#karaoke is one of Smiler's THINGS XD

[victorluvsalice]

Hear me out

Modern au where Alton towers is still a thing, and smiler is an advocate actor during the smiler takeover, and valice are at the park for a date

Ha, I like that -- my original idea for involving The Smiler in Victor and Alice's relationship WAS for them to go to Alton Towers and end up having some fun with the ride and its theming (you know, before Victor insisted on me making a version of it that he could date). Smiler would be an excellent Advocate for the park -- and if this is set during the Takeover, maybe they could have one of the special roles? I'm leaning toward them being a Felix, since they love karaoke and the costume seems very them. XD But yeah, I think that would work out nicely -- Victor and Alice go to the park, enjoy the various shows and Smiler's over-the-top acting, then maybe go to a restaurant outside the park later and happen across Smiler out-of-costume. And quickly realize "oh, they WEREN'T playing it up at their job, they really are just Like That." XD And Relationship Shenanigans ensue. XD

[victorluvsalice]

-->When Nalani called Alice and said that her best high score on the motion gaming mats at Geekcon had been beaten – was Alice interested in coming along and setting a new record? Alice was, and invited Victor and Smiler along too. Well, that was easy. XD

And so the trio joined Nalani at Geekcon, with the explicit goal of hopping on the gaming mats and playing some games! So, naturally, the gaming mats was the first place the trio went (though not Nalani herself, ironically – she went to hang out on the couch in front of the big-screen TV instead), with Victor and Alice playing Blicblock (as that was ALL they could play – they’re not really gamers), and Smiler taking on The R.E.F.U.G.E. (a dungeon-crawler, from what I can see). Victor and Alice finished first, as their games were shorter – Alice ran to use the toilet in the nearby karaoke bar, while I discovered Victor and Nalani no longer knew each other (darn relationship culling) and had them get reacquainted over by the computer area (fortunately they hit it off again pretty well). Smiler, meanwhile, got a call from Tina Tinker about having a kid once they were set with their game – after a moment’s thought, I had Smiler tell them to go for it, why not. XD So there’ll be a new Tinker baby in the world in the near future!

-->And then, it was competition time, as the Ultimate Gaming Test and the Hackathon both started! I had Smiler participate in both – on the UGT, they scored 70 out of 100, which got them $100 simoelons and a future cube; on the Hackathon, they got 85% and thus won first prize and ANOTHER nice computer! XD Maybe they’ll give that one to Victor and Alice... Oh, and what were THEY doing while Smiler was winning competitions? Why, observing the sky with the telescope and napping on a nearby bench, of course! XD To be fair, Victor really needed the sleep after having been woken up early, and Alice was having fun in the telescope – AND she got a nice print out of it too! We’ll have to put that up on the wall later. :)

-->Anyway, with the competitions participated in, Smiler went and found Nalani in front of the big screen again, chatted with her for a bit, then got a drink from her wrist to soothe their burgeoning thirst. Alice, meanwhile, came out of the telescope once she'd gotten her pretty sky print – unsure what to do with her, I had her go and work on the rocket in-progress. And then decided, “You know what, that’s a nice way to end the festival for everybody” and had Smiler and Victor join her once they were full and awake respectively, tinkering until the timer ran out on their “attend Geekcon and play games” event (with me observing the latest in Townie Fashion as they did -- the green-gnome-cap-tuxedo-pincushion-bracelet fit is IN). They made decent progress on said rocket -- got to the second stage and all -- but Victor and ESPECIALLY Smiler ended up pretty darn stinky as a result. Good thing Victor has Scruberoo! Victor then grabbed a poster from the nearby electrical box and TRIED to go to the bathroom (which was occupied by another completely naked Sim O.o -- at least they weren't wandering around in the general public like last time?) while Alice and Smiler hung out on the couch in front of the TV watching movies and sharing stories –

[victorluvsalice]

Welcome to Winter Friday in the Chill Valicer Save, aka The Proper Grand Opening Of The Grocery Store! We have a lot to get through, as per usual, so let's get to it --

-->Since I started with Victor and Alice snoozing away and Smiler singing into the rec room microphone after storing their latest frog acquisitions, I took the opportunity to put away all their non-decoration-box Winterfest decorations (Smiler took down the decoration box ones later); buy them a new tree to decorate next Winterfest (hopefully this one doesn’t go up in flames too); sell the unnecessary fridge, microscope, and karaoke machine in the household inventory (Clement Frost, bring better presents next year!); and buy a new rug for the downstairs (I couldn’t remember which rug they’d had originally, so I found another big one with a pattern I liked -- though I'm actually second-guessing my choice now, especially with that color scheme). I actually want to give the house another small makeover now that they have some money and can afford to upgrade even more furniture and whatnot, but I’ll save THAT for a future update!

-->With that all sorted, I decided that I should probably let Victor and Alice sleep until about 5 AM or so in an attempt to get them on a better sleep schedule. This meant it fell to Smiler to take care of the earliest morning chores -- namely, starting the laundry (and making sure to put a snow drop into the washing machine to guarantee it all smelled nice), refilling the pet bowls (one was out entirely, and the other dispensed its last bowl right after Smiler filled up the other one), and entertaining Surprise and Shadow (after Shadow came in from her chilly nap on the porch, anyway! Why'd you decide to sleep out there next to your own poop and pee, dog?). Ah, the curse of being the one Sim in the family who doesn't have to sleep at all...

-->Not that Victor and Alice are sleeping much, because their excellent bed meant they were up by 4:45 AM anyway. XD I figured that was close enough and had Victor check on Smiler’s Sixam Mosquito Trap plant Snappy (all good) before going downstairs to make himself breakfast (fruit and yogurt parfait, yum yum :D), while poor Alice got to clean out the upstairs litter box and then run down to the back porch to lecture Surprise on drinking from puddles. Specifically, the puddle that Shadow left there. *grimace* Fortunately, Surprise listened and learned not to drink from puddles at all, and Alice was able to clean up the mess with no further “gross pets” incidents. XD I figured things would go pretty smoothly from there --

-->And then I got a message from the game claiming Moory had been unhappy for a while and might be leaving if she didn’t receive an increase in her quality of care. I was like "what?!" and sent Smiler over to investigate. Turns out she was dirty, and since she hadn’t come out of her shed the other day (due to the blizzard -- I mean, can't blame her), she’d been dirty for longer than she wanted to be. Smiler cleaned her off, then made sure she had enough attention by asking about secret cow worlds and suchlike, which fortunately she found amusing. Hopefully that convinces the cow that she’s appreciated around the farm!

And, of course, if the cow was unhappy, the chickens might be too! They didn't have a great day in the blizzard either. So Alice got sent to make sure the coop was clean, the feed was spread, and everybody was well-socialized. Gotta take good care of your animals, after all! Especially if you haven't gotten the upgrade parts necessary to upgrade their coop/pen. (Really gotta start doing Finchwick errands again...)

[victorluvsalice]

With my lust for Valicer pictures satisfied for the moment, it was back to the reception to wrap things up with the guests. The last of the food was eaten, the last few stories shared, I THINK Lilith Pleasant may have peed herself by accident but I didn't see for sure, and the wedding wrapped up with pretty much everyone having had a good time and Victor and Smiler getting gold on the party! :D Granted, they didn't in any way NEED the free appliances in this instance, but still -- always nice to get the best party reward!

But that wasn't the end of the day for the trio just yet -- you see, as it turned out, Summer Friday was also a pop-up holiday: "Night On The Town!" The one where all drinks and food at community lots that serve them are free. I didn't want the OT3 to miss out on celebrating that, so what better way to celebrate the renewing of old vows and the committing of new ones than to head to Planet Honeypop! in San Myshuno for free juice and karaoke! Victor and Smiler hit the bar first, Victor getting a "Silent Film" (whatever that is in drink form) and Smiler their usual Plasma Jane -- Alice joined them after hunting down another poster in the world (turned out to be a duplicate of one they already had, though), picking up a Fizzy Fruity drink to enjoy. And then, once everybody had enjoyed their freebies (and emptied their bladders as necessary), it was time for karaoke! Smiler and Victor started things off with a pop duet, and then Smiler and Alice followed up with a country one (while Victor snuck some more wedding cake out of his inventory XD). Smiler was definitely carrying those performances, let me tell you -- though Victor DID get Singing level 6 in the process! So that's something, right?

And with that, it was finally time to head home, so Victor and Smiler could consummate their wedding night in Victor and Alice's nice bed (and their new CC underwear, thank you nucrest's Essential Underwear Set v1). And so I could start going through pictures and hanging up important things -- like both Victor and Alice's and Victor and Smiler's new wedding certificates! Yeah, while I'd ordered one for Victor and Alice a few days back (you could see it above their desk at the beginning of the update), they actually got a new one as a result of their vow renewal -- and the new one looked a lot better than the old one, so that's the one I kept. :) I also moved the photos that were originally on the dresser so I could replace them with some wedding snaps...

But, uh, me going through the fifty million photos I ended up taking of this event feels like something we should get into another day. XD So yeah, next update, you see how many wedding photos are now scattered around the house -- and of course, when you have a wedding, you also have to have a honeymoon... See you then!

[victorluvsalice]

With photographic memories preserved, and Alice having used up her sparkler, I decided to have the gang decamp to the nearby karaoke bar, Planet Honey Pop! Smiler naturally arrived first (bat form being very useful again) and got themselves a nice Plasma Jane, with Alice following shortly behind -- but for some reason, I noticed whenever I switched to Alice, Smiler had this odd sort of glow on them, and Alice had an angry moodlet. Clicking on the moodlet finally revealed what had happened -- I’d had Alice use her new Enhanced Smell powers to try and sniff out any diggable goodies at the festival (no dice), and now she was reacting to Smiler’s vampire smell. And even with my Occult Preferences (by Spinning Plumbobs) mod ensuring that she likes vampires, she thought their smell was corpsey and icky. :( I guess it’s only natural she wouldn’t like dead body smell, but I never though that should apply to Sims 4 vampires, they don’t actually die. . .

Anyway -- the moodlet was VERY MUCH overriden by Alice’s general happiness and confidence, so it actually wasn’t a big deal (especially when Victor showed up and his rainbowy spellcaster scent took precedence XD). The gang hung out at the bar for a while, having drinks and chatting (though it took a while for Alice to get hers -- I had her order her “favorite drink,” but I don’t think she ever received it, so I eventually settled for a Fruity And Fizzy -- Victor had a root beer float, fyi), then Smiler and Alice went to watch some awful karaoke while Victor hit the men’s room and got to know the toilet a little bit. XD Smiler decided to show everybody how it was done and took the stage for a peppy pop song. There weren’t many people in the bar at that point to enjoy it, but Victor and Alice certainly did! :D

And then, finally, with the festival over and everyone a little on the tired side, it was time to head back home -- and start hanging up their new pictures! Alice found a spot in the living room for the new GeekCon snaps, while Smiler put Victor’s beautiful observatory print up in the party barn. :D Hey, look, I know the observatory is too big for its own good, and that having small telescopes in the game is great, but give me that it produces some gorgeous pictures!

[victorluvsalice]

Well, no, there were a few more things of note that happened this night before I wrapped things up:

-->Victor managed to improve the quality of the plasma fruit tree with some fertilizer! Not that it’s actually given any fruit yet. . .starting to think it either needs to be reset or given a little more space.

-->Smiler finished the first draft of their presentation and celebrated with some karaoke! Because they’ve got that giant machine in its own room, they may as well use it.

-->Caleb and Felipe both came over to visit! Caleb didn’t stay long after spotting the spooks all over the place, but Felipe hung out for a while and met Smiler, instantly becoming great friends with them. As you do when you meet Smiler in this game. XD

-->Alice successfully bribed an angry specter with fancy wine from Smiler’s bar, and got herself a bizarre idol in return! This is good because we’re gonna need at least one of these when Temperance inevitably shows up. :)

-->And Victor decided to try out his new bone wand by using Repairio on a broken turbine. . .and set it on fire. *facepalm* Fortunately both he and Smiler were on top of it, and Smiler just paid the money to replace the damn thing afterward. One day Victor will not set everything he tries to magically repair on fire!

And THAT is the end of the update! Next time, the Chill Save starts in-game summer -- and has its first full moon since Alice became a werewolf. Oh boy. . .plus magic, groceries, and bar nights! See you then!

[victorluvsalice]

Just in time for the Flower Bunny to show up! Ready to spread flowers and cheer despite the miserable weather. Smiler attempted to change the storm to clear skies for their costumed friend, but it turns out the weather machine only works when the power is on, and guess what went off halfway through their attempt. *sigh* So instead they just gathered the regular chicken eggs and took the Bunny inside to chat. Victor also came inside for a quick snack while Alice hunted down her eggs -- another orange chicken egg, a regular white chicken egg, and another decorative egg --

And then I was like “right, I keep meaning for them to do this, and I’d better do it NOW before their day gets completely away from me.” So I had Victor hop into the “buy a retail store” menu --

And purchase Van Liddelton Groceries, the new grocery store I’d made for them! :D I believe I mentioned at the end of the last update that I’d had the thought recently that they should have a proper store to sell their produce and such in? I mean, I’d always intended for them to start selling the fruits and such of their farm -- that’s why they have the selling table outside their house -- but I never really got around to it. And with the produce piling up in their fridge, I figured that maybe what they needed was a dedicated lot to sell such things! So I built this little box, put in a few basics (including a bathroom -- complete with infant changing table! -- and a kitchen), and plopped it down in the Spice Market in San Myshuno, where the Old Salt House was (right next to Waterside Warble, the local karaoke bar -- I’m sure Smiler will appreciate that). Victor went off to inspect his new property, bringing Alice and Smiler with him, and I started fiddling with the layout, using SrslySims’ Grocery Store Consignment Shelves! Because if they’re good enough for her grocery store, they’re good enough for MY grocery store. XD I also tried out the empty grocery displays from AroundTheSims, but to my sadness they were purely decorative -- no slots to be had. Shame -- they would have been great for piling up fruit and veg in dedicated bins!

While I was busy testing out the shelves and making sure everything was adequately lit and whatnot, I made sure my Sims had stuff to do as well. Specifically, Smiler started playing with their new quadcopter toy, while Alice went to look in on a nearby protest! I’m not sure what the gang was protesting, but she seemed to be into it. She then went to look at one of the murals in the city and snag a poster off a utility box while Smiler -- feeling a bit thirsty -- dropped in at the end of the protest to meet one Kaori and make friends. At which aim they were successful, but Kaori then left the lot before they could ask for a drink. Darn it. Plasma pack it is then, Smiler!

[victorluvsalice]

Welcome everyone, to Fall Tuesday in the Chill Save! After a successful Spookfest, I decided Smiler need to start leaning into their vampire nature a bit more -- mainly by trying once again to complete the third stage of the Master Vampire aspiration. They were just one goal shy of completing the milestone -- defeating a third vampire in combat! So, after practicing their “Detect Personality” powers on some passers-by to get a bit more of that sweet XP for power points, they invited Lilith Vatore back over (this time sans costume) and challenged her once again to a friendly spar.

SMILER WON! :D I don’t know if it’s because they’re a Grand Master now and (presumably, by the interactions) outrank Lilith V in vampire power, or whether it was pure luck, but they did it! :D At last! Smiler thanked her for a good spar, and then they just hung out for a while, Lilith playing games on Smiler’s laptop while Smiler played with their new clay lump and did some of their homework. Now they just have to level up their vampire lore skill some more, figure out a way to afford the Ultimate Vampire Tome, and make it another 20 days as a vampire. . .

But first things first -- GeekCon! Yes, the festival came back around today, and I decided I wanted to give Smiler another, proper chance at enjoying it. (Last time the game glitched out and Smiler nearly died of sunlight exposure.) So once Lilith V had gone back home, they’d attended their new “Pondering Personalities” class, and changed into something more comfortable, it was off to San MyShuno to check out the festivities!

. . .As per usual, it was raining when they arrived, meaning none of the electronic stuff -- and there is a LOT of electronic stuff at GeekCon -- was working. Hmph. Fortunately, in my experience, rainy festivals actually do clear up after a little while so Sims can actually ENJOY them, so I decided to have Smiler find something else to do while we were waiting -- and look at that, we’re near the other karaoke bar in San MyShuno! The one with the big FANCY machine. :D Smiler promptly hit that up and sang their little heart out. Poorly. XD Look, just because they LIKE singing doesn’t mean they’re good at it! But they gave it their best go, and that’s what matters.

[victorluvsalice]

As the Flea Market wound down, Smiler stayed a while at the karaoke bar to listen to some awesome karaoke and perform some, uh, less awesome karaoke of their own. XD (What -- just because they like singing doesn’t mean they’re any good at it yet!) I also had them pick up a quick Odd Job -- one Cameron Fletcher needed a wingperson, and Smiler figured their much improved charisma could be of use. They headed out to the rabbithole as the festival ended, and did such a good job they got a $25 tip over the $126 payment! Nice. :) I like these Odd Jobs -- it’s kinda fun, having a variety of littler tasks you can take on for spare cash.

Then it was time to head back home for a bit, both to drop off their new chair (isn’t it just them?) and change back into their regular form for a bit after being in their dark form for a couple of days. They did the spin back into their (relatively) normal form --

And looked exactly the same.

I was completely baffled and sent them upstairs to plan an outfit so I could see what had happened -- turns out, the dark and regular forms were linked again, and giving Smiler their new coaster outfit in their dark form’s “slot two” had overwritten the outfit I had in the regular form’s “slot 2.” *grumbles* Damn game. . .I unlinked the two forms again, but decided Smiler could keep the hoodie and pants in their regular form too and just made sure they had the right teeth and eyes for that form (I recreated the overwritten outfit in slot 5). Gonna have to watch that the next time I try to add an outfit to their dark form’s slots. . .

ANYWAY, once that was sorted, it was back to Forgotten Hollow for Smiler, to train up some more with Vlad -- and to finally get some plasma fruit from the tree around the back of his house! Been waiting for that thing to fully grow -- having one of those is a must for any vampire, really. Always gotta have plenty of options for plasma. I also found a fishing hole while looking around the neighborhood and decided to send Smiler fishing, since, well, they DO now have a job as a Fisherman! Might as well level that up. They caught a walleye and a minnow, and finally found the SECOND plasma tree that I KNEW was in the neighborhood but couldn’t locate and harvested that as well. (In my defense, it’s hard to spot in that thicket of evergreens. . .) So yes, a very productive day indeed for our Smiler! Next time -- well, actually, I did some building after this particular play session. Who wants to take a quick break and see Victor, Alice, and Smiler’s eventual Henford-on-Bagley house?