Yeah, it was just a lot of hanging around and relaxing for the most part -- well, as much as I could relax with my calves still so tight. They're starting to loosen up now, though! And I accomplished a fair bit this Sunday even with all that chilling --

Tumblr: Was another “nothing” day over on Valice Multiverse, but I did accomplish something over on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – namely, I managed to finish off the latest update to my Halloween-themed collection of Not-Incorrect Valicer Quotes with not one, but TWO new scenes! :D Those being:

A) Smiler, Victor, and Alice buying a bunch of candy at the grocery store – the cashier was like “...lot of kids who like to trick-or-treat in your neighborhood?” (I double-checked, and while it isn’t as much of a thing in the UK as it is in the US, it IS a thing), and Smiler admitted cheerily that, while yes, most of the candy was for them, with Alice adding that they and Victor had massive sweet tooths (Victor: “We’re not that bad.” Smiler: “Yes we are”). The cashier was chill and asked who could resist the siren call of chocolate – Smiler immediately pointed to Alice, who then clarified to the surprised cashier that it was less chocolate she was immune to and more candy, as she prefers baked goods and salty snacks (cue Victor putting some Halloween-themed cupcakes and pretzels down). The cashier joked that Alice must have the job of keeping the candy safe from the other two –

And Alice was like “no, nothing keeps candy safe from these two.” XD Victor was like “we will leave some for the children, I promise!” XD

B) And Smiler, Victor, and Alice at the Sunny Brews coffee shop (Smiler behind the counter working, and Alice and Victor hanging out at a nearby table to keep them company) when a customer walked in, scowled at the Halloween decorations, and commented they’d like some “national pride” when Smiler asked what they wanted. Smiler was like “...not on the menu, but I’m willing to mix something up custom if you want.” The customer told them not to get smart and asked why they were celebrating an American holiday – Smiler responded it was fun, and that there was no getting away from American culture no matter how much they tried. The customer allowed that, but insisted everyone should be saving all their treats and mischief and such for Bonfire Night, aka Guy Fawkes Day – Smiler said “nobody’s stopping you, I have plenty of friends who celebrate that – just some people don’t want to.” The customer was like “Ridiculous” and turned to Victor and Alice to ask if they had any reason someone would not want to celebrate Bonfire Night –

Cue Alice telling them sweetly that her entire family died in a fire that very night. The customer was shocked silent and ended up leaving, while Smiler, Victor, and Alice decided to figure out on their own what a “national pride” drink might taste like. XD This was inspired by my researching “is Halloween a thing in the UK” for the previous scene and finding some Grumpy Guses who didn’t like the fact that the Americanized holiday was drawing attention from the much more British Guy Fawkes Day – I thought it would be interesting to have one of them wander in and get a VERY DEFINITIVE reason why someone might not want to celebrate. :p

So yeah, that’s ready to go the week of Halloween! Hopefully people will find the new scenes amusing. Though doing this did make me wonder if it’s about time I started doing masterposts of my Not-Incorrect Quotes, or of each of my Valicer universes that have gotten a significant amount of fanfic...problem is, I’ve written JUST enough Valicer stuff that that is a slightly intimidating prospect...hmmm. We’ll see what happens!

Portal: As I previously said I would, I booted up everyone’s favorite quirky and quotable first-person puzzle shooter (as I swear someone called it once, damned if I can remember who or the exact phrasing) today, to start replaying it after a long absence! Mostly because I felt like this game would be one of the quicker ones to sum up after the fact and thus would be perfect to play on Sundays, where I always have a long video to sum up in the evenings. :p (I mean, I also ENJOY the game and felt like I should play it again, but – still. The “quicker to sum up” thing WAS the most relevant point in its favor for becoming my new Sunday game!) How’d it go? Well, let me tell you:

A) I started things off by taking care of the basics – i.e., making sure I knew what the quicksave and quickload buttons were (F6 and F9, if you were wondering), and fixing the wonky resolution, because for some reason the default was 1154 x 96 or some nonsense like that. I was like “wow, this game looks a lot worse than I remembered” until I tweaked that to match my monitor’s actual size and resolution! XD (Though, to be fair, I had a legit reason to think it would look like crap – the game is nearly 20 years old. Will hit the anniversary in 2027, if you needed a reason to feel like time is slipping away from you!)

B) After taking care of that, I took a moment to note everything on the Start menu now that I could SEE it properly (radio, keyboard for the screen scrolling in the background, the infamous cake, and a red phone – which, uh, concerns me, given red phones are associated with nuclear missile crises and we do NOT want Cave Johnson or GLaDOS anywhere near those), then started the game proper! I messed around in the relaxation vault for a little bit as GLaDOS gave her opening spiel, getting used to the controls by playing with the clipboard, unsuccessfully trying to put the radio in the toilet, and throwing and breaking the coffee cup (along with noting just how creepy the pod Chell comes out of really is – it’s rusty and dirty and hooked up to weird tanks that I HOPE were for oxygen, and just generally doesn’t look very pleasant), then set off and completed Chambers 0 and 1 without any problem. I then headed into Chamber 2, got my single-portal device, and prepared to head out –

C) Only to hear a familiar upbeat tinny tune. And when I turned around, I saw one of the famous Aperture Science radios – the little white ones that look a bit like a flattened snow globe – sitting on a little ledge, atop the little window in the side wall that the portal gun shoots through when you first enter the chamber and see it on its little stand. Now, I’d heard the radio song in the previous test chamber, but I hadn’t been able to find the radio itself and thus had decided not to worry about them. But upon seeing that radio, I recalled a certain something –

Namely, that there was an achievement attached to them – “Transmission Received.” Which requires you to grab each radio as you find it and bring it to a certain spot in the relevant test chamber/map section, making the light at the bottom go from red to green and stopping the music in favor of a Morse-code-like transmission (you can tell if you’re getting close to the correct spot or not if the music starts fading out in favor of static). You can only go for it after you’ve played through the game once (possibly to get people to focus on actually playing the game instead of radio-hunting the first time around), and it was actually a later addition to the game (all the radios being added in a patch on March 1, 2010 – the transmissions can be translated into images if you have the right software, plus they also had secret messages and whatnot buried in them that all hinted at the then-upcoming sequel). As stated, I hadn’t been worrying about it before, but after seeing the radio, I was like “you know what, I want that, let’s go for the achievement. Might as well, right?”

D) And so my replay of Portal became the “Transmission Received Run!” Much like my latest replay of Superliminal was the “collect all the collectibles” run. This saw me grab the radios in Chambers 3 and 4, then – realizing that I’d obviously missed the first two – restarting the game so I could start receiving transmissions properly from the very beginning. And I’m proud to say that I was able to find most of the radios WITHOUT having to consult a guide (though it was useful for locating the one I’d missed before starting the run, along with solving a few other problems along the way). :) Here’s all the radios I found in this initial playsession:

Chamber 0 – It was hard to miss this radio, given you wake up with it playing very loudly next to you on the makeshift table next to the toilet. XD I grabbed it as per the guide and brought it with me to the first simple cube-and-button test, where it started transmitting the code once it was right next to the button. Sadly, I was unable to use it to complete the test itself – it’s just too light to actually weigh down the button! Shame.

Chamber 1 – I heard the darn thing above my head when I first entered this chamber, but couldn’t figure out where the music was coming from – turns out, the radio’s balanced on the camera right next to where you drop down! I carefully scooted along the ledge and grabbed it as per the guide, then trucked it around with me as I went through the various opening and closing portals to get the cube and put it on the button (as best I could, anyway – a portal stole it from me by closing early at one point, trapping me in one room and the radio in another until it reopened. Rude :p). I got the code transmission by taking the radio with me to the exit, just shy of the emancipation grid – and then, after getting the achievement counter to tick up, I fizzled it. Because why wouldn’t you at that point? :P

Chamber 2 – AKA, where the run actually started before I decided to reset. As stated, I spotted the radio sitting on a thin ledge up on the wall with the little portal-shooting window in it – a wall that was far too thin to support a portal being shot above the radio. >( I ended up having to shoot a portal high up on the wall NEXT to the ledge (aka one of the proper walls of the test chamber), then jump out of it and spam “E” to grab the radio on my way back down to the floor. Which, uh, I am NOT good at, so it took me a few tries to grab it! I eventually got a hold of it (after knocking it over onto the other side of the wall and having to portal my way back to the entrance “hall” to get it), and – after a little searching – got the transmission to play by taking it to the very center of the room, where the portal gun was on its little stand before Chell collected it. Fortunately for me, once you collect a radio, even if you start a new game, it stays collected, so I didn’t have to repeat my shenanigans when I restarted – I mean, I tried, but after a few frustrating attempts just knocked the radio further away from me on the ledge, I was like “forget it, let’s go on.” (Though the restart did allow me to see what happened if Chell got a portal shot straight to the face by peering through the little window just as the gun fired – unfortunately it did not actually do anything painful for her, boo. The device is supposed to be super-dangerous – getting in the way of its portal shots should be too!)

Chamber 3 – The other one that I claimed before my restart! The radio here was fairly obvious – sitting on a camera right by the chamberlock – and I easily claimed it by shooting the camera off the wall. Figuring out where to take it, though – THAT proved to be kind of tricky. I kept getting static whenever I took it into the middle of the corner platform, in between the two big old gaps you have to portal over to complete the chamber, but I couldn’t get it to actually receive the transmission. I eventually turned to my guide on my phone –

And discovered that the radio had to be ELEVATED – apparently, the transmission spot was up near the ceiling! Huh! After a few false starts (and another look at the screenshot the guide writer had provided), I finally figured out the correct portal placement high up on the wall (it’s almost but not quite across from the orange portal) and stuck the radio through to get the transmission. Whew! This one I was able to redo when I restarted the game – and, for good measure, I shot down all of GlaDOS’s cameras. Because, again, fun. :P

Chamber 4 – This one had a nice obvious radio – it was in the same pit that the cube you have to retrieve via portal was in! I grabbed it along with the cube, did the puzzle, then found the transmission signal near the entrance to the chamber. And then shot down more of GlaDOS’s cameras for shits and giggles. XD (There’s an achievement tied to shooting those down too, but it doesn’t have a proper counter, so I don’t know if I’m gonna go for it or not. Maybe in the future.)

Chamber 5 – The radio in this one was very obvious – it was sitting on the floor of the next chamber just past the door after I solved the dual-cube-and-button puzzle presented to me. However, when I went to get it, the door locked behind me, preventing me from going back into the previous room with it – and the radio did NOT pick up any signals in the chamber right before the elevator out. Annoyed, I reloaded and tried to sneakily sneak forward and pick it up, only to find that I had to be right next to it to do so – and, of course, going that far forward locked the door behind me. Wondering how the hell I was supposed to get this radio, I looked at the guide again –

Which, uh, reminded me I have a portal gun. Which I can use to transport objects to different places. ^^; It’s been a while, okay – I was NOT thinking with portals! Anyway, I popped a blue portal under it to put it on the raised platform next to the orange wall portal, retrieved it, then walked around the test chamber with it – the transmission proved to be in the pit where I found one of the cubes. *nods* Have to remember getting the radios is a puzzle and thus I’m allowed to use the puzzle-solving device. :p

Chamber 6 – The radio in this one was sneaky, hiding atop the slightly-extended ceiling panel containing the emitter for the high-energy pellet – fortunately, I managed to spot it WITHOUT having to consult my guide, which helped soothe my wounded pride from the previous chamber’s shenanigans. After a bit of clumsy portal work to get it (I fell onto the top panel, then promptly off again – fortunately I knocked the radio off with me), I grabbed it and walked around until I got the transmission right next to the elevator platform that lifts you to the chamber exit. And then I took it with me and fizzled it too. Because I could. :p

Chamber 7 – I could hear the damn thing as I was going down the stairs into the chamber proper, so I suspected it was underneath them – however, my initial look into the tight little maze of hydraulic lifts didn’t reveal any radios. I was certain it was there, though, so after solving the high-energy pellet puzzle, I looked again –

And saw a portable surface behind said stairs. And upon shooting THAT and finding my way through, I found the radio hidden behind one of the hydraulic supports! Hah – got you, you little fucker. :D The transmission itself was on the other side of the room, next to the unstationary platform (you know, the kind that move side-to-side) – not QUITE in the corner under the door, but close. *nods* I felt like I was getting good at this at this point!

Chamber 8 – ...and then I died twice in here trying to get the next radio. XD Now, it wasn’t that the radio was hard to spot – it was on the little supporting apparatus for the unstationary platform in this room, completely visible from the start. It was just hard to GET, given that it was tucked UNDER the platform – and this is the room with the lethal water floor. After a little experimenting, I was able to determine that I had to get on the platform, crouch, then scoot to the very edge before spamming “E” as it started moving along its little lasery path to grab the radio – but from there, staying on the platform proved to be a challenge. I fell off the first trying to get back through the portal so I could find the transmission (as it wasn’t near the exit), then managed to somehow physics myself off the second time grabbing the radio (I think I must have triggered some wonky Bethesda-esque collision detection). Fortunately, third time was the charm, and I was able to get the radio, get it back through the portal, and find the transmission point, right next to the sign for the chamber listing all the hazards. Whew! Tricky little bastard.

...and that wasn’t that much faster to sum up, but at least I wrapped this up right at 5 PM! Which is more than I can say for my last FO4 write-up! AND I don’t have to worry about any Playthrough Progression docs either… Next Sunday, we continue taking on test chambers and finding radios! Hopefully I will not need the guide too much, but we shall see.

Writing: Spent the time I normally would have spent working out (skipped today to let my calves untighten after yesterday’s walking) working on more Polyship Week 2025 stuff, and I’m happy to report I got two things done –

A) First, I ended up writing the rough draft for the Day Three prompt I picked, “Sharing Clothes!” Because I had the clearest idea in mind for it and I figured I might as well get a jump on it (as I was still struggling to figure out what prompts I wanted to pick for days Two, Four, Six, and Eight). The story I came up with featured Smiler noting that it was a little sad that they couldn’t steal each other’s clothes – then explaining to a confused Victor and Alice that stealing a warm snuggly hoodie or sweater from a loved one is supposed to be one of the benefits of a relationship, but their body types were so different they couldn’t pull it off. Before hastily reassuring a now self-conscious Victor that wasn’t a value judgment about his appearance, they LIKED how he looked, they’d just like to be able to steal his jacket and actually put their arms through the sleeves. XD Alice suggested that Smiler MIGHT be able to get away with putting on her red coat, but Smiler was pretty sure it would be a no-go, and didn’t want to ruin it – Alice thanked them for that, then asked if not being able to share really bugged them. Smiler admitted that it would just be nice, as they never got to do it in any previous relationship (they were “whoring it up,” as they put it, as I picture them being more into casual hookups and friends-with-benefits arrangements previously), and they’d just like to be able to keep their loved ones close even if they weren’t there. Alice allowed she could get behind that sentiment and said there had to be something they could share, thinking aloud that she could probably get into one of Smiler’s sweaters, even if Victor couldn’t – Victor confirmed that his clothes all have to be specially tailored, picking at his tie as he started apologizing –

And then realizing – oh. His tie would probably fit Smiler just fine. Cue him taking it off and tossing it Smiler’s way, and Smiler happily putting it around their neck and joking about buying Victor ties they like for the holidays. Story ended with Alice telling them to get some necklaces they like too, while taking off her omega to hand over as well. XD I just thought it was cute – and now I have a headcanon of them sharing ties and necklaces and other such things because it’s pretty much the one thing they CAN share. :D Yay!

B) And while I didn’t pick any new prompts, I did figure out what I want to do for the Day One prompt, “Kidnapping” – rather than going Valicer In The Dark, I’m gonna go Londerland Bloodlines and do a story about Victor thinking about how kidnappings are usually bad things – but his led to Smiler joining the polycule eventually, so he’s glad the Ministry snatched him off the street, all things considered. :) Does mean that I have to figure out another prompt that I can do for VITD (because I’m not leaving my favorite crime trio out of Polyship Week), but I think that’ll make for a good story!

FreeTube/Invidious: Hit Invidious today for my weekly dose of Many A True Nerd, watching “Fallout New Vegas: You Only Live Once Remastered - Part 14 - Man Vs Machine!” The continuing adventures of our favorite melee-only drunken courier P. D. Shoot as she –

A) Finished off her time in the X-13 facility (having rerun the “Robot Compliance” test a bunch of times between episodes to get herself up to a whole 12 Stealth Boys, nice) by:

I. Going through the Aural Stealth Suit test track without running a test so she could explore freely – and grabbing a holotape from the kitchen that served as a “recipe” to make one Sneak skill book! Because apparently Old World Blues has these “recipes” scattered around certain bits of the Big MT, allowing the player character to make one copy of every skill book in the game. And given reading a skill book gives you a permanent +3 to its relevant skill – well, that’s a lot of skill points you can get if you can find the recipes and turn them into books! And we all know our girl could always use more Sneak. *nods*

II. Heading into the Reception Observation area above the test track, walking down a catwalk to a certain wall above the start of the testing area, then very carefully easing along a very narrow strip of metal molding on said wall to open a grate there to get the recipe for the Lockpicking skill book! (There were also three boxes of Dandy Apples in there for some reason, but P. D. isn’t allowed to eat – that’s healing!) Because while MOST of the “recipes” are in logical places – e.g., the Sneak skill book “recipe” is on the sneaking testing track, and the Repair skill book “recipe” is in the old house of a scientist who specialized in taking apart robots – the Lockpicking skill book “recipe” is for some reason hidden in a place most players will probably never realize they can get to. P. D. actually had to try twice to sneak along that bit of molding before she got it. *shakehead* Game designers sometimes, I swear…

III. Swapping back into her beloved space suit (because while the Aural Stealth Suit did have a few benefits, like extra Perception and Agility, P. D.’s build works better if she’s wearing proper light armor instead of medium armor that has a sneak bonus to offset the natural penalty), then activating a Stealth Boy to sneak past the remaining robo-scorpions infesting the halls of X-13 so she could get outside to safety. Jon was a little worried that the game was going to cheat and have the roboscorpions right outside detect her for no good reason once she stepped through the door, but fortunately New Vegas was feeling nice this episode and didn’t have that happen. Jon was very grateful indeed!

B) Realized she had a LOAD of time left on her Stealth Boy’s timer after slipping out of X-13 and deciding to use it to sneak over to the nearby Big MT West Tunnel to slip in there and grab the Unarmed skill book “recipe!” Though, as it turned out, New Vegas wasn’t feeling that nice, because the minute she went in THERE, the game decided “oh, that Protectron down the tunnel can sort of sense you’re there and will put you into [CAUTION].” Jon had a little bitch session about it, going over how stealthy P. D. is and how a mere regular Protectron should NOT be able to sense her. XD But she managed to unlock the door she needed to unlock, grab the Unarmed “recipe” behind it, and get out all without incident. Whew! Could have been a lot worse, that’s for sure.

C) Used the fact that if you try to pass through the “radar fence” on the edges of the DLC world, you get teleported straight back to The Sink in the middle to get a free ride back to her new living quarters, then checked out her “recipes” at the workbench to see what she needed to make her shiny new skill books. She quickly deduced that she had the minimum number of skill points in each skill (25) and the Wonderglue the books demanded (stashed away in her personal foot locker) – but she very much did NOT have all the blank books the “recipes” demanded (you need 25 each to make ONE skill book! The book economy in this game is in shambles). In fact, she didn’t have any, because the book chute in The Sink – which turns all regular books (destroyed, scorched, pre-War) into blank books – wasn’t powered up yet. So getting that up and running before the end of the episode quickly became a priority!

D) Headed back to the Think-Tank to talk to a few more members and do their quests – specifically:

I. Doctor 0, a robotics expert who hates RobCo and was not happy to see P. D. wearing a Pip-Boy – his little quest revolved around the fact that everyone calls him Doctor O when his name is Doctor 0 – that is, Doctor ZERO. P. D. easily solved his woes by slapping on her Naughty Nightwear to get the speech skill to convince him to confide in her, then – after puzzling out the problem with his name – suggesting he add a slash inside the zero to differentiate it from the letter. He was very keen on this idea and thanked her for letting him unburden himself, earning P. D. another ally in the Think-Tank (and, incidentally, ensuring she had a majority of doctors who would side with her when it came time to initiate the endgame, meaning she could “win” without any confrontations or hard skill checks. Yay)!

II. And Doctor Borous, who was the animal expert and who accused P. D. of being a Communist animal. P. D. got him to open up a bit too, causing him to talk about how many animals he’d laid open on his table and how much he used to love dogs – specifically his own dog, Gabe. (Oh, and how he created cazadors and nightstalkers, but his dog was the important part. :P) Which started the single Think-Tank quest that required P. D. to, you know, do something other than just chat to these weird floating brains in jars and chase down any hints as to what happened to Gabe out in the outside world. No easy XP here – Jon said that Doctor Borous was the most important doctor to talk to in the place, though, so I presume this quest has a good reward for P. D. if she can complete it…

E) Took the long way around to Higgs Village (where the scientists use to live, which was filled with goodies – and also potential signs of what happened to Gabe), heading first to the X-8 Research Center, and then going northeast toward the village, tagging a bunch of other locations along the way. Why? Well, because there was an Ultimate Cheaty Enemy hanging around Higgs – a unique robobrain called Super Ego. Who was immune to any and all attempts to sneak around it – if a player character got anywhere near this thing, it would immediately know and raise the alarm, getting other enemies to fight with it if possible. And the direct route would have brought P. D. straight into the Lombotomites hanging around the village, meaning she could have had to fight them AND Super Ego at the same time. (Granted, it’s hit-or-miss whether any nearby enemies will listen to Super Ego telling them there’s danger, but naturally Jon didn’t want to take that chance!) The route she took, however, brought her near Super Ego while it was alone – and while it did raise the alarm the minute it sensed her, the only enemy in range, a regular robobrain, did not respond by opening hostilities with P. D. Obviously it wasn’t getting paid enough. XD P. D. juggled around on the high ground for about a minute for – some reason (seriously, I have no idea what Jon was attempting), then got in close and hid behind a rock, luring Super Ego toward her so she could wreck it with the power of drugs and a holographic axe. It did get ONE hit off, which sliced another 20 HP off poor P. D.’s total – but she did kill it, and Jon mentioned that Super Ego usually hits WAAAAY harder, soo – yeah. Overall, a win for P. D. and her chances of staying alive!

F) Managed to sneak into Higgs Village behind the lombotomites without burning another Stealth Boy, and took advantage of the fact that the place was completely safe to hit all the scientists’ former houses and raid them thoroughly! Specifically, she visited:

I. House 0, Doctor 0’s residence (natch), which contained a bunch of broken securitrons; some whiskey in the fridge; a picture of House with a bunch of knives sticking out of it (XD); the Repair skill book “recipe;” and a bunch of scorched and burned books P. D. could later feed into the book chute

II. House 101, Dr. Klein’s residence, which contained a whole lotta booze; the personality module to wake up the book chute in The Sink; and his special glove weapon and his scrubs. The latter two items P. D. paired with his glasses to make some Dr. Klein cosplay, which got her a tiny achievement and about 90 XP (which isn’t THAT much in this game) –

And a level up to Level 17! Jon promptly increased Survival up to 75, and was rather disappointed to find that this did not level up P. D.’s booze so it gave her even more Strength and Charisma, damn. Ah well – at least it’s moving in the right direction. The other two skill points went into Repair just so it was a nice solid 35.

III. House 102 – Jon didn’t say who this one belonged to, but they had the Science skill book “recipe” and ALL the freaking mentats, I swear. P. D. will never want for mentats again

IV. House 103, Dr. Borous’s residence – as evidenced by the doghouse out back! P. D. collected Gabe’s bowl from the mat outside the doghouse, and the “recipe” for the Medicine skill book from inside the house itself

...and the rest will have to wait because it is once again Too Late to continue. *sigh* I have GOT to start watching these videos earlier in the day...

EDIT 10/20/2025: As has become usual, unfortunately, here is the rest of the recap of the video:

V. House 104, Dr. Dala’s residence – this one contained the Speech skill book “recipe” holotape...and a whole bunch of weird broken mirrors on the walls and teddy bears EVERYWHERE. On the bed, on stools in the hall, just anywhere they could be stuck, all STARING at you. ...I have no idea why this woman gets the SPEECH skill book “recipe,” but I’m not going to risk angering the teddies by asking.

VI. And House 108, another unnamed residence – Jon was going to have P. D. skip this one as there wasn’t anything particularly important to her inside, but changed his mind and had her go in and get the personality module for The Sink’s jukebox inside. Because you know what, she was in the area, and why the hell not.

G) Activated a Stealth Boy (with Jon forgetting to check the time before doing so so he could get his timings right – he was actually pretty accurate at guessing it, though, saying he was going to assume it was half-four; I was looking at the time when P. D. activated, and it was 4:36 PM, so good job Jon!) and snuck over to the X-2 Transmitter Array next door to get the next big quest item on her list – the X-2 Transmitter Array Antenna! This proved to be pretty damn easy, as the building was very small – she just crept her way over to the front door; grabbed the personality module for Light Switch 1; eased her way past all the Protectrons inside; found the ladder into the dish; grabbed the antenna (transmitting its schematics to the Think-Tank); climbed back down into the upper levels of the building; worked her way around the roboscorpions that Dr. Mobius had sent to stop her (once one of them finally got out of the doorway she needed to go through); exited through the first door outside onto the spiraling catwalk around the exterior; and finally ran for the radar fence to get teleported home! Easy peasy Stealth Boy squeezy. :) She even ended up with a new weapon out of it in the form of the Antenna itself – though unfortunately Jon was quick to point out that, while you THINK it would be superior to that high-tech battleaxe she found before (better damage, same special VATS attack that doubles damage), it’s actually slower and has MISERABLE crit damage. So not well-suited for P. D. at all. Ah well – at least it makes a good trophy of her time her in Big MT? :p (Oh, and fun additional fact: P. D. did all of that sneaking around dressed as Dr. Klein. Because Jon, as usual, forgot to check what outfit she was wearing. Jon was like “WHY DO I KEEP DOING THIS” when he realized. XD Better than sneaking past potential cazadors in a nightie, buddy!)

H) Installed her gathered personality modules into Light Switch 01 (who didn’t sound particularly enthused to be back online), the Jukebox (who sounded extremely enthused to be back online – also, his name is Blind Diode Jefferson, which tickles me XD), and – most importantly – the book chute! Who is officially named “Library Processing Unit 232.7” (someone in the comments pointed out this is the Celsius equivalent of Fahrenheit 451 – you know, that book by Rad Bradbury about firemen who destroy books?), and whose purpose is to take “seditious” books and turn them into lovely blank books! Because those are better for the minds of the average citizen, don’t you know – all the smarty-pants in their lab coats have determined that outside thoughts just muddle people’s minds, while blank books encourage people to just accept what’s put in front of them! P. D. was like “but this is important pre-War literature you’re destroying?” only for LPU 232.7 to respond that that sounded like seditious thoughts to him, and if he had his re-indoctrination module, he’d fix her right up...but that was cut for budget reasons, so she’d have to do it herself. And then told her she’d have to get a cage for her head and a sack of mole rats in a clear 1984 reference. XD Jon loves this delightfully evil censorship chute, and I kind of do too! Jon stop making me want to play this game

Anyway – P. D.’s dialogue with the Censorship Chute notwithstanding, she actually had no moral objections to feeding it all the books she’d stolen from House or found on her various travels – mostly because turning them all into blank books meant she could then process those blank books into skill books for her own use! And make skill books she did, until she had nothing more to drop in the chute – though, sadly, it turned out that her book collection was JUST too small to allow her to make every skill book. She was short exactly four, in fact. P. D. roamed around the Think-Tank looking for additional books to feed to the Censorship Chute, but sadly only found two in the old bedrooms of the scientists. Seems like making that final Medicine skill book will have to wait for another day!

And with that (and Jon quickly fixing up P. D.’s mucked-up HP, as it glitched out a little bit last episode, meaning she was 10 hit points over what she should be), we wrapped up the episode. Next time, P. D. visits the X-8 Research Center to see what’s going on there, and HOPEFULLY finds the parts to get the Sink’s auto-doc working! Because Jon implied that if she could get it up and running, she could get some really good stuff from it...I look forward to finding out what that stuff is!

Other: As the weather was decent, we did play beanbags this evening around 5 PM – and quickly realized we should have gone out earlier as the sun was starting to go down by then and it was rapidly getting rather cold. XD But we got in three rounds – and I’m pleased to say that I was the big winner of the day, taking second in the first game and winning the next two games! :D Mom, by contrast, couldn’t get out of her own way (or perhaps out of her own sweater’s way) and lost every game, sadly. :( Ah well, we all have days like that. Final scores were me 2-W-W; Dad W-2-2; Mom 3-3-3. Hopefully next time we play things will even out a little more!

*shakehead* One of these days I will learn Actual Time Management. As it is, I have to go to bed. Night all!

As you might expect, as it was a very busy day -- let's just say that I spent a lot of time walking around a very crowded Providence. :P But it was good and satisfying, even if my calves are all tight now. I gotta walk on the treadmill more to avoid that sort of thing...anyway, here's how the rest of my day went --

Writing: Had a very solid afternoon/evening on the writing front, I’m happy to say:

A) First, I finished editing the first chapter of “The Van Dort Vacancy!” The final page of which featured:

I. Matt (Smiler’s dad) showing up and delivering Victor and Alice’s freshly-cleaned-and-mended laundry to them – the repairs were done by one “Widow Black,” the best seamstress they have, at least when it comes to quick repairs (and a sneaky Corpse Bride reference – swap the words in her name around and you’ll see :P). Victor and Alice were very grateful and passed along their thanks. :)

II. Carol announcing breakfast would be ready soon, once she got Matt’s toast all fried up, and Alice and Victor asking if they could help – Carol was like “oh, you don’t have to, you’re our guests,” but Victor and Alice insisted it would make them happier to assist, so she tasked Alice with getting Matt’s red sauce and jam for everyone else, and Victor the powdered sugar. Cue a discussion about what kind of fruits everyone likes (including me canonizing “snapberries” as a thing – dunno what exactly they are, but they’re snappy), and Alice learning that Dagger Isles bananas have been improved during her time in Rutledge to be a lot less seedy (if rather more expensive). (And yes, wild bananas have lots of big hard seeds in them, at least as per Wikipedia – the kind we eat have been very specially cultivated to be seedless, with the Cavendish cultivar being the most common kind exported. I thought it would be interesting to have the Shattered Isles be in the middle of the process of making seedless bananas – plus, I didn’t want to deprive Smiler of their favorite fruit!)

III. And the chapter ending with Carol asking Victor if he wanted to dust all the sweet toast slices with sugar; Victor hedging that he’s likely to get more sugar on himself than the toast; and Carol going “isn’t that part of the fun?” And Victor once again being struck by how different the Altons are to his own parents...and deciding to enjoy it before he goes back to his old life full of rules and regulations. :)

So that’s that! Next week, we’ll see about doing the final editing pass and getting this chapter up on AO3!

B) And second, I opened up the “Valicer Polyship Week Prompts” doc and started a section for Polyship Week 2025! Because that is looming on the horizon now (as per the tumblr section below), and I wanted to go through the prompts and decide which ones I wanted to do, and for which universes. Need to start them soon if I want to get them done in time, after all! So far I’ve decided on:

I. The “Kidnapping” prompt for Day One (as I’ve done both other prompts, “Only One Bed” and “Metamours,” in previous weeks) – not sure what universe it will be yet, though I’m vaguely leaning toward Valicer In The Dark

II. The “Sharing Clothes” prompt for Day Three – that one will be a Modern!AU story, with Smiler noting that one of the few sad parts of being in a polycule with Victor and Alice is that they can’t share clothes (they’re all such different body types, after all! Maybe Alice can steal one of Smiler’s hoodies, but that’s basically it)

III. The “Jewelry” prompt for Day Five – that one made me think of Multiplayer Wonderland, and doing a follow-up to this story from Multiamory Month, with someone noticing the new bracelet with beads for all five members of the ‘cule on one of the group’s wrist, and them having to try and explain it without letting on that they’re all together

IV. And the “Compersion” (the warm fuzzy feelings one may get seeing their partner interact romantically with someone else in a poly situation) prompt for Day Seven – while thinking about which universes I wanted to include for sure, I realized this would be a nice one to do as a story in the Soulmates AU verse, with either Alice or Smiler getting the warm fuzzies from seeing the other with Victor – and then Victor and the other noticing those warm fuzzies, as emotions get shared between soulmates in that verse. I’ve decided if it’s Alice, she’ll be slightly embarrassed in a “didn’t want to interrupt” way; if it’s Smiler, they are just like “you’re cute, how did you expect me to react?” XD

Not a bad start! Hopefully I can figure out what I want to do for the remaining days tomorrow, then start writing the stories themselves sometime next week! Maybe after I’m done getting “The Van Dort Vacancy’s” first chapter up?

FreeTube/Invidious: Welp, FreeTube had another update waiting for me when I checked it today – and wonder of wonders, this one actually fixed the problems with the videos not loading! Can you believe it? So yeah, went on there to watch my videos of the night, which included –

A) “Fun With Shorts: Working Dollars [Patreon Exclusive!]” by Josh Way! Another short that was previously only available to his patrons, now made available to all. And what do we all get? A fairly poorly preserved cartoon about a guy named Finchley getting a raise and being persuaded to put his money to work by investing it in the New York Stock Exchange by his TV, with a brief, simplified explanation on how the whole buying and selling of stock business works thrown in for good measure. Basically one of those “see how capitalism is so great” shorts, with an emphasis on how you could invest as little as $40 a month on a Monthly Installment Plan! And how buying and selling stocks is a great way to use your money! Much better than burying it in a tin can outside, or spending it on fun evenings out with the wife! *shakehead* Yeah, Josh was not impressed with this short, and happily eviscerated it, with comments on how none of these business paid their taxes and how the president could tank the whole market with a tweet at any minute. XD Fun stuff – sometimes I think I like him taking on the cartoon shorts best, since they tend to be the silliest ones. :D

B) And two videos by C. M. Alongi:

I. “TikTok's New Monetization Policy Pays Pennies,” a very sad video where C. M. explained that she’s in deep doo-doo finances-wise thanks to the changes Oracle and Silver Lake (the companies now in charge of the American side of Tik-Tok’s operations) have made to Tik-Tok’s monetization policy. Specifically, the company is now paying WAAY less for the same amount of views, and based on the data she’s seen for the first couple of weeks of October, she expects her monthly paycheck to go down from $3,000 to MAYBE $700. Which, yeah, is a MASSIVE paycut. And she can’t even do anything about it, because everything they’ve done is apparently legal! >( She’s hoping to boost what she gets from YouTube by making more videos to post on that platform (specifically, adding something to post on Mondays), but she won’t be able to PROPERLY set that in motion until 2026, since good content takes time. So, in order to avoid things like having to get a “real” job (which could result in less or even no new CaFae Latte content) or cancel her book tour, she made a video listing ways her viewers could help – joining her Patreon, contributing to her Ko-Fi, buying her merch, and/or just watching loads of her YouTube content to increase her views and improve her spot in the algorithm. (Oh, and buying her books, but that helps out more long-term than short-term, given she doesn’t get that money particularly quickly.) She didn’t want to have to make a video like this, but – girl’s gotta eat, you know? Fucking capitalism… *sigh*

II. “CaFae Latte Season 77 - TikTok Compilation,” the latest round-up of her CaFae Latte videos! Which is even more important to watch given the above. You may remember that last season ended on Erik being tempted into stealing from the Stoughton Street coven by his deadbeat dad, Valefar, offering him immortality via golden apple tree – this season thus featured:

( Tis A Long Recap )

Another excellent compilation as always – and I’m VERY glad that Erik did not go down the path of betrayal again. That being said, I am very worried about JC and their inability to let go of a grudge – I know they very much do not need to forgive Erik, but I hope they learn to let go of the anger. And not take it out on Lindsey. We’ll see what happens.

Tumblr: While I naturally didn’t have a lot of time for tumblr stuff today, I did get a few things done on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) this evening –

A) First, I reblogged a trio of posts:

I. polyshipweek’s response to my ask regarding why Polyship Week 2025 started and ended on Wednesdays this year (running from November 19th to 26th) – they replied that they hadn’t been sure whether they wanted to start or end on Polyamory Day, November 23rd, so they chose instead to split the difference. And then, inspired by my ask, they proceeded to make two polls asking people both what the best day to start a week-long event on was, and what the weirdest day was. XD I replied thanking them for the reply and going “fair enough” about their reasoning – and admitting I was actually pleased with the timing, because that meant the week ended right before Thanksgiving, and I now have a tradition of gushing about Valicer on that holiday, sooo… :p I also let them know how I voted in the polls – went with Sunday as the Best Day, as it’s what I’m used to and felt the most natural, and Saturday as the Weirdest Day, because that is the End Of The Week everyone, why would you start something THEN? (As for overall votes, currently Sunday and Monday are tied in the Best Day poll, while Thursday is winning the Weirdest day poll, which – fair, that is weird.)

II. fangs-4-fags’s “you and your dreadful little polycule haven't seen the last of me” shitpost, which always makes me picture Lord Rowan yelling that at the VITD trio XD – I’d actually already reblogged this before, but I wanted to bring it back to complement the third reblog –

III. destroyingangelneveragod’s “my polycule is your worst nightmare” shitpost! Which I stumbled across randomly browsing the web and realized I’d meant to reblog it ages ago as a follow-up to fangs-4-fags’s post, as I pictured Alice yelling it back to Lord Rowan XD So now the two are on my blog together, as they should be.

B) And second, I made sure to reply to regicidalheart’s reply to my initial comment on her wedding post, telling me the dress was her Mom’s and that she loved the black-and-white photo of herself at the piano too. I said “awww, family heirloom dress, we love it” and praised the picture for being great again. *nods* Very important, that!

Other: We did indeed decorate the house for Halloween this morning – putting up the various creepy signs and tombstones around the path to the front door; hanging the cheesecloth spiderweb and black “creepy cloth” from the porch, along with all our little ghosts, ghost witches, and bats; putting the two big ghosts on a “shepherd’s hook” by the steps; and putting one skeleton on the mailbox and one on the side of the porch. *nods* We are now Sufficiently Creepy for the time of year, yay. :)

*nods* Not too shabby, I suppose! But I am VERY tired now, and I really need to get to bed. *yawn* Tomorrow, I plan to work on figuring out at least one more "Not-Incorrect Quotes" scene to add to the collection of Halloween Not-Incorrect Valicer Quotes (need to post it before Halloween, after all!); start replaying the original Portal (as I haven't played it in ages and need an easy-to-sum-up game for Sundays); work some more on the Polyship Week 2025 prompts; and watch Jon's latest F:NV YOLO episode. ...probably WON'T get in a workout, given how much walking I did today. ^^; Night all!