#I’ve got some more CC stuff cooking as well

[ricky-mortis]

He’s such a goofy silly guy!

[greenplumbboblover]

The Goth Manor - A Resurrective Renovation (Little CC Necessary)

Or well... just a makeover! What better than a makeover to start the new year

About

In the 11 years, I've been playing this game, this was the only house in Sunset Valley I was always a bit too nervous to give it a makeover. Partially, that was of course because of the somewhat complex architecture of the house itself, but also for the fact of accidentally ruining the 'theme' of, what is the trusty Goth Manor we know!

However, in my latest rotational gameplay round, when I got to the house, I just felt that the more I played in it, the more... bland it felt? Especially compared to all the other houses in Sunset Valley that I had prettified (Whether small changes or massively). Thus, the end result!

Download: MTS | Patreon (Free as always)

CC Required:

TS2 to TS3 Fence Pack by CircusWolf

Fancy Alternating Quoin Wall Expansion by cutsocks

The Spectre Mausoleum Roof by simgrassalidale

The Sims 2 Apartment Life Windows by megativity13

DIY Build Set by armielNatural Garden Edgers by HugeLunatic

Greenhouse Build Kit by Shakeshaft

One More Slot Please! by granthes

Cottage living Chair by AroundTheSims

Cottage Living Stove by Around The Sims

Mighty Mansard Redux! by QahneEnchanted Ivy by Murano

(More info under the “keep reading”)

Some of the goals

Initially, I started with some changes that just help regarding gameplay, and initially "quality of life changes". Not sure about you, but Gunther for example, would never cook in the kitchen! Instead, he'd always just start barbequing hotdogs. This meant that my dude had to walk all the way to the fridge to get it... And that's why I decided to create an outdoor kitchen bit  (Also, because in my game they usually have tons of parties). In my save currently, Mortimer is also a teen, and usually when he becomes that, I have him explore some science-y skills. (Handiness, Science and Logic) Whereas as a child I'd have him pursue some creative skills as well as collecting bugs and sometimes gems. Usually, his bedroom is so small that all that stuff just doesn't fit, so it's now quite common in my saves to have him re-purpose the attic to his own (And add some more clutter to it to make it feel like an attic! ) Regarding the idea of the greenhouse, Cornelia happens to have the "perfect garden" lifetime wish, but the house doesn't nearly reflect any signs of her pursuing that. Therefore I felt that adding the tons of plants and 'harvestable plants' (and the greenhouse ) was the right thing to do. That way, she can happily take care of her garden and hopefully pursue her dreams finally! (She sure did in my game!)

Colour Scheme

Regarding the colour scheme, the original house had some interesting colouring going on. While it showed a good "old house is old" theme, it would also not show it as much in other parts of the house.

For example: The master bedroom would be all greyed-colored and old-looking, just like the attic, but the livingroom and the guest room were all fine and somewhat 'new' looking.

That I hoped to fix with coming up with a primary colour scheme for the interior: Green and red, with a touch of various 'aged' woods  (since not all aged woods turn grey!). I also hoped to therefore give a really nice touch of a more 'rustic' parts of the house, but also something you might remember from the Addams family's house (primarily the 1964 one), but with more elements where you notice the house has been around and lived in for a long while. Hence the flower-patterned curtains :p

I also felt that regarding the outside, having a second colour with the white-greyish added a nice touch to the house. A lot of old victorian houses (particularly American victorian houses, usually renovated though), you notice that they usually went with a white and then a touch of whatever-colour-fits. I did feel that going with green just felt like a good move, since it also made it so it wasn't too "popping" with the greenery around it.

Architecture

While I didn't change too much, I was always bothered by the 'front door' (the part with the kitchen). Compared to the rest of the house, it just felt that the devs tried to fix it up a bit but didn't quite know how. So I decided to add, what a lot of victorian houses have, which is a porch!  Might make it a bit more spooky too

Now, you might also wonder while looking upon the images and think: "Why the secret vampire basement?". I'm not sure either But in my save, I wanted to make a secret vampire "bed & breakfast" part, where they could hide from whatever endangerments they face. Because... Sunset Valley doesn't really have many places for them to go, especially compared to Bridgeport.

Additional Info On What comes with the house as well:

The Living room Fireplace is Fireproof, because that's also one of the quirks whenever I play this house, and that's the fact that there is always a fire

In the Greenhouse we have the following Plants: 3x Wolfsbane, 3x Melonaire grapes, 1x Wonderpetal, 1x Forbidden Fruit, 1x Lavender, 2x Ghost Chillies, 2x Pumpkin.

In Mortimers room we have the following pets: Ancient Dragon (Fafnir), Spiny Turtle (Tortimer, sorry I had to :p)

The Fishes in the Conservatory: Octpopus (Aristotle), Deathfish(Teresa), Shark (Manquer Piqures... sorry for my bad french :p), Tragic Clown (Aeschylus, named after a greek tragedian, "the father of tragedian"), Vampire Fish (LaCroix, because I can  , Although to be fair, I almost went with Damsel)

Throughout the house you may find the following flowers (happy plant hunting!): 1x DeathFlower, 1x Cortado Bean, 1x regular Grapes, 1x Life Fruit, 1x Greenleaf, 1x Mandrake, 1x Gralladina Fran, 1x Pumpkin, 1x Mycenas

The following Spawners can be found: 1x Beetle Spawner, 1x Vampires Eye, 1x Crypt Moth, 1x Gem Spawner (Alchemy), 1x Butterfly Spawner Glowy, 2x Fresh water Designators, 1x Fresh Water lake Rare, 1x Fresh Water Lake Uncommon 2, 2x Fresh Water Lake Commons, 1x Insect Spawner (alchemy)

The house comes with 2 magic gnomes in case you haven't noticed in the pictures

Lot Info Size: 60x60 Unfurnished Price: 212,604 Furnished Price: 346,204 Regarding the graveyard, all the graves are exactly the same. So you'll find Gretle, Victor, Simon, Prudence and Lolita in there. I didn't give them a makeover or anything, just moved their graves around Other than that, there are no actual sims included with this download! (If you want the Goths to live in it, do make sure to use the cheat "freerealestate" )

Download: MTS | Patreon

[5uptic]

I just think it's sad that people made the cupduo cooking stream more about ranboo than them. I mean chat constantly spamming 'feed ranboo' 'where is ranboo' and stuff. Even the most liked stuffs are about him :")) I understand though, he has a big following. But I wished people recognised the cupduo dynamic more especially beacause they have such an amazing one.

i know you sent this a while ago so maybe it's kind of not really relevant to reply to this, but i... digress? maybe i am in a bit of a bubble but i didn't see anyone making it about ranboo. and, to be honest... i've gone through this issue in other fandoms, where some people complain that there isn't enough content of x or y thing/person and that there should be more, and sometimes that comes with jabs against another thing/person. and from all those instances i've come out from it with the same thought: if you want there to be content of someone, often you have to create that content yourself. that's how i taught myself to gif years ago, and that's how i ended up creating this blog too! and there's also a reason why other content creators happen to have bigger audiences, which obviously is a combination of a bunch of factors, so i don't think i'm in a place to feel sad about ranboo's success just because my preferred cc didn't get as much attention as him.

like, for instance, i could also complain about how every time 5up invites a well known streamer to a lobby most commentary revolves around that person... but ultimately, i've learned to just be happy that the streamers that i know and love are being watched by a new audience. like, i'm sure that many people who only thought as 5up as the among us guy now know a different side of him and appreciate him more because of it, and that makes me really happy - both because 5up deserves all the love, and because i'm happy more people get to see and enjoy a content creator i really like.

the thing is, the case with smaller content creators (as 5up is in the mcyt landscape) is that fans are torn between two different perspectives: in one side, we want the cc that we like to get more exposure so they can be appreciated by more people and experience more success, but also we don't want them to become more popular because we're not ready to let go from a cozier, smaller fandom and bring in new people that can stir up a lot of shit lol. but being in fandom for a long time, not only you learn to deal with those feelings, but also to understand that roaring success isn't what is destined to your rather small cc and That's Fine: that sometimes people will only pay attention to them when they're interacting with a really large content creator and it's okay, and it doesn't take from the fact that your cc is still greatly appreciated and supported by an important quantity of people.

what i choose to leave with, is that i'm willing to bet a lot of ranboo fans who watched the stream only because he was on it ended up having a kick out of the cupduo interactions. in the end, everything went great for all them: the three of them had fun, tubbo tried something new and did a serious cooking stream for once lol, 5up got to meet one of his beloved friends in the uk and finally did a cooking stream, us fans got a bunch of fun content to gush about... and even if it was the case that either 5up or tubbo got sad/frustrated that people were overfocusing on ranboo, i'm sure they understand how it is and dealt with it accordingly. but from what i saw they all felt pretty satisfied with how things turned out like. so i'm choosing to take those things and deal with my little entitled fan-of-a-small-cc feelings privately, if ever needed.

[sushigal007]

Time for The Time Of The Doctor. Cat is showing signs of making herself very comfy on my lap, but I have learned my lesson. Well, sort of. Laptop is now on my chest rather than beside me. It is not optimal, but is at least less painful.

VO and weird sound going out everywhere. Nobody can translate, so everyone has gone for a nosy.

Doctor has wound up on a Dalek ship by accident oops. Turns out his friendly cyberman head did it. I know cybermen are supposed to have no emotions, but I still can't help feeling like Handles did it on purpose, for the lulz. The phone rings - outside - and the Doctor asks Handles to remind him to patch it through the console. Which Handles does. Immediately. The Doctor tells him to remind him later.

Phone is Clara. She needs an emergency boyfriend. She's cooked Christmas dinner and told her family she's got a boyfriend and it isn't even an android. Doctor is distracted by a new ship. This time he holds Handles out to check and all is fine! the Doctor steps out, Handles held aloft, and announces he's come in p-

It's a Cyberman ship, HA!

Credits!

Clara's nan is getting toasted, sensible lady. The rest of her family are pestering about the turkey. She hears TARDIS noises and runs outside and- the Doctor is naked WHY. Because he's going to church.

OK, it's very silly and childish, but I am amused and entertained. Anyway, he's wearing hologram clothes and honestly, I do like the idea. I've been fantasising about hologram clothes for years, mostly when I go Sims CC shopping. Imagine being able to wear them all yourself! And think of the cosplay opportunities! Can't wait!

She takes them to see her fam. Gran is delighted. everyone else is weirded out. Turns out, Clara is the only one who can see his hologram clothes, whoops! She tells them... he's Swedish.

The turkey is not cooked. The Doctor says it needs a vet. Or a time machine. Then he catches on. Seems Clara has been using time travel to catch up on missed birthdays and TV shows and he's annoyed about it, but I dunno, she's got a point, if I had access to a TARDIS, I'd skip forward to Friday when I get paid, finish my Christmas shopping, then come back to today so I have time to wrap them instead of staying up until 2am Christmas Eve.

Handles identifies the planet. Slowly. It's... Gallifrey. Apparently. The Doctor gets very pissy with Handles and tells him Gallifrey is gone, even if it survived, it's not in this universe.

Big space church! They're the ones who shielded the planet and can get them in to have a look around. Tasha Lem appears as a giant head with gives me very Holly from Red Dwarf vibes. The Doctor hands Clara a hologram pill and tells her she can't go to church with her clothes on.

The church stuff is weird, but honestly, I kinda like it? Religion is such a big thing, we've seen half a dozen Satans by now, so it does actually make sense that church would be in the future too. Plus I do weirdly like church having a place in a Christmas special. Even if it is a space church that demands nudity.

Tasha Lem and the Doctor flirt. She likes his new body. He introduces Clara, badly. Tasha wants to talk to the Doctor alone. The Doctor says she can say anything in front of Clara, except maybe not and by the end of it, Clara is more than happy to just wait outside. Actually, she's probably wishing she knew how to add noise cancelling headphones to her hologram outfit.

She spots a Silence!

Tasha and the Doctor sit and drink wine, before the Doctor remembers he doesn't like wine and spits it out again. They talk about how the message scares everyone.

Clara keeps seeing and forgetting the Silence.

The Doctor and Tasha chat some more. Nobody wants to be the first to go and see what's going on. Except for the Doctor.

The Silence tell Clara to confess and she freaks out enough to run into the room. And instantly forgets why. Tasha has a personal teleport and sends them down. She can also see through holograms and knows the Doctor's been hiding a TARDIS key and now I have a second cat on me.

Weeping Angel in the snow! It grabs her ankle. She cant get free unless she can wiggle out of her shoe, which is when the Doctor reminds her she isn't wearing one. Aaand there are multiple Angels.

Happily the Doctor had a second key and summons the TARDIS. Surprisingly for this episode, it's not in a rude place, it's under his wig. He says he shaved his head to get them past the shield. Clara reckons he just got bored one night, and after all the lockdown haircuts we saw, I gotta admit, that's completely understandable. It took all my self control not to cut off my own hair back in March 2020.

They wind up in the village and see a couple of people, so the Doctor comes up with a cover story and immediately blurts out his whole life story. Clara admits she's a control freak and when I pause, wow, you can really see how horrified she is to have the mask slip for a moment. The Doctor realises it's a truth field.

The town is called Christmas. Clara questions it, like there isn't literally a Christmas Island on Earth. And an Easter one, as the Doctor points out. Despite it being July, it's got the whole Dickens Victorian Christmas vibe again, because if it ain't broken, don't try and fix it. Dickens Victorian Christmas vibes just work better.

Too many cat help.

Its Amy's crack (shh). Flashback time!

The Doctor realises it's a weak spot in our universe and something's trying to push through. Gallifrey, of course.

The Doctor whips out the Black Seal of Rassilon that he nicked off the Master way back in The Five Doctors. With it, Handles is able to translate. He warns that everybody will be able to hear the translation, and the question is, Doctor Who.

Tasha is concerned.

The Doctor says only he would know the answer and the truth field means he can't lie. I just appreciate that they're asking this time, rather than just muscling in and trying to barge Earth out of the way, President Tim.

The Doctor tells Clara to go to the TARDIS and charge up a thing because half the universe is above the planet, waiting to restart the Time War. She runs off just as Tasha's giant face appears in the sky and tells him the planet is Trenzalore.

The TARDIS takes Clara home, She spins around and jams her key back in just as it starts to dematerialise.

The Doctor says he's going to protect the town. Tasha tells the church they are now dedicated to Silence and will not allow him to say his name.

We get a montage. I enjoy it, but I do wish we got to see all these battles and him bonding with the townspeople. The wooden Cyberman looks great. The Doctor is visibly starting to age. The sonic still does not work on wood lol.

TARDIS noises! It's been 300 years! The children ask if this means he's leaving.

Clara is rather freaked out. She was in the time vortex. Hope she waved to Salamander. Somehow the turkey isn't done yet.

The Doctor explains that nobody can attack in case he unleashes the Time Lords, and he can't run away because everybody will burn the planet to stop the Time Lords coming back.

Handle is getting old and has developed a fault. Before he powers down, he reminds the Doctor to patch through the telephone, awww. :( The Doctor thanks him.

The next morning, Clara asks why the Doctor sent her away. He points out that she'd be long dead now. They talk about regeneration and make it clear that the War Doctor used up a regeneration, and the hand clone Ten also counted, which I was very happy to hear when this first aired, because I'd been complaining for ages about that one and how if you could cheat regeneration like that, Simm Master would've spent the first few hours of his regeneration cutting off multiple chunks of himself for a clone army. So Eleven has hit the limit and this is where he dies.

Clara keeps pointing out that he has his TARDIS now, so surely he can do something. I'm thinking a mass evacuation. Then the big Tasha Lem face in the sky asks for parley. When he approaches the TARDIS, he finds one of the village children guarding it.

More Silence. We finally get an explanation of what they are - priests genetically engineered so you forget what you've told them. Tasha, Clara and the Doctor head off to chat and oh dear, the church staff are all Dalek puppets. Meanwhile, Tasha explains how the cracks happened; a faction of the church led by Madam Kovarian went back in time and blew up his TARDIS to try and stop him ever reaching Trenzalore, but in doing so, caused the cracks in the first place. If you find this confusing, may I recommend Day Of The Daleks, which does a similar paradox plot, but over four episodes, so you have time to understand it.

Then Tasha lets slip that the Daleks killed her three days ago. The Daleks burst in, so the Doctor amplifies the message and warns them he'll take ages to die and he'll definitely bring back the Time Lords to spite them first.

Tasha grabs Clara as a hostage, but the Doctor tells them to go ahead and kill her, and Clara says they'll kill her anyway. The Doctor use that to utterly roast Tasha and while I don't like it, I do remember that Four did exactly the same thing to get Sarah Jane through a ventilation shaft once, and just like Sarah Jane, Tasha focuses all her energy on breaking out of the Dalek's control so she can slap him. And kill the Daleks. Anyway, they kiss and he says she's been fighting a psychopath inside her all her life, she can manage a Dalek, and I remain convinced that she's somehow one of River Song's regenerations. I don't know how, but I'm not willing to let it go entirely.

The turkey is done! Clara tells him to look at her and promise he'll never send her away again. He promises. She goes to get the turkey, steps outside... and she's home. The TARDIS vanishes.

More montages.

Back in Clara's flat, her family are bitching. Well, Aunt? Linda is. Gran talks about how she met her husband and Clara cries. And then there's TARDIS noises again! She runs outside... but it's Tasha, not the Doctor. She says flying the TARDIS was always easy, I say hello, River Song.

She sends Clara to the Doctor because he's even older now and dying. The old makeup they've done on him is really very good.  He even struggles to pull the cracker. The crackers don't have jokes, just little sayings and it's a very apt one:

Now it's time for one last bow, Like all your other selves. Eleven's hour is over now, The clock is striking twelve's.

Eleven says he would've preferred a knock-knock joke. All right, knock knock, who's there, Doctor. Lol.

Clara begs him to change the future. He says he could've, when there were Time Lords, but not any more. He heads out to talk to the Daleks, and Clara goes and yells at the crack.

The crack disappears.

The Doctor mocks the Daleks, who've spent centuries trying to kill him and he's still gonna die of old age.

Then the crack appears in the sky and sends him a bunch of regeneration energy! The Daleks complain about the rules of regeneration, but it's not the first time the Time Lords broke the rules, they gave the Master a new cycle too. The Doctor gloats and zaps them all, and unlike the Master's zappy hands, I don't hate it, because we saw Melody Pond/River Song do something similar when she was regenerating.

The Daleks are dead! Christmas is saved! Clara heads to the TARDIS. Eleven has left his clothes all over the floor and half a bowl of fish fingers and custard on the console. He's young again, but can't stop the regeneration. He gives a short speech about how he'll always be the Doctor, but times change, and so will he.

Baby Amy cameo!

He says we're different people throughout our lives and that's OK, so long as you remember them, and he will always remember when the Doctor was him and I like this SO MUCH MORE than Ten's regeneration. Tears in my eyes.

He drops his bow tie. It really is the end-

But we don't even get a second to mourn, because it's Twelve, in the fastest regeneration ever! And he does not like the colour of his kidneys!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Again, not quite as perfect as A Christmas Carol, but still one of my faves, and my fave regeneration episode so far as well. There's Christmas vibes, but there is also lots of warring, which makes it all a bit sombre. But Matt's final scene is just perfect, honouring the previous Doctors as people he used to be, accepting that his time is now up without protest. To be fair though, Eleven lived for hundreds of years and Ten lasted about three. We also get a much-needed reset of the regeneration cycle, and confirmation that Gallifrey was saved in the 50th.

But my biggest complaint about this episode is the montages. The Doctor is on Trenzalore for hundreds of years, and we barely see any of it, so we don't get a chance to connect with the people of Christmas ourselves. Barnable is the only one who even gets named. Which means I don't care about them nearly as much as the Doctor does. I would've liked for this to be a series, something like Flux, so we could've seen some of the battles. I'm pretty sure there's books, maybe Big Finish stories, but I don't know because I'm too poor to consume much spin-off merch. And it's annoying, because the rest of the story is pretty good, it just feels like bits of it hit fast-forward just when I want to sit back and enjoy it.

ETA: Another problem I forgot to mention is that the church and the village never show any sign that time has passed, so that, combined with the montages skimming over all the battles, makes it very difficult to believe that this is a war that has been going on for centuries. I know tech isn’t allowed through the shield, but surely the citizens of Christmas themselves would try and come up with stuff to help the Doctor fight or armous their buildings a bit more, but every time Clara comes back, it all looks exactly the same. The only sign that time has passed is the Doctor himself, and if the Tasha VO had said he’d tried to build his own time machine and accidentally made himself old and Clara had only been gone three days, it would’ve been just as believable.

Also much of this one is not going to make any sense at all to anyone who isn't a dedicated fan, which means it's not a great one for watching with distant relatives.

[samkat10423]

Moving in Sims

For the past few days, I’ve been moving in Sims and setting up relationships. Among them was that Riddle Sim, from Twinbrook. Because I wanted to move in her niece – along with the niece’s yappy dog – I needed to make a sibling for Anna-Liza. Since I’d already saved that Racket Sim to my bin, I decided to just make him into her brother – after changing his name.  Then I gave him a daughter. This was a win-win for me, since this world comes with a generic graveyard. And I hate no-name graves. Not only did he help establish a relationship, but I got to kill him and add his tombstone to my cemetery! Go me!

Anyway, Anna-Liza is one of the town’s Censorious Triad and the editor of the town newspaper. One of the other two, card-carrying members is Madame Blanche Robichaux (shown here with her son, Marshal and his “no-good, floozy-of-a-wife,” Trixie. And Trixie’s “nasty, little flea-bitten cat.”). Trixie and Marshal were created by Webbymom of the 3 Musketeers, as part of the Sims Daily’s population thread. (She even made political pictures of him, when I whined, so he’s the mayor in this town. His “sainted” mum is CEO of the local business, while his” tart of a wife,” is a renown painter. As you can tell, by her comments, Madame Blanche is NOT a fan of her daughter-in-law or her cat, who are both actually, nice little Sims). The old lady is a Sim I found about 11 years ago, over on TSR. I liked her, because she was so ugly. I also created 2 more Sims for this family – the patriarch and a younger son. But they’re dead and fighting over in my graveyard. Prior to their deaths, the son got himself engaged to an “unacceptable” young lady, and was immediately booted out of the family. But they did bury him in the family plot – have to keep up appearances, don’t you know! - so he and his dad get to continue their feud for all eternity. (BTW, the 2 Sims suspected in their deaths are buried nearby, and all 4 of them HATE each other. So the cemetery is pretty lively at night!)

Then I moved in these Sims – Frederic D’Aimelefric and Fannie Bellefleur. These 2 were created by nengi65 for that hot pink apartment I showed you a while back. I have always liked them, because they’re not your typical “pretty” Sims. Anyway, she had them in the acting career track, but since I replaced the studio with my festival lot, I put them into Showtime careers. He’s a magician now, while she’s an acrobat. And to help them with their careers, I made him clumsy and forgetful, and her clumsy and a couch potato. I would have opted for chronic stage fright, but EA “forgot” to offer that as a trait. Stupid EA. Nengi described him as having rather grandiose visions of his own, non-existent talent, while Fannie was the stereotypical, dumb blonde. I liked that, so I kept it.

Then, replacing Amy Bull as the town fashionista, I made Felicity Plum. Cameranutz II had made a generic Sim by this name for this world, but I wanted someone with a tad more character. So here she is. She has absolutely no artistic ability at all, which will definitely help her career – or not. But since I’m not stupid enough to let her give me a make-over, it’s not my problem.

These Sims all originally came from Bridgeport – they were that Cook family. They are now known as the Thibodeaux family. The creators of this world did make a family for this world with that name, but again, they were typical do-gooder, pudding Sims. Unlike me, those ladies were not into conflict amongst their Sims. So I didn’t bother saving them. Anyway, believe it or not, other than giving these Sims some CC skins (Buckley-Ephemera Fresh skins) and those default replacement hairs that @maryjanesims3 has been so graciously sharing, and nicer make-up, these are EA Sims. (Well, I did give them some decent clothes). The first time I saw the two ladies, with just the new hair, I was shocked at how pretty they really are. So, there is hope for game Sims. The old fart is now known as Judge Roy. He’s still I the political track, and on the take. And his wife – now named Lacey – is still hoping for his early death.

This is a tiny house between the bistro lot and that Chocolate Restaurant. It was made by susieb, but I don’t think she made a family for it. Not that I would have downloaded them. Anyway, I did change out the exterior siding and the porch railing for CC that I have. And inside, I got rid of all the basegame crap and gave them some nicer stuff.

It now belongs to the 3rd member of the Censorious Triad – Muriel P. Finster. She was created by my friend, Alex – aka: Hellfrozeover – back when she was still playing TS3. While I was doing the other 2, I knew they needed a pal, and this Sim came to mind. I left her pretty much the way Alex created her, although I did change some of her traits. Since I made her the principle of my school, I decided to help her with her career, by giving her the “I despise you little rugrats!” trait.

Then, because the house has lots of room despite being on an itsy-bitsy lot, I decided she should have an adult son who’s moved back home. With his cat. To whom Muriel is allergic. Anyway, he’s a genetic resequencer working on a top-secret project. His mother has been frantically snooping through his notes, trying to figure out what he’s working on, but he’s up to her ways and has been leaving a bunch of nonsense laying around for her to find.

Next family I do, will be those Bagley’s from Riverview. I already made Ma Bagley’s husband and oldest son – who now reside in the graveyard. They’re the Sims suspected of killing the 2 Robichaux Sims. Anyway, the living ones will live out in my swamp and be moonshiners. Their houses are done, and I even gave them a still – aka: nectar-making thingie. But that will be another post.

[rainecreatesstuff]

escaping is not the same as running away- chapter 1: goodbyes are not for good

DISCLAIMER: ALL names in this story are in reference to the CHARACTERS of the Dream SMP, NOT the CCs. Please be respectful in the replies.

Characters: Tubbo, Ranboo, Philza, Technoblade, Mentioned TommyInnit, Mentioned Michael_Beloved

Relationships: Tubbo & Ranboo (Platonic), Philza & Technoblade (Platonic), Philza & Ranboo (Platonic), Technoblade & Ranboo (Platonic)

Warnings: Swearing

Ranboo climbed the stairs of the factory, reaching the top and letting his shoulders fall as he spotted Tubbo sitting on the edge of the roof. He carefully made his way over, sitting down beside Tubbo, who had one of his legs held to his chest, his chin sitting on it, staring at the sunset.

“Thought I might find you here.” Ranboo swung his legs back and forth a bit.

Tubbo hummed.

“Is Michael in bed?”

“Mhm,” Ranboo leaned back, “Luckily his chicken plush was dry, so he went to bed easy tonight.”

Tubbo smiled, but it was tight, and fell away easily after a moment.

As much as he wanted to ask Tubbo what was wrong, he knew it was probably a bad decision. Tubbo was a man of secrets. He kept everything on the inside, and trying to pry just made him upset, so Ranboo sat patiently as they watched the sunset.

Snowchester really was beautiful at this time. The golden hues of the sun reflected off the snow and water, creating a warm tint over the town. Tubbo really was an amazing builder. The cute, cottage-esque homes somehow became even more cozy-looking in the setting sun. A distant part of Ranboo hoped they would make it inside before the moon rose, and the cold of the night truly settled into the village.

“You ever think about leaving?”

Ranboo was broken out of his thoughts by Tubbo’s question.

“Huh?”

Tubbo shifted, turning his head to face Ranboo.

“You know, just packing up, getting in a boat, and disappearing. Finding somewhere far, far away where you wouldn’t have to worry about governments or terrorists or wars. Somewhere safe.” Tubbo’s eyes didn’t meet Ranboo’s, instead seeming to trace the lines of his face.

Ranboo frowned.

“I mean, not, not really? I… if I’m being honest, I like it here.” He paused for a moment, “well, not like, here, but… Snowchester. I like being here with you and Michael, and whoever else happens to be around. It’s… calm, I guess.” Ranboo swung his legs idly as he spoke.

Tubbo hummed, glancing back towards the sunset.

“Do you?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think about running away?”

Tubbo’s brow creased.

“I mean, sometimes. Feel like it’d be easier. Just disappear into the night, before anyone could stop me. Maybe I’d finally get to have that apiary. Like the one we built in L’Manburg, but bigger, with machines and’ stuff.”

Ranboo smiled softly.

“You could make a villager trading ring, like you always wanted. Get all the best enchantments and all the best loot.”

Tubbo laughed quietly.

“And we could build a house, a nice one, in a flower field, with a big backyard for Michael to play in. And we could get a dog.”

“And a cat.”

“And we could learn how to cook properly.”

Ranboo laughed, airy and loudly. Tubbo grinned, leaning against Ranboo. Ranboo stiffened for a moment, and Tubbo began to pull away, before Ranboo carefully wrapped an arm around Tubbo, holding him by his waist.

“Imagine it, just us and Michael, and Tommy, just living super far away from all this bullshit. Maybe sending the occasional letter back. Just. Living. Actually living, without constantly worrying about everything.” Tubbo’s voice went soft, like he was sharing a secret.

Ranboo hummed, before going silent and still.

Realistically… what was stopping them? They could pack everything they needed in like, an hour tops, and tell Tommy to do the same. They could sail north, and keep going until they were safe. Until they found that perfect little flower field. They could bring Michael. They… they could leave.

Tubbo clicked his tongue, bringing Ranboo back to reality.

“You alright boss man?”

Ranboo bit his lip gently, considering for a moment, then…

“What’s stopping us?”

Tubbo tensed up beside him, pulling away to stare at him.

“What?”

“What’s stopping us from packing up and leaving?”

Tubbo blinked, staring at Ranboo incredulously.

“You. You’re serious?” Tubbo’s voice shook a bit.

“I mean, yeah. Like, I don’t know about you, but, I don’t really have anything holding me here other than you and Michael. I’d… I’d miss Phil, and Techno, but they’d understand. God, they of all people would totally understand.”

Tubbo brushed the hair away from his eyes, and Ranboo had to glance away.

“I… Like, you actually want to? You’re not just saying that?” Tubbo looked away slightly as well, focusing his eyes on Ranboo’s hair instead.

“I mean, yeah. I, I um, I think it’d be good. For all of us, especially Michael. He should, uh, he should get to grow up safe n’ stuff, you know?”

A smile slipped onto Tubbo’s face, becoming a grin, and then a laugh. He hugged Ranboo lightly around the waist, and Ranboo gently squeezed back. A sharp pain erupted from his shoulder and a low hiss escaped from his mouth, and Tubbo quietly gasped and pulled away.

“Fuck- sorry Boo, I wasn’t even thinking-“

“You’re crying?” Ranboo held Tubbo’s face in his hands, carelessly wiping away tears even as they burnt his thumbs.

Tubbo batted away his hands gently.

“Stop it, you’re not burning your hands just because I got all sappy n shit.” Tubbo laughed gently, rubbing at his eyes with his sleeve.

“You’re okay?” Ranboo half-reached out to Tubbo, as if to dry his tears again, but pulled back.

“Fuck, Boo, I am so okay. I am very okay.” He laughed as he spoke, bringing his hands up and flapping them back and forth as he spoke.

Ranboo giggled, leaning back on his hands.

“Okay, okay, sorry about that, I just- I’ve been wanting to just leave for so long but I didn’t want to leave you or Tommy or Michael so I just- Assumed I wouldn’t ever be able to, and-“ Tubbo shakily drew a breath in, running a hand through his hair, “You’re sure? Like, 100%, no going back, sure?”

Ranboo let himself think it over for another moment, just in case, but he still couldn’t find any reason to stay. As long as he had Tubbo, Michael, and Tommy with him, he could care less what happened on SMP soil. He’d miss Niki, Techno, and Phil, and it hurt him to know he’d probably never speak to Fundy or Quackity again, but part of him was inclined to believe he wouldn’t have in the first place. So, drawing in a breath, he nodded.

“Yeah. Whenever you’re ready, I am.”

Tubbo rammed his forehead into Ranboo’s chest, making a small “oof” escape him, hugging him tightly. Ranboo wrapped his arms around Tubbo, smiling softly.

“Okay, okay, um, tonight? Do you wanna go tonight? We can carry Michael, and he can sleep on the way, and we can sleep once we’ve gotten a ways out.” Tubbo sprang back, then jumped up, pacing back and forth on the edge of the roof, nearly giving Ranboo a heart attack.

Ranboo stood as well, grabbing Tubbo’s hood and pulling him away from the edge.

“As long as you don’t wander off any roofs, yeah, sure.”

Tubbo just huffed, but his smile didn’t waiver. He passed Ranboo, headed towards the stairs, gently hitting his arm on the way by. Ranboo followed him down.

“Alright, so I can pack up my stuff, and I’ll go convince Tommy to come, and then you can go get your stuff and come back and help me pack for Michael?” Tubbo asked, fidgeting excitedly with the drawstrings on his coat.

Ranboo nodded.

“Yeah, yeah, sounds good, I’ll be done in like- an hour probably? And then I’ll just come back to your house.”

Tubbo nodded, and ran up the steps to his cabin. Swinging the door open, he turned around once more, flashing Ranboo a grin.

“See you in a bit!”

“See ya.” Ranboo replied, smiling as the door slammed behind Tubbo.

Ranboo made his way to the community portal, careful to avoid Tommy’s property. He was pretty sure there was a reason Tubbo had wanted to tell Tommy, and not just for convenience. The blond probably wouldn’t be super on board with their plan right away, and he’d probably need Tubbo to convince him. Either with their super long friendship, or his puppy eyes. Ranboo was sure even Tommy couldn’t be invulnerable against that.

He reached the portal, and stood in it, the familiar nausea hitting him as he entered the Nether. He leaned against the portal’s frame for a moment, and the nausea dissipated as it always did. He walked along the messy cobblestone path that lead to the Arctic, nearly falling off a couple times due to ghasts, and eventually reached the Arctic.

He didn’t think he’d ever get used to the whiplash that was leaving the Nether and entering a tundra.

He reached his house just as the sun fully set, sending the sky into its beautiful twilight palette. He made his way around his basement, arranging as many of his riches as he could fit in his enderchest, and stuffing the rest, as well as survival supplies, into his inventory and a bag. He looked around his basement one last time, and his Enderman… “roommate,” we’ll call it, croaked something that sounded familiar in the same way all Ender did.

Ranboo bit his lip. He didn’t want to just leave the poor guy here, confused… Maybe a note could work? Surely Endermen had translators. He wrote his roommate a note explaining that he was leaving, and handed it to them. The Enderman looked down at the note, and seemed like he might actually have understood it, at least to some degree.

He made a sad croaking noise, and gently pat Ranboo’s head. Ranboo laughed a bit awkwardly, but smiled at the Enderman, who gave him one last look, then teleported away. Ranboo sighed heavily, biting his lip.

All his pets would need someone to look after them, then. He brought them all upstairs, then sat and gave them pets for a little bit. He could probably sneak Dogboo into Techno’s dog house. He was pretty sure the hound army had been decommissioned, and Techno definitely wouldn’t notice the extra dog until he read the name tag, if he ever did.

He was sure Phil wouldn’t mind one more addition to his flock- crow or not, the man was good with birds, and Ranbird would be well taken care of.

That just left him with his cats. Enderpearl, and Enderchest. The thought of leaving them behind put a sharp ache in his heart, but not more so than the thought of seeing Tubbo passed out at his desk after working himself to exhaustion did. Okay. Maybe Niki could take care of them. He knew she’d had foxes before, and cats were similar, if not a bit more independent. He could drop them off at her place on his way out, then.

He took a deep breath, giving one more round of cuddles and pets, then moved to action. He led Dogboo into the doghouse, where the pack immediately started trying to play with Dogboo. Ranboo let him off the lead, and knelt down, hugging him one more time, then leaving and closing the gate tightly behind him.

This next part would be more difficult, but he was sure he could do it without being confronted. Phil was still in Techno’s house, he could hear them talking from here. He brought Ranbird into Phil’s house on his forearm, leaving the bird on the counter in an area where he couldn’t get into too much trouble.

A crow flew down from one of the rosters, poking at Ranbird. Ranboo wondered for a moment if this was a bad idea, but then a few more crows flocked down and cawed curiously at Ranbird before flying back up, with Ranbird joining them. Ranboo let out a sigh of relief, then reached into his pocket, where he’d written Phil a note.

He walked out of the small house, pinning the note to Phil’s front door. If all went accordingly, Ranboo would be gone by the time Phil saw it.

He went back to his house, scooping up his cats and gently placing them in the duffel bag he’d slung over his shoulder. They seemed displeased at being jostled around, but after a moment, they curled around each other and laid down. Ranboo closed the bag as much as he could, still giving the cats room to move around and breathe.

He glanced around his home one more time, then took a deep breath, and stepped outside.

He glanced at Skellyboo for a moment, pondering if he should bring the undead horse, but no, he did not want to have to ride a skeletal horse for as long as he would need to. He could borrow a horse from someone else if he needed to. Tubbo probably had some in Snowchester.

He made his way to the gate that led out of Techno and Phil’s property, and stepped out, closing it behind him. He took another deep breath, and looked up at the sky. He was really doing this. They were really leaving. He suddenly felt giddy in a way he hadn’t in a while. He could picture it now, his and Tubbo’s little cottage, far, far away from here, where they could raise Michael in peace, and-

“What are you doing?”

Ranboo whipped around, suddenly faced with a very concerned Phil, Technoblade standing a few feet away with an expression that implied he was ready to kill someone.

Ranboo hoped it wasn’t him.

“Phil.” Ranboo’s voice turned shaky.

Phil made his way out the gate, his eyes not leaving Ranboo for a second. When he finally stood before him, he wrapped Ranboo in his arms, and Ranboo nearly began crying, though he wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was that he couldn’t remember being held like this by his real parents. Perhaps it was because Phil was hugging him like he was already forgiving Ranboo for something he hadn’t even done yet.

“Come back inside, mate.”

Ranboo glanced over to Techno, whose eyes held a bitterness in them that he’d only seen a few times before. Ranboo bit his lip. He was supposed to get back to Tubbo soon, but…

Phil and Techno had been so kind to him for so long. They at least deserved a goodbye, an explanation.

“… Okay.”

Phil sighed a breath of relief, and led the other two back into Techno’s house. They each kicked off their shoes at the door before stepping further in. Ranboo gently placed his bag on the floor, glancing up at Phil when Enderpearl made a “mrrrrp” sound, announcing his awakening.

“You can let them roam for a bit, mate. Seems like they’re gonna be holed up for a while.” Phil sat down on one of the chairs around the fireplace, gesturing for Ranboo to do the same.

Ranboo leaned down, unzipping his bag a bit, then nervously made his way to the couch, sitting on the side closest to Phil’s chair with his legs curled up, knees to his chest, leaning against the couch’s armrest. Techno sat behind them at the table.

“Alright, why don’t you start off with explaining why you’re all packed up?” Phil took his hat off, placing it on the armrest beside him.

Ranboo drew in a breath.

“I’m leaving. Not just, not just here, I’m leaving the SMP lands.” He carefully kept his eyes focused on the fire, nervous that if he looked at Phil, he’d find disappointment in his gaze.

“All by yourself? That can’t be good for you, mate. It’d be dangerous, even.”

Ranboo tilted his head, biting his lip.

“I’m, um, I’m not. Going alone, that is. I, uh, I have people I’m travelling with.” Ranboo’s tone hushed on reflex, and he heard Techno chuff behind him.

Phil looked slightly taken aback for a moment, then his face took on a look of consideration.

“Ahh. I see.” His voice held a hint of amusement.

Ranboo blushed lightly, coughing gently.

“It’s not like, um, what you’re thinking, we just- we just want to get away. From everything. From the prison, and the egg, and the wars, just- everything.”

Phil hummed, then sighed. Ranboo risked a glance up, and Phil was looking over at him with a sort of sadness held over him, but still smiling.

“That’s fair. You guys shouldn’t have to deal with all this at your age. I hope you find somewhere safe to grow up. And for that kid of yours to grow up.” Phil spoke gently, like he was scared he might make Ranboo scatter if he was too harsh.

“Your what?”

Ranboo flinched as Techno’s rough voice filled the room.

Phil looked straight at the ground, the look on his face equivalent to him outright saying “I fucked up.”  Ranboo turned around, facing Techno, who was staring at him like he’d grown a third eye.

“So, um, I’m kind of, I kind of got married? And we adopted a kid.”

Techno’s staring didn’t stop.

“Aren’t you, like, 16 or something?”

Ranboo swallowed.

“Or something, yeah.”

“And you have a spouse, and a kid?”

“Um. Yes?”

Techno rubbed his eyes tiredly, his elbows leaning on the table.

“Why is that not the weirdest thing about you? That should be it by a landslide. And yet it’s not.”

Ranboo shrank in on himself sheepishly.

“Sorry.”

Phil laughed gently.

“Don’t apologize for it mate. You’re fine, right, Techno?” Phil turned a pointed gaze to Techno, who was looking between the two of them with tired eyes, like they’d lost their minds.

To be fair, they probably had.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re fine kid, just, jeez. Maybe tell me before you run off into the night next time, alright?”

“I, um. Yeah, that’s, that makes sense, yeah.”

Phil chuckled at the interaction.

“Can I ask who it is?” Techno said with a sigh.

“Hm?”

“Who’re you married to?”

Ranboo’s tail whipped across the couch nervously.

“Oh. Um. You, uh, you know Tubbo?”

Techno sighed.

“That checks out. Makes our visit there make a lot more sense.”

Ranboo furrowed his brow.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you two kept, like, jumping away from each other whenever Niki or I got close by. You’re not very good at keeping secrets, either of you.”

Ranboo held an ‘if only you knew’ on his tongue, humming instead.

“And your kid?”

“Oh, um, he’s a little zombie piglin named Michael. We found him in the Nether a few months back, and it didn’t seem like anyone was coming back for him, so we brought him back to Snowchester and we’ve been raising him there.” Ranboo’s voice took on a tint of warmth as he spoke about his son, and a soft smile resided on his face.

Techno hummed again, nodding.

“You’ve been keeping him warm, yeah? He hasn’t gone into hibernation?”

Ranboo shook his head vehemently.

“God, no, we’ve got a fireplace in his room and he only goes outside with like, three layers on. We, um, we didn’t know much about piglins? But, but I knew you hibernated because of the cold, and I wasn’t sure how that would affect a kid, so…”

Techno grunted.

“Sounds like you’re doing alright then. The kid’s happy?”

Ranboo turned away slightly, smiling warmly.

“I think so. He, um, he doesn’t know much common yet, ‘cause it’s kinda hard for his vocal chords to replicate the sounds, but, um, we’ve taught him sign, and he seems happy, so, yeah.” Ranboo fidgeted with the fabric on the couch as he spoke.

“Good.” Techno said before standing up.

Phil looked over to Ranboo and raised an eyebrow.

“Tech, where’re you going?”

Techno began making his way down the ladder.

“‘M grabbing some stuff.”

Ranboo checked the time again, biting his lip anxiously. He should really be getting back to Tubbo.

Techno emerged from the basement with a bundle in his arms, and placed it on the table he’d sat at before. Ranboo peered over the couch, spotting an assortment of items, four of which looked suspiciously netherite-like.

Phil whistled.

“‘S that a whole other set of armour?”

Techno grunted.

“You said you have travel companions, and one of ‘em’s Tubbo, and he doesn’t go anywhere without that stealing gremlin, so.” He gestured to the armour, frowning.

Ranboo sprang up from the couch, making his way over to the table. He admired the netherite, and as he touched it he could feel enchantments rippling across it.

“I- thank you, so much, Tommy lost his armour a while ago and I haven’t had a chance to make more yet-“

“Don’t. Don’t thank me or anything, it’s just paying you back for the axe and everything else that’s suspiciously shown up in our chests.” Techno grumbled.

“Of- of course.” Ranboo smiled, beginning to gather it into his inventory.

He was short on space, but he could make do. Once the armour was in its place, he noticed some books and parchment.

Phil strode up behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder as he read the paper.

“It’s a recipe for a special type of mushroom stew. Uses mushrooms from the nether, used to make it for Techno when he was younger. Didn’t know he still had the recipe I gave him.” Phil glanced back up to Techno, who looked to become more and more embarrassed by the second.

“Yeah, well, I’ve already got it memorized, and your kid’ll probably like it, so.”

Phil laughed.

“And the books?” He jabbed Techno in the side gently.

“They’re doubles, I’ve been meaning to get rid of them anyways.”

Ranboo slid his hands over the books, which seemed to be centuries old, their spines and pages worn. On the covers were embroidered lettering, spelling out several classics and myths.

“You’re giving him your myth compilations? The first editions at that. Damn Techno.” Phil’s tone remained teasing, but another layer of softness piled onto it.

Techno grumbled something Ranboo couldn’t pick out. Ranboo stared at the books in awe for another moment, then looked back up to Techno.

“Thank you. Seriously. I’ll take care of them.” Ranboo carefully slid them into place in his inventory, then folded the parchment up and did the same to it.

Phil pulled him into another hug, and Ranboo leaned over and hid his face in the older man’s shoulder. Phil patted his back twice, then gently pulled away.

“I’m proud of you mate. You’ve gotten a lot stronger since I met you. Lot more wise too.”

Ranboo chirped out a nervous “thank you,” to which Phil laughed.

“We’ll miss you kid.”

Techno reached over and ruffled his hair.

“Don’t do anything Phil wouldn’t do. Remember our sparring lessons. And tell those brats that we hope your trip goes well.”

“Thanks Techno.” Ranboo smiled up at him, and the piglin let out a soft chuff.

“You’d better get going. Tubbo’s probably waiting for you, right?” Phil patted him on the back, and Ranboo made his way over to his duffel bag.

“Yeah, we’re leaving tonight. I’m supposed to meet him at his house in a bit.” He kneeled down beside his bag and realized Enderpearl had indeed gotten out and was now nowhere to be found.

“Don’t worry about the cat. A couple more animals aren’t gonna break us.” Phil smiled, nodding over to where Enderpearl was sleeping by the fireplace.

Ranboo carefully zipped up the duffel bag most of the way, still leaving room for Enderchest to move around a bit. He stood, then made his way over to the door and slipped on his shoes, heaving the bag over his shoulder.

“Thank you both so much. For everything.”

“Anytime. And don’t forget to write us. Or I’ll have my flock come find you.” Phil grinned.

Ranboo laughed, and nodded.

“I will. I’m guessing just give my letters to the nearest crow?”

Phil made a clicking noise with his tongue, then pointed to Ranboo.

“You got it.” He walked over, giving Ranboo one last hug, then opened the door for him.

“Bye. I’ll write soon.” Ranboo promised, making his way down the steps.

“Stay safe kid.” Techno leaned against the doorway as he spoke.

Ranboo nodded with a soft smile, and began making his way back to the gate. He turned and waved one final time, and then he was off, back to his husband and best friend.

God.

He couldn’t wait to get there.

[khaotungsfirst]

Yeah I agree, the storylines Amy and Rory got weren't great. But honestly, I think the cast helped bring life to the characters which is why I like them so much anyway 😊 And yes to Martha! She's so awesome, I actually rewatched her seasons a few months back and found I loved them more than I remembered? I don't really watch current DW now (fell off following it not long after the 50th), but I still like revising the old episodes from time to time. They make me smile 😊 - CC 🦊

We'll find some way to watch tgcf, worry not! If the Funimation route doesn't work I'll see if I can ask around and find something else. I'm so used to looking to sites like Crunchyroll when it comes to non-western animation that I forget the site doesn't list a lot of stuff that isn't just anime 😂CC reveal is in a few days so I'll send you the Funi link for the first episode then and you can see if it works for you too 😊- CC 🦊

Aww, I'm glad you had a good Christmas though ❤️ Where I live decorations aren't too overboard either. A lot of people either put lights outside or on outdoor trees, and a few houses might do a window display. I have seen some videos on YouTube this year though of streets that are purposely decorated extravagantly for people to go and visit, but it's mostly America I've seen those. They look so pretty and a ton of fun though! - CC 🦊

I love your Christmas gift ideas for some of the characters. And lol, omg, you made me laugh with 'wwx not being allowed to give lwj a massage it'll just turn nsfw' because yeah ... yeah it would with them 🤣Matching hair pieces for them though that act like an engagement ring is such a cute idea 🥺I think I'd give jc a puppy, but only if he promises to not upset his brother's phobia with it! He just needs a good pup - - CC 🦊

I'd give lwj a lotus root soup recipe so he could make it for wwx, or if jy is able prod her into the idea of doing so if she hadn't already. wwx can have some new black robes - i'm sure lwj is spoiling him with more luxurious ones, but the boy needs a bigger wardrobe! sizhui and the boys can have an expenses paid meal at their favourite restaurant, with plenty of chicken for jingyi 🤣- CC 🦊

I think this might be my last question time for you before reveal! I'll try and make it a special one 😊 Do you have any favourite memories from this past year? Can be related to something that's happened in fandom or through mdzs, or can just be something that's made you happy or smile. I know 2020 hasn't been the easiest year, but there's been pockets of sunshine between all the crazy! ☀️ - CC 🦊

Talking to you about dw really made me want to rewatch some of the old episodes. I also fell off pretty soon after the 50th, though I did return to watch all of 12′s episodes and I would watch the new ones as well but they’re simply not easily available to me atm 😩

Aaaaahh I can’t wait to start our lil tgcf buddy watch!! It’s gonna be great cause if we love it we can scream abt it together and if we don’t like it we can roast it together 😂 (but I think we’re gonna love it)

Oh yeah, I’ve also seen some crazy american christmas decorations on youtube where the entire street is lit up. I would love to see that irl some day!

I thought abt giving jc a puppy, too but... wwx... 😅 though maybe wwx should get therapy sessions for christmas so he can work through his trauma and then maybe one day not be afraid of dogs anymore or at least not of jc’s dog 😅and aaaahhhh yes!! jyl introducing lwj to her cooking and especially the lotus root and ribs soup and lwj would be so diligent in learning how to do it perfectly bc he loves wwx so much!!! 🥺yes more robes for wwx!!! and maybe also some colourful ones (like not bright colours but maybe jewel toned?? like a really dark blue or red? 👀 he’d look like a snacc) 

and that’s such a sweet question! i’m not going to lie i had to think abt it for a moment cause as you said, 2020 really wasn’t the best of years for any of us, but i have a few: 

buying my first car!!! whooo a bitch is free to go wherever she wants whenever she wants!! (if covid would let me 😩)

finding an apartment and looking forward to living by myself (i CANNOT wait to decorate my apartment he way i want it to look!!)

the realisation that i’m fully and truly over my ex and that i’m actually quite content with being single (do i still want love? yeah sure but i’m not desperately craving it anymore and it feels so liberating)

the new lady gaga album giving me life

discovering the untamed and and just LOVING something so much and wholeheartedly again. i’ve missed being so wrapped up in one piece of media cause i haven’t had that in quite some time and it feels so nice!

joining the mdzs fandom who have been the nicest and most welcoming ppl ever! i’ve been on this website for almost a decade and never have i felt like i belong somewhere or like i had mutuals who are my friends until now. i have met so many amazing ppl in the past few months since i joined the fandom and it makes me so happy!! i love all of you, including you, dear CC! you all have made me life so much brighter! ❤️(also going along with that: returning to gifmaking and just having a creative outlet again is SO MUCH FUN)

this is related to the previous point but it stuck with me: one night when i went to bed, i was smiling so much and i felt so indescribably happy simply because ppl on here were being nice to me and my gifsets were doing well and we were all having a laugh at something fandom-related and i just... it sounds so stupid but i went to sleep with a smile on my face and i don’t remember the last time that happened

getting passionate about learning a new language which is chinese! i don’t know for how long that will last but atm i’m enjoying it so much and i hope i’ll get to at least a semi-fluent level! it’s a language that’s completely different from the other languages i’ve learned so far and i loooove the characters!! also it makes me feel productive during these boring times.

asakdjfgjdfdkgf so many of these are related to mdzs but i truly feel like it saved me from spiralling into a dark seasonal depression. maybe not the healthiest way to cope but better than nothing... 🤷🏻‍♀️

Dear CC, I want to thank you for keeping me company and asking me so many fun questions this past month! 💕 I can’t wait to find out who you are and start watching tgcf with you. I hope you had just as much fun with your personal CC as I had with you. See you on NYE! 😘

[bountifulberries]

Introducing...Aspen Whyte!

Brave | Loner | Loves the Outdoors | Mooch | Natural Cook | Witch

Aspen is for @toxoplasmajuice‘s Atkins MMBC!

Aspen is a trans guy (he/him) who, despite his appearance, is not a berry Sim. He used to be a ginger, but he was never quite this pale before--but all of that changed when his entire town suffered radiation poisoning when a nuclear reactor miles away exploded. Though most of the others had “normal” (but horrific) reactions to the exposure, like skin damage, tooth decay, and damage to their eyesight, Aspen’s health is essentially normal--he just, you know, gradually developed bleach-white skin and hair. The orange that’s left in is hair is the last that’s left to him of his old life. Aspen never had any siblings and only ever had contact with one of his moms, and she insisted on staying behind in their town to help some of the sicker and more elderly neighbors with their radiation-induced suffering. Aspen considered himself lucky that his health wasn’t majorly impacted and decided he didn’t want to risk that luck by continuing his exposure, so he’s been hitchhiking west for almost a year now. It’s hard to get people to be willing to pick you up when you’re white as a ghost (and when the really suspicious people start spreading rumors that there’s a rake [warning: rakes are creepy af] stalking the highway), but he’s managed to get this far. He doesn’t have a particular goal or end destination in mind--or else, he didn’t, until he found out about this BC. Why not?

CC: Hair, Top Surgery Scars 

You can change his clothes if you want to if it makes sense in the story--like idk somebody finding something for him, but otherwise please keep them ripped. Also, if you’d like, you can at some point change his hair to all white (e.g. if it grows out longer and he gets a haircut that removes the remaining orange. He’s ready to embrace having totally white hair lol).

Download is private, I think?

Interview Questions under the cut!

In-Character

My name is Aspen Whyte. I’m 24 and trans, use he/him pronouns. Yes, my last name was Whyte before the explosion. I’m from Foundryville, PA, which I don’t expect anybody to know about. Yes, I am a long way from home, and yes it has taken me a looong time to get here. I’m an Aries, if that means anything to you.

I had half a mind to become a chef, before all of this. I know I’m 24 and should probably have figured some of that out already, but I dropped out of high school when I was 17 and didn’t get my GRE until I was 22. Community college doing nothing for a year, and then...well, boom. Hard to focus on your career when everyone around you is succumbing to radiation poisoning. Umm, but yeah, being a chef would be cool.

I’m a really good cook. I also have really great endurance--like, when I walk and run. I can go a long time without much pausing. And I’m pretty good at first aid, I can even give stitches. I haven’t had much time for hobbies since I’ve been on the road, but in all that time between dropping out and getting my GRE I actually became really good at embroidery and had a pretty successful Etsy shop. I shut it down after a few years because I got sick and tired of doing nothing but keeping up with orders, but I still like embroidery. It took me a long time to get good at it, so I hope I haven’t lost my touch.

I didn’t really date before my medical transition because I wasn’t really comfortable with myself. Not to say people didn’t want to date me, but I just wasn’t interested. So I really didn’t start dating until I was like, 19 I guess, and I haven’t had anything super long-term. One person actually was just using me to get free custom embroidery for him and his friends, can you believe that? Anyway, I’ve dated mostly guys, and probably wouldn’t date a woman, but who knows, you know?

I have been aimlessly wandering this country for like, a year. And yes, it is lonely and kind of boring. Like, I love my solitude, but damn, I also really miss people. So I like the idea of finding a partner, but I also really like the idea of being in a house with other people. I know I’m going to eat those words within like, a day, but I think my sanity needs me to be stuck with a consistent group for a while.

I’ve been picked up a few times for minor offenses. Vandalism, stealing stuff like basic food staples, disorderly conduct, public urination...it happens, when you don’t have a house or a car or an income or really anything consistent or reliable in your life. I’ve never hurt anybody.

My favorite book growing up was The Road. Ironic, right?

Ummm, I take vitamin D-supplements and require a lot of sunscreen. It’s not exactly a curse but it has literally always rained on my birthday (April 17) every year I’ve been alive, so that’s got to mean something, right?

Like I said, I left my mom, but I’ve always called her whenever I could manage to charge my phone. I don’t feel like I’m leaving much else behind--my town never really felt that important to me. Don’t tell my mom I said that, though. Her family has been there for years and she’s weirdly attached to it.

Buy some new goddamn clothes. I’ve kept most of my stuff pretty nice because, I don’t know, my clothes are an important part of my identity, but clearly I had to let some of them go to shit on the way here. So shopping for some nice new, not-falling-apart casual wear would be great. Oh, also, I’d really like to go on a sailboat. I never got to do that before all of this. 

OOC Questions

Feel free to draw him :)

Hmm, he’s sarcastic and can get a little snippy. He uses a lot of rhetorical questions and emphasizes his words potentially too often. That was probably easy to see though lol

Aspen has been living that minimalist lifestyle for a while considering he did not have anywhere he actually lived, so he won’t have brought much with him--you could throw a backpack in the corner or something? However, I think he would quickly get sick of having bare, sterile-looking walls, so any of the outdoorsy paintings EA has would be a good fit for him. I couldn’t find any embroidery hoop CC that’s for Sims 3 :(

I will absolutely be around! You have me on like four social medias so you’re bound to get ahold of me somewhere lol

[dramallamadingdang]

I never liked TS3, but your recent gameplay pics makes it seem so fun. How many packs do you have? Do you play with any mods? This is unrelated, but I was wondering what are your opinions on Sims 4? I am asking because I love sims, but don't enjoy anything beyond sims 2 and it is becoming increasingly difficult to play the game on modern computers. My playstyle seems to match yours, so I would like to know your thoughts.

You know, I didn’t like TS3 for years. I think it was because I really wanted it to be TS2, only better. Like, the same exact game only with better graphics, more freedom with the open world, etc. When I tried to play TS3, I was spending so much time comparing it with 2 that I couldn’t appreciate it on its own merits, as a completely different creature. Which it definitely is…

And I babbled a lot (What a surprise!), so I’ll cut the rest. I just woke up, so pardon my incoherent rambling. :)

Once I finally accepted that TS3 isn’t TS2, I started to enjoy 3 a lot more, and then I started to discover its own unique strengths. Because it does have strengths over TS2 – gardening and its tight integration with cooking, for one, plus the adventure-vacations and, oh yeah, HORSES and the other pets that, annoying routing aside, are just better than TS2’s – although there are many things that I like better in TS2, of course. Primarily building. I love building neighborhoods from the ground up in TS2. Doing that is why I got the game in the first place. In TS3? I HATE BUILDING WITH THE FIRE OF A THOUSAND SUNS. (So I’m really thankful for the people who enjoy making custom worlds! :D ) I just want to open up a fully-built, ready-to-go, but unpopulated world -- and if it’s populated I just nuke everyone with Master Controller -- and play TS3 because its gameplay is actually really fun, IMO, once you stop expecting it to be TS2. Now, to be fair, I haven’t gotten tired of TS3’s gameplay probably because I haven’t been playing the game for a solid decade, so I haven’t done all the stuff a million times yet. But in TS2, I’m starting to find the gameplay really tiresome, even with all the mods to make it more interesting. So, I break up the tedium with building, while my “playing batteries” recharge. I can see me coming to a point where I’ll stop wanting to play it, though, and just want to build in it and make stuff needed for what I build. But I still have fun playing TS3, so...yeah.

Anyway, I have all the TS3 EPs, and I kind of consider all of them essential because they all add bits (or large chunks!) of gameplay that I like. I only have one of the stuff packs – High End Loft Stuff or something? – because the base game I bought had that bundled with it. I have also *ahem* acquired *ahem* all of the store worlds and the interesting-to-me store items. (Like the canning station and the gardening/greenhouse/farm stuff and the glass-blowing/jewelry-making and the bakery set and the OFB-like stuff and…Well, you get the idea. :) )

And I have many, many mods. I have more mods than anything else, when it comes to third-party content for the game. I have pretty much all of the NRAAS mods, some of which – like Master Controller, Error Trap, and Overwatch – are essential for keeping the game running smoothly, and some of which add fun stuff. Like Traveler, which makes it so that you can have Sims living in multiple worlds in a single save (sort of like a neighborhood + subhoods in TS2), and you can bounce between them. It’s probably my favorite mod of them all. Other non-NRAAS faves involve gardening/cooking, whole packs of new plants for growing new ingredients that are needed for new recipes for the game, including cuisines for different cultures. (Greek, Indian, Mexican, etc.) Still others add more abilities and interactions for children, toddlers, and babies. 

And then there’s the “adult” mod, “Kinky World,” which adds realistic animated sex and various sorts of stuff for grown-ups. I have much of it disabled because I’m not interested in having things like rape and incest and bestiality in my game, but I’m OK with drug use and sex work and especially the customizable menstrual cycle that makes baby-making far more realistic, in addition to various services added to the hospital rabbithole (sterilization procedures for both sexes as well as some sex reassignment procedures), and…Well, I confess that the flashers amuse the hell out of me, specifically different Sims’s reactions to them. *laugh* The “Kinky World” mod certainly isn’t for everyone and it does throw errors and such and the admins on the NRAAS forum really poo-poo its shoddy coding, so you probably shouldn’t use it in a save that you really care about keeping around long-term, but if you’re into that sort of stuff and you’re just screwing around (pun intended :) ), it has some interesting features. I wish I could have the menstrual cycle from it all by itself because that’s mostly why I use it.

Overall, when it comes to TS3, I think you sort of have to find your bliss with it. Go into it with an open mind, explore the game unmodded for a while, try out various aspects of its gameplay, and then decide what you don’t like and look into how to fiddle with it with mods and CC and such. Like, I thought I’d hate the whole Story Progression thing – and I would hate it, in a TS2 context – but in TS3 I actually enjoy losing (some) control over my playables when I’m not playing them. It adds randomness, sort of like things like ACR does in TS2. That said, EA’s story progression sucks in various ways. Get NRAAS’s Story Progression. It’s huge and has a scary-looking learning curve but also has extensive documentation on the NRAAS site as to what everything does, and once you get used to it, it’s really cool. You can basically decide, on a very detailed level, which things you’re OK with the game deciding as opposed to you deciding, so you can get rid of the annoying things about EA’s progression while still keeping the general idea of it.

So…yeah. Play the game with an open mind, with a “I’m just testing” sort of mindset. Find out what you do and don’t like about it, on its own merits, and don’t just assume that the things you like in 3 will be the same as the things you like in 2 because they very well might not be. Then spend time exploring mods and CC (and prepare to be enraged by Adfly and such! :P ) to change how the game works and what it looks like and stuff like that.

I did a lot of experimenting over the course of various stabs at the game over the years, trying to find something to like. I quickly discovered that the “build-a-city-esque” way I generally play in TS2 was out because I hate building in TS3, but I also discovered that, like in TS2, I’ll get bored if I only play one household all the time. So, I do still like a rotational set-up. Happily, it is pretty simple, with NRAAS’s Story Progression’s “caste” system, to do rotational play in TS3. (There’s a “how to set this up” tutorial of sorts here.) This is what I found that I like best; I’m still in the process of fiddling with the Story Progression settings for non-active playable households, to determine what level of control over them I really want. (Turns out, it’s less control than I thought I’d want, but there are still some things that I don’t want to happen without my consent.) Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is to, at first, play some “throwaway” saves in the game that you just experiment with stuff, to find worlds you like (I highly recommend My Sim Realty’s worlds because they’re CC and store-content free as well as well-constructed – no lag – and attractive) and to find out what you like in terms of gameplay. For you, it might turn out that you like nothing…or you may find that you like a lot of things. And, yes, TS3 still runs well (when modded to fix some of its inherent flaws) on modern machines. I mean, EA still sells it, after all, so it kinda has to. :)

And finally, speaking of inherent flaws… I think TS3 is the proverbial red-haired stepchild of the franchise mostly because of two things:

One, while it has grand ideas – i.e., the fully open world – it’s just not executed well. For instance, there are many construction errors in the EA worlds that cause Sims to get stuck, and when a bunch of Sims are stuck but the game still tries to make them do things, it gums up the whole works, resulting in lag, lag, lag. There are fixed EA worlds out there, though, so if you try out the game and want to play an EA world, I highly recommend finding a fixed version, so you don’t get frustrated by the world’s EA-created issues. They’re all a bit screwy in this regard, but the worst offenders are Bridgeport from Late Night and Isla Paradiso from Island Paradise. Basically, EA tried to do it all and so did most of it half-assedly. The game pretty much requires fixed worlds (if you use the EA worlds) and the error-fixing NRAAS mods in order to run smoothly. IME, custom worlds tend to run better. Not always, because some creators are just better/more experienced than others, but generally speaking. It’s probably because world creators are crafting labors of love rather than operating under pressure and a strict time-deficient production schedule. :)

Two, people were like me: They wanted TS3 to be TS2, only better, but it's not that at all. It’s a completely different game in many respects, and it seems to me that many people just couldn’t accept that. I’ve never played TS4 (so I have no opinions about it, I’m afraid), but from what I’ve seen it seems a little more 2-like, and it’s more cartoon-like (whereas TS3 was going more for realism, the pudding-Sims aside) in a way that’s more reminiscent of a “Maxis-match” TS2 game. And it’s also not the resource hog that playing a huge world in TS3 can be. So, I can see why a lot of people play TS2 and TS4 but skip TS3. I always have a tendency to zig when everyone else zags, though, and I kinda really like TS3. Go figure. *shrug*

[prorevenge]

Psycho Ex gets my egoless revenge with a side of heavy-duty karma.

The following story occurred over the course of 13-8 years ago, and I apologize preemptively for the length, because it is a bit involved.

I was in a relationship for 9 years with a girl I met in college. We broke up on the cusp of my 29th birthday. While breakups and divorce are never trauma-free, this one was as close to that as I believe is humanly possible to get, there were no fights and minimal drama, and I moved to a new city to get a fresh start and be nearer my dad/stepmom/half sisters, as I'm close to them and it was nice to have family during this. Get an apartment, start over, everything's good. Then I meet "her."

Things with her seemed good at first. She was the polar opposite of my ex. She's quiet yet nice, had her life relatively together (my first wife was very unfocused and horrible with money), physically a complete contrast, wild in the bedroom--I thought I had hit the jackpot.

Anyhoo, I fall for her hard. We have a whirlwind romance, move in shortly, and we have this glamorous life where we make good money (she was a corporate accountant, I had a decent small business, we're pulling in 150K+ combined), renting a luxury apartment, one car paid and the other brand new, no kids. Things are great, except that we drink too much together and some other underlying issues I'm blind to at the time. We get soused one night and drive to Vegas, and get married on the strip after 6 months of dating and 9 of knowing each other. The ink is barely dry on my divorce papers from version 1.0, but no matter, I'm in love. My family likes her overall. Her family loves me. We adopt cats. We talk about trying to have a kid.

We upgrade our life and take on more debt, just as the housing bubble bursts and the economy tanks, she loses a couple jobs due to her inability to show up on Mondays, and I start losing clients as the ones I have start cutting their advertising budget (my field). Things start to get pinched, and she first starts complaining, then gets petulant, because now we can't spend the way we used to, the quarterly mini-vacations dry up, plus we're cooking at home instead of going out to eat 4x a week. We basically stop having sex a little more than a year into the relationship (didn't realize it then, because I was dumb and love-blind, but she cheated on me during this period).seRealizing what we're up against with our normal bills plus our credit cards, I go out and get a job bartending at a posh resort, the only other real skill I have at the time that's marketable. I get two other part time gigs to help make ends meet. She still complains, and throws me an ultimatum before I even start getting paychecks, laying the blame at my feet. I say fine, screw this then. Had we stuck it out even a few more months, things would have started to turn a financial corner. Instead, she goes full two-faced, mean-spirited bitch on me. The night we first fight, she "attempts suicide" by scratching her wrist with a leatherman, then calls 911, gets admitted to the hospital (I arrive home to cops telling me this), and has the security guard toss me when I show up to see if she's okay because she doesn't want to talk to me. I use the quotes because there was a small collection of firearms nearby I bought for her target shooting hobby which were untouched, so it was obviously just a ploy for attention.

We basically fight for the next week, I give her everything she wants, which includes leaving the house, signing over my new truck to her, and only taking stuff I brought into the relationship, basically enough to fill a small storage space. She's financially pinched so I sell my office furniture for cash and don't even touch the bank account, just take my biz money and one CC I got separate from her. I go to the Bay Area for a few months, financially struggle, don't get the job I was sure was on lock. During this time, I have this revelation one evening--I drink too much and that it's caused a load of problems in my life, so I quit, and I haven't touched a drop since.

Broke and realizing nothing I try is working, I come back to town, live with my dad for a month, find a roommate, then a shit retail job (my business has dropped from 7-8K per month at its height to now around 500/mo), I bike everywhere bc I can't afford a car, and my credit is toast partially due to her love of spending on plastic, so I'm facing bankruptcy. I'm 31, and this is really humbling, but whatever, I'm alive, have dealt with hardship before, this won't last forever. She has kept her house, declared personal BK on her debts, keeps her car, and has been dating a series of men starting a couple weeks after we split. While I never asked the details, apparently she's also reached out to a few of my friends and badmouthed me a bit. This would be mildly annoying, but add in two factors--she's dragging her feet on the divorce due to not having money to file, keeps up contact on the pretense of us needing to talk, but plays emotionally manipulative head games during the whole sequence ("I've realized I still love you, that's why you can make me cry so easily," and other bullshit Hallmark movie lines like this). Also, we live in a suburb that's smaller and tightly knit, so multiple places I go to like my church, the bookstore I frequent, and the coffee shop right by my place, she talks endless shit to people. Says I was a cheater and physically/emotionally abusive (complete crap, but whatever), I'm stalking her, I supposedly stole tens of thousands of dollars from her, the whole nine. Some people actually believe her, I even get threatened by a wannabe biker one night that's literally twice my age with violence, itself a funny story but not the point.

Finally, after some more bullshit and back and forth, she leaves town (more falsehoods around this, including her borrowing a bit of money she didn't end up paying back, and sticking me with a massive overage on our cell bill right before we split the account). My dumb, trusting heart hurts but I'm mostly relieved to see the last of her, realizing she's only nice to me when she wants something. She goes to NY to shack up with another guy, gets pregnant 15 minutes later. Finally sends me divorce paperwork. I sign it and send back quickly, all notarized docs, everything organized and flagged. She attempts to be "friends" and I want no part of this BS. I'm businesslike, she gets upset. She screws up filing, blames me. I say "whatever," straighten out the court issues. One week after the divorce is finalized, the kid is born. No word from her after that for two years, thank god. I get a new career, start advancing in it, and start dating a new woman that I'm still with 10 years later. Weirdly enough, they knew each other, and she didn't like her, partially because one of my ex's infidelity partners was her ex-husband, during a time they were exploring patching things up for the kids' sake (though there were multiple reasons for her distrust, apparently she always gave my wife an icky intuitive feeling).

So flash forward two years. I get a call from my current squeeze. She's just talked to a friend who was also a very brief roomie of "her" after our split. She's breaking up with the baby daddy. There's a custody fight. He's saying he doesn't know if it's his. Will I help her? Well, it's the right thing to do, so even though I don't trust or particularly like her, I say yes. I get the call, and a sob story. Most of it doesn't add up--he took the kid, but thinks it's actually mine, to prove paternity I'd need to come to NY and take a paternity test at one of their facilities, also he hit her, put a GPS tracker on her car, brother is a Russian mobster who threatened her, all very far-fetched. Needless to say, even without this fanciful tale, I generally assume if this woman is talking, it's a lie, so I'm suspicious. Her lawyer calls me, and seems like a clueless shmuck. I get a letter from him, very unprofessional and not even on a letterhead (every other legal doc I've seen has "from the law offices of blah blah" on it, but this is literally just off a laser printer), and says, verbatim "I, M___ K___, am the ex-husband of J___ K___, and was married to her from 6/07-8/09. I have no legal interest in the child." Super shady.

Not wanting to end up in a situation where I've allowed myself to be legally fucked over, I make my own lawyer consultation appointment. Before I can even go, the baby daddy finds me on Facebook and sends me a message. Between calls with him, his lawyer, and the impartial lawyer NY state appoints for the child's welfare, I get a very different story. He knows it's his, he had a paternity test done on the sly at birth because she had been promiscuous before they got together, and she was pregnant so quickly he was concerned. They broke up because she was drinking too much, he busted her with a bottle of vodka as she was driving with the kid in the car. She stood up in court, claimed I was actually the father, and she had no idea where to find me (he found me in 10 seconds online, I'm a tech guy with massive social media presence, a tech blog, multiple writing credits on publications, my frigging name as a domain, plus I've had the same cell phone number for 14 years). Also the other BS was just that, he's an IT guy for a university and his brother works for a carpet cleaning chain, plus just like in our relationship, he never hit or stalked her, etc.

So she, not knowing what I know, starts sending me text messages. I say "Filled out and on its way back to your lawyer," and toss it in the trash. I'm so tempted to send her some poetic message about how the truth is coming back to haunt her, but I resist, because I'm not doing this for her, but rather for the sake of their son and his father, so let's keep my ego out of it. I provide legal statements to all in the court. Tell them I know it's not possibly mine because I hadn't been with her since April 15 of '08, kid's birthday is in Sept of '09 (I remember the date because, due to taxes, I got fucked twice that day). Explain when she was in NY, which is the likely dates of conception, prove I was thousands of miles away on the west coast. Tell them to look through her social media, where she meticulously tagged herself and took tons of pictures of even their mundane locations. Provide a blood sample to a local lab. Tell them salacious details about her drinking and occasional drug use, including her abused prescriptions and a previous hospitalization where she was held for psych eval due to taking way too many pills.

Court comes, and she gets blindsided. Stack of depositions and a collection of statements from me were what sealed the deal, apparently, and the incredibly stupid game she was running is fully exposed. Gets no custody, no support, supervised visitation once a week. I run into her ex-roomie, upset, but instead of giving her attitude, I just calmly tell her the scam J__ was running, then let her "pull out of me" the truth about our split. She's flabbergasted, but also a horrible gossip, so it gets around town like wildfire. People I barely know, including the aforementioned biker, all come up to me and apologize for misjudging me. I'm years past the stage of having any morbid curiosity to check her social media, but every few months she pops up as a "suggested friend," and I notice bemusedly the number of mutual friends plummets from triple digits to eventually 3. Baby's father sends me a massive Amex gift card for Christmas, as much as I make in a week at the time. I call and tell him I don't know if I can accept it, I don't want him or anyone to think I did this for a reward. He virtually begs, saying "you helped save my family. This is nothing in comparison. Thank you." We break down crying on the phone, and eventually form an odd, distant friendship based on mutual respect for each other. I even had dinner with him a couple times when I had to go to NY for biz over the years, and I always buy, because the poor guy has done enough and gone through enough having to coparent with this train wreck.

To this day, she's apparently struggling to stay sober (alcohol and other substances), and has minimal involvement in her child's life due to her inability to show up when expected. Baby daddy tells me she's been in legal trouble, financial issues up the ass, and a string of boyfriends that never last more than a few months. I'm doing well, got married again three years ago, raised step-children, am reasonably financially successful, and rather like my life. Granted, a large part of this story is just karma in action, but I feel like I did the right thing, wasn't petty, and what I did do hit her where it hurts.

TL;DR: Ex-wife fucks my life, destroys me financially, tries to trash my reputation, then tries to use me as a scheme in her custody battle years later. I talk to the court directly, work with the baby daddy's lawyers, and get her exposed for the psycho, lying wench she is. She loses custody, struggles, and the good people live mostly happily ever after.

(source) (story by heymomo7)

[ts4ccfaves]

not a cc-related question, but maybe you still wanna answer this for me :) I'm thinking of buying some off the expansions / game packs (currently only have the BG and don't have the money to buy EVERY add-on 😢) which are your favourites?

Here are some of our favourites! Hopefully this helps with your decision, boo!

All opinions are under the cut because it got a little long with explanations and such!

USEDTOPLAYGAMES //

001. SEASONS!!! Hands down my favorite EP002. Laundry Stuff Pack - I like making my sims do laundry so they can suffer like me 😅003. Parenthood EP - while I haven’t played a game long enough to fully enjoy the interactions, a lot of the stuff that came with this one is amazing and I use a lot of it most of the time.004. Strangerville GP - I THOROUGHLY enjoyed this gp. The story was a lot of fun and it gave me some Strangerhood feels 💕 plus the items 😍005. Backyard SP - I’m pretty sure this is the one that comes with the wind chimes and bird feeder which I always put on every single lot I make 💖

AURALIV //

1. Definitely Seasons as well, it adds SO much to the game like the calendar and swings!

2. City Living is another one that is just amazing! It adds so much different cultures and such to the game and I love the festivals c:

3. I couldn’t decide if I loved Dine Out or Parenthood more. Dine Out adds the whole new aspect of running restaurants or going to them while Parenthood is more of a Generations kind of pack.

MADGNOMES

1. Seasons - omg seasons, this ep changes the game completely. No matter what you like to do in game, I highly recommend it. You obviously get different seasons, weather, new clothes for 2 new categories, so many new interactions and things to do in game, and calendar where you can plan parties and events!

2. Cats and Dogs - I mean, who doesn’t like cute doggies and kitties running around in your sims’ house? They are so cute, and there’s so many races of them so they really look different! With that you get completely new cool world to live in, vet career, training skill, as well as just new objects, clothes, interactions.

3. Get together - For me, quite underappreciated pack. Windenburg is amazing, it’s one of my fav (and so big) world. You get clubs (hey so cool that your sim hangs out with others and do things together, they gather points to unlock stuff…), dj and dancing skills, I believe also cafes are from this pack and actually my fav townies are from Windenburg! This pack really has some cool atmosphere.

4. Get famous - the world is small but so cute. Your sim can get famous no matter if you choose new acting career/influencer or something from different packs or bg. Like with vampires ep (which is a cool option if you are into that), you get a whole system with perks and quirks, new interactions and activities (such as new events), paparazzis following you around. If you’d rather play with normal sim, you get'public image’ - which basically means your sim has bad, good or neutral reputation (based on how they act to other sims) and it influence their daily lives as well!

5. Parenthood - no surprise, it adds so much to your sims’ family life. It finally makes sense! The huge part of it are character values and how you can basically shape your younger sims and their behaviour in the future. Parenting skill is another cool part of it because as a parent, your sim can teach their kids how to be a good (or not really) adult sim in the future! And I have to mention these amazing objects and clothes you get with it!

VYOLLA //

I enjoy these questions so much! :) Thank you for your question, Anon. *Warning* This response will be a bit long. I will start off by saying though, that what it really comes down to is going to be the type of play-style that you enjoy with your game. Are you a family-player? Are you a single Sim player? Do you like to play with multiple Sims, or just prefer maybe one or two in the household and the “Single life”? With that being said, I am a family player. :) So, I’ll list some of my favorites but give you a small peek at some other content that could be for single life, if that’s your preferred play-style.Game Packs:

Parenthood - Hands down. This adds so much more depth to toddlers, children, and teenagers. It gives you a new skill to work on as a ‘new parent’, Parenting skill. Then you have to basically help raise and shape your kids into possibly good or …. not so great… young adults. You’ll have to teach them about manners, responsibility, empathy, and more! This can affect them once they age to Young Adult. You’re going to see tantrums, phases between children and teenagers, and so much more. The CAS and Buy Mode objects are lovely! I use them all the time! :)Expansion Pack:

Seasons: While I do love each of the other packs for their own content (Get To Work being one of my favorites), I feel the other packs seem “emptier” to me. Like some factor is missing. This is just my opinion. But I feel like the expansion packs didn’t have that filling feeling until Seasons and Get Famous. They just seem to have lots of game-play in them compared to others. But I do enjoy the other packs for what they do have (Vet career is SUPER fun to play! from Cats and Dogs and the cats and dogs are sooo cute and I love how real life they are.)Seasons just adds so much game-play to my families. You get a calendar and YOU can host events, or parties, you can finally plan birthday parties because the calendar will let you know when your Sims birthday is coming up. Also, there is a new Gardener career, bee keeping is back, seasons of course are beautiful. There’s lots of stuff you can do in each season. You can celebrate Harvest Fest, Love Day, or New Years, etc. You can share thanks with your families and see what other Sims are grateful for. It’s really a great pack with so much more to do. I’ve barely even scratched the surface of the pack. Plus, I just really love that there is more weather than just summer time all year round now. :)As for game packs or expansion packs that go well with single life:Get Famous - You can work your way up from rags to riches now. You don’t have to be a famous singer, or actor, you could also be a famous chef if you work on your cooking skills, etc. There are other things you can do in this pack and you can even opt-out of the celebrity life-style, if you choose to do so. Get Together - This has the club system. Where you can create clubs and invite other Sims to do activities together and build a lot where you can hang out together. You can also learn djing skills and dance skills and this is more of the “night club life” type of pack. So definitely look into this pack and look at the items and CAS (from Origin) and maybe even look up some game-play videos to see if it’s something you’d be interested in. I suggest this for all the packs mentioned here so you can get an idea of what you may be interested in buying. :)If you like interactive careers, I’d suggest : Get To Work as you can be a doctor, detective, or a Scientist. You can also run your own business and create a bakery, or some other store of your choosing. :)(Also dine-out is a great game-pack because it adds the ability to run your own restaurants and set your own menu’s etc; it’s also something you can use to take dates out to, or families to for dinner).Sorry for this long response. But I hope something helps you find what you’re looking for. :)

[silenthillmutual]

okay. warning for negative bc this is kind of a vent post?

so. i’m still working on unlearning a lot of things that i had kinda drilled into my head with my mom that i did not realize were bad until recently? or things that i could not easily voice were having negative effects on me until recently. and i’m kind of thinking about how my mom is very. hhhhhhhh.

my mom does not have a life outside of work. and not like, “oh she’s very dedicated to her career” sort of way. but like, she does not believe in taking time off. and i think in the way our capitalist environment functions that always comes off sounding very admirable. it’s not. 

because what that equates to is like, she works to avoid other things in her life. she says that she can’t afford to take a break or any time to herself and my best friend and i had told her repeatedly that if she really wants a relationship she is going to have to take time to devote to that which means working less if only by a little bit! and that i have told her that she should take time to herself to relax whether she had a relationship or not because it’s not healthy to obsess over work the way that she does.

and. i guess she does a bit now. i saw recently on her fb that she went to colonial beach w her boyfriend and like. good for her. but that doesn’t erase that she is constantly harping on me, even from a distance, to do like. everything all in one day. and that i should be working 40+ hours a week and that if i don’t do that, that i’m lazy.

like my mom’s version of workaholism is to view herself as the rule and not the exception, which i can see in certain contexts how that translates into “oh so she’s not full of herself” but it’s actually really the opposite! because i think it takes a special brand of narcissism to assume that everyone is and should be exactly like you and that if they are not they are failing and that is their own fault. 

so, my mom has fibro, like on top of all of that and i wonder if she’d feel better if she didn’t constantly push herself into working all the time. and the truth is that she’ll look at any time i spend online regardless of what i’m doing (bc she doesn’t ever care what i’m actually doing on there, to her it’s all the same) as time wasted and an addiction to the internet. and she thinks that everyone else w fibro or w any chronic or mental illness can work exactly as much as she can because if they do anything less they’re being lazy.

and i think you can kinda see why it’s an issue for a licensed therapist to think or feel that way.

so like. i have never pursued any job that says it’s part time, under $10 an hour that wants me to work 39 hours a week (one hour from full time in the commonwealth of va), no benefits, 8 hours every day, retail, with a massive list of responsibilities. because i know that i can’t handle doing 8+ hours which is how much it’ll wind up being if they want me to open/close (taking into consideration traffic and people who just will not fucking leave), like i had to struggle to work 8 hours at a job i actually LIKED without thinking of working at fucking target or some shit for 8+ hours a day. i can’t do it. between the anxiety and the autism that sounds like something that will make me absolutely want to die and i know this because i tried that at party city for three days and came home in tears every single day and my feet hurt so bad i couldn’t move.

and my mom’s response to that was like. just deal with it! just push through it! you have to! 

you’d think a therapist with a chronic illness would be more compassionate than that. 

but my mom’s whole life is focused on work and i don’t even think it’s because she just loves her job that much. she just refuses to do anything outside of it. she has a dog and a cat (MY cat I adopted her she is under MY legal name and that dog is basically my dog, he was my baby) that i was under no circumstances allowed to take with me regardless of where i went or when, but that she does not...enjoy. at all. she is constantly bitching about the pets and she bought an automatic feeder and self-scooping litterbox and hired pet sitters not for the occasional trip out to her boyfriend’s but for like a regular thing because she is at home as little as possible. every single second that she can spend at work she will.

and she hated that i didn’t spend 6-8 hours at work (more counting traffic) and then want to spend all of my free time looking for a second or different job and cleaning the house and cooking all the meals and running all the errands and taking care of the pets. with no help.

and that’s part of what i mean about her working to get out of having to do other things. because she also works so much so that she can get out of eating. like. ever. her body image issues are so fucked up that she will eat one meal a day and be like “ugh i’m such a pig i’m so fat i should stop eating maybe then i’ll lose weight”. and then she’ll deny that she he has an unhealthy relationship to food and claim she just “doesn’t have time to eat” even though she apparently has time to bitch at me over facebook or henpeck her boyfriend and read 8 different versions of her horoscope in an hour + longer breaks

like i’m sorry but if i could eat in 30 minutes with my coworker calling me to panic on the other end bc everyone decides to come into the library at the same fucking time then i think maybe. just maybe. you can eat a goddamn granola bar in 2+ hours while sitting at your desk instead of saying “i should be writing notes” and not actually writing your fucking notes!

what really kinda. bothers me all about it. like in addition to all this super unhealthy stuff that makes her occupation as a therapist hypocritical as hell is how she criticizes me for doing the exact shit that she does.

by which i mean. holding other people to my standards.

i’ve worked a lot at not being judgmental of other people and challenging my own notions of what is right and acceptable when i find myself judging other people. it’s really hard. i think it’s connected a lot to being autistic and the kind of biases that we’re all brought up into and it’s why travelling and secondary education are really important, not even just because of learning aspect (although liberal arts forcing you to take classes outside of your comfort zone. i think helps a lot in this too) but because meeting people from all different kinds of backgrounds makes you look at things from different angles you wouldn’t have otherwise, because if you never leave you never broaden your horizons. 

so when there are still standards that i hold people to it’s. i try to just hold people to “not being a total asshole to everyone around you” as a relatively basic standard that i don’t think should be controversial? but even when i voice that opinion - like, literally, i went to richmond cc with two friends and when i got back i was telling my mom about this guy who was very loudly, specifically so that i could hear his unsolicited opinion of my cosplay, talking about how bad/boring jojo was because he knew i was dressed as someone from jojo and he wanted me and everyone else around him to know his opinion of jojo, then went and started mocking his friend for wanting to buy a gba instead of a gameboy sp bc his friend and i both saw the mother 1+2 and mother 3 cartridges and was just being an asshole! again! and i was just complaining to her after the fact about this guy being a dick and my mom’s response, not even like an “i don’t get it but i’m sorry” first was just

“well maybe he’s autistic”

and! i’m sorry! but that! doesn’t fuckign fly with me! i said “so am i that doesn’t mean i go around being an asshole to everyone at con” 

and she was like “well maybe he’s not as high-functioning as you you can’t hold everyone to your standards”

NO! NO MAYBE HE WAS BEING AN ASSHOLE BECAUSE HE’S CIS WHITE GUY AND THINKS EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW HIS OPINIONS! do you know how many fucking people go to con are autistic????? a whole shit ton of us! do you know how many poc, trans, nb, not-straight people loudly voice their opinions to make the people around them including their friends feel like shit? NONE OF THEM! NONE OF THEM! NONE OF THEM! ONLY THE CISHET WHITE GUYS WHO THINK THEY’RE TOO GOOD FOR COSPLAY FUCKING DO THAT!

and it’s so irritating! like i’m not allowed to talk about my autism EVER and even when my standards are REALLY FUCKIGN LOW i’m being too judgmental of others but she’s allowed to talk about how everyone who doesn’t work 40+ hours every week and starve themselves is fucking?? lazy????

unreal. un fuckign believable.

[sheplaysthegames]

20 Questions for Simmers

1.) Favorite Sims Game

While I have played and loved every version of The Sims, I think my absolute favorite was The Sims 2. It was the one I couldn’t put down! The little details and humor are what really stand out when I look back, and I don’t remember having any real problems with it either since the game itself was pretty solidly developed and bugs tended to be squashed quickly. Overall, I was never bored playing The Sims 2 and I still occasionally boot it up just to reminisce.

2.) Yourself in 3 Traits

Ambitious, dog lover, neat

3.) CC or No CC

I play with a small amount of CC. Everything I download is Maxis-match, and I pull pieces out whenever we get new official content that I can use instead.

4.) Preferred Part of the Game

I really like each part of the game and try to spend my time evenly among them. Lately I’ve been building and messing around in CAS more than actually playing though. Oops!

5.) Favorite Expansion Pack

In The Sims, my favorite EP was Makin’ Magic. I was so young when I played that I thought I was incredibly clever for figuring out the pattern to the spells in the dueling arena so that I’d win every time. And I had a lot of fun creating one of each type of potion and then trying them out on the poor, unsuspecting townies!

In The Sims 2, my favorite EP was Bon Voyage. I spent so much time completing every single vacation memento! Some of them were really hard to figure out too, so finishing the collection was really rewarding to me. All three of the destinations were equally fun to explore with their local dances, gestures, foods, and massages. I could really feel the difference between visiting Takemizu Village, Twikki Island, and Three Lakes.

In The Sims 3, my favorite EP was Ambitions. The firefighter career and the new inventing skill were the real highlights to me. I spent weeks creating a Simbot without cheating, and firefighting was a really exciting change from the standard rabbithole careers. Another neat feature was the ability to sculpt statues of Sims. Never-melting ice sculptures looked great in mansions, and of course stone sculptures made great monuments to ‘famous’ Sims in town.

In The Sims 4, my favorite EP (so far) is Seasons. The weather effects are beautiful, the raincoats and rainboots and umbrellas are adorable, kiddie pools are the greatest item ever created, and temperature is just such a vital addition that it's finally starting to feel like a full game for me! Seasons and weather in general also function differently in each world, which is perfect. I didn’t want snow in Oasis Springs, and Brindleton Bay desperately needed fog and rain to feel complete.

6.) Favorite Game Pack

In The Sims 4, my favorite GP (so far) is Vampires. I never really liked this life state before, but this time around they’re fantastic! The abilities help differentiate each vampire from one another, and I love that they don’t have to ask permission nicely before biting a Sim. The sticker cracks and spider webs are also something I’d been wanting to help make places seem less perfect. Overall, the life state seems so detailed and sets a much higher bar for future life states. I don’t even mind paying for each individually if they’re this well-done.

7.) Favorite Stuff Pack

In The Sims 2, my favorite SP was H&M Fashion. Honestly, I just really loved all the new clothing that kept my Sims from constantly matching each other. And building a clothing store with all the cool retail items that came with it was a lot of fun too!

In The Sims 3, my favorite SP was Town Life. The rabbitholes were more modern and added some variety since most of the others were the same building with slightly different colors. I had a lot of fun remodeling my more modern worlds with them.

In The Sims 4, my favorite SP (so far) is Laundry Day. I’m a sucker for realism elements so adding another menial chore for my Sims makes me happy. The laundry system is surprisingly complex, the furniture filled in a lacking farmhouse style I felt was missing from the game, and stackable machines look perfect in apartments. The clothing and hairstyles were also very well-done and I have to actively try not to overuse them on all my Sims.

8.) Least Favorite Expansion Pack

In The Sims, my least favorite EP was House Party. It felt like the smallest addition we were given, and parties weren’t enough for me to explore more than a handful of times before I got bored. As soon as the next EP came out, I moved on to the new content and I don’t think I ever threw another party again.

In The Sims 2, my least favorite EP was Nightlife. It wasn’t bad at all, it was just the one I used the least. My personal gameplay style at the time was incredibly family-oriented and you just don’t take your kids to clubs. I only ever went to the new Downtown subhood for first dates and a few marriage proposals since the date interactions were pretty cute.

In The Sims 3, my least favorite EP was Showtime. I don’t think I ever really played with anything from it. The ‘optional’ online connection where you would send your Sims to someone else’s game to perform really made me mad since some of the items you paid for were locked away behind it and I had no desire to participate. And the whole in-game news feed and achievement system were horrible and really caused problems. The venues were also super glitchy so even when I did give the new active careers a go, trying to complete a performance was almost impossible. Overall, the whole thing felt like more trouble than it was worth.

In The Sims 4, my least favorite EP (so far) is Get to Work. I think my expectations were just too high going into it. The active careers are okay, but none of them make me actually want to follow my Sims to work past the first few days because they get highly repetitive and there’s no real risk associated with them. The retail system also seems a bit lacking. There are very few retail items to use when building a store, although I do have to mention that the clothing mannequins are pretty cool. And actually running it is too easy since you can just instantly restock the items even if they’re unique things that you’ve made your Sims create.

9.) Least Favorite Game Pack

In The Sims 4, my least favorite GP (so far) is Spa Day. It’s not nearly as immersive as the others. There isn’t much to do outside of getting a massage or doing yoga, and both are kind of boring to do repeatedly over and over. It doesn’t expand on the gameplay nearly enough to be categorized as a GP in my opinion; I’d demote it to SP.

10.) Least Favorite Stuff Pack

In The Sims 2, my least favorite SP was Glamour Life. It added the least versatile stuff. Most of my Sims weren’t swimming in cash, so the items, particularly the clothing, were rarely used since they’d look and feel out of place. 

In The Sims 3, my least favorite SP was Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats. I didn’t even buy it and I have no idea why anyone did. The objects were all horrible and cheesy. There was literally nothing good about it. At all. Ever.

In The Sims 4, my least favorite SP (so far) is My First Pet. No matter how many times they deny it, it’s a massive money grab. The furniture set literally completes what they left incomplete in Cats & Dogs! The clothing is for the most part just recolors of what we already have! And to top it all off, there’s just one new critter. They claim four, but it’s the same thing with a different skin overlay. I am perfectly fine with some items in a pack being dependent on owning previous packs so that they can continue to expand on past content. But to release this immediately after the associated EP and for it to pretty much be the rest of the items that we were missing from said EP...certainly seems like they withheld content just to wring an extra $10 from their players. Especially since it wasn’t even mentioned in their quarterly teaser. Haven’t bought it, and will not until it’s on sale.

11.) Custom or EA / Maxis Sims

EA / Maxis Sims are the best! I adore the premades and their unique, weird stories. My favorite thing to do is make them over and put an interesting spin on their storylines while still keeping them recognizable.

12.) Households or Single Sims

Definitely households. I prefer organized chaos with lots of things going on at once! There just isn’t enough to do when there’s only one Sim.

13.)  Free Will On or Off

Free will is always firmly set to off in my game. I’m a dictator when it comes to my Sims and I make no apologies for that.

14.)  Favorite Life Stage

Toddlers. They’re just so darn cute! The expanded skill building this time around is really cool since they actually learn in discernible stages instead of all at once, and I’m still not over their ability to go up and down stairs all on their own. The little mess-makers also have some of the cutest interactions with other Sims and their environment.

15.)  Favorite Life State

Aliens. The first time I ever had a Sim abducted was in The Sims 2, and it terrified me because I had no idea what was going on and didn’t know if he was ever going to come back. Then he was finally returned and popped out an alien baby! It was just so surprising and ever since I’ve had a particular fondness for extraterrestrials.

16.) Favorite Skill

Cooking is probably my favorite skill to build. Something about getting to see what those difficult dishes look like is just fun to me. Since The Sims 4 actually includes 3 separate skills for cooking, gourmet, and baking skills I’ve been having a blast discovering all the new recipes!

17.) Ever Completed a Legacy

Only once, way back in The Sims 2. It lasted a grand total of 16 generations before I wound up making the move to The Sims 3. I’ve tried numerous times since then, but The Sims 3 was too buggy to play a single file that long and The Sims 4 is still missing a couple of key features that I’d like to have before trying again.

18.) Longest Simming Session

When I had more free time (and was significantly younger), I happily confess to wasting away a full weekend playing The Sims 2. These days I’m lucky to get a couple hours a week here and there. Ah the joys of growing up!

19.) Personal Sims Wishlist

There are a few things I’m still really missing for The Sims 4. I’m hoping universities and witches are making a comeback soon as they’re crucial to my planned storylines. Fairies, werewolves, and a beach vacation world would also be wonderful to have but they’re less important to me.

20.) Unpopular Opinion

I don’t miss the open world system from The Sims 3 at all. I’m perfectly happy trading it for every world to be connected. Every save file is a megahood and I find that preferable to a single, completely open world. I also think that it makes the game more stable for everyone, especially lower-end computers. The loading screens are worth it!

[samkat10423]

Houses - part 3

Now for the final house in this set of posts.

This is where Chris Steel now lives. In the original game, this house – the Cozy Craftsman – was empty. It’s over there close to the Alvi’s old house. When this game opens, the roof is gone, and there are like 20 million buckthorn bushes everywhere – including inside and on the porch. Well, as an avid gardener in RL, I can tell you, there aren’t a lot of plants that can just suddenly grow inside a house, in complete shade, with no dirt. And when your 2nd story is basically intact – minus a roof – the 1st floor is still sheltered. So I got rid of all of them. The ones on the 2 porches – mostly because I figured that’s what the team would have tackled first – just so they could get inside and get their work done.

Anyway, they put a roof back on the main part of the house, then wished Chris luck. As you can see, he’ll need it. He still has some drywall – actual wall, period – that he needs to replace, plus lots of cosmetic stuff. But for now, it’s at least livable. And a lot better than what the Harts have. Upstairs, there’s 2 bedrooms – I think – so he’s been assigned a roommate; Connor Frio, who is now working as a paramedic, and is raising his deceased brother’s child, Sandy French. Connor found her wandering around town in a daze. (She’s been aged up to a child).  He had already established a relationship with her, since he kept track of both of his brother’s kids – Claire Ursine’s and this one – giving their mom’s money, when they needed it. (Claire’s baby died). I think I also gave Sandy a dog, that “found” her, while she was wandering around. Or maybe it was a cat. I forget.

Anyway, looking at this lot now, I’ll probably go back in and age out those shingles a bit. They are just too bright for me. Plus, get rid of a lot of those bushes and replace them with other plants. I’ve already deleted at least 20-30 of them, so yes, a few more need to go. I understand why the creator did what she did, but I have CC and like using it. Plus, sims have been clearing things up and using them for fuel to heat their houses. Chris may get one of those solar panels - since his job is important - but for now, he heats and cooks with wood. 

And that’s just a peek at some of my housing.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Spring 2018 Anime Overview: Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc (Episodes 14-22)

I enjoyed Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card quite a bit. I would by no means call it a bad experience. But it’s impossible to deny it’s the weakest anime I watched this season. The series is underwhelming and flawed, even if parts of it warmed my heart and fed into my love of these characters. The plodding pacing, lack of payoff and disappointing elements were mostly worth it to me for the good parts, but this show really deserved to be so much better than it was. A lot of the problems I mentioned in my review of the first half not only remained, but worsened. There were definitely plenty of adorable moments, which you can see in my liveblog, but I can’t deny the show could have done so much more.

But we’ll start with things I enjoyed. I loved seeing Meiling again and her arc left me very satisfied. One thing I really love about magical girl shows is that they often have a far more complex and nuanced handling of the “romantic rival” girl character than other “more mature” media. They treat the girl in question more like an actual person than a catty stereotype and eventually the focus turns away from the guy and more towards girls building a positive relationship. 

And Meiling is a perfect example of that and I adore her. She started out seeming like a one-dimensional annoying clingy romantic rival character, but as the show went on, she gained more depth and formed really adorable relationships with Sakura and Tomoyo. Her pain, her struggles, her insecurities- they all became real to the viewer. The scene where she’s crying over Syaoran but admits that as much as it pisses her off, she can’t take out her pain on Sakura because she likes her too, is one of the most heart-wrenching in the show.

Meiling’s arc in Clear Card was the perfect cap on that. We finally got to see how Meiling and Sakura interact without the tension of Meiling’s crush on Syaoran in the picture. Her former crush on him wasn’t even mentioned once- they are entirely friends on their own terms. It was great to see how the relationship has so completely evolved. And it was also great to see Meiling and Syaoran interact without that baggage and it really bought home how much better the two of them understand each other now. Where Syaoran would unintentionally make Meiling feel like she was a useless burden to him before in the original series, here he goes out of his way to tell her that he appreciates her and that she shouldn’t feel like she contributes less due to her lack of magic.

 Meanwhile, Meiling was worried about him and since she was a family member, she was more aware of his mysterious struggles than anyone else. But she was not overly focused on him and was capable of giving him space. She was also much more confident around him and was able to roll her eyes at what a loser he was and tease him about it, something she really didn’t do before because she was too busy mooning over him, so it was very cathartic to see her do it here.

Seeing Sakura and Meiling have a proper team-up was fantastic too. I’m always down for the power of girls holding hands saving the day, but this was satisfying in other ways too! Meiling always had a lot of confidence issues about her lack of magic in comparison to the others, so seeing her straight up take charge in a fight and protect and guide Sakura was such a great thing for her character. The “twins” episode in the original anime had Meiling learn she was useful as a partner by teaming up with Syaoran, but here she learns she can even be a good leader if it comes down to it by taking charge with Sakura. Meiling’s arc really builds on what came before it in a positive and satisfying way, and was exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for when Clear Card was announced.

Seeing Meiling now being comfortable enough to be on a first name basis with Sakura was icing on the cake (not to mention a very shippy moment, considering it’s explicitly compared to Syaoran and Sakura’s relationship). This was the kind of relationship progression I wanted from Clear Card. And there were a few other moments that delivered that kind of satisfaction! Sakura’s dad’s conversation with Touya near the end, a short moment with Touya and Yue....

But that sadly wasn’t true for the majority of the series. Most of the season felt terribly stagnant and sloppily paced with the characters not progressing at all and a lot of build up with no pay-off. 

To make it clear, I don’t mind a slow burn- the original CCS definitely moved at a relaxed pace and had a heavy slice-of-life vibe. But the problem with Clear Card’s stalling plot was that it was contingent on a bunch of characters not talking with each other or interacting with each other and this was really what gutted the show for me. 

The original CCS definitely relied on “barriers to communication” as a device to pad the show, but not in a way that prevented the characters from getting good scenes. For instance, Touya being interrupted whenever he tried to tell Yukito the truth about himself in the third season of the original series was an overused and somewhat frustrating reoccuring deal, but it didn’t prevent Touya and Yukito from being involved in the plot or having (very gay) scenes together (in fact, it ensured they would). It was also at least a little bit amusing and had some variety- how’s Ruby Moon gonna interrupt them this time! And it made sense for the characters for the most part- Touya’s TRYING to do the logical thing, so we’re not frustrated with HIM, at least. And it made it incredibly satisfying when Touya finally snapped and told Ruby to go away, he’s talking with Yukito NO MATTER WHAT.

Compare the conflict this season where Touya’s got something going on with a new power but won’t tell Yukito about what it is (EVEN THOUGH HE’S THE ONE WHO BOUGHT IT UP TO HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE) because reasons. This means there’s only a couple scenes with them, they consist of Yukito being like “tell me” and Touya being like “nah”. There is no variety and the scenes make the viewer frustrated with Touya, it means we don’t see Touya and Yukito much because they’re not allowed to be involved in the plot yet and because we’re keeping up some manufactured tension between them for no reason. It had no payoff this season either, and I doubt when/if it DOES pay off we’ll feel satisfied- odds are it’ll just be like “okay so why didn’t you just tell him earlier?”

The way Touya and Yukito were underused here was really frustrating because 1. They’re great characters, 2. they’re one of the most iconic mlm couples in kids anime and 3. their relationship arc wasn’t really properly resolved with a confession scene in the last series, so one of the main reasons I’D do a sequel would be to resolve that, but apparently them not talking is more important.

And that’s not the only plotline of the sort in this season! There’s a similarly bad one with Syaoran. He’s keeping stuff something that involves Sakura secret from her and it does nothing but damage his character and presence in the show. It means he’s not around or talking to her as much, nor is he as expressive since he’s busy brooding about stuff. 

Honestly, the role of “mysterious secret keeper” just doesn’t fit Syaoran- with Touya, at least he’s been shown to be someone who keeps things to himself before. Syaoran, on the other hand, has always been ridiculously straightforward. As much as he tried to act tough, he was always unable to hide every single thought and emotion he had from being stunningly obvious to everyone but Sakura and got flustered CONSTANTLY, which was part of his charm as a character in the original series. It allowed him to be a very active and dynamic character too. Having him suddenly bottle everything up and be all mysterious just kills so much of what made him work. 

Though, to be fair, the show sort of acknowledges he’s unsuited for this role by showing even Sakura has noticed something’s up with him. But that just makes things MORE aggravating- in the last episodes she straight up says to him “I want you to talk to me” which should be the big moment where he realizes how wrong he’s been and tells her everything....but instead he just. doesn’t react. It’s INFURIATING.

And hey, third’s time the charm, we also have our antagonist, Kaito, doing some sketchy bullshit that his charge, Akiho, is completely unaware of (and when she does become aware, he TURNS BACK TIME to make her forget) so he can help her because reasons. Also, Eriol and Kero and Yue now know Sakura’s making cards appear on her own, but won’t tell her, because.

So in this season, here’s a real trend of guys refusing to communicate with and let girls in on things that DIRECTLY AFFECT THEM and denying them agency in regards to their OWN LIVES while insisting it’s “for their own good” and “to protect them” and I’m really! not about it! At this point, I am not confident the show will resolve it in a way that condemns this behavior enough. Why did we have to go here? I’ve seen this plotline SO many times and I am TIRED and I just want to see the characters be together and grow and learn and have fun.

And the lack of that is what makes the “filler” in Clear Card not work while the “filler” in the original show mostly worked for me. There were a variety of scenarios the original series would use to pad out the episode in the old series- a school play! a class trip! Syaoran and Sakura fight over Yukito! A test! Touya’s got a weird new job! They were reoccurring scenarios, but the type that offered variety and many types of character interactions. But with Clear Card the filler is much more limited -”let’s cook a thing and talk about it, let’s eat a thing and talk about it, let’s read an entire storybook that has nothing to do with the episode”. And that feels a lot less worthwhile, to say the least.

I said in my last review that it felt like the series was coasting on nostalgia and well, that still holds true. SO true there’s literally an episode called “Sakura’s Nostalgic Viewing Party” devoted to talking about the Sealed Card Movie. But as implied above, I don’t know if this show really gets what people loved about the old series totally. It copies things, sure. Like Sakura’s basically capturing the same cards over again! ...But this time the cards seem more like objects without personalities, and Sakura’s lack of concern for the cards she had before totally disappearing- which WERE sentient with personalities- is troubling, considering the original series focused on her being concerned for them and forming friendships with them. That whole issue kinda encapsulates the heart this series is missing compared to the original, and the important things its overlooking.

Which brings me to a big problem- there’s an disappointing lack of queerness in Clear Card. The original series was full of queer stuff and very accepting and positive about it as a narrative and it is beloved among queer viewers to this day for that...but, that was so absent in Clear Card. The closest we got to a direct discussion of Yukito and Touya’s relationship was in the prologue special- Yukito mentioned to Sakura about “when I told you I liked Touya” in the context of romance. So still canon, obviously. But Yukito and Touya are sidelined, as mentioned above, so really nothing else with them. Tomoyo is similarly out of focus, so nothing from her. Sakura and Syoaran are only focused on each other crush wise, so nothing for them either. I don’t think (or maybe I just hope) it was deliberate, but it’s still really disappointing. In 2018 they should be giving us MORE, not less.

And now we have to talk about the finale. What it was and what it...wasn’t. Basically, we find out Akiho is the mysterious person who’s been haunting Sakura’s dreams (something that even a five year old would have guessed by now)and she attacks her, Sakura is faced with this big revelations and is fighting....and then Kaito appears our of nowhere, freezes time, then rewinds everything so Sakura doesn’t remember and the fight never happened.

Yep. That was our final episode of the season. We get this big dramatic scene that FINALLY moves the narrative forward...then it is literally undone and rendered meaningless. It��s SO blatantly disrespectful to the audience it’s almost hilarious. I mean I wasn’t expecting much to be wrapped up, but talk about going above and beyond to flip off your viewers.

I always figured the reason for the poor pacing and anticlimactic ending of Clear Card was because it was spinning its wheels so it didn’t pass the manga (the solution to which would have been wait until the manga’s further along to make an anime, but WHATEVER)...but apparently the finale episode actually diverged pretty heavily from the manga.  (spoilers obvs). CLAMP is likely bringing a confusing Tsubasa crossover in the manga version, and the anime wisely decided to reject that.

But the thing is, if they were going to change such a major thing from the manga...why not just do their own thing with the anime from the beginning? Why drag everything out so the anime ended where the manga currently is if they were just gonna change that ending anyway? Why not just add their own stuff from the beginning? Why not end the season on a more satisfying note?

It’s a mystery for the ages.

Despite my LONG gripe session just now, while I was frustrated toward the end, I mostly found the anime pleasant to watch. There were a lot of nice moments despite all its flaws. And I love these characters so much that you know I’ll be right there if they release a movie or second season or whatever. 

But there’s a lot of wasted potential here and I hope the team behind this gets its shit together if they continue this. Like please. Let Touya and Yukito kiss. Let Tomoyo get a girlfriend. Let Sakura know what’s going on in her own life. If you just do that, I’ll never complain about anything related to CCS ever again. I swear.

[ssnakey-b]

FF8 English-French translarison, part 18: A tribe called Side-quest

Hello again, everybody! It’s been a while but we’re back! Quick refresher: last time, we went over the many differences in the concert scene and the stuff leading up to it.

And now, Squall wakes up and is being summoned to the bridge, but before that, let’s take another look around Balamb Garden and see if there’s anything of interest, shall we?

First little thing, the CC Club. For the most part the dialogue with Jack here (or Valet in French) is pretty much the same in both languages, but there is one small difference, in that in English, the CC members other than the King are described as “Card _____” whereas in French, they are just referred to as their title. So for example, you get “The Knight of Clubs” instead of “Card Knight Club” (by the way, “Knight Club” sounds like the name of a place that specializes in all-sorceress bachelorette parties).

Also, the Joker is referred to as just that, not Magician Joker, although the Jack does call him a magician once.

Here’s something interesting if you talk to Irvine. Most of lines are pretty much the same, except for one, where in French, he says “There’s no big secret to hitting on girls, you gotta look cool!” whereas in English, he gives Squall the following advice: “Like... I’ve been thinking about this for a while now... Maybe you should loosen up a bit? You’ll be sure to get girls that way...!”

Weird that only that one line would be so different. Also, thanks for your input, mister Love Doctor, but I think Squall is going to stick to the patented Loire-Leonhart seduction technique: be lucky enough that you’re so hot girls go after you, and not you after them, in spite of your massive awkwardness”. Seriously, between Laguna’s cramp and Squall’s... self, their family line would have extinguished itself centuries ago if it weren’t for their absurdly good genes and actually had to put any effort into wooing ladies.

Skipping ahead to plot stuff, this is a good spot to tell you that in French, Squall’s title isn’t “commander” but “chef”. And no, that doesn’t mean he’s a cook, that word actually just means “chief” or “boss”. The term used in English comes from the title “chef cuisinier”, which translates as “Head cook”.

But yeah, the French title is kinda lame regardless. It’s such a generic title. Don’t know why they couldn’t use “commandant”, which you know, actually is a military rank and would describe Squall’s role far better. “Chef” sounds more like something cops would call their boss in a TV show. Although I will say, now that I think of it, I so want a whodunnit series where Balamb Garden is a police headquarter.

More importantly, though, we have a very different reaction from Squall depending on the version. In English, he actually gets annoyed and asks Quistis not to call him that. In French, he’s more confused and just repeats “Chef?” as shown above.

Anyway, Squall’s filthy assistants suggest checking on Balamb but fuck that, we’re going on side quests! Yeah, I figure that now that the game world is finally almost completely opened up, it’s a good time to start doing these, and generally exploring. Plus, I’ve worked out a neat way to alternate between side quests and plot stuff at least until the battle of the Gardens, so it’s nice to have a bit of organization for a change.

First stop, Obel Lake. We have another bizarre change here as in the English text, the shadow you can meet after humming a song sends you on a quest to find his friend, Mr. Monkey (and with that, it just occurred to me how freaking weird that game can get). But in the French version, his friend is called “Ryo the idiot”.

Yeah, they’re nothing a like and I really wonder what prompted each version. Again, if you played another localisation of the game and they call it something else, I’d love to hear what it is.

After we find the idiot / monkey / idiot monkey and return to mr. Shadow (hm, is it the same one from Fifth Element?), we have another interesting difference as in French, the shadow says “Booyaka” to great you. Looks like Selphie’s catchphrase did catch on to someone after all!

Now then, you may be aware that relaying his friend’s whereabouts makes the shadow give you some helpful hints as a reward, and of them is to “take some time off at Eldbeak Peninsula”. Once you get there, you find some weird message, and the trick is to literally take the words “time” and “off” away from the message the reveal another hint.

Of course, that would only work in English, so what did they do for the French version? Well, the shadow tells you “Retire tes pompes à Eldbeak Peninsula”, which means “take off your shoes at Eldbeak Peninsula”. And indeed, removing the words “tes pompes” pulls the same trick.

Also, annoyingly, the shadow’s hint refers to the place as Eldbeak Peninsula despite being translated as “Crête d’Eldbeak” in French, and since the hint is in a very specific spot and could find it right away, I ended up wondering if I got to the wrong place at first and started looking futilely around for an Eldbeak Peninsule (or a “Péninsule d’Eldbeak”), until checking the Internet confirmed that I was in the right place at the beginning.

If you go back to the dumbass ape after you manage to skip the rock “many, many times” (or “an incalculable amount of times” in French), he’ll get angry and start yelling “Ahhh! Darn it! Y-You’re just a big loser! I’m able to skip the rock as many times as I want! So there! Ha-Hah! Loser! Dork! Idiot! Your mom wears combat boots!”

Well that certainly was creative, although I think most of the cast except Linoa and Zell is immune to “yo mama” jokes, what with being orphans and all. ANyway, he is a bit more restrained in French, going “For God’ssake! How can anyone suck so bad? What a butterfingers, really! I can skip rocks 100 more times than you!”

Do note I specified “a bit”.

Moving on to Timber, let’s see what’s new. This little girl says her mom will let her have a cat when Timber is independent in both versions, and in both versions, she struggles with the word “independent”, but they way to present it is different. In English, she slowly sounds it out. In French, she mispronounces it as “indéTendant”, with a T instead of a P. Well, can’t blame her, I’d rather have a T than a P too. Thank you all for coming, I’ll be here all week!

This guy says that his girlfriend keeps nagging him, saying he’s a loser. In the English version, he than whines that if someone had told him not to give up back then, he would have tried harder, proving his girlfriend right. Oddly, he doesn’t say that second part in the French version, so you don’t get a hint that you should have encouraged him earlier, because apparently this guy makes career decisions based on the advice of random passers-by.

Here’s a very interesting one as the dialogue with both NPCs goes in waaaaayyyy different directions. In English, the mom says “I’m so proud of my daughter. You guys help your parents out, too while you can. They may not ask for it, but it’ll make them really happy.”

Tssssss... about thaaaaat...

Let’s move swiftly on. In French, she instead says “From time to time, I feel like I am my daughter’s grandmother. Strange, isn’t it?”.

As for the daughter, in English, she says “It”s quite tough being the eldest daughter. I have a lot of responsibilities... But I love my parents who adopted me and my twin brothers.”

Gee whiz, it keeps getting more and more awkward. In French, she says “Sometimes, I feel like I’m my parents’ mom... That’s strange, right?”.

So yeah, very different and all kidding aside, I once again have to give it to the English version, as I like the mention of the kids being adopted. It goes to show that the main characters aren’t the only orphans in that world.

Back to smaller differences with these two. For the most part, their dialogue is the same, with the girl saying she used to get fired up but calmed down later on, and in English, the guy says “you were just as attractive when you used to beat me up.” whereas in French, he says “Oh! The beatings she would give me whenever I tried ti give her a little kiss!”.

Well... still a healthier relationship than 50 Shades of Grey, I suppose. Not by much, but hey...

Inside the pub, in the English version, the lady says it’s called Aphrora and that it’s related to an Aurora. However, in the French version, she straight-up says it’s called Aurora. In both versions, she then adds that it means “drink until you see [an/the] aurora,” but interestingly, in English, she tells us to come back for drinks when we’re older, while in French she jokes that “considering the décor, it should be ‘drink until you stop seeing the horror’.“

But far more importantly, this:

Alright, so in the English version, she explains that her boss and his wife are part of different resistance groups, respectively, the Forrest Duck and the Forrest Fox, and that it resembles their relationship.

In French, she says her boss is a “Canard de la Forêt”, which does translate to “Forrest Duck”... but then adds that his wife is part of a different group (which she doesn’t name) and that she always changes one letter from he name of her husband’s group.

Now, this to me seems like a covert yet very obvious reference to the word “connard” (meaning she technically changes two letters but let’s not nitpick), which is a variation on “con” which is French for “cunt”. The closest I could translate that is would be “cunter”.

So yeah, that’s some classic crap getting past the radar right there, although I’m not sure it was even necessary considering the translations of later FF games include similarly coarse language such as “merde” and “connerie”, another variation on “con”.

I should point out that the French are generally way more cool with swearing than Americans seem to be, and boy howdy do we love ourselves some cunts and variations of it. We have cunters, cuntesses, cunteries, etc... Yeah, you’re not gonna have the outraged reactions you’d get from that in America over here. We basically use “cunt” the same way you guys use “fuck / fucker / fuckery / etc”.

In fact, I remember the French dub of one of the Harry Potter movies has Harry call Ron a cunt as well, at some point. It doesn’t help that with a few exceptions, we don’t really have mild swears in French, it’s usually either tame or strong, so translators often go for the stronger option when a scene needs the extra punch, with sometimes hilarious results.

Anyway, let’s move on. I’m putting this above screenshot in English because this guy seems to have an accent or something, which is absent in the French version. Although that does seem to confirm the previous mention of accents in the FF world, which is a neat bit of lore.

If you go back to the area where two kids are playing on the train tracks, you can rescue the little girl after she falls and nearly gets crushed by a train, because apparently Squall just wasn’t sexy enough, so he also has to save adorable little girls to make women will swoon some more. More relevantly, after the girl thanks you, a model train appears to bring some news, which apparently travel very fast in Timber.

In English, it says the girl was saved “in the nick of time” by a brave young man. The French version make sit a bit more grisly, saying she was saved “from a horrible death”.

If you talk to this girl a couple times, she’ll tell you a story about how she was nearly hit by a train and was saved by a very handsome man named Loire (guess it runs in the family) and how he was the man of her dreams and Squall presumably starts feeling nauseated and ddoesn’t understand why. In French, she tells the same story but oddly, she can’t remember his name as well, and calls him La Gooma instead.

And now we move on to Dollet, where there is quite a bit to look at. First thing of note is this guy and his sister; they have quite a bit to say, but the reason I bring him up is that at some point in the French version (and only that one as far as I’m aware), he name-drops Corto Maltese by saying he wants to be a sailor, like him.

For anyone who may not be aware, Corto Maltese is the titular character from a cult classic Italian adventure comic series by Hugo Pratt. Even though it never really became a huge mainstream name, it was still very popular, especially in the seventies it seems. As a result, you probably won’t be surprised to hear it often gets pretty psychedelic, not to mention the art style is rather unusual (but gorgeous) to begin with.

Corto is indeed a sailor, although I don’t remember him ever actually doing much sailing (not that I have read many of the albums although I do recommend them), to the point that in the movie adaptation (which, much like the comics, is excellent yet very obscure), he claims his sailor hat was a gift, and he always ends up embroiled in massive adventures and conspiracies, somewhere between Indiana Jones and James Bond.

And as I alluded to, although the comic is pretty famous, it’s still fairly obscure so it’s pretty amazing to see it brought up in Final Fantasy of all things.

If you talk to this kid, whom is playing hide-and-seek, he tells Squall to go away in both versions, but there’s a slight difference. In English, the kid calls him “mister,” which surprises Squall a bit and he replies that he’s only 17. In French though, the kid calls the group “old guys” and Squall understandably gets more upset about it. Either way, I do love how that’s one of the few things that gets him to explicitly react to what an NPC is saying. Guess even he can’t always be above vanity.

Here’s a bit I love. When you talk to the guy in the green vest and you tell him the town hasn’t changed, he then starts to recognize you as the kids who were being chased the giant robot spider (or robo-crab, as the French version puts it). You then get two options. The English ones are fairly standard: either “don’t know” or “can’t say who, but we know.”

The French one got a bit cute with it, and your choices are “Not at all, What robo-crab?” and “It was our brothers and sisters...”. If you pick the first answer, it’s also different. In English, he just says it’s his job to make repairs. In French, he says “forget it, I got you confused with those 3 kids who destroyed the town”.

Not sure why he’s blaming it on them though, considering it’s Galbadia who did it during the whole “invasion of your dukedom that these kids actually helped stop” thing. At most you could argue Seifer disobeying orders is what led to the Galbadians launching the robot, but that wouldn’t be the other kids’ fault. Also, that’s something to think about when you talk to that little girl by the beach who says she wants her mommy back.

But anyway, if you pick the other option, he more or less says the same thing, except in French, he of course says to tell their siblings they owe the town money and on top of that, while the English version has him mention the specific sum of  1 370 000 gils, the French one rounds it out to 1 000 000.

Next is the painter’s house. Couple things here. First, in the French version, the grandpa explicitly says he’s going to spank the kid if he keeps messing with his paintings, whereas the English version had him says something about “cuchi-cuchi-coo” his neck, which frankly sounds worse. However, in both versions, in the last part of this quest, the grandpa does mention tickling the kid as “punishment”.

Also, in the English text, the kid says adding the white bones are his way of expressing himself and to be novel and original. In French, he just says that in comics, dogs always have a bone in their mouths, so why couldn’t Rex have one?

Finally, after you’ve ended the quest, the grandpa gives different lines depending on versions. In English, he figures that maybe he should have played with the kid more so he wouldn’t be so bored and trying to get his attention, but that he’s too old for sports, and is considering poker instead (so card games other than Triple Triad do exist in this universe!).

In French, he says he’ll stop including dogs on his landscapes and that he’ll try painting cats instead, though he’s afraid the kid will start painting fish bones.

Also, while the kid feels like he’s grown a little from being able to express himself in English, the French one says he’s gonna stop his pranks and that he wants to be a veterinarian, now.

In the bar, there are some changes in what the guy in the white shirt says. In English, he says it’s nice to have a drink after work, and his friend asks him what he’s talking about since he’s always drinking there. Then, if you talk to him again, either he or his friend drunkenly mentions playing ball.

In French, it’s kind of the opposite, as he asks for his last drink of the day, only for his friend to point out it’s only 7 in the morning (which still seems early to start drinking to me, but hey, you do you and your liver problems). Bizarrely, if you talk to him again, he says it’s time for his first cognac of the day, and his friends asks what he’s talking about since he finished the bottle an hour ago.

Speaking to the friend, we have a choice. In English, the prompt is “Yeah, that’s so true...” and the choices are “What is?” and “Yeah... sure...”. If you pick the first, he says life is nicer during peacetime. If you pick the second, he advises not to eat off the floor.

In French, the prompt is roughly “I needed that” and the answers are “What?” and “that hits the spot”. If you pick the first, he asks how many drinks an hour make you an alcoholic. If you pick the second, he says he doesn’t feel too good.

Boy, that sure was a rousing conversation! Let’s talk to the lady on the left.

In both versions, she laments the fact that the rich young men in the dukedom are all married, then asks Squall what he thinks of her. Surprisingly, the answers are the exact same in both versions, but the woman’s reactions are quite different.

In English, picking “you’re very attractive” has her say maybe she should go for older men. In French, it has her say that while it’s true, only perverts like her. And then there’s the much ruder “Are you really a woman?!”. In English, she tries to laugh it off, saying she’s not his type, only to turn around and mumble to herself, wondering how Squall know (s)he was a man. Her French counterpart gets more offended, complaining about all the men she spends at beautician. After she turns around, she makes the more subtle remark that he must have a 6th sense.

WELP. Not opening THAT can of worms.

Next, that female NPC who says she’s window-shopping. In English, she then asks Squall if he has a problem with that (not sure why he would, but okay). In French, she asks him if he wants to buy her something.

In the town Square, we have this guy. In French, he says that due to taxes as a result of hiring SeeD, he’s gonna have to sell his cards collection, which is far nicer than in English, where he said "Better get ma young bride and start havin’ children”. What the actual fuck, dude?!

In the hotel, the two employees have a weird accent which I think is supposed to be vaguely German, but I’m not sure. In the English version, only the one in the back has any sort of special speech pattern, and it’s just a habit of saying “y’all”. Either way, more accent shenanigans.

And here we have one of the strangest differences yet, to the point it actually caught me off guard because I didn’t remember that text in French at all, and for good reasons since it says something completely unrelated! Right, so if you beat that guy in the upper floor of the bar, he’ll invite you to his private room(or secret room in French), where he’ll give you some cards and you can find some of other stuff.

There are also several piles of books, and when checking one of them, you’ll find what is presumably the previous owner’s diary telling a truly harrowing tale of meeting a woman who kept beating him at Triple Triad, eventually marrying her and having a daughter with her, but it ends with her trying to save their daughter from drowning, only to drown herself. It ends with the bleak statement that neither the daughter or he himself can comprehend their loss. Jesus Christ! Even for a Final Fantasy game, that’s dark.

But in the French version, it seems to just be a collection of random thoughts. For example, it first says that his son is studying the Sorceress War (one of the few times Sorceresses are referred to as such in French, instead of “priestesss”), and how he doesn’t understand any of it in spite of having lived it, then he ponders why extraterrestrials in movies always look like animals, and that maybe it’s because humans are bestial in nature as well, concluding that being at the pub sometimes feel like being at a zoo.

It just fascinates me that it could be so different. I can’t fathom what caused this and it’s one of those things that really makes me curious about other versions.

To make this even more baffling, if you check another book pile, the text is very similar, including a bit about Laguna coming along and getting his ass kicked at cards. Interestingly though, in the English version, he can’t quite remember his name, simply remembering it started with Lag, and says an easy win doesn’t leave much of an impression, but in French, he calls him La Gouma and says he’s a “nice guy, but sucks at cards”.

And now we can continue onward to Deling City! First little thing, when asking Caraway about Edea, in the French text, he says that he fears her influence will lead to “a new world war”. Now, the French version does use the term “sorceress war”, so it’s interesting to see him also refer to it as a world war, and it seems fitting for a serious military type.

Another interesting tidbit comes when you ask him about Esthar. For starters, in English, he says that Esthar took over the world under Adel, which isn’t mentioned in French and I don’t remember being said at any other point. This makes me wonder if that was a strange decision on the English translator’s part, but that does make sense as Esthar making it to part of the Galbadian continent would explain why they’re even at war, why Galbadia started invading other countries and forcing them into their army, and even why Galbadian people where paranoid of Sorceresses before Edea.

At the same time, the French version also has an interesting detail, where they mention that even after Esthar went silent, relationships between the two nations remained strained, alluding to the situation turning from a world war to a cold war situation. He also theorizes that perhaps this is due to Galbadia being jealous of Esthar’s technological success and the efficiency of their democracy. Compelling, although I do wonder how Galbadia would know about “the efficiency of Esthar’s democracy” since it stopped all contact with the outside world right after Adel was dethroned.

There isn’t a huge difference in what the various NPCs say, but this one’s pretty intriguing. In French, she just says that she heard a sorceress can transfer her powers to the person of their choosing. In English though, she explicitly says that she learned in the Garden that any person can receive a sorceress’ power, and I thought that’s obviously wrong since it’s stated multiple times that only women can inherit such powers,

But just as I thought that, the next speech box has her explain that while she did go to Garden, she wasn’t a very good student, which would explain why she wouldn’t have gotten it completely right.Cleverly done. Also, I like the implication that the average person isn’t all that aware of exactly what sorceresses are and how their powers work. It’s an interesting treatise on the link between fear, admiration and ignorance.

In fact, reading what the Deling City citizens have to say about Edea and how they blindly believe she’ll lead the country to greatness because she’s tough, promises a renaissance for their country and that even the smaller guys wild be able to make it is fascinating in general... and disturbingly true to real dictatorships.

There’s a small difference I find amusing where in English, one NPC says that people like Edea because “people follow strength, not charisma” whereas contrariwise, the same guy says in French that “Edea is much more charismatic than old Deling”.

ANd here’s a guy who straight-up calls Edea their Messiah in French!In Eglish, he just says he now know he has to abide by Edea after feeling a surge of energy during the parade (which might allude to at least partial mind control).

And finally, we finish with this NPC, whom in the English version, says she’s been sending Edea fan mail daily, but in French, she says, that she hopes Edea will publish a magic cookbook. Which does sound awesome, but unlikely. To be fair, what she says is literally “book of magical recipes”, so she may be referring to like, potions and stuff, but I prefer to believe she means how to use magic to enhance the flavour of your dishes.

And so we reach the end of our first part dedicated entirely to side content and my God there was way more stuff to cover than I ever expected. I hope you enjoyed it because I certainly found a lot of these differences very interesting. As always, if you enjoyed this post, reblogging it would be very appreciated, do not hesitate to commentate or send me asks, maybe even suggest things you’d like to see that I may have missed, and I’ll be seeing you next time for part 19, where we return to Balamb City. Have a nice day, everyone!