PMSy Tuesday
Apr. 28th, 2026 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYes, it was one of those days where it was very easy to annoy me, I'm afraid -- the hormones are definitely ramping up this week! I fully expect my upcoming four-day weekend to be as period-y as my last one. Which annoys me. As you might expect. *shakehead* Anyway -- let's get the write-up done so I can hit the sack:
Work – My workday consisted almost entirely of one thing today – working my way through the QC file for the next round of thank-yous that arrived in my e-mail yesterday, but which I wasn’t able to get to because I was always busy with something else. Fortunately, the distractions were fewer today (and my coworker was back in, which helped a lot), and I was able to get it done and sent back out with my notes and corrections by mid-afternoon –
Unfortunately, I found a few interesting fuck-ups along the way, including a whole set of gifts from a certain family that seem to have ended up on one member’s account...an account whose name was wrongly changed by one of the new people on the processing team… *sigh* Something I’ll have to poke at tomorrow! I also ended up taking some last-minute exceptions, which included ANOTHER instance of a parish sending one check to cover two gifts...except the two gifts were for two different things (the Appeal and the Capital Campaign, which have separate bank accounts), so now we have to do ANOTHER memo to Fiscal to have money moved. *grrr* Just – annoying. I guess we’ll see how Wednesday goes!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – twas another night pedaling through the OXBox RE9 LP (somewhat interrupted by both my parents coming down into the basement to look for a book they were having trouble finding), with tonight’s ride featuring –
A) The very end of “Let's Play Resident Evil Requiem: LEON KICKS BUTT! ARTIFICIAL ORGANS! ZOMBIE MEATGRINDER? Episode 3!” The final seven minutes or so covered:
I. Grace making her way to the Inspection Room (getting jumpscared twice by The Girl along the way – the first time, Andy made sure to have Grace grab the scrap right in front of the jumpscare for later crafting purposes; the second, he finally answered all of Jane and Mike’s hopes and prayers by actually using the Requiem handcannon on her – she did not like it and retreated back into the ceiling) with the help of her joint plugs powering up some doors...to discover it contained a horrible corpse carousel hanging from the ceiling, stocked with bagged bodies and the occasional upside-down live zombie who chewed on her when she got too close. Cue Grace having to manipulate the direction of the carousel with a lever and maneuver around it so she could clear a path to the next room while getting chomped on as little as possible, while Mike noted that the whole thing had “Halloween Horror Nights” vibes and Andy commented that it had plenty of SIF – “stuff in face” in the horror biz. :p
II. And Grace, having created a path, finding herself on the other side of the big blood channel room, next to the wheel to turn to drain it! She thus did exactly that (with Mike congratulating RE9 for not having the wheel break off in her hand AGAIN), revealing a big old pit with lots of dead zombies at the bottom –
And the titular zombie meatgrinder at one end. A meat grinder that WHIRRED TO LIFE once Grace ventured into the drained pit to collect goodies and cross back over to the other side, because it was now processing time! Cue the floor becoming a terrifying conveyor belt of death, and Grace having to stay away from the whirling grinders of doom while ALSO fending off the still-living zombies getting up and trying to attack her! Fortunately, she just had to stick it out until the game was satisfied enough zombies had been processed, then the belt stopped and she was allowed to get back out of the pit. Andy thus had her do just that so he could save at the nearby typewriter, quit, and go have a lie-down (with Jane saying she was going to have one too, and she hadn’t even been playing). XD Seemed legit to me!
B) And about the first half of “Let's Play Resident Evil Requiem: SHORTEST HELICOPTER RIDE! BURNING CHURCH! BLOOD GLOBE! Episode 4!” Which covered:
I. Grace going back into the now-inactive meat grinder pit to get the last of the goodies Andy hadn’t managed to snag down there in all the previous chaos (while Jane admitted that she’d forgotten this is where they’d left off and said that she’d seen what happened when Grace got mashed thanks to her feed – the boys told her to curate it better :P), then out the other side to grab the third joint plug since she no longer needed it to keep the door open! Meaning she’d technically collected all three, hooray! Now she just had to get the other two so she could power up the console she needed...
II. Grace creeping through a little side tunnel to get back to the main blood collection room as always – only for it to turn into a blood waterslide and dump her RIGHT INTO THE MAIN COLLECTION POOL. Mike thought it looked fun, though he expressed sympathy for Grace getting some in her mouth...before noting “you could have closed your mouth” – Andy and Jane were promptly like “have you ever been on a waterslide the water gets everywhere.” Andy then noted that Grace’s hands were genuinely absolutely covered in blood, and – at Jane and Mike’s urging – swapped to third person for a bit so they could see just how Carrie-White-esque she was. (Not full Carrie, but definitely a lot bloodier than she normally is, that’s for sure!)
III. Grace jumping back in the collection pool after it drained to collect infected blood from the leftover viscera piles and do some crafting, then hopping back out and running around to collect her other two joint plugs from where she’d left them – pursued not only by regular zombies, but also a Blisterhead. Because these things can never be simple. :p Fortunately, despite a close call or two (including with a zombie who was missing half his arm – the gang decided he must have been only lightly minced by the meat grinder), she was able to get her joint plugs and get away, even locking the Blisterhead in one of the corridors she no longer needed to access. Ha ha!
IV. Grace using her joint plugs to power the console in the holding cell area that lit up all the lights, summoned the elevator, and – of course – opened all the cells, before grabbing Emily out of the cell The Girl had left her in and booking it toward the elevator (Andy was initially relieved when the elevator’s arrival was shown in a cutscene, saying it would have been terrible if they’d given him control back then – and then they gave him control back and he was like “AAAAAH”). Fortunately she had some practice dodging zombies while carrying a little blind girl now, and was able to get in and shove the pallet preventing the doors from closing out of the way without getting chomped by either the regular zombies or The Girl. The elevator thus started ascending as the gang talked about how Emily must be thrilled that Grace took her out of her room to do that braille puzzle (that Grace could have guessed herself, given enough time) –
And then The Girl appeared climbing up the side of the elevator to try and get in. Fortunately they JUST made it to their floor, and Grace was able to use girl power (like the Spice Girls) to shove the doors open, get Emily out, and start crawling out herself –
Only for The Girl to get into the elevator and grab her by the ankle (Andy: “GRACE STOP CRAWLING YOU KNOW SHE GRABS ANKLES!”). Cue Grace and The Girl having a tug-of-war involving Grace’s leg as the elevator cable frayed –
And then cue the cable SNAPPING, and The Girl plunging into the abyss as Grace screamed, and the OXBoxers all being like O.O and D: over the possibility of Grace having just had her foot lopped off by the falling elevator. (Seriously, Andy’s shocked face was something else.) Fortunately, it turned out that what had been lopped off was The Girl’s hand instead, and Grace was fine, but DAMN. We all seriously thought that poor Grace had lost a limb there for a moment! (Though Jane admitted that she thought that was going to be how they found out how Grace had something similar to Ethan’s mold healing powers, prompting Mike to cut the tension by talking about how often poor Ethan’s hands got mutilated in his games. XD)
V. Grace, after learning that Emily had managed to keep a hold of the Star Quartz that they needed to get out of there, confirming that the kid would like to escape with her (after the world’s most awkward hug)...while grabbing The Girl’s severed hand, which was apparently an item you could pick up if you wanted. Cue Mike reading the description “it’s still a little warm” with no small measure of disgust, and Andy grossing his coworkers out by shoving the wrist with its broken bones and gore in their faces. :p
VI. Grace then depositing Emily in the save room to hang out on the couch for a little bit while she went and got some of the goodies that she hadn’t been able to pick up before – namely, the better gun (which turned out to be her own gun that she lost in the fight with the very first zombie back in Episode 1) and a bunch of antique coins from the bar and lounge (while Jane and Mike talked about how expensive it would be to try and be like Leon Kennedy in this game – turns out, pretty damn expensive – and Jane commented on how someone dragged Leon for keeping the same haircut he had in his 20s, prompting Mike to make a joking comparison to Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys), plus an injector that increased her max health from the gambling room (purchased with the antique coins, natch – Mike was still of the opinion that it was stupid to inject yourself with anything in the horrible mutant hospital). She also stopped off in the room with the big analyzing machine to analyze The Girl’s severed hand, since the OXBoxers wanted to know if that was possible. It was – but it required solving another one of those “activate all the atoms in this arrangement” puzzle (which was SUPPOSED to be able to be solved in three moves, but took Andy a LOT longer), and only yielded a creepy “Let’s Play” message on the computer, along with some DNA sequences that mysteriously included a “U” (the gang was intrigued by that – and made plenty of jokes about The Girl being an advanced form of YouTuber in reference to the message – but disappointed in the lack of a more concrete reward for all that fiddling with the atoms). Meh – not exactly worth it! But Grace getting her gun back was nice. :)
V. Grace – after a quick visit to the Magneto Prisons to check for goodies in the other cell (there were none, just a disturbing doll) – collecting Emily from the save room and finally placing the final quartz in the Quartz Door, which allowed the pair to escape out into the courtyard out back! Fresh air at last! Though, worryingly, when Grace asked if Emily was okay, she could only reply “I dunno…” *grimaces* I hope Emily can be saved from whatever bullshit the staff at the Care Center did to her… Anyway, Grace took her down into the courtyard itself, where she found, of all things, a helipad! Complete with a helicopter –
And a grumpy old man hiding from the chaos inside the facility beside it. A grumpy old man with a worrying limp that he claimed was an old war wound. However, he was also a grumpy old man who confirmed he could fly the helicopter...but who didn’t have the key, as his boss had hidden it in a nearby shack. He thus made Grace a deal – if she went and got the key, he’d get her and Emily out of there. Grace was a tiny bit reluctant at first (suspicion over the limp), but the guy pointed out that she really didn’t have any options and promised to look after Emily, and she ended up agreeing. I left off with Grace, having strapped Emily into the helicopter, heading for the nearby shack to find that damn key while Helicopter Guy (Harry) presumably headed for the pilot’s seat. Tomorrow, we get Grace’s adventures in finding the key, and – as per the title – the shortest helicopter ride ever. Because everyone knows what happens to helicopters in Resident Evil games, right? They do NOT have a good track record...
2. Continue edits on Chapter 5 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – completed another page after I finally got out of the kitchen after supper, covering:
A) Smiler, having just saved Victor from a small-but-potentially-dangerous tumble on the mosaic, asking Victor if he saw any other tricky tiles – Victor took a look around, but had to admit he couldn’t. Though, as he noted, not being able to find them easily was the whole point of the mosaic, so… He told Smiler he was very impressed they had been able to find any, and Smiler confessed to having concentrated very hard on finding even the slightest differences between tiles so the group wouldn’t have to worry about darts flying out of the wall or flashbangs tumbling from the ceiling (with the latter bits being mimed). Victor assured them he appreciated it.
B) Victor checking in with Barnaby and Alice – Barnaby had a little bitch about how all this crouching was terrible on his thighs and how he’d have to get a massage from his private masseuse later, while Alice informed him that she was fine, and that Cheshire was making a game out of stepping only on the fish in the scene below them. Smiler asked how he was doing, and Alice said quite well – after all, he could cheat by turning himself into a pair of eyes and a smile to float over big gaps. XD Victor commented that he could use such a power at the moment – which led into –
C) Victor, turning back around to follow Kasimir, spotting a black tile that looked a little bit off to him not too far away. He got Smiler’s attention and had them look at it, and they agreed that it appeared to be sticking out the way the others had before getting Kasimir’s attention so Victor could point out potential pressure plate #3 to him. Victor was a little puzzled by the fact that the tricky tile was actually in the middle portion of the mosaic, when he was sure his father had told him that they alternated left side-right side-left side – Smiler tried to argue that it was a little to the left, while Kasimir was of the opinion that William might have given him deliberately-bad information to make sure anyone who took him wouldn’t know how to defeat every trap. It’s what he would do if he had a very kidnappable son! Victor was like “...I don’t think I’m that kidnappable” – Alice, not without sympathy, pointed out that the Van Dorts’ reaction to him disappearing was to start hobnobbing even harder with the nobility, so yeah, maybe he was. Aw.
D) Kasimir continuing to lead the group on their Prowl, confirming with Victor that the tile he’d just seen should be the last pressure plate – Victor said yes and then assured him that they’d be out of the mosaic and thus past the danger soon anyway. Well, the danger from this set of traps, anyway, as there were two more to go. Kasimir said they could worry about those when they weren’t risking getting darted or flash-banged...well, unless the next trap was another tripwire right at the edge of the mosaic. Victor told him there wasn’t – the next tripwire was in front of the actual door into the vault. Kasimir wasn’t thrilled to hear that, but admitted that they’d managed to find all the other tiny near-invisible shit in the hall so far –
Aaand I left it with him yelling “fuck!” as his toe caught in one of the cracks between tiles and he toppled over. And, unfortunately, Smiler isn’t going to be able to catch HIM in time, thanks to the dice rolls I made previously. :P We’ll deal with that, and the next trap, tomorrow!
3. Watch something on YouTube: No check – unless you count rewatching the “elevator escape” sequence of the workout video because damn that was tense and I wanted to reexperience it. Partly because I didn’t feel like I got to experience it properly during my workout because that’s when Dad was down there looking for the book. *sigh* But yeah, nothing new – though WeirdKev over on Tumblr did introduce me to a video where a guy made a couple versions of Nuka-Cola from the Fallout franchise. Didn’t have time to watch it, but I will have to keep it in mind for when I have a spare moment!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – on both accounts, surprisingly enough –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Over here, I tossed a couple of things from my drafts into the queue:
A) The “‘Do you insert yourself as the top/bottom of your favorite ship?’ No, I’m the cameraman” post by groovyfran-png for Wednesday
B) And my completed “Not-Incorrect Valicer Quotes, Valicer In The Dark Edition, Volume VI” post for Thursday!
So that’s all right – still have to figure out Friday and Saturday, but we’ll see if I can make any progress on that tomorrow.
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I had one anon ask to toss into the queue: “The horrors persist but so do libraries, books, iced coffee, sunsets, trees, the word 'fuck', the moon and the sea.” I had Cuddlepile!Smiler reply approvingly and offer the anon a high-five, saying those persist too. :p It seemed like the kind of sentiment they would agree with!
*nods* All right, that's more productive than I first thought it would be. I'm glad of that, at least. But now it is time for me to hit the sack -- night all!
Work – My workday consisted almost entirely of one thing today – working my way through the QC file for the next round of thank-yous that arrived in my e-mail yesterday, but which I wasn’t able to get to because I was always busy with something else. Fortunately, the distractions were fewer today (and my coworker was back in, which helped a lot), and I was able to get it done and sent back out with my notes and corrections by mid-afternoon –
Unfortunately, I found a few interesting fuck-ups along the way, including a whole set of gifts from a certain family that seem to have ended up on one member’s account...an account whose name was wrongly changed by one of the new people on the processing team… *sigh* Something I’ll have to poke at tomorrow! I also ended up taking some last-minute exceptions, which included ANOTHER instance of a parish sending one check to cover two gifts...except the two gifts were for two different things (the Appeal and the Capital Campaign, which have separate bank accounts), so now we have to do ANOTHER memo to Fiscal to have money moved. *grrr* Just – annoying. I guess we’ll see how Wednesday goes!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – twas another night pedaling through the OXBox RE9 LP (somewhat interrupted by both my parents coming down into the basement to look for a book they were having trouble finding), with tonight’s ride featuring –
A) The very end of “Let's Play Resident Evil Requiem: LEON KICKS BUTT! ARTIFICIAL ORGANS! ZOMBIE MEATGRINDER? Episode 3!” The final seven minutes or so covered:
I. Grace making her way to the Inspection Room (getting jumpscared twice by The Girl along the way – the first time, Andy made sure to have Grace grab the scrap right in front of the jumpscare for later crafting purposes; the second, he finally answered all of Jane and Mike’s hopes and prayers by actually using the Requiem handcannon on her – she did not like it and retreated back into the ceiling) with the help of her joint plugs powering up some doors...to discover it contained a horrible corpse carousel hanging from the ceiling, stocked with bagged bodies and the occasional upside-down live zombie who chewed on her when she got too close. Cue Grace having to manipulate the direction of the carousel with a lever and maneuver around it so she could clear a path to the next room while getting chomped on as little as possible, while Mike noted that the whole thing had “Halloween Horror Nights” vibes and Andy commented that it had plenty of SIF – “stuff in face” in the horror biz. :p
II. And Grace, having created a path, finding herself on the other side of the big blood channel room, next to the wheel to turn to drain it! She thus did exactly that (with Mike congratulating RE9 for not having the wheel break off in her hand AGAIN), revealing a big old pit with lots of dead zombies at the bottom –
And the titular zombie meatgrinder at one end. A meat grinder that WHIRRED TO LIFE once Grace ventured into the drained pit to collect goodies and cross back over to the other side, because it was now processing time! Cue the floor becoming a terrifying conveyor belt of death, and Grace having to stay away from the whirling grinders of doom while ALSO fending off the still-living zombies getting up and trying to attack her! Fortunately, she just had to stick it out until the game was satisfied enough zombies had been processed, then the belt stopped and she was allowed to get back out of the pit. Andy thus had her do just that so he could save at the nearby typewriter, quit, and go have a lie-down (with Jane saying she was going to have one too, and she hadn’t even been playing). XD Seemed legit to me!
B) And about the first half of “Let's Play Resident Evil Requiem: SHORTEST HELICOPTER RIDE! BURNING CHURCH! BLOOD GLOBE! Episode 4!” Which covered:
I. Grace going back into the now-inactive meat grinder pit to get the last of the goodies Andy hadn’t managed to snag down there in all the previous chaos (while Jane admitted that she’d forgotten this is where they’d left off and said that she’d seen what happened when Grace got mashed thanks to her feed – the boys told her to curate it better :P), then out the other side to grab the third joint plug since she no longer needed it to keep the door open! Meaning she’d technically collected all three, hooray! Now she just had to get the other two so she could power up the console she needed...
II. Grace creeping through a little side tunnel to get back to the main blood collection room as always – only for it to turn into a blood waterslide and dump her RIGHT INTO THE MAIN COLLECTION POOL. Mike thought it looked fun, though he expressed sympathy for Grace getting some in her mouth...before noting “you could have closed your mouth” – Andy and Jane were promptly like “have you ever been on a waterslide the water gets everywhere.” Andy then noted that Grace’s hands were genuinely absolutely covered in blood, and – at Jane and Mike’s urging – swapped to third person for a bit so they could see just how Carrie-White-esque she was. (Not full Carrie, but definitely a lot bloodier than she normally is, that’s for sure!)
III. Grace jumping back in the collection pool after it drained to collect infected blood from the leftover viscera piles and do some crafting, then hopping back out and running around to collect her other two joint plugs from where she’d left them – pursued not only by regular zombies, but also a Blisterhead. Because these things can never be simple. :p Fortunately, despite a close call or two (including with a zombie who was missing half his arm – the gang decided he must have been only lightly minced by the meat grinder), she was able to get her joint plugs and get away, even locking the Blisterhead in one of the corridors she no longer needed to access. Ha ha!
IV. Grace using her joint plugs to power the console in the holding cell area that lit up all the lights, summoned the elevator, and – of course – opened all the cells, before grabbing Emily out of the cell The Girl had left her in and booking it toward the elevator (Andy was initially relieved when the elevator’s arrival was shown in a cutscene, saying it would have been terrible if they’d given him control back then – and then they gave him control back and he was like “AAAAAH”). Fortunately she had some practice dodging zombies while carrying a little blind girl now, and was able to get in and shove the pallet preventing the doors from closing out of the way without getting chomped by either the regular zombies or The Girl. The elevator thus started ascending as the gang talked about how Emily must be thrilled that Grace took her out of her room to do that braille puzzle (that Grace could have guessed herself, given enough time) –
And then The Girl appeared climbing up the side of the elevator to try and get in. Fortunately they JUST made it to their floor, and Grace was able to use girl power (like the Spice Girls) to shove the doors open, get Emily out, and start crawling out herself –
Only for The Girl to get into the elevator and grab her by the ankle (Andy: “GRACE STOP CRAWLING YOU KNOW SHE GRABS ANKLES!”). Cue Grace and The Girl having a tug-of-war involving Grace’s leg as the elevator cable frayed –
And then cue the cable SNAPPING, and The Girl plunging into the abyss as Grace screamed, and the OXBoxers all being like O.O and D: over the possibility of Grace having just had her foot lopped off by the falling elevator. (Seriously, Andy’s shocked face was something else.) Fortunately, it turned out that what had been lopped off was The Girl’s hand instead, and Grace was fine, but DAMN. We all seriously thought that poor Grace had lost a limb there for a moment! (Though Jane admitted that she thought that was going to be how they found out how Grace had something similar to Ethan’s mold healing powers, prompting Mike to cut the tension by talking about how often poor Ethan’s hands got mutilated in his games. XD)
V. Grace, after learning that Emily had managed to keep a hold of the Star Quartz that they needed to get out of there, confirming that the kid would like to escape with her (after the world’s most awkward hug)...while grabbing The Girl’s severed hand, which was apparently an item you could pick up if you wanted. Cue Mike reading the description “it’s still a little warm” with no small measure of disgust, and Andy grossing his coworkers out by shoving the wrist with its broken bones and gore in their faces. :p
VI. Grace then depositing Emily in the save room to hang out on the couch for a little bit while she went and got some of the goodies that she hadn’t been able to pick up before – namely, the better gun (which turned out to be her own gun that she lost in the fight with the very first zombie back in Episode 1) and a bunch of antique coins from the bar and lounge (while Jane and Mike talked about how expensive it would be to try and be like Leon Kennedy in this game – turns out, pretty damn expensive – and Jane commented on how someone dragged Leon for keeping the same haircut he had in his 20s, prompting Mike to make a joking comparison to Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys), plus an injector that increased her max health from the gambling room (purchased with the antique coins, natch – Mike was still of the opinion that it was stupid to inject yourself with anything in the horrible mutant hospital). She also stopped off in the room with the big analyzing machine to analyze The Girl’s severed hand, since the OXBoxers wanted to know if that was possible. It was – but it required solving another one of those “activate all the atoms in this arrangement” puzzle (which was SUPPOSED to be able to be solved in three moves, but took Andy a LOT longer), and only yielded a creepy “Let’s Play” message on the computer, along with some DNA sequences that mysteriously included a “U” (the gang was intrigued by that – and made plenty of jokes about The Girl being an advanced form of YouTuber in reference to the message – but disappointed in the lack of a more concrete reward for all that fiddling with the atoms). Meh – not exactly worth it! But Grace getting her gun back was nice. :)
V. Grace – after a quick visit to the Magneto Prisons to check for goodies in the other cell (there were none, just a disturbing doll) – collecting Emily from the save room and finally placing the final quartz in the Quartz Door, which allowed the pair to escape out into the courtyard out back! Fresh air at last! Though, worryingly, when Grace asked if Emily was okay, she could only reply “I dunno…” *grimaces* I hope Emily can be saved from whatever bullshit the staff at the Care Center did to her… Anyway, Grace took her down into the courtyard itself, where she found, of all things, a helipad! Complete with a helicopter –
And a grumpy old man hiding from the chaos inside the facility beside it. A grumpy old man with a worrying limp that he claimed was an old war wound. However, he was also a grumpy old man who confirmed he could fly the helicopter...but who didn’t have the key, as his boss had hidden it in a nearby shack. He thus made Grace a deal – if she went and got the key, he’d get her and Emily out of there. Grace was a tiny bit reluctant at first (suspicion over the limp), but the guy pointed out that she really didn’t have any options and promised to look after Emily, and she ended up agreeing. I left off with Grace, having strapped Emily into the helicopter, heading for the nearby shack to find that damn key while Helicopter Guy (Harry) presumably headed for the pilot’s seat. Tomorrow, we get Grace’s adventures in finding the key, and – as per the title – the shortest helicopter ride ever. Because everyone knows what happens to helicopters in Resident Evil games, right? They do NOT have a good track record...
2. Continue edits on Chapter 5 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – completed another page after I finally got out of the kitchen after supper, covering:
A) Smiler, having just saved Victor from a small-but-potentially-dangerous tumble on the mosaic, asking Victor if he saw any other tricky tiles – Victor took a look around, but had to admit he couldn’t. Though, as he noted, not being able to find them easily was the whole point of the mosaic, so… He told Smiler he was very impressed they had been able to find any, and Smiler confessed to having concentrated very hard on finding even the slightest differences between tiles so the group wouldn’t have to worry about darts flying out of the wall or flashbangs tumbling from the ceiling (with the latter bits being mimed). Victor assured them he appreciated it.
B) Victor checking in with Barnaby and Alice – Barnaby had a little bitch about how all this crouching was terrible on his thighs and how he’d have to get a massage from his private masseuse later, while Alice informed him that she was fine, and that Cheshire was making a game out of stepping only on the fish in the scene below them. Smiler asked how he was doing, and Alice said quite well – after all, he could cheat by turning himself into a pair of eyes and a smile to float over big gaps. XD Victor commented that he could use such a power at the moment – which led into –
C) Victor, turning back around to follow Kasimir, spotting a black tile that looked a little bit off to him not too far away. He got Smiler’s attention and had them look at it, and they agreed that it appeared to be sticking out the way the others had before getting Kasimir’s attention so Victor could point out potential pressure plate #3 to him. Victor was a little puzzled by the fact that the tricky tile was actually in the middle portion of the mosaic, when he was sure his father had told him that they alternated left side-right side-left side – Smiler tried to argue that it was a little to the left, while Kasimir was of the opinion that William might have given him deliberately-bad information to make sure anyone who took him wouldn’t know how to defeat every trap. It’s what he would do if he had a very kidnappable son! Victor was like “...I don’t think I’m that kidnappable” – Alice, not without sympathy, pointed out that the Van Dorts’ reaction to him disappearing was to start hobnobbing even harder with the nobility, so yeah, maybe he was. Aw.
D) Kasimir continuing to lead the group on their Prowl, confirming with Victor that the tile he’d just seen should be the last pressure plate – Victor said yes and then assured him that they’d be out of the mosaic and thus past the danger soon anyway. Well, the danger from this set of traps, anyway, as there were two more to go. Kasimir said they could worry about those when they weren’t risking getting darted or flash-banged...well, unless the next trap was another tripwire right at the edge of the mosaic. Victor told him there wasn’t – the next tripwire was in front of the actual door into the vault. Kasimir wasn’t thrilled to hear that, but admitted that they’d managed to find all the other tiny near-invisible shit in the hall so far –
Aaand I left it with him yelling “fuck!” as his toe caught in one of the cracks between tiles and he toppled over. And, unfortunately, Smiler isn’t going to be able to catch HIM in time, thanks to the dice rolls I made previously. :P We’ll deal with that, and the next trap, tomorrow!
3. Watch something on YouTube: No check – unless you count rewatching the “elevator escape” sequence of the workout video because damn that was tense and I wanted to reexperience it. Partly because I didn’t feel like I got to experience it properly during my workout because that’s when Dad was down there looking for the book. *sigh* But yeah, nothing new – though WeirdKev over on Tumblr did introduce me to a video where a guy made a couple versions of Nuka-Cola from the Fallout franchise. Didn’t have time to watch it, but I will have to keep it in mind for when I have a spare moment!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – on both accounts, surprisingly enough –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Over here, I tossed a couple of things from my drafts into the queue:
A) The “‘Do you insert yourself as the top/bottom of your favorite ship?’ No, I’m the cameraman” post by groovyfran-png for Wednesday
B) And my completed “Not-Incorrect Valicer Quotes, Valicer In The Dark Edition, Volume VI” post for Thursday!
So that’s all right – still have to figure out Friday and Saturday, but we’ll see if I can make any progress on that tomorrow.
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I had one anon ask to toss into the queue: “The horrors persist but so do libraries, books, iced coffee, sunsets, trees, the word 'fuck', the moon and the sea.” I had Cuddlepile!Smiler reply approvingly and offer the anon a high-five, saying those persist too. :p It seemed like the kind of sentiment they would agree with!
*nods* All right, that's more productive than I first thought it would be. I'm glad of that, at least. But now it is time for me to hit the sack -- night all!
