#but I'll probably be queuing that stuff | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

victorluvsalice · 6 months ago

Text

Valicer In The Dark -- The Three Pillars' Menagerie

Yes indeed -- I've talked a lot about the human members of the group, now it's time to discuss the nonhuman ones! Because, as it turns out, the Three Pillars are going to actually end up with a fair number of pets over the course of their adventures:

Sooty -- the very first "pet" the trio ever get, Sooty technically predates Victor, Alice, and Smiler becoming the Three Pillars, as he shows up before they become an official crew. His first appearance is in the upcoming second VITD story, "A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded" -- well, his first solo appearance, at any rate. For you see, Sooty is one of the ravens in Elder Gutknecht's tower -- a recently-fledged youngster with a few lingering baby feathers near the tops of his wings. When the trio temporarily moved in after the whole Barkis incident, Sooty was very curious to see what was going on with these new strange solid people living in his house. His curiosity was rewarded with food, so he decided that whoever they were, they were nice. So when they headed off to snatch Bumby's ledger (and hopefully kill the guy), he flew after them to see where they were going and if it involved more food --

And when Bumby confronted the trio after discovering the theft of his ledger, intending to stop them by any means possible before they could escape and expose his evil, Sooty realized that this other weird solid person meant the three nice people who fed him harm -- and promptly swooped in to harass him. Giving Alice the perfect opportunity to grab her sister's room key off Bumby's watch and shove an armed electroplasm bomb into his pants. Sooty ended up hitching a ride on Smiler's shoulder when they fled the scene, and Smiler ended up using Sooty as a messenger to let Elder Gutknecht know what had happened and where they'd gone after the trio ran into their parents, Matt and Carol, and were invited to spend the Names (night) at the Ministry of Joy. Sooty performed this job admirably, and thus became the Representative Of The Tower Ravens for the trio when they officially moved in. Sooty is closest to Smiler, who was the first to feed and pet him, but he likes all three of the trio and will often hang out with them as they do various tasks. You know that anonymous raven that so often popped up in the various Valicer In The Dark-themed Not Incorrect Quote collections? Yeah, I'm picturing that as Sooty now. :) He's their bud! And, if you believe the second set of quotes, toilet trained. XD (Also, I should thank @thesatiricaldemon for giving me the idea of Sooty showing up to harass Bumby at the climax by mentioning how bad an idea it is to piss off a corvid in his comment on the last chapter of "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of" -- Bumby may not have made enemies with the whole flock, but he definitely made one of that one particular raven!)

Guide -- if you've read my Forgotten Vows series, you'll recognize this as my name for the white cat Alice keeps seeing periodically during Alice: Madness Returns (the one who appears most prominently in Chapter One of the game, where chasing after it leads Alice to the spot where she meets Witless -- it also appears briefly at the beginnings of Chapter Two (on the docks) and Chapter Four (at the door of the police station) ). While Guide had a decent life as a semi-feral stray who hung out in Dr. Fixxler's shop from time to time in the Forgotten Vows Verse, I thought it would be nice if, in this universe, Alice could officially adopt the cat. And after a little bit of thought, I realized that I already had the perfect score in which this could happen -- the Alice: Asylum-based "taking out Radcliffe and rescuing his daughter Angela" score! My idea is, after the trio makes the decision to try and shake down Radcliffe for Alice's inheritance, the white cat shows up while they're on their way to his house. Alice recognizes her (as I've decided the cat is female) and says, "I appreciate it, but I really don't need you to show me where I'm going this time" --

And then they come across the clearly-abandoned house and she's like, "...okay, maybe I do." XD And indeed, after discovering Radcliffe's plans for his daughter and where he's likely to be, the cat helps lead them to the meeting place at the docks (annoying Rabbit a bit, as he's trying to do the same thing), and maybe, like Sooty, even helps in taking him down (perhaps biting or clawing him at a key moment?). And then, once everything is sorted and Angela is safely settled in Houndsditch, Alice spots the cat following them again as she, Victor, and Smiler are heading home...

And when she sees Alice looking at her, the cat pads up to her and starts rubbing against her leg, purring. Alice is like "well, I let Angela have my old rabbit toy, so I do need a new furry white creature in my life," picks her up, and takes her home, naming her Guide because, well, that's what she seems to do. There's a little initial tension between Guide and Sooty and the other ravens, but after it's made clear to Guide that these birds are not flying snacks, they get along reasonably well. Guide is naturally closest to Alice, often chilling with her as she reads or draws, but will of course accept pets and food from both Victor and Smiler as well.

Dogmeat -- yes, that Dogmeat. The German Shepherd from Fallout 4, to be precise, since that's the game I'm actually playing. I told you all in the above-linked post that I wanted to adapt some FO4 quests for my VITD universe -- and if I'm bringing in Nick Valentine, Piper Wright, and Preston Garvey, why wouldn't I also include everyone's favorite doggo companion? Especially since one of the quests I'm adapting is "When Freedom Calls" (the one where you meet Preston and help him defend the Museum of Freedom from raiders), which:

A) I imagine most people do with Dogmeat at their side, given the quest location is literally just down the road from the Red Rocket where you meet and adopt the dog

B) I've always headcanoned as a quest you should do with Dogmeat, as -- thanks to Mama Murphy being the one to tell you his name and acting at least somewhat familiar with the pooch -- I've always pictured Dogmeat as having traveled with Preston and the survivors for a bit before they all got pinned down in the museum, and that Preston actually sent the dog out to try and find help during a quiet moment -- hence why Dogmeat was at the Red Rocket in the first place!

So yeah, it only makes sense that Dogmeat would be a part of the VITD version of the quest! I'm still pinning down how the quest should go in this reality, but here's my off-the-cuff rough draft so far --

I. The Three Pillars are walking around Six Towers one day, maybe talking about plans for their next heist or something, when they encounter Dogmeat hanging around an abandoned building (perhaps whatever the equivalent of a gas station is in this world? The rich DO have electroplasmic carriages that work a bit like cars, and might need places to renew their fuel supply for the engines...). Victor of course promptly takes a shine to the dog, and the dog to him. After a bit of getting-to-know-you time, the dog indicates that he wants the trio to follow him -- curious, they do --

II. And come across the wreckage of an old museum, with a man on the balcony, being menaced by a gang of toughs. A gang that promptly turns on the Three Pillars once their presence is known. Fortunately, the trio and the dog manage to defeat them and drive them off for a bit, and the man on the balcony asks them to come in -- they do, and find him locked in an upstairs room, along with four other people, looking rather worse for wear. The man introduces himself as "Preston Garvey, of the Coalridge Dust Street -- just Preston," and the others as Mama Murphy, Jun and Marcy Long, and Sturges. They fill in the Three Pillars on what their deal is -- basically, they're the survivors of a recent massacre on Quincy Street in Coalridge, after a rich factory owner decided to make an example out of striking workers by sending mercenaries (a Hound group called The Gunners) to rough up their loved ones. Things quickly got out of hand, though, and a lot of people ended up dying because the Gunners were a little too enthusiastic about their job. Preston was part of the Bluecoat squad that was sent to try and calm things down, and for a minute it looked like they might actually succeed...

Only for one of his own squadmates, Clint, to reveal he'd decided to switch sides and join the Gunners, leading to him helping them gun down his own squad. Preston was the only survivor thanks to managing to wound Clint and flee before he could kill him, but he couldn't stand up to the Gunners all on his own. So, determined to save someone in this mess, he found these four, put them under his protection, and then booked it out of there. Unfortunately, Mama Murphy had a reputation in the neighborhood for being a little psychic, especially if she's high. A reputation that Jared, former resident and leader of the "Corvega Raiders" (a gang of former workers from the Corvega Electroplasmic Carriages Company) knew well, thanks to her predicting he'd become a feared gang leader when he was a child. He decided upon getting control of the Corvega Raiders that he wanted her and her insights for himself -- so almost the minute the group got free of the Gunners, they found themselves harassed by Raiders sent to kidnap her. The group managed to evade them long enough to get to Six Towers and barricade themselves in this museum, and -- well, it's been a stand-off ever since. And while Preston was very impressed with the Three Pillars' work in helping drive off the Raiders, he's pretty sure the gang is not gone for good. The trio, feeling very sorry for these people, offer to help try and defeat the Corvega Raiders once and for all and get the refugees to safety. Preston is quite thankful, and they start discussing offense and defense options.

III. During these talks, Victor ends up chatting with Mama Murphy, who tells him that she's glad Dogmeat found them. Victor's like "oh, he's your dog?" and she explains that he isn't, not really -- Dogmeat has been traveling with them for a bit, and Preston did send the dog to find help when they got trapped in the museum, but he's not anyone in the group's pet. He's just a dog that showed up and started traveling with them (the "Dogmeat" name was a joke by Marcy that stuck). Mama's of the opinion that Dogmeat came along just to help get them out of this mess, and now that he's done that, he'll probably stay with Victor and his companions, since he seems to have bonded to him. She also warns Victor that she's had a vision of something bad showing up during the next fight -- she can't describe it well, but she knows it's big and angry. Victor, concerned, says he's going up on the roof to watch for trouble then, and does that while Alice and Smiler help Preston come up with more ways to repel potential invaders (Smiler probably working up some handy-dandy knockout bombs with the help of Sturges)...

IV. And then -- as the Corvega Raiders show up for a second round and starts falling afoul of the bombs and whatnot -- Victor suddenly feels the big and angry thing himself, coming towards their location rapidly. A big and angry thing that he's able to identify as a Horror that's somehow managed to get into the sewer system. He runs downstairs and warns the others --

Just in time for the Duskwallian equivalent of a Deathclaw (a Glowing Deathclaw, no less) to rip its way through a manhole and emerge onto the streets. It makes short work of the gang outside, but now the trick becomes keeping it out of the museum so it doesn't make short work of everyone inside! The Three Pillars are successful in this (either killing it, as in the original quest, or at least keeping it out long enough for the Spirit Wardens to show up and kill it), and Preston thanks them profusely for their help. He says he hopes to get the refugees settled here in Six Towers (Smiler promptly recommends the Advocate bunkhouse by the Arms Of The Weeping Lady soup kitchen, natch), and then start up his own group to help take down his traitor squadmate and maybe do something about the crime in the city. The Three Pillars wish him the best with that, and after seeing the group safely to said bunkhouse, start heading home...

V. And sure enough, Dogmeat tags along after them, tail wagging. Victor is like "well, I hope you get along with cats and birds," and the dog joins the group at their headquarters. :) Once again, there's some early tension between Dogmeat, Guide, and Sooty (Guide is naturally suspicious of the big dog, while Dogmeat doesn't particularly like Sooty always trying to steal his food), but with a firm hand from the human trio, it's all sorted out. And much like Smiler is Sooty's favorite, and Alice Guide's, Victor is Dogmeat's favorite, with the dog generally going to him first for affection and playtime. Like, he'll take a belly rub from everyone, but Victor gives the best ones, in his opinion. :p

Dougie -- okay, this is an interesting one. Back when I was first creating the Valicer In The Dark verse, one of my very first story ideas involved the trio quite accidentally getting a new pet on a job. Specifically, it involved Victoria -- annoyed at her parents for being all smug about this new fancy silver egg retrieved from the Deathlands that they bought at a very high price, as if it wasn't her husband's money that paid for the damn thing -- hiring the Three Pillars to humiliate them by stealing it. Victor, Alice, and Smiler, upon being informed of the situation, are only too happy to cause problems for the Everglots (they have not forgotten the whole "Barkis" thing, and neither has Victoria), and successfully steal the egg, intending to sell it as soon as possible --

But. At some point during their escape (I haven't decided when yet -- it will probably be the consequence of a bad dice roll), Victor, who has the egg hidden in his coat, hears a crack! And when he goes to investigate, worried they damaged the egg --

He discovers that the egg was in fact a real egg. That just hatched a tiny baby dragon. A tiny baby dragon --

That just so happens to be based on my own beloved plush dragon Dougie! :D You know the one -- they show up sometimes in the posts I make for my Victor Plush and Alice Dolly's birthdays. The long silver dragon with the copper-colored head crest, "ear" fins, claws, and underwings. You can get a good look at them in this old photoset from shortly after I got them. They're called "Dougie" because they're a Douglas Toys product, and I'm not very creative with names. XD I love them very much and wanted to involve them somehow in this verse, and this seemed like the best way to do it.

Anyway -- as you might imagine, everyone is very "?!?!" about this development when Victor shows Alice and Smiler what's happened. Fortunately, they still manage to get themselves and their new surprise pet out of the house safely, and then head straight home to raid Elder Gutknecht's library because what the fuck. XD They eventually learn that Dougie is in fact a "lap dragon" -- a type of dragon specifically bred to lie in people's laps and keep them warm. Admittedly, these dragons were supposed to have died out along with a bunch of other stuff eight-and-a-half centuries ago when the sun got exploded, but (as per Elder Gutknecht's theorizing) either those eggs can last for ages and only hatch in ideal conditions, or some survived and are now breeding wild out in the Deathlands, unbeknownst to everyone else. *shrug* At any rate, the book tells them that Dougie's not going to get very big (my toy is sixteen inches long, so about that size) -- and more importantly, they're also not going to be able to breathe fire. All of his warmth stays inside them so they can do their job. This latter trait means that Alice doesn't have any objections to keeping them (especially since she can see that Smiler and especially Victor have already fallen in love with the creature), and so Dougie joins the pet group! There is a lot of "???" from the other pets about this strange creature, but they soon get used to them -- in fact, when it becomes very clear that Dougie is a good source of warmth, Guide and Dogmeat in particular like to cuddle up to the little guy. Though, naturally, Dougie's favorite place is on Victor's lap. :) What can they say -- they love their "mama!" And he loves them. :)

Us -- and finally, we come to the one that I feel the weirdest about calling a "pet" because, well -- this is our favorite intellect devourer friend from Baldur's Gate III, acquired by the gang in that score I talked about previously that's a rough adaptation of the opening tutorial dungeon on the crashing Nautiloid (the one that features themselves having to drop themselves into the ocean on a lifeboat before they're torn apart by air demons attacking a crashing airship). And while Us may be very new to the world, and a weird brain-with-legs-and-tentacles creature, they are fully sapient! I guess they count in a technical sense because they disguise themselves as a cute little kitty cat so only Victor, Alice, Smiler, and anyone they choose to let in on the secret (like Smiler's parents and Elder Gutknecht) can see them as what they are, but... *waggles hand* Still a little weird to me. They are a beloved member of the family, though -- even if the teething problems in introducing them to Sooty, Guide, Dogmeat, and Dougie are worse than usual because the animals' reactions to Us are a combination of "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS CREEPY THING" and "hang on it smells like food." Fortunately Us is quite capable of defending themselves, and a few tentacle smacks on the nose and perhaps a minor psychic blast or two teaches the animals that they are NOT to be nibbled on. I don't know how comfortable they ever get with the intellect devourer, but it does kind of amuse me to imagine them all in a big cuddle pile one cold winter's night, so...I guess comfortable enough? XD Smiler certainly loves them a lot, though -- they bonded with the creature the minute they pulled them out of that poor dead guy's skull, and the feeling is very mutual. Victor and Alice -- well, they need a minute, but they rapidly warm up to them. Helps that Us is so cute -- and, in Victor's case, can eat his fear and anxiety about stuff!

Whew -- quite the collection, huh? Even I didn't expect them to get this many pets...good thing that they live in a reasonably-spacious house and all love animals! And that these animals are all capable of taking care of themselves when the crew is out on a job. XD And damn it, now I want to do some sort of story with the pets all teaming up to find the Three Pillars when they don't come home one day and Us suspects they're in trouble...

#valicer in the dark au #pets #worldbuilding #storybuilding #guide #alice madness returns #sooty #blades in the dark #dogmeat #fallout 4 #dougie #dragon #us baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #yeah I was thinking about this a while back and was like #'they get a lot of pets I should do a quick post about them!'#said quick post: takes me multiple weeks to draft out properly #and results in me both finally figuring out basically what I want to do for the VITD version of 'When Freedom Calls'#and coming up with a NEW story idea #because this universe is THE MOST INSPIRING THING EVER FOR ME #*sigh* yes brain I'll add it to the list #to be fair it probably would be funny #and honestly the pets probably count as cohorts #like not the typical type but #I could give them proper edges and flaws and stuff #list them on the official crew sheet #...I'm totally going to do that aren't I? XD #I guess look for an update to this post when that happens!#queued

12 notes · View notes

victorluvsalice · 10 months ago

Text

-->And then, right after noon, it was off to San MyShuno and Van Liddelton Groceries! Because I wanted my gang to sell some shit, damn it. XD I had Alice open the place up, then sent her and Smiler to grab some posters (don’t think they got any new ones though) while Marm and Victor went to one of the outdoor chess sets to play a game together as they waited for customers to show up. It didn’t take long for the first people of the day to walk through the big sliding doors, and Alice and Smiler had to hurry back from their poster-gathering adventures to greet Umber Grove and Ekram Elderberry respectively. The pair immediately put their customer service skills to work, and Alice ended up convincing Umber to buy a bottle of milk as the first sale of the day (possibly helped by the fact that Umber found her rather attractive), while Smiler “closed the deal” to encourage Ekram to purchase something from over by the herbalism shelves –

Only for poor Ekram to then run afoul of the “for some reason my Sims keep acting like they cannot get to you to ring you up” bug. *grimace* Oh, that just figures. I was thus forced to let Ekram just stand there until his shopping bubble timed out while sending the gang to tend to the other customers in the store (I mean, I kept TRYING to get them to ring him up, but it never worked). Sorry, Ekram! Maybe another day!

-->Fortunately, the rest of the sales day went pretty smoothly for the quartet –

I. Guy named Yosef yanked a cichlid out of the fish section while Smiler and Victor got their flirt on in the chess area, which was nice – not sure anyone has bought any fish before now!

II. Alice successfully rang up the first “proper” sale of the day: a guy named Asa buying one of Victor’s Potions of Emotional Stability, awesome

III. Smiler spent some time chatting with Leila, their semi-stalkerish buddy from Sulani (the one who kept interrupting the Valicer honeymoon) throughout the early afternoon – my INTENT was for them to talk her into letting them have some plasma, but they ended up accidentally convincing her to buy a can of green peas instead. XD They ended up getting their wanted drink from Brant Hecking instead – thanks Brant, it’s appreciated!

IV. Victor talked a guy named Valentino into buying some mayonnaise, then cleaned up some spoiled fizzy juice I spotted in the juice fridge (which is supposed to be a FLOWER fridge, admittedly, but it also works for that purpose) – once he was done with that he then rang up Clara Bjergsen for a single small mushroom. Which looks very funny written down XD

V. Marm kept trying to slip away from customers to mop some puddles outside (mood), but I did get him to talk to a guy named Tai for a while, which seemed to contribute to the old fellow buying a plantain. And then another customer who’d gone over to talk to Marm earlier while he was playing chess with Victor, Scarlet, bought another one right after, so I guess the robot inspires people to buy bananas. XD I eventually just let him mop the puddle (because it was bugging ME too), then told him to start recharging while he was out there because he wasn’t a fan of all the people anyway

VI. After some confusion about who was ringing up who during a rush because Victor insisted on walking all the way downstairs despite me canceling the “make waffles” interaction he had to ring someone up (*siiiiiigh*), Smiler eventually rang up a lady named Aleah (not the hermit, someone else) for a box of canned peas and a guy named Masara for some watermelon conserve, while Victor rang up Brent Hecking for a bottle of synthetic food tablets. Victor then tried to run off and make a hamburger on one of the outside grills until I went “just use Delicioso you fool” and had him conjure up some prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, which he went and ate on the edge of the big fountain I put on the side of the lot. *shrug* Okay then

VII. Speaking of the fountain, I caught Alice randomly playing in it as Victor was making his meal, and told her to go inside and ring up a guy named Tsutoma for a robot salvage part (first one we’ve sold!). She tried to slip back off to the fountain later, but fortunately ended up emptying the trash instead, yay. And then licked herself clean out there as she was getting a little manky and it was out of view of the judgmental customers. XD

VIII. While all this was going on, I woke up Marm to help Smiler with ringing up more people – he rang up a lady named Martina for some pumpkin conserve, while Smiler rang up a returning Leila for a jar of blueberry jam (she just can’t stay away from them!). Meanwhile, in the background, someone named Raven bought an egg, a returning Brant Hecking got a Gutsberry, and a lady named Mabel some chocolate milk. Talk about things just flying off the shelves!

IX. And finally, once he was done with his dinner, Victor rang up a guy named Masato for some canned fishcakes, while Smiler rang up a guy named Omar for some beeswax. All while Marm watched TV in the break room, Alice hung out by the trash can licking herself, and Thorne Bailey lingered by the robotics shelves attracting paparazzi and talking to fans.

Yeah, as you might imagine, at that point, I was done, and so were my Sims. XD Smiler officially closed up shop at 8 PM, right after ringing up Omar. As for the stats, our quartet had 19 total sales today, for a total profit of $996 – yeah, while there was a lot of buying going on, a lot of it was for pretty cheap items. *shrug* As I have said multiple times before, they do NOT need the money!

#sims 4 #the lazy save #victor van dort #alice liddell #smiler always #marm l iser #just one post for the eight hours they spent at the store this time #mostly because store updates do get a bit samey #I mean it's basically just my Sims chatting with people and having them buy stuff #which I understand is also what happens during the 'food sale' episodes #but in THAT case it's just Smiler buttering up customers while Victor and Alice do their own thing #and I can have them sell in (almost) any world I so choose #add in that the food vendor stand actually keeps track of the shit you sell on it #and yeah food sales are just more fun for me #especially since they're a little less prone to glitchy customers #sorry again Ekram #but it is good to see them successfully selling things in the store too #I spent a lot of time on it after all #and while I'll probably never empty it completely #at least they're getting use out of it #when they're not playing in the fountain or hiding in the breakroom #or insisting on going downstairs when I've already canceled the action that they were going downstairs to do #seriously why is that still a thing #stop it Sims #queued

1 note · View note