January 25th
Another day, another step towards terraforming... First thing on the agenda: check the Campsite! Meeting Rhonda on that bamboo island mystery trip taught me that you never know when you might run into a dream villager...
Oh, gross... Extra arrogant (even for Smug personality standards), an eyesore, and judging by his dialogue: can't seem decide what real-life country he's pretending to be from. I'm not quick to actively dislike a villager, but I can't exactly say I'm a fan...
I already can't stand arrogant people in real life, and I frankly can't take anyone who objectifies entire cultures remotely seriously. All I'm seeing here is a more internationally-oriented neckbeard personality type: most just limit it to Japan, and assume that the entire country is like their favorite anime. But Olaf takes that kind of cringe all over the world! Since my next goal is to get KK Slider to visit the island, I begrudgingly had to invite this one for that purpose. Not like the game left me much choice anyways... But I can always cycle him out later: Ooh boy, I'm going to have a lot of 'in boxes' threads to make later! Might end up hitting this one with a net a few times. ESPECIALLY if he pretends to be Dutch for a hot minute. Don't you dare insult my culture like that, Olaf!
You're dang lucky that the game didn't let me ignore you...
Anyhow, I have most of that list to invite KK crossed off already, all I need now is to improve the town rating. This is exactly why I kept on weeding before I unlocked those ratings, so I wouldn't have too much work on that area once I did. Oh well, I was making the place aesthetically pleasing anyways, might as well take the opportunity to get some stuff done. So now all I'll have to do is plant some flowers and put down some fences: since I'm pretty much re-doing everyone's front yard, that shouldn't be a problem.
I started things off with moving Phoebe's house: she's going to be Rhonda's neighbor. I had started re-doing Rhonda's front yard and preparing one for Phoebe as well, but Peanut's house was terribly in the way. Guess whose house is going to be marked for moving tomorrow...?
I've also noticed that I'm going to have exactly one tile left between Nook's Cranny and where the path to the Plaza is going to be: I've taken to planting some flowers there for town rating purposes. I've picked a few that are going to match the flag pretty closely, for pretty purposes.
Also, you might have noticed me wearing something else in this screenshot: a balloon present dropped that new dress for me today! I was thrilled to find a random black variant of this one, so I kept it. I'm usually not that into pre-made clothing items, but I like this dress more then I expected: I had seen it on the wiki, but it's so much cuter in-game.
I've also planted some bushes and some more flowers behind both Nook's Cranny and Rhonda's house: if there's awkward empty space, then it might as well help my island rating, right? Some red camelia's and yellow mums kind of match the flag, so it seemed appropriate.
I've also mapped out a little trading area near my airport: it's going to take breaking a rock to lay the pathing there correctly later, but I heard that those rocks get replaced elsewhere on your island over time. So no harm done by doing so. I am planning some statue-like items near the 'entrance' beyond the airport dock area, but not sure what I'm going to put around there yet.
And lastly: I know I'm going to move the Campsite later, but I couldn't resist pretty-ing it up a little as well. Every little bit helps towards those 3 stars, right?
With this out of the way, it was time to do some dailies: get some fossils, hit some rocks, do some Nook Mile missions... I did show some restraint while shopping yesterday, so I still have enough left to buy the two permits you're going to need for proper terraforming: they're 6k each, and I have enough. But I still need to drum up some extra Nook Miles to treat myself to my two desired paths once terraforming unlocks: 2k each. So to get my island looking the way I want, I'm going to need a grand total of 16k Nook Miles at the very least. I was at 13k at this point, so I had my work cut out for me.
One of the Nook Mile missions was diving, since that gave 5 times the normal amount of Nook Miles today! I ran into Pascal again since one of my catches was a Scallop: in addition to dropping some wisdoms, he gave me a Mermaid Crown this time.
And Flick visited my island today: I got a great deal on selling bugs to him, and commissioned a model from him. My mom has a thing with dragonflies, and I happened to have 3 damselflies on me. So you can understand: I had to support a fellow artist here. Also, I think I really made his day selling all those bugs to him over the course of the day. I think I like Flick better then Nat.
Well, Flick, you made my day pretty good as well, because thanks to your Bell contributions, I managed to pay off my debt to Tom Nook today!
I'm very happy that they included a specifically alternative-looking character in Animal Crossing: not many games dare do go beyond 'acceptably alternative' for some reason: you know, the watered-down amalgamation of several subcultures that we usually get, both in character design and characterization. People are often just too afraid to anger the over-sensitive soccer moms. Flick is frankly a breath of fresh air for me: He visually looks more like some people I have been friends with in real life then anything else. He seems more based on a general punk aesthetic, though: would make sense, since his dad, Nat, had an English accent. Punk music is basically goth music's grandfather, and the granddaddy of subcultures in general. And England definitely had an active punk scene back in the day. Still has an active alternative scene in general to a degree: I've actually been to Camden in London once, the birthplace of batcave music and goth clubs.
Anyhow, after paying off my debt, I luckily still had some Bells to spare. Sorry Tom, no new loan today: I have some villagers to move around first. We'll talk about more home expansions later.
Also, I headed over to the bamboo nursery today, and saw that some of it had grown! I guess you have to plant them one space apart like trees, because a few shoots did not want to grow any further. I also couldn't help myself, and test that Zen Fence out for a bit to make sure that the aesthetics would work well together. Sometimes, you think something will look nice, but then it ends up looking plain ' ol weird once you actually go through with the idea. But I think that the fence sure looks aesthetically appropriate for this area.
Now THAT'S a bamboo nursery! The actual forest is going to be bigger then this, but I couldn't resist leaving the fences there for now.
Also, Phoebe really seemed to want to socialize with me today: she invited me over to her house today, taught me a new reaction (even Flick is happy for me)...
...was part of a quest between her and Rex, and then came over to my house! Kind of embarrassing, since I have her poster in the first room of my house...
She didn't really comment on it, though, so I think it's okay. Please don't mind all of the weird, random feng shui stuff: I'm kind of just having that around since my plan for that room is not complete yet.
After that, I worked on the Gibson Girl dress a little more: it definitely benefitted from making the shading on it a little less harsh, softening the line-art, and simplifying the bustle a bit. I've also added some more detail to the sleeves, and the back of the skirt.
It definitely still needs some final tweaks, though: those often take me the longest. I'm not quite happy on where the pink line on the 'poof' of the sleeve is, for example. It's also the reason why I tend to wear my designs for a while: this way, I'll catch small stuff like that over time before I'd upload a design. In the Haus of Scribbles, we don't settle for sloppy work!
For the rest: I managed to get to my goal of 16k Nook Miles today, and I've paid off my current Nook debt!
With about 30k IGB to spare after that, this means I'm free to get Crayola Island closer to where I want it to be. I think I'm not signing up for a new debt until then, so I can divert all of my funds to island development: gotta get a head start on that terraforming. I think that most of the money is going to be sunk into buying the two types of tree saplings: I can get the fruits I want to keep on my island from both my orchard and the palm trees I've planted on my beaches. Boy, the development of this aesthetic mess of an island has been a ride up until this point, but I'm getting closer and closer to my goals. Terraforming, here I come! Crayola had better be ready to live up to its full potential.
Thank you for reading, and hope you enjoyed!
