The King saying that he’d get his boys to quietly take him off the street), and getting her next mission – find out who beat up some of The King’s friends recently and determine if it was another bout of Freesider-vs-NCR violence (as things had been getting – tense between the NCR citizens and the locals of Freeside lately). P. D. thus went to the Mormon Fort to ask the gang members what they remembered about the attack –
But, before doing so, she went around the side and found another Garret debtor in a squatter camp there – the unfortunate ghoul Grecks! Who was very unfortunate indeed, because thanks to P. D.’s high Speech and his desperate desire not to get hurt, he ended up losing not only all his caps, but his clothes as well. Which P. D. then put on the flaming barrel he was standing near. XD It was a delightful bit of assholery from our favorite asshole courier, I have to say.
H) P. D. then deciding to finish off her business with the debtors while she was in that part of Freeside and heading to another squatter camp to find the final one, a man by the name of Santiago. Santiago, however, claimed he had no debts and was in fact a VIP in Freeside – and in fact, offered to share the secret password he used to get a discount at Mick & Ralph’s for a mere 50 caps. Which led to a very interesting situation where P. D. had to fail a Barter check (as she didn’t have the skill for it) to unlock the Speech check that she could pass in order to get the price down to 25. Meaning, if she’d had the Barter, she could have knocked him down to 25 right away. Hmmmm… Anyway, she got the discount password – “extravaganza” – then insisted that Santiago owed money to the Garrets –
And when he insisted he had no debts, used her Speech to tell him Francine put a bounty on his head. He promptly dropped the act and paid up – more than he owed, in fact! So that was nice. P. D. then headed to Mick & Ralph’s to try out the discount password, just for fun –
Aaaand Mick told her that “we don’t do discounts here” and confirmed she’d been scammed. Which Jon had already known. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to get her money back simply because, having already shaken him down for “Debt Collector,” she couldn’t bring up the dialogue option necessary to get him to give her 25 caps back – he just said he had nothing left to give and asked her to leave, and her only option was to say “goodbye” and do so. Bit of a shame – but as stated, he actually paid her more than he owed for his debt. And given she only had to hand over 300 of the caps she’d collected to Francine (as the debts totaled 600 altogether, and they were doing a fifty-fifty split) – well, I think she’s already gotten her money back and then some. :p
I) P. D. then finally dropping by the Mormon Fort and talking to the men who were attacked, and learning from Wayne that one of them called another “Lou Tenant” – only for the nearby Roy to correct him, saying “he probably said ‘lieutenant’” and admitting Wayne was “dumb as a mutant” sometimes. Having more or less received proof that the NCR was behind the hostilities on the Freesiders, P. D. proceeded to –
Head to Novac to pick up another act for Tommy Torini because Jon decided he wanted to finish up THAT first. XD Cue P. D. hitting the local motel and meeting Bruce Isaacs, a singer from New Reno who was currently hiding in Novac from casino boss Mr. Bishop. Why? Well, he decided to resolve a “payroll problem” by robbing the guy...and also fucked his daughter. *facepalm* Bruce. Dude. Seriously? Fortunately, this made him very amenable to working at The Tops, thanks to all the security on The Strip, and he was only happy to check the place out and join the roster. Especially if it kept him away from Mr. Bishop (who, apparently, may in fact be related to Fallout 2’s protagonist, The Chosen One, as they ended up in New Reno too, and were able to sleep with people there if they chose…).
J) P. D. then wrapping up finding acts for Tommy Torini by heading into the wilds and sneaking down the road by the lakebed with all the fire-breathing ants (seriously, that’s a thing in this game) until she found the Lonesome Drifter camped with his guitar by a billboard! Who, annoyingly, refused to just accept that she wanted to hire him on Torini’s behalf, and insisted on her asking about his backstory. Which, admittedly, hints that he may be the son of the Mysterious Stranger, as per the perk of the same name, so it’s a pretty good backstory. She eventually got through his tale of woe and told him again that Torini was looking for acts, and this time he said he was much obliged and started on the way to Vegas. *shakes head* Whew! That was a bit more complicated than it had to be.
K) P. D. then returning to Freeside to finally tell The King what she’d learned about the attack (after noting that yet another thug had spawned on the streets – Jon insisted the streets weren’t usually this full of thugs), prompting The King to tell her in return to poke around the squatter areas in the town and see if she could figure out why NCR soldiers are entering the area, and to maybe talk to Julie Farkas at the Mormon Fort to see what she might know (but not to ask her what to do about it, as she’d probably suggest hugs – Jon was very insulted on Julie’s behalf). P. D. promptly headed to Julie, who informed her that she ought to talk to “Elizabeth,” who was apparently in charge of some sort of NCR operation in Freeside, and to drop her name to make sure the woman opened up. P. D. then nipped around the corner to Grecks’s little squatter camp (where he was still standing around in his undies, poor chap) to talk to the NCR missionary who’d appeared there and convince him to tell her where the relief effort was being coordinated from –
Only to discover that there was no way to Speech check her way out of his little quiz to determine if she was an NCR citizen or not (as they were only helping their own). Fortunately, Jon already knew where P. D. needed to go (the part of town where P. D. created FISTO), and thus sent her to the mission, where she Speech-checked her way past the door –
And met Major Elizabeth Kieran, a very nice lady who gave her some BlamCo Mac & Cheese and some purified water. P. D. confirmed she was with the NCR Military (she worked in supplies, understandably), then asked if they also fed the locals. Elizabeth was initially like “that’s an unpleasant topic, just trust we have our reasons not to feed them,” but one drop of Julie’s name later, she revealed that they’d actually sent an envoy to The King to ask him if he wanted to help coordinate relief efforts...only for said envoy to be severely beaten, causing Elizabeth’s superiors to nearly scrap the mission entirely. She managed to get permission to do it anyway, but with reduced support, and now there’s simply not enough supplies to feed the rest of Freeside, and no desire to do so. Which certainly made it sound like someone was playing the Kings and the NCR against each other…
L) P. D. then using a shortcut to get back to the other district of Freeside, and swinging by the Atomic Wrangler to hand over her 600 caps of debt money to Francine (and immediately get 300 back), and pick up another job – hunt down the Garrets’ former enforcer, McCaffrey, who stole a bunch of caps and fled into the Strip after getting annoyed that P. D. was given some of his work. P. D. agreed to track him down, kill him (taking his hat as proof), and recover what she could, and thus headed to the Strip (after helping the Kings deal with MORE spawned-in thugs – the game is trying VERY HARD to get P. D. mugged, it appears) –
Where McCaffery was very dismissive of P. D. and her suggestion that he just give her a share of the caps and his hat and she’d let him go free. Fortunately for McCaffrey, P. D. wanted skill check XP more than the satisfaction of punching him to death with her Ballistic Fist, and Speech-checked him into realizing that, if he just gave her the hat and some money, he could walk away, and Francine would believe P. D. had killed him. He thus handed over his headwear and some money –
And then, upon ending the conversation, gained an entirely different, much more drunk voice rambling on about the situation at Hoover Dam. XD Jon was very amused by this glitchiness.
M) P. D. then swinging by the Aces to turn in the quest to secure entertainers to Tommy (though, annoyingly, she had to talk to him about each one separately), returning to the Atomic Wrangler to turn in McCaffrey’s hat and the quest to help out the Garrets (and to get a pretty shitty player apartment that was just one room with a bed), and finally heading back to Kings headquarters to talk to The King about the envoy –
Only to get stopped inside by Pacer, who said he’d heard about what Elizabeth had told her about the envoy, claimed it was a wild story and that the NCR had probably just sent a spy into Freeside who couldn’t hack it, and that there was no reason to tell The King about any of it. ...welp, pretty clear who’s been ruining relations between The King and the NCR! P. D. shook him down for 200 caps to buy her silence (which he was fine with, calling her “a bastard after my own heart” – and, again, if she’d had the Barter, she could have asked for more) –
And then went straight to The King and told him what was going on anyway. XD He realized that there was all some sort of big misunderstanding and that they could probably resolve all this peacefully – except, moments later, one of his fellow gang members ran in and informed him of trouble. Basically, Pacer had gone to escalate things even further and had started a shootout with some of the NCR. The King asked P. D. to calm things down and tell the NCR he was willing to cooperate, and P. D. obligingly rushed out the door and toward the location of the shootout –
Where Pacer was kind of getting his ass kicked. Or, well, more accurately, shot. XD P. D. found Elizabeth and explained that The King had never actually known about the envoy – Elizabeth wasn’t sure she believed that, given they knew the envoy had made it to the headquarters, but was willing to have her men stand down if The King was now willing to work with them. P. D. took the good news back to The King, who said it was time for a little more talkin’ and a little less fightin’ (aka “a little more conversation and a little less action”), awarded her 1,500 XP for completing the quest –
And informed her that, she’d done such good work for him and his gang, that he was to bestow upon her a favor. Anything she wanted, if he could make it happen, he’d do it for her. Though he warned her to have a good long think about what she wanted, as she only got the one…
And so the episode ended with P. D. hanging out outside Kings HQ, indeed having a good long think about what to do with her favor – because what she did with it depended on who she backed for the final fight. If she went NCR, that favor would make one upcoming mission much, much easier; if she went Legion, she could burn it on getting a giant pile of caps instead. Meaning, yes – as Jon had hinted at the end of the previous episode, she really needed to pick a side already. So we’ll see if she does that next week, or if Jon finds another way to put it off a little bit longer. XD Looking forward to it!
Whew -- as usual, the YOLO Remastered episode took ages to recap! Blame it on being an episode where P. D. did a lot and kept bouncing between quests. Though I will say, I'm kind of glad she did it like that, because it allowed me to see just how many freaking Barter checks there actually were in the game. I was already thinking of giving Victor decent Barter skill due to his background as the son of fish merchants, but now I am committed to that course of action! Especially since, if I heard hbomberguy in his F:NV essay yesterday right, there's a way to use Barter to talk down one of the scariest guys in the game...
Anyway -- I'm off to bed, as, shockingly, I actually have work tomorrow. Yeah, I know. I am not looking forward to see how many e-mails are in my e-mail inbox. @.@ Hopefully it won't be too much of a shock to reintegrate back into the office...night all!
Tumblr: Well, I ran out of time to take care of the ask I got on Valice Multiverse tonight, but I did at least have a decently productive time on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)! Well, sort of...while I didn’t actually do anything in my drafts over here, I did end up making some progress on this year’s set of Valicertines! Which is important, as Valentine’s Day is coming up fast. I spent the time before lunch looking through all my pictures of my old Chill Valicer Save (RIP), trying to find good ones and thinking “there’s got to be a way to use at least one of these pictures from an early trip to the Romance Festival Smiler took with Victor and Alice for Valicertine purposes” –
Then realized, “Hang on. If I take these two pictures of Smiler taking selfies with Victor and Alice, and pair them with a picture of Smiler looking at the in-game versions of the selfies on their old house wall, I could do the Now Traditional Valicertine’s Day Bonus Pic talking about ‘finding a polycule you can make memories with,’ perhaps...LOL, and then I could make fun of my tendency to take fifty million pictures of them together in later updates by finding some good pictures of all the in-game photographs I hung up around their house and going ‘so many fucking memories’ or something like that.” XD So yeah, I started making THAT image in Paint –
And then, while tracking down some screenshots of all the various photo collages I made for them for that, I stumbled across two pictures that I realized might make good regular old Valicertine’s! One of the trio hanging around in their swimwear with glasses of juice in Chestnut Ridge on one of their SimCity Founding adventures, which I turned into a Valicertine featuring the phrase “this is what Peak Polycule looks like” (it made me giggle), and one of the trio hanging out in the overlit back room of their old grocery store showing Victor flirting with Alice in a way that looked like he was flirting with Smiler too, which I turned into a Valicertine with Victor telling Smiler and Alice “you are the brightest things in my life” – before getting on me about how overlit the room and to tone it down when I got Paralives (again, just made me giggle). And I got most of the bonus image done too – found all the screenshots I wanted, now I just have to get them all nicely arranged on the background and finish off the text! But that’s something that can wait until next weekend. *nods* Still, good to be ahead of the game with these!
Portal 2: I returned to Aperture Science a bit later in the afternoon than I intended, thanks to the Valicertine stuff, but I also completed another four test chambers in about a half-hour, so it all worked out just fine. *thumbs up* Today’s tests included –
Chamber 5: The introduction of the aerial faith plate! Originally used to determine if test subjects could solve puzzles while flying through the air – according to GLaDOS, they could not. XD This chamber was pretty simple – you had a faith plate on either side of a big room filled with deadly water that would launch you across it in opposite directions (so the one at the entrance flung you to the exit, and vice-versa), with a third one in the middle. On the far side of the room was a big floor button that controlled the exit door, and a standing “cube release” button for the cube vent in the middle of the ceiling. Once you flung yourself over to that side, you could press the cube release button, which would, of course, release a cube –
Onto the middle aerial faith plate. Where it would bounce up and down forever. Meaning, to solve the puzzle, you had to launch yourself back across the room toward the entrance and catch the cube on the way. I was a little worried about this, as my track record for catching and holding onto objects while being flung through the air was not great in the original Portal (don’t ask me how many times I dropped the radios while trying to get them to midair transmission points) –
But, fortunately, Lady Luck smiled upon me, and I managed to get the timing right and grab the cube first try! And then successfully carry it back across and put it on the button to open the exit door – after taking a moment to use portals to kill GlaDOS’s latest security camera, of course. She repaid me by telling me an interesting science fact about how Chell was going to be breathing the same roomful of air for the rest of her life, thanks to it being easier to recycle the air down there than pump any fresh stuff in. XD
Chamber 6: The Advanced Aerial Faith Plates challenge, where you had to let yourself be launched across a series of them winding across a floor covered in deadly water in order to reach the other side – with a fling near the end thanks to one of the plates launching you at one of a pair of tilted portal-able platforms on the right side of the room. The first time I took the trip, though, I just landed on the platform and then used portals to get myself over to the other side of the room (since I could see it from my position)…
Only to be like, “Wait. I know the trick in this one is that you’re supposed to release a cube and have it follow the same path you did so you can put it on a floor button somewhere. So where’s the cube release button? For that matter, where’s the floor button??” Unable to find either on that side of the room, I portaled my way back to the beginning and took another look at the layout –
And saw the cube release button on an upper platform that I hadn’t properly clocked the first time around. Aha! I thus put the portals on the tilted platforms to properly perform the fling, and bounced myself up and over to there –
Where the game taught me, “Hey, if you need to zoom in, press the right bumper button,” and I realized that the floor button I needed to put the cube on was in an inaccessible area at the bottom of a drop – though, apparently, under a portal-able bit of ceiling. Hmmm. Deciding to worry about that later, I decided to instead concentrate on getting the cube, and hit the cube release button –
Only for GLaDOS, taking a break from picking up fifteen acres of broken glass by herself (as per her opening speech), to instead dump a bunch of garbage out of the chute and use the faith plates to fling it at Chell. XD However, I noticed that some of the garbage she was throwing included what I believe are called Edgeless Weighted Storage Cubes or the like – aka, balls – so I decided to try and get into position to catch one and see if I could use THAT to somehow solve the puzzle –
Only to forget just how much room I actually had on that top platform and fall off into the deadly water. XD Sorry Chell! Fortunately, the game is very generous with saves, and reloaded to right before I pressed the button and got the garbage dump. And even better, the retry allowed me to take another look at the ceiling above the floor button and go, “actually, wait – if that portal-able bit of ceiling is genuinely right above the button…” Leading to me slapping a portal up there before hitting the cube release button –
Leading in turn to the garbage being funneled directly onto the button instead of at Chell! :D Unfortunately, while one of the balls DID hit the button hard enough to press it, it immediately fell off and into the water below, and the only bit of garbage that stuck – an inactive turret – was too light to activate the button. Ah well. I had Chell hit the button again to actually get the cube, and that managed to hit the button and stay on it after its little bounce through the portal, opening the exit door. GLaDOS rewarded us for our hard work by going on about how, when she was talking about garbage standing around and being useless before flinging a bunch at us, she was talking about Chell – but since Chell didn’t respond, she was worried she hadn’t understood the metaphor. So she called her garbage a second time to justify “apologizing” for the initial garbage comment. :p
Chamber 7: The return of the laser – and the Companion Cube! Updated to match the new cube aesthetic, of course. Though, because GLaDOS is a vindictive bitch, the first time Chell hopped over the laser to grab the CC, she fizzled it. Then dropped another one. Then fizzled that one just as Chell started using it to solve the puzzle. XD Fortunately, she let Chell keep the third one so she could actually do science with it. Said science being:
I. Using the CC to block the laser going into the receiver across the room, to lower a platform that Chell could ride to the upper portion of the chamber
II. Using portals to get the CC out of the laser’s way and get up to the upper portion, which had two tilted portal-able platforms to Chell’s left, and a pair of raised platforms of different heights to Chell’s right, indicating flinging things had to happen
III. Using portals to grab the CC through the first tilted platform, then setting up a portal drop and carrying the CC through the first fling, up onto the lower of the two raised platforms, where a button waited; putting the CC on said button extended some panels which made a large landing platform on the edge of the second, higher raised platform
IV. Dropping down and setting up Fling #2 on the second tilted platform, then dropping down again and flinging herself onto the new landing spot, reaching the top of the second raised platform and the end of the test
V. Finally going down the corridor to the exit – and then being informed by GLaDOS that the emancipation grill (the thing that fizzles all portals, and any non-portal-gun object taken through it) at exit was broken, and that Chell was not to take anything with her. And I knew that she was going to fizzle the Companion Cube once I went back and got it and tried to take it into the elevator, because that’s what she does –
But, well, the computer’s been dead for who knows how long, and woke up to an utterly wrecked facility that she had to clean up, so I figured I’d let her have her fun. XD Thus, I obligingly had Chell put a portal on the wall of the corridor, head back and grab the CC, and then use the flinging portal to get into the corridor and try to bring the CC to the elevator. GLaDOS fizzled it right before Chell could step in, and commented, “I think that one was about to say ‘I love you.’” XD I don’t know if anything interesting happens if you just keep going to the elevator without getting the CC or not, but come on – how can you not go back for the Companion Cube, just to see what happens?
Chamber 8: And another laser chamber – this one with a twist! For you see, this chamber was divided into two, with an emancipation grill running down the center – with the laser and a redirection cube release button on one side of the grill, and the receiver and actual cube release chute on the other. Fortunately, the grill didn’t quite run ALL the way down the center – at the far end, near the exit door, was a little plastic window with a hole in it that one could shoot portals through. GLaDOS couldn’t watch this one because she had to fix the turbines – as she said “test on your own recognizance,” I obligingly had Chell portal her camera off the wall and fizzle it in the grill. XD From there, it was just a matter of passing through the grill; pressing the cube release button to get the redirection cube; firing a portal through the little hole and another next to the laser to go get the cube without having to pass through the grill; putting the redirection cube in front of the laser; hopping over the laser so I could pick up the redirection cube again and redirect the laser into the receiver; then walk through the grill and out the open door. Easy-peasy!
And that is where I left off – appropriately enough, right at the beginning of the next part of the game: “Chapter 3: The Return!” AKA, Wheatley may be reappearing next Sunday. :) We’ll see how far we get then!
Writing: Managed to fit in another page’s worth of edits on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” right before my workout – today’s session covered:
A) Alice ascending to the upper levels of the “employees only” parts of the museum, passing through a rather uninteresting hallway (with just some band posters and a utility closet with a vacuum) before reaching the top – and getting jumpscared by a big old mouth full of sharp teeth just to the right of the door
B) Alice angrily telling the assembled Wonderlanders that now was not the time to set monsters on her – only for Hatter, Carpenter, the Insane Children, and the Queen of Hearts to all go “that’s not one of ours;” cue Alice taking another look and realizing that the mouth belongs to a model of a Velociraptor and that it’s part of the real world
C) Cheshire responding to Alice’s question about how the raptor even got up there by directing her attention to a sticky note on the wall nearby, and Alice venturing out (after a quick look around and noting this museum seems to have no guards) and discovering via the note that it was a prank by someone named Stanley (that his coworker Daniela did not find very funny)...and that he apparently has a habit of leaving his keys lying around unattended
D) Alice deciding to search for Stanley’s keys but – acknowledging that she might run into Stanley himself, which would be bad – saying that she ought to keep her time in this hallway short; cue Rabbit being pleased by her finally seeing sense, Alice warning him he shouldn’t get used to it as sometimes the way of the turtle is better, Mock Turtle being like “but even I don’t think my way is best,” Alice pointing out he’s a mock turtle and thus at a disadvantage, then letting him know he’d proven himself very good at sailing, swimming, and crying, and Mock proudly saying that “No one can beat a mock turtle when it comes to tears”
*nods* Not bad! Glad to keep making some good forward progress on this. Tomorrow, Alice creeps around the dinosaur and explores the half-ring of a hallway she’s found herself in – and finds a very useful secret hiding place...
Workout/YouTube: It being Sunday, my ride on the stationary bike and my evening video watching featured the same video – “Fallout New Vegas: You Only Live Once Remastered - Part 28 - Blood Money” by Jon of Many A True Nerd! This week’s episode of the adventures of our favorite drunken melee courier, P. D. Shoot, included –
A) Jon opening the video by admitting that he probably fucked up picking “Bloody Mess” (which adds +5% flat damage to all weapons and makes enemies more likely to explode in showers of gore) over “Light Step” (which makes you unable to trigger mines or floor-based traps) as P. D.’s Level 28 perk, based on all the comments he’d read on the last video scolding him for doing so, and his own knowledge about his own lack of perception. Too late now to change it, but – he wanted everyone to know he knew that was likely to come back to bite him and they were right to scold him. (He also mentioned he could have grabbed “Purifier” instead as well, which grants +50% damage to all melee and unarmed attacks against ferals, super mutants, and all abominations – which includes Ghost People, one of the primary antagonists in “Dead Money” – but the reason he didn’t consider it was because he didn’t KNOW it worked on Ghost People, so – that one is fair enough.)
B) P. D. swinging by her quarters in the Lucky 38 to rearrange her inventory a bit (namely, drop off everything from “Honest Hearts” except Joshua’s armor and reclaim her Protonic Inversal Axe), then starting her quest to get a bunch of XP (as she needs to get up to Level 30 before even attempting “Dead Money”) by visiting the Aces Theater in The Tops and promising to find some new talent for Tommy Torini! In exchange for a 3% cut of the door, no less (could have been more, but P. D. has NOT been improving her Barter skill and thus couldn’t pass the check – good thing she’s more interested in the XP than the cash!). P. D. immediately went outside and recruited desperate comedian Billy Knight, who was standing RIGHT BELOW the fancy marquee for The Tops, within SIGHT of the casino. XD (Interestingly, she could have gotten HIM a better deal with better Barter skill as well...Barter is a more useful skill than you’d think in this game!) Amusingly enough, the marquee he was standing under immediately updated with his name once P. D. recruited him, before Billy even had a chance to get in the building. XD Guess Tommy knew the people would like him!
C) P. D. then returning to Freeside and heading over to the Atomic Wrangler (managing to sneak past the mugger who spawned in to rob her, because she is just that good) to pick up the next act for Tommy – Hadrian the ghoul! Another comedian who initially though P. D. was there to work as a professional heckler for him. P. D. played along for a moment, then explained she was there to hire him for The Tops, but Hadrian explained that he had a contract with the Garrets, and they weren’t about to just let him go. Fortunately, P. D. was both already friends with James Garret (having gotten him a FISTO) and had the Speech to convince him that Hadrian wasn’t a good fit for the place (though there was also a Barter option she could have used to convince him he was losing money from the people who wouldn’t come to see a ghoul!) – all she had to do was wait around a bit for him to wake up, have a quick chat, and Hadrian was free from his shitty job at the Atomic Wrangler and able to go work at The Tops! Yay!
D) P. D. then saying hello to James’s twin sister, Francine (who was very glad to hear that Benny had perished) and getting some work from her – go around town and shake down some people who’d run out on their tabs, back when the Garrets allowed such things! P. D. used her Speech to negotiate getting a 50% cut of each debt over the 25% Francine had offered, then accepted the job – while I noted that, again, if she’d had enough Barter skill, she could have used that instead…
E) P. D. then heading over to The King’s School of Impersonation to meet with The King (leader of the gang of Elvis Presley impersonators, it’s great), talking her way past Pacer (The King’s second-in-command) by saying she wanted to pay her respects and asking the most Elvis of the Elvises if he had any work for her. He did – investigate one of the bodyguards who hang out by one of the gates and offer to lead people through the town, Orris. Seemed like the man had been getting a looot of repeat business for some reason, and The King thought something was fishy about his operation. P. D. agreed to investigate and went over to hire Orris as a bodyguard –
And then (after getting presents from two members of the Kings in a row for helping out around town) managed to screw up the quest a little! Because, well, what’s SUPPOSED to happen is Orrin is supposed to run way ahead of his mark, then – near the end of his tour – fake a shootout around a corner with a few of his friends to make himself look like a hero and dazzle the rubes. However, because P. D. is the fastest bitch on the planet while crouching thanks to all of her various speed-boosting perks and power-ups, she was able to keep up with him – AND she did a dose of Turbo to slow Orris down just for funsies when he went down the street and to the corner where he tries to do the fake gunfight. Result? Orris juddering about and stopping once or twice as his AI got confused about the fact that P. D. was able to keep up with him –
And two genuine enemies spawning in right in front of the fake shootout and attack Orris. Apparently P. D.’s shenanigans ended up spawning in more muggers, but rather take on her, they went for the easier target. P. D. was able to fix things by doing MORE Turbo and using her Industrial Hand to saw the interlopers to death, and once the fight was over and Orris had stopped shooting, she was able to continue things as normal (using her high Intelligence to point out that Orris only shot three times, but there were four “dead” guys – he tried to play it off as shooting one guy through another – and her decent Medicine skill to confirm the “dead” people were in fact alive – oh, and guess what? If she’d had the Barter, she could have shaken Orris down for his money and stuff), but yeah. Lesson learned – don’t try to outpace Orris in this quest, especially with Turbo. Makes things go – wrong.
F) P. D. then locating the first of the Garret debtors, Lady Jane, in a little squatter camp on the other side of Freeside – Jane claimed she didn’t have the caps to cover the debt, but that if someone helped recover her caravan from a nearby cave, she could pay in full. Unfortunately for her, P. D. had the Perception to tell she was lying (if not the Barter to get some other goods off her to help pay), and Jane reluctantly handed over what she owed, saying that she’d needed that money to get home to California, but she’d find another way. Sorry, Lady Jane – P. D. is not interested in your sob stories!
G) P. D. then heading back to The King and letting him know about Orris’s fake heroics (The King saying that he’d get his boys to quietly take him off the street), and getting her next mission – find out who beat up some of The King’s friends recently and determine if it was another bout of Freesider-vs-NCR violence (as things had been getting – tense between the NCR citizens and the locals of Freeside lately). P. D. thus went to the Mormon Fort to ask the gang members what they remembered about the attack –
But, before doing so, she went around the side and found another Garret debtor in a squatter camp there – the unfortunate ghoul Grecks! Who was very unfortunate indeed, because thanks to P. D.’s high Speech and his desperate desire not to get hurt, he ended up losing not only all his caps, but his clothes as well. Which P. D. then put on the flaming barrel he was standing near. XD It was a delightful bit of assholery from our favorite asshole courier, I have to say.
H) P. D. then deciding to finish off her business with the debtors while she was in that part of Freeside and heading to another squatter camp to find the final one, a man by the name of Santiago. Santiago, however, claimed he had no debts and was in fact a VIP in Freeside – and in fact, offered to share the secret password he used to get a discount at Mick & Ralph’s for a mere 50 caps. Which led to a very interesting situation where P. D. had to fail a Barter check (as she didn’t have the skill for it) to unlock the Speech check that she could pass in order to get the price down to 25. Meaning, if she’d had the Barter, she could have knocked him down to 25 right away. Hmmmm… Anyway, she got the discount password – “extravaganza” – then insisted that Santiago owed money to the Garrets –
And when he insisted he had no debts, used her Speech to tell him Francine put a bounty on his head. He promptly dropped the act and paid up – more than he owed, in fact! So that was nice. P. D. then headed to Mick & Ralph’s to try out the discount password, just for fun –
Aaaand Mick told her that “we don’t do discounts here” and confirmed she’d been scammed. Which Jon had already known. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to get her money back simply because, having already shaken him down for “Debt Collector,” she couldn’t bring up the dialogue option necessary to get him to give her 25 caps back – he just said he had nothing left to give and asked her to leave, and her only option was to say “goodbye” and do so. Bit of a shame – but as stated, he actually paid her more than he owed for his debt. And given she only had to hand over 300 of the caps she’d collected to Francine (as the debts totaled 600 altogether, and they were doing a fifty-fifty split) – well, I think she’s already gotten her money back and then some. :p
I) P. D. then finally dropping by the Mormon Fort and talking to the men who were attacked, and learning from Wayne that one of them called another “Lou Tenant” – only for the nearby Roy to correct him, saying “he probably said ‘lieutenant’” and admitting Wayne was “dumb as a mutant” sometimes. Having more or less received proof that the NCR was behind the hostilities on the Freesiders, P. D. proceeded to –
Head to Novac to pick up another act for Tommy Torini because Jon decided he wanted to finish up THAT first. XD Cue P. D. hitting the local motel and meeting Bruce Isaacs, a singer from New Reno who was currently hiding in Novac from casino boss Mr. Bishop. Why? Well, he decided to resolve a “payroll problem” by robbing the guy...and also fucked his daughter. *facepalm* Bruce. Dude. Seriously? Fortunately, this made him very amenable to working at The Tops, thanks to all the security on The Strip, and he was only happy to check the place out and join the roster. Especially if it kept him away from Mr. Bishop (who, apparently, may in fact be related to Fallout 2’s protagonist, The Chosen One, as they ended up in New Reno too, and were able to sleep with people there if they chose…).
J) P. D. then wrapping up finding acts for Tommy Torini by heading into the wilds and sneaking down the road by the lakebed with all the fire-breathing ants (seriously, that’s a thing in this game) until she found the Lonesome Drifter camped with his guitar by a billboard! Who, annoyingly, refused to just accept that she wanted to hire him on Torini’s behalf, and insisted on her asking about his backstory. Which, admittedly, hints that he may be the son of the Mysterious Stranger, as per the perk of the same name, so it’s a pretty good backstory. She eventually got through his tale of woe and told him again that Torini was looking for acts, and this time he said he was much obliged and started on the way to Vegas. *shakes head* Whew! That was a bit more complicated than it had to be.
K) P. D. then returning to Freeside to finally tell The King what she’d learned about the attack (after noting that yet another thug had spawned on the streets – Jon insisted the streets weren’t usually this full of thugs), prompting The King to tell her in return to poke around the squatter areas in the town and see if she could figure out why NCR soldiers are entering the area, and to maybe talk to Julie Farkas at the Mormon Fort to see what she might know (but not to ask her what to do about it, as she’d probably suggest hugs – Jon was very insulted on Julie’s behalf). P. D. promptly headed to Julie, who informed her that she ought to talk to “Elizabeth,” who was apparently in charge of some sort of NCR operation in Freeside, and to drop her name to make sure the woman opened up. P. D. then nipped around the corner to Grecks’s little squatter camp (where he was still standing around in his undies, poor chap) to talk to the NCR missionary who’d appeared there and convince him to tell her where the relief effort was being coordinated from –
Only to discover that there was no way to Speech check her way out of his little quiz to determine if she was an NCR citizen or not (as they were only helping their own). Fortunately, Jon already knew where P. D. needed to go (the part of town where P. D. created FISTO), and thus sent her to the mission, where she Speech-checked her way past the door –
And met Major Elizabeth Kieran, a very nice lady who gave her some BlamCo Mac & Cheese and some purified water. P. D. confirmed she was with the NCR Military (she worked in supplies, understandably), then asked if they also fed the locals. Elizabeth was initially like “that’s an unpleasant topic, just trust we have our reasons not to feed them,” but one drop of Julie’s name later, she revealed that they’d actually sent an envoy to The King to ask him if he wanted to help coordinate relief efforts...only for said envoy to be severely beaten, causing Elizabeth’s superiors to nearly scrap the mission entirely. She managed to get permission to do it anyway, but with reduced support, and now there’s simply not enough supplies to feed the rest of Freeside, and no desire to do so. Which certainly made it sound like someone was playing the Kings and the NCR against each other…
L) P. D. then using a shortcut to get back to the other district of Freeside, and swinging by the Atomic Wrangler to hand over her 600 caps of debt money to Francine (and immediately get 300 back), and pick up another job – hunt down the Garrets’ former enforcer, McCaffrey, who stole a bunch of caps and fled into the Strip after getting annoyed that P. D. was given some of his work. P. D. agreed to track him down, kill him (taking his hat as proof), and recover what she could, and thus headed to the Strip (after helping the Kings deal with MORE spawned-in thugs – the game is trying VERY HARD to get P. D. mugged, it appears) –
Where McCaffery was very dismissive of P. D. and her suggestion that he just give her a share of the caps and his hat and she’d let him go free. Fortunately for McCaffrey, P. D. wanted skill check XP more than the satisfaction of punching him to death with her Ballistic Fist, and Speech-checked him into realizing that, if he just gave her the hat and some money, he could walk away, and Francine would believe P. D. had killed him. He thus handed over his headwear and some money –
And then, upon ending the conversation, gained an entirely different, much more drunk voice rambling on about the situation at Hoover Dam. XD Jon was very amused by this glitchiness.
M) P. D. then swinging by the Aces to turn in the quest to secure entertainers to Tommy (though, annoyingly, she had to talk to him about each one separately), returning to the Atomic Wrangler to turn in McCaffrey’s hat and the quest to help out the Garrets (and to get a pretty shitty player apartment that was just one room with a bed), and finally heading back to Kings headquarters to talk to The King about the envoy –
Only to get stopped inside by Pacer, who said he’d heard about what Elizabeth had told her about the envoy, claimed it was a wild story and that the NCR had probably just sent a spy into Freeside who couldn’t hack it, and that there was no reason to tell The King about any of it. ...welp, pretty clear who’s been ruining relations between The King and the NCR! P. D. shook him down for 200 caps to buy her silence (which he was fine with, calling her “a bastard after my own heart” – and, again, if she’d had the Barter, she could have asked for more) –
And then went straight to The King and told him what was going on anyway. XD He realized that there was all some sort of big misunderstanding and that they could probably resolve all this peacefully – except, moments later, one of his fellow gang members ran in and informed him of trouble. Basically, Pacer had gone to escalate things even further and had started a shootout with some of the NCR. The King asked P. D. to calm things down and tell the NCR he was willing to cooperate, and P. D. obligingly rushed out the door and toward the location of the shootout –
Where Pacer was kind of getting his ass kicked. Or, well, more accurately, shot. XD P. D. found Elizabeth and explained that The King had never actually known about the envoy – Elizabeth wasn’t sure she believed that, given they knew the envoy had made it to the headquarters, but was willing to have her men stand down if The King was now willing to work with them. P. D. took the good news back to The King, who said it was time for a little more talkin’ and a little less fightin’ (aka “a little more conversation and a little less action”), awarded her 1,500 XP for completing the quest –
And informed her that, she’d done such good work for him and his gang, that he was to bestow upon her a favor. Anything she wanted, if he could make it happen, he’d do it for her. Though he warned her to have a good long think about what she wanted, as she only got the one…
And so the episode ended with P. D. hanging out outside Kings HQ, indeed having a good long think about what to do with her favor – because what she did with it depended on who she backed for the final fight. If she went NCR, that favor would make one upcoming mission much, much easier; if she went Legion, she could burn it on getting a giant pile of caps instead. Meaning, yes – as Jon had hinted at the end of the previous episode, she really needed to pick a side already. So we’ll see if she does that next week, or if Jon finds another way to put it off a little bit longer. XD Looking forward to it!
Whew -- as usual, the YOLO Remastered episode took ages to recap! Blame it on being an episode where P. D. did a lot and kept bouncing between quests. Though I will say, I'm kind of glad she did it like that, because it allowed me to see just how many freaking Barter checks there actually were in the game. I was already thinking of giving Victor decent Barter skill due to his background as the son of fish merchants, but now I am committed to that course of action! Especially since, if I heard hbomberguy in his F:NV essay yesterday right, there's a way to use Barter to talk down one of the scariest guys in the game...
Anyway -- I'm off to bed, as, shockingly, I actually have work tomorrow. Yeah, I know. I am not looking forward to see how many e-mails are in my e-mail inbox. @.@ Hopefully it won't be too much of a shock to reintegrate back into the office...night all!
