Aw, that stinks. The ease of commenting was the one thing LJ had going for it. Shouldn't matter what login you use if they recognise it.
The bit about the 2 kids was mainly to establish the timeline, abstract as it ultimately is. Little Goldie's not on the horizon for a while yet. (For the story. That doesn't mean I didn't grab some shots of that little face, though!
Angel is a hothead. And because Val isn't, really, at least not verbally, that only ramps her up even more. But fighting is essential to their dynamic and she's an expert at picking her moments. Val is out of his comfort zone so he's a little more vulnerable than he's used to feeling and that is definitely not the conversation he was looking for from his baby.
On the surface, she's upset because this wasn't one of his scheduled "away" times. The shoot was supposed to be done right there in their hometown but the Mashugas...the Mashugas. The deeper reason rests on the fact that Angel had always wanted fame in her own right. Her plans to be right there in the mix with him were shot when they changed locations and he didn't invite her to go-with. Ultimately, she's jealous because he's out there living her dream now as well as his own, while she's just getting spillover perks.
Goodness! I've been living with this little side story for a while now so having it out there brings out the wordy in me. Hope I didn't reveal anything too soon...hmm...don't think so. Thanks for the comment!
I don't think it was LJ's fault. I think my computer just randomly logged me out. When I opened my blogspot dashboard, which automatically logs me back in so I think I'm always logged in, the posting went fine.
I'm always interested to see how people envision Angel. She certainly had to be hot-blooded to keep up with Val! And I'm sure she'd love to know Flo thinks of her as "the gorgeous wife." Flo shouldn't feel too bad about forgetting he's married-with-kids. At this stage of his career, Val's "forget-all-the-reasons-not-to-flirt-me" aura may not be perfected, but it's presumably in a good solid stage of construction.
Frankie will understand the lack of entourage better if he gets to know Val better. He can be his own entourage, thank you very much, and he's probably got a really nice car he likes to drive and wants full control of in case he needs the back seat.
Oh, you know him too well. With my love of cc, yes, Val has a very nice ride, indeed! I had never even opened a car mesh before a few months ago but while I was making a bunch hood deco ready I went ahead and tweaked Val's wheels to my liking (there was just a little something that looked weird to me though that may mean it now looks less like its real world inspiration, meh, so be it). So before this is done you'll definitely get a glimpse of him with his other baby.
Angel's face can be challenging to make over but I loved the way she looked in that first batch of pics I did and I think she's quite striking this time around, too. And, of course, she never tires of hearing her beauty complimented. One of the ways she holds her own in this marriage is by being just as obviously desirable and also obviously desired. He's not allowed to forget that, off the field, anything he can do she can do. Better. Whether or not that's always true - as he's got so many more opportunities but she's got the emotional leverage - is one of those things that either adds a little spice or a little strife to their marriage, depending on which way the "wind" blows.
I wouldn't put it past Angel to find an excuse to just show up - it can't be that big a trip if Val drove down in the morning. Probably without kids in tow if you're keeping the timeline loose. They can certainly afford a nanny, and there might even be a grandparent in the picture, this long ago. But we shall see (relatively soon, I hope?). I'm trying to work out plot developments based on the themes and characters you've set up, here, and it could get real complicated real fast, Angel or no Angel. Sylvia-Marie barging in on Val looking for doghair is so obvious a next scene, you might not do it.
Given the Valentine we're used to, relaxed at the top of the heap no matter how sad or annoyed he is, hearing him sputter and get conversationally stomped by Angel is a bit startling. And enlightening. I don't think Daytona'd like knowing that the only person in Widespot who ever puts him on the defensive like that is Mary; fortunately, there's not much chance of her finding out.
Unfortunately, there's not much chance of Mary finding out, either. That she could have had Valentine if she'd worked herself up to fight with him is not knowledge directly relevant to her life anymore - but it might shine a light on how best to go on in the life she more or less chose.
I wouldn't put it past Angel either if it were closer but that line about Val coming straight on was a bit vague since what I really meant was that he didn't make any unnecessary detours along the way rather than that he was able to do it in one straight shot. She's not quite at the point of pissed-off-edness to hop on a plane either, this time, but with sufficient motivation, no, Angel is not at all above causing a scene.
I could see her and Syl getting along famously, if they don't butt heads at the off, that is, because they do operate on different wavelengths. Pretty much everyone is on a different wavelength from Syl. It's probably impossible to notice if you're not looking for it (and pretty much everything else you can see, besides Frankie & Syl, is a reflection, so that may be even more disorienting) but in one pic from their scene together you can see one of their well-stocked bars set up in the corner. So 'hair of the dog' is closer to hand than Val is.
And remember, not all of the players are in place yet! I didn't initially intend to split the day but I knew I'd have to once I started playing. I thought about holding this one back until I had both parts done but, well, for one it took longer than expected so I was just happy to have it done, and I also figured that'd be way more than anyone would read at once anyway. I think this is already more than most simmers care to read nowadays but this is the way I wanted it rather than broken into smaller bits for tumblr, which had been another one of those 'before I played it through' thoughts. I'll try to have the next part up as soon as I can! But realistically it'll be at least 2 weekends away.
I'd almost forgotten exactly how far back I'd left off with the bacc posts but Val and Day do have 'a moment' in store and it doesn't follow the path either one of them would've predicted. Mary's also poised for a kind of make-it-or-break-it moment of her own but I've been mum for this long, I'm not going to spill all and ruin my main incentive for getting back to it. I'll just say that marrying Junior did not free her from her entanglements with the Harts and in a town that small she never will be free of them so she's going to have to reconcile her feelings about the past in order to be able to really grab hold of the kind of future she wants.
Oh, I'm sure there's dog hair all over that house, but she could easily decide that the only thing that'll do is Frankie's Remy.
Given that I can see people marathoning through my old Conquering Nose posts from my dash, I think people are as willing to read long entries and stories as they ever were; they're just having to set aside time for it when they're on the right device. A lot of the short-format stuff is popular because people can read it on their phones in the grocery store checkout, but you wouldn't want to read a proper story that way. And something like this with the meticulously detailed pictures would be a total waste on the phone. Tumblr's format in particular is a good one for chucking things down and arranging them quickly and I'm very happy with it for sharing gameplay pictures; but I wouldn't want to write, or read, a novel that way.
It's probably better to split it up into chunks anyway, though, given the fits LJ was giving you with transmuting punctuation into long strings of code and counting the code against the character limit. I'd rather see it done right than done tomorrow; just so you remember that Perfect isn't a thing and we'd rather see it with a few flaws than wait forever for the Perfect version.
You don't become a professional party guest by not knowing how to handle the people with the long purse strings, so I'm sure Angel can either get along with or win a head-butting contest with Sylvia Marie! But the implication here is that she's not perfected her skills in her particular area of expertise to the same degree that Val has at this point (stick/ball dynamics being much simpler the interpersonal dynamics even between two people) so perhaps it would be a learning experience. But I guess this episode is all about Valentine's learning experiences as he enters into a phase and level of celebrity that is brand-new for him, for which he hasn't trained.
Well, anything's possible. And I did deliberately leave off the House of Cognac from Sylvia Marie's rambling maledictions. Whatever was going on the previous night it wasn't a 'top shelf' occasion.
While slow 'n steady may get me across the finish line, finally, I still much prefer the quick burst. “Bing, bang, boom.” Done. That's what I'm hoping to get back to with the next one and every other update to follow. But the bing and the boom are relative since I only focused on this part and have to start back at the pruning pics phase. That will always take time. Doesn't have to be perfect, no, doesn't have to be anything in particular, really, which is what I love about simming. I have no perfect version in mind toward which to aspire (which is oh so liberating!) so each episode simply is what it is. I didn't even read this one through myself until a couple days ago. (Though not because of the length, of course. And LJ did only fight me a little bit. *sigh*) Happily, there seems to be nothing missing or out of order and only one typo that I noticed. I don't write up the captions sequentially, though, so the one thing it does need to be is complete, as a whole. No stopping midway to post what I've got and finish the rest later; it's an all or nothing deal.
Angel is kind of Real Housewife status until after Goldie has come along. I don't watch those shows so I don't know what the criteria are beyond being married to a man of means but if a talent for “drama”, so called, is a prerequisite I'm sure she could've held her own in that department. Within reason. Candy's the one who could take that torch and really shine on cable tv or reality tv/unscripted drama as they're now calling it. And all without overexerting herself, which could only further antagonise her fellow housewives. ;-} With Angel's connections she definitely didn't need to work her way up the ladder so she's got time before she finds her niche. Fortunately, she was of a generation before this reality television craze. Val would've resented the hell out of her trying to bring cameras into their space. And, ultimately, Angel and Val both learned a lesson about the unanticipated, hidden fees for that fabulous, free-wheeling lifestyle of theirs, almost as if they'd made a deal with Rumpelstiltskin...and never caught his name. Meanwhile, their firstborn, despite being at the centre of it all, didn't learn a damn thing.
The bit about the 2 kids was mainly to establish the timeline, abstract as it ultimately is. Little Goldie's not on the horizon for a while yet. (For the story. That doesn't mean I didn't grab some shots of that little face, though!
Angel is a hothead. And because Val isn't, really, at least not verbally, that only ramps her up even more. But fighting is essential to their dynamic and she's an expert at picking her moments. Val is out of his comfort zone so he's a little more vulnerable than he's used to feeling and that is definitely not the conversation he was looking for from his baby.
On the surface, she's upset because this wasn't one of his scheduled "away" times. The shoot was supposed to be done right there in their hometown but the Mashugas...the Mashugas. The deeper reason rests on the fact that Angel had always wanted fame in her own right. Her plans to be right there in the mix with him were shot when they changed locations and he didn't invite her to go-with. Ultimately, she's jealous because he's out there living her dream now as well as his own, while she's just getting spillover perks.
Goodness! I've been living with this little side story for a while now so having it out there brings out the wordy in me. Hope I didn't reveal anything too soon...hmm...don't think so. Thanks for the comment!
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I'm always interested to see how people envision Angel. She certainly had to be hot-blooded to keep up with Val! And I'm sure she'd love to know Flo thinks of her as "the gorgeous wife." Flo shouldn't feel too bad about forgetting he's married-with-kids. At this stage of his career, Val's "forget-all-the-reasons-not-to-flirt-me" aura may not be perfected, but it's presumably in a good solid stage of construction.
Frankie will understand the lack of entourage better if he gets to know Val better. He can be his own entourage, thank you very much, and he's probably got a really nice car he likes to drive and wants full control of in case he needs the back seat.
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Angel's face can be challenging to make over but I loved the way she looked in that first batch of pics I did and I think she's quite striking this time around, too. And, of course, she never tires of hearing her beauty complimented. One of the ways she holds her own in this marriage is by being just as obviously desirable and also obviously desired. He's not allowed to forget that, off the field, anything he can do she can do. Better. Whether or not that's always true - as he's got so many more opportunities but she's got the emotional leverage - is one of those things that either adds a little spice or a little strife to their marriage, depending on which way the "wind" blows.
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Given the Valentine we're used to, relaxed at the top of the heap no matter how sad or annoyed he is, hearing him sputter and get conversationally stomped by Angel is a bit startling. And enlightening. I don't think Daytona'd like knowing that the only person in Widespot who ever puts him on the defensive like that is Mary; fortunately, there's not much chance of her finding out.
Unfortunately, there's not much chance of Mary finding out, either. That she could have had Valentine if she'd worked herself up to fight with him is not knowledge directly relevant to her life anymore - but it might shine a light on how best to go on in the life she more or less chose.
Reply
I could see her and Syl getting along famously, if they don't butt heads at the off, that is, because they do operate on different wavelengths. Pretty much everyone is on a different wavelength from Syl. It's probably impossible to notice if you're not looking for it (and pretty much everything else you can see, besides Frankie & Syl, is a reflection, so that may be even more disorienting) but in one pic from their scene together you can see one of their well-stocked bars set up in the corner. So 'hair of the dog' is closer to hand than Val is.
And remember, not all of the players are in place yet! I didn't initially intend to split the day but I knew I'd have to once I started playing. I thought about holding this one back until I had both parts done but, well, for one it took longer than expected so I was just happy to have it done, and I also figured that'd be way more than anyone would read at once anyway. I think this is already more than most simmers care to read nowadays but this is the way I wanted it rather than broken into smaller bits for tumblr, which had been another one of those 'before I played it through' thoughts. I'll try to have the next part up as soon as I can! But realistically it'll be at least 2 weekends away.
I'd almost forgotten exactly how far back I'd left off with the bacc posts but Val and Day do have 'a moment' in store and it doesn't follow the path either one of them would've predicted. Mary's also poised for a kind of make-it-or-break-it moment of her own but I've been mum for this long, I'm not going to spill all and ruin my main incentive for getting back to it. I'll just say that marrying Junior did not free her from her entanglements with the Harts and in a town that small she never will be free of them so she's going to have to reconcile her feelings about the past in order to be able to really grab hold of the kind of future she wants.
Reply
Given that I can see people marathoning through my old Conquering Nose posts from my dash, I think people are as willing to read long entries and stories as they ever were; they're just having to set aside time for it when they're on the right device. A lot of the short-format stuff is popular because people can read it on their phones in the grocery store checkout, but you wouldn't want to read a proper story that way. And something like this with the meticulously detailed pictures would be a total waste on the phone. Tumblr's format in particular is a good one for chucking things down and arranging them quickly and I'm very happy with it for sharing gameplay pictures; but I wouldn't want to write, or read, a novel that way.
It's probably better to split it up into chunks anyway, though, given the fits LJ was giving you with transmuting punctuation into long strings of code and counting the code against the character limit. I'd rather see it done right than done tomorrow; just so you remember that Perfect isn't a thing and we'd rather see it with a few flaws than wait forever for the Perfect version.
You don't become a professional party guest by not knowing how to handle the people with the long purse strings, so I'm sure Angel can either get along with or win a head-butting contest with Sylvia Marie! But the implication here is that she's not perfected her skills in her particular area of expertise to the same degree that Val has at this point (stick/ball dynamics being much simpler the interpersonal dynamics even between two people) so perhaps it would be a learning experience. But I guess this episode is all about Valentine's learning experiences as he enters into a phase and level of celebrity that is brand-new for him, for which he hasn't trained.
Reply
While slow 'n steady may get me across the finish line, finally, I still much prefer the quick burst. “Bing, bang, boom.” Done. That's what I'm hoping to get back to with the next one and every other update to follow. But the bing and the boom are relative since I only focused on this part and have to start back at the pruning pics phase. That will always take time. Doesn't have to be perfect, no, doesn't have to be anything in particular, really, which is what I love about simming. I have no perfect version in mind toward which to aspire (which is oh so liberating!) so each episode simply is what it is. I didn't even read this one through myself until a couple days ago. (Though not because of the length, of course. And LJ did only fight me a little bit. *sigh*) Happily, there seems to be nothing missing or out of order and only one typo that I noticed. I don't write up the captions sequentially, though, so the one thing it does need to be is complete, as a whole. No stopping midway to post what I've got and finish the rest later; it's an all or nothing deal.
Angel is kind of Real Housewife status until after Goldie has come along. I don't watch those shows so I don't know what the criteria are beyond being married to a man of means but if a talent for “drama”, so called, is a prerequisite I'm sure she could've held her own in that department. Within reason. Candy's the one who could take that torch and really shine on cable tv or reality tv/unscripted drama as they're now calling it. And all without overexerting herself, which could only further antagonise her fellow housewives. ;-} With Angel's connections she definitely didn't need to work her way up the ladder so she's got time before she finds her niche. Fortunately, she was of a generation before this reality television craze. Val would've resented the hell out of her trying to bring cameras into their space. And, ultimately, Angel and Val both learned a lesson about the unanticipated, hidden fees for that fabulous, free-wheeling lifestyle of theirs, almost as if they'd made a deal with Rumpelstiltskin...and never caught his name. Meanwhile, their firstborn, despite being at the centre of it all, didn't learn a damn thing.
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