Yes, I am pleased to say that the third day of my long weekend managed to avoid throwing anything truly mood-wrecking my way, allowing me to have a Genuinely Nice Day! Hooray -- glad I managed to get one. (Yes, okay, Friday and Saturday weren't COMPLETELY awful, but the thunderstorms on the former and that stupid stand-off with the maybe-wasp on the latter were real downers for me!) Let me tell you all about it:

Tumblr: It was another “nothing” day over on Valice Multiverse (who is surprised), but I managed to get some stuff done on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) before lunch –

A) First, I just about managed to finish off my Tav!Smiler post, doing a few last-minute edits and adding a concluding paragraph to the very end. Now I just have to finish off the tags, which for some reason were really giving me trouble today. Hopefully I can wrassle them into shape tomorrow!

B) And second, I made some progress on the “VITD vs BG3 Not-Incorrect Quotes Collection Volume Two” post, getting the “Lae’zel sees Alice fight on the Nautiloid and decides she’s possibly fuckable,” “the trio ask Gale if he actually has to physically eat magic items to soothe his strange condition – then try to goad him into taking one bite out of a boot,” “Alice realizes that all githyanki are assholes after the encounter with Voss,” and the final version of the “Wyll asking the trio if the Underdark reminds them of Duskwall” scenes sorted. I also added a new idea for a scene – Auntie Ethel attempting to use Vicious Mockery on Smiler by taunting them with “Terrified you’ll end up like your father, aren’t you?” only to get badly confused when Smiler, puzzled, is like “No?? I’d like to end up like my dad??” It’s only after she’s defeated that either Alice or Victor realize she meant KELMAN, and Smiler is like “well, then she should have said Kelman! I don’t consider that ass my father!” XD Just think it would be funny!

Not too shabby – we’ll see what I can get done tomorrow!

Baldur’s Gate III: Back to Faerun today, with a playsession that saw Smiler finding goodies in the world, filling out their party and cleaning up their inventory! Three of my favorite activities in this game. :P In order, we had:

A) Smiler and Shadowheart checking the last two dead intellect devourers around the first chunk of wrecked nautiloid (the original one in the fiery patch of floor that caused me trouble yesterday, and one just outside) – no cerebellums, sadly. :( Darn it, I wanted to be lucky and not have to wait until Act 2 to snag one!

B) Smiler and Shadowheart gathering goodies around the little dock on the other side of the crash, with the wrecked boat (that USED to belong to those enthralled fishers that appeared in Early Access – I’m sorry I never got to meet you guys!) and broken cart, picking up:

I. A clamshell and some mergrass from the shallow waters around the dock, and some belladonna growing by the nearby rocks – Smiler was able to use the last to create a Sublimate of Belladonna, so now they have some more alchemy ingredients for future brewing purposes

II. Some extra thieves’ tools out of a wooden crate

III. Some rope out of a wooden trunk

IV. 13 gold and a leather helmet out of the locked wooden trunk on the cart, once Smiler got it open with a lockpicking check (got a 10 on the roll with a little help from Shadowheart’s Guidance cantrip, which was more than enough to beat the DC 5 lock)

V. And, out of the Neglected Chest by the wreckage of the boat, 133 gold, 2 Chulton Fireswill bottles (booze, if you were curious), a Grease bottle (for creating slippery surfaces for your enemies to tread upon), a stuffed bear (aw), a candle, a malachite – and the Buccaneer Boots from “Rynny’s Homebrew Collection!” One of the mods that adds magical and interesting items to the game, these boots when worn provide +20 feet to movement, AND boost any attack made with a “buccaneer weapon” (dagger, rapier, trident, or scimitar) with extra force damage equal to the character’s proficiency bonus. :) I’m thinking I may give these to Astarion – perhaps in this playthrough I’ll make him a Swashbuckler and have him play pirate? :p

C) Smiler and Shadowheart proceeding up the slope over to where Astarion was waiting to trick them with his claims that he’d cornered one of those “brain things” and needed help killing it. I thought Smiler might actually pass the passive Perception check to sense Astarion trying to creep up on them with his dagger while they investigated the “brain thing” (actually a frightened boar in the bushes) this time around, as they had a higher Wisdom score, but nope – still a fail. Ah well, it’s more interesting if Astarion gets the drop on them anyway. :p Anyway, they went through the usual rigmarole of Astarion demanding to know what Smiler and the tentacled freaks did to him on the ship; Smiler protesting their innocence, saying they were a victim too; Astarion not believing them until the tadpoles linked their minds and Smiler got a brief glimpse of his memories of hunting in the city; Astarion letting Smiler go and apologizing for nearly decorating the ground with their guts (Smiler taking this in good grace, saying “might have done the same in your position”); Smiler and Astarion introducing themselves properly to each other; Smiler letting Astarion know the bad news about their parasites, and getting a little confused when Astarion started talking about finding someone to help them control the parasites instead of remove them; and Smiler asking if Astarion wanted to travel with them, and Astarion accepting. Really, the only thing that I did even a bit differently from my previous runs was pick a different line for Smiler’s introduction – I always picked the “BALDURIAN” option previously, but as the history I’ve now come up with for Tav!Smiler means they’re not from the city, I instead went with the simple “Tell him your name and your story.” Not a big deal, but it was a nice little roleplay moment I suppose!

D) Astarion leveling up to Rogue Level 2 upon joining the party, which – thanks to my mods – not only afforded him extra health and three Cunning Actions (allowing him to Hide, Dash, or Disengage as a bonus action instead of a regular one), but a feat as well! Like with Shadowheart, I immediately went for an “Ability Improvement” – and after considering my options, I decided to go with upping his Charisma up to 12, as he’s SUPPOSED to be at least kind of charismatic (hell, he’s proficient in most of the Charisma skills)! Might as well get him the extra bonus. (Yeah, I know, I said I was gonna boost the Strength of the male companions, but this is more interesting and more logical I feel – plus we have the ladies if we need to carry a bunch of shit around. :P)

E) Smiler, Shadowheart, and Astarion proceeding further up the slope and into the second portion of wrecked Nautiloid with the dying mindflayer, and Smiler stopping to have a look at it – and as usual, the mindflayer attempted to force Smiler to love it so it could hopefully use them as a meal. NOT as usual, when its attention slid elsewhere for a moment, Smiler actually failed the Intelligence check to probe its thoughts in return, even with Shadowheart lending Guidance (both of them only rolled a 2, meaning they got 4 total on the DC 10 check). Meaning that the mind flayer’s mental defenses proved impenetrable –

And that the mind flayer actually used up the last of its strength mentally slapping Smiler’s intrusion away, instead of getting the chance to try and compel them to bow their head and offer their brain. So yeah, that’s actually one of the rare checks where it’s actually a good thing to fail! Though I do enjoy the extra bit of struggling you have to do against the mind flayer’s will if you do pass – proves it’s a bad idea to get too close to one of these things mentally. (And the Wisdom check to break free is pretty easy, so…) But as it stands, Smiler never got a look into the mind flayer’s thoughts, nor had to struggle to wrench their will free before their brain got ate. Instead, they just stomped on its head and collected a void bulb, a spiked bulb, and a Potion Of Speed off the corpse. *nods* Nice.

F) The trio heading out of the wreckage up the path nearby, looting the trio of dead goblins there for goodies (getting a handaxe, a goblin scimitar, a goblin bow, a bone, a healing potion, and a camp supply pack) before proceeding over to Gale’s Wonky Waypoint! As usual, Smiler couldn’t resist the urge to slap Gale’s hand when he requested one. XD Once they’d had their fun, though, they used their charismatic warlock magic (boosted by Shadowheart’s Guidance) to attune to the unstable sigil and get it to quiet down before yanking our favorite wizard out of it. Gale introduced himself and, when Smiler asked how he’d even gotten stuck in there in the first place, explained that he’d sensed the sigil’s magic while he was in freefall after the Nautiloid fell apart and had reached out to it with his own “Weaving of words” – only to accidentally noclip into it, essentially. :P Still better than hitting the ground at terminal velocity, let’s all admit! He then asked how Smiler had survived –

Aaand I couldn’t resist having Smiler say that they took control of the ship, landed it safely, and saved the day. XD It seemed like the kind of thing they’d say as a joke! Gale was like “well, the burning wreckage behind you kind of refutes your story, but here you stand before me, so…” XD Anyway, he asked if Smiler too had received an “unwelcome intrusion in the ocular region” (Smiler: “Couldn’t have put it any more repellently myself”), then inquired if Smiler was one of the few who knew how to take care of a tadpole infestation before ceremorphosis set in. Smiler sadly let him know that while their warlock patron offers them many gifts, tadpole extraction unfortunately isn’t one of them. (Trust me, Mar-Mal would if they could!) They were only too happy to travel with Gale to look for a cure when he suggested it though, and thus Gale happily joined the team, with a final thank-you to Smiler for yanking him out of that stone. :) So now we have a full party of four, yay! That’ll make the upcoming fight in the ruined chapel much easier…

G) Gale leveling up to Wizard Level 2 upon joining the party, automatically becoming an Evocation School Wizard in the process, which I was happy to let stand – he can still learn all the spells from the different school, it’s just a little cheaper for him to learn Evocation ones (25 gold instead of 50). In addition to the usual health gain, Gale also got:

I. The “Sculpt Spells” passive, which makes it so his allies automatically succeed their saving throws and take no damage from his Evocation spells (which, given Evocation includes things like Fireball and Magic Missile, is a very good thing)

II. Another Level One Spell Slot, bringing his total up to three

III. Two new spells to add to his repertoire – I chose the classic Magic Missile (which is good because it NEVER MISSES unless the target is outright immune to it, and very few targets are) and Ice Knife (which allows Gale to throw a knife of ice (natch) at enemies, which then explodes – and even if it misses, it still explodes, creating an icy surface on which people might slip – PLUS it can be cast while Silenced). They have replaced Grease and Witch Bolt in his prepared spell list for the time being

IV. And, naturally, a feat, which I, naturally, spent on “Ability Improvement!” After checking his stats, I went with bumping Constitution up from 15 to 16 and Intelligence up from 17 to 18 – he needs a good Constitution score for concentrating on spells, and a good Intelligence score for casting them, after all. AND he’s supposed to be a bit of a magical prodigy, so boosting his Int really only made sense. *nods*

So yeah, he’s pretty well set for whatever comes next!

H) And the gang heading to the Wilderness camp to chill out while I organized everyone’s inventories and made sure everything was to my satisfaction! And I’m pleased to report that, once I hit camp, a certain exclamation mark suddenly appeared above Smiler’s head. Seems like the “Camp Night Notifications” mod might be working after all! :D Anyway, here’s the highlights of my inventory management shenanigans:

I. I had Smiler give all their new party members their smart containers (for storing everything from potions and books to grenades and arrows – thank you, ChizFreak!) out of the Chest Of Smart Containers, and arranged them nicely in everyone’s inventory grids – should be handy for keeping at least some of the items they pick up sorted! (And I have not one, but TWO more chests full of smart containers in the camp chest, meaning I should have MORE than enough for the other companions once they show up!) I also had Smiler move some of their stuff that hadn’t automatically been sorted (like a handful of healing potions, or their Scroll of Revivify for emergency saving of companions) into the correct containers – which taught me that you sometimes have to “refresh” the container by changing how the items within are sorted before everything will show up in one. Which is a minor bug, all things considered, but I didn’t particularly appreciate thinking for a split second I sent three health potions to the void!

II. I briefly started giving Shadowheart all the weapons Smiler had collected on their travels, since she had the most carry capacity – only to realize “wait, I don’t actually NEED these – they’re going to be sold to a trader down the line. I should store them in the camp chest instead.” So that’s what I did, dumping everything except one hand-axe (which Smiler kept as a spare weapon) and one light crossbow (which got handed to Gale as his ranged weapon – because he can’t be out of options when he’s out of spells, and I can’t give him a Glock as per the “Mod Mayhem” short XD) in there. I also put away all the jewelry and gemstones, the two brains-in-jars Smiler picked up off the Nautiloid, the three empty bottles, and the skull and bone they’d picked up in their journeys. So everyone’s traveling a little lighter now, good.

III. I popped open the Peculiar Clothing Chest in the camp chest (courtesy of my Digital Deluxe purchase) and gave Astarion the Needle Of The Outlaw Rogue dagger, equipping it as his new primary weapon, and Smiler the Lute of the Merryweather Bard – which they did not equip because, well, they themselves are not yet a Bard, and thus they don’t have Musical Instrument proficiency. *pats them* Next level-up, I promise!

IV. Speaking of Digital Deluxe items, I also gave Smiler the Mask Of The Shapeshifter (which allows them to cast “Disguise Self” if they’re wearing it – might be handy if they need to not be Smiler for whatever reason) and the Bewildering Adventurer’s Pack, a backpack that’s filled with some tasty food and a few useful potions and elixirs. The latter was promptly emptied (with most of the food going into the dedicated “camp supply” pack all characters automatically get, and the potions and elixirs – well, ELIXIR, there’s only one – going into the Smart Containers “potion bag”) and turned into Smiler’s Personal Backpack for RP reasons. It now contains a bedroll they found in a nook near the camp chest (because if they don’t get a tent, they can at least have a personal bedroll); that rope they picked up before (the traditional 50 feet, I presume :P); a container of mixed coffee (the one item of food that I felt it appropriate for Smiler to keep – they do love their coffee); two bottles of water (because staying hydrated is important!); the FaeRun dyes (because I thought it made sense for them to be in there – does mean I have to open an extra container to dye clothes, so I might move them back out into the “main” inventory next time I play); a random quill they picked up (for writing letters and such); a candle they found (to light their way at night); and the teddy from the Neglected Chest (because it just amuses me to think of Smiler cuddling a teddy when they go to bed). Yes, most of the things in it are random junk that you’re expected to drop or sell, but I like Smiler having a backpack of Their Shit – makes them feel more like a person, you know?

V. And I naturally gave the Brimmed Hat Smiler found earlier to Gale, because a wizard needs a proper wizard hat. :p

And that is pretty much where I left things! Next time I play, I’ll have Smiler chat with all their new friends in camp; dye everyone’s clothes so their outfits match where they are in the story (for example, Shadowheart’s armor will be getting dyed in Shar’s colors as she’s a Cleric of Shar right now); do a little more inventory management if need be; then send the group back out into the world to head over to the Ruined Chapel and start poking around there! Better to get Withers sooner rather than later, after all. :) Hopefully I handle the fights in there better than I did the intellect devourer fight yesterday...

Workout/YouTube: Yes, for today’s bike ride and after-dinner watch session, we briefly popped back onto YouTube for one video by Jon of Many A True Nerd – “Fallout New Vegas: You Only Live Once Remastered - Part 7 - Flying Too Close To The Sun!” And saw that YouTube now has a stupid “Ask” button for AI bullshit on videos, so yeah, I think one of the things I will be doing tomorrow is downloading FreeTube so I can do my future minimal video watching without seeing that sort of nonsense. *sigh* But enough about YouTube’s shitty AI nonsense – let’s talk about the continuing adventures of our favorite melee-only courier, P. D. Shoot! Who in this week’s episode –

A) Spent some time wandering around Novac and sneaking her way very carefully around the lakebed full of fire-breathing ants near Helios One over to 188 Trading Post, checking out all the shops she could find looking for good “unarmed” weapons (such as power fists and spiked knuckles). Unfortunately, all she found were a couple of Gun Runners’ Arsenal power fists (which she wanted over the “standard” version, as GRA items can be modded), and absolutely no mods to attach to any of them. Shame. At least she found out while talking to a specific trader that, if she ever needs to increase her general Guns skill for a skill check (for example, to actually get access to that trader’s stock), she can slap on her Riot Gear because that gives her +5 to Guns and a boost to Agility, which also increases the skill! Might come in handy in the future.

B) Headed up to Boulder City to see if the traders there had anything good (nope); stole all the booze out of the back room of the local bar (though Jon felt bad enough about it that he did actually go and buy something from the bartender as well); then downed almost EVERY BOTTLE OF BOOZE IN HER INVENTORY to both lighten her load and make herself exceedingly drunk (Jon’s pretty sure she’ll be feeling the effects of some sort of alcohol for the next calendar month in-game). Why?

Well, so she could settle a standoff between the NCR and the Great Khans in the nearby ruins, of course! And the drunker she is, the better her Charisma. She thus stumbled over and volunteered her services to Lieutenant Monroe of the NCR, before weaving her way into the ruins, stealing whatever she could find before making her way over to the building Great Khan Jessup was holed up in. He was rather surprised to see her up and about, given he was one of the Khans in the intro cinematic where she got shot by Benny and thus naturally thought she was dead. XD P. D. recognized him in turn and asked what had happened to the Platinum Chip they took off her – Jessup revealed that Benny stole it, betrayed the Khans, and ran off to the Strip, which dumped a GIANT pile of XP on her head as she finally finished one of the main story quests at last! P. D. then quickly resolved the stand-off between the Khans and the NCR peacefully by using her drunken speech skill to get the Khans release their two NCR hostages in exchange for a polite escort out of NCR territory and back to their own –

Then got busy leveling up, because she’d just hit Level 8 and thus could pick up some fun stuff for her build! Namely, she could finally get her Unarmed skill up to 50 (unlocking the special attacks in VATS), and snag the “Super Slam” perk, which grants all non-thrown melee weapons and unarmed weapons a chance at knocking an enemy down – 15% for unarmed weapons and one-handed melee weapons, and 30% for two-handed melee weapons. Meaning that, while Jon intends for P. D. to go over to unarmed weaponry for her main damage dealing going forward, Chance’s Knife and the GRA nailbat still have a place in her arsenal as fast-swinging weapons that can put an enemy down and then KEEP them down. Which is very important indeed when you are a melee-only character facing off against a lot of terrifying Mojave creatures and people!

C) Finished brokering peace between the NCR and the Great Khans (which basically involved telling Lieutenant Monroe about the deal, him saying “yeah but I just got orders to take out the Khans hostages or no,” her saying “but they gave you back those men in exchange for their freedom,” and Monroe going “good point, they go free” – Jon is pretty sure Monroe’s gonna end up court-martialed XD), then headed up the road to Hoover Dam to take one last shot at finding some good unarmed weapons from the quartermaster there (who she was able to convince to trade with her by leveraging her new “Accepted” status with the NCR and her druken speech skills)! Unfortunately, he ended up having the worst inventory of all the traders she’d spoken to, with only two bog-standard non-moddable power fists. *shakehead* Ah well – she tried! Hopefully another trader in the future will have a better inventory…

D) Headed back to Helios One to do the “turning the power back on for the region” mission there – which, uh, ended up going sideways pretty quickly for her! Let me take you through all the steps of the mission so you can see how it ended up such a clusterfuck:

I. First, P. D. had to acquire two passwords, one for each of the terminals out in the big yard with all the mirror reflectors that help power the power plant. This was the easy bit, as she’d already gotten one of them on her previous visit (picking it up on the way to grabbing the Medicine skill book she wanted), and acquiring the other was simply a matter of tracking down Fantastic, a fake scientist working at the plant who has some truly amazing lines (his explanation of how he got the job is a masterwork of double-talk XD). After she’d chatted with him and gotten the password she needed, she also took a moment to talk with REAL scientist and Follower Of The Apocalypse member Ignacio Rivas nearby, talking about how she wanted the same things he and his friends wanted – peace and the protection of knowledge! Because apparently making sure the Followers are friendly toward P. D. is going to be kind of important to this run’s success...hopefully none of them see her when she’s having to commit nailbat murder. :p

II. Then, she had to actually get at each terminal so she could get into them with her newly-acquired passwords and use them to reset the mainframe connections. Why was this a problem, you ask? Well, both terminals were inside giant cages – and one was full of various traps, while the other was occupied by some nasty dogs (that are TECHNICALLY NCR-aligned but are always hostile no matter what and none of the NCR mind if you kill them). P. D. naturally went for the “traps” terminal first, intending to disarm all the traps inside while avoiding the land mines on the floor –

Only to get too close to a mine while trying to disarm a tripwire and set them off. By sheer freaking luck she took no damage (the mine was behind an obstacle, and she managed to skitter out of the blast zone in time), but that was not a good time for Jon’s heart rate! Ironically, she actually leveled up to Level 9 from the tiny amount of trap-disarming XP while nearly killing herself – Jon dumped most of the points in Lockpicking so she could take on Average locks, since that was a skill she’d need in the near future.

III. ANYWAY – after successfully reaching the “traps” terminal and resetting the mainframe connection on it, P. D. then had to get to the “dogs” terminal and reset the mainframe on that too, followed by braving the central tower and the various robots inside so she could actually reach the mainframe computer itself. Her plan for doing this? Go to the nearby Black Rock Cave; activate a Stealth Boy right outside it; sneak into the cave past the local Nightkin and grab the Paladin Toaster, a unique “zap glove” weapon that does loads of bonus damage against robots; fast travel back to Helios One; sneak into the cage with the dogs and activate the terminal; then head into the tower and invisibly zap-punch three key robots before her Stealth Boy ran out before avoiding the rest of the mechanical menaces by going through some specific locked side rooms (hence why she needed the Lockpicking skill). How did it work out? Well –

a. She completed Black Rock Cave no problem – went invisible, avoided the also-invisible Nightkin (looking for the shimmers in the air to tell where they were), got the Paladin Toaster, then headed outside and fast-traveled straight back to Helios One’s front door. However, in order to fast travel more efficiently, and to get back to where she needed to be in the back yard quicker, she had to stand up. And when you stand up, even with a Stealth Boy active, you are much more noticeable. Which didn’t mean anything while she was booking it through the corridors of the main building, or running around the mirrors outside –

But when she tried to enter the cage with the dogs – yeah, they promptly noticed her and took offense to her presence. She managed to escape the cage before they did any damage to her, but Jon (having not realized she wasn’t crouched) was completely baffled as to how she’d been seen and wasted precious invisibility time both waiting for the dogs to calm down and trying to figure out how things had gone wrong. Fortunately, it didn’t take TOO long for the dogs to chill out, and P. D.’s second attempt at reaching the terminal went a lot more smoothly thanks to her being crouched, but still. It was a very stressful moment for Jon! (And a very embarrassing one for Future!Jon, who realized what had happened by the time of editing and added in some snarky comments toward his past self. XD)

b. As for getting through the tower – well, first she went into the building with a lot less time on the clock than she wanted because of the incident with the dogs outside. And second, while she got past the first Protectron okay, happily showing off the new “uppercut” attack that had been unlocked by getting Unarmed up to 50 (adds 15% more damage to each attack!), she made the mistake of standing up right as she reached the door into the next part of the facility –

And promptly got shot by a turret that Jon had completely forgotten was there. Because he was so focused on avoiding the turret in the room beforehand. She managed to get through the door BEFORE being turned totally into Swiss cheese, but she still lost a whopping 25 points of health, which brought her down to 249 out of 280 HP. Yikes. Jon was pretty horrified, both by the loss of health –

And the loss of time on her Stealth Boy, because the incident had given her like twelve minutes to get to the two other robots she had to zap-punch. And while Jon was able to get her over to the robobrain in time, just as she entered the room with the Mr. Gutsy she had to kill, her Stealth Boy officially ran out, and she popped back into the world of the visible. Jon dithered for a while about what to do – because ironically, it was more dangerous for her to go back and scuttle the mission because of those turrets – but in the end, had to bow to the inevitable and use another Stealth Boy so he could sneakily zap-punch that Gutsy without totally risking her life before heading for the mainframe. He was not happy about it, but it had to be done!

IV. Having successfully murdered part of the robot menace in the tower and avoided the rest, P. D. then had to, ironically, repair the generator powering the mainframe so she could interact with it. This required her to have both scrap and a decent repair skill, both things she was not in possession of –

But what she did have was a Poseidon Energy ID card, picked up in one of the previous rooms, which she was able to use to wake up repair bot Python and get him to fix the generator and its wonky wires. So that was good!

V. With the generator fixed, P. D. then had to choose what regions the power plant would be powering (or if she wanted to instead power up the secret orbital superweapon, ARCHIMEDES II, attached to the plant) – as she wanted to keep the Followers Of The Apocalypse happy with her, she chose to fully power the entire region and ignore the superweapon. The system warned her that fully powering the region would lead to brownouts as the infrastructure tried to handle the load, but that is what the Followers wanted, so that is what they got! I guess we’ll see how grateful the citizenry really are later.

VI. And with the region to power chosen, P. D. finally had to head out onto the tower observation deck and use the mirror realignment panel to realign all the mirrors so they’d actually provide the power. Which could only be done at a certain time of day (between 9 AM and 3 PM, specifically), so she had to wait in one-hour increments next to the panel so she could get it to work –

Except the first time she did this, the panel glitched out and refused to function, and then the game crashed. *facepalm* Fortunately, all her waiting by the panel had triggered an autosave, so she didn’t lose any progress. And, just as before, her second try at getting it work went better, with her just needing to wait one hour to get inside the specific time window so she could throw the switch and move those mirrors.

And with that, the whole ordeal was done! And what did P. D. get for it? Well, apart from Paladin Toaster and a pile of XP, she received from one Ignacio Rivas –

Some medical supplies she couldn’t use (though she could sell) and a Big Book Of Science. Which raised her Science skill up 3 points. Which made it a whole 32 while she was drunk. ...I can see why Jon did not consider the use of TWO Stealth Boys on this mission to be an acceptable trade.

And so the episode ended with P. D. MORE than ready to leave Helios One behind and instead work her way up to the outer edges of Vegas, checking all the stores for whatever goodies she could get along the way! So it looks like next week’s episode is going to be P. D.’s Mojave Mall Crawl! I am looking forward to it. :)

Writing: Got to the old writing a bit late today, but I did type up another page on “The Van Dort Vacancy,” featuring Victor getting the big old safe in the vault open so everyone could rob it! ...on the second try, because after a brief terrifying moment where he thought his parents might have changed the combination, he realized he’d swapped the final number, “68,” into “86” when Smiler and Alice encouraged him to go over the combination again. *pats Victor* It’s okay, buddy – I swap numbers in my head like that all the time! Anyway, once he’d put in the RIGHT combination, he was easily able to open the door and let everyone into the compartment for “petty cash” – a drawer full of ten satchels, each filled with a Coin’s worth of money. (William is in favor of having plenty of liquid funds, it seems.) Kasimir suggested a fifty-fifty split, while Barnaby attempted to charm the trio into a sixty-forty or even seventy-thirty one – however, one reminder from Alice that she can take on six Bluecoats on her own and win made him back off and agree to equality just this once. XD The two groups thus cleared out the satchels, with Victor offering some of them to Alice and Smiler in case they’d be more comfortable holding some of the money – Smiler assured him that they didn’t think he was going to run off anytime soon, but Alice said that it probably would be smart to split up the take just in case something went wrong and one of them was captured or something, and Smiler had to agree. :p I left off with them discussing how they were going to get back out again – the hallway won’t be a problem, as they know where the dangers are and how to avoid them now (and Victor’s quite sure Slugs won’t be bothering them again), but escaping the mansion itself might prove tricky. Fortunately, Victor’s pretty sure the tradesmen’s entrance isn’t far from the vault, so they could slip out that – as long as they can get there… We’ll see how that goes for them tomorrow!

Other: Weather was nice today (a little windy in the morning, but that was gone by the afternoon), so we all went out and played beanbags around 5 PM – and I’m pleased to report we all did good today, with Dad winning one game and me and Mom each winning two! :) Nice change from all the frustrating “somebody constantly gets shut out” games we’ve been playing, that’s for sure. Final scores were me W-W-3-2-3; Dad 2-3-W-3-2; Mom 3-2-2-W-W. :) Dunno if we’ll have the chance to play tomorrow – we’re going to Westerly in the afternoon – but we’ll see!

Yeah, pretty good overall! With my only complaint being that, thanks to the F:NV YOLO Remastered write-up once again taking ages, I have once again stayed up far too late. *shakehead* So I'd better get to bed. Tomorrow -- well, as stated, we're heading to Westerly tomorrow afternoon, so there's definitely not going to be any video gaming. But I intend to spend the morning working on tumblr drafts on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) (REALLY want to finish that Tav!Smiler post already!); then the evening MAYBE getting in a workout (depends on how much walking happens in Westerly -- might start a rewatch of Ghostbusters if I do), writing on "The Van Dort Vacancy" (gotta start wrapping up Chapter 5 with the gang's escape), and getting FreeTube set up (so I can occasionally watch a video of interest without giving YouTube any DIRECT traffic from my account). Oh, and see if I can answer Moose's latest round of messages, though that may have to wait until Tuesday -- we'll see. Night all!

Yeah, unfortunately the first day of my long weekend was not nearly as good as I'd hoped it would be. Reasons? Well:

-->I woke up WAY earlier than I wanted because I made the mistake of drinking water last night and had to go to the bathroom (though I will say this one was tempered by the fact that I did actually manage to get back to sleep for another few hours, but -- still)

-->I ate the last of my chocolate granola with my cereal this morning, meaning that I had to spend like an hour making a fresh batch right after lunch (after my parents got me the nuts I needed during a grocery trip)

-->The weather today was miserable, with some nasty thunderstorms rolling through in the afternoon (some REALLY bright lightning and loud thunder) -- meaning that after I made my granola, I ended up spending the majority of my time sitting playing on my phone or iPad because I didn't want to have my computer on just in case we lost power or something. Meaning I never got to play Baldur's Gate III. :( I was looking forward to that too!

-->Aaaand I've just learned of a faulty Windows update that affects both Windows 11 and Windows 10 that can screw up your SSD hard drive. Like, it's not a guarantee, but the danger is there, especially if you're installing, moving, or deleting large files (admittedly VERY large, like 50 GB or so -- apparently the problem was first noticed by Cyberpunk 2077 gamers installing large patches) on a drive that's over 60% full. Here's the tumblr post with the details, and links where you can read more about it. So now I gotta find that update and uninstall it, and pause future updates for a while, and hope my computer didn't get fucked over. Doesn't seem like it, but -- guh. Probably gonna do some quick late-night back-ups before I head to bed!

Yeah -- not a great way to spend your day off. >( But even with all that, I did manage to accomplish a few fun things:

Tumblr: It wasn’t my best day on the old tumbls, as you might imagine, but I did get some stuff done –

Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – I spent the time before lunch over here, working on my Tav!Smiler post in my drafts, and ALMOST completing it! I’ve finished off the write-ups for their various spells and their various proficiencies, detailing both what they have and what I’d like for them to get in the future – now I just gotta do a wrap-up paragraph and add the tags! And then consider doing a second post covering the actual backstory I’ve created for them, because this first post is long enough already. XD

Valice Multiverse – And I spent a few minutes over here tonight, putting an anon ask I got into my queue! Said anon ask consisting of “the rapture has already happened and only a singular starfish (most innocent) was sent to heaven in 632 AD” XD I had Londerland Bloodlines!Alice reply saying that, given how freaking weird and terrible the world she lives in is, she could buy that. And expressing her hopes that the starfish was enjoying heaven. XD I mean, we all know the World of Darkness is also clown world, so...

Writing: The combination of having to make a fresh batch of chocolate granola and all those thunderstorms this afternoon may have completely fucked up my gaming plans, but I did get another page on “The Van Dort Vacancy” written before my workout! Which mostly consisted of Barnaby and Kasimir referencing various Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark episodes while Smiler picked the lock on the vault door and Victor and Alice listened, bemused. XD Specifically, we had:

A) Barnaby talking about how Zillah once punched someone at her back alley fight club so hard she put him into a coma, only for Kasimir to counter that the guy actually found it pretty funny – this references Zillah’s attempt at reducing stress at the beginning of “The Lampblack Wedding” by going down to the fight club to punch up her buddy Tommy Punchliker going wrong when a bad roll by Jane caused her to overindulge – he was fine with it, but his family was rather upset by him experiencing yet another minor coma XD

B) Kasimir telling Victor and Alice how their compatriot Lilith is responsible for the horrible eight-legged lizard ghost monster roaming around the unfinished Gaddoc train yard (via capturing and befriending the ghosts who opened the tear that let the damn thing out into the world) – this references the events of “The Gut-Cutter Bargain,” where – thanks to a couple of crits – Lilith did indeed capture two ghosts killed in industrial accidents, who were so happy to be freed from their predicaments they did indeed open a tear in reality and let out the ghost of a basilisk to terrorize the train yard the pair were trying to shut down. Kasimir learned to fear and respect Lilith after that score!

C) Kasimir, after giving Smiler a few tips on how to pick the door lock (directing them to the right pick to use and telling them to listen to the tumblers to tell when they’re tapped in), talking about how he’s a “regular old Spider” – this just references what his playbook is in Oventure BITD

D) Barnaby then pointing out that, the last time Kasimir and Edvard did a score together, Kasimir ended up covered in goat shit – and then, when Kasimir countered that said covering was deliberate and paid off in the end with them revealing what was going on with “poor old Bessie,” asking about the gondolier Kasimir paid to be their getaway “driver” shouting his and Edvard’s names during their escape. Forcing Kasimir to admit that yes, he’d hired an idiot in that case, but he didn’t know the kid was an idiot XD – this references the events of “The Cab Con Caper,” where Kasimir and Edvard were tasked to figure out how this one goat being showcased by a cab company (that I can’t remember the name of, arrrgh) was outpacing the competition. Kasimir did indeed get covered in goat shit after he decided to empty the poo hopper of the treadmill Bessie ran on for her demonstrations, and a poor roll early on to secure a getaway gondola did indeed result in their gondolier openly yelling that he was there looking for Kasimir and Edvard. Kasimir slapped him silly once they were away XD

E) And, while telling Kasimir that they’re all having fun on this heist, Barnaby asking Smiler’s name, and then nodding a way that indicated he’d promptly forgotten it when Smiler told him – this references a moment in the finale, “Magic, Ghosts, Danger And Death,” where Barnaby asks the name of a Red Sash mercenary with an innovention idea for Astor on his way into the secret Deathlands base of the Brighteners society they’ve been fighting against (Morven, amusingly enough), then Mike declaring that Barnaby immediately forgets the name. XD

I don’t know if ALL of these silly references will survive through Draft 2, but they’re fun to have for now! :) I left it off with Barnaby talking about how this is fun heist because he got to go to a party, eat delicious canapes, and listen to the other guests shit-talk the hostess behind her back – next time, Victor and Alice will be demanding to know what was said because they too enjoy hearing people shit-talk Nell. XD And then into the vault to actually rob the place, as intended. XD

Workout: My final night on the bike this week saw me pedaling my way through the following:

A) The last few minutes of “Alien The Roleplaying Game: Evolved Edition | Oxventure One-Shot ft. Natural Six!” The grand finale of the adventures of Singleton (Jane), Hirsch (Doug), MacWhirr (Aoife), and Holroyd (Andy) featured:

I. A very quick shoot-out between MacWhirr and Singleton (the latter of whom, as you may recall, chose to lock Holroyd and Hirsch outside to die horribly while she escaped with the alien-pregnant scientist Komiskey to get a huge payday from Weyland-Yutani – MacWhirr was like “154 people died and I am NOT letting those things off this planet”) – Singleton aimed up a good shot with her revolver, but Jane only getting two successes to Aoife’s four meant that MacWhirr was able to dodge out of the way behind a crypod. Singleton tried to tempt by saying they could go halfsies on the reward, but MacWhirr reiterated that she was not letting any of those aliens off this planet and –

And, with another four successes, shot her four times with the bolt gun, leaving her Incapacitated on the floor. And – just to add insult to injury – Holroyd successfully got the door open just as this was happening, so he and Hirsch weren’t left behind to do a hopeless last stand after all! (Oh, and it was also established that Wes did make it to the transport with the others, and was deeply confused by everything that was happening. And still extremely drunk.)

II. The chestburster inside Komiskey doing its chestbursting thing! I knew those creatures didn’t take long to incubate...fortunately, despite being an observant baby (four base dice for Observation rolls), it got a little caught up in trying to get out of Komiskey’s ribs and thus didn’t immediately clock the humans/smashed-up android around it. Allowing MacWhirr to grab Singleton’s knife and stab it RIGHT in its little head, fucking it up ROYALLY and Incapacitating it. :D Unfortunately, though, the alien got its own back – not only did MacWhirr get splashed a bit by its acid blood, its very last act was to lunge at her throat and give it a good old gnaw, dropping her down to Incapacitated as well. *wince* I think she considered it a good way to potentially go out, though!

III. Holroyd managing to successfully get the shuttle off the ground with a couple of successes on a piloting roll – there was a little early turbulence thanks to Xenomorphs clinging to the outside, but they eventually fell off, hooray! Holroyd also opened the hatch door and began to casually try to roll Singleton (who was just barely hanging onto life) toward the open door – justifying it when Mike went, “hey, that’s against your programming” that he wasn’t putting her OUT the door, he was just putting her NEAR it. If she fell out, he’d try to catch her! Maybe not very well, but… XD Hirsch asked what the hell he was doing, and Holroyd explained to him that he’d seen Singleton was the one who closed the door on them. Singleton weakly said that the dead chestburster was still worth something and that they could all split it –

And Hirsch answered that by kicking her straight out the open hatch. :D And followed up by punting the dead bodies of Komiskey and the chestburster out there too. Hah – that’s what you get, you traitor.

IV. And the whole thing ending on a happy note as Holroyd shut the hatch and climbed back into the pilot’s seat, heading out into space as MacWhirr managed to stabilize herself with a final success on the final death saving roll Mike had Aoife do and Wes confirmed with Hirsch that they were still buds :D I SERIOUSLY did not believe that they would actually manage to survive and escape the base! I mean, it’s the Alien roleplaying game – you expect a total party kill! But nope, only one person went down, and she was a traitor anyway, so fie on her. :P Shouldn’t have been so eager for that payday, Jane!

B) The entirety of “8 Things That Were Cut From Baldur's Gate 3” by Proxy Gate Tactician! A quick list of things from the Early Access version of BG3 that were either removed entirely or reworked until they were something else altogether. Some of these were definitely good changes – making it so not every custom character was a Bhaalspawn with hard-to-resist violent urges, for example (instead splitting them into the Tavs/Durges we know and love today), or reworking the kind-of-weird “dream visitor” character (who always came off as shady) into the more interesting “dream guardian” (who does a better job of pretending they have your best interest at heart). Some of them feel like missed opportunities – like cutting the “outer deck” section of the Nautiloid where you could talk to enthralled cultists and watch as imps and dragons assaulted the ship (come on, that would have added something cool to the tutorial), or removing the three living enthralled fishers who were trying to save the injured mindflayer when you find it in the wreckage on the beach (while the “mindflayer tries to force you to give it your brain” scene is not bad, I think this encounter would have been much more interesting). And one of them is going to be a subject of debate for all eternity, because there are always going to be people who liked the harsher, nastier Early Access Wyll who hated goblins and was willing to torture people to find his lost patron, rather than the completely-rewritten-for-release Prince Charming we got in the final product (and while I’ll agree that Wyll probably got screwed over content-wise due to that rewrite, I am glad that they changed his characterization – EA Wyll was an asshole, damn). A very interesting video – I never got a chance to experience the Early Access of Baldur’s Gate III, so it’s kind of fascinating to get little glimpses into it through videos like this!

C) And the entirety of “American Psycho in Baldur's Gate 3” by eli_handle_b.wav! A very quick video – just a minute and a half – of clips of Patrick Bateman edited into BG3! Naturally, he’s portrayed as a Dark Urge character, using his infamous “Hip To Be Square” axe on poor Alfira and talking about dissecting girls for fun to Saverok (who declares him to be “full of promise”). It was really well done – Eli does a lot of these sorts of videos, and has a talent for making the edited clips look like they fit the video game world. (He did SHREK in Fallout 4 once, and it was honestly incredible.) Nice way to end off the workout!

Other: Made an important discovery today that should help a lot with my attempts to limit how much YouTube is in my life (because, again, I’m pissed off about all the AI bullshit they’re forcing on people) – my old Lenovo DVD/CD drive? The one that came with my old laptop? It works with my current computer! I tried plugging it in on a whim, and after realizing the computer recognized it, I put in my American McGee’s Alice soundtrack CD to see if that would play. And it did – well, after I clicked on one of the files and got it to open up in the old Windows Media Player app. :p But it did indeed play –

And much more importantly, I was able to rip the songs to my computer. Meaning I now have the AMA soundtrack on my computer to listen to whenever I want! :D I promptly spent a good portion of the rest of the day (well, the part that I could actually spend on the computer) ripping a few other CDs to my Music folder on my D drive – namely, the Corpse Bride soundtrack, the Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines soundtrack, and “The Screen Behind The Mirror” by the band Enigma (because most of the songs on there don’t actually have much in the way of lyrics). I was also going to do the CD I have of selected pieces from all three BTTF soundtracks played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra – but while I was listening to that one, I read about the above-mentioned faulty Windows update and was like “fuck, have I been playing with fire this entire time and not known it?” *grumbles* Judging from what I saw about the update, I was probably fine because none of the MP3s I was ripping were particularly large, but – yeah. That one is gonna have to wait until tomorrow, after I’ve uninstalled the update!

So yeah -- at least I got a little further on all my tumblr stuff, and I found a way to get some more background music that doesn't rely on me going to YouTube! Now I just have to find ways to acquire some other music that I really like (such as the A:MR soundtrack, The Smiler's theme, the 2 AM theme from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, "My Chrysalis Highwayman" from Fallout 2), put it all in a big playlist, and I should hopefully be set. :P We'll see what happens!

For now, though -- I should both try to get to bed a little earlier tonight, and see about dumping this faulty update. Tomorrow is a Cleaning Saturday, so that's my morning sorted -- as for the afternoon, we'll see if I go for Fallout 4 and the FO4 Playthrough Progression update, or Baldur's Gate III and another chunk written on "The Van Dort Vacancy." And if I actually try FreeTube or not. And if I can get anything done on my tumblrs or not. Who knows at this point. *shakehead* Night all.