Fairly Decent Friday
Apr. 17th, 2026 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickThe weather wasn't the greatest -- kinda cloudy and blah most of the day, and definitely cooler than it has been (I'm back in long PJ pants for the moment) -- but I had a pretty good, productive day. And Mom and Dad got some good news at the doctor's -- apparently the main physician is hopeful that Dad's tumors will have shrunk enough that he can be considered to be in remission for the time being. We'll see for sure at the CAT scan next week, but -- fingers crossed! Be good if he was, means we'll get that much more time with him.
Anyway -- here's the write-up of my day:
Work – Had a very quiet Friday to end the work week (in stark contrast to last Friday) – my activities consisted pretty much solely of:
A) Doing the GL, which wasn’t TOO complicated today (mostly because not a lot of credit card stuff went on yesterday)
B) Sending out an e-mail about some errors that are still showing up when we try to process certain credit cards to our credit card company (I doubt we’ll hear back)
C) Reviewing my various batches of exceptions and sending out some e-mails/calling some people about failed credit card gifts – got one lady on the line and did her gift with her over the phone, which was nice
D) And doing a bit of roster maintenance (merging a duplicate record I found and looking at some returned mail to figure out someone’s proper address)
Yeah – nothing to write home about, that’s for sure! In fact, it was so quiet, my supervisor let me go home a half-hour early (my coworker had already left earlier to take care of some family medical stuff). So that was nice – I always appreciate getting to start my weekend a touch earlier. :) We’ll see what happens when I go back on Monday!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – my final night on the bike this week saw me pedal my way through –
A) “Hitman 3 Seven Deadly Sins WRATH | The Final Deadly Sin!” by OXBox! Yes, roughly a month after they failed to complete “The Wrath Termination” – the final challenge in the “Seven Deadly Sins” set of missions, where 47 was tasked with protecting his own unconscious body from waves of enemies and killing the “Inhibitors” that would cause him harm with the use of melee weapons and traps – on their Hitmanniversary livestream, the OXBox team returned to the dream version of Dartmoor Manor the whole shebang was set in to see if they could finally defeat it! Specifically, Mike returned to the mansion to see if he could get the strategy he tried at the end of the livestream – going out and murdering as many of the Inhibitors and their goons as he could before they even got inside the mansion – to work, while Andy and Jane sat on the sidelines and offered moral support. Or, well, Jane offered moral support – Andy mostly complained about Mike refusing to use any traps or do normal melee kills over throwing his weapons. XD So, did Mike actually manage to pull this off, murder all the Inhibitors, and finally complete the Seven Deadly Sins?
Yup, he did indeed! :D Admittedly, it took three tries –
I. His first attempt started out okay, with him taking out one Inhibitor and a guard outside without much trouble, but began going sideways when his attempt to throw something into the head of the next Inhibitor going in the front door resulted in him gently tossing a machete and then a wrench in the guy’s general direction. XD He managed to recover and kill that Inhibitor too, clearing that wave, but didn’t manage to deal with all the extra guards running around before the NEXT wave started. And while he successfully killed most of the Inhibitors with all his throwable sharp things, all the extra guys running around the place with machine guns meant that he ended up getting shot and killed right before taking out the last one with a hobby knife. Shame. Best moments included:
a. Andy complaining that Mike’s chosen method of beating the challenge was “artless” – and then, when Mike retorted it was quicker, asking if he went into art galleries and asked which pieces took the least time to draw (Mike pointed out that talking about murder like it was an art WAS serial killer talk, prompting Andy to point out in turn that they were playing the murder game)
b. Mike deciding to take down his first target with the screwdriver as he loved the way it flew, prompting him and Andy to both call it “Screwy the screwdriver” as a nod to Jane, who was most pleased (she loves the weapon and uses it a LOT)
c. Mike attempting to find a missing guard and Andy sarcastically talking about “oh, if only there was a game mechanic that allowed you to see through walls” (aka Hitman vision – Mike joked that he didn’t think that was a thing, and that they should put it in a future release)
d. Mike grabbing a unicorn horn off a horse bust outside and Andy noting that unicorn horn was supposed to be able to cure anything – resulting in him wondering if being killed by a unicorn horn would result in you dying and then reviving in a constant cycle, making one a sort of unicorn horn zombie
e. Andy joking that the Inhibitors were all drawing penises on 47’s body’s forehead when Mike discovered he’d spent a little too long gathering up items in-between waves and a bunch of Inhibitors and guards were storming the mansion (Mike was insistent it hadn’t yet gotten to penis-drawing time)
f. Mike finding a shuriken on one of the guards and Andy joking that he must have been the total “weeb” of the team, with Mike adding that he probably Naruto-ran to the mansion
g. And Andy noting that the game going full black-and-white while Mike was being shot right before he was taken down made the game look like an “arthouse film”
II. The second attempt didn’t get off to a great start, as Mike got lost trying to find his beloved fire axe in the mansion – and then he went to the wrong side of the gardens to try and intercept the first wave because he forgot which structure they spawned in (he went to the greenhouse; the first wave spawns by the ruined chapel). And when he tried to go and intercept them, they spotted him and initiated combat, causing him to just straight-up abort the attempt and try again properly. *nods* Smart move, honestly. Best bits of this little section were:
a. Mike saying that his theory (go out and kill them before they could get into the house) was sound, and Andy wondering what about the last attempt made him think that, before teasing him that they were going to be there all afternoon watching him fail the mission (Mike: “I’ll edit out all the complete failures!”)
b. Mike finding a bag of potato chips while searching the mansion for useful melee items and Andy commenting that he didn’t think that was lethal…“unless you count the high sodium content” XD
c. And Andy, without an ounce of irony, telling Mike that he had to “let go” of his attachment to throwing things at people XD
III. And his third attempt was something of a mixed bag, as he started off getting stuck on doorframes and furniture as he tried to get all his necessary sharp items, and had a couple of close calls with Inhibitors getting into the mansion despite his best efforts – one even made it all the way to 47’s body and nearly injected him with something! Fortunately Mike stabbed him with a screwdriver before he could succeed, and managed to take out every Inhibitor in every wave with only minimal “getting shot at.” Best moments of this bit included:
a. Mike rushing to get outside to meet the enemies as they spawn, with Andy going “no time for traps” – only for Mike to stop and set up ONE emergency trap like he always does (though he never did use it)
b. Mike noting the path to the garden chapel was “spookily lit” with red light, prompting Andy to share a story about a guy he knew who put a similar red light under a tree he owned because for some reason he liked the look of it (Dude: “I think it looks good,” Andy: “I think it looks haunted”)
c. Mike wondering if the guards of one of the Inhibitors he killed at their spawn point would actually continue to the mansion or not, and Andy being like “would you like to continue your mission if you saw your leader get a unicorn horn to the head and get suspended in a state of living death?”
d. Mike failing for the third time to snap a unicorn’s horn off a horse bust on the first try – it was seriously like an inadvertent running gag in the episode
e. Andy commenting that Mike was “the angel of death” as he threw a unicorn horn into an Inhibitor’s head from a bush XD
f. Andy noting that the challenge seemed explicitly set up for 47 to use traps and become Kevin McCallister – Mike immediately said, “and like in all my Hitman play, I’m here to” – “prove them wrong,” a resigned Andy finished for him XD
g. One of the Inhibitors nothing that 47 has a good arm when Mike killed his guards with thrown weapons – which was shortly followed by him being knocked out by a wrench XD
h. Mike admitting that he thought the Inhibitor who actually got to 47’s body was checking him out – “silently staring at my abs” instead of trying to inject him with something
i. And Mike completing the challenge by surprising the second Inhibitor who’d gotten near his body by popping out a door and machete-ing him to death; Andy sounded genuinely surprised when he realized that the challenge was complete and Mike’s methods had WORKED. Hell, they netted him the title of “Melee Master Assassin” and two stars! MIKE sounded surprised by that last one. XD
So yeah – very good to see the gang finally complete that! :D Looking forward to the next bit of Hitman content they release!
B) “Project Hail Mary | Creating Rocky” by Amazon MGM Studios! A quick one-minute teaser about how the team behind the movie created its iconic five-legged rock alien Rocky and how important it was to get him right, since the friendship between Ryland Grace and Rocky is the heart of the film. Basically, they had a fully-animatronic Rocky and a puppet Rocky (no CGI – they wanted a real thing to make him feel more real), and used each for different scenes. There was also a clip of James Ortiz – Rocky’s puppeteer and voice, who has amazing hair – talking about how they asked if he was “comfortable improvising with a five-legged puppet” – and how he immediately said “yeah!” XD Good stuff – lot of love went into this movie, that’s for sure!
C) And the Project Hail Mary “Roommates” clip again, since Rocky eagerly hamsterballing his way around Grace’s ship was the perfect way to fill the final few seconds of the ride. XD
2. Continue final edits on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – and I made excellent progress tonight, getting all the way to the beginning of page 62 out of 67! :D Though I suspect most of this momentum is simply because we’ve hit the part of the story that I edited most recently...still, I will take it! Tonight’s final pass for typos and awkward phrasing covered –
A) Alice asking Van, Terrence, and Mercurio what they could tell her about Gary and his Nosferatu – Van admitted that he and Terrence hadn’t been down to Hollywood since the Camarilla’s arrival, since it was unfriendly territory, but let her know that nobody messed with the Nosferatu because they knew everything about everybody, with Terrence adding that they were a tight-knit clan and messing with one meant messing with all of them (unless they were a plague-bearer asshole, that is, as he quickly assured her when he saw her looking nervous about Brother Kanker). Terrence said that the best advice he could give her was to be polite, as Gary especially loved fucking with rude people – Cheshire then told her it was sound, but that Gary’s sense of what was “rude” might be a little skewed from the norm, so she’d better keep that in mind as well.
B) Alice asking if any of the men had any idea where to start looking for Gary, and the trio admitting they didn’t – though Mercurio told her that if she wanted some new kit, she ought to swing by his place in Santa Monica. Prompting Alice to ask how things were in the Lady By The Sea, and learning that Therese Voerman had just petitioned LaCroix to become Prince of Santa Monica...and that Jeannette had loudly proclaimed that she was officially going Anarch in response, and asking Nines if she could be a Baron. Terrence grumbled about the city evening out to neutral territory just because those two couldn’t stop fighting, and Alice noted that the sisters’ plan to see who their enemies were by playing up their rivalry was working perfectly.
C) Alice taking her leave from the trio by saying she needed to pack and fill back up on blood – then, upon leaving Venture Tower, racing after Rabbit back to The Last Round in a desperate attempt to alert Nines about the blood hunt before it was too late; however, she ended up being confronted by Skelter and Damsel instead, who were naturally quite heated about her apparently saying that Nines killed a primogen. Alice screamed back that all she’d said was that Nines was at Grout’s manor (and that if LaCroix had said differently, he was a fucking liar); that she’d run here as fast as she could to try and warn him; that she hadn’t been able to come earlier because she’d been Dominated not to speak about it; and that, if Nines really had killed Grout, she wanted to shake his hand because she herself had wanted to off the monster. Cue Skelter asking a trio of vampires in a nearby booth if she was telling the truth, and me shoehorning in a reference to one of my favorite British comedy game shows by making said vampires the main cast of Would I Lie To You? XD
D) Skelter confirming that Alice had spoken true and begrudgingly admitting he could believe she’d been a patsy, but that he’d be watching her from now on, which Alice agreed was fair, followed by Damsel asking what Alice had done for them lately – and Alice telling her about killing Pisha in the hospital. Shocking her out of her perpetual bad mood for three seconds while she processed that – Alice was very pleased with herself for getting one over on her. Skelter asked how she kept finding this shit, and Alice told him “Rabbit keeps running off and forcing me to chase him.” XD
E) Alice telling Damsel and Skelter about her mission to Hollywood when Damsel demanded the latest on LaCroix, and the pair confirming that nobody fucks with Gary (Damsel complaining about Gary siding with the Tower, while Skelter admitted he was pretty sure Gary didn’t side with anyone but other Nosferatu), followed by Alice shocking Skelter with the reveal that she knew Beckett when he asked about the missing sarcophagus. She delighted in telling him that Beckett thought his belief that the elders could control them even in their sleep was full of shit. Skelter was not happy. ;p
F) Alice preparing to leave and actually do her packing – only to be called over by Smilin’ Jack for a chat, where he assured her that he knew that she was just the messenger, and informed her that he believed it was all a set-up – LaCroix, having learned that Grout was dead, sending a vampire he knew with the ability to look like someone else to go pose as Nines so Alice would be sure to see him at the mansion. (So very close, Jack!) He advised Alice to keep things “business as usual” for the moment, then confirmed that the sarcophagus was missing...before bringing up the concept of diablerie, and younger vampires being able to get the powers of elder by draining them of both blood and soul. Cue Alice nearly having a panic attack over how much more powerful LaCroix would be in that case. *grimacing* To her surprise, though, Jack actually counseled her to do as LaCroix said and get the sarcophagus back for him, since at least in that case they’d know where it was – and besides, getting the sarcophagus and getting into it were two very different things…
G) Jack giving Alice some advice with dealing with the Hollywood Nosferatu (basically, “respect that it’s their domain, their rules” and “just be yourself with Gary and don’t try to fuck him over and you’ll be fine”) – then, right before she left, also letting her know that Dominate can be loopholed and that she might have been able to get around the compulsion by writing a note. Alice thanked him for letting her know, left the bar, and found an unoccupied alley –
And then went full Hysteria Mode on her usual Wonderlander entourage, demanding to know why they hadn’t told her that she could have rules-lawyered LaCroix’s command. The answer turned out to be a combination of “we genuinely didn’t know because YOU didn’t know” (which Alice didn’t accept) and “you were in no shape to write a coherent note of warning last night, you barely made it through the meeting with LaCroix” (which she reluctantly did). She eventually calmed down and decided just to be grateful that she knew NOW she could find ways around Dominate compulsions – though she still rather wanted to go live under a rock for the rest of her existence.
*nods* Pretty solid stuff, I think. :D Tomorrow we’ll wrap this sucker up with the final five or so pages, then I’m thinking Sunday we post (as posting a fic chapter is always a bit of a process with me).
3. Watch something on YouTube: Check – thanks to getting home a half-hour early today, I was able to watch the latest video from Josh Way before my workout: “Fun With Shorts: Coney Island!” A promotional video for the famous theme park back in the – 40s, I’m guessing? 40s or 50s, it wasn’t made clear. Anyway, it was ten minutes of the announcer going on and on about how awesome the park was, highlighting the awesome beaches (packed to the brim with folks enjoying the Atlantic breeze), the boardwalk, the freak show (see disabled and really fat people for a mere dime!), the various rides, the delicious food available (apparently Coney Island was famous not only for hot dogs, but also corn on the cob), the parade of women vying to be Miss Coney Island, the shows featuring man versus tigers (which unfortunately did not include said man getting mauled), and the lights that lit up the sky once dusk arrived –
And ten minutes of Josh snarking about how this place was a breeding ground for viruses and other disease, how the various rides all seemed designed to either make you puke or injure you (with especial contempt for a ride where you ended up pulled out of the middle onto the spinning edges of a big old bowl and the famous wooden coaster), how the hot dog was probably made “when a rat fell into a meat grinder,” how “Me Too” needed to be a thing with that beauty contest, and how “this deranged milkman deserves whatever happens to him” tiger-wise (referencing the tiger tamer’s unusual costume). Guys, I don’t think Josh likes theme parks much. XD I mean, it was all very funny, don’t get me wrong, but as someone who very much likes theme parks, it was funny in a “cripes, what did Coney Island do to you” kind of way. (Well, except when it came to the obvious racist/sexist/ableist stuff, of course.) Still, always good to see another short from him!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – there was nothing to do over on Valice Multiverse, but on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), I figured out my Song Saturday for this week – a reblog of my post featuring “Taste Of You” by REZZ and Dove Cameron. I stumbled across it while searching my “#londerland bloodlines” tag for likely song candidates, and realized it would be the perfect song to help usher in Chapter 6 because I associate the song with Ghoul!Victor and Malkavian!Alice obsessing over the taste of each other’s blood – and Chapter 6 is the chapter where Alice first feeds on Victor and discovers how delicious he is. So into the queue it went! :) Hooray, I kept to my theme all week, go me.
Aaaaand I have officially stayed up later than I meant to again completing this. *shakehead* Went into way too much detail on the OXBox video, I think...gotta work on that. As it stands, I gotta get to bed -- tomorrow, my primary goals are to get my room clean, and to finish my final edits on Chapter 6 of "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland." If I can get in any Fallout: New Vegas or YouTube videos, I will, but those are the priorities. *nods* Night all!
Anyway -- here's the write-up of my day:
Work – Had a very quiet Friday to end the work week (in stark contrast to last Friday) – my activities consisted pretty much solely of:
A) Doing the GL, which wasn’t TOO complicated today (mostly because not a lot of credit card stuff went on yesterday)
B) Sending out an e-mail about some errors that are still showing up when we try to process certain credit cards to our credit card company (I doubt we’ll hear back)
C) Reviewing my various batches of exceptions and sending out some e-mails/calling some people about failed credit card gifts – got one lady on the line and did her gift with her over the phone, which was nice
D) And doing a bit of roster maintenance (merging a duplicate record I found and looking at some returned mail to figure out someone’s proper address)
Yeah – nothing to write home about, that’s for sure! In fact, it was so quiet, my supervisor let me go home a half-hour early (my coworker had already left earlier to take care of some family medical stuff). So that was nice – I always appreciate getting to start my weekend a touch earlier. :) We’ll see what happens when I go back on Monday!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – my final night on the bike this week saw me pedal my way through –
A) “Hitman 3 Seven Deadly Sins WRATH | The Final Deadly Sin!” by OXBox! Yes, roughly a month after they failed to complete “The Wrath Termination” – the final challenge in the “Seven Deadly Sins” set of missions, where 47 was tasked with protecting his own unconscious body from waves of enemies and killing the “Inhibitors” that would cause him harm with the use of melee weapons and traps – on their Hitmanniversary livestream, the OXBox team returned to the dream version of Dartmoor Manor the whole shebang was set in to see if they could finally defeat it! Specifically, Mike returned to the mansion to see if he could get the strategy he tried at the end of the livestream – going out and murdering as many of the Inhibitors and their goons as he could before they even got inside the mansion – to work, while Andy and Jane sat on the sidelines and offered moral support. Or, well, Jane offered moral support – Andy mostly complained about Mike refusing to use any traps or do normal melee kills over throwing his weapons. XD So, did Mike actually manage to pull this off, murder all the Inhibitors, and finally complete the Seven Deadly Sins?
Yup, he did indeed! :D Admittedly, it took three tries –
I. His first attempt started out okay, with him taking out one Inhibitor and a guard outside without much trouble, but began going sideways when his attempt to throw something into the head of the next Inhibitor going in the front door resulted in him gently tossing a machete and then a wrench in the guy’s general direction. XD He managed to recover and kill that Inhibitor too, clearing that wave, but didn’t manage to deal with all the extra guards running around before the NEXT wave started. And while he successfully killed most of the Inhibitors with all his throwable sharp things, all the extra guys running around the place with machine guns meant that he ended up getting shot and killed right before taking out the last one with a hobby knife. Shame. Best moments included:
a. Andy complaining that Mike’s chosen method of beating the challenge was “artless” – and then, when Mike retorted it was quicker, asking if he went into art galleries and asked which pieces took the least time to draw (Mike pointed out that talking about murder like it was an art WAS serial killer talk, prompting Andy to point out in turn that they were playing the murder game)
b. Mike deciding to take down his first target with the screwdriver as he loved the way it flew, prompting him and Andy to both call it “Screwy the screwdriver” as a nod to Jane, who was most pleased (she loves the weapon and uses it a LOT)
c. Mike attempting to find a missing guard and Andy sarcastically talking about “oh, if only there was a game mechanic that allowed you to see through walls” (aka Hitman vision – Mike joked that he didn’t think that was a thing, and that they should put it in a future release)
d. Mike grabbing a unicorn horn off a horse bust outside and Andy noting that unicorn horn was supposed to be able to cure anything – resulting in him wondering if being killed by a unicorn horn would result in you dying and then reviving in a constant cycle, making one a sort of unicorn horn zombie
e. Andy joking that the Inhibitors were all drawing penises on 47’s body’s forehead when Mike discovered he’d spent a little too long gathering up items in-between waves and a bunch of Inhibitors and guards were storming the mansion (Mike was insistent it hadn’t yet gotten to penis-drawing time)
f. Mike finding a shuriken on one of the guards and Andy joking that he must have been the total “weeb” of the team, with Mike adding that he probably Naruto-ran to the mansion
g. And Andy noting that the game going full black-and-white while Mike was being shot right before he was taken down made the game look like an “arthouse film”
II. The second attempt didn’t get off to a great start, as Mike got lost trying to find his beloved fire axe in the mansion – and then he went to the wrong side of the gardens to try and intercept the first wave because he forgot which structure they spawned in (he went to the greenhouse; the first wave spawns by the ruined chapel). And when he tried to go and intercept them, they spotted him and initiated combat, causing him to just straight-up abort the attempt and try again properly. *nods* Smart move, honestly. Best bits of this little section were:
a. Mike saying that his theory (go out and kill them before they could get into the house) was sound, and Andy wondering what about the last attempt made him think that, before teasing him that they were going to be there all afternoon watching him fail the mission (Mike: “I’ll edit out all the complete failures!”)
b. Mike finding a bag of potato chips while searching the mansion for useful melee items and Andy commenting that he didn’t think that was lethal…“unless you count the high sodium content” XD
c. And Andy, without an ounce of irony, telling Mike that he had to “let go” of his attachment to throwing things at people XD
III. And his third attempt was something of a mixed bag, as he started off getting stuck on doorframes and furniture as he tried to get all his necessary sharp items, and had a couple of close calls with Inhibitors getting into the mansion despite his best efforts – one even made it all the way to 47’s body and nearly injected him with something! Fortunately Mike stabbed him with a screwdriver before he could succeed, and managed to take out every Inhibitor in every wave with only minimal “getting shot at.” Best moments of this bit included:
a. Mike rushing to get outside to meet the enemies as they spawn, with Andy going “no time for traps” – only for Mike to stop and set up ONE emergency trap like he always does (though he never did use it)
b. Mike noting the path to the garden chapel was “spookily lit” with red light, prompting Andy to share a story about a guy he knew who put a similar red light under a tree he owned because for some reason he liked the look of it (Dude: “I think it looks good,” Andy: “I think it looks haunted”)
c. Mike wondering if the guards of one of the Inhibitors he killed at their spawn point would actually continue to the mansion or not, and Andy being like “would you like to continue your mission if you saw your leader get a unicorn horn to the head and get suspended in a state of living death?”
d. Mike failing for the third time to snap a unicorn’s horn off a horse bust on the first try – it was seriously like an inadvertent running gag in the episode
e. Andy commenting that Mike was “the angel of death” as he threw a unicorn horn into an Inhibitor’s head from a bush XD
f. Andy noting that the challenge seemed explicitly set up for 47 to use traps and become Kevin McCallister – Mike immediately said, “and like in all my Hitman play, I’m here to” – “prove them wrong,” a resigned Andy finished for him XD
g. One of the Inhibitors nothing that 47 has a good arm when Mike killed his guards with thrown weapons – which was shortly followed by him being knocked out by a wrench XD
h. Mike admitting that he thought the Inhibitor who actually got to 47’s body was checking him out – “silently staring at my abs” instead of trying to inject him with something
i. And Mike completing the challenge by surprising the second Inhibitor who’d gotten near his body by popping out a door and machete-ing him to death; Andy sounded genuinely surprised when he realized that the challenge was complete and Mike’s methods had WORKED. Hell, they netted him the title of “Melee Master Assassin” and two stars! MIKE sounded surprised by that last one. XD
So yeah – very good to see the gang finally complete that! :D Looking forward to the next bit of Hitman content they release!
B) “Project Hail Mary | Creating Rocky” by Amazon MGM Studios! A quick one-minute teaser about how the team behind the movie created its iconic five-legged rock alien Rocky and how important it was to get him right, since the friendship between Ryland Grace and Rocky is the heart of the film. Basically, they had a fully-animatronic Rocky and a puppet Rocky (no CGI – they wanted a real thing to make him feel more real), and used each for different scenes. There was also a clip of James Ortiz – Rocky’s puppeteer and voice, who has amazing hair – talking about how they asked if he was “comfortable improvising with a five-legged puppet” – and how he immediately said “yeah!” XD Good stuff – lot of love went into this movie, that’s for sure!
C) And the Project Hail Mary “Roommates” clip again, since Rocky eagerly hamsterballing his way around Grace’s ship was the perfect way to fill the final few seconds of the ride. XD
2. Continue final edits on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – and I made excellent progress tonight, getting all the way to the beginning of page 62 out of 67! :D Though I suspect most of this momentum is simply because we’ve hit the part of the story that I edited most recently...still, I will take it! Tonight’s final pass for typos and awkward phrasing covered –
A) Alice asking Van, Terrence, and Mercurio what they could tell her about Gary and his Nosferatu – Van admitted that he and Terrence hadn’t been down to Hollywood since the Camarilla’s arrival, since it was unfriendly territory, but let her know that nobody messed with the Nosferatu because they knew everything about everybody, with Terrence adding that they were a tight-knit clan and messing with one meant messing with all of them (unless they were a plague-bearer asshole, that is, as he quickly assured her when he saw her looking nervous about Brother Kanker). Terrence said that the best advice he could give her was to be polite, as Gary especially loved fucking with rude people – Cheshire then told her it was sound, but that Gary’s sense of what was “rude” might be a little skewed from the norm, so she’d better keep that in mind as well.
B) Alice asking if any of the men had any idea where to start looking for Gary, and the trio admitting they didn’t – though Mercurio told her that if she wanted some new kit, she ought to swing by his place in Santa Monica. Prompting Alice to ask how things were in the Lady By The Sea, and learning that Therese Voerman had just petitioned LaCroix to become Prince of Santa Monica...and that Jeannette had loudly proclaimed that she was officially going Anarch in response, and asking Nines if she could be a Baron. Terrence grumbled about the city evening out to neutral territory just because those two couldn’t stop fighting, and Alice noted that the sisters’ plan to see who their enemies were by playing up their rivalry was working perfectly.
C) Alice taking her leave from the trio by saying she needed to pack and fill back up on blood – then, upon leaving Venture Tower, racing after Rabbit back to The Last Round in a desperate attempt to alert Nines about the blood hunt before it was too late; however, she ended up being confronted by Skelter and Damsel instead, who were naturally quite heated about her apparently saying that Nines killed a primogen. Alice screamed back that all she’d said was that Nines was at Grout’s manor (and that if LaCroix had said differently, he was a fucking liar); that she’d run here as fast as she could to try and warn him; that she hadn’t been able to come earlier because she’d been Dominated not to speak about it; and that, if Nines really had killed Grout, she wanted to shake his hand because she herself had wanted to off the monster. Cue Skelter asking a trio of vampires in a nearby booth if she was telling the truth, and me shoehorning in a reference to one of my favorite British comedy game shows by making said vampires the main cast of Would I Lie To You? XD
D) Skelter confirming that Alice had spoken true and begrudgingly admitting he could believe she’d been a patsy, but that he’d be watching her from now on, which Alice agreed was fair, followed by Damsel asking what Alice had done for them lately – and Alice telling her about killing Pisha in the hospital. Shocking her out of her perpetual bad mood for three seconds while she processed that – Alice was very pleased with herself for getting one over on her. Skelter asked how she kept finding this shit, and Alice told him “Rabbit keeps running off and forcing me to chase him.” XD
E) Alice telling Damsel and Skelter about her mission to Hollywood when Damsel demanded the latest on LaCroix, and the pair confirming that nobody fucks with Gary (Damsel complaining about Gary siding with the Tower, while Skelter admitted he was pretty sure Gary didn’t side with anyone but other Nosferatu), followed by Alice shocking Skelter with the reveal that she knew Beckett when he asked about the missing sarcophagus. She delighted in telling him that Beckett thought his belief that the elders could control them even in their sleep was full of shit. Skelter was not happy. ;p
F) Alice preparing to leave and actually do her packing – only to be called over by Smilin’ Jack for a chat, where he assured her that he knew that she was just the messenger, and informed her that he believed it was all a set-up – LaCroix, having learned that Grout was dead, sending a vampire he knew with the ability to look like someone else to go pose as Nines so Alice would be sure to see him at the mansion. (So very close, Jack!) He advised Alice to keep things “business as usual” for the moment, then confirmed that the sarcophagus was missing...before bringing up the concept of diablerie, and younger vampires being able to get the powers of elder by draining them of both blood and soul. Cue Alice nearly having a panic attack over how much more powerful LaCroix would be in that case. *grimacing* To her surprise, though, Jack actually counseled her to do as LaCroix said and get the sarcophagus back for him, since at least in that case they’d know where it was – and besides, getting the sarcophagus and getting into it were two very different things…
G) Jack giving Alice some advice with dealing with the Hollywood Nosferatu (basically, “respect that it’s their domain, their rules” and “just be yourself with Gary and don’t try to fuck him over and you’ll be fine”) – then, right before she left, also letting her know that Dominate can be loopholed and that she might have been able to get around the compulsion by writing a note. Alice thanked him for letting her know, left the bar, and found an unoccupied alley –
And then went full Hysteria Mode on her usual Wonderlander entourage, demanding to know why they hadn’t told her that she could have rules-lawyered LaCroix’s command. The answer turned out to be a combination of “we genuinely didn’t know because YOU didn’t know” (which Alice didn’t accept) and “you were in no shape to write a coherent note of warning last night, you barely made it through the meeting with LaCroix” (which she reluctantly did). She eventually calmed down and decided just to be grateful that she knew NOW she could find ways around Dominate compulsions – though she still rather wanted to go live under a rock for the rest of her existence.
*nods* Pretty solid stuff, I think. :D Tomorrow we’ll wrap this sucker up with the final five or so pages, then I’m thinking Sunday we post (as posting a fic chapter is always a bit of a process with me).
3. Watch something on YouTube: Check – thanks to getting home a half-hour early today, I was able to watch the latest video from Josh Way before my workout: “Fun With Shorts: Coney Island!” A promotional video for the famous theme park back in the – 40s, I’m guessing? 40s or 50s, it wasn’t made clear. Anyway, it was ten minutes of the announcer going on and on about how awesome the park was, highlighting the awesome beaches (packed to the brim with folks enjoying the Atlantic breeze), the boardwalk, the freak show (see disabled and really fat people for a mere dime!), the various rides, the delicious food available (apparently Coney Island was famous not only for hot dogs, but also corn on the cob), the parade of women vying to be Miss Coney Island, the shows featuring man versus tigers (which unfortunately did not include said man getting mauled), and the lights that lit up the sky once dusk arrived –
And ten minutes of Josh snarking about how this place was a breeding ground for viruses and other disease, how the various rides all seemed designed to either make you puke or injure you (with especial contempt for a ride where you ended up pulled out of the middle onto the spinning edges of a big old bowl and the famous wooden coaster), how the hot dog was probably made “when a rat fell into a meat grinder,” how “Me Too” needed to be a thing with that beauty contest, and how “this deranged milkman deserves whatever happens to him” tiger-wise (referencing the tiger tamer’s unusual costume). Guys, I don’t think Josh likes theme parks much. XD I mean, it was all very funny, don’t get me wrong, but as someone who very much likes theme parks, it was funny in a “cripes, what did Coney Island do to you” kind of way. (Well, except when it came to the obvious racist/sexist/ableist stuff, of course.) Still, always good to see another short from him!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – there was nothing to do over on Valice Multiverse, but on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), I figured out my Song Saturday for this week – a reblog of my post featuring “Taste Of You” by REZZ and Dove Cameron. I stumbled across it while searching my “#londerland bloodlines” tag for likely song candidates, and realized it would be the perfect song to help usher in Chapter 6 because I associate the song with Ghoul!Victor and Malkavian!Alice obsessing over the taste of each other’s blood – and Chapter 6 is the chapter where Alice first feeds on Victor and discovers how delicious he is. So into the queue it went! :) Hooray, I kept to my theme all week, go me.
Aaaaand I have officially stayed up later than I meant to again completing this. *shakehead* Went into way too much detail on the OXBox video, I think...gotta work on that. As it stands, I gotta get to bed -- tomorrow, my primary goals are to get my room clean, and to finish my final edits on Chapter 6 of "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland." If I can get in any Fallout: New Vegas or YouTube videos, I will, but those are the priorities. *nods* Night all!
