Ask Lyra
Month
Daionus (dsilva72794@gmail.com) submitted: SimLyra
Here’s the Sims that I made.
I know you said Krastos doesn’t live with you, but I made him anyways because I wanted to try to figure out what a human version of him would look like, besides the Raincoat Killer look-alike.
On a side note, I’m not very satisfied with the personality traits I gave you guys, so I might edit them later. For instance, all of you are friendly and vegetarian, to the point of it being a bit of a cop-out.
I’m really unsatisfied with Bon-Bon’s design, since I currently don’t have access to curly hair and her outfit feels very generic.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know anything about Tootsie, and because the family tree only lets you pick direct relationships (siblings, parent and child, dating, married; In order to make Tootsie her niece, I would have to make Bonbon a sibling and make him/her Tootsie’s parent), I made her Bon-Bon’s sister.
The whole family. I put it under Bon-Bon’s name since she’d probably be the one who put the most money into it.
Here is your house. I loosely modeled it after the houses I’ve seen in pictures and videos of Ponyville, and the pictures of it in Fuselight’s blog.
While you’re not the main household, because of the Story Progression mod I installed, non-active sims can do all sorts of crazy things. To wit, since the time I installed the mod, you and Krastos had a baby named Scotty, and Bonbon married Arino from Gamecenter CX, which incidentally makes her the stepmother of Link & Aryll from Wind Waker. Neither has yet to move in with the other, on account of inadequete housing. I think I might take control of one so I can edit Arino’s home to be more suitable for Bon-Bon to move in. I think I’ll also try looking for mods that give me more hairstyles.
—
Lyra: This is pretty cool! Krastos looks great! I don’t like my nose, though. I like Bon-Bon’s nose. Ha! Scotty! What a silly name!
Bon-Bon: I married a guy? Certainly is fantasy. Also, what the heck? You’re going to make me move out of my own home?
Lyra: Yeah, this is Bon-Bon’s house. Tootsie looks good, though!
Bon-Bon: And I like that lipstick color.
Lyra: Gee, this is kinda old too. All kinds of weird stuff could have happened by now.
1) I was looking back and I’m not sure I ever explained, but the pictures I’ve been uploading one at a time were from a different pony’s house. The pony I was house-sitting for came back a day early and I showed her the pictures I’d been taking of her flowers. So she had us swing by her friend’s house to pick something up, or drop something off I forget which. Basically an excuse for me to go take pictures of her friend’s flowers.
If I did say that already, she, the pony my friend and I visited, doesn’t live in Canterlot. She lives off of Canterlot. She lives on more than just a city-style plot of land. But yeah, she’s got a lot of flowers. They don’t cover the ground, but they’re all over the place! She and her husband are both retired so I think she spends a fair deal of time on them. Her husband is a carriage collector. He has this big ol’ garage with, like, 4 old models he’s fixed up like new. The garage is filled with period decorations, like old flyers and an antique, earth pony fire extinguisher. But from what I remember, he hasn’t worked on any of that stuff in a while because he’s been busy helping with the landscaping.
2) Yes it is a pool. I didn’t get to swim or anything. My taking pictures was the only reason we stayed as long as we did. They were very nice about it, though!
3) I’m not listening! La-la-la! Can’t hear you over the sound of devil-buzzing! La-la-la!
1) No. I’m pretty sure any real photographer or editor would look at my manedroid pictures and go, “What did you do? Take these with a phone?”
2) No. At least, not that I know of. She has a sister. That’s Tootsie’s Mom.
3) … No, really. I don’t know how to respond to these anymore. I get one like every couple of months. I have for the last two years.
4) Ha. Sounds kinda like the Front Mission Translation Project. I mean, their work with Front Mission 5 is mentioned on the official wikipedia page.
Sometimes folks can be cool like that.
5) I mostly just read Sinfest, Baby Blues, and Scary-Go-Round (whichever specific comic the author happens to be working on at the time).
I used to read other things. I can’t remember much. I remember reading Bob and George. What a waste of time that turned out to be. Completely pointless ending.
I see xkcd and Penny Arcade sometimes. Don’t check them all the time, though. Oh! And there’s the comics I follow on Tumblr. Tall Penguin is fun!
Ok then, Zach.
Let’s go back over our progress.
This investigation began when Lyra posted something strange and suspicious. We rushed over to make sure nothing rash had happen. When we got there, we met B, a pony we couldn’t even remember the appearance of, and found out what Lyra had. Do you remember what it was?
A letter
That’s right. She had received a letter recording the incident that led to her mother abandoning her. It was at that point we learned that there was a group after Lyra, trying to kill her. She wouldn’t reveal much about them. Determined to not let any further harm to come to her, I began to do whatever I could to help. With B’s help, we were able to figure out who sent it. Do you remember, who, Zach?
Princess Celestia.
That’s right, Zach. She had sent Lyra the letter in an attempt to prepare for something, but that’s all we could figure out. That’s why we’re here in Canterlot. B said he would meet us here. I’m not sure how we’ll find him, but We didn’t use traditional methods to make our discoveries, but we’re getting closer regardless.
You know, Zach, I have to say I’m curious about B. Why can’t I remember what he looks like? Why does he care so much about Lyra? We might be entering deep territory, Zach. I’m not sure whether telling the director would be good or bad. I’ll just let him know I’m making progress with the investigation.
Good luck with your investigation! Sorry I can’t be there.
1) I had heard the name but I didn’t know anything about the game. Sounds interesting!
2) You might say that.
3) Bon-Bon: That’s the name of my shop. I’ll answer to it if somepony calls me that, but usually it’s just fillies or colts that don’t know my name.
4) Obviously; that’s where the phrase came from.
… How did it wind up being called that by humans?
5) Alright, Strawberry.
6) Not for the ones that already existed, from I’ve seen. There’s a bunch of new weapons; every one of the 77 characters have their own weapon now. So any character that’s had their weapon changed has a different EX combo. Most of the changes are more broad. You can store your Musou now so they’ll have up to 3 charges. They added something called rage where you get faster and can use a new special Musou attack. There’s a rock-paper-sissors mechanic to weapons so the switch system has more use for casual players. Switch counters. I think whirlwind was in 7, but there’s 3 other mechanics depending on the weapon; Dash, Dive, and Shadow Strike. The graphics and environments are way better and as best I can remember attacks are sped up compared to 7. Oh! And if you press guard just as you hit the ground from being knocked back, you’ll land on your feet and skid backwards instead of always doing that air-flip.
7) That’s actually a tree. I made sure my shadow wasn’t in any of them by holding the phone down and off to the side if I had to. I figured everypony would think that was me when I was taking it, though.
But thanks! I’m glad you like the composition!
Lyra: I would love to see a celebrity gossip spot with Krastos. Overall, though, I find it highly suspect that a show called Bon-Bon and Lyra seems to have neither of us in it. Unless one of us is dressed up as that one fat guy behind the dumpster.
Bon-Bon: … What are you talking about? What is this?
Lyra: Oh, that’s right. This is your first time seeing One Lyra to Live, isn’t it?
Bon-Bon: What?
Lyra: What was the Gilda version called again? As the Griffon Flies? Days of our Gilda?
Bon-Bon: What?
Edit: Lyra: Found it! It was As the Griffon Flies!
I just got Dynasty Warriors 8 yesterday and… It is way more awesome than I thought it would be. But… Gotta do somethin’.
1) Yeah! Gotta let it go! Not like we didn’t pay for it! Although that scorch mark did take a while to grow back.
Not in Ponyville. And Canterlot doesn’t need anything like that. They just use magic. Places like Trottingham and Manehatten probably use snow blowers.
2) It was some third party thing that had partitioned save slots you could switch around by pressing buttons on the device itself. When it corrupted the data it erased everything, but it happened while I was playing Legend of Mana so I at least resaved that. Small consolation. I played the original Digimon World. That game was so crazy. Eating porta-potties.
And yeah. I don’t like hardcore games. EVE was a nightmare. My gaming buddy has a huge story she could tell you that basically ends with her quitting because she inadvertently started a war between two corporations and one of them had a silent hit on her.
But that’s entirely the point. No death runs aren’t much of an accomplishment. It just took practice and learning the appropriate sequence. Most of the trouble you have in Contra is when you stop moving. Once you know where everything is the boss fights are all you have to worry about. And I had a good sequence for X2, but all I can remember right now is to start with Wheel Gator. Hardest part was getting the secret weapon, because if you mistime either slide you hit a spike and insta-die. That’s a painful way to end a run. Still managed to do it twice, though.
I don’t really do stuff like that anymore. There’s so much to play; not much point in wasting time on pretend limitations and replaying identical content.
3) Sure. Sure. Have Redbox too, but good luck finding any in Ponyville.
Yar har fiddle-dee-dee. Should it still be considered piracy when it can’t be found any other way?
Bon-Bon: Oh, you know, she only ran around with the thing for half an hour. Blowing leaves everywhere. Leaves from our yard. The neighbors’ yards. Then when the battery ran down, like anypony could have guessed it would, she tried to recharge it with her magic. Did that break it, Lyra?
…
Bon-Bon: It exploded- Oh yes it did! Huge scorch mark on who’s lawn?
…
Bon-Bon: Same pony that let you borrow it? Why I believe it was. Had to pay for the leaf blower and the damages. She won’t talk to us anymore. Her son, who’s a pegasus, actually flipped me off once. Little colt- gave me the bird! And you know, in the end, somehow you managed to wiggle your way out of explaining what in Celestia’s grace was going through your mind at the time. I don’t suppose you’d care to take this time to enlighten us, would you?
Lyra: … I like Play-Doh?
…
Lyra: Oh come on Bon-Bon, it was funny! Bon-Bon!
…
Lyra: She’s just mad she never got their family’s secret recipe. She never liked them.
1) Well, Krastos doesn’t technically live here. He has his own house in Ponyville. Bon-Bon? Yes, but Tootsie-… Well, I mean she spends a lot of time here, certainly. But she… You see, her parents work a lot so she stays here during the week. She lives with them on the-… You know what? Yeah. Tootsie lives here.
Sweetie moved back home a while ago. I think her parents were having a mid-life crisis with all the vacations and traveling. But don’t tell them I said that. That’s cool that you’re putting me in your Sim-town, though!
2) It doesn’t have to be so black and white, you know. I neither make decent money nor do something I love for a living.
On reflection, I’m not sure I’d enjoy working as a professional musician anyway. If I was one, I’d have to constantly practice and practice and that’s not fun. That’s not enjoyable. Why would anypony want to do that to themselves? Turn what they love to do into work? But, when I come home from working as an aid, I get to pick up my lyre and just have fun with it. No pressure. And if I don’t want to play something, I don’t have to.
I think the only critical thing is that you avoid doing something you hate. It’s like having a bad day everyday. It will ruin you.
3) B: Closure is something real. That thing won’t show her what’s real, only what she wants to see.
Even if it was real, I don’t even know what I’d use it for. I don’t want to see my mother being killed. Or my father…
Thank you, though. I know you’re trying.
1) Nu-… Nothing? Y-Yeah, nothing. I’ve known at least one human for over two years. Not a big deal. Never was.
Why do you ask?
2) I’ve been reading it since further back than I can even trace. It’s great! It’s like, the longest running comic I follow.
3) Did you just call me a boy? And a human? A human boy?
And who is Lily? I was talking to Sexxi-Bbz.
1) Yes. EVE Online. Sorry. I did like Parasite Eve, though. I was all set to finish the Chrysler Building when my memory card reset and I lost everything except my Legend of Mana data. This is why I avoid third party products.
The fundamental idea behind hardcore is that your reward for doing well is nothing special; it’s just the ability to play the game. Your punishment for doing bad is taking that way. I’ll give you a perfect example: XCOM Enemy Unknown’s hardcore mode removes the ability to load and saves everything you do. If somepony dies, they die. If you fail a mission, you fail. If you lose all support, you start over. You could lose some thirty hours or more of work and have nothing to show for it. EVE isn’t a textbook example, but it is very much hardcore in the scale of how much you can lose.
“Nintendo hard” isn’t really hardcore. I’m not all that at video games, but I’ve beat Contra without dying. All it takes is practice and memorization. That conditioning, basically.
[omitted], I beat Megaman X2 without dying and getting the secret upgrade; and that took 3 hours! 3 hours of not dying once!
2) Bon-Bon: We don’t even have a leaf blower. And last time she used one she-
Lyra: Oh! Hamtaro and Bijou were my favorite! I liked Oxnard too! Cels, I want to watch it again! I wish it still aired…
3) No! That’s not me! That’s not who I am! [/Chowder]
1) B: I’ve seen one of those before. It’ll show you whatever you want to see, with no bearing on what’s real. Great if you want a five second vacation in your head, but little else.
B: If there were an easy solution to everypony’s problems, we’d have used it.
2) Alright, look. I’m in hard mode here and this Macca is important. If I give you some will you for real join me?
3) Well, that is sort of the point. Being ruled by a single entity for a long duration only works if the one in charge is truly benevolent and willing to sacrifice for the advancement of his/her subjects.
Otherwise a government for the ruled needs to be governed by the ruled. Rotating an individual in and out every few years only minimizes the damage caused by whoever managed to win a popularity contest.
4) Thanks! That means a lot. Things are a little… shaky right now, but I’m okay and I hope to be here for many years more!
1) Overestimated? No. I think you just have no idea what exactly you should be afraid of. Which is how it’s supposed to be. At least I always thought so…
2) I don’t know for certain what this means. I’m going to guess “no” but I reserve the right to change my answer if need be.
3) Well… Casual games are certainly all about having fun. If a casual game isn’t fun then it has failed as an electronic form of entertainment. But not all games are necessarily very fun. They can offer other things instead. Usually a sense of accomplishment. I might not be having any fun clicking through menus to twink upgrades on weapons and armor, but I can get a great sense of accomplishment once I see the fruit of that effort.
The problem is when casual games, like what Call of Duty actually was (maybe even still is, I don’t know I haven’t played one in a while), get inundated by “hardcore demographics” looking for a sense of accomplishment in a game that’s supposed to just be fun. And of course, if those mic-chewing pricks tried to pick up a real hardcore game, like EVE, they’d get ground up and used for space fuel.
And thus we have the brown/gray, washed out games that are supposed to be “big name titles” catering to this “hardcore demographic” with games that are about as hardcore as J-Pop. Congratulations. You know where to stand, where other players will spawn, and the most efficient method of killing them. Once you get there, you’re not playing anything. You’re just acting on your own conditioned responses. This is also why I hate MOBAs.
4) Well, yes. But you have to remember that prisons in Equestria aren’t just cages. They teach real skills and can even hire prisoners to work on public projects.
B: You still don’t get it, do you? They know who you are. They were watching you. They were the ones that took your house. They know what you can do and they can track you. Any ace-in-the-hole you could have provided is gone, if it ever safely existed.
B: This is not something one pony can solve.
On the train from Manehatten to Ponyville to help a friend of mine with something that may be one of the biggest things to happen to her.
It’s a good thing that this computer has internet access, otherwise I’d be bored to tears. Going to watch something on Netflix. I think I’ll watch Escape From New York (1981, John Carpenter) tonight. What do you think Zach?
1) And it was awesome! Thank you so- Ginza, huh? Opening those mystical chests for the best reward? Sacrifice fusion? Oh! Maybe you’re trying to get a stat up from the shop using tickets!
2) Well, I was supposed to be substituting for the summer. Haven’t worked a day yet. Not looking good.
3) Oh, I don’t know. They aren’t mine. I’m sure they could if they wanted to, but I don’t know for certain. I don’t eat flowers much. They’re kind of expensive. A daffodil and daisy sandwich is like… [omitted] 3 bits.
4) I played GTC 4’s multiplayer a little at a friend’s house. Was fun!
5) Lyra: … Can I-?
Bon-Bon: No you can’t play with a leaf blower.
Lyra: Aw…
Bon-Bon: But of course I’d welcome a new costumer! Not that Pinkie Pie empties out the store or anything. Reliable, though.
Lyra: I don’t know how well I could live by that, but it is cute and adorable and happy and upbeat. Kush kush!
6) Very tiring. Also somewhat disturbing to view, from what I’ve been told.
7) Uh… Rarijack.
Well, alright then.
1) I know, right? On my end it’s more like, “Yeah, I’m playing on the higher difficulty setting but, you know, it’s-it’s taking me a while to clear.” And this one time in particular-, “What are you even doing? 200 hours? And you’re only that far? I completely beat Disgaea in 80.” And I’m all like- da [omitted], dood? All I did was ask a question. Was that even called for?
2) Big enough that I don’t really care about it but have operational knowledge.
3) B: How and were I spend my limited free time is my business.
4) Well, I know Rarijack is. If Flutterdash is canon that would just leave Twipie. And I think we all know better than to ship Twipie.
As a disclaimer: this is a joke and I have no idea.
5) Well… It’s a group of unicorns who’s job is to offer their body and mind for six hours a day to a magical system that monitors vital signs for anomalies. They have no memory of anything they’ve witnessed, in order to maintain privacy.
But the story goes, they can tell the difference between a pony who’s upset about something from a pony who’s getting a rush from thinking about killing somepony. It’s why there’s so few premeditated murders in Equestria.
It’s been around for a while but after what happened in Canterlot it was expanded considerably. And after what happened with Cadance and the changlings they now monitor even the Princesses.
1) Uh… Dragonball. Kirby. Bobobo. Cowboy Bebop. Big O. Shin Chan. I’m sure there’s a bunch of other ones. They were okay at passing the time.
But Speed Racer and Robotech were where it’s at, yo. Oh! And Hamtaro! Little hamsters! Big adventures!
I also watched a marathon of Sailor Moon for like… six hours. And there’s this one incredibly raunchy, and several times explicit, show called Ebichu. But there’s some really funny parts in it!
2) Uh… It’s not that I think you’d purposely give me anything that would hurt me, but I might not like what it does. I don’t like surprises.
No shed, but what would you be storing and for how long?
3) Cool! I mean, I don’t know how much fun it would be to play a sidescrolling Deus Ex, but it still looks great!
Also, I got that other submission you sent in and have been looking through them when I have the time.
4) Not in particular. I do look up some stuff about humans, though. Also, I can’t sing that well.
5) Bon-Bon: Hey! I’m not trying to tell you how to eat! Do what you want! I would be surprised to hear you ate ten, though. You’d probably start to feel sick after four or five.
Lyra: Oh, if I only had the money to eat as much candy as I want… I’d probably spend it on pasta.
So I finally sorted through all those flower pictures I took and set up a morning queue for them. I did them all one at a time so they’ll be spread out for a while. Enjoy!
Also.
Of course!
And I love your hair! I would be sad if you shaved it, but would respect your decision!
Okay, same deal as last year. These were the asks, there’s only two, but they’re pretty good. Sorry I don’t have more than this for the occasion.
If we came first, there must have been some kind of mass extinction. But wouldn’t humans have found a trace of us by now? And what about the sun and moon? On the other hoof, if humans came first where’s the evidence they should have left behind? Even if all the buildings are gone, where’s the subways- the landfills. Shouldn’t the atmosphere be littered with satellites?
I know it sounds like I’m arguing both for and against my own point here, but I’m just… I have this feeling something terrible is going to happen to one of us…
2) B pretty much covered that before. In fact, you were the one that asked about it! I was breaking into somepony’s house and he busted me.
That doesn’t exactly explain how we became friends, though. I guess I could try to cover that…
B: Try as in, dance around the subject? I thought the whole point of this was for you to tell it straight.
Alright, fine [omitted]. B caught me more than once. I [omitted] hated his smug [omitted]. Twice in a week? That kinda doesn’t work for me. So I begged and pleaded like I usually would in that case. Only… he took me up on the offer… And then again. Then things got weird…
B: Continuously catching and releasing a criminal based on a bribe isn’t exactly legal. So I changed the deal.
That was when I started to learn about how I could use amplification and manipulation for self-defense. B taught me. We sort of bonded over that experience. Eventually we stopped. We were never in any sort of real relationship, though.
It wound up saving my life. And, less than two years ago, I used it to save Krastos’ life.
1) You know? I don’t recall… Was something I played at a friend’s house. But then again I didn’t know there were games where being shot canceled reloading.
But it’s okay to not be that good at games. I’m not exactly “l33t” myself. As long as you’re having fun!
2) Your director’s an [omitted].
3) Now Strawberry, you knew good-and-well that B wasn’t going to accept anything you gave him. Why’d you even bother? Now I’ve had a basket of “not normal” fruit sitting in my room for four days that I’m not sure if I should be eating or not.
Also, I have no idea what you’re trying to explain there at the end. No mental image.
4) B: I continue to disagree.
—
Only got two Tell: asks. If you still want to send one, I’ll try to squeeze it in.
1) Oh my gosh! Hi! How’s it going? How’s your writing? Not much has happened over here. Krastos is studying for his doctorate so he’s super busy. I’m just, you know, kinda hangin’ out.
2) Yeah, we drag our butts across the ground.
Because toilet paper is too advanced for us.
3) You mean the spy cams. Yeah, I know about that.
4) That’s not the pony way. And nothing is ever that simple.
5) I’ve never even heard of it.
6) Lyra: Like I was saying, Ever, no big changes or anything over here.
Bon-Bon: I’m answering questions now too! Isn’t that new?
Lyra: You want to answer this one?
Bon-Bon: Ew. No.
Lyra: Me neither.