![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Less Than Relaxing Saturday
Feb. 22nd, 2025 11:50 pmYeah, thanks to various factors (including helping my parents with some stuff), I ended up having less time than expected to do the stuff I was hoping to do -- and while I hit all of my major goals, I didn't really do as much on any of them as I was hoping --
Tumblr: My morning drafting was interrupted, sadly, but I got a couple of things done –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Finished off my draft of the “Accidental Severance AU Outfits” Sims 4 CAS looks post today, cleaning up the main text a bit and adding image alt text and tags! So I can throw into the queue for this upcoming Wednesday if I am so inclined. *nods*
Valice Multiverse – Put one thing on my dash and one thing in my queue tonight –
A) Earlier this evening, I answered the latest reblog from The Coven Wars on the “amnesiac kiddo Venus meets the Forgotten Vows versions of Alice and Victor” thread we’ve got going on – after nearly crashing into him and noting that he’s tall (to Victor’s amusement) in the last go-round, Venus introduced herself in response to Victor asking her name, with her unnamed friend (an older teen with a crutch) explaining they found her wandering around without a name, so they gave her one. Poor Victor (who had his name ripped away from him for a while in this world) had some feelings about that. But he managed to get himself under control and say it was nice to meet them, while asking for the Friend On Crutches’s name, since they haven’t volunteered it yet. Hopefully when The Coven Wars next replies, we’ll get to find out! :P
B) And just now, before logging off for the night, I put the latest ask I got from Toonsisters in the queue – featuring a random hater yelling insults at the Cuddlepile Valicer trio and Toonsisters, and her yelling back that she does what she wants. As for the trio, Alice and Victor were more confused by their insults than anything (Alice having been called an “Emo Hot Topic Wannabe Midget” and just going “...midget??” while Victor was accused of being “Jack Skellington if he was the King of Twinks” and responding “I know a lot of people who would argue he’s ALREADY that”), while Smiler, who was hit with “And you are a literal Joker rip-off but gay as fuck!” was actually genuinely pissed (because they HATE the Joker – they threatened to force the hater to listen to them rant about it). We’ll see if anything more comes of it!
Writing: I got another story written before supper today – the Day Seven “secret relationship” prompt, which ended up being from the Hypothetical Valicer Forgotten Vows AU I came up with last year (well, I’ve had some version of it in my head almost ever since I came up with Smiler, but the full version was written up last year). The fic’s set after all the stuff with Bumby and Kelman is sorted, and is just about Victor feeling sad that he has to hide that he’s in a relationship with Smiler as well as being married to Alice, and Smiler reassuring him that they know he considers them as important as Alice, even without being able to be open about it. :) I also decided on AUs for a couple of other prompts – Day Nine, “Queerplatonic relationships,” is going to be a Modern AU story that serves as a short sequel to the “Relationship Anarchy” story from Polyship Week 2024 (where Alice was struggling over trying to define her and Smiler’s relationship – here she’s going to find the term “queerplatonic” and go “aha”); and Day Twenty-Nine, “Vampire AU,” will naturally be another Londerland Bloodlines story – though what, exactly, I don’t know yet. But something! :p
YouTube: Welp, due to a combination of factors – including doing a load of laundry (throwing in my sheets, pajamas, and bathrobe because I knew Mom was going to insist I wash my sheets anyway) which took longer to complete than expected thanks to various shenanigans (note to self: IGNORE MOM WHEN SHE SAYS TO DRY THE SHEETS SEPARATELY), getting to my taxes later than expected, and dinner also being later than expected – I wasn’t able to do the full YouTube Marathon I had planned. Namely, I had to skip Josh Way’s latest movie review AGAIN because I simply didn’t have time for it. *grumble* At least I managed to clear out everything else I wanted to watch today –
A) First up, from the Watch Later, we had the OXBoxtra lists of the week –
I. “7 Times Developers Doubled Down on Terrible Ideas” – Ellen and Jane talking about those times where developers ignored obvious trends or fan feedback and insisted on doing something terrible with their games! Such the co-founder of Gearbox getting called out on misleadingly saying Borderlands 3 would have no microtransactions in its debut livestream (when cosmetic items were clearly for sale – just no lootboxes) and deciding to get into a Twitter feud with gaming journalists over it instead of backing down, resulting in a lot of bad press for his studio! Or studio Digital Homicide attempting to sue Jim Stephanie Sterling for “defamation” when they rightfully called out their awful “asset flip” games as trash – and then, when that failed, attempting to subpoena FUCKING VALVE for the identities of Steam players who gave them bad reviews, which resulted in their games being banned from the platform and the studio shutting down! Or Ubisoft foolishly getting into the NFT game by releasing cosmetic NFTs for players to wear in a game they then shut down four months later (having earned a grand total of $400 from flogging the items) – only to then release a tactical RPG-ish game where basically all the good characters were NFTs last year! Which was not received well, as you might expect. Basically, sometimes a game company just CANNOT get the memo that they’re tanking their reputation, and potentially their profits. *shakes head* Sad.
II. “7 Times Games Were More Realistic Than Real Life” – Jane and Ellen talking about those surprise realistic details in games that you weren’t expecting, or perhaps didn’t know were even a thing! Such as Link’s bomb arrows in The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild instantly igniting in Link’s face should he notch one on the ultra-hot Death Mountain! Opossums playing dead when you walk up to them menacingly in Red Dead Redemption 2! Los Santos having realistic light pollution in Grand Theft Auto V! And thermal scopes not working through windows in Call of Duty: Warzone (a thing I did not know – apparently it’s because the infrared heat signature is reflected by glass). We do love these little touches of realism in our games...well, except when they screw us over. I’ll take reloading being silent, instant, and involving magic bullets from the previous magazine staying in the chamber please!
B) And second up, from the Subs, we had today’s GrayStillPlays video – “Which floating car can float the furthest?” Yes, it was back to experimenting with custom cars in GTA V tonight, with Gray putting a bunch of vehicles – including the quad, one of the smaller arena vehicles (with boost), a supercar with Vodka branding, the Oppressor hovering motorcycle, the Deluxo Fake DeLorean, a hovering Sherp, and an entire floating house with balloons attached to it – up against a series of bizarre challenges to see which one could earn the most points and thus prove which was better – regular vehicles, hovering vehicles, or the custom monstrosities. :p We had:
I. A contest to see which car could make it over a series of increasingly-wide gaps – while every vehicle nosedived (or straight-up turtled in the case of the house) at one point, the Deluxo was able to grind its way back up onto the final platform and to a point
II. A contest to see which car could best following a curved tightrope chassis-grind – while most vehicles flew right off (both literally and metaphorically), the HoverSherp’s inability to tilt at all (driving perfectly straight and flat – if also like a malfunctioning Roomba) gave it the ability to follow the curves perfectly and pick up a point
III. A contest to see which car could get over a tightrope made up of the plungers of a bunch of syringes stuck in the ground, essentially making it a tightrope of speedbumps – here the nonfloating cars got a win, with the small arena vehicle making it over with surprising ease and grabbing a point
IV. And finally, a contest to see which car could make it over a tightrope bridge made up of various spinning, wobbly square LEGO bricks in 30 seconds – Gray gave the house a shot just to say he used it (it almost immediately flipped), but then said “fuck it, I know what will beat this” and immediately turned to the Deluxo. And the power of the Fake DeLorean (plus a bit of patience waiting for the bricks to level out slightly) got that car its second point and thus the win! Given this is the car based off of one of my favorite movie vehicles, I am pleased. (Though the HoverSherp winning would have been great too. XD)
Yeah -- not the worst, but not exactly what I was hoping for either. *sigh* And now I really need to hit the sheets, as it's gotten pretty late. Tomorrow, gonna try another experiment in playing Fallout 4 before lunch (clearing out Hardware Town and getting Abbot his paint); update the FO4 Playthrough Progression accordingly; get in a workout; HOPEFULLY get in a bit of drafting time on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler); and keep up with Gray, Jon, and HOPEFULLY Josh. We will see, though. Night all!
Tumblr: My morning drafting was interrupted, sadly, but I got a couple of things done –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Finished off my draft of the “Accidental Severance AU Outfits” Sims 4 CAS looks post today, cleaning up the main text a bit and adding image alt text and tags! So I can throw into the queue for this upcoming Wednesday if I am so inclined. *nods*
Valice Multiverse – Put one thing on my dash and one thing in my queue tonight –
A) Earlier this evening, I answered the latest reblog from The Coven Wars on the “amnesiac kiddo Venus meets the Forgotten Vows versions of Alice and Victor” thread we’ve got going on – after nearly crashing into him and noting that he’s tall (to Victor’s amusement) in the last go-round, Venus introduced herself in response to Victor asking her name, with her unnamed friend (an older teen with a crutch) explaining they found her wandering around without a name, so they gave her one. Poor Victor (who had his name ripped away from him for a while in this world) had some feelings about that. But he managed to get himself under control and say it was nice to meet them, while asking for the Friend On Crutches’s name, since they haven’t volunteered it yet. Hopefully when The Coven Wars next replies, we’ll get to find out! :P
B) And just now, before logging off for the night, I put the latest ask I got from Toonsisters in the queue – featuring a random hater yelling insults at the Cuddlepile Valicer trio and Toonsisters, and her yelling back that she does what she wants. As for the trio, Alice and Victor were more confused by their insults than anything (Alice having been called an “Emo Hot Topic Wannabe Midget” and just going “...midget??” while Victor was accused of being “Jack Skellington if he was the King of Twinks” and responding “I know a lot of people who would argue he’s ALREADY that”), while Smiler, who was hit with “And you are a literal Joker rip-off but gay as fuck!” was actually genuinely pissed (because they HATE the Joker – they threatened to force the hater to listen to them rant about it). We’ll see if anything more comes of it!
Writing: I got another story written before supper today – the Day Seven “secret relationship” prompt, which ended up being from the Hypothetical Valicer Forgotten Vows AU I came up with last year (well, I’ve had some version of it in my head almost ever since I came up with Smiler, but the full version was written up last year). The fic’s set after all the stuff with Bumby and Kelman is sorted, and is just about Victor feeling sad that he has to hide that he’s in a relationship with Smiler as well as being married to Alice, and Smiler reassuring him that they know he considers them as important as Alice, even without being able to be open about it. :) I also decided on AUs for a couple of other prompts – Day Nine, “Queerplatonic relationships,” is going to be a Modern AU story that serves as a short sequel to the “Relationship Anarchy” story from Polyship Week 2024 (where Alice was struggling over trying to define her and Smiler’s relationship – here she’s going to find the term “queerplatonic” and go “aha”); and Day Twenty-Nine, “Vampire AU,” will naturally be another Londerland Bloodlines story – though what, exactly, I don’t know yet. But something! :p
YouTube: Welp, due to a combination of factors – including doing a load of laundry (throwing in my sheets, pajamas, and bathrobe because I knew Mom was going to insist I wash my sheets anyway) which took longer to complete than expected thanks to various shenanigans (note to self: IGNORE MOM WHEN SHE SAYS TO DRY THE SHEETS SEPARATELY), getting to my taxes later than expected, and dinner also being later than expected – I wasn’t able to do the full YouTube Marathon I had planned. Namely, I had to skip Josh Way’s latest movie review AGAIN because I simply didn’t have time for it. *grumble* At least I managed to clear out everything else I wanted to watch today –
A) First up, from the Watch Later, we had the OXBoxtra lists of the week –
I. “7 Times Developers Doubled Down on Terrible Ideas” – Ellen and Jane talking about those times where developers ignored obvious trends or fan feedback and insisted on doing something terrible with their games! Such the co-founder of Gearbox getting called out on misleadingly saying Borderlands 3 would have no microtransactions in its debut livestream (when cosmetic items were clearly for sale – just no lootboxes) and deciding to get into a Twitter feud with gaming journalists over it instead of backing down, resulting in a lot of bad press for his studio! Or studio Digital Homicide attempting to sue Jim Stephanie Sterling for “defamation” when they rightfully called out their awful “asset flip” games as trash – and then, when that failed, attempting to subpoena FUCKING VALVE for the identities of Steam players who gave them bad reviews, which resulted in their games being banned from the platform and the studio shutting down! Or Ubisoft foolishly getting into the NFT game by releasing cosmetic NFTs for players to wear in a game they then shut down four months later (having earned a grand total of $400 from flogging the items) – only to then release a tactical RPG-ish game where basically all the good characters were NFTs last year! Which was not received well, as you might expect. Basically, sometimes a game company just CANNOT get the memo that they’re tanking their reputation, and potentially their profits. *shakes head* Sad.
II. “7 Times Games Were More Realistic Than Real Life” – Jane and Ellen talking about those surprise realistic details in games that you weren’t expecting, or perhaps didn’t know were even a thing! Such as Link’s bomb arrows in The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild instantly igniting in Link’s face should he notch one on the ultra-hot Death Mountain! Opossums playing dead when you walk up to them menacingly in Red Dead Redemption 2! Los Santos having realistic light pollution in Grand Theft Auto V! And thermal scopes not working through windows in Call of Duty: Warzone (a thing I did not know – apparently it’s because the infrared heat signature is reflected by glass). We do love these little touches of realism in our games...well, except when they screw us over. I’ll take reloading being silent, instant, and involving magic bullets from the previous magazine staying in the chamber please!
B) And second up, from the Subs, we had today’s GrayStillPlays video – “Which floating car can float the furthest?” Yes, it was back to experimenting with custom cars in GTA V tonight, with Gray putting a bunch of vehicles – including the quad, one of the smaller arena vehicles (with boost), a supercar with Vodka branding, the Oppressor hovering motorcycle, the Deluxo Fake DeLorean, a hovering Sherp, and an entire floating house with balloons attached to it – up against a series of bizarre challenges to see which one could earn the most points and thus prove which was better – regular vehicles, hovering vehicles, or the custom monstrosities. :p We had:
I. A contest to see which car could make it over a series of increasingly-wide gaps – while every vehicle nosedived (or straight-up turtled in the case of the house) at one point, the Deluxo was able to grind its way back up onto the final platform and to a point
II. A contest to see which car could best following a curved tightrope chassis-grind – while most vehicles flew right off (both literally and metaphorically), the HoverSherp’s inability to tilt at all (driving perfectly straight and flat – if also like a malfunctioning Roomba) gave it the ability to follow the curves perfectly and pick up a point
III. A contest to see which car could get over a tightrope made up of the plungers of a bunch of syringes stuck in the ground, essentially making it a tightrope of speedbumps – here the nonfloating cars got a win, with the small arena vehicle making it over with surprising ease and grabbing a point
IV. And finally, a contest to see which car could make it over a tightrope bridge made up of various spinning, wobbly square LEGO bricks in 30 seconds – Gray gave the house a shot just to say he used it (it almost immediately flipped), but then said “fuck it, I know what will beat this” and immediately turned to the Deluxo. And the power of the Fake DeLorean (plus a bit of patience waiting for the bricks to level out slightly) got that car its second point and thus the win! Given this is the car based off of one of my favorite movie vehicles, I am pleased. (Though the HoverSherp winning would have been great too. XD)
Yeah -- not the worst, but not exactly what I was hoping for either. *sigh* And now I really need to hit the sheets, as it's gotten pretty late. Tomorrow, gonna try another experiment in playing Fallout 4 before lunch (clearing out Hardware Town and getting Abbot his paint); update the FO4 Playthrough Progression accordingly; get in a workout; HOPEFULLY get in a bit of drafting time on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler); and keep up with Gray, Jon, and HOPEFULLY Josh. We will see, though. Night all!
