crossover_chick | Downward Turn Tuesday

Welp, boss wasn't in because he got word last night he was in the same space over the weekend as someone who tested positive for COVID (he's not showing symptoms, but he can't actually come to work until he has a negative test himself, so we probably won't see him for a couple of days), morning was spent taking credit-card related calls and stressing over some of the stuff still waiting on my plate, and afternoon was largely everybody bitching about the poor quality of the roster maintenance stuff. So, you know, not the best of Tuesdays -- not helped by some very rainy and muggy weather, bleh. No beanbags today, let me tell you.

Afternoon was acceptable, at least:

-->Got some time in on the bike once my Dad was done working out, yay~

-->Watched a fair bit of the YouTubes:

A) Another round on the bike, so time to continue on with Jon's Fallout 4 Survival Playthrough! Grills Bears cleared out the room hidden past the drainage pipe (or, well, a random explosion did most of the work for him) and found the unfortunate Russell, along with the chems and holotape – apparently the drugs were stored there to give to initiates of a cult? (Is – is this related to the Dunwich Borers stuff?) No sign of his sister Margaret, though. . . At any rate, Episode 9 ended with Grills returning to the house to wait out a radstorm. Episode 10 started with him needing to dump off some gear after a patch FURTHER reduced carry weight in Survival (this is right when the mode was introduced to the game, you see), and then heading out to check out Greentop Nursery, Finch Farm, and eventually make his way to Parsons Insane Asylum to start the Cabot quests. He ran into some Super Mutants at the nearby Malden Memorial (managing to take out the Suicider before it killed him), a couple of Synths, and then found a dangerous-looking sinkhole filled with Stingwings before locating Greentop Nursery. Apparently they were being besieged by Super Mutants who had set up camp in the nearby bank. Grills decided to try and take them out stealthily with his sniper rifle. . .a plan that might have worked had the game not spawned a Legendary Super Mutant with a burning laser rifle on him. Grills ALMOST had him, but the Legendary got Grills's health down all the way first. Soooo, restart time! At least this gave Grills the chance to redo his encounter with the hospital mutants and take them out more efficiently. . .we'll see how he does with the rest next time!

B) Then it was time for the latest The Sims 4 reveal trailer – Snowy Escape, an Japanese- and winter-sports-themed expansion pack! . . .and thanks to my previous history with Sims 4, my first reaction is kind of "yeah, okay." Though, I admit, this is partially because I'm not a winter person, and therefore some of the activities on offer don't really appeal to me. Though my Marty McFly Sim might be into snowboarding, as it's as close as he'll get to a hoverboard. . . Looking at some of the articles on SimsVIP, it looks like it's a vacation world, at least, which – DAMN, we needed another one of those. *reads on* HOLY CRAP IT'S BOTH VACATION AND RESIDENTIAL ABOUT FUCKING TIME! Can we get backwards compatibility with Sulani on that? Or any of the other worlds?? I'm sure they'll say "no" on Twitter and some modder will show them up. . .and apparently Sims can have "lifestyles" now? I am cautiously intrigued. . .

C) Of course, new trailer, new reactions TO said trailer – and hey, look who's back! It's James Turner, to react to the trailer. . .and confess to his role in helping create the pack! Yeah, him, Deligracy, LilSimsie, and SimLicy were all tapped to contribute to this new pack. James is apparently not yet at liberty to say HOW they helped, but he could react to the trailer and read through the various blog posts and press releases on the pack. He seems to be into the rock-climbing aspect – which, fair enough, that's one of the things intriguing me about the pack. (Would suit Victor as a skill!) Though, hilariously, Mr. Build/Buy himself doesn't seem to feel all the new Japanese-inspired items added to the pack are a key selling feature. Who are you and what have you done with the real James? XD Ah well, he seems excited, and I know from experience he can make even bad packs (*cough* Journey to Batuu *cough*) seem more interesting in his LPs, so that's at least something to look forward to.

D) But when we have the James Turner take, we must also have the Plumbella take – and poor dear isn't doing great, worrying about her mother having COVID on top of everything else in her life. :( Her take is "I am excited, because there seems to be a lot of cool stuff in the pack – but I am nervous about this excitement, because EA has done us dirty in the past." Which, yeah, that's totally fair. I'm not SUPER excited about this one for exactly that reason, as stated above. But I'll keep an eye on developments. And hope her Mumbella is okay. (Also, she pointed out that the snow looks deeper in the trailer than it does in the game, in which case YOU DID US DIRTY IN SEASONS EA)

E) Then it was time to catch up a bit with Call Me Kevin, with:

1. Prison Simulator! Yup, just days after Gray played it. XD Kevin of course also caused mass amounts of chaos, though his version allowed us to see a little more of the actual prison area. He also started out thinking he was going to be a PRISONER and designed a buff guy named "Race Car" (because of the goofy noise voice he gave him) to be his character. Poor guy seemed genuinely disappointed to discover her was a guard instead. But he made the best of it, starting fights, stealing contraband, putting all the prisoners who most hated each other together in the workshop, and tasering the hell out of a new arrival. XD Basically the place was on the verge of riot by the time he quit. Gray would be proud.

2. Town of Salem! A game where some people are Mafia, there's a serial killer running around, there's arsonists setting fire to things, and – look, it's kind of like Among Us, only set in colonial Salem and with WAY more different kinds of impostors. Kevin's troll today was taking on the name of Brendan Fraser and spouting random facts about the guy, much to everyone's annoyance and confusion. XD He also wasn't very good at his roles in the game, but to be fair, I found that whole thing pretty confusing myself, so. . .I'm just here to watch him be a goof anyway.

-->Wrote some more on "Londerland Bloodlines," wrapping up the stuff with Therese and Jeannette -- they're working together again, having mended fences. Alice is pleased with this result, especially when Caterpillar hints favoring one over the other would have eventually ended poorly (I don't think it actually does in the game, but in the world of fanfic, I can say that resentments for Alice being involved in the death of one sister would grow). So that's almost all of the Santa Monica stuff done! Gonna wrap this night up with her saying goodbye to some of the thin-bloods and meeting Bertram, then the final chapter will cover her actually taking out the warehouse, meeting Beckett, and preparing to go back Downtown. Yay~

-->And I've got my queues for both Victor Luvs Alice and Valice Multiverse sorted -- now time to take out the final DW comment, and I will be set for the night. We'll see how tomorrow goes -- it's a BTTF day, so I guess it's got that going for it? *shrug* Night all!