#also if you want to combine with items from my shop you can get both at once and will have my eternal gratitude!

[paullovescomics]

The majority of the US is definitely not walkable. Cities in the northeast are probably most likely to have more walkable sections, because they were fairly developed before cars took over, but the rest of the country is purposefully built around the car. A lot of smaller towns that used to have walkable downtowns tore down most of it to make room for more "modern" uses back in the 1970s.

I grew up in a small city that had a population somewhere around 40,000 when I was in high school. It was one of the top 5, maybe top 3 biggest cities in the state. Most neighborhoods had no sidewalks. The street in front of our house doubled as a section of a major state highway, so there were lots of speeding cars on it. Even with that, as a kid I used to walk a few blocks down to the convenience store to buy comics, but there was no grocery store within walking distance. This was in the 1980s, before all the fear of predators, and my dad also worked in the neighborhood, so my parents weren't too freaked out about me doing this. I severely doubt that any parents living there now are letting their kids walk a mile to the Snak Pak.

Now I live in a city of about 300,000 people. Probably in the top six cities in the state for population. We have buses that run seven days a week, but because the city is so spread out and simply not planned for mass transit or walking, all of the bus routes have to start and end at a central hub. If you live in the Northeast of the city and want to take a bus to the Northwest, you get on the nearest bus (that can involve quite a walk), ride it to the depot downtown, then get on the bus that goes closest to your destination. A trip that is 15 minutes by car is 45 minutes to an hour by bus (and that's just the time on the bus, not walking to and from stops). Earlier this year, my car was in the shop for a while, and the nearest bus stop was two miles away, even though I am in a fairly densely populated area. I'm just a bit on the edge of the city, and there are wealthy neighborhoods around here that have no use for the bus, so the limited transit resources are more needed elsewhere. In many parts of the city, there are no sidewalks, or sidewalks only on one side of the street. The downtown is walkable, but that's only a few blocks, and it's restaurants and coffee shops, not daily needs kind of stuff. And my city is considered progressive!

A few years ago, I lived in a smaller city that borders this one. There was a Dollar Store that was within walking distance, but there were no sidewalks. There were, however, drainage ditches on both sides of the road, and people drove like maniacs, so you did not walk unless you had absolutely no other choice. This is not a uncommon situation.

And all the malls, then the big box stores, killed all the smaller shops that used to be a bit closer long ago. Even the convenience stores are less common, because they've been combined into bigger gas stations with fewer convenience items and more gas pumps, designed for people driving to work, not for people who live in the neighborhood.

A lot of homeowners do not want their neighborhoods to be walkable. Heaven forbid an "undesirable" person might walk down Willowbrook Lane and possibly threaten the resale value of somebody's house. Or a family walking down the street with arms full of groceries might suggest that they can't afford a car, and what would people think?! Public transit is for those overcrowded cities with their teeming poor and rampant crime, not for nice neighborhoods like ours with big lawns that prove we are living right.

Okay, that last paragraph got preachy, but hopefully the point still came across. Americans are rarely able to choose walking as a viable option.

“America IS walkable, you’re all just lazy” my childhood home was an hour from the nearest hospital (by car)

[gay-hellion]

running a group order for Australia/New Zealand for this pin, folks in Asia/the Pacific are also welcome to join!

open until Wed 22nd 5pm AEDT but I might extend ^u^

[echantedtoon]

Kinda like my last post but more poly. Auish so barely anything's cannon. Kimetsu Gauken based. Artwork not mine both found on Pinterest. Will probably contain some headcannons from my Kagamane x Reader headcannons post too.

-How did you catch the attention of these two couples? You literally had no idea.

-You only knew that you were Muzan's secretary before he hired Kokushibo to take over your job as he was 'better suited.' But unbeknownst to you, that was a way to just get closer to you by Muzan and his wife.

-You've been working for the couple for over two years having been hired by Two to help the both of them manage their companies. Muzan wasn't happy about his wife hiring someone without his say so but relented the because his wife was happy with you.

-You did a very good job honestly. Papers were always perfectly filed, and you were very organized and clean. You kept up with his own and Rei's Business deals separated unless needed to be combined. He couldn't remember how many times the last secretary mixed up their appointments and costed them time and money. You were also on time all the time everyday and had materials at the ready for whatever he needed.

-Rei was quite satisfied with your performance as well and he liked knowing his wife was happy so he didn't care about her inviting you to have small lunch breaks with her and their daughter.

-Their daughter was quite taken by you as well. Smiling and talking about how nice you were and how you had help her learn how to spell a big learn that won her spelling bee at school.

-Rei quite agreed you were quite a charming lady and she wouldn't mind having you around more often. He agrees.

-While you're professional and perficiant in what you do and your bubbly kind and positive personality added a bit of fresh air into the office and at the same time you weren't overly positive for him to find you annoying. If fact he quite looked forward to the way you treated him every morning with your bright smile and a cup of his favorite coffee. How you and Rei smile like old friends and get along so well. How his daughter is always excitedly bouncing around and showing off what cool new facts she learnt 'from the nice office lady'!

-Its inevitable they would find someone as cute as you unable to resist for long. It's not surprisingly Rei that brings up the subject first while at breakfast and he's reading a newspaper. "Dear, Y/n was so kind to teach our little darling how to easily spell arithmetic the other day." "Mmhm. Very nice." "You know I don't think we're really giving her a position she deserves. You've always said that I could use a personal assistant for my work." "Darling, you just read my mind."

-You are shocked when the happy couple announced that you were fired from your secretary job but they were moving you to be Rei's personal assistant. You gingerly try to reject the offer but they insist having already replaced you with Kokushibo who turns out if far more efficient.

-So begins your very awkward new job as Rei's personal assistant. Some of it isn't too different from your old job minus following her around during the day. You still file paperwork for her and handle calls if she's busy, but now you also did things for her such as getting her awkwardly massive food orders-

"I have your double shrimp salad bowls."

"Oh thank you. But I must've gotten too much. You eat the other one you've been working so hard and deserve some food."

And going shopping with her as she gifts you extra items she ..accidentally buys an item she didn't want.

"I have all your bags, Ma'am."

"Thank you. But it seems I accidentally bought the purple heels instead of black."

"Shall I call the store and request a refund for the shoes?"

"No need. You can keep them. They're your size anyways."

-You also start to help out Rei's husband by rearranging furniture in his office as he works and gauges your help in certain things.

"I want you to take this."

".... It's an address and..IS THIS THREE THOUSED DOLLARS?!"

"Yes. I'm thinking about buying a share at this new retreat but unfortunately I'm far too busy to go myself. Go check yourself in for a week and report back to me anything wrong with the place."

Even when you go, granted having a good time, and comeback with your positive feedback you don't see any shares listed for the retreat in the financial database. But he does use your help in other situations too-

"Is this a dinner reservation?"

"Yes. I'm interested in hosting a business dinner together with some investors next week. Go to the reservation and see if their food is up to my standards."

You are concerned when he sees no investors the next week.

-You start to get very awkward when Rei requests you start doing more personal things. Like tutoring their daughter and picking her up from school and playing with her when they're busy. And staying to have dinner with them multiple times a week even if you decline.

-You unexpectedly get a raise despite doing less work than your last position.

-You get invited on outings together to help watch their daughter but for some reason there's always a place set aside for you or the reservations always included a fourth person.

-You get random gifts with excuses-

"My daughter thinks it's your birthday and she'll be upset if I didn't at least gift you some flowers."

"Here. I never used this dress anyways and they got my size wrong."

"My wife misplaced her necklace so I ordered a new one for her. She just found the old one today so you may keep the extra."

-One day you pick up their daughter from elementary school and she's just happily chatting away in the back seat.

"I can't wait for Mother's Day. I'm gonna make you and Mommy the best cards ever!"

"Aw. You don't have to do that. I'm not even your mom."

"Not yet! You have to marry them first and I'm gonna be the flower girl!!"

"Haha! I'm not marrying your mommy and daddy."

"Huh? You're not?"

"Of course not. What made you think that?"

"Because Daddy says I can be the flower girl! Mommy even picked out matching dresses for all three of us in that fancy magazine!"

-Both are a mixed reaction when they receive your professional company email that very night explaining that the hours were starting to get bad for you so you were putting in your two weeks and using all your company vacation days for that entire week so they didn't have to trouble you for a final paycheck.

-Rei is absolutely shocked and very, very confused. Why did you suddenly quit? If the hours were getting to bad then they'd be happy to talk with you about it and rearrange things.

Muzan is pissed. How dare you just quit on such short notice?! After everything they did?! You didn't even have mind to tell them in person!

Both try calling you but get nothing but voicemail, their emails go unanswered as well. Their daughter is very upset. Why did you leave? Weren't you going to marry them?

-Unbeknownst to the couple you use the extra money from your sudden raise to move away to a new residence. Blocking both on your old email and phone before completely getting a brand new email address and number and being sure to block them again on those too before gathering up all the unwanted gifts up to mail them back being sure to include no return address.

-After laying low for about a month you decide to go back out to job hunt. Eventually finding a secretary position open at a local school after the old secretary retired! Perfect! You end up calling the number listed for the principal and she's nice enough to arrange an interview for you with her husband, the Chairman of Kimetsu Academy.

-The interview actually goes very well! Mr. Kagaya Ubuyashiki is a very kind man and his wife is also very kind and both of them were impressed with your resume. You got the job the day!

-You're a little out of your territory being in a a school setting but slowly things start turning. You start to really enjoy your job at the Academy. You've already made friends with a few teachers like Kyojuro and Gyomei.

-Students start to like coming to the office more because of how bubbly and friendly the new secretary is. The teachers start to talk to you more often and invite you to staff parties and outside work events. Events that you were free to DECLINE and no one was giving you an uncomfortable feeling.

-Was working your old job really that stressful? You couldn't remember the last time you actually felt appreciated or just had someone treat you normally.

-Kagaya thinks it's amusing watching you shyly peek into the doorway to his office with papers clutched into your hands and bashfully asking if you could come in. The way you so innocently look unsure of something or squeak out a question. It's adorable seeing your attempts.

Amane finds your sweet and bubbly personality is perfect for the job! Especially when she sees how much you love interacting with the students and always friendly towards her own children. When you shyly ask her for help with scheduling or ask where a certain file is, always puts a smile on her face.

-Speaking of the Ubuyashiki children, you adore the quintuplets! And don't mind watching them in the office for a little bit if Kagaya or Amane was running a little late or had to do last minute work. Because they always asked you if you'd be alright with it first and didn't expect you to do anything outside your job.

-Somewhere along the way they ask you politely if you'd like to have dinner with them without any expectations for you saying yes and you agree wholeheartedly. Making it a weekly thing where you all would all have dinner together Sunday night.

-Muzan and Rei really don't know where you went for the longest time until he just happens to mention you in front of Nakime who recognizes you instantly and reveals it to him.

-Muzan is absolutely RAGED to find out not only are you working for his cousin but seemed to be dating his cousin and his wife!! Rei has to hold him back and tell him to not do anything dumb before he goes to do anything actually dumb like storm into the academy and yell at everyone.

-Instead he furiously calls his cousin and DEMANDS to know what the hell he thought he was doing!! And DEMANDS to let him talk to you THAT INSTANT!!

"Oh yes. You're the really weird bosses she was talking about. How's your dating life going?"

"YOU FUCKER!! IF YOU DON'T DO AS I SAY I SWEAR YOU'LL PAY FOR IT ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!!"

"How do you both manage to get married but still pull no bitches combined?"

"YOU MOTHERFU-"

Rei later scolds him for cussing in front of their daughter at her cousins and for chucking his phone off their second story balcony.

-She tries to later apologize for his tantrums via calling Amane who firmly states that they were not to go near you but much more politely.

-Your're later very surprised to discover that Muzan and Kagaya are actually cousins but it doesn't change your opinion on the Ubuyashikis because of how well they have been treating you.

[kimhargreeves]

The Night Shift -Mike Schmidt x Reader (FNAF live action)

Summary: You and Mike have never gotten on the right foot, always bickering and never standing each other's presence. The day comes when both of you are interviewed for the same job and are forced to work together to see who will win the job as a security guard at a deadly pizzeria.

(A/N: The Fnaf movie is almost here! Anyone else ready to watch it this weekend?! Here's the Mike Schmidt x Reader I promised a while back. Hope it's okay but female reader is mentioned to be a bit of a goth/alternative type of girl. Also, things may change in the next part since I am writing this a few days before the movies release date. Let me know how I did and if you want part 2 once we've seen the movie)

I'd also like to tag these kind people who asked me to tag them once this was up, @riaqiax @ahsfan23 @lufvg

"Please come again and have a fantastic day!" I beam and smile as I watch the client I had attended begin to leave the store I was working at.

As soon as they are out of my sight I sigh deeply and frown looking at the direction they left. "I don't get paid enough for this crap." I tell no one.

The client has begun to ask many questions, wether the store finally had the item they had been asking for, or if the movies on the dvd sections were any good, if I had any recommendations for any.

After about half an hour of trying to convince the person to take something from the store, they had decided to leave with a few snacks and movies.

The store I have been working at happens to be a combination of many things, dvd rentals, clothes, snacks and a few figures for sale. At least it paid a bit better than the last job I had, it was a nice job with nice alternative music but the pay wasn't that good.

"(Y/N), you're on your break. Make sure to come back in 15." My coworker passed me when they returned from the restroom.

I nodded my head and left the store beginning to walk further into the mall where I have been working for a few months and began walking to the food area hoping to fill my stomach with some cheap food.

It was a calm Friday with only a few people or families circling around the building. Many kids running over to small area, an ice cream shop called 'Ice Cream Parties'.

I ordered my usual choice of food. Three sandwiches, fries and a taco. I reached my hand into the bag and began to eat minding my own business when I sat down by an empty area and I stopped chewing when I saw two men running past me.

Two security guards running fast and avoiding running into people. Immediately this caught my attention, so I began to follow the guards and quickened my pace when I heard a girl yelling for her dad.

I stayed behind from a crowd that formed near the mall's water fountain and I saw a figure, no, two in fact inside the water fountain, but one was beating the other and the worst thing was that it was one of the security guards.

"Daddy!"

People took out their flip phones and began to take a few pictures of what was happening, it quickly ended when the two men who had run past me earlier stepped into the water and pulled the poor man beneath the security guard away.

One of them began to deal with the man with a small girl running over to her beaten dad, and the other one roughly began to question the young man's actions and took him away inside an office room.

"Fuck." I muttered when I saw the man was dragged away.

I rolled my eyes and went back to my working place and spotted my coworker, "Hey, you think you can cover for me this time? Something very important and tragic happened."

My coworker nodded his head and as soon as he agreed I started running back outside the store and into the security room.

"Do you know how many paperworks we gotta do and how our establishments reputation will only decrease any more because of what you did?!" I heard the deep voice of a man question the young security guard.

"How many times are you going to give me a hard time, Mr Schmidt?"

"The man deserved it." He answered his boss.

His boss remained quiet probably just staring and him and not knowing exactly what to do. "So that's what you think? You're fired."

The man sighed but said nothing. "I'll have you sign a few paperwork before you leave and an investigation will be taken place right now. So this'll take some time to be resolved."

His boss has walked past me but said nothing assuming I was the guards family. I rolled to eyed and leaned my head forward and tilted it when I saw Mike crossing his arms.

"You're anger issues has only gotten worse." I say uninterested and notice Mike roll his eyes when he saw me.

"The fuck is you're problem?" He looked at me again and scoffed when he noticed my appearance.

Freshly dyed black hair and now with a single piercing over my eyebrow.

"You look like shit."

"I was about to say the same thing." I tell him not bothered by his words.

"Why are you so weird?" He scoffed again and looked away from me.

I poured pretending I was hurt. "Daddy issues. What can I say?" I chuckled darkly "You have anger issues, my guy. I have daddy issues. Tell me what's worse."

Mike remained silent when I mentioned him that. I looked around the onto sound coming from the clock on the wall.

"Why did you do it?" I ask him wanting to know his reason on attacking a man in front of his young daughter.

"And why should I tell you?" He remarked. "I don't owe you any favors because you got me this job weeks ago."

"I only did it for her and you know it." I defended myself and crossed my arms over my chest as well.

"Well I don't need anyone's help and that being less from you. I can take care of my own problem."

Mine has been struggling for a while now. Barely having enough money for himself, rent or raising his sister since she had no one left to look after her. The guy has his issues but it doesn't mean he had to be like this, he doesn't have a lot of money and the first thing he does is try to get himself fired… well he is definitely fired now.

Another thing I'd like to mention. Is that Mike and I have never gotten along, we've known each other for almost our entire lives and know what has happened to each other, but we've refused to get along. Not once had he been nice to me and never have I been nice to him.

We've both been through a lot of mess, similar to one another's, and instead of making us grow closer we simply grew further apart.

"Michael." I warn.

"(Y/N)." Michael says back now each of us looking at one another.

I try to remain calm and not start up another argument which always happens when we're together in a room.

Mike is the first to break eye contact and he sighs when he checks the clock again. It's nearly 2pm.

He mutters a few cursed words and looks down at lap. "Can you do me a favor and pick up Abbey from school?"

I lift an eyebrow looking at him. "Please? I know you don't own a car, so you can take mine."

Mike digs for his car keys inside from his pocket and holds them up for me. I smirk as I take them from him.

"Why trust me with your car? I can easily steal it from you and escape town."

"Because deep beneath all the bitchiness, black clothes and awful piercing. I know your a bit less tolerable when it comes to kids." Mike said glancing back at me and looking a bit too relaxed in this situation

I stared at the worn out paper sign in my hands. A second job wouldn't hurt…"Wanted security guard for night shift. Quickly I scribbled the number on my palm and crumbled the paper over and left it on the backseat.

I stepped out of car when I had parked it and recognized Mike's little sister. "(Y/N)?" She asked not expecting me at all.

Many months ago I had looked after her, now I only see her every once in a while, whenever she'd leave school early, Mike would have her stay at the mall until his shift would be over.

I came to see Abbey as a little sister as well especially since we saw each other growing up and Mike would take odd jobs at night leaving me to look after Abbey while she was still rather young.

"I'll be your escort for this ride. Hope that's fine with you, and hopefully you're teacher doesn't think I'm here to kidnap you." I tell her when I see her teacher looking at me weird.

Abbey waved her hand at the teacher making then sure she knew me.

"I'm late to my shift, so, let's hurry up shall we?" Abbey nods her head and got into the backseat when I got into the car again and turned it back on and starting driving back to the mall.

"It's been a while since we last saw each other. Thought you wouldn't remember me." I joked at the young girl while I glanced back and saw her looking outside the scenery as I drove by the familiar streets

"Of course I still remember you. My brother mentions you often." Abbey said getting my attention from her.

Didn't expect Mike to talk about me to his younger sister, Abbey.

"Oh? What does he say about me?"

"Says you're a bitch, weird and complains about his job or yours." I frowned and remained quiet. Of course why was I expecting nice from him.

"Those are his words, not mine. I actually enjoy spending time with you." Abbey said.

My expression softened when I heard Abbey says she enjoys my company. I smiled to myself and agreed with her, "I also enjoy spending time with you, Abbey."

Abbey hummed still looking outside the windows. "My brother got fired, didn't he?"

"…Yes, he did…"

Mike and I only exchanged a few words when I arrived back. He was fired, of course he was or he'd be in prison for what he did. He was probably going to celebrate later that he would no longer have to see my face at work. The guy has his problems but always finds time to argue of talk about me.

I feel for Abbey especially since she has no other female figure to talk about and have to stand and listen to her brother being annoying most of the time.

"Hey! You lose your brain there for a second?" Mike questioned which earned him a shove from his sister.

"(Y/N) thank you for picking me up from school and taking care of my dumb brother." Abbey said being the only polite and rational one out of the pair.

I smiled and patted her short hair. "Anytime Abbey. Maybe we can have a small girls night sometime." I suggest which made her smile a bit.

"You'll only end up corrupting her." Mike said playing with the car keys in his hands.

"Mike." Abbey said making him look down at her with his brown eyes.

He rolled his eyes and shrugged a bit. "Thanks for looking after my sister…well see you never." He said taking his sister's hand and beginning to leave.

How rude. If he weren't cute I definitely would've thrown him again into the water fountain..wait..what am I even saying?! Forget this, I've lost about half an hour of work time because of doing the guy a favor.

I huff to myself watching Mike and Abbey leave the mall for good. I turn around and headed to my work but the moment I arrived, I spotted Tom coworker and my boss looking at me with a face that said it all.

"You're fired."

"Let's hear a round of applause for the birthday girl!"

The lights changed and was now shining across the stage with cheery music playing as background while kids cheered when the pizzerias mascots made an appearance.

The pizzerias staff began to clap along when they began to sing 'happy birthday ' to me. My entire class was invited to my party.

My uncle was the one who invited them over since he knew I didn't have that too many friends, and he wanted me to get in with the right crowd. He knew that I was in a group of kids who would often bully others, I did it so I wouldn't be alone or be the one getting bullied.

I definitely chose the wrong crowd back then, all because I didn't want to be lonely…

My aunt and uncle raised me as their own since I could remember. They treated me like their own kid since they could never have any. They liked to throw these types of parties and invite everyone they knew.

Both of them were always fond and always liked to help financially to one of my classmates, that one being Mike Schmidt. He was kinda of a shy kid, and wasn't that fond at making an appearance at a birthday party without a present to give.

My uncle and aunt didn't mind that he didn't have the money, they still convinced the small kid to come and have a good time. Mike didn't want to leave his very little sister behind so my aunt would be carrying her everywhere.

I watched with glee as my favorite animatronic made his way towards me. I got up on my seat and smiled wide as I watched Bonnie come in with a colorful and big cake in his hands. One of the staff from the place approached and grabbed the cake placing in front of me, the cake seemed delicious with it's different colored candles.

I hugged onto my stuffed Bonnie plush as I wrapped one arm around the animatronic and felt one of its large paws patting my head.

I stared at the worn down building ahead of me as my hands were kept on my bike. 'Freddy's Pizzeria' read a sign just outside. The guy in charge must be inside or late to our meeting, as soon as they fired me from my job at the mall was when I decided to call this place up.

I'm a night owl after all so this'll be a piece of cake. All I gotta see is how much is the paycheck and I'll make sure to be the best security guard.

Maybe I'll be the only one around and have a nice time inside, remember those fond memories of the times I would come to this place and love following around the animatronics.

I knocked on the door a couple of more times waiting until someone would show up. The door slowly opened and I came face to face with an older looking man with large glasses.

"You're (Y/N) (L/N), correct?"

"Yes, sir. It's nice to finally meet you in person." I smiled trying to be as nice as I can.

"Pleasure is all mine…Please come inside." He said when he spotted the weather was beginning to change.

It was getting a bit chilly and the clouds were turning grey, about to rain a bit probably later. "You got here rather early."

"Yeah. The most important thing about a job is getting early." I chuckle beginning to follow the man not that far behind, but still remaining close to the entrance. "I do live a bit far from here but it's no trouble."

The man stopped and turned to face me. "You own a car?" He questioned and I knew I would be screwed if I said No.

"W-Well I don't..but I'm willing to come out here at any hour."

As soon as he was about to say something else, another knock was heard from the other side of the door. The man gave me a quick look and walked past me to open the door once again, I was surprised when I saw I wasn't the only one here.

Mike Schmidt had also applied for the job…

"No fucking way." Both Mike and I said looking at each other and wanting to strangle each other.

[mookymilksims]

ULTIMATE Realistic Functional Shops Mods in The Sims 3 | Guide and Tutorial

Hey, everyone! Back again with another in depth tutorial. From my poll, a Functional shops guide was second popular to Family Gameplay.

This guide isn't going to be as long, hopefully! And we don't really have many mods, at least nowhere near as many for the other guides I've done. This guide is pretty simple, and I'll show you in the video how to get everything set up. I picked the systems that are the easiest to set up, it's a combination of other simmer's processes, with my own tweaks for added convenience. I mainly focus on Aesthetic and Functionality, as nothing should take away from your immersion in game. So I feel like I've done my best to come up with these easier systems. I've been playing like this for years so I'm super excited to show you all how to make literally any shop functional in the sims 3!

So what I'm going to offer are many ideas to maintain the consistency and look of your lot without losing functionality of that lot.

We are going to try and keep this guide simple and to the point. This guide will include:

Store objects and how to install them.

Modded Objects - For functional stores and Fashion stores.

How to set up Functional grocery stores.

How to set up functional stores in general, minus Fashion stores.

How to Set up functional Fashion stores.

Fashion Lots you'll want to make.

How to combine the Fashion stores with Consort Dress Code mod.

Miscellanous functional mod objects and cc sets you can buy for your stores.

Store Objects and How to install them:

The first thing we are going to need are the actual store objects. I recommend getting all of them from here.

I also use these few ones from Blam's EA Store.

Chocolate fountain

Pet shop

Then you want to get these store fixes here.

I'm going to show you how to install them it is super easy.

All the store objects should go into your mods folder.

I recommend merging everything and backing up the individual files on another drive.

All store mods should also go in your mods folder.

This is your Overrides folder if you're not using CCmagic.

If you are using CCmagic then this is your Packages folder.

Now copy the CCmerged file from your mods folder and paste that file in your Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > DCBackup folder.

Never remove it.

This is where the data for the store objects are stored, without them your game will throw you a lot of errors when attempting to use those store objects.

That's it!

Now we can move on to the fun mods that change your game in powerful ways.

Modded Objects for Functional Stores and Fashion Stores

Ani's Savvier Seller - This is what you will use for 95% of functional stores in your game.

Ani's ITF Stands - This is what you will use for the remaining 5% of functional stores, to be able to shop for new outfits.

Ani's Shop for clothes (MUST Have either this mod or ITF stands, cannot have both) - This is an alternative option for those who do not have ITF. You cannot have both in your game.

Ani's Ration Box - For our functional Grocery stores. This mod adds a scripted object where when placed in your inventory and opened, 10 random ingredients will be placed in your inventory and the donation box will disappear. This mod is also working with custom ingredients as well. So you will always get a random assortment of items. The items are cheap in game so you can buy multiple in one shopping trip and get a random assortment of 100+ ingredients in your inventory.

Kwimi's Ration Box Overrides - Download this is you want to use EVERYTHING in the ATS3 Grocery set.

My edit to Kwimi's overrides - Download this is you want my edit of Kwimi's overrides. I hid all of the single objects from the ATS3 set, as it wouldn't make sense to put them in my builds. You can ONLY have either my edit or Kwimi's overrides, pick one or the other.

My collection file for functional shops mods - Download this if you want to be able to find all of the modded objects we will be discussing in this guide, including the bulk objects from ATS3 grocery store.

ATS3 Grocery store set - If you download the full set, then get Kwimi's overrides. If you only download the bulk objects (x3, x4, etc) then get my edit of Kwimi's overrides. https://aroundthesims3.com/objects/room_downtown_24.shtml https://aroundthesims3.com/objects/room_downtown_25.shtml

ATS3 Savvier Seller Sets - You can download whatever you want from these sets.

Consort Dress Code Mod - For more dynamic attire in town. https://modthesims.info/d/477049/dresscode-by-consort.html

Transmogrifier - Allows you to copy the script (function) of an object and paste it onto another object.

How to Set-Up Functional Grocery Stores

First, I have to show you how to set up Savvier seller in general. It works the same as Savvy Seller store content, so this won't be a huge learning curve for you guys!

Place down a savvier seller surface on a community lot. This should be a lot sims will want to visit so you can call this a hangout lot.

Then a counter with a savvier seller register.

Now place an object on the SS surface.

Now leave Build/Buy mode, and stay in Paused mode.

Now you ctrl-shift click the SS register, name it w/e you'd like.

Now ctrl-shift click the SS surface and link it to the register that you just named.

Then enable restock from inventory and restock from buy mode.

This allows all objects you place on the surface to be restocked from the build/buy mode catalogue. This still works when you hide the objects from the catalogue as well.

You can now set the open and close times, mark up or down prices, employee, owner, etc.

You do not have to set an owner. You can make a random townie the owner, or yourself if you want to own your own functional store. The money will go into your sims inventory after every purchase. We will get more into that later.

NOTE: That NRAAS register won't assign a sim to these registers, which means you have to manually pick one. This can cause issues if you don't want a townie to use it. So I recommend creating a household of 8 savvier seller YA sims, you don't need 8 stores in your game, but this makes it really easy to find those sims when manning the stations, without sacrificing townies you actually want to interact with and see around town. Just make their last names Savvy, for convenience.

The savvier seller mod alone makes basically everything in your game buyable.

Flower shops, Weed shops, Arcades with functional prizes, Museum gift shops, Art stores, Furniture stores, Candy Stores, a new kind of bakery (that sells custom food cupcakes, etc instead)!

When I say everything I mean everything!

So now that you've got your new functional shop systems installed, and you know how to generally set it up, I'm going to show you how to make a functional Grocery store.

I used to go into the RH buy everything from the store, and individually set them up one by one on shelves, make the inventory items restoackable from the inventory then start shopping.

This was such a long process, and also broke my immersion because I did not want to see a peice of shrimp on a random shelf in a grocery aisle!

So with Kwimi's genius idea, she created overrides for ATS3 grocery store items. To be used along side Ani's Ration box mod.

This mod gives you a random selection of 10 ingredients in game, whenever you open it, you'll get a random assortment. This mod is compatible with custom ingredients as well!

So now, I can set up these items on grocery shelves, which looks more realistic for my build, and actually add ingredients to my sims inventory, whenever I choose to open the boxes.

In the video I also show you that I transmogrify the savvier seller ATS3 shelves into the Flirtyghoul shelves converted by Martasimbook, and it worked.

However, as Kwimi noted herself, us simmers still like to shop for specific items instead of randomly hoping for the right ingredient without entering the RH.

I'm going to try to alleviate this issue.

Start with creating a Deli section, for just the meats.

A seafood section, for just the fish.

Then use the Store fruit and veggie stand object for the produce section.

Now you can place all the meats you can buy from the Grocery RH on the SS surfaces in the meat section. Do the same for the seafood section.

You don't need to do any set up for the produce stands. The object will randomly refill it's own inventory every day with new produce options!

Now, whatever else you miss you can just buy the remainder from the RH itself.

Personally, I like shopping for things at random, I don't necassarily want that to be user directed, unless there is a special event, like Thanksgiving, so I have to buy a roast.

I like to imagine that everything isn't going to be available to me with the donations boxes and produce stand because it's sold out or not in season, etc.

I also like to imagine that my sim is shopping for what THEY want specifically, just like the townies are, without it being user directed.

NOTE: Combined with my ULTIMATE Realistic Food overhaul, there are still hundreds if not thousands of recipes I can put together in game with the ingredients that are randomly bought.

However, I can still specifically shop for certain meats and seafood which is what I'll more than likely want for most of the custom recipes I put together in game.

Although, with the meshes it's implied the ingredient was in the food, so you don't actually need them.

So this makes grocery stores so much more fun and less stressful to set up in game. It's a way less tedious process.

The result leaves the lot itself looking very realistic, so I don't have to sacrifice Aesthetic for functionality.

Which is what I really care about.

The best part is you can make pantries actually functional in your sim's home. By placing what you bought on the shelves, as the ingredients won't go bad until AFTER you open the box and the food is placed in your inventory.

You can also add custom snacks and foods to a storage unit in the pantry as well and take out whatever your sim wants to eat in between meals for that day. Try finding a close pantry object, and transmogrifying it into a storage chest from WA. You should now be able to click on the pantry to place or remove custom food you've bought out and about!

How to set up Functional Stores in General

All links will be at the end of the Guide with the Misc Script objects & cc sets section!

Now I will tell you how to go about other kinds of Functional shops in game.

For flower shops, I want to recommend the flower arranging mod. You can set up savvier seller with the bouqets you make, as well as cc plants. So if you want to own a flower shop, you actually have something pretty interactive to do during the day while your customers shop.

For furniture stores, you mainly want to focus on the Savvier Seller rugs and shelves. Shelves for misc decor, and rugs for furniture like couches, beds, kitchen sets, etc.

However, it's important to note that when you have a lot of cc, this option isn't exactly reasonable, so I typically like to set up

bed and mattress stores

vase and decor stores

children furniture stores

Appliance stores

This is much more manageable if you're like me and have a lot of cc. It makes shopping a lot more fluid for being able to actually put those products in my home from the buy mode family inventory (which is where all objects that can't go into your inventory will go).

Everything else that I get from the catalogue or collection folder's can be tossed in as something I ordered online.

Pro tip: Consider using StudioPap's moving boxes in the room until you actually put the room together. I always use them when moving in or out, and changing a room around like a sim aging up and needing a more mature room. You could also use savvier seller to immersively sell what you're not going to use anymore in a yard sale. Alternatively, moving all items you want to sell to your family invetory then using NRAAS Consigner selling them at a consignment register! The yard sale can be set up in a big park instead of your home lot for convenience. I love seeing the boxes and re-decorating that part of the room. It adds a very dynamic roleplay feature to my gameplay!

For Electronics stores, with Arsils custom phones and backpacks, you can actually replace the cellphone you are using by following the guide in game. Use the ATS3 purse set alongside the mod for more functional cell phones to buy!

So when buying cellphones at something like an Apple store this can actually be functional. You can also set up more computers, laptops, TV's, and the store object ipad as well.

For specific niche stores, consider the Sewing and knitting mod, with the patch version for both to work in game. You can set up a really pretty etsy shop, and just like with the flower shop, you can actually work at the store location and have an active career. Showing some love to our small business simmers out there!

For functional book stores, instead of the rh, just buy the books from the RH and place them on savvier seller surfaces. To get the best look I use this table for it, and a pile of books using OMSP, to make it look like your sim is randomly selecting a book from the pile.

For weed shops, you can now use the buds that come with MD Vile ventures mod, and set them up on savvier seller surfaces to sell them like that instead.

For beach shops you can use Arsil's sunglasses, and Ani's ITF stands for custom bikini's. TS spray tan and sunscreen mod.

For food stores, like bakeries and coffeeshops, you can use custom food from various places and ATS3 custom drinks, specifically the coffee's and energy drinks. Just set them up on savvier seller shelves and enjoy.

You can even make much more specific shops as well, like smoothie shops, sandwhich shops.

Liqour stores using Dina Dine and ATS3 liqour sets.

Tea shops, with ATS3 and Ani's tea sets. Don't forget the store tea set, and modded tea set without the table!

Toy stores, using various cc toys, and fidget spinner. Olomaya crayons, puzzles and coloring books.

For Makeup stores, consider Arsil's Lipstick mod, (you can also put this in a fashion store).You can also use PJ's Deodarant mod in these stores. And cc functional perfumes (must have glass blowing store object, but if you've been following this guide then you already have it).

For car dealerships, add the savvier seller car spot object and set up as many cars as you'd like to buy from. I like making at least 2 car shops. 1 is an expensive car dealership. Another is a junkyard where you can buy the cheaper cars.

For Bike Shops, this can be actual bikes and/or mopeds and motorcycles. Just place them on a savvier seller rug and recolor it to your liking.

Pro-tip: You can also make a semi-functional car mechanic shop by Transmogrifying the fixer upper car into the current car you own either on the car mechanic lot or on your home lot. Then binding a custom car mechanic career to the EA science career so they will actually interact with the car on that lot.

Some more items you can add to Grocery stores, PJ Bubble Bath, PJ card stand, PJ pet bowl, Olomaya's smoking mod for the cigarrette's and vape.

For Pet stores, you can add PJ pet bowl items, and various pet toys and furniture that came in pets.

I don't typically place the Graham's pet shop register on these lots, I'll use a pet pantry for those, with deco animals in their crates to simulate where you'd actually be getting the animals from.

For Art supply stores, Consider PJ painting supplies, Lyralei journal, Zoeoe's scribbling pad fixed, cc art easels, UNI sketchbook, street art kits, crayons from Olomaya and Arsil. And the drafting tables that came with Ambitions.

For Music Stores, Consider the ATS3 music store set, and selling actual instruments.

For the Movie theater, Consider selling custom snacks. Adding the store popcorn machine. Selling action figure dolls to buy after viewing the movie. And a claw machine, to win prizes for your date!

For Sex Shops, consider adding passion condoms, and sex toys that come with the mod. I also include deco vibrators and dildo's, fleshlights, etc, as something you can buy from savvier seller, they aren't functional but they imply things. The passion mod altogether makes this implied action functional, so it works out fine.

For convenience stores, to make them more functional you can add the petrol system mod gas stations, and refill your gas at these stores, you can also sell Arsils bag of chips and these variations, and arsil's gum. With various custom snacks and foods to eat.

You can make asian themed convenience stores as well.

For Sports Shops, this is completely seperate from the Gym lot. Consider TS Yoga mats, Olomaya's Get pumped items, The chin-up bar from showtime. Arsil's excercise bike. Treadmill. Strength training. The various basegame throwable items like the football, more items from this ATS3 set. And the punching bags with the same WA martial arts object script. Also, sell olomaya's healthy snacks on this lot as well, these items boost your workout routines.

And well, you get the gist! You can virtually make any store idea you have in game functional. You could even transmogrify cc surfaces from savvier seller surfaces in game instead for a much more cohesive look to your build. Keep in mind, this may not always work, but for the most part it does, just wanted to throw that disclaimer out there!

How to Set up Functional Fashion stores

But what about fashion stores? How do we make those functional?

Using Ani's ITF stands.

These add very intuitive ITF stands to your game where you and townies (when changing the xml settings) can shop from.

NOTE: You do need ITF for this to work, however, if you don't have ITF, Ani's shop for clothes mod will do just the trick. It's not as extensive as the ITF stands, but you'll still be able to shop for new outfits on community lots. I also believe the Shop for clothes mod is compatible with NRAAS Dresser, but the ITF stands mod is not.

This is because the ITF stands mod replaces the plan outfit interaction from the dressers in game which breaks some key components of NRAAS Dresser. With both mods installed I also wasn't able to save my new outfits, either. So learn from my mistakes.

The ITF stands mod increases the amount of outfits you can have per category, which was my favorite feature of the NRAAS Dresser mod, so when I read extensively what both mods changed I realized I didn't even need NRAAS Dresser anymore, anyway. So I personally like to give my active household 7 everyday outfits. I just change their outfit using the dresser in the morning before they leave the house.

You can open up Ani's ITF stands mod using S3PE, right click the xml file, open it up in notepad, and set autonomy to true, then save. So now townies will autonomously shop for new outfits in your game. This isn't as intrusive as you think. In my game, they will replace their outfits. I also notice that when they are shopping from a pedestal the same age and gender as them they will wear the custom outfit I set for that mannequin. So it's a fun way to auto style your town without having to individually change all the townies outfits yourself, sometimes I still will do this, but I catch the townies that haven't shopped for clothes by themselves yet, so it cuts down this work for me by a lot!

Performance tip: So I want to tell you guys a pro-tip that I figured out in my own playtest of the fashion stores. I tried to set up custom outfits for every age and gender in a store and my game consistently crashed everytime I tried to go back in game and continue the build.

This is because all of those cc outfits for all genders and ages overloaded the lot.

But I was able to make stores for the elderly, both genders, without crashing. A store for YA and Adult men. Same for YA and Adult Women. A store for Teens, sometimes I make two stores for both genders or split one store up with both genders. A store for kids, both genders.

This allowed me to add at least 8-10 ITF stands with custom cc outfits on each of these lots without crashing. This also led me to more optimized lots as since I'm only focusing on one specific theme and age group, the lot could be a lot smaller. One day I might do speedbuilds on this and upload it to the community.

Alternatively, if you want to add all the age groups and genders on one lot, consider only adding one of each, the best theme for this build would be a thrift store, which I've made several times in game myself without crashing.

Fashion Lots you'll want to make (I keep these around 20 x 20 lot size, they can fit basically anywhere in my worlds with very little issues): Just set these lots as visitors allowed. It'll push all kinds of sims to these lots randomly through out the day.

It's important to note that I won't create fashion stores for every age and every gender, for every outfit category. I mainly focus on the outfits and age groups that would bother me the most. I revamp all of my households before starting my gameplay, so I've given everyone in my world a default cc outfit to start with. The attire for ages I don't create lots for either wouldn't bother me at all if it were missing, or the age group is more manageable in the world population where I can change their attire right then and there on the spot. My CAS runs pretty fast considering how much CAS cc I have so I don't mind this process at all.

Everyday Wear: You can make 4 outfits each of the either the age groups or genders without crashing on the lot for everyday wear.

A store for the elderly, both genders. 4 men, 4 women.

A store for the men, YA-A. 4 YA, 4 A.

A store for the women, YA-A.

A store for teens. You can either make one for each gender, which makes 2 stores and 8 outfits. Or 1 store for teens in general, 4 female teen and 4 male teen outfits.

A store for kids, both genders or 2 stores for each gender.

Athletic Wear:

Sports shop. YA-A, both genders, 2 each. I'll put these on the same lots where I sell all the scripted objects.

The other ages don't bother me.

Sleepwear:

A store for the elderly and kids, both genders. 2 outfits for Elderly Female, 2 for male. 2 for female kids, 2 for male.

A loungerie store, Victoria's secret. For female YA-A.

A Nike or sneaker store. For male YA-A.

Other ages don't bother me.

Formal Wear:

A wedding store. For male and female YA-A, 2 each.

Other ages don't bother me.

Swimwear:

Beach shops. YA-A, both genders, 2 each.

Kid's Beach shops. Both genders, 2 each. I also include functional pool floats to this store for more fun.

Other ages don't bother me.

Outerwear: will typically only get it's own fashion store for vacation worlds. I love creating themed outfits to the mannequins for vacation worlds. I'll show you how I do this in the next section.

How to combine the Fashion stores with Consort Dress Code mod

Once you enable the autonomous interaction in the xml's of Ani's mod, townies will autonomously buy outfits from the mannequins. The townies will replace their ONE and only outfit in that category.

They will not create more outfits like you the player would. This is great news for optimization as too many outfits for each category on every sim in the world would create lag, and it wouldn't even be neccassary since townies can't autonomously change their outfit numbers for each category, anyway (NRAAS Dresser does this but it caused lag, that's how I know).

So, when they do shop for that outfit on the mannequin, it's only going to be one outfit and you will see them in that outfit for the rest of the savefile or until they shop from another mannequin with a different outfit.

This is where I use the seasonal lot marker to my advantage.

I place down the ITF stands for every season, I DO NOT place the stands down on the default setting, the objects will obviously conflict.

This means all I have to do is create seasonal outfits on the mannequins each new season, and within a couple of sim days you'll start to see random townies walking around with these outfits on.

This is why breaking the fashion stores down by gender and age really matters.

As, the townies will be wearing a bunch of different cc outfits you set up in the store instead of, for example, all elderly women wearing the same exact outfit.

Because I also use the Consort dress code mod, I need to leave some slots open to get the most out of my roleplay.

The dress code mod will automatically change the sims outfits to the outfit number for the category, but you will have to set that outfit up.

It's a pretty lightweight script, you shouldn't feel it in your performance, assuming you've optimized your game altogether.

Basic outfit numbers by Category:

Everyday Wear: 7 outfits (Mon-Sun), Townies get 1.

Athletic wear: 2 outfits (basic workout, ballerina/dancer), Townies get 2 (if they enter lot with dress code script).

Sleepwear: 2 outfits (Basic pajamas, towel set, sometimes a 3rd one for sexy loungerie), Townies get 2 (if dress code script is present).

Formal Wear: 2 outfits ( Fancy event, Party outfit), Townies get 2 (if they enter lot with dress code script).

Swimwear: 1 outfit, Townies get 1 outfit. I just change the bathing suit after 1 sim year if I get bored of seeing it.

Outerwear: 3 outfits (Winter, Summer/Spring, Fall), Townies get 3 (if dress code is present).

Career wear: 2 (work and school if present), Townies get 2, 1 is their actual work outfit and the second is if I need it for something like school.

Consort Dress Code mod rules I follow:

Whenever I place the dress code script on a lot I stick to these rules to get the most cohersive experience.

Career attire outfit #2 For teens and Kids is their school uniform if I set that up.

Athletic attire outfit #3 For teens and Kids is their school workout uniform if I set that up.

(This is why I left Athletic attire slot 3 open above)

Protip: You can use MC to copy the outfits for every sim the same gender and age as the sim you selected to speed this process up for schools!

Athletic Attire Outfit #2 For YA+ for dance studio's.

Formal attire outfit #1 For Adults in their banquet, fancy restaraunt attire.

Formal attire outfit #2 For Adults in their party outfit for dance clubs.

Formal attire outfit #3 For everyone, this is for funerals. I throw a general party in formal attire on an open graveyard RH lot with the dress code script on it. This is why I leave this outfit slot open.

Sleepwear attire Outfit #2 For everyone, using ATS3 towel set. I will also set these up in my residential bathrooms.

So this is how I optimized it altogether which gave me more dynamic variety with NPC's changing their looks.

Now let's talk about outerwear for Vacation worlds.

Camping world fashion store, Outerwear slot 2

Beach town Fashion store, Outerwear Slot 2

Snow world Fashion Store, Outerwear slot 1

France or Monte Vista, romantic get away kind of worlds, Outerwear Slot 3.

I leave these as the outerwear outfit slots because it's more manageable and easy to change since I only use 3 outfits in this category.

That way I won't ruin the everyday wear I've already set up for my active sims when they return back home, and I can easily change their outerwear again since it's only 3 outfits.

I can also switch up between the outerwear and everyday outfits when I'm out with my sims. My months last 28 days in game, but I will turn off aging and seasons to extend that season for an extra month or 2. So by the time the new season comes around, I'm excited and ready to go shopping for my sims new season wardrobe!

I also will use the consort dress code mod on many of the community lots in those vacation worlds so that all townies will typically look the part. Most of the time this won't be necassary as I have again already revamped those townies to fit the aethstic of the world.

I set these up on community lots like coffee houses, dive bars, shopping strips, movie theater, etc. It just gives me another way to see my townies in different outfits. You can also do this in Homeworld.

The only vacation worlds I won't have to do this are the snow worlds, christmas themed worlds, as townies will autonously change into their snow attire when outside anyway.

So, instead I make sure my townies are wearing winter themed outfits for the inside of community lots to make sure the whole aesthetic fits together.

Miscellanious Script OBJS & CC sets

Functional scripted objs that were recommended in this tutorial:

Fidget spinner

PJ Deodarant

PJ Bubble bath

PJ Card stands

PJ Painting supplies

PJ Pet Bowls

TS Spray tan

TS sunscreen

TS Yoga Mats

Olomaya's activity table

Olomaya's Coloring Book

Olomaya smoking mod

Olomaya Get pumped

Olomaya Family snacks

Passion mod condoms and strap-ons (On LL needs registration and I can't link it since I have hate watchers. Sorry!)

Flower Arranging Mod

Knitting

Sewing (don't forget the patch)

Arsils custom phones and backpacks

arsil's lipstick

arsil's sunglasses

MD Vile Ventures (Can't link it, I have hate watchers, sorry!)

Ani's Tea mod

Tea Set without table

Lyrlei Journal

Zoeoe Scribbling pad fix

Petrol Station

Arsil's Gum

Arsil's Bag of chips and variations.

CC Sets that were recommended in this Tutorial:

cc Perfume

Moving Day boxes

ATS3 Custom Drinks

DD sandwhiches

DD Beer

ATS3 functional liqour bottles

ATS3 Tea sets

More Functional Toys

ATS3 Music Store set

Asian Themed Conveniene store set

ATS3 Produce Set

Functional cc gas stations for the Petrol Mod

ATS3 Towel Set

ATS3 Sports set

Punching Bag

ATS3 What's in my bag.

[brittle-doughie]

Let’s Get Rolling! | Looking into the Lights, Camera, Action! Event for CROB!

So the movie nerd, Popcorn Cookie, isn’t going to the Chocolate Factory with that golden ticket, but to see the filming site for what Butter Squid Cookie has got cooking up.

Only issue is that the actress is unable to make it to the set, leaving the stunt double, Choco Bar Cookie, to get the lead role! So for the event itself, it’s essentially the exact same event we’ve had for the last few updates, get and do favors as well as combine items for hard mode.

So the special draw event returns from the Wish Camp update, except this time there’s also a surprise exchange shop that allows you to get outfits or designs that you missed in past updates!

Choco Bar Cookie herself is pretty cute, would definitely add her to my wife collection and if her base design isn’t sitting well with you, hopefully her skin more then makes up for it because oh my lord-

Shine Muscat, Habanero, and Blue Slushy Cookie also get skins too. With Popcorn Cookie getting a fabulous skin in part 2!

Buttercream Choco Cookie has finally returned by the Buddy event! Bring your buddies to play the mode to obtain him!

In the Romance stage, who is this lady we’re chasing and how did I get the devs to put her in my game. In the Zombie stage, we meet some familiar walkers, where have I seen them before…?

Overall, they were not lying when they said that this would help a substantial update, there are so many things to look forward to that it might leave you overwhelmed! MicMac has addressed the event repetition in the official discord, hopefully, we can see a return to varied event modes some day.

———————————————————————

Busy chasing your co-star through the stage, following after the one you love was the pinnacle of romantic excitement in the eyes of Butter Squid Cookie!

“Come follow, my love! Have a little encouragement from me!”

She blew you a kiss in the form of a small heart that floated towards you. You went to get it promptly, feeling more encouraged to follow your heart that had your co-star in it! (In the premise of the movie of course)

Butter Squid Cookie was pleased with the results he was seeing so far, such warm love between two cookies that was sure to bring a tear to the eyes of audiences! He had to give you credit, for someone unfamiliar with acting, you were a natural!

But now time for the big moment! You were now supposed to catch your co-star and give each other the declaration of love and then a kiss!

Choco Bar Cookie got a little nervous with that plan, was it really necessary? The kiss part? Why not just a hug, you know? That would get the message across just fine. There was no need to be all theatrical all the time, you know?

Butter Squid saw her suggestion as nonsense, a kiss was the only way to execute the romantic tension flawlessly!

You told your co-star that she made your heart flutter, that no other cookie made you feel this way, that you wanted to spend your life with her.

Your co-star blushed heavily from your words, that was some pretty good on command blushing!

“Oh, my Y/N Cookie! My heart can’t stand being apart from you either! Please, let me be the cookie you love now and forever!”

The two of you leaned in, getting closer and closer, you see her eyes twinkle as she closed them, readying her lips as you did the same…

Before a director chair is thrown between you two!

Scaring you both faraway from each other. Butter Squid looked at Choco Bar with shock as she breathed heavy, having just thrown that chair a second ago.

“Sorry. My hands slipped.”

[bekkathyst]

New Shipping Policies / Announcements

This post is going to explain our new procedures for shipping as well as some other announcements! This will apply to both Tumblr sales and the online store.

Shipping Costs: As I've been explaining during the last week or two, we are no longer able to offer free shipping. To avoid having to close our shop for good, we will now be replacing the free shipping we used to offer with a discounted shipping rate. It costs us 25€ (~$27) to send an average-sized parcel to the US, but we will charge a reduced price of $15 per package. In the future, if you order a particularly large amount of items at once from the online store, shipping may be around $20 instead, but that is for extra large items/high quantities only.

EXCEPTIONS: If you have an open box that was started before these changes took place, this will not apply to that box. That box will follow the old rules (free shipping after $60) but, of course, if you are willing/able to pay for shipping, we deeply appreciate it. Any box opened after today will have to follow the new rules.

Open Box System: To get the most for the shipping cost, you may choose to order/pay for items from one sale and ask us to hold them here. That way you can wait until you purchase more from future sales to make the shipping price more worth it for you. You will only pay shipping once, just make sure to let me know you want to keep your box open. Once you're ready, just ask us to ship and we'll combine all your orders into one box to send out to you!

Crystal Sales Moving Forward: I am aiming to have one large crystal sale per month, from now onward. I will announce and start previewing sales about a week beforehand, and I hope to keep to a more regular schedule from now on. I am also going to focus on having these themed sales! And I will most likely be able to offer the personal shopping/mystery boxes from the gem shows like I did last year.

Jewelry: I aim to have a new jewelry collection every two months or so. There will be some other offerings in between, but we will just see what works out! Any jewelry purchase can be combined with crystal sales for open boxes. My next jewelry collection (the BG3 inspired collection) is likely to be released at the end of March!

I just want to keep you all updated so you know what to expect and you can better decide if you want to keep an open box or not. I would also love to take any requests for future crystal sales or even themes you'd like me to try to organize!

Any questions? Please ask away! I am happy to answer.

All in all, if today goes well, we will hopefully be able to come back stronger and build a system that works much better for us than the previous one. I have faith in our little shop :)

Thank you all so much!

[wromwood]

I went to NYCC this weekend for two days: Thursday and Friday. It was a fun time, and I'm so glad I went, but I thought I'd share my negative experiences from the reason why I went on Thursday, and how it could've easily become a con-ruiner if there weren't a few silver linings.

Click on the Read More if you want to hear about the Alex Hirsch signings and panel, and how NYCC made the events near-total disasters.

Warning: This story is long, but that's because its poor handling can't be condensed to a bite-sized retelling.

So, I wasn't always planning on attending NYCC on Thursday. Since all the Saturday and 4-day passes sell out before the general public even has a chance to buy them, I swooped for what I assumed was the next best day: Friday. One-day tickets are about $80 each, and once you combine those costs with both my potential cosplay and exhibit hall/artist alley shopping expenses, you can see why I wasn't originally planning to go for another day.

However, near the beginning of October, NYCC made a last minute announcement that Alex Hirsch would be at NYCC on Thursday and Friday. He would have signings on Thursday and Friday, and a panel on Thursday evening. I've never seen Alex Hirsch in person before, so this (and an NYCC-based costume contest held by Hirsch and announced only a few days after the main event announcements) was enough to make me buy an additional Thursday ticket.

Now, before I explain what happened during Hirsch's NYCC events, I want to clearly establish what information fans knew about them beforehand:

Every event involved Alex Hirsch, Joe Pitt, and Ian Worrel.

The signings were specifically for The Book of Bill. You had to have a copy of The Book of Bill to get a spot in the signing, which you could either bring yourself or purchase from the Barnes & Noble booth that would be set up nearby. You could also bring one additional item for signing.

Both signings were free and first come, first serve. They did not require any sort of prior purchase or reservation.

The panel on Thursday evening also did not require any sort of extra ticket purchase or reservation. (Reservations are only available to Empire or Main Stage panels; the Alex Hirsch panel was in one of the 400-level rooms.)

If you're thinking that this seems like too little information for something that could easily get chaotic in the wrong hands, then great! That's what I thought myself when I examined every event listing for any scrap of detail with which to prepare myself. Alex Hirsch is the creator of one of the most beloved modern Disney cartoons, and his fanbase had only increased and been given new life after the publication of his new book. And yet there was no way to reserve a spot in his two signings? I only hoped that NYCC knew what they were doing.

Thursday arrived, and so did I at the Javits Center in my Bipper cosplay. I arrived at around 11:30 AM, and the Thursday signing was at 3 PM, so I spent a couple of hours walking around the show floor, buying expensive One Piece merch, and taking pictures with the Duolingo owl. I headed down to line up for the signing at 2 PM, thinking that being there an hour in advance would be enough to secure a spot.

... No, it wasn't.

I arrived at Hall 1A to an in-progress mob of Gravity Falls cosplayers. There were Bills, Dippers, Mabels, Fords, and Grunkle Stans as far as the eye can see, and nearly everyone was holding copies of The Book of Bill. I spotted an AMAZING cosplayer who was dressed as a member of the Church of Ciphertology and holding up a huge foam puppet of Bill. The puppet had ropes connecting its arms with hers so that it looked like she was being puppeted by it. She had been standing by the wall outside the hall, but was now moving into it, and I followed her raised Bill puppet like a guiding beacon.

I was soon in the middle of a sea of costumed people. There wasn't even a semblance of a line here, at least not this far back. Fortunately, we were mostly all nice and united in our love for Gravity Falls, so I didn't experience any pushing or shoving. In fact, I even struck up a lovely conversation with the people in front of me.

Unfortunately, all of us were united in another experience: we had all been caught off-guard at how disastrous this event was turning out.

Most of us had followed the same plan that I had developed: arrive an hour early to get a spot in line. Some of us had been more careful. I later learned from the Ciphertology disciple that she had arrived closer to noon, but had been warned by security that she couldn't actually line up for this event. Lining up would only occur an hour before the signing, at 2 PM. That was why she had been next to the wall when I arrived. She had more right to be at the front than I did, and yet she was only a few feet ahead of me when we entered the mob.

While I didn't interview many other attendees, we quickly formed the hypothesis that this "no lining up before 2 PM" rule was why the mob had formed. Everyone - both the people who had arrived earlier and the newcomers who thought 1 hour was "early" - had rushed to form a line that the NYCC crew members just couldn't create.

We waited there for about 15-20 minutes. Occasionally, a crew member yelled for us to take a big step back (only some of the mob complied) and sometimes we were asked to all raise our copies of The Book of Bill in the air (for a photo? to check who was eligible for the signing? I'm still unsure).

Finally, at around 2:30 PM, we heard a crew member shout, "All right! We've run out of tickets for the signing! The rest of you have to leave!"

This was the wrong phrasing for them to use, because immediately, a number of fans started shouting things along the lines of "What do you MEAN tickets?!" "No one told us we had to have tickets!!!" "How do we get tickets?!"

Because there were only so few NYCC crew members on the floor, the announcement was mostly spread through word of mouth: a number of people at the front of the mob had been given "tickets" (wristbands?) so that they could line up for the signing. They didn't even get close to my part of the mob before they ran out of spots.

I, and so many other people, had to walk away disappointed, hoping that we could at least get into the panel later.

Before I left, I said this to three different NYCC crew members: "Hey, I know that there's another signing tomorrow, and I also have a pass for tomorrow. What should I do so that I don't miss this event?"

Every response I got was a variation on the phrase "I don't know." This is important to remember. I tried my best to learn what to do ahead of time by asking NYCC employees.

Anyway, later that evening was the Alex Hirsch panel at 6:30 PM. After the disappointment from the signing, though, I didn't want to take any chances. After spending an hour for lunch, I headed to the location for the panel at 3:30 PM, 3 hours ahead of time. I saw a NYCC crew member and asked when and where I should wait for the panel to start.

His paraphrased advice: "Listen. There's the room where the panel will be. You take a seat in there now and sit through three panels. That's how you'll have a seat later."

This may sound like cheating, and an unfair thing to do when you consider the people who may actually want to attend the panels before the one you're camping out for, but it wasn't against the rules. Only the Main and Empire stages require the rooms to be turned out for new people between panels. For the other panel rooms, you can camp out in your seat for as long as you want.

So, I followed his advice. I walked to room 406.3 in the middle of a panel about censoring non-fiction comics and found an empty seat.

I was shocked to see just how small the room was. According to the NYCC website, the room can seat about 300 people. That may sound like a lot, until you remember that 1) this is NYCC, which had 200,000 attendees last year, and 2) THIS PANEL IS FOR ALEX HIRSCH. I couldn't help but think of the mob I saw earlier, and just how many of those people wouldn't be able to fit into this room.

When I sat down during the censorship panel, the room was only about half full, and I saw two other Gravity Falls cosplayers already. After that panel, I walked to the front and took a seat in the third row (later, I even managed to move up to the second row, so I had a very good view).

An hour later (about 4:30 PM), the room was almost entirely full with a crowd that was almost entirely Gravity Falls fans. An hour after that (5:30 PM), the room was absolutely full, and we had already gotten word (and pictures) from people on the outside that there was a line of hopeful latecomers stretching around the floor.

One odd memory I have from around this point was when a woman showed up at the front of the room and addressed a bunch of us in general, saying "Hi, I'm from Disney. Are there six seats that I can have?"

All of the people near her (including myself) shot her looks and muttered replies along the lines of "Hell, no." She didn't further explain what she meant or provide any credentials, so I have no idea why she expected to get so many seats at once or what she needed them for.

I'll skip past the rest of the evening, as the panel was largely a nice time after that. I sat next to some really kind, awesome people who were great to talk to and share art with between panels, Alex Hirsch (as well as Joe Pitt and Ian Worrel, of course!) shared great stories, and I got to witness the awesome Ciphertologist cosplayer win a Bill Cipher Ouija board. It was a nice way to make up for missing the signing earlier, and I'm glad I was able to attend.

... and yet, not only did I still feel a sting of guilt about the hundreds of other fans who couldn't attend, but I couldn't stop thinking about something I discussed with the other fans I sat with: even the lucky fans who attended the panel were only able to do so because we spent hours of our con-going experience sitting through panels we wouldn't have otherwise chosen to attend. The panels were interesting in their own right, but that wasn't the point.

It's not cheap to attend NYCC. At around $80 a day (if you didn't buy a 4-day pass), time is money. There could be other panels that pertain to our interests happening during the waiting time. Guests that we might've wanted to get photos or autographs with. An entire show floor to explore. Merch to buy. Many of us only realized that we'd have to wait this long in one room earlier that day. We hadn't properly prepared for the fact that - new friendships and fun between-panel conversations aside - this time was practically wasted.

Don't get me wrong: I'm so happy I managed to attend the panel, and I'm glad I had the time to talk to such lovely people. But this wasn't fair to us as con-goers, and it especially wasn't fair to the con-goers who couldn't get in the signing OR the panel, or who were only able to get a ticket for Thursday and couldn't spend more time doing what they wanted at the convention on another day.

Speaking of the next day: I was determined to get a personalized signing from Alex Hirsch on Friday. That day, the signing started at 1:30 PM. Keeping the "no lining up before an hour ahead" rule in mind, I decided I'd arrive two hours before at 11:30 PM. Not far enough in advance to absolutely antagonize security, but hopefully far enough to scope out the scene and join other fans in making a game-plan for when and how to line up.

I arrived at Hall 1A at 11:30 only to learn that the signing tickets (which were now confirmed to be wristbands) had LONG since run out.

From what I gathered from other fans and NYCC crew members, the convention decided that the first come, first serve model would begin from the moment the convention opened that day (I think 10 AM?). Gravity Falls fans could stop by and get wrist bands for the signing until they ran out, which they did QUICKLY. Apparently, they gave out even fewer spots than on Thursday.

I definitely feel that the issue here wasn't me not thinking of getting there right as the doors opened. The fans were given one set of rules on Thursday, and just as it had been spread through word of mouth, they were changed the next day with basically no notice (apparently, some fans heard more info from staff members, but this was irregular). There was no formal announcement about the new wristband distribution, which meant there was no way for fans to know about this unless they showed up as early as possible, which was established to be a bad thing for the signing just the day before. And this is on top of me asking NYCC employees what I should do to not miss my chance at a signing! Either they changed the rules last minute, or the NYCC workers I spoke to really weren't told a thing by the convention planners.

I, and many other people, were rightfully pissed off to lose our last chance at getting a personalized autograph from Alex Hirsch.

There was one silver lining, though, that kept the day from feeling ruined. The signing was scheduled to go from 1:30-3:00. At 2:30, I decided to head to the signing just to wistfully stare at Alex Hirsch from the Barnes & Noble booth. I had a good view and stared wistfully away next to a few other fans who had hoped (in vain) that extra people could be squeezed in for the signing.

Then, after everyone with wristbands got their books signed and about 5-10 minutes before the signing was totally over, Hirsch, Pitt, and Worrel were handed a couple stacks of The Book of Bill from the Barnes & Noble booth. They quickly signed the stacks, then left.

To our delight, the employees came over to the lingering fans who weren't able to get wristbands and started passing out the copies. So I did end Friday with a signed copy of The Book of Bill! I also got a couple of sticker sheets that were being given out during the signing, which is nice. The waiting around was worth it.

Even so, that doesn't fully make up for just how disastrously the events were handled. This wasn't a case of fans not being in the know about how conventions are run. This was fully caused by NYCC either not knowing or not caring just how big of a crowd Alex Hirsch would draw. They dangled the chance of first come, first serve autographs to hundreds of people without providing the best guidelines on how to obtain them. They reserved a panel room that wasn't nearly large enough and didn't consider the implications of seat-camping. It was a nightmare.

Hopefully, you appreciated my dramatic retelling of these events. The moral of this story is: don't assume that just because NYCC is one of the biggest conventions in the country that it is guaranteed to competently run all of its events. They can mess up.

[dethtallica]

ello... 🤓 i dunno how to do this really, first time requesting a fic... but i would really luv to see something with werewolf james. werewolf james who's a needy freak that can't let go off jason. since james is a werewolf his senses are probably much more intense and he's also quite sensitive, and you can do something with that... if you know what i mean...

combine that with a teasing jason who knows james' sensitive spots.. just think of james being embarrassed, but still very much into whatever jason asks n makes him do. tail wagging whiny needy james is very much welcome... that's probably all, thank yew in advance if you do decide to write something about that. (^.^)

sorry i probably missed some things and i also did not proof read this soooo… My bad!

Like An Animal

1987

CW - aphrodisiac, pet play kind of????, feminization, degradation, werewolf / monster sex

When James was in his werewolf form, there was no stopping him. No stopping him from his obsessive drinking, no stopping him from his horribly annoying growls and whines. But, today’s (and the week’s) problem as it would seem, was James’ inability to leave Jason the fuck alone. 

It seemed like the perfect opportunity for Jason. James, who had lately been annoying him and draining him of all of his semen, was incessant about getting attention at all times. From rubbing his face on Jason like a house cat to scratching at him like a neglected puppy, James was sure to make it known he was needy. A second didn’t go by without the blonde bothering Jason. This is where Jasons’ idea comes in play. 

The bassist presents two items in each of his pale hands. In one palm, a mysterious blue pill. In the other, a collar made for pets with a bell attached to a small metal loop. James, sitting on his disheveled bed with pillows and blankets scattered around, looks at each with a worried expression on his face. His baby blue eyes take their time examining each item as Jason tries to hold back a smile. 

“Get a good look? This is what i’m going to give you. Okay?”

The werewolf remains silent for a moment.  His tail twitches in both excitement and embarrassment. He isn’t entirely sure what the purpose behind this is— but Jason’s a good guy and spoils him most of the time. So it must be okay. James removes his gaze from the items in front of him and looks at the bassist, who’s giving him an unreadable expression. Was it desire? Excitement? 

A gulp, and James nods. 

“What… what is that?”

He points at the small round pill. Jason had bought it at a small sex shop the sunny afternoon yesterday had brought him, and he was grateful for finding such a perfect thing to tease James with. He almost wishes he picked up more things at the shop. That beautiful matte black plug he spotted would’ve looked fucking gorgeous in James, he realizes, and he has to stop himself from imagining more. It’s then he notices he’s been silent for a few moments, which was making the blonde werewolf nervous, and smiles softly before answering his question. 

“It’s an aphrodisiac.”

James looks like he’s going to say something. Jason cuts him off, now excited to explain more. 

“And the collar is what you’ll be wearing for the rest of the day. Bet you noticed it’s got a bell, yeah? It’ll jingle if you move too fast or hard.” Jason explains softly. 

James’ mouth goes dry. Things start to click in his mind, and Jason feels himself involuntarily smile at his puppy’s reaction. 

“You’re gonna take the pill. You’re gonna get really fuckin’ needy, and you are not allowed to touch yourself. After you take that pill, I’ll put this collar on ya. If you try to masturbate while my back is turned, the bell will tell me. And I swear to god, if you disobey me….”

Jason’s words made the werewolf bite his lip and look down. Like he’s nervous, but excited. Like he’s trying to figure out if he wants to be a good boy or if he wants to completely disregard Jason’s rules. See where it gets him. Maybe he’s end up with Jason’s cock in his ass, pounding him while he begs for him to slow down… 

“Are you listening?”

James blinks. Nods. Hopes he didn’t look like a slut imagining all the possible punishments Jason could give him. Could you really blame him though? When you’re owned by the hottest man in California, it’s really difficult to not drool over shit like that. Owned is a strong word— but Jason tells the blonde werewolf he owns him during sex all the time, and James would really love to believe that’s how it really is. Like he’s really just a puppy. 

“Good.” Jason states. “Now get to the edge of the bed and open that pretty little mouth of yours.” 

Jason’s words a punch to the gut. Pretty little mouth? Is he trying to kill James? All the blood will go straight to his cock and it’ll leave his brain, that’s how he’ll die. James can’t even imagine what the aphrodisiac will do to him, because he’s already building up a boner and he hasn’t been touched or kissed yet. Talk about pathetic. James slowly crawls to the edge of the bed, fluffy ears and tail hanging low, and sticks out his tongue while opening his mouth. 

It takes every ounce of Jason’s self control to not stick his dick in that mouth of James’. He’s got cute little sharp teeth that come with his transformation and his tongue is nice and wet, perfect for licking and sucking. Too bad the only thing he deserves is the pill. The bassist is quick to shove that tiny blue pill into James’ mouth before manually closing his bottom jaw by lifting it up and forcing the blonde to swallow dry. 

While the blonde coughs from the rough treatment, Jason’s hands swoop around either side of the werewolf’s neck to put that sweet little bell collar on James. A click, and Jason moves back to marvel at how adorable his boy looks. His long, blonde hair sits on his shoulders, complementing the light blue collar that’s snug against his skin. Jason begins to feel lucky. He gets to see James like this. Not the fans, not the band, not the groupies. Just Jason. Only Jason. The bassist leans down to kiss at James’ soft face and a hand snakes down to the inner side of his thigh. 

James doesn’t know how he’s gonna survive this. 

/ ///////// 

It’s been an hour. 

At first, everything was fine. James simply listened to music in his bed as Jason played his shiny black bass in the corner. His bell resting on his collar was still. Everything was alright. Then came the slow waves of heat, ebbing over the blonde’s body as it crept upon him. It wasn’t a fast process— Jason almost wished it was. 

But instead the simmering fire igniting in James took its sweet time. First, a sweet warmth began to pool in James’ crotch area, along with a light blush creeping on to his soft cheeks involuntarily. Then he felt his cock twitch to life in his pants, and suddenly everything that touched him felt hot to the touch. His body was warming up. Ironically, it made him shiver. The pill was starting to work. 

The werewolf’s pouting mouth emits a soft whimper as the arousal starts to take over. He’s slowly working towards a full boner. The pill took time to kick in, but when it did, it went from a flicker of heat to a burst of flames. James silently curses that bell collar; if it won’t for Jason’s rules and that collar, his hand would be in his pants right now. 

Maybe he’d finger himself first. Or maybe he would drag his calloused hand up and down his length while thinking about Jason. The guitarist groans. Thinking about it sure didn’t help the arousal. The aphrodisiac works fast, he reminds himself, and sighs. He screws his eyes shut and hopes the simmering sensation in his crotch will go away, but it does the opposite. When his eyes close, he sees several dirty images— Jason beneath him as James rides him. Jason looking at him with those gorgeous grayish eyes as James sucks him off. Jason’s pretty cock in his hand. He had always thought being able to see vivid images when he closes his eyes was a blessing, but now it seemed to be a curse. 

Giving up, James opens his eyes again. He peers down at his pants and notices the obvious bulge of his cock pressing against the tight material. He bites back another whine. It’s been a short amount of time since the aphrodisiac started kicking in and he’s already hard as diamond and needy. James would be embarrassed if he wasn’t in his werewolf form and under the influence of aphrodisiac. All he can think about now is reaching down to touch himself, relieve him of the aching pressure between his thighs. 

The werewolf is getting needier and needier by the second. He tilts his head slightly to look at Jason. James realizes he’s got his headphones on while he plays his bass; which means James could get away with making a little noise. It takes almost nothing to convince himself to masturbate. Relieved, his eyes flutter shut as he slowly spreads his legs. A pale hand slides down to rest above his clothed, aching cock. He double checks Jason, who is peacefully plucking away at his instrument, and continues. The smooth palm of his hand rocks back and forth against his erection. Normally, it wouldn’t feel as good, especially because of the layer of clothing between his hand and cock. But with the aphrodisiac? It feels like heaven. 

James has to stop himself from a low grunt escaping his lips. Jeans hug his cock, giving him just the right amount of friction against himself, and the task of keeping himself quiet proves to be harder and harder. The guitarist creates a steady rhythm of palm-to-dick and screws his eyes shut yet again, this time welcoming the dirty images instead of shooing them away. Images and thoughts flow back into his mind as he quietly humps his hand. The heel of his palm digs into the tip of his cock. He sputters, the images of Jason fucking him in his mind spurring him on even more. 

James is throbbing in his pants at this point, and he wants nothing more than to dirty his light jeans with cum. So he keeps at it. His jaw clenches, hard, almost as hard as he is, and with his free hand he grips the sheets. Everything around him feels warm— the air is thick and his desire makes his entire body tremble with heat. The aphrodisiac sure does a damn good job. Sweat begins to form on to inside of his palms more and more as seconds turn into minutes, and by now his movements are starting to get more erratic and intense. If James wasn’t chasing his high a minute ago, he sure is now with the way he’s shamelessly humping his hand like a dog. 

It’s almost funny the way he doesn’t even bother to pull his weeping cock out of his pants. It would feel better. It would be a faster way to get himself off. James doesn’t seem to care. It’s like he wants to be pathetic, to look like a mess. Like he wants to show off for Jason. And, well, Jason seems him alright, because while James’ eyes are closed in complete concentration, Jason hovers over the bed. He doesn’t speak. He only watches. It’s amusing how James is so goddamn horny, he doesn’t even notice the looming figure watching him try to get off. 

“What d’you think you’re doin’?”

James nearly has a heart attack. Shameless rutting came to a complete stop. His eyes flew open. He looked at Jason who stood at the side of the bed with embarrassment and fear of what his punishment would be. Would he not allow him to cum for the week? Would he embarrass him? Would he go as far as to spank him? James is screwed. If he could’ve just kept his hands to himself, maybe he wouldn’t be here. But, then again, he thinks, if Jason wouldn’t have teased him like this, he wouldn’t have had to resort to this. 

James is brought back to reality and ripped away from his thoughts by Jason lifting his chin up to look at him. 

“You think I wouldn’t notice?”

James averts his eyes. His cock still throbs in his jeans as he pouts. 

“I… I’m sorry, okay? But— please, don’t punish me, I wasn’t gonna cum or anything! Please—“

“Shhhh.. Shut it, baby.”

Jason’s tone sounds bitter when he speaks. Deep down, James knows there’s no real anger behind his words. He’s not truly upset with the boy. It’s just an act. Jason’s words only carry the slight sting of venom; not serious, but enough to make James feel tingly. The bassist’s intentions are different. James mentally compares the situational words to a Sour Patch Kid, like that odd sour blue raspberry lube Jason made him try once. Jason had slicked himself up with the sticky blue lube he’d bought from the same store he’d got the aphrodisiac. 

It was too sour for James. 

Jason’s hand slowly removes itself from James’ chin. Blonde waves cover his eyes as his head tilts forwards from the lack of support. They sit comfortably on his pink cheeks, which have red dots of acne scattered around. James was always insecure about the acne. Jason thinks it’s cute. Jason thinks all of James is cute. Even when he’s being a brat. The guitarist was a known spoiled brat; Jason wanted to test him. 

“Since you’re so needy.. Why don’t you let me touch you some? 

James’ cheeks get redder. He almost forgot how embarrassing the way Jason treats him is. He treated him like he’s some helpless, needy little dog in heat. James was, of course, just like that, with his constant need of attention and sex on a daily basis. James really did become puppy-like in this form. He would paw and claw at Jason, his tail would wag, and his clinginess increased tenfold. Not to mention— he gained new sensitive spots that drove him crazy. 

Jason was going to take advantage of that. 

James nodded erratically to Jason’s offer. A part of him still burned with embarrassment, but the need of being touched overwhelmed him. The werewolf knew that’s exactly what Jason wanted to see. One side of him liked that he was giving Jason what he wanted, while the other wanted to defy him. Almost like an  angel and devil on his shoulder. Since James was such a good boy according to Jason (sometimes), the angel naturally won when he was in this state. 

James was right. Jason was satisfied. Luckily for him, he’d get touched. Just, not the way he had thought. Obviously the werewolf had assumed his cock would be touched. Or, if he was lucky, his prostate would be touched with the pads of Jason’s  thick fingers. But he didn’t deserve that. James had disobeyed him, after all. Disobedience didn’t get James what he wanted. So when Jason started to scratch behind his ear instead, he welcomed it, though with a look of confusion. 

“W-wh— No.. not, not there….” James whines. “On my cock.” 

“No. I’ll touch your sensitive parts, but not the ones you want.” Jason says, reaching down to stroke James’ tail. 

Shit. 

James was going to be forced to cum with just his tail and ears. While the touch felt good, it surely couldn’t be enough, right? Nevertheless, he whines from the sensitive touch. It did feel good. It really did. He just wanted more. Tail, ears, and cock would be better. But James was a brat. James was lucky Jason was even willing to give him this, at least. Another pet to his tail and rub of his ears, and James starts to whine again. 

“Feels good, doesn’t it? Too bad you can’t have more. Wouldn’t it feel so much better if you could have my dick inside you? Huh? “

Another punch to the gut with those words. How did Jason know how to dirty talk so damn well? It’s hard to focus when his tail is twitching in Jason’s hand, much like his erection in his jeans. The worry of not being able to cum from just his sensitive werewolf attributes slowly fades away as his mind becomes foggy. Was it the aphrodisiac? Is it the scritches or the stroke of his tail? Or was he really that much of a slut? Jason would say all of the above. The way his puppy moans and involuntarily twitches under him is proof enough. 

“More… please—“

“I told you, ‘m not gonna touch your cock. If you don’t quit complaining i’ll stop touching your pretty ears and tail, too.” Jason warns. 

Well, James doesn’t want that. So he gives in and stops complaining, letting the feeling of Jason touching him take over. His hips rock slightly back and forth along with the motions of Jason’s touches and strokes in hopes of getting at least the slightest bit of friction against his length. It doesn’t really work. It only gives him the occasional spark of denim against his underwear, which he guesses is better than nothing. And the feeling of those nimble fingers behind his fluffy ear and that smooth palm working his tail is good, better than he remembers, so he supposes it’s okay. Very okay, actually. It’s starting to feel really fucking good. 

It’s all due to the aphrodisiac. You could also blame it on the fact that he’s in his werewolf form, but it’s really because of that tiny blue pill. Jason’s working his arm and hand faster and faster, making James whimper and cry out. Bell jingles ring out with the movements of both of their rhythms, and Jason’s fingertips work like magic on James. It feels like electric currents shocking him with an odd sense of pleasure when he touches his ear just right or drags his hand up his tail a certain way. James writhes and squirms as pornographic moans leave his mouth. It’s probably the reason why Jason’s hard in his pants, too. 

“God, baby, touching your ears ‘n tail is like touching a girl’s clit.“ Jason whispers. 

“You’ve had experience with girls, James, you know how they moan when you touch that sweet spot. You look just as helpless and submissive as a groupie.. they’d be so disappointed to know the big bad Hetfield is some bitch who falls apart from getting his tail touched. Don’t you think?”

James bites his lip, hard, and his hips stutter. He wants to cum so bad. If only Jason would just touch him properly, he would be coming apart and staining his light blue jeans just for the bassist. He’s embarrassed beyond belief from being compared to a girl, but it’s so painfully obvious he likes it. Nothing he says or does will change the fact that Jason knows The Mighty Het likes to be feminized and put in his place. That won’t stop James from trying to save his very last drop of dignity. 

“No, ‘m not a like- ah- a girl… I’m a man…”

Jason laughs.

“What kind of man drools and moans over being touched like this?” He asks, the rhetorical question making James shameful. 

James opens his mouth to formulate a comeback and is quickly disrupted by a particularly hard tug on his tail. James yelps, and his cock pulses. Jingles continue to emit from the collar. The fur between Jason’s fingers has almost given him some sort of rash or burn from how fast he’s been rubbing and teasing the thing, and it’s finally going to pay off. James is near the edge. Whining with tears in his eyes. Jason caresses the back of his ear in a very particular, pleasurable way. James’ mouth is like a faucet of high pitched noises. 

“Go on, baby, cum like the pretty puppy you are.”

He trembles and shakes like a fragile leaf, and with a final blow of the wind, that leaf is gone. James length is spurting thick globs of semen into his boxers, which will surely be stained along with his tight jeans. Neighbors surely hear him from how loud his orgasmic high is. If this isn’t embarrassing, he doesn’t know what is. Cumming from some simple touches, being feminized, and knowing people most likely heard you scream in ecstasy as you ruined your clothes with cum stains? Yeah. He was redder than he had ever been. 

Jason, bless him, strokes him through his orgasm and smirks to himself. James’ orgasms never failed to looked pretty. That big mouth of his always shaped itself into a big ‘O’ shape as the waves shook him. Someday Jason would take a picture of James in the middle of an orgasm. He’d keep it as a polaroid, and use it to touch himself. Which he was probably going to do after this. 

“…Good boy.” Jason praised. His hand finally stops his languid strokes and he catches his breath along James. 

James is spent. 

The money that went towards that aphrodisiac was well spent, too. 

Thank god for clingy puppies. 

I really didn’t know how to end it sorry Lmao

[selkies-world]

Sign the petition to demand the creation of a new international law requiring fast-fashion garments to come with a statement of the human cost and environmental harm caused by their creation.

We all know fast fashion is bad for the planet - slave labor, environmental waste, air and water pollution, and unsustainable practices are just a few of the ways they impact our planet, our health and our lives. To date, the fast fashion industry is the 2nd largest consumer of water and is single-handedly responsible for 10% of global carbon emissions (that's more than all international flights and maritime shipping across a year combined). Even the simple act of washing these clothes releases 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean each year - that's equal to 50,000 plastic bottles. Fast-fashion is the 3rd leading cause of the climate crises we face, yet is rarely addressed.

Knowing these stats is one thing, and understanding them is important. Being aware of them is somewhat informative. But as long as we keep turning a blind eye to the issue, the stats are only going to get worse, and nothing will change for the better. Ignoring the issue or brushing it under the rug won't help anything. So what if we could see the real-world damage done by each of the garments we buy?

In the same way that cigarette packets have shown the harm their products do to our bodies ("SMOKING KILLS", lung cancer visualizations, etc.), what if fast fashion manufacturers & retailers had to show the harm their products do to our planet?

[Image ID: A type-writer font has been used on a brown craft paper background. The text reads: "32 animals lost their habitat to the field where my crops were planted - 2 of those animals are already endangered species. 2,700 litres of water were used in my production. I was made in a sweatshop enslaving men and women aged 16 - 45, and children aged 6 - 14. I contain 0.22kg of carbon dioxide dye." End ID.]

This is a mock-up of a label / statement for a single T-shirt, with researched statistics and educated estimates for the information I couldn't find a calculated answer for.

Now imagine labels / statements like this for every single piece of clothing: how many toxic chemicals are in those new jeans? How many litres of water did that shirt take to make? How many animals were skinned to make those cute fur-trimmed boots? How many children made that jumper? How many people were forcibly removed from their homes, so production companies could plant crops to grow the materials used in clothes manufacturing? How many families were evicted for no reason other than corporate greed? How many trees were cut down? How many animals were displaced or killed?

Would you really want to buy those items of clothing if the answers to those questions were staring you in the face?

If this information was stated in clear, accessible ways on both the website and the ticket on the actual garment, this would dramatically reduce the number of people buying fast fashion items. It would also reduce the profits being made by fast fashion companies, and could lead to many of them being forced to choose between changing and becoming sustainable, eco-froendly and ethical brands, or shutting down due to being boycotted.

Who would really want to knowingly buy things that are made by slaves, or which cost a family their home, or which contributed to deforestation? Who would continue to buy fast fashion items knowing this is the damage caused by them, when sustainable alternatives are an option?

Whether it's second-hand fashion at affordable prices, or investing more money in sustainable products which were made with high ethical standards and which cost more money due to the fact their price accounts for the time it took a person to make that item... we can say for certain that sustainable shopping is going to become much more popular if people know how important that change is. Sustainable items last much longer than fast-fashion items, which by design are created to self-destruct, as they are made to be worn a few times and then discarded in order to be replaced by the next trend's items - and as trends speed up, these items become weaker and weaker. This then leads to people spending more money in order to keep up with the newest trends, and to keep replacing clothes they throw out after a few washes.

In contrast, buying sustainable items which are designed to last years means people won't have to spend money on new clothes every few weeks, which means they'll ultimately save money in the long term and actually be able to afford those pricier items which will last much, much longer.

Now, despite the amount of harm the fast-fashion industry causes to people and the environment, the last thing we should be doing is getting angry at those who continue to buy them. Being the target of anger doesn't make large populations change their behaviour - even a cursory look through history books will tell us that much. Neither does being the target of resentment or blame.

But guilt? Shame? Those are two of the most powerful emotions to magnify when you want change to happen in waves.

And frankly, if people feel ashamed of buying something, or if buying something makes them feel guilty... they're going to stop buying it.

Those aren't the only emotions that should be felt, though. Because only feeling guilt and shame leads to feeling hopeless, scared, anxious and depressed. And we don't want that. No matter how bad things get... we don't want that.

The only other emotions to provoke are hope and pride.

If there's no hope for the future, how can anyone be expected to imagine a better one?

You wouldn't think it, what with all the climate crises and disasters we experience around the world and the total lack of commitment made by billionaires, multimillion-dollar companies and corporations and politicians.

But it's true. Scientists in Scotland have discovered bacteria which eat plastic and speed up the decomposition of it. ‘Ecocide’ is now punishable by law. Some countries within the EU are already close to meeting their 2030 goals years ahead of schedule! Thanks to scientists and small, individual changes made on a massive scale by ordinary people who are making small adjustments to our everyday choices, we can and are healing most of the ozone layer before 2050. That is something we should all feel incredibly proud of.

So imagine how much we could speed that process up if more people made those changes. Imagine how much sooner we could heal our planet if billions of people made those changes, rather than millions. Imagine how much sooner we could be seeing the effects of a healthier planet if fast fashion companies were forced to choose between going green and transparent, or closing altogether due to a lack of interest from consumers. Imagine the changes we could create if corporations made massive changes in a short amount of time, in order to save their own profits.

Imagine more labels like this, sitting alongside each other on every single piece of fast fashion clothing. A statement like this beneath every item of clothing on fast fashion websites, which transparently states the harm done.

If every single fast-fashion company and store had to display this on their clothing, on their racks, on their websites, and if there were legal punishments for those who tried to evade or lie... fashion would turn a lot greener very quickly. We'd start seeing more and more labels with "I'm made from 6 plastic bottles! I used to be a newspaper! I had 0 pesticides used on me in my production! I only contain natural dye made from berries, beans and sustainably grown flowers. I was made from apple skins and corn! The people who made me get to go home to their families every night, have days off and the adults made £150.35 each in 1 week! The animal who made the wool for me is free-range and well-cared for! I came from a small family farm, and was created with a closed-loop water system!”

That'd be a much better civilisation to shop in, don't you agree?

That is hope for the future.

That is motivation, which can fuel ordinary people to do extraordinary things and create changes they thought were impossible.

If you want to be a part of creating this change, sign the Change.org petition which demands the the creation and implementation of an international law which will require all fast-fashion products to be displayed with a statement which states the harm done to people and the planet by that garment being made & shipped.

[pudding-parade]

A Distant Glacier by MySimRealty

Are you looking for a world to play a colder-climate scenario in? This might be a good one. It's an old world, from 2010, so from before the Seasons EP, but the terrain painting and roads and whatnot are such that about 1/3 of the playable part of the world is always snow-covered, and there's also frost in the terrain painting of the green parts.

MySimRealty is one of my favorite world creators, and if you are familiar with this creator's other, newer worlds, you'll definitely recognize the rudiments of her style in this world. That said, this world isn't available on her site. I'm not sure why. I think it's a pretty cool (no pun intended) little world, so I can't see how she'd be unhappy with it. I thought maybe it might have some major, unresolved playability issues, but I had NRaas Story Progression create and move in 12 families and let the world run for five simdays to see if there'd be any issues, and there were none. Not a single one, not even a single stuck sim. The only issue I noticed during that time was some oddly-parked food trucks. They'd park across the streets, so that they look like they'd be blocking traffic going both ways, though of course taxis drive right through them. That aside, everything ran smoothly, and my sim and others had no problems using anything on the community lots.

So, I can't figure out why this world isn't out there anymore. In fact, I'm not even sure where I got it. If I had to guess, it's probably on one of the Russian re-upload sites, but I'm not feeling like looking through them to find it, which is why the title of the post isn't a link this time. Instead, I just reuploaded a .world file here or here, so if you want it, get it at one of those links. If you download it, the file goes in your install files under GameData - Shared - NonPackaged - Worlds.

The world only requires Ambitions and Riverview. There's no Store content aside from Riverview items and no CC. It's 1024x1024, but the playable area is only about half of that. It has all of the base game rabbitholes and all basegame and Ambitions lot types. (The firehouse is EA; the others are original.) It has all of the spawners that existed as of Ambitions, except the WA fish ones.

The world has about 80 lots total, split pretty evenly between community and residential. There are 18 empty lots. One of the community lots is built but empty inside, so it's ready to become whatever. Maybe a bar or club or arcade, or it might be good to use as shops if you use a merchant mod. All of the built residential lots are fully-furnished and ready to go. A few of them are duplicates, but they are all original builds, and the majority of them have at least two bedrooms. Two of the residential lots are "apartments," but since the world pre-dates Late Night, they don't function like Late Night apartments. I imagine you could make them do so it if you add the necessary markers.

There is a thread on the official forums from August of 2010 about testing this world here. Some of the issues mentioned in that thread -- particularly trees which have branches that intrude into houses and that can't be removed -- still exist, but they aren't really a problem in terms of playing.

More info and pictures behind the cut!

Here we have map view and Edit Town view of the entire playable area of the world. As you can see, it's split into three sections. There's the "glacier" in the middle, which is permanently snow-covered, and there are the two green areas. The one on the left has most of the rabbitholes. Residential lots are scattered throughout all three areas.

Here are some of the residential lots in various parts of the world:

Most of the houses have exteriors that are a combination of wood and stone in natural colors, which is appropriate for a colder climate. Personally, although they're pretty to look at, I'd get rid of the ever-blooming flowers and flowering shrubs and switch out most of the really green deciduous trees for more conifers, or maybe some birches/aspens, on the residential lots as well as throughout the world. That would make it look more authentically like a colder/taiga biome. But maybe that's just me.

Now for some community lots:

This is a little laundromat. The salon and the consignment shop look a lot like it, with the same roof and the same brick exterior. Also, the laundromat, salon, and consignment shop are all about the same size.

This is the larger of the two gyms in the world. I'm not sure why the world has two gyms, but there's this one, which is in the part of the world that has most of the rabbitholes, and then there's a smaller one just outside the stadium rabbithole in the other green section of the world. I guess the smaller one is convenient for those in the sports career, so maybe that's why there are two gyms.

This is the library that, for some reason, has a really tall roof. I'd lower that sucker by quite a bit. :) Then, on the left side of the pic is a small art gallery.

This is a little chapel. Inside it has some chairs, a stereo, and a fridge. Up front is a table that I guess is supposed to be an altar. It doesn't have a wedding arch. (Did the game not have wedding arches prior to Generations? I can't remember off the top of my head.) You could add an arch and maybe the podium from University Life to make it more church-y, but there isn't a whole lot of room inside or outside, so I don't think you could make it into a proper "wedding venue."

The junkyard and the graveyard.

This is my testing sim using the public pool. I'm thinking that I'd get rid of this lot (as well as the private pools that some of the houses have) because...Well, cold climate. LOL There is an indoor pool at the large gym which can serve the community's swimming needs. I suppose you could pretend that these are hot spring pools, but, as a person who lives in a cold climate, I can say that outdoor non-hot-spring pools aren't really a thing because you can only use them for maybe a few weeks out of the year. :)

This is the grocery rabbithole, which has a community garden on the same lot, which is an interesting idea.

The world also has several parks/playgrounds, a beach, a few fishing spots, and the EA fire station from Ambitions.

And I think that's all I have to say. We'll finish out with some random pics. :)

[maskyish]

ZOOL - Shuffle Talk 2022 (Episode 3)

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3

Please note: I am NOT a professional and my level of JP is very, very basic. I do this for practice and to share with other fans for fun. Please take my translations with a grain of salt as there may be mistakes. If you see any, please let me know and I can correct them. If anyone else has this card and wants to translate this at any time then please feel free to do so!

Haruka: Whoa! Look, look! The night illumination started! 

Touma: Wow, it’s really magical compared to during the day…! The view from the suspension bridge is remarkable! (1) 

Touma: Until the shoot starts back up, we’re free to walk around as we’d like, right?! 

Minami: Yes. Utsugi-san will call us when it’s time. 

Touma: Is it alright that Haru didn’t take a nap? He looked a little sleepy. 

Minami: Yesterday after dinner we swam in the pool at Sentosa Island, and went to the night safari at night, so we stayed up late sight-seeing. 

Haruka: I won’t get tired over that much. You’re exaggerating over a yawn. 

Haruka: Rather, wouldn’t that be Touma? He’s been half asleep since this morning, not to mention the bedhead. It was like a chicken comb. 

Minami: Fufu. He had an impressive antenna on his head. It was cute. 

Torao: I took a picture of it too, I’ll put it in the group chat later. 

Touma: Haha! You even took a picture! Hasn’t the amount of photos in the group chat’s album increased quite a lot the last 2 days? 

Touma: It was really tough to pick out which photo to send to Utsugi-san yesterday. 

Minami: Everyone took a lot of pictures. But thanks to that, we were able to get the OK from Utsugi-san who said, “A wonderful, lovely ZOOL!”

Haruka: ….. Just checking, wasn’t our original concept madness and destruction?  

Touma: A lovely ZOOL is good. An idol who combines both madness and lovely, could you find it elsewhere? 

Minami: Well, I suppose not. And besides, I also think it’s a lovely photo. 

Torao: Yeah, I thought you were out of your mind wearing the deformed merlion headgear, but it was lovely. 

Minami: Combined with the t-shirts bought from Isumi-san’s suggestion, we had the feel of happy tourists. 

Haruka: Something like that shows closeness better. Plus it’ll be a memento. I also like the photo quite a bit. 

Touma: I know right! That feeling of being in high spirits is nice! 

Torao: That photo is nice, but I like this one. Haruka and Touma having fun on the gondola. 

Touma: Woah, when did you take this?! 

Haruka: We’re both sticking to the window like children. It’s too embarrassing…. 

Minami: Fufu. You were both so captivated by the scenery outside.

Haruka: That’s because if the weather is good, you can see as far as Indonesia…. 

Torao: Haha. It’s a nice photo, huh? 

Touma: Then, I won’t lose either. It’s Mina and Tora looking at Merlion plushies. They were choosing so earnestly. 

Torao: Oh, at the souvenir shop Minami said that if I put it in my room then it would raise my good fortune, so I wanted to choose a worthy plush. 

Haruka: Huh? A plush in Torao’s room…? 

Minami: Yes, but it didn’t have to be a plush, anything white would have been fine since Midou-san doesn’t have many belongings. I just thought it would be nice to have one cute item. 

Touma: Haha, that’s true! Tora’s room is so clean that I get a little nervous when I go, so maybe this is just what he needs! 

Torao: Minami, I thought you were seriously choosing, but that was the reason? 

Torao: Well, it’s fine if it’s just one. I’ll leave it there so you guys don’t get nervous. 

Minami: Fufu, thank you. 

Minami: If it’s a picture taken at a souvenir shop, I recommend the one where Isumi-san is giving it his best effort to pick one, it’s very cute. 

Haruka: If you say that, then it’s the one with Minami’s happy face while eating dinner! 

Torao: There’s also a photo of Touma having fun on a swimming tube. 

Haruka: Ahaha! The one with his duck floatie! It really suited you! 

Touma: I-– I just rented the child one by mistake…!!!

          *click*

ZOOL: Huh?! 

Shirou Utsugi: Oh, did I surprise you? 

Shirou Utsugi: Apologies. Everyone just had such good expressions. 

Touma: Ooh, you’re right! It’s a great photo!

Minami: Yes, today the 4 of us might just have the biggest smiles. 

Shirou Utsugi: The staff was also very pleased with the photoshoot from earlier. They were able to take good photos since your expressions were soft and relaxed. 

Haruka: That’s good, but…. ….. Now that you mention it, what about the first request? About wanting to show how close we are. 

Minami: Certainly, the director didn’t say anything of the sort during the shoot earlier. 

Torao: Will we shoot those situations after this? 

Shirou Utsugi: Regarding today’s rehearsal… I lied. 

ZOOL: You lied….?! 

Minami: What do you mean? 

Shirou Utsugi: Even if it’s for work, since it’s overseas I wanted everyone to enjoy their time off. 

Shirou Utsugi: I wanted you to go to various places, take many photos, and leave with many memories. 

Shirou Utsugi: If I didn’t say that, everyone wouldn’t have been able to take pictures together since you’re shy. (2)

Torao: It’s because we’re shy that it was a mission for us? 

Shirou Utsugi: Correct. However, due to this I did such deceptive behavior. I’m very sorry. 

Minami: Oh my. None of us felt deceived. 

Haruka: Yeah. It was fun to take pictures, too. Actually, if Utsugi-san hadn’t told us that, then I would’ve just taken some for social media. 

Touma: Rather, we’re grateful. Thanks to you, we have a lot of memories! 

Torao: Yeah, if there wasn’t a mission, we wouldn’t have been to so many tourist spots. 

Shirou Utsugi: I’m glad you think so. Thanks to everyone’s photos, it felt like I was traveling with you. 

Touma: Then, let’s take a photo with the 5 of us! 

Minami / Haruka /Torao / Shirou Utsugi: Eh?! 

Touma: Utsugi-san, you haven’t taken any photos since we came here, right? We took a lot of photos, so you should take at least one too. 

Shirou Utsugi: That’s true. If that’s the case, then by all means! 

Shirou Utsugi: Do you have a specific pose? 

Torao: What’s up? You look rather happy. 

Shirou Utsugi: As a fan, a picture with the “Lovely ZOOL, Enjoy ZOOL” at its current peak could make one faint. 

Haruka: What are you even saying? You’re also one of us!! 

Shirou Utsugi: Hahaha, thank you very much. I’m honored. Inumaru-san, please send me the picture later. 

Touma: Of course I will! Then, I’ll hold the camera, so gather up. 

Haruka: Utsugi-san, only half of your face will be in the photo. Come a little closer to Touma. 

Shirou Utsugi: Like this? 

Touma: Oh, looks good! 

Torao: So, what about the pose? 

Haruka: Huh, isn’t a peace sign normally fine? 

Touma: Crap, my arm is shaking. Please decide quickly. 

Minami: Then, let’s do a crab pose. 

Touma: Alright, let’s take it. 

Touma: 3, 2, 1, crabby crab! 

Shirou Utsugi: Crabby crab! 

          *click*

Torao: (He went along with it….)

Minami: (Didn’t he go along with it too well….?) 

Haruka: (Maybe I just don’t know, but is it actually normal to call out “crabby crab”?!)

Touma: ….Haha! Utsugi-san, your crab pose is perfect! 

Shirou Utsugi: Everyone’s pictures made me happy, so I wanted to try it too. The crab pose. 

Torao: Aren’t you also in high spirits…. Well, as long as you’re happy. 

Shirou Utsugi: I am, thank you very much. 

Shirou Utsugi: ….. Oh! Since the staff is calling, I’ll be going for a bit. I’ll give a call for you again when shooting starts back up. 

ZOOL: Right. 

Haruka: So, the picture? Did it have any blur? 

Touma: It’s not blurry, but…. 

Torao: Everyone has complicated expressions.

Minami: We’re smiling, but…. It looks like the first promotional photo I took. 

Touma: It’s true that we all look stiff…. 

Haruka: Isn’t it because we got distracted by the crab just before it? 

Touma: Ahaha, there was a bit of that. 

Haruka: But, we don’t often take pictures with Utsugi-san, so I might have been a bit nervous…. 

Minami: This is good, right? I like this photo, you know. 

Minami: As Utsugi-san said, it’s a photo together that will remain a good memory. 

Torao: Yeah, and this is just how it is now. We never thought in the past that we’d be such close friends. 

Haruka: Mhm. If you told our past selves, they’d be surprised. 

Touma: If it was like how it was back then, we might have acted separately this time too. 

Minami: I agree. I don’t think I would’ve gone to the trouble of going to Sentosa Island or a night safari. 

Haruka: ….I’m glad we went. I had a lot of fun…. because I got to go with everyone. 

Minami: Me too. I’m happy we all went. 

Touma: Ahaha, me too! I’d like to go on another trip with all of you, either in Japan or overseas. 

Torao: It’s not bad to spend a trip with only men every now and then. 

Haruka: It’s fine! If we get a mission like this again then we got this! 

Shirou Utsugi: The friendly ZOOOOL~~! (3) The photoshoot will resuuume~! 

ZOOL: Wha–?! 

Minami: What is that person saying out loud… 

Haruka: W-what an embarrassing guy…! It’ll be hard to go back! 

Torao: I can imagine the warm looks from the staff…

Touma: Haha! A friendly ZOOL is nice! 

Touma: Right now, at this moment, this is the best ZOOL. Throughout Japan… no, throughout the whole world. Let’s show it to them! 

Minami / Haruka / Torao: Yeah! 

[End of Rabbitv]

TL Notes:

1.  The word Touma uses here that I translated as “remarkable” is more like having an intense impact.

2. Sorry, I’m not 100% sure on this one >< 

>> ああでも言わないと、 揃って写真を撮ることもないでしょう みなさん、 奥手ですし。

3. The word Shirou uses here is 仲良し which pops up a lot in this rabbittv and I normally translated it as “close” or similarly, but it’s like saying “ZOOL who are good friends”

[tommos]

one direction history post: strange merch

hi everyone! i'm starting a small series of one direction history posts just to combine my interests in both history and the boys. these won't be super in depth, more so showing and telling. this first post is about some weird and strange merch choices one direction's marketing team has attempted to sell us throughout the years. i got these screenshots from the wayback machine looking at onedirectionstore.com, their official store. they are separated by era solely based on what was present on their shop at the time of each of the boys albums. these merch items are not a reflection of the albums themselves (which you'd think their merch team would try to appeal more to the aging fanbase as years went on), they all seem to me to be more geared toward how much they can attempt to get us buy. i now present to you the weirdest, most dated one direction merch i could find <3 enjoy

X Factor - Up All Night

what is this for, who is this for, why is this one of the first accessory items ever posted on the one direction store??? what was the initial demographic of the one direction fanbase?? idk when i was 10 i didn't need this, i would enjoy one now though

if you guys remember silly bandz, you are a veteran.. also give us toledoans credit where it's due because one of ours invented these bad boys

finally my iphone 4 will be decked out in the one direction collectors set

this was also the start of their personalized messages section of merch you could buy. surprise your loved one with heartfelt messages such as 'birthday girl' or 'merry christmas daughter'

Take Me Home

from here on out, this and two other photos are the only photos their team decided to make merch with. there is two other duvet sets that use those other photos, even in their later eras

sometimes i wake up in a cold sweat remembering these existed. if i can find my louis mask, i will wear it to fitfwt

if any of you have this keyring or the singing toothbrush, send me a clip of it singing please or if it is able to sing. i am so curious im on the edge of my seat

NAIL TEMPORARY TATTOOS

Midnight Memories

i literally do not know what this has to do with music, one direction, or anyone associated with one direction

i need to point out, these one direction watches came in literally every single color you could imagine. i do not know why they are merched inside of a can?? but they were the it-girl of their merch during this era

speaking of cans, WHAT IS THIS

would any of you fine people want to buy a 1d girls glitter strap shoe? it is merch like this that really reminds me one direction was moreso a brand than a band to their team

Four

kudos to their team for picking a more recent photo for the era, but also who would want this

do you guys remember the craze of this specific type of lamp

if the scooter isn't your speed, how about this one direction 16" cruiser bike make with old uan era font, color schemes, and photos?

Made In The AM

i am only putting this mitam find in here to point out something that i found crazy. this shirt was on the one direction merch website only one month after march 25th, you can see how quickly their merch team shelled out merch without zayn on it. i didn't include anymore, but even their on the road again tour merch on the website quickly had zayn erased

i hope you guys all enjoyed this weird trip down memory lane if you can call it that, and liked looking at some of the weird merch their team used to sell. this is only stuff that stood out to me, i'm sure there's a lot more somewhere so if you have any, send them to me or feel free to add onto this post. if you own any of these, ESPECIALLY THE BIKE, please add a pic of them to this post lol

[cheesycokeart]

Rambling about scrapped projects so I don't feel like the work went to waste

I've only really made like, 3 little games. Which admittedly, I should be trying to make myself Finish more projects just so I can get more experience and be able to reliably work on something larger. Inbetween, I get the spark to make a buncha different ideas that usually don't get very far for one reason or another. I know this is a bad habit, and I'm tryin' to work on it.

Otherwise though, gonna talk about a few projects where I wanna show off what little work I did put in before deciding I was better off killing it, including a "follow-up" to Grenade Volley.

This is just some not-even-prototype-level stuff with myself rambling about things I wanted to do. So be warned before hitting read more!

Drivin' Breach

So this was started in part based on my desire to create something utilizing the Grenade Volley world with a more "safe" gameplay style. I absolutely love old distance games, like Learn to Fly, Kitten Cannon, Shopping Cart Hero, etc etc but I realized it wasn't a super common style of game these days so wanted to take a crack at making one.

I had the basics of it going and I was pretty proud of what I had artistically and in terms of tone. Ambitiously, I even wanted a fully animated opening cutscene, but in hindsight that might've been a bit much to try and pull off.

To try and set it apart, I imagined that one main hook would be having a wide variety of "special items" that you could used to propel yourself further, each one controlling differently for players that wanted some variety, and maybe even implementing individual upgrade lines for said special items. I wanted to make the "Magic Tail" item a buttplug tail.

After a bit of time of working I just realized things weren't coming together how I would've liked them to. Physics weren't quite satisfactory, I couldn't figure out how to implement gliders, and I wasn't super confident about balancing it to stretch the game out but also make it feel rewarding. Those combined with waning passion for the project just kinda killed it off. I was pretty proud of the art and stuff I did for it, though, and what I had going so far.

I also ended up applying some of the code (where the world moves around the player, allowing for infinite movement) to Downhill to Infinity!

(Also that shop music you here is Closed on Sundays by Mana Junkie, a CC3.0 track I found online)

Earth Servant Ms. Usagi

I was super enthusiastic about this one for a while!! I was stoked about the idea of making a game using Ms. Usagi because she was one of my many characters made with games in mind from the get-go. I ended up settling on this weird mix of Megaman-style, fast platforming, and stylish melee combat. Notice, though, the animations are not finished at ALL.

I wanted to push fun and snappy combat, encouraging the player to bounce between enemies while using environment and speed to their advantage. Think like a hectic anime fight where the main character is running around boppin' every bad guy while darting between them. A style meter was also applied, rewarding chained attacks.

To go over the moveset: Attacking from a standstill performs an uppercut, attacking in the air performs an air kick. If you only tap the attack button for the air kick, it stops Usagi in mid-air and keeps her close to the enemy. If you hold it, however, it will both put her current speed into the kick AND launch the enemy according to said speed. Holding down while attacking in the air will slam to the ground. She also has a blaster move that's especially good for continuing combos. For defense, I added dashing maneuvers and a block/parry inspired by MGR.

I still think this kick feels fuckin sick to pull off.

Few problems came up. First one was just plain ol' being scared of level design, but that one I coulda bruteforced through. More importantly at one point I took a break and went back to it later only to realize that it Wasn't Fun. Movement felt way too slippery, I wasn't making the fast momentum-based movement blend well with the fast combo-based combat. If I wanna do anything like this again, I'd have to figure out a better way to blend this.

Either way, I know for certain I'd LOVE to make a Ms. Usagi game in the future, I think she could make for something very fun and poppy and stylish.

BONUS

During one of the beta versions of Godot 4, I had short-lived thoughts of wanting to make a wave-based FPS to play with its 3D features. I wanted the game to have a gross, crusty aesthetic. It never got far at all, but I made a "gore harvester" machine for it and I still really like that thing. It was fun to draw such ugly textures.

[z45capp]

July 20 - Taipei; Beitou Hot Spring Museum, Thermal Valley, Beitou Library, Xinbeitou Historic Station

Not too rough of a day today, with a 9:20 a.m. call time and 12:00 p.m. end time. Even within that short amount of time, we saw a lot, starting with the Xinbeitou Historic Station, the Beitou “Green Building” Library, Beitou Hot Spring Museum, and Thermal Valley. I had the most fun at Xinbeitou Historic Station, there was a lot of history to learn about there and some interactive exhibits, with an old train car you could go inside. My next favorite was the Beitou Hot Spring Museum, it was a bit smaller than I thought it would be, but still had a lot of history. The pool in the Museum reminds me a lot of the Roman Baths in Bath, England. Since I did not visit the hot springs on this trip, I am very excited to go when we are in Yilan, which has both hot and cold springs. My third favorite was the Beitou Library. The Library was so pretty inside and the architecture behind it is even more interesting. Lastly, the Thermal Valley comes in fourth. This could just be a combination of the heat, smell of sulfur, and the fact this was the last stop we did after 3 other stops and a bunch of walking. While a gorgeous view, the Valley did not do too much for me. 

Once we were “set free” a group of us decided to go to Din Tai Fung to get some lunch before either going back to the hot springs or to the hotel. Din Tai Fung was really good; we each got our own dish and shared some of the others. I ordered a mushroom and mixed green dumpling, which was super refreshing and delicious. I also shared some shrimp dumplings with Faith, had some of Amy’s braised beef noodles, a few pieces of Fanny’s pork, and of course some 小籠包. I do not think you can get away with not having 小龍包 at Din Tai Fung. Sadly, I forgot that “phone eats first” so I don’t have too many pictures from lunch. 

As part of the group that went back to the hotel, I had a relaxing evening to do what I wanted. I first took a shower after a long, hot day, then headed over to 西門 where I got a gift for my dad and some new sneakers. I’ve very badly needed new sneakers as the ones I brought with me were a size too small. My new sneakers are super nice and much more comfortable, thankfully. Shopping for them was much like shopping for shoes in the U.S. where I got help with the sizes I needed and the styles I wanted. I love shopping at 西門 but it is also super dangerous since I did spend quite a lot of money on two items, I can’t imagine having bought even more. 

Academic Reflection

While visiting the Thermal Valley did little to impress me, the reading did deepen my appreciation for it by giving me more context behind the use and building of the hot springs. The reason the springs smell heavily of sulfur is due to the fact that the area was once used for sulfur mining to send to mainland China for use in gunpowder. The sulfur has since then been brought to the surface where it oxidizes among other minerals and condenses into an acidic water, creating this effect. This is such an interesting fact that I had completely missed when visiting the Thermal Valley in person. While the sulfur does still smell awful, I have a newfound appreciation for it because of its rich history. 

Reading about 北投 District and about the hot springs themselves both helped with my understanding of the history of the area. The first person to capitalize on the use of the hot springs was a German businessman who established the first hot spring spa. Then, during the Japanese colonial period, the government used their already established culture of Onsen to further capitalize on the health benefits of bathing in hot springs, pushing the area into the forefront of tourism. The first fact surprises me the most, I would not have thought that someone not from the local area would have discovered the use of sulfur as a health treatment, but since the German sulfur merchant did have his business in sulfur, I suppose he would have known a lot about the element. The Japanese use of the hot spring does make much more sense to me as Japan is also known for their robust hot spring culture and the beautiful scenery that goes along with it. I am amazed by the history that I have missed when only visiting the sites and not having the historical context to go with them. 

[claire-starsword]

Shining Force Pre Release Coverage Part 2

"Claire didn't you just say you didn't have time to look at this now" didn't I also say recently I have no self control? Exactly. Also there's not much new so I might as well just get it out of the way.

Part 1 here

This time we'll be looking at recently scanned volumes of another magazine, Mega Drive Fan. Scans are here and here. Also despite the obvious enthusiasm I sure am busy lately so I won't be pointing out everything, I'm here more for translations as you can see the pictures yourself.

November 1991

okay I lied I need to start with the most important pictures

Meow

They owe me this so bad.

Also it has its tail up like in the final unused version, I don't know what's the deal with that footage I showed at the end of the previous post.

We get a better scan of Max's beta portrait. He has no Egress, which I think I have already pointed out in the previous post, I don't know it was a big post okay. He has a short sword with a weird icon, and two iconless items (the placeholders seem to be showing the item's index): the Hex Whip from Shining in the Darkness, and, uh,

"Ring of Infidelity".

Care to explain, Max???

According to my searching this isn't any carry over from SiTD, but I haven't played that in japanese yet so, grain of salt here. I was gonna say, why is a likely joke item so early in the game, and then I remembered the bunny girl in SFII so yeah, this is regular SF dev behavior.

[Edit: I'm reviewing this now and I might have misread the ring's name, it seems like the うわき (infidelity) is directly applied as an adjective so Infidel/Cheater/Fickle Ring would be better translations, which matches the japanese name for the Hex Whip, which is something like Fickle/Whimsical/Moody Whip, but with a different word that has no "cheating on your partner" connotations as far as I know. So maaaybe it's just implying the ring is cursed and does effects of its own, but by all my searching うわき is still far, far more associated with these cheating connotations at least nowadays, so either the word's usage changed a lot in the past decades or it's still a cheeky joke name]

Also, in the previous post I was clearly too taken by Mae's smile to do my job and didn't talk about the items there, so let's talk about them, or rather it, now. Max and Mae in those screenshots have the inventory full of item index 9, "Old Medical Herb". Perhaps there was some sort of expiring mechanic for the herbs. Max also has the same Short Sword and Mae has a Bronze Lance with a sword icon.

In the final version, the indexes 7, 8, and 9 became the Legs of Haste, Turbo Pepper, and Bread of Life respectively.

The item shop has a different sign. Also it seems to be just an item shop, while in final Guardiana the item and weapon shops are combined, with two sellers.

The other magazine showed yet another item shop and sign, either these are actually different towns, or different builds, which actually they sure are given the next picture.

I have been long looking for you... I have heard of the situation. Please, you must let me join you.

While both magazine issues are from the same month, here we have Arthur portrait for this character instead of Varios, and more than that, he is joining the team, there's even another screenshot in the magazine with the "has joined the force" message. Given that this is Arthur's map sprite, and Mae has been described since the start as having a dead father, I feel this is the intended version. Perhaps Varios' portrait was done first and used as placeholder?

Also I need to correct something from the previous post. This isn't a generic NPC sprite, it's just Arthur's knight sprite. The generic centaur NPC sprites are... Arthur's paladin sprite. Like, the exact same sprite. I never looked too close so I assumed there had to be some small difference, but no, they can reuse whatever sprites they want.

Arthur is not given a profile in any of these magazines so it does feel he started as a very generic recruit. Very funny considering he's now the specialest most magical centaur in the block.

Character profiles this month don't have much so I won't translate them in full. Max is referred to as capable of using magic. Lowe is again referred to as a dwarf even though the magazine points out how similar he is to Milo, and wonders if he's an ancestor of him. No mention of Mae's personality, Gort mentioned as an old servant of hers again. Hans' bio states many elves who live in forests choose bows as their weapon because they have excellent vision. This a regular fantasy thing but I don't remember seeing it in Shining content before.

There's one battle screenshot where Max has less HP and is named Hans so I feel his battle sprite wasn't done at this point. Also I didn't bring attention to it in the previous post but a lot of these battle scenes have misnamed enemies as well, it seems this skeleton was a placeholder for a lot.

December 1991

Again Max has his final portrait at this point. He has 99MP and Blaze and Heal 4, Heal having a placeholder icon. He carries the Sword of Darkness, which has a different icon, the Power Ring, and the Forbidden Box, a well documented debug item.

Nothing new in character profiles, Guntz is again referred to as a beastman, Tao is again referred to as a forest elf unlike the others. I will again bring up that the term is used for Nigel in Landstalker, and Tao and Princess Lara there have basically the same art. Does this mean something? Likely no.

Also something I failed to notice in the previous post: at this point, Tao's shoulder gems are miscolored in her portrait. Her art is already done so I assume it's a small mistake.

Enemy descriptions are mostly the same, and again the Mimic shows up.

Again there's a section dedicated to Yogurt, which is mostly the same. It specifies he eats bugs besides berries, and says he "understand human speech, but can't (won't) talk". In the JP version he does say only a single sentence, "I don't get it", so perhaps this was dropped, or he is learning.

It is also said that he's kinda popular with the force members, especially the girls, but again no one could make him a pet. We then get doodles of his secret events, and yes different doodles than last time.

January 1992

This issue gives a good look into the beta menu icons. I won't show them all here, but the icon for putting characters on the active team shows a centaur which, really gets what the game's about i guess.

There's a screenshot with Earnest's portrait but the name is actually Vankar, perhaps his portrait wasn't done yet. Or these guys changed names during production.

On the screens showing off battle graphics, Hans has Diane's palette. That is to say, the exact same palette but pink hair.

Also not to get distracted but I took a quick look at the editor and yes, despite being one of the first characters, the archer sprites are index 9 in the data, preceded by Gong and Khris, and more curiously, Guntz and Domingo, who are at index 3 and 5 respectively.

February 1992

This one was already scanned in Sega Retro and is actually how I started looking into these things. The new scans are likely better quality though, they're really good.

March 1992

The game's released, but unlike the other magazine, early build material still slipped into this one.

"Am I being of service to you? Since I'm fighting to the ends of my MP..."

Tao had this goofy, less immersive line at HQ (remember to compare it to the final JP one, the english version is its own beast). Curiously, the GBA version changed her first line back to a question. Note also that she still has the wrong portrait here.

Veeeery small detail but there's a screenshot of the Rune Knight at the first battle talking only to goblins as opposed to goblins and dwarves. Coupled with all the screenshots we see from this battle it's safe to say the dwarves were a late addition.

Finally, minister Ward had his own portrait.