Better Than Expected Saturday
Jan. 13th, 2024 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickI was a little worried it was gonna be bad early on (I woke up early and couldn't quite get back to sleep, and my parents had an argument this morning that made the mood around the house not-great), but it actually turned out to be a decently productive day, at least in a few respects --
Cleaning: As usual, took more of the day than I wanted – but then again, I had to wash not only my sheets this time, but also my blankets, bathrobe, and pajamas, so that added some time to the whole process. Started around 10:30 AM with stripping my bed and doing the initial dusting, and finished off by getting my final load of laundry out of the dryer a little after 4 PM. I mean, by THAT point, I’d finished all my cleaning and started doing other things as well, but still. Keeping your space neat can be hard, yo! At least I only have to worry about it every other week. . .
Tumblr: Also as usual, a cleaning Saturday means I didn’t really get anything done over here today –
Victor Luvs Alice – Just kept up with the dash over here – though my Song Saturday post featuring “Parachute” and my joking write-up of how I’m stealing the song from the Leverage OT3 shippers for my own Valicer OT3 ended up being reblogged by the blog I originally saw the video on, meaning a lot of people who like poly ships are liking it from there. XD Hey, just spreading the love!
Valice Multiverse – Dead quiet over here (I’m guessing Marie found moving into a new place more exhausting than she anticipated – I know the feeling), so I just threw the belated birthday fanart of Victor and Alice I got the other day into the queue. :p It works!
Sims 4: Got to it later than I wanted, and had to interrupt myself midway through the session to get the last of my laundry (see above) and my afternoon cookies, but I did end up having a very pleasant, very productive Spring Thursday in my Chill Valicer save –
A) Started with everyone hanging out outside by Toothy’s pen, where I last left them while doing the house upgrades – I decided that the best course of action would be to send Smiler into the barn to make another computer chip; let Victor get some leftovers from the fridge; and have Alice (still in werewolf form) lick herself clean before directing her to do some push-ups outside to work on that sweet, sweet Fitness skill. *nods* I thus queued up the actions, and everyone started on their assigned tasks. . .
And the house immediately started playing spooky organ music, distracting everyone from said tasks. *shakehead* Damn haunted houses! At least I was able to get everyone back on track right away. . . Anyway, once Alice was done with her push-ups, she had a glass of water to rehydrate while Victor cleaned up his (and her) dishes and evolved some plants in the greenhouse. I then had her grab Shadow’s latest pet poop from the porch and fertilize the newly-grown coconut tree (as I AGAIN reset the damn bugged weedy plants in that one planter, along with the juice fizzer), before sending her to harvest the new patches of prairie grass in the cow pen to get some hay! Because now that I have Horse Ranch, I can use that hay to refill Moory’s feed, nice. :D
B) While that was going on, Smiler finished their computer chip, and headed into the greenhouse to harvest all their herbalism stuff, and their plasma fruit – getting them up to Gardening level 8, w00! Unfortunately, while they were picking their fireleaf (or possibly the poison fireleaf), they ended up developing a NASTY itch. So I took the opportunity to have them make and try out a bit of Soothing Skin Balm! I mean, when else are you supposed to use it? :p It at least halved the time that it would take for the Tense moodlet to go away, so I count that as a win. *thumbs up*
C) And while Smiler was herbalizing, Victor was potionizing – after all, if he wanted to complete the next milestone of Purveyor Of Potions and finish off his New Year’s resolution, he had to brew both of the new potion recipes he’s picked up recently! I had him start with the Potion of Good Fortune, and that came out really well – got seven bottles out of the whole cauldron! And since he had a few spare flasks, I figured we could try giving one to the specter flying around the greenhouse and seeing what happened. So Victor headed over and handed over the present –
And the specter liked it! Shock of shocks! XD They delightedly gave Victor a soul scrap back before disappearing – Victor’s got that in his inventory for later, should he ever need it. :)
D) While all this was happening, Alice (having gotten all her hay) had been sorting recyclables out of the trash and talking to either Smiler’s guitar or their picture on the wall (wasn’t sure which – it can be hard to tell with Erratic Sims). I decided it was time she went back to normal and had her transform into her regular human form before sending her to go feed and socialize with the chickens while Smiler cleaned out the cowshed and Victor tended the garden. I am very pleased to say that, THIS time, the plants that have been constantly sprouting weeds did NOT sprout them again and stick Victor in a constant weeding loop. Maybe now they’re FINALLY fixed? Time will tell. . .
Anyway, while Victor watered, weeded, and sprayed for bugs, Smiler finished with the cowshed and went upstairs for a bath in their new tub (which they very much enjoyed), and then dropped by Victor and Alice’s room to play video games on their new computer. Because apparently their computer – of the EXACT SAME MAKE AND MODEL, mind – isn’t good enough anymore. XD It kept them busy while I concentrated on the other two, though. Alice, for her part, went and refilled Moory’s feed with her bundles of hay, then collected both eggs and milk before going to feed Toothy. Always something to do on this farm!
E) And then I noticed she was hungry, and I thought, “well, what a better time to try out our new kitchen appliances?” :D I promptly sent her to the stand mixer to see what she could make for prepped ingredients, and decided on some sweet batter for waffles! She got that going and socialized with one of the cats (I believe Shock) while waiting for that to finish mixing, then used the batter to make some berry waffles (running upstairs to give herself a pep talk to help clear a gloomy mood while she was waiting). I have to say, they did look downright delicious when I saw the finished product! Om nom nom~ Have to have her make a pizza soon!
F) But what was Victor doing while Alice was getting her waffle on? Well, after finishing his garden tending, he took a moment to bond with his bees, then collected his fully-grown oversized mushroom before Transportalating up to the attic. His aim? To Copypasto Smiler’s dirt frog and use it in his second potion of the day – a Potion of Nausea! He successfully copied the frog and teleported down to the barn, ready to start –
And then I noticed the entire wind farm was broken again. *sigh* Well, nothing to do but Repairio the lot. Again. At least all that spell slinging got Victor another Talent point! I had him start his new potion while I chose his new Talent – and as he’s been spending a lot of time on Alchemy lately, “Potent Potables” to give his potions extra oomph when drunk seemed like a good choice. I then took a moment to check in on Smiler and get them to drink some plasma fruit and a plasma pack (the latter they insisted on drinking on the back porch couch with one of the cats – Alice ate her waffles there too. Can’t say this family does not love their pets!), before sending them to harvest the coconuts, soy beans, and garlic from the greenhouse, and put some plasma fruit in the (reset) juice fizzer (as I was hoping using it would encourage it to stay functional – seems to be working so far!). I was just getting ready to have Smiler super-sell the rest of the greenhouse when I checked back in on Victor –
G) And found him standing over a cauldron of a worryingly black liquid with red mushroom clouds coming out of it. Three things then happened in quick succession –
I. I got a notice from the game that Victor had picked up the Curse of Repulsiveness from a failed potion, as Victor himself turned green and warty. Shit – should have gone with the “Hexproof” Talent!
II. I got a notice from the game that Victor’s potion had failed, but he HAD managed to get a Bottle of Questionable Contents from the failure.
III. I got a notice from the game that Victor had successfully completed an aspirational milestone and thus had completed his New Year’s resolution!
Yes, apparently failing and getting a bottle of – stuff counted as brewing another potion to the game! XD Well, I happily took it, as did Victor. Once he woke up after fainting from the fumes of his vile potion. XD And the curse was no big deal, as Victor has LOADS of aspiration points, and thus was easily able to buy himself some Potion of Curse Cleansing and down it to clear the curse. (That should PROBABLY be more expensive in the rewards store, but currently not complaining.)
H) Anyway – with Victor’s curse cleansed, and Smiler having cleared out his cauldron for him, I sent him to join Alice for a nap (she’d already zoomed off to bed earlier for a snooze after having her waffles and taking care of business afterward), while Smiler super-sold the greenhouse and then flew up to their party barn area to practice mixology – after all, they did have a house party to rock that afternoon! Alice woke up first – I had her go talk to Smiler’s Sixam Mosquito plant Snappy, as per her wants, then sent her downstairs and, eventually, got her to take Shadow for a jog to both make the dog happy and continue working on her Fitness. Smiler then got their Plasma Fizz and started work on some Strawberry Fizz while Victor got up, Repairioed a busted water collector, and cleaned up some dishes and such around the house –
I) And then – party time! Smiler’s guests began arriving, starting with Cameron Fletcher and Myra Basu – I put them in Smiler’s group and had them follow them upstairs to keep them out of the way while Victor continued his clean-up. A clean-up made a little more difficult by the next guests to arrive – Brian Pimental (aka the local NAP inspector) was no issue, but Cletus ForgotHisLastName decided to kick over the trash can outside the house before I could get him into the group and direct him upstairs to start dancing to the radio! Hmph! Well, Victor got rummaging as I wrangled the guests –
But oh, what was this? A notification that Alice had gotten to Fitness Level 8 on her jog with Shadow, thus completing an aspirational milestone (in fact, straight-up completing the ASPIRATION – Alice now has the “Professorial” trait from Renaissance Sim and can write her own skill books!) and thus her New Year’s Resolution! :D That brought the trio as a whole to two out of three completed! Granted, I didn’t manage to get a shot of Alice actually celebrating completing her resolution because her jog with Shadow was being glitchy (Shadow was doing that thing again where dogs just run ahead for miles and miles in a straight line heedless of obstacles, and Alice kept switching outfits because the game WANTED to put her in her “White Rabbit” party outfit, but she wasn’t technically AT the party, she was in the middle of a jog, so she eventually ended up in just her regular blue Alice dress once I managed to cancel the jog), but I did get a shot of her looking pretty smug in her White Rabbit dress jogging along with Shadow, so I think that’ll do. XD
J) Okay, so Victor and Alice were all set with their New Year’s resolutions – that just left Smiler’s to complete, and that meant throwing a good party! I managed to get Smiler and all their guests up in the party barn area, dancing to the radio, then had Smiler unleash their Party Time party-bot for some extra party vibes. :D They then tried chatting with Cameron (who was not interested in hearing about lycanthropy, it seems) while Victor, done rummaging through the trash, reset the trash can and headed up to the barn to get a chocolate cupcake from Party Time, while Alice and Shadow arrived home, and Alice changed into one of her other party dresses to join the fun.
Leaving her standing in a pile of discarded clothes. Whoops – looks like the family left the laundry for a little too long! XD I resolved not to think about it for the time being and sent her to go join the dancing as Smiler let off a burst of happiness to ensure all their guests were in good moods (like YOU, Cletus) –
And then Myra and Cameron wandered off, and local townie Roxanne (who the game has decided is the Valicer farmhouse’s “neighbor”) showed up saying she’d brought a present! Curious, I had Smiler go over to invite her in (bringing some of their guests with them) – things were made a little more complicated by the appearance of specters at the front door, which seemed to temporarily break the whole “handing over the gift” interaction, but she eventually gave Smiler her present – an apple! Which, okay, we have plenty of those, but it’s the thought that counts. XD Smiler accepted it with good grace, and the two became good friends, aww. I was ready to have Smiler chat her up in hopes of getting some plasma off her too –
K) And then I looked at the party timer, and was like, “crap, no, I have to make sure that Smiler gets silver on this thing – where are the guests?” I quickly looked over the farmhouse, and found Cletus and Brian eating some leftovers from the fridge, and Myra upstairs – kindly fixing Smiler’s video creation station! Didn’t even know it was broken, thank you, Myra! (I mean, maybe SHE broke it, but at least she also fixed it!) Couldn’t find Cameron right away (I think he was eventually located just chilling in front of the house), so I resolved to have Smiler concentrate on the two in the kitchen, joining them and telling some jokes since that was one of the party goals. Though it didn’t actually complete until I had Smiler tell base game jokes, instead of vampire puns and special “let’s make fun of n00bs together because we both like video games” jokes. :p The guests continued moving around seemingly at random, with Myra coming down for food while Brian wandered off somewhere (and Roxanne headed upstairs to use Victor and Alice’s computer for a bit – prooobably should lock it to just them), but Smiler persisted in making conversation with whoever was in the kitchen, and managed to complete the main goal of socializing with their guests by supporting Cletus’s facial hair. XD Bringing the party up to automatic gold! Yes!
Oh, and what were Victor and Alice doing during all of this? Chilling out alone in the party barn with Party Time the bot, dancing to the music and chatting with each other. XD I mean, that probably IS their ideal party situation, given they’re both supposed to be not that social. Alice eventually had to go outside and take a little nap to calm down her werewolf instincts, but she came back up to eat some hamburger cake provided by Party Time while Smiler wrangled their guests and got them all back in the party barn area. Mostly because there was one last thing that I wanted to do before the party ended –
L) Play a game! Specifically, Simbles, since I’d never played that game before! Smiler invited Alice, Brian, and Victor to play with them – Alice was a little late in joining as she was busy wolfing down her cake first, but she eventually found a seat and joined the others for a rousing game of Sim dominoes (where the “simbles” have geometric shapes on them instead of patterns of dots). Brian ended up leaving the game early, but Victor, Smiler, and Alice played past the end of the party, with Smiler winning. :) In fact, they won in multiple ways, because their party ALSO ended firmly on gold level (meaning they’ve won yet another stereo – I think I might just recycle that one straight of the inventory, why not), meaning they too managed to complete an aspirational milestone (FINALLY getting past the “Sir Gala Had” level of Party Animal) and thus fulfill their New Year’s resolution! :D Three for three, yaaay~
M) With both party and game over, though, it was time to do some clean-up around the house. Alice found some more spilled trash in the front yard (apparently a certain someone kicked over the trash can again while leaving >( ) and cleaned that up before emptying out the hamper, getting the clothes pile out of the yard, and starting a load of laundry (freshened by a daisy); Smiler washed all the plates their guests had left behind and cleared the spoiled food out of the fridge; and Victor fed Toothy after I stopped him trying to eat its cake. *shakehead* Victor, I already went through you getting nommed by a cowplant in my old save file – not interested in doing it again! Anyway, he and Alice then both proceeded to have leftover waffles, om nom, while I stuck their various bits of produce and suchlike in the fridge – then got one of the giant oversized mushrooms OUT of the fridge so Victor could turn it into a seat. Because I just think that’s cool. XD The gang had a brief chat in the kitchen (with Victor and Smiler doing a little flirting as Alice cleaned up her plate), then Smiler went back upstairs for more video gaming time (on Victor and Alice’s computer again – REALLY gotta lock it) while Victor put the laundry in the dryer and Alice used the bathroom. I ended up leaving it on Victor Repairioing the downstairs bathroom sink after it broke while Alice was using it. XD
And there we are! One very satisfying day in Sims world! :D I’m so glad I was able to hit my goal of getting them all to hit theirs. :D And the next time I play this save file, it’ll be Love Day, so we’re gonna have some fun date action. <3 Thinking that Victor will give Alice and Smiler some one-on-one time by going on a separate date with each, then in the evening we can try to wrangle some trio action. :)
Writing: Got another chunk done on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” – Alice has successfully reached civilization again (fortunately it wasn’t far from the junkyard) and decided to say “screw you” to LaCroix for a little bit in favor of going to meet other people. Her original destination was The Last Round, but she’s stumbled upon the Tremere Chantry along the way, and figures she might as well go in and meet Regent “Bad Poet” Strauss. . .
Aaand then I got caught up in rereading some of my own writing in this chapter and had to pull myself out before I got too distracted. XD I may be all about the Valicer these days, but this verse still holds its appeal! (And, admittedly, I have an idea for a story to MAKE it Valicer – or, more accurately, Four Victorians Riding A Rollercoaster – in the end. . .)
YouTube: I didn’t end up watching the OXBox video I intended to watch – instead, I got caught up in another video that popped up today along with the usual from my Subs –
A) “HOW TO TRICK A VIDEO GAME - The Sims 4 Is A Perfectly Balanced Game With No EXPLOITS” by The Spiffing Brit! Saw this pop up in my Recommendeds and decided I wanted to watch it – it features Spiff playing For Rent and using the Landlord/Tenant system combined with Manage Worlds to break the game’s brain and generate money from nothing. Specifically, he created Lucy Landgrab and her pet “cat” Lord Fluffykins (a fluffy hench dog with a unicorn horn, a bow tie, and the word “CAT” written across its side); moved her into a cheap unfurnished rental in Tomarang; bought another rental property in the world with the money she saved by moving into a cheap unfurnished rental; set a “no pets” rule on the property and put a bunch of mailboxes out the front; then used Manage Worlds to move LUCY HERSELF into her own property. With her “cat.” Presenting a bizarre situation where she was her own tenant breaking her own rule, meaning she could issue herself a $1,000 fine (per mailbox) for breaking said rule. Now, you would think this would mean she would be constantly losing and then gaining $1,000 every time she successfully fined herself.
No. The thing is, if you’re playing a landlord, the game doesn’t want you actually taking money from other Sims, because what if you wanted to play (or maybe are already playing) them too? So when a landlord collects fines, the money isn’t really coming from the tenant, it’s coming from the ether. Meaning whenever Lucy decided to pay herself the fine (it’s random chance whether or not a tenant will actually pay a fine levied against them), the money just appeared out of thin air, giving her a free $1,000 out of nowhere. XD Spiff repeated this process a few times, bouncing back and forth between the original rental and the new rental –
And then discovered something even MORE hilarious – namely, that he could SELL the Residential Rental Lucy owned WHILE SHE WAS LIVING IN IT, REMAIN living in it, then buy it back again to sell again (after making it a little prettier with a bed, a toilet, and some cheap plants). While still living in it. And I swear the game was giving her more money than she was selling it for because it was so confused. XD Spiff repeated this cycle a few dozen times off-screen, and when he came back, suddenly Lucy had over 600K to play with. She promptly bought an empty lot, set up THE CONTAINMENT CENTER (the weirdest, most horrible lot outside of an old GrayStillPlays Sims torture video, with a handful of tiny bunks for people to sleep in, a tiny kitchen up on the third floor, and “PeeVPee” toilets facing each other), set the rent to as much as this one elderly couple was willing to pay, and left them to be tortured in there. XD Basically, For Rent is a liiiittle bit broken in this regard. What else do you expect from The Sims 4?
B) “How many stairs can a train climb in GTA 5?” by GrayStillPlays! Another Stairs-Themed Alex Torture Board, this one gave Gray a modded train vehicle alongside a few more normal cars (including my beloved Wastelander) and bid him to find the one that could conquer the following sets of stairs –
I. Reverse Growing Stairs – A staircase that STARTED with the biggest stair and then got smaller as he went up, forcing him to find a way to leap over the tall stairs at the front so he could get to the smaller, more easily run over stairs at the back. Also, he had to find a way to do it quickly, as the course had a time limit of 55 seconds. Because Alex is mean. :P
II. Rock-Hard Stairs – A staircase made from a series of repeating rock lump assets, with a rock tumbling down it on a set schedule to ruin Gray’s life should he make it too far up the staircase for Alex’s liking. :p At least this one wasn’t timed?
III. Bitcoin Chart Stairs – a tightrope staircase that followed the highs and lows of bitcoin, meaning it was basically a VERY lumpy U shape that was very easy to fall off of should you make the slightest error. Oddly enough, just sending the car to jump over the big middle dip generally worked, but that left Gray to struggle with climbing up the high stairs on the other end as bitcoin recovered. . .
IV. Simple Stair With A Little Twist – a staircase that, once you reached the starting platform at the bottom, started to rotate in a circle through a bunch of wind turbines perfectly placed to clip through it as it spun. The big problem with this one wasn’t getting up the stairs – it was staying on the stairs, as they’d slide out from under you if you weren’t careful. And the higher you went, the faster Gray had to go, and the more likely he’d be smacked by a turbine blade. . .
So yeah – some pretty painful stairs here! So how did the all the cars do? Well, the ramp car got absolutely NOWHERE – Gray knew it would never get up the first stair and used it to just get it out of the way quicker; the Arena Bug was able to leap most of the Reverse Growing Stairs, but just didn’t have the traction to climb the rocks; the monster truck and the train both got up the rocks (the monster truck slowly and with much pain; the train REALLY EASILY), but were defeated by the Bitcoin tightrope being too fiddle to stay on; and the Wastelander got all the way to the Simple Stair –
And couldn’t keep up with it. Like, Gray really tried, because the Wastelander is great, but its top speed isn’t, and it just couldn’t stay on the stairs near the top. Making the winner this camo truck that was the last thing on the board! It needed some help from the ramp car to get over the first stair in the Reverse Growing Stairs (and now we know why Alex put the ramp car on the board), but it got through all the other challenges pretty well, and after a few tries on the Simple Stair to figure out the timing of when he should get on to reach the ending platform, he eventually got on there without falling off! And was able to confirm Alex didn’t put any stop sticks in front of the jump to the win. XD Damn – some quality Gray Torture right there!
So yeah -- not a great morning, but a pretty satisfying afternoon. And now I really do have to get to bed, because it's a lot later than the timestamp says over here. XD Tomorrow is Fallout Sunday, natch -- gotta play some Fallout 4 (try wearing the Silver Shroud stuff to get a Silver Shroud mission, then start back toward the Red Rocket and Sanctuary to prep further for the trip into the Glowing Sea (and finish off "Old Guns" by talking to Preston); update the FO4 Playthrough Progression Doc appropriately; keep up with GrayStillPlays and Jon of Many A True Nerd if I can; get in a work out and start the "Oxventure: Deadlands" campaign (the firs episode is the longest, so I have to start tomorrow -- figured it would be best to start on a Sunday with a holiday Monday after it!); and get properly caught up on my tumblrs and get some queue ideas going for this upcoming week. *whew* Hopefully that's all doable -- night all!
Cleaning: As usual, took more of the day than I wanted – but then again, I had to wash not only my sheets this time, but also my blankets, bathrobe, and pajamas, so that added some time to the whole process. Started around 10:30 AM with stripping my bed and doing the initial dusting, and finished off by getting my final load of laundry out of the dryer a little after 4 PM. I mean, by THAT point, I’d finished all my cleaning and started doing other things as well, but still. Keeping your space neat can be hard, yo! At least I only have to worry about it every other week. . .
Tumblr: Also as usual, a cleaning Saturday means I didn’t really get anything done over here today –
Victor Luvs Alice – Just kept up with the dash over here – though my Song Saturday post featuring “Parachute” and my joking write-up of how I’m stealing the song from the Leverage OT3 shippers for my own Valicer OT3 ended up being reblogged by the blog I originally saw the video on, meaning a lot of people who like poly ships are liking it from there. XD Hey, just spreading the love!
Valice Multiverse – Dead quiet over here (I’m guessing Marie found moving into a new place more exhausting than she anticipated – I know the feeling), so I just threw the belated birthday fanart of Victor and Alice I got the other day into the queue. :p It works!
Sims 4: Got to it later than I wanted, and had to interrupt myself midway through the session to get the last of my laundry (see above) and my afternoon cookies, but I did end up having a very pleasant, very productive Spring Thursday in my Chill Valicer save –
A) Started with everyone hanging out outside by Toothy’s pen, where I last left them while doing the house upgrades – I decided that the best course of action would be to send Smiler into the barn to make another computer chip; let Victor get some leftovers from the fridge; and have Alice (still in werewolf form) lick herself clean before directing her to do some push-ups outside to work on that sweet, sweet Fitness skill. *nods* I thus queued up the actions, and everyone started on their assigned tasks. . .
And the house immediately started playing spooky organ music, distracting everyone from said tasks. *shakehead* Damn haunted houses! At least I was able to get everyone back on track right away. . . Anyway, once Alice was done with her push-ups, she had a glass of water to rehydrate while Victor cleaned up his (and her) dishes and evolved some plants in the greenhouse. I then had her grab Shadow’s latest pet poop from the porch and fertilize the newly-grown coconut tree (as I AGAIN reset the damn bugged weedy plants in that one planter, along with the juice fizzer), before sending her to harvest the new patches of prairie grass in the cow pen to get some hay! Because now that I have Horse Ranch, I can use that hay to refill Moory’s feed, nice. :D
B) While that was going on, Smiler finished their computer chip, and headed into the greenhouse to harvest all their herbalism stuff, and their plasma fruit – getting them up to Gardening level 8, w00! Unfortunately, while they were picking their fireleaf (or possibly the poison fireleaf), they ended up developing a NASTY itch. So I took the opportunity to have them make and try out a bit of Soothing Skin Balm! I mean, when else are you supposed to use it? :p It at least halved the time that it would take for the Tense moodlet to go away, so I count that as a win. *thumbs up*
C) And while Smiler was herbalizing, Victor was potionizing – after all, if he wanted to complete the next milestone of Purveyor Of Potions and finish off his New Year’s resolution, he had to brew both of the new potion recipes he’s picked up recently! I had him start with the Potion of Good Fortune, and that came out really well – got seven bottles out of the whole cauldron! And since he had a few spare flasks, I figured we could try giving one to the specter flying around the greenhouse and seeing what happened. So Victor headed over and handed over the present –
And the specter liked it! Shock of shocks! XD They delightedly gave Victor a soul scrap back before disappearing – Victor’s got that in his inventory for later, should he ever need it. :)
D) While all this was happening, Alice (having gotten all her hay) had been sorting recyclables out of the trash and talking to either Smiler’s guitar or their picture on the wall (wasn’t sure which – it can be hard to tell with Erratic Sims). I decided it was time she went back to normal and had her transform into her regular human form before sending her to go feed and socialize with the chickens while Smiler cleaned out the cowshed and Victor tended the garden. I am very pleased to say that, THIS time, the plants that have been constantly sprouting weeds did NOT sprout them again and stick Victor in a constant weeding loop. Maybe now they’re FINALLY fixed? Time will tell. . .
Anyway, while Victor watered, weeded, and sprayed for bugs, Smiler finished with the cowshed and went upstairs for a bath in their new tub (which they very much enjoyed), and then dropped by Victor and Alice’s room to play video games on their new computer. Because apparently their computer – of the EXACT SAME MAKE AND MODEL, mind – isn’t good enough anymore. XD It kept them busy while I concentrated on the other two, though. Alice, for her part, went and refilled Moory’s feed with her bundles of hay, then collected both eggs and milk before going to feed Toothy. Always something to do on this farm!
E) And then I noticed she was hungry, and I thought, “well, what a better time to try out our new kitchen appliances?” :D I promptly sent her to the stand mixer to see what she could make for prepped ingredients, and decided on some sweet batter for waffles! She got that going and socialized with one of the cats (I believe Shock) while waiting for that to finish mixing, then used the batter to make some berry waffles (running upstairs to give herself a pep talk to help clear a gloomy mood while she was waiting). I have to say, they did look downright delicious when I saw the finished product! Om nom nom~ Have to have her make a pizza soon!
F) But what was Victor doing while Alice was getting her waffle on? Well, after finishing his garden tending, he took a moment to bond with his bees, then collected his fully-grown oversized mushroom before Transportalating up to the attic. His aim? To Copypasto Smiler’s dirt frog and use it in his second potion of the day – a Potion of Nausea! He successfully copied the frog and teleported down to the barn, ready to start –
And then I noticed the entire wind farm was broken again. *sigh* Well, nothing to do but Repairio the lot. Again. At least all that spell slinging got Victor another Talent point! I had him start his new potion while I chose his new Talent – and as he’s been spending a lot of time on Alchemy lately, “Potent Potables” to give his potions extra oomph when drunk seemed like a good choice. I then took a moment to check in on Smiler and get them to drink some plasma fruit and a plasma pack (the latter they insisted on drinking on the back porch couch with one of the cats – Alice ate her waffles there too. Can’t say this family does not love their pets!), before sending them to harvest the coconuts, soy beans, and garlic from the greenhouse, and put some plasma fruit in the (reset) juice fizzer (as I was hoping using it would encourage it to stay functional – seems to be working so far!). I was just getting ready to have Smiler super-sell the rest of the greenhouse when I checked back in on Victor –
G) And found him standing over a cauldron of a worryingly black liquid with red mushroom clouds coming out of it. Three things then happened in quick succession –
I. I got a notice from the game that Victor had picked up the Curse of Repulsiveness from a failed potion, as Victor himself turned green and warty. Shit – should have gone with the “Hexproof” Talent!
II. I got a notice from the game that Victor’s potion had failed, but he HAD managed to get a Bottle of Questionable Contents from the failure.
III. I got a notice from the game that Victor had successfully completed an aspirational milestone and thus had completed his New Year’s resolution!
Yes, apparently failing and getting a bottle of – stuff counted as brewing another potion to the game! XD Well, I happily took it, as did Victor. Once he woke up after fainting from the fumes of his vile potion. XD And the curse was no big deal, as Victor has LOADS of aspiration points, and thus was easily able to buy himself some Potion of Curse Cleansing and down it to clear the curse. (That should PROBABLY be more expensive in the rewards store, but currently not complaining.)
H) Anyway – with Victor’s curse cleansed, and Smiler having cleared out his cauldron for him, I sent him to join Alice for a nap (she’d already zoomed off to bed earlier for a snooze after having her waffles and taking care of business afterward), while Smiler super-sold the greenhouse and then flew up to their party barn area to practice mixology – after all, they did have a house party to rock that afternoon! Alice woke up first – I had her go talk to Smiler’s Sixam Mosquito plant Snappy, as per her wants, then sent her downstairs and, eventually, got her to take Shadow for a jog to both make the dog happy and continue working on her Fitness. Smiler then got their Plasma Fizz and started work on some Strawberry Fizz while Victor got up, Repairioed a busted water collector, and cleaned up some dishes and such around the house –
I) And then – party time! Smiler’s guests began arriving, starting with Cameron Fletcher and Myra Basu – I put them in Smiler’s group and had them follow them upstairs to keep them out of the way while Victor continued his clean-up. A clean-up made a little more difficult by the next guests to arrive – Brian Pimental (aka the local NAP inspector) was no issue, but Cletus ForgotHisLastName decided to kick over the trash can outside the house before I could get him into the group and direct him upstairs to start dancing to the radio! Hmph! Well, Victor got rummaging as I wrangled the guests –
But oh, what was this? A notification that Alice had gotten to Fitness Level 8 on her jog with Shadow, thus completing an aspirational milestone (in fact, straight-up completing the ASPIRATION – Alice now has the “Professorial” trait from Renaissance Sim and can write her own skill books!) and thus her New Year’s Resolution! :D That brought the trio as a whole to two out of three completed! Granted, I didn’t manage to get a shot of Alice actually celebrating completing her resolution because her jog with Shadow was being glitchy (Shadow was doing that thing again where dogs just run ahead for miles and miles in a straight line heedless of obstacles, and Alice kept switching outfits because the game WANTED to put her in her “White Rabbit” party outfit, but she wasn’t technically AT the party, she was in the middle of a jog, so she eventually ended up in just her regular blue Alice dress once I managed to cancel the jog), but I did get a shot of her looking pretty smug in her White Rabbit dress jogging along with Shadow, so I think that’ll do. XD
J) Okay, so Victor and Alice were all set with their New Year’s resolutions – that just left Smiler’s to complete, and that meant throwing a good party! I managed to get Smiler and all their guests up in the party barn area, dancing to the radio, then had Smiler unleash their Party Time party-bot for some extra party vibes. :D They then tried chatting with Cameron (who was not interested in hearing about lycanthropy, it seems) while Victor, done rummaging through the trash, reset the trash can and headed up to the barn to get a chocolate cupcake from Party Time, while Alice and Shadow arrived home, and Alice changed into one of her other party dresses to join the fun.
Leaving her standing in a pile of discarded clothes. Whoops – looks like the family left the laundry for a little too long! XD I resolved not to think about it for the time being and sent her to go join the dancing as Smiler let off a burst of happiness to ensure all their guests were in good moods (like YOU, Cletus) –
And then Myra and Cameron wandered off, and local townie Roxanne (who the game has decided is the Valicer farmhouse’s “neighbor”) showed up saying she’d brought a present! Curious, I had Smiler go over to invite her in (bringing some of their guests with them) – things were made a little more complicated by the appearance of specters at the front door, which seemed to temporarily break the whole “handing over the gift” interaction, but she eventually gave Smiler her present – an apple! Which, okay, we have plenty of those, but it’s the thought that counts. XD Smiler accepted it with good grace, and the two became good friends, aww. I was ready to have Smiler chat her up in hopes of getting some plasma off her too –
K) And then I looked at the party timer, and was like, “crap, no, I have to make sure that Smiler gets silver on this thing – where are the guests?” I quickly looked over the farmhouse, and found Cletus and Brian eating some leftovers from the fridge, and Myra upstairs – kindly fixing Smiler’s video creation station! Didn’t even know it was broken, thank you, Myra! (I mean, maybe SHE broke it, but at least she also fixed it!) Couldn’t find Cameron right away (I think he was eventually located just chilling in front of the house), so I resolved to have Smiler concentrate on the two in the kitchen, joining them and telling some jokes since that was one of the party goals. Though it didn’t actually complete until I had Smiler tell base game jokes, instead of vampire puns and special “let’s make fun of n00bs together because we both like video games” jokes. :p The guests continued moving around seemingly at random, with Myra coming down for food while Brian wandered off somewhere (and Roxanne headed upstairs to use Victor and Alice’s computer for a bit – prooobably should lock it to just them), but Smiler persisted in making conversation with whoever was in the kitchen, and managed to complete the main goal of socializing with their guests by supporting Cletus’s facial hair. XD Bringing the party up to automatic gold! Yes!
Oh, and what were Victor and Alice doing during all of this? Chilling out alone in the party barn with Party Time the bot, dancing to the music and chatting with each other. XD I mean, that probably IS their ideal party situation, given they’re both supposed to be not that social. Alice eventually had to go outside and take a little nap to calm down her werewolf instincts, but she came back up to eat some hamburger cake provided by Party Time while Smiler wrangled their guests and got them all back in the party barn area. Mostly because there was one last thing that I wanted to do before the party ended –
L) Play a game! Specifically, Simbles, since I’d never played that game before! Smiler invited Alice, Brian, and Victor to play with them – Alice was a little late in joining as she was busy wolfing down her cake first, but she eventually found a seat and joined the others for a rousing game of Sim dominoes (where the “simbles” have geometric shapes on them instead of patterns of dots). Brian ended up leaving the game early, but Victor, Smiler, and Alice played past the end of the party, with Smiler winning. :) In fact, they won in multiple ways, because their party ALSO ended firmly on gold level (meaning they’ve won yet another stereo – I think I might just recycle that one straight of the inventory, why not), meaning they too managed to complete an aspirational milestone (FINALLY getting past the “Sir Gala Had” level of Party Animal) and thus fulfill their New Year’s resolution! :D Three for three, yaaay~
M) With both party and game over, though, it was time to do some clean-up around the house. Alice found some more spilled trash in the front yard (apparently a certain someone kicked over the trash can again while leaving >( ) and cleaned that up before emptying out the hamper, getting the clothes pile out of the yard, and starting a load of laundry (freshened by a daisy); Smiler washed all the plates their guests had left behind and cleared the spoiled food out of the fridge; and Victor fed Toothy after I stopped him trying to eat its cake. *shakehead* Victor, I already went through you getting nommed by a cowplant in my old save file – not interested in doing it again! Anyway, he and Alice then both proceeded to have leftover waffles, om nom, while I stuck their various bits of produce and suchlike in the fridge – then got one of the giant oversized mushrooms OUT of the fridge so Victor could turn it into a seat. Because I just think that’s cool. XD The gang had a brief chat in the kitchen (with Victor and Smiler doing a little flirting as Alice cleaned up her plate), then Smiler went back upstairs for more video gaming time (on Victor and Alice’s computer again – REALLY gotta lock it) while Victor put the laundry in the dryer and Alice used the bathroom. I ended up leaving it on Victor Repairioing the downstairs bathroom sink after it broke while Alice was using it. XD
And there we are! One very satisfying day in Sims world! :D I’m so glad I was able to hit my goal of getting them all to hit theirs. :D And the next time I play this save file, it’ll be Love Day, so we’re gonna have some fun date action. <3 Thinking that Victor will give Alice and Smiler some one-on-one time by going on a separate date with each, then in the evening we can try to wrangle some trio action. :)
Writing: Got another chunk done on “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” – Alice has successfully reached civilization again (fortunately it wasn’t far from the junkyard) and decided to say “screw you” to LaCroix for a little bit in favor of going to meet other people. Her original destination was The Last Round, but she’s stumbled upon the Tremere Chantry along the way, and figures she might as well go in and meet Regent “Bad Poet” Strauss. . .
Aaand then I got caught up in rereading some of my own writing in this chapter and had to pull myself out before I got too distracted. XD I may be all about the Valicer these days, but this verse still holds its appeal! (And, admittedly, I have an idea for a story to MAKE it Valicer – or, more accurately, Four Victorians Riding A Rollercoaster – in the end. . .)
YouTube: I didn’t end up watching the OXBox video I intended to watch – instead, I got caught up in another video that popped up today along with the usual from my Subs –
A) “HOW TO TRICK A VIDEO GAME - The Sims 4 Is A Perfectly Balanced Game With No EXPLOITS” by The Spiffing Brit! Saw this pop up in my Recommendeds and decided I wanted to watch it – it features Spiff playing For Rent and using the Landlord/Tenant system combined with Manage Worlds to break the game’s brain and generate money from nothing. Specifically, he created Lucy Landgrab and her pet “cat” Lord Fluffykins (a fluffy hench dog with a unicorn horn, a bow tie, and the word “CAT” written across its side); moved her into a cheap unfurnished rental in Tomarang; bought another rental property in the world with the money she saved by moving into a cheap unfurnished rental; set a “no pets” rule on the property and put a bunch of mailboxes out the front; then used Manage Worlds to move LUCY HERSELF into her own property. With her “cat.” Presenting a bizarre situation where she was her own tenant breaking her own rule, meaning she could issue herself a $1,000 fine (per mailbox) for breaking said rule. Now, you would think this would mean she would be constantly losing and then gaining $1,000 every time she successfully fined herself.
No. The thing is, if you’re playing a landlord, the game doesn’t want you actually taking money from other Sims, because what if you wanted to play (or maybe are already playing) them too? So when a landlord collects fines, the money isn’t really coming from the tenant, it’s coming from the ether. Meaning whenever Lucy decided to pay herself the fine (it’s random chance whether or not a tenant will actually pay a fine levied against them), the money just appeared out of thin air, giving her a free $1,000 out of nowhere. XD Spiff repeated this process a few times, bouncing back and forth between the original rental and the new rental –
And then discovered something even MORE hilarious – namely, that he could SELL the Residential Rental Lucy owned WHILE SHE WAS LIVING IN IT, REMAIN living in it, then buy it back again to sell again (after making it a little prettier with a bed, a toilet, and some cheap plants). While still living in it. And I swear the game was giving her more money than she was selling it for because it was so confused. XD Spiff repeated this cycle a few dozen times off-screen, and when he came back, suddenly Lucy had over 600K to play with. She promptly bought an empty lot, set up THE CONTAINMENT CENTER (the weirdest, most horrible lot outside of an old GrayStillPlays Sims torture video, with a handful of tiny bunks for people to sleep in, a tiny kitchen up on the third floor, and “PeeVPee” toilets facing each other), set the rent to as much as this one elderly couple was willing to pay, and left them to be tortured in there. XD Basically, For Rent is a liiiittle bit broken in this regard. What else do you expect from The Sims 4?
B) “How many stairs can a train climb in GTA 5?” by GrayStillPlays! Another Stairs-Themed Alex Torture Board, this one gave Gray a modded train vehicle alongside a few more normal cars (including my beloved Wastelander) and bid him to find the one that could conquer the following sets of stairs –
I. Reverse Growing Stairs – A staircase that STARTED with the biggest stair and then got smaller as he went up, forcing him to find a way to leap over the tall stairs at the front so he could get to the smaller, more easily run over stairs at the back. Also, he had to find a way to do it quickly, as the course had a time limit of 55 seconds. Because Alex is mean. :P
II. Rock-Hard Stairs – A staircase made from a series of repeating rock lump assets, with a rock tumbling down it on a set schedule to ruin Gray’s life should he make it too far up the staircase for Alex’s liking. :p At least this one wasn’t timed?
III. Bitcoin Chart Stairs – a tightrope staircase that followed the highs and lows of bitcoin, meaning it was basically a VERY lumpy U shape that was very easy to fall off of should you make the slightest error. Oddly enough, just sending the car to jump over the big middle dip generally worked, but that left Gray to struggle with climbing up the high stairs on the other end as bitcoin recovered. . .
IV. Simple Stair With A Little Twist – a staircase that, once you reached the starting platform at the bottom, started to rotate in a circle through a bunch of wind turbines perfectly placed to clip through it as it spun. The big problem with this one wasn’t getting up the stairs – it was staying on the stairs, as they’d slide out from under you if you weren’t careful. And the higher you went, the faster Gray had to go, and the more likely he’d be smacked by a turbine blade. . .
So yeah – some pretty painful stairs here! So how did the all the cars do? Well, the ramp car got absolutely NOWHERE – Gray knew it would never get up the first stair and used it to just get it out of the way quicker; the Arena Bug was able to leap most of the Reverse Growing Stairs, but just didn’t have the traction to climb the rocks; the monster truck and the train both got up the rocks (the monster truck slowly and with much pain; the train REALLY EASILY), but were defeated by the Bitcoin tightrope being too fiddle to stay on; and the Wastelander got all the way to the Simple Stair –
And couldn’t keep up with it. Like, Gray really tried, because the Wastelander is great, but its top speed isn’t, and it just couldn’t stay on the stairs near the top. Making the winner this camo truck that was the last thing on the board! It needed some help from the ramp car to get over the first stair in the Reverse Growing Stairs (and now we know why Alex put the ramp car on the board), but it got through all the other challenges pretty well, and after a few tries on the Simple Stair to figure out the timing of when he should get on to reach the ending platform, he eventually got on there without falling off! And was able to confirm Alex didn’t put any stop sticks in front of the jump to the win. XD Damn – some quality Gray Torture right there!
So yeah -- not a great morning, but a pretty satisfying afternoon. And now I really do have to get to bed, because it's a lot later than the timestamp says over here. XD Tomorrow is Fallout Sunday, natch -- gotta play some Fallout 4 (try wearing the Silver Shroud stuff to get a Silver Shroud mission, then start back toward the Red Rocket and Sanctuary to prep further for the trip into the Glowing Sea (and finish off "Old Guns" by talking to Preston); update the FO4 Playthrough Progression Doc appropriately; keep up with GrayStillPlays and Jon of Many A True Nerd if I can; get in a work out and start the "Oxventure: Deadlands" campaign (the firs episode is the longest, so I have to start tomorrow -- figured it would be best to start on a Sunday with a holiday Monday after it!); and get properly caught up on my tumblrs and get some queue ideas going for this upcoming week. *whew* Hopefully that's all doable -- night all!
