crossover_chick: Doc looking very sarcastically over his shoulder (BTTF: in a sarcastic mood)
Crossover Chick ([personal profile] crossover_chick) wrote2025-05-10 11:42 pm

Not The World's Greatest Saturday

As you will see in the write-up for my day -- suffice to say that things did not go exactly according to plan, especially this morning:

Cleaning: Welp, this took WAY longer than it should have today, for two simple reasons:

A) I woke up forty minutes later than I wanted to, arising at 9:40 AM instead of 9

B) I ran out of the homemade chocolate granola I add to my cereal, so I had to make a fresh batch of that after I finished my breakfast and brushed my teeth.

Meaning, not only did a get a late start on the actual cleaning – starting around 11:20 AM – I also was interrupted pretty early on by having to get my nearly-finished granola out of the oven and spread the chocolate chips all over it before letting it cool, and that just – threw everything off. *rubs eyes* I am SO lucky I didn’t have to throw my blankets in the wash as well – though I did have to take a break after lunch to put away my portion of the family laundry Mom was doing. *grumbles* Bottom line, I didn’t even finish my dusting, what with all the interruptions, until well after 2 PM, and didn’t finish Swiffering and vacuuming until after 3 – finally wrapping everything up around 3:15 PM or so. *heavy sigh* Fucking good thing I wasn’t planning on playing video games today anyway, huh? At least I still got to listen to “The Wardens of Bellweather Crematorium” during the clean – would have been extra sad/pissed off if I hadn’t gotten my biweekly Oxventure Presents: Blades In The Dark video in!

Writing: Did the second draft of my tumblr friend Squid’s birthday gift fic, about Isaac and Romero from VTMB talking about Romero’s obvious love for Angeline, Squid’s ghoul OC – or, well, what Isaac thought was Romero’s obvious love for her, as it turns out Romero himself was totally oblivious – this afternoon, after I’d caught up on all my internet stuff. Took a little longer than I really wanted to wrestle it into the shape, but I’m happy enough with the end product, and I’m sure they’ll be happy with it too. Just gotta whack it into the old queue so it’s ready to post this Friday, and I’ll be all set!

YouTube: My late start to the day hit me here too – while I was able to get MOST of the videos I wanted to watch watched, I ran out of time to watch today’s GrayStillPlays video, meaning I’m still behind a day there. *grumbles* But I still managed to get through four out of the five, which is no mean feat given how long watching and summing them up can take –

A) First up, before my shower and supper, we had “I Reached A Secret Career Stage | Super Sim Series 19” by Petey Plays It! Yes, Tina was finally back in action, and ready to cause way more chaos as her best villainous self. To whit, the latest episode saw her:

I. Save her mother Sally from the new master vampire on the block, Rhiannon, via her Sim Ray’s freezing and mind control powers – only for Rhiannon to be impressed with Tina’s villainous ways and offer a truce in the form of “I’ll stop trying to get revenge for Sally casting spells on me if you and her join my evil Underworld club.” Tina agreed, though she wasn’t exactly happy to learn Nancy Landgraab was also part of the club – that’s her favorite punching bag, how dare Rhiannon make them work together XD

II. Progress the Sticky Fingers aspiration by continually stealing stuff – mostly from Nancy’s house, so she didn’t get any bright ideas about them burying the hatchet now that they were part of the same club XD

III. Join the Criminal career in the Oracle branch and rapidly get promoted all the way to the top, getting herself a sweet new computer and some cool new work outfits, in the hopes of impressing her new vampire boss

IV. Progress the Leader Of the Pack aspiration by holding a few Underworld club gatherings in various places (including the bar in Moonwood Mill – early misstep for the new recruit, given vampires and werewolves FAMOUSLY don’t get along in Sims 4 without mods), earning lots of club points by being mean to people, chatting about the club with the various members, and recruiting Trashley Reelperson (aka the “three raccoons in a trenchcoat” NPC from Businesses & Hobbies) as a new member, also to impress Rhiannon

V. Progress the Villainous Valentine aspiration by breaking up yet another couple (because why not? She really needs to get this one completed after all)

VI. Progress the Seeker of Secrets aspiration by eavesdropping on people and snooping around their houses for secrets – especially after Rhiannon proved to be like “fine, but what ELSE can you do for me” after Tina told her about their new member and her new job, prompting Tina to want to get the dirt on her to oust her, and on everyone else to get them to back her up during said ousting (namely, using the secrets she’d found to blackmail Nancy into supporting her despite their terrible relationship)

VII. Swap careers to join the Secret Agent career as a Villain, progressing up the ladder to the very top spot as a Triple Agent – which is actually the “secret career stage” from the title, as it turns out the Villain career track has eleven levels, not the standard ten. Sneaky!

VIII. Finish off the Public Enemy aspiration by luring Rhiannon’s friend and primary minion Marley out for a day of summery swimming in Sulani – and then, when it proved to be super rainy there, luring her to Tartosa instead and using her various tricks of the trade (namely, her Sim Ray’s “freeze ray” function and a “tranquilizing handshake,” dunno where she picked that up – guessing the Secret Agent career?) to keep her in the sun until she finally burned to death. Annoyingly, not only did Petey have to reload the save because Marley refused to burn to death the first time, when she finally DID die, for whatever reason, it didn’t count as Tina witnessing a death. Despite her being right there. Petey wasn’t sure why (possibly it had something to do with Marley being a vampire and dying in a vampire-specific way? We know the base game aspirations aren’t always updated to account for new gameplay), but he decided that, since he’d given completing it the CORRECT way his best shot, he was allowed to cheat to ACTUALLY complete the aspiration. *nods* Entirely fair to me, Petey!

IX. And along the way, unlock two Mastery Perks (“Spacebender,” which allows her to teleport, via a special Rewards Store drink, and “Skilled Sleep,” which allows a projection of herself to learn skills while she sleeps, from general gameplay); continue upgrading her two robots (Wheelo the Servo is up to level 8 enhancement, while Ivy the gardening bot is up to level 7); and continue working on mastering her ghost powers by turning herself ghostly via ghastly rituals (also proved to be a great way to sneak into Rhiannon’s house, snoop for secrets, and steal a chair).

So yeah, busy episode! But no one can say that Tina isn’t living her best villain life – well, except Rhiannon, who apparently thinks Tina is a wanna-be who is trying too hard. XD But next episode, with most of her club turned against her and her most faithful minion dead by sunlight, she’s probably going to get a rude awakening regarding just how hard Tina’s willing to try to make her life hell…

B) Then, after supper, it was time for the OXBoxtra list videos of the week –

I. “7 Bosses You Snuck Up Behind Like a Total Hero: The Return” – Ellen and Andy going through a bunch of bosses that you pretty much have to sneak up behind (or above) to defeat! Facing the horrible dog-cat-demon woman Ko-omote in Ghostwire: Tokyo after she ate your ghost buddy KK? The only way to depower her and get her to spit him up is to yank out her three mystical tails, so approach her from the rear and get yanking! Going up against the Ancient Wyvern in Dark Souls 3 and finding a head-on fight to be too deadly? Get past it and sneak up onto the scaffolding to reach a ledge where you can deal death from above to its head! Need to take down Konstantin at the end of Rise of the Tomb Raider after he yoinked all your weapons? Time to both sneak up behind AND above him so you can stab him with your climbing ax and defeat him via the power of QTE! Taking out your enemies from behind – it’s just better.

II. “7 Games That Changed Completely on a Second Playthrough: Commenter Edition” – Mike and Andy talking about those games that, when you started up the New Game Plus, suddenly changed in some significant way! Sometimes, you can get an entirely new game – for example, the second time you play Bravely Second: End Layer, you can call upon your allies from the end of your first playthrough, immediately defeat the big bad, and start a new story entirely with all new decisions you have to make! Sometimes, you just get something that helps you understand what was going on during the first run better – for example, the second time you play Lies Of P, the device that you’re hauling around that examines the “Ergo” of the puppets you fight upgrades so you can understand them when they speak to you, allowing you to suss out their motivations and occasionally feel bad for killing. And sometimes, you just get stuff that makes the second run-through a little more, ah, interesting – for example, the second time you play Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, not only do you unlock a “party” lightsaber that changes color every time you swing it, you also unlock perks that makes both you and your enemies deal extra damage, replaces standard encounters with harder enemies, and randomizes what the hell main character Cal looks like every time he dies. And as Mike put it, “...if you’re arguing that the hero of a Star Wars game turning up to cutscenes with a randomized handlebar mustache and mullet combo doesn’t change the game completely, look at this and realize how wrong you are.” [cut to serious cutscene where poor Cal looks like a completely stereotypical redneck] XD Just proof that even the little things can make a game feel completely different the second time you play it!

C) And finally, to wrap things up, we had yesterday’s GrayStillPlays video – “I say only "no" to every question,” aka Gray plays Sort The Court! This is a game where you play as a monarch who must answer “yes” or “no” to every request made of him, and his decisions affect how well his kingdom is run. Gray played this before, saying “Yes” to every request, and ended up with a shockingly prosperous and happy kingdom, but this time, he wanted to give the old “No” a try. Though despite the title, it wasn’t “no” to EVERY question – instead, he decided to be indecisive (ironically), saying “yes” to everything one day, and “no” to everything another day. How did that work out for him?

Shockingly well! There was a little trouble right at the start of the playthrough, when some of his “nos” dropped happiness to the point where people started leaving the city – but the “yes” days more than made up for that, as they led to such things as the circus coming to town, a tavern being built, and some guy’s fishing boat being fixed and bringing in loads of coin. And hell, sometimes even the “nos” helped improve things – Gray refusing to give his captain of the guard any guidance on what to do with some captured prisoners led to him going “FINE, I’m just going to train them myself and make them new soldiers.” Leading to the town gaining like three people. XD Basically, what we learned today is, in this game, it doesn’t actually matter what the hell you say, so long as you keep the overall happiness of the kingdom over 100. Hell, Georgie the devil showed up on a “yes” day and got Gray to agree to a massive demonic ritual that killed a bunch of people but gave Gray a shitload of cash – but because all the murder didn’t actually affect the HAPPINESS score, nobody cared and people kept moving in! So yeah, just make sure your “no” days only cause minor happiness disruptions, make sure to always let the circus visit town, and you will be fine as king of this weird little kingdom. :P

Tumblr: Actually did get a few late-night things done here –

Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – I managed to sneak in some time to work on the second half of my Mega Ghostbusters AU post – fixing some typos, rewording some awkward sentences, and finishing off the last few paragraphs, with the human Busters telling Smiler that, as freaked out as they are to learn they’re an eldritch god-being, they don’t want them to leave, they’re still their friend. And, in Victor and Alice’s case, partner/metamour (though Alice DOES get Smiler first to promise not to fuck with their minds or bodies, which Smiler is happy to do, given their past “accidentally killed some of my followers by not realizing hunger and thirst are necessary for the body to live” mistake). Thus leading to the Ghostbusters becoming an Official Accredited City Service, and me talking about the hypothetical epilogue where Doc and Clara are married and bringing up baby Jules while still busting part-time; Marty and Jennifer are also married and working on their non-Ghostbuster careers (Marty his music, Jennifer her art) while also still busting part-time; Victoria and Emily are planning their wedding while helping train the next generation of Ghostbusters; and Smiler, Victor, and Alice are still doing their V-polycule thing as full-time Ghostbusters, helping train the kids as well – and sometimes freaking them out when Smiler busts out the tentacles to grab something. XD Draft is still not quite finished – I want to go over it again for final tweaks, and I still have to do all the tags – but at least it’s more finished than it was before!

Valice Multiverse – I had a couple more reblogs on the “Seth looking for Richard” Forgotten Vows Verse thread I’ve got going now with The Coven Wars, with:

A) Seth telling Victor about how Richard’s wandered off in a fugue state and wondering why he took his eyes off him – Alice tried to calm Seth down and tell him it wasn’t his fault, while Victor (flashing back to his own fruitless struggles to find Alice in London while she was wandering around in a fugue state) said that they would of course help him look, asking for a description of Richard

B) Seth providing said description – Richard is apparently on the shorter side, has blue eyes and whitish, scruffy hair, and their mother’s wedding ring on a chain around his neck. Victor was like “well, at least he’s very recognizable,” with Alice concurring and saying it helps that she’s talked to Richard before, before asking Seth where he last saw the kid. We’ll see what Seth says tomorrow at some point, probably!

Okay, this is -- not as bad as I thought it was. I mean, I still wish I'd gotten a bit more done, but I'm glad I was at least able to do some stuff on tumblr. Still, in the interest of hoping NOT sleeping until almost 10 AM tomorrow, I really do need to go hit the sheets. Tomorrow is Mother's Day, so I'm not going to make any major plans in case Mom wants to do something -- though I AM going to definitely take some time to answer Moose's latest messages. ...and do my backups, because I fucking forgot AGAIN. *sigh* In my defense, I was INCREDIBLY annoyed this morning by the whole "gotta clean AND make granola when I woke up LATE" thing...anyway. Night all!

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