Rainy Rainy Saturday
Dec. 3rd, 2022 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickWarm, but absolutely miserable out, with steady rain pretty much all day, and some gusty wind this evening. Good thing I had nowhere to go! And despite a somewhat-late start, I had a pretty productive day overall --
Tumblr: The loser of today, with me waking up later than usual and not doing my planned dash-and-tags catch-up on Victor Luvs Alice. I did keep up with ask replies on Valice Multiverse, though, and I do have all my pictures for the upcoming Chill Save update (the return from the vacation and Victor’s brief trip to the Magic Realm) all sorted, so that’s good. Maybe I can get said pictures into the drafts before I head to bed!
Sims 4: Oh man, I’m glad I started a bit early – just around 2 PM – because this one turned into a long two-and-a-half-hour session! But then again, it WAS a holiday – Spookfest, to be precise – and I did spend some time both in Build Mode and CAS. . .so let me take you through the day –
A) Started the day off by having Smiler (after getting some of the needed parts from Victor, and ordering the rest off their laptop) try to start building a party bot, only to get zapped and instead end up talking to Guidry for a while before trimming the bonsai’s overgrowth, while Alice went off on a rampage as a thunderstorm moved in – and got zapped by lightning! O.O Fortunately it didn’t actually hurt her (made her energized, in fact), but I decided it was about time for her to regain control, which she did successfully. Had her go back to normal as the rain let up a bit and sent her to have a muscle-relaxing soak, as she’d earned it.
B) And then, after that, since she needed to clear off the lightning smutz anyway and I’d been meaning to do it for a while, I had her go to the mirror so I could paint her werewolf form a bit more! Added a bit more detail to her head, and painted some bands around her arms and legs so she’d look a bit more Cheshire-ish. Came out pretty well, though I wasn’t able to go all the way around on her arms thanks to the fact that, as far as I know, you can’t get a Sim to lift them while in werewolf Paint mode. Meh – did the best I could!
C) From there it was time for some creative pursuits – Alice did some paintings while I had Smiler play guitar. Victor also woke up around this time – and since he was insistent on seeing what Guidry was doing before having breakfast, I had him go around and water all the plants that needed watering in the still-in-progress greenhouse (I HAVE moved the flower arranging bench and the juice fizzer in there, since that felt like it made sense, but I’m still working on getting all the planters sorted and seeing how many of those I actually need).
D) From there, it was breakfast time – Victor got some breakfast scramble, while Smiler (kind of brokenly) drank from Alice’s wrist. Accidentally fulfilling the “costume” tradition of Spookfest in the process, since, again, vampire dark forms count for that! Remembering that I’d wanted to test that with werewolves, I had Alice change into her newly-painted up beast form –
Nope, no dice. Werewolf transformations do not count. Boo. >( I had her hang out in that form for a bit, though, just for funsies. Proved useful after one of the local foxes, Harley, raided our chicken coop for an egg – Alice was pretty easily able to scare them off the next time they tried it! I gotta put a fence around that thing. . .
E) Smiler ATTEMPTED to start on their party bot again, but got zapped again – that plus a new thunderstorm rolling in ended up putting all the group into the new creative room, with Smiler playing more guitar, Victor working on finishing up a song that’s been in his inventory for ages, and Alice – back in human form – doing some more painting. Once the rain let up, I had Alice go out for a feral run while Smiler decorated the house (some banners for the eaves and fences, and I put out the ghost lamps and two pumpkin-carving stations and bought some fun decals for the porch) and played some video games – and while I was trying to figure out where Alice was during her run, I spotted the local communal gardening area and realized it had some produce in it! Had Alice go over there, where she picked up some verdant mushrooms, some green beans, and some wild raspberries. :D I think that’s JUST what I need to fill out the planters in Victor’s greenhouse!
F) And then it started storming again as she came home. *facepalm* I got her home safely, though, and she did some more painting while Victor FINALLY finished his song (a whimsical tune – I named it “Wonderland Smiles” as I couldn’t call it “Smile Always Wonderland”), and then went upstairs to upgrade the shower with pulsating jets before having a shower himself. Smiler, meanwhile, finished up their gaming and fixed their personal radio and the downstairs sink.
G) And that’s about the time where I got sick of it thunderstorming every second and bought them the weather-changing machine, and had Alice use it to bring clear skies already! Sheesh! That went well, and after gathering in the kitchen for a quick chat as the weather transitioned from storm, to rain, to sunny, I had Smiler whip out their phone and call over some friends for an unofficial Spooky Day party! Specifically friends they hadn’t really spoken to in a bit – Becca, Myra, Cassie, Leslie (from StrangerVille, though she seemed okay for the duration of the party), and Caleb Vatore. Everyone put on costumes (though I had to change Victor and Alice’s, as the Star Wars ones the party chose for them didn’t actually count for some reason – Alice looked better in the “smuggler” outfit anyway), and I had Victor and Alice carve pumpkins (Alice an orange cat, Victor a white ghost) while Smiler gathered all their guests into a group and brought them up to the party area, getting everyone to dance and serving cream colas for anybody who wanted them. Alice eventually came up for a beastly boogie once her pumpkin was done, while I had Victor go out and magically fix the water collector and all the wind turbines that had gotten busted (while one of the guests tried to do the same – I also had to lock the greenhouse to everyone but household members when Caleb went in and started randomly planting some of the stuff I hadn’t gotten into planters yet – oi, I know you’re IN the gardening career, but lay off!). Guidry spawned in and told the group that, due to their persistence, they’d unlocked his coat, which was nice. :) After that, I sent Victor up to the party so he, Alice, and Smiler could all try some Cosmic Encounter bubbles! Which – were not a hit, as the first moodlet any of them got from it was Weary, a Bored moodlet. Sheesh, and here’s me having hyped up having finally gotten the damn thing. . . (Plus everybody seemed to consider using it a bad thing? It’s a BUBBLE BLOWER. I mean, I know it’s SUPPOSED to reference a hookah, but come on.)
H) And then, right after finishing up her attempt at bubbling, Alice ended up going on a SECOND rampage in the middle of the party. Ooops. *facepalm* Granted, this is my own fault – I KNEW Spookfest was a full moon, but I’d expected to have more time to deal with it, like Somber Howling her fury down. But nope, got distracted by bubbles. As you might imagine, this did not do much for Alice’s standing with the other guests (particularly Caleb). It DID at least push her over the edge into Veteran werewolf status! She gained the Prideful temperament (she gets more fury from being embarrassed and might take things more personally) and a power point, which I ended up putting into Lunar Resistance. Might not help her with THIS full moon, but at least she’ll be shielded from the effects of all future ones!
Anyway, once she’d transformed, I had her run outside to scavenge and whatnot – she ended up getting the zoomies a lot this time, running all over the countryside (and unfortunately scaring a few people, like Thomas Watson). At least she kept busy and out of the rest of the guests’ hair! The vast majority of them went to the kitchen to raid the leftovers (though I was at least able to stop Becca from drinking some of their milk), while Victor and Smiler hung out upstairs for a bit, before Victor had to go to the bathroom (a bit of an adventure, as he kept trying to cancel it to see what Guidry was up to).
I) And so the party ended shortly after midnight, at “unofficial bronze,” netting the gang some more spooky lamps for future parties. :p I had Victor clean up all the various plates and cups before stumbling off to bed, while Smiler carved a smiling pale orange pumpkin (masterpiece quality) before going off to game some more. And Alice kept running around wolfishly, scavenging the ground and howling – I tried to have her regain control, but no dice. At least she and the others had a good Spookfest – hit every tradition but trick-or-treat, and I saw NOBODY come to the door for that, so. . .
And yeah, that was my play session! Pretty epic, especially at the end there. XD Poor Alice, I am trying to play her as a good werewolf. . .with Lunar Resistance, though, she should be in a better spot. *nods* Next time I play, probably gonna get some more planters for the greenhouse and officially organize everything (most of which has reverted to dirt piles because I guess I moved the plants around too much *grumbles* On the plus side, though, hopefully regrowing the plasma tree from dirt will get it to actually fruit again!) and try to get Smiler to finish their first proper Utili-Bot! Might need to look into a mod that makes zappage from the robotics bench less likely first, though – they’ve picked up the Fear of Death AGAIN from it! Sheesh. . .
Writing: Got a nice solid page on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” – Alice has made it into the Empire Arms Hotel without any awkward questions (thanks to a cameo of one Ms. Crumplebottom distracting the front desk guy before he could notice “Jezebel’s sister”), up to the penthouse level, and past the first set of guards, who are watching TV in one of the rooms instead of actually patrolling the hallways. She has come across another guard who IS doing his job, but a little Obfuscate will get her past him no trouble. :p Next weekend, Alice should actually get to meet Boris, yay! And take the asshole for a little extra cash to boot. . .
YouTube: Did quite well today, clearing out my Subs and getting three videos out of my Watch Later, yay! I will take it!
A) Started early today by catching up on the Josh Way video I missed yesterday before lunch – “SKETCHY: Atlantis the Lost Empire!” Another long “Josh does four characters” video, with two completed and colored drawings of Milo Thatch (protagonist) and Helga (believe an antagonist, though I think she MIGHT switch sides? never actually saw the movie), and two semi-complete pencil sketches of Cookie (the cook, obviously) and Audrey (the mechanic). Fun drawings, and Josh had a few interesting things to say about what he loves about animated films (pretty much “the animation,” the story is secondary), and his annoyance over the loss of cool extras on DVDs (as you might expect from the guy, he eats up pencil tests and stuff like that). I hear you on that latter, Josh!
B) Then, this evening, we started with the latest from Red Plumbob in my Watch Later – “♦ KARAOKE ♦ Sims 1 vs Sims 2 vs Sims 3 vs Sims 4!” Yeah, another comparison across the games, this time of Sims singing their little hearts out! I’d forgotten that karaoke was even in the first game, but it’s actually pretty good – there’s five genres of song your Sims can sing, and each has its own specific animations for good and bad singers. Both Sims 2 and Sims 3 had random songs your Sims sang with random animations, and Sims 3 in fact had LESS songs (two for solos, two for duets, as opposed to four each in Sims 2), meaning that was the suckiest generation for karaoke. And Sims 4 – well. Vast array of songs across multiple genres (that you unlock via improving your singing skill) and special animations for each song means that it’s clearly the best. It doesn’t even leave out kids for no reason like a lot of things in that generation does! (They can’t gain skill, but they can at least sing!) Fun times, especially hearing all the different songs. :D
C) Then it was time for some OXBoxtra lists:
I. “7 Terrible Videogame Disguises that Aren't Fooling Anyone” – an Andy solo effort, taking us through some awful videogame disguises! Like the Lynel mask from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which can fool a centaur-man into thinking the entirely-humanoid Link is one of them for 30 seconds somehow; the drug dealer disguise in Hitman 3, which is not only goofy but leads to some of 47’s most hilariously awkward lines in the series as he attempts to blend in; and Lee/Violet from the Tekken series, who literally just dyed his hair purple to fool his hated adoptive family into letting him into their fighting tournament. XD At least what they lack in actual disguise purposes, they make up for in hilarity!
II. “7 Boss Fights You Weren’t Allowed to Lose” – Luke and Ellen take us through those boss fights that the game wouldn’t let you lose! Don’t feel like triggering the Omnislash attack at the end of Final Fantasy VII? Don’t worry, Sephiroth can’t actually kill you, and Cloud knows his counters well enough to kill HIM. Need to get up and take a break when the ogre shows up at the beginning of Dragon Age II – or, indeed, at any point during the initial tutorial level? Go ahead and leave Hawke just standing there – the game will literally keep refilling your health so you can’t die. Worried about dying to any of the boss enemies in BioShock? The nice thing about respawning in a Vita-Chamber is that those enemies are still injured from your previous attacks! (I mean, YOU’RE not actually at full health either, but if you don’t mind chipping away at Big Daddies with your wrench, respawning, and walking back to them. . .) As Ellen said, one doesn’t know whether to feel grateful or patronized. :p
D) And finally, we had today’s Subs upload from GrayStillPlays – “Most dangerous space water slide in GTA 5!” Yes, Gray was playing more Alex (and Petey) water slide boards today in GTA V, and let me tell you, they were ROUGH. We had the tutorial water slide on Mt. Chillead (or similar), where Gray had to use a water slide to propel himself through a wind turbine and into a black hole (and, hilariously, he kept MISSING); then we had the “human chassis slide” water slide, where Gray had to essentially wriggle his way down a chassis-slide-style “water slide” (through water spouts, teleporting wind turbines, and the occasional rocket), then get past the wheel of wind turbines to pick the right real water slide at the end to get the right teleporter (because one of them was a troll that just put you back at the beginning); then we had the jetski water slide, where Gray had to take a jetski down a bunch of V-shaped ramps, avoiding wind turbines and UFOs to reach another black hole (and if you got abducted by a UFO, it was back to the beginning); and finally we had the car – well, it wasn’t a water slide, it was a tube run, with rotating cutouts working in tandem with rotating gaps in the tube and various wobbly wind turbines – but if you got through the tube (or went OVER it, as Gray found he could), you got a nice solid ramp of road with boosts to the win and space. XD Some premium torture here, especially in the second one. Alex, Petey, you have done us proud. XD
Social: Answer my friend Ace’s FF.net PM, in decent time too, yay. :) And was able to ask them about their gift fic prompt (they gave me one last year in response to the fic I wrote them then, but I didn’t know if their interests had changed, so I wanted to confirm it). We’ll see when they get back to me. :)
*nods* Not bad, not bad. . .wanted to get more done on the tumblr drafting front, I admit, but we'll see if I can make up for some lost time on Sunday morning. In the meantime, I'm doing the social thing, so I shall be off -- plans for tomorrow are to get that last OXBox list out of the Watch Later, keep up on Subs, and watch Jon's latest; play some more Fallout 4 and get Victor and Nick closer to Diamond City via way of Graygarden; and get in a workout with a bit more of James Turner's High School Years LP. Think that's doable -- night all!
Tumblr: The loser of today, with me waking up later than usual and not doing my planned dash-and-tags catch-up on Victor Luvs Alice. I did keep up with ask replies on Valice Multiverse, though, and I do have all my pictures for the upcoming Chill Save update (the return from the vacation and Victor’s brief trip to the Magic Realm) all sorted, so that’s good. Maybe I can get said pictures into the drafts before I head to bed!
Sims 4: Oh man, I’m glad I started a bit early – just around 2 PM – because this one turned into a long two-and-a-half-hour session! But then again, it WAS a holiday – Spookfest, to be precise – and I did spend some time both in Build Mode and CAS. . .so let me take you through the day –
A) Started the day off by having Smiler (after getting some of the needed parts from Victor, and ordering the rest off their laptop) try to start building a party bot, only to get zapped and instead end up talking to Guidry for a while before trimming the bonsai’s overgrowth, while Alice went off on a rampage as a thunderstorm moved in – and got zapped by lightning! O.O Fortunately it didn’t actually hurt her (made her energized, in fact), but I decided it was about time for her to regain control, which she did successfully. Had her go back to normal as the rain let up a bit and sent her to have a muscle-relaxing soak, as she’d earned it.
B) And then, after that, since she needed to clear off the lightning smutz anyway and I’d been meaning to do it for a while, I had her go to the mirror so I could paint her werewolf form a bit more! Added a bit more detail to her head, and painted some bands around her arms and legs so she’d look a bit more Cheshire-ish. Came out pretty well, though I wasn’t able to go all the way around on her arms thanks to the fact that, as far as I know, you can’t get a Sim to lift them while in werewolf Paint mode. Meh – did the best I could!
C) From there it was time for some creative pursuits – Alice did some paintings while I had Smiler play guitar. Victor also woke up around this time – and since he was insistent on seeing what Guidry was doing before having breakfast, I had him go around and water all the plants that needed watering in the still-in-progress greenhouse (I HAVE moved the flower arranging bench and the juice fizzer in there, since that felt like it made sense, but I’m still working on getting all the planters sorted and seeing how many of those I actually need).
D) From there, it was breakfast time – Victor got some breakfast scramble, while Smiler (kind of brokenly) drank from Alice’s wrist. Accidentally fulfilling the “costume” tradition of Spookfest in the process, since, again, vampire dark forms count for that! Remembering that I’d wanted to test that with werewolves, I had Alice change into her newly-painted up beast form –
Nope, no dice. Werewolf transformations do not count. Boo. >( I had her hang out in that form for a bit, though, just for funsies. Proved useful after one of the local foxes, Harley, raided our chicken coop for an egg – Alice was pretty easily able to scare them off the next time they tried it! I gotta put a fence around that thing. . .
E) Smiler ATTEMPTED to start on their party bot again, but got zapped again – that plus a new thunderstorm rolling in ended up putting all the group into the new creative room, with Smiler playing more guitar, Victor working on finishing up a song that’s been in his inventory for ages, and Alice – back in human form – doing some more painting. Once the rain let up, I had Alice go out for a feral run while Smiler decorated the house (some banners for the eaves and fences, and I put out the ghost lamps and two pumpkin-carving stations and bought some fun decals for the porch) and played some video games – and while I was trying to figure out where Alice was during her run, I spotted the local communal gardening area and realized it had some produce in it! Had Alice go over there, where she picked up some verdant mushrooms, some green beans, and some wild raspberries. :D I think that’s JUST what I need to fill out the planters in Victor’s greenhouse!
F) And then it started storming again as she came home. *facepalm* I got her home safely, though, and she did some more painting while Victor FINALLY finished his song (a whimsical tune – I named it “Wonderland Smiles” as I couldn’t call it “Smile Always Wonderland”), and then went upstairs to upgrade the shower with pulsating jets before having a shower himself. Smiler, meanwhile, finished up their gaming and fixed their personal radio and the downstairs sink.
G) And that’s about the time where I got sick of it thunderstorming every second and bought them the weather-changing machine, and had Alice use it to bring clear skies already! Sheesh! That went well, and after gathering in the kitchen for a quick chat as the weather transitioned from storm, to rain, to sunny, I had Smiler whip out their phone and call over some friends for an unofficial Spooky Day party! Specifically friends they hadn’t really spoken to in a bit – Becca, Myra, Cassie, Leslie (from StrangerVille, though she seemed okay for the duration of the party), and Caleb Vatore. Everyone put on costumes (though I had to change Victor and Alice’s, as the Star Wars ones the party chose for them didn’t actually count for some reason – Alice looked better in the “smuggler” outfit anyway), and I had Victor and Alice carve pumpkins (Alice an orange cat, Victor a white ghost) while Smiler gathered all their guests into a group and brought them up to the party area, getting everyone to dance and serving cream colas for anybody who wanted them. Alice eventually came up for a beastly boogie once her pumpkin was done, while I had Victor go out and magically fix the water collector and all the wind turbines that had gotten busted (while one of the guests tried to do the same – I also had to lock the greenhouse to everyone but household members when Caleb went in and started randomly planting some of the stuff I hadn’t gotten into planters yet – oi, I know you’re IN the gardening career, but lay off!). Guidry spawned in and told the group that, due to their persistence, they’d unlocked his coat, which was nice. :) After that, I sent Victor up to the party so he, Alice, and Smiler could all try some Cosmic Encounter bubbles! Which – were not a hit, as the first moodlet any of them got from it was Weary, a Bored moodlet. Sheesh, and here’s me having hyped up having finally gotten the damn thing. . . (Plus everybody seemed to consider using it a bad thing? It’s a BUBBLE BLOWER. I mean, I know it’s SUPPOSED to reference a hookah, but come on.)
H) And then, right after finishing up her attempt at bubbling, Alice ended up going on a SECOND rampage in the middle of the party. Ooops. *facepalm* Granted, this is my own fault – I KNEW Spookfest was a full moon, but I’d expected to have more time to deal with it, like Somber Howling her fury down. But nope, got distracted by bubbles. As you might imagine, this did not do much for Alice’s standing with the other guests (particularly Caleb). It DID at least push her over the edge into Veteran werewolf status! She gained the Prideful temperament (she gets more fury from being embarrassed and might take things more personally) and a power point, which I ended up putting into Lunar Resistance. Might not help her with THIS full moon, but at least she’ll be shielded from the effects of all future ones!
Anyway, once she’d transformed, I had her run outside to scavenge and whatnot – she ended up getting the zoomies a lot this time, running all over the countryside (and unfortunately scaring a few people, like Thomas Watson). At least she kept busy and out of the rest of the guests’ hair! The vast majority of them went to the kitchen to raid the leftovers (though I was at least able to stop Becca from drinking some of their milk), while Victor and Smiler hung out upstairs for a bit, before Victor had to go to the bathroom (a bit of an adventure, as he kept trying to cancel it to see what Guidry was up to).
I) And so the party ended shortly after midnight, at “unofficial bronze,” netting the gang some more spooky lamps for future parties. :p I had Victor clean up all the various plates and cups before stumbling off to bed, while Smiler carved a smiling pale orange pumpkin (masterpiece quality) before going off to game some more. And Alice kept running around wolfishly, scavenging the ground and howling – I tried to have her regain control, but no dice. At least she and the others had a good Spookfest – hit every tradition but trick-or-treat, and I saw NOBODY come to the door for that, so. . .
And yeah, that was my play session! Pretty epic, especially at the end there. XD Poor Alice, I am trying to play her as a good werewolf. . .with Lunar Resistance, though, she should be in a better spot. *nods* Next time I play, probably gonna get some more planters for the greenhouse and officially organize everything (most of which has reverted to dirt piles because I guess I moved the plants around too much *grumbles* On the plus side, though, hopefully regrowing the plasma tree from dirt will get it to actually fruit again!) and try to get Smiler to finish their first proper Utili-Bot! Might need to look into a mod that makes zappage from the robotics bench less likely first, though – they’ve picked up the Fear of Death AGAIN from it! Sheesh. . .
Writing: Got a nice solid page on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” – Alice has made it into the Empire Arms Hotel without any awkward questions (thanks to a cameo of one Ms. Crumplebottom distracting the front desk guy before he could notice “Jezebel’s sister”), up to the penthouse level, and past the first set of guards, who are watching TV in one of the rooms instead of actually patrolling the hallways. She has come across another guard who IS doing his job, but a little Obfuscate will get her past him no trouble. :p Next weekend, Alice should actually get to meet Boris, yay! And take the asshole for a little extra cash to boot. . .
YouTube: Did quite well today, clearing out my Subs and getting three videos out of my Watch Later, yay! I will take it!
A) Started early today by catching up on the Josh Way video I missed yesterday before lunch – “SKETCHY: Atlantis the Lost Empire!” Another long “Josh does four characters” video, with two completed and colored drawings of Milo Thatch (protagonist) and Helga (believe an antagonist, though I think she MIGHT switch sides? never actually saw the movie), and two semi-complete pencil sketches of Cookie (the cook, obviously) and Audrey (the mechanic). Fun drawings, and Josh had a few interesting things to say about what he loves about animated films (pretty much “the animation,” the story is secondary), and his annoyance over the loss of cool extras on DVDs (as you might expect from the guy, he eats up pencil tests and stuff like that). I hear you on that latter, Josh!
B) Then, this evening, we started with the latest from Red Plumbob in my Watch Later – “♦ KARAOKE ♦ Sims 1 vs Sims 2 vs Sims 3 vs Sims 4!” Yeah, another comparison across the games, this time of Sims singing their little hearts out! I’d forgotten that karaoke was even in the first game, but it’s actually pretty good – there’s five genres of song your Sims can sing, and each has its own specific animations for good and bad singers. Both Sims 2 and Sims 3 had random songs your Sims sang with random animations, and Sims 3 in fact had LESS songs (two for solos, two for duets, as opposed to four each in Sims 2), meaning that was the suckiest generation for karaoke. And Sims 4 – well. Vast array of songs across multiple genres (that you unlock via improving your singing skill) and special animations for each song means that it’s clearly the best. It doesn’t even leave out kids for no reason like a lot of things in that generation does! (They can’t gain skill, but they can at least sing!) Fun times, especially hearing all the different songs. :D
C) Then it was time for some OXBoxtra lists:
I. “7 Terrible Videogame Disguises that Aren't Fooling Anyone” – an Andy solo effort, taking us through some awful videogame disguises! Like the Lynel mask from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which can fool a centaur-man into thinking the entirely-humanoid Link is one of them for 30 seconds somehow; the drug dealer disguise in Hitman 3, which is not only goofy but leads to some of 47’s most hilariously awkward lines in the series as he attempts to blend in; and Lee/Violet from the Tekken series, who literally just dyed his hair purple to fool his hated adoptive family into letting him into their fighting tournament. XD At least what they lack in actual disguise purposes, they make up for in hilarity!
II. “7 Boss Fights You Weren’t Allowed to Lose” – Luke and Ellen take us through those boss fights that the game wouldn’t let you lose! Don’t feel like triggering the Omnislash attack at the end of Final Fantasy VII? Don’t worry, Sephiroth can’t actually kill you, and Cloud knows his counters well enough to kill HIM. Need to get up and take a break when the ogre shows up at the beginning of Dragon Age II – or, indeed, at any point during the initial tutorial level? Go ahead and leave Hawke just standing there – the game will literally keep refilling your health so you can’t die. Worried about dying to any of the boss enemies in BioShock? The nice thing about respawning in a Vita-Chamber is that those enemies are still injured from your previous attacks! (I mean, YOU’RE not actually at full health either, but if you don’t mind chipping away at Big Daddies with your wrench, respawning, and walking back to them. . .) As Ellen said, one doesn’t know whether to feel grateful or patronized. :p
D) And finally, we had today’s Subs upload from GrayStillPlays – “Most dangerous space water slide in GTA 5!” Yes, Gray was playing more Alex (and Petey) water slide boards today in GTA V, and let me tell you, they were ROUGH. We had the tutorial water slide on Mt. Chillead (or similar), where Gray had to use a water slide to propel himself through a wind turbine and into a black hole (and, hilariously, he kept MISSING); then we had the “human chassis slide” water slide, where Gray had to essentially wriggle his way down a chassis-slide-style “water slide” (through water spouts, teleporting wind turbines, and the occasional rocket), then get past the wheel of wind turbines to pick the right real water slide at the end to get the right teleporter (because one of them was a troll that just put you back at the beginning); then we had the jetski water slide, where Gray had to take a jetski down a bunch of V-shaped ramps, avoiding wind turbines and UFOs to reach another black hole (and if you got abducted by a UFO, it was back to the beginning); and finally we had the car – well, it wasn’t a water slide, it was a tube run, with rotating cutouts working in tandem with rotating gaps in the tube and various wobbly wind turbines – but if you got through the tube (or went OVER it, as Gray found he could), you got a nice solid ramp of road with boosts to the win and space. XD Some premium torture here, especially in the second one. Alex, Petey, you have done us proud. XD
Social: Answer my friend Ace’s FF.net PM, in decent time too, yay. :) And was able to ask them about their gift fic prompt (they gave me one last year in response to the fic I wrote them then, but I didn’t know if their interests had changed, so I wanted to confirm it). We’ll see when they get back to me. :)
*nods* Not bad, not bad. . .wanted to get more done on the tumblr drafting front, I admit, but we'll see if I can make up for some lost time on Sunday morning. In the meantime, I'm doing the social thing, so I shall be off -- plans for tomorrow are to get that last OXBox list out of the Watch Later, keep up on Subs, and watch Jon's latest; play some more Fallout 4 and get Victor and Nick closer to Diamond City via way of Graygarden; and get in a workout with a bit more of James Turner's High School Years LP. Think that's doable -- night all!
