Notes:
This was my first time using TwistedMexi’s Tool Mod and baby, let me tell you, the learning curve was steep. Shout out to all the simmers (TwistedMexi) who made tutorials. My math skills CLEARLY need work, as I spent so much time mystified as to why 360 rotation wasn’t working (GUYS, IT IS A CIRCLE. THAT’S WHY THEY JUST KEPT FACING THE SAME WAY. I TURNED THE OBJECT IN A CIRCLE. GAH!).
I’m still trying to figure out the cc situation for Gwendolyn’s new look, so bear with me. There isn’t a lot of monster cc for kids and what does exist requires a lot of trial and error. Her look may evolve as I figure out my shit!
StrangerVille, Martin Residence
Valeria
For as long as she could remember, Valeria Martin always had a second sense. She knew when her children were in trouble…when her laboratory staff lied to her…when her husband had an extra helping of pie.
And she knew that when a knock came just after her new lab assistant called to make sure that she was home, murderous creatures were waiting on the other side.
“Just a minute! I have to grab something from the dining room,” she called out, “Door’s open!”
Backtracking to hide from their view but keep her own line of sight clear, Valeria peered past the wall. Did these creatures think they could come into her house on her day off and catch her unaware?
Folks would be surprised to learn what kind of enemies high-level government projects wrought.
Silently, she slid the buffet’s top drawer open and pulled out her gun. Leaning back against the wall, she took a deep breath and counted down from ten in her head.
It would be incorrect to say Valeria knew vampires were real. Though her job brought her into contact with many previously unknown things, vampires had been firmly planted in the “things my eldest daughter liked to watch TV shows about” category.
But Valeria was a scientist—the world’s foremost expert on momentum conversion. Categories changed all the time.
She cocked her gun and took another breath. Based on what she’d gleaned from Alice’s vampire phase, bullets were not going to stop her livingroom guests, just slow them down. But that would be enough.
—For now.
Ignoring the hissing sounds that sent shivers down her spine, she spun away from the wall and emptied her clip into the creature wearing the Victorian ball gown. The vampire dropped to her knees, sputtering and growling.
Meanwhile, the other vampire roared, preparing to charge her.
Valeria took a cautionary step back, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“The hubris of mortals,” he sneered, “You’ll be disabused of that notion soon enough.”
Before he and his purple suit made a move, Servo glided out of the kitchen and delivered an electric shock so powerful, if left the creature’s skin smoking.
Mechanical joints rattling, the robot marched over to its owner, taking care to use a metal foot to crush “Ballgown” back down to the ground.
“Dining Room protocol activated. Back-up has been notified,” he relayed, static punctuating his words.
Valeria took in the miserable sounds of the two fools splayed out on her floor and smirked.
Voice activation, it was the wave of the future.
Selvadorada
Morgyn
The jungle was for insects and those who deserved eternal punishment. That Aur—William—had the nerve to whistle while hacking through it made the entire experience worse. He could have easily used his vampiric speed to rush ahead and clear the path, but Morgyn was sure this sedate pace was being done on purpose.
“Are there no horses?” the Sage whined, not even bothering to put on a show of being disaffected.
“Horses? Have ye not been to the jungle since the Victorian age? Of course, there are no horses. You may look like a sim, but we both know you’re no mortal. Cast an energy spell or whatever you lot call it, and move along.”
Morgyn frowned but didn’t answer. If only William knew the number of times that they snuck away to burn off excess magic. Now they had to balance the scales by conserving magic.
The Sage felt their feet blistering in their highly fashionable but too tight boots.
After a few more miles, they were swaying on those blistered feet. “I think I’m going to faint.”
William turned, his mask of irritation quickly evaporating. As he sped over, Morgyn closed their eyes, deciding that their only consolation for all this suffering was landing in William’s arms.
That’s why it was such a surprise when they landed on the ground.
So the running theme this week is parents! Parents being awesome! That conversation explaining found families to Gwendolyn is… something so many of us don’t get to hear until adulthood. She is so, so lucky. Given the parallels between her past and Mr. Alice Martin’s, I can only imagine how he felt unceremoniously killing Gwendolyn’s abusive foster parents and feeding them to her. What a softie.
I am LOVING every single one of Alice’s family members immediately knowing what the hell is happening and refusing to be taken. And the vampires realizing they’ve been outclassed at every turn. Damn, that was satisfying. “The hubris of mortals…” Uh. Mr. Bloodvein? You were told this was a stealth mission and you showed up ready to introduce the Rockettes next to Liza Minnelli. That thing has got to be crapping so many sequins, all Valeria has to do to track you is keep going in whatever direction is the most fabulous.
Speaking of math, help me out here. What’s momentum conversion? My brain keeps conflating it with the Law of Conservation of Momentum, which is probably wrong. I feel like there’s a joke I’m missing. Like… momentum transfer = y’all eat bullets? (Vaguely relevant: looks like Valeria is an experimental rather than a theoretical physicist, and if I know anything about experimental physicists, most of that lab equipment was already broken before she and Cyrus voided the warranty.)
Of course the Fates decided to stop time right as Morgyn is fainting. Of course. What giant hams.
Bowing down to Deacon for doing the heavy lifting, always, always, always. Everything that comes out of his mouth is perfect. Yes!! Receive a dick pic in the previous chapter and fall over laughing in this one because someone said “underwear.” And Deacon, space isn’t far, you’re right there! You’re in space right now! Whoa. Dude! (He also needs a thank-you-note from Caleb for providing a distraction from how totally over Amisyia Caleb is.)
Does the Owl have to be consumed for Alice to gain immortality? Because she better not.
Let’s see, what’s left to speculate on. Hoobooboobooboo. I don’t think we ever got Elmyra’s identity. Or Somnus’s. Or most of Alice’s crew, and how they were made—GOMs entirely, or are there concept-people-in-Death’s-thrall running around for different reasons? There are some people remaining, like Dylan and whoever else was in the baking contest, that haven’t had their secret super-special-awesome magic identity revealed. Maybe that list includes Alice’s family. That one vampire who tried to get a favor from Alice, we haven’t seen her in a while as well. I am going to stare at that list, not develop it further, and shrug my shoulders. Welp.
All the grammar points for using em dashes to offset interrupted dialogue! That’s something my beta reader has to remind me about every damn time. As always, the points do nothing and are worthless.
YES! PARENTS FOR THE WIN (at least in this chapter). Alice is a badass who does a pretty damn good job of becoming a God and so in my mind, she needed to have a family that would give her some of those assets. That would allow me to reasonably write her being nonplussed about things that would send a “regular” person for a loop because her parents are basically international super spies.
Plus, I really wanted Vlad and Alice to bring different baggage to the table. He was raised by monsters and so he is on this journey to break the cycle with Gwendolyn. Meanwhile, Alice is very used to walking away or withdrawing when things get hard. Part of what I want to explore in the next “book” is how that dynamic plays out when the newness and the danger have worn off. Also, Alice’s family has a pretty specific view of her role (the slacker/troublemaker). They love her, but she’s changed a lot since she left. The question is how will they deal with that? And will she revert to form around them?
I dunno, this probably getting too in the weeds, but I’m always thinking about evolving conflict. I don’t want my characters to keep having the same problems and come at them in the same way. It’s one of things I really like about CT — the characters and their conflict change over time. I might be reading about the same family, but its not the same story and that’s exciting.
Okay, sorry, but back to your actual comment:
– Killing Bjorn was definitely a highlight for Vlad and closes the loop on a lot of things. It was cathartic. LOL.
– You know dressing Bloodvein is my favorite pastime. Also, his entire crew just looked insane and I feel like even Liza Minnelli would have been like: sir, this suit is too much.
– Deacon’s one brain cell was doing so much work! And yes, he actually deserves a “thank you” basket. For all Caleb’s ranting about everyone else’s emotional development, he can’t even admit that he likes Amisyia. Get a grip dude.
– Thank you for appreciating my depiction of the Fates as a group of Southern grandmas who love gossiping, meddling, and will check your attitude with a swarm of poisonous bees.
– Alice is immortal now – her injuries heal. Gwendolyn hit her with that beam of magic. That has to be because she’s The Owl, right?
– We don’t know Elmyra yet (cackles), or most of Alice’s crew, and I can confirm, we don’t know who the hell Dylan (or any other contestant in the Baking Show) might be. About all we do know is that Somnus is Diego Lobo. Those reveals are coming soon and I’m actually pretty damn pleased with it. Contessa will also be back v. soon and planning that scene has been SO FUN.
– I accept these grammar points in all their meaningless glory.
– OMG YOU CAUGHT A TYPO. Lol. It is supposed to be momentum conservation, cleary my proof-reading is bad (as is my physics. lol, but I got to make a sex joke about experimental physicists so hooray!)
Ahhh! I’m just now able to appreciate the international super spies bit. Seems like I wasn’t asking questions I should have. Appreciate the insight, and I’ll try to pick it out moving forward—you know that stories treating the beginning of a relationship as a happy ending is one of my pet peeves, and watching characters having to deal with changing relationship dynamics is the damn best.
Deacon’s thank-you basket contains a giant tub of protein powder, a kaleidoscope, an arm, surgical thread, and three bags of dollar-store bouncy balls.
Right, right, Diego Lobo! Thanks for keeping me in line. Aaaand now I’m worried about Elymra. I guess we haven’t seen… Bella Goth?
Agreed! Now, if I could only finish up book one so I can get to it. I’m under a real time deadline given the way I betrayed myself playing with Wonderful Whims on lol.
Deacon’s basket is perfect. LOL I have to do something with this. I don’t know what, but something, damn it.
Oh, don’t worry about Elmyra. Everything is *fine*
You know what, I have the TOOL mod and I use it for objects sometimes but it never occurred to me to us it to alter where the sims are facing. Derp!
OMG how badass is Alice’s mum? I love her!
Lol, Morgyn is clearly not made for jungle trips. Sure, you could blame it on the excess magical energy returning, but I doubt they’d have done much better otherwise, they do not strike me as the outdoorsy type, hah.
Loving Caleb and Amisyia’s back and forth. Feels like Caleb is blossoming now that he’s flown the nest, err, lair.
Ok, add Alice’s dad to the badass list. Damn her family is rad. This has me weirdly giddy about them meeting Vlad and Gwen, somehow I feel like her parents could handle that like a breeze.
Oof, Morgyn’s confrontation with the fates was moving at million miles per hour, so much to take in. So Morgyn was a part of the pure magic that created the owl. Who else was. L Faba, maybe? She is pure magic as well, after all. Anywho… I suppose if Morgyn gave up half their magic, they would still be more powerful than they were a few days ago, before all of the magic from the loose timelines returned to them. And their human body i struggling to retain the magic anyway, so win-win, solution to the problem. But what exactly are the fates offering, how is giving up half their power going to guarantee happiness with William, exactly? If I’m understanding it correctly, I’m guessing that unless Morgyn dumps some of that returning power, their human frame won’t be able to hold, so they will return to their original form of pure magic? The alternative being giving some of it away… but if Morgyn is pure magic, than that magic is essence of who they are. So the fates are effectively asking them to give up half of themselves. Right, I think I’ve talked myself through it 😀 That is quite a dilemma. Not to mention, would that other half of magic they gave up stop being Morgyn, exactly? Hm…
Point about Alice’s family being rad re-affirmed.
Hmm, is Alice being sick really just a hangover? Oh boy. Also, little Gwendolyn coming back to it and Alice and Vlad trying to explain her new form is in equal parts a total poostorm of a mess and adorably wholesome.
Enter Miss Hell to clean up. She looks bemused but I’m sure she’s loving actually being the only competent one. Hmmmm why did the family not take Alice’s brother when they fled? What’s up here? Hmmmm…
I was going to reply to this comment earlier but then a bunch of racists decided to try and storm the US Capitol and I didn’t have any emotional energy to do anything? LOL (I must laugh, or I’ll cry).
Anyway!
Yes! I watched this YouTube tutorial about using it for poses and since then, it’s solved so many friggen problems. Before, I had to reset every sim if I wanted to just adjust someone’s body, but now I can just move them freely already posed. Though I’m still struggling with the math for rotations.
Alice’s whole family is badass! Especially her mama. I make no bones about the fact that I’ve made almost every lady in this story badass in some way.
Yeah, uh, Morgyn had to buy an outfit to go to the Jungle. Definitely not their style lol. I’m glad the confrontation with the Fates felt like it made your head spin. That’s how the characters all feel, which is why its hard to keep track of their motives or what they are even trying to manipulate you into doing. I have just written this reveal so I’m going to try VERY hard not to spoil it in my response. All I’m saying is that…well…you are asking very good questions.
Caleb has a task at hand, so he does not have to think about himself. And frankly, Amisyia is not the type to wallow in misery with him, which is a good thing, I think.
IS ALICE BEING SICK REALLY JUST HANGOVER?!?!?!?!?!?! ::LOOOKS DIRECTLY INTO CAMERA::
All I will say is that even though my game is story-driven and not gameplay driven, I do some times get inspiration from what my lil’ creations do on their own in between scenes.
I love that Vlad is now getting described as totally wholesome. Who says you can’t slit a dude’s throat but also be full of cinnamon roll goodness.
What is up with Alice’s brother? What? Huh? hmm.. oh what’s that? I think ummm someone is calling me…
I know, the world is nuts! Let’s hope it’s just an overflowing residue of 2020 leaking into the new year but from now on things will improve. Onwards and upwards now. I hope.
I never would have thought of using TOOL that way, but definitely will from now on, so thank you for sharing 😊
Hah, if you do let the pregnancy into the story, kudos, I’d be too much of a control freak to do that, I think. Though I’m sure you’ll have a blast trolling us for a while before you confirm one way or another, haha.
I see that blatant question dodging!!! Ok. Fine. I’ll wait 😆
“(GUYS, IT IS A CIRCLE. THAT’S WHY THEY JUST KEPT FACING THE SAME WAY. I TURNED THE OBJECT IN A CIRCLE. GAH!).”
Oh gods I had the exact same thing happen while I was learning the Tool mod! It legit took me multiple tries to finally realize it, too 🤣
Whoa, Valeria packs a mean punch for a human! And so does the rest of Alice’s family, holy cow! Even blowing up their house afterwards and taking on so many monsters at once. Dang. That’s one heck of a family.
Maybe he should return Vlad’s phone call. The Former King of Windenburg obviously needed Caleb; the creature was practically begging on the phone.
Caleb. Honey. You’re doing it again. Passing on useful information does not equal Vlad “needing” you, and you shouldn’t jump to that first thing in your head. Yes, Deacon. I’m pretty sure Amisyia is fully aware that she does not have underwear. 😂
Oh geez, Gwendolyn really changed. I wonder how much of the old Gwendolyn is left. Also, exhausted, nauseous and suffering from headaches? Oh my. What are the chances that this is what I think it is? Wait, don’t tell me. I’ll find out before too long I’m sure 😂
Hm? How come Alice’s family didn’t take her brother with them when they skedaddled and blew up their house? Did he happen to not be there, and were they unable to get to him? Or did they leave him behind on purpose because he is now a source of information? Hmmm…
I laughed so hard when I read this. I love knowing someone else suffered the Tool Mod learning curve.
I had so much fun writing Alice’s family!! I really wanted them to be badass, and I knew they had to be. Even though BBD is a paranormal romance, I feel like I got earn all my crazy plot points so there had to be a reason that Alice didn’t blink twice at all the shenanigans she’s been involved in. And that reason is her parents are basically super spies so like, fighting demons in a dance club is par for the course.
Whew, do you have Caleb’s number or what? Can he spell co-dependency? (his therapist thinks not). Deacon is such a sweet summer child, isn’t he?
LOLOLOLOL all I can say about the headaches, exhaustion, and nausea is to please take the most obvious possibility and then enjoy the ride as Alice slowly (oh god, so slow) figures it out for herself while everyone else is like: DUH WAKE UP!!!!!
Alice’s brother happened not to be there, but don’t worry, he has a roll to play hehe…