#Smiler and Alice could help too

[victorluvsalice]

And the special deals didn’t even stop there -- as Alice went scavenging along the edges of the fairground (as digging up cool stuff with your bare hands is part of the fun of being a werewolf) and Smiler joined everybody outside for the dance party, Kim approached Victor, told him he was her Fairing Friend, and gave him a present! Which consisted of some milk and a couple of spicy mushrooms! :D I was very pleased. Though, sadly, Victor was unable to pass the favor on, as he didn’t know enough of the Henford-On-Bagley regulars to give them presents, and couldn’t really keep up a conversation with any of them at the dance party. Plus giving presents to the mayor, aka the judge of the competition, probably wouldn’t have gone well. Shame. Maybe I’ll go have him hide something at Sophie the Snail again. . .

Anyway -- around this time, Victor and Alice were starting to feel peckish, so I sent them inside to get some food from the bar. Alice got a meat pie, naturally, while Victor tried the mushroom soup, as it was a touch chilly at the fair. They had a good meal and a good chat -- Alice DID annoy Victor slightly by pestering him for juice-fizzing tips, but he quickly got over it, and they were back to flirting and exchanging compliments before too long. :) Once done with the meal, Alice went back to scavenging and dancing (maxing out the Dancing skill in the process, nice); Smiler headed over to the fishing spot nearby to see what they could catch (just the one goldfish, but that IS a plasma pack!); and Victor took up practicing magic in the middle of the festival while the mayor finished her judging (learning Decursify! Now that’s handy!). All good stuff -- but how did Victor actually do at the fair?

[communistmarktemple]

watched the all of the hatchetfield series recently and had things to say about the way pokotho was handled in the last episode of nightmare time. dunno how much ppl on tumblr care about this but figured i'd post anyway

spoilers for the guy who didn't like musicals and nightmare time 2 episode 4: yellow jacket; slight spoilers for nerdy prudes must die.

in tgwdlm pokotho is established to take over people but like, theyre still individuals. and his goal there seems to be making everyone united and happy. and singing. the singing is an important part of it.

but then in yellow jacket hes like… deep voiced sadistic completely takes over peoples minds and leaves them blank shells. and is said to "want everyone dead except him" which directly contradicts like. everything about what made tgwdlm interesting.

bc theres this question the whole musical of like. what about what theyre singing is them and whats the hivemind. so like. to say he just wants it to all be his own voice completely removes that intrigue. and also directly contradicts what tgwdlm says about it "on some level theyre individuals but on a larger level theyre limbs of a single organism" but if theyre all just pokey then no, theyre not individuals.

also like. "what do you want paul" makes NO sense if thats just pokey speaking. why… why would he talk about mr. davidson's wife choking him out. thats what mr davidson genuinely wants. it doesnt even make sense as a manipulation tactic like you could argue for the other songs because like. it actively makes paul run away. theres nothing about mr davidson's want that would make paul want to join the apotheosis.

like "not your seed" is WAY more interesting if those are alice's actual feelings (and all those feelings track with the way she acts in watcherworld!!) but if you want to say its just a manipulation tactic that still tracks. making bill think its his fault that alice is gone would make him more likely to be willing to join. same with "you tied up my heart" and "inevitable" but like. WHY is pokey telling paul mr davidson's kink. what the fuck does that have to do with anything. mr davidson clearly has some level of control still

and like obviously the lords in black being applied to tgwdlm is a retcon so theres gonna be some stuff that doesnt 100% track but like. pokotho wanting everything to just be him literally ruins the climax of the show. "let it out" is compelling bc like. it isnt clear whether or not paul genuinely does like musicals or not. like.

"I’ve never been happy Wouldn’t that be nice? Is this the secret? Singing and dancing through life? Is my integrity worth anything at all? But happiness can’t come before its fall Am I crazy? Maybe I’ve always been I've become what I’ve hated? Or maybe I never did It’s awful freeing now To share the hate I felt But what will I let in if I Let it out?"

LIKE. is paul's conflict here bc he genuinely cant decide if he should want to join the apotheosis? or is it 100% the infection? he wants to be happy. maybe this is the way to be happy. HE KNEW THE WORDS TO MOANA. HE SAYS HE DOESNT LIKE IT BUT HE KNEW ALL THE WORDS. his actor explicitly points out that paul knew all the words. hello. maybe he never hated musicals. maybe he did. but making pokotho just be this mindless evil "subsume all voices except my own" type answers that question. nah it was just the infection. and also the goal of apotheosis wasnt to unite the world and make everyone happy it was just to kill everything that isnt pokotho.

like. thats so boring. why the fuck would you do that. its so much more interesting to have pokey genuinely think hes helping everyone by uniting people through song. like why the FUCK didnt otho sing??? why is he just. deep scary voice?????? he should be sing songy stepford smiler.

when spitfire got possesed she shouldnt have become a zombie it shouldve been like. :) han-nah. :) :) this is better han-nah. :) :) you should join us too han-nah. :) (: :) (:.

why is pokotho's mask like OoO it should be like (okay this was originally said on discord and i used a custom emoji of device_friend from deltarune here) thats way fucking scarier. its way scarier to have your friend go from crying and screaming to turning to you and smiling than it is to have them just. slump over.

i feel like they literally forgot what make tgwdlm scary?? they literally forgot to think about the implications.

like i dunno maybe you can say that that behvior was just otho and not pokotho. like in nerdy prudes must die pokey was defintely more gleeful. but we didnt get to fucking SEE barely any of him. why would you not give us more pokey. the villain of your first musical? hello?? i get making wiggly the main guy bc hes who the audience knows but like. ugh.

webby says he wants everyone whos not him dead. and maybe shes just being more negative about him bc like. hes against her. but like. the way the othos worked seems to be retconning how the possession works.

and man is that boring.

[thevalicemultiverse]

(Valicer In The Dark) Let me see if I got this straight, you're telling me the Sun blew up almost nine centuries ago and the planet didn't go with it? Like it wasn't engulfed in the flames like all nearby planets tend to do within range of a sun exploding?

Alice: Nope -- otherwise we wouldn't be here. Mind you, I don't know how the Immortal Emperor stopped that from happening, but -- well, he is hailed as the most magically-gifted human in all of creation.

Smiler: Probably a bunch of the local gods came together and helped too -- I'm sure Mar-Mal wouldn't have stood by and watched our planet be engulfed in flames! That's about the saddest thing that could happen to a world!

Victor: Mmm...I guess it is also worth noting that none of us know how much of the world he saved. The farthest country anyone knows of is Tycheros, and even that we could build a rail line to.

Smiler: Still better than nothing surviving.

Victor: Oh, yes, of course.

[sexyrasputin]

“So,” Torin started after Atticus and Ravyn whisked away in Ace’s car, “what next?” Ravyn was saved, she got her happy ending, and they didn’t have to worry about Lev hurting her long term anymore.

“We could go back to my room,” Cal offered with a flirty smile, grabbing his boyfriend’s hand. He earned a flat look.

“I meant in the plan. You know, the protecting our girls plan.”

“We could go back to my room to plot,” Cal amended. Torin rolled his eyes but gestured for Cal to lead the way.

The ride on Torin’s motorcycle to Cal’s dorm was thankfully a short one. Mainly because the streets were empty and they were able to go as fast as they wanted.

Once inside Cal’s dorm, with the door shut, Cal pulled Torin in for a deep kiss. The smell of his woodsy cologne, his soft lips, his curly hair knotted in Cal’s hands, it all intoxicated the taller man. And judging by Torin’s reaction, he felt similarly to Cal.

It didn’t take long for clothes to come off and other actions to follow. The two men had missed each other, both body and mind, and now they were getting that back.

Cal lay against Torin, smiling contently. He may not have been a smiler, but Torin always brought the smiles out in him.

“Somebody’s happy,” his boyfriend commented, running a hand through Cal’s messy hair. He shrugged.

“I’ve got you back. Ravyn is happy for once in her life and I don’t have to worry about her too much anymore. I’ve got you. We’re almost done with enacting our revenge and making sure the girls are safe. It’s been a good day.” Torin’s own smile grew at Cal’s happy explanation.

“You do have me back, and it has been a good day,” Torin agreed with a chuckle. Leaning into kiss Cal once again, someone banging on the door interrupted him.

“Come in,” the blonde drawled, not caring that if Meg or his girlfriend found him that his father would cut him off and kick him out of the family. He was already planning on initiating that in a day or two.

Ksenia burst into the room, mascara and tears streaming down her face.

“What do you want?” Cal groaned, glaring her heartbroken face down. So the truth was coming out at last.

“Wh-what are you doing?” she breathed out, her accent thicker than usual.

“Put two and two together, Zima. You’re a smart girl,” he smirked in reply. Torin was, thankfully, smart enough to stay silent and it get involved in this.

“You said you loved me!” Her whisper was now a shout.

“I lied. It’s something I do. I thought you knew this.”

“You are a horrible, horrible person, Excalibur.”

“And so are you for supporting your brother, even after he raped and murdered your best friend. At least I don’t try and pretend I’m better than I really am.” Ksenia fell back a step, and she was about to leave, but a thought hit her. Cal wasn’t out to his family, and they’d kick him out if they knew the truth. Maybe this was diabolical, but it was what he deserved.

She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture before spinning around and slamming the door on her way out.

“Finally, I’m done with her,” Cal breathed out, incredibly relieved. He snuggled a little closer to his boyfriend.

“Now I believe you were going to kiss me, Tor?”

“She ruined the mood, babe. And you didn’t exactly help.” Cal rolled his eyes at Torin’s point.

“I’ve been leading her on since November or December. It was about time the truth came out and I faced reality.” In other words, it was about time that Cal made peace with his love for his boyfriend. Torin sighed, pulling Cal snugly against him.

“Yeah. She took a picture of us. Do we need to get Alice to hack her phone and get it back?”

“No,” Cal said after a few pensive moments. “I was planning on coming out in the next day or two anyways. If she sends the picture to Megaera, well, then Meg did my job for me. And if she tries to blackmail me with it, then I’ll come out before she can out me herself.” This time Torin was the one grinning.

“I’m proud of you, Excalibur.”

“Yeah, I figured you would be,” Cal smarted off in response.

“I do have one more question, though,” Torin said. It had been bothering him ever since it happened, and especially since he and Cal had gotten back together.

“Shoot.”

“What did you say to Ravyn that day, when you broke Meg’s heart and then hers? It really messed her up.”

Okay, Cal had hoped this would never be brought up. It wasn’t his proudest moment. But at least Ravyn hadn’t tattled on him.

“Cal,” Torin prompted gently.

“I told her she deserved the same fate as her mother. I was pissed at myself and the world and my father. She was trying to get me to talk to her about anything at all, ended up threatening me, including getting Meg to out me. She wasn’t serious, but it set me off, so I shot right back at her,” he explained slowly. Torin stiffened beneath him, and he knew he was probably in the doghouse now.

“Excalibur...” Torin breathed out, equally slowly.

“She threw my roommate’s paperweight at the wall above my head as revenge, and said there’s more coming. That was over a month ago, and I like to think she’s forgotten, or at least forgiven me, but who knows. It’s Ravyn.”

“You guys are horrible to each other.” How could Ravyn threaten, even emptily, to out her cousin? How could Cal tell her she deserved her worst nightmare? And to think Cal was about to be outed and Ravyn had almost ended up with her worst nightmare.

“Yeah, but we always have been. It’s how we work. We’re best friends, worst enemies, and something in between. Depends on the day and how pissed we are at everybody else to begin with.”

“I love you, babe, but you need to improve. Acting that way isn’t fair to either of you,” Torin chided.

“I know. And I think we have gotten better in the last few months, with the whole saving her from certain death and her constant support for us, but only time can tell.”

Torin sighed again, kissing the top of Cal’s head.

“Why don’t we watch a movie and stay here all night,” he suggested to the blonde.

“That sounds perfect.” Sure, things would probably always be messy between Cal and Ravyn, but they loved each other deeply. And now she had Atticus legally, and she’d always have him and Torin on her side, too. She wasn’t alone anymore, and that meant neither was Cal.

[victorluvsalice]

-->While Smiler was bopping away, Victor had finished his upgrading, so I had him transportalate down to the greenhouse, change into more appropriate clothes, and start tending all the plants (a process made a little bit harder today by his bees being angry about life and stinging him occasionally). Alice, meanwhile, was stopped from going out to shower in the rain (Erratic Sims…) and forced to finish her breakfast and take a quick wolf nap to calm her instincts before I sent her out to feed Toothy the cowplant and the poor starving chickens. Fortunately going out in the thunderstorm didn’t make her scared (one of the few perks of a Sim being Erratic) – though it did break her umbrella, so that wasn’t great. Despite this, though, she got everybody fed, cleaned out the coop, and got all five eggs waiting in said coop without incident. Feeling both proud of her for staying on task and bad that I'd made her work in the rain, I then directed her to head inside and up to her and Victor’s bedroom, before having her change into her outfit with the Delicate “bad mood calming” bracelet and start working on her latest book again (the mystery “Who Stole The Tarts?” in case you need a reminder – I did!). She plugged away at that for a bit while I checked in on Victor – he’d finished all his tending, so I decided to have him super-sell his garden –

After he’d bonded with his bees to stop them being so angry. And after he’d evolved his taro root. And after he’d gathered soy wax off his soy plant. And after he’d gotten a pee – which involved him magically fixing the downstairs toilet because at some point it broke (I think the moment he tried to sit down on it, in fact). And after he’d given Surprise a lecture on scratching the furniture. I’m saying it took a WHILE to get to super-selling all that produce. XD But he did get there eventually, poor guy!

-->And then I looked at Alice again and noticed her Fury was getting really high because, despite her bracelet’s best efforts, her “gotta be outside” werewolf instincts were giving her lip. I quickly sent her out into the backyard (fortunately the rain had calmed down to a drizzle at this point, AND her umbrella was back in good repair) and had her somber howl to lower her Fury – then, deciding I wanted to be extra safe on a party day, sent her back up to the séance room to meditate the rest of it away. Smiler, meanwhile, was finally allowed to stop dancing for the camera (I’d left them like that for a while because, uh, it was just easier ^^;) and upload the video to their production station so they could start editing it and adding effects and transitions and all that jazz. Victor, for his part, finished his super-selling at last – I immediately made him Repairio the wind farm (those things break SOOO MUCH) and smash up a twisted tendril growing outside Moory’s pen before having him harvest the prairie grass in said pen. XD No rest for the wicked – or the magical! Though he got a pretty good harvest out of the prairie grass – not only did he bundle up plenty of hay, he also found a bottle of potato nectar – and a bottle of VITALITY nectar. AKA the nectar that can deage Sims and bring ghosts back to life. O.o So yeah, that right there? That is the GOOD stuff. Have to remember to get him to store it in the aging racks later!

-->Anyway – while Victor was getting that done, Smiler uploaded and hyped their finished video (just in time for it to be included in the royalty money for the day, nice), then ran downstairs to lecture Shock for scratching furniture and drinking from puddles. I couldn’t get a good picture of either as Shock kept running away from Smiler to do something else as they tried to lecture her (like going to drink from puddle in the bathroom while Smiler was trying to tell her no scratching the living room chairs), but the lessons DID take, and Shock has learned not to do either thing anymore. Hooray! I then had Smiler mop up all the puddles around the place and take a quick shower as I checked in on Alice – to my delight, she was completely Fury-less! Yay! :D And even better, I quickly discovered an activity to keep her busy while I tried to wrangle Smiler and Victor (Smiler, finished with their shower, was trying to mold the clay blob in the bathroom from last episode while Victor wanted to chat with them) – the laundry! The hamper was starting to look a biiit full, so I had her search everyone’s pockets, then load up the washer with the clothes and a chrysanthemum and set them tumbling. Victor and Smiler had headed back up to Smiler’s room to dance to the tunes coming out of their radio at this point, so I just had Alice head up and join them for a little dance party –

[victorluvsalice]

-->Fortunately, Smiler already had some medicine on them, so all I had to do was give some to Victor and have him down it. ...Along with Smiler, as apparently THEY were sick too, just in a somewhat less visible way. Sheesh, poor things... Anyway, Alice got the camera set back up as Rory went to go play in the spilled trash by the front porch (making me go "if you ruin this shot Rory so help me Will Wright") --

And THEN we got some good trio pictures! :D I made sure to take a variety of picture sizes and orientations to go with their various poses. I definitely love some of the goofier ones you can do -- I just wish the third person wasn't standing off to the side like that so much! Bunch in a little closer there, please!

-->With the photos taken, and the main goal fulfilled, all that was left to do was to fulfill Talk Like A Pirate Day by chatting to their friends! Rory and Clement were both jamming by the phonograph, so the trio joined them, Smiler showing off their sweet moves while Alice talked with Rory and Victor with Clement. Weirdly enough, while Smiler had managed to fulfill the "talk like a pirate" traditions at the dinner table, and Victor managed to fulfill them with a bit of hand-holding with Alice (not sure WHY that counts, but okay game), Alice just could not complete that golden check no matter what she did. The party eventually wound down before she could do so, and she dragged herself off to bed as the guests left and Victor and Smiler took some time to squeal over how adorable the kittens were --

And as it turns out, going to sleep is what finally fulfilled the tradition for her. Because both the "sleep" and "nap" options were written in pirate-speak and thus counted. Okay, game. XD

-->However, fulfilling Talk Like A Pirate Day was definitely not my main goal today -- throwing a gold-level family reunion was! And with my love of taking pictures in the game, I easily succeeded in that goal. So, as the guests headed out, I claimed my prize --

New picture frame collages! :D Yes, if you have a good family reunion, you unlock some new collage frames that you can use for all your various photos! And you guys know that I need my collage frames, given how many freaking photos are hanging around the Valicer farmhouse. XD I already knew I wanted to use the "one large, three little, all landscape" collage for some of the wedding shots -- specifically the three of them standing together looking super romantic and the three selfie shots -- and I decided that the other two could be used for the actual family reunion snaps! The stacked trio for the various selfies they'd taken with their friends, and the group of four for my favorite shots from their porch photo shoot. Plus one bonus medium-sized picture just because. XD You guys all know I can't resist a good Van Liddelton shot!

-->And so the day ended with me rearranging all their pictures and photographs to find wall space for the new frames; Smiler deactivating the bots in the greenhouse and making sure the chickens were well-fed before putting some hatchable eggs in the coop to incubate; and Victor playing with Surprise before kicking some creepy hands apart in the barn. *nods* A good Saturday for the OT3! But next week, it's time to start working on the store again, as I am SO CLOSE to getting all those damn shelves filled...

[victorluvsalice]

-->Photos! The trio definitely needed some photos of their trip! And will you look at that -- the photo booth was directly behind Victor and Smiler! I promptly had them duck inside for a flirty pic, then followed up by having Victor and Alice (after a smooch break) go and take one themselves. Victor seemed to prefer the one of him and Alice to the one of him and Smiler -- maybe he didn’t like the way he looked in the first one, I dunno. But still, new unique memento of the date!

-->Of course, if you’re at an amusement park, you also have to check out at least SOME of the rides! And so the gang headed off to enjoy the Ferris Wheel, with Alice running ahead and Victor and Smiler catching up (as I’d decided they’d ride together on this one). Alice had a fine ride, but Victor and Smiler got one of the pop-ups, with Victor trying to ask Smiler about something on their mind but getting shut down. :( What the hell, game? Fortunately it didn’t result in any bad moodlets or sentiments or anything. And even better, when Alice got off, I directed her to take a picture of the Ferris Wheel -- and accidentally lined up a perfect shot of Victor and Smiler coming off it! So that was nice. :D

-->And since it was Love Day, the trio followed up by going on the Cuddle Carts! As Victor and Smiler had gone together on the last ride, I decided Victor and Alice would go together on this one -- I sent Smiler on ahead, then discovered that only one Sim or one pair of Sims could go on the ride at a time when neither Victor nor Alice would get on. Well, at least that allowed me to line up another shot with Smiler, this one of Victor and Alice getting ON the ride -- a good complement to the Ferris Wheel snap. :) Smiler then proceeded to chill out outside, practicing their singing --

While I laughed myself stupid over Victor and Alice getting the “do you dare confess your feelings or back off and reaffirm your friendship” pop-up on the Carts. Game, they’re MARRIED. You really didn’t intend for anyone but teens and their crushes to get on these darn rides, did you? XD Well, at least it was a free romance boost for the pair!

[victorluvsalice]

-->And with that out of the way, I decided “maybe traveling will help this annoying lag” and decided to have the trio spend the rest of their day at their San MyShuno grocery store! As I’m still determined to empty the damn thing after spending so long filling it. They arrived at around 1 PM to find it still raining (and still laggy, bleh) – Alice opened the place up while Smiler cleaned a particularly-nasty toilet in the bathroom and Victor headed down to the basement to do some potion-related experimenting on his work cauldron. Their first customer proved to be none other than B-Lister celebrity Holly Alto from De Sol Valley – though, because she was a celebrity, Alice couldn’t actually greet her. That honor went to the second customer through the door, Rita Coombes. XD The price of fame. Anyway, Alice chatted with her a while as more customers poured through the doors – Smiler, once done with the toilet, decided to concentrate on a visitor named Jules, while I eventually forced Victor to abandon his cauldron in favor of saying hi to Morgyn Ember (because spellcasters gotta stick together, even in retail). Alice eventually got Rita to buy a cherry for a few bucks –

And then, one Last Exception later, she was outside showering in the rain again. *heavy sigh* Oh, Alice… I am DEFINITELY avoiding making any future Alice Sims Erratic, this just isn’t her. Though I was at least able to use the opportunity to get her to change her outfit to one of her short-sleeved ones, then put on her new Delicate bracelet so she could take advantage of its mood-chilling properties. Made the damn thing, might as well use it!

-->Anyway – once Alice was done shocking the customers, I had her head back inside and into the break room, where Victor used Delicioso to conjure up a couple of salads for them to eat for lunch. Alice took the opportunity to read him some romantic poetry and get kisses in return. <3 Smiler, meanwhile, continued working the sales floor, closing the deal with Jules and greeting newcomer Kalama with a hug (I – have completely forgotten when Smiler met this Sim. ^^; On the other hand, Smiler is the Most Likable Sim in this save, so they make friends just by saying hello to people, meaning me forgetting when they made a friend isn’t exactly surprising). We had a few more “out of the fridges/fruit and veg stands” sales while Victor and Alice finished up – Morgyn ended up buying a raspberry while two other customers, Eleanor and Clyde, bought a quill fruit and an orange egg respectively – then Jules and newcomer Mao (the pale lady with the braided blond hair and red sunglasses) indicated they wanted to make PROPER purchases. I had Alice and Victor ring them up respectively – Jules got a lovely Energizing Scent –

And Mao a Potion of the Nimble Mind! :D The first person to actually buy one of Victor’s potions! Sure, okay, it only sold for 12 simoleons, but it was free to make, and this family has plenty of money, so I don’t think anyone is complaining here. :P Just glad to see Sims WILL buy them if given the opportunity!

[victorluvsalice]

-->Well, sort of -- in Victor’s case, he still had to tend his greenhouse! Plants wait for no Winterfest, after all. He and Elmer the garden-bot went out to take care of the crops and check on the hibernating bees, while Alice (now back in her human form) and Smiler amused themselves with a game of chess waiting for him --

-->And then the Grim Reaper showed up for ANOTHER one of the chickens. -.- Dude, seriously? On WINTERFEST? But then again, I suppose death does not wait for holidays either. . .fortunately that was the last of the elderly chickens to be taken, meaning that the farm is free of Grim’s specter at the moment.

-->But let’s not dwell upon the constant chicken death -- the trio has a tree to decorate! I decided Alice and Smiler could start while Victor finished up in the greenhouse, putting on a red and gold ribbon garland with the power of Winterfest magic. Once that was done and Victor was back from tending his plants (and, uh, hiding under the covers because his stupid glitched “fear of the dark” moodlet showed up again), he and Smiler took over to put on the gold and white ornaments while Alice spent some quality laser pointer time with Kelly in the kitchen. :p The pair got their portion of the decorating done, though not without some distracted flirting, and Victor luring Smiler into a kiss under the mistletoe. . .

[victorluvsalice]

We’ve made it to Winter Monday in the Chill Valicer Save, aka “the update where I had to start over like a real-life half-hour in because Victor started glitching and wouldn’t stop.” :( Yeah, I’m not sure WHAT happened, but at one point during my initial session, I gave Victor a command but then canceled it out so he could do something else (I think I traded “do some recycling” for “get the blackberries you fizzed”) -- and he stopped right in front of the front stairs and started rapidly glitching in and out of a t-pose for no reason. I attempted to have Smiler and Alice talk to him, but no dice -- and resetting him with MC Command Center didn’t work either. I exited without saving, and the bug didn’t repeat itself, but it was a VERY worrying moment to be sure!

However, as I said, exited without saving, and I managed to get through the day on my second attempt without Victor doing whatever it was he was doing, so here’s how the day ACTUALLY went for the trio:

-->Smiler had some early “pet cuteness” moments, going in for a cuddle with Kelly (getting an excellent shot of her heterochromia in the process!), before recording a confident vlog with Shadow snoozing away behind them. The pets seem to love them, which is not a surprise as Smiler is the most lovable person on Earth according to Sims logic. XD

-->Alice and Victor eventually got up for the day -- Alice transformed and ran off for a hunt, as she does, while Victor showered, then went and gave one of the local specters a jar of honey as a present, as he has like fifty million of them from his bees. XD The specter was pleased and gave Victor a blob of wraith wax in return, nice! So now Victor has loads of spectral candles in his inventory should he need them.

-->Alice came back with her meat, and she and Victor had a nice chat on the porch (briefly interrupted by the house making some spooky noises). Gotta always remind your werewolf wife that you love her!

-->Smiler, meanwhile, raced down to the greenhouse after they’d finished vlogging, and activated their gardening bot Elmer to help out Victor with his gardening! Mostly because, after realizing I’d missed an opportunity to unleash the party bot, I didn’t want to have THAT utili-bot just cluttering up Smiler’s inventory! These darn things were made to be used after all!

-->And then it was Smiler’s turn to tend to the chickens and make sure they had enough feed and such -- while Alice introduced her werewolf form to the pets! How well did that go?

[victorluvsalice]

Sims 4 Valicer Outfit Fun III -- Dark Academic Crystals Edition!

Time for another "I've been fucking around in CAS making outfits for Victor, Alice, and Smiler" lookbook post! This time focusing on outfits created in response to me getting the Crystal Creations stuff pack recently! So, without further ado --

This is Victor in the outfit I most wanted to put him in ever since I saw the previews for the clothing you got with Crystal Creations – that vest and shirt combo is PERFECT for a slightly more casual Victor. :) The black pants aren’t bad either, and I rather like the little boots. Another Valicer In The Dark look, I think!

While normally I’m all about the blue with Alice, I really liked the forest-green swatch for this particular dress, so here it is. :) It’s a very pretty outfit (though looking at it, I can understand why some people were like “some of these clothes look like they should have been part of Realm Of Magic”), and I like it in combination with the patterned tights, and the other new set of boots.

Back to traditional blue swatches with Alice here – I had to try this dress on for size as well, and I think it looks pretty on her. Though I suspect this is something I’d be more likely to give a “teen” Alice over a “young adult” one... Maybe if I ever do that save file where I have Alice, Victor, Victoria, Emily, and Smiler all grow up together. :p As I had this outfit replace one of her formals (hence the fancy necklace and bright white stockings), I decided to pair it with the fancy crystalline shoes you get with the pack too – VERY cool-looking. :)

Okay, this is an amusing one – I was using Smiler to hunt down new clothes that I hadn’t clicked on yet from any pack, having thrown them in one of the comfy sweaters that you get from Crystal Creations (in the black swatch, because obviously it doesn’t have a good yellow one – dark academia is not know for its bold colors, after all) – and I stumbled across a pair of ripped leggings from Werewolves that I had apparently never properly clicked on. A pair of leggings –

That came in a “one yellow leg one black leg” swatch that was perfectly Smilerish! :D So yeah, I had to show them off – with a quick pair of mini-shorts thrown on to help hide Smiler’s, uh, bulge a bit better. XD But yeah, don’t those look very them? I’ll have to find a “real” outfit to use them in, instead of this monstrosity. :p

Here's Smiler in some real pants to make a proper outfit for them -- and honestly, I rather like the combination of the yellow slacks with the nice loose black sweater. :) Probably should have gone with black shoes over the yellow ones, but I was literally just messing around in CAS with all the new clothes I could find, so... Oh, and you may notice that Smiler's got something around their neck?

Yeah, it's the new double-strand necklace made in conjunction with Simmer arethabee! You see, I also used Smiler to clear out some of the stuff in the “head” section of CAS (including all the new hairstyles from all my new packs that I hadn’t looked at yet – let me tell you, Smiler does NOT look like themselves if they don’t have this specific weirdass haircut), which meant that Smiler got to be the one to show off this cute little necklace! I rather like it – and not just because it comes in Smiler-appropriate colors. XD It’s simple without being TOO simple, you know? And it does look like something Smiler might wear. Or Alice, come to think of it. I’ll have to play around with it a bit more.

Enjoy this handful of new looks! And be prepared for a few more in the future, because I also did some playing around in CAS in response to the SDX "new swimsuit stuff" drop last week on 5/14. XD First though, another Chill Valicer Save update -- see you then!

[victorluvsalice]

Welcome back to the Chill Valicer Save, where – after introducing new member Marm L. Iser the Servo to the family last update – we get to see how Marm is fitting in on the farm and helping out at the store! How did things go for him and the rest of the fam this fine Fall Wednesday? Well –

-->I started with Victor and Alice in bed and Smiler and Marm watching romantic TV together (though if this stirred any feelings between creator and creation, they didn't act upon them). I decided to check on Marm’s enhancement status while they were both chilling, and upon learning he could indeed be enhanced, had Smiler upgrade him so he’d charge a bit faster going forward. Nice! Marm then got to recharging on the couch (apparently robots can take naps, who knew?) while Smiler lectured Surprise on scratching the furniture (Surprise, in a typical cat move, pretended to have no idea what they were talking about) before heading out to the porch to ask Shadow, sadly chewing on her ball, what was wrong. Turns out Shadow was feeling down and needed hugs and treats – Smiler was only too happy to provide, along with a brushing. :) I then had them feed Toothy before heading down into the barn basement to make some strawberry nectar – I mean, they were feeling flirty anyway, so why not? I don’t think it had any effect on the final product, of course, but it feels like it should have. :p

-->While that was going on, Victor and Alice both woke up around 3 AM – I immediately put Victor on “upgrading the tub in the black-and-yellow bathroom” duty, since he had a want to increase his Handiness (and in fact was very close to maxing it). Had him give it a water recycler (using eco parts, of course), pulsating jets, soothing jets, and a self-cleaning coating. I mean, he did all that for the shower, might as well do the same for the tub! Alice, for her part, talked to Snappy the Sixam Mosquito Trap for a bit (it was a want), then got back to working on her book. In Smiler’s room, because of course she did – never mind that I clicked on HER computer in HER and Victor’s room. *sigh* I really should lock the various computers to their owners, shouldn’t I?

Anyway, while Victor and Alice were thus occupied, Smiler finished their nectar and put it in storage (the vitality and potato nectar Victor found in the prairie grass the other day also made it in there), then went upstairs to stand by the robotics bench so I could sort out the pictures in their and Alice’s inventories and pick my favorites from the recent family reunion to put up. The best two of Alice’s pictures of the group and Marm himself, along with one of Smiler and Marm’s selfies, went into the free “column of three pictures” frames they got from the reunion and hung up near the robotics station, while another Smiler-and-Marm selfie went up in Smiler’s room, on the side wall between the windows (over their yoga mat). :) So now Marm has a presence on the walls of the house, nice. Though, while I was doing all that, I noticed there was a Potion of the Nimble Mind in the household inventory for some reason –

-->And then looked in the barn basement and realized that Victor’s potion display was missing a cube! >.< Yeah, back when I did the small house renovation and jazzed up the basement, I had trouble getting that top left corner display case to slot in, but I didn’t expect it to just POP OFF THE WALL! (If you’re wondering what happened to the shelf itself, I am pretty sure I recycled it by accident.) Even more annoying, I was actually able to move the display right below it up into that slot no problem, then add in a new case into the vacated spot. *shakehead* These snap-together shelves sometimes, man. At least I was able to fix the display!

-->With pictures sorted and Victor, Alice, and Marm all occupied, I had Smiler head into the greenhouse to clean up some cursed objects there (a slime monster and a creepy doll), then had them clean Moory’s shed (which really needed it) while making the recently-awakened Marm clean the chicken coop instead of watching Politi-Sim (trust me, Marm, you don’t wanna watch politics). Smiler then pulled the recyclable trash out of the bin, before returning to the greenhouse to drop off Elmer and Bugs the gardening bots and put them to work! Because we hadn’t used the little bots in a while, and judging by the state of the greenhouse, Victor was going to need the help. XD

-->Speaking of Victor, by this point he’d finished all the tub upgrades (without maxing out his Handiness, boo) – he went and had a little chat with Alice as she finished off her book, then showed a little love to Shadow before heading downstairs to finish off the last of the banana split waffles while I had Alice clean up some of the dirty plates around the place. And as for Marm – well, having FINALLY gotten around to the front of the house to throw away the chicken poop, he decided he wanted to play with the cowplant. I allowed this, but I first made him turn on hover mode so he’d move quicker. Because a walking Servo walks VERY SLOWLY, I have discovered. *grimace* Like, EA, seriously, what the hell is the deal with THAT?? *sigh* This is why I stick to occults like vampires and spellcasters...

[victorluvsalice]

Welcome back to the Chill Valicer Save, everyone! We have reached Fall Tuesday as of this update, and with it, the addition of a new family member to the household! How did that go? A bit chaotically, to be honest...

-->I started the playsession with Victor and Alice asleep and Smiler hanging out in the barn gazing at one of the pictures Alice took on their recent Spooky Day group date (aww <3) – since they were pretty well done with robotics for the moment, I had them head downstairs, clean their nectar maker, then make another bottle of grape nectar to get their skill up. They obligingly reached Level 2 right as they finished up the bottle, allowing them to make strawberry and potato nectar – I had them start a bottle of the latter, since that’s the nectar that makes Sims extra-happy, and thus is one of the most Smiler-ish. :p While they were stomping away (and falling over, though they are getting better about that), Victor woke up, having achieved full energy by 4 AM (hooray for good beds!) – I decided to have him upgrade the shower in the blue-and-white bathroom with a self-cleaning coating (he’s done pretty much every other upgrade that I want to it), then got Alice up so she could clean a bunch of the spoiled food out of the fridge before polishing off some more banana split waffles. Meanwhile, Smiler finished off their potato nectar and set that and the latest bottle of grape nectar in the rack to age up before turning back into their regular human form for the day –

-->Just in time for a thunderstorm to rock up! O.o I was wondering why some of the animals were tense. I had Smiler fly into the kitchen to pet Surprise and help calm her while Alice had a cute moment with Shadow, then took a moment to take down and put away all the Spooky Day decorations –

Before having Smiler schedule a family reunion on the calendar for 2 PM that day with Rory, Felipe, Nalani, and – upon realizing the game insisted I have four guests – Clement Frost, aka the trio’s closest friends! Why? To help welcome their new Servo "child" into the world, of course! It's a momentous occasion, and Smiler wanted all their best buddies to be there to say hi! (And yes, I DID consider doing a baby shower briefly, just for the lolz, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to get all the goals done, nor did I need any of the baby-based rewards from it. Family reunion just worked better in this instance!)

-->With that sorted, I had Smiler upstairs to check the trends on SimsTube, since I realized they hadn’t made a video in a while. As it turned out, one of the hot things of the moment was dancing – so I had Smiler pop their streaming drone out of their inventory, turn it on, put on some Pop music (their favorite), and start grooving! Gotta show off those sweet sweet moves to the rest of the world! (Though they took a quick moment to weed Snappy first – gotta keep the Sixam mosquito trap healthy too!)

[victorluvsalice]

--->And so the trio went off to the Haunted Museum! Which I'd spent the beginning of my playsession updating for them in Build/Buy mode by adding more pictures and suchlike for them to view – like some Realm of Magic tables with the Paranormal Stuff mini-cowplant and falcon statue to the second floor around the werewolf book display, or some of my CC A:MR pictures on a few of the walls downstairs. Plus the Tragic Clown painting, because why not? XD (I also updated the basement area with more Werewolves prints and Crystal Creations moon-patterned rugs and prints, but my Sims never went down there and I forgot to take a picture of that area, so...perhaps on a future visit!) I also added the “Vampire Nexus” and “Peace & Quiet” lot traits to the museum, along with the “Spooky” lot challenge in hopes of maybe seeing a ghost or two. Hey, Petey himself suggested doing the latter – it is supposed to be a haunted museum, after all!

-->Anyway – haunted museum Spookfest date! Naturally, the group's first order of business was to change into costumes. :D Alice got to be a pizza delivery lady; Victor a space ranger; and Smiler – well, they just turned into their Dark Form, because that counts as a costume for vampires. XD (Still think werewolves transforming into their beast forms should count too!) I then had them head inside and sit around the séance table on the first floor (after Alice “donated” her jar of purple Forbidden Candy to the display of “Hello Dalhia” dolls and candy jars there – what, there was a gap and I wanted to fill it! We have TWO at home!) to have a chat to help fulfill the date goals – sharing jokes, flirts, and deep conversations. Alice and Smiler got up a couple of times to look at items (I mean, they WERE at a museum, that’s what you DO there), but everything went very well, and soon the date was at gold level. :) I had Victor blow a kiss to Alice, lay a smooch on Smiler –

-->Then transportalate up to the attic bathrooms as he REALLY had to pee. XD Alice and Smiler amused themselves while he was busy looking at the art, sharing the spooky spirit, talking to one of the Hello Dalhias (Alice), and watering the little plasma tree in its side room (Smiler). Once Victor was done, I had him bring everyone up to the second floor so they could reconvene and finish off all their date goals while looking at the specters-in-jars display there (potential rewards from the Paranormal Investigator career, in case you were wondering). They all had a nice chat together looking at the specters and some of the pictures I added to the lot, with Victor ending things off by giving Alice a nice shoulder massage to complete the last group date goal (and Alice reciprocating with an enthusiastic jump into his arms XD) –

[victorluvsalice]

Happy Birthday Newt!

@dont-offend-the-bees A combination of you telling me that anything cute and Valicey would do as a birthday fic and me knowing that you are still into Saw as a fandom led to this -- Victor and Alice reacting to the first Saw movie, inspired by a couple of posts I saw on your blog before you moved all the Sawposting to The Secret Saw Sideblog! Though the fic is technically Valicer out of necessity, because the only way I could think of to get the pair to watch it was to have it be a Halloween Movie Nights pick by Smiler's friend Thirteen, as per this headcanon post...

--

“That is unfair!”

“What’s unfair?” Thirteen asked, looking over at Alice.

“The ending!” Alice said, waving at the slowly-rolling credits on the screen before them. “All Jigsaw said to Adam was that he had to survive until six o’clock, correct? Nothing else? No other secret catches?”

“Don’t ask me,” Victor muttered, hands over his face. “I am actively trying to erase this movie from my mind.”

“There there,” Smiler said, rubbing his back comfortingly. “You’ll be fine – and yeah, ‘survive until six’ was the gist of it,” they added to Alice.

“Well, six o’clock rolled around, and Adam was still alive!” Alice pointed out, stabbing another finger at the TV. “He was wounded, sure, but he was still very much fucking alive! Which means he succeeded! Lawrence was the one who failed in his goal! And yet Lawrence’s the one who gets to crawl off and seek help while Adam gets electrocuted and sentenced to – I guess starving to death in that horrible bathroom? All because he, unsurprisingly, didn’t notice a damn key in his bathtub when he first woke up?”

“You are assuming a lot in thinking Lawrence survived after–” Victor swallowed and shuddered. “After c-cutting off his own f-f-foot.”

“Actually, uh, it’s canon Lawrence survives,” Oblivion put in, sporting a slightly sheepish grin. “He shows up again in Saw 3D.”

“Oh great – when do we watch that one?”

“Don’t worry, we don’t have time for tonight,” Thirteen informed him with a cheeky smirk.

“What, because it’s long?”

“No, because it’s film number seven.”

That finally got Victor to look up. “It’s – wait, what?”

“Yeah, for some reason they decided to name it after the 3D gimmick instead of following the numbering system,” Rita explained, leaning around her girlfriend. “And then films eight and nine are Jigsaw and Spiral respectively, though Spiral’s actually more like a spin-off of the main series–”

“Can I please fully express my annoyance over the fact that Jigsaw killed Adam despite him winning his ‘game’ before we start talking about how this series screwed up its numbering system over halfway through?” Alice cut in, folding her arms and scowling.

“Well, the thing you have to understand about Jigsaw is – he’s a total asshole,” Thirteen reminded her. “He says that his games are to help ‘rehabilitate’ people and make them appreciate life and all that bullshit, sure, but honestly, I believe the dude just wants to torture as many people as he can, both before and after he bites it.”

“I can believe that,” Victor muttered, shivering. Smiler put a comforting arm around him. “And this is probably the least bloody of all the movies, isn’t it?”

“I haven’t seen them all, but I’m pretty sure it is, yes,” Galactica confirmed, giving him a sympathetic look from the other side of Oblivion. “You know, you could have left if you weren’t enjoying it – we wouldn’t have thought any less of you for it.”

“Yeah, I’m shocked you actually sat through the whole thing,” Smiler admitted, giving him a little squeeze.

“I am too, honestly,” Alice said, wrapping her arm around him to do the same. “I’m used to horrors like these – hell, the bathroom looked kind of like one I saw in Rutledge – but I know it’s not your cup of tea.”

“I thought it would be too rude to just get up and leave,” Victor groaned, putting his face in his hands again. “And I kept telling myself, ‘it’s the very first one, it can’t be that bad...’”

“We won’t make you watch any of the others,” Thirteen promised, patting his knee. “I mean, I appreciate you making the effort, but despite appearances, I don’t want you to have nightmares.”

“Thanks.” Victor shook his head. “I know you love that sort of thing, but – it’s just not for me.”

“Me either – especially if John Kramer can’t practice what he preaches,” Alice agreed, glaring at the screen as the DVD menu came up again.

“It’s actually not my favorite series either, if I’m honest,” Thirteen confessed. “I just like this one because of all the hot gay tension between Lawrence and Adam.”

“...there was a surprising amount of that,” Victor allowed.

“Mmm – though given Lawrence is married, he’d better start talking to his wife about either opening the relationship or getting a divorce before he hobbles his way back to that bathroom,” Alice declared.

“You know, I bet there’s a fic like that somewhere on AO3,” Smiler said, pulling out their phone. “Who wants to find a nice domestic AU to help us all decompress?”

[victorluvsalice]

-->While Victor was wrapping up with Shadow, Alice woke from her nap – I sent her to also get pumpkin spice waffles for breakfast (as they were the thing most likely to go bad in the fridge). Which she fetched from the minifridge in the greenhouse. Because why wouldn’t she. *shakehead* Sim autonomy sometimes... Anyway, I decided this meant she could help Victor in the greenhouse (as you could see, there was plenty to do), so once she was done eating and had put her dish away in the new dishwasher (and petted Surprise), I had her go help Victor with the weeding –

Which, uh, didn’t last long, both because Victor kept pre-empting her attempts to weed by hand with his vacuum, and because this is the point where the game started getting really laggy (just when it started raining in-game too, so I am mildly suspicious this had something to do with the weather. But I’ve had it rain in-game without tremendous amounts of lag before…). Oh, and because Alice suddenly got really tense because her werewolf instincts were demanding she go outside. *sigh* Werewolf instincts sometimes... I thus had her instead go clear a twisted tendril from Moory’s pen, then chat with the cow while Smiler took a break from Servo-ing to feed the chickens and clean their coop. Around this time, I managed to remember that Victor had a bunch of animal treats in his inventory and had Alice take a chocolate treat to give to Moory (resulting in her getting a bottle of chocolate milk along with the regular milk), and Smiler a pumpkin treat to give to white hen Leghorna so she’d lay an orange egg later. I always forget to use those damn things, so – here we are! Me using them!

-->And then, immediately afterward, Alice started showering in the rain. *grumble* Erratic Sims sometimes... I let her get on with it, as she WAS starting to trend downward hygiene-wise, and instead had Smiler try joking around with the rooster to give the chickens some attention. The rooster was not interested in their human humor today, though, so Smiler retreated to the greenhouse to chat with Victor – a decision made much more difficult by the fact that Victor was moving around a lot as he tended his plants (lot needed to be done in there today), and by the massive lag. *heavy sigh* I eventually gave up and had Smiler harvest their plasma fruit, poison fireleaves, and noxious elderberries before sending them back to the chicken coop to get the eggs (two hatchable – immediately sold – and three normal, which I ended up forgetting to put in the fridge, whoops). They then fed Toothy, and bred the Whirlyflower and Spotted Dirt frogs in their inventory in hopes of getting the Dirtwhirl frog they needed for their collection –

And to my delight, they did indeed get one! I quickly sent them upstairs to plop it into the right spot in their collection. :D They now just need a plain Heart frog and a plain Eggplant frog, and they will be DONE, yay!

-->While all this was going on, Alice finished her literal rain shower, so I had her collect her Delicate negative-moodlet-reducing bracelet from the charging grid and complete her Raw “find extra Simoleons doing chores” bracelet. Looks pretty good, huh? :) She then shooed Phantom the fox away from the chickens before chatting with the hens so they wouldn’t feel lonely – fortunately they were much more receptive to her today then Smiler! I then had her go and start repairing all the broken wind turbines in the wind farm (because, as usual, most of them were busted) while Smiler flew down and joined Victor in the greenhouse to start super-selling all the produce as Victor finally finished his tending and did a little evolving. And then knee-walked his way into the house for a desperately-needed pee, poor guy. XD Sorry, Victor – I didn’t realize it was going to take so long to tend all the plants today!

-->Around this time, I had to stop Alice from running in and lighting the fireplace again (seriously, shouldn’t YOU of all people not want to do that?), which alerted me to the fact that we had a visitor – Felipe Sisson, hanging out on the front porch taking photos of Shadow after being sprinkled by one of the local specters. :p While I wasn’t originally planning on greeting any visitors today, Smiler WAS feeling a bit thirsty, so I had them go out and say hi while I had Alice do some painting in the study and Victor (after having a bit of forbidden candy to boost his energy) work a bit more on the piano song that’s been sitting in his inventory for ages. Smiler and Felipe had a nice chat, with Smiler learning that Felipe dislikes yellow but likes blue and works as a Waterperson for The Other Sports Team. *nods* Good info! This exchange and a bit of enthusing about humanity was enough to get Felipe to agree to give Smiler a drink, and they happily chomped down on his wrist for a nice glug before sending him on his way. If only all human interaction were that simple. :p