#Valic Black Cats

[kentnaturaltribrid]

Midnight, black as night and black as Obsidian. She’s arkiolory and vaikiolory. There’s not a cat in sight who isn’t of black this season. There’s not a sight of where they’ll be.

The rise will begin with the night of Halloween and continue into the lights.

[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...

[bardicbeany]

5, 12, 13, 18, 21!

5. Favorite NPC.

I’ve answered this one before, but I’ll say another NPC that I really love!

Ishitari was a thri-kreen soul knife NPC the party befriended in Almendra, the 2nd campaign I’ve ever been in. the party grew really attached to her and there were two times Ishitari almost died to protect the party. the party was super distraught and was relieved she survived both times.

she’s also the most badass grandmother you could ever meet

12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from.

You already know of the inside joke in Crime & Space is to combine the word “space” with almost everything.

like space + cat = spat

an inside joke from the very first game I was ever in was ELEMENTAL PLANE OF BEAR. one of the other PCs was a dwarf druid who spent almost all his time in bear form. idr the exact context but something came up about the elemental planes and somehow we joked that the druid was from the elemental plane of bear

and the joke stuck

13. Introduce your current party.

I’ve introduced the party from my dungeon world game so I’ll introduce one of my other groups, Crime & Space!

(if any of yall want me to add drawings you guys have done of your chars lemme know otherwise no pics for now lol)

My character is Kriskrik, a shirren mechanic/technomancer who I’ve mentioned in an earlier ask

our awesome DM is @ostrichmonkey !!

we have Dresk, a chentar (custom homebrew race) operative. captain of the Getaway and a Huge Dork. played by @tiefamat

we have Cavisek, a soldier and four armed otter lady (another homebrew race called Tauvanar). she’s got a lot of big guns, literally and figuratively. played by @thesnarkknight

then there’s Glix, an android solarian who needs to get a hobby besides murder. played by @dagothorsim

we have a second mechanic, a ysoki named Darkling played by Justice. no, the talking raccoon is not a Rocket Raccoon rip off

and finally we have Trouble, a tiefling solarian and space mafia member played by @necromatador. Trouble hasn’t joined the Getaway crew fully just yet, but he will in due time.

18. Does your party keep any pets?

Some of my current groups have kinda-sorta pet-like creatures in their parties. Valic is bound body and soul to a spirit named Niyala. She looks like an ethereal polar bear made of the aurora borealis with black eyes and claws that look like the night sky.

Kriskrik has a little hover drone named Zizi. She’d be super offended if anyone referred to Zizi as her pet though, haha!

and in Fable, Rose has a pony and Pandora has a wolverine animal companion.

21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done?

Kinalla, along with her whole party, attacking and partially burning down a small tribe of kobolds and goblins that had children in it was def one of the biggest things I’ve regretted as a player.

to be fair that was in my very first campaign and I was still very new to D&D

[ ask meme ]

[victorluvsalice]

VITD Sims Lookbook: Alice

And finally, with Victor and Smiler done, we finish off with some looks for our lovely Cutter, Alice!

Alice gets straight into the custom content with one of her everyday outfits, wearing the blue swatches of the 1890s Working Girl set by @vintagesimstress! And unlike the last time I showed her in this outfit, this time she has the apron overlay to go with it. XD Looks good on her AND gives her the proper working-class vibes!

For bedtime, Alice gets a pretty nightgown -- and much like Smiler, while they're not era-appropriate, I had to give Alice the cute bunny slippers too. XD What, we know she likes white rabbits! If I remember correctly, that nightgown is a dress that comes with the Cottage Garden Fan Stuff Pack made by @plumbobteasociety -- I thought it looked nice as nightwear for her.

For that semi-formal party everyone's going to, Alice gets a Realm of Magic top and skirt that make her look at least somewhat respectable. While I think the outfit as a whole is a little pale, I really wanted to use that top on her -- I think she looks good in it. And the skirt ended up working with it pretty well (which is good, because it took me ages to find one that actually went with the top. Some of this shit is HARD to match, let me tell you!).

And for a formal occasion -- well, unlike the boy and the non-binary person, Alice doesn't need to rely on CC here. Get Famous provides a beautiful Victorian dress for her to swan around in! (Though I should probably download a few for her anyway, for variety's sake -- or at least a couple of hats that might go well with this outfit. Head looks a little naked here!) She looks ready for a day in Brightstone, doesn't she?

Okay, admittedly I didn't intend this outfit as an athletic outfit, just another everyday one (though I suppose Alice COULD wear it for working out). And this Cats & Dogs dress is probably a little too modern to fit the proper BITD vibes. But I really like it for the simple reason the patchwork skirt looks like something Alice made herself -- finding and saving up scraps of fabric so she could have something else to wear besides her iconic striped blouse and black skirt. And you can't deny, it DOES look good on her!

And finally, for those chilly days, Alice gets in on the cozy vibes with a cherries-and-flowers theme -- the sweater (and I believe the skirt) is from Cottage Living, while the hat is a recolor created by Plumbella (from "illegally downloading clothes for my sims," in this SimFileShare folder (as you might imagine, it's the one called "beret")). She looks pretty comfy -- and those boots were definitely made for stomping around the streets in the snow and rain.

And that's that! Hope you enjoyed this look at what my VITD characters would probably wear in their universe. Next time (after Valicertine's Day), we're back to the Chill Valicer save for store shenanigans and magic shenanigans! See you then!

[victorluvsalice]

Welcome to the first Chill Valicer Save update of 2024! Where we discover that the gang is a few months ahead of us in the calendar and already celebrating Egg Day. :p However -- before we get into that, we first have to cover a mini-update I did before playing through Egg Day proper, where I took a crack at updating the house a little bit! I'd hoped to do a bit more with replacing furniture and such, but ended up deciding to hold off until after Christmas/my birthday (when I received the cashola to buy Horse Ranch and Home Chef Hustle) when I'd have more options. Here's what I did manage to update, though:

A) I took all the new plants out of Smiler’s inventory (black bean, soybean, coconut, pineapple, noxious elderberry, poison fireleaf – as it turns out, I didn't need them to buy a pomegranate as we already had a pomegranate tree), plus the spare planter that Victor made way back when from the household inventory, plopped all those in the greenhouse, and started rearranging! I now have all of Smiler’s herbalism stuff together, with the noxious elderberry and poison fireleaf next to their counterparts; all the veggies together; all the fruits together (with the pineapple next to the dragon fruit); all the flowers together; the soybean and black bean in the new planter; and the coconut in the empty patch in the orchard. So basically everything is now grouped a lot better. I may still rearrange the planters themselves in the future so certain types of plants are closer to the crafting stations that use them (like putting all flowers near the flower-arranging bench), but at least now all the similar plants are grouped together properly! Oh, and while I was in there, I tried replacing the "stuck" juice fizzer (that was permanently displaying a "ready to collect" screen with nothing in it) with a new one, just so the gang had one at home if they wished to use it. I later discovered that the new one ended up "stuck" too, but at least I tried?

B) I replaced both the upstairs and downstairs litter boxes with the fancy kind that shoots lasers to automatically vaporize cat poop. XD Hey, look, the family can afford it, and it saves them having to clean the litter boxes.

C) I recolored Moory’s shed to some cheerier colors after being like “why would THIS FAMILY, of all families, go with a beige cow shed” – now it’s bright yellow! Isn't that nicer?

D) I replaced the toilet and sink in the downstairs bathroom with more expensive versions – with decorative slots, so I could put a soap dispenser on the sink. :) I was going to do the same upstairs, but ran into a problem because the two bathrooms have very distinct color schemes, and I’m not sure the toilet and sink combo I used downstairs would fit with either...have to ponder that one a bit more!

E) I penned in Toothy – which involved MOVING Toothy to the other side of the front yard, by the tree in the left-hand corner and the wind farm, because as it turns out cowplants need surprisingly big pens. Possibly because Sims have to stand a certain distance away from them to feed and play with them. If I’d left Toothy in its usual spot, I wouldn’t have had any way to get to the pet obstacle course in the corner by the kitchen. I’m still not ENTIRELY happy with the placement, but it’ll do for the moment, and it means Toothy is now cut off from anyone who can’t get through the gate – which is anyone but household members. *nods*

F) And this one I didn't get a good shot of (though you'll see it in a future update) – I copied one of the grouped photo frames I got from that family reunion I did a little bit back and put some of Victor and Alice’s honeymoon photos from Selvadorada in there. It looks nice (even if I still have a couple of spare photos that have to be arranged around the grouped frames), but I still need to decide how to handle all the photos they’ve got hanging around. I’ve been thinking that I should maybe cull a few so they have more space on their walls and perhaps look a touch less narcissistic...but the problem there is, I personally love the photos, so I don’t know if I could bring myself to delete them. *sigh* We SO need “photo albums” in the this game. Give me a book object that you can put photos in, and that when you click on it, plays a little slideshow of the photos, and I will be CONTENT.

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer Polyship Week, Day Four: Soulmates (Soulmate AU)

Day Four of Valicer Polyship Week, courtesy of @polyshipweek, and we’re up to the “Soulmates” prompt -- which, of course, inspired me to bust out my Soulmate AU idea! The idea behind this world is that it’s one where you can have a) platonic as well as romantic soulmates and b) multiple soulmates, and Victor, Alice, and Smiler are all each other’s soulmates. Victor and Smiler met first, fell in love, discovered they had a THIRD soulmate when they realized neither of them tried to slit their wrists before they met (extreme emotions and injuries can be transferred between soulmates even before meeting -- meaning Alice’s attempt to gouge herself with the spoon in Rutledge got them too), and ended up running away to London together when Victor’s parents tried to force him into an arranged marriage he didn’t want and Smiler’s father tried to send them away to rural Lithuania to keep them away from Victor. We pick up here with Victor at the Whitechapel Market, about to meet his other soulmate in a very Victorish way. . .

---

All right – just a few things to pick up, and then I can finally go home and tell Smiler all about how boring my day was. Let’s see. . .carrots. . .potatoes. . .do I want some apples? Do I want these apples specifically. . .hmm. Maybe I’ll wait and come back on a, um, fresher day. . .but oh, I should definitely get some – “Oh!”

Victor jolted as he turned toward the butcher, only to collide with someone coming the other way. He stumbled backward a handful of steps as his unfortunate victim – a young, dark-haired lady in black-and-white, almost but not quite as colorless as all the people he’d left behind in Burtonsville – hit the cobbles. “I-I-I am so s-sorry,” Victor babbled, reaching automatically for his tie before recalling his manners and instead using his free hand to offer a lift up to the woman. “I w-wasn’t looking where I-I was going, and – I’m – I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” the woman said, shaking her head slightly. “I wasn’t really looking where I was going either, if I’m honest.” She reached back for him, accepting the hand up. “I’m glad you at least have the manners to apologize–”

Said Alice.

Victor gasped softly as, just for a moment, the world was suffused in a golden glow. Oh my God – it’s her! It’s her, she’s the one, she’s – she’s Alice Pleasance Liddell, born May 4th, 1855 – the same age as Smiler and me! That makes things easier. . .and she loves cats and rabbits, and her favorite food is strawberry cake, though she’ll eat any cake that’s presented to her – ha, same – but she doesn’t actually like candy all that much, and she likes to draw but she’s currently not very good – currently? – and she’s got a whole fictional realm called Wonderland that she made up when she was seven, and –

And she lost her entire family to a house fire about ten years ago, and she spent the latter half of her childhood in Rutledge Asylum. . .which would explain –

And that was when Alice, who’d been gawking at him with the prettiest green eyes he’d seen since meeting Smiler, yanked her hand out of his and bolted down the street.

“Wha – wait!” Victor took a step after her, arm raised, but she ignored him, instead darting down a side alley. He watched her disappear from sight, emotions all aswirl. Alice Liddell – the only survivor of the Liddell fire! That’s who we’re – who would have guessed that I would have just literally run into her in this part of London! Shouldn’t she be in Oxford? Then again, she can’t have been expecting to meet me here. . .what did she get from me, I wonder? What made her react like that? Did – did she not like what she saw? No, that can’t be it, she hasn’t rejected the bond, she’s just. . .she’s scared, that’s what it is, she’s scared to actually face me, to know I’m real. . .

A wave of puzzled concern washed over him then, as if from an invisible bucket – though, frankly, Victor was surprised it had taken Smiler this long to notice the chaos within him. He sent back a complicated mix of feelings that he hoped indicated “I’ll be home in a moment,” threw some money at the potato lady, then shot down the street, back to the two-up he shared with his beloved. Smiler met him at the door, steering him inside with a hand on his shoulder. “What happened?” they asked, no preamble, worry clear in their gaze.

“I found her,” Victor replied, dropping the bag of groceries on their little kitchen table.

“Her?”

“You know – her.” Victor pulled back his right sleeve, revealing the faint scar across his wrist. The scar mirrored on Smiler’s left – and which neither of them had cut into their skin. “Our third. Our – our other soulmate.”

--

[victorluvsalice]

The Unlucky Ones by vidiotsjrock

As my Valicer In The Dark AU has been a theme this week, I decided to hit up the YouTubes for a song that might fit it -- and I happened across this video, tucked away in my old "favorites" list (remember when you could favorite things on YouTube?). I'm quite sure I originally favorited it because I enjoyed the A Series Of Unfortunate Events movie and thus liked the music video, but the song is a good one too. And, listening to it again, I did find myself thinking that there was a Valicer In The Dark vibe to the lyrics! I mean, just the title of the song alone applies to them pretty well -- their crew was formed in response to them being very unluckily accused of the murder of a potential Spirit Warden and having to run from the Bluecoats. And when you get to the chorus:

Come out and dance a while Out in the black cat infested night We dance on ledges and spires With losers and liars We don't have a thing to fear

Yeah, that totally makes me think of the Three Pillars having various adventures and pulling various jobs while avoiding the Bluecoats and the attentions of rival gangs. :) So yeah, more than happy to feature this 14-year-old video on my tumblr today! Perhaps next week we shall get something more modern -- we shall see. :P

[kentnaturaltribrid]

“Great leaders take painful hits. Take your hits as leader.”

If anything at all, the three of them together are leaders in pretty much everything they’ve done. She’s a wonder, kalcerious, and venerikalcerious. More so of a rebel than the other two, that is from the stand point of whose got the lead there.

Black cats Survive 12% of the time in their own. The name of Salara means Wonder Cat, in both Japanese and Irish. Black cats have 13 wonders of personalities within one. It also means in Caeseric Adventurer. In Vaeseric it’s Rain. In Vaneric it’s Dawn. In Jaeseric it means Dusk. In Welsh it means Finch. In Finnish the name of Salara is Day Wonder. Though, in reality most black cats are all sorts of adventuring types. The name originally feels like it sticks with the cat because from the day I met her, she only wanted more adventuring and rebelry alongside revelation and revolution. There’s nothing wrong with any of it, she’s pure rebel if anything from day one. Adventuring where no cat typically thinks to go during the day, during the night however that’s difficult. Black Cats like her are usually on the alert.

Black cats during Halloween are adopted at a 7% rate. After Halloween however, it tends to typically slow down even more. Black cats after Halloween are adopted by a 12% at most. During Halloween, a Black Cat has 3% more value to being apart of a family than wondering around without having to know where to go or even anything of their owners personalities. Black cats have 19 personalities and one of them is the Seeker. They tend to look for their new friends and companions. Black cats are also good at finding the potential target of a friend or the targets of spells. They tend to recognize magic done by the non-seeker and magic malice or valice as it is known. Pure virtue is their main idea. Black cats are familiar with 12% Dasilk and 10% Dervilk. They don’t like milk, those are herbs that they tend to play with more. Black cats have a distaste of dairy and darsiery.

[victorluvsalice]

-->Smiler moved from herbalism to chicken-tending (gotta make sure there’s plenty of feed for everyone! And actually remember to collect those eggs) as Victor and Shadow moved outside to try this fetch thing again -- the porch didn’t QUITE work, but the open area right NEXT to the porch did! They proceeded to spend a few hours tossing the ball around, with Shadow going and actually getting it MOST of the time. XD

-->Alice, for her part, stayed in wolf form long enough to do some scavenging (finding some upgrade parts) and to let out a somber howl to keep the Fury down. This all filled up her werewolf XP meter again, allowing her to get another ability point! I chose Personal Grooming for the ability to just lick herself clean as necessary -- that’s a good, useful one, and should be good for getting little bits of XP every time she gets dirty.

-->And then, not wanting to forget, I had Smiler do something very very important -- namely, buy the gang a cow! :D Finally found the room for the shed, so it’s about time they got one! Smiler chose a black-and-white spotted cow and named her Moory (because puns). They got along famously with the new addition to the family, telling jokes and giving her a good brush before milking her. So the Valicer Farm now has another thing to sell at their shop! (If it ever properly opens, of course. . .)

-->While Smiler made friends with Moory, Victor and Shadow moved fetch training over to the little strip by the greenhouse (Shadow still having a LITTLE trouble with getting the ball every time), while Alice turned back to human form and called Kelly home from her kitty adventures. Mostly because I’d noticed that the cat was uncomfortable for some reason. . .

And then I noticed “oh, wait a minute, it’s HOT today! Right, summer, Henford-On-Bagley DOES actually have that.” I promptly had Alice swap the thermostats on the lot from “heat” to “cool” and take Kelly’s sweater off for the new season. Nakey cat can be nakey when the temperature’s rising! (I was tempted to put her in her taco outfit, but I think I’ll save that for Spookfest. XD)