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I've been getting back into gaming recently and started playing Stardew Valley!

I thought I'd document my adventures here a bit, if that's okay! There'll be spoilers for the game so if you haven't played it and plan to, be aware of that. I try to not give away too much about how things are done, just what happens and what I encounter while becoming a virtual farmer.

I've played through the Spring season and am now on Day 1 of Summer in Year 1. Which obviously means that my precious spring crops all died overnight?!? Noooo 

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The crops... are dead.

I spent so much money on the seeds!! That's a bummer. My beautiful beans and strawberries are gone. (And yes, that's a scarecrow.)

I'm kinda addicted to this game already, lol. I love foraging, collecting things like wood, stones, plants and other stuff. Currently I'm exploring a mine north of town, there's even monsters so I got a sword to defend myself while looking for geodes, gems and more interesting things...

Here's the inside of my house. The strawberry you see on the table is the first strawberry I ever harvested, and it now sits there, fortunately somehow magically preserved, for me to look at and be proud of. I'm saving money and collecting raw materials now to get a kitchen made by the local carpenter, that stuff is expensive...

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Home sweet home! There's spaghetti in my inventory.

It's been very fun so far, and I've even seen a bunny! It ran from one bush to another, but hey, a bun's a bun.

You decide to just sit down and WAIT, because maybe it's all been some kind of misunderstanding and whoever has taken you has actually mis-taken you for KIBULA THAN, a rogue who looks remarkably like you. Suddenly the sound of FOOTSTEPS echoes through the cave, and you quickly stand up, preparing for WHATEVER. A DARK FIGURE appears, carrying a small LANTERN. Still, you can't see their face as they're wearing a hooded cloak. In a deep DARK VOICE befitting a DARK FIGURE they say: "I am the CEO of DARK CAVE EXPERIENCES Ltd., welcome to the DARK CAVE."

What now?

INVENTORY

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Right! A PANGOLIN will never give up! You decide to SEARCH the beach, and among all the FLOTSAM, JETSAM, FLOTJET, JETFLOT, SAMSAM, and other things that fall off ships, you find a few ITEMS - first, a tiny sealed GLASS JAR with a piece of PAPER inside; next to it, a broken UMBRELLA; then, a little further away, you spot a SUITCASE; also a PAIR OF GLASSES which, through some miracle or other, is not broken; under a nearby palm tree, there's a COCONUT, and a SMALL KNIFE stuck into it; and finally, half buried in the sand, a GLOWING STONE emitting an eerie hum.

What now?

INVENTORY

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Sooo I'm opening a thread here for future projects, which will hopefully help get me going and to actually finish something. Ahem. (Nothing to see here yet, sorry.)

I think my main creative endeavours will be sewing & drawing, but there also might be the occasional exceptions to that rule - there are a few things I'd like to learn, like cross stitch or needle felting. Things I've tried so far: pottery (when I was a kid), crocheting (still do), knitting (I'm not made for knitting, that much I know), spinning with a drop spindle, a little embroidery, paper crafts, making little dolls/plushies, painting & collage, comics, creative writing,... And I'm always curious to try new things!

That said, I'm now going to cut pieces of a pumpkin-to-be out of orange velvety fabric, as Spooky Season is just around the corner and my flat needs to be decorated. 

Apologies if something similar already exists and I just haven't found it, but I've been thinking about a forum game based on a question I'd asked a while ago in the "Stupid questions" thread. Basically, you make up scenario A and scenario B, and the next person is supposed to come up with a story of what happened inbetween.

Example:
A: An old house is haunted by the ghost of a badger, and three teenagers go investigate.
B: The next morning, the house is no longer haunted, but one of the teenagers behaves strangely.
What happened?
They tried an exorcism, it went wrong and the badger ghost possessed the teenager, unbeknownst to everyone, and is now plotting revenge.

I think it could be a "train your imagination / writing" sort of game - I know it helps to get my creativity going when there's prompts & silliness like this. And it's also funny (I hope). Your answer can be short or long, wildly absurd or realistic, anything goes!


So I'll start:

On a rainy day, Fred the Forager heads into the woods. He promised the local innkeeper, Irving, to bring some mushrooms and fruit, a rather urgent request as there are a lot of people coming into the inn because of the rain, and they need to be fed. So Fred starts foraging.

Four hours later, Fred still hasn't returned to the inn, and Irving, now concerned, sends two of his friends to go look for the forager. They follow Fred's path but only find his (empty) basket, his (meticulously clean) shoes, and some (unidentifiable) pink goo on the ground; Fred is nowhere to be seen. What happened?

[Admin note: split from discussion here:]

Admin note: split from discussion here: https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5086.msg155330#msg155330

Sounds like par for the course at an academic conference, yes

That's why I'm glad that the only conferences I ever visited were online.

So... hi there. After a bit of lurking, I decided to create an account - though I'm honestly not sure what to do with it yet. Probably more lurking.

As my username suggests, I'm interested in all things historical dress/fashion & sewing, and I always like to dabble in related crafts. I'm a trained dressmaker and historian (desperately trying to finish a master's thesis), also an avid reader and book hoarder collector. I guess that's the most important info about me, for now.

*waves*