Less Busy Wednesday
Mar. 25th, 2026 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickIn some senses, anyway -- you'll see in my write-up:
Work – Fortunately it was a quieter, less stressful Wednesday in the office, with my eight hours consisting of:
A) Working my way through all the pledge cards returned with “so and so is deceased” notes on them to make sure they were all appropriately marked deceased, fixing up some duplicates and such along the way
B) Taking a couple of phone calls to verify that we’d received gifts from some people who’d gotten another ask after sending/calling something in
C) And having the check-in call with the credit card people, which was mostly the usual bullshit about having to send stuff to the guy in charge (including my latest spreadsheet of missed pledge payments, which I sent to them after the call) and nothing actually being done. Because that’s just how it works with these assholes
*shrug* Nothing particularly exciting, but nothing particularly stressful either, and I care a lot more about the latter than the former! Hopefully tomorrow I can finish up some of the other roster maintenance that I have to do – we’ll see!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another half-hour on the bike tonight equaled another half-hour of “Fallout: New Vegas - The Low XP Challenge!” Jo The Low XP Courier’s attempt to beat the game with the least XP possible continued with:
A) Jo leaving the recently-deceased Benny on their shared bed after seducing and killing him and sneaking off through the side door into the secret room where Yes Man lived to meet him and take up Benny’s plan to conquer Vegas! Starting with completing the “Side Bets” quest, where you must go and meet five different groups – The White Glove Society, the Omertas, the Great Khans, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the Boomers – and then report back to Yes Man about them, letting him know if they’re friends, enemies, or can just be ignored. Jo had already “met” the White Glove Society, the Omertas, and the Great Khans by stopping by where they hung out, and thus could tell Yes Man “let’s just ignore their asses,” but still needed to officially “meet” the Brotherhood and the Boomers. She thus:
I. Fast-traveled back to Hidden Valley to enter the Brotherhood bunker...and then showed off a speed-runner’s trick to “meet” the BOS without getting roped into the quest where they slap an explosive collar around your neck and make you deal with an NCR Ranger nearby. Basically, what’s supposed to happen is, if the Courier enters the main bunker without having Veronica or some other prior form of invitation, the entrance door locks behind them, a couple of guards come out the door on the other side, and then Senior Paladin Ramos, Head of Security, shows up and forces them to strip before dragging them before the Elder and kicking off the “deal with the Ranger” mission, which, of course gives them XP. HOWEVER, at least one of the guards has the key for the entrance door on them, probably to help people who shoot first and ask questions later escape if necessary. So, what Jo did was step inside the entrance room, run up to the guards as they came out, pickpocket the key to the entrance door off the nearest one, run back to the door and open it, turn around and fire at Ramos to make him and his buddies hostile (thus preventing them from wanting to give her quests), then booked it out of there before they could kill her. And then kept running because the valley around the bunker was full of scorpions and she needed to get away from them if she wanted to fast-travel anywhere. XD
II. Returned to Camp McCarran once she was free of scorpions and carefully worked her way around all the potential spots of interest that the game wanted to show her (and the NPCs murdering each other as random patrols from various factions walked around) to get to Nellis Air Force Base! Where she proceeded to survive the bombardment that greets you as you work your way to the front gate by sticking close to the left-hand cliff and just healing her way through any hits (helped that Jon had the difficulty down to “Easy,” admittedly); meet Pearl and pretend to start “Volare!”; rob the place of as much useful stuff as possible (which turned out to be a shit-ton of combat armor – Jon theorized that the game couldn’t spawn in any of the usual gear that’s found here because Jo had entered the area at too low a level); and then waltz back out and promptly fast travel back to McCarran. Because that’s all she needed to do.
III. Returned to The Strip via the monorail and checked in with Yes Man, telling him that the Boomers and the Brotherhood could both be ignored. Yes Man was very passive-aggressive about her wanting to ignore these two factions (given one has howitzers and the other was predicted to be a huge threat), but allowed it. Which wrapped up “Side Bets” –
For NO XP. Because apparently that quest just does not give any. Jon doesn’t know if it’s a bug or a feature, but it certainly worked out for him there!
B) Jo then picking up The Platinum Chip off Benny’s corpse (yes, she genuinely just left it there so she could get “Side Bets” done first – maybe it DOES give XP if you complete “Ring-A-Ding-Ding!” first?) reluctantly claiming 990 XP and leveling up twice more. At Level 4, she dumped all of her skill points into Unarmed again, getting it up to 93, and took the Intense Training perk to boost her Agility up to 8; at Level 5, she maxed out Unarmed at 100 and brought Medicine up to 41 with the extra skill points. Making her extremely good at punching people and decently good at healing herself. Excellent traits to have in this run, it must be said.
C) Jo then heading over to the Lucky 38 and – after a side trip to snag the Golden Gloves out of one of the bar areas, thinking their knockout capabilities MIGHT be useful if she got into a real jam – heading up to the penthouse...where she proceeded to completely ignore Mr. House on his big old computer screen and instead use the Platinum Chip to immediate access the secret room that leads to the elevator that leads down to his life support pod. Because she didn’t want to talk to him and accidentally complete any of his quests and get XP! Once safely in the basement, she decanted House from his life support pod, then disabled his cerebral interface so he couldn’t interact with the systems of the Lucky 38 anymore. Though she very notably did not kill him, because while she couldn’t avoid the 450 quest XP, she sure as hell could avoid any additional murder XP. *nod*
D) Jo then plugging Yes Man into House’s old computer interface, and reluctantly going to see the demonstration of how the platinum chip could upgrade the securitrons because there was no getting around that, the game forced her to go via cutscene magic. (Though Jon was nice enough to say that Yes Man’s speech during said demonstration was better than House’s.) This completed “Change In Management,” got her another pile of XP, and pushed her up to Level 6! Where she proceeded to bring Medicine up to 50 and Sneak up to 35, before taking the perk “Toughness” to get herself +3 Damage Threshold to make surviving the final battles easier. Very important for her to actually LIVE to the end of the run, after all!
E) Jo then quietly refusing to go seek out the secret stash of Securitrons in that bunker near The Fort, and vocally refusing to do anything to save President Kimball from getting assassinated at Hoover Dam, leading to Yes Man skipping ahead and giving her the penultimate mission in his quest line: “Finishing Touches!” Where Jo had to go to the El Dorado Substation and attach an override module to the power control terminal there, presumably so Yes Man could do something important there during the big finale (I don’t know much about the Yes Man ending, given Jon has yet to go for it in any of the F:NV videos I’ve watched from him). Jo thus headed out, picking her way through a Legion kill squad spawn zone (though none ever showed up – maybe they didn’t think Jo worth killing) and threading the needle very carefully between a dry lakebed with ants all over it and Vault 11 to avoid tagging either (especially Vault 11, as you get bonus XP for finding that as locating it is also one of the game’s challenges) before slapping on some NCR armor and entering the substation! (Which, Jon had brief hopes of interacting with without crossing its location marker and thus officially discovering it, but sadly approaching the front door granted her the 9 XP anyway. Sad.) Fortunately, the NCR guys inside were super unconcerned with her appearance, and she was able to install the override chip on a nearby terminal and get away without even being shot at once! Even better, despite her fears, she was easily able to return to Camp McCarran and ride the monorail back to the Strip, as the rank-and-file soldiers couldn’t see past her disguise and she was able to avoid anyone with a name who could. Yay!
F) Jo then returning to Yes Man to confirm it was time to start the Second Battle for Hoover Dam, and Jon taking a moment to confirm that, by his calculations, the least amount of experience you could have going into the fight was 3,294! Which, yes, was a rather odd number, but that’s what you get when the Skilled trait is giving you 9 XP for every location found. :P Jo then kicked off the fight (with Yes Man telling her that the only way to win was to make Hoover Dam inoperable – making me rethink my desire to go for the Independent Vegas ending, because eh??? Fortunately, a look at the wiki suggest that this is only required if you DON’T go and get the securitron army at The Fort, which of course Jo didn’t) –
And thus found herself at the top of Hoover Dam, with exactly one securitron backing her up. XD Fortunately, the securitron proved to be useful, killing off the Khans and the Legion coming after her and allowing her to loot their bodies – unfortunately, this revealed that the Legionnaires were carrying super sledges, which were a far superior weapon to the Cram Opener gauntlet, but which Jo couldn’t use effectively as she’d poured almost all of her kill points into Unarmed, and sledges were Melee weapons. Drat! She took them anyway, just in case, but that really did feel like the universe taunting Jon for not considering that possibility.
G) Jo then proceeding to completely avoid doing what she was supposed to be doing during the fight – shooting people and somehow rendering the dam inoperable – and instead running along the top of the damn, tanking hits with the help of Med-X and purified water, before climbing onto a sandbag wall and flinging herself off the side into the water below! Reason? Doing that allowed her to swim the rest of the way to the end of the dam...and then carefully jiggle and glitch her way up the rocks over there to get back on the path, despite the fact that that shouldn’t be possible (throwing on Benny’s suit to make herself lighter and thus increase her chances of success). Because New Vegas is still technically a Bethesda game, and you can always rely on a Bethesda game to have wonky physics and wonky terrain that you can abuse! :p Anyway, this tricked the game into thinking she’d done everything she needed to, and thus spawning in two more securitron friends to take out the guards in front of the Legion camp so she could get inside and end things once and for all.
H) And finally, Jo storming the Legion camp (getting another 9 XP, boo), which involved her:
I. Realizing while trying to avoid the Praetorian Guards – because obviously she didn’t want to kill anyone BUT Lanius; can’t have extra murder XP! – that one of them had a ballistic fist, and promptly switching tactics to disarm the guy with Maria (Benny’s gun, which I presume she was carrying around as a trophy). Because disarming people without killing them didn’t yield XP, and a ballistic fist would be perfect for her fight with the Legate! Shooting the fist off the guard resulted it in breaking, granted –
But then the guy showed up with a SECOND one. And after failing to disarm him twice and taking all of the drugs to help her with the upcoming fight, Jo FINALLY got that one off him too, and combined the two broken fists into one working one, using the weapon repair kit she picked up from Victor’s shack aaaall the way at the beginning of the game to repair it to slightly better condition. A suitable weapon at last!
II. Going to confront Lanius with her new toy, telling him that she was looking forward to taking his mask as a trophy, and then going in to punch him to death...only for Jon to note that she could kill him in one VATS round and going “nope, too easy” and rolling back time to change the difficulty to VERY HARD. Because he’s a flipping madman, apparently. XD
III. Going to confront Lanius AGAIN under the new difficulty, and getting a few good crosses and uppercuts on him – only to die immediately afterward because, as per Jon, “I FORGOT TO PUT ARMOR BACK ON! I’M WEARING BENNY’S COCKING SUIT!” XD Hands up – given my past descriptions of Jon’s videos, who saw him forgetting to change clothes again from a mile away? XD
IV. Confronting Lanius for a third time, this time in armor – and wielding the pool cue because she hoped to knock him down with the “Grand Slam” special attack! Only problem was, she didn’t have enough Melee Weapons skill to actually ACCESS that special attack. Fortunately, reading a magazine in the middle of battle is allowed in F:NV, and she was able to read the appropriate one to get her Melee skill up enough to trigger Grand Slam –
Only to find that Lanius was immune to it. (Though it’s also equally probable she just straight-up missed.) Ah well – worth a shot!
V. Finally using the power of Turbo to absolutely WAIL on Lanius with her ballistic fist (which prompted him to start cowering at one point, which was great) until he got so low on health he fled to try and heal – Jo chased after him, and thanks to him getting stuck in a corner, was able to catch up to him and punch him to death before he could regenerate his health – only to die herself immediately thereafter thanks to all the Praetorian Guards backing him up. Rats!
And that’s where I left it – tomorrow, we’ll finish things off with Jo managing to finally kill Lanius and flee the Legate camp, and receiving what will probably be one of the shortest ending slide montages to New Vegas ever. *nods* Looking forward to it – and to what the final experience total is! Will she hit Level 7 right before ending the game? Time will tell...
2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – got another good chunk on this done, covering:
A) Alice telling Damsel and Skelter about how LaCroix’s sending her to Hollywood to grill Gary on the location of the Ankaran Sarcophagus, and saying that she hoped she didn’t find a pile of dust when she arrived; Damsel assured her in her own foul-mouthed way that she wouldn’t, as nobody would mess with Gary, before complaining about how Gary knows he’s one of the most important people in the city, and how that would be fine if he hadn’t decided to side with the assholes in the Tower. Skelter admitted he didn’t think Gary was really pro-Camarilla, just pro-Nosferatu (and indeed, I believe he’s a lot friendlier to you if you play a Nosferatu fledgling. Those guys stick together!)
B) Skelter then asking Alice about the sarcophagus being missing, and Alice telling him it sure as hell wasn’t at the Museum of Natural History, and he could confirm that with Beckett should he run into him. Cue Skelter being utterly shocked that Alice knows Beckett, and a deeply smug Alice happily informing him that Beckett was a great conversationalist – and thought Skelter’s theory about sleeping elders controlling their movements was full of shit. Skelter was like “he can believe what he wants, I’m keeping my guard up,” before complaining that the nights just got weirder and weirder lately in the city – a sentiment Alice fully agreed with
C) And Smilin’ Jack calling Alice over for a chat just as she prepared to leave – Alice was very relieved to discover that he had no intention of chewing her out over the whole “Nines accused of murdering a primogen” mess, as he knew she’d just been the messenger. He also assured her that Skelter was just a “big barkin’ pup” and only bit when he got cornered. Alice allowed that was some comfort, but admitted she still wished she’d never told LaCroix about Nines, or that she’d at least come to the Last Round first to get the story FROM Nines before going to Venture Tower. She asked Jack if he had any idea why Nines would go to Grout’s, and Jack admitted he didn’t, as Nines sure as hell hadn’t told him anything about going there –
Then revealed that he didn’t believe it was Nines there at all, because some vampires have the ability to make themselves look like other people (hilariously, it’s an Obfuscate power, just not one included in Bloodlines). A startled Alice admitted that would explain why he was acting so oddly, and asked if Jack thought this had all been a set-up, and he confirmed he did, saying LaCroix had wanted to get Nines out of the way for a while, and that sending the newbie to see what he wanted her to see would be a good way to do it. He promised that the Anarchs would shove his bullshit back down his throat at SOME point, but said that, in the meantime, Alice should keep things business as usual.
And there we have it! I ended with Alice promising to do what needed to be done – next time, Jack brings up the sarcophagus, and why HE thinks LaCroix might want it! Should be fun. :P
3. Watch something on YouTube: Check – once again, before starting the Workout Video Write-Up, I decided to watch a YouTube Short from my Recommendeds that intrigued me: “Gale destroys Lorroakan with words #baldursgate3” by SuNStereO! Which showcased Gale and Lorroakan (the wizard that hired Aradin and his company to find the Nightsong) sniping at each other in Lorroakan’s tower in Baldur’s Gate. And while the title described Gale destroying Lorroakan, I think Lorroakan gave as good as he got, honestly –
A) Gale started things off by noting that Lorroakan sought “the power of gods for the pettiest of reasons” and commented that at least he wanted to become a god to HELP people; Lorroakan responded by saying he hadn’t quite heard what Gale had said, “but the insolent tone was quite clear enough”
B) Gale lobbed back that his tone was “pitying, not insolent,” and then told Lorroakan straight up that an even greater power than the one Lorroakan was looking for was within his reach – “a Crown of Karsus!” He claimed that once he acquired it, he would overshadow Lorroakan’s ambitions, challenge Mystra and take her powers, “for the betterment of all.” Lorroakan scoffed, stating that “even if it still existed, you couldn’t possibly handle its power.”
C) Gale then played his ace card, letting Lorroakan know that “Netheril’s power is in my blood,” and that he knew Mystra “in ways most mortals can only dream of.” Unfortunately, that just confirmed his identity to Lorroakan, who shot back that Gale must be “Mystra’s discarded lapdog!” And mocked the idea that Gale’s “bark” would cause him to tremble. Ooof.
D) An annoyed Gale shot back that he didn’t need to bark – “my actions will speak for themselves. [pause, glance to the side] In time.” XD And an unimpressed Lorroakan told him to go and act then, stating, “I’ll open a fine vintage in your name, once word of your failure reaches me.”
...yeah, I think match point for that particular game might go to Lorroakan, actually. *pats Gale* Don’t worry, we’ll help Aylin kill him in my game. AFTER talking you out of your godly ambitions, come on man.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just had Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about today, and I’m pleased to say that I got two more items into the queue –
A) First, this morning, I took some time and finished off the post for Newt’s birthday fic – adding a link to the Christmas fic that it’s a sequel to, adding a “read more” cut, and finishing off the tags – before dropping it in the queue for Thursday
B) And then, tonight, while catching up on my dash, I stumbled across a post Newt had reblogged earlier, showing a TikTok posted by stromcuzewon featuring an education short about concrete – that someone going by dinosaurdinnertheatre had dubbed over with their own ridiculous narration, talking about how concrete is the answer to the question “What if we could make our own ugly version of rocks?” and claiming that concrete manufacturing places regularly release chinchillas onto the factory floor. XD I had a good laugh over it and promptly put it into my queue for Friday.
So that’s all sorted – and I already know exactly what my Song Saturday post is going to be, so I should be able to get that done nice and quick tomorrow! Hooray!
Yeah -- mostly quieter, but that workout video write-up remains a killer. *shakehead* At least the video itself is nearly done! I'm off to bed -- night all!
Work – Fortunately it was a quieter, less stressful Wednesday in the office, with my eight hours consisting of:
A) Working my way through all the pledge cards returned with “so and so is deceased” notes on them to make sure they were all appropriately marked deceased, fixing up some duplicates and such along the way
B) Taking a couple of phone calls to verify that we’d received gifts from some people who’d gotten another ask after sending/calling something in
C) And having the check-in call with the credit card people, which was mostly the usual bullshit about having to send stuff to the guy in charge (including my latest spreadsheet of missed pledge payments, which I sent to them after the call) and nothing actually being done. Because that’s just how it works with these assholes
*shrug* Nothing particularly exciting, but nothing particularly stressful either, and I care a lot more about the latter than the former! Hopefully tomorrow I can finish up some of the other roster maintenance that I have to do – we’ll see!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another half-hour on the bike tonight equaled another half-hour of “Fallout: New Vegas - The Low XP Challenge!” Jo The Low XP Courier’s attempt to beat the game with the least XP possible continued with:
A) Jo leaving the recently-deceased Benny on their shared bed after seducing and killing him and sneaking off through the side door into the secret room where Yes Man lived to meet him and take up Benny’s plan to conquer Vegas! Starting with completing the “Side Bets” quest, where you must go and meet five different groups – The White Glove Society, the Omertas, the Great Khans, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the Boomers – and then report back to Yes Man about them, letting him know if they’re friends, enemies, or can just be ignored. Jo had already “met” the White Glove Society, the Omertas, and the Great Khans by stopping by where they hung out, and thus could tell Yes Man “let’s just ignore their asses,” but still needed to officially “meet” the Brotherhood and the Boomers. She thus:
I. Fast-traveled back to Hidden Valley to enter the Brotherhood bunker...and then showed off a speed-runner’s trick to “meet” the BOS without getting roped into the quest where they slap an explosive collar around your neck and make you deal with an NCR Ranger nearby. Basically, what’s supposed to happen is, if the Courier enters the main bunker without having Veronica or some other prior form of invitation, the entrance door locks behind them, a couple of guards come out the door on the other side, and then Senior Paladin Ramos, Head of Security, shows up and forces them to strip before dragging them before the Elder and kicking off the “deal with the Ranger” mission, which, of course gives them XP. HOWEVER, at least one of the guards has the key for the entrance door on them, probably to help people who shoot first and ask questions later escape if necessary. So, what Jo did was step inside the entrance room, run up to the guards as they came out, pickpocket the key to the entrance door off the nearest one, run back to the door and open it, turn around and fire at Ramos to make him and his buddies hostile (thus preventing them from wanting to give her quests), then booked it out of there before they could kill her. And then kept running because the valley around the bunker was full of scorpions and she needed to get away from them if she wanted to fast-travel anywhere. XD
II. Returned to Camp McCarran once she was free of scorpions and carefully worked her way around all the potential spots of interest that the game wanted to show her (and the NPCs murdering each other as random patrols from various factions walked around) to get to Nellis Air Force Base! Where she proceeded to survive the bombardment that greets you as you work your way to the front gate by sticking close to the left-hand cliff and just healing her way through any hits (helped that Jon had the difficulty down to “Easy,” admittedly); meet Pearl and pretend to start “Volare!”; rob the place of as much useful stuff as possible (which turned out to be a shit-ton of combat armor – Jon theorized that the game couldn’t spawn in any of the usual gear that’s found here because Jo had entered the area at too low a level); and then waltz back out and promptly fast travel back to McCarran. Because that’s all she needed to do.
III. Returned to The Strip via the monorail and checked in with Yes Man, telling him that the Boomers and the Brotherhood could both be ignored. Yes Man was very passive-aggressive about her wanting to ignore these two factions (given one has howitzers and the other was predicted to be a huge threat), but allowed it. Which wrapped up “Side Bets” –
For NO XP. Because apparently that quest just does not give any. Jon doesn’t know if it’s a bug or a feature, but it certainly worked out for him there!
B) Jo then picking up The Platinum Chip off Benny’s corpse (yes, she genuinely just left it there so she could get “Side Bets” done first – maybe it DOES give XP if you complete “Ring-A-Ding-Ding!” first?) reluctantly claiming 990 XP and leveling up twice more. At Level 4, she dumped all of her skill points into Unarmed again, getting it up to 93, and took the Intense Training perk to boost her Agility up to 8; at Level 5, she maxed out Unarmed at 100 and brought Medicine up to 41 with the extra skill points. Making her extremely good at punching people and decently good at healing herself. Excellent traits to have in this run, it must be said.
C) Jo then heading over to the Lucky 38 and – after a side trip to snag the Golden Gloves out of one of the bar areas, thinking their knockout capabilities MIGHT be useful if she got into a real jam – heading up to the penthouse...where she proceeded to completely ignore Mr. House on his big old computer screen and instead use the Platinum Chip to immediate access the secret room that leads to the elevator that leads down to his life support pod. Because she didn’t want to talk to him and accidentally complete any of his quests and get XP! Once safely in the basement, she decanted House from his life support pod, then disabled his cerebral interface so he couldn’t interact with the systems of the Lucky 38 anymore. Though she very notably did not kill him, because while she couldn’t avoid the 450 quest XP, she sure as hell could avoid any additional murder XP. *nod*
D) Jo then plugging Yes Man into House’s old computer interface, and reluctantly going to see the demonstration of how the platinum chip could upgrade the securitrons because there was no getting around that, the game forced her to go via cutscene magic. (Though Jon was nice enough to say that Yes Man’s speech during said demonstration was better than House’s.) This completed “Change In Management,” got her another pile of XP, and pushed her up to Level 6! Where she proceeded to bring Medicine up to 50 and Sneak up to 35, before taking the perk “Toughness” to get herself +3 Damage Threshold to make surviving the final battles easier. Very important for her to actually LIVE to the end of the run, after all!
E) Jo then quietly refusing to go seek out the secret stash of Securitrons in that bunker near The Fort, and vocally refusing to do anything to save President Kimball from getting assassinated at Hoover Dam, leading to Yes Man skipping ahead and giving her the penultimate mission in his quest line: “Finishing Touches!” Where Jo had to go to the El Dorado Substation and attach an override module to the power control terminal there, presumably so Yes Man could do something important there during the big finale (I don’t know much about the Yes Man ending, given Jon has yet to go for it in any of the F:NV videos I’ve watched from him). Jo thus headed out, picking her way through a Legion kill squad spawn zone (though none ever showed up – maybe they didn’t think Jo worth killing) and threading the needle very carefully between a dry lakebed with ants all over it and Vault 11 to avoid tagging either (especially Vault 11, as you get bonus XP for finding that as locating it is also one of the game’s challenges) before slapping on some NCR armor and entering the substation! (Which, Jon had brief hopes of interacting with without crossing its location marker and thus officially discovering it, but sadly approaching the front door granted her the 9 XP anyway. Sad.) Fortunately, the NCR guys inside were super unconcerned with her appearance, and she was able to install the override chip on a nearby terminal and get away without even being shot at once! Even better, despite her fears, she was easily able to return to Camp McCarran and ride the monorail back to the Strip, as the rank-and-file soldiers couldn’t see past her disguise and she was able to avoid anyone with a name who could. Yay!
F) Jo then returning to Yes Man to confirm it was time to start the Second Battle for Hoover Dam, and Jon taking a moment to confirm that, by his calculations, the least amount of experience you could have going into the fight was 3,294! Which, yes, was a rather odd number, but that’s what you get when the Skilled trait is giving you 9 XP for every location found. :P Jo then kicked off the fight (with Yes Man telling her that the only way to win was to make Hoover Dam inoperable – making me rethink my desire to go for the Independent Vegas ending, because eh??? Fortunately, a look at the wiki suggest that this is only required if you DON’T go and get the securitron army at The Fort, which of course Jo didn’t) –
And thus found herself at the top of Hoover Dam, with exactly one securitron backing her up. XD Fortunately, the securitron proved to be useful, killing off the Khans and the Legion coming after her and allowing her to loot their bodies – unfortunately, this revealed that the Legionnaires were carrying super sledges, which were a far superior weapon to the Cram Opener gauntlet, but which Jo couldn’t use effectively as she’d poured almost all of her kill points into Unarmed, and sledges were Melee weapons. Drat! She took them anyway, just in case, but that really did feel like the universe taunting Jon for not considering that possibility.
G) Jo then proceeding to completely avoid doing what she was supposed to be doing during the fight – shooting people and somehow rendering the dam inoperable – and instead running along the top of the damn, tanking hits with the help of Med-X and purified water, before climbing onto a sandbag wall and flinging herself off the side into the water below! Reason? Doing that allowed her to swim the rest of the way to the end of the dam...and then carefully jiggle and glitch her way up the rocks over there to get back on the path, despite the fact that that shouldn’t be possible (throwing on Benny’s suit to make herself lighter and thus increase her chances of success). Because New Vegas is still technically a Bethesda game, and you can always rely on a Bethesda game to have wonky physics and wonky terrain that you can abuse! :p Anyway, this tricked the game into thinking she’d done everything she needed to, and thus spawning in two more securitron friends to take out the guards in front of the Legion camp so she could get inside and end things once and for all.
H) And finally, Jo storming the Legion camp (getting another 9 XP, boo), which involved her:
I. Realizing while trying to avoid the Praetorian Guards – because obviously she didn’t want to kill anyone BUT Lanius; can’t have extra murder XP! – that one of them had a ballistic fist, and promptly switching tactics to disarm the guy with Maria (Benny’s gun, which I presume she was carrying around as a trophy). Because disarming people without killing them didn’t yield XP, and a ballistic fist would be perfect for her fight with the Legate! Shooting the fist off the guard resulted it in breaking, granted –
But then the guy showed up with a SECOND one. And after failing to disarm him twice and taking all of the drugs to help her with the upcoming fight, Jo FINALLY got that one off him too, and combined the two broken fists into one working one, using the weapon repair kit she picked up from Victor’s shack aaaall the way at the beginning of the game to repair it to slightly better condition. A suitable weapon at last!
II. Going to confront Lanius with her new toy, telling him that she was looking forward to taking his mask as a trophy, and then going in to punch him to death...only for Jon to note that she could kill him in one VATS round and going “nope, too easy” and rolling back time to change the difficulty to VERY HARD. Because he’s a flipping madman, apparently. XD
III. Going to confront Lanius AGAIN under the new difficulty, and getting a few good crosses and uppercuts on him – only to die immediately afterward because, as per Jon, “I FORGOT TO PUT ARMOR BACK ON! I’M WEARING BENNY’S COCKING SUIT!” XD Hands up – given my past descriptions of Jon’s videos, who saw him forgetting to change clothes again from a mile away? XD
IV. Confronting Lanius for a third time, this time in armor – and wielding the pool cue because she hoped to knock him down with the “Grand Slam” special attack! Only problem was, she didn’t have enough Melee Weapons skill to actually ACCESS that special attack. Fortunately, reading a magazine in the middle of battle is allowed in F:NV, and she was able to read the appropriate one to get her Melee skill up enough to trigger Grand Slam –
Only to find that Lanius was immune to it. (Though it’s also equally probable she just straight-up missed.) Ah well – worth a shot!
V. Finally using the power of Turbo to absolutely WAIL on Lanius with her ballistic fist (which prompted him to start cowering at one point, which was great) until he got so low on health he fled to try and heal – Jo chased after him, and thanks to him getting stuck in a corner, was able to catch up to him and punch him to death before he could regenerate his health – only to die herself immediately thereafter thanks to all the Praetorian Guards backing him up. Rats!
And that’s where I left it – tomorrow, we’ll finish things off with Jo managing to finally kill Lanius and flee the Legate camp, and receiving what will probably be one of the shortest ending slide montages to New Vegas ever. *nods* Looking forward to it – and to what the final experience total is! Will she hit Level 7 right before ending the game? Time will tell...
2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – got another good chunk on this done, covering:
A) Alice telling Damsel and Skelter about how LaCroix’s sending her to Hollywood to grill Gary on the location of the Ankaran Sarcophagus, and saying that she hoped she didn’t find a pile of dust when she arrived; Damsel assured her in her own foul-mouthed way that she wouldn’t, as nobody would mess with Gary, before complaining about how Gary knows he’s one of the most important people in the city, and how that would be fine if he hadn’t decided to side with the assholes in the Tower. Skelter admitted he didn’t think Gary was really pro-Camarilla, just pro-Nosferatu (and indeed, I believe he’s a lot friendlier to you if you play a Nosferatu fledgling. Those guys stick together!)
B) Skelter then asking Alice about the sarcophagus being missing, and Alice telling him it sure as hell wasn’t at the Museum of Natural History, and he could confirm that with Beckett should he run into him. Cue Skelter being utterly shocked that Alice knows Beckett, and a deeply smug Alice happily informing him that Beckett was a great conversationalist – and thought Skelter’s theory about sleeping elders controlling their movements was full of shit. Skelter was like “he can believe what he wants, I’m keeping my guard up,” before complaining that the nights just got weirder and weirder lately in the city – a sentiment Alice fully agreed with
C) And Smilin’ Jack calling Alice over for a chat just as she prepared to leave – Alice was very relieved to discover that he had no intention of chewing her out over the whole “Nines accused of murdering a primogen” mess, as he knew she’d just been the messenger. He also assured her that Skelter was just a “big barkin’ pup” and only bit when he got cornered. Alice allowed that was some comfort, but admitted she still wished she’d never told LaCroix about Nines, or that she’d at least come to the Last Round first to get the story FROM Nines before going to Venture Tower. She asked Jack if he had any idea why Nines would go to Grout’s, and Jack admitted he didn’t, as Nines sure as hell hadn’t told him anything about going there –
Then revealed that he didn’t believe it was Nines there at all, because some vampires have the ability to make themselves look like other people (hilariously, it’s an Obfuscate power, just not one included in Bloodlines). A startled Alice admitted that would explain why he was acting so oddly, and asked if Jack thought this had all been a set-up, and he confirmed he did, saying LaCroix had wanted to get Nines out of the way for a while, and that sending the newbie to see what he wanted her to see would be a good way to do it. He promised that the Anarchs would shove his bullshit back down his throat at SOME point, but said that, in the meantime, Alice should keep things business as usual.
And there we have it! I ended with Alice promising to do what needed to be done – next time, Jack brings up the sarcophagus, and why HE thinks LaCroix might want it! Should be fun. :P
3. Watch something on YouTube: Check – once again, before starting the Workout Video Write-Up, I decided to watch a YouTube Short from my Recommendeds that intrigued me: “Gale destroys Lorroakan with words #baldursgate3” by SuNStereO! Which showcased Gale and Lorroakan (the wizard that hired Aradin and his company to find the Nightsong) sniping at each other in Lorroakan’s tower in Baldur’s Gate. And while the title described Gale destroying Lorroakan, I think Lorroakan gave as good as he got, honestly –
A) Gale started things off by noting that Lorroakan sought “the power of gods for the pettiest of reasons” and commented that at least he wanted to become a god to HELP people; Lorroakan responded by saying he hadn’t quite heard what Gale had said, “but the insolent tone was quite clear enough”
B) Gale lobbed back that his tone was “pitying, not insolent,” and then told Lorroakan straight up that an even greater power than the one Lorroakan was looking for was within his reach – “a Crown of Karsus!” He claimed that once he acquired it, he would overshadow Lorroakan’s ambitions, challenge Mystra and take her powers, “for the betterment of all.” Lorroakan scoffed, stating that “even if it still existed, you couldn’t possibly handle its power.”
C) Gale then played his ace card, letting Lorroakan know that “Netheril’s power is in my blood,” and that he knew Mystra “in ways most mortals can only dream of.” Unfortunately, that just confirmed his identity to Lorroakan, who shot back that Gale must be “Mystra’s discarded lapdog!” And mocked the idea that Gale’s “bark” would cause him to tremble. Ooof.
D) An annoyed Gale shot back that he didn’t need to bark – “my actions will speak for themselves. [pause, glance to the side] In time.” XD And an unimpressed Lorroakan told him to go and act then, stating, “I’ll open a fine vintage in your name, once word of your failure reaches me.”
...yeah, I think match point for that particular game might go to Lorroakan, actually. *pats Gale* Don’t worry, we’ll help Aylin kill him in my game. AFTER talking you out of your godly ambitions, come on man.
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just had Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about today, and I’m pleased to say that I got two more items into the queue –
A) First, this morning, I took some time and finished off the post for Newt’s birthday fic – adding a link to the Christmas fic that it’s a sequel to, adding a “read more” cut, and finishing off the tags – before dropping it in the queue for Thursday
B) And then, tonight, while catching up on my dash, I stumbled across a post Newt had reblogged earlier, showing a TikTok posted by stromcuzewon featuring an education short about concrete – that someone going by dinosaurdinnertheatre had dubbed over with their own ridiculous narration, talking about how concrete is the answer to the question “What if we could make our own ugly version of rocks?” and claiming that concrete manufacturing places regularly release chinchillas onto the factory floor. XD I had a good laugh over it and promptly put it into my queue for Friday.
So that’s all sorted – and I already know exactly what my Song Saturday post is going to be, so I should be able to get that done nice and quick tomorrow! Hooray!
Yeah -- mostly quieter, but that workout video write-up remains a killer. *shakehead* At least the video itself is nearly done! I'm off to bed -- night all!
