Somewhat Better In All But Weather Tuesday
Mar. 3rd, 2026 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, the weather was notably worse today -- afternoon saw snow turn to freezing rain, meaning the roads were all slushy as hell and getting home was a bit of a battle. Not a full-on nightmare like some days -- I was able to take the highway, and traffic wasn't quite as bad as I'd feared -- but it was still a slog! But in most other respects, it was a nicer, more productive day overall:
Work – Fortunately for my sanity, it was a quieter day at work today. There were still problems – like finding out I couldn’t update someone’s pledge (which they’d set up wrong on the website) because of credit card bullshit, and being able to put on a batch at the end of the day because the right source code hadn’t been set up for it, and discovering some more payments that needed moving – but I was finally able to finish that batch I’ve been working on for the past couple of days, and clear a few things out of my e-mail inbox, and automatically take care of one exception when the person it involved called in about something else. And the credit card people HAVE started uploading batches again, which is also good – if they get posted without too much bullshit, of course. We’ll see how tomorrow goes!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #1 | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla!” Tonight’s chunklet saw the group continuing their combat with the Glass Warrior and its army of weird Glitchy Magic Spirits, and featured:
A) Gale declaring his intent to hit the Glass Warrior with Ray of Frost, which everyone agreed was an excellent move – well, until Mark the DM pointed out that Gale was essentially going to have to fire blind thanks to Wyll’s Darkness, and thus he would have to make the roll at Disadvantage. Cue Shadowheart immediately asking “can I cast Guidance on him?” XD Mark said she could not (Guidance doesn’t effect attack rolls – good to know), but she could actually cast something better – the spell Bless, which DOES affect attack rolls! ...on her turn, using her action. Though Gale did have the option of holding his action until it was her turn if he wanted that bonus. After a bit of back-and-forth about “do I want to Bless Gale or do Shield of Faith on Tav,” she decided that she wanted to Bless Gale, and Gale thus held off on frosting the Warrior for the moment…
B) Karlach, next in the initiative order, going into a barbarian rage, backing out of the Darkness (as she still had enough sense of direction to do THAT, at least), and screaming “FUCK OFF!” at the Glitchy Magic Spirits – unfortunately, she did not make the Intimidate check, and the Glitchy Magic Spirits were thus unintimidated.
C) The Glitchy Magic Spirits scrambling out of the Darkness and toward Tav, using their action to Dash toward the unfortunate player avatar – however, this took a couple of them right past Karlach and Wyll, allowing them to make Opportunity Attacks! Wyll managed to stab one with his rapier and cause some serious hurt with 5 damage –
While the raging Karlach cleaved one with her greataxe and managed to straight-up kill it! Which everyone was very happy about –
Right up until Mark revealed that these things explode when they die. XD Cue Karlach and Wyll having to make Dexterity saving throws – Karlach made hers and managed to get out of the blast radius, but Wyll failed his and took 3 force damage to the head, ouch. :( Our Blade of Frontiers isn’t doing so hot!
D) Shadowheart getting her turn, and learning from her little cheat-sheet spell card that Bless allows her to bless up to THREE targets! Cue Astarion desperately trying to get her attention as she tried to decide who to bless other than Gale and Tav – and then pouting when Mark revealed to Shadowheart that “you can Bless yourself, you know,” and she promptly said “I will do that.” However, it turned out missing out on Bless was kind of a blessing in disguise for Astarion, as the spell card also listed the material component – holy water. Astarion was suddenly much less interested in the spell after learning THAT! XD Anyway, Shadowheart proceeded to Bless Gale, Tav, and herself –
Then asked if she could add Guidance to Bless. XD Jennifer English has really embraced the idea of Shadowheart just being a Guidance-producing machine! Mark had to break it to her that both were concentration spells, and trying to add Guidance would just cancel the Bless. So instead she used her bonus action to Invoke Duplicity and create a fake version of herself all up in the grills of the Glitchy Magic Spirits. I – would have thought THAT was a concentration spell too, but maybe I’m wrong. O.o
E) Gale then finally getting to cast his long-awaited Ray of Frost on the Glass Warrior! And despite being at Disadvantage, he rolled well enough on both rolls to score a hit! Mark cheerfully told him that going for cold damage had been a smart move, as the Glass Warrior was weak to that, and thus told Gale to roll damage and double it –
And cue Gale rolling a 1. Meaning the Glass Warrior’s shoulder got slightly frozen and that was it. XD Everyone was like “well, THAT was a lot of build-up for little result.”
F) The Glass Warrior getting its go and marching straight up to Wyll and smacking him twice with its sword, inflicting a nasty 8 damage on him. *wince* And Wyll’s a human warlock, so he doesn’t have that many hit points to spare! I was starting to get really worried about him at this point, not gonna lie.
G) Astarion then getting his go – and using a Cunning Dash to weave around Gale, get up on the picnic table with Lae’zel, before launching himself off the cowering Volo to leap into the air and fire the world’s most dramatic arrow at the Glass Warrior. He apparently specifically timed it so some doves would fly by at just the right moment, John Woo-style. XD Mark had him make an Acrobatics roll to see if he got enough height to get Advantage on the attack – he very much did, and inflicted some nasty damage on the Glass Warrior…
All while throwing a cheeky wink Gale’s way. XD Gale was like “I softened him up for you,” and it was decided that Astarion had actually aimed for the frosted shoulder as the obvious weak point. He then ended his turn with a dramatic roll before leaping over a bit of nearby stone wall for cover. *nods* Rogues – they get the job done.
H) Lae’zel finally getting her turn, much to Devora’s relief, and – after talking about how Gale had let them down, yet again, useless wizard (Devora: “Wow, I am being really mean to Gale in this one! Usually I save that for Shadowheart”) – declaring that she wanted to smash some spirits. She thus leapt down from the picnic table into the mass of Glitchy Magic Spirits attempting to get to Tav, and attempted a Menacing Attack –
And rolled a four. Meaning she missed. (Gale: “Well, well, well.”) Embarrassed and annoyed, she used Action Surge to regain her action and tried again on a different spirit –
AND ROLLED ANOTHER FOUR. (Gale, delighted: “WELL, WELL, WELL.”) Devora was quite annoyed that, after all that time spent waiting, she’d managed to accomplish NOTHING, while Mark attempted to comfort her that she’d at least looked badass doing it.
I) The Camp NPCs ending the round with their turns – Volo ran and joined Astarion behind cover, babbling on about sound tactical decisions until Astarion slapped him, while a furious Scratch went after one of the Glitchy Magic Spirits threatening Tav (everyone was like “no! Protect the dog!”). Jennifer volunteered to roll for Scratch, and everyone’s favorite good boy managed to chomp down on a spirit and fuck it up pretty good. *pets him* Good boy, Scratch!
J) The next round of combat starting with an unpleasant surprise – MORE Glitchy Magic Spirits coming on from another set of stones! And these ones were even worse than the current set, looking like horrible fusions of various creatures. Fortunately, they appeared just at the edge of the fight and didn’t do anything right away beyond make tortured noises, but sheesh. This is a pretty nasty first fight for people unfamiliar with D&D!
K) Wyll getting his first turn of the second round and angrily telling the Glass Warrior “You’ll pay for that!” before thrusting his rapier into its battered chest – and, on a very good roll, doing enough damage to kill the creature, which shattered into a thousand pieces! Didn’t get rid of the Glitchy Magic Spirits, sadly, but everyone was very pleased to see Wyll redeem himself combat-wise. Hooray for the Blade of Frontiers! :D
And so I ended kind of where I began, with Gale preparing to take his turn! Hopefully whatever he’s got planned this time goes off better than the Ray of Frost – we’ll find out tomorrow! XD
2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – got a good chunk edited today, covering:
A) Beckett confirming to Alice that no, he had no interest in stealing the Ankaran Sarcophagus – in fact, he would have much preferred the damn thing stay where it was so he could study it and prove it was just a relic from a bygone age. Mostly because all the talk about it containing an Antediluvian and being a “portent of Gehenna” was getting on his nerves. XD
B) Alice and Beckett taking about Antediluvians and what their deal was, with Beckett correct her misremembered musings that they were the childer of Caine – they’re the grand-childer, actually – and confirming again that they’re the supposed “founders” of each clan and bloodline, and that some Kindred insist they still exist in the present. Alice mentioned what Skelter told her about slumbering elders controlling all those who share their blood, and how it had creeped her out – Beckett agreed it was an unpleasant thought, and reassured her that he believed that, had any Antediluvians survived to the modern era, they would have much better things to do than meddle in the squabbles between Camarilla and Anarchs and Sabbat. “I understand something called ‘Big Brother’ is now popular on the television?” XD (I looked it up, and that WOULD have been the right era for it!)
C) Alice then asking Beckett about why the sarcophagus would be considered a “portent of Gehenna,” given she wasn’t familiar with the concept – he explained in a bored tone that it was supposed to be the inevitable Kindred apocalypse, where Caine and the Antediluvians would come to either kill or devour all their childer. He did not think that was going to happen anytime soon, though – and when Alice asked why, started by explaining his theory that Caine, the First Vampire, was not actually a real person, but just a mythological figure intended to mark the transition from nomadic societies to ones centered around farming. He admitted he was willing to consider the idea that there was SOMEONE named Caine in ancient times, and that perhaps he even killed his brother, but Caine as the Dark Father of all vampires? That he most certainly did NOT believe. Alice admitted she’d prefer if the mythological mega-Kindred stayed in the ground herself and asked if people thought Caine was the one in the sarcophagus – Beckett said he hadn’t heard that theory, stating that most of the masses seemed content to assign one of the “lesser” Antediluvians to it – like Ventrue, or Arikel (the Toreador Antediluvian), or Malkav – and considered that enough of a sign of the End Times.
D) And Alice and Beckett talking about other portents of Gehenna – specifically, thin-bloods popping up everywhere. Alice noted disdainfully that she’d already heard some Kindred get “murderously nervous” around them, and asked why, when thin-bloods were so weak, causing Beckett to explain it was exactly that weakness that made Kindred anxious – given that thin-bloods often don’t display any obvious traits or powers of their clan, cannot usually Embrace, and are sometimes rumored to be able to reproduce the typical human way (or use strange alchemy to twist Kindred vitae in ways not even Elders have dreamed of – had to throw that in from V5 as I thought it was an interesting concept), other vampires think they signal the eventual end of all the clans. Beckett personally thought this was a rather ignorant and reactionary response, and Alice fully agreed, saying that the Santa Monica thin-bloods had been extremely nice and hadn’t deserved all the hounding they got. And that maybe thin-bloods would be more inclined to share their alchemical discoveries if people were nicer to them.
*nods* Solid stuff! We’ll pick up with Alice and Beckett talking about apocalypse myths and the origins of Kindred next week – tomorrow, it’s back to Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy” to start finishing that up!
3. Watch something on YouTube: Check-ish, in the sense that I watched most of a video my friend Squid recommended to me yesterday – “How Silksongs True Ending was beaten Blindfolded” by MyPetCactus! Basically someone analyzing the 19-and-a-half-hour run done by some dude named Brisk who was determined to beat Silksong and get the true ending, all while blindfolded. Oh, and he did it on PERMADEATH mode because he needed a specific bonus that only appeared in that mode. *shakehead* Challenge runners, I swear… Anyway, I confess I skimmed over a few bits here and there because it was a 45-minute-long video, and, being unfamiliar with Silksong, I did find some of it a little confusing – but the stuff I watched was pretty damn impressive! Especially for someone doing it blindfolded! Stand-out moments included:
A) Brisk holding forward and down on the keyboard in a certain area with spike pits all around so Hornet (the protagonist) was constantly swinging her needle as she ran, which would allow her to do an accidental “pogo” out of a spike pit should she fall in
B) Brisk abusing the fact that one enemy was in the same area as a friendly NPC with some battle chops themselves, and luring said enemy down to them so they could kill it XD
C) Brisk taking regular breaks to “farm” certain enemies to get the currency needed to buy tools and upgrades and equipment (including, at one point, a key to skip a boss fight he was SO not ready for) – notably, at one point, he went and killed two specific enemies one hundred and sixty-nine times for their stuff. It was pretty wild!
D) Brisk cheesing as many boss fights and arena battles as possible with the strategy of “hang on the wall just out of reach and let my little helper bugs attack them when they get too close, occasionally jumping off to avoid an attack or get a few hits in myself” XD
E) Brisk pulling off a very tricky skip to get out of the boss fight for “Fourth Chorus” – basically, what you’re supposed to do is wait for the camera to shift left, then doing a big jump AS it shifts, then dash and heal to get a little extra distance once the camera follows you in order to land on a very narrow ledge off to the side. Brisk naturally couldn’t see the camera shift, so he did the heal animation FIRST to buy a little time, which allowed him to do the jump around the time the camera shifted and do a dash to get onto the ledge. It was close, but he made it!
F) And Brisk doing the Ascent – a long mostly-vertical platforming section where Hornet is running away from rising lava with the help of her new “shoot up like a rocket with the power of your silk” skill – really, REALLY well for a blindfolded guy! Sure, the version I saw was the successful portions of three different attempts stitched together, but still. It was very cool nonetheless. :)
Yeah, that guy EARNED his victory scream at the very end of the run! *nods* Proud of you, Brisk. Even if you seem to have inspired another lunatic to try a run where they attempt to 100% the game blindfolded. XD Seriously, what is UP with the Silksong community...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – was another “nothing” day on Valice Multiverse, but on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), I got my queue for the rest of the week sorted quite easily, dropping in:
A) Some fanart of Beckett from Vampire: the Masquerade by trefa for Wednesday
B) That cool Alice In Wonderland lightbox bookshelf decoration by ariesmoonscorpiorising for Thursday
C) That cool “butterfly wings and flowers encased in glass” window corner decoration by – well, by LonesomeHoboGlass, but posted by jetix for Friday
D) That short video of Corpse Bride clips featuring Victor & Victoria and Victor & Emily being romantic together to Mitski’s cover of “How Deep Is Your Love” by jmaticedits for Song Saturday
E) And the “A Smiler In Secundus, Part 2” post I whipped up this past weekend, where I shared Gigs’s Christmas fic of Smiler meeting Alice and Chester at Victor’s house, for Sunday!
So yeah, we’re all good for the rest of the week, yay~ Good to have that off my plate!
*nods* Not bad, not bad at all! But I really do need to head to bed now, so off I go. :p Night all!
Work – Fortunately for my sanity, it was a quieter day at work today. There were still problems – like finding out I couldn’t update someone’s pledge (which they’d set up wrong on the website) because of credit card bullshit, and being able to put on a batch at the end of the day because the right source code hadn’t been set up for it, and discovering some more payments that needed moving – but I was finally able to finish that batch I’ve been working on for the past couple of days, and clear a few things out of my e-mail inbox, and automatically take care of one exception when the person it involved called in about something else. And the credit card people HAVE started uploading batches again, which is also good – if they get posted without too much bullshit, of course. We’ll see how tomorrow goes!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “Baldur's Gate 3 Cast play D&D #1 | High Rollers Presents: Shadows of Athkatla!” Tonight’s chunklet saw the group continuing their combat with the Glass Warrior and its army of weird Glitchy Magic Spirits, and featured:
A) Gale declaring his intent to hit the Glass Warrior with Ray of Frost, which everyone agreed was an excellent move – well, until Mark the DM pointed out that Gale was essentially going to have to fire blind thanks to Wyll’s Darkness, and thus he would have to make the roll at Disadvantage. Cue Shadowheart immediately asking “can I cast Guidance on him?” XD Mark said she could not (Guidance doesn’t effect attack rolls – good to know), but she could actually cast something better – the spell Bless, which DOES affect attack rolls! ...on her turn, using her action. Though Gale did have the option of holding his action until it was her turn if he wanted that bonus. After a bit of back-and-forth about “do I want to Bless Gale or do Shield of Faith on Tav,” she decided that she wanted to Bless Gale, and Gale thus held off on frosting the Warrior for the moment…
B) Karlach, next in the initiative order, going into a barbarian rage, backing out of the Darkness (as she still had enough sense of direction to do THAT, at least), and screaming “FUCK OFF!” at the Glitchy Magic Spirits – unfortunately, she did not make the Intimidate check, and the Glitchy Magic Spirits were thus unintimidated.
C) The Glitchy Magic Spirits scrambling out of the Darkness and toward Tav, using their action to Dash toward the unfortunate player avatar – however, this took a couple of them right past Karlach and Wyll, allowing them to make Opportunity Attacks! Wyll managed to stab one with his rapier and cause some serious hurt with 5 damage –
While the raging Karlach cleaved one with her greataxe and managed to straight-up kill it! Which everyone was very happy about –
Right up until Mark revealed that these things explode when they die. XD Cue Karlach and Wyll having to make Dexterity saving throws – Karlach made hers and managed to get out of the blast radius, but Wyll failed his and took 3 force damage to the head, ouch. :( Our Blade of Frontiers isn’t doing so hot!
D) Shadowheart getting her turn, and learning from her little cheat-sheet spell card that Bless allows her to bless up to THREE targets! Cue Astarion desperately trying to get her attention as she tried to decide who to bless other than Gale and Tav – and then pouting when Mark revealed to Shadowheart that “you can Bless yourself, you know,” and she promptly said “I will do that.” However, it turned out missing out on Bless was kind of a blessing in disguise for Astarion, as the spell card also listed the material component – holy water. Astarion was suddenly much less interested in the spell after learning THAT! XD Anyway, Shadowheart proceeded to Bless Gale, Tav, and herself –
Then asked if she could add Guidance to Bless. XD Jennifer English has really embraced the idea of Shadowheart just being a Guidance-producing machine! Mark had to break it to her that both were concentration spells, and trying to add Guidance would just cancel the Bless. So instead she used her bonus action to Invoke Duplicity and create a fake version of herself all up in the grills of the Glitchy Magic Spirits. I – would have thought THAT was a concentration spell too, but maybe I’m wrong. O.o
E) Gale then finally getting to cast his long-awaited Ray of Frost on the Glass Warrior! And despite being at Disadvantage, he rolled well enough on both rolls to score a hit! Mark cheerfully told him that going for cold damage had been a smart move, as the Glass Warrior was weak to that, and thus told Gale to roll damage and double it –
And cue Gale rolling a 1. Meaning the Glass Warrior’s shoulder got slightly frozen and that was it. XD Everyone was like “well, THAT was a lot of build-up for little result.”
F) The Glass Warrior getting its go and marching straight up to Wyll and smacking him twice with its sword, inflicting a nasty 8 damage on him. *wince* And Wyll’s a human warlock, so he doesn’t have that many hit points to spare! I was starting to get really worried about him at this point, not gonna lie.
G) Astarion then getting his go – and using a Cunning Dash to weave around Gale, get up on the picnic table with Lae’zel, before launching himself off the cowering Volo to leap into the air and fire the world’s most dramatic arrow at the Glass Warrior. He apparently specifically timed it so some doves would fly by at just the right moment, John Woo-style. XD Mark had him make an Acrobatics roll to see if he got enough height to get Advantage on the attack – he very much did, and inflicted some nasty damage on the Glass Warrior…
All while throwing a cheeky wink Gale’s way. XD Gale was like “I softened him up for you,” and it was decided that Astarion had actually aimed for the frosted shoulder as the obvious weak point. He then ended his turn with a dramatic roll before leaping over a bit of nearby stone wall for cover. *nods* Rogues – they get the job done.
H) Lae’zel finally getting her turn, much to Devora’s relief, and – after talking about how Gale had let them down, yet again, useless wizard (Devora: “Wow, I am being really mean to Gale in this one! Usually I save that for Shadowheart”) – declaring that she wanted to smash some spirits. She thus leapt down from the picnic table into the mass of Glitchy Magic Spirits attempting to get to Tav, and attempted a Menacing Attack –
And rolled a four. Meaning she missed. (Gale: “Well, well, well.”) Embarrassed and annoyed, she used Action Surge to regain her action and tried again on a different spirit –
AND ROLLED ANOTHER FOUR. (Gale, delighted: “WELL, WELL, WELL.”) Devora was quite annoyed that, after all that time spent waiting, she’d managed to accomplish NOTHING, while Mark attempted to comfort her that she’d at least looked badass doing it.
I) The Camp NPCs ending the round with their turns – Volo ran and joined Astarion behind cover, babbling on about sound tactical decisions until Astarion slapped him, while a furious Scratch went after one of the Glitchy Magic Spirits threatening Tav (everyone was like “no! Protect the dog!”). Jennifer volunteered to roll for Scratch, and everyone’s favorite good boy managed to chomp down on a spirit and fuck it up pretty good. *pets him* Good boy, Scratch!
J) The next round of combat starting with an unpleasant surprise – MORE Glitchy Magic Spirits coming on from another set of stones! And these ones were even worse than the current set, looking like horrible fusions of various creatures. Fortunately, they appeared just at the edge of the fight and didn’t do anything right away beyond make tortured noises, but sheesh. This is a pretty nasty first fight for people unfamiliar with D&D!
K) Wyll getting his first turn of the second round and angrily telling the Glass Warrior “You’ll pay for that!” before thrusting his rapier into its battered chest – and, on a very good roll, doing enough damage to kill the creature, which shattered into a thousand pieces! Didn’t get rid of the Glitchy Magic Spirits, sadly, but everyone was very pleased to see Wyll redeem himself combat-wise. Hooray for the Blade of Frontiers! :D
And so I ended kind of where I began, with Gale preparing to take his turn! Hopefully whatever he’s got planned this time goes off better than the Ray of Frost – we’ll find out tomorrow! XD
2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – got a good chunk edited today, covering:
A) Beckett confirming to Alice that no, he had no interest in stealing the Ankaran Sarcophagus – in fact, he would have much preferred the damn thing stay where it was so he could study it and prove it was just a relic from a bygone age. Mostly because all the talk about it containing an Antediluvian and being a “portent of Gehenna” was getting on his nerves. XD
B) Alice and Beckett taking about Antediluvians and what their deal was, with Beckett correct her misremembered musings that they were the childer of Caine – they’re the grand-childer, actually – and confirming again that they’re the supposed “founders” of each clan and bloodline, and that some Kindred insist they still exist in the present. Alice mentioned what Skelter told her about slumbering elders controlling all those who share their blood, and how it had creeped her out – Beckett agreed it was an unpleasant thought, and reassured her that he believed that, had any Antediluvians survived to the modern era, they would have much better things to do than meddle in the squabbles between Camarilla and Anarchs and Sabbat. “I understand something called ‘Big Brother’ is now popular on the television?” XD (I looked it up, and that WOULD have been the right era for it!)
C) Alice then asking Beckett about why the sarcophagus would be considered a “portent of Gehenna,” given she wasn’t familiar with the concept – he explained in a bored tone that it was supposed to be the inevitable Kindred apocalypse, where Caine and the Antediluvians would come to either kill or devour all their childer. He did not think that was going to happen anytime soon, though – and when Alice asked why, started by explaining his theory that Caine, the First Vampire, was not actually a real person, but just a mythological figure intended to mark the transition from nomadic societies to ones centered around farming. He admitted he was willing to consider the idea that there was SOMEONE named Caine in ancient times, and that perhaps he even killed his brother, but Caine as the Dark Father of all vampires? That he most certainly did NOT believe. Alice admitted she’d prefer if the mythological mega-Kindred stayed in the ground herself and asked if people thought Caine was the one in the sarcophagus – Beckett said he hadn’t heard that theory, stating that most of the masses seemed content to assign one of the “lesser” Antediluvians to it – like Ventrue, or Arikel (the Toreador Antediluvian), or Malkav – and considered that enough of a sign of the End Times.
D) And Alice and Beckett talking about other portents of Gehenna – specifically, thin-bloods popping up everywhere. Alice noted disdainfully that she’d already heard some Kindred get “murderously nervous” around them, and asked why, when thin-bloods were so weak, causing Beckett to explain it was exactly that weakness that made Kindred anxious – given that thin-bloods often don’t display any obvious traits or powers of their clan, cannot usually Embrace, and are sometimes rumored to be able to reproduce the typical human way (or use strange alchemy to twist Kindred vitae in ways not even Elders have dreamed of – had to throw that in from V5 as I thought it was an interesting concept), other vampires think they signal the eventual end of all the clans. Beckett personally thought this was a rather ignorant and reactionary response, and Alice fully agreed, saying that the Santa Monica thin-bloods had been extremely nice and hadn’t deserved all the hounding they got. And that maybe thin-bloods would be more inclined to share their alchemical discoveries if people were nicer to them.
*nods* Solid stuff! We’ll pick up with Alice and Beckett talking about apocalypse myths and the origins of Kindred next week – tomorrow, it’s back to Chapter 4 of “The Van Dort Vacancy” to start finishing that up!
3. Watch something on YouTube: Check-ish, in the sense that I watched most of a video my friend Squid recommended to me yesterday – “How Silksongs True Ending was beaten Blindfolded” by MyPetCactus! Basically someone analyzing the 19-and-a-half-hour run done by some dude named Brisk who was determined to beat Silksong and get the true ending, all while blindfolded. Oh, and he did it on PERMADEATH mode because he needed a specific bonus that only appeared in that mode. *shakehead* Challenge runners, I swear… Anyway, I confess I skimmed over a few bits here and there because it was a 45-minute-long video, and, being unfamiliar with Silksong, I did find some of it a little confusing – but the stuff I watched was pretty damn impressive! Especially for someone doing it blindfolded! Stand-out moments included:
A) Brisk holding forward and down on the keyboard in a certain area with spike pits all around so Hornet (the protagonist) was constantly swinging her needle as she ran, which would allow her to do an accidental “pogo” out of a spike pit should she fall in
B) Brisk abusing the fact that one enemy was in the same area as a friendly NPC with some battle chops themselves, and luring said enemy down to them so they could kill it XD
C) Brisk taking regular breaks to “farm” certain enemies to get the currency needed to buy tools and upgrades and equipment (including, at one point, a key to skip a boss fight he was SO not ready for) – notably, at one point, he went and killed two specific enemies one hundred and sixty-nine times for their stuff. It was pretty wild!
D) Brisk cheesing as many boss fights and arena battles as possible with the strategy of “hang on the wall just out of reach and let my little helper bugs attack them when they get too close, occasionally jumping off to avoid an attack or get a few hits in myself” XD
E) Brisk pulling off a very tricky skip to get out of the boss fight for “Fourth Chorus” – basically, what you’re supposed to do is wait for the camera to shift left, then doing a big jump AS it shifts, then dash and heal to get a little extra distance once the camera follows you in order to land on a very narrow ledge off to the side. Brisk naturally couldn’t see the camera shift, so he did the heal animation FIRST to buy a little time, which allowed him to do the jump around the time the camera shifted and do a dash to get onto the ledge. It was close, but he made it!
F) And Brisk doing the Ascent – a long mostly-vertical platforming section where Hornet is running away from rising lava with the help of her new “shoot up like a rocket with the power of your silk” skill – really, REALLY well for a blindfolded guy! Sure, the version I saw was the successful portions of three different attempts stitched together, but still. It was very cool nonetheless. :)
Yeah, that guy EARNED his victory scream at the very end of the run! *nods* Proud of you, Brisk. Even if you seem to have inspired another lunatic to try a run where they attempt to 100% the game blindfolded. XD Seriously, what is UP with the Silksong community...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – was another “nothing” day on Valice Multiverse, but on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), I got my queue for the rest of the week sorted quite easily, dropping in:
A) Some fanart of Beckett from Vampire: the Masquerade by trefa for Wednesday
B) That cool Alice In Wonderland lightbox bookshelf decoration by ariesmoonscorpiorising for Thursday
C) That cool “butterfly wings and flowers encased in glass” window corner decoration by – well, by LonesomeHoboGlass, but posted by jetix for Friday
D) That short video of Corpse Bride clips featuring Victor & Victoria and Victor & Emily being romantic together to Mitski’s cover of “How Deep Is Your Love” by jmaticedits for Song Saturday
E) And the “A Smiler In Secundus, Part 2” post I whipped up this past weekend, where I shared Gigs’s Christmas fic of Smiler meeting Alice and Chester at Victor’s house, for Sunday!
So yeah, we’re all good for the rest of the week, yay~ Good to have that off my plate!
*nods* Not bad, not bad at all! But I really do need to head to bed now, so off I go. :p Night all!
