Warm As Hell End To March
Mar. 31st, 2026 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickToday was SUPPOSED to be in the low-to-mid 60s, but according to my car, it was 75 F when I left the office today! Practically summer weather! I opened my windows for a bit when I got home. :) And tomorrow was already supposed to be warmer than today, so -- I guess we'll see what happens! Would be nice to get some good weather after all the bullshit we had this winter. *sigh* Anyway, here's the daily write-up:
Work – It was a somewhat stressful but also rather productive day at work today:
A) I managed to finish off the QC file for the latest round of thank-yous from yesterday...though I finished it later than I wanted to because of interruptions (like helping my coworker research a potential duplicate, and telling our database person to delete some extra pledges out of a credit card batch she was trying to post as the donor had made multiple ones by accident trying to get their card to go through), and I found a few more gifts that should have gone to the newspaper office in the process
B) I managed to track down a guy’s missing check for him by calling the parish and learning they still had it – cue him calling me a miracle-worker for getting back to him so quickly while I thought “dude, trust me, this was sheer luck” XD
C) I wrote an e-mail to a couple who had both a pledge and a recurring gift...and an EXTRA gift that I am PRETTY sure was intended for the wife’s mother (as it had a different name on the Give Central account I found the gift on, but the wife’s name on the credit card) to ask which they wanted to keep, and to confirm that the extra gift was for said other person
D) I went through the next bundle of exceptions after my supervisor had looked at it and made sure all the failed credit cards were properly blacked out and such (so many people this year have forgotten to include their expiration date with their main credit card number! Bit annoying, honestly)
E) I also told said supervisor about the credit card issue I’d discovered with our processors yesterday – turns out she’d missed my original e-mail, so I’m glad I spoke up! She called the affected donors while I issued a refund (fortunately, the affected payment had been uploaded in one of the batches that day)
F) And I did a bunch of reversals at the end of the day to clear up some other mistakes I’d found during my review of the QC file (mostly having to apply payments to pledges)
Whew! Busy day, with some definite annoying moments, but at least I got some shit done and some important problems cleared up. Now we just have to see what Wednesday brings – it is April Fool’s Day, after all...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “Hitman 3 Ways To Play MILLA JOVOVICH | Patient Zero Requiem: Explosions! Firing squads! Rampage?” Today’s little-over-a-half-hour session covered –
A) Everyone exploring the secret virus lab underneath the mansion:
I. Andy was in total “squee” mode, talking about how cool it was that they’d gone so hard on this particular mission and basking in the Resident Evil-ness of it all. He particularly liked listening to the audio logs around the place – which consisted of one in an old lab of a scientist talking to Zachary about the virus and how, once they fixed the rat exploding problem, it could be reengineered into being cure for so many diseases (going on about how he hoped the virus had a badass name like the ones in the RE series), and one in the next hallway along, surrounded by dead bodies, that featured (I think, I’m not 100% sure) that same scientist cursing Zachary out for telling H.E.R.B. they were moving the virus AND giving the AI control of the lasers to stop them, before dying on-tape (yes, it DID mean that H.E.R.B. was the murdery sort of artificial intelligence, which could be problematic later, but it just had SUCH excellent RE vibes!). Seriously, it’s like this whole thing was tailor-made for Andy, given his delighted reactions. XD
II. Jane, by contrast, was all “oh, that’s what they always say!” about the scientist talking about how the virus could do so much good for mankind, grumbling about how they were always like “it’ll either cure everyone or turn them into zombies – we have to take that risk!” in these situations. Which, you know, is a fair reaction to have to things. She also continued taking snaps of things that interested her – namely, the face of one of the dead scientists in the hall, so she had evidence of H.E.R.B. being a little bit murdery (and probably that the woman was infected with something bad).
III. And Mike was just amused by the first log talking about the exploding rats (it IS an interesting problem to have during clinical trials). Though, to his credit, he was also the first one to spot through a little internal window where exactly Lilith had got to – a big old scary chamber deeper in the facility! He promptly went and chased her, pausing just momentarily over the body of the first scientist to toss a baseball in her general direction, much like he had with Alexa. And then retrieve it because, honestly, he might need that. :p
B) Everyone discovering Lilith in her big scary chamber and going to confront her – Andy got to show off the majority of the conversation, possibly because he had the most context for it (he was the only one to talk to her and thus learn she knew who the hell she was), but as it was an in-game cutscene of sorts, it went the same for everybody:
I. Lilith demanding that H.E.R.B. release the virus, and H.E.R.B. telling her that that sounded like an extraordinarily bad idea, and anyway only Zachary could override his security protocols (before asking if he could speak to him, aww)
II. Lilith spotting 47 outside the big scary glass cube and going to greet him, before giving him the big evil speech about how she was the daughter of the cult leader he took down in “Patient Zero” (Jane was like “I killed her dad!” and then “I kill a lot of people’s dads, you can’t expect me to remember each one” XD) and how she would be continuing her late father’s work, and how she wondered if 47 would find killing on this scale thrilling – 47 coldly informed her that “For me, death is not personal”
III. Lilith pulling out a vial of the virus and INFECTING HERSELF WITH IT (there was a lot of shocked gasping from Andy, Jane, and Mike at this, with Andy in particular going “she’s going to become a Tyrant!”) before telling 47 she would be inflicting her father’s prophecy upon the world, and fulfilling her “true purpose in death” – 47 said that he found you got more done by staying alive, and she responded that she would enjoy seeing him try
IV. And Lilith ending things by saying “Shall we return to the party? Networking is going to be so much more fun now…” and exiting the chamber via a door in the back – 47 swore that she wouldn’t leave this place, but Lilith just laughed and noted that might be the last threat he ever made
Tense stuff, seriously! Andy’s right, they very much did go all out on this mission.
C) Everyone then having to escape the lab after H.E.R.B. decided to try and kill 47 to keep the virus contained (despite the fact that he was very much NOT infected)! This was another sequence that basically went the same for everyone:
I. First, 47 had to run through the lab as H.E.R.B. filled it with gas (apologizing all the while for the fact that 47 had to die down there) – nothing too difficult, though it was worrying to see the screen getting more and more monochrome from the gradual damage as they ran
II. Then, 47 had to dodge between the gaps in two moving laser grids – one vertical one that came for him from the front, and one horizontal one that came at him from the back – in the main hall (while H.E.R.B. got increasingly annoyed about his new friend refusing to die). Again, nothing too difficult, as the gaps were wide and 47 just had to stand and crouch in the right areas to avoid getting cubed. Also, small shout-out to Mike, who was the most sensible of the three for a change and went behind one of the two fancy gargoyle statues at the front instead of between them on the off chance that they shot lasers – sure, he was wrong, but it was a good instance of him thinking ahead!
III. And finally, when Herb finally created a laser grid that no player could be expected to get through on their own, 47 had to pass one quick-time event so his cutscene self could take over and parkour expertly through a gap high up in the grid. Causing a very grumpy H.E.R.B. to snap that he hadn’t wanted to be 47’s friend anyway –
And to mention that, if 47 wanted to try and keep everyone from dying, there might be something useful in Zachary’s room. Maybe. Whatever. :p Yeah, H.E.R.B. is definitely made in the Wheatley mold, rather than the GLaDOS one that Andy initially supposed. At least he’s still better than ChatGPT!
D) Everyone then returning to the mansion proper via the elevator while Diana noted that was a weird interlude and informed 47 that keeping that virus contained was a top priority...and that Ether’s hazmat-suit-wearing backup had arrived, so he’d better plan accordingly. First priority for everyone – killing Lilith! Here’s how they all went about that:
I. Andy went straight to Zachary’s room to see what was in there, and discovered a distilling kit that could make an antidote to the virus (made out of a green herb and a blue herb, natch), and a little crafting area where he could make various antidote darts and dart guns (along with an antidote gas grenade and gas mine, but for SOME REASON nobody thought to pick those). Andy thus made a dart gun and a few darts, plus a personal injector just in case he got threatened, then headed out as the infected count among the guests rose higher and higher. Happily, he managed to make it into the library with little fuss – AND was lucky enough to get one of the hazmat suit guys alone so he could choke him out and steal his outfit. He then located Lilith (flanked by her bodyguards again, who were now sporting special breathing masks, natch), and followed her as she went into a special room – some scooting out the window and hanging from the masonry later, he was able to eavesdrop on her recording her manifesto about how her father dreamed of a world without borders, and how she would bring his vision to the world in death, inviting the listeners to “welcome the Nightshade virus into your mortal shells” so they could all become ash together. Andy was very pleased to discover that the virus had an awesome evil name. XD She then finished up the recording with a little “Yay! Exciting” –
And then foolishly left it in the room, allowing Andy’s 47 to steal it (after choking out and then curing the maid who was in there), bring it to where the other Ether guys were hanging out, and play it on one of the computers there. Causing one of said guys (the team leader, in fact, in a special gray hazmat suit) to overhear it, go “wait, this is death cult nonsense? Oh hell no, I am NOT participating in that,” and get 47’s help in finding and apprehending Lilith! They thus marched around until they located her upstairs, before informing her that she was to come quietly or they’d shoot –
Causing her to briefly tell the leader, Kevin, that he’d always been her favorite. Only to bust out “that’s why I’ll SLAUGHTER YOU FIRST” when he was like “uh, really?” XD Fortunately, he and his buddies were very quick on the draw, and before she could kill anyone, they’d shot her down. And 47 didn’t even have to pull the trigger. Yay!
II. Jane started out by going to the library and luring one of the hazmat guys to a quiet corner so she could steal his outfit – this didn’t go quite to plan, as the guy turned and saw her just as she went to choke him out, but she won the “beat this guy unconscious” quick-time events, and was able to procure herself a safety suit. She then wandered the mansion looking for Lilith –
Only to, hilariously, find her in the very bathroom where she’d overflowed the sink to lure those bodyguards away from Gregory’s door earlier, wiping up the floor! XD Jane was very pleased with her little accidental trap. She thus had 47 tell Lilith that he could show her a way out, causing Lilith to immediately trust him and be willing to follow him –
And then proceeded to dither about in the bathroom for ages before killing her. O.o Like, okay, I understand her taking a moment to get a picture of Lilith’s sore-covered face, taking weird pictures has kind of been her thing during this whole video, but for some reason she couldn’t decide on what implement to actually kill her with. Hell, she seemed ready to genuinely lead the woman out of the bathroom at one point! She eventually settled for the classic of “choking the target out and snapping their neck,” but DAMN. It shouldn’t have taken that long to get there, Jane!
III. And Mike just found a spot near where Lilith was passing with her bodyguards (I think in the upper level of the library), tossed the Pale Duck at her, and exploded her and her bodyguards. XD He was very pleased with himself, even if it resulted in him having to hide while all the hazmat guys tried to figure out who was going on a killing spree – well, up until the point where he realized that maybe a bunch of other people having the virus might be a problem… XD To be fair, for some reason, after he left the lab, his UI glitched out and stopped showing the mission objectives, meaning he didn’t have something EXPLICITLY telling him that, yes, you had to take care of all the infected people. He eventually figured out that everyone being in red probably meant that he had to kill them, though.
E) And everyone trying – and failing – to deal with their various infected party guests as the numbers kept climbing and climbing (even with the help of the hazmat suit guys, who shot anyone who dared try to flee the mansion):
I. Andy headed down to the main ballroom to try and cure a few people with the few darts he had, shooting a waiter and attempting to shoot a guy in a tuxedo...only for the guests to start panicking because, well, 47 was still shooting a gun, and I imagine everyone was very much on edge given all the weird guys in hazmat suits with shotguns patrolling the area. He thus had to flee the group at the entrance hall and scramble to find a new disguise that would make it so everyone didn’t want to shoot him – which, uh, was harder than it sounded, as neither his old “high tier security” outfit nor fancy red hunting jacket fit the bill. Forcing him to hide in a box to wait until the heat had died down a bit...
II. Jane found the antidote-making distiller in Zachary’s room and crafted it along with the antidote dart gun, then set about finding people to cure. It looked for a moment like she might have the easiest time of it, because for whatever reason her infected count at the very start was super low – only six people, after she took out Lilith – but unfortunately, when she tried to lure an infected woman from a doorway up some stairs, she instead got an innocent passerby instead...who became infected the minute he passed by the infected woman! And when Jane shot both him and the lady she’d originally wanted to cure with her dart gun, she too discovered that the NPCs panicked upon hearing gunfire, causing them to run around – and causing the infection to spread rapidly. Having used up her cures already, Jane decided it was time to go “full screwdriver” and started around lobbing sharp throwable objects into people’s heads, then fleeing as her crimes were noticed before anyone could pull her into combat. She tried shooting the fancy chandelier down over the crowd of infected, but that just murdered one person along with two non-targets (aka non-infected people), which annoyed her. She eventually just started taking potshots at people from the balcony, which just got everyone more annoyed with her, forcing her to flee – and to remember that she did have a remote-detonated mine on her. Which might be useful. And then she caught a masked bodyguard trying to remove Lilith’s corpse from the bathroom and was able to knock him unconscious, steal his disguise, and snap his neck to continue with her deadly work...
III. And Mike got himself a masked bodyguard’s outfit (meaning he too was protected from the virus for the moment) and took out the infected maid in the “manifesto recording” room before looking at the crowd he had to kill and going “nnnnngh…” XD He quickly discovered, though, that everyone had been rounded up in the front room by the hazmat guys and realized that, if he could procure another explosive, that might help. Cue him going around looking for a propane canister (murdering Gregory in one of the rooms along the way on the basis of “he was probably going to get infected anyway”), finally finding one in a storeroom, flinging it into the room from the upstairs balcony, and setting it off with a gunshot –
And getting like three people. At least one of which might not have even died (Mike saw one of them get up and was like “are they REALLY zombies??”). And causing the NPCs to scatter and, naturally, start infecting each other even more. He also tried to shoot down the chandelier to kill some of them, and managed to get a whole two (which was one more than Jane got) before getting pissy with Diana for telling him that he needed to contain the infection here. (And then apologizing and asserting that he and Diana were “tight.” Somehow I doubt that, given you’re the most chaotic 47 of the bunch. XD) He then proceeded to take his own set of potshots at the crowd below (which were much more effective than Jane’s, given he’s the headshot master) before getting caught and having to flee...and then having to flee AGAIN because he ran into a room of people who were only too happy to start shooting and throwing flashbangs at him. XD He eventually ended up in another security guard disguise, punching out Carlisles and their bodyguards and hiding them in cupboards, and attempting to use “spray and pray” tactics on the people in the main room from the balcony above (which did not work very well). I left things off with him fleeing outside to avoid the consequences of his actions, and watching as a bunch of people attempted to flee outside…
Aaand yeah. Things are Not Good right at the moment for ANY of the 47s! I have no idea how any of them are going to handle the huge amount of infected in their respective levels...I guess we’ll find out tomorrow!
2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – in fact, I actually wrote up a whole page’s worth of new content tonight! Which was inspired by all the comments on the last chapter that told me “hey, LaCroix’s Dominate command to ‘not speak of this to the Anarchs’ regarding him deciding whether or not to call a Blood Hunt on Nines was too specific and Alice could have totally loopholed it by writing a note.” As I decided I didn’t want to change the original command (I considered it, but – I dunno, I liked it as it was), I instead wrote a new bit to explain why Alice didn’t go with the loophole, which consisted of –
A) Jack asking Alice to stick around for a moment when she bade him adieu, asking exactly what command LaCroix gave her when he Dominated her...and upon hearing it, telling her “for future reference, you can totally loophole that bullshit.” Cue Alice going very still as Jack explained that the whole “speak” part of the command meant that she probably could have gotten away with writing a note and slipping it under the door or something, before telling her that she shouldn’t worry about it, Nines knew some sort of bullshit like this was coming, and she’s so new to being a vampire, it’s not surprising she didn’t think of this. He just wanted her to know for the future!
B) And Alice, still unnaturally calm on the outside, thanking him for being helpful, leaving the bar, and proceeding into an alley...where she promptly screamed “YOU MOTHERFUCKERS” and turned on the Wonderlanders in full Hysteria mode, demanding to know why they hadn’t pointed out the loophole last night. Carpenter and Hatter both attempted to claim that they weren’t “omniknowing” and that, as figments of her imagination, they were kind of limited by the information she had, but Alice immediately called bullshit on that, pointing out that they warned her all the time about shit she shouldn’t logically know about, and wondering openly if they were trying to get her killed by not letting her warn Nines (The Queen Of Hearts: “Well–” Alice: “NOT YOU”) She then accused them of doing nothing but getting in her way and making her life harder –
Leading Hatter to angrily protest that they were plenty useful to her, and had warned her about all kinds of things in the past! In fact, she wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for Cheshire getting her out of Grout’s mansion! And Cheshire to appear on the scene and ask her to answer him one question before she continued trying to get violent – namely, if she really thought she would have been in a fit state to talk to anyone about Grout’s last night. (I mean, she managed to talk to Victor about it, but admittedly that was after a shower and him making a blanket nest for her…)
And that’s where I left it for the moment! Tomorrow, we’ll wrap up this new scene and start working our way toward finishing off the chapter proper. Would be nice to get it done this week so I can start the final editing pass next week...we will see!
3. Watch something on YouTube: No check again, unsurprisingly – the damn Workout Video Write-Up took too long once again. I have really got to reign in the amount of detail I go into with those things, especially when it gets to the point of me rewatching parts of the video to properly sum it up...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Double check tonight, surprisingly –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Over here, I got the next three days of my queue sorted with:
A) A mini-thread featuring a post by langernameohnebedeutung with a screenshot of a “how big is your English vocabulary” test asking what word was a synonym for “companion” – fool, mirror, entrapment, partner – and saying it had dropped some new ship dynamics, followed by a post by polyamorousmood featuring a meme picture of a hand preparing to smack a button labeled “all four” with the caption “(This is a poly meme all four are different people)” for Wednesday – I added some tags saying how the whole thing made me think of my “Four Victorians Riding a Roller Coaster” fivesome, with Victor as the original “companion,” Smiler as the “fool” (silliest one), Victoria as the “mirror” (most like Victor), Emily as the “entrapment” (trapped Victor in the Land of the Dead when she thought they were married), and Alice as the “partner” (only one left/Alice is the original other half of the OTP that this ship is built off of). :p It’s just fun, you know!
B) That post from lysimachias about how it doesn’t matter if a ship is supported by canon or even reasonable; what matters is if the thought of the characters being near each other makes you want to chew concrete for Thursday (because, again, Valice/Valicer mood)
C) And my post of “Valicer Not-Incorrect Quotes, Easter Edition” for Friday!
So that’s all nice – we’ll figure out Saturday tomorrow, hopefully!
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I finally had an anon ask that I actually wanted to answer – a very silly one featuring an octopus facing off against a cat with a gun in each “hand,” and the cat taunting them that “You’re still one short, buddy!” After a bit of thought, I had the Inevitable High School!Alice reply that perhaps leaving the cat with a single life was actually the octopus’s aim – because as cruel as it would be to kill the cat, it would be crueler still to leave it with one life left, knowing that the next screw-up would be its last…
Followed by Smiler going “...I feel like you're taking this ridiculous hypothetical way too seriously.” XD Look, it just amused me – and hopefully it will amused the anon too!
And there we have it! And there I must leave you, because I absolutely have to get my ass to bed. *shakehead* Night all!
Work – It was a somewhat stressful but also rather productive day at work today:
A) I managed to finish off the QC file for the latest round of thank-yous from yesterday...though I finished it later than I wanted to because of interruptions (like helping my coworker research a potential duplicate, and telling our database person to delete some extra pledges out of a credit card batch she was trying to post as the donor had made multiple ones by accident trying to get their card to go through), and I found a few more gifts that should have gone to the newspaper office in the process
B) I managed to track down a guy’s missing check for him by calling the parish and learning they still had it – cue him calling me a miracle-worker for getting back to him so quickly while I thought “dude, trust me, this was sheer luck” XD
C) I wrote an e-mail to a couple who had both a pledge and a recurring gift...and an EXTRA gift that I am PRETTY sure was intended for the wife’s mother (as it had a different name on the Give Central account I found the gift on, but the wife’s name on the credit card) to ask which they wanted to keep, and to confirm that the extra gift was for said other person
D) I went through the next bundle of exceptions after my supervisor had looked at it and made sure all the failed credit cards were properly blacked out and such (so many people this year have forgotten to include their expiration date with their main credit card number! Bit annoying, honestly)
E) I also told said supervisor about the credit card issue I’d discovered with our processors yesterday – turns out she’d missed my original e-mail, so I’m glad I spoke up! She called the affected donors while I issued a refund (fortunately, the affected payment had been uploaded in one of the batches that day)
F) And I did a bunch of reversals at the end of the day to clear up some other mistakes I’d found during my review of the QC file (mostly having to apply payments to pledges)
Whew! Busy day, with some definite annoying moments, but at least I got some shit done and some important problems cleared up. Now we just have to see what Wednesday brings – it is April Fool’s Day, after all...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “Hitman 3 Ways To Play MILLA JOVOVICH | Patient Zero Requiem: Explosions! Firing squads! Rampage?” Today’s little-over-a-half-hour session covered –
A) Everyone exploring the secret virus lab underneath the mansion:
I. Andy was in total “squee” mode, talking about how cool it was that they’d gone so hard on this particular mission and basking in the Resident Evil-ness of it all. He particularly liked listening to the audio logs around the place – which consisted of one in an old lab of a scientist talking to Zachary about the virus and how, once they fixed the rat exploding problem, it could be reengineered into being cure for so many diseases (going on about how he hoped the virus had a badass name like the ones in the RE series), and one in the next hallway along, surrounded by dead bodies, that featured (I think, I’m not 100% sure) that same scientist cursing Zachary out for telling H.E.R.B. they were moving the virus AND giving the AI control of the lasers to stop them, before dying on-tape (yes, it DID mean that H.E.R.B. was the murdery sort of artificial intelligence, which could be problematic later, but it just had SUCH excellent RE vibes!). Seriously, it’s like this whole thing was tailor-made for Andy, given his delighted reactions. XD
II. Jane, by contrast, was all “oh, that’s what they always say!” about the scientist talking about how the virus could do so much good for mankind, grumbling about how they were always like “it’ll either cure everyone or turn them into zombies – we have to take that risk!” in these situations. Which, you know, is a fair reaction to have to things. She also continued taking snaps of things that interested her – namely, the face of one of the dead scientists in the hall, so she had evidence of H.E.R.B. being a little bit murdery (and probably that the woman was infected with something bad).
III. And Mike was just amused by the first log talking about the exploding rats (it IS an interesting problem to have during clinical trials). Though, to his credit, he was also the first one to spot through a little internal window where exactly Lilith had got to – a big old scary chamber deeper in the facility! He promptly went and chased her, pausing just momentarily over the body of the first scientist to toss a baseball in her general direction, much like he had with Alexa. And then retrieve it because, honestly, he might need that. :p
B) Everyone discovering Lilith in her big scary chamber and going to confront her – Andy got to show off the majority of the conversation, possibly because he had the most context for it (he was the only one to talk to her and thus learn she knew who the hell she was), but as it was an in-game cutscene of sorts, it went the same for everybody:
I. Lilith demanding that H.E.R.B. release the virus, and H.E.R.B. telling her that that sounded like an extraordinarily bad idea, and anyway only Zachary could override his security protocols (before asking if he could speak to him, aww)
II. Lilith spotting 47 outside the big scary glass cube and going to greet him, before giving him the big evil speech about how she was the daughter of the cult leader he took down in “Patient Zero” (Jane was like “I killed her dad!” and then “I kill a lot of people’s dads, you can’t expect me to remember each one” XD) and how she would be continuing her late father’s work, and how she wondered if 47 would find killing on this scale thrilling – 47 coldly informed her that “For me, death is not personal”
III. Lilith pulling out a vial of the virus and INFECTING HERSELF WITH IT (there was a lot of shocked gasping from Andy, Jane, and Mike at this, with Andy in particular going “she’s going to become a Tyrant!”) before telling 47 she would be inflicting her father’s prophecy upon the world, and fulfilling her “true purpose in death” – 47 said that he found you got more done by staying alive, and she responded that she would enjoy seeing him try
IV. And Lilith ending things by saying “Shall we return to the party? Networking is going to be so much more fun now…” and exiting the chamber via a door in the back – 47 swore that she wouldn’t leave this place, but Lilith just laughed and noted that might be the last threat he ever made
Tense stuff, seriously! Andy’s right, they very much did go all out on this mission.
C) Everyone then having to escape the lab after H.E.R.B. decided to try and kill 47 to keep the virus contained (despite the fact that he was very much NOT infected)! This was another sequence that basically went the same for everyone:
I. First, 47 had to run through the lab as H.E.R.B. filled it with gas (apologizing all the while for the fact that 47 had to die down there) – nothing too difficult, though it was worrying to see the screen getting more and more monochrome from the gradual damage as they ran
II. Then, 47 had to dodge between the gaps in two moving laser grids – one vertical one that came for him from the front, and one horizontal one that came at him from the back – in the main hall (while H.E.R.B. got increasingly annoyed about his new friend refusing to die). Again, nothing too difficult, as the gaps were wide and 47 just had to stand and crouch in the right areas to avoid getting cubed. Also, small shout-out to Mike, who was the most sensible of the three for a change and went behind one of the two fancy gargoyle statues at the front instead of between them on the off chance that they shot lasers – sure, he was wrong, but it was a good instance of him thinking ahead!
III. And finally, when Herb finally created a laser grid that no player could be expected to get through on their own, 47 had to pass one quick-time event so his cutscene self could take over and parkour expertly through a gap high up in the grid. Causing a very grumpy H.E.R.B. to snap that he hadn’t wanted to be 47’s friend anyway –
And to mention that, if 47 wanted to try and keep everyone from dying, there might be something useful in Zachary’s room. Maybe. Whatever. :p Yeah, H.E.R.B. is definitely made in the Wheatley mold, rather than the GLaDOS one that Andy initially supposed. At least he’s still better than ChatGPT!
D) Everyone then returning to the mansion proper via the elevator while Diana noted that was a weird interlude and informed 47 that keeping that virus contained was a top priority...and that Ether’s hazmat-suit-wearing backup had arrived, so he’d better plan accordingly. First priority for everyone – killing Lilith! Here’s how they all went about that:
I. Andy went straight to Zachary’s room to see what was in there, and discovered a distilling kit that could make an antidote to the virus (made out of a green herb and a blue herb, natch), and a little crafting area where he could make various antidote darts and dart guns (along with an antidote gas grenade and gas mine, but for SOME REASON nobody thought to pick those). Andy thus made a dart gun and a few darts, plus a personal injector just in case he got threatened, then headed out as the infected count among the guests rose higher and higher. Happily, he managed to make it into the library with little fuss – AND was lucky enough to get one of the hazmat suit guys alone so he could choke him out and steal his outfit. He then located Lilith (flanked by her bodyguards again, who were now sporting special breathing masks, natch), and followed her as she went into a special room – some scooting out the window and hanging from the masonry later, he was able to eavesdrop on her recording her manifesto about how her father dreamed of a world without borders, and how she would bring his vision to the world in death, inviting the listeners to “welcome the Nightshade virus into your mortal shells” so they could all become ash together. Andy was very pleased to discover that the virus had an awesome evil name. XD She then finished up the recording with a little “Yay! Exciting” –
And then foolishly left it in the room, allowing Andy’s 47 to steal it (after choking out and then curing the maid who was in there), bring it to where the other Ether guys were hanging out, and play it on one of the computers there. Causing one of said guys (the team leader, in fact, in a special gray hazmat suit) to overhear it, go “wait, this is death cult nonsense? Oh hell no, I am NOT participating in that,” and get 47’s help in finding and apprehending Lilith! They thus marched around until they located her upstairs, before informing her that she was to come quietly or they’d shoot –
Causing her to briefly tell the leader, Kevin, that he’d always been her favorite. Only to bust out “that’s why I’ll SLAUGHTER YOU FIRST” when he was like “uh, really?” XD Fortunately, he and his buddies were very quick on the draw, and before she could kill anyone, they’d shot her down. And 47 didn’t even have to pull the trigger. Yay!
II. Jane started out by going to the library and luring one of the hazmat guys to a quiet corner so she could steal his outfit – this didn’t go quite to plan, as the guy turned and saw her just as she went to choke him out, but she won the “beat this guy unconscious” quick-time events, and was able to procure herself a safety suit. She then wandered the mansion looking for Lilith –
Only to, hilariously, find her in the very bathroom where she’d overflowed the sink to lure those bodyguards away from Gregory’s door earlier, wiping up the floor! XD Jane was very pleased with her little accidental trap. She thus had 47 tell Lilith that he could show her a way out, causing Lilith to immediately trust him and be willing to follow him –
And then proceeded to dither about in the bathroom for ages before killing her. O.o Like, okay, I understand her taking a moment to get a picture of Lilith’s sore-covered face, taking weird pictures has kind of been her thing during this whole video, but for some reason she couldn’t decide on what implement to actually kill her with. Hell, she seemed ready to genuinely lead the woman out of the bathroom at one point! She eventually settled for the classic of “choking the target out and snapping their neck,” but DAMN. It shouldn’t have taken that long to get there, Jane!
III. And Mike just found a spot near where Lilith was passing with her bodyguards (I think in the upper level of the library), tossed the Pale Duck at her, and exploded her and her bodyguards. XD He was very pleased with himself, even if it resulted in him having to hide while all the hazmat guys tried to figure out who was going on a killing spree – well, up until the point where he realized that maybe a bunch of other people having the virus might be a problem… XD To be fair, for some reason, after he left the lab, his UI glitched out and stopped showing the mission objectives, meaning he didn’t have something EXPLICITLY telling him that, yes, you had to take care of all the infected people. He eventually figured out that everyone being in red probably meant that he had to kill them, though.
E) And everyone trying – and failing – to deal with their various infected party guests as the numbers kept climbing and climbing (even with the help of the hazmat suit guys, who shot anyone who dared try to flee the mansion):
I. Andy headed down to the main ballroom to try and cure a few people with the few darts he had, shooting a waiter and attempting to shoot a guy in a tuxedo...only for the guests to start panicking because, well, 47 was still shooting a gun, and I imagine everyone was very much on edge given all the weird guys in hazmat suits with shotguns patrolling the area. He thus had to flee the group at the entrance hall and scramble to find a new disguise that would make it so everyone didn’t want to shoot him – which, uh, was harder than it sounded, as neither his old “high tier security” outfit nor fancy red hunting jacket fit the bill. Forcing him to hide in a box to wait until the heat had died down a bit...
II. Jane found the antidote-making distiller in Zachary’s room and crafted it along with the antidote dart gun, then set about finding people to cure. It looked for a moment like she might have the easiest time of it, because for whatever reason her infected count at the very start was super low – only six people, after she took out Lilith – but unfortunately, when she tried to lure an infected woman from a doorway up some stairs, she instead got an innocent passerby instead...who became infected the minute he passed by the infected woman! And when Jane shot both him and the lady she’d originally wanted to cure with her dart gun, she too discovered that the NPCs panicked upon hearing gunfire, causing them to run around – and causing the infection to spread rapidly. Having used up her cures already, Jane decided it was time to go “full screwdriver” and started around lobbing sharp throwable objects into people’s heads, then fleeing as her crimes were noticed before anyone could pull her into combat. She tried shooting the fancy chandelier down over the crowd of infected, but that just murdered one person along with two non-targets (aka non-infected people), which annoyed her. She eventually just started taking potshots at people from the balcony, which just got everyone more annoyed with her, forcing her to flee – and to remember that she did have a remote-detonated mine on her. Which might be useful. And then she caught a masked bodyguard trying to remove Lilith’s corpse from the bathroom and was able to knock him unconscious, steal his disguise, and snap his neck to continue with her deadly work...
III. And Mike got himself a masked bodyguard’s outfit (meaning he too was protected from the virus for the moment) and took out the infected maid in the “manifesto recording” room before looking at the crowd he had to kill and going “nnnnngh…” XD He quickly discovered, though, that everyone had been rounded up in the front room by the hazmat guys and realized that, if he could procure another explosive, that might help. Cue him going around looking for a propane canister (murdering Gregory in one of the rooms along the way on the basis of “he was probably going to get infected anyway”), finally finding one in a storeroom, flinging it into the room from the upstairs balcony, and setting it off with a gunshot –
And getting like three people. At least one of which might not have even died (Mike saw one of them get up and was like “are they REALLY zombies??”). And causing the NPCs to scatter and, naturally, start infecting each other even more. He also tried to shoot down the chandelier to kill some of them, and managed to get a whole two (which was one more than Jane got) before getting pissy with Diana for telling him that he needed to contain the infection here. (And then apologizing and asserting that he and Diana were “tight.” Somehow I doubt that, given you’re the most chaotic 47 of the bunch. XD) He then proceeded to take his own set of potshots at the crowd below (which were much more effective than Jane’s, given he’s the headshot master) before getting caught and having to flee...and then having to flee AGAIN because he ran into a room of people who were only too happy to start shooting and throwing flashbangs at him. XD He eventually ended up in another security guard disguise, punching out Carlisles and their bodyguards and hiding them in cupboards, and attempting to use “spray and pray” tactics on the people in the main room from the balcony above (which did not work very well). I left things off with him fleeing outside to avoid the consequences of his actions, and watching as a bunch of people attempted to flee outside…
Aaand yeah. Things are Not Good right at the moment for ANY of the 47s! I have no idea how any of them are going to handle the huge amount of infected in their respective levels...I guess we’ll find out tomorrow!
2. Continue editing Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – in fact, I actually wrote up a whole page’s worth of new content tonight! Which was inspired by all the comments on the last chapter that told me “hey, LaCroix’s Dominate command to ‘not speak of this to the Anarchs’ regarding him deciding whether or not to call a Blood Hunt on Nines was too specific and Alice could have totally loopholed it by writing a note.” As I decided I didn’t want to change the original command (I considered it, but – I dunno, I liked it as it was), I instead wrote a new bit to explain why Alice didn’t go with the loophole, which consisted of –
A) Jack asking Alice to stick around for a moment when she bade him adieu, asking exactly what command LaCroix gave her when he Dominated her...and upon hearing it, telling her “for future reference, you can totally loophole that bullshit.” Cue Alice going very still as Jack explained that the whole “speak” part of the command meant that she probably could have gotten away with writing a note and slipping it under the door or something, before telling her that she shouldn’t worry about it, Nines knew some sort of bullshit like this was coming, and she’s so new to being a vampire, it’s not surprising she didn’t think of this. He just wanted her to know for the future!
B) And Alice, still unnaturally calm on the outside, thanking him for being helpful, leaving the bar, and proceeding into an alley...where she promptly screamed “YOU MOTHERFUCKERS” and turned on the Wonderlanders in full Hysteria mode, demanding to know why they hadn’t pointed out the loophole last night. Carpenter and Hatter both attempted to claim that they weren’t “omniknowing” and that, as figments of her imagination, they were kind of limited by the information she had, but Alice immediately called bullshit on that, pointing out that they warned her all the time about shit she shouldn’t logically know about, and wondering openly if they were trying to get her killed by not letting her warn Nines (The Queen Of Hearts: “Well–” Alice: “NOT YOU”) She then accused them of doing nothing but getting in her way and making her life harder –
Leading Hatter to angrily protest that they were plenty useful to her, and had warned her about all kinds of things in the past! In fact, she wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for Cheshire getting her out of Grout’s mansion! And Cheshire to appear on the scene and ask her to answer him one question before she continued trying to get violent – namely, if she really thought she would have been in a fit state to talk to anyone about Grout’s last night. (I mean, she managed to talk to Victor about it, but admittedly that was after a shower and him making a blanket nest for her…)
And that’s where I left it for the moment! Tomorrow, we’ll wrap up this new scene and start working our way toward finishing off the chapter proper. Would be nice to get it done this week so I can start the final editing pass next week...we will see!
3. Watch something on YouTube: No check again, unsurprisingly – the damn Workout Video Write-Up took too long once again. I have really got to reign in the amount of detail I go into with those things, especially when it gets to the point of me rewatching parts of the video to properly sum it up...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Double check tonight, surprisingly –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Over here, I got the next three days of my queue sorted with:
A) A mini-thread featuring a post by langernameohnebedeutung with a screenshot of a “how big is your English vocabulary” test asking what word was a synonym for “companion” – fool, mirror, entrapment, partner – and saying it had dropped some new ship dynamics, followed by a post by polyamorousmood featuring a meme picture of a hand preparing to smack a button labeled “all four” with the caption “(This is a poly meme all four are different people)” for Wednesday – I added some tags saying how the whole thing made me think of my “Four Victorians Riding a Roller Coaster” fivesome, with Victor as the original “companion,” Smiler as the “fool” (silliest one), Victoria as the “mirror” (most like Victor), Emily as the “entrapment” (trapped Victor in the Land of the Dead when she thought they were married), and Alice as the “partner” (only one left/Alice is the original other half of the OTP that this ship is built off of). :p It’s just fun, you know!
B) That post from lysimachias about how it doesn’t matter if a ship is supported by canon or even reasonable; what matters is if the thought of the characters being near each other makes you want to chew concrete for Thursday (because, again, Valice/Valicer mood)
C) And my post of “Valicer Not-Incorrect Quotes, Easter Edition” for Friday!
So that’s all nice – we’ll figure out Saturday tomorrow, hopefully!
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I finally had an anon ask that I actually wanted to answer – a very silly one featuring an octopus facing off against a cat with a gun in each “hand,” and the cat taunting them that “You’re still one short, buddy!” After a bit of thought, I had the Inevitable High School!Alice reply that perhaps leaving the cat with a single life was actually the octopus’s aim – because as cruel as it would be to kill the cat, it would be crueler still to leave it with one life left, knowing that the next screw-up would be its last…
Followed by Smiler going “...I feel like you're taking this ridiculous hypothetical way too seriously.” XD Look, it just amused me – and hopefully it will amused the anon too!
And there we have it! And there I must leave you, because I absolutely have to get my ass to bed. *shakehead* Night all!
