Day Two Of The Plague
Jan. 30th, 2023 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickToday's Covid Update: I'm mostly less congested than I was yesterday, though it's fluctuated throughout the day. I have had a lot of problems with throat tickles, though, and I've used a lot of cough drops as Mom was nice enough to buy a couple of bags (one regular cherry flavor, one menthol). Still just staying in my room and wearing a mask should I need to venture out. Parents still negative at the moment, yay. Both my coworkers tested positive, though, meaning that there is NO ONE in the front office for this week at work. I am torn between feeling coldly delighted over the supervisors who made us all go to that damn Mass suddenly having nobody to answer the phones, and worried over the pile of work Mom has mentioned will probably be waiting for us. *wince* Welp, nothing I can do about that now. . .
As for the rest of my day, I did actually make my bed and put on clothes, so that's a plus. :p And I accomplished a few other things as well --
Tumblr: Made some progress today on my Victor Luvs Alice drafts – specifically, got the text to all six of the latest Chill/Valicer Save update posts (covering taking care of the pets, Smiler building Elmer, and Smiler throwing the party that I forgot to unleash the party bot on) sorted! One before Mom brought me lunch, the rest afterward. :) I also got a good chunk of the “explanatory text” for my first OT3 ship meme done (explaining why I made some of the choices I did for certain areas) – I’ll probably finish that off tomorrow so I can get everything in the queue.
Sims 4: Yes, I did indeed play Sims 4 today, visiting the Chill/Valicer Save and playing through Winterfest! Mostly because the big “Behind the Sims” livestream and resultant update/patch is tomorrow, and it’s likely THAT will be the “infants” one and leave me unable to do anything but build in the game for a while. So yeah, gonna keep the old buffer strong! And it was a busy holiday –
A) Starting off with an Alice werewolf RAMPAGE! Yeah, her Fury was so high I figured it was easier to get it out of her system rather than trying to get her upstairs to meditate or anything. Amusingly, what ended up pushing her over the edge was her randomly marking her territory. XD I had her do some scavenging to get werewolf points and see if she could find any goodies – she dug up a time capsule, some phazonite, some limestone, and two common upgrade parts. Not too shabby! And she was able to regain control pretty quickly too, which made things easier. She didn’t even bother Victor or Smiler in the slightest – Smiler spent the entire thing gaming, while Victor slept through most of it, then spent his time getting breakfast, watching Guidry paint, and chatting with Smiler. :p
B) However, despite this, she still came out of her rampage feeling a little bummed out, so – after having her clean out the chicken coop while she was in the area – I had her go talk to Victor in the downstairs bathroom. He heard her out, and they had a pleasant conversation, with her discussing what it’s like to be a werewolf –
And THAT gave her the experience she needed to finally reach the final level of werewolfdom – Apex! :D So that was nice! I promptly had her grab the “Super Speed” ability, since it’s always nice to get places faster. :p She also gave herself a pep talk in the mirror to get over her sadness.
C) While all THAT was going on, Winterfest officially started, and I set Smiler to decorating the house (blue waterfall icicle lights on the eaves, yellow-and-green garlands on the fences) while I set out all the stuff from build/buy. I tried to focus on the walls that are visible when I play (since I use the “walls cutaway” setting, meaning most interior walls aren’t visible), but the sheer amount of paper garlands I had meant that I ended up putting a lot of them on walls that generally aren’t visible in gameplay. *shrug* What can you do? I also dithered about putting the tree upstairs or downstairs – I settled on downstairs in the end, since it seemed best situated down there. Important thing was, though, that the place ended up looking quite festive!
D) . . .if very gloomy and rainy. Well, THAT’S no good for Winterfest, is it? If it must be cloudy, it should at least be SNOWING. So I sent Victor out to change it with the weather machine. While he was doing that, Alice resumed her usual human form and went to play some chess, while Smiler loaded up the washing machine and repaired the busted dryer. Somehow picking up the “Fear of Death” in the process. O.o I – don’t THINK they were zapped? Maybe they were anticipating it a little too much. . .well, I knew that would be easy to clear when Guidry showed back up, and they had plenty of happy moodlets to cover it, so I just sent them to play chess with Alice while we waited for snow. Ended up winning their game despite coming in halfway through. XD
E) Once the proper weather had been established, it was time to trim the tree! I had Smiler and Alice start with red-and-gold ribbon garland while Victor went into the greenhouse to tend his plants (specifically, fertilize the hell out of his latest set of oversized crops) and – once I’d gotten him out of Smiler’s inventory – activate Elmer the gardening bot to keep an eye on the rest. :) Also, while all this was happening, another one of the older chickens died – I swear, Grim is just here all the time now to claim unfortunate chickens! Sheesh. . .
Anyway, Smiler and Alice finished up the garland while Victor dealt with both his glitched “Fear of the Dark” moodlet and a new legitimate “Fear of Unfulfilled Dreams” (to be fair, the Occult Preferences mod I’ve got in kind of TAKES OVER their Wants, meaning some of them are hard to fulfill) by hiding under the covers for a while and admiring some of the upstairs decorations. Then it was Victor and Smiler’s turn to decorate by putting on a bunch of yellow and white ornaments while Alice amused Kelly with a laser pointer. Victor and Smiler celebrated a job well done with a mistletoe kiss, then Victor and Alice put on a blue-and-green plaid tree skirt together. For whatever reason, the game ruled they hadn’t put that on as well as the other stuff, leading Victor to be both Tense and Embarrassed, so I sent him upstairs to enjoy a mud bath while Alice finished with the blue-and-white modern topper! The whole experience had fulfilled both her and Smiler’s “Festive Spirit” tradition, so Smiler went to watch some TV while I had Alice trim the overgrowth on the bonsai tree.
F) And then Victor got out of the mud bath and started complaining about how muddy he was. XD Fortunately some Scruberoo on him and the tub fixed that up pretty quickly, and I sent him downstairs to take care of some more laundry (the hamper was STINKING for some reason – perhaps his mud-caked shorts?) and put the presents under the tree. Oh, and fix a water collector that I’d noticed was broken via Repairio (that long-range spell perk is definitely worth it!). Smiler abandoned the TV in favor of playing a few tunes on their guitar – I decided everybody could be creative and directed Alice to show me what an Angry painting looks like (like a stick figure shoving another stick figure off a cliff) and Victor (after petting Kelly) to start on a new song. All was well for a while. . .
G) And then Alice started heading to the fridge to wolf down some meat, and I realized that I had to keep her under control for a bit before she ruined the Grand Meal. Fortunately keeping her distracted wasn’t too hard – Kelly was around to pamper, and of course I wanted to set the table in anticipation of the nice meal! Smiler was also feeling a little thirsty, but their need was more easily satisfied – mostly because the new plasma tree that insta-grew a few days ago did indeed fruit! Though, for whatever reason, the resultant plasma fruit didn’t really do much for their thirst – I had to follow it up with a plasma pack. *shakehead* I also had them finally shut down Elmer, after noticing with some amusement that the bot had gone through the entire house looking for plants to tend. XD They’re all in the greenhouse except for that one in Smiler’s room, buddy! Just stick out there and you’ll be fine!
H) And then I saw Shadow playing around on the obstacle course and figured, you know what, why not have Smiler put her through her paces? So they ran the obstacle course together (while I watched Alice to make sure she didn’t try to eat her raw meat or go hunting without permission). Shadow had one fault at the beginning, but otherwise ran the course perfectly, if a little slowly – 46 minutes Sim time. Smiler was very pleased. :) I then sent them inside to sit at the table with Victor while Alice cleared out the spoiled food in the fridge and started looking for the leftover turkey dinner. . .
I) Uh – no dice. O.o Either they ate all their leftovers, or they spoiled. Welp, looks like Alice had to make herself a new Grand Meal – I picked a Ham Dinner, then had Victor and Smiler do a bit of chatting while she cooked (with Victor fulfilling his “Festive Spirit” tradition by sharing the spirit with Smiler), with Victor also playing a bit with Shadow afterward. The plus side was that, by the time Alice finished the dinner, Victor was hungry too, so he was able to eat with her. (Smiler also grabbed a plate when Victor actually called them to the dinner, but I was able to stop them eating any of it and just had them put it all away). They had a lovely sit, enjoying each other’s company and the food as the weather went back to rain outside. . .
J) But uh-oh, Alice was looking pretty damn Furious again, even after a somber howl earlier to keep the rage down. I sent her up to meditate for a little bit and keep it at an even simmer as Clement Frost showed up in the living room (where Smiler and Kelly were watching TV together). Unfortunately, she ended up stopping meditating early because she got bored of it (though she did get Wellness skill level 3), and thus I had to watch her very carefully as she, Victor, and Smiler all cornered Clement Frost in Smiler’s room (where he was playing on Smiler’s laptop) for presents. Clement obliged, and they got an All -In-One Powerful PC (Alice), a The Incinerator Grill (Victor), and – another damn karaoke machine (Smiler). *facepalm* I don’t know which one yet, though I suspect it’s another big one – Clement, they already have one of those!
K) However, we weren’t done with presents yet – the gang also had to open presents under the tree! Alice fortunately held it together long enough for Smiler to get themselves a Schmapple coffee maker, Victor to receive another Barely Better Digital Camera, and to open a packet of Farmer’s Veggies & Herbs for herself. ...I suspect that latter is going to be given to Victor. XD Anyway, she was almost completely full on Fury, so I sent her out into the backyard to scavenge a bit until she was ready to rampage, while sending Victor up to bed and Smiler to the front porch to talk with Clement a bit. Clement ended up disappearing midway through the conversation, but fortunately Angela Pleasant, on a mysteriously late visit, was able to pick up the slack. Smiler gave her their “Hip to the Max” cardboard dance floor as a gift, then took some plasma from her in return, while Alice howled and dug up the yard in the back, before finally wresting control back in the middle of the pet obstacle course (watched by a spooked Shadow). She dragged herself off to bed while Smiler played with the dog to calm her down –
And that was Valicer Winterfest! A very busy holiday, as you can tell. And damn, two rampages in one day? At least Alice is very good at regaining control of herself! I think I need to have her start meditating more regularly, though – once her Wellness skill is higher, she shouldn’t get bored of it, and the rage will be easier to control. *nods* A problem for future Vicky to solve! XD
Writing: Kept it simple today with a project I’ve been meaning to get back to – refining stuff for my Blades in the Dark Valicer trio and their character sheets! Mainly, it was adjusting Smiler’s special items to better reflect their new status as “Leech with a few Slide characteristics” instead of the other way around (aka they have more Leech stuff like tinkering tools and gadgets, though I let them keep the “fine clothes and jewelry” a Slide gets because that’s kind of a gift from Victor), refining some stats, and deciding what sort of special abilities I’d want them to prioritize getting (Alice starts out able to push herself to superhuman feats of fighting prowess, and ends up “Vigorous” (healing faster) and a “Bodyguard” (allowing her to get better results when protecting a teammate); Victor starts out with the ability to sense ghosts around him, and ends up with “Strange Methods” (better results when crafting arcane things, like the formula that allows him to infuse insects with electroplasm) and “Warded” (gives him “special armor” that allows him to better resist supernatural stuff or push himself when dealing with the arcane without the specter of stress – I think it’s a special coat he makes); and Smiler starts out with the ability to make good alchemical items, like Joy Serum, and ends up with “A Little Something On The Side” (they get +2 to their personal stash of cash after each score’s downtime, because of course they’re still selling their Serum) and “Physicker” (they learn how to heal people to help their friends better)). It’s fun stuff, and good for a day where I’m not really feeling my usual projects.
YouTube: This ran a little late, but fuck it, I’m sick, I can watch silly YouTube videos late into the night if I want –
A) First up, today’s SUPER-quick offering from Josh Way – “SKETCHY: Monty Python - John Cleese in the Parrot Sketch!” Which is an export from his iPad of him drawing, well, John Cleese in the “Dead Parrot” sketch from Monty Python – specifically him holding the dead parrot upside-down to show it is dead. Video was just barely over a minute but managed to include the drawing of Cleese, a separate drawing of the parrot that Josh then spliced into the other sketch, and Josh hastily needing to change Cleese’s suit into the windbreaker he’s actually wearing in the sketch because he was using multiple references and just drew the suit from one on automatic. :p Fun!
B) Then it was over to Call Me Kevin and “I bought an illegal arcade machine!” Specifically, while trying to find the cursed knockoff console of his youth (the “Power Play”), Kevin found and acquired a large rectangular thing with buttons called “Pandora’s E-Sports Box,” which has over 800 games – most of them stolen from Nintendo and other, better companies. XD Offerings included a fancy 3-D update of the super-tough Ghosts & Goblins (King Arthur going up against the enemies is actually the art on the console); Superman 64 (though not explicitly labeled as such, possibly because they knew it would never be picked otherwise); Everybody’s Stress Buster (a collection of minigames featuring a robot vacuuming floors, a karate man breaking things, and a small swordsman whacking up legions of evil vegetables); two James Bond games (neither of which ran well, and the first of which Kevin failed IMMEDIATELY by smacking the alarm and then opening fire on the civilians); a shooting game where you had to shoot “bad eggs” (complete with horrible flashing from the gun and screaming from the eggs); a very country game where you had to use an X-Ray machine to determine if an egg was going in the frying pan, the trash, or the nest (Kevin was very bad at this); the Michael Jackson Moonwalker game (which had him going “ooh!” constantly, driving Kevin mad); and a boxing game where his chosen character had no neck (and no boxing skills). It was basically a cavalcade of rip-offs and failures – but at least it made for some fun times on the channel! XD
C) And finally we had GrayStillPlays and “When your boss is a creep,” aka Gray plays Life Fix 3D! This is one of those mobile games made with whatever 3D models the creator had laying around and loads of images from Google, and it involves a woman named Jess who comes home to find her husband/boyfriend cheating on her, and must forge a new life for herself in an old and crusty house that looks ready to kill her at any second. Gray of course tried to make as many wrong choices as possible to screw up Jess’s life even worse, though even the correct choices could be downright weird – for example, spraying perfume on a rat in the bedroom does nothing, but picking the cheese doesn’t have her set down a trap or befriend the rat, it just has her FLING THE CHEESE OUT THE WINDOW and the rat JUMPS OUT AFTER IT. Breaking said window, which you must then repair with planks. Which don’t actually cover the hole. Gray was VERY CONFUSED. At any rate, the storyline involved Jess getting herself a new job (pro tip: don’t make a random clown face when you’re in the middle of your “just hired” handshake or everything will be null and void); cleaning up her house (slamming a hammer against the wall and knocking everything over before using the power of watching an ad to telekinetically make everything pretty); adopting a stray cat (pro tip: DO NOT FEED THE CAT RANDOM MUSHROOMS – especially since if you keep it alive you can sic it on your ex); throwing a house party and having to clear a random porcupine from her kitchen (once again, the solution was to throw food out of a window and hope the creature followed it out); discovering her crush was into gardening and helping him grow flowers (pro tip: the best way to clear bees out of a tree is with a baseball bat! No, really, that’s what the game says); and then winning the gardening competition by proving it was rigged (basically her ex was macking on one of the judges). It was a pretty horrible little game, which made it absolutely PERFECT for Gray. :P
And that's about it, apart from me working my way through Moose's messages from the other day. Gonna go take my Nyquil and hit the sheets soon -- and hope I don't drool all over myself again, as I found out when I woke up this morning. Hopefully I will be more on the mend tomorrow! Night all!
As for the rest of my day, I did actually make my bed and put on clothes, so that's a plus. :p And I accomplished a few other things as well --
Tumblr: Made some progress today on my Victor Luvs Alice drafts – specifically, got the text to all six of the latest Chill/Valicer Save update posts (covering taking care of the pets, Smiler building Elmer, and Smiler throwing the party that I forgot to unleash the party bot on) sorted! One before Mom brought me lunch, the rest afterward. :) I also got a good chunk of the “explanatory text” for my first OT3 ship meme done (explaining why I made some of the choices I did for certain areas) – I’ll probably finish that off tomorrow so I can get everything in the queue.
Sims 4: Yes, I did indeed play Sims 4 today, visiting the Chill/Valicer Save and playing through Winterfest! Mostly because the big “Behind the Sims” livestream and resultant update/patch is tomorrow, and it’s likely THAT will be the “infants” one and leave me unable to do anything but build in the game for a while. So yeah, gonna keep the old buffer strong! And it was a busy holiday –
A) Starting off with an Alice werewolf RAMPAGE! Yeah, her Fury was so high I figured it was easier to get it out of her system rather than trying to get her upstairs to meditate or anything. Amusingly, what ended up pushing her over the edge was her randomly marking her territory. XD I had her do some scavenging to get werewolf points and see if she could find any goodies – she dug up a time capsule, some phazonite, some limestone, and two common upgrade parts. Not too shabby! And she was able to regain control pretty quickly too, which made things easier. She didn’t even bother Victor or Smiler in the slightest – Smiler spent the entire thing gaming, while Victor slept through most of it, then spent his time getting breakfast, watching Guidry paint, and chatting with Smiler. :p
B) However, despite this, she still came out of her rampage feeling a little bummed out, so – after having her clean out the chicken coop while she was in the area – I had her go talk to Victor in the downstairs bathroom. He heard her out, and they had a pleasant conversation, with her discussing what it’s like to be a werewolf –
And THAT gave her the experience she needed to finally reach the final level of werewolfdom – Apex! :D So that was nice! I promptly had her grab the “Super Speed” ability, since it’s always nice to get places faster. :p She also gave herself a pep talk in the mirror to get over her sadness.
C) While all THAT was going on, Winterfest officially started, and I set Smiler to decorating the house (blue waterfall icicle lights on the eaves, yellow-and-green garlands on the fences) while I set out all the stuff from build/buy. I tried to focus on the walls that are visible when I play (since I use the “walls cutaway” setting, meaning most interior walls aren’t visible), but the sheer amount of paper garlands I had meant that I ended up putting a lot of them on walls that generally aren’t visible in gameplay. *shrug* What can you do? I also dithered about putting the tree upstairs or downstairs – I settled on downstairs in the end, since it seemed best situated down there. Important thing was, though, that the place ended up looking quite festive!
D) . . .if very gloomy and rainy. Well, THAT’S no good for Winterfest, is it? If it must be cloudy, it should at least be SNOWING. So I sent Victor out to change it with the weather machine. While he was doing that, Alice resumed her usual human form and went to play some chess, while Smiler loaded up the washing machine and repaired the busted dryer. Somehow picking up the “Fear of Death” in the process. O.o I – don’t THINK they were zapped? Maybe they were anticipating it a little too much. . .well, I knew that would be easy to clear when Guidry showed back up, and they had plenty of happy moodlets to cover it, so I just sent them to play chess with Alice while we waited for snow. Ended up winning their game despite coming in halfway through. XD
E) Once the proper weather had been established, it was time to trim the tree! I had Smiler and Alice start with red-and-gold ribbon garland while Victor went into the greenhouse to tend his plants (specifically, fertilize the hell out of his latest set of oversized crops) and – once I’d gotten him out of Smiler’s inventory – activate Elmer the gardening bot to keep an eye on the rest. :) Also, while all this was happening, another one of the older chickens died – I swear, Grim is just here all the time now to claim unfortunate chickens! Sheesh. . .
Anyway, Smiler and Alice finished up the garland while Victor dealt with both his glitched “Fear of the Dark” moodlet and a new legitimate “Fear of Unfulfilled Dreams” (to be fair, the Occult Preferences mod I’ve got in kind of TAKES OVER their Wants, meaning some of them are hard to fulfill) by hiding under the covers for a while and admiring some of the upstairs decorations. Then it was Victor and Smiler’s turn to decorate by putting on a bunch of yellow and white ornaments while Alice amused Kelly with a laser pointer. Victor and Smiler celebrated a job well done with a mistletoe kiss, then Victor and Alice put on a blue-and-green plaid tree skirt together. For whatever reason, the game ruled they hadn’t put that on as well as the other stuff, leading Victor to be both Tense and Embarrassed, so I sent him upstairs to enjoy a mud bath while Alice finished with the blue-and-white modern topper! The whole experience had fulfilled both her and Smiler’s “Festive Spirit” tradition, so Smiler went to watch some TV while I had Alice trim the overgrowth on the bonsai tree.
F) And then Victor got out of the mud bath and started complaining about how muddy he was. XD Fortunately some Scruberoo on him and the tub fixed that up pretty quickly, and I sent him downstairs to take care of some more laundry (the hamper was STINKING for some reason – perhaps his mud-caked shorts?) and put the presents under the tree. Oh, and fix a water collector that I’d noticed was broken via Repairio (that long-range spell perk is definitely worth it!). Smiler abandoned the TV in favor of playing a few tunes on their guitar – I decided everybody could be creative and directed Alice to show me what an Angry painting looks like (like a stick figure shoving another stick figure off a cliff) and Victor (after petting Kelly) to start on a new song. All was well for a while. . .
G) And then Alice started heading to the fridge to wolf down some meat, and I realized that I had to keep her under control for a bit before she ruined the Grand Meal. Fortunately keeping her distracted wasn’t too hard – Kelly was around to pamper, and of course I wanted to set the table in anticipation of the nice meal! Smiler was also feeling a little thirsty, but their need was more easily satisfied – mostly because the new plasma tree that insta-grew a few days ago did indeed fruit! Though, for whatever reason, the resultant plasma fruit didn’t really do much for their thirst – I had to follow it up with a plasma pack. *shakehead* I also had them finally shut down Elmer, after noticing with some amusement that the bot had gone through the entire house looking for plants to tend. XD They’re all in the greenhouse except for that one in Smiler’s room, buddy! Just stick out there and you’ll be fine!
H) And then I saw Shadow playing around on the obstacle course and figured, you know what, why not have Smiler put her through her paces? So they ran the obstacle course together (while I watched Alice to make sure she didn’t try to eat her raw meat or go hunting without permission). Shadow had one fault at the beginning, but otherwise ran the course perfectly, if a little slowly – 46 minutes Sim time. Smiler was very pleased. :) I then sent them inside to sit at the table with Victor while Alice cleared out the spoiled food in the fridge and started looking for the leftover turkey dinner. . .
I) Uh – no dice. O.o Either they ate all their leftovers, or they spoiled. Welp, looks like Alice had to make herself a new Grand Meal – I picked a Ham Dinner, then had Victor and Smiler do a bit of chatting while she cooked (with Victor fulfilling his “Festive Spirit” tradition by sharing the spirit with Smiler), with Victor also playing a bit with Shadow afterward. The plus side was that, by the time Alice finished the dinner, Victor was hungry too, so he was able to eat with her. (Smiler also grabbed a plate when Victor actually called them to the dinner, but I was able to stop them eating any of it and just had them put it all away). They had a lovely sit, enjoying each other’s company and the food as the weather went back to rain outside. . .
J) But uh-oh, Alice was looking pretty damn Furious again, even after a somber howl earlier to keep the rage down. I sent her up to meditate for a little bit and keep it at an even simmer as Clement Frost showed up in the living room (where Smiler and Kelly were watching TV together). Unfortunately, she ended up stopping meditating early because she got bored of it (though she did get Wellness skill level 3), and thus I had to watch her very carefully as she, Victor, and Smiler all cornered Clement Frost in Smiler’s room (where he was playing on Smiler’s laptop) for presents. Clement obliged, and they got an All -In-One Powerful PC (Alice), a The Incinerator Grill (Victor), and – another damn karaoke machine (Smiler). *facepalm* I don’t know which one yet, though I suspect it’s another big one – Clement, they already have one of those!
K) However, we weren’t done with presents yet – the gang also had to open presents under the tree! Alice fortunately held it together long enough for Smiler to get themselves a Schmapple coffee maker, Victor to receive another Barely Better Digital Camera, and to open a packet of Farmer’s Veggies & Herbs for herself. ...I suspect that latter is going to be given to Victor. XD Anyway, she was almost completely full on Fury, so I sent her out into the backyard to scavenge a bit until she was ready to rampage, while sending Victor up to bed and Smiler to the front porch to talk with Clement a bit. Clement ended up disappearing midway through the conversation, but fortunately Angela Pleasant, on a mysteriously late visit, was able to pick up the slack. Smiler gave her their “Hip to the Max” cardboard dance floor as a gift, then took some plasma from her in return, while Alice howled and dug up the yard in the back, before finally wresting control back in the middle of the pet obstacle course (watched by a spooked Shadow). She dragged herself off to bed while Smiler played with the dog to calm her down –
And that was Valicer Winterfest! A very busy holiday, as you can tell. And damn, two rampages in one day? At least Alice is very good at regaining control of herself! I think I need to have her start meditating more regularly, though – once her Wellness skill is higher, she shouldn’t get bored of it, and the rage will be easier to control. *nods* A problem for future Vicky to solve! XD
Writing: Kept it simple today with a project I’ve been meaning to get back to – refining stuff for my Blades in the Dark Valicer trio and their character sheets! Mainly, it was adjusting Smiler’s special items to better reflect their new status as “Leech with a few Slide characteristics” instead of the other way around (aka they have more Leech stuff like tinkering tools and gadgets, though I let them keep the “fine clothes and jewelry” a Slide gets because that’s kind of a gift from Victor), refining some stats, and deciding what sort of special abilities I’d want them to prioritize getting (Alice starts out able to push herself to superhuman feats of fighting prowess, and ends up “Vigorous” (healing faster) and a “Bodyguard” (allowing her to get better results when protecting a teammate); Victor starts out with the ability to sense ghosts around him, and ends up with “Strange Methods” (better results when crafting arcane things, like the formula that allows him to infuse insects with electroplasm) and “Warded” (gives him “special armor” that allows him to better resist supernatural stuff or push himself when dealing with the arcane without the specter of stress – I think it’s a special coat he makes); and Smiler starts out with the ability to make good alchemical items, like Joy Serum, and ends up with “A Little Something On The Side” (they get +2 to their personal stash of cash after each score’s downtime, because of course they’re still selling their Serum) and “Physicker” (they learn how to heal people to help their friends better)). It’s fun stuff, and good for a day where I’m not really feeling my usual projects.
YouTube: This ran a little late, but fuck it, I’m sick, I can watch silly YouTube videos late into the night if I want –
A) First up, today’s SUPER-quick offering from Josh Way – “SKETCHY: Monty Python - John Cleese in the Parrot Sketch!” Which is an export from his iPad of him drawing, well, John Cleese in the “Dead Parrot” sketch from Monty Python – specifically him holding the dead parrot upside-down to show it is dead. Video was just barely over a minute but managed to include the drawing of Cleese, a separate drawing of the parrot that Josh then spliced into the other sketch, and Josh hastily needing to change Cleese’s suit into the windbreaker he’s actually wearing in the sketch because he was using multiple references and just drew the suit from one on automatic. :p Fun!
B) Then it was over to Call Me Kevin and “I bought an illegal arcade machine!” Specifically, while trying to find the cursed knockoff console of his youth (the “Power Play”), Kevin found and acquired a large rectangular thing with buttons called “Pandora’s E-Sports Box,” which has over 800 games – most of them stolen from Nintendo and other, better companies. XD Offerings included a fancy 3-D update of the super-tough Ghosts & Goblins (King Arthur going up against the enemies is actually the art on the console); Superman 64 (though not explicitly labeled as such, possibly because they knew it would never be picked otherwise); Everybody’s Stress Buster (a collection of minigames featuring a robot vacuuming floors, a karate man breaking things, and a small swordsman whacking up legions of evil vegetables); two James Bond games (neither of which ran well, and the first of which Kevin failed IMMEDIATELY by smacking the alarm and then opening fire on the civilians); a shooting game where you had to shoot “bad eggs” (complete with horrible flashing from the gun and screaming from the eggs); a very country game where you had to use an X-Ray machine to determine if an egg was going in the frying pan, the trash, or the nest (Kevin was very bad at this); the Michael Jackson Moonwalker game (which had him going “ooh!” constantly, driving Kevin mad); and a boxing game where his chosen character had no neck (and no boxing skills). It was basically a cavalcade of rip-offs and failures – but at least it made for some fun times on the channel! XD
C) And finally we had GrayStillPlays and “When your boss is a creep,” aka Gray plays Life Fix 3D! This is one of those mobile games made with whatever 3D models the creator had laying around and loads of images from Google, and it involves a woman named Jess who comes home to find her husband/boyfriend cheating on her, and must forge a new life for herself in an old and crusty house that looks ready to kill her at any second. Gray of course tried to make as many wrong choices as possible to screw up Jess’s life even worse, though even the correct choices could be downright weird – for example, spraying perfume on a rat in the bedroom does nothing, but picking the cheese doesn’t have her set down a trap or befriend the rat, it just has her FLING THE CHEESE OUT THE WINDOW and the rat JUMPS OUT AFTER IT. Breaking said window, which you must then repair with planks. Which don’t actually cover the hole. Gray was VERY CONFUSED. At any rate, the storyline involved Jess getting herself a new job (pro tip: don’t make a random clown face when you’re in the middle of your “just hired” handshake or everything will be null and void); cleaning up her house (slamming a hammer against the wall and knocking everything over before using the power of watching an ad to telekinetically make everything pretty); adopting a stray cat (pro tip: DO NOT FEED THE CAT RANDOM MUSHROOMS – especially since if you keep it alive you can sic it on your ex); throwing a house party and having to clear a random porcupine from her kitchen (once again, the solution was to throw food out of a window and hope the creature followed it out); discovering her crush was into gardening and helping him grow flowers (pro tip: the best way to clear bees out of a tree is with a baseball bat! No, really, that’s what the game says); and then winning the gardening competition by proving it was rigged (basically her ex was macking on one of the judges). It was a pretty horrible little game, which made it absolutely PERFECT for Gray. :P
And that's about it, apart from me working my way through Moose's messages from the other day. Gonna go take my Nyquil and hit the sheets soon -- and hope I don't drool all over myself again, as I found out when I woke up this morning. Hopefully I will be more on the mend tomorrow! Night all!
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Date: 2023-02-01 12:26 am (UTC)At least you don't have strep on top of it?
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Date: 2023-02-01 04:47 am (UTC)That is a good point, yes! I have had strep in the past and I would not want it on top of this. Oof.