Busy Busy Sunday As Usual
Aug. 24th, 2025 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crossover_chickYes, as usual I'm scrambling to wrap things up vis-a-vis my write-ups so I can get to bed at something resembling a decent hour. You all know how my Sundays go by now. *shakehead* So let's just dive right into it:
Tumblr: Eh, a not-great day over on the tumblrs, I’m sorry to report – there was nothing going on over on Valice Multiverse, and I didn’t get nearly as much done on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) as I wanted because I had a really slow start this morning. Took ages to get my stupid brain to focus (mostly because it was one of those mornings where I was distracted by thoughts of Victor getting his brains warped and ended up rereading a bunch of stuff in my secret little “hypnokinky snippets” doc). That being said, I did accomplish a few things over on the old main blog:
A) I got a bit more written on the Tav!Smiler post I’ve been working on – editing some bits here and there, finishing off the list of the current spells they have, and quickly noting down all their proficiencies for later. I can’t see this going up THIS week, but I’m hoping that, with the help of the long Labor Day weekend I have coming up, I can get it sorted for NEXT week. Fingers crossed!
B) And, right before lunch, I added some new ideas for scenes to the “VITD Meets BG3 Not-Incorrect Quotes/Shitposts Volume 2” post –
I. Smiler successfully finishing all three drinks with Thisobold Thorm, the brewer, causing the man to burst without a fight, then getting up and turning toward the others with a big smile and a thumbs up...before promptly faceplanting because yeah the liquor affected them more than they were willing to admit XD
II. Lae’zel watching Alice fight the imps in the Nautiloid and mentally upgrading her from “possible liability” to “possibly fuckable” XD
III. And Smiler talking to the companions and, half-jokingly, proposing they should all have an orgy before taking on the Netherbrain...and everyone taking them up on the offer (I’m imagining a cut to the next morning with everyone in various states of undress, and Smiler being like “I really did not expect all of you to say yes”) XD
Looking forward to getting THAT sorted this upcoming long weekend too! Would be nice to post it the same week as the Tav!Smiler post...
Sims 4: All right, everyone, I have good news and I have bad news –
Good News: I was able to work on Smiler’s Potion Caravan today, yay! The “can’t load a lot” bug that I feared might bite me despite working offline did NOT materialize!
Bad News: However, I also got a lesson in how that bug might materialize for offline players, because – despite explicitly going offline in the EA App before starting it up – my game somehow downloaded an SDX delivery of new content. Meaning, yeah, when you’re offline in Sims 4, you are not TRULY offline. And also meaning that this might be my last building session on this lot for a while, because even if I stay offline, whatever new content came in the SDX delivery is gonna be activated the next time I boot up the game. And that might not play nice with few bits of mods and CC I have active. And this particular build, while it’s not CC-heavy, does rely on a few key pieces (like those chained shelves to hold the potions), so...yeah. Bit of a bummer, that!
As you can see, the bad news is pretty annoyingly bad. *shakehead* I suppose it’s my own fault for not disabling SDX drops, but then again, I don’t think it was unfair of me to assume that none of those would download when I put the game in, may I stress, OFFLINE mode. *grumbles* Fucking EA...I am so looking forward to hearing the news on Early Access Paralives when it drops in December…
Anyway – while that was a bit of a damper on the whole session, as per the good news, I was able to work on Smiler’s Potion Caravan! And I ended up working on it for longer than I intended to see if I could get it into at least a MOSTLY-finished state before having to let it sit for a while. Which, I am pleased to say, I feel I accomplished! :D Here’s what I did today:
A) I ended up rotating the caravan using the “rotate house/lot” feature so it was up against the long right-hand edge of the lot! Because the more I looked at the lot, it made more sense for it to be up against that side rather than in the middle of the lot parallel with the shorter top edge. Bit more room for Smiler’s campsite out front, for one thing – and no more needing to use “bb.moveobjects on” to get the back wheels into the right spot! (Though I did have to manually move the wheels back into position after rotating, since they didn’t come with the rest of the house.)
B) I redid the ceiling lights, because the more I looked at those fancy shrunken-down Realm Of Magic chandeliers I was using, the more I felt they didn’t quite fit the vibe I was going with here. I was briefly tempted by the Jungle Adventures “Rustic Candle Chandelier” because it had a good black-with-some-yellow swatch, and I liked how the candles were in little glass cups – but then I went and checked out some of my other ceiling-mounted “off the grid” options, and found the Horse Ranch “Iron Works Chandelier – Short” lit the space a hell of a lot better, and had a decent enough swatch to match the rest of the build. So I went with that, putting one in the potion-making room and one in Smiler’s bedroom. We will risk the fire hazard!
C) Speaking of fire hazards, I decided I did want to keep the “classic” black cauldron with its little fire pit over the “fancy” yellow-and-black cauldron with the crystals underneath – the vibes of this caravan have turned out to be at least somewhat rustic, and the classic cauldron fit with that better. Even if it’s technically slightly more dangerous. :p Maybe if I ever use this as a “real” house, Smiler can upgrade to the fancy cauldron after earning enough from their potion selling to afford it. :)
D) I found a place to put that Vampires antique book on its little stand that I mentioned wanting to add to the build the last time I worked on it! ...Mostly because I resorted to MOOing it into place in the corner next to the broom and dustpan and the apothecary cabinet. :p I did try to fit it in legit – shoving the cabinets along the back wall down a square each so I could put it between them, next to the scales on their little table – but I ended up not liking how that looked (especially the way the cabinets were blocking the windows), and I couldn’t find another spot for it that looked right. So MOO it was! This is mostly a show home at the moment anyway – if I do ever use it legit, I will move it if I must!
E) I added some decorations to the potion-making room! Specifically, I threw in:
I. A pair of the Laundry Day “Crockery Kitchen Herbs” wall decorations (which features what the description says are technically PLASTIC herbs hanging from a little wooden holder as if they’re being dried, but they look real enough) over the Cottage Living forager’s bench the corner – one with a yellow holder, one with a black one to fit the theme, of course (because just one set of hanging herbs being dried for storage is not enough! I KNEW there was another set of the darn things...)
II. The Strangerville “Grunged Splatrug” (aka the big floor stain) under the cauldron, shrunk slightly so it didn’t take up too much of the floor (because, while I’m sure Smiler is careful, accidents with bottling potions WILL happen)
III. And a set of base game “Antique Tomes” (one of the unlockables from the Writer career) to the little shelf under the foraging bench (because I saw them, thought “Oh, I have to put these somewhere, they’re cool,” and – after looking around the build – found they fit in that slot pretty well. I’m headcanoning that they’re books of rare plants and potion ingredients)
*nods* Just a few extra little touches to help the room come alive!
F) I rearranged Smiler’s bedroom a little and added some new furniture and a bunch of decorations to it, including:
I. The “Quaint Crowskin Journal” from Life & Death (in the yellow swatch, natch), the base game “Mega Couple Of Books” and “Scholarly Stack” decorative book piles (in some nice colorful swatches that featured either yellow or purple), the base game “The Note Book” open diary with pen decoration (in as close to yellow as I could get it), and the Werewolves unlockable “Surreptitiously Sumptuous Stationery Pile” of books with letter and wax seal stamper (in one of the brighter swatches) to their desk (I wanted them to have books to read, but couldn’t find a good place for either a proper bookshelf or one of those little book collections between the two holders, so decorative books scattered on the desk it was! Smiler is supposed to be a bit of a slob, so it makes sense. I also wanted them to have a journal, but “The Note Book” looked better on the desk than the actual gameplay item, so that got pride-of-place in the front while the journal got slipped onto a slot on the shelf behind it. Aesthetics!)
II. The Crypto-O-Club “Character Cameo” silhouette picture from their “Creepy Creations” fan stuff pack, in the Victor Van Dort swatch, on the wall above the desk (because come on, I had to include the picture of Smiler’s boyfriend :) Just sad that I don’t have a picture of Alice to put in the room as well!)
III. The “Mirrored Wardrobe – Narrow” from Horse Ranch in the corner of the room by the front wall – which necessitated me rotating the bed so it was up against the back wall instead of tucked up against the front wall (I figured they should have a dresser, and I liked this one because it was small but also had a mirror on the front, so Smiler could, you know, actually see themselves – I didn’t have a good place to put it with the bed in its original configuration, though, so I had to move it. I like how it ended up, though!)
IV. The “Buyer Beware” base game treasure storage chest in bright purple on the floor between the bed and the new wardrobe (I originally stuck the Seasons “Scott’s Summer Fun Basket” in that spot, since it had some pillows and towels in it that made it look like it was full of spare bed linens for Smiler’s bed – but when I saw the storage chests, I immediately thought that putting one of those there was a better options, because, well, actual storage for stuff. XD And the little treasure chest both fit the aesthetic AND came in a fun color, soooo…)
V. Some “Handpainted Clay Pots” from Lovestruck (in the yellow base with purple and blue splotches) on top of the wardrobe (I discovered there was a slot for decorations up there while looking at my various book options, and I just thought the pots were cute, so up there they went)
VI. The “Knitted Pride Flag” wall decoration that came with the April Pride Update (in the nonbinary swatch, of course) on the wall over Smiler’s bed (I do like to put stuff indicating Smiler’s nonbinary status and pride in same in builds for them – and when I saw that decoration, I thought “oh hey, this is a pride flag decoration that is actually kind of aesthetically appropriate, awesome!” So onto the wall it went! :D)
VII. And the “Pictures Of Darius Taupe” wall art collection from Paranormal Stuff on the back wall, just past the bed (I wanted to put SOMETHING on the wall since it looked so blank, and that piece was a fun collection of objects that I thought could be stuff Smiler’s acquired on their various travels. Includes a few photographs, but we’ll let it slide :P)
Again – just some stuff to make the room feel properly lived in! And make sure that all of Smiler’s basic needs (like a place to store their clothes, and a place to store all their other trinkets) are met. :)
G) And I played around with the exterior of the build and the campsite out front a bit, which included:
I. Testing if I wanted the fancy Get Together coffee shop sign on the side of the wagon or not (it just looked weird, honestly – and it wasn’t quite right for an alchemist anyway. Smiler can advertise themselves perfectly well without it!)
II. Adding the Cottage Living “Unassuming Bucket” to the front porch, by the plant pots on the right side (as it occurred to me when I saw it that it would make sense for Smiler to have a bucket to gather water, to water their plants and to wash themselves)
III. And – after seeing if there was a good way for me to put the Horse Ranch “Just There Metal Pot” and either the “Legacy Teapot” or whole “Legacy Tea Set” from Cottage Living by their campfire – I ended up deleting all of it and the campfire itself and replacing it with the Get Famous “Cooking Campfire Kit By L.O.D. Props,” a fake campfire with a stewpot set over it and a pitcher and a coffee mug beside it. It looked better than the actual campfire, but I couldn’t help missing the “real” one (especially since Smiler would need a real one to, you know, cook if I ever use this house properly). So I rebought the Outdoor Retreat “Ring of Fire” campfire, and used MOO to merge it into the base of the fake campfire –
And to my surprise, it actually looked pretty good! I had to shrink it down slightly to stop the rocks of the real campfire from clipping into the props around the fake one, but after that, I found the result most satisfactory. :) So now there’s a proper campfire outside the caravan, yay~
And that was that! Apart from saving the lot to my personal Library, because after all this hard work I don’t want to lose it. And because, if and when I do come back to it (after some of these lousy bugs are fixed), I’d kind of like to move it to a more appropriate neighborhood than NEWCREST. XD It’d probably look better NOT right next to the Sunny Brews coffee shop build I did ages ago, that’s for damn sure! But for now, that is where it must stay. Thinking I’ll probably do a proper photo post of this over on my tumblr now that the build’s in a mostly-finished state (because it too would go well with my Tav!Smiler post, given it’s supposed to be their wagon) – I’ll link to that once it’s done! I’d put up a photo preview, but I just don’t have the time, sorry.
Workout: Back on the bike tonight – and back to the Oxventure One-Shots as I started “Alien The Roleplaying Game: Evolved Edition | Oxventure One-Shot ft. Natural Six!” Yes, Jon’s video on the Fallout TV series and how it relates to Fallout: New Vegas was actually quite short (fourteen minutes!), so I felt comfortable instead watching the first half-hour of this three-hour one-off tonight with my ride. :) Much like the Discworld: Adventures In Ankh-Morpork one-shot, this was a sponsored video where Mike, Jane, Andy, and guest stars Doug Cockle and Aoife Wilson from Natural Six played a “Cinematic Campaign” using the new Alien The Roleplaying Game: Evolved Edition RPG to promote the Kickstarter funding its creation (which ended up raising SEK 23,206,322 altogether...the company making it is in Sweden, so I assume that’s the local currency). Said Cinematic Campaign was “Hope’s Last Day,” and was about Hadley’s Hope, the mining and terraforming colony on moon LB-426 that is the setting of the film Aliens. Specifically, it was about an unfortunate team of surveyors from the colony who, on a routine surveying trip out into the wastes, had their tractor die – and when they tried calling back to the base for help, they were told essentially that “we’ll get to you when we get to you” before all communication ceased. Leaving them with the unpleasant task of walking back to the colony and trying to find out what is going on…
Aaand if I try to sum up what actually happened in the first half-hour, I am going to be up all night. So I am copying my notes to the template for the weekday write-ups, and I will try to give you the skinny about what’s going on in this game tomorrow! Just know that it involves a LOT of in-character arguing, the scarfing of a half-eaten donut, and the rescue of three mice. :P
YouTube: Well, it may not have been an F:NV YOLO Remastered Sunday thanks to Jon’s in-laws visiting (meaning he couldn’t get the video up in time), but it was still a Fallout Sunday thanks to him releasing instead “What Fallout Season 2 Means For The Ending Of Fallout: New Vegas!” Because, as per the new trailer, Cooper The Ghoul and his vault-dwelling new friend Lucy are heading to New Vegas in Season 2, and this means that the fandom at large might actually learn what the hell the canonical ending of that game is supposed to be (because, thanks to being the last game to be set on/near the West Coast, it was never clarified by the games themselves who won the fight for Vegas). Jon thus examined the trailer for clues and gave his thoughts, which included:
A) Him noting that the initial look at The Strip (aka New Vegas itself) indicates that it might be have been abandoned in the 15 years between New Vegas and the TV show (complete with deathclaws moving into some of the old casinos), which would rule out the “House wins” ending of the game...except Jon was pretty sure things were more complex than they first appeared, due to a shot of Lucy waking up in a weird mystery vault room with a rug with a symbol seen all around New Vegas. That to him indicated that she was probably in the Vault 21 hotel, and if that was still operational, than The Strip couldn’t be completely abandoned
B) Him making notes that the Legion was still around, with the new Caesar wearing the Legate armor seen on Lanius in the game (and talking about the theory that there’s multiple Laniuses thanks to him having a contradictory backstory and the character model in the game not having the scars Caesar says he should); that Novac’s motel complex was apparently under raider control (indicating that the citizens left because whoever was the Courier didn’t do the side missions to keep them around – also, the TV version of the motel has a swimming pool for some reason); that Freeside clearly has some people living there, but at least some of the main faction, the Kings, have turned into feral ghouls (an unfortunate fate for the Elvis lovers); and that the Prydwen is apparently going to fly over Area 51 – and that there are multiple Prydwens because apparently the Brotherhood loves making airships, screwing up everyone’s theories about which Fallout 4 ending is canon (and somebody pointed out in the comments that the BOS having multiple airships is canon for the Tactics game nobody talks about, which is especially interesting...)
C) Him talking about how he thinks the plot of Season 2 will revolve around the fact that Vault-Tec was planning to launch their own nuke to start the War on their terms (only to be ever-so-slightly beaten to it by the US and China actually going to war), and pointing out a shot that looks like a giant underground nuclear silo with the Vault-Tec name on it that he thinks might be under New Vegas (and might be the thing at least one of the characters is looking for). His theory is that House helped Vault-Tec build their nuke because he was already convinced nuclear annihilation was going to happen and he might as well know EXACTLY when it was going to occur, and then the actual War starting early just threw a wrench in everybody’s plans.
D) And him advancing the theory that House is going to have a hand in what happens in Season 2 because, even if he didn’t survive the end of F:NV, one of his personal lackies, Victor (an AI that usually lives in one of his Securitrons, but can jump bodies if necessary), very much did – the familiar cowboy face is seen on one of the Securitrons in the trailer. Meaning there’s an agent that can carry out House’s plans for him. AND, given that another Securitron is explicitly said to be modeled off the brain scan of a pre-War actress House was fond of, Jon is also not ruling out the idea that House scanned his OWN brain, and thus might pop up in a robot body of his own at one point.
So yes – bottom line, there’s still no way to tell what the canonical ending for New Vegas is yet from this trailer, but we should not rule out the House one from what we see of the Strip. It might all be a giant misdirect to make us think that House isn’t going to be involved and keep his appearance a surprise. *shrug* We’ll find out when the new season drops in December! I look forward to hearing Jon’s thoughts on it when it arrives. :)
Writing: I am pleased to say that I made some decent progress on editing Chapter 5 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” today, getting Alice through the end of the maze and back to the mansion proper! With a minimum of having to remove excess mentions of her first name, no less. XD This all means I’m up to page 42 of 54 now, yay – hopefully tomorrow I can get within sight of the end of all this editing!
Other: Welp, as I suspected, Mom and Dad never set up the croquet set (Mom was too achy from doing a bunch of weeding this morning), so we just played our usual round of beanbags at 5 PM. And I’m happy to say that things were a little more equal this time, with each of us winning at least one game! :D Or, well, I won one game, and my parents each won two. XD But hey, at least I wasn’t a total loser! *thumbs up* Final scores were me 2-3-W-3-3; Dad W-W-2-2-2; Mom 3-2-3-W-W. We’ll see how the next round goes, whenever that occurs!
And that will have to do it! Because I need to get to bed. *shakehead* One of these days I will be able to get my Sundays sorted again, but is not this day. Night all!
Tumblr: Eh, a not-great day over on the tumblrs, I’m sorry to report – there was nothing going on over on Valice Multiverse, and I didn’t get nearly as much done on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) as I wanted because I had a really slow start this morning. Took ages to get my stupid brain to focus (mostly because it was one of those mornings where I was distracted by thoughts of Victor getting his brains warped and ended up rereading a bunch of stuff in my secret little “hypnokinky snippets” doc). That being said, I did accomplish a few things over on the old main blog:
A) I got a bit more written on the Tav!Smiler post I’ve been working on – editing some bits here and there, finishing off the list of the current spells they have, and quickly noting down all their proficiencies for later. I can’t see this going up THIS week, but I’m hoping that, with the help of the long Labor Day weekend I have coming up, I can get it sorted for NEXT week. Fingers crossed!
B) And, right before lunch, I added some new ideas for scenes to the “VITD Meets BG3 Not-Incorrect Quotes/Shitposts Volume 2” post –
I. Smiler successfully finishing all three drinks with Thisobold Thorm, the brewer, causing the man to burst without a fight, then getting up and turning toward the others with a big smile and a thumbs up...before promptly faceplanting because yeah the liquor affected them more than they were willing to admit XD
II. Lae’zel watching Alice fight the imps in the Nautiloid and mentally upgrading her from “possible liability” to “possibly fuckable” XD
III. And Smiler talking to the companions and, half-jokingly, proposing they should all have an orgy before taking on the Netherbrain...and everyone taking them up on the offer (I’m imagining a cut to the next morning with everyone in various states of undress, and Smiler being like “I really did not expect all of you to say yes”) XD
Looking forward to getting THAT sorted this upcoming long weekend too! Would be nice to post it the same week as the Tav!Smiler post...
Sims 4: All right, everyone, I have good news and I have bad news –
Good News: I was able to work on Smiler’s Potion Caravan today, yay! The “can’t load a lot” bug that I feared might bite me despite working offline did NOT materialize!
Bad News: However, I also got a lesson in how that bug might materialize for offline players, because – despite explicitly going offline in the EA App before starting it up – my game somehow downloaded an SDX delivery of new content. Meaning, yeah, when you’re offline in Sims 4, you are not TRULY offline. And also meaning that this might be my last building session on this lot for a while, because even if I stay offline, whatever new content came in the SDX delivery is gonna be activated the next time I boot up the game. And that might not play nice with few bits of mods and CC I have active. And this particular build, while it’s not CC-heavy, does rely on a few key pieces (like those chained shelves to hold the potions), so...yeah. Bit of a bummer, that!
As you can see, the bad news is pretty annoyingly bad. *shakehead* I suppose it’s my own fault for not disabling SDX drops, but then again, I don’t think it was unfair of me to assume that none of those would download when I put the game in, may I stress, OFFLINE mode. *grumbles* Fucking EA...I am so looking forward to hearing the news on Early Access Paralives when it drops in December…
Anyway – while that was a bit of a damper on the whole session, as per the good news, I was able to work on Smiler’s Potion Caravan! And I ended up working on it for longer than I intended to see if I could get it into at least a MOSTLY-finished state before having to let it sit for a while. Which, I am pleased to say, I feel I accomplished! :D Here’s what I did today:
A) I ended up rotating the caravan using the “rotate house/lot” feature so it was up against the long right-hand edge of the lot! Because the more I looked at the lot, it made more sense for it to be up against that side rather than in the middle of the lot parallel with the shorter top edge. Bit more room for Smiler’s campsite out front, for one thing – and no more needing to use “bb.moveobjects on” to get the back wheels into the right spot! (Though I did have to manually move the wheels back into position after rotating, since they didn’t come with the rest of the house.)
B) I redid the ceiling lights, because the more I looked at those fancy shrunken-down Realm Of Magic chandeliers I was using, the more I felt they didn’t quite fit the vibe I was going with here. I was briefly tempted by the Jungle Adventures “Rustic Candle Chandelier” because it had a good black-with-some-yellow swatch, and I liked how the candles were in little glass cups – but then I went and checked out some of my other ceiling-mounted “off the grid” options, and found the Horse Ranch “Iron Works Chandelier – Short” lit the space a hell of a lot better, and had a decent enough swatch to match the rest of the build. So I went with that, putting one in the potion-making room and one in Smiler’s bedroom. We will risk the fire hazard!
C) Speaking of fire hazards, I decided I did want to keep the “classic” black cauldron with its little fire pit over the “fancy” yellow-and-black cauldron with the crystals underneath – the vibes of this caravan have turned out to be at least somewhat rustic, and the classic cauldron fit with that better. Even if it’s technically slightly more dangerous. :p Maybe if I ever use this as a “real” house, Smiler can upgrade to the fancy cauldron after earning enough from their potion selling to afford it. :)
D) I found a place to put that Vampires antique book on its little stand that I mentioned wanting to add to the build the last time I worked on it! ...Mostly because I resorted to MOOing it into place in the corner next to the broom and dustpan and the apothecary cabinet. :p I did try to fit it in legit – shoving the cabinets along the back wall down a square each so I could put it between them, next to the scales on their little table – but I ended up not liking how that looked (especially the way the cabinets were blocking the windows), and I couldn’t find another spot for it that looked right. So MOO it was! This is mostly a show home at the moment anyway – if I do ever use it legit, I will move it if I must!
E) I added some decorations to the potion-making room! Specifically, I threw in:
I. A pair of the Laundry Day “Crockery Kitchen Herbs” wall decorations (which features what the description says are technically PLASTIC herbs hanging from a little wooden holder as if they’re being dried, but they look real enough) over the Cottage Living forager’s bench the corner – one with a yellow holder, one with a black one to fit the theme, of course (because just one set of hanging herbs being dried for storage is not enough! I KNEW there was another set of the darn things...)
II. The Strangerville “Grunged Splatrug” (aka the big floor stain) under the cauldron, shrunk slightly so it didn’t take up too much of the floor (because, while I’m sure Smiler is careful, accidents with bottling potions WILL happen)
III. And a set of base game “Antique Tomes” (one of the unlockables from the Writer career) to the little shelf under the foraging bench (because I saw them, thought “Oh, I have to put these somewhere, they’re cool,” and – after looking around the build – found they fit in that slot pretty well. I’m headcanoning that they’re books of rare plants and potion ingredients)
*nods* Just a few extra little touches to help the room come alive!
F) I rearranged Smiler’s bedroom a little and added some new furniture and a bunch of decorations to it, including:
I. The “Quaint Crowskin Journal” from Life & Death (in the yellow swatch, natch), the base game “Mega Couple Of Books” and “Scholarly Stack” decorative book piles (in some nice colorful swatches that featured either yellow or purple), the base game “The Note Book” open diary with pen decoration (in as close to yellow as I could get it), and the Werewolves unlockable “Surreptitiously Sumptuous Stationery Pile” of books with letter and wax seal stamper (in one of the brighter swatches) to their desk (I wanted them to have books to read, but couldn’t find a good place for either a proper bookshelf or one of those little book collections between the two holders, so decorative books scattered on the desk it was! Smiler is supposed to be a bit of a slob, so it makes sense. I also wanted them to have a journal, but “The Note Book” looked better on the desk than the actual gameplay item, so that got pride-of-place in the front while the journal got slipped onto a slot on the shelf behind it. Aesthetics!)
II. The Crypto-O-Club “Character Cameo” silhouette picture from their “Creepy Creations” fan stuff pack, in the Victor Van Dort swatch, on the wall above the desk (because come on, I had to include the picture of Smiler’s boyfriend :) Just sad that I don’t have a picture of Alice to put in the room as well!)
III. The “Mirrored Wardrobe – Narrow” from Horse Ranch in the corner of the room by the front wall – which necessitated me rotating the bed so it was up against the back wall instead of tucked up against the front wall (I figured they should have a dresser, and I liked this one because it was small but also had a mirror on the front, so Smiler could, you know, actually see themselves – I didn’t have a good place to put it with the bed in its original configuration, though, so I had to move it. I like how it ended up, though!)
IV. The “Buyer Beware” base game treasure storage chest in bright purple on the floor between the bed and the new wardrobe (I originally stuck the Seasons “Scott’s Summer Fun Basket” in that spot, since it had some pillows and towels in it that made it look like it was full of spare bed linens for Smiler’s bed – but when I saw the storage chests, I immediately thought that putting one of those there was a better options, because, well, actual storage for stuff. XD And the little treasure chest both fit the aesthetic AND came in a fun color, soooo…)
V. Some “Handpainted Clay Pots” from Lovestruck (in the yellow base with purple and blue splotches) on top of the wardrobe (I discovered there was a slot for decorations up there while looking at my various book options, and I just thought the pots were cute, so up there they went)
VI. The “Knitted Pride Flag” wall decoration that came with the April Pride Update (in the nonbinary swatch, of course) on the wall over Smiler’s bed (I do like to put stuff indicating Smiler’s nonbinary status and pride in same in builds for them – and when I saw that decoration, I thought “oh hey, this is a pride flag decoration that is actually kind of aesthetically appropriate, awesome!” So onto the wall it went! :D)
VII. And the “Pictures Of Darius Taupe” wall art collection from Paranormal Stuff on the back wall, just past the bed (I wanted to put SOMETHING on the wall since it looked so blank, and that piece was a fun collection of objects that I thought could be stuff Smiler’s acquired on their various travels. Includes a few photographs, but we’ll let it slide :P)
Again – just some stuff to make the room feel properly lived in! And make sure that all of Smiler’s basic needs (like a place to store their clothes, and a place to store all their other trinkets) are met. :)
G) And I played around with the exterior of the build and the campsite out front a bit, which included:
I. Testing if I wanted the fancy Get Together coffee shop sign on the side of the wagon or not (it just looked weird, honestly – and it wasn’t quite right for an alchemist anyway. Smiler can advertise themselves perfectly well without it!)
II. Adding the Cottage Living “Unassuming Bucket” to the front porch, by the plant pots on the right side (as it occurred to me when I saw it that it would make sense for Smiler to have a bucket to gather water, to water their plants and to wash themselves)
III. And – after seeing if there was a good way for me to put the Horse Ranch “Just There Metal Pot” and either the “Legacy Teapot” or whole “Legacy Tea Set” from Cottage Living by their campfire – I ended up deleting all of it and the campfire itself and replacing it with the Get Famous “Cooking Campfire Kit By L.O.D. Props,” a fake campfire with a stewpot set over it and a pitcher and a coffee mug beside it. It looked better than the actual campfire, but I couldn’t help missing the “real” one (especially since Smiler would need a real one to, you know, cook if I ever use this house properly). So I rebought the Outdoor Retreat “Ring of Fire” campfire, and used MOO to merge it into the base of the fake campfire –
And to my surprise, it actually looked pretty good! I had to shrink it down slightly to stop the rocks of the real campfire from clipping into the props around the fake one, but after that, I found the result most satisfactory. :) So now there’s a proper campfire outside the caravan, yay~
And that was that! Apart from saving the lot to my personal Library, because after all this hard work I don’t want to lose it. And because, if and when I do come back to it (after some of these lousy bugs are fixed), I’d kind of like to move it to a more appropriate neighborhood than NEWCREST. XD It’d probably look better NOT right next to the Sunny Brews coffee shop build I did ages ago, that’s for damn sure! But for now, that is where it must stay. Thinking I’ll probably do a proper photo post of this over on my tumblr now that the build’s in a mostly-finished state (because it too would go well with my Tav!Smiler post, given it’s supposed to be their wagon) – I’ll link to that once it’s done! I’d put up a photo preview, but I just don’t have the time, sorry.
Workout: Back on the bike tonight – and back to the Oxventure One-Shots as I started “Alien The Roleplaying Game: Evolved Edition | Oxventure One-Shot ft. Natural Six!” Yes, Jon’s video on the Fallout TV series and how it relates to Fallout: New Vegas was actually quite short (fourteen minutes!), so I felt comfortable instead watching the first half-hour of this three-hour one-off tonight with my ride. :) Much like the Discworld: Adventures In Ankh-Morpork one-shot, this was a sponsored video where Mike, Jane, Andy, and guest stars Doug Cockle and Aoife Wilson from Natural Six played a “Cinematic Campaign” using the new Alien The Roleplaying Game: Evolved Edition RPG to promote the Kickstarter funding its creation (which ended up raising SEK 23,206,322 altogether...the company making it is in Sweden, so I assume that’s the local currency). Said Cinematic Campaign was “Hope’s Last Day,” and was about Hadley’s Hope, the mining and terraforming colony on moon LB-426 that is the setting of the film Aliens. Specifically, it was about an unfortunate team of surveyors from the colony who, on a routine surveying trip out into the wastes, had their tractor die – and when they tried calling back to the base for help, they were told essentially that “we’ll get to you when we get to you” before all communication ceased. Leaving them with the unpleasant task of walking back to the colony and trying to find out what is going on…
Aaand if I try to sum up what actually happened in the first half-hour, I am going to be up all night. So I am copying my notes to the template for the weekday write-ups, and I will try to give you the skinny about what’s going on in this game tomorrow! Just know that it involves a LOT of in-character arguing, the scarfing of a half-eaten donut, and the rescue of three mice. :P
YouTube: Well, it may not have been an F:NV YOLO Remastered Sunday thanks to Jon’s in-laws visiting (meaning he couldn’t get the video up in time), but it was still a Fallout Sunday thanks to him releasing instead “What Fallout Season 2 Means For The Ending Of Fallout: New Vegas!” Because, as per the new trailer, Cooper The Ghoul and his vault-dwelling new friend Lucy are heading to New Vegas in Season 2, and this means that the fandom at large might actually learn what the hell the canonical ending of that game is supposed to be (because, thanks to being the last game to be set on/near the West Coast, it was never clarified by the games themselves who won the fight for Vegas). Jon thus examined the trailer for clues and gave his thoughts, which included:
A) Him noting that the initial look at The Strip (aka New Vegas itself) indicates that it might be have been abandoned in the 15 years between New Vegas and the TV show (complete with deathclaws moving into some of the old casinos), which would rule out the “House wins” ending of the game...except Jon was pretty sure things were more complex than they first appeared, due to a shot of Lucy waking up in a weird mystery vault room with a rug with a symbol seen all around New Vegas. That to him indicated that she was probably in the Vault 21 hotel, and if that was still operational, than The Strip couldn’t be completely abandoned
B) Him making notes that the Legion was still around, with the new Caesar wearing the Legate armor seen on Lanius in the game (and talking about the theory that there’s multiple Laniuses thanks to him having a contradictory backstory and the character model in the game not having the scars Caesar says he should); that Novac’s motel complex was apparently under raider control (indicating that the citizens left because whoever was the Courier didn’t do the side missions to keep them around – also, the TV version of the motel has a swimming pool for some reason); that Freeside clearly has some people living there, but at least some of the main faction, the Kings, have turned into feral ghouls (an unfortunate fate for the Elvis lovers); and that the Prydwen is apparently going to fly over Area 51 – and that there are multiple Prydwens because apparently the Brotherhood loves making airships, screwing up everyone’s theories about which Fallout 4 ending is canon (and somebody pointed out in the comments that the BOS having multiple airships is canon for the Tactics game nobody talks about, which is especially interesting...)
C) Him talking about how he thinks the plot of Season 2 will revolve around the fact that Vault-Tec was planning to launch their own nuke to start the War on their terms (only to be ever-so-slightly beaten to it by the US and China actually going to war), and pointing out a shot that looks like a giant underground nuclear silo with the Vault-Tec name on it that he thinks might be under New Vegas (and might be the thing at least one of the characters is looking for). His theory is that House helped Vault-Tec build their nuke because he was already convinced nuclear annihilation was going to happen and he might as well know EXACTLY when it was going to occur, and then the actual War starting early just threw a wrench in everybody’s plans.
D) And him advancing the theory that House is going to have a hand in what happens in Season 2 because, even if he didn’t survive the end of F:NV, one of his personal lackies, Victor (an AI that usually lives in one of his Securitrons, but can jump bodies if necessary), very much did – the familiar cowboy face is seen on one of the Securitrons in the trailer. Meaning there’s an agent that can carry out House’s plans for him. AND, given that another Securitron is explicitly said to be modeled off the brain scan of a pre-War actress House was fond of, Jon is also not ruling out the idea that House scanned his OWN brain, and thus might pop up in a robot body of his own at one point.
So yes – bottom line, there’s still no way to tell what the canonical ending for New Vegas is yet from this trailer, but we should not rule out the House one from what we see of the Strip. It might all be a giant misdirect to make us think that House isn’t going to be involved and keep his appearance a surprise. *shrug* We’ll find out when the new season drops in December! I look forward to hearing Jon’s thoughts on it when it arrives. :)
Writing: I am pleased to say that I made some decent progress on editing Chapter 5 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” today, getting Alice through the end of the maze and back to the mansion proper! With a minimum of having to remove excess mentions of her first name, no less. XD This all means I’m up to page 42 of 54 now, yay – hopefully tomorrow I can get within sight of the end of all this editing!
Other: Welp, as I suspected, Mom and Dad never set up the croquet set (Mom was too achy from doing a bunch of weeding this morning), so we just played our usual round of beanbags at 5 PM. And I’m happy to say that things were a little more equal this time, with each of us winning at least one game! :D Or, well, I won one game, and my parents each won two. XD But hey, at least I wasn’t a total loser! *thumbs up* Final scores were me 2-3-W-3-3; Dad W-W-2-2-2; Mom 3-2-3-W-W. We’ll see how the next round goes, whenever that occurs!
And that will have to do it! Because I need to get to bed. *shakehead* One of these days I will be able to get my Sundays sorted again, but is not this day. Night all!
