Wound Up Wednesday
Jun. 11th, 2025 11:50 pmYeah, I'm sad to say that I spent most of the day in a grumpy, wound-up mood -- I blame having a dream about the world's worst road trip where I was arguing with my Mom about something right before I woke up. And anticipating all the stuff we'll be doing tomorrow and mentally preparing myself for it. Basically I haven't felt like I could relax most of the day, and that did not do good things for the old mental state. *sigh* But I got through it, and even managed to accomplish some stuff:
Work – Very quiet day at work again – there was one call in the morning from a lady updating her credit card on her pledge, and then I spent the rest of the day working on the latest obituaries (and doing a little bit of extra roster maintenance that cropped up as a result), helping get rid of some old fliers and such we didn’t need anymore, and doing a bunch of reversals. *shrug* This has been a very unexciting week, I must say! At least tomorrow will be more interesting, given I’m running around going to the hairdresser and the dentist and mini-golf instead of to work...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night pedaling my way through the adventures of Radian Inu (Andy), Kae’l Crex (Jane), and Galaxa Spacemountain (Liv) as they had adventures as Teens In Space! Today saw me get through:
A) The last eight-odd minutes of “Dad's Gonna be So Mad! | Teens in Space TTRPG | Episode 1!” Kae’l managed to fire some perfect warning shots to warn the guards chasing them off (and embarrass Dad Spacemountain even more), and the trio were able to make it into space and to a “null gate” (essentially a man-made wormhole to other places in known space, you know the drill) – which, fortunately for them, was manned by Kae’l’s cousin! Who, after some initial confusion about what the hell was going on, decided that his cousin stealing a luxury line spaceship was really cool and helped them out with a random jump to the very hot planet of Rez T-75! Which led into…
B) The first half-hour or so of “Now This is Space Racing! | Teens in Space TTRPG | Episode 2!” Featuring our intrepid trio of runaway teens –
I. Finding ways to pass the time they spent actually traveling through space-time to the other side of the null gate – Radian spent a good hour in the holodeck “learning about ancient civilizations” (though he had no proof as the browser history had been mysteriously wiped XD); Kae’l and Galaxa took a look down at the mysterious Restricted area in the lower deck, only to find that V.I.N.N.I.E. had laser cannons at his disposal to stop them going in (a fact that surprised even V.I.N.N.I.E.) – they were unable to charm the AI into going against his programming, but Galaxa had an inkling she could try to reprogram him a bit, if she was very careful about it (it helped that V.I.N.N.I.E. himself was keen on trying to figure out what was behind the door); Galaxa assuming a new tree-person form, complete with falling cherry blossoms (that turned into goo once they got far enough away from her); and everyone going up onto the Observation deck to look at space-time fragmenting beautifully around them – Radian and Kae’l were both overwhelmed by the wonder and majesty of it all, while poor Galaxa was like “emotions? Lock those down like Dad said” and had to pretend she was overwhelmed. She didn’t do a good job of it XD
II. Coming out of the space-time slipstream – only to find that, thanks to null gates being imperfect technology, they’d suffered some interesting side effects from their trip. Specifically, their feet had switched with their hands. XD Fortunately, as per the dice rolls Jasper made everybody do to figure out what the side effects would be, it was an impermanent situation that would only last an hour. Unfortunately, it made it impossible for anyone to hold on when V.I.N.N.I.E. took them down to investigate Rez T-75 and everybody got rather banged up from the bumpy reentry. XD To be fair, though, they could have suffered much WORSE swaps, as Radian and Galaxa noted, so…
III. Deciding, as implied above, to go ahead and take a look at the planet they’d jumped to, because why the hell not, they should get to explore a little while they’re on the run from the space cops! XD V.I.N.N.I.E. gave them the stats on the planet – it’s a very hot desert planet, covered in beautiful blue sand, with all the water underground, meaning most of the lifeforms live beneath the surface (as you would) – and took them down into the atmosphere, and after spotting and assessing a few landing sites, Radian was all for landing in the cave that seemed to lead directly to the underground area where all the locals lived. The ladies were on board with this, as was V.I.N.N.I.E. – though everyone was less on-board with V.I.N.N.I.E.’s suggestion to go in guns blazing. XD Kae’l was like “we will put that on the ‘maybe’ pile” and managed to convince him to go in cloaked instead. I left off with the gang preparing to sneakily land and head out (in special environment suits, of course – hot planet is hot) – we’ll see what happens to them on old Rez T-75 tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – tonight saw Victor attempt to explain more about what happened to him, in particular how he finally got away from Emily and out of the ghost field, but Nell was rather distracted by the reveal that Victor ended up in Silkshore (aka the “red lantern district”) and quickly became convinced that her son had done the local equivalent of sowing his wild oats (I’m still trying to come up with a Duskwall-appropriate phrase). Victor tried to say it wasn’t like that, but he didn’t help his case by admitting Alice and Smiler had taken him to the Mangled Mermaid. ^^; At any rate, Nell eventually told him that if he wanted to make things right, he could go and mingle at the party, try and chat up a new noble girl, and Victor reluctantly entered the ballroom to do just that (or try to, anyway). I left off with him slumped against the door, bemoaning how the day couldn’t get any worse...yeah, you can probably guess a certain “what ghost would marry our Victor” moment is imminent. :p That’s for next week, though – tomorrow, it’s back to “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” for that Alice to continue experiencing a new form of hell!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check, with an actual Subs video and a bonus –
A) First up, from Josh Way, we had “YouTube Doesn’t Understand (or Care) What Riffing Is!” A short update video from Josh letting us know that YouTube has Officially Demonetized his channel (which, incidentally, he’s had pretty much since YouTube LAUNCHED), because, apparently, they think he’s not adding enough “entertainment value” to “other people’s content” with his riffs on public domain educational shorts. Like, seriously. Josh attempted to appeal, but YouTube was firm, and has set impossibly high goals for him to achieve if he wants to appeal again (such as getting ten fucking million YouTube Shorts views in ninety days – Josh doesn’t even DO YouTube Shorts!). So yeah – no more YouTube revenue for Josh. He doesn’t plan to abandon the channel – mostly because he’s enjoying making “Fun With Shorts” again; he already has two more written and ready to go once he finds the time to record – but he is going to be looking for a potential new home for his content (such as Twitch, if he can get back into his account). *shakehead* What a shame… I’m sorry for you, Josh! Twenty years of loyal uploading and this is what you get. :(
B) And second up, as I didn’t have enough time to watch the CaFae Latte video in my Watch Later, I instead went with another short video from Proxy Gate Tactician – “10 Instant Death Cutscenes in Baldur's Gate 3 (Acts 1 and 2 Only)!” As per the title, Proxy showing off all the ways your character, or even your entire party, can die or be defeated in Acts 1 and 2 if you make the wrong decisions (or get unlucky on a die roll, in some cases). Basically, if you don’t want to find yourself either getting an early game over or having to revive a character back at camp:
I. Don’t let the injured mind flayer in the wreckage of the Nautiloid suck all your brains out (obvious)
II. Don’t put on any of the Whispering Masks in Auntie Ethel’s horrible basement (she WILL mind control you through them)
III. Don’t let Lae’zel kill you (and herself) when you start showing signs of turning into a mind flayer (even if you have other party members to revive you, you’ll lose Lae’zel as they’ll have to fight her, and apparently she can’t be revived after they kill her)
IV. Don’t let Astarion drink as much blood from you as he wants, as he WILL essentially suck you dry (though admittedly, you can be revived the next day, and it can result in some amusing dialogue as Astarion tries to downplay murdering you XD)
V. If Gale dies, don’t ignore the warnings of his specially-created projection that he has to be revived in two days (because otherwise that Netherese orb in his chest is going to go off pretty fucking explosively)
VI. Don’t jump down that chasm underneath the blighted village into the Underdark without casting Feather Fall (or Fly, if you have that spell, as per one of his myth-busting videos)
VII. Don’t goad Philomeen into blowing up the barrel of runepowder she has when you confront her, because she is NOT bluffing when she threatens that (and you will go very much boom)
VIII. Don’t mouth off to Vlaakith, “God-Queen” of the githyanki (she’s actually a very powerful magical lich, but nobody mention that in her presence), as she is more than happy to use the spell Wish to insta-kill you (but NOT to insta-kill Orpheus inside the artifact. Interesting)
IX. Don’t steal the Blood of Lathander mace from the monastery the githyanki are using as a base, lest you arm the sunlight-powered super-laser outside – or, if you do, make sure to either find a way to disarm it or fucking RUN as fast as you can in the four turns you get before it goes off (or, if you can’t save everybody, make sure Astarion gets left behind because he has some pretty fucking hilarious dialogue if he dies to that thing and you revive him afterward)
X. And if the Dream Visitor/Emperor warns you that taking a certain course of action would remove the protection he gives you from the Absolute (such as trying to go back to the Mountain Pass of Act 1 once you’ve entered Act 2), FOR FUCK’S SAKE DON’T DO IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO BECOME A MIND FLAYER
So now you know! And knowing is half the battle. (The other half is getting lucky on the initiative die roll. :P)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about tonight, and I finished off my queue over there with a reblog of my old Song Saturday featuring “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr! Because I had to do that one after queuing up the Ghostbusters Mega AU for Thursday. XD (As for the song parody I had in mind – I don’t have enough of it done, and it would take too long to try and wrangle into shape. I’ll have to save it for another time, when inspiration strikes again!)
Other: We did play beanbags when I got home from work, and it was one of those days where Dad absolutely smoked Mom and me, winning all three games while Mom and I traded second place back and forth. Final scores were me 2-3-2; Dad W-W-W; and Mom 3-2-3. *shakehead* I dunno why I’m so freaking off lately with my throwing...though I suppose I should just be grateful I did that little bit better than Mom. We’ll see what happens the next time we play!
So at least that was all okay. And now I have to go to bed, as I can't stay up late -- my appointment at Fantastic Sam's is at 9 AM, so I have to get up normal time. :( And then I have my dentist appointment at 11:45 AM, and then Mom wants to do mini-golf in the afternoon, as per the above...we'll see how it all pans out. Night all!
Work – Very quiet day at work again – there was one call in the morning from a lady updating her credit card on her pledge, and then I spent the rest of the day working on the latest obituaries (and doing a little bit of extra roster maintenance that cropped up as a result), helping get rid of some old fliers and such we didn’t need anymore, and doing a bunch of reversals. *shrug* This has been a very unexciting week, I must say! At least tomorrow will be more interesting, given I’m running around going to the hairdresser and the dentist and mini-golf instead of to work...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night pedaling my way through the adventures of Radian Inu (Andy), Kae’l Crex (Jane), and Galaxa Spacemountain (Liv) as they had adventures as Teens In Space! Today saw me get through:
A) The last eight-odd minutes of “Dad's Gonna be So Mad! | Teens in Space TTRPG | Episode 1!” Kae’l managed to fire some perfect warning shots to warn the guards chasing them off (and embarrass Dad Spacemountain even more), and the trio were able to make it into space and to a “null gate” (essentially a man-made wormhole to other places in known space, you know the drill) – which, fortunately for them, was manned by Kae’l’s cousin! Who, after some initial confusion about what the hell was going on, decided that his cousin stealing a luxury line spaceship was really cool and helped them out with a random jump to the very hot planet of Rez T-75! Which led into…
B) The first half-hour or so of “Now This is Space Racing! | Teens in Space TTRPG | Episode 2!” Featuring our intrepid trio of runaway teens –
I. Finding ways to pass the time they spent actually traveling through space-time to the other side of the null gate – Radian spent a good hour in the holodeck “learning about ancient civilizations” (though he had no proof as the browser history had been mysteriously wiped XD); Kae’l and Galaxa took a look down at the mysterious Restricted area in the lower deck, only to find that V.I.N.N.I.E. had laser cannons at his disposal to stop them going in (a fact that surprised even V.I.N.N.I.E.) – they were unable to charm the AI into going against his programming, but Galaxa had an inkling she could try to reprogram him a bit, if she was very careful about it (it helped that V.I.N.N.I.E. himself was keen on trying to figure out what was behind the door); Galaxa assuming a new tree-person form, complete with falling cherry blossoms (that turned into goo once they got far enough away from her); and everyone going up onto the Observation deck to look at space-time fragmenting beautifully around them – Radian and Kae’l were both overwhelmed by the wonder and majesty of it all, while poor Galaxa was like “emotions? Lock those down like Dad said” and had to pretend she was overwhelmed. She didn’t do a good job of it XD
II. Coming out of the space-time slipstream – only to find that, thanks to null gates being imperfect technology, they’d suffered some interesting side effects from their trip. Specifically, their feet had switched with their hands. XD Fortunately, as per the dice rolls Jasper made everybody do to figure out what the side effects would be, it was an impermanent situation that would only last an hour. Unfortunately, it made it impossible for anyone to hold on when V.I.N.N.I.E. took them down to investigate Rez T-75 and everybody got rather banged up from the bumpy reentry. XD To be fair, though, they could have suffered much WORSE swaps, as Radian and Galaxa noted, so…
III. Deciding, as implied above, to go ahead and take a look at the planet they’d jumped to, because why the hell not, they should get to explore a little while they’re on the run from the space cops! XD V.I.N.N.I.E. gave them the stats on the planet – it’s a very hot desert planet, covered in beautiful blue sand, with all the water underground, meaning most of the lifeforms live beneath the surface (as you would) – and took them down into the atmosphere, and after spotting and assessing a few landing sites, Radian was all for landing in the cave that seemed to lead directly to the underground area where all the locals lived. The ladies were on board with this, as was V.I.N.N.I.E. – though everyone was less on-board with V.I.N.N.I.E.’s suggestion to go in guns blazing. XD Kae’l was like “we will put that on the ‘maybe’ pile” and managed to convince him to go in cloaked instead. I left off with the gang preparing to sneakily land and head out (in special environment suits, of course – hot planet is hot) – we’ll see what happens to them on old Rez T-75 tomorrow!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – tonight saw Victor attempt to explain more about what happened to him, in particular how he finally got away from Emily and out of the ghost field, but Nell was rather distracted by the reveal that Victor ended up in Silkshore (aka the “red lantern district”) and quickly became convinced that her son had done the local equivalent of sowing his wild oats (I’m still trying to come up with a Duskwall-appropriate phrase). Victor tried to say it wasn’t like that, but he didn’t help his case by admitting Alice and Smiler had taken him to the Mangled Mermaid. ^^; At any rate, Nell eventually told him that if he wanted to make things right, he could go and mingle at the party, try and chat up a new noble girl, and Victor reluctantly entered the ballroom to do just that (or try to, anyway). I left off with him slumped against the door, bemoaning how the day couldn’t get any worse...yeah, you can probably guess a certain “what ghost would marry our Victor” moment is imminent. :p That’s for next week, though – tomorrow, it’s back to “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” for that Alice to continue experiencing a new form of hell!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check, with an actual Subs video and a bonus –
A) First up, from Josh Way, we had “YouTube Doesn’t Understand (or Care) What Riffing Is!” A short update video from Josh letting us know that YouTube has Officially Demonetized his channel (which, incidentally, he’s had pretty much since YouTube LAUNCHED), because, apparently, they think he’s not adding enough “entertainment value” to “other people’s content” with his riffs on public domain educational shorts. Like, seriously. Josh attempted to appeal, but YouTube was firm, and has set impossibly high goals for him to achieve if he wants to appeal again (such as getting ten fucking million YouTube Shorts views in ninety days – Josh doesn’t even DO YouTube Shorts!). So yeah – no more YouTube revenue for Josh. He doesn’t plan to abandon the channel – mostly because he’s enjoying making “Fun With Shorts” again; he already has two more written and ready to go once he finds the time to record – but he is going to be looking for a potential new home for his content (such as Twitch, if he can get back into his account). *shakehead* What a shame… I’m sorry for you, Josh! Twenty years of loyal uploading and this is what you get. :(
B) And second up, as I didn’t have enough time to watch the CaFae Latte video in my Watch Later, I instead went with another short video from Proxy Gate Tactician – “10 Instant Death Cutscenes in Baldur's Gate 3 (Acts 1 and 2 Only)!” As per the title, Proxy showing off all the ways your character, or even your entire party, can die or be defeated in Acts 1 and 2 if you make the wrong decisions (or get unlucky on a die roll, in some cases). Basically, if you don’t want to find yourself either getting an early game over or having to revive a character back at camp:
I. Don’t let the injured mind flayer in the wreckage of the Nautiloid suck all your brains out (obvious)
II. Don’t put on any of the Whispering Masks in Auntie Ethel’s horrible basement (she WILL mind control you through them)
III. Don’t let Lae’zel kill you (and herself) when you start showing signs of turning into a mind flayer (even if you have other party members to revive you, you’ll lose Lae’zel as they’ll have to fight her, and apparently she can’t be revived after they kill her)
IV. Don’t let Astarion drink as much blood from you as he wants, as he WILL essentially suck you dry (though admittedly, you can be revived the next day, and it can result in some amusing dialogue as Astarion tries to downplay murdering you XD)
V. If Gale dies, don’t ignore the warnings of his specially-created projection that he has to be revived in two days (because otherwise that Netherese orb in his chest is going to go off pretty fucking explosively)
VI. Don’t jump down that chasm underneath the blighted village into the Underdark without casting Feather Fall (or Fly, if you have that spell, as per one of his myth-busting videos)
VII. Don’t goad Philomeen into blowing up the barrel of runepowder she has when you confront her, because she is NOT bluffing when she threatens that (and you will go very much boom)
VIII. Don’t mouth off to Vlaakith, “God-Queen” of the githyanki (she’s actually a very powerful magical lich, but nobody mention that in her presence), as she is more than happy to use the spell Wish to insta-kill you (but NOT to insta-kill Orpheus inside the artifact. Interesting)
IX. Don’t steal the Blood of Lathander mace from the monastery the githyanki are using as a base, lest you arm the sunlight-powered super-laser outside – or, if you do, make sure to either find a way to disarm it or fucking RUN as fast as you can in the four turns you get before it goes off (or, if you can’t save everybody, make sure Astarion gets left behind because he has some pretty fucking hilarious dialogue if he dies to that thing and you revive him afterward)
X. And if the Dream Visitor/Emperor warns you that taking a certain course of action would remove the protection he gives you from the Absolute (such as trying to go back to the Mountain Pass of Act 1 once you’ve entered Act 2), FOR FUCK’S SAKE DON’T DO IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO BECOME A MIND FLAYER
So now you know! And knowing is half the battle. (The other half is getting lucky on the initiative die roll. :P)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about tonight, and I finished off my queue over there with a reblog of my old Song Saturday featuring “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr! Because I had to do that one after queuing up the Ghostbusters Mega AU for Thursday. XD (As for the song parody I had in mind – I don’t have enough of it done, and it would take too long to try and wrangle into shape. I’ll have to save it for another time, when inspiration strikes again!)
Other: We did play beanbags when I got home from work, and it was one of those days where Dad absolutely smoked Mom and me, winning all three games while Mom and I traded second place back and forth. Final scores were me 2-3-2; Dad W-W-W; and Mom 3-2-3. *shakehead* I dunno why I’m so freaking off lately with my throwing...though I suppose I should just be grateful I did that little bit better than Mom. We’ll see what happens the next time we play!
So at least that was all okay. And now I have to go to bed, as I can't stay up late -- my appointment at Fantastic Sam's is at 9 AM, so I have to get up normal time. :( And then I have my dentist appointment at 11:45 AM, and then Mom wants to do mini-golf in the afternoon, as per the above...we'll see how it all pans out. Night all!
Pretty Good Tuesday
Jun. 10th, 2025 11:45 pmWell, except for the weather, which was rainy and miserable and kinda chilly. *shrug* Can't have everything! But yeah, I feel like I had a pretty good day overall, as my write-up will show --
Work – A pretty quiet day today – I ran the morning reports; did some obituaries and other related roster maintenance work; took a call from a guy wondering where his gift was (discovering in the process he had a duplicate record, so good thing he called); and then spent the rest of the day working on the QC file for the latest set of pledge billings we’re sending out for the Appeal. *shrug* Nothing too exciting! In fact, it was kind of boring, so I was very glad we were allowed to leave early. :P We’ll see if tomorrow is any more exciting or not!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “Dad's Gonna be So Mad! | Teens in Space TTRPG | Episode 1” by Oxventure! The adventures of Radian Inu (Andy), Kae’l Crex (Jane), and Galaxa Spacemountain (Liv) continued today, with –
A) Galaxa, hiding from her father in good form, overhearing her dad have a private conversation with one of her teachers about how important the Galaxa spaceship is, and how it’s vital that they have the best of the best when it comes to students on board...after all, he couldn’t put someone like his kid on it, could he? Cue Liv having to make a Grit roll as Galaxa seized up like non-Newtonian cornstarch glop (fortunately, she passed and didn’t cause a scene). XD
B) Galaxa THEN having to cover her compatriot’s attempts to escape from the room (Kae’l)/up onto the roof through an extractor vent of some kind (Radian, who had gone out the window and was desperately clinging to the wall) after both Jane and Andy rolled fairly poorly – fortunately, an extremely awkward “hi Dad I just wanted to say how great it was that you named the spaceship after me, we should totally go away on vacation together soon” conversation did the trick, and Kae’l was able to slither out of the room and gradually uncube herself out of sight, while Radian (thanks to exploding dice) was able to do a big leap up into the vent, get on the roof, then race down through the access hatch and down the stairs into the hallway. XD Dad Spacemountain was not happy to see any of them, but fortunately didn’t cotton on that they’d been in his office and just sent them home.
C) The gang having to avoid their “friend” from before (the one who was so intimidated by Kae’l he gave her his wallet) as they passed the hot dog spot on the way to the hangar where the Galaxa ship was docked, spinning a bullshit story about how it was an optical illusion that made them look like they were walking away from him, they were TOTALLY walking forward, please keep those eleven hot dogs you ordered for us for some reason warm XD
D) The gang having to get past the cybernetic dog-alien guards at the hangar – Radian claimed they were doing a school project, on behalf of their teacher Mr. Spaceship (it took GM Jasper a few minutes to recover from THAT one XD). The guard they spoke to demanded a note, so Radian hastily forged one behind his back (having to add more and more crap, like their full names and the school’s fancy crest to the top, as the guard got more and more specific about what he needed to see to let them in) – it didn’t QUITE pass muster, but it got the guards out of the way via the medium of them going around and showing it to each other and agreeing it looked suspicious before walking off to find more people up the chain of command XD
E) The kids finding the ship, and Jasper having Liv and Andy roll to determine the personality and accent of the onboard AI, with Jane getting naming rights – they ended up getting an angry Cockney AI that Jane named V.I.N.N.I.E. (Virtual Intelligence Neural Network Interactive Environment) XD
F) After some back and forth with V.I.N.N.I.E., who alternated between berating the kids and bragging about what a great spaceship he was, Radian managing to get the AI to let them on-board by asking if he’d seen the game the other night, prompting V.I.N.N.I.E. to open the doors to show them he had a game on now
G) V.I.N.N.I.E. leading the kids on a tour of the ship, featuring Galaxa ordering what she THOUGHT was an alcoholic drink from the canteen (proved to be merely Space Sprite) – and the reveal there was something [REDACTED] down in the lower deck, hmmm…
H) And, of course, the moment we were all waiting for – the kids hijacking the ship when the guards showed up with rifles and Dad Spacemountain, with Radian taking the pilot’s seat and “accidentally” pressing buttons to get them moving; Galaxa monitoring the shields and power levels and such – when she wasn’t sticking her head out the window to essentially tell her horrified father to suck it, that is; and Kae’l manning the weapons, upsetting V.I.N.N.I.E. a bit by reprogramming the lasers to not kill anybody because he’d been promised he could kill some people (“later on,” she pacified him). XD Tomorrow, we wrap things up with the last few minutes of their grand escape, and start episode 2 to see what shenanigans they get into once they’re actually in space!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – I got another chunk done right before my workout, with Victor heading to the main ballroom to find his parents – only to get surprised by them coming out the exact same side door he’d intended to go in. Nell was IMMEDIATELY on him, demanding to know where he’d been and what he’d been doing, and telling him all about how he’d wrecked their reputation and his chances with Victoria Everglot (now engaged to an “Imperial lieutenant” – hi Christopher, you’ll get named eventually!) with all his shenanigans. And while poor Victor is currently doing his best to explain what happened with Emily, his parents are already skeptical of his claim that she dragged him into the ghost field...and I’m afraid things are just going to go downhill from there...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check plus, as – thanks to the extra free time I had from the early release – I got to watch a whole three videos today –
A) First up, we had a video I saw on Sims Community yesterday but didn’t get a chance to watch until this afternoon – “Paralives - Release Date Trailer (Early Access)” by Paralives! Yes, the Paralives team dropped a trailer the other day featuring a look at the town they’ve built for all the Paras to live in; a quick glance at how the UI works; a timelapse of a particular Para throughout her life to show off how aging works in the game; and lots of interactions between Paras, from a lady listening intently to someone playing piano at a dinner party, to a son comforting his mother when she ended up having a breakdown by the bathtub, to some ladies sharing a kiss at a party. And, most importantly, as per the title, the Early Access release date – December 8th, 2025! So by the end of the year, we’ll be able to take a look at how this game actually works! :D I suspect I know what I’ll be buying myself for my birthday this year…
B) Then, tonight, we had “Reacting to YOUR CaFae Latte Hot Takes!” by C. M. Alongi! 47 minutes of Chris reacting to people’s thoughts about the series – the characters, the arcs, and the world she’s created. It was pretty interesting stuff, with Chris:
I. Straight-up shooting down some ideas (like Bob getting a partner – “No. She’s aromantic”)
II. Explaining why other ones may not happen the way the author might want (“Rethu and Cyrus looking at the nurse with the streamer ex-boyfriend and considering going poly for her” – probably not going to happen, not in the least because Rethu’s demi and Cyrus is ace (meaning they aren’t the type to have instant attraction to someone), but she’s open to doing poly rep in GENERAL; “you should do some darker storylines” – she’d LIKE to, but between TikTok’s censorship policies and the fact that it’s easier for her do happier/sillier stuff for the most part when she’s acting, it’s tough to actually do darker stuff in the series. In the BOOK, though...)
III. And even adding a few ideas to her “filler” list of potential skit ideas (“JC’s parole officer and/or the officer who arrested them should show up at the cafe” – that could be interesting, yes, she will note it down).
She also confirmed a few headcanons (yes, JC IS a stress baker and will bake all the things if they’re struggling with their old addictions), admitted to some faults in her storytelling (yes, Drek isn’t as developed as the rest of the cast, mostly because she’s been writing him by the seat of her pants), and promised repeatedly that the upcoming book series would satisfy a good number of the complaints some people had (not only darker storylines, but a redo of Patrick and Janine’s Enemies-to-Lovers arc in the second book, Heart of Silver, since she is willing to admit that maybe they got together a touch too fast (personally, I think the sped-up, fluffier nature of the relationship works for the web series just fine)). Interesting stuff – it’s cool to get a look behind the scenes, and see what other people think about the show! :) Though I am glad that I didn’t watch it earlier, because that would have deprived me of the delightful shock I got upon seeing Eric in one of the more recent compilation thumbnails RIGHT AFTER watching the “Betrayal” arc (she revealed in this that she had plans to bring him back). Looking forward to watching THAT one eventually, let me tell you!
C) And finally, because I still actually had some time to watch videos even after the hefty treat that was the CaFae Latte Hot Takes (getting out early from work is really awesome), I went ahead and wrapped things up with “I Busted More Baldur's Gate 3 Myths in 2024” from Proxy Gate Tactician! Because I do very much enjoy his myth-busting videos. :) And in this video, he tackled:
I. Is it possible to hit Level 12 (the max level in an unmodded game) before reaching Act III? TECHNICALLY, but Proxy doesn’t think it’s really plausible – while he was able to find a way to min-max every encounter in the game for max XP, getting him all the way to Level 11 and roughly halfway to Level 12 by the end of Act II, AND he was able to find an infinite-farming opportunity against an enemy who will consistently raise zombies that you can kill for 3 XP each if you keep going in and out of combat with him, the sheer number of zombies you have to kill (over 4,000!) would probably cause the game to crash just from rendering all those bodies. So it’s probably POSSIBLE, but extremely unlikely. Though he did prove you can get damn close!
II. Can any animal larger than a peacock enter Baldur’s Gate? Nope, with the POSSIBLE exception of one spider companion a Beastmaster ranger can pick up (Proxy wasn’t quite sure if it was larger than a peacock or not). But yes, as it stands, after doing a lot of testing with the guards at the gate to Baldur’s Gate (as none of the other guards react to animals once you’re IN the city), Proxy was able to confirm that, apart from that one spider, anything bigger than a house cat, blue bird, raven, or crab was NOT allowed entry. Not even Scratch, the goodest boy! D: And no, trying to fudge the rules by using spells to make the kitties big and the oxen small did NOT fool the guards. XD
III. Are crate walls overpowered in outdoor fights, like the one where you have to protect the portal Halsin pops into to lift the shadow curse on the shadow-cursed lands? Nope – but barrel walls are! Basically, while a crate wall is good for getting the high ground and stopping melee attackers from doing anything, thanks to a quirk of BG3’s engine, ranged attackers can fire arrows, spells, and other such things right through the crates – their hitbox just doesn’t exist in those instances. So stacking up a bunch of crates only protected the portal for a little while. However, BARRELS are solid no matter what – an enemy can’t shoot through them, they have to look for a gap. So stacking a bunch of barrels in front of the portal protected it for the required full five turns. Basically, if you want to cheese certain fights, put your faith in the barrel, not the crate!
IV. And is it possible to get a funny fourth-wall-breaking cutscene from Karlach organically in the game, instead of fiddling with the game’s files to trigger it? Nope – not only did Proxy not find any hard evidence of someone triggering the cutscene without using cheats or mods, data-mining indicates that the cutscene simply cannot be trigger organically. Proxy even offered up $500 to anyone who could trigger the cutscene without cheats or mods, film how they did it, and then upload the video so other people could follow their method before Patch 7 came out, and it was never claimed. So yeah, that one is busted, and if you want to see it, be prepared to hit up NexusMods! Or YouTube – plenty of videos on it on YouTube. :p
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – well, a check and an N/A, as once again I didn’t have anything happening on Valice Multiverse. But I got my queue on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) sorted through Friday earlier tonight, with:
A) A post from “citizenscreen” about how the original Ghostbusters hit theaters on June 8th, 1984 (complete with gif of them getting ready to face off against Gozer, and promo still of them post the Stay-Puft explosion), and a post from “graceashcroft” of gifs of Jillian Holtzmann from Ghostbusters: Answer The Call (aka the 2016 reboot) that I had in my drafts, for Wednesday
B) My two posts detailing my Ghostbusters Mega AU for Thursday
C) And a post from “dreemurr-skelememer” featuring a picture of someone apparently “insane about own AU” as per the label, and a post from “rookamell” about how writing isn’t the hobby, being insane about fictional people is, and writing is the only outlet, for Friday
Yeah, I stumbled across that post about the Ghostbusters release date while looking for any posts on the original movie that might go well with the 2016 GB gifset I already had in my drafts, and went “wait, the original’s release date was Sunday? Okay, gotta go with the GB theme now.” XD Made life a little easier, that’s for sure! Still have to figure out my Song Saturday though...with the issue there being, well, obviously I should probably feature the classic Ray Parker Jr. song...but there’s a half-completed parody of ANOTHER song that keeps playing in my head that I kind of want to feature too… We’ll see what happens tomorrow!
And there we have it! Amazing the difference that getting out an hour early can make. *sigh* I wish workdays were just shorter in general...but I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon. Meh. As it stands, though, I'm gonna try and hit the sack earlier, as I have been getting to bed entirely too late and thus need to try and yank things back a bit. Hopefully tomorrow will also be a halfway decent day! Night all!
Work – A pretty quiet day today – I ran the morning reports; did some obituaries and other related roster maintenance work; took a call from a guy wondering where his gift was (discovering in the process he had a duplicate record, so good thing he called); and then spent the rest of the day working on the QC file for the latest set of pledge billings we’re sending out for the Appeal. *shrug* Nothing too exciting! In fact, it was kind of boring, so I was very glad we were allowed to leave early. :P We’ll see if tomorrow is any more exciting or not!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “Dad's Gonna be So Mad! | Teens in Space TTRPG | Episode 1” by Oxventure! The adventures of Radian Inu (Andy), Kae’l Crex (Jane), and Galaxa Spacemountain (Liv) continued today, with –
A) Galaxa, hiding from her father in good form, overhearing her dad have a private conversation with one of her teachers about how important the Galaxa spaceship is, and how it’s vital that they have the best of the best when it comes to students on board...after all, he couldn’t put someone like his kid on it, could he? Cue Liv having to make a Grit roll as Galaxa seized up like non-Newtonian cornstarch glop (fortunately, she passed and didn’t cause a scene). XD
B) Galaxa THEN having to cover her compatriot’s attempts to escape from the room (Kae’l)/up onto the roof through an extractor vent of some kind (Radian, who had gone out the window and was desperately clinging to the wall) after both Jane and Andy rolled fairly poorly – fortunately, an extremely awkward “hi Dad I just wanted to say how great it was that you named the spaceship after me, we should totally go away on vacation together soon” conversation did the trick, and Kae’l was able to slither out of the room and gradually uncube herself out of sight, while Radian (thanks to exploding dice) was able to do a big leap up into the vent, get on the roof, then race down through the access hatch and down the stairs into the hallway. XD Dad Spacemountain was not happy to see any of them, but fortunately didn’t cotton on that they’d been in his office and just sent them home.
C) The gang having to avoid their “friend” from before (the one who was so intimidated by Kae’l he gave her his wallet) as they passed the hot dog spot on the way to the hangar where the Galaxa ship was docked, spinning a bullshit story about how it was an optical illusion that made them look like they were walking away from him, they were TOTALLY walking forward, please keep those eleven hot dogs you ordered for us for some reason warm XD
D) The gang having to get past the cybernetic dog-alien guards at the hangar – Radian claimed they were doing a school project, on behalf of their teacher Mr. Spaceship (it took GM Jasper a few minutes to recover from THAT one XD). The guard they spoke to demanded a note, so Radian hastily forged one behind his back (having to add more and more crap, like their full names and the school’s fancy crest to the top, as the guard got more and more specific about what he needed to see to let them in) – it didn’t QUITE pass muster, but it got the guards out of the way via the medium of them going around and showing it to each other and agreeing it looked suspicious before walking off to find more people up the chain of command XD
E) The kids finding the ship, and Jasper having Liv and Andy roll to determine the personality and accent of the onboard AI, with Jane getting naming rights – they ended up getting an angry Cockney AI that Jane named V.I.N.N.I.E. (Virtual Intelligence Neural Network Interactive Environment) XD
F) After some back and forth with V.I.N.N.I.E., who alternated between berating the kids and bragging about what a great spaceship he was, Radian managing to get the AI to let them on-board by asking if he’d seen the game the other night, prompting V.I.N.N.I.E. to open the doors to show them he had a game on now
G) V.I.N.N.I.E. leading the kids on a tour of the ship, featuring Galaxa ordering what she THOUGHT was an alcoholic drink from the canteen (proved to be merely Space Sprite) – and the reveal there was something [REDACTED] down in the lower deck, hmmm…
H) And, of course, the moment we were all waiting for – the kids hijacking the ship when the guards showed up with rifles and Dad Spacemountain, with Radian taking the pilot’s seat and “accidentally” pressing buttons to get them moving; Galaxa monitoring the shields and power levels and such – when she wasn’t sticking her head out the window to essentially tell her horrified father to suck it, that is; and Kae’l manning the weapons, upsetting V.I.N.N.I.E. a bit by reprogramming the lasers to not kill anybody because he’d been promised he could kill some people (“later on,” she pacified him). XD Tomorrow, we wrap things up with the last few minutes of their grand escape, and start episode 2 to see what shenanigans they get into once they’re actually in space!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – I got another chunk done right before my workout, with Victor heading to the main ballroom to find his parents – only to get surprised by them coming out the exact same side door he’d intended to go in. Nell was IMMEDIATELY on him, demanding to know where he’d been and what he’d been doing, and telling him all about how he’d wrecked their reputation and his chances with Victoria Everglot (now engaged to an “Imperial lieutenant” – hi Christopher, you’ll get named eventually!) with all his shenanigans. And while poor Victor is currently doing his best to explain what happened with Emily, his parents are already skeptical of his claim that she dragged him into the ghost field...and I’m afraid things are just going to go downhill from there...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check plus, as – thanks to the extra free time I had from the early release – I got to watch a whole three videos today –
A) First up, we had a video I saw on Sims Community yesterday but didn’t get a chance to watch until this afternoon – “Paralives - Release Date Trailer (Early Access)” by Paralives! Yes, the Paralives team dropped a trailer the other day featuring a look at the town they’ve built for all the Paras to live in; a quick glance at how the UI works; a timelapse of a particular Para throughout her life to show off how aging works in the game; and lots of interactions between Paras, from a lady listening intently to someone playing piano at a dinner party, to a son comforting his mother when she ended up having a breakdown by the bathtub, to some ladies sharing a kiss at a party. And, most importantly, as per the title, the Early Access release date – December 8th, 2025! So by the end of the year, we’ll be able to take a look at how this game actually works! :D I suspect I know what I’ll be buying myself for my birthday this year…
B) Then, tonight, we had “Reacting to YOUR CaFae Latte Hot Takes!” by C. M. Alongi! 47 minutes of Chris reacting to people’s thoughts about the series – the characters, the arcs, and the world she’s created. It was pretty interesting stuff, with Chris:
I. Straight-up shooting down some ideas (like Bob getting a partner – “No. She’s aromantic”)
II. Explaining why other ones may not happen the way the author might want (“Rethu and Cyrus looking at the nurse with the streamer ex-boyfriend and considering going poly for her” – probably not going to happen, not in the least because Rethu’s demi and Cyrus is ace (meaning they aren’t the type to have instant attraction to someone), but she’s open to doing poly rep in GENERAL; “you should do some darker storylines” – she’d LIKE to, but between TikTok’s censorship policies and the fact that it’s easier for her do happier/sillier stuff for the most part when she’s acting, it’s tough to actually do darker stuff in the series. In the BOOK, though...)
III. And even adding a few ideas to her “filler” list of potential skit ideas (“JC’s parole officer and/or the officer who arrested them should show up at the cafe” – that could be interesting, yes, she will note it down).
She also confirmed a few headcanons (yes, JC IS a stress baker and will bake all the things if they’re struggling with their old addictions), admitted to some faults in her storytelling (yes, Drek isn’t as developed as the rest of the cast, mostly because she’s been writing him by the seat of her pants), and promised repeatedly that the upcoming book series would satisfy a good number of the complaints some people had (not only darker storylines, but a redo of Patrick and Janine’s Enemies-to-Lovers arc in the second book, Heart of Silver, since she is willing to admit that maybe they got together a touch too fast (personally, I think the sped-up, fluffier nature of the relationship works for the web series just fine)). Interesting stuff – it’s cool to get a look behind the scenes, and see what other people think about the show! :) Though I am glad that I didn’t watch it earlier, because that would have deprived me of the delightful shock I got upon seeing Eric in one of the more recent compilation thumbnails RIGHT AFTER watching the “Betrayal” arc (she revealed in this that she had plans to bring him back). Looking forward to watching THAT one eventually, let me tell you!
C) And finally, because I still actually had some time to watch videos even after the hefty treat that was the CaFae Latte Hot Takes (getting out early from work is really awesome), I went ahead and wrapped things up with “I Busted More Baldur's Gate 3 Myths in 2024” from Proxy Gate Tactician! Because I do very much enjoy his myth-busting videos. :) And in this video, he tackled:
I. Is it possible to hit Level 12 (the max level in an unmodded game) before reaching Act III? TECHNICALLY, but Proxy doesn’t think it’s really plausible – while he was able to find a way to min-max every encounter in the game for max XP, getting him all the way to Level 11 and roughly halfway to Level 12 by the end of Act II, AND he was able to find an infinite-farming opportunity against an enemy who will consistently raise zombies that you can kill for 3 XP each if you keep going in and out of combat with him, the sheer number of zombies you have to kill (over 4,000!) would probably cause the game to crash just from rendering all those bodies. So it’s probably POSSIBLE, but extremely unlikely. Though he did prove you can get damn close!
II. Can any animal larger than a peacock enter Baldur’s Gate? Nope, with the POSSIBLE exception of one spider companion a Beastmaster ranger can pick up (Proxy wasn’t quite sure if it was larger than a peacock or not). But yes, as it stands, after doing a lot of testing with the guards at the gate to Baldur’s Gate (as none of the other guards react to animals once you’re IN the city), Proxy was able to confirm that, apart from that one spider, anything bigger than a house cat, blue bird, raven, or crab was NOT allowed entry. Not even Scratch, the goodest boy! D: And no, trying to fudge the rules by using spells to make the kitties big and the oxen small did NOT fool the guards. XD
III. Are crate walls overpowered in outdoor fights, like the one where you have to protect the portal Halsin pops into to lift the shadow curse on the shadow-cursed lands? Nope – but barrel walls are! Basically, while a crate wall is good for getting the high ground and stopping melee attackers from doing anything, thanks to a quirk of BG3’s engine, ranged attackers can fire arrows, spells, and other such things right through the crates – their hitbox just doesn’t exist in those instances. So stacking up a bunch of crates only protected the portal for a little while. However, BARRELS are solid no matter what – an enemy can’t shoot through them, they have to look for a gap. So stacking a bunch of barrels in front of the portal protected it for the required full five turns. Basically, if you want to cheese certain fights, put your faith in the barrel, not the crate!
IV. And is it possible to get a funny fourth-wall-breaking cutscene from Karlach organically in the game, instead of fiddling with the game’s files to trigger it? Nope – not only did Proxy not find any hard evidence of someone triggering the cutscene without using cheats or mods, data-mining indicates that the cutscene simply cannot be trigger organically. Proxy even offered up $500 to anyone who could trigger the cutscene without cheats or mods, film how they did it, and then upload the video so other people could follow their method before Patch 7 came out, and it was never claimed. So yeah, that one is busted, and if you want to see it, be prepared to hit up NexusMods! Or YouTube – plenty of videos on it on YouTube. :p
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – well, a check and an N/A, as once again I didn’t have anything happening on Valice Multiverse. But I got my queue on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) sorted through Friday earlier tonight, with:
A) A post from “citizenscreen” about how the original Ghostbusters hit theaters on June 8th, 1984 (complete with gif of them getting ready to face off against Gozer, and promo still of them post the Stay-Puft explosion), and a post from “graceashcroft” of gifs of Jillian Holtzmann from Ghostbusters: Answer The Call (aka the 2016 reboot) that I had in my drafts, for Wednesday
B) My two posts detailing my Ghostbusters Mega AU for Thursday
C) And a post from “dreemurr-skelememer” featuring a picture of someone apparently “insane about own AU” as per the label, and a post from “rookamell” about how writing isn’t the hobby, being insane about fictional people is, and writing is the only outlet, for Friday
Yeah, I stumbled across that post about the Ghostbusters release date while looking for any posts on the original movie that might go well with the 2016 GB gifset I already had in my drafts, and went “wait, the original’s release date was Sunday? Okay, gotta go with the GB theme now.” XD Made life a little easier, that’s for sure! Still have to figure out my Song Saturday though...with the issue there being, well, obviously I should probably feature the classic Ray Parker Jr. song...but there’s a half-completed parody of ANOTHER song that keeps playing in my head that I kind of want to feature too… We’ll see what happens tomorrow!
And there we have it! Amazing the difference that getting out an hour early can make. *sigh* I wish workdays were just shorter in general...but I don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon. Meh. As it stands, though, I'm gonna try and hit the sack earlier, as I have been getting to bed entirely too late and thus need to try and yank things back a bit. Hopefully tomorrow will also be a halfway decent day! Night all!
Happy Birthday Victor Van Dort!
Jun. 9th, 2025 11:48 pmIt, uh, hasn't been quite as nice as Alice and Smiler's birthdays (I mean, for starters, I had to work, plus there was an -- INCIDENT with the toilet when I got home -- I won't go into it, you don't want details), but I am making a distinct effort to try and concentrate on some of the better things that happened today. Such as reading a bunch of Corpse Bride fanfics on my lunch break (a couple of Victor/Victoria/Emily poly fics, and a couple chapters from "In A World Of My Own," the Forgotten Vows Verse "Victor and Alice exploring Victor's Otherland" story I wrote ages ago)! Or having a nice dish of Cookies & Cream ice cream with lots of cookie bits and chocolate sauce! Or listening to some really nice CB-inspired ambience as I caught up on webcomics and such! Or -- and this is the big one --
Getting my new mouse! Yes, it was waiting for me on my desk when I got home today, and I am pleased to report that so far it's working very well! It moves REALLY smoothly over my desk, and oh man, is it SO NICE to be able to click on something and not worry that the mouse is going to think that I double- or triple-clicked! I'm still getting used to the scroll wheel (though it is pleasantly clicky), and I don't think I can make the glowy bits glow any other color than green unless I download some software from the Logitech site, but I am pleased with its performance as of this moment. May it last for at least a BIT longer than the Alienware mouses I had before!
Anyway -- let's do the write-up of the day, and at a DECENT hour for a change:
Work – An okay day to start the week, I’d say – I spent the morning doing the GL and clearing out some exceptions (had to send a check back to a guy because he put two different amounts on it), then the rest of the day was spent working on a QC file for the next thank you to go out, with a couple of breaks to take phone calls (clearing up some issues we had with a parish check, and establishing which of two different pledge amounts a couple wanted (as they’d each sent in a pledge because they go to church different days)). Oh, and learning the new online time card system from the lady in charge of such in the Fiscal department. Nothing particularly exciting, other than having to fight with the printer a bit this morning, but nothing particularly horrible either. *shrug* I’ll take it!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, and another night with Oxventure, as I started “Dad's Gonna be So Mad! | Teens in Space TTRPG | Episode 1!” This is a short miniseries of Jane and Andy playing the Teens In Space RPG with Jasper and Liv of Three Black Halflings! I’m always thrilled to see them come on the channel – they’re such fun people. :) Anyway, the conceit of Teens In Space is that you are, well, teens in space, traveling around on your own spaceship and having teen-media-appropriate adventures across the known galaxy, with the dice rolls working roughly how they do in Deadlands – you get dice with more sides for the stuff that you’re better at, and if you roll the highest result, the die “explodes” and you get to roll it again. The conceit of this particular mini-series of Teens In Space is that Andy, Jane, and Liv are the three alien teenagers Radian Inu (who is basically a giant bipedal Shibu Inu in a denim jacket), Kae’l Crex (a blue three-fingered alien girl with a steely stare and no actual bones), and Galaxa Spacemountain (a purplish girl with tentacles for hair, big eyes, and the ability to melt into goo), who – after a dedication ceremony at their school for the newest luxury-model spaceship, the Galaxa (named after teen Galaxa, as one of the people behind its creation was her father) – decide to sneak over to the drydock where it’s being held and have a snoop around inside. This will of course inevitably lead to them straight-up stealing it and going on fantastic space adventures, but we haven’t gotten to that part yet. XD What we covered in this first half-hour was instead the following:
A) A history lesson on the setting – specifically how this super-advanced race 300 years ago came up with teleporter technology and went around sharing it with all the “lesser” races, only to be nonplussed by the “lesser” races fighting for their favor and leaving, warning said races not to venture out beyond “known” space or try to figure out the teleporter tech on their own, or they’ll come back and “delete” all “unworthy” races – the teens were all very bored as they already knew all this stuff from school
B) The discovery that, in this world, there’s a special enzyme that can be added to punch that automatically makes any alcohol in it evaporate if it detects it’s being poured into underaged mouths; it was later established by Andy that some kids still try to get drunk off the vapor as it comes off the punch
C) The teens, bored at the afterparty, deciding to go and check out the ship because, after all, it’s named after Galaxa, it’s practically hers – spurred on by a friend of theirs showing up and revealing that his brother had been chosen to pilot the ship (upsetting Radian, who considered himself the best pilot in all the simulations) AND he knew where the keys were as a result. Galaxa was able to handily charm the location out of him (in a safe in Galaxa’s dad’s office), while Kae’l’s steely stare made sure that their friend didn’t want to come along with them for the ride (and scored her his wallet as a bonus)
D) Galaxa becoming somehow convinced the ship was actually a late birthday present from her dad and going and hugging him – and then becoming immediately disillusioned when a reporter asked Dad Spacemountain why he’d named the ship Galaxa, and it turned out that he’d actually called his very first spaceship the Galaxa, meaning that his daughter had been named after his ship, and things had just come around full circle with this latest space liner
E) The gang having a run-in with the janitor while on their way to Dad Spacemountain’s office, and managing to get him to leave them alone after he obliquely threatened Radian by pointing out that that was creepy, and openly asking if he was responsible for disappearing kids in the past; the janitor was quite freaked out by these accusations and quickly headed off, with Jasper noting that he was probably going to seek gainful employment elsewhere XD
F) After failing to cut open the lock with a laser (Kae’l) and break the door down (Radian), Galaxa turning into her goo form to slither under Dad Spacemountain’s office door and open it from the other side – Kae’l and Radian were both VERY shocked by this, because Galaxa hadn’t ever done it in front of them, though fortunately Kae’l was able to keep Radian from making any incriminating noises
G) Galaxa stealing all the money, the little phaser, and the two “smart watch” spaceship keys from her dad’s safe after seeing a big old picture of him with his spaceship, with his family tiny in the background XD
H) And the kids having to hastily hide when they heard Dad Spacemountain approaching the office with a reporter for a photo op – Galaxa went into goo form; Kae’l folded herself up so she could fit in the safe (with a little help from Radian), and Radian elected to hop out the window and stand on the ledge, pressing himself up tight against the wall to stay out of site. We’ll see tomorrow if Andy’s roll was enough to make that plan happen, or if poor Radian is potentially going to go splat three stories down before the first episode’s over. XD
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – and yes, we’re starting with the Valicer In The Dark stuff this week, as I wanted to work on the story that’s from Victor’s POV on his birthday. Which I feel is understandable! Anyway, today we got through Victor trying to bring Alice and Smiler into the house with him to meet his parents (mingling with their guests in the main ballroom, as per Barry) and hopefully give them a reward (they protested a bit – Smiler more than Alice, admittedly – but Victor assured them he really wanted to give them something for helping him) –
Only for Barry to be like “uh, no, they’re clearly from the lower classes and will poor up the place, they need to wait at the servants’ entrance.” Victor was quite peeved and tried to argue the point, but Alice and Smiler were both like “no, Victor, it’s okay, this is an unnecessary argument, we’ll go wait there.” Which Victor was still annoyed about, but he recognized that they were probably right and that it was easier not to argue about it (and that putting his mother and Alice in the same room was likely to be a recipe for disaster), and so let them go. I left off with Victor preparing to head inside while Alice and Smiler were brought around to the servants’ entrance by Barry – tomorrow, we meet the local versions of Nell and William Van Dort, and discover just how dickish they really are! (Spoilers: very!)
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – got in both videos that I really wanted to watch today, hooray –
A) First up, for my Mandated Watching Of Victor Van Dort-Related Content For His Birthday, we had “Victor Van Dort scenepack 🖤” by ☽skyler-vogel☾! Seven minutes of various short clips of Victor from throughout Corpse Bride. Featuring classic moments as him playing the piano in the Everglots’ front foyer; the candle refusing to light in the disastrous rehearsal; his attempts to flee Emily both in the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead; him getting caught with Victoria by Emily; him making up with Emily via piano duet; him choosing to marry Emily when he thought Victoria had married another; and the fork-vs-sword fight with Barkis. Good stuff, though I do wish a couple of moments had been allowed to play out for longer. The cuts between moments were a little jerky at times. *shrug* Ah well, it was still fun to watch.
B) And second up, we had more C. M. Alongi with “CaFae Latte Season 60 - TikTok Compilation!” This season featured the resolution of the “John going into the woods to try and figure out what’s happening to all those missing hikers and campers...only for his walkie-talkie to mysteriously go out” cliffhanger from the previous season, and included:
I. Nicole telling Herla back at the Stoughton Street Coven headquarters that he had to get to the nearby forest by sundown, otherwise there would be death, and Herla thus getting his horse, dogs, and bow ready because he’s not dumb enough to ignore the visions of a witch
II. A bloodied John running through the woods and encountering the ghost of one of the missing people, Jessica Valentine, who led him to the stream and our friend the riddle-and-cat-toy-loving sphynx; it was then revealed that the reason the ghost-detecting charm wasn’t doing John any good before was because the people who were killing all the campers were two very human serial killers, with a device on them that jams walkie-talkie and cell phone signals (though, fortunately, they weren’t straight-up cannibals, as Jessica clarified when the sphynx misunderstood her commenting that they like to “play with their food” – only a small mercy, though, that!)
III. The sphynx and Jessica doing their best to help John escape the killers so he could follow the stream back to civilization – the sphynx distracting one of the brothers, Brady, and clawing out one of his eyes, while Jessica did her best to stop George – unfortunately, he had an anti-ghost charm bracelet meaning she couldn’t do shit to him, AND he proved callous enough to not want to help his brother, so – yeah. Not good!
IV. George catching up with John, and getting ready to start whacking him up with his axe – only to get an arrow through the wrist from Herla, aka our beloved grumpy cavalry (Jessica was VERY happy to see that)
V. And John and Herla talking to the cops afterward to explain what happened – and it being revealed that Herla not only carried John (who’d collapsed right after the danger had passed, both from exhaustion and a concussion) out of the woods in a bridal carry, he’d started tending his wounds before the EMTs arrived and had refused to leave his side. Actions that had convinced the cop they were talking to that they were a couple. XD Herla was quite annoyed by this, and bemoaned the fact that back in his day, men were allowed to be human, while John tried to get him off using words like “sodomites” to describe gay people. XD At any rate, they’re at least closer to being friends (even if Herla refuses to admit it), and the season ended with John delighted that he got to ride Herla’s flying horsey (because, you know, can’t drive with a concussion)
Lovely stuff, as always! I didn’t THINK Chris would kill off John, but it’s nice to see for sure that he’s gonna be okay. And yes, there were plenty of comments declaring that people would LOVE to see Herla and John get together. XD Me, I’d be happy with them as a couple or just grumpy besties – they’ve got a good dynamic either way! :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Substitute check – just had Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about today, and of course the main thing I wanted to get done over there was the plushy celebration picture! Because I couldn’t do them for Alice Dolly and Smileon and not for Victor Plush! Fortunately, I already had an idea in mind, so I was able to set up and take the picture right before my workout, then make the post tonight, while I was writing up the Teens In Space stuff – behold poor Victor Plush having a bit of a hard time riding Us, while Alice Dolly, Smileon, and Dougie offer assistance and moral support. XD To be fair, Victor’s long legs probably make riding the big old intellect devourer a bit more difficult than it is for Alice Dolly or Smileon! :p I’m just glad it came together so well and so quickly – I had the basic poses set up in an instant, and just had to tweak them slightly so Alice’s face was in frame and Smileon was facing the right way before snapping the pics. :) And now those are all set for another year, yay~
*nods* Not bad. And now I am going to get off and get some sleep, as I am VERY tired. As you might expect given how late I got to bed last night. *shakehead* Gotta do something about Sundays...night all!
Getting my new mouse! Yes, it was waiting for me on my desk when I got home today, and I am pleased to report that so far it's working very well! It moves REALLY smoothly over my desk, and oh man, is it SO NICE to be able to click on something and not worry that the mouse is going to think that I double- or triple-clicked! I'm still getting used to the scroll wheel (though it is pleasantly clicky), and I don't think I can make the glowy bits glow any other color than green unless I download some software from the Logitech site, but I am pleased with its performance as of this moment. May it last for at least a BIT longer than the Alienware mouses I had before!
Anyway -- let's do the write-up of the day, and at a DECENT hour for a change:
Work – An okay day to start the week, I’d say – I spent the morning doing the GL and clearing out some exceptions (had to send a check back to a guy because he put two different amounts on it), then the rest of the day was spent working on a QC file for the next thank you to go out, with a couple of breaks to take phone calls (clearing up some issues we had with a parish check, and establishing which of two different pledge amounts a couple wanted (as they’d each sent in a pledge because they go to church different days)). Oh, and learning the new online time card system from the lady in charge of such in the Fiscal department. Nothing particularly exciting, other than having to fight with the printer a bit this morning, but nothing particularly horrible either. *shrug* I’ll take it!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, and another night with Oxventure, as I started “Dad's Gonna be So Mad! | Teens in Space TTRPG | Episode 1!” This is a short miniseries of Jane and Andy playing the Teens In Space RPG with Jasper and Liv of Three Black Halflings! I’m always thrilled to see them come on the channel – they’re such fun people. :) Anyway, the conceit of Teens In Space is that you are, well, teens in space, traveling around on your own spaceship and having teen-media-appropriate adventures across the known galaxy, with the dice rolls working roughly how they do in Deadlands – you get dice with more sides for the stuff that you’re better at, and if you roll the highest result, the die “explodes” and you get to roll it again. The conceit of this particular mini-series of Teens In Space is that Andy, Jane, and Liv are the three alien teenagers Radian Inu (who is basically a giant bipedal Shibu Inu in a denim jacket), Kae’l Crex (a blue three-fingered alien girl with a steely stare and no actual bones), and Galaxa Spacemountain (a purplish girl with tentacles for hair, big eyes, and the ability to melt into goo), who – after a dedication ceremony at their school for the newest luxury-model spaceship, the Galaxa (named after teen Galaxa, as one of the people behind its creation was her father) – decide to sneak over to the drydock where it’s being held and have a snoop around inside. This will of course inevitably lead to them straight-up stealing it and going on fantastic space adventures, but we haven’t gotten to that part yet. XD What we covered in this first half-hour was instead the following:
A) A history lesson on the setting – specifically how this super-advanced race 300 years ago came up with teleporter technology and went around sharing it with all the “lesser” races, only to be nonplussed by the “lesser” races fighting for their favor and leaving, warning said races not to venture out beyond “known” space or try to figure out the teleporter tech on their own, or they’ll come back and “delete” all “unworthy” races – the teens were all very bored as they already knew all this stuff from school
B) The discovery that, in this world, there’s a special enzyme that can be added to punch that automatically makes any alcohol in it evaporate if it detects it’s being poured into underaged mouths; it was later established by Andy that some kids still try to get drunk off the vapor as it comes off the punch
C) The teens, bored at the afterparty, deciding to go and check out the ship because, after all, it’s named after Galaxa, it’s practically hers – spurred on by a friend of theirs showing up and revealing that his brother had been chosen to pilot the ship (upsetting Radian, who considered himself the best pilot in all the simulations) AND he knew where the keys were as a result. Galaxa was able to handily charm the location out of him (in a safe in Galaxa’s dad’s office), while Kae’l’s steely stare made sure that their friend didn’t want to come along with them for the ride (and scored her his wallet as a bonus)
D) Galaxa becoming somehow convinced the ship was actually a late birthday present from her dad and going and hugging him – and then becoming immediately disillusioned when a reporter asked Dad Spacemountain why he’d named the ship Galaxa, and it turned out that he’d actually called his very first spaceship the Galaxa, meaning that his daughter had been named after his ship, and things had just come around full circle with this latest space liner
E) The gang having a run-in with the janitor while on their way to Dad Spacemountain’s office, and managing to get him to leave them alone after he obliquely threatened Radian by pointing out that that was creepy, and openly asking if he was responsible for disappearing kids in the past; the janitor was quite freaked out by these accusations and quickly headed off, with Jasper noting that he was probably going to seek gainful employment elsewhere XD
F) After failing to cut open the lock with a laser (Kae’l) and break the door down (Radian), Galaxa turning into her goo form to slither under Dad Spacemountain’s office door and open it from the other side – Kae’l and Radian were both VERY shocked by this, because Galaxa hadn’t ever done it in front of them, though fortunately Kae’l was able to keep Radian from making any incriminating noises
G) Galaxa stealing all the money, the little phaser, and the two “smart watch” spaceship keys from her dad’s safe after seeing a big old picture of him with his spaceship, with his family tiny in the background XD
H) And the kids having to hastily hide when they heard Dad Spacemountain approaching the office with a reporter for a photo op – Galaxa went into goo form; Kae’l folded herself up so she could fit in the safe (with a little help from Radian), and Radian elected to hop out the window and stand on the ledge, pressing himself up tight against the wall to stay out of site. We’ll see tomorrow if Andy’s roll was enough to make that plan happen, or if poor Radian is potentially going to go splat three stories down before the first episode’s over. XD
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – and yes, we’re starting with the Valicer In The Dark stuff this week, as I wanted to work on the story that’s from Victor’s POV on his birthday. Which I feel is understandable! Anyway, today we got through Victor trying to bring Alice and Smiler into the house with him to meet his parents (mingling with their guests in the main ballroom, as per Barry) and hopefully give them a reward (they protested a bit – Smiler more than Alice, admittedly – but Victor assured them he really wanted to give them something for helping him) –
Only for Barry to be like “uh, no, they’re clearly from the lower classes and will poor up the place, they need to wait at the servants’ entrance.” Victor was quite peeved and tried to argue the point, but Alice and Smiler were both like “no, Victor, it’s okay, this is an unnecessary argument, we’ll go wait there.” Which Victor was still annoyed about, but he recognized that they were probably right and that it was easier not to argue about it (and that putting his mother and Alice in the same room was likely to be a recipe for disaster), and so let them go. I left off with Victor preparing to head inside while Alice and Smiler were brought around to the servants’ entrance by Barry – tomorrow, we meet the local versions of Nell and William Van Dort, and discover just how dickish they really are! (Spoilers: very!)
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – got in both videos that I really wanted to watch today, hooray –
A) First up, for my Mandated Watching Of Victor Van Dort-Related Content For His Birthday, we had “Victor Van Dort scenepack 🖤” by ☽skyler-vogel☾! Seven minutes of various short clips of Victor from throughout Corpse Bride. Featuring classic moments as him playing the piano in the Everglots’ front foyer; the candle refusing to light in the disastrous rehearsal; his attempts to flee Emily both in the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead; him getting caught with Victoria by Emily; him making up with Emily via piano duet; him choosing to marry Emily when he thought Victoria had married another; and the fork-vs-sword fight with Barkis. Good stuff, though I do wish a couple of moments had been allowed to play out for longer. The cuts between moments were a little jerky at times. *shrug* Ah well, it was still fun to watch.
B) And second up, we had more C. M. Alongi with “CaFae Latte Season 60 - TikTok Compilation!” This season featured the resolution of the “John going into the woods to try and figure out what’s happening to all those missing hikers and campers...only for his walkie-talkie to mysteriously go out” cliffhanger from the previous season, and included:
I. Nicole telling Herla back at the Stoughton Street Coven headquarters that he had to get to the nearby forest by sundown, otherwise there would be death, and Herla thus getting his horse, dogs, and bow ready because he’s not dumb enough to ignore the visions of a witch
II. A bloodied John running through the woods and encountering the ghost of one of the missing people, Jessica Valentine, who led him to the stream and our friend the riddle-and-cat-toy-loving sphynx; it was then revealed that the reason the ghost-detecting charm wasn’t doing John any good before was because the people who were killing all the campers were two very human serial killers, with a device on them that jams walkie-talkie and cell phone signals (though, fortunately, they weren’t straight-up cannibals, as Jessica clarified when the sphynx misunderstood her commenting that they like to “play with their food” – only a small mercy, though, that!)
III. The sphynx and Jessica doing their best to help John escape the killers so he could follow the stream back to civilization – the sphynx distracting one of the brothers, Brady, and clawing out one of his eyes, while Jessica did her best to stop George – unfortunately, he had an anti-ghost charm bracelet meaning she couldn’t do shit to him, AND he proved callous enough to not want to help his brother, so – yeah. Not good!
IV. George catching up with John, and getting ready to start whacking him up with his axe – only to get an arrow through the wrist from Herla, aka our beloved grumpy cavalry (Jessica was VERY happy to see that)
V. And John and Herla talking to the cops afterward to explain what happened – and it being revealed that Herla not only carried John (who’d collapsed right after the danger had passed, both from exhaustion and a concussion) out of the woods in a bridal carry, he’d started tending his wounds before the EMTs arrived and had refused to leave his side. Actions that had convinced the cop they were talking to that they were a couple. XD Herla was quite annoyed by this, and bemoaned the fact that back in his day, men were allowed to be human, while John tried to get him off using words like “sodomites” to describe gay people. XD At any rate, they’re at least closer to being friends (even if Herla refuses to admit it), and the season ended with John delighted that he got to ride Herla’s flying horsey (because, you know, can’t drive with a concussion)
Lovely stuff, as always! I didn’t THINK Chris would kill off John, but it’s nice to see for sure that he’s gonna be okay. And yes, there were plenty of comments declaring that people would LOVE to see Herla and John get together. XD Me, I’d be happy with them as a couple or just grumpy besties – they’ve got a good dynamic either way! :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Substitute check – just had Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about today, and of course the main thing I wanted to get done over there was the plushy celebration picture! Because I couldn’t do them for Alice Dolly and Smileon and not for Victor Plush! Fortunately, I already had an idea in mind, so I was able to set up and take the picture right before my workout, then make the post tonight, while I was writing up the Teens In Space stuff – behold poor Victor Plush having a bit of a hard time riding Us, while Alice Dolly, Smileon, and Dougie offer assistance and moral support. XD To be fair, Victor’s long legs probably make riding the big old intellect devourer a bit more difficult than it is for Alice Dolly or Smileon! :p I’m just glad it came together so well and so quickly – I had the basic poses set up in an instant, and just had to tweak them slightly so Alice’s face was in frame and Smileon was facing the right way before snapping the pics. :) And now those are all set for another year, yay~
*nods* Not bad. And now I am going to get off and get some sleep, as I am VERY tired. As you might expect given how late I got to bed last night. *shakehead* Gotta do something about Sundays...night all!
Fucking Mouse Sunday
Jun. 8th, 2025 11:47 pmYeah, this was far from my most productive Sunday, and a lot of the blame for that could be laid at the foot of my damned mouse, which was EXTRA glitchy today. (The rest of the blame could be laid at the feet of me being extra tired and rather distracted by certain thoughts this morning involving Victor getting his brain lovingly melted.) Like, trying to move any windows or highlight text or do just about ANYTHING that required a single click was a pain in the fucking ass bar none. It got so bad, in fact, that I ended up telling Dad at lunch --
Prompting him to ask me if I wanted a new mouse, and me to go "yeah, I do, let me research what I want first." Meaning a decent portion of my afternoon was spent looking up gaming mice and settling on the Logitech G502 HERO mouse (since it seemed to have the most good reviews out of the bunch); figuring out with my parents when we were going to GET the mouse (I was okay with going out today, but Dad pointed out that we could have some issues with beach traffic since it was actually a nice day today; ended up with Mom agreeing to go pick up the mouse from Best Buy after she went and visited one of her friends); and finding out if we could get a certain coupon to use on the mouse if Mom brought my old Alienware one in to be recycled (which took WAAAY too much time to determine, thanks to horrible phone menus and a Live Chat guy on the Best Buy site who just did NOT get what we were asking -- he eventually said that trading in the Alienware mouse should get us the coupon, but we'll see). *sighs* Why is everything such a fight these days...well, hopefully it all works out for the best, and tomorrow I'll have a mouse that does NOT randomly act like I'm double or triple-clicking when I'm just trying to do stuff on the computer. Fingers crossed!
Anyway -- while the majority of my Sunday was taken up with The Mouse Issues, I did manage to accomplish some stuff:
...which I will have to do tomorrow, as it's nearly 12:40 AM and I HAVE to go to bed. *grumbles* I'll edit this thing tomorrow morning with the actual write-up -- for now, night all!
7:45 AM 6/9/2025: Okay, managed to finish off the last bit of the Sunday write-up -- here's what I did:
Tumblr: Well, it was another “nothing’s happening on The Valice Multiverse” day, and there really wasn’t much going on over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) either (didn’t help that I had a VERY late start thanks to a slow morning). But, if nothing else, I sorted out the pictures and started the very first draft of the “hey, the Polyheart OT3 house is done!” post over on VLA(NS). I didn’t get very far, mind – thanks to my mouse issues, rearranging the pictures the way I wanted them was something of a nightmare – but I have all the screenshots plus a tiny bit of starter text. Here’s hoping I can use some of my extra free time this week to get that properly sorted!
Writing: As I didn’t do any gaming thanks to The Mouse Issues (yes, I play Fallout 4 with my old XBox 360 controller, but I have to use the mouse to get into the game, and I didn’t want to deal with any misclicks opening up extra windows or any of that bullshit), I did indeed spend my afternoon working on a rough draft of my friend Nebby’s birthday fic (it’s coming up fast on the 22nd!). And it’s an interesting one – when I asked her about it a few days ago, she told me she wouldn’t mind seeing my Valicer trio getting involved somehow with the events of her “MediEvil Resurrection II” story (where she’s rewriting the events of MediEvil II in order to bring the action back to Gallowmere, like in the first game, and develop the relationship between protagonist Dan and his love interest Kiya the Egyptian princess mummy) and gave me a few ideas of where they could show up. And I ended up glomming onto them getting involved in the fight in the freakshow/circus that one of the protagonists, Professor Kift (the guy who brought Dan back from the dead in the first place), works for in Chapter 2. Mostly because I couldn’t stop picturing Alice as a knife-thrower at said circus. XD So yeah, after a couple of false starts, I managed to whip up a fic where Alice (indeed a knife-thrower), Smiler (does an alchemy show on the exhibition street), and Victor (a visitor who lingered late) got trapped in the freakshow when all the horrible magical bullshit went down (imp stole one of the professor’s spellbooks, long story) and found themselves watching Dan fight the recently-zombified “Pincushion” freak (a giant fat man bristling with swords...who, unfortunately for Dan, knew how to use them). Alice ended up throwing a knife to help Dan avoid getting beaten by his foe, then asking Kift – who showed up shortly thereafter to shoot the zombie so Dan could finally get the upper hand – if she and her friends could hang out with them. Kift was slightly uncertain, but Alice was like “I’m the best knife-thrower in the place; Smiler has all their alchemicals on them and isn’t afraid to use them; and Victor apparently fought a guy with a sword while armed with a fork once, so he can’t be useless in a fight.” Kift: “...I’ll see what Dan thinks.” XD Hopefully Nebby will like it once it’s all cleaned up!
YouTube: Another Sunday, another episode of Fallout: London with Jon of Many A True Nerd – specifically, “Fallout: London - Part 46 - Best Served Cold!” The adventures of Lady Aria and Mad Jack as they took out the people who made Mad Jack’s life a hell when he was a little boy! Even if Jon was rather concerned that all this violence wasn’t REALLY going to be good for Mad Jack’s psyche...anyway, this trip hunting down the worst of the worst in London involved:
A) The pair meeting up at The Pilgrim, the location of Jack’s old gym, where Mad Jack told Aria about their targets – James Goodrich, AKA “The Professor,” the inventor of all the torture devices at the camp (like the slave collars and the cattle prods and whatnot); The Meat Merchant, the guy who took all the corpses of the dead slaves and disposed of them (Jack never actually met the guy, but he’d heard rumors that he was butchering up the bodies and selling them to the Beef Eaters for a profit); Myra Lane, the head prison guard at the camp (who really enjoyed punishing people when they crossed her); and Jonah “The Gent,” the leader of the whole operation (and thus, in Jack’s eyes, the one most responsible for everything). They all sounded like utterly horrible people who genuinely deserved to die for what they’d done to children, that’s for damn sure! Even if Jon was not pleased by Mad Jack talking about how he wanted to see the look on Myra’s face when he was the one doing the punishing midway through. “No going into this talking about how much we want to see these people suffer, Jack! No!” XD
B) The pair traveling to Bromley to take out the first man on the list, “The Professor” – he proved to be camped out on a rooftop, in the middle of a whole bunch of Hooligans. Upon initially spotting him, Aria noted that not only was he not immediately hostile, he also appeared to be cowering in fear, like he was the victim of the raiders rather than a fellow member. And when she and Jack approached after killing their way through all the Hooligans, he insisted that they had the wrong guy and to please give him a chance to explain. Aria, very sure that they wanted to kill the RIGHT person if they were doing any killing, agreed to hear him out, prompting him to spin a tale about how he was the son of a caravan trader, who’d fallen on hard times and had thus chosen to live here in isolation for the past 46 years. And that there was no way he could have done all the heinous crimes they were accusing him of – why, he knitted, wasn’t that enough proof of his innocence? Mad Jack, however, immediately declared he was lying –
And that’s when “The Professor” started cackling madly, revealed that he’d used that story to buy enough time to set up his “last resort,” then declared he’d see them in hell before setting off a suicide bomb. Cue poor Aria getting blown to pieces as she couldn’t get away fast enough (though, interestingly, JACK survived the explosion, as per the “death cam”). Fortunately, being a Bethesda protagonist, Aria could just rewind time to before the conversation – and on the SECOND go-round, she happily called “The Professor” out on his shit and handed him over to Jack, who took him out with one solid axe blow as the dude pissed himself. *nods* Most righteous, Jack – most righteous.
C) The pair then traveling to Camden to track down The Meat Merchant (with Jon taking a moment to note with delight the next Vagabond quest popping up in Aria’s log), who was apparently working as a barber not far from Cyberfox. However, this mission required a bit more finesse than the last one, as Mad Jack didn’t actually know what the Merchant looked like – he’d never met him in person. All he had to go on was his friend’s extremely vague description – brown hair and average height. So he asked Aria to confirm that this guy was the one they were looking for before they did any killing. Aria was more than fine with that, and they entered the barbershop –
To find three members of the Wells family waiting within. Aria reasoned that, since all the horrible stuff happened to Jack when he was a kid, the most likely candidate to be the Meat Merchant was the oldest one of the lot, patriarch Todd – and noted with her keen Perception that he had some awfully beat-up hands for a barber. Todd attempted to explain that he’d been a farmhand before his change in careers, and that he was originally from Borehamwood – but Aria, suspicious and facing down an Intelligence check, did some drugs and put on Merlin’s fancy beret, and got the clarity of mind needed to point out that the farms in Borehamwood had been the first to fall to the radiation. Todd quickly claimed that he was actually from Bournebridge – but when Aria said that he couldn’t keep running from the people he killed, he reflexively protested that he’d been on disposal before trying to cover up the slip. It was too little too late, however, and after conferring with Jack, Aria prepared to put Todd down –
Only for him AND the other two members of the Wells family, Artie and Ruby, to all go hostile. Aria hastily took out Todd, which caused Artie and Ruby to flee...and Mad Jack to chase after them. He returned after a few minutes, but the other two very much did not. And while Jon couldn’t PROVE that he’d hunted them down and murdered them...yeah, he was a bit concerned Jack might have gone too far there. To be fair, Jon, YOU could have had Aria order him to stay before he went tearing off...then again, I shouldn’t judge, I know how fiddly the Fallout interface can be.
D) The pair then heading to Wimbledon to track down Myra Lane, who had apparently set up a camp for herself not far from the Tennis Museum. Once they found the place, they were greeted at the entrance by a raider named Byron, who recognized Mad Jack and warned him that if he was there for Myra, he wasn’t going to get her –
Because she already had too many husbands and none of them got enough time with her as it was! XD Yeah, uh, it appeared after the dissolution of the slaver camp, Myra had set up her own little harem of adoring husbands to keep herself safe and entertained. Mad Jack was VERY flustered by this, while Aria decided to go ahead and antagonize Byron by saying Myra would probably like Jack better than him –
Only to immediately regret all her decisions when the entire camp went hostile. XD She managed to hold her own against the Husband Legion for a little while, while Jack found and wailed on Myra herself, but a well-tossed molotov made it so she had to rewind time for herself again. She still chose to antagonize Byron, but THIS time made sure to get to cover faster, and was able to take out all the husbands while Mad Jack took down Myra. She didn’t immediately die, though, instead just sprawling on the ground with a quest marker over her head. Aria took that to mean that she had something to say and, after finishing off the last of the boytoys, went over to talk to her –
Only to find that Myra just got up and regarded her silently. Wouldn’t speak at all. And a reload didn’t fix the problem. So Aria just shot her in the head. XD Sorry, Myra – I know it’s not your fault your AI bugged out, but you should have spoken up sooner if you wanted to live longer!
E) The pair then heading to find Jonah “The Gent” where he’d holed up in a squatter’s den near Voxtel, with a whole bunch of Hooligans. Jack and Aria managed to take all his cronies out without TOO much issue (beyond Jack getting in the way of Aria running away from a land mine she’d accidentally set off – and then saying “hey, you stepped on an explosion,” causing Aria to be like “I KNOW”), and Aria found Jonah all the way on the top floor, holed up in an apartment with his pet radger (rad badger), Buttons. Jonah said some very nasty things to Jack and Aria and ordered Buttons to kill them – Aria thus concentrated on taking out Buttons, confident that Mad Jack had Jonah handled –
Only to find that Jack was nowhere to be seen. Turns out his pathfinding had gotten a little confused and he hadn’t actually come upstairs with her. Aria thus had to run back down the stairs to HIM, chased by Jonah, so he could actually get the climatic kill on the man who made his life hell. *facepalm* Oh, the Bethesda was really Bethesdaing at times in this video…
F) Aria checking in with Mad Jack to make sure he really did feel better, because she knew she had a complicated relationship with violence and killing and all thanks to his upbringing...only for Jack to tell her that he felt great and that he was sure the world was a better place without those people in it. XD He did, however, reveal to her that he’d lied about the note. Not about its existence, fortunately (THAT would have been a worrying twist), but about how many addresses had been on it. For it seems that his old buddy had ALSO included the address of their old orphanage in the list...with a note stating they hadn’t been STOLEN from it, they’d been SOLD by it. Mad Jack didn’t really want to believe it, but said he wouldn’t really be able to put things to rest until he got to the bottom of this final mystery and asked if Aria was still in. Aria was of course like “heck yes – this is the one part of this mission where I am all FOR some bloody murder.” XD So they headed over to the nearby Ross Home for Orphaned Boys –
Only to find nothing but a pile of rubble. Jack was quite surprised, but said that they needed to find the headmistress, Dr. Ainsley Ross, if she was still around, as he was sure she could set them straight on what happened. After all, he remembered her being so warm and kind – the closest thing he ever had to a mother! Jon was immediately like “oh, this isn’t going to end well…” Anyway, Aria and Jack thus proceeded to poke around the wreckage –
And found a dead Tommy in there. With a note from one former General Asquith, saying that they’d heard some worrying rumors about the place and he was empowering this Tommy to look into the matter. And that, if he didn’t find anything here, that he should check out the Bankside Power Station in Southwark (right behind the Globe Theater), as they’d found evidence that whatever was going on in the orphanage was related to whatever was going on there. The pair thus headed over there and fought their way through dozens of Industrialists before reaching the inner sanctum of one Dr. Ross –
And there found a very cold woman who, upon being questioned by Jack (who was still sure she’d tell him she hadn’t sold him and his brothers off), calmly informed him that yes, she HAD sold them to the slavers – and that in fact she’d given him growth hormone ever since he was a baby to make him a more valuable bit of property. And that she’d happily burned down the orphanage once the Tommies started nosing around. And that she had a very powerful rifle in her desk if he or Aria planned to make any moves against her. A furious Jack declared she was going to die today, and Dr. Ross did indeed grab her gun –
And then Aria shot her a few times with the freezing 9mm and she ended up dying in a single VATS round while lying frozen on the floor. XD Aria happily claimed her rifle (a Gauss rifle, nice), then checked in with Jack again, acknowledging that he had to be in shock – Jack confirmed that he was going to need some time to process this, but thanked her for helping him do all this in the first place, saying she was the best mate he’d ever had. :) He even tried to give her his staggering boxing gloves, Judy & Diane, as a reward – Aria, however, took one look at that 31 damage and was like, “thanks, but you keep them.” XD However, she was very happy with his companion perk, “Fisticuffs,” which she received straight afterward – gave her +50% more damage dealt and +50 damage resistance when facing three or more opponents (kind of like Preston’s perk in main Fallout 4). And given MOST opponents come in groups in this bloody game – yeah, that is going to be VERY handy for Aria as she starts wrapping up her adventures!
G) And finally, the pair swinging by the Swan & Meiter to check in with Gaunt and get the measure of his big plan to finally get the upper hand in the Vagabonds’ war against the Syndicate on the Isle of Dogs! Which, unsurprisingly, involved Aria going on another murder spree, as Gaunt informed her over a game of pool that he wanted her to slaughter three of the tacticians in the Syndicate, the three who’d helped one Thomas Black orchestrate the “Red Treaty” and kill his father – lieutenants John Lockheed, Enforcer Sinclair, and Pieter the Fence. And he wanted her to be big and showy about it all too, doing it in public and in her Vagabond best (aka the hat he gave her), so people would know that whoever crossed the Vagabonds would bring fury down upon them. Though he was also nice enough to warn her that this was very dirty business he was sending her on, and to expect Syndicate enforcers hunting her the minute she pulled the trigger on the first. Aria indicated she understood and asked where she could find her targets – Gaunt informed her that his lieutenants had leads on the men, and pointed her to good old “Chill” Winston to get the skinny on Lockheed. So yeah – next week, Aria chats with Winston and starts her next set of assassinations! And we’ll see if Jon remembers that he was hoping to have Gaunt REMOVED as leader thanks to his revenge-loving ways...though maybe the lieutenants will have some thoughts about that when Aria talks to them to get her missions...
Workout: Hopped back on the bike this evening to start this week’s workouts with some OXBox Hitman goodness: “HITMAN JAMES BOND | Let's Kill Mads Mikkelsen | Elusive Target The Banker!” An extremely new Elusive Target (as in, apparently this DLC was announced and dropped FRIDAY, with this video having been posted SATURDAY – they really saw this thing come up and went “well, that’s our weekend sorted” XD) based on the Bond movie Casino Royale, in honor of developer IO doing a Bond game! Complete with that movie’s main villain, La Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen, making an appearance as a banker with criminal world ties, who must win a high-stakes VIP poker game to earn the money he needs to pay off his debts to the ex-fascist dictator Murillo. 47’s job – to make sure La Chiffre doesn’t win that money and does not survive the night! Andy was on the controls for this one, with Jane and Mike watching on and offering support, and they followed the mission story which saw 47 sneak his way into the VIP game to win all the bananas and make sure La Chiffre got murdered by his exiled dictator partner (this is apparently the one that follows the plot of the movie the closest). How did it go? Well, let me give you a few quick highlights:
A) Andy started things off by dressing 47 in the exact same outfit that La Chiffre was wearing, as an intimidation tactic of sorts (though he later regretted that he couldn’t have walked in wearing the clown outfit Mike loves so much)
B) Given three options for getting an invite to the all-important poker match, Andy going with killing an ex-informant for 47’s CIA buddy Mr. Smith (for once fully clothed and NOT in immediate danger that 47 had to save him from) – 47 remarking on how weird it was to see Smith with all his clothes on made Jane and Mike go “hang on a second, WHO is this guy again??” XD
C) Everyone being very deeply suspicious about how easily 47 was let up into the VIP lounge after presenting an invitation that didn’t even have his name on it (though the guard did radio La Chiffre to okay it), and berating 47 for letting his guard down and actually drinking his champagne when he met La Chiffre for a pre-game chat – sure enough, after the first round (in which La Chiffre managed to fake everyone out with a fake tell and win the game), it was quickly revealed that 47 had been poisoned and he had to rush out of the room and down to the shed by the carpark for the antidote. The gang was like “Oh no, we’ve been hitmanned ourselves!” and “well, that’s kind of what you get for wanting to impress Mads Mikkelsen.” XD
D) Mike, at one point after 47 antidoted himself, noting that if he’d been the one at the controls, he would have already tossed an explosive duck at the problem and called it a day XD
E) 47 ultimately winning the whole pot by first bribing, and then threatening, the dealer to stack the deck in his favor, and then following La Chiffre to the attic room where he was meeting Murillo to see the execution first-hand – unfortunately, he got caught by a wandering guard while crouching down behind some boxes, and got gunned down on the stairs, meaning Andy failed the mission – snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, as Mike put it
F) Andy THEN going into the “Elusive Target Arcade” and redoing the mission, THIS time just waiting at the door and continually opening it so he could see the execution from afar...then, because nobody liked that the ex-dictator wasn’t one of the targets (though apparently you kill him in a DIFFERENT mission), sneaking in, taking the guy out, then running away in a hail of gunfire. XD Happily, this time he survived, and managed to get out the front gate to end the mission!
G) Andy getting the rank “Flexible Murderer” and a new personal best of zero stars at the end XD
So yeah – required a little trip into an alternate timeline via the arcade, but we got there in the end! Oh, I do love watching these three play Hitman – even if it’s just one of them on the controls, the commentary from the other two is always delightful. XD Excellent stuff!
Other: We did indeed play beanbags, as the weather was nicer today – and once again, Mom had a great game, winning three out of five rounds and only coming last once, while Dad and I struggled to keep up! I ended up having a slow climb to a final victory (where I beat Dad by a single point!), while poor Dad had a crash from glory and only somewhat recovered at the end. Final scores were me 3-3-2-2-W; Dad W-2-3-3-2; and Mom 2-W-W-W-3. *shrug* What can I say – she’s on a hot streak! We’ll see if things change the next time we play!
Not bad -- not GREAT, but I'm glad that I hit all the usual stuff. And now I have to run off to work -- tonight, I'll tell you all about that, and my attempts to celebrate Victor's birthday! (Usual stuff -- watch some Victor clips, listen to some CB music, write some Victor-related stuff, read some Victor-related fanfic if I can. Don't think I'll be able to get to a Victor-related game, though.) Bye!
Prompting him to ask me if I wanted a new mouse, and me to go "yeah, I do, let me research what I want first." Meaning a decent portion of my afternoon was spent looking up gaming mice and settling on the Logitech G502 HERO mouse (since it seemed to have the most good reviews out of the bunch); figuring out with my parents when we were going to GET the mouse (I was okay with going out today, but Dad pointed out that we could have some issues with beach traffic since it was actually a nice day today; ended up with Mom agreeing to go pick up the mouse from Best Buy after she went and visited one of her friends); and finding out if we could get a certain coupon to use on the mouse if Mom brought my old Alienware one in to be recycled (which took WAAAY too much time to determine, thanks to horrible phone menus and a Live Chat guy on the Best Buy site who just did NOT get what we were asking -- he eventually said that trading in the Alienware mouse should get us the coupon, but we'll see). *sighs* Why is everything such a fight these days...well, hopefully it all works out for the best, and tomorrow I'll have a mouse that does NOT randomly act like I'm double or triple-clicking when I'm just trying to do stuff on the computer. Fingers crossed!
Anyway -- while the majority of my Sunday was taken up with The Mouse Issues, I did manage to accomplish some stuff:
...which I will have to do tomorrow, as it's nearly 12:40 AM and I HAVE to go to bed. *grumbles* I'll edit this thing tomorrow morning with the actual write-up -- for now, night all!
7:45 AM 6/9/2025: Okay, managed to finish off the last bit of the Sunday write-up -- here's what I did:
Tumblr: Well, it was another “nothing’s happening on The Valice Multiverse” day, and there really wasn’t much going on over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) either (didn’t help that I had a VERY late start thanks to a slow morning). But, if nothing else, I sorted out the pictures and started the very first draft of the “hey, the Polyheart OT3 house is done!” post over on VLA(NS). I didn’t get very far, mind – thanks to my mouse issues, rearranging the pictures the way I wanted them was something of a nightmare – but I have all the screenshots plus a tiny bit of starter text. Here’s hoping I can use some of my extra free time this week to get that properly sorted!
Writing: As I didn’t do any gaming thanks to The Mouse Issues (yes, I play Fallout 4 with my old XBox 360 controller, but I have to use the mouse to get into the game, and I didn’t want to deal with any misclicks opening up extra windows or any of that bullshit), I did indeed spend my afternoon working on a rough draft of my friend Nebby’s birthday fic (it’s coming up fast on the 22nd!). And it’s an interesting one – when I asked her about it a few days ago, she told me she wouldn’t mind seeing my Valicer trio getting involved somehow with the events of her “MediEvil Resurrection II” story (where she’s rewriting the events of MediEvil II in order to bring the action back to Gallowmere, like in the first game, and develop the relationship between protagonist Dan and his love interest Kiya the Egyptian princess mummy) and gave me a few ideas of where they could show up. And I ended up glomming onto them getting involved in the fight in the freakshow/circus that one of the protagonists, Professor Kift (the guy who brought Dan back from the dead in the first place), works for in Chapter 2. Mostly because I couldn’t stop picturing Alice as a knife-thrower at said circus. XD So yeah, after a couple of false starts, I managed to whip up a fic where Alice (indeed a knife-thrower), Smiler (does an alchemy show on the exhibition street), and Victor (a visitor who lingered late) got trapped in the freakshow when all the horrible magical bullshit went down (imp stole one of the professor’s spellbooks, long story) and found themselves watching Dan fight the recently-zombified “Pincushion” freak (a giant fat man bristling with swords...who, unfortunately for Dan, knew how to use them). Alice ended up throwing a knife to help Dan avoid getting beaten by his foe, then asking Kift – who showed up shortly thereafter to shoot the zombie so Dan could finally get the upper hand – if she and her friends could hang out with them. Kift was slightly uncertain, but Alice was like “I’m the best knife-thrower in the place; Smiler has all their alchemicals on them and isn’t afraid to use them; and Victor apparently fought a guy with a sword while armed with a fork once, so he can’t be useless in a fight.” Kift: “...I’ll see what Dan thinks.” XD Hopefully Nebby will like it once it’s all cleaned up!
YouTube: Another Sunday, another episode of Fallout: London with Jon of Many A True Nerd – specifically, “Fallout: London - Part 46 - Best Served Cold!” The adventures of Lady Aria and Mad Jack as they took out the people who made Mad Jack’s life a hell when he was a little boy! Even if Jon was rather concerned that all this violence wasn’t REALLY going to be good for Mad Jack’s psyche...anyway, this trip hunting down the worst of the worst in London involved:
A) The pair meeting up at The Pilgrim, the location of Jack’s old gym, where Mad Jack told Aria about their targets – James Goodrich, AKA “The Professor,” the inventor of all the torture devices at the camp (like the slave collars and the cattle prods and whatnot); The Meat Merchant, the guy who took all the corpses of the dead slaves and disposed of them (Jack never actually met the guy, but he’d heard rumors that he was butchering up the bodies and selling them to the Beef Eaters for a profit); Myra Lane, the head prison guard at the camp (who really enjoyed punishing people when they crossed her); and Jonah “The Gent,” the leader of the whole operation (and thus, in Jack’s eyes, the one most responsible for everything). They all sounded like utterly horrible people who genuinely deserved to die for what they’d done to children, that’s for damn sure! Even if Jon was not pleased by Mad Jack talking about how he wanted to see the look on Myra’s face when he was the one doing the punishing midway through. “No going into this talking about how much we want to see these people suffer, Jack! No!” XD
B) The pair traveling to Bromley to take out the first man on the list, “The Professor” – he proved to be camped out on a rooftop, in the middle of a whole bunch of Hooligans. Upon initially spotting him, Aria noted that not only was he not immediately hostile, he also appeared to be cowering in fear, like he was the victim of the raiders rather than a fellow member. And when she and Jack approached after killing their way through all the Hooligans, he insisted that they had the wrong guy and to please give him a chance to explain. Aria, very sure that they wanted to kill the RIGHT person if they were doing any killing, agreed to hear him out, prompting him to spin a tale about how he was the son of a caravan trader, who’d fallen on hard times and had thus chosen to live here in isolation for the past 46 years. And that there was no way he could have done all the heinous crimes they were accusing him of – why, he knitted, wasn’t that enough proof of his innocence? Mad Jack, however, immediately declared he was lying –
And that’s when “The Professor” started cackling madly, revealed that he’d used that story to buy enough time to set up his “last resort,” then declared he’d see them in hell before setting off a suicide bomb. Cue poor Aria getting blown to pieces as she couldn’t get away fast enough (though, interestingly, JACK survived the explosion, as per the “death cam”). Fortunately, being a Bethesda protagonist, Aria could just rewind time to before the conversation – and on the SECOND go-round, she happily called “The Professor” out on his shit and handed him over to Jack, who took him out with one solid axe blow as the dude pissed himself. *nods* Most righteous, Jack – most righteous.
C) The pair then traveling to Camden to track down The Meat Merchant (with Jon taking a moment to note with delight the next Vagabond quest popping up in Aria’s log), who was apparently working as a barber not far from Cyberfox. However, this mission required a bit more finesse than the last one, as Mad Jack didn’t actually know what the Merchant looked like – he’d never met him in person. All he had to go on was his friend’s extremely vague description – brown hair and average height. So he asked Aria to confirm that this guy was the one they were looking for before they did any killing. Aria was more than fine with that, and they entered the barbershop –
To find three members of the Wells family waiting within. Aria reasoned that, since all the horrible stuff happened to Jack when he was a kid, the most likely candidate to be the Meat Merchant was the oldest one of the lot, patriarch Todd – and noted with her keen Perception that he had some awfully beat-up hands for a barber. Todd attempted to explain that he’d been a farmhand before his change in careers, and that he was originally from Borehamwood – but Aria, suspicious and facing down an Intelligence check, did some drugs and put on Merlin’s fancy beret, and got the clarity of mind needed to point out that the farms in Borehamwood had been the first to fall to the radiation. Todd quickly claimed that he was actually from Bournebridge – but when Aria said that he couldn’t keep running from the people he killed, he reflexively protested that he’d been on disposal before trying to cover up the slip. It was too little too late, however, and after conferring with Jack, Aria prepared to put Todd down –
Only for him AND the other two members of the Wells family, Artie and Ruby, to all go hostile. Aria hastily took out Todd, which caused Artie and Ruby to flee...and Mad Jack to chase after them. He returned after a few minutes, but the other two very much did not. And while Jon couldn’t PROVE that he’d hunted them down and murdered them...yeah, he was a bit concerned Jack might have gone too far there. To be fair, Jon, YOU could have had Aria order him to stay before he went tearing off...then again, I shouldn’t judge, I know how fiddly the Fallout interface can be.
D) The pair then heading to Wimbledon to track down Myra Lane, who had apparently set up a camp for herself not far from the Tennis Museum. Once they found the place, they were greeted at the entrance by a raider named Byron, who recognized Mad Jack and warned him that if he was there for Myra, he wasn’t going to get her –
Because she already had too many husbands and none of them got enough time with her as it was! XD Yeah, uh, it appeared after the dissolution of the slaver camp, Myra had set up her own little harem of adoring husbands to keep herself safe and entertained. Mad Jack was VERY flustered by this, while Aria decided to go ahead and antagonize Byron by saying Myra would probably like Jack better than him –
Only to immediately regret all her decisions when the entire camp went hostile. XD She managed to hold her own against the Husband Legion for a little while, while Jack found and wailed on Myra herself, but a well-tossed molotov made it so she had to rewind time for herself again. She still chose to antagonize Byron, but THIS time made sure to get to cover faster, and was able to take out all the husbands while Mad Jack took down Myra. She didn’t immediately die, though, instead just sprawling on the ground with a quest marker over her head. Aria took that to mean that she had something to say and, after finishing off the last of the boytoys, went over to talk to her –
Only to find that Myra just got up and regarded her silently. Wouldn’t speak at all. And a reload didn’t fix the problem. So Aria just shot her in the head. XD Sorry, Myra – I know it’s not your fault your AI bugged out, but you should have spoken up sooner if you wanted to live longer!
E) The pair then heading to find Jonah “The Gent” where he’d holed up in a squatter’s den near Voxtel, with a whole bunch of Hooligans. Jack and Aria managed to take all his cronies out without TOO much issue (beyond Jack getting in the way of Aria running away from a land mine she’d accidentally set off – and then saying “hey, you stepped on an explosion,” causing Aria to be like “I KNOW”), and Aria found Jonah all the way on the top floor, holed up in an apartment with his pet radger (rad badger), Buttons. Jonah said some very nasty things to Jack and Aria and ordered Buttons to kill them – Aria thus concentrated on taking out Buttons, confident that Mad Jack had Jonah handled –
Only to find that Jack was nowhere to be seen. Turns out his pathfinding had gotten a little confused and he hadn’t actually come upstairs with her. Aria thus had to run back down the stairs to HIM, chased by Jonah, so he could actually get the climatic kill on the man who made his life hell. *facepalm* Oh, the Bethesda was really Bethesdaing at times in this video…
F) Aria checking in with Mad Jack to make sure he really did feel better, because she knew she had a complicated relationship with violence and killing and all thanks to his upbringing...only for Jack to tell her that he felt great and that he was sure the world was a better place without those people in it. XD He did, however, reveal to her that he’d lied about the note. Not about its existence, fortunately (THAT would have been a worrying twist), but about how many addresses had been on it. For it seems that his old buddy had ALSO included the address of their old orphanage in the list...with a note stating they hadn’t been STOLEN from it, they’d been SOLD by it. Mad Jack didn’t really want to believe it, but said he wouldn’t really be able to put things to rest until he got to the bottom of this final mystery and asked if Aria was still in. Aria was of course like “heck yes – this is the one part of this mission where I am all FOR some bloody murder.” XD So they headed over to the nearby Ross Home for Orphaned Boys –
Only to find nothing but a pile of rubble. Jack was quite surprised, but said that they needed to find the headmistress, Dr. Ainsley Ross, if she was still around, as he was sure she could set them straight on what happened. After all, he remembered her being so warm and kind – the closest thing he ever had to a mother! Jon was immediately like “oh, this isn’t going to end well…” Anyway, Aria and Jack thus proceeded to poke around the wreckage –
And found a dead Tommy in there. With a note from one former General Asquith, saying that they’d heard some worrying rumors about the place and he was empowering this Tommy to look into the matter. And that, if he didn’t find anything here, that he should check out the Bankside Power Station in Southwark (right behind the Globe Theater), as they’d found evidence that whatever was going on in the orphanage was related to whatever was going on there. The pair thus headed over there and fought their way through dozens of Industrialists before reaching the inner sanctum of one Dr. Ross –
And there found a very cold woman who, upon being questioned by Jack (who was still sure she’d tell him she hadn’t sold him and his brothers off), calmly informed him that yes, she HAD sold them to the slavers – and that in fact she’d given him growth hormone ever since he was a baby to make him a more valuable bit of property. And that she’d happily burned down the orphanage once the Tommies started nosing around. And that she had a very powerful rifle in her desk if he or Aria planned to make any moves against her. A furious Jack declared she was going to die today, and Dr. Ross did indeed grab her gun –
And then Aria shot her a few times with the freezing 9mm and she ended up dying in a single VATS round while lying frozen on the floor. XD Aria happily claimed her rifle (a Gauss rifle, nice), then checked in with Jack again, acknowledging that he had to be in shock – Jack confirmed that he was going to need some time to process this, but thanked her for helping him do all this in the first place, saying she was the best mate he’d ever had. :) He even tried to give her his staggering boxing gloves, Judy & Diane, as a reward – Aria, however, took one look at that 31 damage and was like, “thanks, but you keep them.” XD However, she was very happy with his companion perk, “Fisticuffs,” which she received straight afterward – gave her +50% more damage dealt and +50 damage resistance when facing three or more opponents (kind of like Preston’s perk in main Fallout 4). And given MOST opponents come in groups in this bloody game – yeah, that is going to be VERY handy for Aria as she starts wrapping up her adventures!
G) And finally, the pair swinging by the Swan & Meiter to check in with Gaunt and get the measure of his big plan to finally get the upper hand in the Vagabonds’ war against the Syndicate on the Isle of Dogs! Which, unsurprisingly, involved Aria going on another murder spree, as Gaunt informed her over a game of pool that he wanted her to slaughter three of the tacticians in the Syndicate, the three who’d helped one Thomas Black orchestrate the “Red Treaty” and kill his father – lieutenants John Lockheed, Enforcer Sinclair, and Pieter the Fence. And he wanted her to be big and showy about it all too, doing it in public and in her Vagabond best (aka the hat he gave her), so people would know that whoever crossed the Vagabonds would bring fury down upon them. Though he was also nice enough to warn her that this was very dirty business he was sending her on, and to expect Syndicate enforcers hunting her the minute she pulled the trigger on the first. Aria indicated she understood and asked where she could find her targets – Gaunt informed her that his lieutenants had leads on the men, and pointed her to good old “Chill” Winston to get the skinny on Lockheed. So yeah – next week, Aria chats with Winston and starts her next set of assassinations! And we’ll see if Jon remembers that he was hoping to have Gaunt REMOVED as leader thanks to his revenge-loving ways...though maybe the lieutenants will have some thoughts about that when Aria talks to them to get her missions...
Workout: Hopped back on the bike this evening to start this week’s workouts with some OXBox Hitman goodness: “HITMAN JAMES BOND | Let's Kill Mads Mikkelsen | Elusive Target The Banker!” An extremely new Elusive Target (as in, apparently this DLC was announced and dropped FRIDAY, with this video having been posted SATURDAY – they really saw this thing come up and went “well, that’s our weekend sorted” XD) based on the Bond movie Casino Royale, in honor of developer IO doing a Bond game! Complete with that movie’s main villain, La Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen, making an appearance as a banker with criminal world ties, who must win a high-stakes VIP poker game to earn the money he needs to pay off his debts to the ex-fascist dictator Murillo. 47’s job – to make sure La Chiffre doesn’t win that money and does not survive the night! Andy was on the controls for this one, with Jane and Mike watching on and offering support, and they followed the mission story which saw 47 sneak his way into the VIP game to win all the bananas and make sure La Chiffre got murdered by his exiled dictator partner (this is apparently the one that follows the plot of the movie the closest). How did it go? Well, let me give you a few quick highlights:
A) Andy started things off by dressing 47 in the exact same outfit that La Chiffre was wearing, as an intimidation tactic of sorts (though he later regretted that he couldn’t have walked in wearing the clown outfit Mike loves so much)
B) Given three options for getting an invite to the all-important poker match, Andy going with killing an ex-informant for 47’s CIA buddy Mr. Smith (for once fully clothed and NOT in immediate danger that 47 had to save him from) – 47 remarking on how weird it was to see Smith with all his clothes on made Jane and Mike go “hang on a second, WHO is this guy again??” XD
C) Everyone being very deeply suspicious about how easily 47 was let up into the VIP lounge after presenting an invitation that didn’t even have his name on it (though the guard did radio La Chiffre to okay it), and berating 47 for letting his guard down and actually drinking his champagne when he met La Chiffre for a pre-game chat – sure enough, after the first round (in which La Chiffre managed to fake everyone out with a fake tell and win the game), it was quickly revealed that 47 had been poisoned and he had to rush out of the room and down to the shed by the carpark for the antidote. The gang was like “Oh no, we’ve been hitmanned ourselves!” and “well, that’s kind of what you get for wanting to impress Mads Mikkelsen.” XD
D) Mike, at one point after 47 antidoted himself, noting that if he’d been the one at the controls, he would have already tossed an explosive duck at the problem and called it a day XD
E) 47 ultimately winning the whole pot by first bribing, and then threatening, the dealer to stack the deck in his favor, and then following La Chiffre to the attic room where he was meeting Murillo to see the execution first-hand – unfortunately, he got caught by a wandering guard while crouching down behind some boxes, and got gunned down on the stairs, meaning Andy failed the mission – snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, as Mike put it
F) Andy THEN going into the “Elusive Target Arcade” and redoing the mission, THIS time just waiting at the door and continually opening it so he could see the execution from afar...then, because nobody liked that the ex-dictator wasn’t one of the targets (though apparently you kill him in a DIFFERENT mission), sneaking in, taking the guy out, then running away in a hail of gunfire. XD Happily, this time he survived, and managed to get out the front gate to end the mission!
G) Andy getting the rank “Flexible Murderer” and a new personal best of zero stars at the end XD
So yeah – required a little trip into an alternate timeline via the arcade, but we got there in the end! Oh, I do love watching these three play Hitman – even if it’s just one of them on the controls, the commentary from the other two is always delightful. XD Excellent stuff!
Other: We did indeed play beanbags, as the weather was nicer today – and once again, Mom had a great game, winning three out of five rounds and only coming last once, while Dad and I struggled to keep up! I ended up having a slow climb to a final victory (where I beat Dad by a single point!), while poor Dad had a crash from glory and only somewhat recovered at the end. Final scores were me 3-3-2-2-W; Dad W-2-3-3-2; and Mom 2-W-W-W-3. *shrug* What can I say – she’s on a hot streak! We’ll see if things change the next time we play!
Not bad -- not GREAT, but I'm glad that I hit all the usual stuff. And now I have to run off to work -- tonight, I'll tell you all about that, and my attempts to celebrate Victor's birthday! (Usual stuff -- watch some Victor clips, listen to some CB music, write some Victor-related stuff, read some Victor-related fanfic if I can. Don't think I'll be able to get to a Victor-related game, though.) Bye!
Drenched Saturday
Jun. 7th, 2025 11:52 pmWelp, the rain finally showed up to wash some of the humidity away -- and by "showed up," I mean "Dad gave me a couple minutes' warning to get the fan out of my window, and then the sky FUCKING OPENED." O.O Like, it rained so fucking hard so fucking fast that the road outside promptly started looking like a shallow river with all the water running down it. Mom's estimate is that we got like three inches in ten minutes, and -- fuck it, I'm prepared to believe that. O.o It did eventually calm down, and I'm glad it DID rain because it is now much drier and cooler than it's been the past couple of nights, but STILL. That was -- something. O.o Very glad I didn't have to go out on it!
As for my day -- it was typical in some respects, a little unusual in others:
Cleaning: Pretty typical Cleaning Saturday, as I feel I say every time – I got started around 10:35 AM; finished the dusting and the Swiffering right before lunch around 1 PM; then finished off with a thorough vacuuming after lunch, finishing everything off around 1:45 PM! *shrug* Nothing particularly special, though I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with washing my blankets or anything – obviously I changed my sheets, but those just went in the communal hamper to be washed with all the other stuff tomorrow. And I got to relisten to an excellent Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark episode, “Into The Deathlands” – featuring the gang stealing a train locomotive by setting up a fake crash out in the titular deathlands! Key highlights been the return of everyone’s favorite murder-children, the Gutcutters, to help with the score; Zillah accidentally getting put to sleep with slumber essence (while they were trying to deal with a rail-riding hobo on the same train they were trying to steal), then smacking Edvard straight out of his shoes with a sleep punch while he was attempting to rouse her with smelling salts; Barnaby refusing to wear goggles for traveling in the harsh gritty winds atop the train because they didn’t go with his ensemble, getting essentially blinded...and then, with the help of a lucky dice roll, managing to argue that he can actually see better in the smoky cabin with his sand-blasted corneas and successfully knocking the stoker over the head with an old whiskey bottle; and the gang having to deal with some deathlands scavengers before they could get the locomotive back to Volisport – who, thanks to the voice Luke ended up choosing for them, I now headcanon as the skeletons from the hammer in the Original Oxventure, having turned to scavenging after the gang finally passed on and magic was forcibly sucked out of the world (don’t ask how they’re okay, the skeletons have always been OP). XD Excellent stuff – very sad I only have three episodes left to go! Though I suppose I can always listen to other Oxventure stuff once I’m done...
Writing: As I was feeling a bit uninspired when it came to video games (like, I wanted to start working on my new Sims 4 save file, but I couldn’t figure out where the heck I wanted to begin), I decided after I finished my cleaning and did the usual rounds online this afternoon to instead just dive straight into another page on “The Van Dort Vacancy!” Having seen yesterday that the his parents seemed to having a party, Victor brought Alice and Smiler up to the front door with him today, hoping to find the Van Dorts’ butler, Barry, there to explain what was going on. Fortunately, Barry was indeed there (instructing a footman on the proper care of Lord Goth’s luggage), and was also only too happy to start giving Victor the “where the hell have you been” speech when he saw him. Victor introduced him to Alice and Smiler (Smiler doing their usual “I’m going to blast happiness and cheer directly in your face and there’s nothing you can do about it” routine XD), and the trio proceeded to learn the following facts from him:
I. That the Van Dorts were having a big old multi-meal party to make up for the wedding not happening on the 30th
II. That while the Van Dorts HAD looked for Victor the Names before the wedding, they hadn’t actually done much searching for him since, too busy trying to fix their own reputations
III. And that hampering the search further, their driver, Mayhew, had died – Victor was horrified, though not surprised to learn it was the cough that had done him in, and somewhat comforted by hearing that his corpse had been picked right up by the Spirit Wardens (no ghost Mayhews for him to worry about!)
So yeah – so far, the Van Dorts are NOT acquitting themselves well when it comes to looking like they actually care about their son! And things are soon to get worse, as Victor’s going to ask to speak to them the next time I work on this story – and learn that he can’t take his friends along with…
Baldur’s Gate III – The Planning: Yup – since I was feeling uninspired when it came to actually playing a game, I figured that I should spend this afternoon trying to get some work done on planning out what my Tav!Smiler should be like (what abilities they should prioritize, what skills they should have proficiency in, what spells they should have, etc) for my eventual restart of BG3. And I’m pleased to report that I actually made some halfway-decent progress! Specifically, I –
A) Went through all the skills available in the game and checked what they actually did and where checks involving them were likely to come up to figure out which ones Smiler should have proficiency in (and thus get bonuses to those checks) – I already knew that they needed proficiency in Persuasion, but looking at what’s on offer, Arcana, Investigation, Nature, Insight, Medicine, Deception, and Performance all feel like good candidates for proficiency as well. (Which puts me in a bit of a pickle when it comes to Smiler’s background, as “Guild Artisan” gives Persuasion and Insight proficiency, but looking at the inspiration triggers, I’m still leaning toward “Entertainer” as more generally Smiler…)
B) And, after doing that, I went back and look at their ability scores and went “...yeah, I need to swap the Dexterity and Wisdom scores, Smiler should definitely have higher Wisdom than Dexterity given the skills I want to specialize in. And I should probably drop Charisma just a TINY bit so I can boost Wisdom up to an even number and get some better modifiers – Cha 16 and Cha 17 give the same modifier, after all!” So yeah, looks like Smiler’s ability scores are gonna be Strength 10, Dexterity 10, Constitution 12, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 14, and Charisma 16 whenever I get back into the character creator!
Not too shabby – considering the last time I tried this I rather stalled out because I was focusing too much on my mod issues, I was very pleased to actually get something done over here. Maybe next time I can figure out some spell stuff! And that damn background issue...
YouTube: Cleared the three videos waiting for me in the Watch Later, which was nice –
A) First up, we had the OXBox list video of the week: “7 Hardest Optional Bosses for Elite Players Only: Commenter Edition!” Jane, Mike, and Andy talking about more horrible ultra-hard optional bosses, as per the comments on their last video on the subject! Are you a Dark Souls III player looking for even more punishment? Shove the giant dragon Darkeater Midir into a pit, then jump down there to give him and his horrible black mouth laser a try! Looking to suffer in Soulcaliber 3’s story mode? Follow a certain path and you can fight Night Terror as the final boss, and learn what it’s like not only to get your shit wrecked, but be unable to win via “Ring Out” because your opponent can, you know, fly! Want to see how weird and hard Super Mario RPG can get? Track down Culex, the one Final Fantasy-esque boss in the game, and be prepared to suffer at the hands of this shirtless 2D monstrosity! Basically, if you think you’re hard enough, you can find an optional boss ready to destroy you in this list. The rest of us will be over here maintaining normal blood pressures, thanks. :P
B) Then, it was over to Petey Plays It for “101 Sims 4 Tips, Tricks And Secrets From 7,000+ Hours Played!” Yes, apparently Petey has played 7,777 hours (and 35 minutes) of The Sims 4, and feeling this made him something an expert on the game, decided he had to share a whole bunch of various tips and tricks with us. Granted, most of these were tips and tricks he’d shared in other videos – such as the Discover University soccer ball and the City Living basketball hoop being the ultimate tools to have your Sims gain fitness, lose weight, and become ripped; honey from the bee box in Seasons granting a moodlet that makes Sims temporarily immune to temperature effects; and how you can buy a special low-maintenance crow with a golden perch from the ghost salesman Waylon in Life & Death – but there were a few new things too! For example, I didn’t know that the “Breeze Through Homework” interaction on homework for children was unlocked by having level 3 in all the child skills (I thought it was related to their grade in school) – nor that it actually made them complete their homework faster (also thought that it was just a textual change). And if you get them up to level 7 in all the child skills, they’ll get the “Dominate Homework” interaction and complete it even FASTER! I also didn’t know that a human Sim who happened to have inherited one of the magical bloodlines from a Spellcaster parent, after asking a Sage to turn them into a spellcaster, wouldn’t have to go through the mote-finding “quest” most Sims have to do – the Sage will just turn them right away because they already have a hidden magical nature! And while I knew that the solar panel roof from Eco Lifestyle gave Sims power, I didn’t know that the living grass roof from that pack actually provided water! So yeah, that was neat. :) Plus there’s a hexagonal wood flooring from that pack that apparently reduces your bills, which I will definitely have to think about using in my next save file for my Teen Valicer trio...maybe in a house renovation? :P Anyway, good stuff as always – and here’s to the next 7,000 hours, Petey!
C) And finally, we visited C. M. Alongi for the next CaFae Latte video I had to catch up on: “CaFae Latte Season 59 - TikTok Compilation!” This season featured:
I. Bob catching two teenagers vandalizing the store (smashing pumpkins and painting random pentagrams and whatnot on the wall), giving them the choice of coming to the cafe at 5 AM to clean up the damage or going to the police, and then taking a bit of their hair to curse them both to be bright pink as insurance to make sure they actually showed up to fix things
II. One of the kids, Logan, showing up the next morning at the appointed time (with his very-grumpy father) and cleaning everything up, which earned him a free coffee, a free scone for breakfast, his skin going back to normal color, and some life advice from Jennifer Charles (namely, get better friends and talk to someone about the anger issues) – and the other, Alex, showing up just before school with his pissed-off mother to bitch about the curse; the mother bitched out Bob for cursing her “baby boy” in the following video, but Bob held firm, saying that his actions had consequences and she’d given him his choice of outs from said curse. And when the mother threatened to sue, revealing that she’d already gotten documentation of all the damage and that she knew the curse caused no actual harm to the kid (other than being kinda humiliating), so no lawyer would take their case. The pair eventually stormed out to talk to a lawyer anyway, and JC was like “I’m usually NOT a fan of blaming the parent for the kid’s behavior, buuuut…”
III. JC bringing Rethu (who’d been out for a few days due to a Jewish holiday, Sakkot) up to speed on what happened with the pranksters (turns out Alex and his mother finally went to the police after Alex’s dad said “we’re rich, we can afford a good lawyer to make sure this doesn’t affect his record too badly,” as per the Drek gossip line – looks like he’ll probably only have to pay a fine, and he did get un-pinked for confessing to the police), and Rethu telling them about the holiday and how there’s some shit going down in the woods with missing hikers, and how they think it’s a ghost – only for the pair to be interrupted by a customer angry that neither of them had come over to refill their drink, instead “unprofessionally” talking about their personal lives. JC and Rethu set them straight on how things worked (namely, that this is a CAFE, not a restaurant, and that they’re allowed to chat to pass the time), causing the customer to declare they’d just lost their business and flounce out. JC was like “you promise?” XD
IV. And Herla showing up with a unicorn corpse at the Stoughton Street Witch coven, to turn it into various charms to reward his lieutenants for their good and loyal service (the coven gets some small fees, a hoof, and the teeth out of the trade), only for Ghost Hunter John to show up a little bit later to buy a ghost-detecting charm from Nicole for his latest job – tracking down whatever’s been spiriting away those unfortunate campers and hikers. The plan was that he’d go out on initial recon, figure out what the problem was, then report back to his HQ –
But when we cut to him actually out in the woods, he didn’t find any evidence of paranormal activity. His keychain charm wasn’t even glowing. But then his cellphone lost signal, and…yeah, that’s where Chris left things. O.o Oh cripes, I am like – 99% certain she wouldn’t actually kill John, but that is still a hell of a cliffhanger! I am REALLY hoping that Herla will have a big damn heroes moment so they can have a heartfelt bitchy friends moment afterward. They have earned it.
Tumblr: Didn’t do MUCH on the tumblrs, but I accomplished some stuff – to the point where doing something on one blog helped me with the other –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Didn’t do any draft stuff, as is usual for a Cleaning Saturday, but I did straight-up reblog two things:
A) A truly awesome video of a steampunk carousel, complete with flying machines and boats and mechanical animals that moved around! :D It was so freaking cool and made me think of Secundus and how they’d DEFINITELY have that somewhere in the city – maybe some sort of event building or park? So yeah, had to put that on the blog!
B) And a photo post featuring two screencapped tweets about the “fell first/fell harder” trope and how it’s not about one of the characters loving the other more – instead, it’s about one character slowly falling and getting used to pining over the second one, sure it’ll never lead to anything...and the second character just being hit by their feelings like a truck one day and deciding they HAVE to be with their beloved. XD Which, when I looked at it, made me realize that dynamic could describe Victor/Alice AND Victor/Smiler very well, so – yeah. Reblogged it, tagged it both “#valice” and “#valicer,” and explained the “Victor falls first but never wants to act on his feelings because he’s sure the others won’t feel the same way/Alice and Smiler fall harder and are just clobbered by their feelings” dynamic in said tags. XD It’s just fun!
Valice Multiverse – And then, since there was nothing happening over here, I went ahead and reblogged the steampunk carousel post off Victor Luvs Alice into this account’s drafts! Because Secundus IS one of my verses over here, and it felt appropriate to feature it on both. :) Hooray!
*nods* Fairly productive overall -- I fully expected to want to play Sims and do some save file stuff, but that just wasn't in the cards today. *shrug* Maybe I need to plan that out a little more too before diving into it...or maybe my brain's like "let's not start anything until the 'weather effects indoors' bug is fixed." XD At any rate, I was happy to make some progress on figuring out Tav!Smiler! One step closer to actually properly playing the game again...
Anyway -- I have to get to bed, as I have once again stayed up too late. Tomorrow, goals include working on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts (gotta get the one for second Polyheart OT3 House update started so I can properly show off the exterior!); either working more on the Tav!Smiler stuff and writing up the first draft of Nebby's gift OR playing Fallout 4, making more progress toward the Mechanist, and updating the FO4 Playthrough Progression doc appropriately; getting in a workout; and keeping up with Jon of Many A True Nerd. Again, hopefully all achievable goals, but we shall see! Personally, I'm just hoping the humidity is okay...night all!
As for my day -- it was typical in some respects, a little unusual in others:
Cleaning: Pretty typical Cleaning Saturday, as I feel I say every time – I got started around 10:35 AM; finished the dusting and the Swiffering right before lunch around 1 PM; then finished off with a thorough vacuuming after lunch, finishing everything off around 1:45 PM! *shrug* Nothing particularly special, though I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with washing my blankets or anything – obviously I changed my sheets, but those just went in the communal hamper to be washed with all the other stuff tomorrow. And I got to relisten to an excellent Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark episode, “Into The Deathlands” – featuring the gang stealing a train locomotive by setting up a fake crash out in the titular deathlands! Key highlights been the return of everyone’s favorite murder-children, the Gutcutters, to help with the score; Zillah accidentally getting put to sleep with slumber essence (while they were trying to deal with a rail-riding hobo on the same train they were trying to steal), then smacking Edvard straight out of his shoes with a sleep punch while he was attempting to rouse her with smelling salts; Barnaby refusing to wear goggles for traveling in the harsh gritty winds atop the train because they didn’t go with his ensemble, getting essentially blinded...and then, with the help of a lucky dice roll, managing to argue that he can actually see better in the smoky cabin with his sand-blasted corneas and successfully knocking the stoker over the head with an old whiskey bottle; and the gang having to deal with some deathlands scavengers before they could get the locomotive back to Volisport – who, thanks to the voice Luke ended up choosing for them, I now headcanon as the skeletons from the hammer in the Original Oxventure, having turned to scavenging after the gang finally passed on and magic was forcibly sucked out of the world (don’t ask how they’re okay, the skeletons have always been OP). XD Excellent stuff – very sad I only have three episodes left to go! Though I suppose I can always listen to other Oxventure stuff once I’m done...
Writing: As I was feeling a bit uninspired when it came to video games (like, I wanted to start working on my new Sims 4 save file, but I couldn’t figure out where the heck I wanted to begin), I decided after I finished my cleaning and did the usual rounds online this afternoon to instead just dive straight into another page on “The Van Dort Vacancy!” Having seen yesterday that the his parents seemed to having a party, Victor brought Alice and Smiler up to the front door with him today, hoping to find the Van Dorts’ butler, Barry, there to explain what was going on. Fortunately, Barry was indeed there (instructing a footman on the proper care of Lord Goth’s luggage), and was also only too happy to start giving Victor the “where the hell have you been” speech when he saw him. Victor introduced him to Alice and Smiler (Smiler doing their usual “I’m going to blast happiness and cheer directly in your face and there’s nothing you can do about it” routine XD), and the trio proceeded to learn the following facts from him:
I. That the Van Dorts were having a big old multi-meal party to make up for the wedding not happening on the 30th
II. That while the Van Dorts HAD looked for Victor the Names before the wedding, they hadn’t actually done much searching for him since, too busy trying to fix their own reputations
III. And that hampering the search further, their driver, Mayhew, had died – Victor was horrified, though not surprised to learn it was the cough that had done him in, and somewhat comforted by hearing that his corpse had been picked right up by the Spirit Wardens (no ghost Mayhews for him to worry about!)
So yeah – so far, the Van Dorts are NOT acquitting themselves well when it comes to looking like they actually care about their son! And things are soon to get worse, as Victor’s going to ask to speak to them the next time I work on this story – and learn that he can’t take his friends along with…
Baldur’s Gate III – The Planning: Yup – since I was feeling uninspired when it came to actually playing a game, I figured that I should spend this afternoon trying to get some work done on planning out what my Tav!Smiler should be like (what abilities they should prioritize, what skills they should have proficiency in, what spells they should have, etc) for my eventual restart of BG3. And I’m pleased to report that I actually made some halfway-decent progress! Specifically, I –
A) Went through all the skills available in the game and checked what they actually did and where checks involving them were likely to come up to figure out which ones Smiler should have proficiency in (and thus get bonuses to those checks) – I already knew that they needed proficiency in Persuasion, but looking at what’s on offer, Arcana, Investigation, Nature, Insight, Medicine, Deception, and Performance all feel like good candidates for proficiency as well. (Which puts me in a bit of a pickle when it comes to Smiler’s background, as “Guild Artisan” gives Persuasion and Insight proficiency, but looking at the inspiration triggers, I’m still leaning toward “Entertainer” as more generally Smiler…)
B) And, after doing that, I went back and look at their ability scores and went “...yeah, I need to swap the Dexterity and Wisdom scores, Smiler should definitely have higher Wisdom than Dexterity given the skills I want to specialize in. And I should probably drop Charisma just a TINY bit so I can boost Wisdom up to an even number and get some better modifiers – Cha 16 and Cha 17 give the same modifier, after all!” So yeah, looks like Smiler’s ability scores are gonna be Strength 10, Dexterity 10, Constitution 12, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 14, and Charisma 16 whenever I get back into the character creator!
Not too shabby – considering the last time I tried this I rather stalled out because I was focusing too much on my mod issues, I was very pleased to actually get something done over here. Maybe next time I can figure out some spell stuff! And that damn background issue...
YouTube: Cleared the three videos waiting for me in the Watch Later, which was nice –
A) First up, we had the OXBox list video of the week: “7 Hardest Optional Bosses for Elite Players Only: Commenter Edition!” Jane, Mike, and Andy talking about more horrible ultra-hard optional bosses, as per the comments on their last video on the subject! Are you a Dark Souls III player looking for even more punishment? Shove the giant dragon Darkeater Midir into a pit, then jump down there to give him and his horrible black mouth laser a try! Looking to suffer in Soulcaliber 3’s story mode? Follow a certain path and you can fight Night Terror as the final boss, and learn what it’s like not only to get your shit wrecked, but be unable to win via “Ring Out” because your opponent can, you know, fly! Want to see how weird and hard Super Mario RPG can get? Track down Culex, the one Final Fantasy-esque boss in the game, and be prepared to suffer at the hands of this shirtless 2D monstrosity! Basically, if you think you’re hard enough, you can find an optional boss ready to destroy you in this list. The rest of us will be over here maintaining normal blood pressures, thanks. :P
B) Then, it was over to Petey Plays It for “101 Sims 4 Tips, Tricks And Secrets From 7,000+ Hours Played!” Yes, apparently Petey has played 7,777 hours (and 35 minutes) of The Sims 4, and feeling this made him something an expert on the game, decided he had to share a whole bunch of various tips and tricks with us. Granted, most of these were tips and tricks he’d shared in other videos – such as the Discover University soccer ball and the City Living basketball hoop being the ultimate tools to have your Sims gain fitness, lose weight, and become ripped; honey from the bee box in Seasons granting a moodlet that makes Sims temporarily immune to temperature effects; and how you can buy a special low-maintenance crow with a golden perch from the ghost salesman Waylon in Life & Death – but there were a few new things too! For example, I didn’t know that the “Breeze Through Homework” interaction on homework for children was unlocked by having level 3 in all the child skills (I thought it was related to their grade in school) – nor that it actually made them complete their homework faster (also thought that it was just a textual change). And if you get them up to level 7 in all the child skills, they’ll get the “Dominate Homework” interaction and complete it even FASTER! I also didn’t know that a human Sim who happened to have inherited one of the magical bloodlines from a Spellcaster parent, after asking a Sage to turn them into a spellcaster, wouldn’t have to go through the mote-finding “quest” most Sims have to do – the Sage will just turn them right away because they already have a hidden magical nature! And while I knew that the solar panel roof from Eco Lifestyle gave Sims power, I didn’t know that the living grass roof from that pack actually provided water! So yeah, that was neat. :) Plus there’s a hexagonal wood flooring from that pack that apparently reduces your bills, which I will definitely have to think about using in my next save file for my Teen Valicer trio...maybe in a house renovation? :P Anyway, good stuff as always – and here’s to the next 7,000 hours, Petey!
C) And finally, we visited C. M. Alongi for the next CaFae Latte video I had to catch up on: “CaFae Latte Season 59 - TikTok Compilation!” This season featured:
I. Bob catching two teenagers vandalizing the store (smashing pumpkins and painting random pentagrams and whatnot on the wall), giving them the choice of coming to the cafe at 5 AM to clean up the damage or going to the police, and then taking a bit of their hair to curse them both to be bright pink as insurance to make sure they actually showed up to fix things
II. One of the kids, Logan, showing up the next morning at the appointed time (with his very-grumpy father) and cleaning everything up, which earned him a free coffee, a free scone for breakfast, his skin going back to normal color, and some life advice from Jennifer Charles (namely, get better friends and talk to someone about the anger issues) – and the other, Alex, showing up just before school with his pissed-off mother to bitch about the curse; the mother bitched out Bob for cursing her “baby boy” in the following video, but Bob held firm, saying that his actions had consequences and she’d given him his choice of outs from said curse. And when the mother threatened to sue, revealing that she’d already gotten documentation of all the damage and that she knew the curse caused no actual harm to the kid (other than being kinda humiliating), so no lawyer would take their case. The pair eventually stormed out to talk to a lawyer anyway, and JC was like “I’m usually NOT a fan of blaming the parent for the kid’s behavior, buuuut…”
III. JC bringing Rethu (who’d been out for a few days due to a Jewish holiday, Sakkot) up to speed on what happened with the pranksters (turns out Alex and his mother finally went to the police after Alex’s dad said “we’re rich, we can afford a good lawyer to make sure this doesn’t affect his record too badly,” as per the Drek gossip line – looks like he’ll probably only have to pay a fine, and he did get un-pinked for confessing to the police), and Rethu telling them about the holiday and how there’s some shit going down in the woods with missing hikers, and how they think it’s a ghost – only for the pair to be interrupted by a customer angry that neither of them had come over to refill their drink, instead “unprofessionally” talking about their personal lives. JC and Rethu set them straight on how things worked (namely, that this is a CAFE, not a restaurant, and that they’re allowed to chat to pass the time), causing the customer to declare they’d just lost their business and flounce out. JC was like “you promise?” XD
IV. And Herla showing up with a unicorn corpse at the Stoughton Street Witch coven, to turn it into various charms to reward his lieutenants for their good and loyal service (the coven gets some small fees, a hoof, and the teeth out of the trade), only for Ghost Hunter John to show up a little bit later to buy a ghost-detecting charm from Nicole for his latest job – tracking down whatever’s been spiriting away those unfortunate campers and hikers. The plan was that he’d go out on initial recon, figure out what the problem was, then report back to his HQ –
But when we cut to him actually out in the woods, he didn’t find any evidence of paranormal activity. His keychain charm wasn’t even glowing. But then his cellphone lost signal, and…yeah, that’s where Chris left things. O.o Oh cripes, I am like – 99% certain she wouldn’t actually kill John, but that is still a hell of a cliffhanger! I am REALLY hoping that Herla will have a big damn heroes moment so they can have a heartfelt bitchy friends moment afterward. They have earned it.
Tumblr: Didn’t do MUCH on the tumblrs, but I accomplished some stuff – to the point where doing something on one blog helped me with the other –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Didn’t do any draft stuff, as is usual for a Cleaning Saturday, but I did straight-up reblog two things:
A) A truly awesome video of a steampunk carousel, complete with flying machines and boats and mechanical animals that moved around! :D It was so freaking cool and made me think of Secundus and how they’d DEFINITELY have that somewhere in the city – maybe some sort of event building or park? So yeah, had to put that on the blog!
B) And a photo post featuring two screencapped tweets about the “fell first/fell harder” trope and how it’s not about one of the characters loving the other more – instead, it’s about one character slowly falling and getting used to pining over the second one, sure it’ll never lead to anything...and the second character just being hit by their feelings like a truck one day and deciding they HAVE to be with their beloved. XD Which, when I looked at it, made me realize that dynamic could describe Victor/Alice AND Victor/Smiler very well, so – yeah. Reblogged it, tagged it both “#valice” and “#valicer,” and explained the “Victor falls first but never wants to act on his feelings because he’s sure the others won’t feel the same way/Alice and Smiler fall harder and are just clobbered by their feelings” dynamic in said tags. XD It’s just fun!
Valice Multiverse – And then, since there was nothing happening over here, I went ahead and reblogged the steampunk carousel post off Victor Luvs Alice into this account’s drafts! Because Secundus IS one of my verses over here, and it felt appropriate to feature it on both. :) Hooray!
*nods* Fairly productive overall -- I fully expected to want to play Sims and do some save file stuff, but that just wasn't in the cards today. *shrug* Maybe I need to plan that out a little more too before diving into it...or maybe my brain's like "let's not start anything until the 'weather effects indoors' bug is fixed." XD At any rate, I was happy to make some progress on figuring out Tav!Smiler! One step closer to actually properly playing the game again...
Anyway -- I have to get to bed, as I have once again stayed up too late. Tomorrow, goals include working on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts (gotta get the one for second Polyheart OT3 House update started so I can properly show off the exterior!); either working more on the Tav!Smiler stuff and writing up the first draft of Nebby's gift OR playing Fallout 4, making more progress toward the Mechanist, and updating the FO4 Playthrough Progression doc appropriately; getting in a workout; and keeping up with Jon of Many A True Nerd. Again, hopefully all achievable goals, but we shall see! Personally, I'm just hoping the humidity is okay...night all!
Typically Scattered Friday Evening
Jun. 6th, 2025 11:45 pmWas juggling multiple conversations before, along with trying to stay caught up on my tumblr dash and working on finishing up all my write-ups. Just another Friday night/Saturday morning in the Victoria household! But now things have calmed down and I can officially do my Update On The Day:
Work – Fairly quiet Friday to end out the week – I did the GL; I looked at the failed credit cards and contacted a few people about failures (successfully rerunning one guy’s card at his request); I updated one pastor’s pledge at the assistant director’s request; I took a couple of credit card gifts and a pledge from people who called in; I cooed over the director’s baby when his mom came in to drop him off with his dad (she had an appointment); I said goodbye to the director, my coworker, and the assistant director as they all left early; I did some puzzles; and I finally said “screw it” and left a little bit early myself because it was Friday and I was alone and nothing was happening. XD I’ve had much worse Fridays! And I appreciated getting to spend most of it in an air-conditioned building because that humidity today – bleeh. It was SUPPOSED to clear out by the afternoon, but the thunderstorms they mentioned never showed up! >( Hopefully tomorrow IS better like they said! It is cooler tonight, so I am desperately hoping...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week saw me pedaling through:
A) The end of “D&D But... It's Cluedo | Oxventure!” The big finale of the absolutely redonkulous “playing Clue via D&D” live show featured:
I. Reverend Green (Luke) successfully locating a dagger with Spanish writing on it in the dining room and rushing off to show everyone, which Johnny ended up describing as like someone calling a meeting in the game Among Us XD
II. Colonel Mustard (Mike) being allowed to search the study before being dragged off to the meeting (despite Professor Plum (Andy) being like “we don’t need to see what he finds”) – good thing he was too, as on a nat 20 he immediately discovered the murder weapon – a bloodied candlestick! But no blood on the study floor, as was later established when it became apparent Johnny forgot to tell Mike that in response to the nat 20 XD
III. Everyone presenting their findings, and Ms. Scarlet (Emily) discovering it was a prop knife – she promptly berated Reverend Green for wasting their time, then just as promptly felt bad as he pathetically apologized –
And then even more promptly pulled her revolver and began demanding that the murder confess already. XD Leading to Professor Plum trying to launch a wad of grease from his hair at her hand to get her to drop the gun (guess what spell Andy was trying to cast!), only for her to make her Dex save and coolly catch the gun midair as it spun. Everyone was very impressed. *nods*
IV. Acting-Constable Arthur Beefs, the policeman nominally in charge of this investigation, bodying himself through a window to stop the suspects trying to kill each other and get them back on track (that was NOT happening, Johnny!)
V. Professor Plum deciding to “tear the mask” off Colonel Mustard – one unsuccessful Constitution saving throw later, he’d gotten the man’s Velcro mustache (gasp!)
VI. The climatic vote, including one from the audience via “noisemeter” (aka judging the guilty party from the loudest cheers” – the audience couldn’t decide between Professor Plum and Colonel Mustard, but the assembled suspects were pretty sure it was Mustard –
And they were right! :D Mustard was indeed the murderer, revealing he’d killed Mr. Boddy as the man had intended to reveal that all of his grand military stories were fakes! Which was kind of obvious in retrospect as the man was worse at keeping his battles straight than Professor Plum was at keeping his animes straight, but still! XD Anyway, the whole mess ended with Mustard having a big climatic rant, culminating in the reveal that he hated mustard; Ms. Scarlet shooting him after said confession at Acting-Constable Arthur Beefs’s insistence, with Mustard dying saying that at last he’d seen combat; Reverend Green finding the deed to the house and presenting it to Ms. Scarlet; and everyone refusing to respect Professor Plum. XD
VII. And finally, the post-adventure reveals that the players revealed like 60% of their collective motives for wanting to kill Mr. Boddy, and that Reverend Green was genuinely motivated throughout most of this adventure by being very hungry. XD
Delightfully goofy stuff, as always! I do love watching this group play TTRPGs together. Next week, we start catching up on the Teens In Space miniseries they did with Jasper of Three Black Halfings before the release of Oxventure: Wyrdwood!
B) The entirety of “5 Hidden Failsafes BG3 Devs Made For 0.1% Of Players” by Proxy Gate Tactician! Because I’m still enjoying going through his videos. :) As you might expect from that title, this one was all about him talking about and showing off those hidden failsafes in the game that most players would never even experience – or, if they did, wouldn’t realize it was meant to be a failsafe. Examples included:
I. What happens if you don’t put your ENTIRE party on the boat to Grymforge, then lose the fight with the duergar who pull up beside the boat to demand to know what happened to the original owner (the bodies of the party members who lost the fight wash up on the same shore where you can find the duergar’s bodies if you successfully fight them, and the duergar complete their trip to the shore where any remaining party members wait, allowing them to get past them and use the boat to sail to Grymforge and, hopefully, revive the dead party members)
II. What happens if you kill the people who are supposed to be watching over/entertaining the tiefling children when the tieflings go into “battle-ready” mode protecting the grove from the incoming forces of the Absolute (normally Alfira the bard is entertaining them with the story of the founding of Baldur’s Gate; if she’s dead, one of the kids, Mirkan, is telling them about her near-escape from the harpies; if SHE’S dead as well, the kids are just hanging out and urge you to go back and join the fight – Proxy was particularly shocked by this one because he didn’t think ANY players would bother coming to this location, especially with a fight imminent!)
III. And what happens if certain NPCs who were supposed to give you important information or a quest reward die before they can, either by your hand or another’s (the game usually has a back-up NPC ready to spawn in and give you the reward or the info – though in the case of rescuing the Gondians from the undersea Iron Throne prison, if you kill the one gnome who’s supposed to be a GUARANTEED escapee and thus tell you where to go next to free their families, the NARRATOR will instead step in and summarize another gnome telling you the same thing should you approach them. Given this is an Act 3 quest, I’m guessing they just didn’t have the time to record another NPC saying the lines!)
Neat stuff, as always – Proxy is always very thorough in his investigations into these matters. :) Though I will tell any Embrace Durges who may be reading this NOT to kill the leader of the Bhaal cult, Sarevok, AND both of the “neutral” assassins hanging around the place during the fight with Orin, as you’ll go through all of Sarevok’s backup NPCS like that and thus screw yourself out of a reward to help you with the final boss that way. Just FYI!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – the trip back to the Van Dort mansion continued tonight, with:
A) Alice pointing out that, fun as talking about future birthday celebrations was, they had to get settled in the here and now first...and then successfully guessing that Smiler already had plans for a big “cleaning day” celebration once she secured her new lodgings in Six Towers XD
B) Victor and Smiler both offering whatever talents they had to the upcoming “cleaning day,” with Smiler being uncharacteristically serious about the dangers of mixing certain chemicals together (this IS their area of expertise, after all) and offering to bring their “Smile Sweeper” (the steampunk roomba they cooked up with Dr. Gladwell), shocking Victor with the reveal that it’s entirely mechanical (they felt it cruel to stick a ghost in such a small Hull!)
C) Alice interrupting Smiler explaining how the Smile Sweeper works (with me working in that punchcard looms are a thing in this world because they’re cool) by asking Victor if that’s his house ahead – and Victor being VERY STARTLED by the sheer amount of carriages outside, saying that it only looks like this if his mother’s throwing a party...
Aaaand yeah, not even Smiler could convincingly say it might be a search party. *grimace* I left it with them making for the front door to try and learn from whoever’s stationed there what’s going on – tomorrow, we meet the Van Dort’s butler, Barry, and see what the Van Dorts have been up to while Victor’s been missing! Pro tip – don’t bet on them searching for their missing son!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – didn’t have quite enough time after Game Night (Parcheesi – I THOUGHT about suggesting Clue, but Mom picked the game before I could XD) and writing to watch more CaFae Latte, so instead I went with “Busting More Myths in Baldur's Gate 3” by Proxy Gate Tactician! Because I enjoyed the last myth-busting video and wanted to see what other myths he was going to tackle (pre-Patch 3, at any rate). In order, we had:
I. Will long resting too many times in Act I cause the Druids to complete the Rite of Thorns and seal off the grove? – Nope, none of the triggers for sealing off the Emerald Grove have anything to do with long resting! They’re more about killing people you shouldn’t kill or trying to move onto a new area without heeding the warnings (which triggers an automatic long rest, which Proxy thinks is the source of the myth).
II. Will using Disguise Self really help you avoid getting caught while stealing, or using the cantrip “Friends” on traders (which, on higher difficulties, can fail and make people mad at you)? – Nope, at least pre-Patch 3 – you can disguise yourself all you like, but the people you steal from (directly via pickpocketing or indirectly via looting the area) or attempt to make like you better via magic WILL still be annoyed with you and require compensation/apologies. Which doesn’t make much sense, you were DISGUISED, so it makes sense that they patched it in Patch 3 so people will INTERROGATE you, but not immediately declare you the thief!
III. Is Feather Fall the only way to survive a jump into a certain chasm that leads into the Underdark? – Nope, but it IS your best bet for getting down there, given that most OTHER ways of surviving such a huge fall don’t work in this particular instance. Proxy tested a lot of things that should have kept the unlucky jumper alive – having more health than the game said they’d lose if they jumped; using the Misty Step teleport; protecting them with a magical ward, etc. – and of the options he tested, only the Fly spell/ability allowed the PC to get down to the Underdark alive, and only the Blood of Lathander (a mace with a special ability that can revive you after death) allowed them to automatically resurrect after making the deadly jump. Anything other than those two or Feather Fall insta-killed them if they made the jump – and ONLY Feather Fall triggered the right cutscene for discovering the Underdark via that jump. So yeah – there’s technically other ways to get down there, but just use Feather Fall. It’s easier.
IV. Will disarmed enemies re-equip their weapons in combat? – Yup, but depending on the enemy, they won’t be very smart about it! The testing Proxy did against some goblins showed that they’d only pick up and re-equip their weapon if they couldn’t do ANYTHING else that turn (aka, were stuck in a situation with an unreachable enemy). Otherwise, they’d just charge into the fray with their fists. The comments mentioned some other enemy NPCs (like the Paladins of Tyr hunting Karlach) would pick up their weapons much more quickly, though generally not immediately – like at the end of a round of combat or at the start of their next turn or something. So if you disarm an enemy, you SHOULD go get their weapon, but you don’t have to be THAT quick about it.
V. And does using a trap disarm kit or thieves’ tools successfully consume the item? – Nope, and I was VERY confused to see this one as I thought it was common knowledge you only lost them if the attempt failed (with the in-game explanation being they broke, I believe). However, it looks like a lot of people, Proxy included, were confused by the “Used Thieves’ Tools/Trap Disarm Kit” pop-up that appears and thought that meant the stuff went away even if you successfully used it. Fortunately Larian cleared up how they work in the tooltips in Patch 3, so that should prevent all future confusion!
*nods* Good stuff! As previously stated, I do appreciate how thorough Proxy is at testing all these myths – he will not rest until he can be sure that something is busted or confirmed! Makes you feel sure of his conclusions. :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – there was nothing going on over on Valice Multiverse, and I didn’t really have anything that needed doing on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). And even if I had, I was too busy chatting with Nebby to do it, sooo… *shrug* Here we are then!
And there you have it. And now I should seriously consider getting to bed so I'm not up half the night. XD Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday (though fortunately just cleaning -- don't have to worry about laundry), with my other goals consisting of getting more written on "The Van Dort Vacancy;" either playing Sims 4 and maybe start working on getting the new Teen Valicer save file ready, OR seeing what I can do with making some PROPER progress on getting Baldur's Gate III with my Bardlock Smiler up and running; and watching some more CaFae Latte. *nods* I would HOPE these are all achievable goals, but we shall see. Night all!
Work – Fairly quiet Friday to end out the week – I did the GL; I looked at the failed credit cards and contacted a few people about failures (successfully rerunning one guy’s card at his request); I updated one pastor’s pledge at the assistant director’s request; I took a couple of credit card gifts and a pledge from people who called in; I cooed over the director’s baby when his mom came in to drop him off with his dad (she had an appointment); I said goodbye to the director, my coworker, and the assistant director as they all left early; I did some puzzles; and I finally said “screw it” and left a little bit early myself because it was Friday and I was alone and nothing was happening. XD I’ve had much worse Fridays! And I appreciated getting to spend most of it in an air-conditioned building because that humidity today – bleeh. It was SUPPOSED to clear out by the afternoon, but the thunderstorms they mentioned never showed up! >( Hopefully tomorrow IS better like they said! It is cooler tonight, so I am desperately hoping...
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week saw me pedaling through:
A) The end of “D&D But... It's Cluedo | Oxventure!” The big finale of the absolutely redonkulous “playing Clue via D&D” live show featured:
I. Reverend Green (Luke) successfully locating a dagger with Spanish writing on it in the dining room and rushing off to show everyone, which Johnny ended up describing as like someone calling a meeting in the game Among Us XD
II. Colonel Mustard (Mike) being allowed to search the study before being dragged off to the meeting (despite Professor Plum (Andy) being like “we don’t need to see what he finds”) – good thing he was too, as on a nat 20 he immediately discovered the murder weapon – a bloodied candlestick! But no blood on the study floor, as was later established when it became apparent Johnny forgot to tell Mike that in response to the nat 20 XD
III. Everyone presenting their findings, and Ms. Scarlet (Emily) discovering it was a prop knife – she promptly berated Reverend Green for wasting their time, then just as promptly felt bad as he pathetically apologized –
And then even more promptly pulled her revolver and began demanding that the murder confess already. XD Leading to Professor Plum trying to launch a wad of grease from his hair at her hand to get her to drop the gun (guess what spell Andy was trying to cast!), only for her to make her Dex save and coolly catch the gun midair as it spun. Everyone was very impressed. *nods*
IV. Acting-Constable Arthur Beefs, the policeman nominally in charge of this investigation, bodying himself through a window to stop the suspects trying to kill each other and get them back on track (that was NOT happening, Johnny!)
V. Professor Plum deciding to “tear the mask” off Colonel Mustard – one unsuccessful Constitution saving throw later, he’d gotten the man’s Velcro mustache (gasp!)
VI. The climatic vote, including one from the audience via “noisemeter” (aka judging the guilty party from the loudest cheers” – the audience couldn’t decide between Professor Plum and Colonel Mustard, but the assembled suspects were pretty sure it was Mustard –
And they were right! :D Mustard was indeed the murderer, revealing he’d killed Mr. Boddy as the man had intended to reveal that all of his grand military stories were fakes! Which was kind of obvious in retrospect as the man was worse at keeping his battles straight than Professor Plum was at keeping his animes straight, but still! XD Anyway, the whole mess ended with Mustard having a big climatic rant, culminating in the reveal that he hated mustard; Ms. Scarlet shooting him after said confession at Acting-Constable Arthur Beefs’s insistence, with Mustard dying saying that at last he’d seen combat; Reverend Green finding the deed to the house and presenting it to Ms. Scarlet; and everyone refusing to respect Professor Plum. XD
VII. And finally, the post-adventure reveals that the players revealed like 60% of their collective motives for wanting to kill Mr. Boddy, and that Reverend Green was genuinely motivated throughout most of this adventure by being very hungry. XD
Delightfully goofy stuff, as always! I do love watching this group play TTRPGs together. Next week, we start catching up on the Teens In Space miniseries they did with Jasper of Three Black Halfings before the release of Oxventure: Wyrdwood!
B) The entirety of “5 Hidden Failsafes BG3 Devs Made For 0.1% Of Players” by Proxy Gate Tactician! Because I’m still enjoying going through his videos. :) As you might expect from that title, this one was all about him talking about and showing off those hidden failsafes in the game that most players would never even experience – or, if they did, wouldn’t realize it was meant to be a failsafe. Examples included:
I. What happens if you don’t put your ENTIRE party on the boat to Grymforge, then lose the fight with the duergar who pull up beside the boat to demand to know what happened to the original owner (the bodies of the party members who lost the fight wash up on the same shore where you can find the duergar’s bodies if you successfully fight them, and the duergar complete their trip to the shore where any remaining party members wait, allowing them to get past them and use the boat to sail to Grymforge and, hopefully, revive the dead party members)
II. What happens if you kill the people who are supposed to be watching over/entertaining the tiefling children when the tieflings go into “battle-ready” mode protecting the grove from the incoming forces of the Absolute (normally Alfira the bard is entertaining them with the story of the founding of Baldur’s Gate; if she’s dead, one of the kids, Mirkan, is telling them about her near-escape from the harpies; if SHE’S dead as well, the kids are just hanging out and urge you to go back and join the fight – Proxy was particularly shocked by this one because he didn’t think ANY players would bother coming to this location, especially with a fight imminent!)
III. And what happens if certain NPCs who were supposed to give you important information or a quest reward die before they can, either by your hand or another’s (the game usually has a back-up NPC ready to spawn in and give you the reward or the info – though in the case of rescuing the Gondians from the undersea Iron Throne prison, if you kill the one gnome who’s supposed to be a GUARANTEED escapee and thus tell you where to go next to free their families, the NARRATOR will instead step in and summarize another gnome telling you the same thing should you approach them. Given this is an Act 3 quest, I’m guessing they just didn’t have the time to record another NPC saying the lines!)
Neat stuff, as always – Proxy is always very thorough in his investigations into these matters. :) Though I will tell any Embrace Durges who may be reading this NOT to kill the leader of the Bhaal cult, Sarevok, AND both of the “neutral” assassins hanging around the place during the fight with Orin, as you’ll go through all of Sarevok’s backup NPCS like that and thus screw yourself out of a reward to help you with the final boss that way. Just FYI!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – the trip back to the Van Dort mansion continued tonight, with:
A) Alice pointing out that, fun as talking about future birthday celebrations was, they had to get settled in the here and now first...and then successfully guessing that Smiler already had plans for a big “cleaning day” celebration once she secured her new lodgings in Six Towers XD
B) Victor and Smiler both offering whatever talents they had to the upcoming “cleaning day,” with Smiler being uncharacteristically serious about the dangers of mixing certain chemicals together (this IS their area of expertise, after all) and offering to bring their “Smile Sweeper” (the steampunk roomba they cooked up with Dr. Gladwell), shocking Victor with the reveal that it’s entirely mechanical (they felt it cruel to stick a ghost in such a small Hull!)
C) Alice interrupting Smiler explaining how the Smile Sweeper works (with me working in that punchcard looms are a thing in this world because they’re cool) by asking Victor if that’s his house ahead – and Victor being VERY STARTLED by the sheer amount of carriages outside, saying that it only looks like this if his mother’s throwing a party...
Aaaand yeah, not even Smiler could convincingly say it might be a search party. *grimace* I left it with them making for the front door to try and learn from whoever’s stationed there what’s going on – tomorrow, we meet the Van Dort’s butler, Barry, and see what the Van Dorts have been up to while Victor’s been missing! Pro tip – don’t bet on them searching for their missing son!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – didn’t have quite enough time after Game Night (Parcheesi – I THOUGHT about suggesting Clue, but Mom picked the game before I could XD) and writing to watch more CaFae Latte, so instead I went with “Busting More Myths in Baldur's Gate 3” by Proxy Gate Tactician! Because I enjoyed the last myth-busting video and wanted to see what other myths he was going to tackle (pre-Patch 3, at any rate). In order, we had:
I. Will long resting too many times in Act I cause the Druids to complete the Rite of Thorns and seal off the grove? – Nope, none of the triggers for sealing off the Emerald Grove have anything to do with long resting! They’re more about killing people you shouldn’t kill or trying to move onto a new area without heeding the warnings (which triggers an automatic long rest, which Proxy thinks is the source of the myth).
II. Will using Disguise Self really help you avoid getting caught while stealing, or using the cantrip “Friends” on traders (which, on higher difficulties, can fail and make people mad at you)? – Nope, at least pre-Patch 3 – you can disguise yourself all you like, but the people you steal from (directly via pickpocketing or indirectly via looting the area) or attempt to make like you better via magic WILL still be annoyed with you and require compensation/apologies. Which doesn’t make much sense, you were DISGUISED, so it makes sense that they patched it in Patch 3 so people will INTERROGATE you, but not immediately declare you the thief!
III. Is Feather Fall the only way to survive a jump into a certain chasm that leads into the Underdark? – Nope, but it IS your best bet for getting down there, given that most OTHER ways of surviving such a huge fall don’t work in this particular instance. Proxy tested a lot of things that should have kept the unlucky jumper alive – having more health than the game said they’d lose if they jumped; using the Misty Step teleport; protecting them with a magical ward, etc. – and of the options he tested, only the Fly spell/ability allowed the PC to get down to the Underdark alive, and only the Blood of Lathander (a mace with a special ability that can revive you after death) allowed them to automatically resurrect after making the deadly jump. Anything other than those two or Feather Fall insta-killed them if they made the jump – and ONLY Feather Fall triggered the right cutscene for discovering the Underdark via that jump. So yeah – there’s technically other ways to get down there, but just use Feather Fall. It’s easier.
IV. Will disarmed enemies re-equip their weapons in combat? – Yup, but depending on the enemy, they won’t be very smart about it! The testing Proxy did against some goblins showed that they’d only pick up and re-equip their weapon if they couldn’t do ANYTHING else that turn (aka, were stuck in a situation with an unreachable enemy). Otherwise, they’d just charge into the fray with their fists. The comments mentioned some other enemy NPCs (like the Paladins of Tyr hunting Karlach) would pick up their weapons much more quickly, though generally not immediately – like at the end of a round of combat or at the start of their next turn or something. So if you disarm an enemy, you SHOULD go get their weapon, but you don’t have to be THAT quick about it.
V. And does using a trap disarm kit or thieves’ tools successfully consume the item? – Nope, and I was VERY confused to see this one as I thought it was common knowledge you only lost them if the attempt failed (with the in-game explanation being they broke, I believe). However, it looks like a lot of people, Proxy included, were confused by the “Used Thieves’ Tools/Trap Disarm Kit” pop-up that appears and thought that meant the stuff went away even if you successfully used it. Fortunately Larian cleared up how they work in the tooltips in Patch 3, so that should prevent all future confusion!
*nods* Good stuff! As previously stated, I do appreciate how thorough Proxy is at testing all these myths – he will not rest until he can be sure that something is busted or confirmed! Makes you feel sure of his conclusions. :)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: N/A – there was nothing going on over on Valice Multiverse, and I didn’t really have anything that needed doing on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler). And even if I had, I was too busy chatting with Nebby to do it, sooo… *shrug* Here we are then!
And there you have it. And now I should seriously consider getting to bed so I'm not up half the night. XD Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday (though fortunately just cleaning -- don't have to worry about laundry), with my other goals consisting of getting more written on "The Van Dort Vacancy;" either playing Sims 4 and maybe start working on getting the new Teen Valicer save file ready, OR seeing what I can do with making some PROPER progress on getting Baldur's Gate III with my Bardlock Smiler up and running; and watching some more CaFae Latte. *nods* I would HOPE these are all achievable goals, but we shall see. Night all!
Hot As Hell Thursday
Jun. 5th, 2025 11:52 pmLike, yeah, we got a taste of SUMMER summer today, with temps up in the 90s and heavy humidity. Work wasn't so bad because the AC was on, but at home, we were reduced to shutting all the windows and shades and running as many fans as possible to hide from the heat. Beanbags was NOT happening today, let me tell you! I've gotten it down a not-oppressive temperature with the help of my window and ceiling fans, but I get the feeling sleeping tonight is gonna be a little difficult... Anyway -- let's have the write-up, shall we?
Work – A very quiet day today – after putting on the checks and running the morning reports, I spent most of the day matching scanned cards to ID numbers on our processor’s special scanning site that we use to see the stuff they’ve put on. And looking up a couple of pieces of returned mail. And quietly finishing off a crossword puzzle. XD Yeah, there’s just – there’s just not that much to DO around there right at the moment. It’s getting gradually harder to find ways to keep myself occupied. I’m sure the supervisors will eventually come up with some sort of roster maintenance project for us, but for now, the name of the game is to putter around and look busy. Which should be a little easier for me tomorrow, as I’m doing the GL and looking at failed credit cards again. We’ll see how it goes!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “D&D But... It's Cluedo | Oxventure!” The “forcing D&D to be the murder mystery game Clue” shenanigans continued tonight, with such highlights as –
A) The group moving from the billiards room to the lounge to check Ms. Scarlet’s (Emily) alibi (since, despite finding a probable murder weapon, they hadn’t been able to pin it on Reverend Green (Luke), and Ms. Scarlet hiding the revolver in there in the couch so well from the menfolk that even Professor Plum (Andy) and Colonel Mustard (Mike) getting nat 20s on investigation rolls couldn’t uncover it (they found letters instead)
B) Colonel Mustard asking if anyone could read his letter, as it was in French...and then, after Mike checked his character sheet, abruptly recalling that he knew French (you expect Mike to read things on his character sheet? XD)
C) The letters being first, a French missive from a friend of Mr. Boddy’s talking about how he’d heckled Professor Plum at one of his recent lectures and how Plum had given him a look that could kill, giving him a pretty strong motive (a babbling Plum claimed that he’d only come here to give Boddy a piece of his mind, maybe rough him up a bit); and second, an unopened letter from Boddy’s doctor, informing him that he was a medical marvel who was so unallergic to rope he could never be harmed by it (Plum promptly threw the unneeded rope out the window)
D) Reverend Green and Ms. Scarlet getting into an argument about if some flowers growing in the greenhouse were petunias or not, as Scarlet said she was studying them during the time of the murder (Green’s high wisdom score proved him right, but Scarlet claimed to just be bad at botany)
E) The group finally learning from Professor Plum that he was in the lounge, going there, and then demanding to know what he was doing; cue Plum failing to convince anyone he was lounging on a particular piece of furniture and then doing increasingly bizarre “lounges” while insisting he was definitely a lounger XD
F) Ms. Scarlet finding a bunch of Colonel Mustard’s books (pristine personally-signed hardback first editions, no less) in a box labeled “to be shredded,” and Colonel Mustard insisting that was a mistake, he was a war hero, fought off Jerry and such – everyone then insisted “how old are you?” and Johnny was forced to pick a year that synced well with rotary dial phones and Plum being a professor of anime (they chose 1957 XD)
G) Professor Plum VERY POORLY trying to swipe a solid-silver ink pot from the writing desk in the room and hurling it across the shop (because not all of Andy’s rolls could be Nat 20s)
H) Reverend Green, seeing this and determining that Plum might be in poor financial straits, deciding to try and find out via spilling unholy water on Plum’s jacket and seeing how he reacts (via a complicated process of using a “Doom of Ill Fortune” spell of some kind); Plum then retaliated with “Tasha’s Caustic Brew,” shooting a stream of acid into Green’s face and burning him – he justified this by saying that chemicals must have gotten into the tweed while he was working in the “anime lab” (developing rare anime filmstrips!), causing Johnny to just get up and walk away for a moment, clearly wondering what the hell was their life XD
I) The group deciding to split up and search some of the other rooms for clues/potential murder weapons because the NPC Acting Constable Beefs kept throwing bricks through the window essentially telling them to “get a move on,” and Johnny having to admit that, in all the weirdness going on, they’d forgotten to check off what rooms they’d actually visited already XD
J) Professor Plum visiting the kitchen, finding a pot of mustard (which he found very suspicious thanks to being around Colonel Mustard) and a lead pipe on the wall – which proved to be a pipe carrying water when he yanked off, resulting in him getting sprayed, his jacket going off again, and all the food becoming inedible
K) Ms. Scarlet visiting the ballroom, finding more papers proving that Mr. Boddy helped destroy her husband’s fortunes through the use of numerous shell companies, stuffing a few important ones in her pocket, and hiding the rest in the covered grand piano, all the while thinking this work was beneath her (“I know musical notation!”)
L) And, when I left off, Reverend Green visiting the dining room, spying a big bowl of fruit on the table, and promptly taking a giant bite out of a wax apple. Johnny made Luke do a funny voice, then promptly regretted it as Luke wouldn’t stop doing it. XD
Yeah, it’s – it’s been a ride. XD Though a very fun one, I admit! Tomorrow, we’ll wrap this up and see if we actually figure out who the heck killed Mr. Boddy!
2. Continue editing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – I have officially started Chapter 2, with the trio walking Victor home through the streets of Nightmarket! Chatting all the way, of course, about such things as:
A) What the Van Dort mansion looks like (Victor had to warn Alice and Smiler it was quite fishy – then hastily clarify in LOOKS, not SMELL)
B) How much Victor now loathes eating fish (with him revealing that he didn’t even know chickens were edible until he was ten, thanks to how much fish William made them eat)
C) When the trio’s birthdays are (thanks to Duskwall having weird double-length months, they’re all actually in the same month, Suran – Smiler was all for having a big combined celebration until Alice revealed that her birthday was the 4th… then they just went “ah well, the birthday holiday for all of Duskwall is right before Victor’s birthday, we’ll make do” XD)
D) And what they might like to do for those birthdays (as Smiler is determined to celebrate them – and as it’s come out that Victor’s never been to the Spark Grounds (too bohemian for his mother’s tastes) and Alice never got to go to the opera (her parents died before they could take her), they already know where to take their new friends! They of course want a big old party for their birthday, but they’ve promised Victor and Alice a quiet corner where they can hide XD)
Yeah, they’ve been busy. XD I do like writing them just TALKING, I have to admit – it’s fun to see where they’ll ramble off to! But I’ve got to wrangle them a bit, as they’ll be coming up on the Van Dort mansion soon...and discovering a whole lot of carriages parked around the place for some reason...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – decided to swap C. M. Alongi for Proxy Gate Tactician today, since I wanted to watch a couple more of his videos! And so I headed to his channel and viewed:
A) “Baldur's Gate 3 - Tips and Tricks For The 9 Skills Every Class in The Game Has” – a bunch of tips, tricks, and advice from Proxy about those abilities every character in the game has – Throw, Jump, Hide, Shove, Improvised Weapon (aka pick up anything and try to hit someone with it), Dip (dip your weapon in something for a few turns of extra damage), Disengage (get yourself out of getting wrecked by attacks of opportunity), Dash, and Help (another character who is dying or suffering a status effect). And while this info was over a year old, it was still pretty interesting stuff! For example, did you know it’s often better to try and jump a distance you’re trying to cover, rather than walk it normally, because you may in fact cover more ground without using as much of your movement per turn? And that you can jump out of dangerous surfaces to take the minimum amount of damage from them? How about the fact that ANYONE can pick up ANYTHING as an improvised weapon (though, obviously, what will work best depends on the character’s strength) and thus be able to bludgeon enemies – especially those weak to such damage? Or the fact that, if you build a tower of 100 boxes, throwing anything at anyone, even an old shoe, will crush them under eighty points of damage due to the height? I mean, Proxy doesn’t recommend you do that, but… XD All in all, a very helpful and interesting video – hopefully I can remember some of these tricks going forward! Especially the “Jump” stuff, all of that seemed VERY useful…
B) “3 Mind-Blowing Exploits In Baldur's Gate 3 (These are Now Sadly Patched Out)” – three weird ways to cheese the game back in the early days that Proxy discovered while messing around (plus a very simple and silly bonus one). In order, we had:
I. If you hit F5 (aka the quicksave button) during the death cutscene you get when the entire party is turned into mindflayers by the Absolute (easily accessed by trying to return to the mountain pass three times after meeting the Nightsong in the Shadow-Cursed Lands), you could reload your game and end up with an entire party of four mindflayers instead of your regular characters. Each with a full complement of mindflayer abilities! And all the other NPCs were too polite/afraid to mention the suddenly squidy change in your characters. XD Great if you wanted a taste of extreme power after getting through Act 1 and most of Act 2!
II. If you positioned the “go back to camp for a long rest” window so the “yes” button was above a companion, then spam-clicked, you could activate the long rest while also activating a conversation with your companion – causing the game to allow you to do the long rest in the game world, instead of actually going back to your camp through the loading screens. You couldn’t do any camp dialogues, so you missed out on the story, and the clips he showed seem to suggest that you might only have been able to do partial long rests, but it allowed Proxy to cut his long-resting time in half when he used the glitch (he had long loading screens), so… Guess it was useful for that at least!
III. If you grabbed a weapon that you normally couldn’t equip because it was too big for you (because it came from an orge or a minotaur or similarly-oversized creature), put it in your inventory, then dragged it over your equipped weapon in the inventory grid so they swapped, that would allow you to equip it! And do some SERIOUS damage to enemies, especially if you were a high-Strength character looking for bludgeoning damage to smash up undead and/or their coffins. Plus the visuals of your character carrying around the oversized weapon were pretty amusing. XD Great for those who wanted an OP monster weapon to make life easier!
IV. And, as the small bonus exploit that straight-up annoyed Proxy, if you changed difficulties (from Tactician to Explorer and back) during the game, you could get your characters a free heal. OP but COULD screw up achievements, according to the comments.
Interesting stuff! I mean, I suppose I’m glad they patched out these obvious glitches, but they looked like they were fun while they lasted. Especially the party of mindflayers – I bet a lot of people had a lot of fun with those!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check and check –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Did two things over here today:
A) I went into my queue this morning to review and tweak the text and tags on my Song Saturday reblog of “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol (just updating some sentences and clarifying why I originally thought this song was originally a Valicer Soulmates AU song in the tags)
B) Then, this evening, I straight-up reblogged a post by “buckysknifecollection” off my friend Squid about how the point of shipping isn’t to see your ship go canon, it’s to grab whatever canon crumbs you can find and scurry away to put the characters in scenarios. Adding that sometimes the point of it is to open a broom closet, find three different characters from three different fandoms kissing, and realize you’re looking at your most abiding fandom obsession for the foreseeable future. XD I was going to write something about taking your favorites from different canons and throwing them in the soup, but then I remembered that, oh, right, my OTP and OT3 all chose each other and I was just along for the ride, and changed my reblog appropriately. :P It’s weird being in this head sometimes. XD
Valice Multiverse – Didn’t have any asks or threads today, so I went back to “rpmemelibrary” and reblogged the “Presents Ask,” encouraging people to ask me about how my muses feel about giving and receiving presents, how they prepare for gift-giving occasions, if they’ve ever returned or regifted a gift, if they’ve ever given something out of spite, etc, etc. *shrug* It’s something to have up, and the “Caffeinated Drinks Ask” got some attention, so maybe this will too!
Other: My stupid mouse is doing the same “treating a single click like multiple clicks” nonsense that the last mouse (same kind) did, so I decided on a frustrated whim to see if switching it from “wired” to “wireless” mode might help. It was a bit fiddly and I had some trouble with my computer not letting me click on the taskbar right afterward, but I got it resolved, and so far –
Well, it’s not FIXED, not by a long shot, but it is BETTER. I have more luck highlighting things I want to highlight, and it seems to multi-click less – probably because, untethered from the cord, I have more luck moving it into and keeping it in the position that allows it to function the best. I will probably still have to think about replacing it, but I’m hoping this has bought me a little extra time! (Ideally, I’d like to replace mouse AND computer – the latter is five years old and starting to show it a bit – but given the state of the world – yeah, probably better to stick with just replacing the mouse once I’ve milked all usable life out of it! ...that being said, I just tried to highlight something and had a fucking hellish time, so maybe this wasn’t the band-aid I was hoping for. >( )
*sigh* Yeah, I don't think I'm going Alienware again if I replace the mouse. The keyboard and the computer itself have been largely fine, but this is the second mouse in five years, and it feels like they should be lasting a BIT longer. I'll find something else glowy for the next one. *shakehead* In the meantime, though, I really should get to bed -- night all!
Work – A very quiet day today – after putting on the checks and running the morning reports, I spent most of the day matching scanned cards to ID numbers on our processor’s special scanning site that we use to see the stuff they’ve put on. And looking up a couple of pieces of returned mail. And quietly finishing off a crossword puzzle. XD Yeah, there’s just – there’s just not that much to DO around there right at the moment. It’s getting gradually harder to find ways to keep myself occupied. I’m sure the supervisors will eventually come up with some sort of roster maintenance project for us, but for now, the name of the game is to putter around and look busy. Which should be a little easier for me tomorrow, as I’m doing the GL and looking at failed credit cards again. We’ll see how it goes!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “D&D But... It's Cluedo | Oxventure!” The “forcing D&D to be the murder mystery game Clue” shenanigans continued tonight, with such highlights as –
A) The group moving from the billiards room to the lounge to check Ms. Scarlet’s (Emily) alibi (since, despite finding a probable murder weapon, they hadn’t been able to pin it on Reverend Green (Luke), and Ms. Scarlet hiding the revolver in there in the couch so well from the menfolk that even Professor Plum (Andy) and Colonel Mustard (Mike) getting nat 20s on investigation rolls couldn’t uncover it (they found letters instead)
B) Colonel Mustard asking if anyone could read his letter, as it was in French...and then, after Mike checked his character sheet, abruptly recalling that he knew French (you expect Mike to read things on his character sheet? XD)
C) The letters being first, a French missive from a friend of Mr. Boddy’s talking about how he’d heckled Professor Plum at one of his recent lectures and how Plum had given him a look that could kill, giving him a pretty strong motive (a babbling Plum claimed that he’d only come here to give Boddy a piece of his mind, maybe rough him up a bit); and second, an unopened letter from Boddy’s doctor, informing him that he was a medical marvel who was so unallergic to rope he could never be harmed by it (Plum promptly threw the unneeded rope out the window)
D) Reverend Green and Ms. Scarlet getting into an argument about if some flowers growing in the greenhouse were petunias or not, as Scarlet said she was studying them during the time of the murder (Green’s high wisdom score proved him right, but Scarlet claimed to just be bad at botany)
E) The group finally learning from Professor Plum that he was in the lounge, going there, and then demanding to know what he was doing; cue Plum failing to convince anyone he was lounging on a particular piece of furniture and then doing increasingly bizarre “lounges” while insisting he was definitely a lounger XD
F) Ms. Scarlet finding a bunch of Colonel Mustard’s books (pristine personally-signed hardback first editions, no less) in a box labeled “to be shredded,” and Colonel Mustard insisting that was a mistake, he was a war hero, fought off Jerry and such – everyone then insisted “how old are you?” and Johnny was forced to pick a year that synced well with rotary dial phones and Plum being a professor of anime (they chose 1957 XD)
G) Professor Plum VERY POORLY trying to swipe a solid-silver ink pot from the writing desk in the room and hurling it across the shop (because not all of Andy’s rolls could be Nat 20s)
H) Reverend Green, seeing this and determining that Plum might be in poor financial straits, deciding to try and find out via spilling unholy water on Plum’s jacket and seeing how he reacts (via a complicated process of using a “Doom of Ill Fortune” spell of some kind); Plum then retaliated with “Tasha’s Caustic Brew,” shooting a stream of acid into Green’s face and burning him – he justified this by saying that chemicals must have gotten into the tweed while he was working in the “anime lab” (developing rare anime filmstrips!), causing Johnny to just get up and walk away for a moment, clearly wondering what the hell was their life XD
I) The group deciding to split up and search some of the other rooms for clues/potential murder weapons because the NPC Acting Constable Beefs kept throwing bricks through the window essentially telling them to “get a move on,” and Johnny having to admit that, in all the weirdness going on, they’d forgotten to check off what rooms they’d actually visited already XD
J) Professor Plum visiting the kitchen, finding a pot of mustard (which he found very suspicious thanks to being around Colonel Mustard) and a lead pipe on the wall – which proved to be a pipe carrying water when he yanked off, resulting in him getting sprayed, his jacket going off again, and all the food becoming inedible
K) Ms. Scarlet visiting the ballroom, finding more papers proving that Mr. Boddy helped destroy her husband’s fortunes through the use of numerous shell companies, stuffing a few important ones in her pocket, and hiding the rest in the covered grand piano, all the while thinking this work was beneath her (“I know musical notation!”)
L) And, when I left off, Reverend Green visiting the dining room, spying a big bowl of fruit on the table, and promptly taking a giant bite out of a wax apple. Johnny made Luke do a funny voice, then promptly regretted it as Luke wouldn’t stop doing it. XD
Yeah, it’s – it’s been a ride. XD Though a very fun one, I admit! Tomorrow, we’ll wrap this up and see if we actually figure out who the heck killed Mr. Boddy!
2. Continue editing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – I have officially started Chapter 2, with the trio walking Victor home through the streets of Nightmarket! Chatting all the way, of course, about such things as:
A) What the Van Dort mansion looks like (Victor had to warn Alice and Smiler it was quite fishy – then hastily clarify in LOOKS, not SMELL)
B) How much Victor now loathes eating fish (with him revealing that he didn’t even know chickens were edible until he was ten, thanks to how much fish William made them eat)
C) When the trio’s birthdays are (thanks to Duskwall having weird double-length months, they’re all actually in the same month, Suran – Smiler was all for having a big combined celebration until Alice revealed that her birthday was the 4th… then they just went “ah well, the birthday holiday for all of Duskwall is right before Victor’s birthday, we’ll make do” XD)
D) And what they might like to do for those birthdays (as Smiler is determined to celebrate them – and as it’s come out that Victor’s never been to the Spark Grounds (too bohemian for his mother’s tastes) and Alice never got to go to the opera (her parents died before they could take her), they already know where to take their new friends! They of course want a big old party for their birthday, but they’ve promised Victor and Alice a quiet corner where they can hide XD)
Yeah, they’ve been busy. XD I do like writing them just TALKING, I have to admit – it’s fun to see where they’ll ramble off to! But I’ve got to wrangle them a bit, as they’ll be coming up on the Van Dort mansion soon...and discovering a whole lot of carriages parked around the place for some reason...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – decided to swap C. M. Alongi for Proxy Gate Tactician today, since I wanted to watch a couple more of his videos! And so I headed to his channel and viewed:
A) “Baldur's Gate 3 - Tips and Tricks For The 9 Skills Every Class in The Game Has” – a bunch of tips, tricks, and advice from Proxy about those abilities every character in the game has – Throw, Jump, Hide, Shove, Improvised Weapon (aka pick up anything and try to hit someone with it), Dip (dip your weapon in something for a few turns of extra damage), Disengage (get yourself out of getting wrecked by attacks of opportunity), Dash, and Help (another character who is dying or suffering a status effect). And while this info was over a year old, it was still pretty interesting stuff! For example, did you know it’s often better to try and jump a distance you’re trying to cover, rather than walk it normally, because you may in fact cover more ground without using as much of your movement per turn? And that you can jump out of dangerous surfaces to take the minimum amount of damage from them? How about the fact that ANYONE can pick up ANYTHING as an improvised weapon (though, obviously, what will work best depends on the character’s strength) and thus be able to bludgeon enemies – especially those weak to such damage? Or the fact that, if you build a tower of 100 boxes, throwing anything at anyone, even an old shoe, will crush them under eighty points of damage due to the height? I mean, Proxy doesn’t recommend you do that, but… XD All in all, a very helpful and interesting video – hopefully I can remember some of these tricks going forward! Especially the “Jump” stuff, all of that seemed VERY useful…
B) “3 Mind-Blowing Exploits In Baldur's Gate 3 (These are Now Sadly Patched Out)” – three weird ways to cheese the game back in the early days that Proxy discovered while messing around (plus a very simple and silly bonus one). In order, we had:
I. If you hit F5 (aka the quicksave button) during the death cutscene you get when the entire party is turned into mindflayers by the Absolute (easily accessed by trying to return to the mountain pass three times after meeting the Nightsong in the Shadow-Cursed Lands), you could reload your game and end up with an entire party of four mindflayers instead of your regular characters. Each with a full complement of mindflayer abilities! And all the other NPCs were too polite/afraid to mention the suddenly squidy change in your characters. XD Great if you wanted a taste of extreme power after getting through Act 1 and most of Act 2!
II. If you positioned the “go back to camp for a long rest” window so the “yes” button was above a companion, then spam-clicked, you could activate the long rest while also activating a conversation with your companion – causing the game to allow you to do the long rest in the game world, instead of actually going back to your camp through the loading screens. You couldn’t do any camp dialogues, so you missed out on the story, and the clips he showed seem to suggest that you might only have been able to do partial long rests, but it allowed Proxy to cut his long-resting time in half when he used the glitch (he had long loading screens), so… Guess it was useful for that at least!
III. If you grabbed a weapon that you normally couldn’t equip because it was too big for you (because it came from an orge or a minotaur or similarly-oversized creature), put it in your inventory, then dragged it over your equipped weapon in the inventory grid so they swapped, that would allow you to equip it! And do some SERIOUS damage to enemies, especially if you were a high-Strength character looking for bludgeoning damage to smash up undead and/or their coffins. Plus the visuals of your character carrying around the oversized weapon were pretty amusing. XD Great for those who wanted an OP monster weapon to make life easier!
IV. And, as the small bonus exploit that straight-up annoyed Proxy, if you changed difficulties (from Tactician to Explorer and back) during the game, you could get your characters a free heal. OP but COULD screw up achievements, according to the comments.
Interesting stuff! I mean, I suppose I’m glad they patched out these obvious glitches, but they looked like they were fun while they lasted. Especially the party of mindflayers – I bet a lot of people had a lot of fun with those!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check and check –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Did two things over here today:
A) I went into my queue this morning to review and tweak the text and tags on my Song Saturday reblog of “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol (just updating some sentences and clarifying why I originally thought this song was originally a Valicer Soulmates AU song in the tags)
B) Then, this evening, I straight-up reblogged a post by “buckysknifecollection” off my friend Squid about how the point of shipping isn’t to see your ship go canon, it’s to grab whatever canon crumbs you can find and scurry away to put the characters in scenarios. Adding that sometimes the point of it is to open a broom closet, find three different characters from three different fandoms kissing, and realize you’re looking at your most abiding fandom obsession for the foreseeable future. XD I was going to write something about taking your favorites from different canons and throwing them in the soup, but then I remembered that, oh, right, my OTP and OT3 all chose each other and I was just along for the ride, and changed my reblog appropriately. :P It’s weird being in this head sometimes. XD
Valice Multiverse – Didn’t have any asks or threads today, so I went back to “rpmemelibrary” and reblogged the “Presents Ask,” encouraging people to ask me about how my muses feel about giving and receiving presents, how they prepare for gift-giving occasions, if they’ve ever returned or regifted a gift, if they’ve ever given something out of spite, etc, etc. *shrug* It’s something to have up, and the “Caffeinated Drinks Ask” got some attention, so maybe this will too!
Other: My stupid mouse is doing the same “treating a single click like multiple clicks” nonsense that the last mouse (same kind) did, so I decided on a frustrated whim to see if switching it from “wired” to “wireless” mode might help. It was a bit fiddly and I had some trouble with my computer not letting me click on the taskbar right afterward, but I got it resolved, and so far –
Well, it’s not FIXED, not by a long shot, but it is BETTER. I have more luck highlighting things I want to highlight, and it seems to multi-click less – probably because, untethered from the cord, I have more luck moving it into and keeping it in the position that allows it to function the best. I will probably still have to think about replacing it, but I’m hoping this has bought me a little extra time! (Ideally, I’d like to replace mouse AND computer – the latter is five years old and starting to show it a bit – but given the state of the world – yeah, probably better to stick with just replacing the mouse once I’ve milked all usable life out of it! ...that being said, I just tried to highlight something and had a fucking hellish time, so maybe this wasn’t the band-aid I was hoping for. >( )
*sigh* Yeah, I don't think I'm going Alienware again if I replace the mouse. The keyboard and the computer itself have been largely fine, but this is the second mouse in five years, and it feels like they should be lasting a BIT longer. I'll find something else glowy for the next one. *shakehead* In the meantime, though, I really should get to bed -- night all!
Not Too Smoky Wednesday
Jun. 4th, 2025 11:48 pmWhich is good, because I heard some places got really whacked by the smoke, to the point where people were encouraged to stay indoors with the windows closed. But yeah, it was just a little hazy here, which I appreciated. Got to break out the sandals for the first time today too, which was fun. Gotta get myself used to them again! XD But they are comfy, and I'm glad they've lasted this long. *nods* Anyway -- to the write-up!
Work – Another semi-quiet day – I had a fair number of calls from people getting back to me about stuff I’d originally called them about (mostly credit card related, as you might expect – generally either fixing people’s wonky pledges or shutting them down entirely), and a few reversals to get through near the end of the day. There wasn’t much else to it, though – I did find myself puttering around looking for something to do a few times in the afternoon. Got a bunch of Easter Collection cards from Fiscal at the end of the day, though, so I know I’ll have THAT to do tomorrow. Hopefully other activities will also present themselves!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with the Oxventure channel, skipping forward in the one-shot videos to find one that would fit at least semi-neatly into my remaining three days of working out this week! And I did indeed find one that fit the bill: “D&D But... It's Cluedo | Oxventure!” “Cluedo” being the British name for everyone’s favorite murder mystery board game (and 1980s comedy movie starring Tim Curry and Christopher Lloyd), Clue! Yes, for some reason, Johnny and company decided to kitbash together a murder mystery one-shot based on the classic board game using D&D stats and rules, instead of perhaps finding another RPG that might have worked better for such a premise – but then again, this just so happens to be a live show, so maybe they didn’t want to explain a whole new RPG to an entire audience of people at a con. *shrug* At any rate, just like in any good game of Clue, we started things off with a mansion, a staircase, a dead Mr. Boddy at the bottom of said staircase, and four potential suspects milling around the place:
I. Colonel Mustard, played by Mike, an old military man turned writer – Mr. Boddy enjoyed his books and invited him to dinner, though Mustard didn’t find very good company. He was milling around in the library examining the paintings when the body was discovered
II. Reverend Green, played by Luke, a man of what turned out to be a very hellish faith, as Luke’s only green shirt was a DOOM sweatshirt and one of the first things Reverend Green did when he tried to examine the body was stick his thumb in its eye on a nat 1, leading to him slurping it down when Professor Plum pointed out it was still stuck there. XD He was there to show Mr. Boddy the script for the next Nativity play, as Boddy had been so critical of the last one, and had been amusing himself in the billiards room when the maid screamed
III. Professor Plum, played by Andy, who was a professor of anime – but not a very good one, as Andy does not know anime. XD He was in the mansion preparing to give Mr. Boddy a piece of his mind for being so critical of his many papers like “Is This Anime?” and “I Went To Japan, Is That Anime?” XD The room he was in at the time of the murder has yet to be specified, but I’m sure we’ll visit it at some point!
IV. And Miss Scarlet, played by pinch hitter Emily from RPGeeks (as neither Jane or Ellen could make the show), who was the former owner of the house – she and her husband had had to sell it to Mr. Boddy after some bad deals. She was visiting to take in the state of the place, and was not particularly impressed – especially not with the conservatory, where she had been casting her critical eye on the garden when Boddy’s body was discovered
So yes, four people with motive and opportunity – and a distinct need to pin the deed on SOMEONE, because the police officer who showed up to investigate told them that they had to decide among themselves who was the killer, and if there was no consensus, they’d ALL be tried and convicted, and given some extra sentencing for wasting police time. Everyone agreed that was fair. XD And so the murder mystery started, with everyone trying to figure out who dun it, and with what, and where! So far, the highlights of the first chunklet have included:
A) Johnny realizing repeatedly just how hard running a Clue-based session of D&D is going to be, given the characters are capable of doing things like examining the corpse and the murder weapons for clues, instead of relying on straight-up elimination logic XD They also forgot to tell everyone to open their character envelopes at the start (so, you know, the murderer would know who the hell they are), only doing so when Andy kindly pointed it out to them XD
B) Reverend Green touching and poking EVERYTHING (not just Mr. Boddy’s poor eye), rendering all the evidence kind of useless with his fingerprints all over the shop (clumsiness or a clever ruse?)
C) The quartet visiting the library first to verify Colonel Mustard’s alibi, and Professor Plum spotting an odd, three-dimensional shape on the fancy carpet – he immediately yanked it up to expose whatever was underneath, only for a laughing Johnny to clarify that the rope he’d just found was on TOP of the rug, and had just gone flying. XD And then, when Reverend Green examined it, Johnny had to admit it had no blood on it, but that they couldn’t just rule it out for reasons unknown. XD Also Professor Plum decided to steal a painting of Mr. Boddy fighting a lion while shirtless for unknown reasons (though he did previously seem very interested in Mr. Boddy’s abs – man had an eight-pack), and rolled a nat 20 on cutting the painting from its frame. Everyone was very confused. XD
D) The quartet then going to the billiards room to test Reverend Green’s alibi, and finding the balls arranged into a Satanic symbol – apparently, when Reverend Green gets nervous at parties, he slips off and summons a demon to get his confidence back. XD And then Professor Plum managed to “Identify” something in the table (not MAGICALLY, of course, he just looked really hard) and insisted on kicking it apart to find a red-topped spanner, which Colonel Mustard declared was the bloodiest he’d seen (but his Perception roll was really poor, so don’t trust him that). And then Miss Scarlet took Reverend Green aside and tried to charm him with her wiles into saying if he was the murderer, using “Friends” for advantage on the Charisma check and getting a 21 –
Only for Reverend Green, with his enormous Wisdom, getting a 22 on the counter-check and letting her know that he wasn’t telling her anything. And that if he’d done it, it would be a mortal sin, and he’d already be bragging about it. XD I left off with an annoyed Miss Scarlet declaring herself bored of the conversation and flouncing off – tomorrow, we’ll continue this chaotic nonsensical mess of a oneshot and see how goofy it gets from here! My guess is “lots.” XD
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice got through Grout’s latest tape today, featuring him discovering the greater vampiric society of the Camarilla and deciding to accept the title of Malkavian Primogen to keep an eye on all these weirdos as part of his studies, and was thoroughly disgusted with the Camarilla’s handling of this torturing maniac consisting of “he’s capable of making full sentences? Give this man a high and important position!” Especially since she’s just as erudite and is being treated like scum on everyone’s boots. *pats her* Sorry the other vampires are almost all assholes, Alice! At any rate, she got through that nonsense (and pointed out that the Camarilla elevating Grout was a talking point the Anarchs should be using to get people to their side); learned from Cheshire that the mirrors on either side of the fireplace were in fact windows into a mirror-reflected room on the other side; and confirmed with 6768 and 6789 that they were not interested in escape before preparing to move on to the next room. Through a ridiculous trick door hidden in the back of the fireplace, because this IS Grout’s mansion, after all. I left it with her saying her final goodbyes to her new ghoul friends – next time, we’ll continue our jaunt through this horrible house! I’m not even sure we’re halfway through yet, yeeks. O.o Long chapter gonna be long again...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – another night with no Subs meant another night with C. M. Alongi, moving onto “CaFae Latte Season 58 - TikTok Compilation!” This compilation featured:
A) Kelly and her friend Chelsea visiting the cafe to celebrate Chelsea getting out of the sugar baby lifestyle (having graduated college with a computer programming degree and gotten into a great job), and the pair of them thirsting briefly over Oscar (sitting in the corner on his phone on his break), until JC and Husniya told them “not rich.” XD
B) Oscar getting the good news that he now had an apartment! Friend of a friend willing to overlook his bankruptcy-ravaged credit! :D JC, Husniya, Kelly, and Chelsea were all very happy for him, with Chelsea talking about how it kind of sucks to walk into your first apartment with nothing (since, you know, Oscar’s homeless), but how it’s also so satisfying; JC telling him that thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace are his friends for furniture; and Oscar explaining his seraphim nature to Kelly when she asked why he was glowing (happy!). And then explaining how his spouse passed back in the 80s when Chelsea mentioned they would be happy too – outliving a mortal lover is always a risk with seraphim and other long-lived beings, but he got 98 good years with his wife, so he considers himself very lucky. Kelly and Chelsea definitely joined the Oscar Stans after that. XD
C) Bob and Husniya serving a customer, who was very understanding of Husniya needing to emergency-text her husband about kid pick-ups from daycare, and even sympathized with Husniya’s busy-mom-with-young children lifestyle (being a mother of four herself)...and then started talking about how Husniya’s husband deserved a son after learning all of their kids were girls. Fortunately Husniya was able to shut her down pretty quick, and she left without much of a fight (which, lucky for her, spared her a curse). And then Husniya shared a horror story with Bob about how one of her CIA coworkers tried to get Asif to divorce her because she wasn’t pumping out as many sons as daughters for her – fortunately, Asif is a hacker, and was more than happy to spread that asshole’s private message objectifying and slagging off other coworkers around the office. XD
D) Nicole and Lindsey at the Stoughton Street Witches’ coven, organizing things and talking about Oscar’s new apartment (in a bad part of town, so protection charms are a must), when a guy came in and started asking about if it was possible to talk to ghosts. Turns out his father died recently (cancer, they saw it coming), and when he saw a psychic working near him, he decided to see if she could contact his dad. Unfortunately, while real psychics are of course a thing in this universe, they have to be certified, and this one wasn’t (the poor customer didn’t even know they could GET certification), and Nicole pretty much confirmed for him that the woman was using cold readings (guessing at answers based on body language) and hot readings (researching things beforehand on social media) to scam him. Fortunately, Lindsey knew JUST the man to take care of this grifter non-psychic bitch…
E) And Ghost Hunter John showing up at the fake psychic’s place, giving her a bracelet and suffering through a fake reading (based off the fake social media accounts he directed her to), before revealing his con of her, blasting her for hindering people getting over their grief and scamming them, and – after she tried to bribe him to make him go away – revealing that the bracelet had a wire and the police had heard everything. Cue the cops showing up at her door to take her away. XD Nice work, John. And nice work Chris – still very much enjoying these!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just had Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about tonight, and while I got to it late, I did finish off my queued-up reblog on “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol for my Song Saturday! Mostly gushing about how I can totally see it as a Valicer song now – and not just for one universe, but in general! Because I do write a lot of Valicer AUs where it’s them against the world. I might give it another look-over tomorrow, just because I DID get to it late and thus am not entirely sure of my word choice, but it SHOULD be good. I think.
Other: While it was a little hazy and slightly humid this afternoon, it was still nice enough for beanbags when I got home – and I am pleased to report that our games were a lot more even today, with each of us winning, coming second, and coming third! And the games we won were all very decisive wins – Dad won his in three throws, and Mom and I won ours in four each. :) Final scores were me 2-W-3; Dad W-3-2; and Mom 3-2-W. Dunno if tomorrow will be good beanbag weather – it’s supposed to be REALLY hot and humid – but hopefully this trend will continue if we play!
*nods* Not too bad. But now I must head off to bed, for it is late and I am tired and not keeping a decent bedtime. *shakes head* Night all!
Work – Another semi-quiet day – I had a fair number of calls from people getting back to me about stuff I’d originally called them about (mostly credit card related, as you might expect – generally either fixing people’s wonky pledges or shutting them down entirely), and a few reversals to get through near the end of the day. There wasn’t much else to it, though – I did find myself puttering around looking for something to do a few times in the afternoon. Got a bunch of Easter Collection cards from Fiscal at the end of the day, though, so I know I’ll have THAT to do tomorrow. Hopefully other activities will also present themselves!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with the Oxventure channel, skipping forward in the one-shot videos to find one that would fit at least semi-neatly into my remaining three days of working out this week! And I did indeed find one that fit the bill: “D&D But... It's Cluedo | Oxventure!” “Cluedo” being the British name for everyone’s favorite murder mystery board game (and 1980s comedy movie starring Tim Curry and Christopher Lloyd), Clue! Yes, for some reason, Johnny and company decided to kitbash together a murder mystery one-shot based on the classic board game using D&D stats and rules, instead of perhaps finding another RPG that might have worked better for such a premise – but then again, this just so happens to be a live show, so maybe they didn’t want to explain a whole new RPG to an entire audience of people at a con. *shrug* At any rate, just like in any good game of Clue, we started things off with a mansion, a staircase, a dead Mr. Boddy at the bottom of said staircase, and four potential suspects milling around the place:
I. Colonel Mustard, played by Mike, an old military man turned writer – Mr. Boddy enjoyed his books and invited him to dinner, though Mustard didn’t find very good company. He was milling around in the library examining the paintings when the body was discovered
II. Reverend Green, played by Luke, a man of what turned out to be a very hellish faith, as Luke’s only green shirt was a DOOM sweatshirt and one of the first things Reverend Green did when he tried to examine the body was stick his thumb in its eye on a nat 1, leading to him slurping it down when Professor Plum pointed out it was still stuck there. XD He was there to show Mr. Boddy the script for the next Nativity play, as Boddy had been so critical of the last one, and had been amusing himself in the billiards room when the maid screamed
III. Professor Plum, played by Andy, who was a professor of anime – but not a very good one, as Andy does not know anime. XD He was in the mansion preparing to give Mr. Boddy a piece of his mind for being so critical of his many papers like “Is This Anime?” and “I Went To Japan, Is That Anime?” XD The room he was in at the time of the murder has yet to be specified, but I’m sure we’ll visit it at some point!
IV. And Miss Scarlet, played by pinch hitter Emily from RPGeeks (as neither Jane or Ellen could make the show), who was the former owner of the house – she and her husband had had to sell it to Mr. Boddy after some bad deals. She was visiting to take in the state of the place, and was not particularly impressed – especially not with the conservatory, where she had been casting her critical eye on the garden when Boddy’s body was discovered
So yes, four people with motive and opportunity – and a distinct need to pin the deed on SOMEONE, because the police officer who showed up to investigate told them that they had to decide among themselves who was the killer, and if there was no consensus, they’d ALL be tried and convicted, and given some extra sentencing for wasting police time. Everyone agreed that was fair. XD And so the murder mystery started, with everyone trying to figure out who dun it, and with what, and where! So far, the highlights of the first chunklet have included:
A) Johnny realizing repeatedly just how hard running a Clue-based session of D&D is going to be, given the characters are capable of doing things like examining the corpse and the murder weapons for clues, instead of relying on straight-up elimination logic XD They also forgot to tell everyone to open their character envelopes at the start (so, you know, the murderer would know who the hell they are), only doing so when Andy kindly pointed it out to them XD
B) Reverend Green touching and poking EVERYTHING (not just Mr. Boddy’s poor eye), rendering all the evidence kind of useless with his fingerprints all over the shop (clumsiness or a clever ruse?)
C) The quartet visiting the library first to verify Colonel Mustard’s alibi, and Professor Plum spotting an odd, three-dimensional shape on the fancy carpet – he immediately yanked it up to expose whatever was underneath, only for a laughing Johnny to clarify that the rope he’d just found was on TOP of the rug, and had just gone flying. XD And then, when Reverend Green examined it, Johnny had to admit it had no blood on it, but that they couldn’t just rule it out for reasons unknown. XD Also Professor Plum decided to steal a painting of Mr. Boddy fighting a lion while shirtless for unknown reasons (though he did previously seem very interested in Mr. Boddy’s abs – man had an eight-pack), and rolled a nat 20 on cutting the painting from its frame. Everyone was very confused. XD
D) The quartet then going to the billiards room to test Reverend Green’s alibi, and finding the balls arranged into a Satanic symbol – apparently, when Reverend Green gets nervous at parties, he slips off and summons a demon to get his confidence back. XD And then Professor Plum managed to “Identify” something in the table (not MAGICALLY, of course, he just looked really hard) and insisted on kicking it apart to find a red-topped spanner, which Colonel Mustard declared was the bloodiest he’d seen (but his Perception roll was really poor, so don’t trust him that). And then Miss Scarlet took Reverend Green aside and tried to charm him with her wiles into saying if he was the murderer, using “Friends” for advantage on the Charisma check and getting a 21 –
Only for Reverend Green, with his enormous Wisdom, getting a 22 on the counter-check and letting her know that he wasn’t telling her anything. And that if he’d done it, it would be a mortal sin, and he’d already be bragging about it. XD I left off with an annoyed Miss Scarlet declaring herself bored of the conversation and flouncing off – tomorrow, we’ll continue this chaotic nonsensical mess of a oneshot and see how goofy it gets from here! My guess is “lots.” XD
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice got through Grout’s latest tape today, featuring him discovering the greater vampiric society of the Camarilla and deciding to accept the title of Malkavian Primogen to keep an eye on all these weirdos as part of his studies, and was thoroughly disgusted with the Camarilla’s handling of this torturing maniac consisting of “he’s capable of making full sentences? Give this man a high and important position!” Especially since she’s just as erudite and is being treated like scum on everyone’s boots. *pats her* Sorry the other vampires are almost all assholes, Alice! At any rate, she got through that nonsense (and pointed out that the Camarilla elevating Grout was a talking point the Anarchs should be using to get people to their side); learned from Cheshire that the mirrors on either side of the fireplace were in fact windows into a mirror-reflected room on the other side; and confirmed with 6768 and 6789 that they were not interested in escape before preparing to move on to the next room. Through a ridiculous trick door hidden in the back of the fireplace, because this IS Grout’s mansion, after all. I left it with her saying her final goodbyes to her new ghoul friends – next time, we’ll continue our jaunt through this horrible house! I’m not even sure we’re halfway through yet, yeeks. O.o Long chapter gonna be long again...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – another night with no Subs meant another night with C. M. Alongi, moving onto “CaFae Latte Season 58 - TikTok Compilation!” This compilation featured:
A) Kelly and her friend Chelsea visiting the cafe to celebrate Chelsea getting out of the sugar baby lifestyle (having graduated college with a computer programming degree and gotten into a great job), and the pair of them thirsting briefly over Oscar (sitting in the corner on his phone on his break), until JC and Husniya told them “not rich.” XD
B) Oscar getting the good news that he now had an apartment! Friend of a friend willing to overlook his bankruptcy-ravaged credit! :D JC, Husniya, Kelly, and Chelsea were all very happy for him, with Chelsea talking about how it kind of sucks to walk into your first apartment with nothing (since, you know, Oscar’s homeless), but how it’s also so satisfying; JC telling him that thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace are his friends for furniture; and Oscar explaining his seraphim nature to Kelly when she asked why he was glowing (happy!). And then explaining how his spouse passed back in the 80s when Chelsea mentioned they would be happy too – outliving a mortal lover is always a risk with seraphim and other long-lived beings, but he got 98 good years with his wife, so he considers himself very lucky. Kelly and Chelsea definitely joined the Oscar Stans after that. XD
C) Bob and Husniya serving a customer, who was very understanding of Husniya needing to emergency-text her husband about kid pick-ups from daycare, and even sympathized with Husniya’s busy-mom-with-young children lifestyle (being a mother of four herself)...and then started talking about how Husniya’s husband deserved a son after learning all of their kids were girls. Fortunately Husniya was able to shut her down pretty quick, and she left without much of a fight (which, lucky for her, spared her a curse). And then Husniya shared a horror story with Bob about how one of her CIA coworkers tried to get Asif to divorce her because she wasn’t pumping out as many sons as daughters for her – fortunately, Asif is a hacker, and was more than happy to spread that asshole’s private message objectifying and slagging off other coworkers around the office. XD
D) Nicole and Lindsey at the Stoughton Street Witches’ coven, organizing things and talking about Oscar’s new apartment (in a bad part of town, so protection charms are a must), when a guy came in and started asking about if it was possible to talk to ghosts. Turns out his father died recently (cancer, they saw it coming), and when he saw a psychic working near him, he decided to see if she could contact his dad. Unfortunately, while real psychics are of course a thing in this universe, they have to be certified, and this one wasn’t (the poor customer didn’t even know they could GET certification), and Nicole pretty much confirmed for him that the woman was using cold readings (guessing at answers based on body language) and hot readings (researching things beforehand on social media) to scam him. Fortunately, Lindsey knew JUST the man to take care of this grifter non-psychic bitch…
E) And Ghost Hunter John showing up at the fake psychic’s place, giving her a bracelet and suffering through a fake reading (based off the fake social media accounts he directed her to), before revealing his con of her, blasting her for hindering people getting over their grief and scamming them, and – after she tried to bribe him to make him go away – revealing that the bracelet had a wire and the police had heard everything. Cue the cops showing up at her door to take her away. XD Nice work, John. And nice work Chris – still very much enjoying these!
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just had Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about tonight, and while I got to it late, I did finish off my queued-up reblog on “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol for my Song Saturday! Mostly gushing about how I can totally see it as a Valicer song now – and not just for one universe, but in general! Because I do write a lot of Valicer AUs where it’s them against the world. I might give it another look-over tomorrow, just because I DID get to it late and thus am not entirely sure of my word choice, but it SHOULD be good. I think.
Other: While it was a little hazy and slightly humid this afternoon, it was still nice enough for beanbags when I got home – and I am pleased to report that our games were a lot more even today, with each of us winning, coming second, and coming third! And the games we won were all very decisive wins – Dad won his in three throws, and Mom and I won ours in four each. :) Final scores were me 2-W-3; Dad W-3-2; and Mom 3-2-W. Dunno if tomorrow will be good beanbag weather – it’s supposed to be REALLY hot and humid – but hopefully this trend will continue if we play!
*nods* Not too bad. But now I must head off to bed, for it is late and I am tired and not keeping a decent bedtime. *shakes head* Night all!
Warming Up Tuesday
Jun. 3rd, 2025 11:52 pmYeah, the heat slowly but surely crept up today...everywhere but in the building where I work, as that seems permanently cold. *shakehead* Granted, I'm pretty sure that's partly because the AC is on (the hallways definitely feel AC cold), but it is kind of weird that it's the beginning of June and I still need a sweater in there at least part of the day. Ah well, I have plenty of light sweaters I can bring with me and then stuff in my bag for the ride home... Anyway, here's the write-up of my day --
Work – A slightly-busier day than yesterday, if only because we actually had some credit card calls (a couple of pledge updates and a payment my coworker took because I was in the bathroom at the time), plus we had to fight with the app that allows us to look at the stuff our processors have scanned in because my coworker couldn’t log in (took their IT guy calling us to fix the issue). But once that was all resolved, most of the rest of the day was me finding roster maintenance tasks to do (like going through the obituaries). There’s just not a lot happening right at the moment! Which does lead to some boring days...but as I have said repeatedly, I strongly prefer “boring” to “stressful.” I’ll find ways to fill the time! And maybe tomorrow will be a little busier, we’ll see. (Watch, I’ll suddenly be thrust into a “careful what you wish for” situation and it’ll be SUPER busy for no good reason tomorrow...)
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – got back on the bike again tonight to pedal my way through:
A) The end of “D&D But... Everyone's A Kobold LIVE! | Oxventure!” The final half-hour of the Adventure To Find The Sour Dindle Leaf saw –
I. Andy’s “Velocity The Weird” and Johnny’s “Meg The Bad Influence” get a nat 20 each to convince the villagers (who saw the kobolds and were like “huh, they look kind of like the shit we worship, we should talk to them”) to first cover themselves in glue and smash themselves together into a giant ball (Andy), and then cover their mouths and noses with the glue (Johnny). This resulted in both a giant pile of glued-up villager corpses, and a bunch of dead kobolds, as Meg was so convincing that they accidentally convinced all of their brethren EXCEPT Velocity to also glue their noses and mouth shut (bye bye Ellen’s “Gortash The Quiet,” who lasted longest among the original set!). And then Meg went ahead and snapped Velocity’s neck just to finish the “total party kill” job. XD
II. The kobolds try to get into the apothecary, which smelled of the leaves they needed, which notably featured Ellen’s new kobold “Discharge the Ceaseless” relentlessly whacking away on the lock with a rock; Jane’s new kobold (I don’t recall the name, she didn’t last long) noticing an open window next to the door –
And then Andy’s new “kobold” EGBERT THE CARELESS rocking up and throwing a bomb at the problem before leaving. XD Luke immediately made it a proper Egbert cameo, because how could you not? I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before, but I headcanon this as one of Egbert’s adventures before he joined up with the Oxventure Guild in episode 2 – although I’m undecided as to if he was trying to help the kobolds get into the building, or noticed the giant pile of glued corpses and thought (semi-correctly) that the kobolds had done that and should probably be put down. XD Either way, he tossed his bomb, door got blown off the hinges, and all the kobolds died for a PROPER TPK. XD “Consequences for everyone but me!” as Andy was VERY keen to say. XD
III. And the next group of kobolds searching the apothecary with the usual amount of kobold care (I.E., none), and – after some misadventures (including one inventive kobold (Andy) rocketing himself into the ceiling on extendo-legs, and another quizzical kobold (Ellen) thinking herself to death trying to read a book) – finding the leaf and running it back to the cave to force it down Gitvis’s gullet! She promptly did a big fart and felt all better. XD Delightful stuff – I’m glad I rewatched it, it was a lot of fun.
B) The entirety of “Baldur's Gate 3 Astarion Reacts to Horny Comments” by IGN! A very short video of Neil Newbon reading people’s comments about the infamous “sex with Halsin in bear form” sex scene and how thirsty they are for his character Astarion, all in the Astarion voice. Very weird and goofy, but not a bad way to fill out the final few minutes of my workout. XD
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice had a little confrontation with the two ghouls in the sitting room where she ended up at the end of yesterday’s segment today, with one attempting to knife her while the other threatened her with a poker. I’d originally had Alice feed on both women during this segment (drinking from the knife-wielder to stop her trying to stab her, and then from the poker-wielder after the woman volunteered some blood to avoid having it taken forcibly), but after writing Alice noting how thin and fragile the one trying to stab her felt in her grip...well, it just felt like having her then drink their blood was a little too mean. So she just talked to them this time – assuring them that she meant no harm (they seemed dubious), asking if they’d seen Grout recently (nope), and letting them know the way outside was clear if they wanted to escape (they were immediately like “no thanks, we’re good here,” to Alice’s grief). And asking their names, which yielded the numbers “6768” (poker) and “6789” (knife). Alice is pretty much set on trying to kill Grout once she finds him now, as you might expect. *nods* I left off with her preparing to listen to another one of Grout’s audiotapes – tomorrow, we hear the tape and see her reaction! I bet you she’s not going to like it!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check plus, as I managed to get in two videos tonight instead of just one –
A) First up, we had “SIMS 4 FAIRIES PACK OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED! (+ New World Details)” by onlyabidoang! Featuring Abi talking about the confirmation of the “fairy” occult coming to Sims 4 as per a teaser showing a fairy house with a party going on inside at the end of their latest livestream; the “Something Is Growing” website EA put up that’s been gradually releasing new info about the pack over the past couple of days (such as the world included being called Innisgreen, which will have three neighborhoods, including an enchanted forest); and his own thoughts about what features the new occult life state might have (he’s pretty sure it’ll feature a proper skill tree, and he HOPES that fairies in this generation of the game will have more of a connection to gardening and less of a tendency to pull annoying pranks, like they did in The Sims 3: Supernatural. And also that the small form gets a proper showing instead of just being a glowing ball of light. And that fairies will have the ability to properly fly instead of just teleport around. ...Abi, you DO remember this is EA, right?) It was an interesting little sum-up of what we know so far, what we think we know, and what he wants out of the new pack – though he was very clear that they should really be fixing some of the base game bugs, like “weather effects inside houses” and “save gave corruption,” first. *nods* Yeah, that WOULD be really nice, wouldn’t it? But again, EA… (Well, that and fixing bugs DOES take time, sadly.)
B) And second up, we had “Fun With Shorts: Farther Faster Safer” by Josh Way! A classic “this is not-so-secretly an ad for a product” short with a narrator talking a mile a minute about new faster and safer ways to go across the country (starting with cross-country trains before moving on to various types of airplanes, including a big old seaplane) and VERY PROMINENT shots of all these amazing vehicles being lubricated with Pennzoil Products. XD Fortunately, Josh was on hand to make the whole experience a little more amusing: comparing Los Angeles City Hall to an architectural LEGO set (and honestly, I HAVE seen LEGO sets that look like the City Hall pictured in the short); constantly declaring that all the planes on display were delayed for some reason; pretending to struggle to get a word in edgewise when the narrator kept going on and on about how awesome the seaplane was; and comparing the airplane lubricator guys at the end to ice cream truck salesmen (the outfits DID give that vibe)! Good stuff – always nice to see another short back on his channel! I’m fine with his movie reviews, but the riffs are why I stay. :P
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – there was nothing to do over on Valice Multiverse, but I was able to ALMOST complete my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) queue! We have:
A) A reblog of a cool screenshot of the Crockery from A:MR for Wednesday
B) A reblog of a gifset of Emily spinning around right before the climatic wedding at the end of Corpse Bride for Thursday
C) A reblog of some old Smiler OC fanart from “shenanigansz” that I liked for Friday
D) And a reblog of one of my old Song Saturday posts, featuring Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars,” for Saturday! This is the one that’s not QUITE done, as I didn’t get a chance to finish talking about how it’s now Valicer, nor the updated tags, but I figure I can do that tomorrow. :p
So yeah – very much ahead of the game there! And I’m thinking next week will be the Mega Ghostbusters AU, once I get some more stuff to go with it. *nods*
Other: Another nice day meant another afternoon playing beanbags after I got home from work – and unfortunately, I did worse today, being unable to win a single game despite finally starting to throw better. :( Dad had a pretty decent day by contrast, while Mom had a bad start but came back strong with back-to-back wins – she’s been throwing REALLY well lately, it’s kind of weird. XD Anyway, final scores were me 2-3-3; Dad W-2-2; and Mom 3-W-W. Hopefully if we play tomorrow (it’s supposed to be humid and possibly smoky from the Canadian wildfires) I’ll be able to claim one of those Ws for myself again!
*nods* Not too shabby, I suppose! And now I have to go to bed before my brain gets too keyed up to sleep, as it is trying to do right now. *shakehead* Night all!
Work – A slightly-busier day than yesterday, if only because we actually had some credit card calls (a couple of pledge updates and a payment my coworker took because I was in the bathroom at the time), plus we had to fight with the app that allows us to look at the stuff our processors have scanned in because my coworker couldn’t log in (took their IT guy calling us to fix the issue). But once that was all resolved, most of the rest of the day was me finding roster maintenance tasks to do (like going through the obituaries). There’s just not a lot happening right at the moment! Which does lead to some boring days...but as I have said repeatedly, I strongly prefer “boring” to “stressful.” I’ll find ways to fill the time! And maybe tomorrow will be a little busier, we’ll see. (Watch, I’ll suddenly be thrust into a “careful what you wish for” situation and it’ll be SUPER busy for no good reason tomorrow...)
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – got back on the bike again tonight to pedal my way through:
A) The end of “D&D But... Everyone's A Kobold LIVE! | Oxventure!” The final half-hour of the Adventure To Find The Sour Dindle Leaf saw –
I. Andy’s “Velocity The Weird” and Johnny’s “Meg The Bad Influence” get a nat 20 each to convince the villagers (who saw the kobolds and were like “huh, they look kind of like the shit we worship, we should talk to them”) to first cover themselves in glue and smash themselves together into a giant ball (Andy), and then cover their mouths and noses with the glue (Johnny). This resulted in both a giant pile of glued-up villager corpses, and a bunch of dead kobolds, as Meg was so convincing that they accidentally convinced all of their brethren EXCEPT Velocity to also glue their noses and mouth shut (bye bye Ellen’s “Gortash The Quiet,” who lasted longest among the original set!). And then Meg went ahead and snapped Velocity’s neck just to finish the “total party kill” job. XD
II. The kobolds try to get into the apothecary, which smelled of the leaves they needed, which notably featured Ellen’s new kobold “Discharge the Ceaseless” relentlessly whacking away on the lock with a rock; Jane’s new kobold (I don’t recall the name, she didn’t last long) noticing an open window next to the door –
And then Andy’s new “kobold” EGBERT THE CARELESS rocking up and throwing a bomb at the problem before leaving. XD Luke immediately made it a proper Egbert cameo, because how could you not? I’m pretty sure I’ve said this before, but I headcanon this as one of Egbert’s adventures before he joined up with the Oxventure Guild in episode 2 – although I’m undecided as to if he was trying to help the kobolds get into the building, or noticed the giant pile of glued corpses and thought (semi-correctly) that the kobolds had done that and should probably be put down. XD Either way, he tossed his bomb, door got blown off the hinges, and all the kobolds died for a PROPER TPK. XD “Consequences for everyone but me!” as Andy was VERY keen to say. XD
III. And the next group of kobolds searching the apothecary with the usual amount of kobold care (I.E., none), and – after some misadventures (including one inventive kobold (Andy) rocketing himself into the ceiling on extendo-legs, and another quizzical kobold (Ellen) thinking herself to death trying to read a book) – finding the leaf and running it back to the cave to force it down Gitvis’s gullet! She promptly did a big fart and felt all better. XD Delightful stuff – I’m glad I rewatched it, it was a lot of fun.
B) The entirety of “Baldur's Gate 3 Astarion Reacts to Horny Comments” by IGN! A very short video of Neil Newbon reading people’s comments about the infamous “sex with Halsin in bear form” sex scene and how thirsty they are for his character Astarion, all in the Astarion voice. Very weird and goofy, but not a bad way to fill out the final few minutes of my workout. XD
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice had a little confrontation with the two ghouls in the sitting room where she ended up at the end of yesterday’s segment today, with one attempting to knife her while the other threatened her with a poker. I’d originally had Alice feed on both women during this segment (drinking from the knife-wielder to stop her trying to stab her, and then from the poker-wielder after the woman volunteered some blood to avoid having it taken forcibly), but after writing Alice noting how thin and fragile the one trying to stab her felt in her grip...well, it just felt like having her then drink their blood was a little too mean. So she just talked to them this time – assuring them that she meant no harm (they seemed dubious), asking if they’d seen Grout recently (nope), and letting them know the way outside was clear if they wanted to escape (they were immediately like “no thanks, we’re good here,” to Alice’s grief). And asking their names, which yielded the numbers “6768” (poker) and “6789” (knife). Alice is pretty much set on trying to kill Grout once she finds him now, as you might expect. *nods* I left off with her preparing to listen to another one of Grout’s audiotapes – tomorrow, we hear the tape and see her reaction! I bet you she’s not going to like it!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check plus, as I managed to get in two videos tonight instead of just one –
A) First up, we had “SIMS 4 FAIRIES PACK OFFICIALLY CONFIRMED! (+ New World Details)” by onlyabidoang! Featuring Abi talking about the confirmation of the “fairy” occult coming to Sims 4 as per a teaser showing a fairy house with a party going on inside at the end of their latest livestream; the “Something Is Growing” website EA put up that’s been gradually releasing new info about the pack over the past couple of days (such as the world included being called Innisgreen, which will have three neighborhoods, including an enchanted forest); and his own thoughts about what features the new occult life state might have (he’s pretty sure it’ll feature a proper skill tree, and he HOPES that fairies in this generation of the game will have more of a connection to gardening and less of a tendency to pull annoying pranks, like they did in The Sims 3: Supernatural. And also that the small form gets a proper showing instead of just being a glowing ball of light. And that fairies will have the ability to properly fly instead of just teleport around. ...Abi, you DO remember this is EA, right?) It was an interesting little sum-up of what we know so far, what we think we know, and what he wants out of the new pack – though he was very clear that they should really be fixing some of the base game bugs, like “weather effects inside houses” and “save gave corruption,” first. *nods* Yeah, that WOULD be really nice, wouldn’t it? But again, EA… (Well, that and fixing bugs DOES take time, sadly.)
B) And second up, we had “Fun With Shorts: Farther Faster Safer” by Josh Way! A classic “this is not-so-secretly an ad for a product” short with a narrator talking a mile a minute about new faster and safer ways to go across the country (starting with cross-country trains before moving on to various types of airplanes, including a big old seaplane) and VERY PROMINENT shots of all these amazing vehicles being lubricated with Pennzoil Products. XD Fortunately, Josh was on hand to make the whole experience a little more amusing: comparing Los Angeles City Hall to an architectural LEGO set (and honestly, I HAVE seen LEGO sets that look like the City Hall pictured in the short); constantly declaring that all the planes on display were delayed for some reason; pretending to struggle to get a word in edgewise when the narrator kept going on and on about how awesome the seaplane was; and comparing the airplane lubricator guys at the end to ice cream truck salesmen (the outfits DID give that vibe)! Good stuff – always nice to see another short back on his channel! I’m fine with his movie reviews, but the riffs are why I stay. :P
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – there was nothing to do over on Valice Multiverse, but I was able to ALMOST complete my Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) queue! We have:
A) A reblog of a cool screenshot of the Crockery from A:MR for Wednesday
B) A reblog of a gifset of Emily spinning around right before the climatic wedding at the end of Corpse Bride for Thursday
C) A reblog of some old Smiler OC fanart from “shenanigansz” that I liked for Friday
D) And a reblog of one of my old Song Saturday posts, featuring Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars,” for Saturday! This is the one that’s not QUITE done, as I didn’t get a chance to finish talking about how it’s now Valicer, nor the updated tags, but I figure I can do that tomorrow. :p
So yeah – very much ahead of the game there! And I’m thinking next week will be the Mega Ghostbusters AU, once I get some more stuff to go with it. *nods*
Other: Another nice day meant another afternoon playing beanbags after I got home from work – and unfortunately, I did worse today, being unable to win a single game despite finally starting to throw better. :( Dad had a pretty decent day by contrast, while Mom had a bad start but came back strong with back-to-back wins – she’s been throwing REALLY well lately, it’s kind of weird. XD Anyway, final scores were me 2-3-3; Dad W-2-2; and Mom 3-W-W. Hopefully if we play tomorrow (it’s supposed to be humid and possibly smoky from the Canadian wildfires) I’ll be able to claim one of those Ws for myself again!
*nods* Not too shabby, I suppose! And now I have to go to bed before my brain gets too keyed up to sleep, as it is trying to do right now. *shakehead* Night all!
Somewhat More Productive Monday
Jun. 2nd, 2025 11:52 pmLike, it wasn't super productive, but I got some stuff done, both at work and at home --
Work – Pretty quiet day at work – I got in a bit late due to traffic; did the GL; poked through the exceptions and tried contacting some people about stuff; did a little bit of roster maintenance; put on a couple of Easter collection batches; and otherwise tried to find ways to keep myself busy. There just isn’t that much happening there right now! Though I am pleased to report they let us know that half-day Fridays ARE a thing again this summer, so that’s something to look forward to! *nods* So yeah – suspect I’m just gonna be puttering around for the most part, unless a project pops up in the next few days. Which, it just might, so we’ll see what happens!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “D&D But... Everyone's A Kobold LIVE! | Oxventure!” Tonight’s chunklet saw –
I. Ellen’s kobold “The Quiet” and Jane’s kobold “The Miniature” avoid being taken by a clumsy eagle right outside the bear cave (which crashed and died next to them, allowing them to take the corpse along); stumble across some poachers tying up a recently-deceased deer; ask the poachers if they have any healing leaves, only to find they weren’t the right kind (mostly because they’d been mashed up into a poultice); and get essentially kidnapped by said poachers, who planned to throw them down a well in the nearby village to stop them telling anyone what they saw. Fortunately, “The Quiet” was able to bite one of the poacher’s ears off when he tried to figure out what she was saying while they were being carted along, causing him to drop them and them both to run away; unfortunately, “The Miniature” then had a bright idea about diving into the sewer and drowned in the sewage, and “The Quiet,” in an attempt to find the leaves in the “weird square caves” around, got her arm stuck in a mail slot. XD Still, “The Quiet” is still fucking ALIVE, so that’s a win in and of itself!
II. Andy, Mike, and Johnny go through a fair number of kobolds while they were trying to catch up – “The Kipper” (Johnny), “The Squishy” (Mike), and “The Bear Impersonator” (Andy) all got eaten by the bears back in the cave; Johnny’s “The Showboat” successfully got the bears to run into a wall by doing the old “waving a cloth in front of them” trick like toreadors do, only to get smashed by them; and “The Annoying” (Andy) and Johnny’s next kobold, who didn’t last long enough for me to recall their name, got taken by an eagle when they left the cave. Mike’s “The Tinkerer,” Johnny’s “The Bold,” and Andy’s “Velocity The Weird” (who is indeed VERY WEIRD – Andy used the opportunity to be as off-putting as possible and lightly torment Luke by doing things like touching his hair and stealing his microphone XD) all then managed to find the spot where the poachers had killed the deer, and left some small bear traps around for foxes – although they ended up finding the traps via one snapping “The Tinkerer” in half and “The Bold” straight-up leaping into one. “The Weird” also ended up trapped, but via the method of deliberately prying open the trap that killed “The Tinkerer” and sticking his leg into it. XD He was soon joined by “The Librarian” (Mike) and “The Bad Influence” (Johnny), who – after “The Bad Influence” gave “The Weird” some glue to sniff (“The Weird” ate it instead, confusing BI) and dared him to cut off his own head (“The Weird” tried, but couldn’t manage it) – freed him and followed the trail into the village. I left off with “The Bad Influence” attempting to influence the church-going locals into worshiping Satan – and then having to pivot and try to get them into another god when they turned out to already be Satanists; “The Weird” gluing himself to the road after trying to glue himself to a parishioner; “The Librarian” and Jane’s new kobold “The Soulful” actually freeing “The Quiet;” and “The Soulful” having a good sniff of the town...and smelling something leafy coming from a store nearby… We’ll wrap all this kobold nonsense up tomorrow – I don’t QUITE remember what happens, but I know there’s a very special cameo coming up...
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice left the tower walk behind today (much as she would have liked to linger up there longer), heading down into the belly of the mansion again and winding through more bizarrely-set-up rooms. Fortunately, she didn’t have to fight any ghouls this time, just sneak past them with a combination of Obfuscate, well-placed furniture barriers, and being very quick at opening doors. :p She has thus made it all the way to another one of Grout’s creepy and bizarre sitting rooms, with a tape recorder for her to listen to – and, as will become apparent tomorrow, some company for her to deal with…
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – nothing from Josh, so it was straight onto “CaFae Latte Season 57 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi tonight! This was a short one, covering:
A) JC and Bob serving a chupacabra at the cafe, which surprised JC, as they thought those were myths (no, their realm of existence only just started intersecting with Earth’s in the last 30 years) – turns out this one knows Bob, and came in to see if she would put up a coupon code for the products from their sheep and alpaca farm for Hispanic Heritage month (and to give her a nice table runner for the counter)! JC was like “a sheep and alpaca farm? Really?” and the chupacabra was like “I know, but it lets us slake our thirst for blood ethically, and since we have to shear the sheep and alpaca to keep them healthy anyway, we might as well sell the wool, right? Yarn Granny’s a huge customer.” XD Cool to see a more modern cryptid/myth getting some rep!
B) Bob, Cyrus, Nicole, Rethu, Patrick, and Janine all attending a Mabon party hosted by Michael, leader of the Stoughton Street Witches (while JC, Husniya, and Drek held down the fort at the cafe) – featuring Michael accusing Cyrus of somehow cheating at apple bobbing; Patrick being adorable with Mike’s kid (who was giving her pumpkin three eyes); Janine saying that she does not want children but seeing Patrick with that kid makes her almost change her mind; and Rethu saying that they were starting to come around on the “having kids” thing – startling poor Cyrus, who wasn’t expecting to hear THAT! Fortunately Rethu followed it up with “still want to wait another 200 or so years,” to his relief.
C) Rethu and Cyrus having a nice, honest, and frank discussion of the “kids” thing – both of them confirming that, if they do want kids, they want to be a few centuries older (“not until I’m 500,” as per Cyrus) and more settled. And that they’ll probably adopt, given the whole “different species” thing and all (Rethu admitting that one of the reasons she loved Batman was his horde of adopted children). However, the fun was cut short when JC (who arrived on the scene to ask their opinion on whether or not their new maple cookies should be frosted or not – they unhelpfully had different opinions) got a phone call from their sister Kelly, who was apparently having some trouble with one of her sugar daddies...cue Rethu offering herself up as a taxi and Cyrus letting Bob know they were going out on a rescue mission!
D) Rethu, Cyrus, and JC arriving at the house of Barry, the toxic sugar daddy in question...and Rethu and Cyrus quickly discovering that this wasn’t so much a “rescue Kelly from the dangerous asshole” situation as a “keep Kelly from killing the dangerous asshole” situation. Because Kelly is smart and keeps a gun for just these situations. They accordingly turned around and watched the ducks, while JC pointed out that they already had a criminal record, so… Barry let Kelly leave with the bag she’d earned after that. XD
E) And Rethu, Cyrus, and JC checking in with Kelly to make sure she was really all right – turns out what had happened was that Barry had tried to coerce her into doing something on her “no way in hell” list (which she provides to all potential daddies, along with her “yes please” and “I’m fine with these” lists), and when she refused, he shoved her. Causing her to punch him and lock herself in a room to call JC, because unfortunately Barry had been her ride to the house. Now that she was safely out, though, she was going to make sure ALL her fellow sugar babies knew what a dangerous asshole he was, with JC offering to put the word out to Pam, their former hooker friend. Cyrus noted that while they’d saved Barry from a physical murder, he was definitely going to get socially murdered. XD
Good stuff – I’m glad Kelly’s becoming a semi-regular part of the cast now, I like her. :) Given what JC’s parents and aunt Margaret are like, it’s good to see that they have one pretty decent relative. (John, their brother, I haven’t seen enough of to form a proper opinion on yet.)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Substitution check – it was a Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)-only day, and as usual I never got in my drafts – but I did make sure to reblog my friend Satirical Demon’s latest plushy acquisition! “Big D” from “Hunter The Parenting,” which I believe to be some sort of web series based on the World of Darkness “Hunter” line. He is a man who looks something like a professional wrestler with very big chompers. XD But then again, I have a plush vampire bat, a plush Companion Cube, a plush The Smiler teddy bear, and a plush intellect devourer, so who am I to judge? :P
Other: As it was a very nice day today – warm with low humidity – we did indeed play beanbags once I got home from work! And, as has been usual the last few times we’ve played, I did terribly, losing the first two games and only clawing out a win in the third because Dad went downhill. And even then it was only after he’d tied me a couple of times. Final scores were me 3-3-W; Dad W-2-2; and Mom 2-W-3. At least we all won once? *shakehead* We’ll see if I can do better in tomorrow’s game!
*nods* Yeah -- nothing huge, but things were accomplished, and this pleases me. But now I really do need to wrap things up and head to bed. Supposed to be a hot one tomorrow -- we'll see if the forecast is correct or not! Night all!
Work – Pretty quiet day at work – I got in a bit late due to traffic; did the GL; poked through the exceptions and tried contacting some people about stuff; did a little bit of roster maintenance; put on a couple of Easter collection batches; and otherwise tried to find ways to keep myself busy. There just isn’t that much happening there right now! Though I am pleased to report they let us know that half-day Fridays ARE a thing again this summer, so that’s something to look forward to! *nods* So yeah – suspect I’m just gonna be puttering around for the most part, unless a project pops up in the next few days. Which, it just might, so we’ll see what happens!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “D&D But... Everyone's A Kobold LIVE! | Oxventure!” Tonight’s chunklet saw –
I. Ellen’s kobold “The Quiet” and Jane’s kobold “The Miniature” avoid being taken by a clumsy eagle right outside the bear cave (which crashed and died next to them, allowing them to take the corpse along); stumble across some poachers tying up a recently-deceased deer; ask the poachers if they have any healing leaves, only to find they weren’t the right kind (mostly because they’d been mashed up into a poultice); and get essentially kidnapped by said poachers, who planned to throw them down a well in the nearby village to stop them telling anyone what they saw. Fortunately, “The Quiet” was able to bite one of the poacher’s ears off when he tried to figure out what she was saying while they were being carted along, causing him to drop them and them both to run away; unfortunately, “The Miniature” then had a bright idea about diving into the sewer and drowned in the sewage, and “The Quiet,” in an attempt to find the leaves in the “weird square caves” around, got her arm stuck in a mail slot. XD Still, “The Quiet” is still fucking ALIVE, so that’s a win in and of itself!
II. Andy, Mike, and Johnny go through a fair number of kobolds while they were trying to catch up – “The Kipper” (Johnny), “The Squishy” (Mike), and “The Bear Impersonator” (Andy) all got eaten by the bears back in the cave; Johnny’s “The Showboat” successfully got the bears to run into a wall by doing the old “waving a cloth in front of them” trick like toreadors do, only to get smashed by them; and “The Annoying” (Andy) and Johnny’s next kobold, who didn’t last long enough for me to recall their name, got taken by an eagle when they left the cave. Mike’s “The Tinkerer,” Johnny’s “The Bold,” and Andy’s “Velocity The Weird” (who is indeed VERY WEIRD – Andy used the opportunity to be as off-putting as possible and lightly torment Luke by doing things like touching his hair and stealing his microphone XD) all then managed to find the spot where the poachers had killed the deer, and left some small bear traps around for foxes – although they ended up finding the traps via one snapping “The Tinkerer” in half and “The Bold” straight-up leaping into one. “The Weird” also ended up trapped, but via the method of deliberately prying open the trap that killed “The Tinkerer” and sticking his leg into it. XD He was soon joined by “The Librarian” (Mike) and “The Bad Influence” (Johnny), who – after “The Bad Influence” gave “The Weird” some glue to sniff (“The Weird” ate it instead, confusing BI) and dared him to cut off his own head (“The Weird” tried, but couldn’t manage it) – freed him and followed the trail into the village. I left off with “The Bad Influence” attempting to influence the church-going locals into worshiping Satan – and then having to pivot and try to get them into another god when they turned out to already be Satanists; “The Weird” gluing himself to the road after trying to glue himself to a parishioner; “The Librarian” and Jane’s new kobold “The Soulful” actually freeing “The Quiet;” and “The Soulful” having a good sniff of the town...and smelling something leafy coming from a store nearby… We’ll wrap all this kobold nonsense up tomorrow – I don’t QUITE remember what happens, but I know there’s a very special cameo coming up...
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice left the tower walk behind today (much as she would have liked to linger up there longer), heading down into the belly of the mansion again and winding through more bizarrely-set-up rooms. Fortunately, she didn’t have to fight any ghouls this time, just sneak past them with a combination of Obfuscate, well-placed furniture barriers, and being very quick at opening doors. :p She has thus made it all the way to another one of Grout’s creepy and bizarre sitting rooms, with a tape recorder for her to listen to – and, as will become apparent tomorrow, some company for her to deal with…
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – nothing from Josh, so it was straight onto “CaFae Latte Season 57 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi tonight! This was a short one, covering:
A) JC and Bob serving a chupacabra at the cafe, which surprised JC, as they thought those were myths (no, their realm of existence only just started intersecting with Earth’s in the last 30 years) – turns out this one knows Bob, and came in to see if she would put up a coupon code for the products from their sheep and alpaca farm for Hispanic Heritage month (and to give her a nice table runner for the counter)! JC was like “a sheep and alpaca farm? Really?” and the chupacabra was like “I know, but it lets us slake our thirst for blood ethically, and since we have to shear the sheep and alpaca to keep them healthy anyway, we might as well sell the wool, right? Yarn Granny’s a huge customer.” XD Cool to see a more modern cryptid/myth getting some rep!
B) Bob, Cyrus, Nicole, Rethu, Patrick, and Janine all attending a Mabon party hosted by Michael, leader of the Stoughton Street Witches (while JC, Husniya, and Drek held down the fort at the cafe) – featuring Michael accusing Cyrus of somehow cheating at apple bobbing; Patrick being adorable with Mike’s kid (who was giving her pumpkin three eyes); Janine saying that she does not want children but seeing Patrick with that kid makes her almost change her mind; and Rethu saying that they were starting to come around on the “having kids” thing – startling poor Cyrus, who wasn’t expecting to hear THAT! Fortunately Rethu followed it up with “still want to wait another 200 or so years,” to his relief.
C) Rethu and Cyrus having a nice, honest, and frank discussion of the “kids” thing – both of them confirming that, if they do want kids, they want to be a few centuries older (“not until I’m 500,” as per Cyrus) and more settled. And that they’ll probably adopt, given the whole “different species” thing and all (Rethu admitting that one of the reasons she loved Batman was his horde of adopted children). However, the fun was cut short when JC (who arrived on the scene to ask their opinion on whether or not their new maple cookies should be frosted or not – they unhelpfully had different opinions) got a phone call from their sister Kelly, who was apparently having some trouble with one of her sugar daddies...cue Rethu offering herself up as a taxi and Cyrus letting Bob know they were going out on a rescue mission!
D) Rethu, Cyrus, and JC arriving at the house of Barry, the toxic sugar daddy in question...and Rethu and Cyrus quickly discovering that this wasn’t so much a “rescue Kelly from the dangerous asshole” situation as a “keep Kelly from killing the dangerous asshole” situation. Because Kelly is smart and keeps a gun for just these situations. They accordingly turned around and watched the ducks, while JC pointed out that they already had a criminal record, so… Barry let Kelly leave with the bag she’d earned after that. XD
E) And Rethu, Cyrus, and JC checking in with Kelly to make sure she was really all right – turns out what had happened was that Barry had tried to coerce her into doing something on her “no way in hell” list (which she provides to all potential daddies, along with her “yes please” and “I’m fine with these” lists), and when she refused, he shoved her. Causing her to punch him and lock herself in a room to call JC, because unfortunately Barry had been her ride to the house. Now that she was safely out, though, she was going to make sure ALL her fellow sugar babies knew what a dangerous asshole he was, with JC offering to put the word out to Pam, their former hooker friend. Cyrus noted that while they’d saved Barry from a physical murder, he was definitely going to get socially murdered. XD
Good stuff – I’m glad Kelly’s becoming a semi-regular part of the cast now, I like her. :) Given what JC’s parents and aunt Margaret are like, it’s good to see that they have one pretty decent relative. (John, their brother, I haven’t seen enough of to form a proper opinion on yet.)
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Substitution check – it was a Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler)-only day, and as usual I never got in my drafts – but I did make sure to reblog my friend Satirical Demon’s latest plushy acquisition! “Big D” from “Hunter The Parenting,” which I believe to be some sort of web series based on the World of Darkness “Hunter” line. He is a man who looks something like a professional wrestler with very big chompers. XD But then again, I have a plush vampire bat, a plush Companion Cube, a plush The Smiler teddy bear, and a plush intellect devourer, so who am I to judge? :P
Other: As it was a very nice day today – warm with low humidity – we did indeed play beanbags once I got home from work! And, as has been usual the last few times we’ve played, I did terribly, losing the first two games and only clawing out a win in the third because Dad went downhill. And even then it was only after he’d tied me a couple of times. Final scores were me 3-3-W; Dad W-2-2; and Mom 2-W-3. At least we all won once? *shakehead* We’ll see if I can do better in tomorrow’s game!
*nods* Yeah -- nothing huge, but things were accomplished, and this pleases me. But now I really do need to wrap things up and head to bed. Supposed to be a hot one tomorrow -- we'll see if the forecast is correct or not! Night all!
Very Lazy Sunday
Jun. 1st, 2025 11:49 pmOr maybe I should say a very GROGGY one, as I woke up kinda late (after the usual brief early rising to pee -- you can tell I'm approaching middle age), then spent most of the afternoon trying to focus enough to actually DO shit instead of sit around and daydream/look at various Baldur's Gate III mods and wiki pages. (Which, okay, that was supposed to be research for writing down what spells/abilities/skills I wanted to prioritize for Tav!Smiler, but I didn't really get down much -- just some basics on what I need to pick to make them look right, what their classes are going to be, and what abilities they'll be prioritizing. Nothing that I really didn't have written down in some form or another before!) *shakehead* I don't know why I was so tired/distracted, but it was kind of annoying. Didn't help that it was another kinda-chilly, windy, often-cloudy day outside. I'd ask where the hell the summer weather is, but I know -- it's showing up on Tuesday or Wednesday, when the temps are supposed to hit the 80s. *sigh* Why can't it do that on the weekends, when I'm in a better position to enjoy it? *shakes head* Meeeh...
Anyway -- I might not have gotten THAT much done, but I did get SOME stuff done:
Tumblr: Welp, it was another day where nothing was happening over on Valice Multiverse – but while I got on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) rather late today (around noon), I still managed to get some stuff done over there:
A) I spent most of my time before lunch going through some of the older posts on my dash and having a bit of a reblog spree, putting up –
I. A post by my friend Newt collecting a bunch of facial studies of the Dead Boy Detectives cast together (featuring all the main characters – Edwin, Charles, Crystal, Niko, Esther, Monty, and of course his beloved Cat King; don’t watch the show but figured I should reblog out of solidarity :) )
II. A post by “kieren-fucking-walker,” a friend of Newt’s, asking for any assistance people might be able to give to help their mother and their sister get settled in their new council flat – which, thanks to stupid fucking “we have to tear out everything between tenants” reasons, does not have a FLOOR (like, what the HELL – I sent them 30 pounds via their Ko-Fi in response)
III. A post by “idontmindifuforgetme” about JK Rowling using her massive wealth to create the “J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund,” an organization specifically designed to help deny trans people (specifically trans women, who she believes aren’t really women) their rights in as many places as possible, with a follow-up by “mintedwitcher” about how trans people’s lives matter more than nostalgia so don’t watch that fucking reboot nonsense coming out on HBO or something (seriously, how is she that fucking evil?!)
IV. A post by The Satirical Demon showing off a YouTube video “Freshy Kanal” and friends made of a rap battle between Hercule Poriot and Benoit Blanc...which actually involves a bunch more detectives horning in to accuse all the other ones of being shit – including Colombo, which is the whole reason Satirical posted it, as he’s a fan of the guy. XD It was a very fun video, though, especially the surprise little twist at the end when a certain OG detective and his mate came in to teach ALL the other ones a lesson. Good times!
V. A post by “furiousfinstann” about how some Japanese researchers might have a lead on what causes “long COVID” in some people! Apparently some people end up with leftover viral fragments deep in their nose tissues which causes continued irritation and issues, and by swabbing the affected areas once a week with a Q-Tip dipped in 1% zinc chloride solution, the people in the study saw improvements! It’s only one step on the road – there’s a larger clinical trial being organized to confirm the results – but fucking hell, it’s good to see some GOOD news related to this awful fucking virus! (Especially since, apparently, a new variant is bumming around the States, uuuuugh…)
VI. A post by “hermit-frog” with a video showcasing a scene from the movie Sinners, where the main musician at the “juke joint” where most of the movie takes place, Sammie, plays a blues song so beautifully and intensely that he ends up summoning specters of both the past and the future – represented by a variety of Black musicians and dancers (and a couple of Chinese ones, as while the majority of the cast are Black, there’s a Chinese couple important to the plot there too) performing both traditional and modern music along with him (like, there’s traditional African drummers and dancers mixed in with guys playing electric guitar and spinning records on a DJ booth and women twerking). I haven’t seen the movie, but it’s an amazing scene, especially given the way they blend all the different musical styles together so perfectly. Really fucking impressive, let me tell you!
VII. And a post from “ororium-z” featuring an Instagram video of a guy named Mark Kanemura (apparently he’s a dancer, been on So You Think You Can Dance and Glee and in some music videos) doing a fancy dance in honor of the start of Pride – swanning around in rainbow undies and a half-skirt he uses as a cape, whipping a whole rainbow of wigs off his head, fanning himself with a rainbow fan, and finally yanking off a final long-haired multicolored wig off to release a load of confetti, all to “Cut To The Feeling” by Carly Rae Jepsen! It’s kind of a tradition around tumblr for people to reblog it around the start of Pride, and I figured I might as well join in. It’s a fun video. XD
So yeah – busy morning there, as you might expect. XD
B) Then I moved some stuff in my likes to my drafts for later posting, including –
I. A post by “esamastation” about the dangers of writing “snippets” of your fanfic ideas, because those little shits can grow like motherfuckers XD (I added in my tags that, while I can keep them to just snippets sometimes, they can easily grow into monster fics, like the Londerland Bloodlines series, or into a whole TON of shorter fics, like the Valicer In The Dark series – so I’m screwed either way :P)
II. A post by “dreemurr-skelememer” with a picture of a figure labeled “Insane about own AU” (which is about as me as you can get – I rambled in the tags about how all the Valicer fanfic I’d write if I had the time, and how the image primarily applies to my beloved Valicer In The Dark AU, because oh boy am I obsessed with that)
III. A post by “rookamell” about how it isn’t writing that’s the hobby – it’s being insane about fictional characters, and writing is just the only viable outlet (again, an extremely me post, as I am quite insane about Victor, Alice, and Smiler, and writing is the only way to get it all out)
IV. And a post by “randomgirlyoudontknow” that consists of the sentence “love is stored in the fictional couple i’ve gotten overly invested in” and to which my friend Squid, where I found the post, appended the tag “sometimes it’s a throuple or larger polycule but yes” (the third “me” post in the lost, especially with that tag because currently love for me is stored in the fictional OT3 I’ve gotten overly invested in XD I made sure to tag this post with all the ship names for my favorite ships and polycules as a result)
Not exactly what I intended when I said last night that I wanted to work on my drafts over here, but it still counts!
YouTube: Sunday around these parts is Jon and Fallout: London Day, and so this evening we had “Fallout: London - Part 45 - Queen For A Day!” The continuing adventures of Lady Aria as she –
A) Did Johnny Shrapnel’s “Prison Break” mission for the Vagabonds, freeing the prisoners on the HMS Dredge and blowing it the hell up! A process that involved Aria napping in a nearby factory until nightfall to avoid the worst of the guards; Aria attempting to sneakily kill the guards at the very front of the boat, and nearly succeeding – until Mad Jack chose to pick a fight with some mittenlurks nearby, drawing the attention of some other guards on the bridge next to the boat and forcing Aria to kill them as well (which at least got her a level up and the first rank of the “Sneak” perk for her trouble); Aria getting into the boat and taking out the guards within with a combination of the silenced crude sniper and the ultra-fast knife she got off Merlin’s corpse (Jon really wanted to do this proper sneaky-like, but kept getting foiled by guards spotting Aria and shooting at her REALLY QUICKLY – he did pull off ONE nice sneak attack with the knife, though!); Aria finding the Vagabond prisoners and attempting to free them via opening up their cells at the nearby terminal...only to guess wrong on the password (123456? Really, Aria?) and have to sneak up to the captain’s room in the bridge to reset it; Aria managing to get up to the bridge and reset the password without too much trouble, easily knifing all the security that got in her way (took a man’s head straight off at one point); Aria releasing the Vagabond prisoners, then backtracking to the OTHER prisoners she found along the way and – after a quick chat with the “leader,” Agatha (aka the only named one) – releasing them as well and cracking open the armory at the back of the ship so they could arm themselves before escaping (Agatha and company taking a tea break in the canteen as she did this because they hadn’t had a decent cuppa in ages XD); Agatha making her way to the bottom of the boat and finally trading her knife in for her nice solid Instigating shotgun to kill all the security down there, before planting the bombs Johnny gave her and getting out of dodge; and Aria murdering the new guards coming in around the outside of the boat before turning and watching the big old explosion as the bombs went off and the boat went up in flames! She was less impressed with how little it had sunk afterwards, but, well, it was docked in a very shallow canal, so there was only so far down it could go. The important thing was, it was definitely out of commission as a floating prison!
B) Returned to the Swan & Mitre to report on her successes to Gaunt, “Chill” Winston, “Bullettooth” Anthony, and Johnny “Shrapnel!” Winston, Anthony, and Johnny were all very appreciative, praising her good work to the skies and giving her things like stimpacks and cricket ball bombs, while Gaunt was – less than impressed, shall we say. He simply couldn’t stop bitching about how Aria should have sabotaged the Syndicate supply line instead of grabbing the train (Winston was like “if that was so important to you, why didn’t you mention it before?!”), or how she risked much for a pittance of guns while clearing out the warehouse (Aria: “I DID blow the place up afterward, you know”), or how the Syndicate would try to spin her blowing up the Dredge as Vagabond terrorism – though at least there he seemed genuinely upset that the blood of the other prisoners aboard would be on their hands. And thus properly relieved when Aria told him, “Hey, I got everyone else out, and they know that the Vagabonds helped them, so…” The meeting ended with the lieutenants firmly convinced of Aria’s greatness, and Gaunt telling her that he needed a few days to think before proceeding with the next stage of his plan to take out the Syndicate. Aria was happy to give it to him – mostly because she was pretty sure she could turn everyone against him when she came back and get him deposed before there was more unnecessary bloodshed. :p
C) Headed over to the Imperial War Museum to both:
I. Deliver Smythe’s orders to the Tommies stationed there, promoting Colonel Major to General and demoting General Asquith to – whatever rank’s below General, I don’t know and neither did Jon. XD She came in to see Major arguing with Asquith about who they owed their loyalty with (Major being firmly on the “The Gentry will promote stability for the people” side, Asquith being on the “we are loyal to the Queen and her people, not those rich twats” side). Aria delivered her message, but, as expected, Asquith made it clear that they wouldn’t be accepting orders from anyone but Her Majesty herself, meaning that Aria had to find a way to get the Queen’s signature on those papers
II. Finally tell that “Mr. Tommy” who gave her the mission to investigate the mysterious disappearance of some Tommies chasing after a distress signal in an old underground station AGES ago what had happened (as Jon had just realized he’d never turned in the quest): that the Tommies had died to ghouls in the station; that the distress signal was the result of a mechanical failure (ruptured pipes) and that when she’d tried to repair the damage, the whole place had self-destructed; and that she’d returned with this unique shotgun as proof of her words (well, TECHNICALLY – Jon wasn’t sure if she actually had the gun in her inventory or not, but Mr. Tommy was able to examine it regardless). Mr. Tommy was very sad to hear of his fellow soldiers’ deaths, but glad that they now had answers as to what had happened and that the distress signal wouldn’t be bothering the higher-ups anymore, and told her to feel free to keep the shotgun as a reward. Aria was like “thanks, but my Instigating shotgun is SOOO much better, seriously.” XD
D) Headed back to Buckingham Palace to figure out how to get the Queen’s signature on the orders promoting Major and demoting Asquith – which Jon suspected would be difficult, as Aria had sure as hell not seen any queens about the first time she visited the Palace. However, after chatting with a guard outside about the purpose of her visit, she was directed to a wing she hadn’t been in before, with a locked room at the end of it –
And something screaming and thumping around behind the door, making the entire hallway shake. Jon promptly went “okay, the Queen’s a feral,” and a visit with Princess Elizabeth, Dr. Hebertson (from Angel’s secret de-feralization lab), and Smythe’s voice over the telephone confirmed that the poor woman was a mindless monster. Aria was like “so, um, how the hell do I get her to sign these papers without getting my limbs chewed off?” –
And Smythe told her, “ask Dr. Hebertson – you already helped him find the answer, after all.” Yes, it turned out that, after Aria’s good work in helping him create and test his de-feralization serum, Hebertson had come up with an even better version, and was more than willing to let Aria test it on the Queen to see if it would bring back some mental stability. Aria thus collected the serum; got the key to the Queen’s quarters off Princess Elizabeth; and then ventured inside the royal chambers to find the erstwhile monarch. She was briefly distracted by the adorable corgis roaming around (they were so cute!), but soon located the feral Queen Victoria II, and managed to incapacitate her with Mad Jack’s help (with Jon yelling at Jack through the screen the whole time to NOT KILL HER PLEASE). One jab of the experimental serum later, and the Queen regained at least some of her senses (represented by the vicious feral version of Victoria II exploding into the saner ghoul version with nicer clothes – I know that they were probably limited in the animations they could use to represent the change, but that was still VERY funny XD), and was able to sign Aria’s papers. Though Jon did note afterward that, since the Queen is now dependent on Hebertson’s serum to stay even partly sane (Hebertson even lording it over Princess Elizabeth that he would have to keep the Queen in his care to see the long-term effects of the serum – meaning that, no matter what she said, her mother WAS his pet science project, thank you very much), Angel had just basically turned the queen into their puppet figurehead. Very sneaky, Angel – very sneaky indeed.
E) Had a heart-to-heart with Mad Jack on their way back to the Tommies to deliver the now-Queen-approved orders, prompted by Mad Jack deciding he idolized Aria after she stole some ammo. XD Jack told her that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the horrors of his childhood ever since he told her about them, and how it made him sick to think of the people who did that to him being HAPPY and never getting their just desserts. Aria, a little concerned, told him that he had to get over it sometime, and he said he knew that, it was just hard – but he thought that she could help him with it. Because, you see, he’d gotten a letter from an old cellmate of his shortly before she’d come into his life. A letter that he’d only recently found the courage to open –
And which he’d discovered had the names and last known locations of the people who’d tormented him and turned him into their killer attack dog! Meaning he now has a way to find them all and get revenge for himself and all the other people he tormented. He asked Aria to help him with this, saying that he really did want to forget and move on, but felt like this was the only way he could. Aria cautiously agreed, and Jack thanked her and said that he was going to get some supplies from his old gym, and to meet him over at the Pilgrim once she was ready to go. So yeah – seems like Jack’s companion mission will be all about bringing some justice to the gang that hurt him so. I am all for it.
F) And finally, delivered the orders demanding he step down and promoting Major in his place to General Asquith, who – after some grumbling about his station – finally submitted thanks to the Queen’s signature. The newly promoted General Major proceeded to give a rousing speech about getting out there and making the streets safe again to his men, rallying them to get out there and do their duty (with Jon warning them not to do TOO good a job, because otherwise Smythe wouldn’t be able to enforce marital law) –
And right after, one of the second lieutenants approached Aria and told her she had a call on the new General’s personal line. Unsurprisingly, it was Smythe, who congratulated Aria on her good work with the Tommies but said that there was one more thing that needed to be done before they could officially meet in person – bring down any and all rebellion in London by uniting the people against a common enemy, a fabricated monster that threatened their lives and livelihoods –
Angel! Yes, Smythe had decided to take advantage of the fact that people now knew of the organization’s existence, but not how deep it had gotten its claws into the government, to terrify the people into obedience by saying she was their only hope to stand against it. Basically “pulling a Palpatine,” as Jon called it – controlling both the government and the government’s enemy so they’d both do what she wanted. She thus directed Aria to Land’s End Inn in Peckham to pick up her luggage in Room 5 and prepare to bring Angel to the world stage…
And that is where Jon chose to end things, because who doesn’t like a bit of a cliffhanger! :P Though we’re going to have to hang from the cliff for a while, because next week, Aria’s focusing on completing Mad Jack’s companion quest and seeing if she can get him to resolve things with a minimum of violence (just for his own mental health, mind, not because the people who tormented him don’t deserve a horrible death). And hopefully also checking back in with the Vagabonds and getting Gaunt out of the leader’s seat already. We’ll see what happens next week – I am looking forward to it!
Workout: Back on the bike this week, and back with the Oxventure videos as I hit the next one in the upload order: “D&D But... Everyone's A Kobold LIVE! | Oxventure!” Which – is actually one that I’ve already seen, just not on the official Oxventure channel. This was done at a con – MCM, to be specific – and was originally uploaded on the con organizer’s official YouTube channel, which is where I watched it the first time. However, I recalled it being a very funny adventure, so I decided there was no harm in watching it again and officially marking it off the Oxventure channel! :D As this was uploaded about a year ago, I will quickly bring you up to speed on what’s going on – the premise of this one-shot is that a bunch of kobolds (played by Andy, Johnny, Mike, Jane, and Ellen – Luke is our lovely DM) have been tasked with going to the dangerous lands of The Surface to retrieve a special leaf to help cure their ailing leader, Gitvis (tended by her successor, Era the Vacuous, aka the kobold who survived the longest in the FIRST “D&D But...Everyone’s A Kobold” video). However, since they’re kobolds, and thus only have 5 HP, it is expected that nobody is going to be playing the SAME kobold for very long as they tackle the various dangers along the way. So every time someone’s kobold dies, they get up and get a new one from the “kobold vending machine” – aka a big cardboard box filled with pieces of paper containing suggestions from the audience – and then that kobold catches up with the others and joins the adventure to keep the action going. Each kobold has a name and an identifying trait, and the comedy comes from how the players express that identifying trait, and how ridiculously the kobolds die as they attempt to complete their goal. So far in the first half-hour, we’ve had:
I. Mike showing up a little later than the others in the intro...because he’d bought a dragon onesie with incredibly short shorts and had changed into it right before coming on to do a “so we’re not doing costumes?” gag. XD And those short shorts do not cover a lot, let me tell you – he’s not flashing the audience whenever he stands up to grab a new kobold, but it is a VERY near thing! XD
II. One of the first kobolds being “Izzy The Wizzy,” played by Andy, who rolled a nat 20 on “urinating freely” and ended up basically hovering thanks to the stream, only to then think himself to death trying to remember what he knew about leaves after being assigned their important mission
III. Mike’s first kobold being “Amelia the Furious” who died attempting to fight the sun (her neck snapped when she tipped it back too far)
IV. Johnny getting a little too into their role as “Astor the Smug” and telling poor Jane to not forget Disadvantage on a roll that didn’t actually require it and getting very embarrassed, poor enby
V. And, in terms of the main quest, the kobolds coming across a bear cave on their way out of the darkness of their dungeon with a sleeping mama bear and two playing adolescent cubs that they had to get past! Cue Jane’s first kobold, “Lyrical the Lavish,” dying in a very lavish way to bear claws (blood jetting EVERYWHERE); Andy’s next kobold, “The Unimaginative,” dying because he insisted on not paying attention to what he thought were just big furry rocks (he simply couldn’t imagine dying!); Mike’s next kobold “The Squishy” getting the sleeping mother bear involved by CLIMBING INTO HER MOUTH to try and stab her – and then getting tangled in her uvula; Mike then making up for that by managing to talk Luke into not insta-killing him when the other bears dragged him out by saying his squishiness should protect him (so that kobold’s now just down to 1 HP, yay); Johnny managing to distract the bears from all the other kobolds by pulling a kobold identified “The Kipper” and deciding that meant they were actually a fish that had been raised as a kobold XD; and Andy pulling a kobold called “The Bear Impersonator” of all things – and then flubbing the roll to try and talk the bears out of attacking his friends, because he didn’t know bears don’t speak Common (and also his costume makes him look like a green gummy bear, not an actual bear, because he had no idea what a bear looked like). He at least managed to nonplus the bears a bit?
So it’s been – chaotic, so far. XD And yeah, don’t worry about the kobold’s first names, it’s always the “The [blank]” part that’s important when it comes to identifying these little buggers. XD Anyway, I left off with Mike, Andy, and Johnny’s kobolds “The Kipper” (Johnny), “The Squishy” (Mike), and “The Bear Impersonator” (Andy) still dealing with the bears, having not YET died to their fearsome claws; and Ellen and Jane’s kobolds “The Quiet” (Ellen) and “The Miniature” (Jane) having actually made it out of the cave, yay! Tomorrow, we’ll see who else manages to get past the bears and join them on their quest to find that damn leaf!
So yeah -- maybe not a total loss of a day, but definitely not as productive as I would have liked. *shrug* What can you do. Besides go to bed, because I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow's a workday after all! Hopefully it won't be a bad one...night all!
Anyway -- I might not have gotten THAT much done, but I did get SOME stuff done:
Tumblr: Welp, it was another day where nothing was happening over on Valice Multiverse – but while I got on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) rather late today (around noon), I still managed to get some stuff done over there:
A) I spent most of my time before lunch going through some of the older posts on my dash and having a bit of a reblog spree, putting up –
I. A post by my friend Newt collecting a bunch of facial studies of the Dead Boy Detectives cast together (featuring all the main characters – Edwin, Charles, Crystal, Niko, Esther, Monty, and of course his beloved Cat King; don’t watch the show but figured I should reblog out of solidarity :) )
II. A post by “kieren-fucking-walker,” a friend of Newt’s, asking for any assistance people might be able to give to help their mother and their sister get settled in their new council flat – which, thanks to stupid fucking “we have to tear out everything between tenants” reasons, does not have a FLOOR (like, what the HELL – I sent them 30 pounds via their Ko-Fi in response)
III. A post by “idontmindifuforgetme” about JK Rowling using her massive wealth to create the “J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund,” an organization specifically designed to help deny trans people (specifically trans women, who she believes aren’t really women) their rights in as many places as possible, with a follow-up by “mintedwitcher” about how trans people’s lives matter more than nostalgia so don’t watch that fucking reboot nonsense coming out on HBO or something (seriously, how is she that fucking evil?!)
IV. A post by The Satirical Demon showing off a YouTube video “Freshy Kanal” and friends made of a rap battle between Hercule Poriot and Benoit Blanc...which actually involves a bunch more detectives horning in to accuse all the other ones of being shit – including Colombo, which is the whole reason Satirical posted it, as he’s a fan of the guy. XD It was a very fun video, though, especially the surprise little twist at the end when a certain OG detective and his mate came in to teach ALL the other ones a lesson. Good times!
V. A post by “furiousfinstann” about how some Japanese researchers might have a lead on what causes “long COVID” in some people! Apparently some people end up with leftover viral fragments deep in their nose tissues which causes continued irritation and issues, and by swabbing the affected areas once a week with a Q-Tip dipped in 1% zinc chloride solution, the people in the study saw improvements! It’s only one step on the road – there’s a larger clinical trial being organized to confirm the results – but fucking hell, it’s good to see some GOOD news related to this awful fucking virus! (Especially since, apparently, a new variant is bumming around the States, uuuuugh…)
VI. A post by “hermit-frog” with a video showcasing a scene from the movie Sinners, where the main musician at the “juke joint” where most of the movie takes place, Sammie, plays a blues song so beautifully and intensely that he ends up summoning specters of both the past and the future – represented by a variety of Black musicians and dancers (and a couple of Chinese ones, as while the majority of the cast are Black, there’s a Chinese couple important to the plot there too) performing both traditional and modern music along with him (like, there’s traditional African drummers and dancers mixed in with guys playing electric guitar and spinning records on a DJ booth and women twerking). I haven’t seen the movie, but it’s an amazing scene, especially given the way they blend all the different musical styles together so perfectly. Really fucking impressive, let me tell you!
VII. And a post from “ororium-z” featuring an Instagram video of a guy named Mark Kanemura (apparently he’s a dancer, been on So You Think You Can Dance and Glee and in some music videos) doing a fancy dance in honor of the start of Pride – swanning around in rainbow undies and a half-skirt he uses as a cape, whipping a whole rainbow of wigs off his head, fanning himself with a rainbow fan, and finally yanking off a final long-haired multicolored wig off to release a load of confetti, all to “Cut To The Feeling” by Carly Rae Jepsen! It’s kind of a tradition around tumblr for people to reblog it around the start of Pride, and I figured I might as well join in. It’s a fun video. XD
So yeah – busy morning there, as you might expect. XD
B) Then I moved some stuff in my likes to my drafts for later posting, including –
I. A post by “esamastation” about the dangers of writing “snippets” of your fanfic ideas, because those little shits can grow like motherfuckers XD (I added in my tags that, while I can keep them to just snippets sometimes, they can easily grow into monster fics, like the Londerland Bloodlines series, or into a whole TON of shorter fics, like the Valicer In The Dark series – so I’m screwed either way :P)
II. A post by “dreemurr-skelememer” with a picture of a figure labeled “Insane about own AU” (which is about as me as you can get – I rambled in the tags about how all the Valicer fanfic I’d write if I had the time, and how the image primarily applies to my beloved Valicer In The Dark AU, because oh boy am I obsessed with that)
III. A post by “rookamell” about how it isn’t writing that’s the hobby – it’s being insane about fictional characters, and writing is just the only viable outlet (again, an extremely me post, as I am quite insane about Victor, Alice, and Smiler, and writing is the only way to get it all out)
IV. And a post by “randomgirlyoudontknow” that consists of the sentence “love is stored in the fictional couple i’ve gotten overly invested in” and to which my friend Squid, where I found the post, appended the tag “sometimes it’s a throuple or larger polycule but yes” (the third “me” post in the lost, especially with that tag because currently love for me is stored in the fictional OT3 I’ve gotten overly invested in XD I made sure to tag this post with all the ship names for my favorite ships and polycules as a result)
Not exactly what I intended when I said last night that I wanted to work on my drafts over here, but it still counts!
YouTube: Sunday around these parts is Jon and Fallout: London Day, and so this evening we had “Fallout: London - Part 45 - Queen For A Day!” The continuing adventures of Lady Aria as she –
A) Did Johnny Shrapnel’s “Prison Break” mission for the Vagabonds, freeing the prisoners on the HMS Dredge and blowing it the hell up! A process that involved Aria napping in a nearby factory until nightfall to avoid the worst of the guards; Aria attempting to sneakily kill the guards at the very front of the boat, and nearly succeeding – until Mad Jack chose to pick a fight with some mittenlurks nearby, drawing the attention of some other guards on the bridge next to the boat and forcing Aria to kill them as well (which at least got her a level up and the first rank of the “Sneak” perk for her trouble); Aria getting into the boat and taking out the guards within with a combination of the silenced crude sniper and the ultra-fast knife she got off Merlin’s corpse (Jon really wanted to do this proper sneaky-like, but kept getting foiled by guards spotting Aria and shooting at her REALLY QUICKLY – he did pull off ONE nice sneak attack with the knife, though!); Aria finding the Vagabond prisoners and attempting to free them via opening up their cells at the nearby terminal...only to guess wrong on the password (123456? Really, Aria?) and have to sneak up to the captain’s room in the bridge to reset it; Aria managing to get up to the bridge and reset the password without too much trouble, easily knifing all the security that got in her way (took a man’s head straight off at one point); Aria releasing the Vagabond prisoners, then backtracking to the OTHER prisoners she found along the way and – after a quick chat with the “leader,” Agatha (aka the only named one) – releasing them as well and cracking open the armory at the back of the ship so they could arm themselves before escaping (Agatha and company taking a tea break in the canteen as she did this because they hadn’t had a decent cuppa in ages XD); Agatha making her way to the bottom of the boat and finally trading her knife in for her nice solid Instigating shotgun to kill all the security down there, before planting the bombs Johnny gave her and getting out of dodge; and Aria murdering the new guards coming in around the outside of the boat before turning and watching the big old explosion as the bombs went off and the boat went up in flames! She was less impressed with how little it had sunk afterwards, but, well, it was docked in a very shallow canal, so there was only so far down it could go. The important thing was, it was definitely out of commission as a floating prison!
B) Returned to the Swan & Mitre to report on her successes to Gaunt, “Chill” Winston, “Bullettooth” Anthony, and Johnny “Shrapnel!” Winston, Anthony, and Johnny were all very appreciative, praising her good work to the skies and giving her things like stimpacks and cricket ball bombs, while Gaunt was – less than impressed, shall we say. He simply couldn’t stop bitching about how Aria should have sabotaged the Syndicate supply line instead of grabbing the train (Winston was like “if that was so important to you, why didn’t you mention it before?!”), or how she risked much for a pittance of guns while clearing out the warehouse (Aria: “I DID blow the place up afterward, you know”), or how the Syndicate would try to spin her blowing up the Dredge as Vagabond terrorism – though at least there he seemed genuinely upset that the blood of the other prisoners aboard would be on their hands. And thus properly relieved when Aria told him, “Hey, I got everyone else out, and they know that the Vagabonds helped them, so…” The meeting ended with the lieutenants firmly convinced of Aria’s greatness, and Gaunt telling her that he needed a few days to think before proceeding with the next stage of his plan to take out the Syndicate. Aria was happy to give it to him – mostly because she was pretty sure she could turn everyone against him when she came back and get him deposed before there was more unnecessary bloodshed. :p
C) Headed over to the Imperial War Museum to both:
I. Deliver Smythe’s orders to the Tommies stationed there, promoting Colonel Major to General and demoting General Asquith to – whatever rank’s below General, I don’t know and neither did Jon. XD She came in to see Major arguing with Asquith about who they owed their loyalty with (Major being firmly on the “The Gentry will promote stability for the people” side, Asquith being on the “we are loyal to the Queen and her people, not those rich twats” side). Aria delivered her message, but, as expected, Asquith made it clear that they wouldn’t be accepting orders from anyone but Her Majesty herself, meaning that Aria had to find a way to get the Queen’s signature on those papers
II. Finally tell that “Mr. Tommy” who gave her the mission to investigate the mysterious disappearance of some Tommies chasing after a distress signal in an old underground station AGES ago what had happened (as Jon had just realized he’d never turned in the quest): that the Tommies had died to ghouls in the station; that the distress signal was the result of a mechanical failure (ruptured pipes) and that when she’d tried to repair the damage, the whole place had self-destructed; and that she’d returned with this unique shotgun as proof of her words (well, TECHNICALLY – Jon wasn’t sure if she actually had the gun in her inventory or not, but Mr. Tommy was able to examine it regardless). Mr. Tommy was very sad to hear of his fellow soldiers’ deaths, but glad that they now had answers as to what had happened and that the distress signal wouldn’t be bothering the higher-ups anymore, and told her to feel free to keep the shotgun as a reward. Aria was like “thanks, but my Instigating shotgun is SOOO much better, seriously.” XD
D) Headed back to Buckingham Palace to figure out how to get the Queen’s signature on the orders promoting Major and demoting Asquith – which Jon suspected would be difficult, as Aria had sure as hell not seen any queens about the first time she visited the Palace. However, after chatting with a guard outside about the purpose of her visit, she was directed to a wing she hadn’t been in before, with a locked room at the end of it –
And something screaming and thumping around behind the door, making the entire hallway shake. Jon promptly went “okay, the Queen’s a feral,” and a visit with Princess Elizabeth, Dr. Hebertson (from Angel’s secret de-feralization lab), and Smythe’s voice over the telephone confirmed that the poor woman was a mindless monster. Aria was like “so, um, how the hell do I get her to sign these papers without getting my limbs chewed off?” –
And Smythe told her, “ask Dr. Hebertson – you already helped him find the answer, after all.” Yes, it turned out that, after Aria’s good work in helping him create and test his de-feralization serum, Hebertson had come up with an even better version, and was more than willing to let Aria test it on the Queen to see if it would bring back some mental stability. Aria thus collected the serum; got the key to the Queen’s quarters off Princess Elizabeth; and then ventured inside the royal chambers to find the erstwhile monarch. She was briefly distracted by the adorable corgis roaming around (they were so cute!), but soon located the feral Queen Victoria II, and managed to incapacitate her with Mad Jack’s help (with Jon yelling at Jack through the screen the whole time to NOT KILL HER PLEASE). One jab of the experimental serum later, and the Queen regained at least some of her senses (represented by the vicious feral version of Victoria II exploding into the saner ghoul version with nicer clothes – I know that they were probably limited in the animations they could use to represent the change, but that was still VERY funny XD), and was able to sign Aria’s papers. Though Jon did note afterward that, since the Queen is now dependent on Hebertson’s serum to stay even partly sane (Hebertson even lording it over Princess Elizabeth that he would have to keep the Queen in his care to see the long-term effects of the serum – meaning that, no matter what she said, her mother WAS his pet science project, thank you very much), Angel had just basically turned the queen into their puppet figurehead. Very sneaky, Angel – very sneaky indeed.
E) Had a heart-to-heart with Mad Jack on their way back to the Tommies to deliver the now-Queen-approved orders, prompted by Mad Jack deciding he idolized Aria after she stole some ammo. XD Jack told her that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the horrors of his childhood ever since he told her about them, and how it made him sick to think of the people who did that to him being HAPPY and never getting their just desserts. Aria, a little concerned, told him that he had to get over it sometime, and he said he knew that, it was just hard – but he thought that she could help him with it. Because, you see, he’d gotten a letter from an old cellmate of his shortly before she’d come into his life. A letter that he’d only recently found the courage to open –
And which he’d discovered had the names and last known locations of the people who’d tormented him and turned him into their killer attack dog! Meaning he now has a way to find them all and get revenge for himself and all the other people he tormented. He asked Aria to help him with this, saying that he really did want to forget and move on, but felt like this was the only way he could. Aria cautiously agreed, and Jack thanked her and said that he was going to get some supplies from his old gym, and to meet him over at the Pilgrim once she was ready to go. So yeah – seems like Jack’s companion mission will be all about bringing some justice to the gang that hurt him so. I am all for it.
F) And finally, delivered the orders demanding he step down and promoting Major in his place to General Asquith, who – after some grumbling about his station – finally submitted thanks to the Queen’s signature. The newly promoted General Major proceeded to give a rousing speech about getting out there and making the streets safe again to his men, rallying them to get out there and do their duty (with Jon warning them not to do TOO good a job, because otherwise Smythe wouldn’t be able to enforce marital law) –
And right after, one of the second lieutenants approached Aria and told her she had a call on the new General’s personal line. Unsurprisingly, it was Smythe, who congratulated Aria on her good work with the Tommies but said that there was one more thing that needed to be done before they could officially meet in person – bring down any and all rebellion in London by uniting the people against a common enemy, a fabricated monster that threatened their lives and livelihoods –
Angel! Yes, Smythe had decided to take advantage of the fact that people now knew of the organization’s existence, but not how deep it had gotten its claws into the government, to terrify the people into obedience by saying she was their only hope to stand against it. Basically “pulling a Palpatine,” as Jon called it – controlling both the government and the government’s enemy so they’d both do what she wanted. She thus directed Aria to Land’s End Inn in Peckham to pick up her luggage in Room 5 and prepare to bring Angel to the world stage…
And that is where Jon chose to end things, because who doesn’t like a bit of a cliffhanger! :P Though we’re going to have to hang from the cliff for a while, because next week, Aria’s focusing on completing Mad Jack’s companion quest and seeing if she can get him to resolve things with a minimum of violence (just for his own mental health, mind, not because the people who tormented him don’t deserve a horrible death). And hopefully also checking back in with the Vagabonds and getting Gaunt out of the leader’s seat already. We’ll see what happens next week – I am looking forward to it!
Workout: Back on the bike this week, and back with the Oxventure videos as I hit the next one in the upload order: “D&D But... Everyone's A Kobold LIVE! | Oxventure!” Which – is actually one that I’ve already seen, just not on the official Oxventure channel. This was done at a con – MCM, to be specific – and was originally uploaded on the con organizer’s official YouTube channel, which is where I watched it the first time. However, I recalled it being a very funny adventure, so I decided there was no harm in watching it again and officially marking it off the Oxventure channel! :D As this was uploaded about a year ago, I will quickly bring you up to speed on what’s going on – the premise of this one-shot is that a bunch of kobolds (played by Andy, Johnny, Mike, Jane, and Ellen – Luke is our lovely DM) have been tasked with going to the dangerous lands of The Surface to retrieve a special leaf to help cure their ailing leader, Gitvis (tended by her successor, Era the Vacuous, aka the kobold who survived the longest in the FIRST “D&D But...Everyone’s A Kobold” video). However, since they’re kobolds, and thus only have 5 HP, it is expected that nobody is going to be playing the SAME kobold for very long as they tackle the various dangers along the way. So every time someone’s kobold dies, they get up and get a new one from the “kobold vending machine” – aka a big cardboard box filled with pieces of paper containing suggestions from the audience – and then that kobold catches up with the others and joins the adventure to keep the action going. Each kobold has a name and an identifying trait, and the comedy comes from how the players express that identifying trait, and how ridiculously the kobolds die as they attempt to complete their goal. So far in the first half-hour, we’ve had:
I. Mike showing up a little later than the others in the intro...because he’d bought a dragon onesie with incredibly short shorts and had changed into it right before coming on to do a “so we’re not doing costumes?” gag. XD And those short shorts do not cover a lot, let me tell you – he’s not flashing the audience whenever he stands up to grab a new kobold, but it is a VERY near thing! XD
II. One of the first kobolds being “Izzy The Wizzy,” played by Andy, who rolled a nat 20 on “urinating freely” and ended up basically hovering thanks to the stream, only to then think himself to death trying to remember what he knew about leaves after being assigned their important mission
III. Mike’s first kobold being “Amelia the Furious” who died attempting to fight the sun (her neck snapped when she tipped it back too far)
IV. Johnny getting a little too into their role as “Astor the Smug” and telling poor Jane to not forget Disadvantage on a roll that didn’t actually require it and getting very embarrassed, poor enby
V. And, in terms of the main quest, the kobolds coming across a bear cave on their way out of the darkness of their dungeon with a sleeping mama bear and two playing adolescent cubs that they had to get past! Cue Jane’s first kobold, “Lyrical the Lavish,” dying in a very lavish way to bear claws (blood jetting EVERYWHERE); Andy’s next kobold, “The Unimaginative,” dying because he insisted on not paying attention to what he thought were just big furry rocks (he simply couldn’t imagine dying!); Mike’s next kobold “The Squishy” getting the sleeping mother bear involved by CLIMBING INTO HER MOUTH to try and stab her – and then getting tangled in her uvula; Mike then making up for that by managing to talk Luke into not insta-killing him when the other bears dragged him out by saying his squishiness should protect him (so that kobold’s now just down to 1 HP, yay); Johnny managing to distract the bears from all the other kobolds by pulling a kobold identified “The Kipper” and deciding that meant they were actually a fish that had been raised as a kobold XD; and Andy pulling a kobold called “The Bear Impersonator” of all things – and then flubbing the roll to try and talk the bears out of attacking his friends, because he didn’t know bears don’t speak Common (and also his costume makes him look like a green gummy bear, not an actual bear, because he had no idea what a bear looked like). He at least managed to nonplus the bears a bit?
So it’s been – chaotic, so far. XD And yeah, don’t worry about the kobold’s first names, it’s always the “The [blank]” part that’s important when it comes to identifying these little buggers. XD Anyway, I left off with Mike, Andy, and Johnny’s kobolds “The Kipper” (Johnny), “The Squishy” (Mike), and “The Bear Impersonator” (Andy) still dealing with the bears, having not YET died to their fearsome claws; and Ellen and Jane’s kobolds “The Quiet” (Ellen) and “The Miniature” (Jane) having actually made it out of the cave, yay! Tomorrow, we’ll see who else manages to get past the bears and join them on their quest to find that damn leaf!
So yeah -- maybe not a total loss of a day, but definitely not as productive as I would have liked. *shrug* What can you do. Besides go to bed, because I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow's a workday after all! Hopefully it won't be a bad one...night all!
Happy Birthday Smiler!
May. 31st, 2025 11:56 pmAnd the reason I'm a little late in saying that is attached to this post -- occurred to me last minute that I might want an icon of Smiler just by themselves for this sort of thing. :) So now I have one, featuring one of my favorite pictures of them. Look at that big old smile! Aren't they cute~
Anyway -- I ended up having a very nice, very chill Saturday for the most part, I'm pleased to say -- spending my time celebrating Smiler's birthday and getting stuff done:
Tumblr: Had a reasonably productive day over here –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Accomplishments over on this blog today included:
A) Getting the “plushy celebration” photo post for Smiler’s birthday up before lunch, featuring Smileon the bear holding birthday court over Victor Plush and Alice Dolly from atop both Us AND my desk chair, while Victor Plush and Alice Dolly – propped up by Dougie the dragon on my blankets – waited to hear their royal birthday decrees. Yeah, I didn’t want to do another race, like I did on Alice’s birthday, and I thought Smileon playfully “lording it over” Victor Plush and Alice Dolly with Us’s help might be fun. And it was! :) Though mainly I’m glad that getting the photo onto my computer from my phone was NOT an absolute shitshow this time – I was genuinely worried. But a lack of phone updates meant a lack of trouble, so yay.
B) And going through my two Mega Ghostbusters AU posts and doing some some last edits – rewording some clunky bits (including some unclear tags in the first post) and finishing off the second post with a proper concluding paragraph and proper tags. So those should be done and dusted now! :) Might drop them in the queue for this upcoming week, in fact – we’ll see how I feel!
Valice Multiverse – Had one anon ask pop up over here late tonight (which I technically answered after midnight, but I regularly count things that happened after midnight while updating this thing on weekends, because in my brain it’s still Saturday until I go to bed :P), commenting on how “I can’t be assed” doesn’t sound quite as good as “I can’t be arsed.” The Cuddlepile!Valicer trio agreed, with Victor positing that the “r” sound in “arsed” just adds a certain something that makes the second phrase sound more dismissive. *shrug* I mean, it makes sense to me, but then again it’s late and I am rather tired, so… :P
Sims 4: Yes, I ended up popping in here to create the Teen Valicer trio and do a little bit of dress-up with them over trying to do anything directly in Baldur’s Gate III today – because while I definitely WANT to get Tav!Smiler off the ground sooner rather than later, I know that getting that set up will be something of a time sink (what with figuring out my final modlist, clearing out old save files and mods, and possibly doing a straight-up uninstall and reinstall of the game to make sure everything is in tip-top shape before I restart for what is hopefully the last time), and I wanted to leave room for other activities today. Plus I just wanted to see my original Sims 4 Smiler again. :) So here’s how my mini-CAS session went:
A) Started by readding some of my custom content clothing to the game – namely NightmarePoison’s Smiler set; all the Crypt-O-Club stuff I’ve downloaded (“Angsty Adolescence,” “Creepy Creations,” “DIY Or Die,” and “Punk Pride”); Nucrest’s underwear set; Plumbella’s CC (for the hat with the cherries I like to give Alice); and Saurus’s “Rainbow Collection” – along with the “More Columns In CAS” mod (4 columns version, freshly downloaded so I was sure I had the latest one). I wanted to have the option to play around with my CC stuff if I so chose, and the “More Columns In CAS” mod just makes life so much EASIER when you’re playing dress-up with your Sims! Seriously, why is the ability to change up how many columns display in CAS not just in the game already? We have SO MANY CLOTHES from all these packs they keep releasing! Come on EA!
B) Anyway – with that sorted, my game updated, and my mods re-enabled after said update, it was time to get teenifying! I thus popped into my current building save, went to the “create a new household to move in” button, then grabbed the latest Valicer trio I’d saved into my Library – the one where Smiler is a spellcaster – and plopped them down in CAS, overwriting the random Sim provided (sorry random Sim!). We all then said a sad goodbye to Dogmeat (who was part of this Valicer trio, and most of the other ones currently saved in my Library, by virtue of them all being “cloned” off the version that lives in my Building Save – the Victor there was originally a Fallout 4-esque Victor living on his own, you see, so I gave him a Dogmeat so he wouldn’t be lonely) as I deleted him from the family –
And then it was just a matter of a few simple clicks to turn the trio into teenagers! Though those few simple clicks actually introduced me to two interesting facts about teenage Sims that I’d never really noticed before, having pretty much always played with young adults –
I. The Sims community likes to make a big deal about how teenagers are the same size as adults in this game (and how that can get confusing sometimes) – but having just changed Sims I’m intimately familiar with as young adults into teenagers, I think teenagers are slightly shorter than adult Sims! Like, I would swear Victor in particular shrunk a tiiiiny bit when I deaged him down to teenager (I thought he’d somehow gotten thinner, in fact). It’s BARELY noticeable, admittedly – teens could stand to be a little smaller just so we can distinguish them better from adults – but they are definitely not QUITE the same size as adults.
II. Teenagers naturally have higher-pitched voices than adult Sims. I didn’t notice this so much when I changed Victor, but when I de-aged Smiler, I was extremely thrown by their deep voice suddenly being much higher-pitched! I was actually worried something had gone wrong with my game, in fact – I kept swapping them back and forth, listening to the voice change, fiddling with the slider a bit to try and “fix” things, and wondering what the hell was going on –
And then I deaged Alice, heard the same thing happen to her voice, and went “oh, okay, it’s probably a teenager thing.” Which, on the one hand, hooray, my game isn’t fucking up – but on the other hand, now my trio are going to sound weird to me because I didn’t know that before and I’m used to their adult voices. XD Particularly Smiler’s – come on, game, I gave them a deep voice for a reason! (The reason being The Smiler coaster’s voice in the 2013 firework’s show is very deep, and that just became my headcanon for Smiler’s voice.)
C) Anyway – after getting past those two “???” moments, it was time to get the teens settled in some teen-appropriate outfits! I didn’t do a full wardrobe update today (that would take ages, and I got to the Simming a bit later than I wanted today), but I did make sure to do one “everyday” outfit for all three. I also checked their teen traits and updated them as necessary to properly reflect their personalities. Here’s what I ended up with:

Victor was first in the “new clothes” line-up, and while my original intention was to give him a nice top with a vest (as he pretty much always looks good in a vest), I wasn’t finding any that really screamed “teenager” to me. And the ones that did seem appropriate to a younger Victor often highlighted his kind-of-wonky proportions in a weird way (he has a really thin waist, and some tops just emphasized the narrow-but-present V between that and his shoulders a little too much. Which is weird, because when you look at his puppet model, he doesn’t really have shoulders, but I can’t really do that in Sims 4. Much like how I can’t make his neck absurdly thin – trust me, I tried, but it’s already as thin as it’ll go!). Fortunately, switching gears and filtering everything to see all the stuff specific to High School Years caused me to stumble across that blue sweater with the red trim – and when I put that on Victor, I was like “YES, GOOD, THAT’S MY TEENAGE VICTOR.” *nods* I paired it with a pair of HSY belted black pants (the slightly higher-waisted version, as I thought that looked better), some base-game blue-and-purple argyle socks, and some black sneakers that I think were added into the game in one of the recent patches, and he was good to go! His current traits are “Music Lover,” carried over from adult him, and “Socially Awkward,” which replaced “Clumsy” because, while he is both, I felt like “Socially Awkward” was the more relevant trait for his high school years. Not married to this combination, but it feels right for now!

Alice was up next, and after going through a bunch of outfits, and thinking I might make her go full “goth” in a Life & Death dress (as she wore the look VERY well), I stumbled across the above “checkered jumper dress over a long-sleeve shirt” full-body outfit from Crystal Creations and went “hang on, I’ve put her in this dress before – and didn’t I say at the time that, while I liked it, it would suit a teenager version of her better than an adult one? Well, she’s a teenager now, so…” XD So yeah – went with the dress in the “black shirt under blue jumper” version, matching Crystal Creations thigh-high diamond-patterned socks (I bounced between those and some proper stockings for a while, but felt the socks looked best with the dress), and a pair of Life & Death fancy patterned low boots, because they looked really cool (the picture does not do them justice). Oh, and of course her Realm of Magic key necklace, as that’s a key Alice accessory now. :) Pun not actually intended. XD Her traits are currently “Erratic” and “Gloomy,” carried over from her adult self – again, not married to this combination (especially since all I can see is Alice showering in the rain again constantly if I keep “Erratic”), but it works for now!

And we ended on the birthday enby themselves, Smiler! Who got an almost-entirely CC outfit because, well, they’re the ones who suited the style of the CC I had downloaded the most. XD Specifically, while I fiddled around with a couple different shirt options, I couldn’t resist sticking them in NightmarePoison’s The Smiler hoodie – nor could I resist the siren call of the Crypt-O-Club “Angsty Adolescence” pants with the one black leg and the one yellow-and-black-checked leg. :) Not a fan of the two different blacks on display, but eh – Smiler wouldn’t care. :P I finished off the outfit with those neat High School Years socks with the fancy multicolored leaf patterns; the Crypt-O-Club “Angsty Adolescence” high-top sneakers with all the doodles; the Get Together “chevron” bracelet in yellow, black, and white –
And some nonbinary nail polish! Yeah, I’ve never bothered giving my Sims nail polish before, but I figured if any of the trio were likely to try it out, it would be Smiler. (Well, okay, Alice might do it too, but we’ll start with Smiler. :p) Kept the nails short, though – I didn’t like the way the slightly-longer set looked on them. Their current traits are “Cheerful” and “Outgoing,” both carried over from their adult self – though I had to swap out “Geek” to get “Outgoing” because of the way Sims 4 trimmed down their traits upon age-down. This combination I may be married to – we will see. :p
D) With that sorted, I saved the teenaged trio to my Library, then lied to the game that I wanted to move them into a house (prompting the game to be like “okay, great, just click this button to save them to your Library before we take you to the map screen!” – I ALWAYS forget that happens when I make a new family) so I could answer a very important question – namely, would the trio, with the funds the game gives them at the start, be able to afford the version of “Town Square Terrace” that I made for them for the upcoming Teen Valicer Save file? I thus got to the map screen; noted that their current funds were $24,000; headed over to Copperdale; and hovered over Town Square Terrace –
And saw that it would cost them $23,960. So the answer was “yes, but just BARELY.” The poor kids would have $40 to their names upon purchase. XD Good thing I plan for them all to get part-time jobs! With that settled, I canceled the move-in, swung by the lot to make absolutely sure I couldn’t add any finishing touches (no – even a roll of toilet paper is $50!), then saved it to my Library for later and prepared to head out –
E) And then paused. Because, well, in addition to starting preparations for the Teen Valicer Save file, this playsession was supposed to be about celebrating Smiler’s birthday. And I couldn’t help but wonder – had I really done that by doing a dress-up session for the entire trio? I waffled for a moment, wondering if I wanted to pop back to CAS really quickly and do another outfit for Smiler or not –
And then I thought, “hang on a second – I’ve had problems with the game giving them the wrong teeth before. I better go double-check this Smiler and make sure they have the right chompers. And if I’m doing THAT, I might as well give them a second outfit. It is their birthday, after all.”
So yeah – ran back to CAS, double-checked Smiler’s teeth (pleased to report they had the correct set – the buck teeth in the front without the weird canines), then quickly rustled them up a second everyday look! And I knew pretty much exactly what I wanted – the nonbinary striped shirt from Saurus’s Rainbow Collection paired with the black rolled-up jeans from Crypt-O-Club’s “Punk Pride” set! Because they looked good together and I’m always for Smiler showing their nonbinary pride. :) I completed the look with some black-and-yellow sneakers from Outdoor Retreat (gotta get that yellow in), and some “Punk Pride” purple eye shadow! You can see the full outfit and a close-up of the eye shadow below:


Nice! I tried adding a hat to the outfit too, but I couldn’t find one I liked that went with it. *shrug* Maybe for a different outfit – I am very tempted to give them their Valicer In The Dark fit as another look. :p
And that wrapped up the playsession! Which was nice and chill and puts me that one little step closer to being able to start my new save file. :) Granted, I’m still bothered by the fact that Smiler’s eyes aren’t properly glowing anymore, but – still not sure how to fix that. Only thing I can think of to do is make a post asking for help on tumblr and see if anyone responds...maybe I can do that tomorrow. We’ll see!
YouTube: Well, I definitely listened to plenty of Smiler-themed stuff today – I made my bed to the 2013 Alton Towers fireworks show (which featured The Smiler in a key role at the end...as the villain, granted, but we all know the coaster is much eviler than my OC), the ad for the original “Festival of Thrills,” and the footage from the Roller Coaster Cafe (which has one of my favorite versions of The Smiler’s theme in it), and did my morning tumblring (above) to multiple videos of The Smiler’s official soundtrack, including one of my favorite longer remixes of it. But in terms of the Official Evening Video list, I tackled three –
A) “7 Biggest Red Flags for Game Reveals That Guarantee It’s Going to Suck” by OXtra – Ellen talking in the Purple Glowy Room (where she told us about that game with all the terrible deaths that haunted her childhood) about the stuff she sees as “red flags” whenever a game is revealed, whether it’s a new IP or a continuation of an old one. Game touts a huge “open world” map? Red flag – too many of these titles have huge maps with nothing interesting in them. Game shows off a flashy cinematic but no actual gameplay? Red flag – the game might look nothing like the short movie they made to promote it, and you can’t tell if the game is going to be in a genre you like or not. The executives insist “oh, we’re not doing ‘pay-to-win’ or anything of the ‘bad’ microtransactions?” RED FUCKING FLAG BECAUSE NOT ONLY DOES THAT MEAN THE GAME HAS MICROTRANSACTIONS, THEY ARE ALMOST CERTAINLY LYING. (Incidentally, did you know that the The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion remake/remaster includes the original horse armor that they originally sold as extra...but also has a deluxe edition with FUCKING EXTRA HORSE ARMOR?) Ellen has been a gamer most of her life, and has had an inside look into the industry for a little while now – heed her words or pay the price! Of an overpriced, buggy, awful game you don’t actually want.
B) “CaFae Latte Season 56 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi – the next compilation video of CaFae Latte content I had to catch up on! Featuring:
I. The gang getting their paychecks – and Bob taking Oscar into the back to offer him a choice between an overtime check or a magical blessing, specifically one to get him properly housed by the end of the month; after confirming it didn’t matter that he’d had to declare bankruptcy previously to clear his medical bills, that house would still be coming his way, he took that blessing, as you might expect!
II. Oscar encountering a fellow homeless friend of his, Roger, who came into the coffee shop looking for someone to sneak him a snack, and giving him a coffee and a muffin using the cafe’s “Neighbor Account” (a special account people can pay into so people like this dude Roger can get some food without needing to pay) – only for a true bitch of a Karen to approach the counter afterward to demand to see the manager...and then tell Bob to fire Oscar simply for being homeless. Bob was extremely unimpressed, especially when the customer kept saying things like “this is the affluent part of town, I come here to get away from…” [waves at Oscar] “that,” and ended up banning the woman for a year and a day AND cursing her so everyone would assume the worst of her during that time, like she assumed the worst of Oscar. And that’s only because Oscar talked her out of cursing the woman with homelessness herself (Oscar thought it would be too mean – you’re too kind, angel guy).
III. Nicole at her job meeting the mom of one of her students, Jason, when she came back in to get his noise-canceling headphones, and said mom asking her for help – because her OTHER son, Henry, is ALSO autistic, but she can’t get a proper diagnosis for him because he can make and keep eye contact, which is unfortunately the symptom everyone thinks is inherent to autism (it’s not, it’s just the most famous one). She’d tried to set up screenings for him at a local university, but she wanted to see if Nicole knew of any other resources she could use, because she was afraid that, without the official label, he wouldn’t get the help he truly needed to thrive. Nicole said she knew of a few places that she could go to for screenings, then recommended the mom visit the Stoughton Street Witches to see what they could do for her – whether it was spells and charms to help with stuff like meltdowns and overstimulation, or good luck charms to help Henry find someone who could get him properly diagnosed. As you might imagine, the mom was VERY grateful. Nice to see a parent trying their best to look out for their kid!
IV. And finally, JC serving what initially LOOKED like a human customer absolutely desperate for caffeine (ordering the Arcane Rush, which keeps you awake for AGES, and a caffeine packet with it) – but then he proved to know Cyrus, and they started chatting about the old coffee cart Cyrus and Bob used to run back in the 1880s, and how the physical location is much better but oh DAMN did the lemon drop candies peak back then. For some reason, JC thought the weirdest part of this whole thing was the fact that the customer called Cyrus “Blue” – when, you know, Cyrus has canonically not always been “Cyrus” (he was nicknamed that early in the series) and is, you know, supposed to be blue. XD I THINK this was meant to be the eldritch customer mentioned on the thumbnail (the comments seem to indicate it was, with the guy being based on a tumblr post)...and unfortunately, that means I’m a little disappointed, because I was expecting something a touch more Lovecraftian, not an unspecified nonhuman with a love of caffeine. Ah well – I guess that means that I can make up whatever rules I like for eldritch beings and those touched by their powers in my mental Valicer CaFae Latte AU fanfic. :p
C) And finally, to give The Smiler an “official entry” on this list, I watched “The Smiler On-ride POV #AltonTowersTogether” by Alton Towers – a first-person front-seat trip around the coaster! With a certain middle bit cut out because it showed that this particular footage was recorded before a certain crash and thus showed the old “Halfway Corrected” sign right before the second lift hill. *shakehead* Oh Alton Towers...hopefully one day I’ll be able to ride the ride in person. Fingers crossed!
Writing: Got to this quite late in the day – note to self, always do writing before watching YouTube, because your videos WILL find a way to expand to fill all the available time – but I did get to it! Specifically, I did another editing pass on “Blessing” – a short Valicer In The Dark fic I wrote about when Smiler got their blessing, and their iconic yellow glowing eyes, from Mar-Mal! Covering Smiler waking up late the morning after the party where they presented Joy Serum to the other Advocates, trying to figure out why they’re so groggy and remembering a weird-but-pleasant dream they had; going to the bathroom and getting very distracted by their new eye color; then arriving at breakfast and learning from their stunned-and-overjoyed parents what must have happened last night in their sleep. And then reassuring said parents that Mar-Mal didn’t overdo it and that they do still want to eat breakfast. XD I didn’t do too much to it – tweaked some word choices here and there, expanded a paragraph or two by a few sentences – but it was nice to revisit in honor of Smiler’s birthday. :) Suppose I should actually post it somewhere at some point, of course...we’ll see what happens!
So yeah -- hit pretty much everything I wanted to hit when it came to Smiler birthday celebrations! Apart from finding a fanfic to read, but I've been bad at that for ages, so... And now I should wrap things up and hit the sheets! Tomorrow, goals include continuing to work on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts; starting the process of getting my Tav!Smiler sorted in Baldur's Gate III (because I DO want to get that done, as previously mentioned); getting in a workout; and keeping up with the latest from Jon on Fallout: London! I believe those are all achievable goals -- we shall see! Night all!
Anyway -- I ended up having a very nice, very chill Saturday for the most part, I'm pleased to say -- spending my time celebrating Smiler's birthday and getting stuff done:
Tumblr: Had a reasonably productive day over here –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Accomplishments over on this blog today included:
A) Getting the “plushy celebration” photo post for Smiler’s birthday up before lunch, featuring Smileon the bear holding birthday court over Victor Plush and Alice Dolly from atop both Us AND my desk chair, while Victor Plush and Alice Dolly – propped up by Dougie the dragon on my blankets – waited to hear their royal birthday decrees. Yeah, I didn’t want to do another race, like I did on Alice’s birthday, and I thought Smileon playfully “lording it over” Victor Plush and Alice Dolly with Us’s help might be fun. And it was! :) Though mainly I’m glad that getting the photo onto my computer from my phone was NOT an absolute shitshow this time – I was genuinely worried. But a lack of phone updates meant a lack of trouble, so yay.
B) And going through my two Mega Ghostbusters AU posts and doing some some last edits – rewording some clunky bits (including some unclear tags in the first post) and finishing off the second post with a proper concluding paragraph and proper tags. So those should be done and dusted now! :) Might drop them in the queue for this upcoming week, in fact – we’ll see how I feel!
Valice Multiverse – Had one anon ask pop up over here late tonight (which I technically answered after midnight, but I regularly count things that happened after midnight while updating this thing on weekends, because in my brain it’s still Saturday until I go to bed :P), commenting on how “I can’t be assed” doesn’t sound quite as good as “I can’t be arsed.” The Cuddlepile!Valicer trio agreed, with Victor positing that the “r” sound in “arsed” just adds a certain something that makes the second phrase sound more dismissive. *shrug* I mean, it makes sense to me, but then again it’s late and I am rather tired, so… :P
Sims 4: Yes, I ended up popping in here to create the Teen Valicer trio and do a little bit of dress-up with them over trying to do anything directly in Baldur’s Gate III today – because while I definitely WANT to get Tav!Smiler off the ground sooner rather than later, I know that getting that set up will be something of a time sink (what with figuring out my final modlist, clearing out old save files and mods, and possibly doing a straight-up uninstall and reinstall of the game to make sure everything is in tip-top shape before I restart for what is hopefully the last time), and I wanted to leave room for other activities today. Plus I just wanted to see my original Sims 4 Smiler again. :) So here’s how my mini-CAS session went:
A) Started by readding some of my custom content clothing to the game – namely NightmarePoison’s Smiler set; all the Crypt-O-Club stuff I’ve downloaded (“Angsty Adolescence,” “Creepy Creations,” “DIY Or Die,” and “Punk Pride”); Nucrest’s underwear set; Plumbella’s CC (for the hat with the cherries I like to give Alice); and Saurus’s “Rainbow Collection” – along with the “More Columns In CAS” mod (4 columns version, freshly downloaded so I was sure I had the latest one). I wanted to have the option to play around with my CC stuff if I so chose, and the “More Columns In CAS” mod just makes life so much EASIER when you’re playing dress-up with your Sims! Seriously, why is the ability to change up how many columns display in CAS not just in the game already? We have SO MANY CLOTHES from all these packs they keep releasing! Come on EA!
B) Anyway – with that sorted, my game updated, and my mods re-enabled after said update, it was time to get teenifying! I thus popped into my current building save, went to the “create a new household to move in” button, then grabbed the latest Valicer trio I’d saved into my Library – the one where Smiler is a spellcaster – and plopped them down in CAS, overwriting the random Sim provided (sorry random Sim!). We all then said a sad goodbye to Dogmeat (who was part of this Valicer trio, and most of the other ones currently saved in my Library, by virtue of them all being “cloned” off the version that lives in my Building Save – the Victor there was originally a Fallout 4-esque Victor living on his own, you see, so I gave him a Dogmeat so he wouldn’t be lonely) as I deleted him from the family –
And then it was just a matter of a few simple clicks to turn the trio into teenagers! Though those few simple clicks actually introduced me to two interesting facts about teenage Sims that I’d never really noticed before, having pretty much always played with young adults –
I. The Sims community likes to make a big deal about how teenagers are the same size as adults in this game (and how that can get confusing sometimes) – but having just changed Sims I’m intimately familiar with as young adults into teenagers, I think teenagers are slightly shorter than adult Sims! Like, I would swear Victor in particular shrunk a tiiiiny bit when I deaged him down to teenager (I thought he’d somehow gotten thinner, in fact). It’s BARELY noticeable, admittedly – teens could stand to be a little smaller just so we can distinguish them better from adults – but they are definitely not QUITE the same size as adults.
II. Teenagers naturally have higher-pitched voices than adult Sims. I didn’t notice this so much when I changed Victor, but when I de-aged Smiler, I was extremely thrown by their deep voice suddenly being much higher-pitched! I was actually worried something had gone wrong with my game, in fact – I kept swapping them back and forth, listening to the voice change, fiddling with the slider a bit to try and “fix” things, and wondering what the hell was going on –
And then I deaged Alice, heard the same thing happen to her voice, and went “oh, okay, it’s probably a teenager thing.” Which, on the one hand, hooray, my game isn’t fucking up – but on the other hand, now my trio are going to sound weird to me because I didn’t know that before and I’m used to their adult voices. XD Particularly Smiler’s – come on, game, I gave them a deep voice for a reason! (The reason being The Smiler coaster’s voice in the 2013 firework’s show is very deep, and that just became my headcanon for Smiler’s voice.)
C) Anyway – after getting past those two “???” moments, it was time to get the teens settled in some teen-appropriate outfits! I didn’t do a full wardrobe update today (that would take ages, and I got to the Simming a bit later than I wanted today), but I did make sure to do one “everyday” outfit for all three. I also checked their teen traits and updated them as necessary to properly reflect their personalities. Here’s what I ended up with:

Victor was first in the “new clothes” line-up, and while my original intention was to give him a nice top with a vest (as he pretty much always looks good in a vest), I wasn’t finding any that really screamed “teenager” to me. And the ones that did seem appropriate to a younger Victor often highlighted his kind-of-wonky proportions in a weird way (he has a really thin waist, and some tops just emphasized the narrow-but-present V between that and his shoulders a little too much. Which is weird, because when you look at his puppet model, he doesn’t really have shoulders, but I can’t really do that in Sims 4. Much like how I can’t make his neck absurdly thin – trust me, I tried, but it’s already as thin as it’ll go!). Fortunately, switching gears and filtering everything to see all the stuff specific to High School Years caused me to stumble across that blue sweater with the red trim – and when I put that on Victor, I was like “YES, GOOD, THAT’S MY TEENAGE VICTOR.” *nods* I paired it with a pair of HSY belted black pants (the slightly higher-waisted version, as I thought that looked better), some base-game blue-and-purple argyle socks, and some black sneakers that I think were added into the game in one of the recent patches, and he was good to go! His current traits are “Music Lover,” carried over from adult him, and “Socially Awkward,” which replaced “Clumsy” because, while he is both, I felt like “Socially Awkward” was the more relevant trait for his high school years. Not married to this combination, but it feels right for now!

Alice was up next, and after going through a bunch of outfits, and thinking I might make her go full “goth” in a Life & Death dress (as she wore the look VERY well), I stumbled across the above “checkered jumper dress over a long-sleeve shirt” full-body outfit from Crystal Creations and went “hang on, I’ve put her in this dress before – and didn’t I say at the time that, while I liked it, it would suit a teenager version of her better than an adult one? Well, she’s a teenager now, so…” XD So yeah – went with the dress in the “black shirt under blue jumper” version, matching Crystal Creations thigh-high diamond-patterned socks (I bounced between those and some proper stockings for a while, but felt the socks looked best with the dress), and a pair of Life & Death fancy patterned low boots, because they looked really cool (the picture does not do them justice). Oh, and of course her Realm of Magic key necklace, as that’s a key Alice accessory now. :) Pun not actually intended. XD Her traits are currently “Erratic” and “Gloomy,” carried over from her adult self – again, not married to this combination (especially since all I can see is Alice showering in the rain again constantly if I keep “Erratic”), but it works for now!

And we ended on the birthday enby themselves, Smiler! Who got an almost-entirely CC outfit because, well, they’re the ones who suited the style of the CC I had downloaded the most. XD Specifically, while I fiddled around with a couple different shirt options, I couldn’t resist sticking them in NightmarePoison’s The Smiler hoodie – nor could I resist the siren call of the Crypt-O-Club “Angsty Adolescence” pants with the one black leg and the one yellow-and-black-checked leg. :) Not a fan of the two different blacks on display, but eh – Smiler wouldn’t care. :P I finished off the outfit with those neat High School Years socks with the fancy multicolored leaf patterns; the Crypt-O-Club “Angsty Adolescence” high-top sneakers with all the doodles; the Get Together “chevron” bracelet in yellow, black, and white –
And some nonbinary nail polish! Yeah, I’ve never bothered giving my Sims nail polish before, but I figured if any of the trio were likely to try it out, it would be Smiler. (Well, okay, Alice might do it too, but we’ll start with Smiler. :p) Kept the nails short, though – I didn’t like the way the slightly-longer set looked on them. Their current traits are “Cheerful” and “Outgoing,” both carried over from their adult self – though I had to swap out “Geek” to get “Outgoing” because of the way Sims 4 trimmed down their traits upon age-down. This combination I may be married to – we will see. :p
D) With that sorted, I saved the teenaged trio to my Library, then lied to the game that I wanted to move them into a house (prompting the game to be like “okay, great, just click this button to save them to your Library before we take you to the map screen!” – I ALWAYS forget that happens when I make a new family) so I could answer a very important question – namely, would the trio, with the funds the game gives them at the start, be able to afford the version of “Town Square Terrace” that I made for them for the upcoming Teen Valicer Save file? I thus got to the map screen; noted that their current funds were $24,000; headed over to Copperdale; and hovered over Town Square Terrace –
And saw that it would cost them $23,960. So the answer was “yes, but just BARELY.” The poor kids would have $40 to their names upon purchase. XD Good thing I plan for them all to get part-time jobs! With that settled, I canceled the move-in, swung by the lot to make absolutely sure I couldn’t add any finishing touches (no – even a roll of toilet paper is $50!), then saved it to my Library for later and prepared to head out –
E) And then paused. Because, well, in addition to starting preparations for the Teen Valicer Save file, this playsession was supposed to be about celebrating Smiler’s birthday. And I couldn’t help but wonder – had I really done that by doing a dress-up session for the entire trio? I waffled for a moment, wondering if I wanted to pop back to CAS really quickly and do another outfit for Smiler or not –
And then I thought, “hang on a second – I’ve had problems with the game giving them the wrong teeth before. I better go double-check this Smiler and make sure they have the right chompers. And if I’m doing THAT, I might as well give them a second outfit. It is their birthday, after all.”
So yeah – ran back to CAS, double-checked Smiler’s teeth (pleased to report they had the correct set – the buck teeth in the front without the weird canines), then quickly rustled them up a second everyday look! And I knew pretty much exactly what I wanted – the nonbinary striped shirt from Saurus’s Rainbow Collection paired with the black rolled-up jeans from Crypt-O-Club’s “Punk Pride” set! Because they looked good together and I’m always for Smiler showing their nonbinary pride. :) I completed the look with some black-and-yellow sneakers from Outdoor Retreat (gotta get that yellow in), and some “Punk Pride” purple eye shadow! You can see the full outfit and a close-up of the eye shadow below:


Nice! I tried adding a hat to the outfit too, but I couldn’t find one I liked that went with it. *shrug* Maybe for a different outfit – I am very tempted to give them their Valicer In The Dark fit as another look. :p
And that wrapped up the playsession! Which was nice and chill and puts me that one little step closer to being able to start my new save file. :) Granted, I’m still bothered by the fact that Smiler’s eyes aren’t properly glowing anymore, but – still not sure how to fix that. Only thing I can think of to do is make a post asking for help on tumblr and see if anyone responds...maybe I can do that tomorrow. We’ll see!
YouTube: Well, I definitely listened to plenty of Smiler-themed stuff today – I made my bed to the 2013 Alton Towers fireworks show (which featured The Smiler in a key role at the end...as the villain, granted, but we all know the coaster is much eviler than my OC), the ad for the original “Festival of Thrills,” and the footage from the Roller Coaster Cafe (which has one of my favorite versions of The Smiler’s theme in it), and did my morning tumblring (above) to multiple videos of The Smiler’s official soundtrack, including one of my favorite longer remixes of it. But in terms of the Official Evening Video list, I tackled three –
A) “7 Biggest Red Flags for Game Reveals That Guarantee It’s Going to Suck” by OXtra – Ellen talking in the Purple Glowy Room (where she told us about that game with all the terrible deaths that haunted her childhood) about the stuff she sees as “red flags” whenever a game is revealed, whether it’s a new IP or a continuation of an old one. Game touts a huge “open world” map? Red flag – too many of these titles have huge maps with nothing interesting in them. Game shows off a flashy cinematic but no actual gameplay? Red flag – the game might look nothing like the short movie they made to promote it, and you can’t tell if the game is going to be in a genre you like or not. The executives insist “oh, we’re not doing ‘pay-to-win’ or anything of the ‘bad’ microtransactions?” RED FUCKING FLAG BECAUSE NOT ONLY DOES THAT MEAN THE GAME HAS MICROTRANSACTIONS, THEY ARE ALMOST CERTAINLY LYING. (Incidentally, did you know that the The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion remake/remaster includes the original horse armor that they originally sold as extra...but also has a deluxe edition with FUCKING EXTRA HORSE ARMOR?) Ellen has been a gamer most of her life, and has had an inside look into the industry for a little while now – heed her words or pay the price! Of an overpriced, buggy, awful game you don’t actually want.
B) “CaFae Latte Season 56 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi – the next compilation video of CaFae Latte content I had to catch up on! Featuring:
I. The gang getting their paychecks – and Bob taking Oscar into the back to offer him a choice between an overtime check or a magical blessing, specifically one to get him properly housed by the end of the month; after confirming it didn’t matter that he’d had to declare bankruptcy previously to clear his medical bills, that house would still be coming his way, he took that blessing, as you might expect!
II. Oscar encountering a fellow homeless friend of his, Roger, who came into the coffee shop looking for someone to sneak him a snack, and giving him a coffee and a muffin using the cafe’s “Neighbor Account” (a special account people can pay into so people like this dude Roger can get some food without needing to pay) – only for a true bitch of a Karen to approach the counter afterward to demand to see the manager...and then tell Bob to fire Oscar simply for being homeless. Bob was extremely unimpressed, especially when the customer kept saying things like “this is the affluent part of town, I come here to get away from…” [waves at Oscar] “that,” and ended up banning the woman for a year and a day AND cursing her so everyone would assume the worst of her during that time, like she assumed the worst of Oscar. And that’s only because Oscar talked her out of cursing the woman with homelessness herself (Oscar thought it would be too mean – you’re too kind, angel guy).
III. Nicole at her job meeting the mom of one of her students, Jason, when she came back in to get his noise-canceling headphones, and said mom asking her for help – because her OTHER son, Henry, is ALSO autistic, but she can’t get a proper diagnosis for him because he can make and keep eye contact, which is unfortunately the symptom everyone thinks is inherent to autism (it’s not, it’s just the most famous one). She’d tried to set up screenings for him at a local university, but she wanted to see if Nicole knew of any other resources she could use, because she was afraid that, without the official label, he wouldn’t get the help he truly needed to thrive. Nicole said she knew of a few places that she could go to for screenings, then recommended the mom visit the Stoughton Street Witches to see what they could do for her – whether it was spells and charms to help with stuff like meltdowns and overstimulation, or good luck charms to help Henry find someone who could get him properly diagnosed. As you might imagine, the mom was VERY grateful. Nice to see a parent trying their best to look out for their kid!
IV. And finally, JC serving what initially LOOKED like a human customer absolutely desperate for caffeine (ordering the Arcane Rush, which keeps you awake for AGES, and a caffeine packet with it) – but then he proved to know Cyrus, and they started chatting about the old coffee cart Cyrus and Bob used to run back in the 1880s, and how the physical location is much better but oh DAMN did the lemon drop candies peak back then. For some reason, JC thought the weirdest part of this whole thing was the fact that the customer called Cyrus “Blue” – when, you know, Cyrus has canonically not always been “Cyrus” (he was nicknamed that early in the series) and is, you know, supposed to be blue. XD I THINK this was meant to be the eldritch customer mentioned on the thumbnail (the comments seem to indicate it was, with the guy being based on a tumblr post)...and unfortunately, that means I’m a little disappointed, because I was expecting something a touch more Lovecraftian, not an unspecified nonhuman with a love of caffeine. Ah well – I guess that means that I can make up whatever rules I like for eldritch beings and those touched by their powers in my mental Valicer CaFae Latte AU fanfic. :p
C) And finally, to give The Smiler an “official entry” on this list, I watched “The Smiler On-ride POV #AltonTowersTogether” by Alton Towers – a first-person front-seat trip around the coaster! With a certain middle bit cut out because it showed that this particular footage was recorded before a certain crash and thus showed the old “Halfway Corrected” sign right before the second lift hill. *shakehead* Oh Alton Towers...hopefully one day I’ll be able to ride the ride in person. Fingers crossed!
Writing: Got to this quite late in the day – note to self, always do writing before watching YouTube, because your videos WILL find a way to expand to fill all the available time – but I did get to it! Specifically, I did another editing pass on “Blessing” – a short Valicer In The Dark fic I wrote about when Smiler got their blessing, and their iconic yellow glowing eyes, from Mar-Mal! Covering Smiler waking up late the morning after the party where they presented Joy Serum to the other Advocates, trying to figure out why they’re so groggy and remembering a weird-but-pleasant dream they had; going to the bathroom and getting very distracted by their new eye color; then arriving at breakfast and learning from their stunned-and-overjoyed parents what must have happened last night in their sleep. And then reassuring said parents that Mar-Mal didn’t overdo it and that they do still want to eat breakfast. XD I didn’t do too much to it – tweaked some word choices here and there, expanded a paragraph or two by a few sentences – but it was nice to revisit in honor of Smiler’s birthday. :) Suppose I should actually post it somewhere at some point, of course...we’ll see what happens!
So yeah -- hit pretty much everything I wanted to hit when it came to Smiler birthday celebrations! Apart from finding a fanfic to read, but I've been bad at that for ages, so... And now I should wrap things up and hit the sheets! Tomorrow, goals include continuing to work on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts; starting the process of getting my Tav!Smiler sorted in Baldur's Gate III (because I DO want to get that done, as previously mentioned); getting in a workout; and keeping up with the latest from Jon on Fallout: London! I believe those are all achievable goals -- we shall see! Night all!
Pretty Decent Friday
May. 30th, 2025 11:47 pmLike the weather wasn't the greatest -- it was by turns cloudy, windy, and kinda muggy -- and I was rather tired a lot of the day after getting to bed too late last night, but I had a pretty good, fairly productive day overall --
Work – Fairly quiet Friday to end the week – I did the GL; I finished off the roster maintenance that came with the exceptions (along with fixing a few other things I found along the way); I endured going into the kitchen to celebrate Talky Coworker’s birthday (as yes, it was also her birthday today); and I tried not to get too bored with my work or annoyed with her chatter. *sigh* At least now she’s GONE – like, yes, I know she’ll be back for visits, but I don’t have to put up with her every fucking workday. Hoo-fucking-ray! And even better, now it’s the weekend again, yay~ Hopefully it shall be a good one!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week, pedaling my way through another pair of Proxy Gate Tactician’s videos:
A) “Can You Beat Baldur's Gate 3 Without Killing Anything?” – one of Proxy’s first challenge runs, seeing if he could beat the game without having to kill a single person directly (buffing NPCs to kill things for him and setting up traps to allow enemies to kill themselves was allowed, though). And the answer, happily, was yes – though it did take some careful planning, a little bit of cheesing, and working around various bugs and crashes near the end. Basically, the strat involved:
I. Making his player character a duergar (underdark dwarf) sorcerer, statted to have great Strength, Constitution, and Charisma, so they could leap, sneak (duergars get automatic access to the “Invsibility” cantrip at level 5), and talk their way out of trouble, while also being able to take a hit from enemies NOT doing a Technical Pacifist run
II. Making sure to get as much non-combat experience as possible by exploring, passing speech checks, and doing quests where it’s very easy to avoid combat – which, hilariously, meant avoiding the main quest as much as possible, as that involves a lot of murder. He didn’t do anything with the Emerald Grove beyond go shopping, for example! His poor characters were RATHER underleveled by the endgame as a result, but Proxy made it work!
III. Taking full advantage of having NPC allies in fights by buffing the hell out of them so THEY could kill all his problems (notably, giving Aylin “Haste” and throwing invisibility potions at her during the fights with Ketheric Thorm)
IV. Glitching the hell out of Orin to trap her in the form of a child (as she kidnaps your orphan cook Yenna if you don’t have any companions she can kidnap in your camp in Act III), then knocking her out with a tap on the head to claim her Netherstone without killing her
V. Struggling to deal with the fight with Gortash, holder of the third Netherstone, after this (as he was not happy with the group for not KILLING Orin, like they agreed to when they sided with him), as, the FIRST time Proxy tried to finish him off by tricking his own magical turrets into shooting him (via sneakily casting “Sanctuary” on himself before walking close to Gortash), he learned that, at a certain health threshold, Bane (Gortash’s god) empowers the guy with a load of extra hit points and a bunch of damage resistances. Fortunately, during the rematch, Proxy managed to get the turrets to not only damage Gortash, but also one of his Steel Watch guard robots – and said robot self-destructed, taking out its master with it. XD That was a lucky break!
VI. Tricking the Netherbrain into killing itself by setting up a bunch of explosive barrels on the platform it was trying to destroy...only for that to crash the game, so Proxy had to fiddle until he discovered that setting up the explosive trap on the platform NEXT to the one it was trying to destroy did not cause his game to freak out.
And there you have it – a walkthrough of how you beat the game without TECHNICALLY killing anyone. Or, at least, how you did it back on November 13th, 2023 – I imagine subsequent patches may have messed up this strat a little! Still fun to watch, though.
B) “Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access - Summon Challenge” – Proxy, back in the “Early Access” days of the game, deciding to see if a bunch of summons – including a dire raven named Corvus, a Mage Hand called Master Hand, a trio of pinchy pinchy crabs, an imp from the Hells, and a large burning lava rock called Orby – could defeat the hardest encounter in the game at that time – a Githyanki death squad in the mountains! The answer was “yes, but it required cheesing.” For, you see, while the team did quite well against a group of goblins over in a decaying village, taking them out with a single crab casualty, the Githyanki proved to be a LOT fucking tougher, and a lot better at killing the summons. Fortunately, this is where the cheese came in –
For, you see, since the whole point of this challenge was seeing if only SUMMONS can kill the Githyanki, that meant the ACTUAL CHARACTERS weren’t in the fight. They were in fact hiding in a bush nearby. And since they weren’t in combat, that meant they were free to RESUMMON their various friends over and over again and send them into the fray. So, while Orby was the only summon to survive the entire fight (due to having 50 HP), the endless reinforcements ended up beating the Githyanki in the end. I would say “good to know,” but this was done in the Early Access version of BG3, so I don’t think it’s relevant to my own playthrough. XD Though, on the plus side, as the very first challenge video Proxy ever did, this is basically the video that launched his channel theme, so it’s the reason I have all the OTHER cool videos to watch. :P
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – and I made sure to do this FIRST tonight, to make absolutely sure I could finish a page should things go bad in the old brainpan and make it so every word was a struggle. Fortunately, I did not have to fight against my own brain tonight, and I was able to finish up Chapter 1 of this story with Matt arriving carrying Victor and Alice’s freshly-washed-and-mended clothes (courtesy of “Widow Black,” whose name IS that of a certain Corpse Bride spider’s reversed), and Alice and Victor insisting on helping with getting breakfast ready because they’d be happier if they did (with Carol putting them on powdered sugar (Victor) and jam (Alice) fetching duties – the latter allowing me to work in the trio telling each other their favorite fruits, AND the fact that truly “wild” bananas are absolutely full of seeds with Alice being surprised Smiler likes them so much because of that. Fortunately for Smiler, the Cavendish family (named after the most common commercially-traded banana cultivars, themselves named after the 6th Duke of Devonshire in the real world) spearheaded breeding efforts to make less seedy bananas in the past ten years :p). Chapter ended with Victor getting ready to dust the “eggy toast” with powdered sugar (encouraged by Carol, who said when he told her that he’d probably get it all over himself that that was “part of the fun”). :) Next time, we move onto starting Chapter 2 and the trio walking Victor back to the Van Dort mansion in Nightmarket...only to be surprised by a bunch of carriages outside the house for some reason...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – and yes, it was straight onto “CaFae Latte Season 55 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi tonight, to see –
A) JC and Nicole ATTEMPTING to have dinner at JC’s parents’ place – only for JC’s dad to pull out a little light racism (being surprised that Nicole, who is canonically black, is a teacher and not like a lunch lady back in his day), and JC’s mom to object to Nicole’s stimming and TRY TO GRAB HER HAND. JC and Nicole both were like “bail” after that, as you might expect!
B) JC relating this story to Cyrus and Oscar the next day – only for the asshole who got cursed to never get a girlfriend for seven years until he learned to see women as people, not pets, to show back up and start demanding to talk to Bob so he could try and get her to uncurse him. The others were like “that’s not happening,” and Oscar in particular was like “if you’re just going to cause a scene, I’m going to have to ask you to leave” –
And when the guy didn’t go, Oscar NAILED him with a blast of bright light (accidentally sending spots dancing across JC’s vision as well, as they didn’t cover their eyes when Cyrus said). Turns out that, yes, Oscar is an angel – a seraphim, to be precise! I thought he was better lit than the others… :P
C) Oscar giving everyone a lore-dump on himself and his life when Bob came in to see what had happened while she was doing inventory (over the course of two videos), explaining how he passes as human given seraphim are supposed to have HUGE wings (a guy he helped fend off a gang turned out to be a fairy who was able to enchant his cross necklace to turn his wings into tattoos on his back – he brings them out to go flying regularly though); how the light powers he has work (basically the brightness responds to his emotions – joy and rage cause the kind of light that blasted that guy’s eyes; grief and sorrow dampen it); and how he ended up homeless – turns out that the reason he was so annoyed by Ben talking about the angel cult was because his mother pulled much the same shit when she moved them there out of the seraphim realm (which is a horrible place that has a war going on like every other week), and when she finally got caught, he got fired from his job because they believed he was somehow connected to her crimes. And sadly, this happened at a time where he’d had to take out a mortgage on his house to try the pay the medical bills he racked up after getting (and fortunately beating) pancreatic cancer, meaning that suddenly he was unable to pay ANY of his bills, and – yeah. Lost the house, ended up on the streets. Everyone was very sympathetic to his bad draw, and Cyrus was like “does anyone else who works here have decent family relations besides me?” (Yes, Cyrus – Drek, Husniya, and Rethu, aka the person you’re DATING.)
D) Cyrus asking what Husniya was looking up on her break – turned out it was homeschooling options. Rethu was like “why” and Cyrus and Drek reminded them about some of the worst stuff about school – too much homework, awful curriculum, bullies –
And Husniya put in “I also don’t want my girls to get shot.” *wince* Cyrus tried to comfort her by saying that Bob and Nicole would load the kids up with good luck charms, and that those shootings mostly happened in southern states...only for Drek to then reveal HE survived an attempted school shooting. One of his asshole classmates got himself a revolver and tried to kill the teacher and some other kids, but fortunately he had the wrong ammunition and the gun jammed. Kid’s now in jail, but still. ...Rethu pointed out that the Canadian border was only an hour away if you flew after that. :(
E) And Oscar, Cyrus, and JC all sharing “time in jail” stories (since they’ve all been arrested – Oscar for “loitering” (aka being homeless); Cyrus for activism; JC for their drug issues) – Oscar relating how he made a friend of a thief by making the guy crack up when he tried to steal Oscar’s muffin; Cyrus talking about how someone tried to beat him up once, only to be left drooling on the floor – and then apologizing to Cyrus later once it got out the guy was half-troll and trying to hide it from the other inmates (Cyrus DID help him, and Bob got a lovely renovated kitchen in return once they got out and the guy became a handyman); and JC admitting that they originally made friends with drug dealers when they originally went to jail, only to beat them up when they went back while trying to get clean. Ended up with a group of other recovering addicts to hang out with after that, at least…
And then the episode ended with Kelly and Nicole going out shopping, with Kelly helping expand Nicole’s wardrobe as a thank you for her new hair accessory protective charms. :) It’s great to see them getting along so well! And I’m quite looking forward to the next one, as the thumbnail promises eldritch customers – and given my vague Valicer/CaFae Latte crossover AU thoughts, with Smiler being a bit eldritch themselves, I’m very interested to see what kind of customers they are...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Substitute check and check –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Didn’t have anything over here to put into the queue tonight...but I did get a reblog from The Satirical Demon (author of the Valice Hellworld fic) on my “How To Write Smiler Alton: A Guide” post. With a Spongebob Squarepants gif of Patrick the starfish taking notes, a comment that “This will be very useful for secret future things :)”, and some tags saying something about it being a “very literal interpretation.” O.O I reblogged it with a copy of his tags and “*eyes emoji*” because I am VERY interested to see just what it is he’s got planned!
Valice Multiverse – As for over here, I had two anon asks to stick in the queue:
A) One anon asking if milk added to a bowl of cereal was a beverage, a broth, or a sauce – while Inevitable High School!Alice wondered if the anon was going to try and argue that cereal with milk was a form of soup, and Victor accidentally pictured cereal in soup and got disgusted, Smiler went to Merriam-Webster on their phone to look up some definitions...and concluded that the milk in that case is a sauce, as it fit that definition (“a liquid or semisolid food mixture used especially as a topping or ingredient for adding to or enhancing the flavor of a dish,” as per the site) the best. And thus we have all learned a Cursed Fact.
B) And another anon complaining about how the internet has ruined gross-out humor by doing things like insisting someone making fart jokes has a fetish for farts and shit like that. Cuddlepile!Alice agreed by saying sometimes a fart joke is just a fart joke...in fact, she suspects that MOST of the time it’s just a fart joke, because that’s a pretty specific fetish. :p
Whew! And now I am going to bed. Tomorrow be Smiler's birthday, so my plans include watching something The Smiler-related; listening to The Smiler-related music; either trying to figure out Tav!Smiler once and for all in BG3 or making teen!Smiler in Sims 4 and doing some dress up with them (and Victor and Alice too, of course); doing some Smiler-related writing (either starting the next chapter of "The Van Dort Vacancy" or revising one of my other VITD one-shots -- I have a couple I haven't posted that ARE from their perspective); and maybe even working in some The Smiler fanfic. Oh, and getting a picture of Smileon to post on tumblr in honor of the day. *nods* Hopefully I should be able to accomplish all that -- night all!
Work – Fairly quiet Friday to end the week – I did the GL; I finished off the roster maintenance that came with the exceptions (along with fixing a few other things I found along the way); I endured going into the kitchen to celebrate Talky Coworker’s birthday (as yes, it was also her birthday today); and I tried not to get too bored with my work or annoyed with her chatter. *sigh* At least now she’s GONE – like, yes, I know she’ll be back for visits, but I don’t have to put up with her every fucking workday. Hoo-fucking-ray! And even better, now it’s the weekend again, yay~ Hopefully it shall be a good one!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – final night on the bike this week, pedaling my way through another pair of Proxy Gate Tactician’s videos:
A) “Can You Beat Baldur's Gate 3 Without Killing Anything?” – one of Proxy’s first challenge runs, seeing if he could beat the game without having to kill a single person directly (buffing NPCs to kill things for him and setting up traps to allow enemies to kill themselves was allowed, though). And the answer, happily, was yes – though it did take some careful planning, a little bit of cheesing, and working around various bugs and crashes near the end. Basically, the strat involved:
I. Making his player character a duergar (underdark dwarf) sorcerer, statted to have great Strength, Constitution, and Charisma, so they could leap, sneak (duergars get automatic access to the “Invsibility” cantrip at level 5), and talk their way out of trouble, while also being able to take a hit from enemies NOT doing a Technical Pacifist run
II. Making sure to get as much non-combat experience as possible by exploring, passing speech checks, and doing quests where it’s very easy to avoid combat – which, hilariously, meant avoiding the main quest as much as possible, as that involves a lot of murder. He didn’t do anything with the Emerald Grove beyond go shopping, for example! His poor characters were RATHER underleveled by the endgame as a result, but Proxy made it work!
III. Taking full advantage of having NPC allies in fights by buffing the hell out of them so THEY could kill all his problems (notably, giving Aylin “Haste” and throwing invisibility potions at her during the fights with Ketheric Thorm)
IV. Glitching the hell out of Orin to trap her in the form of a child (as she kidnaps your orphan cook Yenna if you don’t have any companions she can kidnap in your camp in Act III), then knocking her out with a tap on the head to claim her Netherstone without killing her
V. Struggling to deal with the fight with Gortash, holder of the third Netherstone, after this (as he was not happy with the group for not KILLING Orin, like they agreed to when they sided with him), as, the FIRST time Proxy tried to finish him off by tricking his own magical turrets into shooting him (via sneakily casting “Sanctuary” on himself before walking close to Gortash), he learned that, at a certain health threshold, Bane (Gortash’s god) empowers the guy with a load of extra hit points and a bunch of damage resistances. Fortunately, during the rematch, Proxy managed to get the turrets to not only damage Gortash, but also one of his Steel Watch guard robots – and said robot self-destructed, taking out its master with it. XD That was a lucky break!
VI. Tricking the Netherbrain into killing itself by setting up a bunch of explosive barrels on the platform it was trying to destroy...only for that to crash the game, so Proxy had to fiddle until he discovered that setting up the explosive trap on the platform NEXT to the one it was trying to destroy did not cause his game to freak out.
And there you have it – a walkthrough of how you beat the game without TECHNICALLY killing anyone. Or, at least, how you did it back on November 13th, 2023 – I imagine subsequent patches may have messed up this strat a little! Still fun to watch, though.
B) “Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access - Summon Challenge” – Proxy, back in the “Early Access” days of the game, deciding to see if a bunch of summons – including a dire raven named Corvus, a Mage Hand called Master Hand, a trio of pinchy pinchy crabs, an imp from the Hells, and a large burning lava rock called Orby – could defeat the hardest encounter in the game at that time – a Githyanki death squad in the mountains! The answer was “yes, but it required cheesing.” For, you see, while the team did quite well against a group of goblins over in a decaying village, taking them out with a single crab casualty, the Githyanki proved to be a LOT fucking tougher, and a lot better at killing the summons. Fortunately, this is where the cheese came in –
For, you see, since the whole point of this challenge was seeing if only SUMMONS can kill the Githyanki, that meant the ACTUAL CHARACTERS weren’t in the fight. They were in fact hiding in a bush nearby. And since they weren’t in combat, that meant they were free to RESUMMON their various friends over and over again and send them into the fray. So, while Orby was the only summon to survive the entire fight (due to having 50 HP), the endless reinforcements ended up beating the Githyanki in the end. I would say “good to know,” but this was done in the Early Access version of BG3, so I don’t think it’s relevant to my own playthrough. XD Though, on the plus side, as the very first challenge video Proxy ever did, this is basically the video that launched his channel theme, so it’s the reason I have all the OTHER cool videos to watch. :P
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check – and I made sure to do this FIRST tonight, to make absolutely sure I could finish a page should things go bad in the old brainpan and make it so every word was a struggle. Fortunately, I did not have to fight against my own brain tonight, and I was able to finish up Chapter 1 of this story with Matt arriving carrying Victor and Alice’s freshly-washed-and-mended clothes (courtesy of “Widow Black,” whose name IS that of a certain Corpse Bride spider’s reversed), and Alice and Victor insisting on helping with getting breakfast ready because they’d be happier if they did (with Carol putting them on powdered sugar (Victor) and jam (Alice) fetching duties – the latter allowing me to work in the trio telling each other their favorite fruits, AND the fact that truly “wild” bananas are absolutely full of seeds with Alice being surprised Smiler likes them so much because of that. Fortunately for Smiler, the Cavendish family (named after the most common commercially-traded banana cultivars, themselves named after the 6th Duke of Devonshire in the real world) spearheaded breeding efforts to make less seedy bananas in the past ten years :p). Chapter ended with Victor getting ready to dust the “eggy toast” with powdered sugar (encouraged by Carol, who said when he told her that he’d probably get it all over himself that that was “part of the fun”). :) Next time, we move onto starting Chapter 2 and the trio walking Victor back to the Van Dort mansion in Nightmarket...only to be surprised by a bunch of carriages outside the house for some reason...
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – and yes, it was straight onto “CaFae Latte Season 55 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi tonight, to see –
A) JC and Nicole ATTEMPTING to have dinner at JC’s parents’ place – only for JC’s dad to pull out a little light racism (being surprised that Nicole, who is canonically black, is a teacher and not like a lunch lady back in his day), and JC’s mom to object to Nicole’s stimming and TRY TO GRAB HER HAND. JC and Nicole both were like “bail” after that, as you might expect!
B) JC relating this story to Cyrus and Oscar the next day – only for the asshole who got cursed to never get a girlfriend for seven years until he learned to see women as people, not pets, to show back up and start demanding to talk to Bob so he could try and get her to uncurse him. The others were like “that’s not happening,” and Oscar in particular was like “if you’re just going to cause a scene, I’m going to have to ask you to leave” –
And when the guy didn’t go, Oscar NAILED him with a blast of bright light (accidentally sending spots dancing across JC’s vision as well, as they didn’t cover their eyes when Cyrus said). Turns out that, yes, Oscar is an angel – a seraphim, to be precise! I thought he was better lit than the others… :P
C) Oscar giving everyone a lore-dump on himself and his life when Bob came in to see what had happened while she was doing inventory (over the course of two videos), explaining how he passes as human given seraphim are supposed to have HUGE wings (a guy he helped fend off a gang turned out to be a fairy who was able to enchant his cross necklace to turn his wings into tattoos on his back – he brings them out to go flying regularly though); how the light powers he has work (basically the brightness responds to his emotions – joy and rage cause the kind of light that blasted that guy’s eyes; grief and sorrow dampen it); and how he ended up homeless – turns out that the reason he was so annoyed by Ben talking about the angel cult was because his mother pulled much the same shit when she moved them there out of the seraphim realm (which is a horrible place that has a war going on like every other week), and when she finally got caught, he got fired from his job because they believed he was somehow connected to her crimes. And sadly, this happened at a time where he’d had to take out a mortgage on his house to try the pay the medical bills he racked up after getting (and fortunately beating) pancreatic cancer, meaning that suddenly he was unable to pay ANY of his bills, and – yeah. Lost the house, ended up on the streets. Everyone was very sympathetic to his bad draw, and Cyrus was like “does anyone else who works here have decent family relations besides me?” (Yes, Cyrus – Drek, Husniya, and Rethu, aka the person you’re DATING.)
D) Cyrus asking what Husniya was looking up on her break – turned out it was homeschooling options. Rethu was like “why” and Cyrus and Drek reminded them about some of the worst stuff about school – too much homework, awful curriculum, bullies –
And Husniya put in “I also don’t want my girls to get shot.” *wince* Cyrus tried to comfort her by saying that Bob and Nicole would load the kids up with good luck charms, and that those shootings mostly happened in southern states...only for Drek to then reveal HE survived an attempted school shooting. One of his asshole classmates got himself a revolver and tried to kill the teacher and some other kids, but fortunately he had the wrong ammunition and the gun jammed. Kid’s now in jail, but still. ...Rethu pointed out that the Canadian border was only an hour away if you flew after that. :(
E) And Oscar, Cyrus, and JC all sharing “time in jail” stories (since they’ve all been arrested – Oscar for “loitering” (aka being homeless); Cyrus for activism; JC for their drug issues) – Oscar relating how he made a friend of a thief by making the guy crack up when he tried to steal Oscar’s muffin; Cyrus talking about how someone tried to beat him up once, only to be left drooling on the floor – and then apologizing to Cyrus later once it got out the guy was half-troll and trying to hide it from the other inmates (Cyrus DID help him, and Bob got a lovely renovated kitchen in return once they got out and the guy became a handyman); and JC admitting that they originally made friends with drug dealers when they originally went to jail, only to beat them up when they went back while trying to get clean. Ended up with a group of other recovering addicts to hang out with after that, at least…
And then the episode ended with Kelly and Nicole going out shopping, with Kelly helping expand Nicole’s wardrobe as a thank you for her new hair accessory protective charms. :) It’s great to see them getting along so well! And I’m quite looking forward to the next one, as the thumbnail promises eldritch customers – and given my vague Valicer/CaFae Latte crossover AU thoughts, with Smiler being a bit eldritch themselves, I’m very interested to see what kind of customers they are...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Substitute check and check –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Didn’t have anything over here to put into the queue tonight...but I did get a reblog from The Satirical Demon (author of the Valice Hellworld fic) on my “How To Write Smiler Alton: A Guide” post. With a Spongebob Squarepants gif of Patrick the starfish taking notes, a comment that “This will be very useful for secret future things :)”, and some tags saying something about it being a “very literal interpretation.” O.O I reblogged it with a copy of his tags and “*eyes emoji*” because I am VERY interested to see just what it is he’s got planned!
Valice Multiverse – As for over here, I had two anon asks to stick in the queue:
A) One anon asking if milk added to a bowl of cereal was a beverage, a broth, or a sauce – while Inevitable High School!Alice wondered if the anon was going to try and argue that cereal with milk was a form of soup, and Victor accidentally pictured cereal in soup and got disgusted, Smiler went to Merriam-Webster on their phone to look up some definitions...and concluded that the milk in that case is a sauce, as it fit that definition (“a liquid or semisolid food mixture used especially as a topping or ingredient for adding to or enhancing the flavor of a dish,” as per the site) the best. And thus we have all learned a Cursed Fact.
B) And another anon complaining about how the internet has ruined gross-out humor by doing things like insisting someone making fart jokes has a fetish for farts and shit like that. Cuddlepile!Alice agreed by saying sometimes a fart joke is just a fart joke...in fact, she suspects that MOST of the time it’s just a fart joke, because that’s a pretty specific fetish. :p
Whew! And now I am going to bed. Tomorrow be Smiler's birthday, so my plans include watching something The Smiler-related; listening to The Smiler-related music; either trying to figure out Tav!Smiler once and for all in BG3 or making teen!Smiler in Sims 4 and doing some dress up with them (and Victor and Alice too, of course); doing some Smiler-related writing (either starting the next chapter of "The Van Dort Vacancy" or revising one of my other VITD one-shots -- I have a couple I haven't posted that ARE from their perspective); and maybe even working in some The Smiler fanfic. Oh, and getting a picture of Smileon to post on tumblr in honor of the day. *nods* Hopefully I should be able to accomplish all that -- night all!
Bad Brain Thursday
May. 29th, 2025 11:48 pmYeah, I was having some real problems staying focused earlier tonight -- my brain was revving off in a bunch of different directions (trying to figure out stuff for Tav!Smiler and my potential "Starting As Teens" Valicer Save), and it caused some nasty delays while I tried to wrangle it into submission. At least I did get everything I wanted to get done, done...
Work – An okay day – I ran some more credit card reports for Fiscal (tracking down some ACH returns for them); I took a few calls from people I’d e-mailed about failed credit cards the previous day and redid some gifts, along with updating a guy’s pledge payments; and I did some roster maintenance that came in with the exceptions, marking people “dead” or “inactive.” I also had to attend Talky Coworker’s little retirement party, with my boss making a big speech about how long she’s been working there and her insisting on giving me a hug. *grumbles* I did at least get cake out of it, I guess...still, very glad tomorrow is her last day. Hopefully it’ll be a decent Friday to end the week!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, and back to Proxy Gate Tactician’s channel to watch:
A) “Can You Beat Baldur's Gate 3 Without Using Duplicate Actions?” – Proxy seeing if he could get to the end of the game and save Faerun from the Netherbrain (aka the Absolute) while only using anything and everything that could count as an “action” exactly once. Meaning he got one jump, one shove, one cast of every spell, one use of every weapon attack, one use of every scroll (so long as he hadn’t already used the relevant spell), one use of every special arrow...the list went on and on. As you might expect, this meant that he had to plan his trip through the game very carefully to avoid wasting actions and to get the most out of each action he took. Especially when it came to traversing the multiple platforming jumping puzzles that the game likes to throw at you, since, you know, one jump. XD However, Proxy is a smart boy, and managed to pull it off via a combination of tactically planning his moves; letting the NPCs do all the work whenever possible (though this did NOT work in Moonrise Towers, let me tell you – those Harper allies who were supposed to help him storm the place died FAST); avoiding trouble by avoiding sidequests; doing horrible things to his companions (letting Wyll die in the opening fight with the goblins at the tiefling’s gate so he didn’t waste any actions trying to save him; completing the gauntlet of Shar without Shadowheart so he didn’t waste any actions getting her Shar’s special spear, causing her to leave permanently in a huff; and deliberately getting Astarion and Gale killed – Astarion to fix a bug, Gale to slip out of a cutscene and cheese the final boss fight a bit) –
Aaaand counting actions that did pretty much the exact same thing but had different names as different actions. XD Meaning class respecs for him and his party to get access to actions that functioned identically to stuff he had already used was a key part of his strategy. *shrug* I mean, I guess if they’re powered by different sources (a wizard’s magical “Ice Knife” versus a Way Of The Four Elements Monk’s ki-powered “Blade Of Rime”), they ARE technically different things, so – yeah, we’ll let you have this one, Proxy. XD But yeah, he played it cool and clever (except when bugs like “these enemies can SOMEHOW start targeting you even if you’ve protected yourself against that very thing with the ‘Sanctuary’ spell” screwed up his plans – he managed to figure out how to stop them ruining his action economy after a few reloads, though), did a little bit of cheesing near the end, and successfully defeated the brain, having taken 230 unique actions and used 23 unique items along the way! *nods* Nice work, Proxy – I look forward to watching your other challenge runs!
B) “Can you run faster than a Cheetah in Baldur's Gate 3?” – Proxy deciding to see if he could design a BG3 character whose movement speed was faster than that of a cheetah’s! And as it turned out, he could, though it definitely took some doing. Proxy started by calculating the base speed of a human character in the game – they can move 9 meters every (canonically) six-second-long turn in combat, which mathed out to an average speed of 5.4 km/hr – then began stacking on every freaking bonus he could find to increase that. From making his character a Wood Elf Barbarian with a bit of Rogue and Monk in them to take advantage of all the racial and class bonuses that gave him, to finding any and all gear that had some sort of movement bonus – or, in one case, gave him extra actions so he could use “Dash” on himself repeatedly to stack its effect – to having Gale cast good old “Longstrider” (which increases the distance one can move in a turn) on him and chugging a Potion Of Speed, Proxy was able to make his character (under VERY specific circumstances, mind) move at 273 km/hr – which is in fact TWICE a cheetah’s max speed (they top out at 120 km/hr). So yeah – it takes some very careful character building and more than a bit of cheesing, but it is possible to build an EXTREMELY speedy character in BG3. Fun times!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check, though WHOO BOY was it a struggle. I got to it late because the Bad Brain Times I mentioned above made writing up the summaries of Proxy’s videos take WAY LONGER than it should have, and THEN it took me a while to actually get GOING on the writing as I couldn’t figure out how to start what I wanted to write. Once I got past the initial block, though, the words started flowing, which was a relief. I was really scared there that I wasn’t going to get ANYTHING done. *shakes head* Come on, brain, the Valicer In The Dark stories are supposed to be the EASY ones!
Anyway – what I ended up doing tonight was revising what I wrote yesterday (with Victor saying he wasn’t going to take up Elder Gutknecht on his offer of Whisper training and Smiler and Alice both being very “???” about it) and adding two entirely new flashback scenes! One of Victor actually seeing one of the Advocate Whispers, Neil, summon lightning and being like “O.O want” about it, and one of the gang actually integrating themselves into Elder Gutknecht’s magical cloaking wards (the details of which were obtained via a deal with a devil) and Victor feeling the magic thrumming through the air and being like “...I think I want to know more about this.” Because I really wanted to sell how much Victor actually does want to learn about Whisper stuff, and I wasn’t sure the previous stories had shown that well enough. And, well, flashbacks are a tried-and-true game mechanic in Blades In The Dark, so I might as well integrate them into my fics. :p Tomorrow we’ll see about actually continuing the chapter, though – Victor and Alice need their clothes back for a start!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – got to it MUCH later than expected thanks to my brain having Focusing Problems, but I did get to “CaFae Latte Season 54 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi, like I’d hoped. This episode featured:
A) The introduction of new character Oscar, a very Minnesotan man who is a bit of a motormouth, but in a very lovable way. :) He showed up for a job interview with Bob at the same time an asshole customer showed up while Nicole was talking to Cyrus about meeting JC’s family (explaining that part of the reason she pushed for it was because she’s been kept as a “dirty little secret” by a partner before and – even though she knew that’s not what JC was doing – not meeting the family has left a bad taste in her mouth ever since) and said he was surprised that her boyfriend let her talk to other guys. Because apparently a woman sharing words with a man is a sure sign she’s gonna cheat on you. Nicole gave him the business, and Bob gave him a curse (unable to find a girlfriend for seven years, until he realizes women are people and not pets), before grabbing JC and proceeding to the interview table
B) Oscar’s job interview, which featured more of his ramblings as he talked about how he’s been surviving as a homeless person (mostly couch-surfing with friends while doing odd jobs like shoveling sidewalks in winter), how he knows Lindsey (from the food shelf, once helped defend her from someone who was angry she couldn’t make them a charm (girl WANTS to give them out to everyone, but simply doesn’t have the resources)), and how he keeps up his energy despite how much being homeless drains one (he likes having things to do, especially if they help people, as that nourishes the soul, and that helps nourish the body). It was enough to make Bob and JC go “when can you start?” :)
C) Oscar’s first morning on the job, with Cyrus showing him the ropes and whatnot – and noting that Husniya was supposed to be in like a half-hour ago...cue the poor woman rushing in to explain one of her baby twins is sick and they had to take an emergency ride to the hospital to get the medicine the poor kiddo needed. Oscar immediately told her that it was fine, they didn’t open for 15 minutes, so she should get a coffee and put her feet up, before heading to the bathroom so he didn’t have to break the groove later. Husniya was like “...I would commit atrocities for that man.” XD
D) JC checking in after the morning rush, being surprised to see Rethu working (he got called in after Bob decided to let Husniya have the rest of the day off to be with her sick kid) and checking in with Oscar (he was tired, but still trucking). Oscar deciding to spend his last five bucks on coffee prompted the pair to let him know about the food and drink policies for employees (you can snag like three or four drinks for free, and sneak food off the baking sheets, just don’t do it to excess), while Oscar asking about Rethu’s pin change (he came in with the “World’s Best Aunt” pin, then changed it to “World’s Best Uncle”) prompted them to explain to him about Rethu’s genderfluidity (the pin being a good indicator of which pronouns to use, though “they/them” were always acceptable). Oscar apologized if his question was insensitive, saying he tried to keep himself informed but the stuff he read was probably out of date and it was hard to keep up with all the changes, and Rethu and JC assured him it was fine, everything DID change a lot and it was hard to keep up. Which led to a discussion of Cyrus’s pride pins on his hat, and thus to a discussion of Rethu’s demisexuality...and Oscar having a little revelation about himself when told that not everyone needs to have that emotional connection to want to “canoodle.” XD As Rethu put it, “welcome to the queer club.” XD
E) And Oscar, after getting a very distracted Drek (who didn’t realize it was almost 2 PM) to take a break, meeting Ben, the autistic kid semi-regular, and him telling Oscar and JC about his project for his public speaking class – all about a cult that some angel formed by claiming to have healing powers, and how it got exposed and broken up after the angel tried to kill a reporter who’d figured out they were a fraud. Oscar was utterly disgusted by the angel’s behavior – almost as if he was taking it a little personally...and he and JC were both annoyed at the speech class guy telling Ben his “O”s were too Minnesotan. “What a dooooouchebag,” as JC said. XD
Lovely stuff, as always! I am delighted to make Oscar’s acquaintance, and even more delighted to anticipate the next video, in which we will see JC’s parents and learn Oscar’s deal...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing to do on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), but I had two asks on Valice Multiverse to pop into the queue:
A) One from an anon commenting on how “sitting on a throne of lines” is an odd statement, as lies are not actually something you can build furniture from – Cuddlepile!Alice explained that it wasn’t meant to be taken literally, but used as a way to build up an image of someone reaping rewards they hadn’t earned from falsehoods, while Smiler pointed out that the very fact that lies cannot be used to build thrones added an extra element of the throne being in danger of collapsing once someone noticed what it was made of wasn’t real
B) And one from The Satirical Demon asking another “caffeinated drinks” question – namely, if any of my core three muses like trying out different brands and cafes, or whether or not they like sticking to their tried-and-true places. I couldn’t resist answering for the whole OT3, and said that Victor likes sticking to his “tried-and-true” cafes; Alice is a little more adventurous, but also likes sticking to what she knows (especially if they know her and her mental health problems); and Smiler likes to try out new things, but always has a home base to fall back on (adding in the tags that, since they WORK at a cafe in my modern AU, it’s probably that place :p).
Nice to get some engagement around here again. :)
*nods* There we are -- aaaand thanks to the bad brain, I am up way too late, and must now immediately go to bed. *sigh* Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow -- damn period, screwing up my focus...night all!
Work – An okay day – I ran some more credit card reports for Fiscal (tracking down some ACH returns for them); I took a few calls from people I’d e-mailed about failed credit cards the previous day and redid some gifts, along with updating a guy’s pledge payments; and I did some roster maintenance that came in with the exceptions, marking people “dead” or “inactive.” I also had to attend Talky Coworker’s little retirement party, with my boss making a big speech about how long she’s been working there and her insisting on giving me a hug. *grumbles* I did at least get cake out of it, I guess...still, very glad tomorrow is her last day. Hopefully it’ll be a decent Friday to end the week!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, and back to Proxy Gate Tactician’s channel to watch:
A) “Can You Beat Baldur's Gate 3 Without Using Duplicate Actions?” – Proxy seeing if he could get to the end of the game and save Faerun from the Netherbrain (aka the Absolute) while only using anything and everything that could count as an “action” exactly once. Meaning he got one jump, one shove, one cast of every spell, one use of every weapon attack, one use of every scroll (so long as he hadn’t already used the relevant spell), one use of every special arrow...the list went on and on. As you might expect, this meant that he had to plan his trip through the game very carefully to avoid wasting actions and to get the most out of each action he took. Especially when it came to traversing the multiple platforming jumping puzzles that the game likes to throw at you, since, you know, one jump. XD However, Proxy is a smart boy, and managed to pull it off via a combination of tactically planning his moves; letting the NPCs do all the work whenever possible (though this did NOT work in Moonrise Towers, let me tell you – those Harper allies who were supposed to help him storm the place died FAST); avoiding trouble by avoiding sidequests; doing horrible things to his companions (letting Wyll die in the opening fight with the goblins at the tiefling’s gate so he didn’t waste any actions trying to save him; completing the gauntlet of Shar without Shadowheart so he didn’t waste any actions getting her Shar’s special spear, causing her to leave permanently in a huff; and deliberately getting Astarion and Gale killed – Astarion to fix a bug, Gale to slip out of a cutscene and cheese the final boss fight a bit) –
Aaaand counting actions that did pretty much the exact same thing but had different names as different actions. XD Meaning class respecs for him and his party to get access to actions that functioned identically to stuff he had already used was a key part of his strategy. *shrug* I mean, I guess if they’re powered by different sources (a wizard’s magical “Ice Knife” versus a Way Of The Four Elements Monk’s ki-powered “Blade Of Rime”), they ARE technically different things, so – yeah, we’ll let you have this one, Proxy. XD But yeah, he played it cool and clever (except when bugs like “these enemies can SOMEHOW start targeting you even if you’ve protected yourself against that very thing with the ‘Sanctuary’ spell” screwed up his plans – he managed to figure out how to stop them ruining his action economy after a few reloads, though), did a little bit of cheesing near the end, and successfully defeated the brain, having taken 230 unique actions and used 23 unique items along the way! *nods* Nice work, Proxy – I look forward to watching your other challenge runs!
B) “Can you run faster than a Cheetah in Baldur's Gate 3?” – Proxy deciding to see if he could design a BG3 character whose movement speed was faster than that of a cheetah’s! And as it turned out, he could, though it definitely took some doing. Proxy started by calculating the base speed of a human character in the game – they can move 9 meters every (canonically) six-second-long turn in combat, which mathed out to an average speed of 5.4 km/hr – then began stacking on every freaking bonus he could find to increase that. From making his character a Wood Elf Barbarian with a bit of Rogue and Monk in them to take advantage of all the racial and class bonuses that gave him, to finding any and all gear that had some sort of movement bonus – or, in one case, gave him extra actions so he could use “Dash” on himself repeatedly to stack its effect – to having Gale cast good old “Longstrider” (which increases the distance one can move in a turn) on him and chugging a Potion Of Speed, Proxy was able to make his character (under VERY specific circumstances, mind) move at 273 km/hr – which is in fact TWICE a cheetah’s max speed (they top out at 120 km/hr). So yeah – it takes some very careful character building and more than a bit of cheesing, but it is possible to build an EXTREMELY speedy character in BG3. Fun times!
2. Continue writing “The Van Dort Vacancy”: Check, though WHOO BOY was it a struggle. I got to it late because the Bad Brain Times I mentioned above made writing up the summaries of Proxy’s videos take WAY LONGER than it should have, and THEN it took me a while to actually get GOING on the writing as I couldn’t figure out how to start what I wanted to write. Once I got past the initial block, though, the words started flowing, which was a relief. I was really scared there that I wasn’t going to get ANYTHING done. *shakes head* Come on, brain, the Valicer In The Dark stories are supposed to be the EASY ones!
Anyway – what I ended up doing tonight was revising what I wrote yesterday (with Victor saying he wasn’t going to take up Elder Gutknecht on his offer of Whisper training and Smiler and Alice both being very “???” about it) and adding two entirely new flashback scenes! One of Victor actually seeing one of the Advocate Whispers, Neil, summon lightning and being like “O.O want” about it, and one of the gang actually integrating themselves into Elder Gutknecht’s magical cloaking wards (the details of which were obtained via a deal with a devil) and Victor feeling the magic thrumming through the air and being like “...I think I want to know more about this.” Because I really wanted to sell how much Victor actually does want to learn about Whisper stuff, and I wasn’t sure the previous stories had shown that well enough. And, well, flashbacks are a tried-and-true game mechanic in Blades In The Dark, so I might as well integrate them into my fics. :p Tomorrow we’ll see about actually continuing the chapter, though – Victor and Alice need their clothes back for a start!
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – got to it MUCH later than expected thanks to my brain having Focusing Problems, but I did get to “CaFae Latte Season 54 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi, like I’d hoped. This episode featured:
A) The introduction of new character Oscar, a very Minnesotan man who is a bit of a motormouth, but in a very lovable way. :) He showed up for a job interview with Bob at the same time an asshole customer showed up while Nicole was talking to Cyrus about meeting JC’s family (explaining that part of the reason she pushed for it was because she’s been kept as a “dirty little secret” by a partner before and – even though she knew that’s not what JC was doing – not meeting the family has left a bad taste in her mouth ever since) and said he was surprised that her boyfriend let her talk to other guys. Because apparently a woman sharing words with a man is a sure sign she’s gonna cheat on you. Nicole gave him the business, and Bob gave him a curse (unable to find a girlfriend for seven years, until he realizes women are people and not pets), before grabbing JC and proceeding to the interview table
B) Oscar’s job interview, which featured more of his ramblings as he talked about how he’s been surviving as a homeless person (mostly couch-surfing with friends while doing odd jobs like shoveling sidewalks in winter), how he knows Lindsey (from the food shelf, once helped defend her from someone who was angry she couldn’t make them a charm (girl WANTS to give them out to everyone, but simply doesn’t have the resources)), and how he keeps up his energy despite how much being homeless drains one (he likes having things to do, especially if they help people, as that nourishes the soul, and that helps nourish the body). It was enough to make Bob and JC go “when can you start?” :)
C) Oscar’s first morning on the job, with Cyrus showing him the ropes and whatnot – and noting that Husniya was supposed to be in like a half-hour ago...cue the poor woman rushing in to explain one of her baby twins is sick and they had to take an emergency ride to the hospital to get the medicine the poor kiddo needed. Oscar immediately told her that it was fine, they didn’t open for 15 minutes, so she should get a coffee and put her feet up, before heading to the bathroom so he didn’t have to break the groove later. Husniya was like “...I would commit atrocities for that man.” XD
D) JC checking in after the morning rush, being surprised to see Rethu working (he got called in after Bob decided to let Husniya have the rest of the day off to be with her sick kid) and checking in with Oscar (he was tired, but still trucking). Oscar deciding to spend his last five bucks on coffee prompted the pair to let him know about the food and drink policies for employees (you can snag like three or four drinks for free, and sneak food off the baking sheets, just don’t do it to excess), while Oscar asking about Rethu’s pin change (he came in with the “World’s Best Aunt” pin, then changed it to “World’s Best Uncle”) prompted them to explain to him about Rethu’s genderfluidity (the pin being a good indicator of which pronouns to use, though “they/them” were always acceptable). Oscar apologized if his question was insensitive, saying he tried to keep himself informed but the stuff he read was probably out of date and it was hard to keep up with all the changes, and Rethu and JC assured him it was fine, everything DID change a lot and it was hard to keep up. Which led to a discussion of Cyrus’s pride pins on his hat, and thus to a discussion of Rethu’s demisexuality...and Oscar having a little revelation about himself when told that not everyone needs to have that emotional connection to want to “canoodle.” XD As Rethu put it, “welcome to the queer club.” XD
E) And Oscar, after getting a very distracted Drek (who didn’t realize it was almost 2 PM) to take a break, meeting Ben, the autistic kid semi-regular, and him telling Oscar and JC about his project for his public speaking class – all about a cult that some angel formed by claiming to have healing powers, and how it got exposed and broken up after the angel tried to kill a reporter who’d figured out they were a fraud. Oscar was utterly disgusted by the angel’s behavior – almost as if he was taking it a little personally...and he and JC were both annoyed at the speech class guy telling Ben his “O”s were too Minnesotan. “What a dooooouchebag,” as JC said. XD
Lovely stuff, as always! I am delighted to make Oscar’s acquaintance, and even more delighted to anticipate the next video, in which we will see JC’s parents and learn Oscar’s deal...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – nothing to do on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), but I had two asks on Valice Multiverse to pop into the queue:
A) One from an anon commenting on how “sitting on a throne of lines” is an odd statement, as lies are not actually something you can build furniture from – Cuddlepile!Alice explained that it wasn’t meant to be taken literally, but used as a way to build up an image of someone reaping rewards they hadn’t earned from falsehoods, while Smiler pointed out that the very fact that lies cannot be used to build thrones added an extra element of the throne being in danger of collapsing once someone noticed what it was made of wasn’t real
B) And one from The Satirical Demon asking another “caffeinated drinks” question – namely, if any of my core three muses like trying out different brands and cafes, or whether or not they like sticking to their tried-and-true places. I couldn’t resist answering for the whole OT3, and said that Victor likes sticking to his “tried-and-true” cafes; Alice is a little more adventurous, but also likes sticking to what she knows (especially if they know her and her mental health problems); and Smiler likes to try out new things, but always has a home base to fall back on (adding in the tags that, since they WORK at a cafe in my modern AU, it’s probably that place :p).
Nice to get some engagement around here again. :)
*nods* There we are -- aaaand thanks to the bad brain, I am up way too late, and must now immediately go to bed. *sigh* Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow -- damn period, screwing up my focus...night all!
Decent Wednesday
May. 28th, 2025 11:50 pmIt was another nice day weather-wise, and as you will see in the below write-up, I had a reasonably productive day --
Work – Today was mostly “working on credit card stuff” day for me at the office – I caught up with the credit card transaction and deposit total reports for Fiscal; I went through the failed credit card reports to see who had already resolved their issues and who needed an e-mail; I updated someone’s credit card over the phone (and helped another lady figure out her balance on her non-credit-card related pledge, because for some reason my Talky Coworker thought it was a credit card thing); and I e-mailed all the people with failed credit card gifts that came back in the latest batch of exceptions. *nods* Made the day go by – though the day ending an hour earlier also helped in that regard. :p Ah, what I wouldn’t give for seven-hour workdays being the standard...but that’s not happening anytime soon. *sigh* Just gotta enjoy it when it does!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, pedaling my way through:
A) The end of “World Wide Wrestling RPG | Oxventure Plays Pro Wrestling RPG with Daniel J Layton of No Rolls Barred” by Oxventure! The final half-hour of this ridiculous and ridiculously awesome one-shot featured:
I. Chip and Flex commenting on the ad break, with Flex saying that he might give Chessington Stu a call – cue Dan saying how much he wanted them to do a travelogue show together where they go around visiting various apiaries (places where they keep bees) and sausage spots and whatnot XD
II. The big finale “handicap” match, which featured Fabian Fantastic (Andy) having to fight both The Funeral Director (Mike) and Matt Finish (Dan) at once! Should have guessed that it would be a match that would allow all three to fight together. Fabian started in control, and managed to get the crowd riled by hopping outside the ropes (only ducking back in briefly to stop the referee, Brian Chinwag (as Dan dubbed him) from counting him out) and then disappearing under the ring itself; The Funeral Director tried to drag him back out, but a botched roll meant that he got Herringford instead, who punched him out. Fabian, meanwhile, emerged from the other side of the ring and hopped back into put the hurt on Matt, giving him a “backstabber” with his knees before attempting to put him into a submission hold –
But then a combination of a botched roll and Andy planning to cede control of the match to Dan anyway meant that Matt got out of the hold and managed to put some hurt on Fabian instead, flipping him over his head onto the mat! The Funeral Director then used one of his special abilities to turn this into one of his “signature” matches, getting a bunch of extras dressed as pallbearers to bring out a gold casket to put beside the ring. Whoever got shut into that casket was the loser! Matt thus threw Fabian over to FD, who gave him a nasty elbow drop before preparing for the funeral –
Aaand then Andy spent some momentum to yank control back and have Fabian sneakily punch FD in the junk with some brass knuckles. XD (Flex commented that that had happened to him once in his own wrestling days, and that everyone assumes that’s why he sounds like Kermit – no, he just talks like this, and he finds the assumption a bit hurtful, actually. XD) He then made some amazing rolls to wail on the poor Funeral Director for a while, and Johnny, as Creative, decided that – in order to set up an amazing grudge between the two – they were going to “book” Fabian to win the match. Unless anyone had any special abilities that would change things...cue Dan cackling for some reason...anyway, as the booked winner, Fabian was allowed to use his special finishing move, and thus decided to grab Matt (who’d attempted to jump on him to save The Funeral Director, but had unfortunately missed), do a nasty “brainbreaker” move (apparently a vertical headslam – well – shoulder slam) on the concrete, then drop Matt in the casket to end things –
EXCEPT. The reason Dan had cackled was because MATT had a special ability called “Hungry” that allows him to go “fuck Creative telling me I have to lose, I want to win” and try to take the match anyway! Cue Matt dragging Fabian into the casket with him (shocking the announcers), then – after a struggle, and a botched roll that everyone encouraged Dan to spend momentum on so it became a great success (Dan was like “but would it be more entertaining if Matt didn’t pull it off,” but everybody else was like “spend it!”) – Matt got free and SLAMMED the lid down on Fabian, ending the match and taking the win! Granted, he also got a fucked-up shoulder, and the announcers made clear that he probably had made some enemies of Fabian AND Graham Graham, the big boss, but Matt clearly thought it was worth it. Cue the episode ending with The Funeral Director giving Matt a solemn “you have indeed impressed me” handshake, and Matt celebrating by smashing two jars of that honey FD was promoting and dumping it all over himself. XD
III. And, as things wrapped up, me finally learning why Dan was part of this one-shot – turns out a large part of his online presence involves him talking about wrestling stuff. XD I figured he had to watch it as he kept explaining some of the wrestling moves Andy kept describing to Johnny (who was constantly like “ouch, wrestling is mean”), but I didn’t realize he did podcasts on it and such. Neat! XD I’m glad he came by – this was a fun One Shot Wonder! I do enjoy watching this lot play tabletop games – they get so into everything they do, it’s really great.
B) The entirety of “Finding the Hidden Netherstone Fail-safes in Baldur's Gate 3” by Proxy Gate Tactician! A short little video about the various ways the game will attempt to stop you from losing the Netherstones – the three rocks that are kind of key to being able to stop the Absolute from enacting its grand “let’s turn everyone into mind flayers or thralls” plan upon Faerun. Now, the game WILL allow you to take them out of your inventory and drop them various places (and it even has a special “game over” cutscene where you get found by the Absolute and turned into a mind flayer if you ignore your Dream Guardian/The Emperor telling you to pick them back up), but it has a number of failsafes that stop you losing them permanently:
I. Drop Ketheric’s Netherstone in the mind flayer colony after defeating him in his boss fight near the end of Act II? The Dream Guardian won’t let you leave until you retrieve it, or until you turn mind flayer
II. Drop it in the Astral Prism after exposing the Emperor and fighting all the githyanki trying to kill him? The Emperor will scold you for your carelessness once you’re back in the real world and say he send it back to your camp
III. Drop it (and any other Netherstones you may have picked up) in the Iron Throne, a location you can only visit once in Act III because it explodes right after you leave? The Emperor will scold you again and tell you to look by the beach to see if the precious stones can be found. And they can – either as loot on some fishy enemies who always pop up near some specific docks; as part of a trader called Troutman’s merchandise (costing only three gold each) if you’ve killed those enemies beforehand; or in the belly of a fish lying dead on the shore if you’ve taken care of the encounter AND poor Troutman
IV. Drop the stones in the Steel Watch Foundry, ANOTHER Act III location you can visit only once because it blows up after you leave? The Emperor will yell at you some more and tell you to search the rubble, where you will encounter a trio of kobolds (who only appear in this one specific instance) who have looted the Netherstones from the debris. From there, it’s your choice to kill them in the world’s easiest fight to get the stones back, or let them flee and get the “you got turned into a mind flayer” cutscene
V. Drop the stones in the dinosaur-infested Chult Jungle that the djinn who runs the crooked prize wheel in the local circus sends you to if you manage to cheat yourself and actually win his game? ...okay, here you are actually screwed, as I think the devs assumed you’d be more interested in not becoming dino chow over dropping the stones. There’s no voice line from the Emperor scolding you for dropping them, and if you leave the area without picking them up, they are lost forever as you cannot get back to the jungle after you’ve been once. Congratulations, you’ve found the one way you can softlock your game with the Netherstones! XD
But yes – four times out of five, when it comes to the Netherstones, the devs have planned for your chicanery. Good stuff! It is nice to see these videos that emphasize just how much care Larian put into these little edge cases. :) One day I may even get to see them myself! :P
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice made a little more progress through Grout’s bizarre house today, walking down some stairs and encountering the corpse of a heavily-clawed orderly (and wondering if the staff here actually work for pay, or are just more victims of Grout’s madness – her money’s on the latter); turning a corner and finding another sitting room, with a picture of Grout’s wife and a recording of him complaining about how his studies are growing nowhere and how he’s been wasting time wandering the tower walk in a “black depression” (Alice was like “well, at least this one didn’t send me into another murderous rage, but I hope with all my heart a bunch of your test subjects escaped while you were sulking”); and ascending the nearby winding staircase up onto the tower walk itself, taking a moment to look at LA from above and give Venture Tower the traditional English two-finger salute (and sharing a moment with Cheshire about how she hopes LaCroix falls out of a window and goes splat before she has to report back). Nothing too taxing for her today – she can spend the rest of the week enjoying the night air before I make her get a move on next Monday. :P
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – no regular subs, so I went straight to “CaFae Latte Season 53 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! This collection featured:
A) JC introducing Nicole to their younger sister Kelly – a green-haired community college student (theater and marketing double-major, photography minor) who is a “sugar baby,” accepting gifts and cash from rich men to pay the bills. She’d expected Nicole to be judgy, but actually Nicole was just surprised she didn’t do pornos (Kelly: “tried it, but the money is shit and the directors are assholes”). And then, when Kelly started asking about their financial situation and talking about how being a teacher is a pretty poorly-paid job, Nicole was able to hit her with a “you sound just like my dad.” XD Overall, they got along very well (probably helped that Kelly started things off by complimenting Nicole’s art), so that was a good start to Nicole meeting JC’s family!
B) A satyr visiting CaFae Latte and – after he’d left – Drek admitting that he hadn’t thought satyrs were real, because mortal myths don’t always get things right (citing “drakes,” wingless dragons, as evidence). Cyrus confirmed for him that angels, trolls, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Japanese Oni were all genuine things – but when Drek started talking about making snacks for Bigfoot, said that the Sasquatch was just an urban myth. I am half-hoping one now shows up in the cafe at some point. XD
C) Bob, Cyrus, Rethu, JC, and Drek all having a bit of a bitch session after a busy day at the cafe (with JC asking both Drek and Rethu to stomp on their back to knock out the knots – Rethu eventually offered to go dragon and let everyone use them as a heated mattress after the place got cleaned up), and Bob making the decision that they really did more staff, so it was time to start hiring again, bad memories of Erik be damned. Also featured Bob telling JC (and the viewers at home) that CaFae Latte would be releasing a cookbook, w000! This must have come just after that short I watched about C. M. complaining about how she doesn’t know how to write a cookbook, only for her mom to chime in “well, I do, you want some help?” XD
D) Bob calling Lindsey the next day to get her help with the staffing issues (figuring if she helps someone from the food shelf/homeless shelter Lindsey volunteers at, she’ll scratch the “be altruistic” itch AND get someone who feels like they owe her and are thus less likely to betray her – Lindsey was like “cold but I understand”), with Lindsey saying she’ll talk to a few people who she thinks will fit in at the cafe and get them to apply; meanwhile, in the background, Rethu had to deal with a Starbucks manager criticizing how he served the ER nurse regular, accusing him of not giving it enough of a “personal touch” (Rethu was like “she doesn’t WANT chit-chat, she wants to get her coffee and GO most days,” but the Starbucks manager was persistent – fortunately, Bob noticed by the end of the episode, so it’s very likely they left cursed)
E) And JC introducing Nicole to their older brother John (the other sibling they still have contact with, as their other sister is a TERF), a construction guy with a love of booze and casual fucking! Things were a little more tense between him and JC than they were between JC and Kelly – probably because JC thinks John is an alcoholic, while John insists he can function without booze, he’s just not fun without it – but the group got on well enough, and the episode ended with John devolving into a rambling story about how he and JC used to go fishing up at their grandparents’ place in the summers. XD So yeah, so far, so good when it comes to Nicole meeting JC’s family! We’ll see what happens if and when she meets their parents later...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about tonight, and after poking through my “#the smiler” tag on my blog for a while, I found something for Smiler’s Birthday Song Saturday – the 2013 Alton Towers fireworks show! Yeah, I originally posted this back in 2022, when I was first getting into The Smiler, and I figured it was the perfect video to bring back for Smiler’s birthday this year. 2013 WAS the year The Smiler opened, after all, and The Smiler’s attempted takeover at the end of the show helped inspire something about my OWN Smiler – namely, their voice! If you’ve ever wondered why I describe my Smiler as having a deep voice, this show and what we hear of The Smiler’s voice in it is the reason why. *nods* So yeah, that finishes off my queue for the week, yay! Now I just have to get a birthday picture of Smileon to post on the day itself. :)
Other: Despite the clouds building up this afternoon, we still got outside for beanbags – and unfortunately, today was a day where I just could not get it together and make any decent throws. The only reason I took second in the third game was because Mom and Dad kind of fell apart too, and Dad’s final throw slid off the board, leaving him one point behind me. *shakehead* Final scores were me 3-3-2; Dad W-W-3; Mom 2-2-W. We’ll see if I can do better the next time we play!
And there we have it! Nothing too special, but I did appreciate the extra hour or so to catch up on computer stuff before beanbags. And now it is time for me to head to bed so I can get through another day. Night all!
Work – Today was mostly “working on credit card stuff” day for me at the office – I caught up with the credit card transaction and deposit total reports for Fiscal; I went through the failed credit card reports to see who had already resolved their issues and who needed an e-mail; I updated someone’s credit card over the phone (and helped another lady figure out her balance on her non-credit-card related pledge, because for some reason my Talky Coworker thought it was a credit card thing); and I e-mailed all the people with failed credit card gifts that came back in the latest batch of exceptions. *nods* Made the day go by – though the day ending an hour earlier also helped in that regard. :p Ah, what I wouldn’t give for seven-hour workdays being the standard...but that’s not happening anytime soon. *sigh* Just gotta enjoy it when it does!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, pedaling my way through:
A) The end of “World Wide Wrestling RPG | Oxventure Plays Pro Wrestling RPG with Daniel J Layton of No Rolls Barred” by Oxventure! The final half-hour of this ridiculous and ridiculously awesome one-shot featured:
I. Chip and Flex commenting on the ad break, with Flex saying that he might give Chessington Stu a call – cue Dan saying how much he wanted them to do a travelogue show together where they go around visiting various apiaries (places where they keep bees) and sausage spots and whatnot XD
II. The big finale “handicap” match, which featured Fabian Fantastic (Andy) having to fight both The Funeral Director (Mike) and Matt Finish (Dan) at once! Should have guessed that it would be a match that would allow all three to fight together. Fabian started in control, and managed to get the crowd riled by hopping outside the ropes (only ducking back in briefly to stop the referee, Brian Chinwag (as Dan dubbed him) from counting him out) and then disappearing under the ring itself; The Funeral Director tried to drag him back out, but a botched roll meant that he got Herringford instead, who punched him out. Fabian, meanwhile, emerged from the other side of the ring and hopped back into put the hurt on Matt, giving him a “backstabber” with his knees before attempting to put him into a submission hold –
But then a combination of a botched roll and Andy planning to cede control of the match to Dan anyway meant that Matt got out of the hold and managed to put some hurt on Fabian instead, flipping him over his head onto the mat! The Funeral Director then used one of his special abilities to turn this into one of his “signature” matches, getting a bunch of extras dressed as pallbearers to bring out a gold casket to put beside the ring. Whoever got shut into that casket was the loser! Matt thus threw Fabian over to FD, who gave him a nasty elbow drop before preparing for the funeral –
Aaand then Andy spent some momentum to yank control back and have Fabian sneakily punch FD in the junk with some brass knuckles. XD (Flex commented that that had happened to him once in his own wrestling days, and that everyone assumes that’s why he sounds like Kermit – no, he just talks like this, and he finds the assumption a bit hurtful, actually. XD) He then made some amazing rolls to wail on the poor Funeral Director for a while, and Johnny, as Creative, decided that – in order to set up an amazing grudge between the two – they were going to “book” Fabian to win the match. Unless anyone had any special abilities that would change things...cue Dan cackling for some reason...anyway, as the booked winner, Fabian was allowed to use his special finishing move, and thus decided to grab Matt (who’d attempted to jump on him to save The Funeral Director, but had unfortunately missed), do a nasty “brainbreaker” move (apparently a vertical headslam – well – shoulder slam) on the concrete, then drop Matt in the casket to end things –
EXCEPT. The reason Dan had cackled was because MATT had a special ability called “Hungry” that allows him to go “fuck Creative telling me I have to lose, I want to win” and try to take the match anyway! Cue Matt dragging Fabian into the casket with him (shocking the announcers), then – after a struggle, and a botched roll that everyone encouraged Dan to spend momentum on so it became a great success (Dan was like “but would it be more entertaining if Matt didn’t pull it off,” but everybody else was like “spend it!”) – Matt got free and SLAMMED the lid down on Fabian, ending the match and taking the win! Granted, he also got a fucked-up shoulder, and the announcers made clear that he probably had made some enemies of Fabian AND Graham Graham, the big boss, but Matt clearly thought it was worth it. Cue the episode ending with The Funeral Director giving Matt a solemn “you have indeed impressed me” handshake, and Matt celebrating by smashing two jars of that honey FD was promoting and dumping it all over himself. XD
III. And, as things wrapped up, me finally learning why Dan was part of this one-shot – turns out a large part of his online presence involves him talking about wrestling stuff. XD I figured he had to watch it as he kept explaining some of the wrestling moves Andy kept describing to Johnny (who was constantly like “ouch, wrestling is mean”), but I didn’t realize he did podcasts on it and such. Neat! XD I’m glad he came by – this was a fun One Shot Wonder! I do enjoy watching this lot play tabletop games – they get so into everything they do, it’s really great.
B) The entirety of “Finding the Hidden Netherstone Fail-safes in Baldur's Gate 3” by Proxy Gate Tactician! A short little video about the various ways the game will attempt to stop you from losing the Netherstones – the three rocks that are kind of key to being able to stop the Absolute from enacting its grand “let’s turn everyone into mind flayers or thralls” plan upon Faerun. Now, the game WILL allow you to take them out of your inventory and drop them various places (and it even has a special “game over” cutscene where you get found by the Absolute and turned into a mind flayer if you ignore your Dream Guardian/The Emperor telling you to pick them back up), but it has a number of failsafes that stop you losing them permanently:
I. Drop Ketheric’s Netherstone in the mind flayer colony after defeating him in his boss fight near the end of Act II? The Dream Guardian won’t let you leave until you retrieve it, or until you turn mind flayer
II. Drop it in the Astral Prism after exposing the Emperor and fighting all the githyanki trying to kill him? The Emperor will scold you for your carelessness once you’re back in the real world and say he send it back to your camp
III. Drop it (and any other Netherstones you may have picked up) in the Iron Throne, a location you can only visit once in Act III because it explodes right after you leave? The Emperor will scold you again and tell you to look by the beach to see if the precious stones can be found. And they can – either as loot on some fishy enemies who always pop up near some specific docks; as part of a trader called Troutman’s merchandise (costing only three gold each) if you’ve killed those enemies beforehand; or in the belly of a fish lying dead on the shore if you’ve taken care of the encounter AND poor Troutman
IV. Drop the stones in the Steel Watch Foundry, ANOTHER Act III location you can visit only once because it blows up after you leave? The Emperor will yell at you some more and tell you to search the rubble, where you will encounter a trio of kobolds (who only appear in this one specific instance) who have looted the Netherstones from the debris. From there, it’s your choice to kill them in the world’s easiest fight to get the stones back, or let them flee and get the “you got turned into a mind flayer” cutscene
V. Drop the stones in the dinosaur-infested Chult Jungle that the djinn who runs the crooked prize wheel in the local circus sends you to if you manage to cheat yourself and actually win his game? ...okay, here you are actually screwed, as I think the devs assumed you’d be more interested in not becoming dino chow over dropping the stones. There’s no voice line from the Emperor scolding you for dropping them, and if you leave the area without picking them up, they are lost forever as you cannot get back to the jungle after you’ve been once. Congratulations, you’ve found the one way you can softlock your game with the Netherstones! XD
But yes – four times out of five, when it comes to the Netherstones, the devs have planned for your chicanery. Good stuff! It is nice to see these videos that emphasize just how much care Larian put into these little edge cases. :) One day I may even get to see them myself! :P
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – Alice made a little more progress through Grout’s bizarre house today, walking down some stairs and encountering the corpse of a heavily-clawed orderly (and wondering if the staff here actually work for pay, or are just more victims of Grout’s madness – her money’s on the latter); turning a corner and finding another sitting room, with a picture of Grout’s wife and a recording of him complaining about how his studies are growing nowhere and how he’s been wasting time wandering the tower walk in a “black depression” (Alice was like “well, at least this one didn’t send me into another murderous rage, but I hope with all my heart a bunch of your test subjects escaped while you were sulking”); and ascending the nearby winding staircase up onto the tower walk itself, taking a moment to look at LA from above and give Venture Tower the traditional English two-finger salute (and sharing a moment with Cheshire about how she hopes LaCroix falls out of a window and goes splat before she has to report back). Nothing too taxing for her today – she can spend the rest of the week enjoying the night air before I make her get a move on next Monday. :P
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – no regular subs, so I went straight to “CaFae Latte Season 53 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! This collection featured:
A) JC introducing Nicole to their younger sister Kelly – a green-haired community college student (theater and marketing double-major, photography minor) who is a “sugar baby,” accepting gifts and cash from rich men to pay the bills. She’d expected Nicole to be judgy, but actually Nicole was just surprised she didn’t do pornos (Kelly: “tried it, but the money is shit and the directors are assholes”). And then, when Kelly started asking about their financial situation and talking about how being a teacher is a pretty poorly-paid job, Nicole was able to hit her with a “you sound just like my dad.” XD Overall, they got along very well (probably helped that Kelly started things off by complimenting Nicole’s art), so that was a good start to Nicole meeting JC’s family!
B) A satyr visiting CaFae Latte and – after he’d left – Drek admitting that he hadn’t thought satyrs were real, because mortal myths don’t always get things right (citing “drakes,” wingless dragons, as evidence). Cyrus confirmed for him that angels, trolls, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Japanese Oni were all genuine things – but when Drek started talking about making snacks for Bigfoot, said that the Sasquatch was just an urban myth. I am half-hoping one now shows up in the cafe at some point. XD
C) Bob, Cyrus, Rethu, JC, and Drek all having a bit of a bitch session after a busy day at the cafe (with JC asking both Drek and Rethu to stomp on their back to knock out the knots – Rethu eventually offered to go dragon and let everyone use them as a heated mattress after the place got cleaned up), and Bob making the decision that they really did more staff, so it was time to start hiring again, bad memories of Erik be damned. Also featured Bob telling JC (and the viewers at home) that CaFae Latte would be releasing a cookbook, w000! This must have come just after that short I watched about C. M. complaining about how she doesn’t know how to write a cookbook, only for her mom to chime in “well, I do, you want some help?” XD
D) Bob calling Lindsey the next day to get her help with the staffing issues (figuring if she helps someone from the food shelf/homeless shelter Lindsey volunteers at, she’ll scratch the “be altruistic” itch AND get someone who feels like they owe her and are thus less likely to betray her – Lindsey was like “cold but I understand”), with Lindsey saying she’ll talk to a few people who she thinks will fit in at the cafe and get them to apply; meanwhile, in the background, Rethu had to deal with a Starbucks manager criticizing how he served the ER nurse regular, accusing him of not giving it enough of a “personal touch” (Rethu was like “she doesn’t WANT chit-chat, she wants to get her coffee and GO most days,” but the Starbucks manager was persistent – fortunately, Bob noticed by the end of the episode, so it’s very likely they left cursed)
E) And JC introducing Nicole to their older brother John (the other sibling they still have contact with, as their other sister is a TERF), a construction guy with a love of booze and casual fucking! Things were a little more tense between him and JC than they were between JC and Kelly – probably because JC thinks John is an alcoholic, while John insists he can function without booze, he’s just not fun without it – but the group got on well enough, and the episode ended with John devolving into a rambling story about how he and JC used to go fishing up at their grandparents’ place in the summers. XD So yeah, so far, so good when it comes to Nicole meeting JC’s family! We’ll see what happens if and when she meets their parents later...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – just Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) to worry about tonight, and after poking through my “#the smiler” tag on my blog for a while, I found something for Smiler’s Birthday Song Saturday – the 2013 Alton Towers fireworks show! Yeah, I originally posted this back in 2022, when I was first getting into The Smiler, and I figured it was the perfect video to bring back for Smiler’s birthday this year. 2013 WAS the year The Smiler opened, after all, and The Smiler’s attempted takeover at the end of the show helped inspire something about my OWN Smiler – namely, their voice! If you’ve ever wondered why I describe my Smiler as having a deep voice, this show and what we hear of The Smiler’s voice in it is the reason why. *nods* So yeah, that finishes off my queue for the week, yay! Now I just have to get a birthday picture of Smileon to post on the day itself. :)
Other: Despite the clouds building up this afternoon, we still got outside for beanbags – and unfortunately, today was a day where I just could not get it together and make any decent throws. The only reason I took second in the third game was because Mom and Dad kind of fell apart too, and Dad’s final throw slid off the board, leaving him one point behind me. *shakehead* Final scores were me 3-3-2; Dad W-W-3; Mom 2-2-W. We’ll see if I can do better the next time we play!
And there we have it! Nothing too special, but I did appreciate the extra hour or so to catch up on computer stuff before beanbags. And now it is time for me to head to bed so I can get through another day. Night all!
Summery Tuesday
May. 27th, 2025 11:51 pmBecause of course, the minute I have to go back to work, the weather gets decent again. *grumbles* Ah well, I'll just enjoy what I can get -- mostly because the rain is supposed to be coming back in soon. *grumbles* I don't think this is yet the wettest year we've had, but it's been pretty miserable pretty often. I don't like it.
Anyway -- I have once again managed to stay up later than I should have, so here is my daily write-up so I can go to bed:
Work – A busy day to start this short week, as you might expect after an extended holiday weekend – I spent most of the morning catching up on e-mails, taking and making credit card calls (number of people who needed to update their pledges with a new card), and going through the exceptions, then focused in the afternoon on the latest QC file to come through for the latest round of thank-yous. Managed to get through most of it without a problem, though I only remembered at the very end of the day I’d never run the usual morning reports for Fiscal. Whoops. I’ll just have to make up for it tomorrow! At least the day went by fast...we’ll see how things go tomorrow!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “World Wide Wrestling RPG | Oxventure Plays Pro Wrestling RPG with Daniel J Layton of No Rolls Barred” by Oxventure! The pro wrestling shenanigans continued in tonight’s chunklet, which featured:
A) Johnny letting us know what happened in the NPC match between Baby Boy and Dude Wipes (Baby Boy wiped the floor with Dude, ironically)
B) Fabian Fantastic (Andy) being forced by NPC promoter Graham Graham (a bulky man with massive shoulderpads in his suit) to fight The Funeral Director (Mike) instead of just sitting on the sidelines and badmouthing the new talent – Fabian immediately made a huge production about how much this pissed him off and how he was the champ and how he hated wrestling, and (after a successful “promo” roll) was allowed to have his butler Herringford at ringside. The Funeral Director then attempted to respond in his usual “I’m going to kill you but with respect and compassion” way, but an unsuccessful roll meant he botched it and everyone got distracted from the match trying to look up the “affordable funerary packages” he mentioned in his speech. XD (On the plus side, his website traffic spiked, so yay!)
C) The actual match between Fabian and FD – featuring FD entering the ring carrying the world’s most nouveau riche, gaudy, over-embellished urn, and Fabian entering in the world’s most sparkly robe with fifty million tons of pyrotechnics going off all over the shop (hey, “Amazing Entrances” are a special ability of Fabian’s, and he rolled VERY well to pull it off); Fabian getting an early advantage by taking out FD’s legs and playing up his “heel” persona, and then, when FD got back up, using Herringford to distract the referee so he could pull out a baton and “break” FD’s knee; Matt Finish then jumping into the ring to grab the baton before Fabian could hit his beloved mentor again, and Fabian seizing the opportunity to make him look like the bad guy by letting go of the baton and pretending Matt had beat HIM up, getting The Funeral Director disqualified – Matt was horrified, and The Funeral Director VERY disappointed (not mad, just disappointed)
D) Graham Graham then showing up to force Fabian back into the ring, make everyone stand in a corner, then chew them all out for not being “family friendly” and telling Fabian that he and The Funeral Director were going to fight again, THIS time in a “handicap match” (don’t know what that is, excited to find out)
E) Dan leaning even HARDER into “commentator Flex Abslington is secretly Kermit The Frog” by making repeated “it’s not easy being [something that rhymes with green]” puns throughout all the above whenever he played the character (and sometimes even when Johnny was playing him XD)
F) And, at the very end, everyone having to improvise an ad for the ad break before Fabian and The Funeral Director’s “handicap” match – Andy chose to do an ad from “Chessington Stu,” a very lonely man who just wanted friends to go places with; Mike had The Funeral Director promote a bee farm and its honey (Johnny cracked up before he could get the entire first sentence out); Johnny took on the role of the owner of “Link’s Adventure Sausages,” which yes, did consist largely of The Legend Of Zelda puns and callbacks to The Funeral Director’s ad; and Dan did a “Discount Furniture Store” ad where the twist was the store was in fact selling crappy furniture at full price. And no, they did not take returns. XD
Delightful stuff, all of it. XD I’m not even a wrestling fan, and I’ve gotten quite into the OXW scene! We’ll wrap things up tomorrow with the handicap match between Fabian and The Funeral Director – I’m very curious to see how everything goes down!
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – today’s page happily came easier, with Alice making her way down the upstairs hall (as her latest victim was claimed as a plaything by the ghoul by the stairs) and encountering another one of Grout’s terrible tapes – this one talking about his regrets over not being able to talk to his “infector” after she bit him (instead, she was locked in the “roaming pen” by his staff, and died when the sun came up) and then complaining about how she might not have been any more helpful to him in regards to understanding his condition than his test subjects, who are all “mewling wretches” and sadly unenthusiastic about being tortured. He was particularly put out with one, John, who’d resorted to gnawing off his own arm and disappearing into the floor to escape. Alice was, uh, very close to surrendering to Hysteria by the time it ended. *grimace* But she managed to talk herself down...even if in the next breath she admitted she was terrified this was going to be her future – that she’d eventually become this cold and heartless herself. Fortunately, Wonderland assured her that she was not cut from the same cloth as Grout, and after a little prodding from the Queen, she was able to continue on. Tomorrow, she continues exploring the house, and I continue making her suffer! :P
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – and that’s in quotation marks now because, well, the only person in my Subs currently is Josh Way. So tonight, keeping up with the Subs meant getting in another episode of CaFae Latte! Specifically, “CaFae Latte Season 52 - TikTok Compilation,” which covered:
A) JC getting to watch Nicole verbally tear down the entitled mother of the entitled brat Josh she taught last school year (who refused to put any effort into his art and got an F as a result) after she interrupted their conversation on JC’s break, and getting very turned on by it...only for their estranged aunt Margaret to show up and utterly kill the mood
B) JC having a very tense conversation with Margaret (who just so happens to be the wife of JC’s asshole uncle, Henry, who threatened them very early on in the series) about the fact that she wanted them to attend the wedding of her son, because many of JC’s immediate family said they wouldn’t be attending if they weren’t there; JC made it damn clear they weren’t violating any of their boundaries for Margaret’s comfort, and she left in a huff...leaving an opportunity for Nicole to ask if this is why JC has never introduced her to any of their family…
C) JC and Nicole having a tense but controlled argument about the fact that JC has not introduced her to any of their family – JC explaining that most of their family is shit and they never want Nicole to be put into a position where she feels uncomfortable or lesser; Nicole countering that she’s a big girl, she can handle it, and while she respects that JC may avoid some of them for their own mental health, she should and wants to meet the ones who they DO share even a little bit of their life with. Argument ended with JC getting off break and Nicole leaving the cafe in a bit of a huff :(
D) Patrick showing up for an iced coffee after this, and JC asking if he and Janine have introduced each other to their families yet – cue Patrick going no, that’s a big deal for werewolves, you really only do that if you get engaged, and saying he assumes it’s similar for vampire clans –
And Bob revealing that usually it is, but Janine was kicked out of her clan back in the 1860s because they’re white supremacist assholes and she isn’t, and when the Civil War started, she promptly went and joined the Union to fight on the side of the abolitionists. Patrick was utterly stunned by this, and the fact that the reason that Janine is rather prickly is because she’s had to survive the last 160 or so years alone, when most vampires without a clan end up dead very quickly. For werewolves, family loyalty comes above just about everything, so this – this broke his brain a little. And sure as hell didn’t give JC any help with THEIR problem! (Cyrus, meanwhile, was like “Rethu and I have already met most of OUR families, helps that we’re demi and ace” – JC rightfully told him to shut up. XD)
E) Janine showing up at the end of the day because Bob and Cyrus both texted her about the conversation and possibly breaking Patrick – JC apologized for accidentally helping to bring it up, and the pair ended up talking about their family situations (JC confirming that the only person who even comes close to ranking as “moderate” contact in their family is their sister, who they text fairly regularly, and Janine revealing that she did try to reconnect with her family in the 70s, after the Civil Rights and Fae Rights movements – they slammed the door in her face and threatened to shoot her with silver bullets), leading to Janine musing aloud about how scary it actually is to find a partner who loves you, who wants to stand by you, who won’t leave even when you think they will – because suddenly you realize just how broken you are because you don’t know how to handle being loved. ...JC was like “welp, we need to have some uncomfortable chats with our partners.” Janine: “And therapists.” JC: “Definitely.”
F) The episode wrapping up with said uncomfortable chats – JC bringing apology donuts over to Nicole’s, confirming that she really and truly wanted to meet their family, then making a plan to slowly introduce her to the family members they still speak to, starting with their sister; and Janine and Patrick chatting about her expulsion from her clan in a moonlit park, with Patrick shamefacedly confessing that he’s not sure he could have walked away from his pack if they’d been as horrible as her clan (because of how much stock werewolves put in family loyalty), and that he really admires her backbone in being able to stand up for what she believes in. So, a bit of a tough time for everybody all around, but it all turned out well in the end. :) And I believe the next episode is all about Nicole meeting some of JC’s family – yeah, I imagine THAT’S going to be interesting...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check and check –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Dropped three Smiler-related things into my queue over here for the lead-up to Smiler’s birthday:
A) For Wednesday: that Smiler Valentine by “thebeatofalaughter” I found back in February that’s been lingering in my drafts ever since (I gotta get better at just REBLOGGING stuff)
B) For Thursday: that video of “helixthetr4nsm4sc” dressing up their papercraft Smiler doll with fun goggles which has ALSO been lingering in my drafts for a while
C) And for Friday: my own “How To Write Smiler Alton: A Guide” post, because I want to get it up damn it (before the urge to edit it strikes again!)
Still gotta decide on a Song Saturday post, but at least I’m good for the next three days! :)
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I had one anon ask to put into the queue – someone asking if my muse is getting their favorite drink from someplace, do they usually do “for here” (aka sit in the cafe and enjoy it) or “to go” (take it with them on their journeys), as per that list of drink questions I reblogged a few days ago! As they didn’t specify a muse, I answered for a modernish Victor, Alice, and Smiler, and said that Victor and Alice were definitely the type to sit in the cafe and linger for a bit, while Smiler was more fifty-fifty on whether or not they were doing “for here” or “to go” – depended on their schedule. *shrug* They got shit to do sometimes!
Other: Since it was another nice, summery day today, we all played beanbags once I got home from work and Dad finished working out – and unlike yesterday, we had a nice egalitarian series of games, with each of us winning, losing, and coming second once! Which definitely made me happy, as I wasn’t throwing great in those first two rounds. XD Final scores were me 2-3-W; Dad 3-W-2; Mom W-2-3. *nods* We’ll see if this happens again in tomorrow’s game!
*nods* Not a bad day, I suppose. But now it is time to end it, because I really do need to get SOME sleep. Especially on my period. *sigh* Night all!
Anyway -- I have once again managed to stay up later than I should have, so here is my daily write-up so I can go to bed:
Work – A busy day to start this short week, as you might expect after an extended holiday weekend – I spent most of the morning catching up on e-mails, taking and making credit card calls (number of people who needed to update their pledges with a new card), and going through the exceptions, then focused in the afternoon on the latest QC file to come through for the latest round of thank-yous. Managed to get through most of it without a problem, though I only remembered at the very end of the day I’d never run the usual morning reports for Fiscal. Whoops. I’ll just have to make up for it tomorrow! At least the day went by fast...we’ll see how things go tomorrow!
To-Do List –
1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “World Wide Wrestling RPG | Oxventure Plays Pro Wrestling RPG with Daniel J Layton of No Rolls Barred” by Oxventure! The pro wrestling shenanigans continued in tonight’s chunklet, which featured:
A) Johnny letting us know what happened in the NPC match between Baby Boy and Dude Wipes (Baby Boy wiped the floor with Dude, ironically)
B) Fabian Fantastic (Andy) being forced by NPC promoter Graham Graham (a bulky man with massive shoulderpads in his suit) to fight The Funeral Director (Mike) instead of just sitting on the sidelines and badmouthing the new talent – Fabian immediately made a huge production about how much this pissed him off and how he was the champ and how he hated wrestling, and (after a successful “promo” roll) was allowed to have his butler Herringford at ringside. The Funeral Director then attempted to respond in his usual “I’m going to kill you but with respect and compassion” way, but an unsuccessful roll meant he botched it and everyone got distracted from the match trying to look up the “affordable funerary packages” he mentioned in his speech. XD (On the plus side, his website traffic spiked, so yay!)
C) The actual match between Fabian and FD – featuring FD entering the ring carrying the world’s most nouveau riche, gaudy, over-embellished urn, and Fabian entering in the world’s most sparkly robe with fifty million tons of pyrotechnics going off all over the shop (hey, “Amazing Entrances” are a special ability of Fabian’s, and he rolled VERY well to pull it off); Fabian getting an early advantage by taking out FD’s legs and playing up his “heel” persona, and then, when FD got back up, using Herringford to distract the referee so he could pull out a baton and “break” FD’s knee; Matt Finish then jumping into the ring to grab the baton before Fabian could hit his beloved mentor again, and Fabian seizing the opportunity to make him look like the bad guy by letting go of the baton and pretending Matt had beat HIM up, getting The Funeral Director disqualified – Matt was horrified, and The Funeral Director VERY disappointed (not mad, just disappointed)
D) Graham Graham then showing up to force Fabian back into the ring, make everyone stand in a corner, then chew them all out for not being “family friendly” and telling Fabian that he and The Funeral Director were going to fight again, THIS time in a “handicap match” (don’t know what that is, excited to find out)
E) Dan leaning even HARDER into “commentator Flex Abslington is secretly Kermit The Frog” by making repeated “it’s not easy being [something that rhymes with green]” puns throughout all the above whenever he played the character (and sometimes even when Johnny was playing him XD)
F) And, at the very end, everyone having to improvise an ad for the ad break before Fabian and The Funeral Director’s “handicap” match – Andy chose to do an ad from “Chessington Stu,” a very lonely man who just wanted friends to go places with; Mike had The Funeral Director promote a bee farm and its honey (Johnny cracked up before he could get the entire first sentence out); Johnny took on the role of the owner of “Link’s Adventure Sausages,” which yes, did consist largely of The Legend Of Zelda puns and callbacks to The Funeral Director’s ad; and Dan did a “Discount Furniture Store” ad where the twist was the store was in fact selling crappy furniture at full price. And no, they did not take returns. XD
Delightful stuff, all of it. XD I’m not even a wrestling fan, and I’ve gotten quite into the OXW scene! We’ll wrap things up tomorrow with the handicap match between Fabian and The Funeral Director – I’m very curious to see how everything goes down!
2. Continue editing “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland”: Check – today’s page happily came easier, with Alice making her way down the upstairs hall (as her latest victim was claimed as a plaything by the ghoul by the stairs) and encountering another one of Grout’s terrible tapes – this one talking about his regrets over not being able to talk to his “infector” after she bit him (instead, she was locked in the “roaming pen” by his staff, and died when the sun came up) and then complaining about how she might not have been any more helpful to him in regards to understanding his condition than his test subjects, who are all “mewling wretches” and sadly unenthusiastic about being tortured. He was particularly put out with one, John, who’d resorted to gnawing off his own arm and disappearing into the floor to escape. Alice was, uh, very close to surrendering to Hysteria by the time it ended. *grimace* But she managed to talk herself down...even if in the next breath she admitted she was terrified this was going to be her future – that she’d eventually become this cold and heartless herself. Fortunately, Wonderland assured her that she was not cut from the same cloth as Grout, and after a little prodding from the Queen, she was able to continue on. Tomorrow, she continues exploring the house, and I continue making her suffer! :P
3. Keep up with YouTube “Subs”: Check – and that’s in quotation marks now because, well, the only person in my Subs currently is Josh Way. So tonight, keeping up with the Subs meant getting in another episode of CaFae Latte! Specifically, “CaFae Latte Season 52 - TikTok Compilation,” which covered:
A) JC getting to watch Nicole verbally tear down the entitled mother of the entitled brat Josh she taught last school year (who refused to put any effort into his art and got an F as a result) after she interrupted their conversation on JC’s break, and getting very turned on by it...only for their estranged aunt Margaret to show up and utterly kill the mood
B) JC having a very tense conversation with Margaret (who just so happens to be the wife of JC’s asshole uncle, Henry, who threatened them very early on in the series) about the fact that she wanted them to attend the wedding of her son, because many of JC’s immediate family said they wouldn’t be attending if they weren’t there; JC made it damn clear they weren’t violating any of their boundaries for Margaret’s comfort, and she left in a huff...leaving an opportunity for Nicole to ask if this is why JC has never introduced her to any of their family…
C) JC and Nicole having a tense but controlled argument about the fact that JC has not introduced her to any of their family – JC explaining that most of their family is shit and they never want Nicole to be put into a position where she feels uncomfortable or lesser; Nicole countering that she’s a big girl, she can handle it, and while she respects that JC may avoid some of them for their own mental health, she should and wants to meet the ones who they DO share even a little bit of their life with. Argument ended with JC getting off break and Nicole leaving the cafe in a bit of a huff :(
D) Patrick showing up for an iced coffee after this, and JC asking if he and Janine have introduced each other to their families yet – cue Patrick going no, that’s a big deal for werewolves, you really only do that if you get engaged, and saying he assumes it’s similar for vampire clans –
And Bob revealing that usually it is, but Janine was kicked out of her clan back in the 1860s because they’re white supremacist assholes and she isn’t, and when the Civil War started, she promptly went and joined the Union to fight on the side of the abolitionists. Patrick was utterly stunned by this, and the fact that the reason that Janine is rather prickly is because she’s had to survive the last 160 or so years alone, when most vampires without a clan end up dead very quickly. For werewolves, family loyalty comes above just about everything, so this – this broke his brain a little. And sure as hell didn’t give JC any help with THEIR problem! (Cyrus, meanwhile, was like “Rethu and I have already met most of OUR families, helps that we’re demi and ace” – JC rightfully told him to shut up. XD)
E) Janine showing up at the end of the day because Bob and Cyrus both texted her about the conversation and possibly breaking Patrick – JC apologized for accidentally helping to bring it up, and the pair ended up talking about their family situations (JC confirming that the only person who even comes close to ranking as “moderate” contact in their family is their sister, who they text fairly regularly, and Janine revealing that she did try to reconnect with her family in the 70s, after the Civil Rights and Fae Rights movements – they slammed the door in her face and threatened to shoot her with silver bullets), leading to Janine musing aloud about how scary it actually is to find a partner who loves you, who wants to stand by you, who won’t leave even when you think they will – because suddenly you realize just how broken you are because you don’t know how to handle being loved. ...JC was like “welp, we need to have some uncomfortable chats with our partners.” Janine: “And therapists.” JC: “Definitely.”
F) The episode wrapping up with said uncomfortable chats – JC bringing apology donuts over to Nicole’s, confirming that she really and truly wanted to meet their family, then making a plan to slowly introduce her to the family members they still speak to, starting with their sister; and Janine and Patrick chatting about her expulsion from her clan in a moonlit park, with Patrick shamefacedly confessing that he’s not sure he could have walked away from his pack if they’d been as horrible as her clan (because of how much stock werewolves put in family loyalty), and that he really admires her backbone in being able to stand up for what she believes in. So, a bit of a tough time for everybody all around, but it all turned out well in the end. :) And I believe the next episode is all about Nicole meeting some of JC’s family – yeah, I imagine THAT’S going to be interesting...
4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check and check –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Dropped three Smiler-related things into my queue over here for the lead-up to Smiler’s birthday:
A) For Wednesday: that Smiler Valentine by “thebeatofalaughter” I found back in February that’s been lingering in my drafts ever since (I gotta get better at just REBLOGGING stuff)
B) For Thursday: that video of “helixthetr4nsm4sc” dressing up their papercraft Smiler doll with fun goggles which has ALSO been lingering in my drafts for a while
C) And for Friday: my own “How To Write Smiler Alton: A Guide” post, because I want to get it up damn it (before the urge to edit it strikes again!)
Still gotta decide on a Song Saturday post, but at least I’m good for the next three days! :)
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I had one anon ask to put into the queue – someone asking if my muse is getting their favorite drink from someplace, do they usually do “for here” (aka sit in the cafe and enjoy it) or “to go” (take it with them on their journeys), as per that list of drink questions I reblogged a few days ago! As they didn’t specify a muse, I answered for a modernish Victor, Alice, and Smiler, and said that Victor and Alice were definitely the type to sit in the cafe and linger for a bit, while Smiler was more fifty-fifty on whether or not they were doing “for here” or “to go” – depended on their schedule. *shrug* They got shit to do sometimes!
Other: Since it was another nice, summery day today, we all played beanbags once I got home from work and Dad finished working out – and unlike yesterday, we had a nice egalitarian series of games, with each of us winning, losing, and coming second once! Which definitely made me happy, as I wasn’t throwing great in those first two rounds. XD Final scores were me 2-3-W; Dad 3-W-2; Mom W-2-3. *nods* We’ll see if this happens again in tomorrow’s game!
*nods* Not a bad day, I suppose. But now it is time to end it, because I really do need to get SOME sleep. Especially on my period. *sigh* Night all!
Not The Greatest Memorial Day
May. 26th, 2025 11:47 pmLike, the weather finally got nice today -- there were some cloudier moments, but overall it was sunny and warm and everything you'd want out of a Memorial Day! Everything we've been fucking waiting for since Thursday! But you see, since this was the first truly nice day all weekend, and a holiday, that mean that everyone was out and about --
And, apparently, all of them went to our mini-golf place. We drove up there after lunch today, saw the cars parked all around (including down in the field by the nearby pond!) and the massive crowd just waiting in line for ice cream, and didn't even pull into the parking lot. Dad instead found a side street, and we just turned right around and came home. *sigh* So yeah -- five days off, and not one chance to go out and do something fun. Meeeh. I suppose the ride itself was nice, at least, and Mom made homemade sundaes for us tonight with whipped cream and chocolate sauce, but -- still. I was kinda looking forward to putting the old ball around. And, to add onto the disappointment, turns out I was right on the money about my bitchy, jittery mood earlier being PMS, because I got my period today! Right before we left, in fact. Fortunately it was an extremely light start and I caught it before it could ruin any of my clothes, but meeeh. Last thing I needed on my last day off! At least this means it'll be mostly over by the time Smiler's birthday rolls around on Saturday...
Anyway -- despite the disappointment of no mini-golf, I didn't have a horrible day. In fact, I got a fair amount done:
Tumblr: Did a few things over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) this morning before lunch and the failed mini-golf trip:
A) First, over on my dash, I reblogged –
I. A cool photoset by “dozydawn” of vintage tiny golden lantern charms with pearls inside (to represent the light within) that popped up courtesy of my friend Newt! Mostly because I looked at them and thought, “Ooh, I bet charms like these would be popular in Duskwall jewelry! Lanterns are supposed to be an important part of everyday life, after all…bet the rich folks have ones that really light up. And oh, hey, maybe the Lampblacks sport charms with black pearls in them? As a way to show membership?” So yeah, now those (with the above musings added in the tags) are on my blog as part of my “#valicer in the dark” tag! Nice! :)
II. My own “Help: How Do Tav!Smiler in BG3???” post one last time to announce the results of the poll – one vote for “Bardlock, Just Do A Lot Of Alchemy, Entertainer Background” and one vote for “Bardlock, Just Do A Lot Of Alchemy, Guild Artisan Background” – and how I guess I’m going to have to study the inspiring events for each background to decide which one fits Smiler better on my own. ...and how I’m not sure I’m going to be able to resist downloading that “Experimental Alchemy As A Feat” mod despite nobody picking one of those options. XD Look, if I’m not triple-classing with an Artificer mod (and I’m fine with not doing that, it sounded complicated), that sounds like a good option to show how good Smiler is at alchemy! We’ll see what I decide once I’m done planning out what specific stuff I want to be part of my Tav!Smiler’s build, and figuring out how I get it.
B) And second, in my drafts –
I. I went quickly through the “How Write Smiler Alton: A Guide” post one final time and fixed up a couple of typos I found, because apparently I can’t leave that post alone to save my life (I promise I’m not touching it again! It’s going in the queue tomorrow!)
II. And I also went through the first post detailing my Mega-Ghostbusters AU “Busting Makes Me Feel Good” and cleaned up/rewrote a few things there! Didn’t make any MAJOR changes – just updated some word choices, reworked some awkward sentences, and made it clearer near the end that Edna Strickland’s problem with the Ghostbusters is that she thinks they’re complete frauds. Despite the preponderance of evidence that ghosts ARE real in this universe. *nods* So hopefully I don’t have to touch that post again either, and can concentrate on getting the second one next time I have some time to spare!
Sims 4: Welp, with mini-golf being a bust again, I decided to pop into my building save once more for a mini-building session (about a half-hour) just to see if I could quickly finish off my “Town Square Terrace” renovation for my upcoming “Starting As Teens Valicer” save file. It proved to be a LITTLE more difficult than I expected, but I accomplished pretty much everything I hoped to accomplish in the end:
A) I made sure all the rooms were properly painted or tiled (using variations on the three different “[color] with white trim” base game wall paints throughout most of the house) – the front foyer stayed its original dark green, and the kitchen its original orangey-red color, but the living room got painted a brighter, more cheerful shade of green; the downstairs hallway got painted a light beige; the upstairs hallway got painted a slightly darker beige; the bedrooms got painted red, blue, and yellow respectively; and both bathrooms were tiled with the “Pixel Perfect” half-tile. Meaning the house now has some color to it while still keeping a lot of the “old and cheap” vibes I’m going for! (Plus, this allowed me to quickly note which bedrooms would be Alice’s, Victor’s, and Smiler’s respectively. Color-coding is fun! :P)
B) I quickly changed the stairs from greenish to white to better match the now-beige hall (consistency!)
C) I turned the 2x2 room behind the downstairs bathroom and off the kitchen into a laundry room, as per my realization last night – though not without having to fight my game a little bit in the process. What happened is, I found a nice 2x2 archway and stuck that in the wall as an entrance to the room from the kitchen, painted the walls with the orange “Sparkling Speckled” tile to kind of match the paint in the kitchen, then went to extend the kitchen’s cheap linoleum floor into the laundry room (since, if it was an offshoot of the kitchen, it felt logical for them to have the same floor) –
Only to find I couldn’t. Whenever I tried to click on the floor tiles in the room, it kept telling me that there was “nothing to change.” It literally would not let me change it from the wood floor I’d originally put down to the linoleum one. Baffled, I tried deleting and rebuilding the floor – nope. I tried pulling the room out and away from the rest of the house, then changing the floor – nope. I tried straight-up deleting the room and rebuilding it – NOPE. I tried looking up the problem on my phone – not much useful information, but someone recommended knocking down and rebuilding walls to sort of “reset” the floor, so I tried that – nope. Frustrated, I finally took out the archway in preparation for knocking down ALL the walls –
And discovered that, for some reason, THAT had been the fucking problem – the archway. I don’t know WHY – I presume it has something to do with its footprint? – but the minute I removed it, I could finally change the damn floor tiles. *facepalm* This game sometimes, I swear…
Anyway – now that I was no longer blocked, I put down the linoleum; rebuilt all the missing walls and repainted them (well, retiled them, technically); placed the stacked washer and dryer combo in the back left corner of the room (recoloring them orange and brown to match the color scheme of the kitchen); THEN readded the archway so the room was, you know, accessible. Fortunately, it went in without complaint, and as the washer and dryer are in the corner just beyond the arch’s footprint, I think they’ll be functional. I hope. *sigh* Once that was in, I dropped the Laundry Day “bucket with paper towels, rag, and laundry detergent bottle” decoration on top of the dryer and the cheapest “Wicker Whims” hamper beside the tower of cleanliness, and that finished things off. Wanted to add an ironing board, just for fun, but there was no room on the wall. *shakehead* All that fuss to make one little laundry nook...but I do like how it looks, so I’m glad I stuck with it.
D) While looking for the washer and dryer, I stumbled across the thermostat and went “oh shit, yeah, better get one of these,” so that’s now in the front foyer, next to the front door. Can’t have the trio getting too cold or too hot! The house is just supposed to be a little uncomfortable, not unlivable.
E) Speaking of which, I made sure that the upstairs bathroom also had some fixtures in it – the same ultra-cheap toilet and sink as the downstairs bathroom, along with the cheapest claw-footed tub-and-shower combo available for the bathing nook (as the upstairs bathroom has a chunk of wall separating the “bathing” area from the “toilet” area). Can’t leave them without adequate places to poop and bathe!
F) And, at the last minute, I added a small boxy window to the end of the hallway downstairs, by the stairs (since that side of the house was SEVERELY lacking in windows), and quickly recolored Victor and Alice’s beds so their comforters at least somewhat matched their wall colors (the bed’s “default” swatch is yellow stripes, so Smiler’s room was already all good).
So yeah – the laundry room situation might have stressed me out, but other than that, the build is looking good! Now, granted, I still would like to do things like add a few more windows to the build, maybe put some carpet down in the bedrooms – but the value of the house as it stands right now is $22,636, and I’m already worried that will be too much for a trio of teens to afford. So I’m thinking that what I need to do now is make my Teen Valicer family, see how many funds they start with, and see if they can afford the house as is. If so – great, I’ve got the trio, and I’ve got a house for them to live in! If not, then we’re gonna have to find some ways to cut costs – probably by finding even worse furniture to put in the house. XD But no matter what, we’re going to make this work! I want to actually PLAY my Sims again, damn it!
Writing: Actually got two writing-related things done today:
A) First, after reblogging that post on lantern charms and writing up all my thoughts about how those would be popular in the Blades In The Dark world above, I decided to canonize the Lampblacks showing membership via wearing lantern pins with black pearls in them for my version of Duskwall! So I added that little tidbit to my master doc for the Valicer In The Dark verse. Dunno when it’s going to be relevant, but it’s a nice little worldbuilding detail to have!
B) And second, after getting through my workout and YouTube and all of that (below), I worked some more on Chapter 5 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland!” I didn’t write quite as much as I’d hoped – just getting through Alice getting up the stairs into the upstairs hallway and having a fight with one of the clawed ghouls that lurks up there (the other ghoul who was hanging around near the trapdoor was, fortunately, not hostile) – but then again, I did edit some of what I’d written before with Alice fighting the ghouls in the stair room below, so – I think it all evens out. *sighs* This is proving to be a tough chapter to get through – for me and Alice. Hopefully it’ll all be worth it in the end...
YouTube: Thanks to getting back to the computer late tonight (lot of dishes after supper tonight) and needing some extra time to sum up the workout video (see below), I only had time for one video tonight, which was the latest from Josh Way – “Fun With Shorts: The Dangerous Stranger!” Josh taking on one of Sid Davis’s first shorts, which was all about teaching kids about stranger danger! Done in a particularly 70s, greasy and creepy, “let’s blame the kids for forgetting their parents’ warnings” way, of course. Of especial yucky note was the bit where a guy followed a girl into a movie theater, sat next to her, and put his arm around her just touching her shoulder, ugh. *shudder* Fortunately, Josh’s riffs helped cut through the unpleasant subject matter – from mocking some of the ridiculous ways kids were lured away from safety, to pointing out when the chase music for the police pursuing a guy who’d kidnapped a girl who’d he’d picked up hitchhiking turned a little tonally inappropriate (waaaay too jaunty), to rightfully pointing out that maybe we shouldn’t be blaming the kids for when they got abducted by strangers acting like friends. You get ‘im, Josh! Though, uh, wouldn’t mind seeing something a little less “ugh” next time, if you don’t mind.
Workout: Hopped back on the bike tonight and started the next Oxventure video I had to catch up on: “World Wide Wrestling RPG | Oxventure Plays Pro Wrestling RPG with Daniel J Layton of No Rolls Barred!” Yes, there is indeed a freaking role-playing game all about pro wrestling, apparently. XD From what I’ve seen in this first thirty-five minutes, it’s a very “fiction first” game with lots of description of what you’re doing and minimal rolling – a bit like Blades In The Dark, but with a very different vibe. Each player makes a wrestler – coming up with a name, their role in the ring (whether they’re a beloved “babyface” or a hated “heel” or whatnot), and what kind of moves they do – and then the Creative (aka GM) makes a list of matches, for players and NPCs. Gameplay consists of players acting out/narrating how they handle pre-match interviews, the matches themselves, and post-match commentary, and whenever the Creative tells them to “cut a promo” (usually after they’ve said something particularly interesting in an interview, or done something particularly cool in a match), they have to roll two d6s, add any relevant modifiers (for Body, Looks, or Work, depending on what the roll is for – “Body” seems to be for strength stuff, “Look” for your persona, and “Work” – uh, not 100% sure, but your general set of moves, maybe?), and see how well they do. 1-6 is a botch; 7-9 is a normal success; 10+ is a big success. There’s also tokens called “momentum” that can be earned via big successes or helping progress the match (by politely cedeing control of the narrative to your opponent so they can narrate THEIR cool moves), and spent to increase the results of a dice roll (turning a near-failure into a success, for example), or used to cut into someone else’s description of how a match is going if the player really wants to grab control of the narrative. It’s all about the collaborative storytelling and making something that sounds really cool. :)
Anyway – for this particular episode of Oxventure Wrestling (OXW), Johnny was the Creative, with Mike, Andy, and Dan playing the wrestlers – Mike was The Funeral Director (in a long curly wig and fake muscle arms), a legally-distinct version of The Undertaker who constantly said he was going to kill his opponents, but in a respectful way; Andy was Fabian Fantastic (in fancy shades), a rich and established heel who loved to go on and on about how he was the champ and how wrestlers these days sucked; and Dan was Matt Finish (no special props), a newbie wrestler from Oklahoma who’d just gotten signed to OXW and was just full of heart heart heart. XD Rounding out the cast were the announcers, Chip Spudley and Flex Abslington (the latter of whom ended up sounding rather a lot like Kermit The Frog thanks to an interesting creative decision on Johnny’s part XD), played by Johnny and whoever wasn’t currently participating in a match. So far in the episode, we’ve had:
I. The Funeral Director wrestle Matt Finish in Matt’s debut match (which was made even more interesting by the reveal that The Funeral Director was apparently Matt’s mentor) – there was some lovely pre-match trash talk from the FD about how he was going to respectfully put Matt in the ground; poor Matt initially stammering his way through his reply, before finding his confidence and declaring that their match would be a No Disqualifications match (a stipulation he was allowed to make thanks to a successful roll to cut his promo); and the FD nearly taking out Matt early, only for Matt to get to his feet, get FD on the ropes, and almost get him in an “arm bar” (not sure what that is, but it involved hanging onto FD’s arm), wowing the crowd and making them love this scrappy newbie. Like, FD still won the match – breaking Matt’s arm bar, clotheslining him, and then doing his “Tasteful Memorial Piledriver” to end things – but thanks to his refusal to go down too quickly, Matt has definitely made some fans in the crowd! Nice :)
II. Fabian give his own very disparaging commentary on what he’d just seen in the previous match (particularly ragging on poor Matt – but then again, he is a heel, who is supposed to be hated)
III. And Chip and Flex continuing to provide their own commentary on everything, sounding increasingly goofy in as they did (they are REALLY leaning hard into Flex sounding like Kermit)
Fun times! :) As I’m not a wrestling fan, a lot of the specifics of what’s happening in the matches are lost on me, but everyone is clearly having a good time, and I’m enjoying how everyone is working together to try and make something that could be seen as a fun show to watch. :) When I left off, two NPC wrestlers, Baby Boy and Dude Wipes, were currently having a “grudge match” – we’ll see what happens with that, and with the actual PC wrestlers, tomorrow in the next chunk!
Other: We may not have managed to get in mini-golf, but the nice weather meant that we finally got to play a few rounds of beanbags in the backyard! And let me tell you, Mom had a spectacular day, winning three out of the five games and only coming in last once. Dad and I, meanwhile, were pretty off (me especially – it took me quite a while to get my hand in properly!), but happily we did manage to score a win each, so it wasn’t too bad. Final scores were me 3-3-2-2-W; Dad 2-W-3-3-2; Mom W-2-W-W-3. *nods* You know what, I’ll take that.
Whew! And now I have to wrap things up and go to bed, because I do have work tomorrow. Meeeh. Hopefully it won't be too bad a day -- I mean, I'm expecting it to be kind of chaotic just because I'll have so much to catch up on, but I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into a full-on shitshow. That would be sad. :( Keep your fingers crossed, people! Night all!
And, apparently, all of them went to our mini-golf place. We drove up there after lunch today, saw the cars parked all around (including down in the field by the nearby pond!) and the massive crowd just waiting in line for ice cream, and didn't even pull into the parking lot. Dad instead found a side street, and we just turned right around and came home. *sigh* So yeah -- five days off, and not one chance to go out and do something fun. Meeeh. I suppose the ride itself was nice, at least, and Mom made homemade sundaes for us tonight with whipped cream and chocolate sauce, but -- still. I was kinda looking forward to putting the old ball around. And, to add onto the disappointment, turns out I was right on the money about my bitchy, jittery mood earlier being PMS, because I got my period today! Right before we left, in fact. Fortunately it was an extremely light start and I caught it before it could ruin any of my clothes, but meeeh. Last thing I needed on my last day off! At least this means it'll be mostly over by the time Smiler's birthday rolls around on Saturday...
Anyway -- despite the disappointment of no mini-golf, I didn't have a horrible day. In fact, I got a fair amount done:
Tumblr: Did a few things over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) this morning before lunch and the failed mini-golf trip:
A) First, over on my dash, I reblogged –
I. A cool photoset by “dozydawn” of vintage tiny golden lantern charms with pearls inside (to represent the light within) that popped up courtesy of my friend Newt! Mostly because I looked at them and thought, “Ooh, I bet charms like these would be popular in Duskwall jewelry! Lanterns are supposed to be an important part of everyday life, after all…bet the rich folks have ones that really light up. And oh, hey, maybe the Lampblacks sport charms with black pearls in them? As a way to show membership?” So yeah, now those (with the above musings added in the tags) are on my blog as part of my “#valicer in the dark” tag! Nice! :)
II. My own “Help: How Do Tav!Smiler in BG3???” post one last time to announce the results of the poll – one vote for “Bardlock, Just Do A Lot Of Alchemy, Entertainer Background” and one vote for “Bardlock, Just Do A Lot Of Alchemy, Guild Artisan Background” – and how I guess I’m going to have to study the inspiring events for each background to decide which one fits Smiler better on my own. ...and how I’m not sure I’m going to be able to resist downloading that “Experimental Alchemy As A Feat” mod despite nobody picking one of those options. XD Look, if I’m not triple-classing with an Artificer mod (and I’m fine with not doing that, it sounded complicated), that sounds like a good option to show how good Smiler is at alchemy! We’ll see what I decide once I’m done planning out what specific stuff I want to be part of my Tav!Smiler’s build, and figuring out how I get it.
B) And second, in my drafts –
I. I went quickly through the “How Write Smiler Alton: A Guide” post one final time and fixed up a couple of typos I found, because apparently I can’t leave that post alone to save my life (I promise I’m not touching it again! It’s going in the queue tomorrow!)
II. And I also went through the first post detailing my Mega-Ghostbusters AU “Busting Makes Me Feel Good” and cleaned up/rewrote a few things there! Didn’t make any MAJOR changes – just updated some word choices, reworked some awkward sentences, and made it clearer near the end that Edna Strickland’s problem with the Ghostbusters is that she thinks they’re complete frauds. Despite the preponderance of evidence that ghosts ARE real in this universe. *nods* So hopefully I don’t have to touch that post again either, and can concentrate on getting the second one next time I have some time to spare!
Sims 4: Welp, with mini-golf being a bust again, I decided to pop into my building save once more for a mini-building session (about a half-hour) just to see if I could quickly finish off my “Town Square Terrace” renovation for my upcoming “Starting As Teens Valicer” save file. It proved to be a LITTLE more difficult than I expected, but I accomplished pretty much everything I hoped to accomplish in the end:
A) I made sure all the rooms were properly painted or tiled (using variations on the three different “[color] with white trim” base game wall paints throughout most of the house) – the front foyer stayed its original dark green, and the kitchen its original orangey-red color, but the living room got painted a brighter, more cheerful shade of green; the downstairs hallway got painted a light beige; the upstairs hallway got painted a slightly darker beige; the bedrooms got painted red, blue, and yellow respectively; and both bathrooms were tiled with the “Pixel Perfect” half-tile. Meaning the house now has some color to it while still keeping a lot of the “old and cheap” vibes I’m going for! (Plus, this allowed me to quickly note which bedrooms would be Alice’s, Victor’s, and Smiler’s respectively. Color-coding is fun! :P)
B) I quickly changed the stairs from greenish to white to better match the now-beige hall (consistency!)
C) I turned the 2x2 room behind the downstairs bathroom and off the kitchen into a laundry room, as per my realization last night – though not without having to fight my game a little bit in the process. What happened is, I found a nice 2x2 archway and stuck that in the wall as an entrance to the room from the kitchen, painted the walls with the orange “Sparkling Speckled” tile to kind of match the paint in the kitchen, then went to extend the kitchen’s cheap linoleum floor into the laundry room (since, if it was an offshoot of the kitchen, it felt logical for them to have the same floor) –
Only to find I couldn’t. Whenever I tried to click on the floor tiles in the room, it kept telling me that there was “nothing to change.” It literally would not let me change it from the wood floor I’d originally put down to the linoleum one. Baffled, I tried deleting and rebuilding the floor – nope. I tried pulling the room out and away from the rest of the house, then changing the floor – nope. I tried straight-up deleting the room and rebuilding it – NOPE. I tried looking up the problem on my phone – not much useful information, but someone recommended knocking down and rebuilding walls to sort of “reset” the floor, so I tried that – nope. Frustrated, I finally took out the archway in preparation for knocking down ALL the walls –
And discovered that, for some reason, THAT had been the fucking problem – the archway. I don’t know WHY – I presume it has something to do with its footprint? – but the minute I removed it, I could finally change the damn floor tiles. *facepalm* This game sometimes, I swear…
Anyway – now that I was no longer blocked, I put down the linoleum; rebuilt all the missing walls and repainted them (well, retiled them, technically); placed the stacked washer and dryer combo in the back left corner of the room (recoloring them orange and brown to match the color scheme of the kitchen); THEN readded the archway so the room was, you know, accessible. Fortunately, it went in without complaint, and as the washer and dryer are in the corner just beyond the arch’s footprint, I think they’ll be functional. I hope. *sigh* Once that was in, I dropped the Laundry Day “bucket with paper towels, rag, and laundry detergent bottle” decoration on top of the dryer and the cheapest “Wicker Whims” hamper beside the tower of cleanliness, and that finished things off. Wanted to add an ironing board, just for fun, but there was no room on the wall. *shakehead* All that fuss to make one little laundry nook...but I do like how it looks, so I’m glad I stuck with it.
D) While looking for the washer and dryer, I stumbled across the thermostat and went “oh shit, yeah, better get one of these,” so that’s now in the front foyer, next to the front door. Can’t have the trio getting too cold or too hot! The house is just supposed to be a little uncomfortable, not unlivable.
E) Speaking of which, I made sure that the upstairs bathroom also had some fixtures in it – the same ultra-cheap toilet and sink as the downstairs bathroom, along with the cheapest claw-footed tub-and-shower combo available for the bathing nook (as the upstairs bathroom has a chunk of wall separating the “bathing” area from the “toilet” area). Can’t leave them without adequate places to poop and bathe!
F) And, at the last minute, I added a small boxy window to the end of the hallway downstairs, by the stairs (since that side of the house was SEVERELY lacking in windows), and quickly recolored Victor and Alice’s beds so their comforters at least somewhat matched their wall colors (the bed’s “default” swatch is yellow stripes, so Smiler’s room was already all good).
So yeah – the laundry room situation might have stressed me out, but other than that, the build is looking good! Now, granted, I still would like to do things like add a few more windows to the build, maybe put some carpet down in the bedrooms – but the value of the house as it stands right now is $22,636, and I’m already worried that will be too much for a trio of teens to afford. So I’m thinking that what I need to do now is make my Teen Valicer family, see how many funds they start with, and see if they can afford the house as is. If so – great, I’ve got the trio, and I’ve got a house for them to live in! If not, then we’re gonna have to find some ways to cut costs – probably by finding even worse furniture to put in the house. XD But no matter what, we’re going to make this work! I want to actually PLAY my Sims again, damn it!
Writing: Actually got two writing-related things done today:
A) First, after reblogging that post on lantern charms and writing up all my thoughts about how those would be popular in the Blades In The Dark world above, I decided to canonize the Lampblacks showing membership via wearing lantern pins with black pearls in them for my version of Duskwall! So I added that little tidbit to my master doc for the Valicer In The Dark verse. Dunno when it’s going to be relevant, but it’s a nice little worldbuilding detail to have!
B) And second, after getting through my workout and YouTube and all of that (below), I worked some more on Chapter 5 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland!” I didn’t write quite as much as I’d hoped – just getting through Alice getting up the stairs into the upstairs hallway and having a fight with one of the clawed ghouls that lurks up there (the other ghoul who was hanging around near the trapdoor was, fortunately, not hostile) – but then again, I did edit some of what I’d written before with Alice fighting the ghouls in the stair room below, so – I think it all evens out. *sighs* This is proving to be a tough chapter to get through – for me and Alice. Hopefully it’ll all be worth it in the end...
YouTube: Thanks to getting back to the computer late tonight (lot of dishes after supper tonight) and needing some extra time to sum up the workout video (see below), I only had time for one video tonight, which was the latest from Josh Way – “Fun With Shorts: The Dangerous Stranger!” Josh taking on one of Sid Davis’s first shorts, which was all about teaching kids about stranger danger! Done in a particularly 70s, greasy and creepy, “let’s blame the kids for forgetting their parents’ warnings” way, of course. Of especial yucky note was the bit where a guy followed a girl into a movie theater, sat next to her, and put his arm around her just touching her shoulder, ugh. *shudder* Fortunately, Josh’s riffs helped cut through the unpleasant subject matter – from mocking some of the ridiculous ways kids were lured away from safety, to pointing out when the chase music for the police pursuing a guy who’d kidnapped a girl who’d he’d picked up hitchhiking turned a little tonally inappropriate (waaaay too jaunty), to rightfully pointing out that maybe we shouldn’t be blaming the kids for when they got abducted by strangers acting like friends. You get ‘im, Josh! Though, uh, wouldn’t mind seeing something a little less “ugh” next time, if you don’t mind.
Workout: Hopped back on the bike tonight and started the next Oxventure video I had to catch up on: “World Wide Wrestling RPG | Oxventure Plays Pro Wrestling RPG with Daniel J Layton of No Rolls Barred!” Yes, there is indeed a freaking role-playing game all about pro wrestling, apparently. XD From what I’ve seen in this first thirty-five minutes, it’s a very “fiction first” game with lots of description of what you’re doing and minimal rolling – a bit like Blades In The Dark, but with a very different vibe. Each player makes a wrestler – coming up with a name, their role in the ring (whether they’re a beloved “babyface” or a hated “heel” or whatnot), and what kind of moves they do – and then the Creative (aka GM) makes a list of matches, for players and NPCs. Gameplay consists of players acting out/narrating how they handle pre-match interviews, the matches themselves, and post-match commentary, and whenever the Creative tells them to “cut a promo” (usually after they’ve said something particularly interesting in an interview, or done something particularly cool in a match), they have to roll two d6s, add any relevant modifiers (for Body, Looks, or Work, depending on what the roll is for – “Body” seems to be for strength stuff, “Look” for your persona, and “Work” – uh, not 100% sure, but your general set of moves, maybe?), and see how well they do. 1-6 is a botch; 7-9 is a normal success; 10+ is a big success. There’s also tokens called “momentum” that can be earned via big successes or helping progress the match (by politely cedeing control of the narrative to your opponent so they can narrate THEIR cool moves), and spent to increase the results of a dice roll (turning a near-failure into a success, for example), or used to cut into someone else’s description of how a match is going if the player really wants to grab control of the narrative. It’s all about the collaborative storytelling and making something that sounds really cool. :)
Anyway – for this particular episode of Oxventure Wrestling (OXW), Johnny was the Creative, with Mike, Andy, and Dan playing the wrestlers – Mike was The Funeral Director (in a long curly wig and fake muscle arms), a legally-distinct version of The Undertaker who constantly said he was going to kill his opponents, but in a respectful way; Andy was Fabian Fantastic (in fancy shades), a rich and established heel who loved to go on and on about how he was the champ and how wrestlers these days sucked; and Dan was Matt Finish (no special props), a newbie wrestler from Oklahoma who’d just gotten signed to OXW and was just full of heart heart heart. XD Rounding out the cast were the announcers, Chip Spudley and Flex Abslington (the latter of whom ended up sounding rather a lot like Kermit The Frog thanks to an interesting creative decision on Johnny’s part XD), played by Johnny and whoever wasn’t currently participating in a match. So far in the episode, we’ve had:
I. The Funeral Director wrestle Matt Finish in Matt’s debut match (which was made even more interesting by the reveal that The Funeral Director was apparently Matt’s mentor) – there was some lovely pre-match trash talk from the FD about how he was going to respectfully put Matt in the ground; poor Matt initially stammering his way through his reply, before finding his confidence and declaring that their match would be a No Disqualifications match (a stipulation he was allowed to make thanks to a successful roll to cut his promo); and the FD nearly taking out Matt early, only for Matt to get to his feet, get FD on the ropes, and almost get him in an “arm bar” (not sure what that is, but it involved hanging onto FD’s arm), wowing the crowd and making them love this scrappy newbie. Like, FD still won the match – breaking Matt’s arm bar, clotheslining him, and then doing his “Tasteful Memorial Piledriver” to end things – but thanks to his refusal to go down too quickly, Matt has definitely made some fans in the crowd! Nice :)
II. Fabian give his own very disparaging commentary on what he’d just seen in the previous match (particularly ragging on poor Matt – but then again, he is a heel, who is supposed to be hated)
III. And Chip and Flex continuing to provide their own commentary on everything, sounding increasingly goofy in as they did (they are REALLY leaning hard into Flex sounding like Kermit)
Fun times! :) As I’m not a wrestling fan, a lot of the specifics of what’s happening in the matches are lost on me, but everyone is clearly having a good time, and I’m enjoying how everyone is working together to try and make something that could be seen as a fun show to watch. :) When I left off, two NPC wrestlers, Baby Boy and Dude Wipes, were currently having a “grudge match” – we’ll see what happens with that, and with the actual PC wrestlers, tomorrow in the next chunk!
Other: We may not have managed to get in mini-golf, but the nice weather meant that we finally got to play a few rounds of beanbags in the backyard! And let me tell you, Mom had a spectacular day, winning three out of the five games and only coming in last once. Dad and I, meanwhile, were pretty off (me especially – it took me quite a while to get my hand in properly!), but happily we did manage to score a win each, so it wasn’t too bad. Final scores were me 3-3-2-2-W; Dad 2-W-3-3-2; Mom W-2-W-W-3. *nods* You know what, I’ll take that.
Whew! And now I have to wrap things up and go to bed, because I do have work tomorrow. Meeeh. Hopefully it won't be too bad a day -- I mean, I'm expecting it to be kind of chaotic just because I'll have so much to catch up on, but I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into a full-on shitshow. That would be sad. :( Keep your fingers crossed, people! Night all!
Thwarted By The Weather This Sunday
May. 25th, 2025 11:44 pmBy which I mean we did NOT go out and play mini-golf because it refused to actually get nice outside -- like, there were a few moments of sunshine throughout the day, and it was definitely warmer than it was on Thursday and Friday, but for the most part it kept looking like it was going to start raining any second, with occasional bursts of wind. And because we didn't know what it was going to do, either here or at the course we were planning on visiting -- yeah. Ended up staying home. We're going to try again tomorrow, as it's supposed to be 70 and sunny, but -- well, at this point I have NO idea if the weather's going to cooperate. I swear, this is the shittiest run of bad weather I've had during some time off in a while. Not that I had much in the way of plans, admittedly, but -- still! It's nearly June, I want it to be nice already!
Tumblr: Had a productive day on half the tumbls – while there was nothing happening again on Valice Multiverse, I accomplished two major things of note over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), and learned one important fact:
A) Accomplishment #1: I spent my pre-lunch “working on drafts” time going over and updating the “How To Write Smiler Alton: A Guide” post that will be going out for public consumption later this week, because I wanted to make sure I’d covered everything and that it was in the best possible condition (also because, thanks to the PMS brain, I was having trouble concentrating this morning and felt it best to work on something I’d already pretty much finished). Specifically –
I. I went through and updated my phrasing in a few spots, because I can never pass up a chance to tinker with my wording
II. I added links to my tags for some of the AUs I mentioned in the “Cheerful” section (where I went through the three levels of cheer any given Smiler can have depending on their situation in their given AU)
III. I updated the section on Mar-Mal (the eldritch god of happiness OC I have that goes along with Smiler) to further clarify that they’re not usually the same person as Smiler – and that, when they are, they’ve generally been traumatized by having accidentally killed people by trying to make them supernaturally happy (generally in a case of “the outer god did not realize that humans needed hunger to know when to eat and accidentally caused their followers to starve by taking it away”), so they’re not as happy as you’d think they’d be (because I imagine most people would assume the Literal God Of Happiness would be the Ultimate High Cheerful Smiler, but – yeah, not really the case!)
IV. I added a whole paragraph about how you shouldn’t “disrespect their craft” (chemistry/alchemy/general drink-making) to the “Intelligent” section – mostly because I couldn’t resist the urge to write about how VITD hates the BG3 alchemy system because it’s one specific ingredient and one more generic one (“that’s not how it works!”) XD Though I do think all Smilers get annoyed at sloppy chemistry/alchemy, and being told they don’t know what they’re doing when they KNOW they do, so it’s justified
V. I added a bit to the end of “Kind” section saying that, while Smiler is a nice person and will do a lot to help people be happier, taking advantage of them is NOT a good idea because they DO have limits – and their own Charismatic nature means they’re better at sniffing out when they’re being manipulated
VI. And I updated the “Universal Headcanons” section by noting that I WILL find ways to make sure they have their signature glowing yellow eyes and purple-tipped black hair at least part of the time (like in Wonderland for a Victorian-era AU), even if it doesn’t necessarily make sense for the AU (because I can’t imagine them with normal eye and hair colors, damn it)
So NOW this post should be fully done and dusted and I can stick it into my queue for – let’s say Friday, since Smiler’s birthday is Saturday – a little later this week!
B) Accomplishment #2: I reblogged Songthursh and Stupidlynx’s beautiful “Glorious 25th of May” Discworld fan art tonight, because, well, 25th of May (it’s a very important date in everyone’s favorite Discworld book, Night Watch – they did the meeting in the cemetery between Vimes and Vetinari at the end, and it is lovely)
C) Important Fact Learned: the results of my “what do I do with Tav!Smiler” poll! I never did get more than the two votes, but again, I was really worried the poll would be ignored ENTIRELY, so I will take two people wanting to give me their opinion! And those two people ALMOST agreed on what I should do, as both of them voted for one of the “Bardlock, Just Do A Lot Of Alchemy” options –
But one (my friend Squid) voted for the Entertainer background, and the other (unknown) voted for the Guild Artisan background. Hmmm. So it seems I still have a decision to make! I shall have to check the “inspiring events” list for each background and decide which I feel is more Smiler! A project for tomorrow, perhaps...
Sims 4: So, no mini-golf today meant that I actually had time for some gaming this afternoon – but, since I’d mentally prepared to be out and about today, it took me a while to figure out exactly what the hell I wanted to play. I didn’t want to break out Fallout 4 because I wanted to keep working on “The Van Dort Vacancy” (and playing FO4 always leads to me having to update the FO4 Playthrough Progression doc); I didn’t want to do anything with Baldur’s Gate III because I felt I needed more time to design my Hopefully Final Tav!Smiler (for example, figuring out their background, as per the above) and lock down the mods I wanted for my Hopefully Final Attempt At A Playthrough; and I didn’t feel like firing up Unpacking or Untitled Goose Game because I’ve played through both twice and feel like I’ve done everything possible in them. And while I was briefly tempted by Superliminal, because I haven’t found all the secrets in that game yet (there’s apparently tons of collectibles to hunt down in there), I eventually decided, “You know what? I want to fire up my building save in Sims 4 and do a little more work on Town Square Terrace – see if I can put that idea I had about adding hallways and a proper stairwell into the house into action.” So that’s what I did! How did it go?
Pretty well, actually! I didn’t even have to fiddle around with it that much – I just loaded up the lot, dumped all the downstairs furniture outside, removed all the downstairs internal walls, made the entire first floor the same wooden planking throughout (after my first attempt to build the hallway ended up in me just automatically following the dividing line between the living room planking and the kitchen tile without any regard for whether or not that was a good place to put the wall), and started building! While moving windows around to try and stop them getting deleted, and adding lights to I could see what the hell I was doing. XD Ended up with a two-wide central hallway running the width of the house downstairs, with the front entrance and the living room at the front of the house (natch) on one side, and the kitchen, downstairs bathroom, and one-tile-wide stairwell running up the left wall at the back of the house on the other. And then, upstairs, after fencing off the hole for the stairs, I created a simple landing area/hallway with three 4x5 (or 5x4? not sure which number should come first) bedrooms running along it on the right, and the old upstairs bathroom at the end. *nods* It’s probably not the world’s most perfect layout, but it’s functional – and it means Alice, Victor, and Smiler all get their own equally-sized bedroom upstairs! I even made sure each one had two windows for adequate natural light (though admittedly, this did make the window placement in the middle bedroom, where they had to go the same wall, look a little weird from the outside – we shall roll with it, though).
So yeah – basic layout of the “Teen Valicer Boarding House” is pretty much done now, yay! I’ve got all the furniture back in the house; added all the necessary archways and doors around the place; painted some walls in the living room and front foyer (have to decide on the color scheme for the rest of the house – not really digging the orange that was in the kitchen before); and laid down some tile in the downstairs bathroom (“Sparking Speckled Tile,” to match the upstairs bathroom) and linoleum in the kitchen (“Basic Beige” to reinforce how old and cheap this house is). So there’s not much else that needs to be done before I save the lot and put it into the upcoming Teen Valicer save file. Though I do have one last semi-major issue to fix before then...you see, when I was building the downstairs bathroom, in order to not make it absurdly long and thin, I had to build a 2x2 room directly behind it, off the kitchen. And, well, I don’t want to waste the space, but I’m really not sure what to use it for. My initial thought was to make it into a pantry of some kind, but that would be making the house more expensive while making that room purely decorative. But what else could I put in –
LAUNDRY. TURN IT INTO A LAUNDRY ROOM, VIC. IT TOTALLY MAKES SENSE FOR IT TO BE A LAUNDRY ROOM IF IT’S BEHIND THE DOWNSTAIRS BATHROOM BECAUSE THEY COULD SHARE INTERNAL PLUMBING. *facepalm* Again, I ask why I don’t have these thoughts in the moment! Hang on, I should probably write this down for the next time I play...
(Oh, and very quickly, I swung by the Valicer House in this save briefly at the start of my session to test something I vaguely remembered reading while researching the “vampire eyes no longer glowing” bug that’s affecting Smiler’s eyes – namely, that lowering the detail on Sims slightly might fix the issue. So I dropped the graphics on Sims from “Very High” to “High,” saved, reloaded, and visited their house. Sadly, this little tweak did NOT fix anything, meh. *shrug* I had to try! And I was at least able to take advantage of the opportunity to get Alice to feed poor Dogmeat a treat so he wasn’t starving anymore, poor pup. :p I may not play this family, but I don’t want them to be uncomfortable while they’re hanging out in the world!)
Writing: Got another chunk written on “The Van Dort Vacancy” this afternoon, right after my Sims 4 session! :) Covering Smiler reminding Alice that she won’t be alone after she moves to Elder Gutknecht’s – not only will Gutknecht himself be there, both they and Victor should be visiting plenty – Victor in particular because he’ll be training to be a Whisper; Victor revealing that he’s not taking Elder Gutknecht up on his offer to train him; Smiler and Alice both being like “??? Wait, we thought you were getting into this, what happened?”; Victor internally being like “oh God I am into this I want so much to learn magic and how to wrangle ghosts – but my parents, especially my mother, will never let me” and externally claiming that he just wants a normal life again; Smiler not buying this but reluctantly accepting it after a warning from Alice and some extra pleading from Victor; and Victor assuring them that he’ll still be coming over to visit so they can argue about his parents some more, which does get a laugh out of them. This page flowed pretty well for the most part, I’m pleased to say – I enjoyed writing Victor’s internal monologue about his eagerness to learn about magic and ghosts...and then the resultant rant from his internal Nell about how he can’t be seen as “weird” and how Whispers are barely better than tradesmen anyway, so no son of hers is going to become one! Poor guy, he’s been so beaten down by his parents’ expectations...good thing this story is all about freeing him from them once and for all!
YouTube: Well, the Sunday Two is down to a Sunday One now – which should make my life a tiny bit easier when it comes to recapping what I watched on Sunday night, at least. :p Anyway, tonight we had Jon of Many A True Nerd and “Fallout: London - Part 44 - Pure Cinema!” The continuing adventures of Lady Aria and Mad Jack as they –
I. Got involved in the election of the new Prime Minister! Because Aria had some very important paperwork on her person that couldn’t be delivered until someone got the job, damn it. She thus found her way to St. James Park and Bernie, the guy handing out the posters for the three major political parties: The Traditionalists, The Pragmatists, and The Reformists (aka the Tories, the Lib Dems, and Labor). He told Aria about each (the Traditionalists being dull as dishwater and terrified of change; the Pragmatists being pro a few reforms, but with a leader who was a bit of a nutter; and the Reformists being the underdogs who never ever win, bless them), and Aria decided to take the Pragmatist’s side, on the basis of they were both willing to enact at least a few changes and actually had a shot at winning. Bernie thus handed her a stack of yellow posters, and Aria went around London hanging them up in support of her new party – all while the local Cavaliers decided to shoot at her whenever she neared a poster-placement site. Jon wasn’t quite sure why they were so driven to murder by the analogue of the LIB DEMS of all parties. XD She also stopped at one point to talk to car salesman Moe, who offered her his tiny roadster Betsy for the low low price of 1,000 tickets! Aria, intrigued, managed to talk him down to 700 tickets (though he actually only took 600), received the keys –
Aaand discovered the car had an art installation instead of an engine. Forcing her to run after the fleeing Moe, confront him, and then shoot him when he pulled out a gun. Meaning that she didn’t get a new car, but she did at least get her tickets back off his corpse. And a radish. Everybody likes a radish. :p
Anyway – once that was over with, and all the posters were hung up, Aria returned to Bernie and discovered that the election results were already being broadcast (because of course only the Gentry were allowed to vote). St. James was of course counted for the Pragmatists, and that gave them the majority in Parliament and made their leader, Lynne Moors, Prime Minister! Which Mad Jack disliked, much to Jon’s surprise – though, given that Lynne, upon calling into the radio to accept the position, immediately said her first acts would be to reduce the prison population and increase the meat ration...yeah, I think Mad Jack might have legitimate reasons to dislike this woman. XD
II. Got Smythe installed as Lord Chancellor! A process that involved heading to 10 Downing St and giving the signed, sealed, and authenticated appointment to new PM Moors – who was utterly horrified by the small print that seemed to indicate that her job would soon be useless (“I won the sham election, not her!”); heading back to Smythe’s office – only to be met outside the main building by a courier with an invitation to Smythe’s swearing-in ceremony (though Aria was informed that she would be standing in the courtyard listening to the broadcast with all the other plebs instead of actually entering the building); and going to said courtyard and standing with all the other plebs to listen to Smythe officially become Lord Chancellor –
And promptly use the excuse of “there’s horrible gang warfare in the streets” (which, admittedly, there is, but still) to dissolve Parliament and declare martial law, saying that the power would return to the people only when the crisis was over. Jon was like “yup, we just murdered democracy!” Well, you’re the one who wanted to throw your hat in with the evil asshole scientists, Jon! It’s the Institute all over again!
III. Headed back to Angel and got their next assignment from Smythe (via telephone call, of course) – namely, to kick out General Asquith of the Tommies and replace him with the newly-promoted Colonel George Major. Seemed like, in the wake of Smythe’s swearing-in, Asquith decided he wasn’t going to be supporting the Gentry anymore and declared he’d only be taking orders from the Queen herself (who, if I remember some comments on an older video correctly, is a potentially non-sapient Glowing One ghoul, so – that’s a problem), so Smythe decided it was time to get someone more reliable. And who better to deliver the good news to Major and the bad news to Asquith than Aria? Aria of course accepted and took the orders promoting Major, but Jon is pretty sure that getting him charge of the Tommies is going to be a lot more difficult than delivering one piece of paper...
IV. Decided they were done with Angel business for the time being and that it was time to steal a supply train from the Syndicate for the Vagabonds! Because Jon REALLY wanted to do the train job, damn it. XD It proved to be a less-complicated-than-he-thought job, though – all Aria had to do was make her way over to the Dockland Light Rail bunker (killing some Syndicate members right outside, as word had spread she was not officially a Vagabond); take the little moving platform along the line and around to the back of Poplar station; kill the terrifying malfunctioning Robo-Margo that was roaming around (who reduced Aria’s health to such a low point that all you could see on her health bar were her RADS – it was freaky); get into the station (where she discovered that the Syndicate member in there had already been murdered by Robo-Margo) and use the terminal to stop the train; kill the Syndicate members on and around the train; then hop on the train and redirect it to the station where some waiting vagabonds were ready to unload it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, really! Jon was like “wow, that wasn’t hard at all – guess it really goes to show how far Gaunt’s gone if he’s willing to blow up a train that is SURPRISINGLY easy to steal for the same amount of effort.”
V. Deciding they had time for at least one more job for the Vagabonds and going to tackle stealing some guns from the Syndicate arms depot before blowing it sky-high! This proved to be a slightly-more complicated job, involving Aria meeting up with Bullettooth Anthony’s old friend/probably lover Frosty Valentina (she and Aria flirted a bit via baked good puns, which Mad Jack ALSO disliked, to Jon’s deep confusion) and telling her the plan; Frosty getting Aria to gather the materials she needed to make her an access card for the depot that would shut off the automated security for a few minutes and get her inside (though it wouldn’t open any interior locks, and tripping any alarms would promptly reset it, so Aria still had to be very careful); Aria heading for the depot, set up inside an old Kinoworld Cinema, and using the access card to get in –
And finding herself face to face with a LOT of Syndicate members. Because, well, the real danger here wasn’t the security system, but all the people inside. XD Aria and Jack managed to kill the lot, though (with Aria stopping briefly to check the front desk terminal – turned out to have a list of Fallout-themed James Bond movie titles, like “Radiation Is Forever,” which amused Jon, even as he disagreed with the choice to make “Mr. Yes” the top-selling faux-Bond flick), and let in the Vagabonds waiting outside; then, when everybody had had a chance to grab what they could, they planted the bomb Gaunt gave them and fought their way out the front doors before the cinema exploded in suitably dramatic fashion. *nods* Jon was very impressed.
And that is where the episode ended, because it appears roughly 40 minutes for these is now Jon’s standard. :p Next time, Aria and Jack take on the final Vagabond task they need to complete – doing a prison break on the HMS Dredge! And, hopefully, sending it to the bottom of the Thames. *nods* Should be a fun one!
Workout: Back on the bike today, and since I’m taking a break from GrayStillPlays, I instead watched two more videos from Proxy Gate Tactician:
A) “What Happens in Baldur's Gate 3 Without A Player?” – Proxy exploring what he thinks would happen in the game world if there’s no player character to wrangle all the companions and advance all the quests – no Tav, no Durge, and nobody in charge of any of the Origin characters’ decisions. His conclusion is, in short, “Shadowheart evil path speedrun with Minthara.” XD Basically, he believes that:
I. Shadowheart would be the only Origin character to survive to the end game because she possesses the Astral Prism that grants Main Character Status (the others perishing in sad and terrible ways based on what happens to them if you don’t collect them as companions)
II. The only non-Origin companion she would get would be Minthara because she has a canonical voice line saying that it might be a good idea to save the drow when she’s sentenced to death in Moonrise Towers in Act II for her failure to take the Emerald Grove (here spared because she can’t find it before the druids’ ritual to seal it is complete if you don’t tell her where it is)
III. She would be so focused on finding a healer to cure the tadpole infection and (especially after learning she’s actually protected by the dream visitor from being turned into a mind flayer) completing her original mission to get the Prism to Baldur’s Gate that she would skip most of the sidequests along the path
IV. Without a player to get her to start questioning her faith, she’d stay loyal to Shar, slay the Nightsong, become a Dark Justicar, and take control of the cult upon arriving at Baldur’s Gate, thus becoming the evilest version of herself.
V. Even despite all this, she would still save the world from the Absolute (teaming up with the Emperor to do so), but it would be a very near victory thanks to her lack of allies (and let me tell you, the only reason she isn’t totally underleveled for the fight is the wealth of XP one gets in Act III of the game) – AND, of course, since she goes the most evil path, Baldur’s Gate starts slowly but surely becoming a Sharran cult stronghold after her victory. Oh, and because all of the Origin characters are extremely horny all the time, she’d end up in a loving evil relationship with Minthara. XD Sounds legit, if fairly sad, to me!
B) “Busting Myths In Baldur's Gate 3” – Proxy testing out some popular myths about the game to see if they’re true or false! In order, we had:
I. Does destroying a chest destroy the loot inside? Nope – you can smash them open to your heart’s content, and as long as there’s no explosive traps, your loot will be there waiting for you on the ground.
II. Are Mage Hands incapable of picking up items? MOSTLY – there’s a few special weapons that a Mage Hand can pick up and even use, but they’ll be lost forever if the Mage Hand dies or disappears while wielding them, so it’s not really worth it.
III. Is the Everburn Blade you can get if you can beat the devil using it on the Nautiloid an OP weapon for Act I? Not really – if you have a greatsword, you can just dip it in any burning substance to get the same effect, and – if you’re really good at getting people to drop their weapons via Command – you can get an even BETTER greatsword off the githyanki Voss not too long into Act I.
IV. Do you get more XP from passing a dialogue check to avoid a fight, then killing the targets anyway, than from just a straight-up fight? Most of the time no (killing the enemies after passing the check yields no XP from the kills), but there’s a couple of encounters (like saving Barcus Wroot from the goblins who have him tied to a windmill) which will yield a bit more XP – and at the time Proxy recorded this, there was a bug where you could do the dialogue check, save the game, reload the game, then kill the NPCs and get full XP. Hell, you could get even MORE XP by knocking the enemies out, saving and reloading the game again, and then killing them! (This exploit has since been patched though).
V. And can your attacks hit an invisible target if you know roughly where they are? Mostly – ranged attacks, spells, and certain special melee attacks can hit, but regular melee attacks always miss.
*nods* Interesting stuff! I look forward to watching his other mythbusting videos. :)
Aaaand PMS brain distraction means that all took WAY longer than it should have and it's nearly 2 AM and I should REALLY go to bed. *facepalm* We'll see what happens tomorrow with mini-golf -- MY only plans are to work some more on some of my other Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts, keep editing Chapter 5 of "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland," watch some more CaFae Latte, and get in a workout. Night all!
Tumblr: Had a productive day on half the tumbls – while there was nothing happening again on Valice Multiverse, I accomplished two major things of note over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), and learned one important fact:
A) Accomplishment #1: I spent my pre-lunch “working on drafts” time going over and updating the “How To Write Smiler Alton: A Guide” post that will be going out for public consumption later this week, because I wanted to make sure I’d covered everything and that it was in the best possible condition (also because, thanks to the PMS brain, I was having trouble concentrating this morning and felt it best to work on something I’d already pretty much finished). Specifically –
I. I went through and updated my phrasing in a few spots, because I can never pass up a chance to tinker with my wording
II. I added links to my tags for some of the AUs I mentioned in the “Cheerful” section (where I went through the three levels of cheer any given Smiler can have depending on their situation in their given AU)
III. I updated the section on Mar-Mal (the eldritch god of happiness OC I have that goes along with Smiler) to further clarify that they’re not usually the same person as Smiler – and that, when they are, they’ve generally been traumatized by having accidentally killed people by trying to make them supernaturally happy (generally in a case of “the outer god did not realize that humans needed hunger to know when to eat and accidentally caused their followers to starve by taking it away”), so they’re not as happy as you’d think they’d be (because I imagine most people would assume the Literal God Of Happiness would be the Ultimate High Cheerful Smiler, but – yeah, not really the case!)
IV. I added a whole paragraph about how you shouldn’t “disrespect their craft” (chemistry/alchemy/general drink-making) to the “Intelligent” section – mostly because I couldn’t resist the urge to write about how VITD hates the BG3 alchemy system because it’s one specific ingredient and one more generic one (“that’s not how it works!”) XD Though I do think all Smilers get annoyed at sloppy chemistry/alchemy, and being told they don’t know what they’re doing when they KNOW they do, so it’s justified
V. I added a bit to the end of “Kind” section saying that, while Smiler is a nice person and will do a lot to help people be happier, taking advantage of them is NOT a good idea because they DO have limits – and their own Charismatic nature means they’re better at sniffing out when they’re being manipulated
VI. And I updated the “Universal Headcanons” section by noting that I WILL find ways to make sure they have their signature glowing yellow eyes and purple-tipped black hair at least part of the time (like in Wonderland for a Victorian-era AU), even if it doesn’t necessarily make sense for the AU (because I can’t imagine them with normal eye and hair colors, damn it)
So NOW this post should be fully done and dusted and I can stick it into my queue for – let’s say Friday, since Smiler’s birthday is Saturday – a little later this week!
B) Accomplishment #2: I reblogged Songthursh and Stupidlynx’s beautiful “Glorious 25th of May” Discworld fan art tonight, because, well, 25th of May (it’s a very important date in everyone’s favorite Discworld book, Night Watch – they did the meeting in the cemetery between Vimes and Vetinari at the end, and it is lovely)
C) Important Fact Learned: the results of my “what do I do with Tav!Smiler” poll! I never did get more than the two votes, but again, I was really worried the poll would be ignored ENTIRELY, so I will take two people wanting to give me their opinion! And those two people ALMOST agreed on what I should do, as both of them voted for one of the “Bardlock, Just Do A Lot Of Alchemy” options –
But one (my friend Squid) voted for the Entertainer background, and the other (unknown) voted for the Guild Artisan background. Hmmm. So it seems I still have a decision to make! I shall have to check the “inspiring events” list for each background and decide which I feel is more Smiler! A project for tomorrow, perhaps...
Sims 4: So, no mini-golf today meant that I actually had time for some gaming this afternoon – but, since I’d mentally prepared to be out and about today, it took me a while to figure out exactly what the hell I wanted to play. I didn’t want to break out Fallout 4 because I wanted to keep working on “The Van Dort Vacancy” (and playing FO4 always leads to me having to update the FO4 Playthrough Progression doc); I didn’t want to do anything with Baldur’s Gate III because I felt I needed more time to design my Hopefully Final Tav!Smiler (for example, figuring out their background, as per the above) and lock down the mods I wanted for my Hopefully Final Attempt At A Playthrough; and I didn’t feel like firing up Unpacking or Untitled Goose Game because I’ve played through both twice and feel like I’ve done everything possible in them. And while I was briefly tempted by Superliminal, because I haven’t found all the secrets in that game yet (there’s apparently tons of collectibles to hunt down in there), I eventually decided, “You know what? I want to fire up my building save in Sims 4 and do a little more work on Town Square Terrace – see if I can put that idea I had about adding hallways and a proper stairwell into the house into action.” So that’s what I did! How did it go?
Pretty well, actually! I didn’t even have to fiddle around with it that much – I just loaded up the lot, dumped all the downstairs furniture outside, removed all the downstairs internal walls, made the entire first floor the same wooden planking throughout (after my first attempt to build the hallway ended up in me just automatically following the dividing line between the living room planking and the kitchen tile without any regard for whether or not that was a good place to put the wall), and started building! While moving windows around to try and stop them getting deleted, and adding lights to I could see what the hell I was doing. XD Ended up with a two-wide central hallway running the width of the house downstairs, with the front entrance and the living room at the front of the house (natch) on one side, and the kitchen, downstairs bathroom, and one-tile-wide stairwell running up the left wall at the back of the house on the other. And then, upstairs, after fencing off the hole for the stairs, I created a simple landing area/hallway with three 4x5 (or 5x4? not sure which number should come first) bedrooms running along it on the right, and the old upstairs bathroom at the end. *nods* It’s probably not the world’s most perfect layout, but it’s functional – and it means Alice, Victor, and Smiler all get their own equally-sized bedroom upstairs! I even made sure each one had two windows for adequate natural light (though admittedly, this did make the window placement in the middle bedroom, where they had to go the same wall, look a little weird from the outside – we shall roll with it, though).
So yeah – basic layout of the “Teen Valicer Boarding House” is pretty much done now, yay! I’ve got all the furniture back in the house; added all the necessary archways and doors around the place; painted some walls in the living room and front foyer (have to decide on the color scheme for the rest of the house – not really digging the orange that was in the kitchen before); and laid down some tile in the downstairs bathroom (“Sparking Speckled Tile,” to match the upstairs bathroom) and linoleum in the kitchen (“Basic Beige” to reinforce how old and cheap this house is). So there’s not much else that needs to be done before I save the lot and put it into the upcoming Teen Valicer save file. Though I do have one last semi-major issue to fix before then...you see, when I was building the downstairs bathroom, in order to not make it absurdly long and thin, I had to build a 2x2 room directly behind it, off the kitchen. And, well, I don’t want to waste the space, but I’m really not sure what to use it for. My initial thought was to make it into a pantry of some kind, but that would be making the house more expensive while making that room purely decorative. But what else could I put in –
LAUNDRY. TURN IT INTO A LAUNDRY ROOM, VIC. IT TOTALLY MAKES SENSE FOR IT TO BE A LAUNDRY ROOM IF IT’S BEHIND THE DOWNSTAIRS BATHROOM BECAUSE THEY COULD SHARE INTERNAL PLUMBING. *facepalm* Again, I ask why I don’t have these thoughts in the moment! Hang on, I should probably write this down for the next time I play...
(Oh, and very quickly, I swung by the Valicer House in this save briefly at the start of my session to test something I vaguely remembered reading while researching the “vampire eyes no longer glowing” bug that’s affecting Smiler’s eyes – namely, that lowering the detail on Sims slightly might fix the issue. So I dropped the graphics on Sims from “Very High” to “High,” saved, reloaded, and visited their house. Sadly, this little tweak did NOT fix anything, meh. *shrug* I had to try! And I was at least able to take advantage of the opportunity to get Alice to feed poor Dogmeat a treat so he wasn’t starving anymore, poor pup. :p I may not play this family, but I don’t want them to be uncomfortable while they’re hanging out in the world!)
Writing: Got another chunk written on “The Van Dort Vacancy” this afternoon, right after my Sims 4 session! :) Covering Smiler reminding Alice that she won’t be alone after she moves to Elder Gutknecht’s – not only will Gutknecht himself be there, both they and Victor should be visiting plenty – Victor in particular because he’ll be training to be a Whisper; Victor revealing that he’s not taking Elder Gutknecht up on his offer to train him; Smiler and Alice both being like “??? Wait, we thought you were getting into this, what happened?”; Victor internally being like “oh God I am into this I want so much to learn magic and how to wrangle ghosts – but my parents, especially my mother, will never let me” and externally claiming that he just wants a normal life again; Smiler not buying this but reluctantly accepting it after a warning from Alice and some extra pleading from Victor; and Victor assuring them that he’ll still be coming over to visit so they can argue about his parents some more, which does get a laugh out of them. This page flowed pretty well for the most part, I’m pleased to say – I enjoyed writing Victor’s internal monologue about his eagerness to learn about magic and ghosts...and then the resultant rant from his internal Nell about how he can’t be seen as “weird” and how Whispers are barely better than tradesmen anyway, so no son of hers is going to become one! Poor guy, he’s been so beaten down by his parents’ expectations...good thing this story is all about freeing him from them once and for all!
YouTube: Well, the Sunday Two is down to a Sunday One now – which should make my life a tiny bit easier when it comes to recapping what I watched on Sunday night, at least. :p Anyway, tonight we had Jon of Many A True Nerd and “Fallout: London - Part 44 - Pure Cinema!” The continuing adventures of Lady Aria and Mad Jack as they –
I. Got involved in the election of the new Prime Minister! Because Aria had some very important paperwork on her person that couldn’t be delivered until someone got the job, damn it. She thus found her way to St. James Park and Bernie, the guy handing out the posters for the three major political parties: The Traditionalists, The Pragmatists, and The Reformists (aka the Tories, the Lib Dems, and Labor). He told Aria about each (the Traditionalists being dull as dishwater and terrified of change; the Pragmatists being pro a few reforms, but with a leader who was a bit of a nutter; and the Reformists being the underdogs who never ever win, bless them), and Aria decided to take the Pragmatist’s side, on the basis of they were both willing to enact at least a few changes and actually had a shot at winning. Bernie thus handed her a stack of yellow posters, and Aria went around London hanging them up in support of her new party – all while the local Cavaliers decided to shoot at her whenever she neared a poster-placement site. Jon wasn’t quite sure why they were so driven to murder by the analogue of the LIB DEMS of all parties. XD She also stopped at one point to talk to car salesman Moe, who offered her his tiny roadster Betsy for the low low price of 1,000 tickets! Aria, intrigued, managed to talk him down to 700 tickets (though he actually only took 600), received the keys –
Aaand discovered the car had an art installation instead of an engine. Forcing her to run after the fleeing Moe, confront him, and then shoot him when he pulled out a gun. Meaning that she didn’t get a new car, but she did at least get her tickets back off his corpse. And a radish. Everybody likes a radish. :p
Anyway – once that was over with, and all the posters were hung up, Aria returned to Bernie and discovered that the election results were already being broadcast (because of course only the Gentry were allowed to vote). St. James was of course counted for the Pragmatists, and that gave them the majority in Parliament and made their leader, Lynne Moors, Prime Minister! Which Mad Jack disliked, much to Jon’s surprise – though, given that Lynne, upon calling into the radio to accept the position, immediately said her first acts would be to reduce the prison population and increase the meat ration...yeah, I think Mad Jack might have legitimate reasons to dislike this woman. XD
II. Got Smythe installed as Lord Chancellor! A process that involved heading to 10 Downing St and giving the signed, sealed, and authenticated appointment to new PM Moors – who was utterly horrified by the small print that seemed to indicate that her job would soon be useless (“I won the sham election, not her!”); heading back to Smythe’s office – only to be met outside the main building by a courier with an invitation to Smythe’s swearing-in ceremony (though Aria was informed that she would be standing in the courtyard listening to the broadcast with all the other plebs instead of actually entering the building); and going to said courtyard and standing with all the other plebs to listen to Smythe officially become Lord Chancellor –
And promptly use the excuse of “there’s horrible gang warfare in the streets” (which, admittedly, there is, but still) to dissolve Parliament and declare martial law, saying that the power would return to the people only when the crisis was over. Jon was like “yup, we just murdered democracy!” Well, you’re the one who wanted to throw your hat in with the evil asshole scientists, Jon! It’s the Institute all over again!
III. Headed back to Angel and got their next assignment from Smythe (via telephone call, of course) – namely, to kick out General Asquith of the Tommies and replace him with the newly-promoted Colonel George Major. Seemed like, in the wake of Smythe’s swearing-in, Asquith decided he wasn’t going to be supporting the Gentry anymore and declared he’d only be taking orders from the Queen herself (who, if I remember some comments on an older video correctly, is a potentially non-sapient Glowing One ghoul, so – that’s a problem), so Smythe decided it was time to get someone more reliable. And who better to deliver the good news to Major and the bad news to Asquith than Aria? Aria of course accepted and took the orders promoting Major, but Jon is pretty sure that getting him charge of the Tommies is going to be a lot more difficult than delivering one piece of paper...
IV. Decided they were done with Angel business for the time being and that it was time to steal a supply train from the Syndicate for the Vagabonds! Because Jon REALLY wanted to do the train job, damn it. XD It proved to be a less-complicated-than-he-thought job, though – all Aria had to do was make her way over to the Dockland Light Rail bunker (killing some Syndicate members right outside, as word had spread she was not officially a Vagabond); take the little moving platform along the line and around to the back of Poplar station; kill the terrifying malfunctioning Robo-Margo that was roaming around (who reduced Aria’s health to such a low point that all you could see on her health bar were her RADS – it was freaky); get into the station (where she discovered that the Syndicate member in there had already been murdered by Robo-Margo) and use the terminal to stop the train; kill the Syndicate members on and around the train; then hop on the train and redirect it to the station where some waiting vagabonds were ready to unload it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, really! Jon was like “wow, that wasn’t hard at all – guess it really goes to show how far Gaunt’s gone if he’s willing to blow up a train that is SURPRISINGLY easy to steal for the same amount of effort.”
V. Deciding they had time for at least one more job for the Vagabonds and going to tackle stealing some guns from the Syndicate arms depot before blowing it sky-high! This proved to be a slightly-more complicated job, involving Aria meeting up with Bullettooth Anthony’s old friend/probably lover Frosty Valentina (she and Aria flirted a bit via baked good puns, which Mad Jack ALSO disliked, to Jon’s deep confusion) and telling her the plan; Frosty getting Aria to gather the materials she needed to make her an access card for the depot that would shut off the automated security for a few minutes and get her inside (though it wouldn’t open any interior locks, and tripping any alarms would promptly reset it, so Aria still had to be very careful); Aria heading for the depot, set up inside an old Kinoworld Cinema, and using the access card to get in –
And finding herself face to face with a LOT of Syndicate members. Because, well, the real danger here wasn’t the security system, but all the people inside. XD Aria and Jack managed to kill the lot, though (with Aria stopping briefly to check the front desk terminal – turned out to have a list of Fallout-themed James Bond movie titles, like “Radiation Is Forever,” which amused Jon, even as he disagreed with the choice to make “Mr. Yes” the top-selling faux-Bond flick), and let in the Vagabonds waiting outside; then, when everybody had had a chance to grab what they could, they planted the bomb Gaunt gave them and fought their way out the front doors before the cinema exploded in suitably dramatic fashion. *nods* Jon was very impressed.
And that is where the episode ended, because it appears roughly 40 minutes for these is now Jon’s standard. :p Next time, Aria and Jack take on the final Vagabond task they need to complete – doing a prison break on the HMS Dredge! And, hopefully, sending it to the bottom of the Thames. *nods* Should be a fun one!
Workout: Back on the bike today, and since I’m taking a break from GrayStillPlays, I instead watched two more videos from Proxy Gate Tactician:
A) “What Happens in Baldur's Gate 3 Without A Player?” – Proxy exploring what he thinks would happen in the game world if there’s no player character to wrangle all the companions and advance all the quests – no Tav, no Durge, and nobody in charge of any of the Origin characters’ decisions. His conclusion is, in short, “Shadowheart evil path speedrun with Minthara.” XD Basically, he believes that:
I. Shadowheart would be the only Origin character to survive to the end game because she possesses the Astral Prism that grants Main Character Status (the others perishing in sad and terrible ways based on what happens to them if you don’t collect them as companions)
II. The only non-Origin companion she would get would be Minthara because she has a canonical voice line saying that it might be a good idea to save the drow when she’s sentenced to death in Moonrise Towers in Act II for her failure to take the Emerald Grove (here spared because she can’t find it before the druids’ ritual to seal it is complete if you don’t tell her where it is)
III. She would be so focused on finding a healer to cure the tadpole infection and (especially after learning she’s actually protected by the dream visitor from being turned into a mind flayer) completing her original mission to get the Prism to Baldur’s Gate that she would skip most of the sidequests along the path
IV. Without a player to get her to start questioning her faith, she’d stay loyal to Shar, slay the Nightsong, become a Dark Justicar, and take control of the cult upon arriving at Baldur’s Gate, thus becoming the evilest version of herself.
V. Even despite all this, she would still save the world from the Absolute (teaming up with the Emperor to do so), but it would be a very near victory thanks to her lack of allies (and let me tell you, the only reason she isn’t totally underleveled for the fight is the wealth of XP one gets in Act III of the game) – AND, of course, since she goes the most evil path, Baldur’s Gate starts slowly but surely becoming a Sharran cult stronghold after her victory. Oh, and because all of the Origin characters are extremely horny all the time, she’d end up in a loving evil relationship with Minthara. XD Sounds legit, if fairly sad, to me!
B) “Busting Myths In Baldur's Gate 3” – Proxy testing out some popular myths about the game to see if they’re true or false! In order, we had:
I. Does destroying a chest destroy the loot inside? Nope – you can smash them open to your heart’s content, and as long as there’s no explosive traps, your loot will be there waiting for you on the ground.
II. Are Mage Hands incapable of picking up items? MOSTLY – there’s a few special weapons that a Mage Hand can pick up and even use, but they’ll be lost forever if the Mage Hand dies or disappears while wielding them, so it’s not really worth it.
III. Is the Everburn Blade you can get if you can beat the devil using it on the Nautiloid an OP weapon for Act I? Not really – if you have a greatsword, you can just dip it in any burning substance to get the same effect, and – if you’re really good at getting people to drop their weapons via Command – you can get an even BETTER greatsword off the githyanki Voss not too long into Act I.
IV. Do you get more XP from passing a dialogue check to avoid a fight, then killing the targets anyway, than from just a straight-up fight? Most of the time no (killing the enemies after passing the check yields no XP from the kills), but there’s a couple of encounters (like saving Barcus Wroot from the goblins who have him tied to a windmill) which will yield a bit more XP – and at the time Proxy recorded this, there was a bug where you could do the dialogue check, save the game, reload the game, then kill the NPCs and get full XP. Hell, you could get even MORE XP by knocking the enemies out, saving and reloading the game again, and then killing them! (This exploit has since been patched though).
V. And can your attacks hit an invisible target if you know roughly where they are? Mostly – ranged attacks, spells, and certain special melee attacks can hit, but regular melee attacks always miss.
*nods* Interesting stuff! I look forward to watching his other mythbusting videos. :)
Aaaand PMS brain distraction means that all took WAY longer than it should have and it's nearly 2 AM and I should REALLY go to bed. *facepalm* We'll see what happens tomorrow with mini-golf -- MY only plans are to work some more on some of my other Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) drafts, keep editing Chapter 5 of "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland," watch some more CaFae Latte, and get in a workout. Night all!
Slightly Jittery Saturday
May. 24th, 2025 11:50 pmYeah, had some difficulties keeping the old brain focused today -- that, a lot of leg jiggling, and feeling unusually thirsty has got me thinking that the old PMS is coming back around, bleh. >( Stupid hormones...I'm gonna get my period next Saturday on Smiler's birthday, just you watch. My body is evil like that sometimes. And it didn't help that we had a slight health scare this morning -- Dad woke up with a nasty headache and had to lie down for a while, and Mom gave him a COVID test once he got up. Fortunately, it was negative, and he felt a lot better after lying down -- he's of the opinion he just didn't get enough sleep last night, which, I know that feel -- but still. Didn't need to worry about THAT this morning either! Meeeh...
Fortunately, even with those things, I had a pretty decent Saturday overall --
Cleaning & Laundry: Pretty typical Cleaning Saturday, all things considered –
A) I started with the dusting at around 10:04 AM, and I finished up with the Swiffering and vacuuming around 1:04 PM, right before lunch – was hoping it would take less time, but as usual there were a few interruptions that slowed things down (having to stop after getting my bed remade to bring down my laundry, as per the below; overhearing my parents do Dad’s COVID test and getting a little nervous about that – again, very glad it was negative; and of course getting a little too into the Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark episode I was listening to and rewinding occasionally so I wouldn’t miss bits. To be fair, it was the Barnaby and Zillah adventure “The Horrors Of Castle Wisenshire” and featured such things as Zillah hanging from a window ledge by her fingernails while ALSO reading a diary (turning the pages with her mouth); Barnaby attempting to throw Zillah (now stuck with one leg through a dilapidated roof) a rope so she could use it to get back into his room – only, thanks to a pair of 1s, to throw HIMSELF with the rope and crash through the same rooftop she was stuck in; and – on the awesome side of the scale – Zillah taking on Demon Lord Ixis (a horrible blood-wolf thing that Barnaby’s uncle had been sacrificing people to for eternal youth) with a shard of mirror and a large standing candelabra, at full stress thanks to flashbacks and pushing herself repeatedly, and WINNING (albeit partially because she got a boost from the latest sacrifice). You can see why I didn’t want to miss any of it!)
B) And my load of laundry went into the wash around 11:30 AM (at the tail end of the loads Mom was doing), and came out of the dryer a little after 3 PM – though, given that I took it out while in the middle of trying to renovate a house in Sims 4 (see below), I didn’t finishing folding everything until about 4 PM.
*shrug* Nothing special! But at least now it’s all done for another couple of weeks, yay.
Sims 4: Spent some time this afternoon messing around with “Town Square Terrace,” the little house on the edge of Copperdale’s “Prescott Square” neighborhood (the portion of town with the library and the ThrifTea shop), trying to turn it from a one-bedroom starter home into a three-bedroom “boarding house” – specifically, a house where teenager versions of Victor, Alice, and Smiler could live while attending Copperdale’s high school! Because that’s my latest idea for a save file – start with the trio as teens so I can actually play with some of the high school stuff High School Years added into the game (instead of just using all the furniture it added); then, once they graduate, move them to Britechester and send them to college (Smiler will be attending Foxbury, and Alice and Victor Ubrite, so they’ll be living in the world, but off-campus); then, after that, send them to live in either Windenburg or Ravenwood and figure out their life paths from there! I think it would be a fun adventure, and less stressful on me personally than some of the other save file ideas I’ve come up with (like, I’d love to do the Tiny Town, but I fear trying to wrangle that many Sims on one lot; similarly, I think it would be fun to do a save file with Victor, Victoria, Emily, Alice, and Smiler all starting as children and aging them up through high school and college, but that would require SO much set-up and require me to make everyone at least one parent or parental figure, and – yikes O.o). So yes, getting the Teen OT3’s home sorted is a good first step in making this save file happen. How’d it go in this initial build session?
*waggles hand* All right, I’d say. The tricky thing about renovating this house is that I have to somehow make it able to fit three Sims, each with their own bedroom, while not making it too expensive for a trio of teenagers to buy (though I suppose I could add an adult who “runs the boarding house” to the family for a little extra cash...who dares me to do this and make it a self-Sim XD). Plus I don’t want to raze the entire original house to the ground – I’d kind of like to keep at least SOME elements of the original design intact! Which is proving a bit tricky, as it’s a small house on a small lot… Still, I made some progress –
A) I got rid of the kind-of-awful paved-over “backyard” area sticking off the first floor and the somewhat-better-but-still-weird upper balcony area off the bedroom on the second floor; expanded the first floor out sideways to fill in the weird “notch” on the side from the kitchen being smaller than the living room (I guess TECHNICALLY it added some visual interest to the build and provided outdoor access to the backyard area, but I didn’t like it – it just looked bizarre to me); made the back of the build somewhat longer; and expanded the second floor and the roof to match. So now the house is more of a basic long rectangular shape (with a chimney on the left side for a fireplace and a tiny front porch on the right that I didn’t mess with), meaning there’s more floor space inside to play around with. Trust me, I need it!
B) I changed the siding from “Simple Siding” to “Clapboard Crush” to better match the siding I could see on the decorative houses behind the lot – on the plus side, this also made the build a much nicer, more vibrant shade of green on the outside
C) I largely gutted the interior – getting rid of walls, half-walls, stairs, and furnishings – so I could more freely play with the layout and try to get things where they should be. Which – yeah, getting this sorted is proving to be the trickiest bit and has involved a fair amount of “put in wall, then delete wall.” The issue is, I want a living room, a combined kitchen/dining room, and a bathroom downstairs, plus three bedrooms (or four if I do add that other adult Sim) and at least one more bathroom upstairs – but I also have to find somewhere to stick the stairs connecting the two floors. And so far, I have NOT found a good spot to stick them! Making the living room a bit bigger and putting them against the wall by the arch into the kitchen there didn’t feel right (even though that’s where the stairs were in the original build); trying to find a spot at the back of the expanded kitchen area didn’t feel right (even though I did like the idea of the stairs at the back of the house); and while putting them in the little “entrance” space beside the living room DID feel right (because there’s plenty of houses with stairs to the second floor there – I’ve lived in a few), they just take up too much space there! *sigh* I’m definitely going to have to keep playing around with this – find a way to build in some hallways and a proper stairwell, I think. (Maybe make the entrance a proper hallway, instead of using half-walls to only partially separate it from the living room, and go from there?)
D) However, even with my internal layout issues, I did at least make some progress furnishing the place! Sticking to a solid theme of “everything in this house is cheap and reused to make sure the lot value doesn’t get too high” –
I. The living room has the cheap “faux” fireplace from the “Holiday pack” (which isn’t really a pack, just a series of free holiday-themed updates – it was the cheapest option, and I figured Alice would prefer a fake fireplace over a real one); the Get To Work “Spacekeeper” wall-mounted TV above said fake fireplace; the “Trash or Treasure” sofa and matching armchair from City Living (normally you can only purchase these at the Flea Market in San Myshuno, but because nobody lives here yet, I can buy all the unlockables freely, yay); and the “Hepcat Coffee Table” from Eco Lifestyle (it’s a huge bulky square, but it was only $50, so yeah, going with that)
II. The kitchen has the City Living-added “used” versions of the cheapest oven, fridge, and counters in the base game, along with the cheapest and blandest base game wastebasket, the “Ate And Salvage Drafting Table” small square dining table, and three “Trash Or Treasure” dining chairs (I didn’t remember there were dining chairs too in that set – they’re kind of cute!)
III. The tiny 2x2 bathroom I built into the corner of the kitchen (just so I’d HAVE it) has the cheapest base game toilet, sink, and mirror in it (as it didn’t need to be big or fancy, it just needed to be functional)
IV. And while I didn’t actually build any bedrooms upstairs (I STARTED, putting down an initial wall, but then I couldn’t divide the space up evenly and started fiddling with the stair placement again, so I deleted it), but I did get beds for the trio – three “Reclaimed Wood Single” beds from Horse Ranch as they were cheap and looked old BUT also weren’t uncomfortable (because you don’t want to cheap out on the beds too much if you don’t have to – the worse a bed, the longer a Sim has to sleep, and the worse mood they get up in!)
So yeah, that all pretty much covers my Sims 4 session today! Probably not my most productive, but I was both still struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with the house AND folding my laundry at the same time, so sue me. :p We’ll whip this build into shape sooner or later! And when we do, perhaps the new save file shenanigans can begin...
Tumblr: Cleaning Saturday always means getting less done around here, but I still accomplished some stuff –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – No working on the drafts today, but I did reblog a few things of importance:
A) A post about how horrific Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (which just passed the House a few days ago) really is (denying healthcare to transgender people, stopping states from regulating AI, defunding Planned Parenthood, giving tax breaks to billionaires by defunding things like Medicaid and SNAP) and how important it is to call your senators and make it known they should not support this bill (and before you ask – yup, I called the offices of RI’s senators, Whitehouse and Reed, and left some voicemails saying just that. They were probably the world’s most awkward voicemails, because I am NOT good on the phone if I’m not at my job, but I left them, damn it)
B) A post about how LGBTQ+ identities (specifically lesbian, bisexual, and trans identities, since those get the most shit) are NOT “sensitive content” TUMBLR (yeah, unfortunately the CEO and some of the staff are real assholes, and sometimes shit gets marked “Mature” when it’s just talking about being a trans person or a bisexual person or the like *grumbles*)
C) And my “Help: How Do Tav!Smiler In BG3???” post one last time, since we’re down to the last few hours and I figured why the hell not – maybe I might get a last minute vote or two. (Probably not, but one must try!) Happily, I did find out while talking to them tonight that Squid – the person who got me into BG3 in the first place – DID vote in the poll, choosing the “bardlock, just do a lot of alchemy, entertainer background” option. They warned me that triple-classing with artificer was probably not the best idea even with a level 20 mod (which, fair, I DID think it had the potential to be too complicated), and recommended doing like 16 levels of the main class and 4 levels of the secondary one if I wanted to focus on getting all feats, or 17/3 if I wanted high-level spells (though, admittedly, that might apply less for BG3 as I believe max level of spells in that game is 6 unless you mod in stronger spells...but I do have “Mystra’s Spells,” and I don’t know if THAT adds in anything more powerful…). MY initial thought was, if I was just doing Bardlock, to do 12 Warlock and 8 Bard to get the most fun stuff out of each class, but...hmmm. I shall have to think about it!
Valice Multiverse – Got one anon ask tonight – “Has anybody ever looked at Vermont and New Hampshire and wondered if looked like they were 69ing?” Cuddlepile!Alice went “...maybe, but not me,” while Smiler looked up the states on their phone and went “well, you could make a case” –
And I looked up the states in my browser and went “...welp, never unseeing that.” *facepalm* Thanks anon. Exactly how I wanted to end my Saturday. XD
Writing: Got another page done on “The Van Dort Vacancy” tonight – Alice confirmed with Carol that she wanted sweet, not savory “eggy toast” for breakfast (yes, apparently French toast comes in a savory variant – who knew?); Smiler revealed that their missing dad Matt was getting Victor and Alice’s clothes out of the laundry room (since the outfits DESPERATELY needed a wash), and Carol informed them that, if they liked, they could keep the outfits they’d borrowed – Victor awkwardly declined with a “I have enough clothes” (immediately feeling like the world’s most spoiled brat afterward), while Alice dithered for a bit, then said she’d ask the original owner of her current dress, Joytide, if it was all right to keep it before they left; Smiler confirmed their plans for the day – leaving the MOJ before lunch, walking Victor back to his house in Nightmarket, then finally dropping Alice off at Elder Gutknecht’s – and Alice got all annoyed with Victor’s parents again when Victor commented he hoped they didn’t get angry with him for interrupting their midday meal (“they should be happy to see you after you’ve been gone the better part of a week!”); and Alice then immediately admitted that she was going to miss talking with Victor and Smiler after this, aww. I struggled a bit to get this page going (damn what-I-am-pretty-certain-is-PMS), but I got it out in the end! Just gotta remember, this is the rough draft, meaning it’s perfectly okay for it to be rough. *nods* Tomorrow, Smiler reminds Alice that Elder Gutknecht will be there for her to talk to, and they and Victor will visit as much as they can – after all, Victor’s gotta get his Whisper training, right? [significant silence from Victor] ...right??? (Don’t worry, Smiler, he comes around by the end.)
YouTube: Welp, after thinking about it a little more last night, I went ahead and unsubscribed from GrayStillPlays – while I have still enjoyed most of his content up to this point, I think I need a break from him after seeing him do more and more AI-related stuff and that “that art style DEFINITELY looks racist” game the other day. (And, to be honest, the GTA V challenges, while amusing, HAVE started to get a little samey.) We’ll see if I go back to his stuff later or not. In the meantime, I decided to go ahead and clear out the old Watch Later –
A) First up, we had “Worst Hero Wars Ads | We React to the Most Out of Pocket Ads For Hero Wars” by OXBox! Andy making Jane, Mike, and Ellen react to a bunch of extremely bizarre and often rather inappropriate ads for Hero Wars, the game that claims to be this grand adventure full of sexy women but is actually a terrible idle game, courtesy of the archival channel “Hero Wars Ads As Art.” Surprisingly, not all of these ads were of the “big sexy monster woman doing monster things to people, only for Galahad, the main character guy, to escape and have to fight people with smaller numbers than he has” that we all know and – no, let’s just say “know.” XD Instead, we had such things as:
I. A modern-day Galahad getting yanked into the “fight things based on their number compared to yours” fantasy realm via a snake-like dragon in the toilet (Mike: “My worst nightmare”)
II. Galahad revealing he has a thing for horse bum by kissing the backside of a sexy centaur...before realizing it was a centaur (everyone was like “wait, does he have a thing for horses??”)
III. A surprise “realistic CGI” ad featuring Galahad getting eaten by a (male for once) demon (the gang was like “holy shit, the production values on this ad went up for some reason, what happened here?”)
IV. Galahad sitting in the desert, sweat pouring off his back as he stared at a sexy sphinx and eagerly stroked – a genie lamp (everyone was like “!!!! ANDY,” forcing Andy to be like “Don’t have a go at me, it’s Hero Wars doing this!”)
V. Galahad OPENLY TRYING TO KISS A (at least somewhat anthropomorphized, at least) HORSE (that was revealed to be the tongue of a dragon that swallowed him – everyone was disturbed that the “Galahad has a thing for horses” thing was confirmed)
VI. And Galahad’s backstory, where he was saved as a baby from a werewolf by his warrior mother, who got infected, taught to fight by her, then had to chase after her when she, while in werewolf form, abducted the woman he’d just saved by wolves (everyone was just like “we were waiting for this to turn sexy in such a bad way” – fortunately it didn’t).
Just – wow. Hero Wars has had so many more fucked-up ads than OXBoxtra, or I, realized. We should be grateful they decided to settle on the “monster women transforming people” stuff as the standard – they seem to be the tamest of the lot!
B) And second up, we had “CaFae Latte Season 51 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! This compilation was a pretty short one, featuring:
I. Husniya’s husband Asif showing up at the end of her shift to take her out for their anniversary dinner (nine years!), and chatting with Bob and JC about his traditional attire – and about how his asshole coworker Sarah inspired him to start wearing it regularly to the office after insulting Husniya’s hijab when she came to visit him early in his career
II. Cyrus and JC starting an early shift together, and a sleepy Cyrus getting surprised by the appearance of Drek, who he hadn’t registered was going full-time; Drek telling him about his upcoming eighteenth birthday plans and his new part-time job (flailing around cat toys for the river Sphinx and her friends – extra $50 a week); and Cyrus starting to tell Drek about his date with Rethu (they are now banned from the arcade for life for their prize-stealing ways) – only for JC to interrupt by revealing there was a lizard on fire in their kitchen
III. Cyrus, JC, and Drek attempting to handle the “lizard on fire in the kitchen” situation – turned out to be a salamander (here defined as a “flamey non-sapient evolutionary cousin of dragons”) who, after probably sneaking in through their latest shipment of hellfire, had decided the oven was an excellent napping place; unfortunately, their attempts to wrangle it with kitchen tongs and oven mitts resulted in it getting angry, the coffee shop getting very smokey (the only reason it didn’t burn down being Drek’s fast work with the extinguisher), and Cyrus deciding it was time to call in Rethu
IV. Rethu showing up and easily subduing the salamander by scratching it behind the head fins (because, of course, they were immune to its fire), and cooing to it about how they were going to take it to their cousin who lives in a volcano in the Draconic Realms while an annoyed JC demanded they get it out of their kitchen (resulting in the line “I am the queen of this kitchen who owes fealty and taxes to Empress Bob” when the others kept pointing out it’s technically BOB’S kitchen XD); also resulted in Rethu telling Cyrus he owed them another date for calling them in on their day off to handle this, which Cyrus was VERY pleased about
V. Bob making Cyrus replace the smoke detector he threw a knife at (because he didn’t want to go fiddle with it during the salamander incident to make it shut up), and Drek – after a brief argument with Cyrus about his methods of handling said smoke detector – asking about his latest date with Rethu; Cyrus happily showed him and Bob (and us, the viewer) his pictures of them going to the Museum of Illusions at the MoA, which featured loads of cool trippy stuff, to the point where Cyrus actually thought some of them might be genuinely magical! Not a good place to attempt a first kiss, though, as he discovered...but fortunately he got a second chance at that at the coffee shop afterwards. :) Drek was happy for them, but did have to wonder who that weird lady with the glasses was in some of the pictures; Cyrus said “probably some influencer hired to hype the place” as Bob gave the camera a significant look. XD Episode ended with Cyrus finally removing his “Single AF” pin when Drek pointed it out...and being unable to pass it on to the kid because, well, actually a glamoured knife. XD Lovely stuff as always – and the nice thing about taking a break from Gray is that I’ll have more time to watch more of this series, yay~
Yeah, a pretty good day overall! But now I really need to head to bed before it gets too late. Tomorrow, we're HOPING for a post-lunch trip to our usual mini-golf place (Mom WANTED to hit Cape Cod, but we're too worried it'll be mobbed over there since it's Memorial Day weekend), so I don't think I'll be playing any video games. As it stands, my plans are to work on my tumblr drafts (see if I can make some more progress on those Ghostbusters Mega AU posts); keep working on "The Van Dort Vacancy;" get in a workout; and keep up with the latest Fallout: London video from Jon. *nods* All achievable goals, I trust! Night all!
Fortunately, even with those things, I had a pretty decent Saturday overall --
Cleaning & Laundry: Pretty typical Cleaning Saturday, all things considered –
A) I started with the dusting at around 10:04 AM, and I finished up with the Swiffering and vacuuming around 1:04 PM, right before lunch – was hoping it would take less time, but as usual there were a few interruptions that slowed things down (having to stop after getting my bed remade to bring down my laundry, as per the below; overhearing my parents do Dad’s COVID test and getting a little nervous about that – again, very glad it was negative; and of course getting a little too into the Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark episode I was listening to and rewinding occasionally so I wouldn’t miss bits. To be fair, it was the Barnaby and Zillah adventure “The Horrors Of Castle Wisenshire” and featured such things as Zillah hanging from a window ledge by her fingernails while ALSO reading a diary (turning the pages with her mouth); Barnaby attempting to throw Zillah (now stuck with one leg through a dilapidated roof) a rope so she could use it to get back into his room – only, thanks to a pair of 1s, to throw HIMSELF with the rope and crash through the same rooftop she was stuck in; and – on the awesome side of the scale – Zillah taking on Demon Lord Ixis (a horrible blood-wolf thing that Barnaby’s uncle had been sacrificing people to for eternal youth) with a shard of mirror and a large standing candelabra, at full stress thanks to flashbacks and pushing herself repeatedly, and WINNING (albeit partially because she got a boost from the latest sacrifice). You can see why I didn’t want to miss any of it!)
B) And my load of laundry went into the wash around 11:30 AM (at the tail end of the loads Mom was doing), and came out of the dryer a little after 3 PM – though, given that I took it out while in the middle of trying to renovate a house in Sims 4 (see below), I didn’t finishing folding everything until about 4 PM.
*shrug* Nothing special! But at least now it’s all done for another couple of weeks, yay.
Sims 4: Spent some time this afternoon messing around with “Town Square Terrace,” the little house on the edge of Copperdale’s “Prescott Square” neighborhood (the portion of town with the library and the ThrifTea shop), trying to turn it from a one-bedroom starter home into a three-bedroom “boarding house” – specifically, a house where teenager versions of Victor, Alice, and Smiler could live while attending Copperdale’s high school! Because that’s my latest idea for a save file – start with the trio as teens so I can actually play with some of the high school stuff High School Years added into the game (instead of just using all the furniture it added); then, once they graduate, move them to Britechester and send them to college (Smiler will be attending Foxbury, and Alice and Victor Ubrite, so they’ll be living in the world, but off-campus); then, after that, send them to live in either Windenburg or Ravenwood and figure out their life paths from there! I think it would be a fun adventure, and less stressful on me personally than some of the other save file ideas I’ve come up with (like, I’d love to do the Tiny Town, but I fear trying to wrangle that many Sims on one lot; similarly, I think it would be fun to do a save file with Victor, Victoria, Emily, Alice, and Smiler all starting as children and aging them up through high school and college, but that would require SO much set-up and require me to make everyone at least one parent or parental figure, and – yikes O.o). So yes, getting the Teen OT3’s home sorted is a good first step in making this save file happen. How’d it go in this initial build session?
*waggles hand* All right, I’d say. The tricky thing about renovating this house is that I have to somehow make it able to fit three Sims, each with their own bedroom, while not making it too expensive for a trio of teenagers to buy (though I suppose I could add an adult who “runs the boarding house” to the family for a little extra cash...who dares me to do this and make it a self-Sim XD). Plus I don’t want to raze the entire original house to the ground – I’d kind of like to keep at least SOME elements of the original design intact! Which is proving a bit tricky, as it’s a small house on a small lot… Still, I made some progress –
A) I got rid of the kind-of-awful paved-over “backyard” area sticking off the first floor and the somewhat-better-but-still-weird upper balcony area off the bedroom on the second floor; expanded the first floor out sideways to fill in the weird “notch” on the side from the kitchen being smaller than the living room (I guess TECHNICALLY it added some visual interest to the build and provided outdoor access to the backyard area, but I didn’t like it – it just looked bizarre to me); made the back of the build somewhat longer; and expanded the second floor and the roof to match. So now the house is more of a basic long rectangular shape (with a chimney on the left side for a fireplace and a tiny front porch on the right that I didn’t mess with), meaning there’s more floor space inside to play around with. Trust me, I need it!
B) I changed the siding from “Simple Siding” to “Clapboard Crush” to better match the siding I could see on the decorative houses behind the lot – on the plus side, this also made the build a much nicer, more vibrant shade of green on the outside
C) I largely gutted the interior – getting rid of walls, half-walls, stairs, and furnishings – so I could more freely play with the layout and try to get things where they should be. Which – yeah, getting this sorted is proving to be the trickiest bit and has involved a fair amount of “put in wall, then delete wall.” The issue is, I want a living room, a combined kitchen/dining room, and a bathroom downstairs, plus three bedrooms (or four if I do add that other adult Sim) and at least one more bathroom upstairs – but I also have to find somewhere to stick the stairs connecting the two floors. And so far, I have NOT found a good spot to stick them! Making the living room a bit bigger and putting them against the wall by the arch into the kitchen there didn’t feel right (even though that’s where the stairs were in the original build); trying to find a spot at the back of the expanded kitchen area didn’t feel right (even though I did like the idea of the stairs at the back of the house); and while putting them in the little “entrance” space beside the living room DID feel right (because there’s plenty of houses with stairs to the second floor there – I’ve lived in a few), they just take up too much space there! *sigh* I’m definitely going to have to keep playing around with this – find a way to build in some hallways and a proper stairwell, I think. (Maybe make the entrance a proper hallway, instead of using half-walls to only partially separate it from the living room, and go from there?)
D) However, even with my internal layout issues, I did at least make some progress furnishing the place! Sticking to a solid theme of “everything in this house is cheap and reused to make sure the lot value doesn’t get too high” –
I. The living room has the cheap “faux” fireplace from the “Holiday pack” (which isn’t really a pack, just a series of free holiday-themed updates – it was the cheapest option, and I figured Alice would prefer a fake fireplace over a real one); the Get To Work “Spacekeeper” wall-mounted TV above said fake fireplace; the “Trash or Treasure” sofa and matching armchair from City Living (normally you can only purchase these at the Flea Market in San Myshuno, but because nobody lives here yet, I can buy all the unlockables freely, yay); and the “Hepcat Coffee Table” from Eco Lifestyle (it’s a huge bulky square, but it was only $50, so yeah, going with that)
II. The kitchen has the City Living-added “used” versions of the cheapest oven, fridge, and counters in the base game, along with the cheapest and blandest base game wastebasket, the “Ate And Salvage Drafting Table” small square dining table, and three “Trash Or Treasure” dining chairs (I didn’t remember there were dining chairs too in that set – they’re kind of cute!)
III. The tiny 2x2 bathroom I built into the corner of the kitchen (just so I’d HAVE it) has the cheapest base game toilet, sink, and mirror in it (as it didn’t need to be big or fancy, it just needed to be functional)
IV. And while I didn’t actually build any bedrooms upstairs (I STARTED, putting down an initial wall, but then I couldn’t divide the space up evenly and started fiddling with the stair placement again, so I deleted it), but I did get beds for the trio – three “Reclaimed Wood Single” beds from Horse Ranch as they were cheap and looked old BUT also weren’t uncomfortable (because you don’t want to cheap out on the beds too much if you don’t have to – the worse a bed, the longer a Sim has to sleep, and the worse mood they get up in!)
So yeah, that all pretty much covers my Sims 4 session today! Probably not my most productive, but I was both still struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with the house AND folding my laundry at the same time, so sue me. :p We’ll whip this build into shape sooner or later! And when we do, perhaps the new save file shenanigans can begin...
Tumblr: Cleaning Saturday always means getting less done around here, but I still accomplished some stuff –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – No working on the drafts today, but I did reblog a few things of importance:
A) A post about how horrific Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (which just passed the House a few days ago) really is (denying healthcare to transgender people, stopping states from regulating AI, defunding Planned Parenthood, giving tax breaks to billionaires by defunding things like Medicaid and SNAP) and how important it is to call your senators and make it known they should not support this bill (and before you ask – yup, I called the offices of RI’s senators, Whitehouse and Reed, and left some voicemails saying just that. They were probably the world’s most awkward voicemails, because I am NOT good on the phone if I’m not at my job, but I left them, damn it)
B) A post about how LGBTQ+ identities (specifically lesbian, bisexual, and trans identities, since those get the most shit) are NOT “sensitive content” TUMBLR (yeah, unfortunately the CEO and some of the staff are real assholes, and sometimes shit gets marked “Mature” when it’s just talking about being a trans person or a bisexual person or the like *grumbles*)
C) And my “Help: How Do Tav!Smiler In BG3???” post one last time, since we’re down to the last few hours and I figured why the hell not – maybe I might get a last minute vote or two. (Probably not, but one must try!) Happily, I did find out while talking to them tonight that Squid – the person who got me into BG3 in the first place – DID vote in the poll, choosing the “bardlock, just do a lot of alchemy, entertainer background” option. They warned me that triple-classing with artificer was probably not the best idea even with a level 20 mod (which, fair, I DID think it had the potential to be too complicated), and recommended doing like 16 levels of the main class and 4 levels of the secondary one if I wanted to focus on getting all feats, or 17/3 if I wanted high-level spells (though, admittedly, that might apply less for BG3 as I believe max level of spells in that game is 6 unless you mod in stronger spells...but I do have “Mystra’s Spells,” and I don’t know if THAT adds in anything more powerful…). MY initial thought was, if I was just doing Bardlock, to do 12 Warlock and 8 Bard to get the most fun stuff out of each class, but...hmmm. I shall have to think about it!
Valice Multiverse – Got one anon ask tonight – “Has anybody ever looked at Vermont and New Hampshire and wondered if looked like they were 69ing?” Cuddlepile!Alice went “...maybe, but not me,” while Smiler looked up the states on their phone and went “well, you could make a case” –
And I looked up the states in my browser and went “...welp, never unseeing that.” *facepalm* Thanks anon. Exactly how I wanted to end my Saturday. XD
Writing: Got another page done on “The Van Dort Vacancy” tonight – Alice confirmed with Carol that she wanted sweet, not savory “eggy toast” for breakfast (yes, apparently French toast comes in a savory variant – who knew?); Smiler revealed that their missing dad Matt was getting Victor and Alice’s clothes out of the laundry room (since the outfits DESPERATELY needed a wash), and Carol informed them that, if they liked, they could keep the outfits they’d borrowed – Victor awkwardly declined with a “I have enough clothes” (immediately feeling like the world’s most spoiled brat afterward), while Alice dithered for a bit, then said she’d ask the original owner of her current dress, Joytide, if it was all right to keep it before they left; Smiler confirmed their plans for the day – leaving the MOJ before lunch, walking Victor back to his house in Nightmarket, then finally dropping Alice off at Elder Gutknecht’s – and Alice got all annoyed with Victor’s parents again when Victor commented he hoped they didn’t get angry with him for interrupting their midday meal (“they should be happy to see you after you’ve been gone the better part of a week!”); and Alice then immediately admitted that she was going to miss talking with Victor and Smiler after this, aww. I struggled a bit to get this page going (damn what-I-am-pretty-certain-is-PMS), but I got it out in the end! Just gotta remember, this is the rough draft, meaning it’s perfectly okay for it to be rough. *nods* Tomorrow, Smiler reminds Alice that Elder Gutknecht will be there for her to talk to, and they and Victor will visit as much as they can – after all, Victor’s gotta get his Whisper training, right? [significant silence from Victor] ...right??? (Don’t worry, Smiler, he comes around by the end.)
YouTube: Welp, after thinking about it a little more last night, I went ahead and unsubscribed from GrayStillPlays – while I have still enjoyed most of his content up to this point, I think I need a break from him after seeing him do more and more AI-related stuff and that “that art style DEFINITELY looks racist” game the other day. (And, to be honest, the GTA V challenges, while amusing, HAVE started to get a little samey.) We’ll see if I go back to his stuff later or not. In the meantime, I decided to go ahead and clear out the old Watch Later –
A) First up, we had “Worst Hero Wars Ads | We React to the Most Out of Pocket Ads For Hero Wars” by OXBox! Andy making Jane, Mike, and Ellen react to a bunch of extremely bizarre and often rather inappropriate ads for Hero Wars, the game that claims to be this grand adventure full of sexy women but is actually a terrible idle game, courtesy of the archival channel “Hero Wars Ads As Art.” Surprisingly, not all of these ads were of the “big sexy monster woman doing monster things to people, only for Galahad, the main character guy, to escape and have to fight people with smaller numbers than he has” that we all know and – no, let’s just say “know.” XD Instead, we had such things as:
I. A modern-day Galahad getting yanked into the “fight things based on their number compared to yours” fantasy realm via a snake-like dragon in the toilet (Mike: “My worst nightmare”)
II. Galahad revealing he has a thing for horse bum by kissing the backside of a sexy centaur...before realizing it was a centaur (everyone was like “wait, does he have a thing for horses??”)
III. A surprise “realistic CGI” ad featuring Galahad getting eaten by a (male for once) demon (the gang was like “holy shit, the production values on this ad went up for some reason, what happened here?”)
IV. Galahad sitting in the desert, sweat pouring off his back as he stared at a sexy sphinx and eagerly stroked – a genie lamp (everyone was like “!!!! ANDY,” forcing Andy to be like “Don’t have a go at me, it’s Hero Wars doing this!”)
V. Galahad OPENLY TRYING TO KISS A (at least somewhat anthropomorphized, at least) HORSE (that was revealed to be the tongue of a dragon that swallowed him – everyone was disturbed that the “Galahad has a thing for horses” thing was confirmed)
VI. And Galahad’s backstory, where he was saved as a baby from a werewolf by his warrior mother, who got infected, taught to fight by her, then had to chase after her when she, while in werewolf form, abducted the woman he’d just saved by wolves (everyone was just like “we were waiting for this to turn sexy in such a bad way” – fortunately it didn’t).
Just – wow. Hero Wars has had so many more fucked-up ads than OXBoxtra, or I, realized. We should be grateful they decided to settle on the “monster women transforming people” stuff as the standard – they seem to be the tamest of the lot!
B) And second up, we had “CaFae Latte Season 51 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! This compilation was a pretty short one, featuring:
I. Husniya’s husband Asif showing up at the end of her shift to take her out for their anniversary dinner (nine years!), and chatting with Bob and JC about his traditional attire – and about how his asshole coworker Sarah inspired him to start wearing it regularly to the office after insulting Husniya’s hijab when she came to visit him early in his career
II. Cyrus and JC starting an early shift together, and a sleepy Cyrus getting surprised by the appearance of Drek, who he hadn’t registered was going full-time; Drek telling him about his upcoming eighteenth birthday plans and his new part-time job (flailing around cat toys for the river Sphinx and her friends – extra $50 a week); and Cyrus starting to tell Drek about his date with Rethu (they are now banned from the arcade for life for their prize-stealing ways) – only for JC to interrupt by revealing there was a lizard on fire in their kitchen
III. Cyrus, JC, and Drek attempting to handle the “lizard on fire in the kitchen” situation – turned out to be a salamander (here defined as a “flamey non-sapient evolutionary cousin of dragons”) who, after probably sneaking in through their latest shipment of hellfire, had decided the oven was an excellent napping place; unfortunately, their attempts to wrangle it with kitchen tongs and oven mitts resulted in it getting angry, the coffee shop getting very smokey (the only reason it didn’t burn down being Drek’s fast work with the extinguisher), and Cyrus deciding it was time to call in Rethu
IV. Rethu showing up and easily subduing the salamander by scratching it behind the head fins (because, of course, they were immune to its fire), and cooing to it about how they were going to take it to their cousin who lives in a volcano in the Draconic Realms while an annoyed JC demanded they get it out of their kitchen (resulting in the line “I am the queen of this kitchen who owes fealty and taxes to Empress Bob” when the others kept pointing out it’s technically BOB’S kitchen XD); also resulted in Rethu telling Cyrus he owed them another date for calling them in on their day off to handle this, which Cyrus was VERY pleased about
V. Bob making Cyrus replace the smoke detector he threw a knife at (because he didn’t want to go fiddle with it during the salamander incident to make it shut up), and Drek – after a brief argument with Cyrus about his methods of handling said smoke detector – asking about his latest date with Rethu; Cyrus happily showed him and Bob (and us, the viewer) his pictures of them going to the Museum of Illusions at the MoA, which featured loads of cool trippy stuff, to the point where Cyrus actually thought some of them might be genuinely magical! Not a good place to attempt a first kiss, though, as he discovered...but fortunately he got a second chance at that at the coffee shop afterwards. :) Drek was happy for them, but did have to wonder who that weird lady with the glasses was in some of the pictures; Cyrus said “probably some influencer hired to hype the place” as Bob gave the camera a significant look. XD Episode ended with Cyrus finally removing his “Single AF” pin when Drek pointed it out...and being unable to pass it on to the kid because, well, actually a glamoured knife. XD Lovely stuff as always – and the nice thing about taking a break from Gray is that I’ll have more time to watch more of this series, yay~
Yeah, a pretty good day overall! But now I really need to head to bed before it gets too late. Tomorrow, we're HOPING for a post-lunch trip to our usual mini-golf place (Mom WANTED to hit Cape Cod, but we're too worried it'll be mobbed over there since it's Memorial Day weekend), so I don't think I'll be playing any video games. As it stands, my plans are to work on my tumblr drafts (see if I can make some more progress on those Ghostbusters Mega AU posts); keep working on "The Van Dort Vacancy;" get in a workout; and keep up with the latest Fallout: London video from Jon. *nods* All achievable goals, I trust! Night all!
Guess Who Forgot To Turn Off Her Alarm?
May. 23rd, 2025 11:52 pm*raises hand* So after going to bed at roughly 1:30 AM, I got woken up at 7 AM -- and then couldn't get back to sleep, despite my best efforts. *sigh* I mean, I probably didn't make things easier for myself by getting up to go pee after the alarm sounded, but I needed to use the bathroom! And sometimes I can get back to sleep despite that, so... *shakehead* Ugh. I wish me getting enough sleep wasn't so much of a crapshoot sometimes.
Despite the unwanted early awakening, however, I ended up having a pretty solid Friday off:
Tumblr: Decent day over on the tumbls:
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Got a bit of a later start on it than I wanted (got distracted reading tumblr user bluerose5’s posts about Wyll from Baldur’s Gate III), but I did make some good progress on editing the second post detailing the Ghostbusters Mega AU sitting my drafts over here before lunch – largely tweaking word choices and rewriting bits for clarity (like how the gang got Bumby’s copy of Doc’s book off the police, and how exactly Smiler’s eldritch god nature started manifesting right before their fight with Gozer). Wouldn’t say it’s fully done (especially since the tags aren’t sorted yet), and when I went back to re-read the first post (also still in my drafts) to check something, I saw that one could use another round of editing too, but we’re inching closer to this AU being ready to get posted over here!
Valice Multiverse – There was nothing going on over here when I checked in tonight, so I went searching for some sort of RP Meme to reblog – and, over on “rpmemelibrary,” I found one all about drinks! Specifically, stuff like what your muse drinks to start their day, how do they feel about chain coffee shops versus independent shops, what drink will your muse absolutely refuse to have, etc. I thought it was interesting (especially since, as I have noted, at least one of my Smilers works in a coffee shop), so I stuck it into the queue. We’ll see if it gets any attention!
Sims 4: After a solid playsession today, I am pleased to report that:
First, the Building Save Smiler’s newly-restored yellow eyes DO seem to be staying put in their face, as when I loaded up the game, they still had them on the family portrait that was presented to me on the start screen, and in their thumbnail when I clicked on the house! Which suggests the same would be true of any other Smiler I make (at least so long as they’re a spellcaster or vampire, anyway)! Yay! Now I just have to fix the whole “these glowing eyes aren’t actually glowing anymore” issue, and I am set!
And second – THE POLYHEART OT3 HOUSE IS DONE! :D Yes, after spending an hour this afternoon making some final tweaks to both the exterior and the interior, I am satisfied with its condition and am declaring it finished. *nods* Let me take you through what I did in this final build session:
A) Exterior – I FINALLY finished off the landscaping around this place, along with a few other little tweaks:
I. I adjusted the placement of the Shaggi-lucious bushes just outside Victor’s window so they followed the curve of the heart better and painted some dirt under them (they just look a tiny bit better/more realistic if you do this)
II. I darkened up the path to the picnic area a bit with some more painted dirt – I decided it deserved to be as dark as the other paths (plus it looked better)
III. I added more irises lining the diagonal wall next to the picnic path to go with the red, blue, and yellow ones outside the kitchen window (one in every swatch color, even that weird one with the blue grass – I tried to put that one roughly in the middle), adjusting their positions so they were nice and close to the house without clipping into the wall and appropriately spread out to cover the whole area, then made sure they all had dirt under them
IV. I also made sure to paint dirt under the “aster-nots” on either side of the front door and under the flower cart and the bunny topiary “pushing” it by the side of the greenhouse (realism!)
V. I put even more dirt around the base of the tree and the wildflowers behind the barbecue, mixed in with some “Dew or Die” dead grass terrain paint (it’s shady under that tree, so it felt appropriate), then chucked a couple of rocks around the trunk (a normal-sized pair and a single shrunken one) for some more visual interest over there
VI. I finally accepted there was no place for them and got rid of the three “Passion’s Kiss” bushes I’d shoved into the notch between the two bumps on the heart-shaped greenhouse – they just didn’t look good there, and there was nowhere else on the lot where I could put them (maybe in another build!)
VII. I changed the color of the left-hand “The Wall Flower” three-flowers wall decoration on the side of the greenhouse door (that one is now a trio of yellow, purpley-pink, and green flowers on blue stems) – side note, doing this caused the door to glitch out, so I’m starting to wonder if any time a door or window glitches out in this game, it’s because you changed something about a decoration that is TECHNICALLY too close to it. I shall have to see if hypothesis holds up in future builds!
VIII. I squeezed in the “Florist’s Dream Watering Can” (an old-fashioned watering can being used as a flowerpot) next to the little “gardening supplies cubby” by the big square planter in the greenhouse using ALT – it was a bit tricky to place, but I found a spot eventually!
IX. I added the Outdoor Retreat “MegaCooler” (the fancier-looking electronic one) in the “green lid” swatch to the side of the pool area, right next to the left-hand pole of the string of fancy star lights “archway” that leads into the eating area, then moved the Seasons water balloon bucket over so it was slightly in front of the right-hand pole, mirroring the cooler (I just felt like the gang needed a cooler, and that it made a little more sense nearer the pool than the barbecue area)
X. And, after feeling like the outdoor eating area needed SOMETHING to jazz it up, I went ahead and changed the tiles there from the plain terracotta tile to the fancier “Masterpiece Mosaic” version I had around the pool – I thought it would be too busy for the eating area, but without it, the place looks too plain, and I don’t really have room to chuck in some plants or anything without blocking some of the chairs (though I try, and found some Lovestruck planters that I like rather a lot – might have to try and use them in another build!)
B) Interior – I also made a few small-but-significant last-minute changes to the inside of the house:
I. I moved the knitted pride flag decoration I added to the left-hand hall so it was next to the bedroom door, rather than across from it, then adjusted that picture of the lady with the wacky blue hair on a yellow background so it was more properly centered on the opposite wall (I though the pride flag made more sense next to the door, and the picture just looked better centered)
II. I adjusted the placement of the big fancy “branch” triptych picture in the right-hand hall, outside Victor’s room, so it lined up a bit better with the other set of three pictures nearby (it just looked kinda weird otherwise)
III. I put a Werewolves “Moonwood Mill Print” picture featuring a butterfly in a silver frame on the bit of diagonal wall next to the grandfather clock next to Victor’s room (I’ve been wanting to put something on there for AGES, and a butterfly picture felt very appropriate given it’s right outside Victor’s personal space)
IV. I swapped out the “Panels of Perfection” multi-canvas painting of the winding river over the dining table in the kitchen for a giant picture of some chocolate chip pancakes and bacon from Dine Out – while I really liked that river picture, I thought the breakfast scene was just more fun, and went well with the “fried egg” rug under the dining table
V. And the biggest change – I moved the couch back slightly in the living room so I could fit in a coffee table! Because the longer I looked at it, the more I thought “the couch is too close to the TV and they need a coffee table.” After a bit of a search, I went with the Paranormal long oval coffee table in the purple swatch with the flowers painted on the top (the couch is from the same pack, so I figured I might as well match it), then – after an even longer search – plopped the base game “Feng Shui Planter” on top of it for a little centerpiece (it felt right to have SOMETHING on the table, and it was one of the few decorations short enough to not block the view of the TV)
And that was that! :D Well, except for going through the house taking pictures both normal and Sim’s-eye view (I am having SO much fun with the “Free Camera” mode now that I know how it works), and saving the whole lot to my Library (and goggling at just how many packs I used to build it – I threw a little bit of EVERYTHING into this house, seriously). I haven’t put it up on the Gallery YET, but if anyone expresses some interest in downloading it, I will. *nods* Anyway, I plan to do a proper photo post on tumblr in the near future to celebrate the house being 100% done (maybe I can start the draft of that sometime during this long weekend?), but for now, have a handful of pictures to whet your appetite:






Seriously, isn’t the bunny topiary paired with that flower cart so cute? :D Really glad I stumbled upon that. And really glad that I FINALLY managed to finish this house! I love you dearly, Polyheart OT3 House, but I’m ready to move onto new builds – and hopefully, at some point in the near future, Live Mode.
Writing: I did indeed start “The Van Dort Vacancy” today, typing up the first page of Chapter 1 right before my workout! :D This story opens much like the last one, with the trio preparing to have breakfast before getting on with the business of the day – only this time, they’re all at the MOJ, with Smiler’s mother Carol preparing the meal (“eggy toast,” the local version of French toast), the “business of the day” is taking Victor back to his house and Alice to her new living situation at Elder Gutknecht’s, and everything is from Victor’s perspective because, well, it’s a story focused on him and his situation post-Emily. About time he got to be the POV character! Though, honestly, I’m worried I’m a little rusty when it comes to portraying an accurate Victor – it’s been a while since I watched Corpse Bride, and spending the last few years working on the “Londerland Bloodlines” series means I’ve grown very used to writing in Alice’s POV first and foremost. (Which is probably why I defaulted to her POV for the first two VITD stories, honestly.) Hoping I can turn things around with this story when it comes to getting into his head – though I suppose finding the time to watch the movie, or at least some clips longer than half a minute, wouldn’t go amiss. Never hurts to have a refresher!
YouTube: Well, I was going to watch the GrayStillPlays video of the day, but I got a look at the art style of the game he was playing (Get Da Milk), and – uh – well, it seems a bit on the old “racist” side, so yeah, that didn’t happen. *sigh* Between this and me noticing what looked like more AI-generated thumbnails on his vids, I am starting to rethink watching Gray’s stuff… Fortunately, I had a back-up video I’d just added to my Watch Later – “All Skill Mastery Perks Explained And Rated | The Sims 4 Guide” by Petey Plays It! Petey giving us the skinny and his personal ratings out of five for each of the “skill mastery” perks your Sims can unlock while training high-level skills (or by buying and drinking a certain potion from the Aspiration Rewards Store) if you own Businesses & Hobbies. These perks grant the Sims who have them unique interactions (though some of the perks have very similar effects, with each one covering either a certain group of skills or certain types of objects), and if a Sim is an elder, they can pass them on to younger generations via a unique social interaction. Of the ones on offer, Petey particularly liked:
I. “Skillful Sleep” (which causes a ghostly projection of your Sim to appear and start wandering around training random skills while your Sim sleeps – you can’t control the projection, unfortunately, but Petey seemed to consider this an overall minor problem)
II. “Mental Muscle” (which makes Sims who have it ripped when training mental skills like logic or rocket science – Petey just thought this one was fun and commented that isn’t “hot nerd” the goal for people today?)
III. And “Spacebender” (which allows Sims who have it to teleport around pretty much at well – and who doesn’t like a good teleport option?)
By contrast, Petey particularly hated:
I. “Stellar Stamina” (which is SUPPOSED to reduce a Sim’s energy need decay as well as making them more resistant to exhaustion, but according to Petey’s testing, it doesn’t affect the need decay at all, so…)
II. And the very similar “Secret Spice” and “Final Touch” (which allows Sims to improve the quality of food and objects respectively – unfortunately, the latter can’t take something beyond “Excellent” quality, and the former, while it can make food “Impeccable,” is bugged because Sims can’t currently eat “Impeccable” food for some reason).
Yeah – most of the others feel in the “meh” or “probably useful under specific circumstances, but otherwise” categories. Bit of a shame, really, but then again, Sims 4 often has trouble living up to its potential. Still, if and when I do get this pack, now I have a better idea of what perks to go for with my Sims! Thanks Petey!
Workout: Got on the bike for the last time this particular week, pedaling through three more videos by Proxy Gate Tactician on good old Baldur’s Gate III:
A) “What Happens in Baldur's Gate 3 If Every Origin Character Dies?” – Proxy considering what happens if every Origin character (explicitly Astarion, Lae’zel, Shadowheart, Wyll, Gale, and Karlach; implicitly Tav and the Dark Urge as there was no mention of the custom player characters showing up) dies on the Nautiloid before the events of the game properly start (aka, before the ship crashes into Faerun)! The sequence of events they came up with after examining various bits of potential evidence in the game is as so:
I. Losiir (the githyanki warrior who shows up to play Lae’zel’s role in the Prologue should you pick her as your player character) manages to get to the helm and connect the nerves, but dies when the ship crashes because for whatever reason the Emperor refuses to save him (because you always find him dead on the beach post-prologue if you’re playing Lae’zel)
II. Either goblins searching the crash site or the Emperor (your nominal mind flayer ally in the game) looking for someone to take care of his precious artefact (containing Prince Orpheus, the githyanki who’s powers allow everyone in the party to remain free of Absolute influence) get the artefact to Minthara, the only tadpoled companion available, who takes it back to Moonrise and gives it to Ketheric Thorm, helps advance his various goals (including kidnapping and tadpoling poor Isobel and securing the Nightsong, Aylin), then gets betrayed and turned into a zombie
III. Ketheric then takes it to a meeting between him and his co-conspirators in the Absolute scheme, Gortash and Orin, and gives it to Gortash for study, who takes it back to Baldur’s Gate with him
IV. Ketheric and Orin then attempt to betray Gortash – Ketheric hoping to overwhelm him with the army he’s gathered under the Absolute’s banner, and Orin by sending Bhaalite assassins after him – but he manages to survive and instead betray them (using the fact that he too can control the tadpoled Isobel to force Ketheric to surrender or see her hurt, and using his popularity with the people and his Steel Watch defenders to overwhelm Orin and the rest of the murder cult)
V. The Absolute starts trying to break free, and the Emperor keeps it from killing Gortash when he goes to confront it; he proposes an alliance, and Gortash accepts
VI. The pair, along with their allies, manage to defeat and subdue the Absolute to their will, and thus all of Baldur’s Gate as well – but, rather than ruling as equals, as the Emperor promised, the Emperor takes the throne for himself and tells Gortash he can be his lead general; Gortash, pissed, attempts to kill him, but the Emperor manages to control him and make him kill himself
VII. The brainwashed citizens of Baldur’s Gate are forced to fight the githyanki armies trying to stop the Emperor, and a new Ithillid Empire dawns...as the Absolute had quietly planned
So, basically, if everyone dies, shit sucks. Unsurprising, really. XD
B) “Unveiling Baldur's Gate 3's Top 10 Bizarre Spells” – Proxy’s take on some of the weirdest, and often worst, spells in the game! Includes such things as “Shapechanger,” a high-level Transmutation Wizard spell that allows you to turn into a fairly useless blue jay for five turns (at least it doesn’t consume a spell slot); “Grasping Vine,” a buggy summoned vine that can pull people toward it – but can also apparently move and have weapons equipped (I don’t think THAT was intended – also it only has three hit points unless you make the game HARDER; it’s possible this has been patched though); “Divine Intervention,” a one-time-use only Cleric spell that can instantly drop a load of AOE damage on enemies, instantly heal and restore all the spell slots in your party, give you a chest full of good loot, or grant you a magical mace (one of the good spells, it’s just really hard to figure out what you want to spend it on); and “Enthrall,” a level 2 spell for Warlocks and Bards that reduces someone’s cone of vision and makes them look at you...but sometimes it doesn’t work and it only works outside of combat apparently (which really sucks because I was going to pick it as an appropriate thematic spell for Smiler, but if it isn’t actually that useful...maybe I’ll see if there’s mods that make it better). Some interesting stuff here, and a good primer on some spells that you maybe shouldn’t bother with – and a couple you definitely should.
C) “Finding the Hidden Fail-Safes in Baldur's Gate 3” – Proxy checking out how many “failsafe” (aka “you killed the person who was SUPPOSED to do this thing, so here’s the backup character we made to keep the game going”) characters Larian stuck into the game SPECIFICALLY to make sure that the party you have with the refugee tieflings at your camp after killing all the leaders of the goblins who want to raid them goes off as planned! Turns out there’s a lot – not only does every tiefling in the grove who attends the party have a backup should they all die before the party, there’s TWO backups for leader Zevlor – if he dies, one of the other tieflings in the grove, Asharak, takes over his position; if Asharak also dies, a new tiefling scout named Cerys (who usually only shows up in Act II) arrives to take care of things and kick off the party. Proxy also discovered the existence of “Gerson The Bent” while they were doing all this – a tiefling scout specifically designed to show up and report to any of your party who is, for some reason, hanging out in the grove while the rest of your team goes and murders all the goblin leaders, that said goblin leaders are dead and the way is clear, triggering a sneaky loading screen that allows all the tieflings to move to new locations in the grove in preparation for the party. Neat! :) The one downside was that, at the time the video was filmed (Patch 3 took care of at least one of these issues), once your character arrived in Act II and found Cerys and some of the other refugees at Last Light Inn, Cerys would act like she’d never met you and that Zevlor was still alive, if missing, and all of the “replacement” tieflings would be gone. Probably because none of the developers had really expected someone to go through and methodically kill all those tieflings just to see if they had backups. XD But still, it was a very neat video – really emphasizes the care Larian put into making the game!
*nods* Yeah, that all worked out pretty well, honestly. And now I am going to wrap things up for the night before getting to bed -- after making sure my alarm is OFF, thanks. Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday With Laundry (meeeh), though at least that means I get to listen to my beloved Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark while I clean. Other things I hope to accomplish are perhaps playing some more Sims 4 (I have an idea for a house remodel in Copperdale to help prepare for a future save file I've been pondering), working some more on "The Van Dort Vacancy," and keeping up with my Subs and maybe some more CaFae Latte. We'll see what the day brings! Night all!
Despite the unwanted early awakening, however, I ended up having a pretty solid Friday off:
Tumblr: Decent day over on the tumbls:
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Got a bit of a later start on it than I wanted (got distracted reading tumblr user bluerose5’s posts about Wyll from Baldur’s Gate III), but I did make some good progress on editing the second post detailing the Ghostbusters Mega AU sitting my drafts over here before lunch – largely tweaking word choices and rewriting bits for clarity (like how the gang got Bumby’s copy of Doc’s book off the police, and how exactly Smiler’s eldritch god nature started manifesting right before their fight with Gozer). Wouldn’t say it’s fully done (especially since the tags aren’t sorted yet), and when I went back to re-read the first post (also still in my drafts) to check something, I saw that one could use another round of editing too, but we’re inching closer to this AU being ready to get posted over here!
Valice Multiverse – There was nothing going on over here when I checked in tonight, so I went searching for some sort of RP Meme to reblog – and, over on “rpmemelibrary,” I found one all about drinks! Specifically, stuff like what your muse drinks to start their day, how do they feel about chain coffee shops versus independent shops, what drink will your muse absolutely refuse to have, etc. I thought it was interesting (especially since, as I have noted, at least one of my Smilers works in a coffee shop), so I stuck it into the queue. We’ll see if it gets any attention!
Sims 4: After a solid playsession today, I am pleased to report that:
First, the Building Save Smiler’s newly-restored yellow eyes DO seem to be staying put in their face, as when I loaded up the game, they still had them on the family portrait that was presented to me on the start screen, and in their thumbnail when I clicked on the house! Which suggests the same would be true of any other Smiler I make (at least so long as they’re a spellcaster or vampire, anyway)! Yay! Now I just have to fix the whole “these glowing eyes aren’t actually glowing anymore” issue, and I am set!
And second – THE POLYHEART OT3 HOUSE IS DONE! :D Yes, after spending an hour this afternoon making some final tweaks to both the exterior and the interior, I am satisfied with its condition and am declaring it finished. *nods* Let me take you through what I did in this final build session:
A) Exterior – I FINALLY finished off the landscaping around this place, along with a few other little tweaks:
I. I adjusted the placement of the Shaggi-lucious bushes just outside Victor’s window so they followed the curve of the heart better and painted some dirt under them (they just look a tiny bit better/more realistic if you do this)
II. I darkened up the path to the picnic area a bit with some more painted dirt – I decided it deserved to be as dark as the other paths (plus it looked better)
III. I added more irises lining the diagonal wall next to the picnic path to go with the red, blue, and yellow ones outside the kitchen window (one in every swatch color, even that weird one with the blue grass – I tried to put that one roughly in the middle), adjusting their positions so they were nice and close to the house without clipping into the wall and appropriately spread out to cover the whole area, then made sure they all had dirt under them
IV. I also made sure to paint dirt under the “aster-nots” on either side of the front door and under the flower cart and the bunny topiary “pushing” it by the side of the greenhouse (realism!)
V. I put even more dirt around the base of the tree and the wildflowers behind the barbecue, mixed in with some “Dew or Die” dead grass terrain paint (it’s shady under that tree, so it felt appropriate), then chucked a couple of rocks around the trunk (a normal-sized pair and a single shrunken one) for some more visual interest over there
VI. I finally accepted there was no place for them and got rid of the three “Passion’s Kiss” bushes I’d shoved into the notch between the two bumps on the heart-shaped greenhouse – they just didn’t look good there, and there was nowhere else on the lot where I could put them (maybe in another build!)
VII. I changed the color of the left-hand “The Wall Flower” three-flowers wall decoration on the side of the greenhouse door (that one is now a trio of yellow, purpley-pink, and green flowers on blue stems) – side note, doing this caused the door to glitch out, so I’m starting to wonder if any time a door or window glitches out in this game, it’s because you changed something about a decoration that is TECHNICALLY too close to it. I shall have to see if hypothesis holds up in future builds!
VIII. I squeezed in the “Florist’s Dream Watering Can” (an old-fashioned watering can being used as a flowerpot) next to the little “gardening supplies cubby” by the big square planter in the greenhouse using ALT – it was a bit tricky to place, but I found a spot eventually!
IX. I added the Outdoor Retreat “MegaCooler” (the fancier-looking electronic one) in the “green lid” swatch to the side of the pool area, right next to the left-hand pole of the string of fancy star lights “archway” that leads into the eating area, then moved the Seasons water balloon bucket over so it was slightly in front of the right-hand pole, mirroring the cooler (I just felt like the gang needed a cooler, and that it made a little more sense nearer the pool than the barbecue area)
X. And, after feeling like the outdoor eating area needed SOMETHING to jazz it up, I went ahead and changed the tiles there from the plain terracotta tile to the fancier “Masterpiece Mosaic” version I had around the pool – I thought it would be too busy for the eating area, but without it, the place looks too plain, and I don’t really have room to chuck in some plants or anything without blocking some of the chairs (though I try, and found some Lovestruck planters that I like rather a lot – might have to try and use them in another build!)
B) Interior – I also made a few small-but-significant last-minute changes to the inside of the house:
I. I moved the knitted pride flag decoration I added to the left-hand hall so it was next to the bedroom door, rather than across from it, then adjusted that picture of the lady with the wacky blue hair on a yellow background so it was more properly centered on the opposite wall (I though the pride flag made more sense next to the door, and the picture just looked better centered)
II. I adjusted the placement of the big fancy “branch” triptych picture in the right-hand hall, outside Victor’s room, so it lined up a bit better with the other set of three pictures nearby (it just looked kinda weird otherwise)
III. I put a Werewolves “Moonwood Mill Print” picture featuring a butterfly in a silver frame on the bit of diagonal wall next to the grandfather clock next to Victor’s room (I’ve been wanting to put something on there for AGES, and a butterfly picture felt very appropriate given it’s right outside Victor’s personal space)
IV. I swapped out the “Panels of Perfection” multi-canvas painting of the winding river over the dining table in the kitchen for a giant picture of some chocolate chip pancakes and bacon from Dine Out – while I really liked that river picture, I thought the breakfast scene was just more fun, and went well with the “fried egg” rug under the dining table
V. And the biggest change – I moved the couch back slightly in the living room so I could fit in a coffee table! Because the longer I looked at it, the more I thought “the couch is too close to the TV and they need a coffee table.” After a bit of a search, I went with the Paranormal long oval coffee table in the purple swatch with the flowers painted on the top (the couch is from the same pack, so I figured I might as well match it), then – after an even longer search – plopped the base game “Feng Shui Planter” on top of it for a little centerpiece (it felt right to have SOMETHING on the table, and it was one of the few decorations short enough to not block the view of the TV)
And that was that! :D Well, except for going through the house taking pictures both normal and Sim’s-eye view (I am having SO much fun with the “Free Camera” mode now that I know how it works), and saving the whole lot to my Library (and goggling at just how many packs I used to build it – I threw a little bit of EVERYTHING into this house, seriously). I haven’t put it up on the Gallery YET, but if anyone expresses some interest in downloading it, I will. *nods* Anyway, I plan to do a proper photo post on tumblr in the near future to celebrate the house being 100% done (maybe I can start the draft of that sometime during this long weekend?), but for now, have a handful of pictures to whet your appetite:






Seriously, isn’t the bunny topiary paired with that flower cart so cute? :D Really glad I stumbled upon that. And really glad that I FINALLY managed to finish this house! I love you dearly, Polyheart OT3 House, but I’m ready to move onto new builds – and hopefully, at some point in the near future, Live Mode.
Writing: I did indeed start “The Van Dort Vacancy” today, typing up the first page of Chapter 1 right before my workout! :D This story opens much like the last one, with the trio preparing to have breakfast before getting on with the business of the day – only this time, they’re all at the MOJ, with Smiler’s mother Carol preparing the meal (“eggy toast,” the local version of French toast), the “business of the day” is taking Victor back to his house and Alice to her new living situation at Elder Gutknecht’s, and everything is from Victor’s perspective because, well, it’s a story focused on him and his situation post-Emily. About time he got to be the POV character! Though, honestly, I’m worried I’m a little rusty when it comes to portraying an accurate Victor – it’s been a while since I watched Corpse Bride, and spending the last few years working on the “Londerland Bloodlines” series means I’ve grown very used to writing in Alice’s POV first and foremost. (Which is probably why I defaulted to her POV for the first two VITD stories, honestly.) Hoping I can turn things around with this story when it comes to getting into his head – though I suppose finding the time to watch the movie, or at least some clips longer than half a minute, wouldn’t go amiss. Never hurts to have a refresher!
YouTube: Well, I was going to watch the GrayStillPlays video of the day, but I got a look at the art style of the game he was playing (Get Da Milk), and – uh – well, it seems a bit on the old “racist” side, so yeah, that didn’t happen. *sigh* Between this and me noticing what looked like more AI-generated thumbnails on his vids, I am starting to rethink watching Gray’s stuff… Fortunately, I had a back-up video I’d just added to my Watch Later – “All Skill Mastery Perks Explained And Rated | The Sims 4 Guide” by Petey Plays It! Petey giving us the skinny and his personal ratings out of five for each of the “skill mastery” perks your Sims can unlock while training high-level skills (or by buying and drinking a certain potion from the Aspiration Rewards Store) if you own Businesses & Hobbies. These perks grant the Sims who have them unique interactions (though some of the perks have very similar effects, with each one covering either a certain group of skills or certain types of objects), and if a Sim is an elder, they can pass them on to younger generations via a unique social interaction. Of the ones on offer, Petey particularly liked:
I. “Skillful Sleep” (which causes a ghostly projection of your Sim to appear and start wandering around training random skills while your Sim sleeps – you can’t control the projection, unfortunately, but Petey seemed to consider this an overall minor problem)
II. “Mental Muscle” (which makes Sims who have it ripped when training mental skills like logic or rocket science – Petey just thought this one was fun and commented that isn’t “hot nerd” the goal for people today?)
III. And “Spacebender” (which allows Sims who have it to teleport around pretty much at well – and who doesn’t like a good teleport option?)
By contrast, Petey particularly hated:
I. “Stellar Stamina” (which is SUPPOSED to reduce a Sim’s energy need decay as well as making them more resistant to exhaustion, but according to Petey’s testing, it doesn’t affect the need decay at all, so…)
II. And the very similar “Secret Spice” and “Final Touch” (which allows Sims to improve the quality of food and objects respectively – unfortunately, the latter can’t take something beyond “Excellent” quality, and the former, while it can make food “Impeccable,” is bugged because Sims can’t currently eat “Impeccable” food for some reason).
Yeah – most of the others feel in the “meh” or “probably useful under specific circumstances, but otherwise” categories. Bit of a shame, really, but then again, Sims 4 often has trouble living up to its potential. Still, if and when I do get this pack, now I have a better idea of what perks to go for with my Sims! Thanks Petey!
Workout: Got on the bike for the last time this particular week, pedaling through three more videos by Proxy Gate Tactician on good old Baldur’s Gate III:
A) “What Happens in Baldur's Gate 3 If Every Origin Character Dies?” – Proxy considering what happens if every Origin character (explicitly Astarion, Lae’zel, Shadowheart, Wyll, Gale, and Karlach; implicitly Tav and the Dark Urge as there was no mention of the custom player characters showing up) dies on the Nautiloid before the events of the game properly start (aka, before the ship crashes into Faerun)! The sequence of events they came up with after examining various bits of potential evidence in the game is as so:
I. Losiir (the githyanki warrior who shows up to play Lae’zel’s role in the Prologue should you pick her as your player character) manages to get to the helm and connect the nerves, but dies when the ship crashes because for whatever reason the Emperor refuses to save him (because you always find him dead on the beach post-prologue if you’re playing Lae’zel)
II. Either goblins searching the crash site or the Emperor (your nominal mind flayer ally in the game) looking for someone to take care of his precious artefact (containing Prince Orpheus, the githyanki who’s powers allow everyone in the party to remain free of Absolute influence) get the artefact to Minthara, the only tadpoled companion available, who takes it back to Moonrise and gives it to Ketheric Thorm, helps advance his various goals (including kidnapping and tadpoling poor Isobel and securing the Nightsong, Aylin), then gets betrayed and turned into a zombie
III. Ketheric then takes it to a meeting between him and his co-conspirators in the Absolute scheme, Gortash and Orin, and gives it to Gortash for study, who takes it back to Baldur’s Gate with him
IV. Ketheric and Orin then attempt to betray Gortash – Ketheric hoping to overwhelm him with the army he’s gathered under the Absolute’s banner, and Orin by sending Bhaalite assassins after him – but he manages to survive and instead betray them (using the fact that he too can control the tadpoled Isobel to force Ketheric to surrender or see her hurt, and using his popularity with the people and his Steel Watch defenders to overwhelm Orin and the rest of the murder cult)
V. The Absolute starts trying to break free, and the Emperor keeps it from killing Gortash when he goes to confront it; he proposes an alliance, and Gortash accepts
VI. The pair, along with their allies, manage to defeat and subdue the Absolute to their will, and thus all of Baldur’s Gate as well – but, rather than ruling as equals, as the Emperor promised, the Emperor takes the throne for himself and tells Gortash he can be his lead general; Gortash, pissed, attempts to kill him, but the Emperor manages to control him and make him kill himself
VII. The brainwashed citizens of Baldur’s Gate are forced to fight the githyanki armies trying to stop the Emperor, and a new Ithillid Empire dawns...as the Absolute had quietly planned
So, basically, if everyone dies, shit sucks. Unsurprising, really. XD
B) “Unveiling Baldur's Gate 3's Top 10 Bizarre Spells” – Proxy’s take on some of the weirdest, and often worst, spells in the game! Includes such things as “Shapechanger,” a high-level Transmutation Wizard spell that allows you to turn into a fairly useless blue jay for five turns (at least it doesn’t consume a spell slot); “Grasping Vine,” a buggy summoned vine that can pull people toward it – but can also apparently move and have weapons equipped (I don’t think THAT was intended – also it only has three hit points unless you make the game HARDER; it’s possible this has been patched though); “Divine Intervention,” a one-time-use only Cleric spell that can instantly drop a load of AOE damage on enemies, instantly heal and restore all the spell slots in your party, give you a chest full of good loot, or grant you a magical mace (one of the good spells, it’s just really hard to figure out what you want to spend it on); and “Enthrall,” a level 2 spell for Warlocks and Bards that reduces someone’s cone of vision and makes them look at you...but sometimes it doesn’t work and it only works outside of combat apparently (which really sucks because I was going to pick it as an appropriate thematic spell for Smiler, but if it isn’t actually that useful...maybe I’ll see if there’s mods that make it better). Some interesting stuff here, and a good primer on some spells that you maybe shouldn’t bother with – and a couple you definitely should.
C) “Finding the Hidden Fail-Safes in Baldur's Gate 3” – Proxy checking out how many “failsafe” (aka “you killed the person who was SUPPOSED to do this thing, so here’s the backup character we made to keep the game going”) characters Larian stuck into the game SPECIFICALLY to make sure that the party you have with the refugee tieflings at your camp after killing all the leaders of the goblins who want to raid them goes off as planned! Turns out there’s a lot – not only does every tiefling in the grove who attends the party have a backup should they all die before the party, there’s TWO backups for leader Zevlor – if he dies, one of the other tieflings in the grove, Asharak, takes over his position; if Asharak also dies, a new tiefling scout named Cerys (who usually only shows up in Act II) arrives to take care of things and kick off the party. Proxy also discovered the existence of “Gerson The Bent” while they were doing all this – a tiefling scout specifically designed to show up and report to any of your party who is, for some reason, hanging out in the grove while the rest of your team goes and murders all the goblin leaders, that said goblin leaders are dead and the way is clear, triggering a sneaky loading screen that allows all the tieflings to move to new locations in the grove in preparation for the party. Neat! :) The one downside was that, at the time the video was filmed (Patch 3 took care of at least one of these issues), once your character arrived in Act II and found Cerys and some of the other refugees at Last Light Inn, Cerys would act like she’d never met you and that Zevlor was still alive, if missing, and all of the “replacement” tieflings would be gone. Probably because none of the developers had really expected someone to go through and methodically kill all those tieflings just to see if they had backups. XD But still, it was a very neat video – really emphasizes the care Larian put into making the game!
*nods* Yeah, that all worked out pretty well, honestly. And now I am going to wrap things up for the night before getting to bed -- after making sure my alarm is OFF, thanks. Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday With Laundry (meeeh), though at least that means I get to listen to my beloved Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark while I clean. Other things I hope to accomplish are perhaps playing some more Sims 4 (I have an idea for a house remodel in Copperdale to help prepare for a future save file I've been pondering), working some more on "The Van Dort Vacancy," and keeping up with my Subs and maybe some more CaFae Latte. We'll see what the day brings! Night all!