#I have no real data here so don’t look too hard into it

[zipperkiller]

@amtrak-official mine is a personal story only, but one of the things that Vermont did during the pandemic, and up until March this year, the bus system is free, the government is using tax money to pay for it. Since this has happened, I know I’ve used it more than I had before. The biggest reason is because the cost (time, money, stress) suddenly got lower. It got really easy, you just stepped on the bus. The busses also seemed to be on time a lot more frequently, which I imagine is helped by the lower onboarding times since no one has to go looking for change anymore.

Iirc overall ridership increased as a result as well. My thinking is that cost comparison of using the bus vs driving shifted quite a lot in the favor of the bus simply because getting rid of the fee made it less stressful to use, and maybe faster. Love to hear your thoughts on this, and what you think a similar move would do for Amtrak?

THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

[f1cflcfic]

The Prophecy (SMAU ft. Lando Norris) Part V

pairing: lando norris x singer!reader (fem!y/n)

summary: what happens after the break-up that noone saw coming? as Y/N L/N gears up to release her next album, each song reveals a little bit of the past, present and future of her relationship with Lando Norris. Inspired by a curated playlist built around "The Prophecy".

note: this is RPF and is obviously in no way, shape, or form reflective of real persons.

genre: social media au, angst, exes to lovers, happy ending

[A/N: I can't believe we're coming to an end of this! Just one part left to go... And then if you'd like, a whole bunch of 'deleted scenes' :)]

part i part ii part iii part iv

♥･*:.｡ ｡.:*･ﾟ♡･*:.｡ ｡.:*･ﾟ♥

post-race November, 2026

November 25-27, 2026

[Excerpt: BBC Radio 1 Interview with Lando Norris]

“And this morning we’ve got a very special guest on the show, it’s Lando Norris!”

“Hi Greg, how are ya?”

“Good, we’re very excited to have you here in the studio, especially since you’ve only just returned from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, where you won!”

There’s a lot of celebratory noise in the studio, with confetti poppers going off around Norris.

“Woohoo! We did!”

“Ah you know, I love that you still say “we” – even when it’s just you in the car seeing that chequered flag,” Greg continues.

“It’s a team effort, though. I love my McLaren team, and if it wasn’t for all the hard work from all the engineers, the data analysts, and other staff members – I wouldn’t be able to drive to victory.”

“Are you still in the post-win haze, or are you already focused on this weekend’s race in Qatar?”

“Not gonna lie, I’m definitely still riding that victory high, but I’m flying out for the next race tomorrow – that’s when I’ll have to flip the switch. So I’m giving myself today to still lean into the euphoria.”

“All around euphoria? Vegas is a city that can easily also lead you down the path of temptation and very bad, no good decisions,” Greg asks.

Lando smirks. “I would say that all my decisions were actually very great. No regrets.”

“No? I mean, just for that, I think we should play a true classic. We will be back with Formula One driver Lando Norris after this next song, “Waking Up in Vegas” by Katy Perry”

(…)

“And that was “No More Sad Songs” by Y/N L/N, followed by Justin Bieber’s latest return to pop music. Now, Lando – you are also a music fan yourself. Once even had a go at being somewhat of a DJ yourself.”

Lando turns bashful, shaking his head. “Nah, not really. I think it’s fun to experiment, but definitely leaving that to the professionals.”

“Hm you’d think being surrounded by people who’ve made music their career would definitely have somewhat of a trickle-down effect,” Greg muses, and Lando lets out a little giggle. “I don’t think it works like that.”

“Well I think we should see how in-tune you really are with them - see what I did there? – in a game of Sit Down or Stand Up!”

Lando dutifully gets out his phone, then suddenly halts and asks, “can people see my phone like this, no right?” He then waves at the camera and turns away from it as he goes through his contact list.

“Okay so I’ll try Martin then – but he might not answer if he’s in the studio,” he cautions. “That’s alright. Do you think he’ll be standing up or sitting down?”

“Definitely sitting down,” Lando laughs. The phone rings, and rings, and rings. Then gets forwarded to voicemail.

Greg makes a shocked face, then starts grinning. “I think we know now who did party too hard,” and Lando rolls his eyes. “He might be on a flight to Ibiza, actually. Well, what do we do now? I haven’t ruined the bit now, have I?

“We just try the next one! Surely there’s someone else you can call,” Greg encourages. Lando looks at his phone again, eyes focused on the screen as he scrolls in concentration.

“Not that one, definitely can’t call this one,” he mutters out loud, then seems to catch himself and turns a little red. “Okay, I’ll just call Osc. Let me call my teammate. I know for a fact,” he points his finger, “that he will stand up to answer the call. Because he’s polite like that.”

Greg squints in contemplation, then shrugs. “I think, just to be contrarian, that I’m gonna say he’ll be sitting down.”

“What are we betting on?”

“A papaya?”

Lando snorts. “Sure, let’s do it.” This time, it doesn’t take long at all for Oscar to answer.

“Hi?”

“Hi mate, listen, you’re live on Radio 1 and I have a very important question to ask you,” Lando says happily. Oscar groans over the phone, and it’s easy to picture him running a hand through his hair.

“Oh god, alright – lay it on me.”

“Are you, standing down or sitting up,” Lando asks, then bursts out in giggles as he realises what he's done after Greg starts cracking up. “Oh no! Oh no, wait – don’t answer yet. Let me try that again, aahh I said it wrong! Are you … standing up or sitting down?”

“Oh, is Greg James there?”

“I am,” Greg replies, “Hi Oscar! Please let us know if you’re indeed sitting down, or standing up.”

“Hello! I am … standing up, actually Lando called me in the middle of my workout. I’m jogging, so sorry if I’m breathing very loudly.”

Lando pulls a face. “Are you serious right now? You’re making me look bad, mate.”

“Motivation, is what it is – alright, I guess I now owe Lando a papaya?!”

November 28, 2026

[Excerpt: Hot or Not with Y/N L/N]

“Alright Y/N, we’ve got a bunch of statements here – and we want you to tell us if you think they’re hot or not.”

“Ready! Wait, I use this green one for hot right? And red for not, like a red flag?”

“Correct! Okay, let’s start then. First, we’ve got some statements that are related to your album. Sad songs – hot or not?”

“Oh my god, I thought you meant they’d be easier! Ugh, well I guess hot? My last single is called No More Sad Songs, but I love a good sad song, if I’m honest”

"I was wondering about that! Fans are hoping for a music video. Can you confirm or deny the rumours that you've been filming one the past few days?"

Y/N raises the green card. "It's been an absolute blast putting this video together with my friends, at a local bar. I can't wait for the fans to see it."

“Ohhh neither can I! It does bring me to the next topic, because this is how the rumours got started. Juice channels – hot or not?”

“Now that is an easy one. Not. I don’t mind fans wanting to speculate about which single is coming next, or what the tour is going to look like. But I don’t like the invasiveness of some of these pages like deuxmoi.”

“Noted. Have they ever been true, though? Their prophecies?”

“Of deuxmoi or the fans?”

“Either.”

“I mean, of course! If someone sees me eating in a restaurant they could very well be right. It just ruins my experience of existing out in the real world, so I’d rather not read about it the next morning, you know?”

“Speaking of food. How about people naming their pets after food items?”

“Oh like a dog named Taco? Or Kiwi? I think it can be fun! I also like human names for dogs. And I like dog names for dogs. You know, I think I just really like dogs. They’re all *baby* in my head, anyways.”

“Hmm so you like human names for pets. Do you enjoy pet names as a human?”

“Personally I don’t really tend to use them, except love. I find others a bit cringe, but I don’t mind if my partner wants to use them to refer to me. Darling, or baby. I guess what I find hot is someone who’s really open about expressing their appreciation and love for you.”

November 30, 2026

December 1st, 2026

December 3d, 2026

December 6, 2026

[Excerpt SkyNews]

FINAL F1 RACE IN ABU DHABI WILL DECIDE THE WINNER, NORRIS “CONFIDENT”

(…)

Norris arrived at the paddock with friends and family in tow. It’s an unusual sight for the driver who usually sticks closely to a tried and tested routine. Perhaps his crash just last weekend, and the resulting difficult grand prix ahead of him changed his mind. Or perhaps it’s the fact that singer Y/N L/N seems to have travelled with him for moral support.

She did not engage with press, and hurried inside while Norris fielded questions from various interviewers. “I’m eager, and hungry to win this weekend. I feel like I’ve proven myself this past year, and I want to make my team proud. It wouldn’t just be me winning for myself, but also for everyone who’s helped me realise that dream. So I’m not necessarily always the most confident guy, but I do feel confident going into this.”

The driver has a small lead in the championship, and had hoped to capitalise on it last weekend. However, due to a collision with Lewis Hamilton – one of his main challengers – in Qatar, it will all come down to the results of this season’s final race in Abu Dhabi.

Unlike some of his fellow drivers, Norris opted to fly back and forth throughout the final triple header of the season. While it remains unconfirmed, he was reportedly seen visiting his ex in both London last week (prior to Qatar), and New York just two days ago. It’ll remain to be seen whether or not the travelling will take its toll on his performance on track.  

December 7th, 2026

♥･*:.｡ ｡.:*･ﾟ♡･*:.｡ ｡.:*･ﾟ♥

[a/n: we're so close to the end now!!]

You can read the previous parts by going here, part VI is available here.

♥ likes, comments, reblogs are always very much appreciated ♥

taglist (open) : @charlesgirl16, @linnygirl09, @hoeforsirius, @motorsportloverf1, @sarx164, @idkimbadwithusernamesandstuff, @formulaal, @tvdtw4ever @sadiemack9 @seonghwaexile @screamingwines

[cheshireliam]

"Mystery Bag 2025" Story Sale

Fast and Agile! Team Stamina Monsters!

This is a fan-made translation solely for entertainment purposes with no guaranteed perfection; expect mistakes, grammatical errors, and some creative liberties. All original content and media used belongs to Cybird. Please support the game by buying their stories and playing their games. Reblogs appreciated.

Read this before interacting

Prologue (translated by @.judesmoonbeauty)

— Preliminary round. Group 1: Liam, Roger, Ellis, Ring.

…

Roger: This is just perfect. I’m teamed up with a bunch of real nasty fellas again.

Ellis: Nasty?

Roger: First of all, there’s you.

Roger: According to my investigations, your physical abilities are basically superhuman and easily one of the best in Crown. 

Ellis: Really? I don't work out, so I’ve always thought I’m pretty normal.

Roger: Normal people don’t go jumping around on rooftops. 

Ellis: Fufu, I got complimented.

Ellis: Speaking of which, Liam’s very agile too. He’s fast on his feet and has good stamina.

Liam: Unlike Ellis, I’m not naturally gifted with good athletic abilities. I worked out to perform better on stage, that’s all. 

Roger: And then we have you. I think you’re the black horse this time, Vogel’s little brother.

Ring: … Me?

Roger: Just look at those firm muscles. I never knew Vogel had someone like you. 

Roger: Mind if I perform a physical examination on you later? I haven't been able to collect much data on Vogel. 

Ring: … 

Ellis: Roger, you’re making Ring uncomfortable. 

Roger: Oh, my bad. I got excited seeing such a fresh potential research subject— 

Ring: T-that’s not it!

Roger • Ellis: ?

Ring: I’ve never been complimented like that before, so… 

Ring: It made me happy to be praised. I’d probably be prancing around if no one else was present. 

Roger: … You know…

Roger: Has anyone ever told you that you're kind of like a dog? 

Ring: A dog?

Roger: Ring, paw¹.

Ring: L-like this¹?

¹ Roger actually says “hand” here but I just thought this would be funnier because that’s exactly what he’s trying to do. 

Roger: See? Exactly the same. Who’s a good boy~~

Ring: D-damn it…! 

Liam: Ahaha, you’re now part of Roger’s favourites list. 

Ellis: We should let him play with Ale sometime. 

Townspeople: Ready, set, LIAAAAAMM! 

Ellis: Aren't those your fans?

Liam: You’re right! Thanks for supporting me! 

Townspeople: KYAAA~~! 

Roger: Hm? What’s the matter, dog— I mean, Ring? You’re spacing out.

Ring: Ah, um! Liam Evans! 

Liam: Whoa— y-yeah? Did I do something wrong?

Ring: … Umm.

Ring: … Uhhh 

Ring: I’ve always thought you’re really cool! 

Liam: Wha…

Ring: You’re very pink, sparkly, and captivating… 

Ring: I’m not good with my words, but you remind me of a peacock’s feathers… you’re just super impressive.

Ellis: Those are some very… unique compliments. 

Liam: Oh, um…

Liam: I’m really glad that you think of me that way. Thanks! 

Ring: …! 

Ring: … Ah, y-yeah. 

Liam: Hehe.

Roger: This is the first time you two formally meet, huh. 

Ellis: Ring, how happy are you right now?

Roger: Hey, Ellis. Don’t kill him before the competition even starts. 

Event Official: The members of Preliminary Group 1, please gather at the starting line. 

Ellis: Ah, looks like they’re calling for us.

Liam: Alright, from this point on, it’s all or nothing. No hard feelings regardless of who wins or loses.

Ring: Yeah, the competition will be fair and square. 

Roger: It’s great to see you guys all pumped up, but don’t get yourselves injured. I’ve got enough work to do already.

Liam • Ellis • Ring: Got it! 

Roger: I love that response.

Event Official: We will now commence with Group 1’s preliminary round! 

Event Official: Who will be the first to reach the finish line and be crowned the 2025 Happy Boy!? 

Event Official: Let's begin! On your marks… ready… GO!

*BANG!* 

…

Loud Male Townsperson: Wha—!? Those guys are crazy fast! 

Loud Female Townsperson: Everyone else apart from the four of them are falling further and further behind…

Roger: *pant*, *pant*... haha, I knew you guys were the real deal.

Liam: *pant*... It does look like it. Only one of us can make it past this preliminary round.

Liam: Ahaha, I can’t afford to lose. 

Ring: As a proud member of Vogel, I can’t afford to lose either. 

Ellis: Huh? Look, there's something over there.

Event Official: We’ve set up several obstacles ahead! 

Liam: Don’t tell me, we have to struggle and crawl through that net? 

Roger: Damn, Victor’s always leaving out the important stuff.

Ellis: Hmm. Roger, I’ll be going first.

Roger: H-hey! Damn it, that guy’s crawling through the net so easily! 

Roger: My bulkier body is a disadvantage but… argh! 

Liam: HE TORE THROUGH THE ROPES!? 

Roger: No one said we had to crawl through properly now, did they? See ya! 

Ring: I must catch up… whoa! 

Ring: Tch, my right foot got caught in the net. Damn it…

Liam: Ring, don’t move. I’ll help you get it off! 

Ring: Liam Evans.

Ring: I’m your opponent… so, why? 

Liam: Because this is a fair competition, remember?

Ring: S-so sparkly…! 

Liam: Alright, it’s off. Now hurry! 

Ring: I owe you one! 

Event Official: The fastest four contestants with extraordinary physical abilities have cleared the net obstacle…! 

Roger: *pant*, *pant*... looks like Ellis’ taking the lead after all. 

Roger: He’s going to win by a landslide at this rate. When it comes to times like this— 

Roger: Ellis! You’re going the wrong way! 

Ellis: Huh?

Roger: Not that way, it’s the other way! The other way! 

Ellis: Thanks, Roger— wait, what?

Roger: Pfft, haha! Just kidding. See ya at the finishing line! 

Roger: Playing nice isn’t our style, you know?

Ellis: If you’re going to play it that way— ha!

Roger: What the!? 

Ellis: Got your glasses.

Roger: I can’t see! Ellis! Give them back, you idiot! 

Liam: What are those two even doing— whoa!? 

Liam: Don’t pull my shirt, Roger!

Roger: Huh!? Are you Liam? I can’t tell who’s who…! 

Ring: A falling out!? 

Ring: ~~!

Ring: S-sorry, sparkly pink. I’ll be overtaking you…! 

…

Event Official: The leading contestant has reached the final obstacle!

Ring: What’s with this box? 

Event Official: You have to take a piece of paper from the box and retrieve the item written on it. 

Ring: So the final challenge is a scavenger hunt. I’ll take a piece of paper and—

Ring: This theme…! 

Ring: P-pe-person…

Ring: “Person you like”!? 

Ring: No, it doesn't say anywhere that it has to be romantic, so any kind of deep affection is acceptable, right? 

Ring: Where's Nica— 

Event Official: The person must be a romantic interest! 

Ring: WHAT!? 

Ring: I don't know anything about romance, I… 

Kate: Ring! 

Ring: This voice… robin?

Kate: You can do it, Ring!

Ring: !!

Ring: … Ggh, my heart… is racing…

Ring: Don’t tell me, the “person I like” is— 

Kate: Riiiingg! 

Ring: Ugh! 

Liam: Ring, why’d you stop all of a sudd— 

Liam: Whoa, nosebleed! Ring, your nose is bleeding! 

Ring: …

Liam: Roger! Casualty! Ring’s having a nosebleed! 

Roger: Huh? Nosebleed? Let me have a look.

Ellis: Roger, this is Ellis.

Roger: That’s why I’ve been telling you to give my glasses back to me already! 

Liam: Whoa, it’s coming out of the other nostril too!

Ring: I… the robin… 

Kate: Victor, umm this is—

Victor: All of them are disqualified :D

[in1-nutshell]

Hello teacher I'm just resending my request cause I remember you said some of the request you get from other followers disappears and I haven't seen the other request that I have send you when your request box was open

So I took the liberty of myself when your request box was open to copy and paste my requests so here they are

1.) Not too sure where this idea came from but I would like request a (our world buddy again) who happens to have a great fatherly like relationship with Prime Verse megatron who ends up meeting IDW Optimus who actually is her adopted dad he has the papers and data pads to prove everything and Prime megatron and his decepticons decided they were gonna fight IDW Optimus for custody of buddy and it ended somewhere along the line of Prime megatron ended up in the medbay completely unconscious and half of his army traumatized after they found out what an how angry a prime who is a father can really get (technically related to my story)

2.) Don't really know what to think for this one but what about IDW Bots meet G1 bots?

3.) Buddy from our world meet team prime and team megatron from cyber verse world? I would love that interaction

Oh and cyber verse starscream got really attached to her to the point he doesn't like sharing her attention which buddy has no problems with cause she knows why he is the way is. And maybe megatron and sound wave got attached too and devised plans to steal her and keep her the nemesis for a little while cause it's not everyday you meet someone who show so much affection

P.S feel free to write these last cause I know you are busy😃✌

This is a pretty big list, so I went with number 2, minus the Cyberverse part. I don't write for Cyberverse as of now.

Hope you enjoy!

Human Buddy from the real world meeting Team Prime

SFW, Platonic, Human reader

TFP

Buddy was starting to think that maybe the new coffee mixture they had made was really an elixir to travel dimensions.

They didn’t know how hard they hit their head when they saw Wheeljack arguing with Ultra Magnus.

The two bots didn’t even notice the human until they came literally running to Magnus’s pede and hugged him the best they could.

Buddy hugging Magnus’s pede: “If this is a dream I don’t want to wake up!” Magnus nearly jumps feeling the random human hug his pede. Wheeljack looks like he is going to glitch, though he doesn’t know for what reason. Wheeljack: “Hey… umm, kid what are you—” They turned their head so fast Wheeljack was sure that he heard a snap. The human starts running up to him rapidly shaking their fist in excitement: “Wheeljack! I can’t believe I’m actually talking to you! Either that or I may have found the limit of coffee I am allowed to drink.” Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack: “What?” Buddy: “Hey, aren’t you supposed to take me to meet the rest of the team? Isn’t it like, the whole protocol?” Ultra Magnus gives Wheeljack an uneasy look: “You seem to know quite a bit…” Buddy waving their hand: “I’ll explain that later, now, who am I climbing in?!”

When they arrive to the base, they are practically bouncing off the walls.

They are even more excited than when Miko first showed up.

In fact, the new human is excited to meet the kids, Fowler and June just as much as they are excited to meet the bots.

Miko has a taste of her own medicine and feels the need to apologize… someday.

Buddy does calm down when explaining how they know who they are and how they had been through a similar situation like this before.

That leads to more questions, but Buddy refuses to answer them.

Something about ‘Not wanting to mess with the universes’.

Buddy: “Anyways I need to keep you guys from finding out about some spoilers, like Bee’s voice coming back. Team Prime: “WHAT?!” Bumblebee: BEEP!? (MY VOICE?!)” Buddy: “…Rats…”

Optimus does allow Buddy to stay on the base while they wait until they return back home.

Most of the team thinks that another Miko is among them now.

And to a point they are right.

But Buddy also knows when to stop and tries to be useful around the base.

Buddy sweeping the human area. Miko: “This has been the third time you’ve cleaned this place this week. You can leave some stuff around you know?” Buddy still sweeping: “Ratchet finds the mess distracting; I’m just trying to lighten some of the load.” Ratchet, who overhears this now has to rethink his opinion of Buddy.

More respect is earned when they see Buddy football tackle Miko from going into the groundbrigde.

Many hugs are given on what seem like random days.

Those days turn out to be heavier than others and Buddy is always behind the bot ready to hug or do whatever they can to make them feel better.

Smokescreen walks into the base with his doorwings a bit drooped. Buddy running over to him: “Hey Smokes.” Smokescreen puts on a fake smile: “what’s up Buddy?” Buddy patting his pede and giving a genuine smile: “You’re doing great.” Smokescreen just nods because he doesn’t want to cry in front of Optimus. Later… Ratchet still on the main console. Buddy grabbing a blanket and places it nearby. Ratchet: “And what are you doing? You should be in bed.” Buddy: “That’s where you should be too.” Ratchet scoffs and continues working. Buddy: “Don’t think I didn’t see you put back your rations today.” Ratchet stops mid key stroke. Buddy: “I am NOT going to sleep until you get some energon and go to sleep.” Ratchet: “Well then prepare to stay awake for a long time.” Buddy cracking their knuckles: “Bring it! I’ve been awake for 3 days and 3 nights straight during exam week!” Ratchet suddenly worried for Buddy’s health: “…You win this round.” Buddy laughs in sleep deprived.

The bots are wrong to assume that Buddy wouldn’t pull a Miko.

… and now some are considering bringing them out with them.

Buddy fan almost as much as they do with the bots and some cons are now afraid of getting the feral human on them.

But Buddy has also thrown rocks at certain cons out of pure spite.

Buddy throwing some rocks at Breakdown: “SWALLOW YOUR PRIDE AND JOIN US!” Breakdown looking at the human questioning: “What?” Buddy still chucking rocks: “YOU COULD BE A GREAT AUTOBOT WITH YOUR POTENTIAL! BRING KNOCKOUT TOO!” Knockout: “I think this human lost it.” Buddy: “DO NOT LET YOUR MAN GO OUT HUNTING THAT TRAITOROUS SPIDER!” Arcee: “Finally something we agree on.”

[phoenixyfriend]

Soka Takes a Terrorist: Chapter Two

The latest fic in Anakin and the Jedi Babies. Three chapters total.

In which Anakin tries so, so, so hard to be a good dad.

Chapter 2: Consequences

About two thirds of this fic were written by hand on the train while in Japan.

------------

“You are grounded for the next decade,” Skyguy snaps.

Soka is still in bed. Depa and Master Windu are in the next room, and the ‘real’ Mandalorians are all busy with post-battle cleanup—they hadn’t gotten Tor or Pre, but they’d captured a lot of important people and weapons and data—and Soka… is in bed, Ben crawled in next to her.

Shmi is going to be here in three and a half hours,” Ben announces quietly, “less if she drives like buir and uses those boosters she added.”

The ones Mereel and Jango pretend not to know about when the engineers at the hangar complain.

“Thank you, Ben,” Skyguy grits out, “I’m sure she’ll have plenty to say herself.”

Soka tries not to shrink away when Skyguy towers over her bed. She knows she’s in trouble, but she also knows Skyguy would never hurt her.

Even if some of the dreams she’s had, overlaying Pre’s stories of his uncle with the visions she’s had of their ‘training’ sessions, make the sight enough to cause a flinch.

Skyguy hasn’t ever raised a hand against her, but it’s not only her own memories she’s got in her head, these days.

“I am… incredibly angry right now,” he says, and… steps back. “I don’t know what I did to make you scared of me, but no matter how angry I am, I pro—”

“I know!” Soka bursts out. “It’s not you I’m scared of. Or, I guess…”

He kneels by her bed. He takes her hand. He looks her dead in the eyes, and she waits for his words of comfort.

“Then I assume you’re in a place to hear me when I say that I have never been as angry with you as I am right now.”

Oh.

“I’m sorry,” she says, voice smaller than she’s ever heard herself. “I didn’t mean to get caught.”

He closes his eyes, and does that thing where he tries to collect himself enough to decide if he needs to leave the room to cool off.

“Getting caught,” he says slowly, “is a fraction of the issue. Getting caught was about skill, and I do not get angry with you about skill.”

Her eyes prickle, but she… but she can do this. “I’m not sorry for trying to help.”

“For trying to h—” he cuts himself off and closes his eyes, and takes a breath. “Sokanth, you are ten years old, snuck out on a self-appointed mission, alone, no backup, no supervision, barely a note to tell me you were gone, and not even letting me know where until it was too late to stop—”

He cuts himself off, eyes scrunching shut, and takes several deep breaths.

“He was worried,” Ben says quietly, as if she doesn’t already know, “we all were.”

She stays silent. She can outlast her father. Probably.

“I was out of my mind with worry,” Skyguy confirms. “You are a child, Sokanth. What the hell were you thinking?”

She can outlast him.

He might actually be getting angrier. “Sokanth. Why did you do this?”

(Continue on AO3)

[pieheda]

So, I realized only after watching the Todd In The Shadows video AND the hbomberguy video that I, too, have caught James Somerton just making shit up.

I’m not going to cite actual video titles because he changes them all the time anyway so why bother, but he has one that’s about Angels in America and Rent. This is my jam, I’m a theater gay, so I watched them - and immediately felt like the main thesis would fail an English 101 class. The thesis was “people have the misperception that Rent was made before Angels in America, and why is that?” which is not a thing that people believe, actually. At least, not people who know how google works and can just look up release dates. I found myself thinking that maybe he and some friends were surprised at this, and he decided it was a widely held misperception. But I kept watching the video, and when talking about how popular Rent was when it premiered on Broadway, he said that it was taboo to even mention AIDS at the time.

That is completely untrue. I was an adult in 1996 when Rent was released on Broadway, and AIDS was no longer a taboo subject in the US. There is plenty of data out there to support this, but I think it’s particularly compelling that in 1993, the movie Philadelphia, about a man suing his employers for firing him upon learning that he has HIV, was an enormous box office hit. It won Tom Hanks and Bruce Springsteen both Oscars, for Best Actor and Best Original Song. The Oscars aren’t very daring, perhaps you’ve heard. They aren’t big on giving out awards for things that everyone is terrified to talk about.

In another video that is cited by Todd in the Shadows, I realized that I had ALSO caught James making shit up in that one. When I watched the video for Red, White, and Royal Blue, James said that all these straight women wanted gay romance without sex and I laughed and said “they most definitely do not want that”, because I’m a fan girl and I’ve seen AO3. No research needed to debunk that, most if not all women who knowingly consume gay romance absolutely want there to be some fucking. The only person who would complain about that would be some exceptionally clueless homophobe who accidentally stumbled into this movie.

Both of those things, when I saw them, made me shake my head and say “that’s just not true.” I even commented on the Rent video.

What I did not do is think hard about what exactly is going on here. My opinion of Somerton went down with each of those discoveries, but it wasn’t very high to begin with; I never have liked his presentation style, because of how often he talks down to the people he’s discussing or to his audience. But frankly, there’s a lot of content out there that plays free and loose with the facts or starts with a bad premise (“people have this misperception” with no evidence of that isn’t far off from “Marvel fans on twitter hate this movie!” followed by only 5 tweets cited in the article). I just accept that people lie on the internet, I didn’t expect better. I didn’t stop to consider that gays really should do better, particularly we should not lie to one another about gay culture and history, and ESPECIALLY not when claiming to be doing what we do for the purpose of uplifting gays. I didn’t google to see if there were other issues with him, because if I had I would have learned about him getting into it with Jessie Gender and wouldn’t have given him a view ever again.

We’ve reached such a garbage state that I overlooked that. Seeing everything he’s done all lined up in these two videos had a real impact on me. Todd is absolutely right that it’s abominable to add to all the misinformation in the world, and hbomberguy is right that it’s particularly egregious for James to rob from gay writers who don’t have the funds and attention that James does. But it’s especially bad to just make shit up about gay history and the current state of gay acceptance, particularly when James constantly had the perspective that it’s always bad and gay men always have it the worst. Most likely the “everyone hates gays like me especially” was a calculated choice to create an attitude of persecution within his fandom so that they would accuse anyone calling him out of homophobia. But misinformation about acceptance is ALSO harmful to our community. It’s harmful to go around believing that people are out to get you when they aren’t. The cost of damaged mental health is ALSO important.

And he coldly exploited that because there’s a stupid fucking app that is tailor made for grifters to make cash hand over fist by confirming their audience’s worst fears and creating new anxieties in them. It’s absolutely ghoulish.

[simslegacy5083]

Not So Berry (Straud Descendants) Gen 9

Today's (9/13/2024) Episode: Mission Interruptus

As Noemi and Luigi approached the leader of the local rebel faction about their next mission, they were surprised to see her throw her spanner to the ground and let loose with a string of forbidden words. She jumped as she noticed the pair. “Forgive me! You must be our hard-working new recruits. I have some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is that if I can’t fix my ship, then we can’t be shot down.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Noemi asked, since that seemed to be the obvious path forward here.

“Well, I can always use more hands to rustle up possible replacement parts, but I’d most appreciate help avoiding that “shoot us down” thing. I hear you’re pretty handy with a data spike. If you can use this to scramble the First Order’s tracking system, our odds of surviving our trip go way up.”

Luigi wanted to try the hacking minigame on this mission. They traveled to the First Order main control tower and found an access panel tucked out of the way. He inserted the data spike and asked Noemi to watch his back as he worked to penetrate the layers of protection.

“Don’t worry” she replied, “if I see any sign of a patrol, I’ll alert you. Just watch out for the countermeasure programs, this one looks tougher.”

Luigi smiled nervously as he began the process of rewriting the code. Logically he knew it was all pretend, but the park did their job well and just like the day before it felt very real. He was almost done when Noemi called out “You might want to hurry it up, I see a Storm Trooper headed this way”.

He fumbled a sequence in his haste and was shocked, literally, when the screen flashed red and arced with “harmless” static electric defenses.

That famous special effect was supposed to be safe, but suddenly Luigi’s mousing hand went completely numb. He started dropping forbidden words left and right as he massaged a hand that felt like dead wood. Noemi rushed over, roleplaying forgotten as she asked what was wrong.

“My hand… I can’t feel my hand” he gasped out “I made a mistake, got shocked. It’s supposed to be immersive, but this doesn’t feel OK at all!”

Noemi did her best to comfort him. “Hang in there, we’ll figure this out.” She paused then, asking quietly “Could this have anything to do with your Carpel Tunnel? I know that makes your hand “fall asleep” sometimes, but they should have accounted for that if it was going to be a problem when they programmed your data pad. Did you put that on the medical form they gave us to fill out at check-in?”

Luigi hung his head “No. I didn’t see what difference it could make.” He didn’t add that he hadn’t wanted to be restricted from any missions, but he wasn’t fooling his spouse by leaving that out. Noemi sighed “I gotta be honest, that was a boneheaded move. Still, what’s done is done. Let’s find the first aid station, we need to get you looked at, and maybe they should check over that machine too.”

By the time they located the nearest first aid station and got checked in Luigi was feeling relatively better. The pins and needles were uncomfortable, but at least he could feel something and just then that was a vast improvement.

The medic confirmed that the shock had likely inflamed Luigi’s Carpel Tunnel. After a stern reminder to list all medical conditions on the waiver for his own safety she reprogrammed his datapad to prevent future shock effects. “You can try the mission again, but you’ll be at a disadvantage if you don’t wait to recover full use of that hand first.”

Exiting the clinic Noemi asked “OK, so we’ve got some time to kill. What do you want to do?”

“Honestly” Luigi replied, “After that what I need is a stiff drink!”

Goal in mind, their path turned once more to their favorite attraction: The Cantina. Luigi got his stiff drink, but he’d forgotten just how stiff some of them could be!

The Dagobah Slug Slinger was low in sugar because its juices had been converted into high-octane punch. He was also much older than the last time he’d had this particular “park exclusive”, and his tolerance had fallen off with his drinking habits, now that his diet excluded his favorite cocktails.

Noemi fought hard to hold back a laugh when she realized her spouse was literally reeling. “Come on champ” she said, “It’s time to get you to bed.”

“But the miz-shon…” Luigi slurred plaintively. “Can wait until morning” she replied.

Gathering him under her arm Noemi helped her tipsy boy towards the door, asking on the way “How’s your hand?”

“Ach’y” he said with a big sigh “Itz not fair!” “No, its not fair” she agreed, kissing him lightly on the cheek “and I’m sorry, but I’ll make sure to grab an ice pack on the way to our room for you.”

“I wuv you” he blubbered “I know” she replied with a chuckle as she led them both slowly down the path towards some much-needed rest.

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[hoshibatake]

FREEDOM – Virtuality and Ideals/Chapter 5

Previous chapter

<An evening one week later. In the real world, Trickstudio>

Subaru: Oh. Anzu’s here! Otsukaresama¹～

Subaru: Come over here. Come laze around with us☆

Subaru: ...Huh? Work first, fun later? Oh, right. We were supposed to have a review meeting about FREEDOM.

Hokuto: Don’t tell me that you forgot.

Subaru: I remembered, but when I saw Anzu, I got so happy it slipped my mind♪

Mao: I’m glad to see her too, but isn’t that getting a bit too excited?

Mao: We’ve been seeing quite a lot of her since we started hanging out in Trickstudio regularly, don’t you think?

Subaru: You just don’t get it, Sari～. Any time you see someone you love a who~le lot is a time to be happy.

Subaru: Anzu, what’s up? ...Oh, you wanna hear about FREEDOM’s current status while we wait for Ukki～?

Hokuto: We can tell you that, but you have administrator privileges, so can’t you just check the data directly?

Hokuto: ...Fumu. You want us to be able to build freely without any worries, so you only log in when there’s an error?

Subaru: You don’t need to hold yourself back, though. You’re welcome at any time☆

Subaru: But thanks for being considerate, anyway. The current status, huh…?

Subaru: Oh, right. Our four avatars finally formed a unit～♪

Subaru: Out of their own initiative, of course. We’re Trickstar, after all☆

Hokuto: Yes. Putting the surrounding circumstances aside for a moment, I can’t help but be impressed at the realism.

Mao: Yeah, and their actions since they formed a unit have been reminiscent of ours as well. Subaru and Hokuto’s avatars have been jumping the gun, holding live performances in all sorts of places…

Mao: ...but my and Makoto’s avatars have been putting effort into city building and helping out citizens, instead of focusing purely on idol activities.

Mao: It kinda reminds me of the time when we just formed Trickstar♪

<Flashback. Five days earlier, in the information room>

Makoto: (FREEDOM is our first job of the fiscal year, so the agency must have high expectations too.)

Makoto: (In order to get good results, we first need to focus on building the city. This is my strong suit, so I’ve gotta give it my all!)

Makoto: (I’m following the plan I drafted using my experience with previous simulation games I’ve played…)

Makoto: (...but it’s pretty hard to balance it with those idol activities. A lot of things don’t turn out like I want them to.)

Makoto: (The fact that it’s not just about city building is what makes this game so interesting, but it also complicates things, so I’m having a hard time.)

Makoto: (I feel like I’m doing exactly what I should be doing, but the results don’t reflect that. Hrm…)

Makoto: (An online strategy guide would… not exist yet. Of course it wouldn’t. The game isn’t out yet, after all.)

Makoto: (I could still give looking it up on our internal network a shot. Although I really doubt I’ll find anything♪)

Makoto: (...Huh? I got a hit.)

Makoto: (“City Building Plans ‘FREEDOM’. Documentation for internal use.” ...Some of this information wasn’t in the documents we were given.)

Makoto: (Actually, it seems like I’ve stumbled upon some pretty significant information?)

Makoto: (…)

Makoto: (“Choosing idols and having them freely construct a city, using the software we developed in cooperation with this game company.”)

Makoto: (“If they are successful, that virtual city will then be built in reality”...)

Makoto: I already thought that it was strange that this job only consisted of playing a game. So that’s the plan.

Makoto: The reason why they’re letting us build this city however we want is still a mystery to me, but I never thought our city would become real…

Makoto: Actually, that’s a huge issue!

Makoto: The four of us have just been building our own versions of an ideal city, but it would by no means be an ideal city in reality!

Makoto: It’s overrun by dinosaurs and full of factories, with the occasional zombie outbreak and a theme park that’s without power most of the time. We can’t let them build that in real life!

Makoto: There’s a high chance that they would just cancel the whole thing, but I don’t want to let our first job of the year end in failure either.

Makoto: I’ll just have to correct our course, and turn it into a city we can be proud of…!

<Several days later. The dormitory, Makoto’s room>

Makoto: (…)

Makoto: (...Oof. How many all-nighters have I pulled now? I’ve lost count.)

Makoto: (By overhauling the factory area, I’ve increased the factories’ energy consumption, but now they’re less destructive to the environment.)

Makoto: (And I tore down all of the city in order to fix the infrastructure. I’ve widened the roads and improved traffic flow…)

Makoto: (I’ve built more parks, improving the citizens’ living conditions. The ambiance in the city should be much better now, but…)

Makoto: (It’s nowhere near ideal. There’s just not enough time.)

Makoto: (I feel like the career system... or rather, the idol activities that are being organized because of it are getting in the way of the development of the city.)

Makoto: (When they’re called upon, the avatars automatically start prioritizing idol activities.)

Makoto: (Their training takes up a lot of time, and when people gather for concerts, they end up leaving a big mess in the city...)

Makoto: …

Makoto: Maybe I should make the avatar ‘me’ leave Trickstar.

Makoto: I feel like their idol activities wouldn’t really change, even if ‘I’ wasn’t there. I’m sure ‘I’ would have more to contribute in terms of city building.

Makoto: The others might be a little disappointed, but I feel like this is the better option…

Makoto: But my eyelids feel so heavy… I can’t……

TL notes:

This is a standard expression used when greeting someone who has been working.

Translated by me, proofread by Altea (@icaruswasthesun on Twitter)

Next chapter

[writeforfandoms]

Welcome to New York 4

Find the series masterlist

Here we are, folks. The official introduction to the larger Spider Society! Things won’t go badly.

Yet.

Warning: Swearing, shock and awe, I think Lyla is awesome so now you do too, Miguel is still Mr. Grumpypants.

Word count: 2.5k

You’d kind of figured you were off the hook by now. You hadn’t seen Spiderman since he’d threatened you (although you’d caught glimpses of other Spider-people). You had stopped investigating, as you were told. 

You’d given up your primary hobby. Which sucked. But you liked not vanishing. 

And you figured something else would catch your attention. Eventually.

You did not expect to hear your window slide open nearly a month after your last meeting with Spiderman. You froze, in the middle of putting together a little snack, and then grabbed a knife before turning to look. 

Spiderman in your living room was no less intimidating, standing taller than life. Even though you knew he was real, had been close enough to feel the heat of him. 

You swallowed hard and very pointedly put the knife back away. 

“Good choice.” He didn’t move towards you, letting you approach him. Which you did. Slowly. 

“I haven’t done anything.” You eyed him, a little more emotionally prepared this time. Not to say you weren’t nervous - your heart was attempting to gallop out of your chest. 

“No. You haven’t.” And he sounded somehow displeased about that. Like he wouldn’t mind having an excuse to throw you into some dark cell somewhere. 

You licked your lips, shifting your weight, gaze darting around the room. But there were no hints, no clues. Just Spiderman standing, arms at his sides, calm as anything, in the light of your living room. Which did give you a practically unprecedented chance to study the design of his suit. “Okay. Well. Uh. Why are you here?” 

He was quiet for a few more moments, a few of the longest of your life. Then he sighed softly, so softly you almost didn’t hear, and lifted his hands. A few taps on the device strapped to his wrist, and he pulled up a document. A flick of his fingers sent the document to your pad, which chimed softly at the incoming message. You hurried to open it, scanning through the first paragraph. 

Everything screeched to a halt.

“What…?” You went back and read it more carefully. There was your legal name, and “offer of employment”, and a sum of money greater than any other job you’d had. You lifted your gaze slowly from the glowing document to Spiderman. “I don’t understand.” 

“The work you put in on your research was solid,” he admitted, sounding like it physically pained him to admit as much. “Some of my colleagues think it’s a good idea to bring you on board to help with some… organizational needs.” 

Meaning he didn’t think so. Somehow, you were both hurt and not surprised. You dropped your gaze to the contract again, hiding behind it. 

“So you’re offering me a job.”

He muttered something that sounded like a curse. “Yes. Read through it. You’ve got until Friday to decide. Meet me at 7pm, same building you poked around in.”

“Okay,” you agreed almost mindlessly, brain still rebooting from the sheer shock of it all. “Friday at 7.” You looked up to thank him.

But he was gone.

You breathed out slowly. Well. He was a bit of a dramatic one. Did that come with the territory of being a Spider-person, or was it just him? 

Shaking your head, you finally actually sat on the couch, settling in to read through the contract. It sounded… good. Too good, really. On property medical. Higher salary. Negotiable time off. 

Honestly, it made you suspicious. A job offer, out of the blue, tempting enough to be hard to resist? Yup. You were suspicious now. 

“The fuck is this about,” you muttered, reading through the job duties again. Which were not actually that helpful. Organizing and filing, both digital and physical. Retrieval of data upon request. Assisting with research. Sounded a bit like a librarian position, but you honestly had no idea how they could need a librarian. 

You made a few notes, highlighted a few things, and then shoved it aside so you could actually sleep. Or at least try. 

Of course, you couldn’t really leave it alone all week. 

It could be some kind of trap, part of you argued. A very elaborate one.

But totally unnecessary, the less paranoid and more logical part of you pointed out. He could have just hauled you off if he wanted to. You knew he was strong enough.

Which meant it was probably an actual, legitimate job offer. 

And that? Just the possibility of that got you excited and a little jittery. 

You might have arrived fifteen minutes early on Friday. You weren’t sure if you were meant to meet him down on the ground floor or the floor where you’d met Mayday and her dad. Going on a hunch, you went up to that floor. 

The view from up here was still beautiful, with lots of green around. Up here, the buildings weren’t so close together, letting evening sunlight through. Which was almost certainly how they maintained the green spaces. You weren’t so high up that you were quite above the traffic, not here, but you could see where the rest of the building was. 

Actually, this building was kind of ridiculously tall. Much, much taller than all the surrounding buildings, for sure. 

“Who even needs that many floors?” you mumbled to yourself, bracing your hands against the railing to look up. 

“We do.”

You jumped, whipping around to stare at Spiderman. He hadn’t quite joined you outside, standing in the doorway so the shadow of the building kept him half-hidden, the red on his suit almost startling. 

“You’re gonna give me a heart attack,” you accused, pressing one hand to your chest. 

He didn’t apologize, watching you. At least, you assumed he was, as his mask was on. As always. “What’s your decision?” 

You breathed in slowly, trying to calm your heartbeat. “I accept.”

He nodded once, short and sharp. “Be here on Monday, then.”

“I need to give my previous job a bit of warning,” you protested, frowning. “I can’t just vanish on them.” 

“You’re a security risk,” he ground out. “Either you start immediately, or this all goes away.”

You huffed. Well. He was not doing great on improving your opinion of him. Then again, he clearly wasn’t trying. “Alright, fine.”

“Smart choice.” He straightened a little. 

“I do have some questions.”

He waved you off. “Monday. Be here early.” He took a step back, melding into the darkness of the building. 

And then he was gone, leaving you alone on the balcony. 

You spent a few more minutes up there thinking over the interaction before you left. You picked up dinner on the way home and then settled in for the weekend. 

Honestly, you had no idea what to expect Monday morning. The bottom part of the building, the part you had access to, was bustling with business people. It looked like businesses rented out the office spaces. Which was a smart way for the Spider-people to generate money, honestly. 

Nobody even gave you a second look as you took the elevator up to the top floor you could get to. You found an out of the way spot to sit and wait, humming a bit to yourself. This part of the hallway was quiet, office doors closed and only the occasional person walking past. 

So when someone called your name, you looked up, a little surprised. A beautiful black woman stood in front of you, hand on her hip. But she looked… different, somehow. You blinked twice, tipping your head a little. 

“That’s me,” you said, standing and smiling. 

“Come with me.” She turned and started walking. You hurried a bit to catch up. 

“Are we going upstairs?” You couldn’t help it if you sounded a bit hopeful, and maybe a tiny bit apprehensive. 

Her lips quirked in a smile. “Yup,” she agreed, one hand resting over her belly, and you couldn’t help but be a bit curious. “I’m gonna be giving you the welcome tour today.” 

An elevator opened in the very back, one you hadn’t noticed before. Your eyebrows shot up your forehead and you couldn’t help but grin.

“Feels a bit like an old spy movie,” you murmured, stepping in after her. 

“Here, wear this. You’ll need it to get access to the different parts of the building.” She held out a slim bracelet-thing, which you examined for a moment before you slipped it on. It looked like the one she wore, but slimmer. 

“Is that what yours does as well?” 

She chuckled. “Mine does a bit more than that,” she admitted, even as the elevator suddenly brightened, glass between you and the rest of Nueva York. You looked out at the view with wide eyes. 

“Oh wow. Do you ever get used to this?” 

She paused, tipping her head a little as she followed your gaze. “I don’t have much time for sightseeing.” 

You hummed, turning back away from the glass when you heard a door open. 

“Welcome to Spider Society.” She shot you a smile, amused at your reaction. Your eyes had gone very wide and you were trying to look everywhere all at once. 

There were Spider-people literally everywhere. Everywhere. Upside-down on the ceiling, standing horizontally on the walls, walking ahead of you and your guide. All heights, all sizes. Pretty much all of them were in costume, so many variations on red and blue that you were nearly dizzy with it. 

“Wow.” You turned in a slow circle, managing to not stumble over your own feet, overwhelmed. This space was huge and open, with criss-crossing support beams and walkways. 

“This way.” She had paused to look back at you, and you hurried to catch up. 

“And this is just the entry way, huh?” You grinned, sticking closer to her while still looking around. 

“Uh huh.” She nodded to a couple passing Spiders. “There’s a cafeteria just up here, you’re welcome to come eat here.” 

“Awesome.” You made sure to make note of the turn to get to the cafeteria, taking a quick look around. A whole variety of Spider-people, mostly with coffee and pastries at this time of the morning. Very cool. 

“You don’t need to worry about most of the rest of this place.” She went down another hallway and to another elevator. “You’ll be working in the archives.” 

“Physical or digital?” 

“Mostly digital.” The elevator went down a few floors and she led the way into the space. This entire floor seemed to be the archives, cool air blowing across your skin. (Note to self: bring a sweater.) 

“Wow.” You looked at the sheer volume of computers in the room. “I’m guessing this is for your whole… base of operations.”

“Uh huh.” She took a step back. “Lyla, say hi.”

A little glowing golden person appeared at about eye-level, coat draped dramatically over her shoulders. “Hi! I’m Lyla, the best and most important part of HQ.” 

“Hi.” You blinked. “Are you an AI?”

“Mmhm! The one and only.” 

“Oh wow, I’ve never actually seen an AI. Met? What even is the correct terminology?” 

“Either way, just depends on how friendly you want to be.” Lyla grinned at you. “I’ll show you where to get started!”

“Thanks for the tour,” you said to the woman, turning to give her a little smile and slightly awkward wave. 

“Sure thing. Name’s Jess, by the way. In case you need to find me later.” She nodded once more to you and sauntered out of the room. 

“Okay. Little overwhelmed.” You turned a slow circle, taking in the room. It had that unused feeling - there was no dust, but it felt like nobody came here often. 

“That’s pretty normal,” Lyla agreed, filing her nails. “Takes most of the Spiders a bit of time to calm down.” 

“Fair.” You breathed in deep. Okay. You were here to do a job, not to freak out. “Right. What are we looking at?” 

Screens popped up, dozens of them. Hundreds possibly. Your eyes went wide in despair. 

“Some of it has been done,” Lyla told you, standing near your shoulder to look out at the sea of gently-glowing orange-ish screens. “But we just kinda threw it together back at the beginning, before we knew there would be this many.” 

You sucked in another deep breath. Okay. Yeah, this would be a lot of work, but you could do it. “Okay. Let’s see what you’ve got so far.” 

The first day was not quite a wash, but you did spend the entire time learning the original tagging system and deciding how best to move forward. This wasn’t exactly something you were trained in, but, well… You could organize things. You liked to. You even liked to keep track of data. 

So it wasn’t a hardship. It wasn’t even necessarily hard. Just time consuming. 

Nobody kicked you out, but you still finished up and left the room. Taking the elevator back up was a little odd, and Spider Society seemed to be even busier now. You had to do a quick side-step to avoid someone swinging past you. 

“Incredible,” you murmured, taking a few moments to just look. 

“It is, huh?” 

You jumped a little and turned to look at the man in the pink bathrobe. “Oh! Hi again.” 

“Hi.” He grinned at you, tired but happy. 

“Where’s Mayday?” You motioned to the empty baby carrier. 

“Hobie’s got her for a few minutes. I wanted to check in and see how your first day was.” 

You shrugged. “Fine. Quiet. It’s gonna take some time to get everything updated and sorted properly, but I can do it.”

“I don’t doubt that.” He smiled at you, clapping a hand to your shoulder. “Who gave you the tour this morning?”

“Uh, Jess showed me around a little bit?” 

“I bet she didn’t show you any of the fun stuff, though.” 

“Define fun stuff.” You spoke a little cautiously, eyeing him. 

“She definitely didn’t show you the fun stuff.” He grinned. “I’m Peter, by the way. Peter B. Parker. There are a lot of Peters around, so be aware.” 

“Really?” You looked at him curiously even as he gently herded you along. 

“Oh yeah. I forget what percentage it is, but it’s a high percentage of Spiders are Peter, or some derivation.” 

“Interesting.” You shrugged. “I’m sure I’ll learn all about that sooner or later.”

“I bet you will.” He shot you a friendly grin before he sat you in front of a counter. “Now, you have got to try this shake. I don’t even know what’s in it, but it’s amazing.” 

“Um.” You blinked at him, not quite sure where this was going. Food, apparently. 

But you were admittedly distracted when you spotted your universe’s Spiderman walking through the cafeteria. His mask was off, leaving you blinking at thick dark hair. Brown-red eyes met yours across the room and you froze. 

He looked away first, turning and walking in a different direction. You breathed in again.

You’d had no idea he was such a handsome jerk. 

“Oh, Miguel?” Peter chuckled, patting your shoulder and jerking your attention back to him. “Don’t worry about my friend! He’s all bark and no bite.” 

Somehow you doubted that.

[traineecryptid]

NPSS Weibo Q&A (20240831) Part 3

This is a Q&A session held on Weibo. People will tag their questions with the hashtag #南派三叔藏海花在线答疑# (#NPSS Zang Hai Hua Online Q&A#) and NPSS will look through the tag to pick some to answer. The event started at 1500 hours on 2024 August 31st.

Folder with screenshots and big compilation google doc is here. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

1554

Q: Shu, you and Xu Lei and Nanpai Sanshu living well together is more important than anything. This is the real Iron Triangle. 

A: I can act in three roles from Identity V by myself, right?

1555

Q: When will Flowery Night be released? Actually movies aren’t a bad choice. What do you think, Sanshu? (but please choose Ji2 please)

A: I will work hard to do movies!

1555

Q: It’s really too hard to say goodbye. I want to ask what do you think about saying goodbye? A: I never say goodbye, only ever die suddenly.

1556

Q: Shu, have you thought about going on variety shows? I feel like your recent mental state is very suitable to say something [at variety shows].

A: Heh heh heh heh, no one will invite me.

1557

Q: Have you seen the Yucun play? A: I’ll go see it in a few days.

1559

Q: I want to know what the others [in the tomb raiding circle] think about “because of Wu Xie, the worth of Zhangs rose”.

A: Just like in the entertainment industry. They think guzhuang idol dramas could make people famous, so they all went to act in guzhuang idol dramas. 

1559

Q: I feel like Sanshu is replying rather quickly. You're answering questions everyday. Last time it was Douyin, now it’s Weibo. I’d say that all the sets in ZHH are all pretty good! I’m awed. I could tell that there’s heart in them. But that transition from young Wu Xie into Wu Xie a few years later shocked me. I was just telling my sister that this young Wu Xie is so handsome and just as I finished talking, the person changed. How did you come up with the idea to make Wu Laogou play Wu Xie? A: Maybe this represents a sort of heart demon. (T/N: heart demon is like an obsession, something that bothers a person a lot and they would always circle back on it and it would affect everything they do etc.)

1559

Q: Is the beginning of Flowery Night them going to Iceland together? Will there be clues about the brass box there?

A: There will be.

1601

Q: (T/N: original question was deleted but according to the comments…) Will you act as Wu Xie in a drama?

A: For you, I will surely do it.

1601

Q: Shu, did you know that Qin Hao laoshi’s profile pic is still Sha Hai Wu Xie!!!! If you don’t answer me, I will A: I know. I’m teary eyed.

1602

Q: Shu, ZHH is really not bad! Are you happy with the current data and reviews?

A: I’m really quite happy. So this is how it feels to have a good response. I’ve grown numb after being scolded for the past ten years. I’ve forgotten this feeling.

1603

Q: Shu, which scene in ZHH left the deepest impression on you?

A: Three days of silence.

1604

Q: Sanshu, are you still writing the 2nd ZHH novel? Which novel are you updating now?

A: I haven’t turned around yet. (T/N: this probably means that he hasn’t managed to switch tracks from working on other things back to working on writing yet)

1606

Q: Shu, what do you do when you hit a plateau? Would you lose sleep? Or would you imagine what Wu Xie and the others are doing?

A: I don’t hit plateaus. I’m just lazy, lacking self control and cowardly, and I like to procrastinate and run away from reality. Although I have a lot of weaknesses, I’m greedy at the same time. Sigh.

1608

Q: Shu, I want to know what else left a deep impression on Wu Laoban when he was in Tibet. A: The dry toilet on the cliff. (T/N: reference below)

Another 15! Some shorter questions this time. And part 1 to part 3 covers the first hour of Q&A and some change. Good news is that NPSS's pace is still slow for now and I'm slowly catching up. I do have a few more posts worth, but I figured that I should space them out so we don't get tired of them.

[fights4users]

The quorra problem | Programs, isos and the real world

Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with Quorra as a character! It’s more of a story element critique if anything, please read and don’t jump on me for the title. Quorra is adorable and I enjoy legacy- even if it doesn’t look like it from how I keep tearing it apart.

It’s a damned if you do damned if you don’t situation. On one hand you can’t leave her inside the grid when Flynn decides to literally go nuclear but you can’t leave her in the real world either. They have to because they wanted Flynn’s self sacrificing ending or wrote themselves into a corner (this isn’t about reintegration but I will still complain) and this was there way out. But they didn’t consider the implications of it at all.

Cosmic horror-

I’ve made several posts about it and still want to write something with this idea but to a program— the real world wouldn’t be so miraculous like how we see theirs. The minute you’re outside you’re Imediately bombarded with sensory overload and just too much information to process. The grid, which is much more human in its design than the ENCOM system, is still infinitely more minimalist than our world. One of the best scenes is Clu and his team raiding the hideout and not knowing what a single thing is and freaking out, she seems too well adjusted for someone who’s spent a few hours max here— look I know it’s the end of a movie and they can’t do that whole arc, but I digress.

Also don’t get me started on the rumored Ares plot and how they totally forgot quorra is already a program(technically iso) in our world- also it’s not really a “tron” movie plot— where’s the allegory?! The metaphor?! The symbolism?!

Another thing is that…Sam can’t tell anyone about her. Maybe Alan but her mere existence in our world is brain shattering. Trying to explain a advanced humanoid being that’s not here to harm us and is totally cool guys almost never goes well. It also leaves people a LOT to grapple with…like everything we know being forever altered.

This whole situation should be terrifying from both perspectives, however I love the theory that the only reason she was able to get out into the real world at all was because of Flynn’s data stored in the beam. That’s a great thought that almost makes me like her being in the real world just from how much impact that is.

Infectious-

What happens now? She can’t be revealed to the world (yet) and to put her back in the remains of the grid would be cruel. Putting her in another system would be wildly irresponsible because- do we even know what ISOs do? Across all media its “they’re special” but absolutely squat on their actual function or what they’re capable of. We see they have some kind of digital dna that’s literally a miraculous occurrence but that’s about it. Did Flynn even know? Are they just there- existing but not effecting/having a real world computer impact? Or worse - what if clu was right and they did contribute to the crumbling state of the grid? (I think it was a combination of his own fear and scapegoating—I’m just tossing the idea out there).

Sam transferring her over to another system without knowing what she does or how she could effect it would be disastrous. Am I saying she’s dangerous or would have any intent to harm? No not at all that’s now who she is, but it’s sort of a “releasing a domestic cat into the woods a state over” you don’t do that.

Does she get a regular job now, does Sam hire her at ENCOM? She’d likely be some sort of computer smart…in that she come from one. Or does he like —- set her up at a McDonald’s? How’s she get energy does she get plugged in- being in the real world isn’t going to magically give her a stomach. Sam just takes her to a power grid and she causes SoCal to blackout lmao.

Open portal-

I’m aware most of this post is just me overthinking the implications of everything they didn’t intend us to think to hard about. It’s supposed to be “yippee they’re safe” and I’m worried about digital ecosystems and what the human brain can handle. I think my problem mainly strives from this trope where the character brings home their friend from the other world/ is the reverse situation and no one bats an eye at all. It’s because they want the characters to still be friends no matter how many rules it breaks or sense it makes. It happens most commonly in cartoons. (There’s at least 3 in recent memory)

I’m not saying I want quorra to have been caught in the blast but that there’s a way they could’ve kept communication without world breaking. Open portal situation where he goes back to visit, he chats with her on the screen, both stay in their own worlds its sad but logical etc (I’m not writing a new ending but you get the point).

I guess it annoys me so much because it’s left so open ended, ride off into the sunrise while ignoring the implications™️. “I guess, We’re going to change the world” ok how 🧍‍♂️. The movie did not nearly give me enough information about ISO’s to see what changes they exactly do besides taking over ENCOM. “They[Iso’s] changed everything” ok how🧍‍♂️. Yeah it’s immaculate conception but what do they do I am shaking your shoulders Disney what do they do!

It’s not quorra I’m mad about or even the concept of ISO’s but it’s how the writing just falls short in these HUGE areas that require a lot of lore and information to be given that they just do not. And consistently don’t In the other media forms like betrayal (I haven’t seen uprising maybe they explain something). If you’re going to have beings that shatter your ideas of reality you sort of have to explain that!

[jackie0lantern]

Do you know what really amazes me how many people take time out of their data Judge other people. It’s the Internet you don’t know these people in real life get over yourself so apparently we’re just going to address a fictional a.k.a. cartoon that’s probably gonna be 18 in the next movie and y’all are getting it wrong. He’s not 15. As a 16 year old, I know that half you people are minors to I get it you’re scared. I am terrified, knowing that this is going to last longer than it already needs to be! Get over yourselves let people right that’s the whole point of Tumblr if you don’t like it, get off it or just block the tag it’s not that deep in the point that I have to come on here because I keep waking up to some friends of mine, crying or other people, stating that they can’t write anymore because of people like you. The main reason I ever got on here was to tell people to stop all right have you ever felt the feeling that you’re not gonna be able to sleep knowing that a friend needs a shoulder to cry on? Needs to say they are minors to all they wanted to do was right about a character. They had a crush on that it’s probably a phase too, but no you guys just had to open your mouth and make my life even harder than it already is I just want to play my video games and not think about the future! It’s not that hard to ask and it’s not that hard to just look back on all of you did and say hey I’m kind of being a dick right now. Don’t bother flooding this with comments because he will get immediately blocked. I just want a good nights sleep it’s not that hard to ask and I definitely don’t wanna wake up to people crying about not being able to write anymore. Need to say my friends are. 13-15 I am the oldest I am 16 they look up to me and it’s not right that I have to download an app just to tell somebody off no tell an entire community off! Keep your damn comments to yourself it’s not physically hurting you if you don’t like it like I said before block the tag!!!

[mothergold]

Tighnari or Cyno, maybe?

This isn't my best work, but it was still very fun to write and it's not as bad as it could be, so here you go mootie!! I hope you enjoy it <3

| The Capabilities of a Man |

Afab!Gn!Reader x Tighnari 

Warnings: MINORS DNI THANKS, Brief Smut, Mutual Pining but their both oblivious idiots (not really explicitly said), Friends with Benefits relationship, Reader is an alchemist that works alongside Albedo & Sucrose, Reader is from Mondstadt, No pronouns for reader, He/Him for Tighnari, Tighnari takes off your shirt consensually, Reader is a sensitive baby bc me too bestie, Afab reader, Gender neutral reader, Biting, Scratching, Nightmares/Night terrors, Hyperventilating, No mentions of breasts but there’s alludings to it if you squint, the pacing of this is a little off but oh well, 1.9k words. 

“Fuck me, it’s hot.” You exclaimed, putting a hand above your forehead to block out the sunlight.

Although the weather in Sumeru was hard to adapt to, there was fortunately so much to be explored, or in your case, researched. You were sent from Mondstadt to do research on the local fungi lifeforms in the area. It was already proving boring and easy work to say the least, but the fact of boredom disappeared the moment you ran into him. 

“Well, what do we have here? Didn’t think I’d run into you here of all places.” You heard a familiar voice say. 

Looking up you saw the face of the familiar voice, Tighnari. 

“Hey, it’s you! How’re you, uh, how are things?” You tried to make conversation but ended up coming off nervous.. 

“Just patrolling the forest, making sure idiot adventurers don’t stray too far from the path.” He sighed. “The usual. But the real question is why are you here? You’re very far from home.” He asked.

You sighed and gave up on appearances. You’d think sleeping with the man in front of you a few times would make you loosen up around him, but you would be very wrong. There was something about him that made the tension so thick and so palpable that anyone could feel it just by looking at the two of you. 

“I was sent here by the chief alchemist on a research mission, as well as to collect some data on the lifeforms that live in these forests.” You replied, more focused on Tighnari than your research. 

Tighnari looked behind him towards the lit up forest ranger houses, and then back to you with a concerned expression. “Well, it’s getting dark, too dark for proper research. Let’s get you inside.” Before you could even protest he said, “Come on, you can stay with me for the night, then we’ll find you a proper place tomorrow.” 

He grabbed your hand without warning, causing you to tense up and become hot with embarrassment, and led you back to his home. Once you were inside the place you took a moment to look around and study the surrounding area. Inside it was lit up by candlelight, and a lone lamp that's design was quite elaborate, yet tasteful. Looking around at the rest of his living area you could tell just how passionate of his work he was, and you expected nothing less from your old friend. 

Friend. Heh, life sure is a bitch.

At least that’s all you could say to reason with the dull aching in your chest. It was as if the archons were taunting you, playing a sick game of cat and mouse. Seeing how long it would take to make you surrender, but you were tougher than nails, stronger than most people realized, so you lived on. Unfortunately, the downside was that you slept with a man on occasion who you had deep feelings for, who you knew didn’t feel the same. Still, you chose to torture yourself, and instead of the plethora of opportunities you had to speak your truth were left to die on your tongue. 

Turning your attention back to Tighnari, both gratefully and regretfully—joyous to see him again, but sad to live the same ending over and over, again—you watched as he made the bed. His bed. The bed you’d most likely be sleeping in, beside him. After all, you both had already had sex, so what else was there to hide? What’s the worst that could happen?

After he’d finished preparing the bed he gestured gently for you to crawl in, but still keeping his distance. “Get some sleep, please.” He said, exhaustion dripping from his voice.

You crawled into bed hesitantly and asked quietly, “What about you?” 

He smiled and shook his head. “I’ll be fine, you go ahead. I’ll stay up and keep watch.” 

You shook your head angrily and grabbed his wrist. “No, you need sleep too. Get in the bed, ‘Nari.” 

His ears pricked up then flattened as he looked away in embarrassment. He couldn’t win when you used that nickname of his, it was his kryptonite. “Fine.” He said begrudgingly and slid in bed beside you. 

He turned off the lamp on his nightstand and let out a comfortable sigh as he snuggled underneath the covers. He enjoyed this, he missed you, more than he was willing to admit. The forest was unusually quiet that night, too much for Tighnari’s liking, especially when he had you sweating beside him. He knew you weren’t used to the weather, but he was still a tad surprised by your ability to become so hot so quickly. 

“Are you comfortable?” He asked.

“M-me? Oh yeah, I’m okay.” You lied. 

He let out a small groan and turned on his side, taking some of the blanket with him. “If you’re gonna lie to me, at least do a better job.” 

You swallowed hard and tried not to let the tears surface, biting back your cries of shame. 

Then, he spoke up, again. “If you’re still hot you’re going to have to remove some clothes.”

You knew Tighnari was blunt, but maybe it had been awhile since you both had truly seen each other. The ache in your chest began to grow as did the sweat pooling over and under your chest. It was hot, hotter than you realized and as much as you hated to admit it, he was right, but you could’ve at least tried to hold out, and so you did. Well, you tried to, but Tighnari got annoyed very quickly.

He turned back over to face you and placed his hands on the sleeves of your shirt. “Let me.” He waited for your nod of approval before removing your shirt.

You were embarrassed, sure, but at that point the heat became too unbearable and you had given up on fighting him. 

“Better?” He asked, and you nodded in agreement. “Good. Now, get some sleep.” 

The rest of the night went by smoothly, you slept through the sounds of the forest and the soft snores of your friend. You’d finally cooled down, even let go of your shame enough to unknowingly wrap yourself around the forest ranger. It was peaceful in the purest of ways. That is until a horrible nightmare ripped you from your peaceful slumber. You tossed and turned frantically, causing Tighnari to stir awake where he watched you like a hawk, making sure you were okay, but that was before you started to hyperventilate. That’s when Tighnari tried to wake you from that dreadful nightmare, carefully. 

“Can you hear me?” He asked calmly, but feeling frantic on the inside. He was worried sick.

When he asked a couple times to no response, he then decided to wrap you up in his arms and sit you upright. Wanting to make sure you didn’t have any breathing complications. He waited patiently, shushing you softly and rocking you gently in his arms, until you awoke with a gasp. He let you have a moment to catch your breath before he talked to you.

“Are you okay?”

Silence.

“Do you know where you are?” He asked hastily.

You nodded and pushed the words out. “Tigh.. Tighnari’s house.” 

“Good. Now, make sure you’re breathing in nice and slow, okay?” He said firmly yet gently. 

You did as he said for a solid five to ten minutes before looking into his eyes. Tighnari watched as the light slowly returned to you, and gave you a great big hug. “You had me so worried.” He pulled away momentarily, studying you as he asked. “Are you okay, now?”

You nodded with a sad smile. “Yes, I am. Don’t worry.” 

“A bit late for that.” He teased with a playful smile. 

There was a brief moment of silence before you spoke up, placing your hand on one of his cheeks. “Can we hold off on sleep for a while? I’m a bit scared to go back to sleep to be honest…” 

He nodded and gave you another hug, this time tighter. You could smell his natural musk and it was intoxicating, along with the feel of his skin against yours. “Of course, we can.”

Pulling away he laid you back onto the bed and turned on the lamp. He wanted to see your face illuminated with light just once before you had to leave. Even if it was only for a mere moment, he wanted to indulge in that small blessing. Laying beside you he found his wandering hands finding your still ones, and entangling them together he hummed an unfamiliar song. If it weren’t for your recent rude awakening you would’ve found yourself asleep to the tune of the song, but instead you couldn’t help but focus on how warm his body and hands were. It was as if they were luring you closer and closer towards him until, finally the distance closed altogether as he sealed his lips against yours.

It took you by surprise at first, which was surprising considering the past you two shared, but still, you found yourself full of shock once he grabbed your face gently and pressed his lips to yours. But instead of questioning it, denying him the pleasure of your lips, or even pushing him away, you just let it happen. You enjoyed the bliss from beginning to end, pretending as if you had no problems risking your dignity or pride, but there was so much at risk with him. There were always risks when it came to Tighnari, but this time you let go, fully and unapologetically and simply allowed him to embrace you just as you were. 

Soon kisses became touches and touches became something more, till the two of you were tangled in the sheets with only your bare bodies for comfort. His nails dragged against your back as he pumped himself inside of you, moaning in your ear like a starving man. Your fingers tangled in his hair, tugging at it roughly for more than he could offer up. His hands pinned you down by your wrists and let go of his judgements and worries, he fucked into you at an unforgiving pace. 

It was almost as if he was chasing something. You? The archons? Or a righteous answer? Who knows, but one thing was for sure, he’d never flown higher than he had in that very moment. The both of you had scratch, bit, and moaned your way through the thick darkness and only stopped when the both of you grew weary. Too tired to keep going, but somehow managing to do so anyway. This cycle continued till the both of you eventually fell asleep naked in each other’s arms. Maybe, things could be different you told yourself, maybe come morning you could confess your long lived secrets, and perhaps things could turn out good for you after all. 

For now, you’d bask in the warmth of Sumeru in the company of your (hopefully) soon to be lover. For now you’d enjoy a moment untouched by ruin and simply be, which is exactly how it was all meant to be. 

[thesimscurator]

For Rent Update to Career World is Live!

The For Rent update to Career World is here! Before I link it, though, a quick:

CAUTION: There is a serious bug in the game right now that causes irreversible save file corruption. The causes of it are unclear, but it seems to have something to do with residential rentals. I actually GOT this bug while doing this update, and had to scrap two weeks’ worth of work on the update and start over completely from scratch by downloading the previous version of Career World from my own Tumblr—because once it’s in, it can’t be fixed. Luckily, I did not get it on the second attempt (I checked obsessively as I was going), but I don’t know: A) why I got it the first time, B) why I didn’t get it the second time, or C) how to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Because of this, I have not opted to overwrite the previous version of the save file with the new version as I usually do. Until this bug is fixed (please go click “Me Too” on the bug report, it’ll encourage the devs to give this more attention), I want people to have the option to play with or without rental residential lots, knowing that there may be more risk of save file corruption by playing the version with rental residentials. To be clear: neither of these two versions of Career World is currently corrupted. I have uploaded clean saves for you to download. But since I don’t know what triggers the bug, the save may become corrupted as you play, and it looks like this is marginally more likely to occur in the version that has been updated to incorporate For Rent. You will know you have triggered the corruption if you begin to see exclamation points over lots instead of the usual lot identification symbols.

If you get this bug as you play, do not save your game! And perhaps even more importantly, do not close the save you were just playing and click into another; exit the game entirely. There is some evidence that this can spread from one save file to another if you play several save files in the same session. There is, I repeat, no fix for this. The only thing you can do with a corrupted save is restore old versions until you find one that doesn’t have the corruption yet. In the case of Career World, you can always come back to this page and re-download a clean copy from this website.

That was the important info for everybody, but for a few players, I must also give the usual . . .

IMPORTANT MOD NOTE: If you use Frankk’s Language Barriers mod, you must download and install the latest version of that mod before opening the save file in order to retain language data for Tomaru, the newest language.

OK, now that we’ve covered the important need-to-knows, here are links to:

Career World updated for For Rent

Career World only updated as far as Horse Ranch—i.e. without any content from For Rent

Both are also now linked in the main post.

Phew! Alright, now we can get to the details of:

What’s New?

Rental residentials, of course! The thing to know about them first off: there is another, far more minor bug in the game right now that hard-codes the names of all rental residential lot types as whatever EA originally called the lot rather than any new names the player might have given that lot. So, many of the existing apartment buildings—which used to have names that told you what they were, like “Sunny Retirement Village” or “FutureSim Employee Housing”—have reverted to having unchangeable informationless names, or worse: misleading and defunct names, like the house with a basement rental in Britechester that has gone back to being called “Pepper’s Pub” even though I moved Pepper’s Pub and it already has that exact name on a totally separate lot (ditto for the now-duplicated “Thebe Estate”). This is a mess. I will fix it if they ever change this bug/feature/whatever it is, but at the moment, please know that rental residentials have weird names that I can’t change, and the real identity of the building is probably buried several clicks deep in the unit descriptions.

In order to combat this somewhat for players who are willing to read these Tumblr updates, here’s a list of rental residentials with specific gameplay identities that I think should be more obvious than they are with the locked lot names:

Special Rental Residentials:

1) The apartment building on the FutureSim campus (Mirage Canyon) in Oasis Springs is employee housing for employees of FutureSim Labs (the scientist career employer), or its subsidiaries Obscure Logistics (the engineering employer) and Rainy Day Entertainment (the tech guru employer), and their families. If you do not have a scientist, engineer, or tech guru in the family, you are not eligible to move into these apartments.

2) The trailer park in Bedrock Strait in Oasis Springs is a retirement community. We don’t want any young whipper-snappers here, nor any of these go-getter old folks who still work and will just remind us of the daily grind we’re trying to forget. Don’t even dream of moving here unless you are 1) an elder, and 2) retired. And no live-in children or grandchildren, either! If you can’t remember the golden age of landlines, find somewhere else to live!

3) I did a little playtesting of the solar farm in Oasis Springs for this version of the save file, and discovered that A) you couldn’t even get to any of the solar panels to maintain them the way this was originally set up, and B) it wasn’t actually possible to make money from selling electricity—the lot value was too high relative to the payback from the solar panels. But, I discovered, it is possible to have the electric payback exceed your bills if the lot is changed to a rental residential with the living quarters set as the one and only unit and the solar farm itself as common area. So that’s what I did: I fixed the solar panels so you can access them, and set the place as a rental with only one unit. You can now functionally play as a solar plant operator. And of course, the Landgraabs are your landlords. They do own the whole electric utility, after all. (This is also now true for the power plant in Evergreen Harbor and the hill house/micro wind farm in the Windslar neighborhood of Windenburg.)

4) The cluster of huts at the top of the hill in Sulani’s Ohan’ali Town is an eco-living commune that blends traditional Sulani ways of life with new green technologies. Residents live in separate off-the-grid huts with little more than bedrooms and kitchens, powered by the commune’s on-site solar panels, windmills, solar hot water heaters, and dew collectors. In the collective space, however, you’ll find a thriving taro patch, a communal art studio, game tables, a full bar, a small basketball court, chickens and insects to raise, a roadside stand for selling the commune’s produce and crafts, and lots of opportunities to interact with fellow members of this intentional community. One of the huts is generally reserved for students on study abroad who have come to learn about Sulani culture through this communal living experience—see the List of Study Abroad Opportunities (now updated for Tomarang!) for details.

5) The defunct motel in StrangerVille was bought for an almost-literal song by an eclectic throuple of artists who are very flexible about making changes proposed by tenants. Currently, all the former hotel rooms are just in the state they were when the place was a hotel, but if you move in here and want to—say—combine two units into a larger, single unit like they have done with their own, they’d be open to that. If you want to add a rooftop space to your top-floor unit, or even create some kind of wonky townhouse by linking two units that are directly above one another with a rooftop space, they’re open to that, too. If you want to install blackout curtains over all the windows, paper the walls with conspiracy-theory notes, and run secret experiments in your former hotel room, go nuts! They’ll really let you do just about anything. All you need to do is play as the owners for a minute to change these things before moving your sim in.

6) The big house where Pepper’s Pub originally was in Britechester is just that—a big house. They rent out their converted basement to university students, but this isn’t really an apartment building. The understanding with this one is that whoever lives in the above-ground house portion will always be the property owner and not just a renter—and in order to make this true, I have had to add an owning family to that section of the property, which means the college administrator Jade Rosa has been house-sitting for all this time has returned! You now have the option to dive right in to professoring or college administration with the new family that now lives there (thanks to Ivelle_creates for making the couple).

7) Both the large piazza in Tartosa where the Thebe Estate used to be, AND the apartment building at Ro Kaya Rockside in Tomarang, are mixed-use areas with commercial establishments on the ground floor (and sometimes into the upper floors) with apartments above. This is not exactly possible yet in The Sims 4, but several of the businesses are still usable—you can buy wedding dresses off the mannequins in the Tartosan bridal shop, for example, because that gameplay is tied to the mannequin object and not the lot type. Mostly, however, these commercial areas are designed with gameplay as their associated workers in mind, allowing you to live in an apartment but do work tasks in one of the on-site businesses (EX: be a cosmotologist who works in the on-lot salon).

(And a quick sidenote on the piazza in Tartosa: there is the potential for A TREMENDOUS NUMBER of apartment units on this lot. I have only designated the three that are occupied as actual units for now, because I was already running up against the per-save-file unit limit, but if you want to move your own sim in, just pick whichever of the many empty spaces suits your fancy, create the perfect apartment for your sim, and designate it as a new unit. Or, if you are really into furnishing/interior decoration and you want to turn this into basically an entire town, you can just bulldoze the existing rental residentials in other worlds, use the bb.increaserentalunitcap on cheat to allow yourself all the space you need, and go to literal town.)

8) Tam Nang Sands in Tomarang is a resort hotel. The place is set up for short-term rentals only, and is really meant to be played from the property owner perspective, to create a faux active career as a hotel manager. While it is possible to play from the tenant perspective and “stay here” on “vacation,” the game does not register it as a vacation and will make you sell your current residence in order to move here. I don’t really recommend doing that unless you live with someone else and are planning on going on vacation without them; then you can use the “split household” feature to send part of your household for a temporary stay while the other part of the household holds down the fort. If the Sims team ever release an honest-to-goodness hotel system, I will update this, but in the meantime this is better played as the manager.

9) Isda Riverfront in Tomarang is the site of the Linh family compound. While most Tomarani people have abandoned this traditional mode of housing the entire extended family in a walled compound with central courtyard and a special family spirit house, the Linh family is determined to stick to it, no matter how many foreigners marry in. And that, of course, means that unless you’re marrying in, you may not move here. Marry in or be born in, that’s the deal.

10) The colonial mansion on the former site of The Screaming Gecko in Tomarang has been set “for rent” so it can be used as a private second home by a wealthy sim. One of the new and unique things the rental system now allows us to do is have sims own multiple homes and just swap between them at will; all you have to do is set all the homes you want to own as residential rental lots, assign all the rooms to a single unit in each, and then buy all the homes as a property owner. Since property owners pay no rent to live in a property they own, voila! You can live that snowbird life and just move to Tomarang when you get tired of winter, then move back to your original house (or any other vacation homes you own) when you need a change of scenery. I seriously considered having Judith Ward buy this house, since there is text in the tiger sanctuary about her having a particular connection to it, but ultimately decided I wanted you, the player, to have the opportunity to buy this with whatever sim you’re playing—whether Judith Ward herself or any other. And bonus, you can actually use this method to play out tax-evasion-by-the-wealthy storylines, because the property taxes on a big, expensive mansion that you own outright are astronomical, but taxes on “rental” properties you “manage” is just a flat $50 per unit per day, which is often far less than what you would have been paying on an owned house. This pack introduced lots of new paths to crime, for rich and poor alike!

All in all, there are 22 rental residentials in the save file now, with a total of 90 units (so you have 10 to play around with still!), the overwhelming majority of which are just empty and waiting for you to select and move your own sims in. If you choose to live in one of these buildings and want to have more neighbors, just move a few in from the gallery or elsewhere in the save.

And a quick note about a choice I didn’t make: I have not split any of the boarding houses in Copperdale into separate units for different students, because having a whole bunch of high school students with common interests in the same household is what allows you to control them as a group at the school and have them engage in active club activities together. This was half the point of creating the boarding-house system for Copperdale in the first place, so they are always going to be giant, unwieldy households full of sims. Embrace the challenge! You can play single high school students in any old save file. The same goes for the three movie set households added in the last update: all those sims need to be in the same household and simultaneously controllable for the gameplay to function correctly, so they have not been subdivided.

Tomarang Makeover:

As with some previous worlds, I’ve tried to lean in to the differing neighborhood identities by making Morensong bustling, crowded-together, modern, and rundown, while Koh Sahpa has a much more chill, spread-out, traditional, and upscale vibe. Morensong is overrun with street cats (i.e. it has “cat hangout” as a neighborhood trait), while Koh Sahpa has “peace and quiet” as its neighborhood trait. Both neighborhoods of Tomarang, however, have “mold” as a world challenge, because the air is just so heavy with moisture—the only exceptions to this are lots with absolutely no indoor space whatsoever, and therefore sufficient airflow to prevent mold growth. But if there’s an interior, there’s going to be mold.

The limited number of lots presented a challenge for filling Morensong with businesses and activities, but I think I did pretty well, considering. Its four lots are split half-and-half between residential and community, but one of the residentials is a mixed-use building with businesses on the ground floor, including a functional street market where you can play as a vendor if you’re living in the building. And I managed to pack quite a lot into the two community lots, as well! The one currently set as a thrift and bubble tea shop can have its lot type changed to karaoke bar, bar, lounge, or nightclub at will, depending on which spaces you want to focus on, what events you’d like thrown there, etc. And for the other lot, simmers made so many wonderful and creative alternatives to the bland national park that I couldn’t pick just one, so I picked four. I have turned this into one of the Eco Lifestyle four-in-one community space lots, with each of its states a completely different venue by a different simmer. If you want to keep it as a botanical garden, just leave it on the “community garden” state and you will have a fuller version with actual plants for your sims to tend (all flowers and tropical plants), spirit houses, and a picnic area—great if you’re playing as a botanist or a florist. If you’re some kind of vendor who doesn’t live at Ro Kaya Rockside and you want a more playable version of the night market, just set it to “marketplace” and now you’ll have easily editable stands at which to sell your wares. If you want a community center with tons to do, set it to “makerspace,” and if you’re looking for a non-rabbit-hole temple / Tomarani wedding venue, set it to “community space.”

In Koh Sahpa, I played around a bit with the new career and lifestyle possibilities unlocked by the new rental residential venue type. Three of the five lots out here are rental residentials, but none of the three are classic apartment buildings or townhouses like you’ll find in Morensong. One is a luxury hotel, where playing as the property owner means keeping the guests happy and the place in tip-top shape with very short leases and lots of rules. Another is a traditional family compound, where your “tenants” (or your “landlord,” depending on which household you’re playing) are actually your family members, and the point is to do lots of gathering and socializing in the common space, throw potlucks every night to represent big family dinners, and all pitch in to help when a maintenance or emergency event hits. In this “rental,” there are no rules and the leases are basically forever. The final “rental” is only marked as a rental residential to enable you to buy it as a second home—once you’ve purchased it, all you have to do is turn your own home into a rental residential and you can move between your two houses at will. In addition to these rental residentials, a straight-up vacation rental and a spa round out the primarily vacation-oriented neighborhood of Koh Sahpa.

Of course, this is a career-focused save, so a lot of the choices I made with Tomarang’s lots—like the ones described above—were career driven. But identifying careers for Tomarang was a bit tricky. For Rent certainly came with new ways to make money, a new part-time career, and several interesting gameplay features that fold particularly well into existing careers . . . but interestingly, none of these new features were particularly location-specific. You can be a landlord or a handyperson anywhere, and the same goes for blackmail or break-ins. So while I made many additions to the Career Chart as a result of this pack, none of these new career options are limited to Tomarang. Instead, Tomarang has joined the lists of especially good places to pursue several other pre-existing careers, like fisherman (I mean, those waters!).

That said, I did make Tomarang an especially great spot to pursue anything that jives well with vending your wares at the Night Market (and the many extensions to it I added), so being a freelance crafter, artist, food stall owner, fisherman, gardener, florist, jeweler, or anything else that consists primarily of making or collecting small items to sell will be particularly rewarding when playing in Tomarang. I had also listed a new ministry of labor career as a masseur back when the Spa Day refresh came out, but never had much of a dedicated space for it. Now, with Tomarang, I decided to lean into the well-regarded tradition of Thai massage by including three different venues of varying quality where your masseur sim can give commercial massage in this world: a seedy downmarket massage parlor on the Ro Kaya Rockside lot, a mid-tier venue at the historical spa in downtown Koh Sahpa, and an upscale open-air massage area at the four-star Tam Nang Sands Resort Hotel. Plus, there’s a private massage room in the colonial mansion, so if you’re playing as a massage therapist and someone moves in there, feel free to invite yourself over and charge them for private massage services.

On the subject of things at Ro Kaya Rockside being seedy, I chose the building I did for that lot because the builder, eenitmartini (Matinee on YouTube—go check her out!) made this absolutely fantastic criminal lair/hideout/underground nightclub as part of her building, so all credit to her for the fact that there is now an “Illegal Gambling Ring” club in this save file, hosted at Ro Kaya Rockside and open only to criminals, secret agents, and undercover cops. This means that, while not exclusive, Tomarang is also now an especially good place to be a criminal—which is great, because the For Rent pack enabled me to create a plethora of new specialties within the criminal career, including things like “B&E specialist” and “blackmailer” (see the Career Chart for details).

As usual, I have also used the T.O.O.L. mod to add extra activities to the open parts of the world—most notably, I added several extra stalls to the night market, so you can play there as a vendor. You’ll note that most of them do not have sales tables/food stalls at the front of the tent; this is because, as I was testing, I discovered that you can’t actually sell anything using these objects unless the game knows you own them, so you’ll have to bring your own and place it from your sim’s inventory for these spaces to be functional. There are two that are already complete: Alon Sadya’s food stall in the main part of the market, and Chánh Linh’s fish stall on the other side of the buildings, over near the public toilets. These stalls are completely functional for these individuals, but will not be for anyone else unless you have the owners remove those key objects so you can replace them with others that belong to your active household.

Townie Updates:

Vanesha Cahyaputri, poster child for the pack and model landlord, is now running a four-star hotel in Koh Sahpa! She has quite the job trying to keep her little sister from breaking into people’s hotel rooms to snoop, in addition to keeping the buffet table stocked with local delicacies, making drinks for guests and offering them massages when they emerge from their rooms, and of course keeping up with maintenance and bookings.

The extended members of the Linh-Sadya clan now live in a traditional Tomerani family compound that has allowed me to split them into three households instead of two. They routinely throw big potluck-style family dinners in their shared courtyard. The elder patriarchs have both retired from their more demanding careers and are now in relaxing part-time jobs that cater to their interests—namely, fisherman for Chánh (complete with functional night market food stall!) and handyperson for Arturo. Their elder daughter Liên and her husband Alon both work in Morensong, where Liên makes over sims at the salon at Ro Kaya Rockside and Alon runs a night market street grill. Auntie Thi is still a secret agent, but as part of her work she has now infiltrated an illegal gambling ring in Morensong and is trying to uncover secrets at their weekly poker night. She also adopted a new cat, Bub II, a toyger who is a smaller, more approachable version of the tigers that are Tomarang’s special animal. All members of the extended Linh family now know learnable recipes for Vietnamese and Selvadoradian dishes, reflecting their mixed heritage.

The Bun Ma family have established themselves as fixtures at Ro Kaya Rockside, Morensong’s shadier district. Bua runs a hole-in-the-wall noodle soup place, Nin gives massage at various locations around Tomarang, and Kasem runs the illegal gambling ring under the building that Thi has infiltrated—in between break-ins and expert hacking of various trust funds. Yes, you wouldn’t expect it from the sweet-faced young father of an adorable toddler, but that’s part of what makes him such an effective criminal.

But wait, there’s more! A few sims outside of Tomarang have also been updated:

Eliza Pancakes has become much more investigative since becoming a cop. Some people might even call her nosy. Kasem had better hope she never uncovers any of his secrets.

Katrina Caliente took the scads of money she has gotten from selling expensive Selvadoradian artifacts to museums, bought the other three condos in her building, knocked the whole building down, and built a modern desert villa for herself, her two daughters, her dog, and whatever boy toy she’s currently entertaining (still Don, at the moment). She was tired of sharing space, and there are more than enough apartments in Oasis Springs, anyway.

Geoffrey Landgraab got tired of playing secret agent and has returned to what he really always has been: an electric company mogul who owns and operates power plants around the worlds. It’s up to him to fill job vacancies in these plants by “hiring” onsite managers, keeping them happy, and handling maintenance on the plants. What is more, at the same time that he realized he was only fooling himself about the secret agent thing, he also realized he was only fooling himself about being family-oriented, because let’s face it: he disowned one of his sons, the other one is evil, and his wife is a criminal. Instead, he has decided to focus his love and attention outward to the world by re-branding himself as a generous philanthropist. He now regularly attends charity benefit parties, gives to online charities, says yes to anyone who calls him asking for a donation, volunteers his time, and will even go on sprees where he goes around just handing money to random sims on the street. Good thing he has so much that he could live off just investments for the rest of his life.

SimTube star Dustin Broke is running out of material. His jokes, memes, and dances have gotten a little dated. Over time, he has become—well—cringe.

Judith Ward has adopted a tiger (and given a boatload more money to the tiger sanctuary, besides!), as per her lore in the new pack. Her in-house handyman is also now in the actual handyperson career. It’s good to be the queen!

The university administrator who had Jade Rosa house-sitting for so long has returned from the family vacation she took to Tartosa to show her kids their father’s homeland. The family is now happily reinstalled in their big fancy Britechester home, back to work as Dean of Admissions and adjunct art professor, respectively, at the University of Britechester, and back to charging Jade rent for her basement apartment underneath their house. If you’re looking to play either of the advanced branches of the Education career, they are now an option.

The group of salarypersons I downloaded originally as unhoused NPCs in order to give Kado Akiyama some co-workers to do karaoke with have now moved into houses on his own street! While I left most units empty in the places I converted to rental residentials, I did feel kinda weird about leaving an entire street’s worth of stand-alone houses empty except for the Akiyama family—it was just a little too post-apocalyptic for my taste. So since I already had this Mt.Komorebi-based club, I figured I’d turn its other members into neighbors and integrate them into the community a little more.

For users of Frankk’s Language Barriers mod, which is a supported mod in this save file, I have updated the native languages of some previously-existing townies for the new inclusion of Tomaru. Before this pack came out, I used Komorebigo as the stand-in for all languages originating from Eastern Asia writ large—now, I have separated it out into Komorebigo for East Asian languages (not only Japanese but also Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Mongolian, etc.) and Tomaru for Southeast Asian languages (Vietnamese, Thai, Tagalog, Malay, etc.). So now, for example, the Filipino sim Jules Rico, who shipped with the Eco Lifestyle expansion, is natively bilingual in Simlish and Tomaru (previously, I’d had him set as natively bilingual in Simlish and Komorebigo). So there have been a few alterations to townies like that. I hope to get to do more updates like this in the future as the Sims team diversifies the worlds on offer and Frankk—who absolutely makes my game with this beautiful mod—continues to expand the language offerings of the Sims universe.

Other stuff that has changed:

I took that excellent new object that looks like a “for sale” sign and stuck it outside every unoccupied house in this save file. I just thought it was a nice touch.

While I was working on this update, I saw a YouTube video that reminded me what a great object the photo booth from High School Years was, and realized I was under-utilizing it. I have now gone back and scattered several more of these around, ensuring that each world has at least one photo booth somewhere. Thanks, lilsimsie!

Pressure cookers and kettles have been strategically added in places where I thought they were needed.

A few of the more run-down houses have the new “maintenance” lot challenge—and some have mold, as well!

I realized there was nowhere to get nectar in Tartosa (a serious oversight), so I scattered a bunch of bottles around the public areas of the large piazza that is the local rental residential in Porto Luminoso. They are just debug bottles and nothing special—for that, you’re going to have to help Hugo Villareal restart Tartosa’s defunct nectar-making business. I’m sure his bottles will be better than the debug ones.

All this updating took me into spring, so seasonal lots (including prom!) have been updated.

That’s it for this update! When you don’t randomly get the corruption bug, it’s actually quite enjoyable. I had a ton of fun doing all the building conversions and playtesting, and I hope you’ll have fun playing, too!

Download now: Career World For Rent update

[modern-day-bard]

Other Duties As Assigned: A Joel Miller AU Fanficiton

Content Warning: 18+ Minors, do not interact. This story includes mature themes such as drinking, stalking, violence, and explicit smut.

Chapter 11: Shatter

word count: 3.6k

Gwen

The Personal Security Nightmare needs to add nutritionist, sound expert, and fucking psychic to his resume. Apparently.

I suppose he could have become somewhat of a behaviorist over the years in his line of work…not that I really knew much about his work anyway. And I don’t plan to know. My interest has spiked in a very real, very stressful way, and I need to snuff that out as fast as possible. I know Nyah started to catch onto something being off when I asked her to give me Theo’s number. It had been a running gag for at least two years that every time Nyah had a photoshoot with Theo, he would find a way to ever-so-subtly bring me up in conversation.

He was about as subtle as a fog horn in a library. And he kissed like a fish out of water.

I tried to cleanse myself as much as I could in the car ride home which was increasingly hard to do with The Problem looking back at me every thirty seconds. I wouldn’t have had to go on that date in the first place if I hadn’t been so…moved by Joel’s arms around me the other day. Training me how to defend myself, and I can’t even fend off a few improper thoughts. Pathetic.

Joel was bolder than I gave him credit for. I figured Nyah would know I wasn’t telling the truth over the phone. I mean, she knew Theo. There’s no way I’d want to go on another date with that guy. And, she also knew me and how I view dating. I’m praying to any god who will listen that Joel could not hear Nyah say that this should push me enough to finally start dating. There would be no reason for Joel to have that information, and I have an icky feeling that he could somehow use it against me. Or that he would…look down on me or something. I’d expect him to react like he did with the guy from the club. What I hadn’t expected was not only for him to catch on so fast, but to call me out. How am I supposed to tell him that I’m not lying to Nyah, but instead trying desperately to distract myself from whatever happened the other day?

Thankfully, work has kept me busy. I might have wanted to set my desk on fire when I realized my dad refused to put me on the Isla Foundation, but attending meetings during the week and actually getting my hands on even analytical data has been a surprising reprieve from everything else. I missed working. I used to love to visit Russell Corp. and bounce around throughout the different divisions. Up until last year. Then I loved to travel, to leave.

Listening to Harper’s airy laugh though, that is one thing I loved about being home; my friends.

“I mean, you would’ve asked her to leave the wings on too, right?” She dabs a tear from her eye, still right on the verge of another fit of hysterics. In hindsight, Landon’s gallery opening might not be the best place to recount Harper’s private birthday festivities, but Nyah and I were too locked-in to worry. And Landon was too busy doing what they do best. They were currently flitting around the gallery, confidently chatting up what I could only assume were VIPs in the art-world.

“They didn’t, like, get in the way?” Nyah tips her head to the side, biting back a round of laughter herself.

“Well, I actually did get poked a couple times but…I sort of liked it.” Harper’s suddenly earnest expression is enough to make both Nyah and me crack up now.

“Oh, you got poked alright.” I wink at her and she hits my arm hard enough for a bit of my champagne to splash out of the glass. Immediately, she looks horrified by what she’s done, and I focus my attention on a painting a few yards away to keep from losing it again.

The atmosphere here was lively, but it wasn’t rowdy. Landon had successfully brought in dozens of New York’s finest, with Harper, Nyah, and me being the exceptions. Or as Landon liked to put it, “moral support.” We knew nothing about the beautiful pieces that surrounded us other than that they were, in fact, beautiful. I’ve been trying to pick up keywords for the past hour and failing miserably. Nyah and Harper have already given up, and the past three paintings we passed by, we decided it was best to admire them in silence.

“Oh!” Harper finishes a sip of her drink before setting her sights on me, “Landon told me you went on a date! How was that?”

“I mean I was trying to follow Landon’s advice…” I trail off, glancing around until I spot Joel. With the amount of people in the room, he’s certainly out of earshot, but he’s still close by. When I had seen him get into the elevator with only a black t-shirt and dark jeans on, I thought he’d look monstrously out of place. But he fit in here, surrounded by the paintings and sculptures. He’d even slicked his hair back a little today…I would never know he was on the clock if I was a passerby. He looked like any regular guy.

“You’re staring.” Nyah murmurs.

I whip my head around to face her, “I was double-checking his whereabouts. I don’t need him listening in on every conversation.”

“Especially if he can figure out you’re lying again.”

Harper’s curious eyes ping-pong between the two of us. “Were you going on a date to be normal and vet someone for once or is this…something else?”

“I just went on a date,” I say.

At the same time, Nyah says, “Oh, it was something else.”

“Someone just tell me before I get a headache.” Harper whines.

“Gwen freaked because she got hot and heavy when Joel was teaching her hand-to-hand combat so she went on a date with the first guy she could think of.”

“Hand-to-hand combat? It wasn’t military training, Nye.” I glance over at Joel, well, Joel’s arms again, avoiding their gazes.

“Joel turned you on?” Harper whispers, excitement sparkling across her freckled face.

“No! You know me, I’m only used to that sort of…closeness when I’m hooking up with someone. That’s all. It was a physiological response.”

The two of them exchange a glance.

“What?” I ask incredulously.

“Are you still trying to make him uncomfortable?” Nyah asks.

“Um…” I glance at Harper, knowing the entire story will alarm her too much. “Not exactly.” There’s no real reason to tell them that someone was able to gain access to my apartment.

“So you like him then?” Harper asks with a smile.

“Absolutely not. I’ve just decided that maybe a bodyguard isn’t the worst idea. And as we said, they’ll just assign me someone else. Plus he seems to be immune to everything I tried anyway.” Hopefully that will ease her nerves slightly. If what Landon said the other day was accurate, she has been worried about my safety.

“That, I can buy. He didn’t even notice when I flirted with him.” Nye adds.

“Or the bottle girl at the club, or the waitress on Monday.” I mumble into my drink.

“The waitress was flirting with him on your date?” Harper asks.

“Mhm.”

“All I’m hearing is that you notice every time someone makes a pass at him. Territorial, are we, Gwen?”

I narrow my eyes at Nyah. “Not at all. It’s human nature to notice.”

Her amber eyes are just as challenging in return. After a pause, she grabs an extra glass off the tray of a passing waiter. “In that case, you won’t mind if I offer him a drink?”

I grip the stem of mine a little tighter. “Not at all,” I repeat.

“Lovely,” Nyah swishes away, leaving me seething and Harper dumbfounded.

Joel is still situated close-by, near the entryway. I’ve had my back turned to him the majority of the evening, so I’m not sure if he’s still doing his classic, ‘look at me until I look away’ bit. I try to subtly stand next to Harper so I can get a good look at him now.

“I am…glad that you’ve decided to keep him.” Harper says softly.

“You make it sound like he’s a kitten we found on the side of the road.”

She smirks at me. “You know what I mean.”

“I know,” I say, linking my arm with hers. “Landon told me that you’ve been nervous.”

Harper clicks her tongue, “They weren’t supposed to say anything—”

“I’m glad they did. I’m fine, Harper. Seriously. This whole thing is just a nuisance more than anything else.”

“That’s what worries me, Gwen. Even I have viewed you as untouchable before, but you’re not. People are clever. The technology available now can make anyone vulnerable—”

“Harper, I’m keeping him. He never lets me out of his sight. You don’t have to worry.”

She studies me for a long moment. “Okay, fine. It makes me feel just a little bit better.”

“Good. Knowing that will make it easier for me to swallow.”

We both turn our attention to Nyah and Joel now. She’s giving him her best doe-eyes and he’s smiling politely at her. I’m mildly shocked and moderately irritated that he accepted the drink from her, but I’ve yet to see him take a sip of it. Nyah throws her head back, laughing presumably at something Joel said, but he just looks surprised.

“You’re gripping my arm a little tight there, love.” Harper murmurs.

“Sorry,” I let go of her, feeling my cheeks heat up. A rarity for me. And the shame of knowing your embarrassment is on display for everyone else just makes it worse.

“Anyone with eyes would agree he’s attractive, Gwen.”

“It’s not that I don’t think he’s attractive…” Nyah places her hand on Joel’s forearm and squeezes.

“But?” Harper raises a brow at me.

I feel my chest get tighter. There’s been too many moments like these in the past few months. Times where I teeter on the edge of the cliff of truth, and I hope someone or something will come along and push me over. I want to explain everything, all the things I can’t tell her. How Joel could be planted here to track and report, not just to protect. How long I’ve been in limbo, and how he throws a massive wrench into my barely-formed plans. But the weight of what it would mean for my family holds me back from the edge, and I give Harper a small smile.

“That part is irrelevant. I think a lot of people are attractive, and a lot less aggravating.”

Not wanting to watch Nyah essentially shove her chest against Joel any longer, I fill Harper in about how he called me out for lying.

“Damn, he’s fearless, you have to admit.”

“We’ve barely spoken since. I’m trying to ice him out… He’s gotten too comfortable.”

“Maybe he’s just trying to protect you,” she tries.

“From what? Protect me from lying to him?”

“No, maybe he doesn’t know if you feel like you can trust your friends. Maybe he’s just trying to suss out who you are, I don’t know. It wouldn’t be that wild. Especially since he seems so uncomfortable with Nyah now…”

That gives me enough encouragement to glance back over at the two of them. I try to ignore the glimmer of delight when I see him bending backwards to create more space between them. I know Nye is just doing this to test me, but I still don’t like it. And, fine, maybe it makes me a little relieved that he doesn't seem to like it either.

“Ooo!” Harper squeals, pointing in Landon’s direction, “Boyfriend! He’s here. We have to meet him.”

Sure enough, Landon was embracing a cute, curly haired man on the other side of the gallery. Just when I thought I couldn’t be more proud of Landon, they actually invited their date to the opening. When they pulled back from each other, I saw that bright blue glasses rested on the tip of Elijah’s nose, and his eyeline reached Landon’s shoulder at best. He’s perfect.

Harper is already dragging me over, but not before she uses her champagne-filled hand to wave down Nyah, pointing frantically toward Elijah. She’s mouthed boyfriend three times before she splashes any alcohol over the rim, which is an impressive feat. Nyah waves us on, much to my chagrin. I can feel Joel watching me walk away, probably wondering if he’ll have to move to ensure that I stay within his sights.

Landon looks apprehensive introducing us to Elijah, who is understandably startled by how tightly Harper hugs him. I’m just surprised she didn’t start jumping up and down.

I make an effort not to joke about how Landon has never introduced us to anyone. I’m sure Elijah knows this by now, but I don’t want to embarrass them. Especially not tonight. I’m no gallerist, but it seems to be going well. The place is packed, people seem happy, and most importantly, they are engrossed in the art. The last thing Landon needs is their group of friends teasing them about their love life.

“We’ve heard so much about you!” Harper exclaims, and Elijah’s cheeks turn slightly peach. It makes me beam at Landon like an idiot.

“I’ve heard so much about all of you. I’m surprised we haven’t met before, we run in so many of the same circles I feel like we keep missing each other.”

“That’s probably because we only dip our toe in the art circle when we have Landon to guide us,” I say.

Landon smiles, “You all hold your own just fine.”

“I’m lost on some of this, even. I might be in the art sphere but I’m a sculptor. I start to get confused when it comes to paintings.”

“Maybe we could all get drinks sometime instead? Drinking, I understand.” Harper holds up her glass as a demonstration.

“I would love that!” Elijah has a smile that could warm your toes, and the way Landon drapes their arm over him makes my heart sing.

That is, until I’m startled by a hand on my lower back.

“Sorry,” Joel’s gruff voice sounds low in my ear. The hand is gone immediately, and I try to ignore the small tug of disappointment in its absence. To my right, I notice Nyah making her way over as well, eyes set on Elijah and Landon.

“Could I speak with you for a moment?” Joel asks softly.

I nod, giving an apologetic smile to Landon, though they're already busy introducing Nyah.

Joel and I round the corner to another section of the gallery near the restroom. There’s less people in this corner, though a few waitstaff and patrons are milling about. The quietness of the area doesn’t seem to help, as Joel is wringing his hands, looking at anything except for me.

“What is it, Mr. Miller?”

With the mention of his name, his contemplative eyes meet mine. “At this risk of offending you again, I need to ask what that was all about.”

For once, I don’t have to feign ignorance. “What are you talking about?”

“Just give it to me straight, Miss Russell. Do you plan on making another escape tonight?” He places one hand on his hip, clearly agitated.

“At this moment I would like to escape, but no, I can’t say I made any preparations.”

“Then why send that friend of yours over to try to distract me?”

So he does understand flirting.

“By friend of mine, I’m assuming you meant Miss Abiola. And I’m shocked you were able to take the hint.”

His brown eyes turn molten. “It was supposed to be a distraction then?”

Exasperation coughs out of my lungs as I toss my hands up in the air, “No, Miller. It was meant to be a grown woman trying to get your attention.”

“My attention…?”

“She was flirting with you. Is having a thick skull a requirement for people like you? Does it double as armor?”

A spark of amusement appears and vanishes on his face in an instant. “Well, if that’s the case—”

“That is the case.”

“—If that is the case, I’ll need to have a discussion with your friends about those things. I can’t be distracted while I’m on the clock.”

I give him a once over. “I’m sorry. You had an actual model vying for your attention and that’s what you’re focused on?”

Joel takes another step toward me, and this corner, we’re less than a foot apart. “I’m focused on you. And I don’t want anything to get in the way of that.”

“Is that the same excuse for ignoring the bottle girl on Harper’s birthday? Or the waitress at the restaurant on Monday? You’re too focused on your job?”

He’s visibly confused. “What? They weren’t—”

“Oh, yes they were.”

“Miss Russell, I can promise I won’t entertain anything while I’m working. Is that what you’re worried abou—”

Glass shatters, and someone lets out a loud scream. In a split-second, Joel’s arm shoots out, pushing my torso until my back presses against the wall behind me. He turns, pressing his back into me with one hand resting on my side, as if to confirm I’m still there. The entire movement takes place before I can even register what’s just happened, before I can even take in another breath. I’m completely boxed in. A notion that would normally make me want to scream, to fight, to demand to be let free. But I didn’t feel trapped. I took one of my deep, calming breaths, and the smell of old leather and a spicy soap filled my senses. I felt…secure. Even though the only thing I could see was the cotton covering Joel’s shoulder blades.

A moment later, laughter ensues. I can hear an apology, someone explaining they startle easily, and another waiter saying they were going to grab some paper towels. I look down to my left, seeing Joel’s tense hand splayed wide, gripping my hip, and a familiar coil in my stomach forms. I shake my head a little, willing myself to focus.

“Um,” I clear my throat, forcing my voice back to normal, “Mr. Miller? I think we’re okay.”

Joel takes a half step away from me, turning to me first, examining my face as if something could have gone through him to get to me. I hold my breath, realizing his hand is still on my hip. I hate to admit it, but it makes me wish I had worn a skirt short enough to feel how calloused his hands were against—

Nope. No. Enough.

“It was just an accident.” My voice is much gentler than I expect it to be.

This seems to jolt him back into reality. He removes his hand, and gives me a nod that would have confirmed his time spent in the military, if Arthur hadn’t already said as much.

Joel peers around the corner, to confirm what I already suspected. It was just a spill, and one broken glass. Nothing so much as splashed on to one of the pieces. I haven’t seen him this…on before. He’s always a looming presence, but even now that we know it was nothing, he’s more electrified. His broad shoulders are still stiff returning to me, and the way his hands are pulled just slightly away from his body, it makes it look like he’s either going to grab me or knock someone out at any turn. For a moment, I actually want to apologize for Nyah’s flirting, especially since I gave her the go-ahead. When he said he was on the clock, he was really on the clock. But the moment passes when I remember his audacity to call me out on my lie the other day.

“Can I return to my friends now? Or would you like to detain the rest of the glassware on suspicion of grievous bodily harm?”

This time, there is no amusement on his face. Not even a flicker. He doesn’t look angry, exactly. Almost…pained.

“You can go,” Is all he says.

I pause, feeling like I should say something else. What I would say, I don’t know. Something to…calm him, I guess. Instead, I just look him in the eye one last time before rounding the corner, and finding Harper and Nyah by the front of the gallery. Landon is busy introducing Elijah to some of the older crowd whom I assume are very important.

“What was that about?” Nyah asks, inclining her head toward the direction I came from.

“He thought I sent you over as a distraction.”

“I see,” Nyah smiles proudly to herself, “Did you tell him I went over to prove a point?”

“Not exactly. I’m not even sure what point you were trying to prove.”

“Oh, the point was that it bothers you when other people flirt with your bodyguard.”

Harper’s eyes widen, but she keeps them on the floor.

“If I admit to your trivial point will you agree not to do it again?”

Nyah beams, “Of course.”

“Then fine. It bothers me. I feel…bad, Nye. He’s on edge. When we were talking, that glass shattered and you would have thought there was a bomb threat.”

They both glance in Joel’s direction, Nyah’s gaze curious, and Harper’s empathetic. “Well, don’t look!” I whine.

“Not going to lie, he does look tense,” says Nyah.

“Not to be a know-it-all, but maybe this just confirms what I was worried about.” Harper says, still looking at Joel.

“What do you mean?”

Her sad eyes rest on me now. “I just have the feeling that we need to start taking some of these threats seriously. He was hired for a reason. He knows that. He acts like it. And…maybe you should, too.”

Next Chapter

Previous Chapter

Masterlist

[dracoqueen22]

For Maia: Chadley/simulated!Cloud - Chadley programs a Cloud simulation to practice flirting with

Chadley has had approximately (exactly) forty (seven) conversations with Cloud Strife, but somehow, guiding the topic beyond their mutually beneficial research partnership has turned his tongue to knots. 

It’s unexpected, the way his heart flutters and his face warms, the very moment he spies his favorite speci– err, candidate. 

Cloud either does not notice or is kind enough not to comment. 

Chadley decides (hopes) it is the former over the latter. Cloud is kind in his own way, but Chadley would prefer to present a fully capable front. Unfortunately, he is too organic to simply reprogram the stutters out of his vocabulary, and while he’s read every instructional manual he was capable of downloading, none of them have presented a solution to solve this particular quandary. 

The simulator is MAI’s idea. 

“If it’s good enough for Cloud, it’s good enough for you,” she says. “And let’s face it, buddy, you need the practice.” 

“I do not,” Chadley grits out. 

(He definitely does.)

Virtual!Cloud is a near-perfect copy of the real Cloud. Chadley borrows data from the battle simulator and every recorded interaction, plus his own personal observations, to approximate a digital version of his favorite candidate. 

Theoretically, with enough practice in the virtual world, Chadley will behave with dignity in the natural world. No more hot cheeks. No more stammering thoughts. Nothing but a scientist who is cool, calm, and collected. 

“Just don’t get up to anything NSFM, alright? I’m watching, you know,” MAI says. 

Chadley does not recognize the acronym. “NSFM?” 

“Not safe for MAI!” She giggles and vanishes with a burst of glittery, virtual particles. 

Now it’s just Chadley and Virtual!Cloud in an empty, virtual space. 

“Hmm.” Chadley activates the holo panel and considers available settings. “It won’t do any good to practice in an obviously fabricated environment. I need more realistic parameters.” 

He considers his options and dismisses anything related to Midgar. The city holds too many unpleasant connotations. No, what they need is a fresh start. Somewhere bright and cheerful with fresh air and sunlight. 

Somewhere outside Kalm, perhaps. There are quite a few scenic spots that have been noted by local photographers, so Chadley picks one and builds it into the virtual space. There. A cliff overlooking the ocean with lots of grass and flowers underfoot. Perfect. 

The setting blooms to life around them and Chadley deactivates the holo panel. Now it’s just him and Virtual!Cloud on a cliff on a bright, sunny day. Perfect. 

Chadley stares at Virtual!Cloud and Virtual!Cloud… doesn’t stare back. His face is too blank for that. Empty. 

Unactivated. 

Oh!

Chadley taps the controls and Virtual!Cloud blinks. He looks around as if he’s confused, that little pinch between his brows. 

“Cloud!” Chadley waves to get his attention. “What a surprise to run into you here!” 

No, that’s inane. 

Virtual!Cloud looks back at him. “How did I get here?” he asks. He plants his hands on his hips, but he looks more bewildered than angry. 

Hmm. Perhaps a touch too realistic. 

Chadley pauses, rewrites a few lines of code, and tries again. 

“Cloud!” He smiles and waves. “It’s nice to see you again. I have worked hard on all of the data you’ve been collecting. I think you’re really going to like what I’ve created.” 

Wait. No. That’s just business. 

Chadley frowns. He’s doing this all wrong. Also, he didn’t re-activate Virtual!Cloud. Gods, Cloud makes him so flustered. Even a virtual one. 

He tries again. Minor adjustments uploaded. Virtual!Cloud activated. Chadley takes in a deep breath, exhales, and starts over. 

“Cloud! I’m glad to see you’re looking well,” he says, which is both true because Virtual!Cloud is a near copy of actual Cloud, and because Cloud gets into very dangerous situations, and Chadley often worries. Though he knows he shouldn’t. 

Cloud is more than capable of taking down anything. 

“... Thanks,” Virtual!Cloud says. “Uh, is that all?”

“Actually,” Chadley starts and stumbles. Even in practice this is difficult. “I was hoping you would be willing to assist me in a new venture.” 

Virtual!Cloud tilts his head, a cute pinch of confusion between his eyebrows. Programmed perfectly. “You want me to kill something?”

“No, no, nothing like that,” Chadley says, waving his arms. “It’s something of an, eh, personal nature…?” He trails off and gives Virtual!Cloud a look. 

People initiate dating protocols via lots of subtle words and gestures, Chadley’s read. He needs to master these if he has any chance of being successful. 

Virtual!Cloud squints. “Personal?” 

“Yes,” Chadley says with  more confidence than he feels. “I would be honored if you’d accompany me on a personal errand. I would be happy to include a meal and a beverage afterward.” 

Food and drink, both key factors of social interaction with interpersonal relationships. Also, sustenance is an important part of daily functioning. Cloud looks like he could use a few hearty meals and some relaxation, perhaps on a beach? 

Oh, no.

Cloud on a beach. He certainly couldn’t wear his usual uniform. He’d have to dress more comfortably. Show more… skin. Even more skin than when he was wearing that dress, with the make up and the hair and–

Oh, dear. 

“Your face is red,” Virtual!Cloud says, much more astute than the actual Cloud. 

Chadley spins around, hits pause on the simulation, and tries to get ahold of himself. He finger-combs his hair, takes a few deep breaths, waits for the heat to leave his cheeks. 

This is going to be a lot harder than he thought. 

Chadley’s going to need a heck of a lot more practice. 

***