Outside the Bar

Mostly because, after going to bed at the second of the night's two 1:30 AMs (Fall Back, remember?), I ended up waking up at 10 AM. (Well, okay, I woke up sometime in the 7 AM hour because I needed to pee, but I GOT UP at 10 AM.) Which naturally meant I ended up having breakfast later, and then getting to everything else I do in the morning later, and -- yeah. I didn't even get dressed until about noon. ^^; And then my afternoon consisted largely of stuff that takes a while for me to summarize, meaning I didn't quite get to everything I was hoping to get to. But I still managed to accomplish a good amount of stuff, including:

Dreamwidth: I’m happy to report that I was able to answer all of Moose’s messages today – two before lunch, two afterward (I was hoping to answer them ALL before lunch, but, again, I had a pretty damn late start today thanks to the surprise sleeping in until 10 AM). So that’s all sorted, yay~ Ball’s back in your court, Moose!

Fallout: New Vegas: I did indeed return to the Mojave this afternoon to continue the adventures of Courier Victor – which today involved accidentally stumbling upon the entrance to one of the DLCs, then discovering the horrors of Nipton and having a very long chat with a guy who was wearing a dog on his head. ...I assure you that the longer version of his adventures is slightly more comprehensible. XD Here we go –

A) I picked up right where I left off a couple of weeks ago, with Victor hanging out on a rock near the side of Nipton, looking at the plumes of smoke rising from the town – I promptly had him make his way down off the rocks and start following the railroad tracks around to the actual entrance, where he gradually grew more and more concerned as he spotted more and more fires burning in the settlement:



Yeah, that is not a sight one wants to see in any town, much less one that you were hoping had some information about where the guys who tried to kill you went! Determined to figure out what was going on, Victor continued following the tracks, squinting at whatever he could glimpse behind the smoke in the dying light and passing through where the road crossed the tracks before starting to climb up a hill –

Where the game crashed. *grumbles* Well, it is New Vegas, which is held together with string and dreams. And at least it was polite enough to crash early, when I had barely played for a minute. That’s about the best thing you can hope for when it comes to a video game crash. *shrug* I thus restarted and had Victor retrace his steps, taking a moment to save once he came to the railroad crossing just in case the game crashed again. Fortunately, it did not, and Victor was able to continue on – though I did take a moment to note the faintest tick of red on his compass to the west. As he made his way forward, though, it vanished, so I assumed that whatever had been there had fucked off somewhere else –

And then, as Victor crested the hill, I saw what I thought was a billboard on the side of the road ahead. A billboard that I automatically assumed (thanks to Jon’s various LPs and the brief flash of red on the compass) had a raider ambush behind it. I thus had Victor veer off to the right, cutting through the scrubland in the direction of what I assumed to be the little compass marker indicating the entrance to Nipton –

Only to suddenly see a familiar twitching satellite half-buried in the ground. And for the game to inform me cheerfully that Victor had found the Mojave Drive-In, and the Mysterious Broadcast associated with it! O.O Yup, apparently the old drive-in theater that serves as the entrance to “Old World Blues” is right below Nipton! I never realized this before! Have I ever seen Jon travel here from Nipton? I can’t remember...and he does use fast travel a lot in this particular game…

( Victor stumbles across some peculiar tech, then sees the horrors of Nipton first-hand )

Workout: Tonight’s bike ride proved to be a double feature of sorts, with me pedaling my way through –

A) “Call of Cthulhu: Part 3 - Building Your Party” by Seth Skorkowsky! The third entry in his Call of Cthulhu review/overview/epic saga, this one featured a topic he hadn’t initially thought to include in his outline, but which he decided was important to cover after getting a comment asking for suggestions about how to get a campaign together on an earlier video – namely, how to narratively justify why all the player characters were in the party! Because unlike in Dungeons & Dragons, there’s no in-built “oh, the PCs are all adventurers, so going on adventures is what they do” excuse as to why everyone is hanging out and fighting monsters together – in CoC, you have to come up with a reason why – to take Seth’s example – a bootlegger, a medical doctor, an acrobat, a diver, and a hobo would decide to consistently look into strange and unusual happenings together over the course of a campaign. And why people would keep asking them to do so. (Though, if you’re me, your immediate thought is “sheer hilarity factor.” XD) Fortunately, Seth had two suggestions for players and Keepers alike to solve these problems simply but effectively:

I. Make all of the characters part of the same “Investigator Organization” – a cabal of people from all walks of life who look into Mythos happenings! The characters can be part of this organization from the beginning, or join one early on in the campaign after having a few nasty experiences with Mythos monsters. Seth’s own example from one of his campaigns involved his players’ characters all wanting to get into the inner circle of the Arcanum Club – a society all about the occult. In order to do so, though, they needed to get proof of having experienced a supernatural event. Fortunately, they all had a mutual friend – a certain detective named Jack – who was already part of said inner circle, and was willing to take them with him on a case to investigate a haunted house so they could get the proof they needed… Cue the PCs taking on the classic starter adventure “The Haunting” and, presumably, managing to get into the club. XD

II. Make all of the characters work in the same place – for example, they’re all part of a detective agency, or a newspaper, or a traveling band! This one does require that the Keeper put a few limits on what the PCs can be – for example, everyone’s profession has to make sense for their workplace – but it does at least give everyone a reason to know and trust each other right off the bat. The Keeper could also go a bit more general and just specify that everyone has to be in the same social class, or have a profession related to a specific field – Seth’s example in THIS case was talking about how, for a different campaign, he asked that all of his players either make detectives, journalists, or someone with some sort of link to academia, and that they all be at least a bit on the wealthy side so he could justify them all being invited to the soiree of some big-wig who did regular “astronomy gatherings” for the elite in Arkham. The result was a party consisting of a private detective, a student getting his doctorate in linguistics, a wealthy anthropologist, and a wealthy archaeologist – the latter two both having strong ties to Miskatonic University – who were brought together at one of those astronomy gatherings after they stayed late and ended up talking to the host about the occult. The host told them about a medium that he knew was the real deal and offered to get them all seats at a séance she would be hosting soon – the group agreed, and headed out (after some car trouble) to go see the medium in Ipswich –

Aaaand then Seth hit them with the module “Dead Light” because why not surprise his players with a scenario totally different to the one they were expecting. XD According to Seth, that campaign actually lasted for a while, and apparently a good number of his module reviews feature anecdotes from it, which is neat. :)

So yeah – that is how you justify all the characters working together to investigate the Mythos! With Seth adding to the Keepers that, if all possible, they should let their players help create the organization/workplace/club/etc that their characters would all be a part of, because it would help them feel like the organization is truly “theirs” and keep them invested in all the adventures. :) Very smart, yes – nothing makes a player feel wanted like buy-in!

B) And the first thirteen-odd minutes of “Fallout 3: The Worst Wanderer - Part 25 - More Bang For Your Buck” by Jon of Many A True Nerd! Because he wasn’t that late in uploading the new episode tonight. XD This first chunk of The Adventures Of Useless Steve, Time To Become An Explosives Expert Edition, included:

I. Useless Steve, confronted with a wasteland that now contained things like Super Mutant Overlords, sentry bots, deathclaws, and yao guai, deciding he needed to improve his chances of hitting things in VATS (especially with grenades) and thusly taking on the quest “The Replicated Man!” A shockingly easy quest to complete once you know what’s going on with it. Basically, there’s an escaped synth from the Commonwealth living in Rivet City under the name “Harkness,” and one of the Institute scientists, Dr. Zimmer, is on the ship looking for him. Harkness, however, is one of those synths who’s undergone a fake memory installation procedure and thus no longer knows he’s a synth, and Zimmer doesn’t actually know which of the residents is the synth he’s looking for (as Harkness probably underwent facial reconstruction surgery too). So once the player receives the quest, before they can either tell Harkness “hey, you’re a synth, and this guy is trying to recapture you,” or tell Zimmer, “Hey, the guy you’re looking for is the one named Harkness,” they have to find three pieces of evidence (AKA holotapes) showing where the synth went to get his fake memories installed so the player can confront the person responsible and confirm Harkness is the synth. Fortunately, these pieces of evidence are absolutely EVERYWHERE across the Wasteland – Steve actually picked up one during his previous raids on Tenpenny Tower, and Jon knew of three others that were in Megaton itself! So Steve’s method of completing the quest consisted of –

( It’s Useless Steve! Getting his reflexes wired before gathering all the Nuka-Grenade ingredients! )

Tumblr: In a reverse of yesterday, while I didn’t do anything on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler), I did end up adding two anon questions to my queue over on Valice Multiverse! One of which was a little on the naughtier side, so for those of you who might prefer not to see it I’ll slap it under a cut –

( Slightly NSFW ask below )

B) And “One of Toucan Sam's nephews transitioned recently on a box of Cocoa Loops. Susey goes back Suzy now.” I had Victor and Smiler from the Inevitable High School verse answer this one, with a slightly puzzled Victor going, “Er – good?” before noting that he didn’t think he’d ever had Cocoa Loops – or Froot Loops, and Smiler shrugging and saying they’d take “representation via breakfast cereal.” Have no idea if this is true or not, but if it is, I too am fine with representation via breakfast cereal. :P

...yeah, looking at it now, that was actually quite a full day. XD It just started out quite slow! But now I shall head out and maybe try to get to bed a little earlier -- I have a day off tomorrow, and I'd very much like to fit in some writing if I could! Along with some Baldur's Gate III (time for Smiler to meet Alfira!), and some more "Worst Wanderer" during my workout. We'll see how the day goes -- night all!

Yes, while the temperatures were lovely, the breezes were not -- so much so that we ended up not playing beanbags because of them. Mom was too afraid that we'd be out there for ages because the wind would end up screwing up our throws! Given I could hear the skeleton hanging from the flagpole out front rattling away for most of the afternoon because it kept getting caught in gusts, I believe that was a good call. *grimace* Still opened my windows a bit to get some fresh air, though. Soon enough they're gonna have to remain closed all the time against the cold!

As for the rest of my day, it was spent pretty productively:

Work: It was a pretty chill end to the work week, I am pleased to report – even with my coworker having taken the day off, leaving me to man the front alone. My abbreviated time in the office consisted of –

A) Doing the morning credit card reports – no check scan because there were no checks yesterday

B) Doing the GL (since our processors DID put on stuff yesterday)

C) Going through the latest report of people with one-time gifts to the wrong Appeal or overpayments on their pledges (all the latter this time) and e-mailing everyone with an overpayment (except one guy whose overpayment may have been deliberate – I couldn’t tell without the scan of the pledge billing he sent in with the gift); got one reply back telling me to go ahead and apply the overage to the next Appeal year

D) Going through the checks in the mail and putting on the one from United Way with a bunch of little “payroll deduction” payments on pledges (I followed how the last one my coworker did back in July looked, so everything SHOULD be posted right); the other one my supervisor and I determined was actually meant for the newspaper office to pay for a subscription, but their office was shut when I went to deliver it, so I just put it in my bin of stuff

E) Doing a reversal on the final pledge payment of the person who told me to keep their overpayment to split it into a payment on their pledge and a one-time gift to the next Appeal

F) Doing a little bit of roster maintenance (looked at the obituaries in the paper, but all there was was one “In Memoriam” thing for a guy who died two years ago – found the name in our system, but couldn’t figure out if it was him or his same-name son *shakehead*)

G) And e-mailing my coworker at the end of the day to let her know about the check that needed to go to the newspaper office, the UW payroll deduction check I put on, and the guy with the possible deliberate overpayment, since she’ll be there on Monday and I won’t. :p

*nods* Not too shabby! The day was just busy enough to keep the time moving, and it was very nice to leave at 3 PM. :) And now I have three whole days off, w000~

Writing: After beanbags was canceled on account of “it fucken WIMDY,” I spent much of the rest of the afternoon working on the fic for Day Two of Polyship Week 2026 – “Movie Night!” Which, as I said last night, I recently determined was going to be another fic featuring the Running Headlong Into The Bullshit mega-polycule talking about picking movies for an upcoming movie night. As is my wont with this particular AU, I proceeded to write a fic featuring the gang in their group chat, with Smiler (with encouragement from Emily, Piper, and Alice) spinning a virtual wheel they’d set up to pick a theme –

( The gang discusses classic – and problematic – movies from the 80s )

Workout: My final night on the bike this week was spent pedaling my way through “7 Scariest Games We've Ever Played” by OXBox! This seasonally-appropriate list saw Jane, Andy, Mike, and Ellen discuss the games that have scared them the most during their years on this earth – most of them played for the channel, but some on their own time. And if you’re curious as to what each picked so you can use their greatest fears against them –

A) Andy went with P. T., the “playable teaser” for that canceled Silent Hill game with Norman Reedus (noting how it created scares from building up patterns in the endless looping through the same corridor and then slowly breaking them, and stating that because it was so short and there was no opportunity to actually advance or learn more about the plot (because, you know, teaser), it actually felt more dangerous and spooky than many longer, proper games) and Undertale (saying that he found a game that actually reacted to your choices like it did (such as Flowey knowing if you reloaded after accidentally killing the first boss) to be frightening because games were supposed to be consequence-free environments, and adding that player character became pretty damn terrifying in a “kill everything” run just because of how EMPTY they seemed as a result of all that killing)

B) Mike settled on Alien Isolation (citing the fact that the Alien was programmed so well to react to what the player does and follow them around intelligently for maximum scariness, and throwing in that the Working Joe androids were so frightening in their own right with their expressionless faces and worryingly-strong grips that they could have been the main villains in another horror game) and Dying Light (explaining that he found it scary because the daylight sequences were such standard “slow zombie” fare that it really ramped up the tension when night came and you had to deal with the fast zombies who were fifty million times more dangerous...and because the fast zombies were nude, which for some reason added to their spook factor :P)

C) Jane chose Silent Hill (admitting that part of her fear came from having played it too young, but praising how the famous fog hiding the low draw distance made it so even being out in the open didn’t feel safe (because monsters could still get the jump on you), and talking about how the radio static just made everything spookier because there was just something inherently scary about it (she thought it had something to do with the brain trying to make a pattern out of randomness)) and Outlast (stating that the “found footage” aspect of it (as the main character spends much of the game looking through his camcorder) makes it feel scarier by making everything feel a tiny bit more real, and giving props to the game for making even cheesy jumpscares work somehow (like a body swinging on a rope into your face when you opened a door, complete with orchestral sting – should have been goofy, but it made her jump!))

D) And Ellen chose Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (explaining that it ramped up the tension and kept it going beautifully (instead of just throwing jumpscares aplenty in your direction, like some games she’s played), and adding that she liked how the environments made everything creepier by covering things in mold so you didn’t want to touch them and by hinting at how pleasant and normal things had been before the horrors by presenting you with the occasional slightly-nicer spot)...and nothing else, because this was a seven-entry list and I guess they figured they’d cut the scaredy-cat of the group a break. :P

So there you have it – a bunch of horror games you can try, if you are so inclined that way (and can find a way to get your hands on a copy of P. T., which is no longer able to be purchased). Me, I think I’ll stick with lighter fare, thanks. ^^;

YouTube: Thanks to a combination of me being able get my writing done this afternoon (because I got home early), me being able to wrap up my workout video write-up quickly (because it was a list video and not something more complicated), and Game Night ending a touch early (Parcheesi – Dad won the first game very quickly, I won the second rather more slowly), I actually had some extra free time tonight, meaning I could watch a longer video if I so desired! And so I went ahead and watched “Call of Cthulhu: Part 2 - Character Creation” by Seth Skorkowsky! Because it felt appropriate with Halloween on the horizon. :) This video was all about how to create a character in Call of Cthulhu – or, at least, how to create a character when Seth was running the game. He made it clear that other methods were available. :p In order, we had –

A) Figuring out your character’s occupation – he liked to do this before doing any of the main stats because it helped him get an idea of who the character was, though for this sample character page he just did “Private Investigator” since it was a classic – then filling out their name, age, gender, residence, and birthplace (naturally, Seth filled it out as if it was a sheet for Jack The NPC)

B) Sorting out the main characteristics – Strength, Dexterity, Willpower, Constitution, Appearance, Education, Size, Intelligence, and Luck! If you’re wondering how “Education” differs from “Intelligence,” I believe that the former is supposed to represent your level of schooling – what you’ve learned during your life – and the latter is your raw brain power. Anyway, Seth’s preferred method of generating these is to use dice rolls – 3D6 for Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Appearance, and Power, and 2D6+6 for Size, Education, Intelligence, and Luck – and then multiply the resultant values by five to get the actual scores for the sheet! Though he mentioned two optional/house rules he follows during this process –

I. He rerolls all 1s he gets during the initial dice rolls because he feels that doing so makes for better characters (certainly stronger ones)

II. After doing the initial rolls and calculations, he then rolls a D10 to get some bonus points to add to the stats however he likes (he got a 7 in the example and added two points to Jack’s Willpower and five to his strength to boost them)

*nods* Fair. Once all the calculations were done, he filled them out on the character sheet, then took a moment to find out what one-half and one-fifth of each stat was for “hard success” and “extreme success” purposes (in CoC, when testing something, you roll percentile dice and try to get below your number – for especially hard tasks, you have to get below one-half or one-fifth of said number). Better to get the math done now so you don’t have to worry about it later!

( Jack The NPC – or Jack Mallone, as he is called on the sheet – comes together with stats, skills, and backstory )

*nods* I'm pretty happy with that. But I am also pretty tired, so I am heading off to bed. Tomorrow be Halloween, after all, and I'd like to be awake for most of it. XD Don't know what my goals are gonna be beyond "work some more on Polyship Week prompts" and "hand out candy" -- we'll find out together, I suppose. Night all!

By which I mean "my body was giving me some warning signs about my period being on its way, so I slapped in a pad right before leaving for work...and when I used the bathroom around 10:30 AM, I did indeed find blood." So yeah, very glad I did that and thus saved myself some trouble later. And rather glad that my period showed up now -- like, it's not fun to have it now, but this means the worst of it should be over by the time Halloween rolls around, so yay there. I will take it!

As for the rest of my day, we had:

Work: Twas another very quiet day at work, with my time spent –

A) Doing the usual morning check scan and credit card reports

B) Going through online obituaries to look for roster maintenance opportunities (spent pretty much the entire morning going through every person with one particular name and marking almost all of them deceased)

C) Taking a call from the lady whose check is missing – had to tell her that the processors told me they were up to date, but that they’d just gotten some mail in, so… We’ll see what happens at the end of the week and if we can truly declare the check lost!

D) And doing more puzzles because I needed SOMETHING to make the day go by.

Yeah, it’s fairly boring around the office now. But given how stressed out I was Monday, I will take that. Just two days to go!

Workout: My time on the bike this evening was spent pedaling my way through –

A) The last twenty-odd minutes of “FMV ZONE: TENEBRIS SOMNIA | Hallowstream 2026 🎃” by OXBox! The final portion of Mike And Andy Play Julia’s No-Good-Very-Bad-WTF Day featured:

I. Julia successfully escaping the horrible squid thing that had appeared in the dining room set of “Devora” after she got the square stone from the meat storage room, along with all the other monsters in between her and the elevator – Andy noted that Mike could, you know, attack them, but Mike claimed “I’m a pacifist” with absolutely no hint of shame. :P Once in the elevator, Andy and Mike debated on whether or not Julia should go get the pipe before going back to the 3rd floor apartment to open the bedroom door with their new square stone – Andy was in favor of just leaving the pipe and going for the door, but Mike really wanted the pipe. Fortunately, Mike managed to remember that the pipe was actually on the 3rd floor as well (in the bar at the end of the rainy street behind the leaking door at the other end of the hall), so there was no actual barrier to him sending Julia to go and collect it! Other than the monsters in the hallway, of course, but we’re used to them. :p

( Julia accidentally stumbles upon naked statues, goes back to film school, and finally gives the monsters both barrels )

B) And the first thirteen-odd minutes of “Fallout 3: The Worst Wanderer - Part 24 - Operation Overlord” by Jon of Many A True Nerd! Because I figured I might as well get a jump on it. :) This chunk of The Adventures Of Useless Steve, Time To Get Dangerous Edition featured:

I. Jon looking at all the perks Steve had acquired in his travels and how he had managed to increase his skills to – well, “decent levels” wasn’t the right phrase, as Jon declared they would still all be considered sub-optimal for a Fallout 3 character, even a starting one. But he’d still increased them, and paired with all his other bonuses, that meant he was actually doing pretty good for himself out in the Capital Wasteland! Which Jon saw –

And made him decide that his shitty shitty character had had things too good for too long and it was time to change things up a bit so the challenge remained, well, challenging. >D So, good news – Steve is now Level 20!

Bad news – Jon made him Level 20 via the power of console commands, so Steve got none of the benefits of leveling up...apart from increased hitpoints, but Jon promptly used console commands to take those away and bring him back down to his original Level 1 health. He will, however, be getting the drawbacks of leveling up – namely, the game will now see fit to throw much stronger enemies at him! So there will be no more wading through the relatively squishy stuff the game throws at beginner-level characters, no – now there will be PROPER threats to Steve’s life. I’m sure Steve can’t wait. :p

( It’s Useless Steve! Learning how to harness the power of Nuka-Cola and putting on surgeon clothes to save a kid for later rewards! )

Writing: I decided to tackle the first draft of Nattie’s birthday fic today – hey, her birthday is on a Wednesday this year, so it only felt right to write the thing on a Wednesday. :p As a reminder, she’d requested Milo from Atlantis: The Lost Empire and her own OC Izzy doing some steampunk deep-sea diving and investigating a shipwreck while geeking out over their respective interests in archaeology and oceanography respectively – I thus wrote a fic featuring –

A) Milo excitedly telling Izzy (because I figured it would be easier for their suits to have a way for them to talk to each other; I specified a bit later that they’re supposed to be fusions of Atlantean super-tech and regular diving suits of the era) that he was pretty sure the carvings on the boat meant that it was from one of Eric the Red’s expeditions – only to realize she wasn’t next to him anymore when he got no reply. Cue him looking around and spotting her staring at something else a little ways away, and very carefully going over to see what it was. Because while the suits were amazing super-science, they would only stay that way if he didn’t damage them, and Milo IS canonically a bit clumsy…

B) Milo arriving to see Izzy watching one of those superheated steam vents and what he thought were a bunch of odd red-tipped reeds growing in front of it – he remarked that they looked kind of like lipsticks, and Izzy agreed –

Before telling him that she was actually pretty sure they were animals! Milo was like “really???” but deferred to her greater knowledge, as he was no botanist and she was the expert on the ocean and what was contained within. Izzy laughed and said she was pretty sure she was too young to be an expert, but thanked him nonetheless.

C) Izzy noting that she didn’t think any life could survive down here in the cold and darkness, before noting that the heat of the vent was probably sustaining the lipstick worms (as that is what they were) – Milo agreed and said that the ocean always seemed to have a way to surprise you. Izzy heartily agreed and said that was why she loved it so much, gushing about how there was always something new to find because it was so vast, and how people would probably never discover everything lurking in the depths. Milo said that just meant there would always be something new to find –

Before going on himself about how he felt the same way about exploring the Atlantean ruins outside the city, and how the original civilization was so vast and sprawling, he wasn’t sure they’d ever be able to put together a full picture. But he was going to try, damn it, because he couldn’t think of a better way to spend his life. Izzy agreed that it all sounded exciting, and that she was keen to help him –

If only to see all the ocean life that had taken over the ruins. Because, you know, that’s her thing. XD

D) And the fic ending with Milo declaring that sounded good to him, and that he could write a paper on what lived there in the past, while Izzy could write one on what lived there in the present. Causing Izzy to laugh and say it sounded like they would be doing schoolwork – Milo jokingly corrected her with “we’ll be creating schoolwork,” declaring that children would read up on their discoveries in books one day. Izzy was all for that – and all for seeing the carvings on the ship.

*nods* I think Nattie will like that! Still gotta be revised, of course, but that can wait until next week.

Whew -- and that all took WAY longer than I'd hoped, so now I have to rush off to bed. *shakehead* Night all!

To the point where I'm not even mad that I missed the 10:04 PM timestamp, because I feel like this iteration of the day doesn't deserve it. I know part of the reason I'm so grumpy is because I'm PMSing and thus the hormones are making everything more irritating, but -- still. I felt like the entire day was conspiring against me and making it so I had almost no time to do the things I wanted to do. As my write-ups will likely show --

Work: Today wasn’t the greatest start to the work week, though I suppose I must give it that it wasn’t boring. My time in the office consisted of –

A) Doing the GL – and having to ask the people at our processing company if they could please send over the deposit report for the stuff they posted on Friday, as they’d forgotten to include it in their e-mail (to their credit they got back to me with it pretty fast)

B) Doing a tiny bit of roster maintenance by looking up some online obituaries

C) Doing the QC file for the latest round of thank-yous with my coworker (who wanted to get to grips with what one did with it in case she had to do it while I was out) and discovering, along with the usual set of pledge-payments-posted-as-one-time-gifts:

I. Multiple one-time gifts posted to the new Appeal which looked like overpayments on the previous Appeal year’s pledges...only I couldn’t verify that because none of the batches had been scanned in yet

II. A recurring gift posted to the wrong couple because the person who made it online happened to have the same last name and address (the system is also supposed to check the e-mail, but it clearly didn’t in this case)

We took the wrongly-attributed recurring gift out of the file, but decided to leave in the probably-overpayments in case it inspired some people to call in

D) Taking a call from a donor looking for a check she sent in as a payment on her pledge over a month ago that hadn’t cashed yet – and, after not finding it on her record or in the day’s mail, having to send a message to our processors to see if they had it. Which prompted a later discussion with my coworker about if they were still processing a lot of checks late, which was going to have a knock-on effect on pledge billings, and – yeah. My contact at the company claimed they were current when they got back to me at the end of the day, but I’m not sure how much I believe that. Especially since she said they’d just picked up some mail to sort through, so…

E) Eating a VERY late lunch because that phone call came in JUST as I was getting ready to send the edited QC file off and then get my sandwich, meaning I had to delay eating until I’d looked at her record, made the ticket, sent off the file, AND finished off the roster maintenance I was doing when the QC file came in

F) Cleaning a bunch of papers off my desk after lunch because I had too many irrelevant notes hanging around

G) Doing a bunch of reversals to fix the mistakes I found in the QC file

*sigh* Just – yeah. That phone call making me wonder if the processors are STILL lagging behind and having my lunch delayed really made me grumpy. And it did not help that the ride in was a trafficky mess, and the ride home saw me having to deal with assholes riding on my bumper. *grumbles* Maybe tomorrow will be a bit better...

Workout: Tonight’s bike ride took me to the 1-hour-8-minute mark in “FMV ZONE: TENEBRIS SOMNIA | Hallowstream 2026 🎃” by OXBox (or, at least, the boys of OXBox), and featured –

A) Mike, after confirming that pressing the remote button hadn’t done anything to the TV in the 3rd floor version of Iván’s apartment, sending Julia down to the 2nd floor version (dodging creepy double-faced mouth ladies the whole while) to check out the TV there – and discovering that it was indeed now on, and showing the symbols scattered about the floor in the order that Julia needed to walk on them to – well, activate whatever they activated! Andy got put on “writing down the symbols” duty while Mike reset the tiles (having accidentally walked on one to get to the TV), and after carefully observing the screen for a few rounds, the boys got Julia to depress the tiles in the right configuration. This did cause the TV to explode –

But it also opened up the bedroom door! Because this is a point-and-click adventure game, and that’s what they do. :p

( Julia finds creepy statues of herself and Iván in bed, meets Exposition Dude, and takes a terrible trip to a movie studio )

Writing: I can’t say I got any actual writing done because my mood and my limited computer time today conspired against that, but I at least finally got around to sending Nattie – the tumblr friend whose birthday is coming up November 11th – a message to ask what she wanted in regards to a birthday fic. Now we just have to wait for her to respond, and I can add it to the list of things to do.

Other: As it was nice weather this afternoon, my parents and I went into the backyard to play three rounds of beanbags – and despite a very poor start in the first game (which dragged on for a while – in fact, all of them dragged on longer than they should have), I ended up as the champ in the second and third. Dad, meanwhile, smoked Mom and I very thoroughly in the first game, then managed to hold onto second in the other two, while Mom just had a bit of a bad day overall (though having to run to the bathroom in the middle of one of the games might have had something to do with that). Final scores were me 3-W-W; Dad W-2-2; Mom 2-3-3. We’ll see what happens the next time we play – which will probably be Thursday, as it’s supposed to be colder the next couple of days.

Yeah -- not exactly my best day. So I am going to wrap it up here and get ready to go to bed. Maybe tomorrow will be better and I'll actually be able to start working on the Polyship Week fics... Night all!

Yeah, I can tell my PMS is ramping up because it is becoming increasingly hard to concentrate on the things I should be doing. Especially when it comes to the write-ups, as I find myself second-guessing everything I write. >( However, after much fucking around online, I have finally managed to wrangle myself and get the record of my day sorted:

Cleaning & Laundry: As usual, changing my sheets, getting my room cleaned up, and washing my blankets, bathrobe, and pajamas was a most-of-the-day affair –

A) I started right around 10:50 AM with stripping the sheets off my bed and dusting the shelves directly above/behind it

B) Then I finished making my bed with the new sheets and got my laundry into the washer shortly after noon

C) Then I started the rest of the dusting, though I didn’t even get through most of my shelves before I had to take an hour’s break for lunch around 1 PM

D) Immediately after lunch, I got the laundry into the dryer around 2 PM and resumed my dusting

E) I finished up the dusting and got everything out of the dryer around 3 PM

F) And finally I then Swiffered and vacuumed until about 3:30 PM

*whew* Fortunately, listening to more Seth Skorkowsky made the whole experience much more tolerable – I ended up putting on his playlist of videos about the Pulp Cthulhu adventure “The Two-Headed Serpent,” which was equal parts a review of the adventure (which sees your characters traveling all over the world trying to stop the machinations of three separate sub-cults of serpent-people, each of whom wants to destroy humanity and take back control over Earth in their own way and are fighting each other over it, with a final confrontation against whichever sub-cult comes out on top in a pocket dimension that contains the lost continent of Mu) and a “campaign diary” detailing what happened when he ran it for his players (there were many instances of things being blown up by the demolitions expert, and the sole woman in the group got temporarily turned into a serpent-person herself, which she was NOT happy about). Very fun stuff –

So fun, in fact, that when it became apparent that I would finish cleaning before finishing the final episode, I ended up spending a half-hour watching it once I was done vacuuming. ^^; I wanted to see how it ended! Sue me!

Writing: After finally finishing my cleaning (and the Pulp Cthulhu with a snack), I managed to finish off Victor’s section of the Epilogue to “They Would Have Done It For An Ottoman” this afternoon. The final bit of that covered –

A) Victor being startled out of his piano playing by Alice asking him “...another bad dream?” and jumping from his seat to see both her and Smiler watching him from the doorway – Alice promptly apologized for scaring him, and Victor assured her it was fine while righting the bench (and feeling a bit of deja-vu because, yes, this WAS rather like how he met Victoria). He then apologized for waking her and Smiler up, stating that he’d just had to reassure himself that his hands were fine – Smiler assured him it was okay, and that there were worse things to wake up to than his piano playing. *nods* Looking on the bright side as always!

( Victor bemoans a stubborn nightmare and gets plenty of sympathy from his friends...and makes a decision regarding sharing his music with them )

YouTube: Saturday Nights are Cafae Latte Nights around here, as you all well know by this point – tonight’s mini-marathon included –

A) “CaFae Tales: Orangey & Appley (or: the White Dove)” – another entry in the “CaFae Latte cast tell each other fairy tales, folk stories, and ancient myths” mini-series that pops up from time to time! And this one was very appropriate to pop up in the month of spooks and scares, let me tell you… The video featured –

I. JC manning the Cafae, telling Nicole that they considered Cinderella to be the best fairy tale and complaining about how Disney didn’t have the stepfamily’s eyes scratched out by birds (or mice, they weren’t picky) at the end like in “the original” (AKA the Grimm version, which is very much NOT the original but we’ll let it slide), when the Wulver (Scottish werewolfy dude who runs a fish-based restaurant) showed up and asked if he wanted to know what they were discussing. JC told him their complaint about the Disney version of Cinderella’s stepfamily not getting maimed by wildlife (and thus not suffering any major consequences), prompting the Wulver to sigh about the old tales and how Disney does not do them justice. Nicole admitted that she could do without the bodily mutilation that JC was discussing, but agreed that she did not care for how “safe” Hollywood was these days, given that art was supposed to be dangerous and get people to ask questions. The Wulver then revealed that there was a Scottish Cinderella-esque tale that featured both murder and punishment, if they were interested – JC was immediately like “:D Go on…”

( Scottish fairy tales are apparently dark as shit, if you were wondering )

B) And three CaFae Latte shorts (I was hoping to watch more, but I just didn’t have the time after the above write-up):

I. “CaFae Latte: 10/10 glare” – featuring Lindsey and Erik visiting Mark at his foster home, with Lindsey noting that Mark’s first emancipation hearing was coming up and asking how it was going – Mark replied “it’s going” and said that he really hoped his father just let it happen, but he didn’t know for sure...and that that was really the worst part. Erik sympathized, nothing that it was one thing when you knew exactly where your abuser was and what they were doing, and another when they were out somewhere in the wild, with you sure that they were going to show up sometime to ruin your day but not when. Lindsey noted that was “why we have protection charms” and confirmed that Mark had the one Nicole had gave him –

And then Erik added that it was also why they had “overprotective foster fathers, lurking in the corner when guests show up.” Hudson told him that he knew the pair had been highly recommended by the other adults in Mark’s life, and that they were redeemed in the eyes of most people and society, but they were both ex-criminals who did shady shit. And that he wouldn’t be doing his job as a foster father if he just left “the impressionable 15-year-old” unsupervised with them. Mark responded, “So your solution is to glare from the corner?” –

Prompting Hudson to go “Yup” and Erik to note that it was a ten-out-of-ten glare. Lindsey agreed that she certainly had no notes – Hudson thanked them and said that he’d had a lot of practice, as some of his former fosters had had bad visits with biological relatives. And he was fine kicking those sorts out if the CPS agent was useless. He then launched into a story about how his wife once purposely burned lunch to irritate the sensitive nose of a former foster’s abuser and get him to leave earlier – Erik went “that’s awesome” while Mark facepalmed about his foster dad now bonding with these new adults. XD

( Rethu gets called a really nasty (but fortunately bleeped-out) word, and we learn what Nancy’s been up to )

Tumblr: I didn’t get a chance to do anything on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) today other than keep up on my dash, but I did end up answering a question over on Valice Multiverse tonight – a follow-up to yesterday’s question about why more vampires don’t just try Dominating humans who see through the Masquerade into forgetting (and which my Malkavian!Alice answered with “not every vampire has Dominate, and learning it can be tricky given you have to find a vampire willing to teach you”), in fact! The anon came back this eve with “Counterpoint, why don’t Kindred who don’t or can’t do dominate just capture Kine who find out and take them to a Kindred who can?” –

To which Malk!Alice responded “because most Kindred are assholes.” XD Explaining more specifically that many vampires would see killing the human as the quickest and easiest solution, and that those would might be inclined to try out the anon’s plan would find themselves in the unpleasant position of having to owe the vampire who helped them a pretty fucking large favor. Especially if the Masquerade breach they had to cover up was their own. Throw in the risk of the mortal authorities getting involved if the capture doesn’t go well, and – yeah. Alice isn’t surprised a lot of Kindred don’t try the anon’s plan! *shakehead* It’s called the World Of Darkness for a reason, buddy.

*nods* Not too bad for a very distracted Saturday, I suppose. But now I very much have to go to bed, as it's starting to creep toward 2:30 AM. Tomorrow, not entirely sure what I'll be doing other than finishing off the tags on my latest entry into the Valicer Halloween Not-Incorrect Quotes and finishing up "They Would Have Done It For An Ottoman" -- depends on how focused I'm feeling! Though I am very much hoping Jon uploads "The Worst Wanderer" early enough for me to watch it with my workout again...keep your fingers crossed! Night all!

Who is apparently the big 88 today, appropriately enough. :) Once again, I intended to try and get the 10:04 PM timestamp, but got totally distracted when the time came trying to get everything else for this entry done. *shakehead* But I did read some Doc-related fic on my lunch break today, and wore one of my "Save The Clocktower" shirts during my workout, and watched my little bit of extra YouTube with my little Doc plushie. :) So that counts for something.

As for the rest of my day:

Work: While today was again mostly “I do the check scan, I do the morning credit card reports, I spend the rest of the day doing whatever roster maintenance I can eke out of the names in the obituaries and working on whatever puzzles I can find,” three things happened that spiced it up a little bit –

A) I spent a few minutes this morning following up with some of the people who’d I’d e-mailed a couple of weeks ago regarding overpayments on their pledges – only got one reply back (saying to keep it and move it to the next Appeal year, which I did before leaving), but it’s something!

B) I helped my coworker figure out how to best fix the record of a donor who called in about getting an “incorrect” thank-you letter – turned out the lady is one of those who has her bank send in automatic payments (the letter was for one of those, which had been accidentally posted as a one-time gift), AND had ended up with two pledges when she sent in a second pledge envelope indicating she’d be giving an extra $1,000 on top of her existing pledge...without actually including the money. Forcing us to put it on as a pledge and causing some confusion when my coworker called her back to confirm what was on her record. After some back and forth between her, me, and our supervisor, my coworker ended up removing the “duplicate” $1,000 pledge, upping the existing pledge, and making sure all the payments that she’d sent in for 2026 were applied to it. And then sending the lady a letter to explain what we’d done. :p We’ll see if all is well or if the lady calls back to complain again!

C) And I discovered that one of the toilets in the bathroom wasn’t working correctly when I flushed it after going after lunch – and it wouldn’t stop flushing. O.o I promptly put in a ticket with maintenance, only to learn later from some people in another office that the maintenance guys had already left for the day (given they come in a lot earlier than the rest of us). Fortunately said people were able to first shut the toilet down, then fix the problem, so the toilet did not KEEP perpetually flushing, but yikes. I feel we should have a “second shift” of maintenance guys!

So yeah – all that broke up the day a little, at least! Just gotta make it through Friday now!

Workout: Tonight’s stationary bike ride took me through the following –

A) The last twelve minutes of “DREAD: Giant Jenga Horror TTRPG! 🎃 | Hallowstream 2025” by Oxventure! The big finale of Milton (Mike) And Poppy (Jane) Attempt To Flee Evil Trees featured –

I. Jane and Mike both making their pulls to get the canoe off the wall (via Jane carefully coaxing out one of the center blocks near the top, and Mike easing out one of the side blocks near the bottom, leaving the whole tower ONCE AGAIN BALANCED ON TWO SINGLE CROSS-BLOCKS), leading to Milton and Poppy successfully taking down the canoe, finding oars, and getting into the water before disaster could strike! However, as they paddled their way into what Andy eventually revealed was a lake, they happened to look back and see the tree-man they were fleeing approach the cabin –

Which suddenly crunched in on itself and turned into a sort of horrible wood golem made up of the cabin and everything in it! Ready to destroy them with malice aforethought! Jane, however, was ready to kill the tension – first, by asking if the cabin was like a wood Transformer –

And then going, “Like an Optimus Pine, perhaps?” XD Mike groaned over the pun, Ellen cheered from off-screen, and Andy pretended to reward Jane for her clever wordplay by saying she only had to do one pull to row for her life while Mike had to do two. XD He quickly confirmed that no, they both had to make two pulls, but it was very funny to hear Mike go “oh come ON” about it. XD

( So which ending did we get? Both alive? Both dead? Sole survivor Poppy? Or sole survivor Milton? )

B) And the first 22 minutes of “Fallout 3: The Worst Wanderer - Part 23 - The Highly Visible Man!” Because I didn’t get to watch it this past Sunday and it was time to catch up, damn it. This first half of The Adventures Of Useless Steve, Completing The Wasteland Survival Guide Edition, featured –

I. Useless Steve, fresh off the triumph of completing “Operation Anchorage,” heading to the nearby Super Duper Mart to discover where the food and medicine inside was kept – giving his new Chinese Stealth Armor (which makes him invisible whenever he crouches) an outing while he was at it! Because the Super Duper Mart was full of raiders who’d chosen to make it their base, don’t you know. His initial infiltration was successful, allowing him to creep along the aisles near the front of the store and hop over some counters to the fridge where all the food was stored –

But as he made his way toward the back and the pharmacy to find the medicine, he was spotted by some raiders. Not with their eyes, but with their ears, as the major weakness of the Chinese Stealth Suit is that it does nothing to muffle the noise you make while sneaking. And Steve being Steve, he makes a lot of noise indeed. *wince* Fortunately for Steve, Jon had prepared for this eventuality and had brought along the Backwater Rifle to shoot threats with –

And unfortunately for the raiders, they chose to run around to attack him through a “staff only” hallway and bunch up together at the end, allowing Steve to throw a couple of grenades at them and take them out that way. The Backwater Rifle took care of the rest, as planned, and Steve was able to crack open the pharmacy, find the medical supplies (most of which he took for himself) and a few Nuka-Quantums, then get out of there while only having to shoot one more person (an already-wounded raider from the first massacre) by taking advantage of the fact that enemies couldn’t hear him if he was far enough away from them (allowing him to sneak around the second wave of raiders by sticking to the edges of the store). *nods* A successful mission, and a good test run of the suit! Now Jon knows how to use it the most effectively.

( It’s Useless Steve! Running hither and yon over the Capital Wasteland for Moira in hopes of getting a really good perk! )

YouTube: I snuck in my YouTube Short BEFORE my writing today because the one I really wanted to watch was one that I’d lost for a while and I did not want to risk losing it again: “GRWM 1897 Victorian Spring Costume” by thesewloartist! Which was apparently made during lockdown, and featured Ivy talking about how having many of the events that she enjoyed going to canceled did have one pleasant side effect – namely, freeing her from the need to have an outside reason to dress up in one of her fancy historical outfits! Instead, she got to make up her own reasons to get fancy, such as celebrating cherry blossom season! Which featured the lovely yellow striped dress with its black geometric trim (the “bumblebee dress,” as Ivy called it) instead of something pink because Ivy felt the latter would have been a bit too literal. XD Her “getting ready” routine for it included –

A) A shockingly red corset over her standard white chemise

B) A pair of hip pads to fill out the skirt a bit

C) A very frilly corset cover

D) Two petticoats – the first white, the second black

E) A simple sleeveless pale-yellow-checked blouse of sorts

F) The lovely yellow-striped skirt

G) The lovely yellow-striped jacket with its big lapels and puffy sleeves of a manageable size (because, as per the title, this was an 1897 women’s outfit and thus adhered to that year’s fashion trends)

H) A black velvet ribbon around the waist

I) A black velvet hat secured with a gold-beads-tipped hatpin

J) And a black parasol to complete the look!

*nods* Very pretty – I’m glad I finally got the chance to watch this! :)

Writing: Tonight’s writing session saw me start the Epilogue of “They Would Have Done It For An Ottoman!” Which shall be in three parts, one for each of our heroes. I started with Alice this eve, and covered –

A) Alice finishing up telling a story to the Houndsditch children involving her escaping one of Hatter’s factories with a mysterious prize and stealing away into the dark before she could get caught by any of his Eyepots! The children were very happy with it, applauding and cheering – Elsie admitted that she’d thought for sure that Alice was going to get caught and torn to pieces during the telling (Alice allowed that it had been a VERY near thing, but fortunately she’d gotten a lot sneakier as of late – and good at taking out Madcaps), while Reggie commented that he liked how she’d described one Madcap’s head coming clean off. June warned him not to try taking anyone’s head off himself – Alice backed her up by pointing out Madcap necks were very thin, so it was easier with them. XD She also added it was just kind of rude in general –

Prompting the Queen of Hearts to add “but effective,” because of course she would. Alice told her to shush. XD

B) June telling the children that that was enough story time for now, and to clean up their toys and go get washed up for lunch – the kids grumbled, but got to work. Alice offered her services to June if she needed them, and June admitted she’d appreciate the extra hand getting all the soup into bowls, as there were a lot of mouths to feed. They thus headed together toward the kitchen, with Alice asking if June was having any trouble keeping control of the place, and June assuring her that the children and her mostly got on, and the neighbors were still helping out a lot (she didn’t think she’d have to pay for a laundry service for a little while yet) –

Before noting that Alice had just told a very interesting story about sneaking into one of Hatter’s factories to steal blueprints and a list of people that he wanted to experiment on. (Hatter protested that it was a slanderous story, whining that he hadn’t done anything to anyone in months and had just spent some time in pieces himself – Alice responded that, unfortunately, he was the one guy who owned factories in Wonderland, and that he would have to just consider it part of his penance for trying to kill her earlier). A story that reminded her of one she’d read in the Doskvol Illustrated lately, about Silvestri’s Metal Shapers hiring a team of thieves to steal some of Wilson’s Boilers And Metalworking’s leviathan ship and cab company contracts – thieves who knocked two guards senseless and managed to escape despite everyone in the factory looking for them. Alice tried to play it cool, going “does it now?” –

Only for June to pull the “I’m not stupid, don’t make me think you are” routine on her, noting she’d seen Alice murder a guy, so she could admit to a robbery. XD Alice allowed that was a fair argument and confirmed that June wasn’t about to call the Bluecoats on her – June assured her that she didn’t want to get into the middle of it (she had too much to do...and had once seen Alice murder a guy), she just wanted to know why she’d done it. I left off with Alice explaining about the union rep list and how the workers were the one to hire her and her friends, not Silvestri – tomorrow, we’ll get into how the contracts ended up in Silvestri’s hands, and maybe start the Victor section! We’ll see how everything goes. *nods*

*whew* Productive day, at least! Though it has caused me to stay up later than I'd intended, so I'd better get to bed. Night all!

I fear the PMS might be starting to poke at me again -- given when I last got my period, it's a distinct possibility. Though it might just have been me worrying if I could get everything I wanted to get done, done tonight -- I was feeling a little squeezed free-time-wise in spots! But I did accomplish everything I hoped to accomplish, and a bit more besides:

Work: Today was honestly one of the dullest days at the office yet – I did the morning check scan and credit card reports, sent an e-mail to a pair of donors who had recently made a new pledge that I was pretty sure was meant as an update on their old one, then spent the rest of the day working on what obituaries I had left and doing various puzzles to keep myself occupied. Most exciting thing that happened was learning that the heat was officially on and thus I didn’t need to rely so much on my little heater to keep warm. *shrug* We’ll see if tomorrow is any more exciting! I doubt it, but one never truly knows.

Workout: Pedaled my way through another 36-odd minutes of “DREAD: Giant Jenga Horror TTRPG! 🎃 | Hallowstream 2025” by Oxventure this eve – this particular section of Milton (Mike), Zoey (Ellen), And Poppy (Jane) Discover Shit Is Going Down included –

A) Poppy and Milton, upon seeing Zoey trying to keep Sam being dragged away by some mysterious monster, refusing to help because they thought it was another prank, leading Andy to tell Ellen she would have to make two pulls for Zoey to keep a hold on her friend. Ellen went up to the very rickety Jenga tower and did a lot of tapping and poking around, trying to find a good block to pull –

But after a bit of rather nerve-wracking wobbling, she decided to abort mission and declare that Zoey just couldn’t hold on. Sam was thus dragged into the foliage, where his terrified screaming was abruptly cut off by a horrible wet crunching sound. *wince* I mean, dude, if you hadn’t smashed up the phone box so everyone could have just called for help…

B) The monster emerging from the bushes as a vague, ill-defined but definitely horrible shape, and Andy calling for everyone who wanted to run away successfully to make a pull. Jane went up to the tower and did her best to find a block, but after some poking resulting in more worrying sways, she decided to abort mission, declaring that Poppy would stand her ground with her tire iron.

...cue both Mike and Ellen making shockingly easy pulls from the tower, leading to Milton and Zoey absolutely booking it away and leaving Poppy there on her own. XD Jane was a little put out by this, as you might expect!

( Some fucking miracle pulls are made, but gravity finally gets the better of someone )

Writing: I actually got two writing-related things done tonight, to my own surprise –

A) First, I added another page to Chapter 2 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Hollywood’s Deluded Depths” after finishing the Dread write-up above! This one finished up Victor’s mini-POV section, and included:

I. Victor hurrying out of the peep show booth and meeting Chastity in the hall, offering her his arm on reflex when she asked “shall we?” He confirmed who she was as he led her to the “pleasure palace,” babbling out that he’d heard some “really great things” about her – Chastity just grinned and told him he didn’t know the half of it, running her nails up his arm as she assured him her name was “entirely ironic.” Poor Victor ended up extremely flustered, as you might guess! XD

( Victor enters the pleasure palace – and nearly gets got by a katana before Chastity gets got by her own worst nightmare )

B) And second, I added the first Christmas fic request to my “Christmas Drabbles” doc, courtesy of my friend Squid surprising me with it when I met up with them for our nightly online chat. They’d just had the thought that day, and figured they might as well tell me since they know I like to collect these things early. *nods* It DOES make life easier to get as many ideas as possible before the season starts Looming In Earnest… Anyway, their request was something featuring their OC Annabella and her boyfriend Skelter from VTMB – we’ll see what I can come up with closer to the holiday season!

Tumblr: I was a busy beaver over here tonight, let me tell you – getting stuff done on BOTH my blogs for a change –

Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Over here, I sorted out my queue for the rest of the week! Which included:

A) Some art by chenanigans-draws of their Blades In The Dark party’s Leech Possum looking quite excited in front of a giant explosion of ghosts, drawn for their friend Hannah’s birthday, for Wednesday

B) My “Valicer In The Dark: The Start Of A Recurring Bit” post, detailing how I worked in how Smiler came to start introducing the Three Pillars to people as “Alice is the Cutter, Victor is the Whisper, and I’m the Slide and the Leech,” for Thursday

C) My “Valicer In The Dark: A Thought About Why Smiler Is The Way They Are” post, detailing all the trauma behind that version of Smiler’s smile, for Friday

D) And a thread featuring the amazing monster-themed music video for “Backstreet’s Back” from the Backstreet Boys, with the original video having been posted by bebemoon and an addition with some history on how the video came to be from thessalian (did you know that the Boys’ label did not want them to make the video? They thought it would be too expensive and weird. The Boys had to pay the director, Joseph Khan, themselves to make it – and then beat the reimbursement out of the label despite the video becoming an instant fucking classic) for Song Saturday!

So I am set for the rest of the week on this tumblr, w000~

Valice Multiverse – And over here, I had one anonymous ask to throw into my queue for tomorrow – a bit of a naughty one, so I will put it behind a cut for the sex-repulsed among you:

( Naughty anon ahead )

So yeah – that got tossed in the queue, and all is now well. Until the next time I get a weird ask. :P

YouTube: Despite having a rather busy night, I managed to sneak in a quick little video after finishing my writing and my tumblr queues – “Arts & Culture in Quarantine: Getting Dressed in 1860 for Men” by Historic Richmond Town! A two-minute-long video narrated by one Sarah Schackne about how, while it’s easier to see the changes in women’s fashion over the years, men’s fashion changed dramatically throughout the decades of the Victorian Era too, and showing off how a guy in 1860’s America might have dressed with the help of model Erik Creekmore! In order, we had –

A) The underwear – Sarah mentioned that “back-buckle drawers of muslin, linen, or cotton were a common undergarment for both me and women” during this time, and that shirts were actually considered undergarments during this time! Erik himself was sporting a “pleated bib front” shirt – basically your standard white button-down with a rectangle of pleats on the chest like a bib.

B) The trousers and cravat – Erik sported a pair of “indigo-dyed cotton jean” trousers, hitched high with suspenders as that was the fashion at the time, and a thin checked silk necktie whose color I would describe as primarily “mustard”

C) The waistcoat – which Sarah called a “nearly forgotten historical remnant,” which made me raise an eyebrow because I’m pretty sure they’re NOT. Anyway, they were a very important part of a men’s outfit because they were the first “outer” layer on the torso – shirt’s an undergarment, remember? Erik’s was a white-and-grey-checked “summerweight linen” one, which he apparently made himself! Good for him.

D) And the coat and hat – which was clearly from a different photoshoot as Erik was wearing an entirely different waistcoat (this one red) in the picture. XD His coat was a “summerweight linen paletot” in a light creamy-yellow color (apparently a very popular piece, as per Sarah), and his hat a “wide-brimmed beehive hat” (all it really needed was the veil).

*nods* Nice! Good to find something on men’s fashion for a change – even if I wish the video had been more of an actual video rather than someone narrating over still images. But, as per the title, it was made back in 2020, so maybe still images was all Sarah could get from Erik. *shrug* I’ll take what I can get!

Other: As it was another reasonably-nice day, we did indeed decamp to the backyard this afternoon to play another three rounds of beanbags – and I’m pleased to say that things were a little more egalitarian today than yesterday, with everybody winning a game! :D Though I ended up the champ because I continued my “coming second” streak from yesterday until taking the third round. :p But yeah, final scores were me 2-2-W; Dad W-3-2; Mom 3-W-3. Dunno when we’ll next be able to play, but I will update you when we do!

*nods* There we are! And I've even wrapped up this entry before midnight, shock and horror. :p I'm off to bed -- we'll see if I'm a little less wound up tomorrow! Night all!