#plans and stuff

[pixeldistractions]

Delphie & Dakota, freshman year at Sierra Nova University, spring 2089

Their story is going to be fun! It's going to be so juicy to get absolutely lost in! Someday...

This is just a little note to say that I still absolutely LOVE these girls and they will still totally get that story. But as I've mentioned, we will move on to visit Selena and Summer in the next batch of stories instead, after which, we will return to our Boxes & Squares characters. So I will need to pause the Deppiesse family story that I only just started, lol!

Some reasons why...

When I first imagined these stories, I wanted them to be just a quickie little short story in between Boxes & Squares chapters. But as I picked at this little story for them, it got bigger and bigger. More characters got involved (Andre and Karla) and their parts got bigger, too. Then it felt like it needed so much backstory and setup before we could properly begin. Then I needed to introduce "new" characters who weren't really new at all and came with so much history. Then what was supposed to be their little short story left off with so much forward momentum (a good thing!), but that momentum would be wasted if we didn't continue with those threads.

It just got bigger and bigger and needed more and more. It started to give me a little existential crisis, because y'all, we need to finish Boxes & Squares first before we start an entire new giant saga!

Especially when B&S has come all this way over the last couple years and is nearing its hard-earned ending with book 6. This was all giving me an overwhelming feeling of unfinished business.

Easy fix. I'm just going to pause these Deppiesse family stories for now and finish my business!

Then the Deppiesse girls and their family and friends (and the expedition into space!) will have the freedom to become as large and sprawling as they want to be, and they will carry the next "round" of the timeline from about 2090 forward.

What will come next?

We still owe baby Eris her first birthday party! Even if their story is paused, the littlest Deppiesse girl still needs to grow up! 🎂

And some other notable birthdays to celebrate from January - March 2089

Selena & Summer mini book (only 3 chapters) will start next week. These stories *are* totally B&S adjacent, you will see how as we get into it. Selena and Summer stories run from March to April in the timeline.

B&S book 6 comes next, covering April 2089 through the beginning of 2090 to "complete" those stories. After which they will live on (happily ever after 85% guaranteed!) in gameplay.

Then, around spring/summer 2090, we will start the next round of stories, which will follow the Deppiesse family, the launch of the Cassiopeia mission (also featuring Keri & Bentley), the Deppiesse girls and their friends at SNU, and Andre and Karla will fit in here, too.

Sorry if anyone was super looking forward to that one. I think only 5 people even saw it, so hopefully the five of you can forgive me for that oops, and we will try it again properly later! 🤪

[theinkchild]

So.. two things that I'll try to cover in June:

Get better and do more live streams!

Talk about these creatures....

Live streams:

I'm gonna kick start streaming again with my buddy @rysali-s

We'll be doing Splatoon livestreams in the late evening hours, testing stuff live... If you can handle honest hardworking amateurs, then yes, tune in to some potentially laggy but well intentioned streams for a small but building audience!

So yeah! mainly splatoon... maybe some rpg... or some dip into it.

I have some sorta goal towards the end of june, but we'll see how this all pans out~

Creatures:

I feel like it's relevant again to talk about the creatures... it being June and all... I don't remember blogging about them here, but ill-made promises years ago with a teaser that didn't really lead to anything.. By blog, yes, blog actual. not just little quips. Actual entries..

To start, they are from an established series BUT converted through the lens of an inkling (moi!) are little sea creatures! (some mammals!)

You will Find their Purpose soon.

~

I'm sorry if I'm alluding to so much, but I'm nervous of future content, but at the same time through exposure, I'm slowly opening up my heart again too, if that makes sense.

[alt text on images]

[flowerrose14]

Plan...?

What now, what’s happenin, and what’s the plan here, well i’ll try and explain as best as I possibly can in my “I’m still awake at 03:36 in the moring” state :3

What’s happening..?

Something that has happened, it’s Tod’s plan! What is it? Tod’s plan was this, he had left Anthony and was able to speak to William, since he uses black magic, when William had told him about Troy, oh he was delighted, Troy’s soul was perfect to start this Plan...Now, from a recent rp (With the amazin @angiewolf09 UwU) Tod has suceeded with taking Troy’s soul, Troy’s original body was burned to ashes, since his soul was removed, now the body that they have is a one pure made from Darkness, Tod looks exactly like Troy, i mean, it’s troy’s body he’s controlling like a puppet...There is no way in bringing Troy back, nt jogging memory, saving, there is NOTHING that can bring him back, UNLESS this plan fails, which...could happen, if you make the right decisions... Troy will be in complete darkness, he’ll be in literal hell and experience all his past mistakes and regrets over and over, it’s Tod’s way of breaking whatever fight the soul has... If any of you try to ask Troy something starting from now... he won’t answer it, Tod might though~

Tod wants to harvest souls, now he has a body/host, he can do so with ease, he’ll be taking a few beloved ones, but i’m givin ya a heads up bout this =w= once he has enough, he wants to cover inkwell in complete darkness and drag everyone to hell...

Anthony...Ok, Tod isn’t attached to his soul anymore, good right? well, not exactly, now Anthony dosen’t have Tod, these things will happen. One, Anthony can actually die now, Tod would prevent death,until Anthony drank all of the potion, but now death is a possiblity...Two, he can’t control darkness, he dosen’t exactly have magic anymore...Three, he’ll be as weak as can be for awhile, ill in bed, he won’t be able to move for awhile and he’ll be frequently throwing up all the black substance/darkness in him...

I’ll be drawing a few things for this, one being troy’s...New look? this plan has been set in motion, there will come a time were a choice must be made. You have to make it, let’s hope you choose right...

Two new little guys will be comin to inkwell very soon aswell, they’re lookin for Troy and i’m sure they’ll...Break, once they figure out they were to late... Julie and Paul were his best friends after all..

Progress at the moment and what i want to do, i’ll be drawin as much as I can, and writin “Burning Memories” again, cause i just love puttin troy through hell :3 I also want to show other memories of Troy from not just “Burning Memories” there are a few others >W>” i’ll try and get more little projects done, and I really do want to thank you all for your patience! ^w^

[pixeldistractions]

Gameplay notes on my Paralives timeline:

^ from Better Lifespans mod. And how it looks on my gameplay timeline.

Uh oh, I have a timeline spreadsheet! We're serious, folks. (Serious in a casual way, of course.)

Each full week is a YEAR of life for my paras, with the Better Lifespans mod and on extra-long, and that's really so different from how I have usually played my sims. My TS4 sims live 112 days for each year, so their timeline is 16 times slower! (And often, even slower than RL time, lol!)

But I'm enjoying that difference for my Paralives gameplay. And maybe I might even get through a couple whole generations in this game! Maybe (gasp!) I might even see some of these paras have grandchildren and then great-grandchildren and then even eventually DIE!?! 😱

Like, the idea of that for my sim babies makes me very sad. But for my paras, let's go! 😂

Maybe I'll feel differently about that after I grow more attached.

But I would love for this timeline to keep chugging along fast enough that I can't even get bogged down in story, which is good because that's not what I'm looking for from this game at the moment. It's truly not even ready for that level of involvement yet, even if it is fun to play as a game.

And that difference will be what makes it perfect to continue playing both games alongside each other. They each serve such different purposes for me.

Sorry, I'm not making a separate blog for my Paralives gameplay. Just as I don't have a separate blog for Minecraft or Manor Lords or Cities Skylines, when I'm in those moods. Nope. Not doing it. You get all of my pixel madness all in one place. 🤪

But everything will be tagged accordingly if you want to follow and/or block certain things.

And I'm still not sure yet about what kind of posting schedule might be best, so we'll probably experiment with what feels best as we go. When I am in sims story mode and have a chapter running, I would like for those updates to keep their usual daily/every-other 6pm-ish release time.

^ some useful cheats I’ll be happily using.

[pixeldistractions]

summer plans & stuff:

Here is proof that I actually opened my TS4 game and quite enjoyed it! I played with Kyle and set him up in a new tattoo parlor on a small business lot (you know he needs that money!), so I have a little gameplay update to put together for him. And we have a log-in event going on? So I need to wrangle mods and update my game because I do want those goodies.

I will also continue to pick at Delphie's chapter 2 of the story. But, my friends, my head is so not in it. We're going to Michigan in three weeks, and I just one-click ordered an inflatable stand-up paddle board. I've never used one of these before and I'm gonna fall off it so many times, lol!

Summer vacation fever has hit and it's brutal. 🌊🌊🌊

And I have a lot of packing to do and the kiddo's end-of-year stuff.

However, Paralives continues to be charming and fun and easy to play, so I'll probably just run with that for the next couple weeks. Then we'll pick up with Delphie and chapter 2 of the story in July.

Feel free to dig in and catch up on any of these giant stories, if you need something to read while I'm on break: tumblr // blogger

[pixeldistractions]

That's a wrap on book 5: the fairytale. Nearly 40,000 words and 1000-something pictures.

Thank you, to those who took the time to read and leave your mark on the journey. Each little ❤️ or emoji, the reblogs, single sentences or the novel-length comments, every notification makes the process worthwhile when otherwise I’d be posting this story into the deep, dark void. I see you here, and I love you!

It may be a while before we get into book 6. Which is why I wanted to get to this point and reach this not-quite-an-ending, but a good cozy resting place, with at least some of our major arcs resolved. 

Working on B&S for the past two years as a sims story has taken a LOT. I’m not always sure it was worth the effort to do this story in this format (with sims, on simblr). It sometimes feels like a continually losing battle trying to get more than a few dear souls to care about this thing. And yet, I can’t seem to quit it, so… 🫠

I’m sure we’ll be back to it eventually, but first, we're gonna take a big fat break! (Yes, I know I just had a vacation—now comes the work.) I need to finish off the summer break and get my little kiddo started in kindergarten, catch up with the house and yard, and then this mama’s gotta hustle a little 💰💰💰 with my wide-open days now, you know?

I will be around and posting some gameplay and picspam. I have a LOT of reading to catch up on! I'll be heart-bombing you all very soon! Maybe a quick tryst with Minecraft. Maybe we'll visit some more pixel babies (Lucy's little ones, this time!). I have some builds I want to share. And we will continue to follow my Sarah on Dating Deanna with @changingplumbob and I’m soon to send another sim off to @abbysimsfun for vet school.

Probably sometime in September or October, we'll get back to stories again, but it still won't be book 6 yet. I have an intermission chapter for Lou. I'm gonna take my climb clubbers (minus Jordan 😭) up that summit. And I'd like to revisit Unexpected Unlife for a chapter or two, too. We will also set up plans for Beau & April, and Vicky & Vale. Then when we return to B&S book 6 there will be a very small time skip (like 4 months, lol!), but you will see the characters around as part of these other stories before they take the spotlight again.

If you still need to catch up, you can pick your starting point from the Boxes and Squares story index. All done and need more to read after that? Definitely check out Stephanie & Justin's TS4 story, Drown. Still need more to read after that? Try Charlie & Natty's TS3 story, A Rebel Yell.

[pixeldistractions]

fall plans & stuff:

I don't have a single damn picture yet, don't have my scenes built or decorated yet, but the next chapter is shaping up. In words, at least. Looking at mid-late September, probably.

Oh, it's already almost mid-September? 😬

Late September then, very probably.

We are spending Christmas and New Years with the Corelli family, which will be every bit as delightfully chaotic as Maria promised it would be in this one. The chapter will probably be around 4500 words and 11 short parts.

After "bad girlfriend" is complete, we will have some gameplay:

Dallas & Lucy & their little darlings

we'll play out chapter 2 of Unexpected Unlife (casual gameplay story, so I only have a loose idea about what happens next!)

climb clubbers (minus Jordan) are gonna summit Mt. Komorebi!

another gameplay family, Beau & April (with friends, Vicky & Vale!)

So all that should keep us busy through the fall and holiday season. I'd like to complete that much, at least, so we can start B&S book 6 in early 2026. But we'll see how many times my kindergartener brings illness home from school this fall and winter.

And my Blogger is almost caught up with the Tumblr posts. Just two more chapters left to do! (It's not just copy-paste, unfortunately. They take a couple hours each chapter to reformat and sort/resize/insert pictures. 😫)