Too Hot Labor Day
Sep. 4th, 2023 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickMy parents were outside busting up the concrete on the side of our house so they can replace it with a proper walkway this morning, but by lunchtime they were back inside and turning the AC, because it was hot and humid today! Apparently made it up into the 90s, according to our little temperature thing! And supposedly it is supposed to be hot and humid all week, until we get some rain on Saturday, which -- not ideal? But I suppose, even if culturally summer's on its way out, the actual season doesn't end until the middle of the month, so. . . Just gotta live with it! And I did manage to get a lot done today while hiding in the AC --
Tumblr: Being Monday, I only had to worry about Victor Luvs Alice, and I made some GREAT progress with the Chill Valicer Save posts – got through putting tags and image alt text on four of the six posts in my drafts and got a good start on the fifth before lunch, then finished off the fifth and got a small start on the alt text of the sixth after dessert and Gray! :D So now I just have to finish up the alt text on the final post and add the tags and I’m sorted! Plus I already know what I want to post for Thursday and Friday of this week, so – hooray for being a little bit ahead of the game! At least for now. :p
Sims 4: Well, despite my best hopes, I didn’t get around to actually OPENING the store today, but I DID get extremely close to finally filling all those shelves. Though in a way that REALLY makes me wish that Copypasto worked on the stuff from Simsonian Library’s bulk food processing mod –
A) Started off with the gang in the barn – Victor was still working on his latest molded candle, and Smiler on their latest chatterbots, with Alice napping after having made a bunch of sugar. . .at least, until Kelly came and work her up. Fortunately, lecturing the cat this time actually taught Kelly not to wake Sims up! Unfortunately, my attempt to have Alice just sleep outside in the lightly-falling snow for a little bit longer was stymied by Shadow demanding attention and glitching it out. So I had her grab some fruit out of the fridge, use her newly-made sugar to make boxes of strawberry and raspberry jam, then head to her and Victor’s ACTUAL bed to catch up on sleep. Need to keep those needs up!
B) With her in bed (and the bulk processor then loaded with milk so the gang could make all sorts of boxes of cheese later), it was up to Victor and Smiler to keep the productivity train going –
Smiler: Upon finishing another chatterbot, I sent them over to the nearest local fishing hole to fish their little hearts out, using all the spare chamomile in their inventory! Because we needed fish to make a product I had so far been neglecting – processed fishcakes! Those will go well with the meat substitute jars, I feel. . . Anyway, Smiler fished for most of the rest of the morning, and brought in a really good haul – a tuna, two sturgeons, a couple of perches, a minnow, and no less than FOUR catfish! I mean, that is pretty damn impressive, I think! Oh, and they got a couple of common upgrade parts too, so, that’s nice I suppose. XD
Victor: For his part, he finished up his canary molded cylindrical candle, then made a shale one with the last block of beeswax and last dye bottle in his inventory. And of course, once THOSE were finally done, it was time to head into the greenhouse, where luckily the plants didn’t need much in the way of tending – just a little weeding of the oversized crops! Of course, Victor himself was feeling pretty tired and hungry by this point, so once he was done, I checked his inventory for a Potion of Plentiful Needs – then, upon not finding one, instead just bought him some moodlet solver so he could get on with the harvest.
C) Alice got up pretty fast thanks to how good that bed is at restoring energy, and quickly joined the productivity train as Victor and Smiler did their things – she emptied the litterboxes, then licked herself clean (she was TRYING to shower in the rain, but I figured she ought to clean herself in the way that gives her a little bit of werewolf XP instead), put some clothes back on, and headed into the barn to make boxes of cheese! She took a brief break to feed Toothy the cowplant, then made a bit more before switching to making sugar for jam-making purposes – an act that SOMEHOW unlocked the “write the Simple Living Cookbook” interaction for her. O.o Game, I don’t think using big industrial food processor to make sugar out of lemons is QUITE in the spirit of that book, even if she IS doing it on a Simple Living lot. XD
Anyway – after that, it was time to check on the chickens! Alice cleaned the coop and scattered feed while Victor, having just finished the harvest, milked Moory (though I was annoyed to see that, for some reason, he couldn’t magically clean her shed anymore! I disapprove). By this point, Smiler had caught enough fish to make a whole box of processed fishcakes, so I had Alice make such, then grab four nice normal nonhatchable eggs from the coop. I then had her make another cheese box while I grabbed a bunch of the wrapped white meat, the blueberries, and the custard out of the fridge and put them in her inventory. Victor scrubbed the plates around the place; Alice let out a somber howl to keep her Fury low and drank her own moodlet solver to keep her needs high; and they both had a little dance break before Smiler finished fishing and pulled out their phone –
D) And sent them all to the store! I spent some time pulling stuff out of everybody’s inventories to put on the shelves – and in the process discovered that you can’t actually SELL wrapped meat. There’s no interaction on it to set it for sale. So I chucked it in the fridge to use in maybe making meals to sell later. Once I had everything that needed to go on the shelves on the shelves (like Smiler’s chatterbots and Alice’s spare custard), everyone started on their usual tasks –
Victor: You guessed it – Copypasto! A little bit here and there to fill in gaps in the shelves, like with that chocolately animal treat and the strawberry and blackberry jams. Once those were settled to my satisfaction, I had Victor cast Repairio on one of Smiler’s Normal-quality flower arrangements to bring it up to Excellent, then prepared to have him scent it with a bluebell to preserve its quality –
Only to find Victor didn’t have the option. Because you get that option at level 4 Flower Arranging, and he was only at level 3. Whoops. So I had him make an arrangement of holly flowers to get to level 4, then had him scent that and the repairioed flowers with the bluebells, giving them the “timeless” scent and pristine freshness. Nice! He also gained another talent point from all his magicking of things – I put it into “Mote Hound,” not because I’m particularly interested in making Victor eat motes, but because the NEXT talent above it is the one that helps reduce spellcaster charge gain, and given how important Copypasto IS to this store, making sure he can cast it a lot without magically electrocuting himself is important!
Alice: Sent straight down to do more bulk processing – namely, making boxes of blackberry jam (and another couple of jars to help fill in the last remaining gap on the shelf there), boxes of mayonnaise and custard (one of each, because we didn’t have the eggs to make more), and another box of raspberry jam because I’d forgotten I’d already done that one. XD To be fair, it helped fill out the shelf under the chocolate sauce and custard! She also made more sugar, because we always need sugar. Along the way, I discovered that the single flour and sugar objects CAN actually be placed in the world, and can even be Copypastoed. . .but they don’t go on the consignment shelves, and thus my hopes of using THEM to fill in some gaps on my shelves were dashed. Meeeh. I ended up just shoving all the random extra boxes of veggie MREs and tomato sauce and whatnot on the shelf with the cheese just to fill it in more!
Smiler: Straight in on the apothecary bench, making more spirit lifter and deodorant gummies! After I made a couple of those, I had them then move over to the OTHER bulk processor and use it to turn their remaining fish into individual cans of fishcakes. They got through two before I noticed that the stove Alice had used to make the blackberry jam had broken and was spewing flame – I had Smiler go over and fix it for her while Alice made her sugar and then finished off making the fishcake cans for them. Smiler then moved to making Red-Hot tablets with some basil taken from Victor (I don’t know WHY you’d want tablets that make your Sim angry, but it’s another product to sell *shrug*) while Alice ran upstairs to watch College Cram on the TV –
E) And then I was like, “Okay, if I want to fill out the shelf with my fishcake cans on it, I am going to need a loooot of fish.” So first Victor, then Alice, and finally Smiler were sent down to the little fishing spots behind their store to fish their hearts out for the rest of the afternoon! And they all had shockingly good days, I must admit –
Victor: Caught a couple of bettas, a tetra, a pair of tunas, an angelfish, a cichlid – and a “Captain Fishbones” Bonefish! THAT one was brought back to their house and put in the aquarium with Overthe, Chewy, and Punchy. XD
Alice: Caught a tetra, a kissing gorami, a goldfish, a betta, a kitchen upgrade part, and a digitalistic sketchpad! XD Well, I had kind of meant to get her one of those eventually. . .she also got to Fishing level 4, which should serve her well when I force her to fish again to help fill these shelves. XD
Smiler: Caught a couple of angelfish, a tilapia, a betta, and a kissing gorami – though they started last, so it only makes sense they’d catch the least. And it was still a pretty damn good day for them!
F) With plenty of fish caught (plus some bonus stuff) as night fell, it was time to move onto other things –
Victor: Deliciosoed himself a piece of pepperoni pizza for dinner and ate that outside at the picnic benches, then made a couple last batches of perfume in energized and focused scents.
Smiler: Made a new flower arrangement (scented with bluebells, of course – when I remembered to yank them out of the flower arranging bench for them to use), then, after a bit of time playing in the fountain, went downstairs to make some more Red-Hot tablets. Got plenty of basil, after all!
Alice: Sold the old wilted flower arrangements for whatever cash they could get, then went downstairs to make two boxes of fishcakes – one to sell as-is, one to crack open – and two more individual cans to fill that shelf. She then transformed and went out for the hunt for meat as she was feeling hungry – and said transformation got her another ability point, which I ended up spending on Nightvision so she could see in the dark better and finish her hunt quicker. Let me tell you, it makes a real difference! She and Victor chatted for a bit as I tried to figure out what else I wanted them to do –
G) But then I saw it was nearly 11 PM at night for them, and getting close to 5 PM for me, and decided, “Okay, probably time to send you guys home.” So after getting Smiler to surge their Inspired emotions (as they’d been doing a lot of “emotionally mindful” activities) and taking a few pictures of the place, everyone went home. Alice turned back to normal, and she and Victor got sent up to bed to catch a bit of sleep, while Smiler decided to go make a wrench at their bar. This got them up to Mixology seven, nice. :) I then spotted a specter in the upstairs hallway and had them fly over and present the drink as a gift – which was not well-received, unfortunately. Damn fussy specters! So Smiler instead went and promoted their old SimsTube videos and fed Toothy while I quickly dumped our new bonefish friend in his new fishtank home before I forgot.
And with THAT, I ended the day. Phew – this store is a hell of a thing, let me tell you! But I’ve FINALLY almost filled in all the gaps. What I need is to get Smiler some more insects and herbalism plants so they can finally make those herbalism potions they don’t have the ingredients for, and see if I can find a spot to put out the various fertilizers and stuff they find, and –
Actually, what I need is a BREAK. XD And with a probable patch coming up soon, I think it’s time to give these Sims a rest as well and maybe do a build project or two. How does everyone feel about conservatories?
Writing: Got another chunk done on the “Home Sweet Lair” snippet of the Valicer In The Dark AU, with Smiler explaining how they came up with Joy Serum (as a prelude to explaining how they got their glowing yellow eyes)! Which – was a little tricky to write, at first, as I wasn’t sure what was in Joy Serum myself in this universe. XD I’d previously gone ahead and stolen “glow orbs” from Sims 4 (they’re a Sixam fruit; Victor’s got some in the Chill Valicer Save because the Henford-On-Bagley garden stand was selling them last time they visited) as an ingredient when I did my second Not-Incorrect Quotes set for this verse, but I wasn’t sure what it was combined with (I kept it vague in the quote), so I had to do some worldbuilding on the fly. Ended up with glow orbs being a special fruit that generates its own form of radiant energy (pure glowing life essence light – you can infuse electroplasm into sea creatures and plants, and occasionally birds so they glow and thus help the plants around them grow) so it doesn’t need outside sources of it to flourish – eating one can put a person into a state of pure bliss for a day, but then they end up so woozy they need two days in bed to recuperate. The Advocates were just juicing them and adding a couple tiny drops of the juice to their food to improve the taste when Smiler joined up, but then they started experimenting with adding “devilroot” and “inkcap ooze” (I know inkcaps are a real type of mushroom, but I think Duskwall’s version would be very different – might change the name during editing) to the juice, and eventually hit upon a combination that, when injected, gave enough of the kick of a straight-up glow orb without causing such debilitating wooziness afterwards! And that’s Joy Serum! :) I have added the basic ingredients to their playbook under their “Alchemist” special ability – and also added “Functioning Vice” as a future upgrade while I was at it, because holy HELL is that a useful ability as per Kasimir in the Oxventure Presents Blades In The Dark series! And it would suit them so well. . . Anyway, we’ll come back to this on Wednesday, with more talk about Mar-Mal and perhaps more adventures in their future lair!
YouTube: Just the one in the Subs today – GrayStillPlays and “Cars vs GIANT TOILET in GTA 5!” An Alex and Petey Torture Board this time, with the pair teaming up to make more completely random bullshit for Gray to jump over! Today, Gray’s challenges included the Toilet Jump (literally what it says on the tin – a jump over a giant freaking toilet, with an actual closing lid and a waterspout of fake poop coming out of it), the COVID Jump (a jump over a giant green COVID particle, with lots of little sticky-out-bits to smack into Gray and make him run on the devil’s treadmill), the Kosatka Jump (had to look this one up – it’s a giant submersible that you can get in the game that’s both driveable AND allows fast travel. This one had wrecked and broken into two pieces, and Gray had to jump them both, getting through the propellers on the tail, one of which had a WHALE stuck in it (fortunately for Gray, the whale had no collision)), the Pumpkin Jump (a giant jack-o-lantern with a spinning green four-pronged stem you had to either avoid or thumbnail hole, and a circle of ghosts going around it with teleporters in them that would dump you back in the toilet), the Transformers Jump (Optimus Prime and what I presume was Bumblebee fighting against a couple of fighter jets at the military base – Gray had to jump over Optimus while avoiding his laser and Bumblebee’s rocket gun), and finally the Dragon Jump (Gray having to leap over the giant spinning coil of a large sea serpent dragon – apparently the Dragonball Z dragon – and into its mouth between its two front teeth – and then manage to ZIP THROUGH THE FIRE INSIDE to the win). As you might imagine, this one proved a tough nut to crack! My beloved Wastelander only BARELY made it past the toilet; the spiked 69 arena Bug made it all the way to the Kosatka, but couldn’t quite get through; the Sprunk stock truck made it to the Transformers, but couldn’t clear Optimus. The winner was a car I would have never expected – I believe it was another arena car, red with a skull on the hood, a spoiler on the back, really wide-set wheels that put it low to the ground, and INCREDIBLE aerodynamics. I mean, this thing could FLY. O.O Most of the course was shockingly easy with this thing – the only trouble Gray had in the end was lining up the thumbnail hole leap into the dragon’s mouth so he didn’t hit one of the teeth and thus get stuck in the fire and/or its opening and closing jaw. But he managed it in the end, and got what was probably one of the most difficult wins of his career yet! *pumps fist* Damn, Gray – you always find a way to impress!
Workout: Back on the bike again today, and onto the final and longest of the Oxventure Presents Blades In The Dark episodes, “Magic, Ghosts, Danger And Death!” This one picked up right where the other one left off, with the whole gang of Hobbyhorses converging on Eleanor’s compromised townhouse after their respective brushes with death in the previous two episodes. Eleanor, who had a pretty nasty wound in her side after her own tangle with the Red Sashes, was shocked (if pleased) to see them all alive, asking how they managed it – Kasimir explained that it had involved a lot of killing, while Edvard said that there was some diplomacy involved as well in their foundry adventure; Barnaby began explaining about the sneaky trapdoor and slide that had whisked away the assassins from Kelly’s townhouse, and everyone was like “what the hell are you talking about,” with Kasimir becoming convinced he and Lilith HADN’T survived their assassination attempt and were now ghosts. XD Zillah did her best to bandage up Eleanor while Eleanor asked what the hell Barnaby and Lilith were doing talking to Kelly and if her sister had asked about her; Barnaby confirmed she had and that she was even kind of interested in mending bridges. Which led to some confusion as Kasimir thought this meant a bridge was out on their route that they were taking with the locomotive (Edvard: “have you been drinking?” Barnaby: “would you LIKE to be drinking?”), which then led to Lilith trying to explain more about how the whole thing with the trapdoor in Kelly’s safehouse worked and bringing up Cart-On-The-Road, their new cat-person buddy (Edvard: “have YOU been drinking??” Barnaby: “ALWAYS”), and Zillah desperately trying to get Edvard to do a transfusion between her and Eleanor so she didn’t bleed out while all this was going on (Edvard: “we don’t know if you’re compatible blood types!” Kasimir: “there’s only two, blue and red.” Edvard: “Nope, I’ve seen black at least once.”). Basically everyone was very stressed and nobody knew what the hell any of the others were talking about. XD
Anyway – Eleanor cut in saying that further discussion and also any blood transfusions of any color could continue once they were on the train, as they had to get out of town post-haste! She was also suspicious of Kelly’s duplicitous nature, but said if the others thought she should come along on this venture, she’d allow it. The gang thought it would be useful to have someone who knew a lot about the Barricade on the trip, and Lilith pointed out that she DID owe them for saving her life from the Red Sashes, so the decision was made to bring her along. Edvard promptly tried to enlist the aid of a street urchin to fetch her (and a plump turkey or goose for the journey) – the FIRST one pocketed Edvard’s shilling and then began demanding more cash, so Edvard hit him with sleeping gas and took the money back, leading the second one to apologize and explain he was new to urchin jobs. He took the shilling and went to grab Kelly and the bird, and the gang smash-cut to the Gut-Cutter’s train shed, where their train (still dressed as a dog) and Barnaby’s personal carriage (which was, much like himself, opulent but overdone to the point where it was a bit gauche) were waiting. Bug asked if the Hobbyhorses wanted their help, and it was agreed that he and Mumbles could come along. The urchin arrived with what was eventually determined to be a “gurkey” (a goose stuffed inside a turkey, as Andy could not keep the type of bird he wanted straight) and Kelly, who studiously avoided her sister like she’d met her ex at a fancy party. With all passengers aboard, the train was prepped, the carriage attached –
And the gang set out! On a day-long train journey that allowed them a moment or two of downtime to rest, relax, and enjoy Edvard’s gurkey meal. Zillah focused on healing the rest of her “goat-smashed” damage and got it down to just painful bruises; Barnaby gave his eyes a thorough gin bath and managed to actually heal them of all their sand-blasting damage; Kasimir FINALLY got his soul-curse damage down to a dull roar and spent some time rubbing various unguents into his leg to lower his stress as Lilith sat near him and read murder mystery magazines to chill out herself (though she was unable to “heal” her “creeped out by Rosie and Josie” damage) and Edvard chatted with Kelly nearby to indulge his passions for the weird (agreeing, when she asked, to let her go through the gap between worlds – he’d do it with her, but he has this mortgage. . .). Edvard ALSO used his powerful sparkcraft prowess to build a special tablet that would allow him to remotely issue directions and see through the eyes of a new Wonderful Mechanical Man (let’s call him WMM-R) – it was a big improvement on his apple watch, which was literally just a pocket watch stuck in an apple. XD Oh, and after going through one ghost field going out of Volisport, and another upon getting near the barricade, Kasimir FINALLY twigged that Barnaby and Lilith were still alive and apologized for thinking they were super-ghosts or something. Lilith assured him she was fine and got him to introduce her to his new ghost seagull Coleridge (who was immune to the ghost fields due to being so tightly bonded to Kasimir). She then unwisely offered it some sweets, which it cheerfully gulped down before she could get them away and began basically dancing on Kasimir’s shoulder. XD Oh, and the gang got to see how Barnaby slept – like a baby, which meant he shrieked a lot and wet the bed a few times. According to him, it’s easier than getting up, given how much he drinks. XD Pretty chaotic train journey, is what I’m saying. But, on the plus side, Edvard’s gurkey meal was so good, everyone now gets to add a bonus die to whatever roll they choose on this adventure. :)
Eventually, though, the train (which, by the way, was being driven by Bugs and Mumbles, which should probably be concerning but then again I think these children are probably the most competent ones of the lot XD) came up to the little train “carpark” at the foot of the mountains where the Barricade was located. There were a couple of trains there, including one clearly made by Astor, but no people. The gang discussed their options, asking Kelly for her opinion on what the best way to go in was. Kelly explained that the only REAL entrance was the main one, which led to an elevator that took you to the sub-floor in the earth where the Barricade was actually located – THEORETICALLY, someone could sneak in through the vents, but as she pointed out, said vents are constantly spewing various poisonous gasses. Edvard immediately regretted not making himself immune to poison earlier (which is a legit thing Leeches can do). Fortunately, Zillah pointed out that the WMM-R would be immune to poisons, and it was agreed to send it ahead to scout. Edvard popped it out of his rucksack, put it together, and turned it on –
Cue the WMM-R very dramatically announcing he was alive and starting to go on about existence. A frustrated Edvard (“I don’t PROGRAM them to be this dramatic!”) began tinkering with his internal wiring, then turned him off and on again, only for the WMM-R to state he had many thoughts about the concept of life and robots and that he wished to write a treatise. Edvard said “I can turn him on remotely once we get him down the vent” and promptly turned him off again. XD He and Zillah then prepared to make the difficult journey up to the vent to drop the WMM-R in to scout around, with Barnaby, Lilith, and Kasimir staying at ground-level to maybe find another entrance or a way to sneak in. Luke gathered up all the dice for the engagement roll (including giving them one just because he wanted to), rolled –
PUP crit! (AKA the die he rolled has a PUP instead of a six, so that counts as a six.) So they’re in a very good position to start this final adventure – we’ll see how long THAT state of affairs lasts! Ooh, I’m excited. . . :D
*whew* Definitely kept busy! But in a good way. :) Though yes, I think I'll be happy to leave "desperately filling the store in the Chill Valicer Save" behind me for a weekend or two! A few build mode sessions, and I should be ready to get back to it. . .though I do have a thought about maybe getting them some help. Because, well, Smiler in this save could build their OWN Wonderful Mechanical Man now, if they wanted. . .just have to gather all the parts. . .we'll see if anything comes of that. Night all!
Tumblr: Being Monday, I only had to worry about Victor Luvs Alice, and I made some GREAT progress with the Chill Valicer Save posts – got through putting tags and image alt text on four of the six posts in my drafts and got a good start on the fifth before lunch, then finished off the fifth and got a small start on the alt text of the sixth after dessert and Gray! :D So now I just have to finish up the alt text on the final post and add the tags and I’m sorted! Plus I already know what I want to post for Thursday and Friday of this week, so – hooray for being a little bit ahead of the game! At least for now. :p
Sims 4: Well, despite my best hopes, I didn’t get around to actually OPENING the store today, but I DID get extremely close to finally filling all those shelves. Though in a way that REALLY makes me wish that Copypasto worked on the stuff from Simsonian Library’s bulk food processing mod –
A) Started off with the gang in the barn – Victor was still working on his latest molded candle, and Smiler on their latest chatterbots, with Alice napping after having made a bunch of sugar. . .at least, until Kelly came and work her up. Fortunately, lecturing the cat this time actually taught Kelly not to wake Sims up! Unfortunately, my attempt to have Alice just sleep outside in the lightly-falling snow for a little bit longer was stymied by Shadow demanding attention and glitching it out. So I had her grab some fruit out of the fridge, use her newly-made sugar to make boxes of strawberry and raspberry jam, then head to her and Victor’s ACTUAL bed to catch up on sleep. Need to keep those needs up!
B) With her in bed (and the bulk processor then loaded with milk so the gang could make all sorts of boxes of cheese later), it was up to Victor and Smiler to keep the productivity train going –
Smiler: Upon finishing another chatterbot, I sent them over to the nearest local fishing hole to fish their little hearts out, using all the spare chamomile in their inventory! Because we needed fish to make a product I had so far been neglecting – processed fishcakes! Those will go well with the meat substitute jars, I feel. . . Anyway, Smiler fished for most of the rest of the morning, and brought in a really good haul – a tuna, two sturgeons, a couple of perches, a minnow, and no less than FOUR catfish! I mean, that is pretty damn impressive, I think! Oh, and they got a couple of common upgrade parts too, so, that’s nice I suppose. XD
Victor: For his part, he finished up his canary molded cylindrical candle, then made a shale one with the last block of beeswax and last dye bottle in his inventory. And of course, once THOSE were finally done, it was time to head into the greenhouse, where luckily the plants didn’t need much in the way of tending – just a little weeding of the oversized crops! Of course, Victor himself was feeling pretty tired and hungry by this point, so once he was done, I checked his inventory for a Potion of Plentiful Needs – then, upon not finding one, instead just bought him some moodlet solver so he could get on with the harvest.
C) Alice got up pretty fast thanks to how good that bed is at restoring energy, and quickly joined the productivity train as Victor and Smiler did their things – she emptied the litterboxes, then licked herself clean (she was TRYING to shower in the rain, but I figured she ought to clean herself in the way that gives her a little bit of werewolf XP instead), put some clothes back on, and headed into the barn to make boxes of cheese! She took a brief break to feed Toothy the cowplant, then made a bit more before switching to making sugar for jam-making purposes – an act that SOMEHOW unlocked the “write the Simple Living Cookbook” interaction for her. O.o Game, I don’t think using big industrial food processor to make sugar out of lemons is QUITE in the spirit of that book, even if she IS doing it on a Simple Living lot. XD
Anyway – after that, it was time to check on the chickens! Alice cleaned the coop and scattered feed while Victor, having just finished the harvest, milked Moory (though I was annoyed to see that, for some reason, he couldn’t magically clean her shed anymore! I disapprove). By this point, Smiler had caught enough fish to make a whole box of processed fishcakes, so I had Alice make such, then grab four nice normal nonhatchable eggs from the coop. I then had her make another cheese box while I grabbed a bunch of the wrapped white meat, the blueberries, and the custard out of the fridge and put them in her inventory. Victor scrubbed the plates around the place; Alice let out a somber howl to keep her Fury low and drank her own moodlet solver to keep her needs high; and they both had a little dance break before Smiler finished fishing and pulled out their phone –
D) And sent them all to the store! I spent some time pulling stuff out of everybody’s inventories to put on the shelves – and in the process discovered that you can’t actually SELL wrapped meat. There’s no interaction on it to set it for sale. So I chucked it in the fridge to use in maybe making meals to sell later. Once I had everything that needed to go on the shelves on the shelves (like Smiler’s chatterbots and Alice’s spare custard), everyone started on their usual tasks –
Victor: You guessed it – Copypasto! A little bit here and there to fill in gaps in the shelves, like with that chocolately animal treat and the strawberry and blackberry jams. Once those were settled to my satisfaction, I had Victor cast Repairio on one of Smiler’s Normal-quality flower arrangements to bring it up to Excellent, then prepared to have him scent it with a bluebell to preserve its quality –
Only to find Victor didn’t have the option. Because you get that option at level 4 Flower Arranging, and he was only at level 3. Whoops. So I had him make an arrangement of holly flowers to get to level 4, then had him scent that and the repairioed flowers with the bluebells, giving them the “timeless” scent and pristine freshness. Nice! He also gained another talent point from all his magicking of things – I put it into “Mote Hound,” not because I’m particularly interested in making Victor eat motes, but because the NEXT talent above it is the one that helps reduce spellcaster charge gain, and given how important Copypasto IS to this store, making sure he can cast it a lot without magically electrocuting himself is important!
Alice: Sent straight down to do more bulk processing – namely, making boxes of blackberry jam (and another couple of jars to help fill in the last remaining gap on the shelf there), boxes of mayonnaise and custard (one of each, because we didn’t have the eggs to make more), and another box of raspberry jam because I’d forgotten I’d already done that one. XD To be fair, it helped fill out the shelf under the chocolate sauce and custard! She also made more sugar, because we always need sugar. Along the way, I discovered that the single flour and sugar objects CAN actually be placed in the world, and can even be Copypastoed. . .but they don’t go on the consignment shelves, and thus my hopes of using THEM to fill in some gaps on my shelves were dashed. Meeeh. I ended up just shoving all the random extra boxes of veggie MREs and tomato sauce and whatnot on the shelf with the cheese just to fill it in more!
Smiler: Straight in on the apothecary bench, making more spirit lifter and deodorant gummies! After I made a couple of those, I had them then move over to the OTHER bulk processor and use it to turn their remaining fish into individual cans of fishcakes. They got through two before I noticed that the stove Alice had used to make the blackberry jam had broken and was spewing flame – I had Smiler go over and fix it for her while Alice made her sugar and then finished off making the fishcake cans for them. Smiler then moved to making Red-Hot tablets with some basil taken from Victor (I don’t know WHY you’d want tablets that make your Sim angry, but it’s another product to sell *shrug*) while Alice ran upstairs to watch College Cram on the TV –
E) And then I was like, “Okay, if I want to fill out the shelf with my fishcake cans on it, I am going to need a loooot of fish.” So first Victor, then Alice, and finally Smiler were sent down to the little fishing spots behind their store to fish their hearts out for the rest of the afternoon! And they all had shockingly good days, I must admit –
Victor: Caught a couple of bettas, a tetra, a pair of tunas, an angelfish, a cichlid – and a “Captain Fishbones” Bonefish! THAT one was brought back to their house and put in the aquarium with Overthe, Chewy, and Punchy. XD
Alice: Caught a tetra, a kissing gorami, a goldfish, a betta, a kitchen upgrade part, and a digitalistic sketchpad! XD Well, I had kind of meant to get her one of those eventually. . .she also got to Fishing level 4, which should serve her well when I force her to fish again to help fill these shelves. XD
Smiler: Caught a couple of angelfish, a tilapia, a betta, and a kissing gorami – though they started last, so it only makes sense they’d catch the least. And it was still a pretty damn good day for them!
F) With plenty of fish caught (plus some bonus stuff) as night fell, it was time to move onto other things –
Victor: Deliciosoed himself a piece of pepperoni pizza for dinner and ate that outside at the picnic benches, then made a couple last batches of perfume in energized and focused scents.
Smiler: Made a new flower arrangement (scented with bluebells, of course – when I remembered to yank them out of the flower arranging bench for them to use), then, after a bit of time playing in the fountain, went downstairs to make some more Red-Hot tablets. Got plenty of basil, after all!
Alice: Sold the old wilted flower arrangements for whatever cash they could get, then went downstairs to make two boxes of fishcakes – one to sell as-is, one to crack open – and two more individual cans to fill that shelf. She then transformed and went out for the hunt for meat as she was feeling hungry – and said transformation got her another ability point, which I ended up spending on Nightvision so she could see in the dark better and finish her hunt quicker. Let me tell you, it makes a real difference! She and Victor chatted for a bit as I tried to figure out what else I wanted them to do –
G) But then I saw it was nearly 11 PM at night for them, and getting close to 5 PM for me, and decided, “Okay, probably time to send you guys home.” So after getting Smiler to surge their Inspired emotions (as they’d been doing a lot of “emotionally mindful” activities) and taking a few pictures of the place, everyone went home. Alice turned back to normal, and she and Victor got sent up to bed to catch a bit of sleep, while Smiler decided to go make a wrench at their bar. This got them up to Mixology seven, nice. :) I then spotted a specter in the upstairs hallway and had them fly over and present the drink as a gift – which was not well-received, unfortunately. Damn fussy specters! So Smiler instead went and promoted their old SimsTube videos and fed Toothy while I quickly dumped our new bonefish friend in his new fishtank home before I forgot.
And with THAT, I ended the day. Phew – this store is a hell of a thing, let me tell you! But I’ve FINALLY almost filled in all the gaps. What I need is to get Smiler some more insects and herbalism plants so they can finally make those herbalism potions they don’t have the ingredients for, and see if I can find a spot to put out the various fertilizers and stuff they find, and –
Actually, what I need is a BREAK. XD And with a probable patch coming up soon, I think it’s time to give these Sims a rest as well and maybe do a build project or two. How does everyone feel about conservatories?
Writing: Got another chunk done on the “Home Sweet Lair” snippet of the Valicer In The Dark AU, with Smiler explaining how they came up with Joy Serum (as a prelude to explaining how they got their glowing yellow eyes)! Which – was a little tricky to write, at first, as I wasn’t sure what was in Joy Serum myself in this universe. XD I’d previously gone ahead and stolen “glow orbs” from Sims 4 (they’re a Sixam fruit; Victor’s got some in the Chill Valicer Save because the Henford-On-Bagley garden stand was selling them last time they visited) as an ingredient when I did my second Not-Incorrect Quotes set for this verse, but I wasn’t sure what it was combined with (I kept it vague in the quote), so I had to do some worldbuilding on the fly. Ended up with glow orbs being a special fruit that generates its own form of radiant energy (pure glowing life essence light – you can infuse electroplasm into sea creatures and plants, and occasionally birds so they glow and thus help the plants around them grow) so it doesn’t need outside sources of it to flourish – eating one can put a person into a state of pure bliss for a day, but then they end up so woozy they need two days in bed to recuperate. The Advocates were just juicing them and adding a couple tiny drops of the juice to their food to improve the taste when Smiler joined up, but then they started experimenting with adding “devilroot” and “inkcap ooze” (I know inkcaps are a real type of mushroom, but I think Duskwall’s version would be very different – might change the name during editing) to the juice, and eventually hit upon a combination that, when injected, gave enough of the kick of a straight-up glow orb without causing such debilitating wooziness afterwards! And that’s Joy Serum! :) I have added the basic ingredients to their playbook under their “Alchemist” special ability – and also added “Functioning Vice” as a future upgrade while I was at it, because holy HELL is that a useful ability as per Kasimir in the Oxventure Presents Blades In The Dark series! And it would suit them so well. . . Anyway, we’ll come back to this on Wednesday, with more talk about Mar-Mal and perhaps more adventures in their future lair!
YouTube: Just the one in the Subs today – GrayStillPlays and “Cars vs GIANT TOILET in GTA 5!” An Alex and Petey Torture Board this time, with the pair teaming up to make more completely random bullshit for Gray to jump over! Today, Gray’s challenges included the Toilet Jump (literally what it says on the tin – a jump over a giant freaking toilet, with an actual closing lid and a waterspout of fake poop coming out of it), the COVID Jump (a jump over a giant green COVID particle, with lots of little sticky-out-bits to smack into Gray and make him run on the devil’s treadmill), the Kosatka Jump (had to look this one up – it’s a giant submersible that you can get in the game that’s both driveable AND allows fast travel. This one had wrecked and broken into two pieces, and Gray had to jump them both, getting through the propellers on the tail, one of which had a WHALE stuck in it (fortunately for Gray, the whale had no collision)), the Pumpkin Jump (a giant jack-o-lantern with a spinning green four-pronged stem you had to either avoid or thumbnail hole, and a circle of ghosts going around it with teleporters in them that would dump you back in the toilet), the Transformers Jump (Optimus Prime and what I presume was Bumblebee fighting against a couple of fighter jets at the military base – Gray had to jump over Optimus while avoiding his laser and Bumblebee’s rocket gun), and finally the Dragon Jump (Gray having to leap over the giant spinning coil of a large sea serpent dragon – apparently the Dragonball Z dragon – and into its mouth between its two front teeth – and then manage to ZIP THROUGH THE FIRE INSIDE to the win). As you might imagine, this one proved a tough nut to crack! My beloved Wastelander only BARELY made it past the toilet; the spiked 69 arena Bug made it all the way to the Kosatka, but couldn’t quite get through; the Sprunk stock truck made it to the Transformers, but couldn’t clear Optimus. The winner was a car I would have never expected – I believe it was another arena car, red with a skull on the hood, a spoiler on the back, really wide-set wheels that put it low to the ground, and INCREDIBLE aerodynamics. I mean, this thing could FLY. O.O Most of the course was shockingly easy with this thing – the only trouble Gray had in the end was lining up the thumbnail hole leap into the dragon’s mouth so he didn’t hit one of the teeth and thus get stuck in the fire and/or its opening and closing jaw. But he managed it in the end, and got what was probably one of the most difficult wins of his career yet! *pumps fist* Damn, Gray – you always find a way to impress!
Workout: Back on the bike again today, and onto the final and longest of the Oxventure Presents Blades In The Dark episodes, “Magic, Ghosts, Danger And Death!” This one picked up right where the other one left off, with the whole gang of Hobbyhorses converging on Eleanor’s compromised townhouse after their respective brushes with death in the previous two episodes. Eleanor, who had a pretty nasty wound in her side after her own tangle with the Red Sashes, was shocked (if pleased) to see them all alive, asking how they managed it – Kasimir explained that it had involved a lot of killing, while Edvard said that there was some diplomacy involved as well in their foundry adventure; Barnaby began explaining about the sneaky trapdoor and slide that had whisked away the assassins from Kelly’s townhouse, and everyone was like “what the hell are you talking about,” with Kasimir becoming convinced he and Lilith HADN’T survived their assassination attempt and were now ghosts. XD Zillah did her best to bandage up Eleanor while Eleanor asked what the hell Barnaby and Lilith were doing talking to Kelly and if her sister had asked about her; Barnaby confirmed she had and that she was even kind of interested in mending bridges. Which led to some confusion as Kasimir thought this meant a bridge was out on their route that they were taking with the locomotive (Edvard: “have you been drinking?” Barnaby: “would you LIKE to be drinking?”), which then led to Lilith trying to explain more about how the whole thing with the trapdoor in Kelly’s safehouse worked and bringing up Cart-On-The-Road, their new cat-person buddy (Edvard: “have YOU been drinking??” Barnaby: “ALWAYS”), and Zillah desperately trying to get Edvard to do a transfusion between her and Eleanor so she didn’t bleed out while all this was going on (Edvard: “we don’t know if you’re compatible blood types!” Kasimir: “there’s only two, blue and red.” Edvard: “Nope, I’ve seen black at least once.”). Basically everyone was very stressed and nobody knew what the hell any of the others were talking about. XD
Anyway – Eleanor cut in saying that further discussion and also any blood transfusions of any color could continue once they were on the train, as they had to get out of town post-haste! She was also suspicious of Kelly’s duplicitous nature, but said if the others thought she should come along on this venture, she’d allow it. The gang thought it would be useful to have someone who knew a lot about the Barricade on the trip, and Lilith pointed out that she DID owe them for saving her life from the Red Sashes, so the decision was made to bring her along. Edvard promptly tried to enlist the aid of a street urchin to fetch her (and a plump turkey or goose for the journey) – the FIRST one pocketed Edvard’s shilling and then began demanding more cash, so Edvard hit him with sleeping gas and took the money back, leading the second one to apologize and explain he was new to urchin jobs. He took the shilling and went to grab Kelly and the bird, and the gang smash-cut to the Gut-Cutter’s train shed, where their train (still dressed as a dog) and Barnaby’s personal carriage (which was, much like himself, opulent but overdone to the point where it was a bit gauche) were waiting. Bug asked if the Hobbyhorses wanted their help, and it was agreed that he and Mumbles could come along. The urchin arrived with what was eventually determined to be a “gurkey” (a goose stuffed inside a turkey, as Andy could not keep the type of bird he wanted straight) and Kelly, who studiously avoided her sister like she’d met her ex at a fancy party. With all passengers aboard, the train was prepped, the carriage attached –
And the gang set out! On a day-long train journey that allowed them a moment or two of downtime to rest, relax, and enjoy Edvard’s gurkey meal. Zillah focused on healing the rest of her “goat-smashed” damage and got it down to just painful bruises; Barnaby gave his eyes a thorough gin bath and managed to actually heal them of all their sand-blasting damage; Kasimir FINALLY got his soul-curse damage down to a dull roar and spent some time rubbing various unguents into his leg to lower his stress as Lilith sat near him and read murder mystery magazines to chill out herself (though she was unable to “heal” her “creeped out by Rosie and Josie” damage) and Edvard chatted with Kelly nearby to indulge his passions for the weird (agreeing, when she asked, to let her go through the gap between worlds – he’d do it with her, but he has this mortgage. . .). Edvard ALSO used his powerful sparkcraft prowess to build a special tablet that would allow him to remotely issue directions and see through the eyes of a new Wonderful Mechanical Man (let’s call him WMM-R) – it was a big improvement on his apple watch, which was literally just a pocket watch stuck in an apple. XD Oh, and after going through one ghost field going out of Volisport, and another upon getting near the barricade, Kasimir FINALLY twigged that Barnaby and Lilith were still alive and apologized for thinking they were super-ghosts or something. Lilith assured him she was fine and got him to introduce her to his new ghost seagull Coleridge (who was immune to the ghost fields due to being so tightly bonded to Kasimir). She then unwisely offered it some sweets, which it cheerfully gulped down before she could get them away and began basically dancing on Kasimir’s shoulder. XD Oh, and the gang got to see how Barnaby slept – like a baby, which meant he shrieked a lot and wet the bed a few times. According to him, it’s easier than getting up, given how much he drinks. XD Pretty chaotic train journey, is what I’m saying. But, on the plus side, Edvard’s gurkey meal was so good, everyone now gets to add a bonus die to whatever roll they choose on this adventure. :)
Eventually, though, the train (which, by the way, was being driven by Bugs and Mumbles, which should probably be concerning but then again I think these children are probably the most competent ones of the lot XD) came up to the little train “carpark” at the foot of the mountains where the Barricade was located. There were a couple of trains there, including one clearly made by Astor, but no people. The gang discussed their options, asking Kelly for her opinion on what the best way to go in was. Kelly explained that the only REAL entrance was the main one, which led to an elevator that took you to the sub-floor in the earth where the Barricade was actually located – THEORETICALLY, someone could sneak in through the vents, but as she pointed out, said vents are constantly spewing various poisonous gasses. Edvard immediately regretted not making himself immune to poison earlier (which is a legit thing Leeches can do). Fortunately, Zillah pointed out that the WMM-R would be immune to poisons, and it was agreed to send it ahead to scout. Edvard popped it out of his rucksack, put it together, and turned it on –
Cue the WMM-R very dramatically announcing he was alive and starting to go on about existence. A frustrated Edvard (“I don’t PROGRAM them to be this dramatic!”) began tinkering with his internal wiring, then turned him off and on again, only for the WMM-R to state he had many thoughts about the concept of life and robots and that he wished to write a treatise. Edvard said “I can turn him on remotely once we get him down the vent” and promptly turned him off again. XD He and Zillah then prepared to make the difficult journey up to the vent to drop the WMM-R in to scout around, with Barnaby, Lilith, and Kasimir staying at ground-level to maybe find another entrance or a way to sneak in. Luke gathered up all the dice for the engagement roll (including giving them one just because he wanted to), rolled –
PUP crit! (AKA the die he rolled has a PUP instead of a six, so that counts as a six.) So they’re in a very good position to start this final adventure – we’ll see how long THAT state of affairs lasts! Ooh, I’m excited. . . :D
*whew* Definitely kept busy! But in a good way. :) Though yes, I think I'll be happy to leave "desperately filling the store in the Chill Valicer Save" behind me for a weekend or two! A few build mode sessions, and I should be ready to get back to it. . .though I do have a thought about maybe getting them some help. Because, well, Smiler in this save could build their OWN Wonderful Mechanical Man now, if they wanted. . .just have to gather all the parts. . .we'll see if anything comes of that. Night all!
