Busy Busy Wednesday
Aug. 9th, 2023 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickIt looked for a second when I first got up that it might not be as nice as they said it was gonna be, but eventually the clouds cleared out and it proved to be a nice sunny day. :) Though windy as all hell, let me tell you! Dunno what that was all about. . .anyway, as indicated by the title, I did a LOT of stuff today --
Mini-Golf: Had a very nice morning at the mini-golf place! Went up to one of our usual haunts in Massachusetts, West End Creamery – one of those “dairy farms who decided to add in a mini-golf course and other family entertainment to encourage people to come buy their ice cream” deals. It was a bit busy, but a lot of the families in front of us ended up quitting early (I assume because their kids got bored/upset), so we were able to get through the full 18 holes without having to wait around too much. To everyone’s surprise, Dad proved to be the rustiest at the game (we haven’t played since a trip to this very mini-golf place in summer of 2021), while Mom did really well until one particular hole a little more than halfway through, which gave her enough trouble that she got an eight on it. Meanwhile, I was able to use my past knowledge of the course to score a hole in one on a particular hole (there’s one hole that goes downhill by one of the artificial streams that runs through the course – if you happen to hit your ball into the water on THIS particular hole, it will be swept down onto a grate, and if it rolls across the right spot on the grate, you’ll get a hole in one), and otherwise played well enough that I ended up winning. :) Think the final scores were me 53, Mom 59, and Dad 63 or 68. . .best I’ve done at mini-golf in a while! We then treated ourselves to an ice cream lunch – Dad had a medium cone of pistachio, while I had a small Campfire S’more’s sundae (graham cracker ice cream with chocolate chunks, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a chocolate-dipped marshmallow to go with the cherry on top). Mom didn’t have any ice cream herself, though Dad convinced her to try a little of his pistachio cone, and she tried a little of my sundae once I was done with it (neither Dad or I fully finished our ice creams, they were a little too much – good though). And then we headed back home! Gotta say, nice morning out. :) Friday, the Blithewold gardens! Hopefully that’ll be fun too.
Tumblr: Didn’t get a HECK of a lot done on this today, thanks to going mini-golfing this morning, but I did my best to keep up at least a little on the Victor Luvs Alice dash, and I got some Valicer In The Dark stuff sorted – namely, I queued up the first fanfic snippet I wrote for that verse, “First(ish) Meeting,” for tomorrow, and I came up with a couple more Not-Incorrect Quotes for the new VITD compilation I’m working on that I hope to queue up for Friday! Still need at least one more, though. . .hopefully inspiration will strike tomorrow morning! Along with an idea for a Song Saturday. . .
Sims 4: We actually did get home in time for me to do a proper Sims session – and I couldn’t resist going back into the Chill Valicer Save after having such a good time catching up with my trio yesterday. :) And they had a pretty busy Wednesday themselves, let me tell you –
A) I picked up where I left off yesterday, with Smiler mid-mechanism, Victor having finished experimenting with his cauldron, and Alice having just gotten some freshly-made sugar out of the bulk processor – as Alice was feeling the need to get outside from her werewolf instincts, I had her go out and scavenge in the yard for a little bit while Victor – seeing she’d left a pile of clothes behind when she’d changed into her everyday and surmising from that the hamper was full – went and searched the pockets in the pile before bringing everything to the laundry. As they were doing that, though, I saw that a few plants in the greenhouse were back to being dirt piles, which annoyed me as everything had FINALLY all grown up when the trio had gotten back from their honeymoon –
So I laid down a save and did some shift-clicking, because THAT is how you activate some cheats in this game. Work of a moment to set everything that had reverted to dirt (AKA “just planted”) back to the fully-grown “blossoming” stage. Little Miss Sam, your “gardening fix” mod has done the work for me, but I’m glad I have an option to fix some of this bullshit manually too.
B) Anyway, with that nonsense taken care of, I had Alice take care of a want to “Listen to Classic Music” and took a moment to have her register with the Ministry of Labor as “Owner and Chief Cook” at Van Liddelton Groceries (Smiler did this too the other day, though I don’t remember exactly what I wrote for them – and I can’t check as their career panel glitched out and is just empty these days. Dunno how to fix it), before having her use her newly-created sugar for the purpose I’d intended – namely, making jam! Strawberry jam to start, of course. :) Victor, meanwhile, took a turn on the phonograph to fulfill one of his wants to “Listen Deeply” to music, then used his Copypasto skills on one of his spare Potions of Plentiful Needs because my tumblr friend Squid (or Cas as they are sometimes known) didn’t know you could Copypasto potions! So I promised to do an experiment and show them the results. You can also Repairio potions to make them better quality, which I had Victor do as well. I then had him buy a bunch of dyes from the candle-making bench and start making dipped candles – one regular candle, one sky blue candle. Because if we’re going to have a “bees” shelf in the store, we obviously need beeswax candles to go on it!
C) While all that was going on, Smiler had finished their mechanism – I had them make a blue chatterbot next, then start work on a teal quadcopter since I think we could sell those too. Meanwhile, Alice, noticing Victor had put the laundry in the washing machine but not started it, threw a chrysanthemum in the additives tray and set that going, before speeding off to briefly cry out a sad moodlet upstairs in bed (she is Gloomy, after all), then speeding back down to the studio to do a small impressionism painting (a very cute “dog and cat in hats” picture!). I was feeling pretty good about everything for a minute –
D) And then I noticed the cowplant out front had its cake tongue out. Well, THAT wouldn’t do. I let Victor finish up his candle (getting Fabrication skill 3 in the process, and the ability to do molded candles), then sent him to feed the darn thing. Nearly lost his fingers in the process too! Dang cowplants. . .at any rate, he gave it a little pet, then went to replant all his oversized crops. Smiler, for their part, finished their quadcopter, gave Bugs a tune-up, then went and grabbed all the herbalism supplies they needed (plus the plasma fruit) while Victor started weeding and watering. And as for Alice. . .
E) Well, I’ve been saying it’s time for a culling in that chicken coop! Too many roosters and too many hatchable eggs! And so Alice traded the two unnamed roosters and Grumpy for meat (because I couldn’t resist that option XD). The roosters slunk off into the void while Alice cleaned the coop and scattered some feed for everyone remaining (Cluckina, Leghorna, Cockadoodle, and two unnamed hens). She also gathered the eggs – three poor-quality hatchable ones, which just proved my point about having too many roosters! We’re much better off with just Cockadoodle.
F) Anyway – with the chickens sorted (mostly – a couple of them were unhappy about being dirty, and did NOT appreciate Alice trying to ask them about their preening methods), Alice went inside to make some blueberry jam, while Victor started harvesting the greenhouse and Smiler went to tend to Moory. Or, at least, tried to – after cleaning out her shed, they tried to go in for the hug, but Moory wasn’t having any of it. Annoyed, Smiler tried to remind her of a cowplant’s forgiving nature (really??) and chat with her about other stuff, but she just refused to engage. I guess she wasn’t fond of them trying to get in their personal space! I decided it would be a bad idea for Smiler to try and milk her then and sent them off to check on Shadow instead (the dog was a little spooked about something, so Smiler gave her a nice brush). I instead sent Alice out once she was done with her jam, and her “udderly hilarious” joke went over way better, so she got the first batch of milk instead. :) Sometimes you just gotta know what Sim to use!
G) It was around this time that I noticed that Victor had, for some reason, gotten a new sentiment with someone – a complete rando he only partially knew named Roxanne. And the sentiment was the sad “People Person’s relationship has lapsed” one. Whoops – forgot he had that one too! So I quickly had grab the Lifestyle-Go-Poof potion and poof that – REALLY gotta get that mod that makes it so Sims can have a few more friends than the “Close-Knit” lifestyle currently allows you! Anyway, once that was done, I had him use some super vitality fertilizer on the aubergines (as I think it might be funny to grow another oversized eggplant), then set about having him repairio a bunch of stuff around the farm (wind turbines, water collectors, a broken sink, that grill Guidry scorched) and hit Snappy with some Floralorial. Magic is fun and useful! :D He also went and moved the laundry to the dryer while Alice and Smiler entertained Shadow and Alice gobbled up some leftover wedding cake. XD I noticed around this time though that Shadow clearly wanted a walk, so to make up for letting her eat cake for brunch, I had Alice take the pupper out for a jog. :) They went out and around the community garden, where I used Alice to evolve all the plants there (and noticed a kava bush had sprouted – hmmm. Might have to sent Victor to collect some of that later). Smiler, meanwhile, flew up to their room and got all their vacation videos out of their drone and started editing them after checking the trends (nothing particularly helpful), and Victor had some fruit pie, called their buddy Felipe on the phone because he was feeling a little lonely (though apparently the call had poor reception. . .on the other hand, Victor found the lack of signal freeing according to his moodlet, so *shrug*), then went back to making candles, trying out his first molded candle with the sage green dye.
H) And then, just as Alice came back from the jog, who should show up at the door but one Knox Greenburg! I was a little puzzled as to why he was visiting, especially in his “Eco Master” mode, but as it turned out, he just wanted to use the recycler, and was willing to give the family some bits and pieces. Alice greeted him and said go right ahead, and then headed upstairs for a shower and a nap. Victor followed to nap with her shortly thereafter, while Smiler – having done a LOT of video editing, and feeling kind of thirsty – flew down to say hi to Knox, chat with them for a while to get to know them better, then asked them politely for a drink. Knox was down, so Smiler happily filled up on some plasma from his wrist – THEN made sure to fill up the cowplant with some meat so poor Knox didn’t get accidentally eaten while he was on the lot. (Also picked up a dog poop to stop anyone stepping on it.) They took a moment to use their Detect Personality powers to learn the rest of Knox’s traits (Recycle Disciple, Green Fiend, and Loves Outdoors, unsurprising), then sent him away so they could use the recycler on some trash in their inventory. :p Victor woke up while this was happening, and I sent him downstairs to clean a dirty Moory (dirty from WHAT, I dunno – was a very pleasant day in Henford-On-Bagley, with no rain to be seen) and milk her again –
I) And then I was like “hang on, I REALLY wanted to go to the Magic Realm today and have Victor try to learn some more potion recipes.” So I had him activate his Glimmerstone and do just that! Bringing Smiler and Alice along afterward, of course – Alice once again needed to get outside anyway. However, before anyone could do anything, I needed to do something very important. Specifically, I needed to activate the “bb.enablefreebuild” cheat –
And then plop down LilSimsie’s incredibly improved Magic Realm HQ! Because the original lot is just kinda horrible and hers actually LOOKS like a place that is full of magic funtimes. Better potion-brewing areas, better bathroom, better kitchen, an actual little dorm upstairs for the sages to sleep in – I can recommend it. I also took a moment to actually put some lot traits on it, now that I could – it has “Chef’s Kitchen” (for better food, and possibly better potions, though I don’t think it applies to that), “Peace & Quiet” (because studying from tomes IS one of the ways you can learn spells and potion recipes in this game), and “Study Spot” (to give all Sims a little skill-gaining boost, along with giving any visiting students the ability to finish their homework faster). So yeah, MUCH improved Magic HQ for all future visits! I am pleased.
J) However, nobody went inside immediately – instead, as the Sages had all been forced to evacuate to the entrance portal by the total replacement of their HQ, I had Smiler officially meet Simeon, and Victor officially meet Morgyn! Smiler just to make a new friend, Victor to get to know Morgyn a little and maybe get a potion recipe off them. Smiler’s conversation with Simeon went very well, Victor’s conversation with Morgyn a little less so – Morgyn asked something of Victor that Victor didn’t like at one point, which didn’t help their relationship gain (I suspect Victor was pestered for juice-fizzing tips again), and Morgyn wandered off before I felt comfortable asking them for a potion recipe. Though Victor DID learn that Morgyn likes Spooky music and dislikes the color brown, so – something? *shrug*
K) Anyway – Victor headed inside the renovated HQ to use the bathroom and then look for tomes, while Alice super-speeded her way down to the portal to Caster’s Alley to paint a lovely picture of the trees there and Smiler flew around digging up capsules from the crystal rocks – two copies of the Dr. F MySim. I need to check if we already have him – though if we don’t, putting him on top of the robotics station that bears his name might be cute. :) Smiler then headed inside to hang out and play some modded Incredible Sports on their laptop (getting Video Game skill level 8 and meeting and befriending the visiting Minerva along the way), while Alice finished up her painting and took a wolf nap on the side of the road to deal with her exhaustion and her instincts to hibernate. Victor, for his part, only found a tome of Delicioso among the books (a spell he already has), so I instead tracked down the sage he already knew from earlier, Simeon, and had them chat for a while in the dorm! Things seemed to be going well. . .
L) And then Simeon got up and left mid-conversation. *facepalm* Okay, I decided I was done with trying to get anything from these Sims and instead had Victor fly his way to Caster’s Alley to check out what the shops had for sale. And, happily, the Wands, Tomes, & Orbs shop had TWO potion books for sale – the Tome of Emotional Stability and the Tome of the Nimble Mind! Nice! I had Victor get those, then check the other stalls – the Brooms & Crystals place didn’t have anything of interest, but the Potion Ingredients shop did have a spotted heart frog, so I got that for later. (Possibly to add to Smiler’s collection – gotta review what they have!) Victor then Deliciosoed up a plate of rack of lamb (fancy!) and ate that on a nearby bench before taking a little nap. XD Poor guy, I did push him hard today. . . Back at HQ, Alice woke up, and I had her transform so she could “mark her territory” with no loss of hygiene, then stopped her trying to go to hunt a couple of times before using her to get the gang home once I was sure they had everything they’d brought with them in their inventories.
M) Back home, I finally allowed Alice to go hunting, then had Victor Scruberoo both himself and Smiler before letting him slump off to bed. Smiler went and made sure the laundry was drying properly, then checked the mail, as I’d noticed a message from the mailperson earlier (claiming they couldn’t reach the box). What was the mysterious mail they’d received?
32 packages of white meat. O.o We see what three roosters gets you for meat then! That all went RIGHT in the fridge, and I sent Smiler upstairs to continue editing videos. Alice came back from her hunt and scarfed down some meat with Shadow on the porch, then went and cleaned up her dish and had a somber howl to lower her Fury while Shadow went upstairs to hang with Smiler briefly. . .
N) And it was shortly after Smiler finished editing their second vacation video, on making their sand sculpture, that I started noticing puddles of sick around the place! O.O Meaning one of the pets is ill! I’m pretty sure it’s Shadow, as she was in all the places with the sick. Alice and Smiler mopped up all the barf puddles, then Alice went back to normal and refilled the pet feeders while Smiler took care of the now-dry laundry and I put up Alice’s cute “dog and cat in hats” picture from before (above the pet feeders in the kitchen, natch) and her painting of the Magic Realm (which naturally went in the séance room, though I had to reshuffle a few things in order to get it in the right spot). I was just about to save there and head out –
O) And then I remembered – nope, there was one other thing I wanted to do. Alice and Victor both got rid of inappropriate lifestyles – time for Smiler to get rid of a trait that no longer suits them! That’s right, I FINALLY got them the re-traiting potion and swapped their “Erratic” trait out for “Geek.” No more showering in the rain from them, hooray! Alice will still try to do it, of course, but I imagine it’ll be easier to stop with just ONE Sim to keep track of!
And THAT is where I left it – and yeah, for a roughly two-hour play session, that was a LOT, wasn’t it? But I’m happy. :) Finally managed to do a bunch of stuff that I kept meaning to do earlier. *nods* And next time, we have Harvestfest! So that’ll be nice! But first, the gang may take their pets on a late-night visit to the vet, if they’re open. . .can’t have Shadow (or Kelly) be sick, and I’ve been meaning to get them spayed anyway. . .
Writing: Edited another chunk of the “Accused” snippet I wrote for Valicer In The Dark, with the gang fleeing the Bluecoats after being accused of Barkis’s murder – having just shown she is Not To Be Trifled With by temporarily taking down all six members of Tannen’s goon squad, Alice followed Victor and Smiler down an alley at top speed, emerging onto a commercial street to try and escape their potential captors. Unfortunately one of the Bluecoats, Thomas, almost managed to catch up with Alice – and her attempt to run across the street to avoid him was thwarted by a carriage pulling up beside her. Fortunately, Alice also happens to have The Devil’s Footsteps, and thus through sheer desperation was able to pull off a variation on her Wonderland quad-jump and leap her way ATOP the carriage. As you might imagine, everyone was very O.O, none more than Alice herself. XD Rabbit told her to worry about it later, though, and she agreed with him, climbing back down and joining Victor and Smiler again in their escape. Next time, it’s Smiler’s turn to show off a special ability (sort of) – one more mundane, but no less effective. . .
YouTube: Again didn’t get to the video that’s been waiting in my Watch Later for ages, but I did get another video done alongside my usual Gray. . .
A) First up, one of Andy’s solo lists from OXBox – “7 Weirdest GTA Side Missions of All Time!” The GTA series may bill itself as mostly dramatic crime simulators, but there is a lot of weirdness lurking in the side missions should you care to look. Like “Black Project” in GTA San Andreas, where you break into Area 69 and steal a jetpack for a weed-smoking hippie named “The Truth!” Or Marty Chonk’s repeating “dog food” missions in GTA III, where your character brings people giving him trouble to his factory, and he turns them into dog food (at least until he makes the mistake of meeting someone trying to take over his business OUTSIDE his office). Or “The Last One” from GTA V, which is a mission unlocked by 100% completion, that sees you hunting a Bigfoot. . .and then discovering it’s a guy in a costume with a very weird and very dangerous (given you were shooting at him a lot) fetish. Yeah, uh, talk about having your cake and eating it too when it comes to tone, huh?
B) And second up, the latest from GrayStillPlays, “Cars vs Lasers in GTA 5!” Or “Lazars,” as Alex kept spelling them for some reason. (Deliberate style choice or another case of “Alex can’t spell?” You decide!) But yes, it was time for another Alex Torture Board, this time using horrible horrible lasers against Gray and his army of potential vehicles. Gray had to figure out the best car to get through the Classic Lazar Wall (a wall of three lasers activated by a stop stick right in front of it – you basically had to tank them, as there was no way around), the Switching Tightrope Lazars (a series of tightrope challenges with a laser gun at the end of each swapping from left to right, forcing Gray to try and dodge the laser before his tires got popped – and with each switch to a new tightrope, the laser swapped faster. . .), the Heat Amplified Lazars (a bunch of UFO-esque platforms with a laser grid underneath them that set the cars on fire from the inside out, doing lazy circles over the roadway – each was also tied to a circle with a stop stick in it to slow Gray down), the Out of Order Lazar Net (a grid wall of lasers Gray had to jump through – only the wall was already damaged, and Gray had to, ideally, time the jump so he went through while the net was off; also, he got a repair kit after that to fix any car that made it that far), the Timed Lazars (a series of three lasers burning into the ground on various timers – the first was six seconds on, about one second off; the second six seconds on, about a half-second off; the third was about seven seconds on, unknown time off but probably another half-second), and finally the Stalking Lazar (a three-beam laser on a wall parallel to the course that chased Gray through a horrible maze, which ended in a series of humps, a windmill, and a couple final stop circles) to reach the win. His initial attempt of a bus didn’t get him far (blew up at the first laser wall), and while he had some decent success with armored vehicles, he just couldn’t get them far enough. No, hilariously, today’s winner was Mom’s Car – aka that tiny pink smart car/Bug with the luggage atop it and the flowery bumper, which won basically because it’s so small and light, it had a much easier time dodging some of the lasers on the earlier parts of the course. Granted, it still took Gray many, MANY attempts to get through the final maze, but he did it on like the millionth try and got the win! . . .the fans are already demanding Alex add lasers to the stalking windmills. XD Oh Gray, your fanbase is so mean to you. . .
Workout: Another night on the bike, another night with Oxventure Presents Blades In The Dark – “The Horrors of Castle Wisenshire!” We left it with Zillah swinging herself off a ledge and sliding down a flying buttress in an attempt to reach Barnaby’s window and reunite with him, but a roll of four meant that, while she made off the ledge and down the buttress, she landed on a kind of brittle and dilapidated roof, and one of her legs went through up to the thigh, causing her to get stuck. Barnaby was like “guess I should throw you a rope” and Zillah called back “check the trunk, I packed some” – and sure enough, there was the D&D standard issue fifty feet of hempen rope in there. Barnaby tied one end to the four-poster bed, then prepared to throw the other with a Finesse roll –
And got double ones. And while Blades in the Dark normally doesn’t have crit failures, Mike commenting that Barnaby probably threw himself out the window after a little too much absinthe inspired Luke to have Barnaby do just that, smashing THROUGH the roof and falling a long way down onto a VERY unforgiving stone floor. Somehow he didn’t break every bone in his body (because Luke I’m sure didn’t want to kill Barnaby off), but he did injure his ankle pretty badly and couldn’t get up. Fortunately, he left the rope dangling through the hole he had made, and Zillah was able to free herself, crawl over, and use the rope to climb down (relying on her massive upper body strength as her leg hurt from getting stuck). As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she saw that they were in a massive circular stone room, with a stone balcony of sorts around it and a big block of stone in the middle. She called for a mini-flashback to try and remember if this might have anything to do with the large circular thing Barnaby and Edvard had shown the others the plans for previously – nope, that was some sort of machine, and this place was positively medieval. Zillah then called for another flashback, stating that she’d spend her time dangling from the ledge while waiting for Bixton to leave reading Uncle Monty’s diary (holding it with one hand and using her mouth to turn the pages). XD Luke allowed this and said that she’d learned that Uncle Monty had originally just tired of society in general and retired to the castle to clear his head and refresh himself. . .only to start hearing a voice as he started clearing out the rooms. A voice that urged him to do something terrible, and then rewarded him with renewed youth and vigor when he performed the deed (which apparently involved spilling blood). Uncle Monty was thrilled and promptly began getting all his friends to the castle to also be renewed and do the bidding of this mysterious voice. . .
Yeaaah, if you hadn’t already guessed, that and the fact that the room they were looking very sacrificial-altary meant that Uncle Monty had founded his own cult. Zillah showed Barnaby the relevant passages once she got down and got him back to his feet (using an old floor-based candelabra to help prop him up), and he was like, “Oh, so that robe in my wardrobe was for a CULTY thing, I see. . .”
And then the doors opened, admitting Uncle Monty and his cult! Zillah, having one split-second to work with, flung herself behind the altar, completely abandoning Barnaby in the process. And unthinkingly taking his crutch with her, leaving him to crumple to the floor in a heap. Uncle Monty was very startled to see Barnaby in there, but Barnaby was easily able to convince the old man that he’d simply had too much to drink and fallen out the window and through the roof (which, to be fair, is indeed mostly the truth). Uncle Monty took a look at his ankle –
And was THRILLED to find it so injured, because what better demonstration of the power of Lord Ixis, his new god, to his nephew than the god healing his leg? Barnaby was taken up onto the stone balcony area by the cultists, and Monty summoned Bixton to light the sacrificial candles and bring the sacrifice – yup, Barnaby’s “valet,” Zillah. Bixton very reluctantly admitted that they’d lost track of Zillah, and an annoyed Uncle Monty told him to grab someone else from the staff, since they had to do this tonight. He began ranting and raving about the power to Lord Ixis and how it would restore the Fortesque family name to one worthy of respect to a very worried Barnaby as Bixton left –
And brought back none other than poor Edith. Cue Barnaby, for probably the first time in his life, having a crisis of conscience – on the one hand, his ankle did hurt terribly, and Edith in his eyes was just a servant. On the other hand, he didn’t actually want her to be sacrificed to this Ixis to rejuvenate the lot of them. So he pointed out to his uncle that Edith’s servant blood was probably extremely weak, and that if they REALLY wanted a kick, they should get someone WEALTHY, so, uh, maybe hold off for another month while they grabbed someone? Uncle Monty was all for the “let’s get someone wealthy with better blood” idea, but said that they couldn’t wait another month –
So he examined his own cultists, found one who had been there since nearly the beginning named Sirus, and had HIM thrown off the balcony and onto the altar! I mean, on the one hand, ouch, on the other, dude kind of deserved it. Bixton got Edith to run back to the kitchen as he finished lighting the candles –
And then the candles flared up into a giant octagonal wall of flame around the altar as a pool of blood filled the depression at its base, and from the pool started to rise the giant, wolf-like form of Lord Ixis. Zillah saw her moment and sprang from her hiding spot, carrying the candelabra in one hand –
And a shard of mirror from the ballroom in the other. Now, getting that shard of mirror in her hand nearly cost her her mind, as Zillah had exactly ONE point of stress left when Jane initiated that flashback (cursing the fact that she hadn’t thought of just narrating it before – she’d KNOWN the broken mirrors were important, but she hadn’t wanted to hold up the action) – fortunately, Luke was a very kind GM and let her fill up the stress tracker WITHOUT having her take a trauma (deciding that if she took any more stress, THAT would put her over the edge). And so Zillah was able to show Lord Ixis his own visage in the mirror shard –
Cue Ixis’s eyes POPPING as Uncle Monty watched in horror (because, you know, Ixis is so BEAUTIFUL he must never see his own reflection). The sight of his own form harmed Ixis but did not banish him – and as Zillah had rolled a four to get him to look at himself, his flailing did end up bisecting the unfortunate Sirus on the altar. On the plus side, the release of all that soul energy did ease the pain in Barnaby’s ankle –
And super-charged Zillah, who – upon seeing that the fire was still blocking her path out because Ixis wasn’t gone – smacked him firmly over the head with the candelabra and caused him to retreat. :D Yes, as you might expect, Zillah managing to fight off a GOD (or, at the very least, a demon lord, as Luke described him) was the bit that I saw in that “best of OXtra” video. :D Tomorrow, we wrap up the last ten minutes with Zillah and Barnaby’s escape and the consequences of their actions! Good times~
Other: In addition to playing mini-golf, we also played beanbags – and, as per Mom’s prediction, I ended up being champ there too. XD I guess I just had a really good day when it came to all sorts of gaming! Poor Mom suffered the most this time, though, never managing to scrape a win despite all her best efforts, while Dad did reasonably good and got a couple of wins when I faltered. Final scores were me W-3-W-W-2; Dad 2-W-2-3-W; Mom 3-2-3-2-3. We may or may not be able to play tomorrow, depending on the weather – if we can, we’ll see if Mom redeems herself!
Whew -- long entry is long, huh? But that's what happens when I have a lot going on. . .tomorrow should be quieter, though, mostly because we're expecting bad weather -- clouds most of the day and rain with possible thunderstorms after 4 PM (Dad thinks this means they'll probably arrive around noon). This of course may have an impact on what I do tomorrow, especially if we end up getting severe thunderstorms early. . . So, in the interest of not overtaxing myself on what could be a "hanging around on my phone" day, goals for tomorrow are to at least finish that VITD Not-Incorrect Quotes post for tumblr queuing on Victor Luvs Alice; watch that damn RE4 Remake Lore video in my Watch Later (as it's Thursday and thus No Gray Day); do some writing (I haven't decided if I'm switching my LB:DQ and VITD days or not this week, but it'll be one of those); and hopefully get my workout in -- but if I can't, finish off the last ten minutes of "The Horrors of Wisenshire Castle!" Hopefully all doable, and hopefully not the only things I will be able to do tomorrow. Night all!
Mini-Golf: Had a very nice morning at the mini-golf place! Went up to one of our usual haunts in Massachusetts, West End Creamery – one of those “dairy farms who decided to add in a mini-golf course and other family entertainment to encourage people to come buy their ice cream” deals. It was a bit busy, but a lot of the families in front of us ended up quitting early (I assume because their kids got bored/upset), so we were able to get through the full 18 holes without having to wait around too much. To everyone’s surprise, Dad proved to be the rustiest at the game (we haven’t played since a trip to this very mini-golf place in summer of 2021), while Mom did really well until one particular hole a little more than halfway through, which gave her enough trouble that she got an eight on it. Meanwhile, I was able to use my past knowledge of the course to score a hole in one on a particular hole (there’s one hole that goes downhill by one of the artificial streams that runs through the course – if you happen to hit your ball into the water on THIS particular hole, it will be swept down onto a grate, and if it rolls across the right spot on the grate, you’ll get a hole in one), and otherwise played well enough that I ended up winning. :) Think the final scores were me 53, Mom 59, and Dad 63 or 68. . .best I’ve done at mini-golf in a while! We then treated ourselves to an ice cream lunch – Dad had a medium cone of pistachio, while I had a small Campfire S’more’s sundae (graham cracker ice cream with chocolate chunks, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a chocolate-dipped marshmallow to go with the cherry on top). Mom didn’t have any ice cream herself, though Dad convinced her to try a little of his pistachio cone, and she tried a little of my sundae once I was done with it (neither Dad or I fully finished our ice creams, they were a little too much – good though). And then we headed back home! Gotta say, nice morning out. :) Friday, the Blithewold gardens! Hopefully that’ll be fun too.
Tumblr: Didn’t get a HECK of a lot done on this today, thanks to going mini-golfing this morning, but I did my best to keep up at least a little on the Victor Luvs Alice dash, and I got some Valicer In The Dark stuff sorted – namely, I queued up the first fanfic snippet I wrote for that verse, “First(ish) Meeting,” for tomorrow, and I came up with a couple more Not-Incorrect Quotes for the new VITD compilation I’m working on that I hope to queue up for Friday! Still need at least one more, though. . .hopefully inspiration will strike tomorrow morning! Along with an idea for a Song Saturday. . .
Sims 4: We actually did get home in time for me to do a proper Sims session – and I couldn’t resist going back into the Chill Valicer Save after having such a good time catching up with my trio yesterday. :) And they had a pretty busy Wednesday themselves, let me tell you –
A) I picked up where I left off yesterday, with Smiler mid-mechanism, Victor having finished experimenting with his cauldron, and Alice having just gotten some freshly-made sugar out of the bulk processor – as Alice was feeling the need to get outside from her werewolf instincts, I had her go out and scavenge in the yard for a little bit while Victor – seeing she’d left a pile of clothes behind when she’d changed into her everyday and surmising from that the hamper was full – went and searched the pockets in the pile before bringing everything to the laundry. As they were doing that, though, I saw that a few plants in the greenhouse were back to being dirt piles, which annoyed me as everything had FINALLY all grown up when the trio had gotten back from their honeymoon –
So I laid down a save and did some shift-clicking, because THAT is how you activate some cheats in this game. Work of a moment to set everything that had reverted to dirt (AKA “just planted”) back to the fully-grown “blossoming” stage. Little Miss Sam, your “gardening fix” mod has done the work for me, but I’m glad I have an option to fix some of this bullshit manually too.
B) Anyway, with that nonsense taken care of, I had Alice take care of a want to “Listen to Classic Music” and took a moment to have her register with the Ministry of Labor as “Owner and Chief Cook” at Van Liddelton Groceries (Smiler did this too the other day, though I don’t remember exactly what I wrote for them – and I can’t check as their career panel glitched out and is just empty these days. Dunno how to fix it), before having her use her newly-created sugar for the purpose I’d intended – namely, making jam! Strawberry jam to start, of course. :) Victor, meanwhile, took a turn on the phonograph to fulfill one of his wants to “Listen Deeply” to music, then used his Copypasto skills on one of his spare Potions of Plentiful Needs because my tumblr friend Squid (or Cas as they are sometimes known) didn’t know you could Copypasto potions! So I promised to do an experiment and show them the results. You can also Repairio potions to make them better quality, which I had Victor do as well. I then had him buy a bunch of dyes from the candle-making bench and start making dipped candles – one regular candle, one sky blue candle. Because if we’re going to have a “bees” shelf in the store, we obviously need beeswax candles to go on it!
C) While all that was going on, Smiler had finished their mechanism – I had them make a blue chatterbot next, then start work on a teal quadcopter since I think we could sell those too. Meanwhile, Alice, noticing Victor had put the laundry in the washing machine but not started it, threw a chrysanthemum in the additives tray and set that going, before speeding off to briefly cry out a sad moodlet upstairs in bed (she is Gloomy, after all), then speeding back down to the studio to do a small impressionism painting (a very cute “dog and cat in hats” picture!). I was feeling pretty good about everything for a minute –
D) And then I noticed the cowplant out front had its cake tongue out. Well, THAT wouldn’t do. I let Victor finish up his candle (getting Fabrication skill 3 in the process, and the ability to do molded candles), then sent him to feed the darn thing. Nearly lost his fingers in the process too! Dang cowplants. . .at any rate, he gave it a little pet, then went to replant all his oversized crops. Smiler, for their part, finished their quadcopter, gave Bugs a tune-up, then went and grabbed all the herbalism supplies they needed (plus the plasma fruit) while Victor started weeding and watering. And as for Alice. . .
E) Well, I’ve been saying it’s time for a culling in that chicken coop! Too many roosters and too many hatchable eggs! And so Alice traded the two unnamed roosters and Grumpy for meat (because I couldn’t resist that option XD). The roosters slunk off into the void while Alice cleaned the coop and scattered some feed for everyone remaining (Cluckina, Leghorna, Cockadoodle, and two unnamed hens). She also gathered the eggs – three poor-quality hatchable ones, which just proved my point about having too many roosters! We’re much better off with just Cockadoodle.
F) Anyway – with the chickens sorted (mostly – a couple of them were unhappy about being dirty, and did NOT appreciate Alice trying to ask them about their preening methods), Alice went inside to make some blueberry jam, while Victor started harvesting the greenhouse and Smiler went to tend to Moory. Or, at least, tried to – after cleaning out her shed, they tried to go in for the hug, but Moory wasn’t having any of it. Annoyed, Smiler tried to remind her of a cowplant’s forgiving nature (really??) and chat with her about other stuff, but she just refused to engage. I guess she wasn’t fond of them trying to get in their personal space! I decided it would be a bad idea for Smiler to try and milk her then and sent them off to check on Shadow instead (the dog was a little spooked about something, so Smiler gave her a nice brush). I instead sent Alice out once she was done with her jam, and her “udderly hilarious” joke went over way better, so she got the first batch of milk instead. :) Sometimes you just gotta know what Sim to use!
G) It was around this time that I noticed that Victor had, for some reason, gotten a new sentiment with someone – a complete rando he only partially knew named Roxanne. And the sentiment was the sad “People Person’s relationship has lapsed” one. Whoops – forgot he had that one too! So I quickly had grab the Lifestyle-Go-Poof potion and poof that – REALLY gotta get that mod that makes it so Sims can have a few more friends than the “Close-Knit” lifestyle currently allows you! Anyway, once that was done, I had him use some super vitality fertilizer on the aubergines (as I think it might be funny to grow another oversized eggplant), then set about having him repairio a bunch of stuff around the farm (wind turbines, water collectors, a broken sink, that grill Guidry scorched) and hit Snappy with some Floralorial. Magic is fun and useful! :D He also went and moved the laundry to the dryer while Alice and Smiler entertained Shadow and Alice gobbled up some leftover wedding cake. XD I noticed around this time though that Shadow clearly wanted a walk, so to make up for letting her eat cake for brunch, I had Alice take the pupper out for a jog. :) They went out and around the community garden, where I used Alice to evolve all the plants there (and noticed a kava bush had sprouted – hmmm. Might have to sent Victor to collect some of that later). Smiler, meanwhile, flew up to their room and got all their vacation videos out of their drone and started editing them after checking the trends (nothing particularly helpful), and Victor had some fruit pie, called their buddy Felipe on the phone because he was feeling a little lonely (though apparently the call had poor reception. . .on the other hand, Victor found the lack of signal freeing according to his moodlet, so *shrug*), then went back to making candles, trying out his first molded candle with the sage green dye.
H) And then, just as Alice came back from the jog, who should show up at the door but one Knox Greenburg! I was a little puzzled as to why he was visiting, especially in his “Eco Master” mode, but as it turned out, he just wanted to use the recycler, and was willing to give the family some bits and pieces. Alice greeted him and said go right ahead, and then headed upstairs for a shower and a nap. Victor followed to nap with her shortly thereafter, while Smiler – having done a LOT of video editing, and feeling kind of thirsty – flew down to say hi to Knox, chat with them for a while to get to know them better, then asked them politely for a drink. Knox was down, so Smiler happily filled up on some plasma from his wrist – THEN made sure to fill up the cowplant with some meat so poor Knox didn’t get accidentally eaten while he was on the lot. (Also picked up a dog poop to stop anyone stepping on it.) They took a moment to use their Detect Personality powers to learn the rest of Knox’s traits (Recycle Disciple, Green Fiend, and Loves Outdoors, unsurprising), then sent him away so they could use the recycler on some trash in their inventory. :p Victor woke up while this was happening, and I sent him downstairs to clean a dirty Moory (dirty from WHAT, I dunno – was a very pleasant day in Henford-On-Bagley, with no rain to be seen) and milk her again –
I) And then I was like “hang on, I REALLY wanted to go to the Magic Realm today and have Victor try to learn some more potion recipes.” So I had him activate his Glimmerstone and do just that! Bringing Smiler and Alice along afterward, of course – Alice once again needed to get outside anyway. However, before anyone could do anything, I needed to do something very important. Specifically, I needed to activate the “bb.enablefreebuild” cheat –
And then plop down LilSimsie’s incredibly improved Magic Realm HQ! Because the original lot is just kinda horrible and hers actually LOOKS like a place that is full of magic funtimes. Better potion-brewing areas, better bathroom, better kitchen, an actual little dorm upstairs for the sages to sleep in – I can recommend it. I also took a moment to actually put some lot traits on it, now that I could – it has “Chef’s Kitchen” (for better food, and possibly better potions, though I don’t think it applies to that), “Peace & Quiet” (because studying from tomes IS one of the ways you can learn spells and potion recipes in this game), and “Study Spot” (to give all Sims a little skill-gaining boost, along with giving any visiting students the ability to finish their homework faster). So yeah, MUCH improved Magic HQ for all future visits! I am pleased.
J) However, nobody went inside immediately – instead, as the Sages had all been forced to evacuate to the entrance portal by the total replacement of their HQ, I had Smiler officially meet Simeon, and Victor officially meet Morgyn! Smiler just to make a new friend, Victor to get to know Morgyn a little and maybe get a potion recipe off them. Smiler’s conversation with Simeon went very well, Victor’s conversation with Morgyn a little less so – Morgyn asked something of Victor that Victor didn’t like at one point, which didn’t help their relationship gain (I suspect Victor was pestered for juice-fizzing tips again), and Morgyn wandered off before I felt comfortable asking them for a potion recipe. Though Victor DID learn that Morgyn likes Spooky music and dislikes the color brown, so – something? *shrug*
K) Anyway – Victor headed inside the renovated HQ to use the bathroom and then look for tomes, while Alice super-speeded her way down to the portal to Caster’s Alley to paint a lovely picture of the trees there and Smiler flew around digging up capsules from the crystal rocks – two copies of the Dr. F MySim. I need to check if we already have him – though if we don’t, putting him on top of the robotics station that bears his name might be cute. :) Smiler then headed inside to hang out and play some modded Incredible Sports on their laptop (getting Video Game skill level 8 and meeting and befriending the visiting Minerva along the way), while Alice finished up her painting and took a wolf nap on the side of the road to deal with her exhaustion and her instincts to hibernate. Victor, for his part, only found a tome of Delicioso among the books (a spell he already has), so I instead tracked down the sage he already knew from earlier, Simeon, and had them chat for a while in the dorm! Things seemed to be going well. . .
L) And then Simeon got up and left mid-conversation. *facepalm* Okay, I decided I was done with trying to get anything from these Sims and instead had Victor fly his way to Caster’s Alley to check out what the shops had for sale. And, happily, the Wands, Tomes, & Orbs shop had TWO potion books for sale – the Tome of Emotional Stability and the Tome of the Nimble Mind! Nice! I had Victor get those, then check the other stalls – the Brooms & Crystals place didn’t have anything of interest, but the Potion Ingredients shop did have a spotted heart frog, so I got that for later. (Possibly to add to Smiler’s collection – gotta review what they have!) Victor then Deliciosoed up a plate of rack of lamb (fancy!) and ate that on a nearby bench before taking a little nap. XD Poor guy, I did push him hard today. . . Back at HQ, Alice woke up, and I had her transform so she could “mark her territory” with no loss of hygiene, then stopped her trying to go to hunt a couple of times before using her to get the gang home once I was sure they had everything they’d brought with them in their inventories.
M) Back home, I finally allowed Alice to go hunting, then had Victor Scruberoo both himself and Smiler before letting him slump off to bed. Smiler went and made sure the laundry was drying properly, then checked the mail, as I’d noticed a message from the mailperson earlier (claiming they couldn’t reach the box). What was the mysterious mail they’d received?
32 packages of white meat. O.o We see what three roosters gets you for meat then! That all went RIGHT in the fridge, and I sent Smiler upstairs to continue editing videos. Alice came back from her hunt and scarfed down some meat with Shadow on the porch, then went and cleaned up her dish and had a somber howl to lower her Fury while Shadow went upstairs to hang with Smiler briefly. . .
N) And it was shortly after Smiler finished editing their second vacation video, on making their sand sculpture, that I started noticing puddles of sick around the place! O.O Meaning one of the pets is ill! I’m pretty sure it’s Shadow, as she was in all the places with the sick. Alice and Smiler mopped up all the barf puddles, then Alice went back to normal and refilled the pet feeders while Smiler took care of the now-dry laundry and I put up Alice’s cute “dog and cat in hats” picture from before (above the pet feeders in the kitchen, natch) and her painting of the Magic Realm (which naturally went in the séance room, though I had to reshuffle a few things in order to get it in the right spot). I was just about to save there and head out –
O) And then I remembered – nope, there was one other thing I wanted to do. Alice and Victor both got rid of inappropriate lifestyles – time for Smiler to get rid of a trait that no longer suits them! That’s right, I FINALLY got them the re-traiting potion and swapped their “Erratic” trait out for “Geek.” No more showering in the rain from them, hooray! Alice will still try to do it, of course, but I imagine it’ll be easier to stop with just ONE Sim to keep track of!
And THAT is where I left it – and yeah, for a roughly two-hour play session, that was a LOT, wasn’t it? But I’m happy. :) Finally managed to do a bunch of stuff that I kept meaning to do earlier. *nods* And next time, we have Harvestfest! So that’ll be nice! But first, the gang may take their pets on a late-night visit to the vet, if they’re open. . .can’t have Shadow (or Kelly) be sick, and I’ve been meaning to get them spayed anyway. . .
Writing: Edited another chunk of the “Accused” snippet I wrote for Valicer In The Dark, with the gang fleeing the Bluecoats after being accused of Barkis’s murder – having just shown she is Not To Be Trifled With by temporarily taking down all six members of Tannen’s goon squad, Alice followed Victor and Smiler down an alley at top speed, emerging onto a commercial street to try and escape their potential captors. Unfortunately one of the Bluecoats, Thomas, almost managed to catch up with Alice – and her attempt to run across the street to avoid him was thwarted by a carriage pulling up beside her. Fortunately, Alice also happens to have The Devil’s Footsteps, and thus through sheer desperation was able to pull off a variation on her Wonderland quad-jump and leap her way ATOP the carriage. As you might imagine, everyone was very O.O, none more than Alice herself. XD Rabbit told her to worry about it later, though, and she agreed with him, climbing back down and joining Victor and Smiler again in their escape. Next time, it’s Smiler’s turn to show off a special ability (sort of) – one more mundane, but no less effective. . .
YouTube: Again didn’t get to the video that’s been waiting in my Watch Later for ages, but I did get another video done alongside my usual Gray. . .
A) First up, one of Andy’s solo lists from OXBox – “7 Weirdest GTA Side Missions of All Time!” The GTA series may bill itself as mostly dramatic crime simulators, but there is a lot of weirdness lurking in the side missions should you care to look. Like “Black Project” in GTA San Andreas, where you break into Area 69 and steal a jetpack for a weed-smoking hippie named “The Truth!” Or Marty Chonk’s repeating “dog food” missions in GTA III, where your character brings people giving him trouble to his factory, and he turns them into dog food (at least until he makes the mistake of meeting someone trying to take over his business OUTSIDE his office). Or “The Last One” from GTA V, which is a mission unlocked by 100% completion, that sees you hunting a Bigfoot. . .and then discovering it’s a guy in a costume with a very weird and very dangerous (given you were shooting at him a lot) fetish. Yeah, uh, talk about having your cake and eating it too when it comes to tone, huh?
B) And second up, the latest from GrayStillPlays, “Cars vs Lasers in GTA 5!” Or “Lazars,” as Alex kept spelling them for some reason. (Deliberate style choice or another case of “Alex can’t spell?” You decide!) But yes, it was time for another Alex Torture Board, this time using horrible horrible lasers against Gray and his army of potential vehicles. Gray had to figure out the best car to get through the Classic Lazar Wall (a wall of three lasers activated by a stop stick right in front of it – you basically had to tank them, as there was no way around), the Switching Tightrope Lazars (a series of tightrope challenges with a laser gun at the end of each swapping from left to right, forcing Gray to try and dodge the laser before his tires got popped – and with each switch to a new tightrope, the laser swapped faster. . .), the Heat Amplified Lazars (a bunch of UFO-esque platforms with a laser grid underneath them that set the cars on fire from the inside out, doing lazy circles over the roadway – each was also tied to a circle with a stop stick in it to slow Gray down), the Out of Order Lazar Net (a grid wall of lasers Gray had to jump through – only the wall was already damaged, and Gray had to, ideally, time the jump so he went through while the net was off; also, he got a repair kit after that to fix any car that made it that far), the Timed Lazars (a series of three lasers burning into the ground on various timers – the first was six seconds on, about one second off; the second six seconds on, about a half-second off; the third was about seven seconds on, unknown time off but probably another half-second), and finally the Stalking Lazar (a three-beam laser on a wall parallel to the course that chased Gray through a horrible maze, which ended in a series of humps, a windmill, and a couple final stop circles) to reach the win. His initial attempt of a bus didn’t get him far (blew up at the first laser wall), and while he had some decent success with armored vehicles, he just couldn’t get them far enough. No, hilariously, today’s winner was Mom’s Car – aka that tiny pink smart car/Bug with the luggage atop it and the flowery bumper, which won basically because it’s so small and light, it had a much easier time dodging some of the lasers on the earlier parts of the course. Granted, it still took Gray many, MANY attempts to get through the final maze, but he did it on like the millionth try and got the win! . . .the fans are already demanding Alex add lasers to the stalking windmills. XD Oh Gray, your fanbase is so mean to you. . .
Workout: Another night on the bike, another night with Oxventure Presents Blades In The Dark – “The Horrors of Castle Wisenshire!” We left it with Zillah swinging herself off a ledge and sliding down a flying buttress in an attempt to reach Barnaby’s window and reunite with him, but a roll of four meant that, while she made off the ledge and down the buttress, she landed on a kind of brittle and dilapidated roof, and one of her legs went through up to the thigh, causing her to get stuck. Barnaby was like “guess I should throw you a rope” and Zillah called back “check the trunk, I packed some” – and sure enough, there was the D&D standard issue fifty feet of hempen rope in there. Barnaby tied one end to the four-poster bed, then prepared to throw the other with a Finesse roll –
And got double ones. And while Blades in the Dark normally doesn’t have crit failures, Mike commenting that Barnaby probably threw himself out the window after a little too much absinthe inspired Luke to have Barnaby do just that, smashing THROUGH the roof and falling a long way down onto a VERY unforgiving stone floor. Somehow he didn’t break every bone in his body (
Yeaaah, if you hadn’t already guessed, that and the fact that the room they were looking very sacrificial-altary meant that Uncle Monty had founded his own cult. Zillah showed Barnaby the relevant passages once she got down and got him back to his feet (using an old floor-based candelabra to help prop him up), and he was like, “Oh, so that robe in my wardrobe was for a CULTY thing, I see. . .”
And then the doors opened, admitting Uncle Monty and his cult! Zillah, having one split-second to work with, flung herself behind the altar, completely abandoning Barnaby in the process. And unthinkingly taking his crutch with her, leaving him to crumple to the floor in a heap. Uncle Monty was very startled to see Barnaby in there, but Barnaby was easily able to convince the old man that he’d simply had too much to drink and fallen out the window and through the roof (which, to be fair, is indeed mostly the truth). Uncle Monty took a look at his ankle –
And was THRILLED to find it so injured, because what better demonstration of the power of Lord Ixis, his new god, to his nephew than the god healing his leg? Barnaby was taken up onto the stone balcony area by the cultists, and Monty summoned Bixton to light the sacrificial candles and bring the sacrifice – yup, Barnaby’s “valet,” Zillah. Bixton very reluctantly admitted that they’d lost track of Zillah, and an annoyed Uncle Monty told him to grab someone else from the staff, since they had to do this tonight. He began ranting and raving about the power to Lord Ixis and how it would restore the Fortesque family name to one worthy of respect to a very worried Barnaby as Bixton left –
And brought back none other than poor Edith. Cue Barnaby, for probably the first time in his life, having a crisis of conscience – on the one hand, his ankle did hurt terribly, and Edith in his eyes was just a servant. On the other hand, he didn’t actually want her to be sacrificed to this Ixis to rejuvenate the lot of them. So he pointed out to his uncle that Edith’s servant blood was probably extremely weak, and that if they REALLY wanted a kick, they should get someone WEALTHY, so, uh, maybe hold off for another month while they grabbed someone? Uncle Monty was all for the “let’s get someone wealthy with better blood” idea, but said that they couldn’t wait another month –
So he examined his own cultists, found one who had been there since nearly the beginning named Sirus, and had HIM thrown off the balcony and onto the altar! I mean, on the one hand, ouch, on the other, dude kind of deserved it. Bixton got Edith to run back to the kitchen as he finished lighting the candles –
And then the candles flared up into a giant octagonal wall of flame around the altar as a pool of blood filled the depression at its base, and from the pool started to rise the giant, wolf-like form of Lord Ixis. Zillah saw her moment and sprang from her hiding spot, carrying the candelabra in one hand –
And a shard of mirror from the ballroom in the other. Now, getting that shard of mirror in her hand nearly cost her her mind, as Zillah had exactly ONE point of stress left when Jane initiated that flashback (cursing the fact that she hadn’t thought of just narrating it before – she’d KNOWN the broken mirrors were important, but she hadn’t wanted to hold up the action) – fortunately, Luke was a very kind GM and let her fill up the stress tracker WITHOUT having her take a trauma (deciding that if she took any more stress, THAT would put her over the edge). And so Zillah was able to show Lord Ixis his own visage in the mirror shard –
Cue Ixis’s eyes POPPING as Uncle Monty watched in horror (because, you know, Ixis is so BEAUTIFUL he must never see his own reflection). The sight of his own form harmed Ixis but did not banish him – and as Zillah had rolled a four to get him to look at himself, his flailing did end up bisecting the unfortunate Sirus on the altar. On the plus side, the release of all that soul energy did ease the pain in Barnaby’s ankle –
And super-charged Zillah, who – upon seeing that the fire was still blocking her path out because Ixis wasn’t gone – smacked him firmly over the head with the candelabra and caused him to retreat. :D Yes, as you might expect, Zillah managing to fight off a GOD (or, at the very least, a demon lord, as Luke described him) was the bit that I saw in that “best of OXtra” video. :D Tomorrow, we wrap up the last ten minutes with Zillah and Barnaby’s escape and the consequences of their actions! Good times~
Other: In addition to playing mini-golf, we also played beanbags – and, as per Mom’s prediction, I ended up being champ there too. XD I guess I just had a really good day when it came to all sorts of gaming! Poor Mom suffered the most this time, though, never managing to scrape a win despite all her best efforts, while Dad did reasonably good and got a couple of wins when I faltered. Final scores were me W-3-W-W-2; Dad 2-W-2-3-W; Mom 3-2-3-2-3. We may or may not be able to play tomorrow, depending on the weather – if we can, we’ll see if Mom redeems herself!
Whew -- long entry is long, huh? But that's what happens when I have a lot going on. . .tomorrow should be quieter, though, mostly because we're expecting bad weather -- clouds most of the day and rain with possible thunderstorms after 4 PM (Dad thinks this means they'll probably arrive around noon). This of course may have an impact on what I do tomorrow, especially if we end up getting severe thunderstorms early. . . So, in the interest of not overtaxing myself on what could be a "hanging around on my phone" day, goals for tomorrow are to at least finish that VITD Not-Incorrect Quotes post for tumblr queuing on Victor Luvs Alice; watch that damn RE4 Remake Lore video in my Watch Later (as it's Thursday and thus No Gray Day); do some writing (I haven't decided if I'm switching my LB:DQ and VITD days or not this week, but it'll be one of those); and hopefully get my workout in -- but if I can't, finish off the last ten minutes of "The Horrors of Wisenshire Castle!" Hopefully all doable, and hopefully not the only things I will be able to do tomorrow. Night all!
