crossover_chick | Always Later Than I Meant Saturday

Either through delay or distraction, it felt like I got to everything later than I meant to. . .such is the curse of cleaning weekends. Though I did accomplish ALMOST everything I meant to --

Cleaning: Took a bit longer than I would have liked, thanks to the whole “adding my laundry to the family’s laundry” bit and various other little delays – started around 10:50 AM, completed the dusting by lunch at 1 PM, then did the Swiffering and vacuuming after lunch, wrapping up around 2:10 PM. The laundry of course took longer, but I got my sheets and bathrobe and all that back by 5:40 PM (and then got pulled into trying to find a “missing” sock that had in fact gone under the couch). Just a bit of a longer day than I wanted when it came to the chores!

Sims 4: Busy day in Sims-world – let me tell you all about it –

A) Started by taking a moment and getting all the pictures I needed for the next Chill Save update on Victor Luvs Alice this Wednesday – five-parter about the Fall Friday I played on my birthday, featuring the Accidental Valicer Date and the adoption of Shadow and Kelly. Figured it would be good to get those sorted before today’s playsession so I could continue to keep where I am on tumblr versus where I am in-game straight!

B) Then, around 3 PM, it was into the actual game! Smiler spent their morning getting their latest video, their “Inspired!” vlog, ready to post, while Alice headed to join Victor in their nice new awesome bed for a few hours’ sleep, slipping in a slime creature along the way. Smiler mopped that and some symbols once they were done with their thing, then headed downstairs to have a plasma pack, get rid of some creepy hands, and give Shadow a good brush. :) Victor was up first of the sleepers and had a nice chat with Guidry – Alice got up a little later, barked awake by Shadow. She tried to lecture the dog for waking her, only to get growled at and lose a ton of relationship with her. *grumbles* Respect your werewolf elder, dog! But then again, Alice IS more of a cat person. . .I’m working on repairing the relationship!

C) Anyway, once Alice had calmed down Shadow, she had a shower while Victor repaired the broken phonograph downstairs, warmed himself by the fireplace, and officially taught Shadow to Pee Outside. Smiler, for their part, fed the chickens (naked, because they’d tried to “Shower In The Rain” first, but I’d canceled the interaction without realizing they’d already taken off their clothes), then – having bought a ton of robot salvage and upgrade parts – put on some clothes and went into the barn to start work on a gardener-bot! Victor, for his part, headed into the greenhouse to tend all his various crops – everything is regrown now, yay. . .but the plasma fruit tree just refuses to fruit. I may have to pull it out and start again with that one. *grumbles* And Alice made some breakfast scramble, because I didn’t want her wolfing down raw meat while she was in human form. :P She WAS looking a little high on the old Fury, though, so after breakfast, I had her transform, mark her territory, then go for some zoomies to keep it manageable before she had to go to work.

D) And then I looked over at the barn and realized that Smiler was going to finish their gardening bot in one go. O.O Since when does that happen?! I mean, I’m glad, but. . .anyway, they named it “Elmer” (first thing that popped into my head) and put it in their inventory for later. This robot thing might work out for Smiler after all! :)

E) And then I saw Shadow frolicking in her own pee puddle out front and had Smiler rush over there to get her to stop that. And give her a bath. XD Victor, for his part, finished up in the greenhouse with some Floralorial, some fertilizer for his giant crops, and fizzing up some apple juice, then fixed all the turbines behind the house and raided all the resultant trash piles for parts. This got his Handiness up to level 7, which fulfilled a want and left him feeling lovely and focused. :D Alice came back from her zoomies while this was going on, freaking out a visiting Thomas Watson as she transformed back on the porch, then called Kelly back home from her “Free Spirit” adventures so she could give the cat a little last-minute love before work. Smiler flew down to talk to Thomas as she left, and it appears Thomas likes vampires – or at least Smiler – more than werewolves, as they were able to get a drink off him, and thus some more power points! I ended up putting them all into the “strength” upgrade, meaning Smiler now has Vampiric Might! Next time Alice finds some crystals or metals in her scavenging, she’ll have to hand them over to Smiler so they can crush them into elements. :D (Yes, that is an explicit power vampires get when they max out that particular power!)

F) Anyway, with Alice at work, the boy and the not-boy both played with the cat and took care of a few chores – Smiler started the laundry and then upgraded their video production station with Increased Memory (to make editing videos take less time), while Victor did some recycling out of the garbage can and attempted to make eco upgrade parts – the Fabricator turned on him again, though, so he made a dipped candle instead. XD Alice got home at 4 PM in-game, having done a good job but feeling a little tense about her work situation, having picked up a Fear of a Dead-End Job. Which actually fits pretty well, as I DO intend for her to quit her current job soon and go into Freelance art instead. . .but I don’t know if that’ll actually clear the fear? Hmm. . .anyway, being tense, sad, and a little bit Furious, I sent her upstairs to meditate her troubles away. . .

G) And had Smiler get on the phone to throw their house party! Yes, the whole point of this update, where I –

. . .I never took out Smiler’s party bot. It never even occurred to me. *facepalm* I mean, Smiler ended up not NEEDING it, but still! Must make a note to myself to have them use the party bot the next time they’re out and about! Maybe the next time they get invited somewhere?

ANYWAY, yes, party! It was just a regular house party, and I invited some friends they weren’t particularly close to yet – Julia Wright, Raven Shackleford, Aarush Savalani, Tristan McMillian, Chad London, and Asama Fujii, and set Victor, Alice, and Smiler as all hosts. I also locked up the main house so everyone would have to go to Smiler’s party barn. :p Smiler formed a group with all their guests and lead them upstairs to dance and chat, while Victor got his AppleFizz and started fizzing some grapes, before joining the party just as Smiler let off a happy bomb to get three people to be happy as per the party goals. The goals ALSO called for some flirting, so Smiler and Victor shared some tender moments as the party guests chatted, danced, and took turns making drinks at the bar. Alice, for her part, kept meditating until I deemed her in a good enough mood, then donned her Late But Lucky dress and made some taco casserole to take to the party (I quickly bought a nice sparkly table to put it on), as one of the other goals was to “eat food.” She and Victor took over flirting duties as Smiler kept socializing with their guests, making out on the couch as the others descended on the taco casserole.

H) And then, surprise – one of their neighbors was at their front door! Roxana Lopes, with a gift for them! Smiler flew over to say hello, though it took a few tries given the specters were all on the porch and very active in spreading their sprinkles. *grumbles* Smiler eventually invited her in, and she went over to the party barn to join the festivities and give Victor the gift – an “Ol’ Gabby” MySim! Uh, sorry, Roxana, we have that one, so it’s getting sold later. XD I also noticed around this time a fox raid on the coop, but I don’t know if the fox actually got anything. Certainly it doesn’t seem like any of the chicks were killed, as one of the little rooster chicks successfully grew up! At least now we have SOME adults in the coop as well as that one last elderly hen.

I) Anyway, the party continued, with more chatting, more dancing, everyone cooing over the pets (who had come up to see what the hell was happening – I have noted with interest that Kelly the cat hates radios, while Shadow the dog seems to love them), and some Victor/Alice and Victor/Smiler kisses. Because that was a goal too, don’t you know. :) The party ended about an hour shy of midnight as a gold-level party, w000! Victor and Alice both got a Charisma skill boost out of it – Alice to level 8, Victor to level 7! And Smiler got another radio AND the satisfaction of finally getting to move onto the THIRD level of the Party Animal aspiration, as the “throw three parties” goal was FINALLY ticked! You know, I may have forgotten to take out the bot, but at least I remembered to get THAT sorted! An exhausted Victor and Alice headed to bed, while Smiler put the laundry in the dryer, taught Kelly NOT to play in trash, thanks very much (she was pawing at the parts pile I wanted them to raid), and finally headed upstairs to have a citrus soak in the tub. Which was interrupted by them insisting on trying to communicate with a specter, so I had them sing in the shower instead to get fully clean. *grumble* I swear, half the difficulty of living in a haunted house with Sims is getting them to ignore the specters and Guidry. . .

But yeah, as you can see, fairly busy day! Though I’m glad that the party went well, and Smiler’s finally free to get some other stuff going! I don’t know if I’ll be playing this save on Monday or not – might be worth, if the Big Infants Patch is imminent, but. . .we’ll see!

Writing: Got that done this evening after supper and my shower – have finished up Venus’s quests with the big reveal that Alice is only twenty. Venus freaked out a bit over the fact that she employed a twenty-year-old to commit murder for her. XD She’s still honoring their deal, she’s just horrified that Alice is only twenty and doing these kinds of jobs. Alice, meanwhile, was slightly put out by the implication she couldn’t handle herself despite just murdering a Russian mafia member. Things are ending on an awkward note for these two at the moment, let’s say. XD But from here on out, it’s back to plaguebearers – I think Alice should have enough time to question the homeless tonight, then it’s after Brother Kanker tomorrow evening! Oh, and gotta fit in her finding Milton’s body at some point too. So much to do, so much to do. . .

YouTube: Well, I didn’t get the video I WANTED to out of my Watch Later, but I did get A video out of my Watch Later, and I did indeed get both of my Subs videos covered –

A) Started with a video from onlyabidoang – “The Sims 4: 50 CROSS PACK FEATURES!” Yes, a list of fifty instances of cross-pack compatibility, starting with the obvious (the weather added in Seasons affects every world added in other packs uniquely; Get Famous allows you to pick up fame from activities from other packs, like City Living’s singing and Snowy Escape’s snowboarding (if you make and upload a video); werewolves and vampires have LOADS of special interactions due the lore of their respective packs) to the not-so-obvious (if a Sim plays with the doctor toy from Parenthood as a kid, they’ll get a special “fulfilled my dreams” moodlet if they become a Get To Work doctor or a Cats & Dogs vet; if you use Eco Lifestyle to make a neighborhood have an industrial eco footprint, any rain it has from Seasons will be acid rain and make Sims dirty and unhappy; a special wand collectible werewolves can find in Moonwood Mills’s tunnels can actually be used as a wand by spellcasters from Realm of Magic). It was some neat stuff, even if it does make one want even MORE cross-pack compatibility (and highlighted some missed opportunities, such as pack worlds post-Snowy Escape not having unique blurbs if someone with the “Frequent Traveler” lifestyle asks the locals from those places about their home region).

B) Then it was over to the Subs for today’s Call Me Kevin video – “The King game where your choices actually matter,” aka Kevin playing Yes, Your Grace! A game where you start mid-battle with the enemy, and then must play the rest of the game to figure out how you got in the middle of that horrible war. Or, if you’re Kevin, you immediately wave the white flag of surrender and do the “Start To Game Over” trope. XD He did restart and actually PLAY the game, which basically covers a year in the life of one King Eryk, who is – kind of a shithead, even WITHOUT Kevin playing him. The plot of the game is that Eryk promised one of his daughters to this barbarian king, but now that the guy is coming to collect on that promise, Eryk doesn’t want to give her up, so you have to figure out how to get allies and grow your armies so that you can fight off the invaders. But your first and best ally, the king of Atana, will only do this if you give him access to the royal archives and marry ANOTHER daughter off to his son Ivo. . .and when you do so, the guy ends up poisoned and you lose access to his army and have to try and solve the murder. And it may be that Ivo doesn’t even want you to solve it. . . The rest of the king’s time is spent hearing offers from peasants, other nobility, and his army, and you have to balance out making your people happy along with having money in the coffers and supplies to feed the army. Kevin – did not do great at this, I must admit. XD I mean, he was able to help out SOME people, mostly by sending his one competent general Stan the Man to save children and investigate faraway towns and such, and occasionally using his court witch to try and bring good spirits to altars and such, but the people were NOT very happy with his refusal to help more of them; he drove a tavern owner into the ground by forcing him to pay him four gold a week for his help in setting it up instead of settling for one; he forced ANOTHER daughter to marry a stranger to get her armies to help his; he spent a ton of gold on a lie-detecting rooster who was later slaughtered by the palace staff; he became a secret drug dealer to get the support of one particular lord; and he backed two guys to set a trap for this one lying asshole to get their armies on his side, only for one of them to kill the other. XD On the plus side, he was able to BARELY drive off the invading barbarian army with all the help he’d accumulated (he lost all but twenty soldiers, but an avalanche wiped out the invaders)! On the minus side, when he left it, Ivo was preparing to start a war with him for not successfully solving his father’s murder (Kevin discovered one of the clues too late). Medieval times be hard, yo!

C) And finally, despite it being late, I did fit in today’s GrayStillPlays as well – “Crossing the most dangerous bridge in GTA 5!” A trio of bridge boards from Alex for Gray to navigate – a glass bridge that was an “IQ test” where Gray had to find the right vehicle to get over the glass bridge safely (almost all of the cars were too heavy to go over it without shattering the glass, and the one that wasn’t couldn’t make it over the ramp gap that Alex put in the middle, AND he turned off collision on the ropes on the side of the gap, meaning Gray couldn’t tightrope it with the monster truck or just walk to the end; the trick was to find a way to kill the Rhino NPC throwing motorcycles at him as he climbed up to the glass bridge and use one of THOSE to get across); another glass bridge that was a timed challenge (Gray had to run across a glass bridge under construction while being shot at by guys from helicopters – and he couldn’t stop to attack them because a helicopter near the end would drop a boulder through part of the bridge and create a gap he couldn’t jump if he couldn’t get there in time; then, once he was done with that, he had to jump off the side and platform his way across the glass being lifted into place, figuring out which panes were reinforced and which would shatter if he landed on them); and a HUMAN bridge (made up of peds that actually looked like real-life Gray) that was another “find the right vehicle to drive across this bridge” IQ test board (this time he just had to figure out the correct vehicle from the selection – he managed to strand a dune buggy and an ATV on the Gray bridge and had to blow them up to clear the way before finally discovering that the best vehicle was a modern tractor of all things XD). Good times – Gray vs Alex in GTA V is always entertaining!

Add in some ask replies over on Valice Multiverse (which have been a little bizarre tonight, referencing things like the organ theft urban legends), and it's been a pretty full Saturday! I am unwinding in between being social with TV tropes and more OT3-related stuff on tumblr. :p Tomorrow, though, I gotta try and buckle down a bit -- Victor and Nick gotta start heading for the Castle, and I gotta write up their adventures in the Playthrough Progression; I am going to make a POINT of watching the OXtra Garfield video along with Gray and Jon; and I have do to proper tumblr catch-up times. Oh, and message catch-up times too. . .at least it's a long weekend and I'll be able to go a bit late with watching videos or answering messages if I have to! Night all!