Day Of Running Late
May. 28th, 2026 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYeah, I kept running behind on stuff today, which was kind of irritating -- I still got everything I wanted to get done, done, which is good, but I kept having to start it later than I wanted, or deal with it taking longer than I wanted. *grumbles* Probably can blame my period for at least some of that -- it DOES like to steal my focus, as I have said in the past! *shakehead* Anyway, here's what I managed to accomplish despite all that --
Work – Fortunately for my sanity, it wasn’t too rough a day at work – it was in fact pretty quiet, with my day consisting of:
A) Doing the usual morning reports and check scan (and answering a call from Fiscal to assure them that yes, I sent the 5/22/2026 GL over – turns out they were looking at the wrong e-mail or something)
B) Calling back some people who had left messages; answering a call from someone who wanted to know how their parish was doing goal-wise; and taking a call from someone who had to update the card on their recurring gift
C) Messing around some more with the obituaries and related roster maintenance tasks, cleaning up more duplicates and updating people’s birthdates and middle initials and marking them deceased and whatnot
D) And working on a QC file for the next set of thank-yous to go out...which led to me discovering two checks that had been put on the wrong account, because I’m starting to think that the people at our processing company only ever look at the FIRST donor who pops up if you search a certain address (there were two ladies who lived together on a certain street, and they put the gifts on the wrong one). *sigh* At least that’s better than discovering a check that doesn’t belong to us at all, I suppose…
So yeah – that wasn’t too taxing, overall. Which is good, because, again, period. Not doing great things for my brain. *grumble* We’ll see how Friday goes!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with Jon of Many A True Nerd’s “Fallout: New Vegas - Dust - Part 3 - Eat Or Be Eaten!” Tonight’s piece of “Doc Mitchell Explores The Post-Post-Post-Apocalyptic Mojave” featured –
A) Doc Mitchell going through some more of the recipes to break down things and craft new things available with his crafting kit, and discovering that one could make a throwing spear with a bit of wood and scrap metal – items that were available by breaking down any random hammer. And throwing spears were very useful items, as they were silent ranged weapons that did a pretty good amount of damage. Accordingly, he grabbed the first hammer he could find, broke it down into its components, and turned it into a spear! Jon wasn’t sure how, as the spear was notably larger than the hammer, but he wasn’t going to question it! XD He also made a note of what outfits could be rendered down into cloth strips for bandages (Patched Skin, Wasteland Settler, or Wasteland Wanderer); learned that tunneler hides could be turned into belts, which the game would then accept as leather belts that could be turned into tourniquets and (with the help of a medical brace and a few crutches he found by the shelves) splints; had some Cram for dinner to relieve his hunger – then discovered some lovely grilled mantis still sitting in his oven (Doc M, you’re lucky food can’t spoil in these games); and finally embraced alcoholism by having some whiskey followed by a wine chaser, because booze just gives one so many benefits in this game (especially beer and wine, which relieve thirst rather than making it worse).
B) Doc Mitchell heading to the neighbor’s house to try and find a hot plate to use to cook all his dog meat – sadly, he did not find one, as Jon had misremembered where it was. He did, however, find a dead Hulking Tunneler outside. He was very confused as to how it had gotten there and who killed it. O.o But he didn’t turn down the meat – maybe once he cooks it, it’ll be good eating?
C) Doc Mitchell stopping by the proper workbench in town and looking through all the stuff he could craft there (as it had a wider selection than the portable crafting kit), taking an especial interest in things like the makeshift axe (made with a bonesaw, plunger, and some scrap metal) and the makeshift flamethrower (made with a fission battery, two lead pipes, and a paint fun – it scares abominations, so it would be useful for keeping things like tunnelers at bay). He was a little more confused by the makeshift crossbow, as that requires a hunting rifle to make and he wasn’t sure why you wouldn’t just keep the gun – but then thought that it might be easier to make the ammo for that then find bullets for the hunting rifle. And indeed, when he looked at the recipe for making bolts for it, he discovered that you could make three out of one throwing spear. Meaning every hammer picked up could be either one spear or three crossbow bolts, both very useful items. Hammers are looking like the MVP of the Mojave right now, let me tell you!
D) Doc Mitchell, after an unsuccessful off-screen hunt for a hot plate, grabbing a hammer from Easy Pete’s old place to convert into a throwing spear before spending the night in his bed (as he had no idea how long it would be until he found another good, safe place to sleep). He got a good six hours’ rest, but woke up to find he was rather hungry and QUITE thirsty – he solved the hunger problem with the grilled mantis he’d found earlier, then made his way over to the campsite near the dried-up source to cook up all his dog meat on one of the campfires there. He did have to kill a “Hunter” in a human skin mask who came at him with a cleaver along the way (dude was easily dispatched with a couple of shots from Doc M’s revolver – though Jon ended up regretting “wasting” the ammo on him and hotkeyed his shovel to use against melee enemies in future), but otherwise made it to the campsite without incident –
Only to discover that, thanks to being in [CAUTION] thanks to the nearby tunnelers infesting the hills, the game wouldn’t let him USE his chosen campfire. It kept insisting he was in combat. Frustrated, he ended up waiting an hour to see if that would fix things –
And it instead made them worse, because that caused a tunneler to appear right in front of him and start attacking. Whoops. Reload time!
E) Doc Mitchell, now armed with the knowledge that there was a tunneler in the area, making for the OTHER campfire in the area and managing to successfully activate THAT one because it was far enough away from any potential enemies that the game didn’t consider him to be in “combat” – only to discover that he couldn’t cook his food because, thanks to his thirst, his Survival skill had been lowered under the minimum threshold (the Dehydration effects lower your Endurance, and that’s the stat tied to the skill). Fortunately, glugging a few bottles of dirty water plus a bottle of wine brought his stats back up, and he was able to cook all the dog steaks he could possibly want (if he wanted thirteen of them). He then proceeded to scarf down three with some dirty water and a beer to get all his meters down to acceptable levels. XD This is what one must do to survive in the Dust wasteland!
F) Doc Mitchell examining his Pip-Boy map, considering his options and deciding:
I. That he really didn’t want to go down through the valley where the NCR had exterminated the cazadores because, even if he could take out the trooper in there, all it led to was Red Rock Canyon, which he knew was full of unfriendly tribals and possible venomous tunnelers from the prologue
II. That he just might be able to get through the cannibals that had taken over Sloan with his Stealth Boy, which would allow him to get to Black Mountain, and from there to the NCR safehouse, which would put him near McCarran – which he largely knew how to handle thanks to the prologue AND which had a source of water in that survivor camp thanks to the brahmin troughs (if he could survive the Tunnelers...on the other hand, the other option for drinking while out in the world was sipping from heavily-irradiated TOILETS, so...yeah)
III. That he should probably go and see who was in the NCRCF (as he had no idea if the NCR was still holding it or not) and Hidden Valley (as he had no idea if the Brotherhood were still around or not), just because that would be useful information
IV. That, if visiting those places didn’t work out, he could always follow the Courier’s path around over to Primm and the Mojave Outpost, then over to Nipton, then around up to Novac, see what was going on in each of those places
V. And that it might be worth checking out Cottonwood Cove, as the Legion seemed to have devolved into a bunch of separate tribes, which he knew from experience were not always 100% hostile, and from there heading toward the Colorado River, because, you know, water (Camp Searchlight was also in that general area, but he wrote that off as “probably has even MORE resistant-to-everything-but-a-headshot ghouls in it these days” – feels like a fair assumption to me, yes!)
*nods* Always good to have options!
G) Doc Mitchell heading out on his first adventures to explore the immediate area and – after avoiding some survivors on the edge of the road – coming across the ruined caravan from the base game, where he saw what looked like at least one survivor shooting something. A little careful reconnaissance revealed that there was only one survivor standing, carrying a 10mm pistol – Doc M, figuring he could take the guy if he got close enough, thus snuck up to the caravan and circled around the side before confronting the guy and killing him via the power of shooting his leg in half at the knee. :p He then cheerfully looted all the corpses in the area, getting such goodies like a molotov cocktail (made with a scotch specifically), a homemade frag grenade, that 10mm pistol, and a hatchet. Plus some scrap metal and wood out of a box in the caravan itself. As you might imagine, he was feeling quite pleased with his haul as he headed off again –
Right up until he saw another two survivors ahead of him, one of which had a damn plasma gun on him. Fortunately, Doc M was able to quickly retreat into the caravan and shoot through the little blown-out window at the back, killing them without too much trouble –
And finally earning enough experience to reach Level 2! :D Jon promptly boosted Doc M’s Lockpick skill up to 25 (as being able to pick locks was an important skill in this mod, possibly even more important than in the vanilla game), his Guns up to 44 (as he was using them a lot), and his Melee Weapons up to 27 (as he felt like that was just a safe investment), and – after being surprised at how many perks were on offer for Level 2, and realizing that most of them now acted like traits in that they had both an upside and a downside – going for “Lead Belly” as his first perk to reduce by 50% the amount of rads he took from eating and drinking. Because all food, even cooked meat, in this game has rads in it, and the less rads one takes, the less susceptible to radiation poisoning you are! And we want to be as unsusceptible as possible to that.
H) Doc Mitchell looting the two guys he killed – turning down the combat armor on one and the plasma rifle on the other for being in too bad condition and too heavy, but happily taking more homemade molotovs and a machete to replace his knife – then crossing the nearby train tracks to check out the NCRCF and figure out what was going on there! He managed to sneak between a wandering survivor and a couple of wild dogs on the way there, hiding behind a billboard and creeping through the front gates into the main parking lot out the front without any trouble…
And then he actually got up to the prison itself and found that it was indeed occupied, with people who were only too happy to start immediately shooting at him. He managed to kill the guy who came through the front gate, get the Visitor’s Center key off him, and duck in there as his buddies started throwing explosives and hatchets and whatnot –
Only to discover the Visitor’s Center was FULL of unfriendly people. With guns. Cue Doc M dying, and Jon writing off the NCRCF as “too tough for the Doc right now.”
I) Doc Mitchell reloading into the world and this time skirting around the NCRCF in favor of sneaking his way over to Hidden Valley to see what became of the Brotherhood! As Jon was on the hunt for lore (namely, what ending had this universe’s Courier gotten, and what had happened afterward to turn the Mojave into THIS) and figured that the best places to start were in the locations that everybody already knew about, like the Brotherhood bunker. However, once Doc Mitchell got close, he discovered that there was a bit of a problem with Hidden Valley –
Namely, that there were a trio of feral ghouls in residence just beyond the fence. Feral ghouls that he did not feel like dealing with if he didn’t have to (though he was sure he had enough junk rounds in his revolver to take them out with headshots if necessary). Doc M thus headed into the hills around the side of the fenced-off valley (though he took care not to get too near Scorpion Gulch, which he figured would be worse than usual), then – after assessing the ghoul situation – tried to jump over the fence from a high rock to get in without having to go through the front. This did not work, but it did inspire him to try jumping ONTO the top of the fence instead, on the basis of, even if the ferals DID notice him, they wouldn’t be able to get to him. And lo and behold, this plan worked, with Doc M using his high Agility to tightrope along the metal bar surrounded by barbed wire over to one of the bunkers. I left off with him hopping off his fence and heading inside said bunker to see what he could find – tomorrow, we’ll wrap this episode up with Doc M exploring the old Brotherhood HQ! I expect him to find tragedy, because this IS a survival horror mod where everything went wrong. *nods*
2. Continue editing Chapter 5 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – I returned to the world of Valicer In The Dark tonight, and inched a little closer to completing this chapter-that-shall-be-split-in-twain. Tonight’s editing session covered –
A) Victor nearly leaping straight out of his skin upon hearing an unfortunately-familiar yell behind him, followed by one Nell Van Dort descending on him to yell at him about vanishing from the party during the five minutes she was gone. And without even taking one of the noble young ladies she invited with him! Because yes, that would have been a scandal, but it would have at least been a step in the right direction too! Would have ensured he’d have had to get married! (Because, you know, no one would want to marry him of their own free will...)
B) Nell getting distracted from berating Victor by the realization that, oh, hey, he’s not alone, and deciding to berate Kasimir, Smiler, and Alice instead, demanding to know who they were and when they’d been hired and if that damn housekeeper of hers had gone behind her back again. She then turned on Kasimir and Smiler individually, complaining about Kasimir dragging his cane everywhere and ruining her floors (with Kasimir blandly apologizing and saying he’d try harder not to have to walk) and Smiler’s weird haircut with the ends dyed purple (Smiler explained it was done with a special chemical concoction of their own design, causing Nell to grumble that she hoped they hadn’t been near the kitchens). She was okay with Alice’s appearance, but demanded to know why she had a bag – Alice explained they were new and hadn’t gotten a chance to get settled yet. Nell asked why not, leading to –
C) Barnaby swooping in to try and save the day! He told Nell that it was all HIS fault, weaving a story where he and Victor had gotten to chatting about houses at the party, and Victor had described the Van Dort mansion so wonderfully he’d just had to ask for a tour. They’d picked up the “new servants” during said tour (Barnaby making it clear he hadn’t bothered to learn their names), and Victor had asked the trio to accompany them so they’d get an idea of the layout of the house. He then began going on and on about how fabulous the house was, and how he was sure Nell had done all the decorating herself, given her incredible sense of style – Nell was appropriately flattered, giggling about how glad she was that Barnaby had noticed, and how gratifying it was that someone of his station approved. Barnaby assured her that he’d tell all his friends about it, subtly steering her backward as he asked her where she’d gotten her head chef as he’d so thoroughly enjoyed the food at the party…
Allowing Kasimir to tap Victor on the shoulder and subtly indicate they should make for the door. Victor silently agreed, and he, Kasimir, Alice, and Smiler began sloooowly inching toward it, Victor mentally encouraging Barnaby to keep his mother distracted for just a minute longer –
And then I left off with another servant rushing in yelling for “Mrs. Van Dort.” Tomorrow, we meet said servant and learn why she’s yelling for the lady of the house – namely, she just found some very unconscious guards on the floor near the vault...
3. Watch something on YouTube: No check, not even a technical substitution one – I got back on the computer late after supper (had to help Mom finish the laundry she’d forgotten earlier) and thus just didn’t have the time even for a “research” video. Probably will be the same tomorrow, but we’ll see!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – there was nothing going on over on Valice Multiverse, but I was able to keep on top of my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) queue today despite all odds –
A) First, this morning, I finished off my “Smiler In ‘Beneath A Broken Sky’ Memes” post – adding alt text to all the images, an explanatory paragraph of where the memes had come from (rereading “Beneath A Broken Sky” triggering my old thoughts about a version of Smiler from a Blades In The Dark universe without Victor and Alice falling into the BABS world, basically), and all the necessary tags! And I’m pleased to say that the person I most hoped would like it, thesatiricaldemon, did indeed enjoy it, reblogging it with some fun commentary on each meme – and noting in the tags that, if/when he finished BABS and started on any sequels, he wouldn’t be opposed to adding Smiler to HIS version of the Valice pair… :D I naturally reblogged with my own responses to his commentary, and some tags telling him no rush, my imagination was filling in the gaps nicely for now – though I wouldn’t MIND canonical Eldritch Hellworld Valicer. :P Here’s the latest post in the chain so you can see the memes, plus his and my additions in the reblogs!
B) And then, tonight, I managed to queue up a fic snippet for Friday – specifically, “Make You Smile,” the short fic I wrote covering Smiler and Alice’s very first meeting in the Valicer In The Dark verse! Specifically, Smiler encountering Alice while on their way back to the MOJ to get lunch before going back to their Joy Serum sales, and giving her some money for lunch when she admitted she didn’t have enough even for Dibbler’s stand. Mostly because she reminded them of themselves when they ran away from the Sanctuary for the first time. It’s a little rough around the edges, but I like it, and I’m happy to share it. :P
Hooray for having the time to add in the spaces tonight! *nods* And now it's time for me to head to bed. Hoping to get some decent sleep tonight, but we'll see...night all!
Work – Fortunately for my sanity, it wasn’t too rough a day at work – it was in fact pretty quiet, with my day consisting of:
A) Doing the usual morning reports and check scan (and answering a call from Fiscal to assure them that yes, I sent the 5/22/2026 GL over – turns out they were looking at the wrong e-mail or something)
B) Calling back some people who had left messages; answering a call from someone who wanted to know how their parish was doing goal-wise; and taking a call from someone who had to update the card on their recurring gift
C) Messing around some more with the obituaries and related roster maintenance tasks, cleaning up more duplicates and updating people’s birthdates and middle initials and marking them deceased and whatnot
D) And working on a QC file for the next set of thank-yous to go out...which led to me discovering two checks that had been put on the wrong account, because I’m starting to think that the people at our processing company only ever look at the FIRST donor who pops up if you search a certain address (there were two ladies who lived together on a certain street, and they put the gifts on the wrong one). *sigh* At least that’s better than discovering a check that doesn’t belong to us at all, I suppose…
So yeah – that wasn’t too taxing, overall. Which is good, because, again, period. Not doing great things for my brain. *grumble* We’ll see how Friday goes!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with Jon of Many A True Nerd’s “Fallout: New Vegas - Dust - Part 3 - Eat Or Be Eaten!” Tonight’s piece of “Doc Mitchell Explores The Post-Post-Post-Apocalyptic Mojave” featured –
A) Doc Mitchell going through some more of the recipes to break down things and craft new things available with his crafting kit, and discovering that one could make a throwing spear with a bit of wood and scrap metal – items that were available by breaking down any random hammer. And throwing spears were very useful items, as they were silent ranged weapons that did a pretty good amount of damage. Accordingly, he grabbed the first hammer he could find, broke it down into its components, and turned it into a spear! Jon wasn’t sure how, as the spear was notably larger than the hammer, but he wasn’t going to question it! XD He also made a note of what outfits could be rendered down into cloth strips for bandages (Patched Skin, Wasteland Settler, or Wasteland Wanderer); learned that tunneler hides could be turned into belts, which the game would then accept as leather belts that could be turned into tourniquets and (with the help of a medical brace and a few crutches he found by the shelves) splints; had some Cram for dinner to relieve his hunger – then discovered some lovely grilled mantis still sitting in his oven (Doc M, you’re lucky food can’t spoil in these games); and finally embraced alcoholism by having some whiskey followed by a wine chaser, because booze just gives one so many benefits in this game (especially beer and wine, which relieve thirst rather than making it worse).
B) Doc Mitchell heading to the neighbor’s house to try and find a hot plate to use to cook all his dog meat – sadly, he did not find one, as Jon had misremembered where it was. He did, however, find a dead Hulking Tunneler outside. He was very confused as to how it had gotten there and who killed it. O.o But he didn’t turn down the meat – maybe once he cooks it, it’ll be good eating?
C) Doc Mitchell stopping by the proper workbench in town and looking through all the stuff he could craft there (as it had a wider selection than the portable crafting kit), taking an especial interest in things like the makeshift axe (made with a bonesaw, plunger, and some scrap metal) and the makeshift flamethrower (made with a fission battery, two lead pipes, and a paint fun – it scares abominations, so it would be useful for keeping things like tunnelers at bay). He was a little more confused by the makeshift crossbow, as that requires a hunting rifle to make and he wasn’t sure why you wouldn’t just keep the gun – but then thought that it might be easier to make the ammo for that then find bullets for the hunting rifle. And indeed, when he looked at the recipe for making bolts for it, he discovered that you could make three out of one throwing spear. Meaning every hammer picked up could be either one spear or three crossbow bolts, both very useful items. Hammers are looking like the MVP of the Mojave right now, let me tell you!
D) Doc Mitchell, after an unsuccessful off-screen hunt for a hot plate, grabbing a hammer from Easy Pete’s old place to convert into a throwing spear before spending the night in his bed (as he had no idea how long it would be until he found another good, safe place to sleep). He got a good six hours’ rest, but woke up to find he was rather hungry and QUITE thirsty – he solved the hunger problem with the grilled mantis he’d found earlier, then made his way over to the campsite near the dried-up source to cook up all his dog meat on one of the campfires there. He did have to kill a “Hunter” in a human skin mask who came at him with a cleaver along the way (dude was easily dispatched with a couple of shots from Doc M’s revolver – though Jon ended up regretting “wasting” the ammo on him and hotkeyed his shovel to use against melee enemies in future), but otherwise made it to the campsite without incident –
Only to discover that, thanks to being in [CAUTION] thanks to the nearby tunnelers infesting the hills, the game wouldn’t let him USE his chosen campfire. It kept insisting he was in combat. Frustrated, he ended up waiting an hour to see if that would fix things –
And it instead made them worse, because that caused a tunneler to appear right in front of him and start attacking. Whoops. Reload time!
E) Doc Mitchell, now armed with the knowledge that there was a tunneler in the area, making for the OTHER campfire in the area and managing to successfully activate THAT one because it was far enough away from any potential enemies that the game didn’t consider him to be in “combat” – only to discover that he couldn’t cook his food because, thanks to his thirst, his Survival skill had been lowered under the minimum threshold (the Dehydration effects lower your Endurance, and that’s the stat tied to the skill). Fortunately, glugging a few bottles of dirty water plus a bottle of wine brought his stats back up, and he was able to cook all the dog steaks he could possibly want (if he wanted thirteen of them). He then proceeded to scarf down three with some dirty water and a beer to get all his meters down to acceptable levels. XD This is what one must do to survive in the Dust wasteland!
F) Doc Mitchell examining his Pip-Boy map, considering his options and deciding:
I. That he really didn’t want to go down through the valley where the NCR had exterminated the cazadores because, even if he could take out the trooper in there, all it led to was Red Rock Canyon, which he knew was full of unfriendly tribals and possible venomous tunnelers from the prologue
II. That he just might be able to get through the cannibals that had taken over Sloan with his Stealth Boy, which would allow him to get to Black Mountain, and from there to the NCR safehouse, which would put him near McCarran – which he largely knew how to handle thanks to the prologue AND which had a source of water in that survivor camp thanks to the brahmin troughs (if he could survive the Tunnelers...on the other hand, the other option for drinking while out in the world was sipping from heavily-irradiated TOILETS, so...yeah)
III. That he should probably go and see who was in the NCRCF (as he had no idea if the NCR was still holding it or not) and Hidden Valley (as he had no idea if the Brotherhood were still around or not), just because that would be useful information
IV. That, if visiting those places didn’t work out, he could always follow the Courier’s path around over to Primm and the Mojave Outpost, then over to Nipton, then around up to Novac, see what was going on in each of those places
V. And that it might be worth checking out Cottonwood Cove, as the Legion seemed to have devolved into a bunch of separate tribes, which he knew from experience were not always 100% hostile, and from there heading toward the Colorado River, because, you know, water (Camp Searchlight was also in that general area, but he wrote that off as “probably has even MORE resistant-to-everything-but-a-headshot ghouls in it these days” – feels like a fair assumption to me, yes!)
*nods* Always good to have options!
G) Doc Mitchell heading out on his first adventures to explore the immediate area and – after avoiding some survivors on the edge of the road – coming across the ruined caravan from the base game, where he saw what looked like at least one survivor shooting something. A little careful reconnaissance revealed that there was only one survivor standing, carrying a 10mm pistol – Doc M, figuring he could take the guy if he got close enough, thus snuck up to the caravan and circled around the side before confronting the guy and killing him via the power of shooting his leg in half at the knee. :p He then cheerfully looted all the corpses in the area, getting such goodies like a molotov cocktail (made with a scotch specifically), a homemade frag grenade, that 10mm pistol, and a hatchet. Plus some scrap metal and wood out of a box in the caravan itself. As you might imagine, he was feeling quite pleased with his haul as he headed off again –
Right up until he saw another two survivors ahead of him, one of which had a damn plasma gun on him. Fortunately, Doc M was able to quickly retreat into the caravan and shoot through the little blown-out window at the back, killing them without too much trouble –
And finally earning enough experience to reach Level 2! :D Jon promptly boosted Doc M’s Lockpick skill up to 25 (as being able to pick locks was an important skill in this mod, possibly even more important than in the vanilla game), his Guns up to 44 (as he was using them a lot), and his Melee Weapons up to 27 (as he felt like that was just a safe investment), and – after being surprised at how many perks were on offer for Level 2, and realizing that most of them now acted like traits in that they had both an upside and a downside – going for “Lead Belly” as his first perk to reduce by 50% the amount of rads he took from eating and drinking. Because all food, even cooked meat, in this game has rads in it, and the less rads one takes, the less susceptible to radiation poisoning you are! And we want to be as unsusceptible as possible to that.
H) Doc Mitchell looting the two guys he killed – turning down the combat armor on one and the plasma rifle on the other for being in too bad condition and too heavy, but happily taking more homemade molotovs and a machete to replace his knife – then crossing the nearby train tracks to check out the NCRCF and figure out what was going on there! He managed to sneak between a wandering survivor and a couple of wild dogs on the way there, hiding behind a billboard and creeping through the front gates into the main parking lot out the front without any trouble…
And then he actually got up to the prison itself and found that it was indeed occupied, with people who were only too happy to start immediately shooting at him. He managed to kill the guy who came through the front gate, get the Visitor’s Center key off him, and duck in there as his buddies started throwing explosives and hatchets and whatnot –
Only to discover the Visitor’s Center was FULL of unfriendly people. With guns. Cue Doc M dying, and Jon writing off the NCRCF as “too tough for the Doc right now.”
I) Doc Mitchell reloading into the world and this time skirting around the NCRCF in favor of sneaking his way over to Hidden Valley to see what became of the Brotherhood! As Jon was on the hunt for lore (namely, what ending had this universe’s Courier gotten, and what had happened afterward to turn the Mojave into THIS) and figured that the best places to start were in the locations that everybody already knew about, like the Brotherhood bunker. However, once Doc Mitchell got close, he discovered that there was a bit of a problem with Hidden Valley –
Namely, that there were a trio of feral ghouls in residence just beyond the fence. Feral ghouls that he did not feel like dealing with if he didn’t have to (though he was sure he had enough junk rounds in his revolver to take them out with headshots if necessary). Doc M thus headed into the hills around the side of the fenced-off valley (though he took care not to get too near Scorpion Gulch, which he figured would be worse than usual), then – after assessing the ghoul situation – tried to jump over the fence from a high rock to get in without having to go through the front. This did not work, but it did inspire him to try jumping ONTO the top of the fence instead, on the basis of, even if the ferals DID notice him, they wouldn’t be able to get to him. And lo and behold, this plan worked, with Doc M using his high Agility to tightrope along the metal bar surrounded by barbed wire over to one of the bunkers. I left off with him hopping off his fence and heading inside said bunker to see what he could find – tomorrow, we’ll wrap this episode up with Doc M exploring the old Brotherhood HQ! I expect him to find tragedy, because this IS a survival horror mod where everything went wrong. *nods*
2. Continue editing Chapter 5 of “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – I returned to the world of Valicer In The Dark tonight, and inched a little closer to completing this chapter-that-shall-be-split-in-twain. Tonight’s editing session covered –
A) Victor nearly leaping straight out of his skin upon hearing an unfortunately-familiar yell behind him, followed by one Nell Van Dort descending on him to yell at him about vanishing from the party during the five minutes she was gone. And without even taking one of the noble young ladies she invited with him! Because yes, that would have been a scandal, but it would have at least been a step in the right direction too! Would have ensured he’d have had to get married! (Because, you know, no one would want to marry him of their own free will...)
B) Nell getting distracted from berating Victor by the realization that, oh, hey, he’s not alone, and deciding to berate Kasimir, Smiler, and Alice instead, demanding to know who they were and when they’d been hired and if that damn housekeeper of hers had gone behind her back again. She then turned on Kasimir and Smiler individually, complaining about Kasimir dragging his cane everywhere and ruining her floors (with Kasimir blandly apologizing and saying he’d try harder not to have to walk) and Smiler’s weird haircut with the ends dyed purple (Smiler explained it was done with a special chemical concoction of their own design, causing Nell to grumble that she hoped they hadn’t been near the kitchens). She was okay with Alice’s appearance, but demanded to know why she had a bag – Alice explained they were new and hadn’t gotten a chance to get settled yet. Nell asked why not, leading to –
C) Barnaby swooping in to try and save the day! He told Nell that it was all HIS fault, weaving a story where he and Victor had gotten to chatting about houses at the party, and Victor had described the Van Dort mansion so wonderfully he’d just had to ask for a tour. They’d picked up the “new servants” during said tour (Barnaby making it clear he hadn’t bothered to learn their names), and Victor had asked the trio to accompany them so they’d get an idea of the layout of the house. He then began going on and on about how fabulous the house was, and how he was sure Nell had done all the decorating herself, given her incredible sense of style – Nell was appropriately flattered, giggling about how glad she was that Barnaby had noticed, and how gratifying it was that someone of his station approved. Barnaby assured her that he’d tell all his friends about it, subtly steering her backward as he asked her where she’d gotten her head chef as he’d so thoroughly enjoyed the food at the party…
Allowing Kasimir to tap Victor on the shoulder and subtly indicate they should make for the door. Victor silently agreed, and he, Kasimir, Alice, and Smiler began sloooowly inching toward it, Victor mentally encouraging Barnaby to keep his mother distracted for just a minute longer –
And then I left off with another servant rushing in yelling for “Mrs. Van Dort.” Tomorrow, we meet said servant and learn why she’s yelling for the lady of the house – namely, she just found some very unconscious guards on the floor near the vault...
3. Watch something on YouTube: No check, not even a technical substitution one – I got back on the computer late after supper (had to help Mom finish the laundry she’d forgotten earlier) and thus just didn’t have the time even for a “research” video. Probably will be the same tomorrow, but we’ll see!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – there was nothing going on over on Valice Multiverse, but I was able to keep on top of my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) queue today despite all odds –
A) First, this morning, I finished off my “Smiler In ‘Beneath A Broken Sky’ Memes” post – adding alt text to all the images, an explanatory paragraph of where the memes had come from (rereading “Beneath A Broken Sky” triggering my old thoughts about a version of Smiler from a Blades In The Dark universe without Victor and Alice falling into the BABS world, basically), and all the necessary tags! And I’m pleased to say that the person I most hoped would like it, thesatiricaldemon, did indeed enjoy it, reblogging it with some fun commentary on each meme – and noting in the tags that, if/when he finished BABS and started on any sequels, he wouldn’t be opposed to adding Smiler to HIS version of the Valice pair… :D I naturally reblogged with my own responses to his commentary, and some tags telling him no rush, my imagination was filling in the gaps nicely for now – though I wouldn’t MIND canonical Eldritch Hellworld Valicer. :P Here’s the latest post in the chain so you can see the memes, plus his and my additions in the reblogs!
B) And then, tonight, I managed to queue up a fic snippet for Friday – specifically, “Make You Smile,” the short fic I wrote covering Smiler and Alice’s very first meeting in the Valicer In The Dark verse! Specifically, Smiler encountering Alice while on their way back to the MOJ to get lunch before going back to their Joy Serum sales, and giving her some money for lunch when she admitted she didn’t have enough even for Dibbler’s stand. Mostly because she reminded them of themselves when they ran away from the Sanctuary for the first time. It’s a little rough around the edges, but I like it, and I’m happy to share it. :P
Hooray for having the time to add in the spaces tonight! *nods* And now it's time for me to head to bed. Hoping to get some decent sleep tonight, but we'll see...night all!
