a continuation of my lighting experiments, this time in Midnight Hollow 👻 i think i've narrowed it down but damn i did not realize how picky i am... lmao
★ base game honestly looks great tbh, i have a feeling i'll end up playing it vanilla with reshade for screenshots
★ i really like uranesia's night sky and daytime brightness, but the water is too blue
★ ddefinder's outdoor lighting tweaks look great during the day but is wayyy too dark at night. the lighter version isn't too bad though, so i may pick this one. it also comes with slightly-longer days (my beloved)
★ brntwaffles' dystopian goes very well with midnight hollow's grey tones, but i don't want very long days or fire skies
★ brntwaffles' midnight dream is really nice, but a bit too colorful
★ i will definitely be using nilxis' realistic clouds though! they're gorgeous
none of these are criticisms on the mods themselves, just on how they fit the vibe i'm looking for! they're all wonderful and i'm grateful for the creators hard work in making them ^^
the icy washed out tones fit the vibe i'm going for, but they make her grey skin look too normal. and then there's the twilight tinge which looks so nice and fits with the moonlight falls setting...
pics 1 & 2 are using alphafish by erasabledinosaur, pic 3 is using hug me redux by bloodymary
Baelia, your constant misfortune amuses me and those around you. It would be a shame to take that priceless entertainment from them. I'll take you some other day. Grim
Baelia read the note to herself three times, each slower than the last.
A spot behind her eyes throbbed, and she pressed a hand to it as she processed her thoughts. She wondered if the jellybean had actually put her to sleep instead of killing her, and the series of unfortunate surreal events that had occurred since then were all just an awful dream.
If her theory was correct, then she would just wait to wake up. Her years of jellybean experiments told her she only had a few hours left until the effects would wear off and she'd wake up from this bizarre nightmare.
She could manage a few hours, right?
Baelia squeezed her eyes shut, attempting to squeeze out whatever was pounding behind them. There were little stars dancing in her vision when she could see again, but more noticeably, Grim was gone. She whipped her head around to look for him, wincing as pain spiked through the front of her skull. Slowly, Baelia refocused her vision and carefully turned to scan her surroundings.
She stopped again almost immediately, brow furrowed. What was this place? It looked nothing like the lush, secluded garden she remembered. Instead of plants, she was surrounded by carved stones, each bearing what appeared to be a name. The realization hit Baelia like a tombstone to the gut.
The Grim Reaper was the one and only... person(?)... that Baelia would eventually have to talk to. The only one she couldn't avoid forever. Yet somehow, she'd taken most of her life to come to that realization, let alone come to terms with it.
Back when she'd first settled on accepting her isolated existence, death wasn't something she considered a social interaction. She typically assumed her life would conclude in one of two ways: a peaceful passing in her oldest years, or being crushed by a spontaneous fae-seeking meteor. Either way, she assumed it would be a solitary ordeal.
To be more precise, Baelia had sequestered herself for just under eight decades before the unsettling insight ever crossed her mind. Spooky Day was approaching, which always put her on edge, and she'd spent the day sorting out the more frightening decorations to keep in storage when she came across an old figurine of the Grim Reaper. A strange, unexpected bloom of kinship welled up inside her as she inspected it, though the ornament was deemed creepy enough to toss back in the box. The idea of someone else living(?) their life(?) alone and misunderstood hashtag just like her made the crushing weight of it all feel a little more bearable.
But she stewed in her thoughts all afternoon...
Wait, no... actually he talks to everyone. Whenever someone dies, the Reaper is there to greet them.
...and once she'd finally put it together...
Including me...
...she really freaked out.
A younger Baelia would have feared the Reaper because of his spooky appearance and infamous tendency to... well y'know, reap souls. But now, as she tragically lay dying in the moonlit dirt of Hallowed Grounds Cemetery, the exact thing Baelia dreaded most was the 20% chance of Grim hanging out after she dies having a conversation.
TIL midnight hollow exists, and it looks like this without shaders
probably gonna move here bc this color palette and lighting are exactly what i've been trying to make in reshade for days lmaoo. ugh just look at those greys, i love it.
★ this is a very unserious story. i don’t follow any specific rules. i just play, write, & take lots of pics!
Founder: Baelia Ashlace
Young Adult Grey Faerie
Traits: Unlucky, Brooding, Animal Lover, Unstable, Loner
LTW: Adopt a Unicorn
All story updates here: Ashlace Legacy 🧚🏻♀️
View them in chronological order: Ashlace Legacy Chrono 🧚🏻♀️
Read (the beginning of) (the intro to) her tragic backstory (the prologue) below! 🤍
Contently isolated from the outside world, Baelia spent many of her years tucked away in a faerie house - way too many years. Very occasionally, curiosity led her to cautiously approach the tiny windows of her home. Only during daylight, of course. She'd often wither or shriek at the sight of something as mundane as a raindrop.
Every few dozen years, Baelia would find herself feeling particularly broody. She'd steal full glances through the windows, gathering in what little she could of her surroundings. No Sims built homes nearby - that was always a relief. There were always green bushes and fish splashing in a pond, though these days the sight made her head spin like a maelstrom. The trees were neverendingly enormous, and she wondered if they'd seem less impressive in her Sim form.
Baelia was young when she discovered this hideaway in Moonlight Falls. It was a restless and foggy night, and she'd gotten lost trying to find the arboretum. Magic depleted and desperate to avoid the monsters brought out by the full moon's glow, she fled into a nearby garden. It was overgrown and lush with greenery, and deep within the foliage was the little glowing faerie house. It wasn't until she was already inside that she felt something off about the garden. It gave her the creeps.
Born a Grey faerie, Baelia was cursed with terribly bad luck. It caused her to overreact to feelings of unease, rendering her fully convinced that something awful was certain to occur. From the moment she settled into the little dwelling, she found herself overwhelmed with worry about the things that could go wrong if she ventured back out on her own two feet - literally. The creepy feeling never went away, and so Baelia's fear grew, trapping her in fae form for over several Sim-generations.
In time, she came to realize the solitude didn't bother her. Instead, she felt it suited her. She looked outside less and less often, accepting her quiet life and hoping in vain that the fear would fade away. She had everything she needed to live comfortably right where she was. She would be just fine living here for the rest of her very, very long life if not for the unending, nagging sense of ominous dread that seemed to hang in the air.
Maybe Baelia needed to take a good, long look at herself in the mirror, and then out the window.
Peering through nervous eyes, Baelia fixed her gaze on a pale, outstretched finger. Once the Reaper had gathered her attention, he silently dropped his hand to point at the ground between their feet. Her gaze followed to see he was gesturing to... a piece of paper?
Baelia glanced back to the Reaper apprehensively. He was still pointing, and though she couldn't see his face, she felt the burn of an impatient stare. Eager to please get this over with, she bent down and reached for the note.
Unfortunately, Baelia's timing couldn't have been worse. The overwhelming physical exhaustion finally caught up to her cumbersome body and she tumbled forwards into the dirt. Her pallid cheeks flushed pink, hands darting to collect the note and wings fluttering to upright herself. As she awkwardly teetered to her feet, the Reaper erupted into laughter.
While clearing his throat had sounded like distant thunder, the Reaper's laugh was the deafening roar at the center of a crowd. Haunting voices whispered and wailed in unison, an eerie symphony of the dead punctuated by his raucous bellowing.
Baelia couldn't tell whether she felt more humiliated, terrified, or surprised. She never really expected the personification of death to have a sense of humor - even if it was at her expense. And he was absolutely howling, doubled over with one hand still gripping his scythe for balance and the other slapping a knee. His face was still shrouded, but Baelia thought she could see tears falling from his cheeks.
Meanwhile, her own blurry eyes dried up. Her cheeks were hot again - this time with a tinge of indignance - and Baelia looked down to the scrap of paper in her hands. A quiet gasp caught in her throat as she began to read.
