As in, I went to bed a little after 2 AM, woke up briefly at 7 AM to use the bathroom, then didn't wake up again until my parents left the house to go see if they could drop off some food to help those going hungry in our state (none of the points had any people at them, so they'll be taking it all to the food bank on Monday) -- which was right before 10 AM. *facepalm* I confess I needed the sleep, but getting up that late kinda threw off my plans for the day, as you shall see below:

Cleaning: Welp – I don’t know if the cleaning actually took up any more time than usual, but it certainly felt like it did because of the whole “waking up at 10 AM” thing. A late start means a late finish, after all! *sigh* Here’s how it broke down:

A) Started dusting around 11 AM, with a brief break after stripping my sheets to go downstairs and add them to the general laundry

B) Got called to lunch right after 1 PM, just as I reached my desk – so I didn’t quite finish my dusting before lunch, but I came close

C) Came back to finish the dusting at 1:45 PM-ish, then continued with the Swiffering and the vacuuming, which I finished up just before 2:30 PM

D) ...and then I realized my parents had probably forgotten the laundry again and went downstairs to grab it, which tacked on another ten minutes to the end of the cleaning session

So yeah – definitely took up more of my day than I wanted it to! I swear I used to be able to do this faster...eh. At least it’s done for another couple of weeks!

Writing: Edited the fic for the Day Five prompt, “Jewelry,” this afternoon after finishing my cleaning and catching up on everything online – this one was the Multiplayer Wonderland one, with everyone getting their new “marriage bracelets” and talking about how nice it was to have them (Emily saying she felt like she was part of a secret club, which Smiler pointed out they kinda were in), but also how they’d have to make sure neither the Everglots nor the Van Dorts ever saw them (the former because they’d sniff and call them ‘lower class;’ the latter because they’d know which bracelets they were replacing and Victor really did NOT feel like having another row with his mother about that). Sadly, I must report that this fic proved to be another one that was kind of difficult to edit – but at least this time, I can also say that it’s my own fault. Because partway through writing the opening scene, I realized “hang on, why do I have only Victor and Alice responsible for making the bracelets? That should have been a group project.” Meaning I had to rewrite the fic’s beginning to reflect my new idea that they all made a bracelet and then exchanged them at random (as per the fic, Emily’s wearing the one Victor made, Victoria the one Smiler made, and Alice the one Victoria made – I’m thinking Victor’s got the one Alice made, and Smiler the one Emily made). Once I was past that bit, it went a little smoother, though there was still a fair bit of stopping and pondering word choice. All worked out in the end, though!

FreeTube/Invidious: Welp, after finishing my cleaning so late, I felt like I didn’t have enough time to play either Fallout 4 or Baldur’s Gate III – especially given how much time it takes me to sum up the playsessions afterward – so I ended up pivoting to instead clear out my FreeTube subscriptions and watch everything that I’ve been wanting to watch! And I’m happy to report that I succeeded –

A) First, I caught up on my OXBoxtra videos, going through:

I. “Building the DEADLIEST PARK EVER in Jurassic World Evolution 3!” Andy, Ellen, and Mike playing the latest park-building game in the Jurassic World Evolution series, with Mike on the controls and Andy and Ellen offering suggestions and horrified asides as they sought to design the world’s worst Jurassic Park. Highlights of the video included:

a. The gang showing off some clips of an event they went to promoting the new game, with the four of them dressed up as various characters from the film series (Mike was Dr. Ian Malcolm, and he DID find himself a couch that he could lounge on to re-create the famous sexy pose from the original Jurassic Park XD)

b. The gang making absolutely sure that their dinosaurs were intelligent, uncomfortable, and prone to attacking guests at all times in the settings

c. The gang deciding to put their park on the “Jurassic coast” – in the United Kingdom. Because if you’re making the worst dinosaur park ever, you might as well subject the guests to British weather while you’re at it! XD

d. Andy IMMEDIATELY going “Margaritaville” when Mike asked what he should build first – and Mike obliging with the closest thing the game has, a “Sodaville” XD

e. Mike regularly plopping down buildings wherever and then building the world’s shittiest paths to connect them to everything else – Andy in particular could barely watch as Mike did a horrible pentagram-like path monstrosity around the innovation center XD

f. The gang breeding some Dilophosauruses to start (the ones with the frills on either side of their necks that can spit poison), and the dinos IMMEDIATELY escaping their enclosures and going to hunt the humans – which involved running them down and knocking them over so they ragdolled all over the shop; one Dilo actually knocked down a whole bunch of humans at once like a bowling ball (Mike explicitly compared the humans to nine-pins)

g. One of the dinos killing a politician, and the politician’s rival thinking it was a deliberate hit and giving them $2.5 million for it – Mike eagerly took the money (despite having unlimited funds already) while Andy was like “one of your dinosaurs committed a political assassination!” XD

h. Mike buying more dinos through the marketplace and just setting them free wherever in the park, leading to MULTIPLE fights and many dinos getting poisoned/murdered by the Dilos – which I guess meant fewer dinosaurs to attack the guests, at least XD

i. Mike taking a contract to build many toilets in his park, then completely forgetting about it until the game reminded him he didn’t have ANY toilets (then building just one)

j. Mike making sure to set up some extremely shitty rides for people to go on, including a jeep tour that didn’t go through any of the parts with dinosaurs in it (instead doing a loop through some barren fields just to the right of the main park), and the world’s shortest zipline right above the Compsognathus enclosure (which he deconstructed so he could put the zipline in)

k. Mike buying a random meat-eater from the dino marketplace and getting four Moros Intrepiduses – which were ABSOLUTELY TINY, to the point where Mike accused them of being a joke dinosaur and Andy said the biggest danger was from inhaling them XD

l. The gang buying ONE set of herbivores near the end of the video – a family of Muttaburrasauruses – simply because Mike wanted to buy the dino with the stupidest name XD

Yeah, you can probably tell that things were – chaotic. XD But they at least achieved the goal that they stated in the title of the video – if this isn’t the deadliest park ever in the Jurassic Park franchise, I will be VERY surprised. XD

II. “7 Villains Who Had a Point When You Think About It!” Ellen and Andy talking about those villains who, while still very villainous, actually had a good reason for going down the villain’s path! Or, at the very least, good intentions that proved to be quite misguided. Why is Chris Walker, horrifying musclebound noseless monster, hunting the protagonist in Mount Massive Asylum in Outlast? Because there’s an even MORE terrifying nanomachine ghost monster, the Wallrider, lurking around the place, and Chris has enough humanity left in him to try and prevent it from escaping – even if it means tearing off your head. Why is Seifer Almasy, dickhead rules bully, helping out the big bad sorceress in Final Fantasy VIII? Because he doesn’t REALIZE she’s the big bad – he’s just trying to live out his dream of being a brave and noble sorceress’s knight, helping her help the people! He’s simply an idiot who backed the wrong horse, and that’s why you have to fight him (well, that and his awful personality). Why is Joseph Seed, megalomaniac cult leader, whipping people into a frenzy about the upcoming apocalypse in Far Cry 5? Because there WAS an imminent nuclear strike on the horizon – one that hits at the very end of the game and forces you to flee to a bunker with him in the final minutes. ...Granted, one of the comments on the video indicates that it was Seed’s own followers that caused the explosion – getting their hands on some stolen nukes – soooo...maybe not such a good reason after all. And at any rate, he’s so smug at the end you don’t even give a shit that he’s right. :p

III. And “6 Times You Broke the Game by Being Too Good!” Jane and Andy talking about those (generally older) games that could straight-up break if you were too skilled at them and tripped over a bug. Did you manage to play through 255 levels of Pac-Man or 99 levels of Duck Hunt? Well, you’ve just caused an “integer overflow” error in the background thanks to how these games are coded, and will be presented with either a maze whose right half is entirely garbage code (Pac-Man) or a hunt consisting mostly of glitchy constantly-teleporting ducks (Duck Hunt). Did you manage to hit the button to resist the electrical torture by Ocelot in Metal Gear Solid super fast? Sorry – the game is going to interpret your impressive reflexes as using the autofire function and thus cheating, and kill Snake in response. Did you get an early lead in the final Canary Mary race in Banjo-Tooie? I’m afraid to tell you that bitch has the world’s worst rubber band AI and will soon shoot ahead of you, not to be overtaken. Games – sometimes, it pays to be not so good at them!

B) And second, I caught up on the latest from C. M. Alongi – “BookTalk: Monstrous!” A set of Tik-Toks featuring her books chatting about her (then-current, now-resolved) financial woes and the introduction of her next stand-alone self-published novel, Monstrous (currently being revised and posted to her Patreon chapter by chapter), to the group! In order, we had:

I. Heart Of Iron (HOI) telling the others about how Tik-Tok was slashing pay-outs to creators (with an interrupt from Future C. M. to let everyone know “actually, this has been resolved, they’re going back to the normal pay scale! But I will still be posting Monstrous chapters on my Patreon because why not”) – The Witch Who Trades With Death (TWWTWD) was quite disturbed and asked if there was anything they could do. Citadel (C) sadly informed her that, even if book sales increased overnight, C. M. wouldn’t be seeing the royalties for a while (especially from C and TWWTWD, as they were traditionally published and thus needed to cover her advance first). HOI complained about how this was putting a damper on their release (which was apparently really good – 3,000 physical copies in the first two weeks!), which prompted TWWTWD to ask about their book tour – HOI said that it was still going on, thanks to patrons on Patreon, but it was likely it would have to be shortened in some way. C added that it was likely this would have a major impact on C. M.’s ability to produce and release content if something wasn’t done –

And that’s when Blackwing (B) chimed in, asking HOI, “hey, your first draft was released chapter by chapter on Patreon, right? Like when she did Accidentally Kidnapped?” (Cue her future series Kingdom of Starlight poking its head in, only to be told “Sorry, no, you’re still on hiatus until one of the other series is done.” XD) TWWTWD saw what B was putting down and said that if C. M. had another stand-alone novel, she could start posting chapters from THAT to attract people! HOI was like “a good plan, but that requires her to have something already in the works that she could put up, so she wouldn’t have to take time away from the sequels she’s writing for me and C and B” –

And cue Monstrous stepping in and introducing herself! HOI was very surprised, while C was just like “C. M. ALWAYS has something in the works.” XD

II. TWWTWD squeeing over another stand-alone novel joining the family and eagerly introducing herself to a bemused Monstrous (M, who was not expecting such an enthusiastic handshake XD), followed by Monstrous introducing herself to the others, explaining she was a “young adult Ancient Greek myth retelling.” HOI was like “huh, for teenagers?” – M was like “eh” and explained that her main character ages from 17 to 19 over the course of the book, prompting C to be like “prepare yourself for some interesting marketing.” :p B then confirmed that M was a re-telling, not an epic fantasy just inspired by Greeks and Romans (like themselves) – M said that she’d best be classified as “historical fantasy,” as it took place on Earth in Ancient Greece, just with all the gods and monsters and legends real. HOI, who has a similar vibe, was like “we are gonna be besties.” XD TWWTWD then asked what myth M was, with everyone guessing things like “Hades & Persephone” and “The Odyssey” –

Cue M revealing that those were all overdone, and that she was a retelling of Eros and Psyche. Prompting a very confused B to be like “you’re a gods-damned romance?” XD

III. HOI wondering who Eros and Psyche even are, and M giving them the rundown of the myth (with TWWTWD picking it up at the end) – Eros (the personification of erotic desire and/or the son of Aphrodite) being instructed by Aphrodite to make Psyche (a beautiful mortal princess) fall in love with something horrible because she was so gorgeous people were worshiping her instead of Aphrodite; Eros instead falling in love with Psyche himself; and Aphrodite putting Psyche through four trials to tear them apart, only for Psyche to best them all and become a goddess herself so she and Eros could be together forever! TWWTWD considered it all very romantic –

Aaaand then C interjected some unfortunate realities by pointing out Psyche was at most fourteen, depressed and suicidal, and didn’t beat the trials so much as act so pitiful that everyone around her intervened to help and do the trials for her. As C put it, she was an early mix of “Disney princess and white girl tears.” M quickly said that C. M. had made some changes, which, good. *grimace* HOI, meanwhile, was much more interested in learning that Aphrodite was actually a villain in this book – along with Apollo. They were certain that that was going to piss people off, but M was unmoved, saying such people could bite her. XD

IV. B asking M about her title, noting that C. M. isn’t great at titles (TWWTWD noting that she was pretty sure her editor came up with hers), but figuring there had to be a reason for it, and M explaining that it was inspired by how, when you read the ACTUAL Ancient Greek myths, not just the child-friendly versions, you find that all of the deities are absolute freaking monsters. Add in Eros being called a monster by the other gods for the “Daphne situation” with Apollo (if I remember correctly, he turned Daphne into a tree to spare her Apollo’s attentions when she asked to be saved from the god, who she did NOT want to be with), despite them doing much worse things to mortals (C noting with disdain that it was always the people who question power and authority who are called the villains), and Eros and Psyche realizing that, despite their self-loathing (Eros) and attempts to be a good girl (Psyche), the only way to survive in this world that vilifies them is to become at least a bit monstrous, and...yeah. HOI got it totally, noting their characters are often horrifying to their enemies but sweethearts to their loved ones – M agreed, saying she too was going for that “tasty gray morality.” TWWTWD squeed that was great for a romance –

Prompting M to be like “eh, I’m not REALLY a romance – I have a romantic subplot, but it’s paced differently and the people involved get together at the halfway point. And there’s only off-page spice, to answer your next question.” TWWTWD was disappointed, while HOI was like “twinsies!” XD

V. And finally, B asking M why she was being self-published when she seemed like traditional publishing catnip – M explained that she’d originally been written for a traditional publisher, only for said publisher to ghost C. M. halfway through the rough draft. And when C. M. shopped her around to other publishers, all of them were like “the market’s over-saturated with Greek myth retellings” and rejected her. C was quite snide about this, going “so you’re going self-published because you couldn’t hack it in trad publishing?” but M shut that down real quick, saying it was because the trad publishers didn’t think they could make any money off her – which she considered very stupid, given how Greek myth retellings never go out of style. And then reminding C that the whole “financial woes from Tik-Tok” thing meant that it only made sense for her to be switched to a self-published book. HOI agreed and asked when her publication date was – M admitted she had no idea, as she was currently being rewritten, though her chapters would be going up on the Patreon for $2 patrons. HOI was like “$2?! I was available to the $1 tier,” but M explained that she was being polished into her SECOND draft, instead of going up as the initial rough draft like HOI, so it only made sense to put her chapters at a higher tier. And then said that, once she was ready for an editor and cover art, that there would probably be a Kickstarter to pay for it, before thanking HOI for making all the rookie mistakes and making her life easier. (HOI, through gritted teeth: “I’m so happy for you.” XD) B ended up guessing “late 2026, early 2027” for M to finally come out officially, with C pointing out that it might depend on when THEIR sequel, Demon’s Nest comes out – apparently the latest revision is due to the editor around Thanksgiving, meaning it’s likely to come out sometime next year. TWWTWD excitedly pointed out that that would be followed by the next Blackwing novellas, then HOI’s sequel Heart of Silver –

And HOI adding “and then we’ll get to deal with some other financial crisis!” Causing B to shush them, pointing out it was best not to think about that. XD

Lovely stuff as always! C. M. always makes fun videos, and I rather like these ones of the books/series talking to each other. They all have such distinct, fun personalities – and costumes! I love Citadel’s fancy vest, and The Witch Who Trades With Death’s poison dart frog shirt in particular – both items I’d wear if I could get my hands on ‘em! Ah well...wishing you luck with all the next books, C. M.!

Aaand I very much did not learn my lesson from this morning, as it's nearly 2 AM and I am not in bed. *shakehead* At least tomorrow there will be no clesaning to deal with...instead, my goals include doing some kind of drafting (or at least some reblogging) on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler); playing Portal and seeing if I can get that damned second radio in Chamber 15; doing the second draft of the gift fic due on Tuesday; getting in a workout and starting BTTF Part II with commentary; and watching the latest F:NV YOLO Remastered episode from Jon. Hopefully all achievable goals, even if I do end up waking up late again. Night all!