#partial success

[exotoxoxo]

Till The End Of the Moon

[judas-escargo]

Evil Kitchen Log #00003

Results - Partial Success

Before tackling the average drying time, I decided to see if there was a better way to get the cinnamon on the apples than just sprinkling them on. The sprinkling hurt my wrist if I did it for too long, so there had to have been a better option. I stayed with the same Cosmic Crisp apples and Medium size slice (1/8in or .32cm), as well as deciding to stick to a drying time of around 7.5 hours.

I had generally no idea where to begin with this experiment. Obviously I would try the sprinkled over cinnamon and no cinnamon, but other than that I was mostly stumped.

I ended up settling on sprinkling and rubbing it in, finding a sieve and sprinkling it on that way, and basting the apples. I had no idea if these were going to work, but I thought it was worth a try.

I made sure to set Craig to the correct temperature this time, and let my apples go. For the 7.5 hours it took for Craig to dry them, I sat nearby and thought about basting some of the apples and the decisions in my life that led me to the point where I would be doing that.

Sprinkled Cinnamon Over - Same as it always was. Decent amount of coverage and not overwhelming texture. Seems to be better the higher up I held my wrist, but had the side effect of blowing away a little bit with the air from the AC unit. 5/10

No Cinnamon - Surprisingly good. Hard to go wrong with dried apples, but I've done it. Did only taste of apples and didn't have the familiar brown dusting to it. Very easy to keep consistent because I didn't have to do anything to them. Good to know how it ended up but will not be moving forward with them. 4/10

Sprinkled Cinnamon Over and Rubbed in - This was a textural nightmare. The apples started getting brown before I had finished all the rubbing. Also, rubbing apples? Bad! Decent amount of coverage and not overwhelming texture (when eating), but only because they are basically the Sprinkled Cinnamon Over option! 3/10

Sieve'd - The holes on the sieve were too big, which basically made it look like I had accidentally spilled the entire container of cinnamon on an apple slice and wiped off what I could. Unfortunately, that is almost exactly what happened. The texture was bad. The texture was very bad. I couldn't taste the apple at all. Has the potential to be better, if I find a sieve with smaller holes. 1/10

Basted - Why did I do this. This wasn't a worse experience than the lemon demon from Log #00001, but oh god, the feeling of basting an apple, one 1/8 inch (.32cm) slice at a time really makes you question some things. What was I doing here? What led me to this point? Why am I basting an apple? The simple reason lies in the fact that when I searched "how to put stuff on things" in my favorite searchbar, all I got was Minecraft tutorials and lyrics from a They Might Be Giants song from 2013, so I had to lean on my imagination. Distribution was incredibly varied and the apples didn't dry all the way through. Probably because I basted them. Potentially could be better if I let them dry for longer. 1/10

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess. I'll be sticking with the Sprinkled Over option for the foreseeable future.

Supplemental: What is Stuff Is Way even about? It's just a bunch of nonsense. Is it supposed to be? Whatever the case, the song is in my head now. Also, I'm never basting a fuckin apple again. Eugh.

[sportu]

Eintracht application successful – Naples must offer tickets

A partial success for Eintracht: SSC Naples has to provide fans of the Bundesliga club with a guest contingent of tickets in the premier class. Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt has achieved a partial success in the fight to get their fans admitted to the Champions League game at SSC Naples. As reported by the Hessians, the competent administrative court has granted Eintracht’s application for…

[icewindandboringhorror]

I made a few new wax seal stamps out of clay (like the ones I did for my worldbuilding stuff forever ago), this time just of random symbols that I thought might look good done in the style of painting over the raised part of the wax or etc. :0c Some of them aren't carved deep enough to really show up that well, but overall they worked okay for being clay lol

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

they're the same picture

[transingthoseformers]

FNaF x TF would be funny in a way that Fazbear Entertainment decided to harvest metal from a dead Cybertronian(idk which continuity) that they find and Optimus finds the body with a huge chunk of it is missing. He then finds out that Fazbear Entertainment did that, and now there are a lot of murderous robots way smaller for his size running around rampant in Utah, that are also way more stabby and murderous, and he just: Tf are they doing over there?

Gssggs that'd be funny

Their robots were built with normally haunted metal and ig that wasn't enough for FE so they needed extra haunted metal from a Cybertronian /j

Wouldn't be the first time human companies decided to tinker with Cybertronian technology/anatomy, but it is immensely funny that it's the souped up mascot company doing it (considering what's implied about FE and the state of the outside world in bits of Security Breach and SB:Ruin era... Yeahhhhh I can see that happening) (IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS)

The fact that it's Optimus finding out about the murderbot furries is funny to me. Like. Yeah Optimus all of this is treated as normal in Utah that's just Utah things ig.

[optimisticmosquito]

Jinlan city Luo Binghe heard someone say 'the way to a man's heart is through his stomach' and completely misunderstood the advice.

[michaels-reality]

They programmed boob loving into that robot 🤯

[simgerale]

✨ Coming Soon… ✨

Sequel to Regal

[clowndensation]

ideal romanstewy dynamic is like "ken and stewy are off going to college parties while roman sulks about getting left behind, up until stewy is like "c'mon, he's cool. you're cool, right?" and convinces ken to bring him with. and roman tries to play it off like that didn't mean anything to him, but he also kind of starts perking up whenever stewy is around like a lovestruck puppy (which he WILL deny if confronted about, because that's literally ken's cringe ass friend who chooses to hang out with him. on purpose. lmao.) and eventually he does grow out of his crush, because he wasn't joking, that literally is ken's cringe ass friend. except sometimes stewy does something nice to him and it makes roman's insides flop over in what's probably annoyance but is also definitely not, and so it's whatever. he can deign to acknowledge stewy's existence if they're in the same room. out of necessity to share custody over ken. or whatever."

[judas-escargo]

Evil Kitchen Log #00002

Result - Partial Success

For my second apple experiment, Craig and I decided to test our hand at different sizes for the apples. Around the home I found 3 different mandolin blade, the sizes on them were not specified, and I had to measure them myself. I will be referring to them as Small, Medium, and Large. The mandolin that is mentioned in Log #00001 had the small blade on it, but because of my colossal failure with those apples and the lemon mistake, I decided I might as well try again.

The Small blade cuts at a width of 1/16 inch (.16cm). The Medium blade cuts at a width of 1/8 inch (.32cm). The Large blade cuts at a width of 1/4 inch (.64cm). I also used a ruler to cut a few 1/2 inch (1.27cm) slices, just for fun. The last one will be referred to as Extra Large.

As I am a good an evil scientist, I continued with my control group of apples - the Cosmic Crisp. I sprinkled cinnamon over the side facing up and started up Craig. I decided finding out the perfect drying time was an experiment for later, and to not worry about it for now. I was just going to focus on the sizes. I used the same settings from before - 95°F(35.00°C) for 9 hours - and promptly fell asleep.

The time passed, as it does, and I checked on the apples in Craig. They were not even close to being dry. Instead of freaking out - as I very much DID NOT panic - I read a little closer on the lid, where it states that 135°F(57.22°C) is the best temperature for fruits, and decided to switch it to that. I very dutifully turned the knob too far to 145°F(62.78°C) and did not realize until I had finished that it was incorrect.

2 hours and 35 minutes later, the Small apples were almost done with nearly the texture I expected from Log #00001. The rest of the apples were not, and in the Extra Large I could not taste the cinnamon as it was overpowered by the apples.

1 hour and 10 minutes later the apples were as dry as they could be before I had to leave for the day. I was not interested in leaving Craig on for another 8 hours and raising the electricity bill, so I took the apples out. All of the results will be made in comparison to the original apples that my Great-Grandmother made.

Small - As the same with Log #00001, the texture was too thin. Crumbled in my hands as I tried to eat it and the texture was bad. No lemon nonsense, though! 3/10

Medium - Perfect size. Correct texture when eating it. Still unsure about the cinnamon and the length of time drying, but it will be the size I will use in further experiments! 5/10

Large - Way too thick and nowhere near the correct texture. It is an uncomfortable amount of floppy. Hard to chew and worse to swallow. 2/10

Extra Large - Worse version of a large. Could not taste any cinnamon. 1/10

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer In The Dark: "A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded" Outline!

Hello everyone -- I recently started work on the second Valicer In The Dark story, "A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded" (aka the one where they kill Bumby), and I thought it might be neat to share with you guys the outline I prepared for the story! Especially since I don't have any Sims 4 stuff to share on Wednesdays at the moment, thanks to the Chill Valicer Save file no longer functioning. :( I have plans for a successor, but it's going to take a little bit to get off the ground, so...

*shakes head* Anyway -- outline! My planning process for this story involved approaching it like it was an actual Blades In The Dark score -- complete with deciding on the type of plan the gang was going to use (and the detail they needed to provide), the loads they were going to have (and thus how much stuff they could actually carry), and doing actual rolls to figure out how the story would progress as they encountered various obstacles! (I, uh, may have purchased actual BITD-themed dice and a dice tray explicitly for this purpose. ^^;) However, I also took a moment to note down any "must-happen" moments in the fic first -- basically, any particularly important or cool bits that were going to occur no matter WHAT the dice said. Reason being, I've done some "rolling for something on the spot" fic-writing in the past with a friend, and I know how fucking frustrated I get whenever a dice roll ruins the cool thing that was supposed to happen in my head. Noting down the things I was DETERMINED to have happen and doing all the rolls BEFORE I actually started writing meant that I couldn't get angry at a good moment being ruined. Though actually, as you'll see, the dice were pretty kind to the trio in this score! I guess they wanted to make sure they succeeded in their task as much as I did. :) So, without further ado, here's the outline/score summary for "A Murder Shared Is A Murder Thirded!" Naturally, there will be spoilers for what happens in the fic, but I'll put most of it behind a cut, and you guys already know I have no care for spoiling my own stuff on here. XD

---

Score: Infiltrate the Houndsditch Home For Wayward Youth in Charhollow, find proof of Bumby’s activities, and preferably kill the bastard

Plan Type: Stealth (I mean, there’s going to be an element of Assault, but first they have to get in)

Detail: Point of Infiltration – the back door into the basement kitchen of the house

Loads: Alice – Light; Victor – Light; Smiler – Light (each have three load slots)

Have To Happen Moments:

The gang successfully make it to Alice’s room so she can get her stuff; possible heartfelt moment when they see the picture of her family on her wall

The gang successfully finds Bumby’s ledger in his office (inside a safe stowed away in a hidden drawer of his desk; it’s generally opened via Lizzie’s key but can be picked)

Bumby shows up, and Alice reclaims Lizzie’s room key and blows him up

Gang successfully escapes with the ledger, and run into Smiler’s parents Matt and Carol as they head out of town; they’re taken back to the Ministry Of Joy for the Names (aka night)

Engagement Roll:

+1 d for sheer luck

+1 d for being bold or daring (they’re trying to expose a known philanthropist as a child pimp)

+1 d for exposing a vulnerability of the target (Dr. Bumby has written off Alice as lost in the city and hired a new dogsbody, AND he doesn’t think she’d ever get anyone to help her if she did tell anyone about his activities)

3d total

Result: 1, 2, 4 – Mixed result, risky position – they get in the back door without incident, but Alice’s replacement June comes into the kitchen as they’re preparing to head up the stairs

Score Rolls:

As per the above, trio encounters June coming into the kitchen shortly after their successful infiltration and have to get past her – Smiler immediately introduces themselves and explains that they were hoping to meet with Dr. Bumby to see if they could form a partnership, as they believe their alchemical prowess would help the man in his work (they are indeed cringing on the inside as they say this) – Sway, 2d – 6! June believes them and sends them up to see Dr. Bumby with the other two

Safely inside the house, Victor gets the idea for Alice to get her stuff from her room before they proceed further (having already suggested they grab it before they went); Alice agrees with this and they grab her things (1 load for Victor, who I picture as carrying the bag)

Head up the stairs to Bumby’s office, encounter one of the children (Abigail? Charlie?) in the upstairs hallway, who naturally recognizes Alice and wants to tell Dr. Bumby she’s back – Alice tries to tell them no, with Smiler backing her up by claiming they want to surprise him – Command, 3d (+1 for Smiler’s help, 1 stress for Smiler; +1 for pushing herself, 2 stress for Alice) – 5. The kid agrees not to go tell Dr. Bumby right now, but it’s clear that they will tell him the next time they see him… Start a “Bumby Shows Up” clock as a result, four pieces, none ticked so far

Into the office before Dr. Bumby shows up! Time to find that ledger… The trio split up – Alice examines the bookshelf, Victor checks Dr. Bumby’s desk, Smiler looks around for anything that might give them a clue as to where the ledger might be

Alice – Study, 2d (+1 for pushing herself, stress up to 4) – 6! She doesn’t find the ledger in the bookshelf, but she does find a book safe with some money in it – +1 Coin for the gang to take with them!

Victor: Study, 2d (+1 for pushing himself, 2 stress for Victor) – 5. Victor finds a secret drawer with a safe in it – but, well, unsurprisingly, it’s locked, and opening it will take a bit (+1 to the “Bumby Shows Up” clock, 3 segments left)

Smiler: Survey, 2d (+1 for pushing themselves, stress up to 3) – 6! While Victor finds the safe, Smiler notes the windows on the side of the office and determines that it would be safe for the group to exit via one of them if they had the appropriate means to do so – cue them going “good thing I brought some rope!” and setting it up for them to climb down (one load ticked for Smiler)

That safe looks like it’s important – shame it’s locked! Smiler offers to try and pick it (flashback to them finding some lockpicks in Elder Gutknecht’s library – as they have, or will have, the “Pack Rats” special ability as Shadows, I will let them squeak by with no stress for this – probably does count as load for them, so that’s a second slot ticked) as Alice and Victor keep watch for Bumby or other suspicious children – Tinker, 2d – 5. Smiler gets the safe open, but Alice hears what sounds like someone coming up the steps… (+1 to the “Bumby Shows Up” clock, 2 segments left)

However – safe is open, and there is indeed a ledger inside! A ledger that is very clearly about selling off children to pedos, and in fact contains some notes from Bumby about the work that he does...and how much Alice reminds him of Lizzie. Everyone is notably disgusted, and Alice angrily wishes that she could get that room key off him, but agrees that it’s better to try and escape. The ledger is thus shoved in the bag, and Victor closes up the safe and stores it back in the secret drawer, before the trio try to stealthily head down the rope leading outside –

Alice – Prowl, 1d – 6! Alice is shockingly stealthy and gets down like a fucking ghost

Victor – Prowl, 1d – 4. Victor is not so stealthy and hits the wall once – he doesn’t make THAT much noise, but it’s definitely noticeable… (+1 to the “Bumby Shows Up” clock, 1 segment left)

Smiler – Prowl, 1d (+1 for pushing themselves, stress up to 5) – 4. And Smiler is also not particularly stealthy, losing their balance as they get off the rope and falling over – just loud enough for someone to notice! (+1 to the “Bumby Shows Up” clock – full!)

And that someone is Bumby, who entered his office at just that moment, saw the rope hanging out of his window, and stuck his head outside to see Alice and two other people, one of whom is carrying a bag. He naturally assumes that she’s stolen SOMETHING from him (even if he doesn’t yet suspect it is his ledger) and starts yelling at her – Alice blasts him as an abomination and reveals that she knows exactly what he’s been doing. Bumby is first like “oh come on, who would believe–” And THEN it registers “wait, she’s here with two other people, SHIT SOMEONE BELIEVES HER” and scrambles out of the office himself on the rope. Fortune roll for how gracefully he gets down, 2d because I imagine he has decent Prowl to get kids to customers – 4. He gets down, but like Smiler he lands badly and is off-balance for a bit –

And Alice, seeing an opportunity, darts in and grabs his watch-chain, ripping Lizzie’s room key off it, while shoving the electroplasm bomb (tick one load for Alice) into his hands. As this is a must-win scene for the fanfic, this Skirmish, 2d roll is only to determine the consequences to her – 4. She gets the bomb in his hands before he can retaliate, and he goes up a treat...but unfortunately, poor June has come out of the kitchen, attracted by the noise, and promptly starts screaming as Bumby goes up, forcing the trio to flee VERY FAST (Smiler yelling “sorry!” behind them) – they are not a crew yet, but they will start being one with 1 Heat on their tracker as a result!

However, score is officially a SUCCESS! :D The trio run until they’re sure they’re not being pursued, then take a moment to celebrate their victory, with Alice being very happy that she was indeed able to kill the bastard (even if she accidentally traumatized her replacement – she’ll want to make up for that later if she can). Talk then turns to getting the ledger to someone who will be able to publicize Bumby’s misdeeds – And then someone says “Smiler?” nearby, and Smiler recognizes their parents! They run over for hugs and introduce Matt and Carol Alton to their new friends. Matt and Carol are very nice and warmly greet Victor and Alice – Alice, feeling a little guilty, apologizes for getting Smiler into some trouble and preventing them from coming home sooner. Matt and Carol are confused, so the trio explain the Barkis situation and the whole “turns out he was a Spirit Warden and the Bluecoats think we murdered him” thing – And Matt and Carol go, “Oh! No, the actual Spirit Wardens confirmed he was an imposter who killed one of their own and stole their kit, and that his corpse showed signs of being very recently possessed before it burned, so you’re in the clear!” Victor, Alice, and Smiler are a bit “…” over this, as you might imagine. Carol jokes that, “oh come on, it’s not like you killed anyone else, right?” [significant silence] “...right?” Fortunately, this is when Victor hands over the ledger, with Alice and Smiler explaining a bit more about what just happened – after a look inside, Matt and Carol are like, “Oh, yeah, that murder was TOTALLY justified, good job.” They tell them that they can send it onto a reporter of their acquaintance, the lady who runs Publick Occurrences, and that Victor and Alice can stay the night in the Ministry of Joy if they want. As the trio have spent two days since the end of “Start At The Beginning...Sort Of” living in a house with no running water or heat, in one set of clothes, they are more than amendable to this suggestion, and the story probably ends with them on the way to the MOJ.

Post-Score Summary And XP:

Alice:

Stress level before downtime actions – 4

+1 Coin

XP:

2 for addressing a challenge with violence or coercion (commanding the kid, killing Bumby)

2 for expressing her beliefs (protecting the children) and background (she was the former dogsbody at Houndsditch!)

1 for – less struggling with and more indulging her vice (Obligation to the children of Houndsditch!)

Total: 5 – put 3 in the Insight XP tracker, 2 in the Prowess XP tracker (Alice wants Hunt and Finesse)

Victor:

Stress level before downtime actions – 2

XP:

1 for expressing his background (trade, he was the one to know to look for a ledger in the first place)

Total: 1 – put it in the Playbook XP tracker

Smiler:

Stress level before downtime actions – 5

XP:

2 for addressing challenges both with deception (talking their way past June) and technical skill (picking the lock on the safe)

1 for expressing their beliefs (taking Bumby down makes the world a little bit happier)

Total: 3 – put 2 in the Insight XP tracker, 1 in the Prowess XP tracker (Smiler wants Study and Finesse)

Downtime Activities:

Alice:

House Rule – if a score serves as indulging a vice for a character, that character automatically gets 1 stress knocked off the tracker at the end – stress down to 3

Train Insight, +1 XP in that tracker (Alice is working toward Hunt – maybe she gets pulled into a game of tag with some of the younger members of the cult XD)

Train Prowess, +1 XP in that tracker (Alice is also working toward Finesse – does some drawing)

Victor:

Train Playbook, +1 XP (Victor talks to some of the Whispers in the cult, starts getting excited about being one despite himself)

Train Resolve, +1 XP (Victor might as well work toward another Attune dot)

Smiler:

Indulge Pleasure Vice – 4, stress down to 1 (entertains themselves and their new friends with some songs on their guitar)

Train Prowess, +1 XP in that tracker (Smiler is working toward Finesse, and playing the guitar works with THAT too)

[germyjester]

some yuri tomgreg doodles :)

[northern-passage]

Noel

[kumakuma-circus]

just randomly remembered that during my like 10+ attempts at the shadow yukiko fight i more or less consistently ran out of revival beads so yosuke was just dead (well unconscious but whatever) on the ground for like half the fight gfhfjvhfhfhd-

[forgetful-river]

The colors ended up kinda goofy on this one, but, like, in a charming way!