#well actually Smiler can't put them in the inventory

[victorluvsalice]

-->Finally, after many hours of practice, Shadow did officially learn how to fetch! Victor rewarded his dog with a nice treat, then went to get a nice treat himself -- a slice of fruit pie for breakfast in the greenhouse! Alice for her part started the laundry while Smiler went around putting all their own herbalism potions and the ones that visitors had left on the porch away (you use our grill to concoct things, we’re taking ‘em for our own) --

-->And then, properly attired in some hot-weather gear, Alice went out and said hello to a bunny! Because I haven’t really done anything with befriending wild animals yet, and if anyone should make friends with a bunny, it’s Alice. Sadly, the conversation didn’t last long, mostly because Victor couldn’t resist coming out and chatting to his beloved wife. In his Jungle Adventures exploration gear. XD Admittedly, I DID assign that as hot-weather wear. . . I decided that the outfit also worked as gardening wear and -- once he was done with his pie, sent him back into the greenhouse to give Elmer a hand in battling all those weeds and bugs. Alice and Smiler hung out nearby for a while -- Smiler grabbing a bottle of PlasmaFizz to relieve their thirst a bit, and both of them calling their jobs -- Alice just to take a vacation day, while Smiler just straight up and quit. I haven’t had them go in ages, and they’d ALMOST used up all their vacation days, so it was time. Don’t really need the fishing money anyhow, now that they’re focusing on their own store!

-->And then -- ping-pong! Yeah, Smiler and Alice randomly decided they wanted to play, and I was like “you know what, go ahead.” Good proof that the spot that I’d picked for the table actually worked. They had a solid game, smacking the little orange jpeg of a ball back and forth, but Alice proved to be a better shot than Smiler and won the game. Smiler, ever the good sport, asked Alice to put ‘er there --

-->And zapped her with a hand buzzer, because it WAS Prank Day. XD Alice was a good sport and laughed about it before getting them back with “What’s that spot?” and flicking their chin when they looked down. XD It’s a wholesome metamour relationship they’ve got going on!

[victorluvsalice]

Welcome back to the Chill Valicer Save, where we have hit Summer Thursday! And, as promised at the end of the last update, the gang spent this day out and about again, this time taking their Van Liddleton Snacks stand out to the OTHER major desert world in this game. How did that go for them? Let's find out –

-->Started the day around 2 AM, with Smiler jamming on their guitar and Victor and Alice snoozing in bed despite being at full energy (because, you know, their awesome bed is awesome). After stealing some sacred candles from Victor’s inventory to put around the séance table in the séance room (one behind each chair – it’s an idea that I came up with while working on the last Chill Valicer Save update here. Doesn't it look fucking awesome? :D), I woke Victor and Alice up and started deciding on tasks for everyone –

Victor of course had to Repairio one of the wind turbines (because at least one is always broken), then Transportalated himself down to Toothy’s pen to feed it once I noticed the cowplant had its cake tongue out. Once that was sorted, it was time for breakfast – leftover banana split waffles, om nom – and a trip to the bathroom! All in his underwear, because for some reason Victor is allergic to dressing himself half the time. XD

Alice had to use the bathroom first, then got sent outside to take out a twisted tendril, clean up various dog poops, and put away Shadow’s chewed-up bird ball (which – she put in the box with Smiler’s herbalism ingredients, for some reason O.o). Hey, her werewolf instincts were demanding she go outside anyway! Alice then got her own waffles out of the greenhouse minifridge (pumpkin spice in her case) – and took them into the bathroom so she could talk to Victor while she ate. *facepalm* Guys, I love that you two are comfortable enough to do that, but – really? At least I made sure Victor remembered to wash his hands mid-conversation!

And Smiler had it easiest – after a quick break to play with Shadow (who had seemed spooked about something and thus needed some cheering up), they just played guitar until they maxed out their Guitar skill! :D So now they are the best at guitar and can play avant-garde songs. We’ll have to figure out what one of those sounds like later. XD

-->With everyone more or less settled into their morning routine, I took a moment to save (under a new save branch – like to do that every so often, just in case), cleared some of the alien fruits out of their inventories (I got just over $11,000 from just the quill fruits! O.O), then made a few purchases – specifically a jewelry-making bench and a nectar-making tub! Because I bought Horse Ranch and Crystal Creations and I’m determined to use activities from them, damn it. XD I had Smiler head out and start smashing up grapes to make grape nectar (they took a few tumbles, but ultimately found the process rewarding enough they developed a Like for it) while Victor and Alice finished up their conversation in the bathroom (because you can't rush things in there). Victor then took a moment to Scruberoo the grill (while I put some nearly-spoiled food that was sitting out there on the back porch in the fridge), then I forced him to put on actual clothes before sending him to go tend his greenhouse. XD Alice ran off to watch a movie while I wasn’t looking, but her attempts at entertainment were stymied by a creepy doll appearing in front of the TV – fortunately, Alice knows very well how to deal with creepy dolls and just kicked it apart. I then had her clean up all the plates around the place (including the one she’d left in the bathroom – sink slots officially have a dark side) –

[victorluvsalice]

And then they all settled into the break room to watch the latest Season Premiere! Yes, because it just so happened to be that particular pop-up holiday, and I was like, "Well, they have a nice big TV right here." XD They thoroughly enjoyed the shows on offer, though about midway through Smiler and Alice both got distracted by flirting with Victor. XD But they watched enough of them all to complete the tradition, and that's what matters!

And better yet, by the time they'd all completed their required watching, the blizzard had cleared up, and the snow outside was starting to melt as it was in fact now kind of warm! "All right," I thought cheerfully, "let's just get a picture of the trio in front of their new store, and then we can open!"

...yeah, uh, that ended up TAKING SOME DOING. The first issue I ran into was when I tried to set up the tripod myself at the edge of the lot and have Alice set the timer for a picture -- apparently it was too close to the front of the store, meaning that instead of standing OUTSIDE the store as I'd intended, the group went INSIDE and stood behind the flower-arranging bench in front of the windows. Which, might have been okay if I believe Alice hadn't been entirely blocked by the shelves of flowers. XD So I had to put the tripod and camera back in Alice's inventory and have her place them in the world in the middle of the road, hoping the tripod would face the right way when she did. Fortunately, she did put it down facing the store, yay. First hurdle passed!

Second hurdle -- uh-oh, Smiler is feeling the thirst. Well, fortunately, that is easily taken care of -- they always carry a bunch of plasma packs and plasma fruit. They sipped on that while Victor and Alice had a little make-out session, and ended up refreshed enough that I didn't have to worry about shitty needs while taking the picture. Second hurdle passed!

And then we came to the third hurdle -- ACTUALLY GETTING THESE IDIOTS TO TAKE THE PICTURE. Dear lord, this was SUCH a thing. Because either Alice would go to set the timer, and then just IDLE there for long enough that I would think something had gone wrong and cancel the interaction, or while "waiting for the photographer" Smiler would randomly wander off down the road, and if I tried to teleport them back into position by changing poses when Victor and Alice got in front of the camera, they would end up merged INTO Alice, which, not good. FINALLY getting the shots I wanted took so long that not only did I have to have them change clothes halfway through as they were too hot in their winter wear, it was SUNSET by the time I went "FINE I'M TURNING AUTONOMY OFF SO YOU CAN'T MOVE." *facepalm* Granted, I actually think the sunset photos look pretty cool, and I was happy with the photos once I got to take them, but cripes. Make me suffer for my cute threesome shots, why don't you, game?

[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...)