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Slightly Stressful At The End Saturday
Jan. 11th, 2025 11:52 pmLike, most of the day was pretty chill (literally -- it snowed most of the day, though not much of it stuck, thankfully), but I ran into some issues near the end because -- we'll, you'll see in the official write-up:
Tumblr: Well, nothing happened on Valice Multiverse today, but I ended up having a reasonably productive day on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) –
A) While doing my dash catch-up this morning, I reblogged a post about how what you really need is not someone who matches your freak, but someone who deeply adores your freak – because, well, that is a Valice and Valicer vibe, isn’t it? Victor is very much down with both Alice and Smiler’s freak, that’s for damn sure. XD
B) I participated in a “WIP Word Guessing Game” that I was tagged in by my friend Newt – where people send you a word, you look through your current works-in-progress for that word, and then, if you find it, you post a snippet from one of them featuring that word. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of participation (given my bad track record with previous ask games), but I was pleasantly surprised when I did get a couple of asks later this afternoon! Here’s how it all went down:
I. I made the initial post before lunch while wrapping up my dash catch-up (and making sure I hadn’t already participated, as apparently this game has made the rounds before), and made sure to send an ask to Newt right afterward, asking him to find “cat” or “kitty” (as he’s doing pretty much exclusively Dead Boys Detective Agency fics and openly adores the Cat King from that show :P).
II. I came back after working on the Polyheart OT3 house some more (see the Sims 4 section) to find that Newt had answered my ask (with a snippet of a fic he started but didn’t finish about the Cat King’s backstory and relationship with Esther, the evil witch from the show) – AND sent me one in return, asking for the word “grin!” I promptly pulled up “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded” and searched for the word –
And, to my delight, found it really early on in the fic, just after a joke about how Alice had 1. discovered Smiler woke up early, 2. discovered they woke up perky, and 3. made the best tea she’d ever had so she was willing to forgive them points 1 and 2. A joke that I really, really wanted to share with everyone on tumblr anyway. XD So I copied that whole section into my answer (along with the actual paragraph containing “grin”) and put it out into the world.
III. And then, shortly after that, I got an ask from VanD0rk for the word “flowers!” Was not expecting her to show up! I checked both “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded” and “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” this time – however, while both had the word “flowers” in them, all of the instances in LB:DQ happened in Chapters 1 & 2, aka the already-published parts of that fic. I decided that didn’t count and instead went with the AMSIAMT “flowers,” which just so happened to appear at the very end of the fic. So I copied those few paragraphs and threw THOSE out into the world. Yay!
C) And, despite a distinct lack of inspiration when I finally got to my drafts as to which one I wanted to work on, I managed to get the very beginning of the “Valicer In The Dark” pets post edited! Specifically, I more-or-less completed the write-up on Sooty the raven, the trio’s very first pet and collaborator in killing Bumby (by swooping in to harass the guy when he went to confront them and stop them from exposing him via his ledger). And in doing so, I realized, “Hey, I said that Sooty specifically became fond of them because they fed him while they were staying at Elder Gutknecht’s place – I should probably establish that in ‘A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded’ instead of leaving it in a tumblr post. Would make him look less like a Deus Ex Raven when he shows up later to start attacking Bumby too!” So I made a note at the beginning of Chapter One to have him show up somewhere in there and get a little something from Smiler. *nods* So now I have a specific goal for a few of my edits! Nice. :)
Sims 4: I made my grand return to my Polyheart OT3 house today, determined to make some progress and maybe see if I could get another room done – and I am happy to report that I succeeded in both these goals! Here’s the rundown of what I did –
A) I got the public bathroom (well, half-bath I suppose, it’s just a toilet and a sink) off the living room sorted! Mostly by making things easier for myself by copying over a lot of the stuff from the en-suite bathroom off the trio’s bedroom – same Snowy Escape toilet; same Jungle Adventures counter paired with Snowy Escape sink; same Snowy Escape mirror above the sink; same base game window shades shrunk down to fit over the little windows; same base game “Pixel Perfect” half-tile wallpaper in the blue-green shade (though I discovered that I couldn’t wallpaper the whole room in one go without, for some reason, deleting the column in the corner of the kitchen – if I did each wall individually, though, it was fine O.o); and same blue-green Spa Day tile floor. Just made life easier, you know? Though there is plenty of stuff that makes the public bathroom different from the en-suite, besides the lack of a shower and cute cat tiles on the walls –
I. First off, the layout is different – when you come in the door, you have the Parenthood bathroom organizer cabinet (in the worn blue shade – I really wanted to fit one of these into the en-suite, but didn’t have room, so it went in here instead), then the sink and mirror, then the toilet sticking out from the far corner at an angle, since that seemed like the best place for it. And in the opposite corner, nearer the door (in fact, where the door used to be – I moved it over a few wall tiles to accommodate it) you have Robin the Plant from Lovestruck! I really wanted a plant in that narrow corner to fill it in a bit, and Robin was the one that filled the space the best (at least, once I used “moveobjects on” to get it in there the way I wanted), looked the nicest, and went the best with the color scheme. Thanks Robin!
II. And second off, the decorations and clutter are different – in addition to the bathroom organizer by the door, I also made sure to include a Parenthood hand towel by the sink that matched the wall’s color scheme; a base game set of four bird prints in dark wood frames that matched the counter on the inner wall next to the toilet; and three Cats & Dogs “Sunbeam Scribble” paintings (in different variants of the “light green” swatch) on the outer diagonal wall to add a bit of color and pizzazz. I also spent a good chunk of time MOOing a traditional ceramic soap dispenser (you know, the pump kind that sits on a counter) onto the sink counter in such a way that it clipping into the side of the sink wasn’t visible. I eventually got it into the perfect position sitting on (well, IN) the corner of the sink, but DAMN was that fiddly! Oh MOO, you are so useful and yet so annoying sometimes…
B) Speaking of the en-suite bathroom, I made a couple of quick changes in there regarding the colors of some items! Namely, I recolored the counters to a white-with-green-countertop swatch that I discovered while deciding if I wanted to recolor the counter in the new bathroom (decided that I preferred the darker wood tone in the public bathroom, and the lighter colors in the private one), and I updated the swatches on the toilet and the mirror so that the band around the toilet bowl and the block of wood running across the mirror were a lighter, more orangey color instead of the darker brown. Partly because I thought those looked better with the brighter counters –
And partly because I realized that the shower and the sink were already using the more orangey color scheme anyway, meaning I might as well have my bathroom set PROPERLY MATCH. XD Though it occurs to me now that I’ll have to make sure that the sink, toilet, and mirror in the public bathroom are all using the darker shade, since I still have the dark brown counter in there...someone remind me to double-check that the next time I boot up the game! (Pretty sure the mirror and the toilet are fine, it’s just the sink that may need some tweaking…)
C) And then, once the bathrooms were sorted, I moved onto futzing around the rest of the house, adding various decorations that I stumbled upon while browsing the catalog that I felt were suited to the general vibe I was going for –
I. Out at the front of the house, I added some cute “Potted And Dotted” big potted plants from Backyard Stuff that I originally tried out in the public bathroom – none of the color schemes fit THAT space, but the yellow-with-a-blue-rim swatch and red-with-a-green-rim swatches looked pretty nice next to the rainbow front door! :)
II. In the living room, I moved the Backyard Stuff “Waxing Perennial” three-colorful-birds painting set out of the bedroom and over to the side wall by the games table (I was going to replace it in the bedroom with a giant Get Famous abstract painting, but after considering it a while I decided I wasn’t actually a fan and got rid of it); put some cute Discover University succulents with little smiley-face pots (in the right color scheme, no less!) on a Life & Death end table by the armchair in the opposite corner, in the spot recently vacated by the public bathroom door, and mounted some fun Parenthood painted skateboard decks wall art on the wall above them (the specific patterns were an all-scratched-up red one, a darker maroon one with freezer bunnies all over it, and a white one covered in musical notes – I felt those fit Alice, Smiler, and Victor respectively pretty well XD); mounted the Outdoor Retreat wooden hearts wall art in the rainbow swatch on the interior wall by the games table (above the cabinet with the games); and put down a couple of rugs – a very shrunk-down colorful Toddler Stuff rug under the games table, and a nice Werewolves rug with a vaguely floral red, yellow, and blue pattern under the couch. So that’s all coming together nicely!
III. I also put rugs in the kitchen (a fun one from High School Years where one of the swatches was a fried egg XD went under the dining table there); Victor’s room (a slightly-shrunk long rectangular City Living rug that happens to have a piano keys swatch – naturally, it went under his piano); Alice’s room (a Life & Death octagonal rug with some Lovecraftian vibes, as per the description – it had some nice soft reds in it and looked good under her desk); and the entranceway (a Movie Hangout rug that had a GORGEOUS “brightly colored birds on a black background” swatch that I REALLY wanted to use – its placement right in front of the entrance into the living room is probably temporary, but I didn’t want to get rid of it!). Rug mania!
IV. And because Smiler’s room already had a rug (the yellow-and-black-stripes swatch of the Moschino Stuff rug, I instead gave them a pride flag in the non-binary color swatch. Because they are proud of their identity, and I wanted at least one pride flag up and around the place. :)
So yeah – got another room done, and added some nice decorations to the rest of the place! Maybe next time I’ll see about getting that weird “M”-shaped room at the top of the house sorted – still think it would make a good bathroom with room for a tub, and I do have another bathroom organizer (a pretty base game blue one) that I want to use, so...we’ll see what happens!
Writing: I did indeed do a bit of worldbuilding in my master doc for Valicer In The Dark today – specifically, I decided it would be interesting/kind of funny to do a playbook write-up for the Beornen! The Beornen being the fire-loving, technology-loathing cult worshiping The Wicker Man, and the enemies of the Advocates, because there’s a joking rivalry between The Wicker Man and The Smiler coasters over in Alton Towers. XD So far the Beornen aren’t a MAJOR enemy for the Three Pillars in any of the scores I have planned (so far the only time the trio really tangle with them is in the train score based on that one Last Week Tonight episode), but you never know what might happen, and it’s probably a good idea to have an idea of what’s going on with them just in case I need it. So I cracked open my new Blades In The Dark physical book, got the “Cult” crew sheet up on my screen for reference, and set to work!
...after copying a lot of stuff over from the Advocates write-up because it was easier than trying to manually recreate the playbook outline I did before. XD I got through the crew’s playbook type (Cult, natch); Reputation and Tier (same Tier as the Advocates, with a “Brutal” reputation given their love of wrecking shit up); a quick description of their lair (a ramshackle shanty town on the border of Barrowcleft, the most rural area in Duskwall, dominated by the same two-faced man-goat effigy that sits in the center of the actual coaster); a quick description of their god (The Wicker Man, who is Cruel and Ferocious and manifests as a creepy fiery goat-man surrounded by clouds of burning ash); their preferred operation (Sacrifice, destroying things in the name of their god – felt appropriate for a cult based around fire) and cult practices (ritually burning objects, destroying technology, and defiling the holdings of other cults, especially the Advocates); and some of their upgrades (hilariously, they have many of the same ones as the Advocates, just with minor tweaks to indicate the different focuses on fthe cult; their Adepts are Fearsome and Savage, for example, instead of Loyal and Unreliable). I’ll probably keep poking at this as time goes on, figuring out their special abilities and whatnot – feels like a good side project for when I’m feeling particularly uninspired with regular writing!
YouTube: I accidentally left the old video watching a bit late thanks to getting distracted by some other stuff (such as the Beornen write-up) – which proved to be a problem because YouTube was doing the “stuttering” thing today (where every so often it takes ages to process your input). *sigh* I THINK it was tied to the football game being on the TV at the same time, but – can’t be sure of that. But it was very frustrating. *grumbles* Even with that, though, I still got through the two videos in my Watch Later and the Subs video –
A) First up, we had Petey Plays It and “Everything You Need To Know About A Sim's Soul's Journey | The Sims 4 Life And Death Guide!” An overview of how the Soul’s Journey added in with the Life & Death aspiration works – how to progress it (mainly by completing aspirations and bucket list goals, though fulfilling whims and clearing fears helps too), and what rewards you can expect (everything from increased satisfaction point gain and faster skill gain, to being able to pass down your traits to other Sims, to being able to chose to be reborn – and, if you complete the entire journey, be reborn with certain toddler and child skills already completed and the ability to remember your past life and get a few of your old traits back). Good stuff – it’s always nice to see someone go over new gameplay in detail! (Not that it helps ME right now, as I’m kind of stuck in building mode until that bug with occult eyes is fixed, but still.)
B) Then we had “CaFae Latte Season 16 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! Featuring Nicole getting the spoils of war (unicorn blood, horn, pelts, and hooves) from Bob while they dealt with an angry “animal rights activist” (and choosing to use some of that bounty to help out Lindsey with her redemption arc, aw); the gang making it clear that having children is very much NOT for everyone to a mother pissed off that her own daughter refuses to settle down; a fashion influencer looking for a free drink getting owned by Cyrus being a much more influential booktoker (and a glimpse at Cyrus’s show, which featured him reviewing a few books, including C. M.’s own latest); and Pat and Janine’s dinner, which JC predicted would end in at LEAST a hatefuck and actually ended in them deciding to date because as it turns out they get along when they’re not spewing vitriol each other’s way. Also them coming into the cafe afterward and JC looking like they’re about to be vampire racist...when actually they were just terrified Janine was going to burst into flames soon due to the sun rising. Cyrus had a good laugh while Janine told them that was just a myth. XD Excellent stuff as always – I do enjoy this series!
C) And finally, we had the latest from GrayStillPlays – “Which car completes the 100m grind challenge in GTA 5?” Yes, today we had a Torture Board that was nothing but chassis grinds – including a 69 meter rainbow grind (with measurement sticks atop it so Gray could confirm it was indeed 69 meters); a set of grind transfers guarded by teleporting weebmills (with a final one at the end Gray had to thumbnail hole through); a grind down a narrow strip of ice with a snow wall to blast through at the end (and if he fell off, he’d instead be blasted by exploding barrels); a tip-to-tip lightsaber grind with no dummy proofing (but a teleporter a few feet away from the end of the second lightsaber, meaning Gray didn’t have to do the entire grind); another lightsaber grind where Gray had to use the force to push away a lightsaber in his way before dropping down to a second, spinning saber to get the teleporter (complicated!); a pair of “closing grinds” with rotating half-circle pieces that would crush him if he didn’t time things just right (and of course, the second was twice as long and featured crushers going in different directions); and a final satisfying floppy grind which saw him speeding down a grind with boosts knocking over little floppy sticks in his path (it was indeed satisfying). Most of the cars Gray tried quit at the ice grind, though there was some PARTICULAR weirdness with the car sporting the “KABOOM” license plate, which ALMOST made it through the weebmill grind – then teleported out of the final thumbnail hole on fire for no reason. And then stopped dead on the third grind as if it had hit an invisible wall on a retry. O.o Not sure what the hell was going on there...and of course, one of the super cars Gray tried got smacked by the final weebmill and got sent flying into the ocean. XD Only two cars actually made it to the closing grinders, and of those, only the pink and yellow super car made it to the end. Which, given it sported the license plate “TESTED,” is probably not THAT surprising. :p
Yeah, dealing with that YouTube nonsense at the end was kind of tough...and once again, I have stayed up later than I intended, so now I really have to get to bed. Tomorrow, we do more drafting stuff on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler); play Fallout 4, finish looting Greentech Genetics, and make our way to Diamond City; update the FO4 Playthrough Progression appropriately; get in a workout; and keep up with Gray and Jon's usual Sunday Two. Hopefully these are achievable goals -- night all!
Tumblr: Well, nothing happened on Valice Multiverse today, but I ended up having a reasonably productive day on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) –
A) While doing my dash catch-up this morning, I reblogged a post about how what you really need is not someone who matches your freak, but someone who deeply adores your freak – because, well, that is a Valice and Valicer vibe, isn’t it? Victor is very much down with both Alice and Smiler’s freak, that’s for damn sure. XD
B) I participated in a “WIP Word Guessing Game” that I was tagged in by my friend Newt – where people send you a word, you look through your current works-in-progress for that word, and then, if you find it, you post a snippet from one of them featuring that word. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of participation (given my bad track record with previous ask games), but I was pleasantly surprised when I did get a couple of asks later this afternoon! Here’s how it all went down:
I. I made the initial post before lunch while wrapping up my dash catch-up (and making sure I hadn’t already participated, as apparently this game has made the rounds before), and made sure to send an ask to Newt right afterward, asking him to find “cat” or “kitty” (as he’s doing pretty much exclusively Dead Boys Detective Agency fics and openly adores the Cat King from that show :P).
II. I came back after working on the Polyheart OT3 house some more (see the Sims 4 section) to find that Newt had answered my ask (with a snippet of a fic he started but didn’t finish about the Cat King’s backstory and relationship with Esther, the evil witch from the show) – AND sent me one in return, asking for the word “grin!” I promptly pulled up “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded” and searched for the word –
And, to my delight, found it really early on in the fic, just after a joke about how Alice had 1. discovered Smiler woke up early, 2. discovered they woke up perky, and 3. made the best tea she’d ever had so she was willing to forgive them points 1 and 2. A joke that I really, really wanted to share with everyone on tumblr anyway. XD So I copied that whole section into my answer (along with the actual paragraph containing “grin”) and put it out into the world.
III. And then, shortly after that, I got an ask from VanD0rk for the word “flowers!” Was not expecting her to show up! I checked both “A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded” and “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” this time – however, while both had the word “flowers” in them, all of the instances in LB:DQ happened in Chapters 1 & 2, aka the already-published parts of that fic. I decided that didn’t count and instead went with the AMSIAMT “flowers,” which just so happened to appear at the very end of the fic. So I copied those few paragraphs and threw THOSE out into the world. Yay!
C) And, despite a distinct lack of inspiration when I finally got to my drafts as to which one I wanted to work on, I managed to get the very beginning of the “Valicer In The Dark” pets post edited! Specifically, I more-or-less completed the write-up on Sooty the raven, the trio’s very first pet and collaborator in killing Bumby (by swooping in to harass the guy when he went to confront them and stop them from exposing him via his ledger). And in doing so, I realized, “Hey, I said that Sooty specifically became fond of them because they fed him while they were staying at Elder Gutknecht’s place – I should probably establish that in ‘A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded’ instead of leaving it in a tumblr post. Would make him look less like a Deus Ex Raven when he shows up later to start attacking Bumby too!” So I made a note at the beginning of Chapter One to have him show up somewhere in there and get a little something from Smiler. *nods* So now I have a specific goal for a few of my edits! Nice. :)
Sims 4: I made my grand return to my Polyheart OT3 house today, determined to make some progress and maybe see if I could get another room done – and I am happy to report that I succeeded in both these goals! Here’s the rundown of what I did –
A) I got the public bathroom (well, half-bath I suppose, it’s just a toilet and a sink) off the living room sorted! Mostly by making things easier for myself by copying over a lot of the stuff from the en-suite bathroom off the trio’s bedroom – same Snowy Escape toilet; same Jungle Adventures counter paired with Snowy Escape sink; same Snowy Escape mirror above the sink; same base game window shades shrunk down to fit over the little windows; same base game “Pixel Perfect” half-tile wallpaper in the blue-green shade (though I discovered that I couldn’t wallpaper the whole room in one go without, for some reason, deleting the column in the corner of the kitchen – if I did each wall individually, though, it was fine O.o); and same blue-green Spa Day tile floor. Just made life easier, you know? Though there is plenty of stuff that makes the public bathroom different from the en-suite, besides the lack of a shower and cute cat tiles on the walls –
I. First off, the layout is different – when you come in the door, you have the Parenthood bathroom organizer cabinet (in the worn blue shade – I really wanted to fit one of these into the en-suite, but didn’t have room, so it went in here instead), then the sink and mirror, then the toilet sticking out from the far corner at an angle, since that seemed like the best place for it. And in the opposite corner, nearer the door (in fact, where the door used to be – I moved it over a few wall tiles to accommodate it) you have Robin the Plant from Lovestruck! I really wanted a plant in that narrow corner to fill it in a bit, and Robin was the one that filled the space the best (at least, once I used “moveobjects on” to get it in there the way I wanted), looked the nicest, and went the best with the color scheme. Thanks Robin!
II. And second off, the decorations and clutter are different – in addition to the bathroom organizer by the door, I also made sure to include a Parenthood hand towel by the sink that matched the wall’s color scheme; a base game set of four bird prints in dark wood frames that matched the counter on the inner wall next to the toilet; and three Cats & Dogs “Sunbeam Scribble” paintings (in different variants of the “light green” swatch) on the outer diagonal wall to add a bit of color and pizzazz. I also spent a good chunk of time MOOing a traditional ceramic soap dispenser (you know, the pump kind that sits on a counter) onto the sink counter in such a way that it clipping into the side of the sink wasn’t visible. I eventually got it into the perfect position sitting on (well, IN) the corner of the sink, but DAMN was that fiddly! Oh MOO, you are so useful and yet so annoying sometimes…
B) Speaking of the en-suite bathroom, I made a couple of quick changes in there regarding the colors of some items! Namely, I recolored the counters to a white-with-green-countertop swatch that I discovered while deciding if I wanted to recolor the counter in the new bathroom (decided that I preferred the darker wood tone in the public bathroom, and the lighter colors in the private one), and I updated the swatches on the toilet and the mirror so that the band around the toilet bowl and the block of wood running across the mirror were a lighter, more orangey color instead of the darker brown. Partly because I thought those looked better with the brighter counters –
And partly because I realized that the shower and the sink were already using the more orangey color scheme anyway, meaning I might as well have my bathroom set PROPERLY MATCH. XD Though it occurs to me now that I’ll have to make sure that the sink, toilet, and mirror in the public bathroom are all using the darker shade, since I still have the dark brown counter in there...someone remind me to double-check that the next time I boot up the game! (Pretty sure the mirror and the toilet are fine, it’s just the sink that may need some tweaking…)
C) And then, once the bathrooms were sorted, I moved onto futzing around the rest of the house, adding various decorations that I stumbled upon while browsing the catalog that I felt were suited to the general vibe I was going for –
I. Out at the front of the house, I added some cute “Potted And Dotted” big potted plants from Backyard Stuff that I originally tried out in the public bathroom – none of the color schemes fit THAT space, but the yellow-with-a-blue-rim swatch and red-with-a-green-rim swatches looked pretty nice next to the rainbow front door! :)
II. In the living room, I moved the Backyard Stuff “Waxing Perennial” three-colorful-birds painting set out of the bedroom and over to the side wall by the games table (I was going to replace it in the bedroom with a giant Get Famous abstract painting, but after considering it a while I decided I wasn’t actually a fan and got rid of it); put some cute Discover University succulents with little smiley-face pots (in the right color scheme, no less!) on a Life & Death end table by the armchair in the opposite corner, in the spot recently vacated by the public bathroom door, and mounted some fun Parenthood painted skateboard decks wall art on the wall above them (the specific patterns were an all-scratched-up red one, a darker maroon one with freezer bunnies all over it, and a white one covered in musical notes – I felt those fit Alice, Smiler, and Victor respectively pretty well XD); mounted the Outdoor Retreat wooden hearts wall art in the rainbow swatch on the interior wall by the games table (above the cabinet with the games); and put down a couple of rugs – a very shrunk-down colorful Toddler Stuff rug under the games table, and a nice Werewolves rug with a vaguely floral red, yellow, and blue pattern under the couch. So that’s all coming together nicely!
III. I also put rugs in the kitchen (a fun one from High School Years where one of the swatches was a fried egg XD went under the dining table there); Victor’s room (a slightly-shrunk long rectangular City Living rug that happens to have a piano keys swatch – naturally, it went under his piano); Alice’s room (a Life & Death octagonal rug with some Lovecraftian vibes, as per the description – it had some nice soft reds in it and looked good under her desk); and the entranceway (a Movie Hangout rug that had a GORGEOUS “brightly colored birds on a black background” swatch that I REALLY wanted to use – its placement right in front of the entrance into the living room is probably temporary, but I didn’t want to get rid of it!). Rug mania!
IV. And because Smiler’s room already had a rug (the yellow-and-black-stripes swatch of the Moschino Stuff rug, I instead gave them a pride flag in the non-binary color swatch. Because they are proud of their identity, and I wanted at least one pride flag up and around the place. :)
So yeah – got another room done, and added some nice decorations to the rest of the place! Maybe next time I’ll see about getting that weird “M”-shaped room at the top of the house sorted – still think it would make a good bathroom with room for a tub, and I do have another bathroom organizer (a pretty base game blue one) that I want to use, so...we’ll see what happens!
Writing: I did indeed do a bit of worldbuilding in my master doc for Valicer In The Dark today – specifically, I decided it would be interesting/kind of funny to do a playbook write-up for the Beornen! The Beornen being the fire-loving, technology-loathing cult worshiping The Wicker Man, and the enemies of the Advocates, because there’s a joking rivalry between The Wicker Man and The Smiler coasters over in Alton Towers. XD So far the Beornen aren’t a MAJOR enemy for the Three Pillars in any of the scores I have planned (so far the only time the trio really tangle with them is in the train score based on that one Last Week Tonight episode), but you never know what might happen, and it’s probably a good idea to have an idea of what’s going on with them just in case I need it. So I cracked open my new Blades In The Dark physical book, got the “Cult” crew sheet up on my screen for reference, and set to work!
...after copying a lot of stuff over from the Advocates write-up because it was easier than trying to manually recreate the playbook outline I did before. XD I got through the crew’s playbook type (Cult, natch); Reputation and Tier (same Tier as the Advocates, with a “Brutal” reputation given their love of wrecking shit up); a quick description of their lair (a ramshackle shanty town on the border of Barrowcleft, the most rural area in Duskwall, dominated by the same two-faced man-goat effigy that sits in the center of the actual coaster); a quick description of their god (The Wicker Man, who is Cruel and Ferocious and manifests as a creepy fiery goat-man surrounded by clouds of burning ash); their preferred operation (Sacrifice, destroying things in the name of their god – felt appropriate for a cult based around fire) and cult practices (ritually burning objects, destroying technology, and defiling the holdings of other cults, especially the Advocates); and some of their upgrades (hilariously, they have many of the same ones as the Advocates, just with minor tweaks to indicate the different focuses on fthe cult; their Adepts are Fearsome and Savage, for example, instead of Loyal and Unreliable). I’ll probably keep poking at this as time goes on, figuring out their special abilities and whatnot – feels like a good side project for when I’m feeling particularly uninspired with regular writing!
YouTube: I accidentally left the old video watching a bit late thanks to getting distracted by some other stuff (such as the Beornen write-up) – which proved to be a problem because YouTube was doing the “stuttering” thing today (where every so often it takes ages to process your input). *sigh* I THINK it was tied to the football game being on the TV at the same time, but – can’t be sure of that. But it was very frustrating. *grumbles* Even with that, though, I still got through the two videos in my Watch Later and the Subs video –
A) First up, we had Petey Plays It and “Everything You Need To Know About A Sim's Soul's Journey | The Sims 4 Life And Death Guide!” An overview of how the Soul’s Journey added in with the Life & Death aspiration works – how to progress it (mainly by completing aspirations and bucket list goals, though fulfilling whims and clearing fears helps too), and what rewards you can expect (everything from increased satisfaction point gain and faster skill gain, to being able to pass down your traits to other Sims, to being able to chose to be reborn – and, if you complete the entire journey, be reborn with certain toddler and child skills already completed and the ability to remember your past life and get a few of your old traits back). Good stuff – it’s always nice to see someone go over new gameplay in detail! (Not that it helps ME right now, as I’m kind of stuck in building mode until that bug with occult eyes is fixed, but still.)
B) Then we had “CaFae Latte Season 16 - TikTok Compilation” by C. M. Alongi! Featuring Nicole getting the spoils of war (unicorn blood, horn, pelts, and hooves) from Bob while they dealt with an angry “animal rights activist” (and choosing to use some of that bounty to help out Lindsey with her redemption arc, aw); the gang making it clear that having children is very much NOT for everyone to a mother pissed off that her own daughter refuses to settle down; a fashion influencer looking for a free drink getting owned by Cyrus being a much more influential booktoker (and a glimpse at Cyrus’s show, which featured him reviewing a few books, including C. M.’s own latest); and Pat and Janine’s dinner, which JC predicted would end in at LEAST a hatefuck and actually ended in them deciding to date because as it turns out they get along when they’re not spewing vitriol each other’s way. Also them coming into the cafe afterward and JC looking like they’re about to be vampire racist...when actually they were just terrified Janine was going to burst into flames soon due to the sun rising. Cyrus had a good laugh while Janine told them that was just a myth. XD Excellent stuff as always – I do enjoy this series!
C) And finally, we had the latest from GrayStillPlays – “Which car completes the 100m grind challenge in GTA 5?” Yes, today we had a Torture Board that was nothing but chassis grinds – including a 69 meter rainbow grind (with measurement sticks atop it so Gray could confirm it was indeed 69 meters); a set of grind transfers guarded by teleporting weebmills (with a final one at the end Gray had to thumbnail hole through); a grind down a narrow strip of ice with a snow wall to blast through at the end (and if he fell off, he’d instead be blasted by exploding barrels); a tip-to-tip lightsaber grind with no dummy proofing (but a teleporter a few feet away from the end of the second lightsaber, meaning Gray didn’t have to do the entire grind); another lightsaber grind where Gray had to use the force to push away a lightsaber in his way before dropping down to a second, spinning saber to get the teleporter (complicated!); a pair of “closing grinds” with rotating half-circle pieces that would crush him if he didn’t time things just right (and of course, the second was twice as long and featured crushers going in different directions); and a final satisfying floppy grind which saw him speeding down a grind with boosts knocking over little floppy sticks in his path (it was indeed satisfying). Most of the cars Gray tried quit at the ice grind, though there was some PARTICULAR weirdness with the car sporting the “KABOOM” license plate, which ALMOST made it through the weebmill grind – then teleported out of the final thumbnail hole on fire for no reason. And then stopped dead on the third grind as if it had hit an invisible wall on a retry. O.o Not sure what the hell was going on there...and of course, one of the super cars Gray tried got smacked by the final weebmill and got sent flying into the ocean. XD Only two cars actually made it to the closing grinders, and of those, only the pink and yellow super car made it to the end. Which, given it sported the license plate “TESTED,” is probably not THAT surprising. :p
Yeah, dealing with that YouTube nonsense at the end was kind of tough...and once again, I have stayed up later than I intended, so now I really have to get to bed. Tomorrow, we do more drafting stuff on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler); play Fallout 4, finish looting Greentech Genetics, and make our way to Diamond City; update the FO4 Playthrough Progression appropriately; get in a workout; and keep up with Gray and Jon's usual Sunday Two. Hopefully these are achievable goals -- night all!
