#and YES. i checked the backup files

[we-cool-beans]

I just accidentally deleted some drawings by staying up past midnight and closing the whole window and telling my computer that “yes i would like to kill all those things that i spent hours on” and they are gone now. Drawings dead. Everything needs to stop touching me im going to chuck rocks at the moon

[krilati]

Tim, who is not Robin, but still feral

Okay, let's say Tim's parents decide that even if their child doesn't need a nanny, they want someone to check on their son's well-being. So Tim is required to go to the doctor once a week. And after he tried to bribe his first one to just tell his parents everything was fine. Janette decided it would be someone else each time.

Tim gets a car once a week that picks him up to see a doctor he doesn't know.

That way he doesn't have time to search for dirt, and he can't bribe anyone, since everyone drinks his mother more than him.

So after Nightwing turned Tim down (Dick later claimed the boy was black-haired and blue-eyed, but since he was often hallucinating Jason at the time, even he wasn't sure). The guy realized he couldn't go to Batman and insist on being Robin. The first fracture (which is 100% likely to happen in the early days of jumping on roofs and kicking angry adults) and the doctor would hand him over to his parents.

So Tim came up with a Plan.

Batman was angry, for a month now someone, every patrol, has been standing up for criminals. If he's lucky, he manages to land 5 hits (dude, your 1 hit can put a person in the hospital, Tim just has short legs, he still needs to run to the edge of the necessary roof) when someone distracts him.

Last time, they poured a bucket of paint on his head, it became almost impossible to see through the mask. Another time, they shot paintballs at his head until he left.

There was another memorable incident when something small landed on his head, and the next moment he was attacked by bats.

But today he finally cornered the attacker, it was a child whose face was hidden behind a mask that completely covered his face, and his hair was hidden behind a hood. He slowly approached the boy, he needed to find out who he worked for. Who decided that they had the right to interfere with him punishing criminals.

Only when Batman grabbed the attacker by the shoulder he felt dizzy and then everything around him went dark. Tim quietly patted himself on the head for the backup plan of the backup plan.

After waking up, Batman did not feel calmer, on the contrary, this meeting ignited even more rage in him.

How dare this child run around Gotham so carefree when his son was killed, how dare he protect criminals when one of them killed his son, how dare he..

That day, a file on a new criminal with high priority appeared on the Batcomputer, Alfred only reproachfully pursed his lips.

By the time Red Hood escaped from Talia (Yes, he escaped here, I don't know for sure, but I think Talia was pitting Jason against Tim to ensure her son had direct access to Bruce's legacy). Batman and Tim's confrontations became legendary.

Tim even had his own name and merchandise! Several names, actually, he was called Gotham's Whisperer, the Soul of Shadow, or Little Shadow. And in various Gotham stores you could find little figurines of him with various weapons that he demonstrated during this time.

Nightwing adored the little guy, although he had never met him in person. In fact, no one except Bruce had ever encountered the kid. And although Oracle never officially supported the boy, she never warned Batman if she saw a small dark silhouette through the cameras. Although Dick really wanted to know where the kid got the sniper rifle with tranquilizers, or how he hacked the Batmobile to put a sleeping Bruce in it and send him to the Cave, or how he got so many incriminating photos of Batman that he scattered all over the city when Batman didn't take one of his threats seriously.

Simply put, Nightwing was a fan, and had wanted the kid's autograph ever since the kid evacuated an entire alley, including Bruce, by playing the sound of a pack of rabid dogs approaching.

Batman, though he had passed the peak of his rage, still made Gotham afraid if he was spotted trolling alone.

Red Hood was furious, not only did his father not have the courage to avenge him, but he also dared to splash out his aggression on anyone who was not breathing smoothly on HIS Alley of Crime.

[ddejavvu]

Jake checks to make sure your seatbelt is secure by gently tugging on the strap, acquiescing when it stays firmly in its latch.

the gasp i gusped when i read that ??? could you perhaps use that as a prompt for hotch please 😭🩶 like you’re ALWAYS his passenger princess so whenever you’re riding together he always checks your seatbelt 🥺🤭

Aaron is not one to let anything get in the way of his work. He's also not one to drive without checking your seatbelt latch, though, so when he floors it, going from zero to sixty in the van after a wayward unsub, one of his hands comes off of the wheel to shoot for your waist, feeling blindly, but expertly, for your seatbelt.

"Hotch, drive!" Derek urges from the backseat, where he knows he sits when Hotch is driving. Aaron never makes you take the backseat, so you'd each filed into your places obediently upon the news that the unsub was near.

"I am driving, Morgan," Aaron snaps, voice fraught with tension as he tears down the street, sirens blaring. His fingers feel your latch, wrist jerking as he yanks on it. He only withdraws when he's sure it's locked in place, and you grip the door for stability as he turns left hard.

"He's down on 13th," You read a message from Reid, who often occupies the passengers' seat in his own SUV during chases, "We're on 7th, so keep going the way you're going now."

You barely make it two more blocks before the unsub's car screeches to a stop in the middle of an intersection you're blowing through. Evidently, he'd changed courses, and charging was the only option in his adrenaline-mottled brain. Aaron manages to slam on the breaks enough to stop most of your forward momentum, and he throws that same large hand out to cover your chest so that he can hold you back from jerking forwards at the sudden stop.

Morgan isn't lucky enough to have a protector, but he'd been pushing his palms against the back of your seat, so he doesn't collide with you. In a split second he's tearing the door open and racing after the unsub - now on foot - and a squad of police cars pull in as backup, blocking off the unsub's path.

He's cornered.

It gives you and Aaron time to breathe, not enough oxygen in the world to rectify what had been stolen from you during the near-crash. Your eyes are blown wide and your chest is heaving, and Aaron's head turns towards you to gauge your wellbeing.

"Are you okay?" He pants, brows furrowed in concern as he watches you collect yourself. You nod, disjointedly so, watching as Morgan leads the unsub away in handcuffs towards a police car.

"Thanks for catching me," You pant, "Uh- I might have- I think I'd have hit the dashboard if you didn't."

Aaron winces at the image, but tugs again at your seatbelt, "It would have caught you. But I wanted it to be me instead."

"Me too," You confess, gripping his hand in your shaky one, "Aaron, we- can we drive slow on the way back?"

"Yes," He lets out a weak exhale, something a little more tired than a smile crossing his face as he leans over to kiss your cheek. You're sure he'd rather kiss your lips, but you don't have the energy to turn your head yet, and he knows that. Instead, his lips press sweetly to the corner of your mouth that he can reach, merged with your cheek, and he vows, "We'll drive extra slow, honey, I promise."

[nornities]

How to use DXVK with The Sims 3

Have you seen this post about using DXVK by Criisolate? But felt intimidated by the sheer mass of facts and information?

@desiree-uk and I compiled a guide and the configuration file to make your life easier. It focuses on players not using the EA App, but it might work for those just the same. It’s definitely worth a try.

Adding this to your game installation will result in a better RAM usage. So your game is less likely to give you Error 12 or crash due to RAM issues. It does NOT give a huge performance boost, but more stability and allows for higher graphics settings in game.

The full guide behind the cut. Let me know if you also would like it as PDF.

Happy simming!

Disclaimer and Credits

Desiree and I are no tech experts and just wrote down how we did this. Our ability to help if you run into trouble is limited. So use at your own risk and back up your files!

We both are on Windows 10 and start the game via TS3W.exe, not the EA App. So your experience may differ.

This guide is based on our own experiments and of course criisolate’s post on tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/criisolate/749374223346286592/ill-explain-what-i-did-below-before-making-any

This guide is brought to you by Desiree-UK and Norn.

Compatibility

Note: This will conflict with other programs that “inject” functionality into your game so they may stop working. Notably

Reshade

GShade

Nvidia Experience/Nvidia Inspector/Nvidia Shaders

RivaTuner Statistics Server

It does work seamlessly with LazyDuchess’ Smooth Patch.

LazyDuchess’ Launcher: unknown

Alder Lake patch: does conflict. One user got it working by starting the game by launching TS3.exe (also with admin rights) instead of TS3W.exe. This seemed to create the cache file for DXVK. After that, the game could be started from TS3W.exe again. That might not work for everyone though.

A word on FPS and V-Sync

With such an old game it’s crucial to cap framerate (FPS). This is done in the DXVK.conf file. Same with V-Sync.

You need

a text editor (easiest to use is Windows Notepad)

to download DXVK, version 2.3.1 from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/releases/tag/v2.3.1 Extract the archive, you are going to need the file d3d9.dll from the x32 folder

the configuration file DXVK.conf from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/blob/master/DXVK.conf. Optional: download the edited version with the required changes here.

administrator rights on your PC

to know your game’s installation path (bin folder) and where to find the user folder

a tiny bit of patience :)

First Step: Backup

Backup your original Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path! The DXVK file may overwrite some files! The path should be something like this (for retail): \Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin (This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located.)

Backup your options.ini in your game’s user folder! Making the game use the DXVK file will count as a change in GPU driver, so the options.ini will reset once you start your game after installation. The path should be something like this: \Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 (This is the folder where your Mods folder is located).

Preparations

Make sure you run the game as administrator. You can check that by right-clicking on the icon that starts your game. Go to Properties > Advanced and check the box “Run as administrator”. Note: This will result in a prompt each time you start your game, if you want to allow this application to make modifications to your system. Click “Yes” and the game will load.

2. Make sure you have the DEP settings from Windows applied to your game.

Open the Windows Control Panel.

Click System and Security > System > Advanced System Settings.

On the Advanced tab, next to the Performance heading, click Settings.

Click the Data Execution Prevention tab.

Select 'Turn on DEP for all programs and services except these”:

Click the Add button, a window to the file explorer opens. Navigate to your Sims 3 installation folder (the bin folder once again) and add TS3W.exe and TS3.exe.

Click OK. Then you can close all those dialog windows again.

Setting up the DXVK.conf file

Open the file with a text editor and delete everything in it. Then add these values:

d3d9.textureMemory = 1

d3d9.presentInterval = 1

d3d9.maxFrameRate = 60

d3d9.presentInterval enables V-Sync,d3d9.maxFrameRate sets the FrameRate. You can edit those values, but never change the first line (d3d9.textureMemory)!

The original DXVK.conf contains many more options in case you would like to add more settings.

A. no Reshade/GShade

Setting up DXVK

Copy the two files d3d9.dll and DXVK.conf into the Bin folder in your Sims 3 installation path. This is the folder where also GraphicsRule.sgr and the TS3W.exe and TS3.exe are located. If you are prompted to overwrite files, please choose yes (you DID backup your folder, right?)

And that’s basically all that is required to install.

Start your game now and let it run for a short while. Click around, open Buy mode or CAS, move the camera.

Now quit without saving. Once the game is closed fully, open your bin folder again and double check if a file “TS3W.DXVK-cache” was generated. If so – congrats! All done!

Things to note

Heads up, the game options will reset! So it will give you a “vanilla” start screen and options.

Don’t worry if the game seems to be frozen during loading. It may take a few minutes longer to load but it will load eventually.

The TS3W.DXVK-cache file is the actual cache DXVK is using. So don’t delete this! Just ignore it and leave it alone. When someone tells to clear cache files – this is not one of them!

Update Options.ini

Go to your user folder and open the options.ini file with a text editor like Notepad.

Find the line “lastdevice = “. It will have several values, separated by semicolons. Copy the last one, after the last semicolon, the digits only. Close the file.

Now go to your backup version of the Options.ini file, open it and find that line “lastdevice” again. Replace the last value with the one you just copied. Make sure to only replace those digits!

Save and close the file.

Copy this version of the file into your user folder, replacing the one that is there.

Things to note:

If your GPU driver is updated, you might have to do these steps again as it might reset your device ID again. Though it seems that the DXVK ID overrides the GPU ID, so it might not happen.

How do I know it’s working?

Open the task manager and look at RAM usage. Remember the game can only use 4 GB of RAM at maximum and starts crashing when usage goes up to somewhere between 3.2 – 3.8 GB (it’s a bit different for everybody).

So if you see values like 2.1456 for RAM usage in a large world and an ongoing save, it’s working. Generally the lower the value, the better for stability.

Also, DXVK will have generated its cache file called TS3W.DXVK-cache in the bin folder. The file size will grow with time as DXVK is adding stuff to it, e.g. from different worlds or savegames. Initially it might be something like 46 KB or 58 KB, so it’s really small.

Optional: changing MemCacheBudgetValue

MemCacheBudgetValue determines the size of the game's VRAM Cache. You can edit those values but the difference might not be noticeable in game. It also depends on your computer’s hardware how much you can allow here.

The two lines of seti MemCacheBudgetValue correspond to the high RAM level and low RAM level situations. Therefore, theoretically, the first line MemCacheBudgetValue should be set to a larger value, while the second line should be set to a value less than or equal to the first line.

The original values represent 200MB (209715200) and 160MB (167772160) respectively. They are calculated as 200x1024x1024=209175200 and 160x1024x1024=167772160.

Back up your GraphicsRules.sgr file! If you make a mistake here, your game won’t work anymore.

Go to your bin folder and open your GraphicsRules.sgr with a text editor.

Search and find two lines that set the variables for MemCacheBudgetValue.

Modify these two values to larger numbers. Make sure the value in the first line is higher or equals the value in the second line. Examples for values: 1073741824, which means 1GB 2147483648 which means 2 GB. -1 (minus 1) means no limit (but is highly experimental, use at own risk)

Save and close the file. It might prompt you to save the file to a different place and not allow you to save in the Bin folder. Just save it someplace else in this case and copy/paste it to the Bin folder afterwards. If asked to overwrite the existing file, click yes.

Now start your game and see if it makes a difference in smoothness or texture loading. Make sure to check RAM and VRAM usage to see how it works.

You might need to change the values back and forth to find the “sweet spot” for your game. Mine seems to work best with setting the first value to 2147483648 and the second to 1073741824.

Uninstallation

Delete these files from your bin folder (installation path):

d3d9.dll

DXVK.conf

TS3W.DXVK-cache

And if you have it, also TS3W_d3d9.log

if you changed the values in your GraphicsRule.sgr file, too, don’t forget to change them back or to replace the file with your backed up version.

OR

delete the bin folder and add it from your backup again.

B. with Reshade/GShade

Follow the steps from part A. no Reshade/Gshade to set up DXVK.

If you are already using Reshade (RS) or GShade (GS), you will be prompted to overwrite files, so choose YES. RS and GS may stop working, so you will need to reinstall them.

Whatever version you are using, the interface shows similar options of which API you can choose from (these screenshots are from the latest versions of RS and GS).

Please note: 

Each time you install and uninstall DXVK, switching the game between Vulkan and d3d9, is essentially changing the graphics card ID again, which results in the settings in your options.ini file being repeatedly reset.

ReShade interface

Choose – Vulcan

Click next and choose your preferred shaders.

Hopefully this install method works and it won't install its own d3d9.dll file.

If it doesn't work, then choose DirectX9 in RS, but you must make sure to replace the d3d9.dll file with DXVK's d3d9.dll (the one from its 32bit folder, checking its size is 3.86mb.)

GShade interface

Choose –           

Executable Architecture: 32bit

Graphics API: DXVK

Hooking: Normal Mode

GShade is very problematic, it won't work straight out of the box and the overlay doesn't show up, which defeats the purpose of using it if you can't add or edit the shaders you want to use.

Check the game's bin folder, making sure the d3d9.dll is still there and its size is 3.86mb - that is DXVK's dll file.

If installing using the DXVK method doesn't work, you can choose the DirectX method, but there is no guarantee it works either.

The game will not run with these files in the folder:

d3d10core.dll

d3d11.dll

dxgi.dll

If you delete them, the game will start but you can't access GShade! It might be better to use ReShade.

Some Vulcan and DirectX information, if you’re interested:

Vulcan is for rather high end graphic cards but is backward compatible with some older cards. Try this method with ReShade or GShade first.

DirectX is more stable and works best with older cards and systems. Try this method if Vulcan doesn't work with ReShade/GShade in your game – remember to replace the d3d9.dll with DXVK's d3d9.dll.

For more information on the difference between Vulcan and DirectX, see this article:

https://www.howtogeek.com/884042/vulkan-vs-DirectX-12/

[mionemymind]

Give Me Another Chance

Summary: The five times Y/n asks Wanda to give her another chance and the one time Wanda says yes.

Warnings: Angst, No Happy Ending, Dying, No Part Two?

A/n: Was heavily inspired to write this angst after reading Marry Me by @just-aake Theirs had a happy ending to it so I highly suggest reading their lovely work.

Word Count: 1.6k

Masterlist

“Give me another chance, Wanda,” Y/n pleaded as the two walked through the compound late for their meeting. It was 8:30 am. The group was instructed to arrive for the mission briefing at 8:15 am. Wanda barely had time to brush her teeth before she ran out of her room and immediately bumped into the last person she wanted to speak to, her ex. 

“Shut it, Y/n.” Y/n sighed as she kept her mouth shut. The headache coming from drinking too much poured into her head like a tsunami. “I blame you if we get the short end of this mission.” Before Y/n could respond, the two finally arrived at the conference room.

“You’re late.” Steve deadpanned. “We-” 

“No excuses Y/n, you and Wanda are on backup duty. Stay in the quinjet until asked.” Wanda groveled silently as she was handed the mission file by Natasha. Y/n stood behind Bucky and peered over his notes. 

“This was going to be a long day,” Y/n thought. 

“Give me another chance, Wanda,” Y/n begged through the phone. She was walking through the bustling streets of downtown New York to find Wanda. The girl had mysteriously gone out for the night and decided to tell no one about her location. This was nothing new to the team, even Natasha knew it was something that Wanda did to feel better about herself after their breakup.

But tonight felt different to Y/n. It was already past midnight and Wanda hadn’t come back home. Y/n called again only for the phone to go straight to voicemail for the 10th time tonight. “Watch where you’re going asshole!” 

“Sorry,” Y/n mouthed as she walked away. Realistically, Y/n knew that Wanda could handle herself even if she was impaired, her magic subconsciously protected her in situations like this. But the worry that pitted her stomach told her otherwise. 

“Where could you be?” Y/n thought out loud. Looking around the surrounding buildings, Y/n’s eyes settled on the Chrysler building. Like a light bulb, a switch flipped in her head. Running to the nearest empty alleyway, Y/n called for her suit and flew to the top of the building. 

In all her glory there was Wanda lying on the edge of the Chrysler building. Her cheeks were flushed as she held the near empty bottle on her stomach. The remainder of the six-pack lay waste on the floor. Wanda didn’t know how much time had passed since she started drinking. The near numbness in her lips indicated that it had been a while. 

Y/n landed with a soft thud, not wanting to scare Wanda off.  She checked her watch and it was already 2:00 am, a new record for Wanda. Leaving her suit behind, Y/n walked slowly to Wanda. Once she was within arm's reach, Y/n securely held her by the waist. 

“What are you doing here?” Wanda didn’t have to turn her head to know who it was. The feeling of sensing Y/n was something she used to enjoy. Now it was just a constant reminder of their failed relationship. 

“I’m here to take you home. It’s late Wanda.” Wanda sighed as she let Y/n gently grab the bottle from her hand. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“You’re drunk Wanda.” 

“And you’re the asshole that left me.” Y/n ignored the insult thrown her way and picked Wanda up bridal style. “You’re gonna get hypothermia if you stay out here.” Y/n looked down at Wanda when she didn’t respond back. The brunette was already deep asleep as she nuzzled her head into Y/n’s chest. 

When Wanda woke up the next day, she refused to ask who took her home. Not when her thoughts already lingered about Y/n. 

“Give me another chance, Wanda,” Y/n whispered as she held Wanda’s hand. The brunette was dressed in an all-black skin-tight dress with high heels. She even put make-up on to feel better for the occasion. 

“You don’t deserve me.” Wanda walked away from Y/n and to the open elevator. Their eyes met again as the doors closed. Once she was fully out of sight, Wanda let a tear fall. “Why must you make it so hard for me to move on?” 

“Give me another chance-”

“Are you serious right now?” Wanda was in disbelief. “You. Fucked. Up.” She poked at Y/n’s chest. “Not me. And now you want me to seriously give you another chance?

“I understand that I fucked up-”

“No! You don’t! You broke up with me and left me to sort things out by myself. And cowardly enough, you went on a mission just to avoid talking to me.”

“Let me explain-”

“Explain? What is there to explain? I’ve begged and begged so many times before for you to tell me the truth. Each time you would shut me out and disappear. You never had the decency to tell me anything. But now when it’s convenient for you, I suddenly am the bad guy for not hearing you out. “

Wanda shoved Y/n out of her room. “All you did was make me wonder why I ever deserved that type of treatment when all I ever did was love you.”

“I’m sorry I keep messing things up,” Y/n groaned. The bruises on her chest made it hard to breathe or maybe it was the blood she could taste in her mouth. Regardless, everything hurts. “I wasn’t really thinking when I broke up with you back then.” 

Wanda ignored the burning feeling in her chest as she continued to rip apart the indestructible chair Y/n was cuffed to. “Are you serious right now? Y/n please use your fucking smart brain and help me get you out.” 

Wanda concentrated back on her powers to try and rip apart one of the steel cuffs. When the cuff didn’t give, Wanda stopped in frustration. “Why isn’t this working?” 

“‘Cause they knew you would be the one to get me.” Wanda furrowed her brows, not understanding who “they” was. “What are you talking about?” 

A loud pitch echoed through the chambers as the intercom turned on. “Countdown commences. Ten minutes till detonation.” The large screen behind Wanda flickered as the countdown was displayed in bright red. 

“Tony! I need you to locate the bomb. Y/n is stuck in this chair and I can’t get her out of it.” Wanda looked around the room once more but the lack of controls and buttons made it feel useless. 

Wanda hurried back to Y/n at the sound of her coughing up more blood. “What did they do to you dekta?” Y/n tried her best to grin, not wanting to show Wanda how much pain she was in. 

“You’ve done worse to me in training,” Y/n joked but none of it sat right with Wanda’s conscience. Using her shirt, Wanda wiped part of the blood that came out. She used her free hand to locate the source of the bleeding. 

“Wanda,” her green eyes focused on the brown eyes she loved. “I think I’m dying.” 

“Shh shh - don’t talk like that dekta.” Wanda located a small tear inside Y/n’s organs and used her magic to pause the bleeding. “We’re gonna get you out of here.” 

“I’m sorry for all the times I’ve failed you.” 

“What-”

“And I’m sorry for leaving you.” 

“Now is not the time-” 

“We’re out of time my love.” Y/n glanced to the screen in front of them. Only five minutes left before it detonated. 

“Any updates Tony?! We have five minutes left!” Wanda yelled. 

“I’m trying my best here. We’re swarmed!”

“Wanda - I need you to listen-”

“No!” Wanda declared. She looked at Y/n with a deadly stare. “Stop acting like that - like this is our last chance.” Wanda refused to believe that the world would be cruel to let the love of her life slip past her. Not when they haven’t sorted everything out. Not when things are still bad. 

“I love you,” Y/n whispered with a tired smile. Wanda could feel Y/n’s energy draining by the second. The longer she went without medical attention, the slimmer her chances of survival grew. She gripped on Y/n’s shirt, trying her best to keep her cries at bay. 

“Don’t-” Wanda sobbed as tears fell down her face. “This isn’t how I wanted you to confess. I deserve a confession where dying isn’t involved.” 

“One minute remaining,” the announcement said. Y/n’s eyes started to droop. Her consciousness was slipping by the second. Wanda cupped Y/n’s cheek and lightly tapped her face. 

“Wake up dekta.” Y/n slowly opened her eyes. “Ask me again.” 

“What?” 

“Tell me you want me back.” Wanda pressed her forehead against Y/n’s. “Tell me to give you another chance and I will. I’ll give you all the chances in the world so just ask me.” 

“Wanda…will you give me another chance my love?”

0:00

The world slowed down as the bomb deep under the building blew up. Wanda could feel the blast reaching to them as she created a magic barrier that surrounded her and Y/n. And as it continued to explode around them, Wanda leaned in and kissed Y/n hoping that the last thing the dying girl felt was her love. 

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[iwritestuffthatiobsessover]

Ninjago Headcanons from an elder fan

Part 1

There is a group chat, and it pops off all hours of the day. And often the conversation is being texted in all caps, or voice messages of the ninja yelling at each other.

Skylor was added to it but left because there were too many notifications while she was working.

Zane will take selfies in the middle of the battle and send it to the group chat

Nya begs him to stop doing it but Zane thinks it's hilarious

Kai is a material girl; he does his skincare, haircare, and body care and will often pester Nya about where she goes to fix herself up for dates.

Ninjas who ride cycles also wear helmets, which increases their attractiveness by 200%.

Lloyd has taken on the man bun. Yes, it does work out for him.

Jay is severely underrated. He's strong, average-sized, and has freckles all over. This dude is a ninja and commonly climbs high places to practice his element. He's got to have that nice upper body strength.

Cole's the tallest, heaviest, and strongest. He's pure muscle, but he's also a gentle giant when he's not in battle. Even sparring, he'll go easy in an effort to not hurt his friends.

He will, however, pick Jay up and just carry him out of the room if he gets too aggravating.

Nya will still tinker with mech, and often spends time with Pixal doing so. They're lesbians, and Nya taught Pixal how to be more self-assured and independent.

Pixal's life revolved around serving other people, and she had to be taught how to serve herself.

Zane and Pixal are similar to how the D:BH androids function. They can download any file, and research anything, but once it comes to human experiences and emotions, they have to take their time and learns from being hands-on.

That's why it took so long for Zane to catch on to simple emotions and phrases, and why he still has trouble even if he's made improvements.

Zane and Nya are close friends, they were the oddballs before Lloyd showed up.

Nya and Lloyd are also really close because of this, and while as a child he loved to annoy her, he actually really looked up to her.

Babysit isn't the proper wording, but Nya definitely looked after Lloyd and taught him the basic functions of how to take care of himself.

Kai as well, the Smith's were the closest thing to a pair of siblings Lloyd could've had growing up, and their bond still stays strong.

Lloyd still clings onto remnants of his short childhood. He will do things to heal his inner child.

There's articles and social media posts catching him swinging on a swingset with Cole, or getting icecream with Kai. He'll even go to a comic-con or two...or ten.

While the ninja aren't necessarily paid for their efforts, the city will give them a check every so often whenever Ninjago is saved by a big baddie.

However, if there are casualties or if the city is destroyed (Ex. The Great Devourer), that money will go back into repairing the city.

But, Nya keeps the finances in check, and knows how to haggle for anything the team may need (she threatens the salespeople).

But even with the extra money, some will seek a second responsibility. Pixal will do hybrid part-time jobs, and Jay will pick up a delivery contract for example. Something to take a break from daily training and punching bad guys.

They still have their golden weapon vehicles because I said so, and I like people on motorcycles. They also have spare backups that Nya has built from scratch. She almost strangled Jay for crashing that one.

And yes, Nya has a motorcycle, too.

But all in all, they've found each other as family, and it's ride or die with all of them. Especially Zane.

[outro-jo]

skz with autistic partners

pairing: stray kids members x reader

type: scenario

summary: how the skz members help their autistic partners

warning: mentions overstimulation, touch in han’s, food, non speaking periods, stimming

a/n: happy autism awareness/acceptance month! i am fully aware of my autism and have come to accept it 🙃 yes, i am autistic and some of these scenarios i have experienced myself. also they’re all probably good at a lot of these but i just stuck to like one (twoish for hannie) per… thing. idk i can’t think. i wrote skz first bc they felt the safest when it came to being autistic/nd but lmk if y’all want any other groups

masterlist | info

———————————

chan- chris makes a big mistake every few months by showing you a new song he’s working on and it triggers your auditory stim. he’ll have to email you the file so you can listen to it on repeat until the next one is finished. all it takes is a look and he sighs knowing he has to send you the file right away. 

lee know- the best at respecting you during your non speaking periods. he finds all kinds of different ways to communicate without you having to speak. it’s usually by text but sometimes he’ll use his hands for opinions and even learn a little sign language. he’s also careful not to talk too much or be too loud bc he knows these times are usually bc you’re overstimulated.

changbin- always keeps a backup pair of headphones in his bag. you’re usually pretty good about charging your headphones before going anywhere but just in case, he’s got a pair on standby.

hyunjin- super careful with his art. one time he drew something that slightly resembled holes and you were so triggered you screamed off and on for like an hour. 

han- great at deep pressure. he always checks before hugging or touching you but if you’re feeling overstimulated and need a tight hug, jisung’s your man. also really great at body doubling so you can get some work done.

felix- truly the best when it comes to safe foods. he knows if it’s not safe, you don’t eat and he wants to make sure you always eat. good at making excuses for other people when you’re out so you can eat your safe foods and not feel judged. always has some kind of safe snack in his bag. 

seungmin- best listener. he’ll ask you one or two questions about your special interests and let’s you talk as much as you want. even if he has absolutely no interest in the topic, he still just likes for you to talk about it as much as you want. also loves when you just start talking about it randomly. 

i.n- BEST PEBBLER!!! not only does he love when you give him little random gifts but he’s really the best at giving gifts. he always finds the coolest rocks it’s truly insane. he keeps his little collection of trinkets you give him lined up on his dresser (it’s lined up perfectly and it’s so satisfying). if you’re into bugs he also sends you pics of the bugs he finds.

[leiascully]

X-Files OctoberFicFest Day 30: Light Refreshments

"Hello?"

"Mulder, it's Assistant Director Skinner. Any updates?"

"No, sir." Mulder shifted a little in his seat. "Agent Scully and I are, uh, continuing the stakeout. We've been observing the building for the past few hours. It appears to be unoccupied."

"Interesting," Skinner said. "We have intel about that building specifically."

"They could be in the basement, sir," Mulder suggested. He lifted two fingers to his throat and loosened his tie slightly. "We might not see the lights from here."

"That's a good point," Skinner mused. "Maybe I should send additional agents to check in with you and Scully."

"Ah," Mulder said, loosening his tie a little more. "I think we've got it covered for now."

"You don't want backup?"

"No, no. We're... fine. We have eyes on the only known exit with basement access," Mulder said. He unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, and then undid one more button. "According to the plans. Mm. I think it's... fine."

"Let me know if the situation changes," Skinner said, sounding dubious. "There're only a couple more hours on your shift."

"Yes," Mulder said. "True. We've got this. Sir."

"Does Agent Scully have anything to add?" Skinner asked.

"Scully," Mulder said. "Um. No. She, ah... she went to the restroom. At the gas station. So. Yeah."

"Are you all right, Agent Mulder?"

"Yes... sir," Mulder said. "I'm, um, I'm a little... thirsty. Scully... mmm. Scully's going to bring me, ummmm, a soda."

"That's kind of her."

"Yeah. Anyway. No... action here. Sir. All quiet."

"I'll check in again," Skinner said, and hung up.

"Fuck," Mulder said. He dropped his phone down the side of the seat, his hand fisting in Scully's hair. His head tipped back against the headrest as he panted. "Scully." He shuddered, a whole body gesture that made the car rock slightly.

Scully raised her head, wiping her mouth delicately with the back of her wrist. Mulder tucked himself back into his boxers and zipped up his trousers with shaking hands. At least there wasn't any clean up to do—Scully had taken care of that.

"I'm not sure it counts as road head if you weren't driving," she said.

"It counts for something," he said. "I had to talk to Skinner while you were down there. Goddamn, Scully, do I want to know where you learned to do that?"

"Catholic school." She had a Cheshire cat smirk. "I'm amazed you held off, and frankly a little disappointed in myself."

"I was this close." He held up his thumb and index finger, just a fraction of an inch apart, peering through the gap. "I thought about how much I hate Spender and that kept me from moaning in Skinner's ear."

"Maybe he would have enjoyed it." She raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe so," Mulder said. "Tell you what, you can talk to him the next time he calls, and I'll be the one getting a soda." He waggled his eyebrows. "I've got a thirst only you can slake, Scully."

"I look forward to the challenge of not moaning in Skinner's ear while I'm riding your face in the back seat," she said primly, and Mulder did moan at that.

"You don't play," he said admiringly.

"I don't know about that," Scully said, gazing steadily at him. "I think I play for keeps."

"Then I'm glad you're winning," Mulder told her.

Her smile was bright in the dim of the streetlight. "Me too."

[xf-cases-solved]

S1E14: Gender Bender

Case: In what is arguably one of the most "why did you write this??" plots so far, our dynamic duo (per Mulder's request, I might add) investigate the deaths of five victims who appear to have, like... been fucked to death? Or something?

Actually I have to interrupt my own summary here, bc I just looked up the Wikipedia page (yes, bc I was trying to remember the state, shut up), and Glen Morgan is apparently quoted as saying he wanted "an episode with more of a sexy edge." How that ended up being this particular episode, I cannot say. That is an X-File in and of itself.

But I digress. People are dying of mb really high levels of pheromones caused by super mind-blowing sex. Sure. Also no one is sure if this killer is male or female. (They somehow manage to not even entertain the idea that any of the victims might have been gay, which I thought was an impressive feat of elephant avoidance.)

ANYWAY. Their investigation leads them to Massachusetts, where a bunch of sci-fi not-Amish people are chilling out doing not-Amish people things. Stuff kind of just snowballs from there. Mulder jumps down into the not-Amish people's ritual cellar with no backup and then proceeds to reprimand Scully for being reckless; Scully (for the first, but unfortunately not last time) almost bangs someone bc she is being manipulated due to some supernatural phenomenon; I laugh A LOT alone in my work office bc I had forgotten the stupid twist ending; and Nicholas Lea is a starving artist who has to take the roles he's offered if he ever wants to be bumped up to recurring character status. Sigh. Hustling the club scene used to be so simple...

Does someone die in the cold open: Yes. He is fucked to death. Or something.

Does Mulder present a slideshow: Yes! Of dead people! Who were fucked to death! Or something!

Does the evidence survive the investigation: The evidence doesn't even stay on this planet.

Whodunit: A horny alien cosplaying as a gender fluid Amish person. No, seriously.

Convictions: Zip.

Did they solve it: No. This is my very first explicit no with no qualifiers. They 1. did not figure out the cause of death definitively, 2. did not apprehend the suspect, 3. lost literally all of their evidence, and 4. the government wasn't even hiding anything this time, they just got outsmarted by some horny aliens and were left with nothing. In fact, I bet they actually know less now than when they started. Failure from top to bottom, guys, good work.

[how do i determine if a case is solved? check the scale here: x]

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY: Anxiously clenching your butthole while crossing your fingers and praying that your faves don't say anything TOO problematic. Are you educated in the systematic inequalities facing minorities in the world? Are you aware of how socially accepted language and behaviors have evolved over time to become more inclusive and less prejudiced? Do you also happen to be watching a show that was made pre-21st century, and "oh god, are they doing an episode that revolves around *gender*? Oh Christ. Oh no. Oh God"? Never fear! Anxiously clenching your butthole while crossing your fingers and praying that your faves don't say anything TOO problematic is here!

*This product is versatile, and can also be used in a variety of situations, including, but not limited to: Seeing your favorite celebrity's name trending online and not being sure why; introducing your trans friend to your socially conservative grandma; or being forced to listen to your boss's opinions on "woke culture" after your coworker casually mentioned seeing a black person in a new TV show.

Get clenchin'!

***

General Total Stats:

(green means stat has changed since last ep; red means new stat added to list)

Total Cases *Definitively* Solved So Far: 6 (streak ended. brutally)

Total Number of "Mulder/Scully, it's me" phone calls: 1

Total Number of Times Scully Has Conveniently Not Seen Something Crucial: 4

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Been in Mortal Danger: 5

Total Number of Times Scully Has Been in Mortal Danger: 4 (upped it another half point, bc i don't thiiiink the guy coercing her intended to put her life in danger. he just ("just") wanted to sexually assault her, but also apparently fucking those guys kills you, so. another toss up)

Total Number of Sexually Charged, Uncomfortably intimate, and/or Flirty Moments Between Friendly Coworkers: 8 (for an episode that was meant to have a "sexy edge," it was deeply unhorny all around, even between our good good coworkers. they should have brought back that horny fire expert from episode 12 to bring up the heat, pun not intended)

Total Number of Autopsies Scully Has Performed On Screen: 1

Total Number of Times Scully Plays Doctor: 1

Total Number of Times Mulder Talks to an Informant: 5

Total Number of Times People Making Out in a Car Are Hurt or Killed: 2 (when i made that stat, part of me was like "mb i am misremembering how often that happens, and it won't even come up that much," and then it happened in the very next episode)

Total Number of Nosebleeds: 4

Total Number of Times Mulder Has Tasted/Sniffed/Touched Something Questionable Without Following Proper Safety Procedures: 2 (don't touch and sniff the weird alien goo wall??? i know for a FACT you keep rubber gloves in your pocket)

Total Number of Times Someone Says "Trust No One": 1

Total Number of Times Someone Says "I Want to Believe": 2

Total Number of Cigarettes Cigarette Smoking Man Has Smoked: 2

Total Number of Maggie Scully Sightings: 1

Total Number of Alex Krycek Sightings: still 0, but like, uh... definitely the closest we've come so far

Total Number of Times I Had to Look Up What State the Episode Takes Place in Even Though I Literally Just Watched It: 4 ½ (yeah i couldn't even pretend that i paid attention)

Total Number of Times I Had to Look at an Episode's Wikipedia Page to Fill This Out Because It Was Fucking Confusing and/or Too Boring for Me to Pay Attention: 2 (i didn't need to, but i did read the wikipedia page anyway just out of pure curiosity, bc why did they write that episode? i mean like, i was entertained, which ig makes it a win, but also just... why?)

[ourloveiselectrifying]

Hello hello! It's me DFP

I'm wondering where you learned/are you learning to Code? I find the structure of your game quite entertaining and I like to take a little inspiration from it (If I'm allowed)

And I tried to make images that are options but apparently I'm still a long way from leaving the beta of my projects So I wanted to seek advice from you

(Also, if this is not the correct account to ask this I apologize, but if you have some very good advice that can help me please feel free to go to my DMs)

Hello DFP! :3 (I'm not exactly sure what you mean by structure sorry, but probably yes haha) 

I didn't learn coding. In fact, the scariest part of my game is the code itself! I would like to take classes in art and coding someday! It's just not a great time in my country to be spending money atm ahahahaha- (cries in national housing and inflation crisis)

If you're using Renpy to make a VN, smart people would recommend giving the Renpy and Python's offcal guides a good look and watching Renpy tutorials on youtube.

For me, I'm the kinda person that only takes in information by dissecting and breaking things, then learning from the mistakes. I looked at the front page of the Python pdf, and it made my ADHD repossess my body despite being on the max dose of ritalin. I immediately closed it then skimmed through the Renpy quickstart, not really taking in any of the information, jumped right into designing the main menu, minced up the code, caught a bunch of errors, and had to check out fourms for fixes.

Have some random tips that may or may not be helpful since I don't know your skill level and I, am infact, not skilled in Renpy, I have no idea what I'm doing half the time! :3

Make new files for everything, don't just put it all in the script or it's going to get ridiculous.

Scripts get LONG use # and add notes, so you can CTRL + F and find stuff easily.

If you're like me, check out renpy's reddit/lemma soft fourms, if you're not getting good goog search results, it might be the words you're using, I had this issue a lot, try changing up words in your question (options/preferences/choices/decisions)

When you're learning copy and paste the code/answer, once you know the the code and can type it out fast, then starting manually typing it out.

Always check the dates on posts, there's a bunch of old renpy guides/fourms that don't work anymore.

There is more than one way to skin a dingo (sorry kevin), if you've found a fix that seems ridiculous but it's working, keep it!

If you have anger problems prepare to get fuckin' pissed off! Before you start coding have a coffee/bottle of water/energy drink beside you, so you have to walk away to take angry piss breaks and can clear your head.

If you absolutely cannot figure something out, make a copy, put it aside and work on something else until you're a little more skilled.

I have three copies of olie, the one that works, the one that I'm experimenting on, and the one on a USB I copy when I get drunk and forget which is my "fuck around" code and which is my "don't touch it, it works" code and I annihilate my game. Make regular backups to your USB for any emergencies, houses burn down. Limit your drinking while coding.

Compare code to the game base if you're coming up with errors. Goog the exact error that pops up when the game crashes. (renpy expected statement)

Click the blue text and it'll take you to it. Sometimes it's not very accurate and you need to look a little above or below the line the error happened. 70% of the time your error is a missing space or "," or an extra space!

I also recommend checking out all the shortcuts on your code editing software (I'm using visual studio code!) I was manually adding indents to each line, which was wasting an insane amount of time LMAO ;w; 

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by images that are options, but I'm guessing an imagebutton? If you search "renpy imagebutton" there's a few forums and tutorials that will guide you but it's like this.

You need a screen for your buttons, an image, if you're feeling funky add transforms to the button, else just use a different image for idle/hover!

Add the anchor before you do xpos/ypos because it messes around with the positions and you'll have to re-adjust the xpos/ypos again. You need anchor for the transitions to work properly.

If you want the button to make a sound on click add activate_sound or remove it if you don't want one, it's optional.

This is how you make the transform, you can do a TON of different transforms. This is a simple idle/hover transform. ease is the animation type/speed, alpha is transparency, 1.0 is fully visible, 0.0 is transparent, at 0.5 on idle, it has a dimmed effect. the zoom makes it bigger. Make a new file for this one!

Buttons have a TON of actions to choose from, this is a time I actually would checkout renpy's offical guides. This one does the same as a jump at the end of a label or choice.

If you want your game to not pause when your buttons are visible, just use "show screen nameofthescreenhere zorder 20" (zorder is the layers, 20 is like usually the top, you can go higher though)

If you want your game to pause while the screen is up, use call screen instead of show!

I probably won't do too many of these coding/renpy support things on my tumblr but, OLIE'S discord server has a few game dev channels for coding support if you'd want to join there! :3

I wish you well and goodluck on your game!!! 💖🫡🍀

[laurabwrites]

WIP I'm Accepting I Will Never Write

My brain has been generating too many Star Wars ideas for me ever reasonably get around to writing all of them, so I'm going to start dumping them on here (maybe AO3 as well, not sure yet) once I've accepted it's an idea I won't get to. So, to start off:

Anakin got Arrested at the Start of the War

In this one, Anakin's massacre on Tatooine was revealed shortly into the war (Qui-Gon Jinn's ghost, A'Shared Hett or Padmé having a conscience, doesn't matter it's not the point of the idea and I don't think it affects the plot). Anakin goes to Jedi jail in the Temple and the war proceeds apace.

At the end of the war, when Palpatine sets off Order 66, the Temple Guard who in another timeline became the Grand Inquisitor lets Anakin out. They would be killing all the Jedi, but somehow the Jedi have been alerted and the Temole seems strangely light on clone troopers they could be using as backup. The Grand Inquisitor knows this, Anakin doesn't. He's been in Jedi jail and has no idea what normal operations in the Temple have looked like for the past three year. They manage to get to the atrium of the Temple with the objective of getting out and rounding up some clone troopers to come back with. Except there's this Tortuga fighting both of them. She's not getting in any hits in on them but this scrappy, can't be more than 16, 17-year-old is holding both of them off while simultaneously organizing the Padawans and Initiates to grab younglings and run.

Then the 212th enters, Cody and Rex frog marching Obi-Wan in.

Which gives Anakin the opportunity to villain monologue about the Jedi Order not understanding emotion, they threw him away, Palpatine recognizes his true power, Obi-Wan will see the destruction of everything he holds dear, blah blah blah. Basically entitled white boy I did no wrong (ignore the dead children), you'll regret being so mean to me (enforcing the consequences of my own actions), ranting regurgitating Palpatine's bullshit about Jedi.

Meanwhile, the Grand Inquisitor is noting that a lot of kids are safely getting the fuck outta Dodge and the 212th is getting some good lines of fire. Why are they letting Anakin monologue instead of enacting Order 66?

Finally as Anakin is winding down, Obi-Wan speaks up: yes but, you see, you made one critical mistake.

Anakin, sneering: oh what's that

Obi-Wan: you hurt your Padawan-sister

Obi-Wan Force pushes Ahsoka and every remaining kid out of range while the entire 212th opens fire on Anakin and Grand Inquisitor.

Inquisitor is dead on the ground (sorry buddy, you were just a plot device to get Anakin out of his cell and show off how badass Ahsoka is with Soreasu mixed into her Jar'dai (I think I spelled those right...)). Anakin is on his Force bullshit, not quite dead, as Obi-Wan, Cody, and Rex come over to check.

Anakin: you won't finish me off, you're a Jedi, you're too weak.

Rex putting three rounds in his chest and three in his head: I'm no Jedi, slaver.

Backstory to get to this scene that slammed into me like a ton of bricks months and months ago:

212th never split the 501st off since Anakin wasn't there to get Knighted. Therefore Fives went to Obi-Wan when he found the chip. Obi-Wan got Shaak Ti to distract the Kaminoans, so Quinlan (or another Shadow, but I like using Quinlan for the known connection to Obi-Wan) could dig in Kaminoans' files and find documentation as well as an emergency counter signal. Obi-Wan dechipped his battalion anyway, not wanting to rely on the counter signal being permanent. They then jammed Coruscant's communications when Cody got the Order from Palpatine. 212th then uses the counter signal on the Corries, as they go to the Temple to grab whatever Masters were on planet. The clones and a fourth of the Council go kill Palpatine as he's declaring the Empire on the floor of the Senate.

[enigmatist17]

I've got you Anon <3

If anyone else would like to ask me anything, go for it!

------

Their latest campaign has been a disaster, and Plo Koon does his best to locate the bodies of his men among the debris.

He only manages to find about ten of them, and he hopes the Force takes the lost children he cannot find into its embrace.

The ride back to The Triumphant is a somber one, and after a general debriefing, Plo Koon just seems to vanish before anyone notices. It's not often he uses his Jetti powers on them, so the alarm bells are already ringing among the bridge crew. Plo Koon's quarters are not where a traditional Jetti's is located, the man having moved to the lower decks to be able to be a few floors above his men's barracks. He enjoyed meditating and feeling the ebb and flow of his children in the Force, and they enjoyed having their buir close by.

This made it quite easy for a few worried troopers to go check in on the Jetti, led by Comet who bypassed the lock with ease.

"I do not believe I've called anyone." Plo Koon is hovering in the air, meditating in front of his window bathed with the glow of hyperspace. He may be no Jetti, but Comet knows when someone is trying to put on the illusion of keeping busy, so he steps inside without hesitation.

"No offense general, but you did." The commander didn't flinch when the master craned his head towards him and knelt down beside the other. There's a moment before Plo sets himself on the floor, and the other troopers who had been standing at the door slowly file inside.

"Did you need backup?" He feels someone kneel behind him, and another trooper sits by his other side.

"Yes."

"I see."

Plo can feel the concern and worry from his children all but being shouted into the Force, and his already aching heart feels worse.

"You've said we can come to you for anything buir..." The trooper behind him starts, and after a moment, continues. "We want to return the favor, like you have so many times before. No one should mourn alone."

"...it gets harder every time you fall." The way Plo's shoulders slump made the troopers spike with worry, and Comet takes the action to hug the Jetti to his side.

"Go, get a space ready." The commander glances over his shoulder, and the troopers were up and gone before Plo could even blink. He really should say something, but leaning against Comet with his constant thrum of safety concern love is just so comforting, he can't possibly move, can he?

Eventually, his door opens, and so many of his children seem to flood his room. They've got a few mattresses, pillows, and blankets that Plo had brought on board, and as one they move his furniture to the hallway temporarily to have more floor space. Soon the nest is complete, and Plo gets to his feet to inspect the construct.

"You all amaze me every day."

"We can say that same." Wolffe said as he entered, still not pleased with Plo running from them instead of confiding, but not surprised. He's holding a mug of something, and watches as Plo sits in the middle of the cushion pile in his meditation pose.

No one was sure who would move first, but to no one's surprise, it was Wolffe. The officer is able to slip out of his boots easily enough, offering Plo the cup in his hand as he props himself up with a pillow. It's his favorite tea, and the Jedi sips slowly as slowly, more men join the commander. The Jedi watches those who can't wait just sit around, chatting softly about random things while pouring support and love into the Force, as if they'd been trained like any other Padawan. He's not sure when he leans back against Wolffe, nor when another one of his children hugs his other side, but the Jedi opens himself to the Force.

It does feel better to mourn with those who understand, and for once draw some strength so as not to lose himself in the pain.

Plo Koon doesn't have nightmares, the love from his children driving them far away.

[paluding]

Introducing... The Tattooer!

[This version is OUTDATED! Please, check the new version here. I updated the workflow, skipping a lot of unnecessary Photoshop editing. It's way faster! I'll leave this old version and files up though, for archiving purposes. But yeah I still totally recommend you use the new version!]

Finally! I’ve been working on this for so long and I couldn’t wait to share it. This is a series of Blender template files already set up to quickly bake textures from The Sims 4 to The Sims 2. Really neat for cc creators! The different Blender files will allow you to:

-Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Female) -Bake body textures from TS4 to TS2 (Male) -Bake body textures from TS4 (Female) to TS2 (Male) -Bake body textures from TS2 (Female) to TS2 (Male) [Bonus!] -Bake head textures from TS4 to TS2 (Face + Scalp) [Experimental]

Check the file names to see which one is which, and the resolution of the baked texture it will give. Download! SFS / GD

Everything you see in the render above was converted using those Blender files. I only did a couple tiny edits to the eyes and lips to fix them. These templates were made mainly to bake and convert tattoos, but there’s more you can do with them if you get creative. I have to say, these are NOT perfect. Check out the eyebrows on the render above. They look a bit wonky compared to the original, don’t they? I left them as is to keep your expectations with these as realistic as possible. Results may vary depending on what you are trying to convert, so! With that in mind, this is all the stuff you will be able to convert almost seamlessly from TS4 to TS2:

-Tattoos. -Other body details such as body hair, scars, freckles, supernatural/occult details… -Body painted underwear and swimwear, as well as some other clothing that’s mostly painted on the body. -Socks, stockings and maybe leggings. -Even skintones! In some areas they will look weird, so I recommend editing and blending them with other existing TS2 skins. -Makeup. Kinda bad but hey it works! Eyeliner and anything that is around the eyes looks terrible for now, but other stuff like blush may look just okay. -Eyebrows and maybe beards. A bit of hit or miss with those. -Hair scalps. Very useful when converting some hairs! Although keep in mind part of that texture might also need to be baked on the face mesh, you know, that hairline makeup stuff.

Got your attention? Nice! Editing some of the textures from TS4 to match the UV mapping in TS2 using a 2D editing program can be incredibly hard. That’s where texture baking in Blender comes to the rescue!

It is recommended you download Blender version 2.91.0, which is the one I use. Don’t worry, it’s free! There’s also 3 Photoshop actions you will need to set up the textures for baking and then putting them back together, because unfortunately Blender doesn’t support transparencies in that baking process, so that takes a couple extra steps to make it work, but I think it’s still pretty fast and easy. And just in case Tumblr manages to blow up or something, I decided to include a pdf with the upcoming tutorial that will guide you step by step with all this process, so if this post gets deleted somehow (I really hope not!), you will still have that pdf as a backup archived.

You can download Blender here. Personally I recommend picking the fourth option, “blender-2.91.0-windows64.zip”, which is a portable version and doesn’t need to be installed. You will also need Sims 4 Studio to extract the original Sims 4 CC textures you want. As for Photoshop… I’m not going to tell you to buy that subscription service and give Adobe some undeserved money, so… yeah, there might be some other options out there to get it (very legit, yes yes).

So, before we begin, let’s clear out some questions you might have. What the heck is this texture baking thing and what does it do? Well, let’s imagine you have a projector and point an image into a blank wall. Then you pick up some brushes and start painting and copying that projected image in that wall. Texture baking is kinda like that when it comes to 3D models. You align two models and match them as closely as you can in shape and form, and once you adjust some parameters and values, Blender does the rest for you: it will give you a new texture for a new model with a different UV map. These files I’m sharing have everything already set up, so it’s a matter of plopping in that Sims 4 texture and you will get that new texture for TS2 in just a few clicks.

This tutorial assumes you know literally nothing about how to use Blender, so if you feel uncomfortable with it, worry no more! This will guide you with pictures showing where you need to click and explaining what is happening. For Sims 4 Studio and Photoshop the process might be a bit less detailed, but still this should be pretty beginner friendly. For this tutorial, I will use some tattoos as an example. Alright, enough with the rambling. Let’s get started!

·EXTRACTING TEXTURES AND EDITING THEM WITH PHOTOSHOP: First things first, you will need to extract as pngs all the textures you want to convert from TS4 using Sims 4 Studio. Once you’ve done that, open them up one by one in Photoshop and run the “No transparency” action. This will remove the alpha channel from the image, getting rid of all the transparency. Go ahead and save a png copy of it. Then run the “Make Alpha” action on those same swatches (from the beginning, make sure you’re not running the action on an already edited swatch!), which will only show the alpha channel of the image in black and white, and save another copy of that. You should have 2 textures for each tattoo swatch. For the “No transparency” action I like to name it BASE (And your swatch number or name), and for the “Make Alpha” action I usually name it ALPHA (And that same swatch number/name). I recommend saving them in different folders named BASE TS4 and ALPHA TS4 respectively to keep it organized. If you want to make this much faster in Photoshop, there’s an automation option in it that allows you to run an action through a batch of files in a folder and then saves it all. I won’t cover how to do it in this tutorial, but you should be able to find it easily on Google by searching something like “Photoshop automate batch”. It’s really powerful and will make your workflow with actions much faster. Definitely recommend learning about that!

·BAKING THE TEXTURES IN BLENDER: PRELIMINARY STEP 1: CONFIGURING BLENDER’S GRAPHICS SETTINGS: Open your preferred Blender file depending on what you’re going to bake and the desired resolution (in this example I’m going to use the AF-body-4t2-1024 file). Before we start messing around in Blender, there’s one thing you should set up. It is a onetime step, and once it’s done, you won’t need to do it again. So, does your computer have a dedicated graphics card? If you don’t know or you’re not sure, just skip to the next step. Configuring Blender so it uses your graphics card instead of your CPU will make the baking render much faster, so it is recommended you set it correctly. If your computer has a dedicated graphics card, click File (1) > Preferences (2) > and on the window that pops up click System (3) > and select CUDA and make sure your graphics card is there and tick it (4). I have an Nvidia Graphics card but your case may vary. Once you’re done, click on the tiny button on the bottom left corner and Save Preferences (5).

PRELIMINARY STEP 2: CHOOSING THE RENDERING DEVICE: Click on the tiny camera button on the right, called Render Properties (1), and on Device (2) select GPU Compute if it’s not already selected. If you’re not sure if you have a graphics card or not, just select CPU. Then select the Material Properties tab (2) and Save your changes, either by pressing Ctrl + S, or clicking File (4) > Save (5). Okay, time to get into the good stuff!

·STEP 1: LOADING YOUR TS4 BASE TEXTURE: In the Material Properties tab, click the folder icon that says Open (1) and on the window that pops up, navigate through your folders and select your first texture. For now we’re going to bake the BASE texture, so go to that folder where you saved the edited “No transparency” image. To navigate easily, the 3 buttons on the top right (2) are for the display mode. They will show your files in list mode, vertical and horizontal, and the one on the right will display the file thumbnails, pretty useful if you want to easily see your images. And the icons on the left side (3) will let you go one folder back and forward, go to the parent directory, and refresh the folder in case you just dropped something new in there. Double click on the image you need and that will load it into the Sims 4 body model, named “ts4 body”.

·STEP 2: SETTING UP YOUR SELECTION AND BAKING THE TEXTURE: On the top right of the screen, you will see the names of the 2 models in the scene. Hold the Ctrl key in your keyboard and left click on the “ts2 body” model (1). If you did it correctly, you should see “ts2 body” in a yellowish orange color, and right down below, “ts4 body” should look more like a red orange. If not, try again by clicking first on ts4 body, and then while holding Ctrl click again on ts2 body. Then switch to the Render Properties tab by clicking the tiny camera icon (2) and click Bake (3). Depending on your screen resolution, you might need to scroll down a bit with your mouse to see the Bake button. Wait a few seconds for it to finish. You will see the progress percentage down on the bottom of your screen. Don’t panic if you notice your computer fans start ramping up, that’s completely normal! As I said in the beginning, using your GPU will bake the textures much faster than the CPU.

·STEP 3: SAVING YOUR NEW TS2 TEXTURE: Once it’s finished, switch to the UV Editing Mode by clicking “UV Editing” on the top of your screen. And there it is: your new texture! You might have to scroll up your mouse wheel a bit to zoom in and see it in all its glory on the left side of the screen. We’re still not done yet though. You need to save it to yet another new folder (always try to keep your stuff organized!).

You can save it by pressing Shift + Alt + S, or clicking on Image* (1) and then Save As… (2). That will pop a window where you’ll need to navigate again and save it somewhere. Give it a proper name (3) and hit Enter to save it… well, Enter doesn’t always work for me for some reason, so if that happens just click Save As Image (4). In this case, I personally like to call it something like “BASE TS2”.

·STEP 4: GOING BACK TO STEP 1: Alright! So you have your new baked base texture, but we still need to bake the alpha channel to give it its transparency. In order to go back to step 1 and start the process once again, click Layout (1), go back to the Material Properties tab (2), select “ts4 body” (3) and click on the folder icon (4) to open and load the alpha texture you did in the beginning in Photoshop.

Then it’s just a matter of repeating the process from step 2: bake the alpha channel and save it again as a new image (watch out, don’t overwrite your previous image!). This one I like to name “ALPHA TS2”. When you’re ready to move on, close Blender without saving. If you see a small check telling you it will save some images, make sure you uncheck it, so you will be able to use it again in the future from the starting point with no issues. I don’t think it really matters if you accidentally save your progress in these files, but I like to keep it clean and fresh so I can do the process where I left it from the beginning the next time I open it. And in case you mess up and save somewhere, you can always just delete the .blend file and download the template files again.

·FINAL STEP: PUTTING EVERYTHING BACK TOGETHER IN PHOTOSHOP: We’re almost done! Open Photoshop and drop in both your 2 new baked textures, “BASE TS2” and “ALPHA TS2”. Keep both layers on top of each other and aligned. For that you can enable the snapping in View > Snap to… > All. Rename these layers so the Alpha layer is “ALPHA” and the Base is “BASE”, and make sure ALPHA is on top.

Then run the “Final Baked” action and now for real, it’s finally over! You just fully baked and converted these new textures. Congratulations!

So, to summarize, here’s a small guide with all the steps of the workflow I developed. Once you get the hang of it, baking and converting one swatch of a texture just takes a couple minutes. It really is that easy!

One small note though, some of the baking blend files save the textures with a resolution of 2048x2048 pixels, as clearly stated at the end of their file name. That’s way too overkill, because TS2 only properly supports up to 1024x1024 for most of its textures and you should always resize your final product to that max resolution. I just made those 2048 versions because there might be some really tiny and slim details on some tattoos that may look a little too blurry when baked into a 1024 resolution, so for those cases use that if you want and then resize them in Photoshop. In the Resample mode of the Image Size menu, there are a few options to choose. For the fine details, I like the Nearest Neighbor (hard edges) option, which, even if it looks a bit pixelated, it still preserves most of the texture and quality.

For anything else, I would just directly bake them using the 1024 versions in Blender.

And for the folks who feel comfortable playing around in Blender, this is just the beginning! Texture baking opens a LOT of possibilities, so feel free to move stuff around and edit the models to your liking! If you notice the baked textures look warped or stretched somewhere, or don’t like where some textures are placed in the S2 body, poke around that area moving stuff and then give it another try. The main objective of the baking process is keeping both overlapping models as close in shape as possible. You may also edit and save new copies of the templates, or make new ones from scratch using mine as a reference (keep a close look on those Baking settings and values, I think they work pretty well) and share them if you want to. Go ham, do whatever you want with them! I have plans on making templates to convert body textures from Sims 3 to Sims 2, but for now it’s not on my priorities, so we’ll see when that happens.

Whew! Hope none of this was too confusing. Need help or have any issues with these? Please ask/message me and I’ll be glad to help when I’m able to!

Credits for the CC used in the render demonstration: -Skin by Sims3Melancholic -Eyes by Northern Siberia Winds -Eyebrows by PeachyFaerie -Tattoos by xtc -Top by SerenityCC

And the Tattoo I used for the tutorial can be found here, by ValhallanSim

Last but not least, a huge, special thanks to @elvisgrace for all her help testing this for me. I’ve never shared Blender files, so hopefully everything works as intended and everyone can use them with no weird issues. Fingers crossed! And thank you for reading! Hope you have fun playing with this new toy hehe.

[gothic-lottie]

Chapter 19, Why is it Always You Three?, Is out now

I wrote part of it from Professor Weasley's POV because it was the funniest way to do the scene lol

"Come in. What brings you three here today?”

Isobel sat across from me, Ominis Ga- Sallow beside her and Sebastian Sallow leaning on the back of her chair. She began writing in the notebook she's been carrying for the past few months, grinning ear to ear as Sebastian read what she wrote to me with a matching cheshire grin.

“I've finally found a pair of adults to sign on as my legal guardians.” Oh no… “we've already filled out the paperwork and everything so you don't have to worry about where I'll be over the summer.”

Isobel passed the paperwork across my desk and as I'd suspected, her two best friends had both signed on as her guardians. I should have just filed the backup papers I signed myself.

“Miss Morgana, you can't-” I took a deep breath. “You can't just have your friends be your guardians.”

She started writing again, Sebastian still reading aloud. “Why not?- Yeah, I've got to agree with Isobel here, why can't we? If I'm old enough to be kicked out of my family home and get married, I'm old enough to be her guardian.”

I sighed and turned to this group's usual voice of reason “Mister Gau- Sallow? Ominis, do you have anything to say about this?” 

He gave a small smile. “I signed the papers. I think that speaks to my thoughts on the matter.” I sighed and removed my glasses, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

“Do you have plans for where to live?”

“Isobel's house in Hogsmeade.”

“Of course… I should have predicted that. Do any of you have a source of income?”

“Iz has her shop and Ominis and I have paid internships with curse breaking and auror agencies. We're a perfectly suitable and stable married couple who are already living with her. We know about all her disability things and are learning to manage them as well. With this arrangement, it would be easy for her to continue running her business and since that's her future career plan, I think that would be in her best interest, don't you agree?”

This is truly insane. Completely ridiculous but… nonetheless, somehow, legal.

“I… will allow this under one condition. I'll be visiting to check on the three of you at least once a week for the duration of the summer. Can you agree to that?”

Isobel nodded, her smile and Sebastian's only growing.

“Then I suppose I have no good reason to reject this… Please stay out of trouble.” Eleazar must be laughing at me from beyond the veil.

The telltale scratching of Isobel writing answered me before she held up her book. 

‘No promises’

Chapter 18

Chapter 20

Master List

Did I draw Ominis' hair with my canvas flipped? Yes. Am I going to fix it? Absolutely not. Didn't notice till I finished coloring him. Too tired.

[breachverse]

Breach: Chicago War Zone - WIP Update 14 - 10th of February 2023

I didn't think I'd be able to finish it this month considering my hard drive decided to corrupt itself, but, goddamn, I did it.

WIP Update 14 has been released! Chapter 2 Part 2 for both routes have started all the way up to the first chance of a downtime. Though you can't hangout with anyone, except for Hayne, you can now enjoy the limited shop for both the Archangel AND the FBI route, as well as the completed skill training feature.

Breach: Chicago War Zone (Updated)

DEVELOPMENT LOG#14 (10-February-2023)

(B2.1.1.22.12.20)

Alpha - 14

Tons of bug fixes typos and grammar fixes

Added the ability to buy plasma cutter pre-hangout

Added ARC skills training and store (limited)

Added FBI skills training and store (very limited)

Fixed FBI armory not being free. (Everything should now be free)

Tweaked a few of the weapon's descriptions to be available for both routes

Tweaked several weapon accessories token modifiers

Tweaked available accessories for the UTS-15

Added Flash Grenades

Added AR-10 Battle rifle (I know, I'm calling it one)

Added KSG-12 Shotgun

Added RPD Machine gun

Added AK-12 Assault rifle

Alpha - 14

Added Chapter Part restart feature to Show Stats screen (Testing)

Added Settings tab to the Show Stats screen (Testing)

Added Cheats tab to the Show Stats screen (Testing)

Added Hayne's 1st hangout

W.I.P.: Chapter 2 Part 2 of The AA branch (23%) W.I.P.: Chapter 2 Part 2 of The FBI branch (23%) W.I.P.: AA Hangout (9%) W.I.P.: AA Store system (60%) W.I.P.: FBI Hangout (9%) W.I.P.: FBI Store system (50%) W.I.P.: Stat screen upgrade (30%) COMPLETED: Chapter 2 Part 1 of The AA branch (100%) COMPLETED: Chapter 2 Part 1 of The FBI branch (100%)

Word Count: 656,856 words including codes (Last update was 637,822)

The private testing for this was uploaded last month so technically I managed to get an update out once month but still… it was quite a delay and I'm terribly sorry.

For those who don't know, I had a horrible setback in which my computer's hard drive decided to bork itself and I had to reinstall windows. I lost a small number of data but it took me some time to rebuild my database and retrieve data from my corrupted hard drive. Thankfully, Breach itself is saved due to the number of backups I've made and the precaution of having multiple copies on different hard drives.

More detail on the situation on this post if you want to see the exact problem I was having.

But, all of that is past now and though I am still building up everything again, I was able to get my workspace back in order and thankfully, I've managed to finish this damn update before the end of the month for private testing, and added a few things for the public update.

The update also consists some scenes for the ARC route where if you choose to do the prep work for the grate work or wall work in the tunnels under the bank, as well as some new scenes for the FBI route where [spoiler]if you let Greg escape during the raid, he'll want to meet with you and he'll give you some secrets about the trio.[/spoiler]

I'm sorry it's taken so long, and thank you for being so patient. It's not a huge update, but it features the shop and the skill training system in-game where you can buy and change your gear however you wish, though the FBI armoury is quite limited for now.

Thank you all for your patience.

Much love! ❤️

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

Link to the CoG Forums post

I also have a Discord server!

As always feel free to drop however many screenshot feedbacks you'd like, either in the forums or in our Discord channel!

[lifelessfan]

"Don't utter his name"

it's not exactly what was in the transcription of the interrogation but the basic same idea anyway so it's fine. Dall gets very protective. Ooc a bit I think

270-82014...it was him, one of our very own. But how did we find his name? Hoxton sits behind us, an unreadable expression but one can only assume he was feeling a little happy seeing Houston's name in the police database.

Nathan wasn't doing so good tho, staring down the police report and seeing his name. Shade sits by the computer, a repeat screen and looking through more of his reports on another monitor, taking Nathan's silence as not a good sign, figuring she should get to work before he burns up.

Dallas finally snaps out of it, straightening up, thinking about what should be their next steps, the reports wrote down a whole host of legal issues, and while never getting caught, he can only assume how many years he would be behind bars. Hoxton was stuck for 2, only a couple when compared to the papers saying "life sentence", and that was comparatively at the start of their small gangs story. But Houston? He didn't want to even think about it, not now, he just couldn't

He can't really stop himself, turning around and heading out from the safehouse, voice just loud enough to hear in the room, but not a decibel higher

-I need a smoke

The safe house was silent, the previous chatter about Clover and the messages going quiet as the prisoner was revealed, Dall storming out not a surprise though still painful nonetheless.

He had done a lot for the team, the first addition, the quiet, stealthy, mechanic, they practically took him for granted through the years

While some liked him less than others, they mostly still mutually agreed prison was going too harsh. Remembering what he was like, he wouldn't survive like Hoxton, not 2 years, not with anything less than a burn

Nathan stood outside, he needed a breather. The sudden stress and pressure increased 3 fold as he stared at the floor, eyes unfocused. He had wanted to reconnect with him for ages, just never had the guts. Left him once, what's the harm in leaving him again? Now thinking back it was a lot of harm, no security, his dreams a tightrope that seemed to have failed.

Dall wasn't good with emotions, most of the time only talking to Bain, keeping his emotions covered unless it was with specific personnel and Shade just...wasn't there yet, the team was still a team, not people he could open to too easily.

Finally dropping the smoke, mind set on one thing, he needed a second to sit with the news, he needed to break something, steal, come to terms, maybe finally realise just how important Houston was

-anyone call any jobs in? We need information, leads.

The stress was evident in his voice, he needed a distraction, something to help him calm down

-I asked around for anyone with access to the Houston files since they were under different handlers, said we needed to raid the newly opened jewellery street before he plans to help us

-how do you know he's safe?

-I'll have backup check his tracks and records, worst case we will be able to take the haul for ourselves.

It was something. shade had offered the same prospect multiple times, taking up a job and backtracking if the contact couldn't be trusted. While they didn't like to operate like that any more after Hector had proved himself to be a good manipulator even if they had slipped through more than once due to corrupt cops, at this point Dallas would be asking for anything. He needed to see him again, needed something to work with

-yes, take it

-Dallas? You sure. You know we don't do this any more. If-

-we need to take the risk. And we take extra precautions this time. Common, let's go

He he stuff to do, finalising his points and forcing the others to cooperate. Heading out to make a couple of calls to the others on the small-time thievery trips, they were going to be taking the next couple of days a little more seriously

<time skip>

Address, date and time. All details were supplied and agreed on. Final gathered items and they were heading out. Everyone of course had their reactions to the situation, Joy wondering just why Dallas was making such an exception, only getting caught up on the drive and holding her tongue to make up for the mass of questions. Wolf was just happy to get another job, of course, he still held quiet about why, still knowing the implications and opting to stay light for everyone's sake

Pearl was like Joy, except she was quieter about the questions, not willing to get in the middle of the stressed team, following along and listening only to be caught off guard having not followed the reveal like Hoxton. catching wind of a previous teammate heading to possible trial and prison, she had taken a second to take a breather for the possible implications

Hoxton and Chains were left with Shade, both choosing to stay out of the line of fire and instead opting to secure the contract, heading out for information instead of the jewels

The mission while loud, still is quiet when looking at coms. Even split amongst multiple stores and each with different funded security protocols, they all made due with Shade and her input for when and where, only really communicating for help.

Once the van was called, everyone had hauled all the bags they could, loud within the gunfire and running, gems and metals shaking in their bags. Familiar deadweight as each throw what they can in the back, a couple of words for those who finished quicker and running to help pick up other bags left.

Ammo left by the magazines in the rush, health bags slowly burnt away by wandering cloakers. it's not a sloppy job, but still one with enough faults to have calls for hand-on-hand help. A hefty pull by the hand to pull Joy in, blood down her leg, doors closed quickly and towels getting wrapped just as the car is thrown into gear and pulls out

Heavy breathing, and stuffy whines as the wound is attempted simple treatment by Dallas and Pearl. Better medical help once they were back at base but that wasn't for another 30min.

Hoxton and Chains were out of base all the same, looking for answers and any reason to doubt the possible trade. Shade helped where she could with the track down, people to talk through both logically and by brute force.

While not something they were used to doing after learning their lesson the first time, they had to protect what was theirs, they had to take precautions they usually wouldn't bother with.

Finally coming back just in time to meet up with the van, they all clean up. Helping Joy once she's brought into safety, cleaned blood tracks and comfortably placed on the couch. Chains comforts and works on the wound by reflex as he sits by her, both Joy and Chains still listen, following along with the conversation happening by Shade as they finalise and double-check the information

- he's clean, we had a look and he's worked with a lot of trusted people

- you have any more information on the insider?

- not much else of relevance, works within the prison Houston is being kept at, has access and is willing to offer the files

-then let's go through with the deal, the sooner we know what we are working with, the earlier we can make a plan

The finality of the statement, a huff in his words as he heads off, the team splitting up to head to their small jobs, Chains and an extra set of hands or looking for more materials to work with. They were getting close

<time skip>

it was like jumping through hoops, hiding their names and faces to drop the payment and once it all finally dose get through checks and into the right hands, everyone waited, they would be getting their rewards soon.

A ping on the computer and Shades sits up, hands on the keyboard and looking through the message, finding not only the files they had been promised, but an additional file that had been added

-*You were quick with the job, as a thank you, I happened to walk into an interrogation of the person you had been requesting information on. I've added the audio I caught*

The files were duplicated and analysed separately, the audio opened once everything else was analysed. The basic gist of the situation and convictions was understood, and at this point, they would take any more information they could get their hands on, including audio, as long as it wasn't edited. They had their suspicions

The screen dark as the progression bar ticks the seconds of the audio, shuffling, doors opening and closing, handcuffs, everyone's ears strained, heart heavy, Houston's voice was muddy in all their minds, just bare memories

North- Alright, Mr.Steele. You need anything, can I get you some water? Why don't you tell me why you're here?

His voice is gruff, heavy, clearly not here much by choice and willing to make the most of the moment. A smile in his voice

Houston- Officer, I think there's been a mistake. What...exactly am I getting accused of? And I believe asked you to contact my lawyer.

Even with the harsh microphone it was caught on, his voice echoes in all their minds, familiar, not...exact, but not too far.

Pearl stands close by, listening, a small smile from finally hearing the voice of someone they all seemed to stress over, Dallas the most of course.

North- We have enough evidence to put you away for a long time. Grand larceny... fraud...and tax evasion. Those are just the ones that make good headlines. It is quite the list, don't you think?

Houston- Grand larceny?... Wait, tax evasion?? You got the wrong guy, Officer North. I'm inno... This wasn't me

Innocent? Of course, he wasn't innocent...his pause, the refusal to lie that he was a law-abiding citizen and just respond with the same comment that it 'wasn't him'? Maybe that wasn't a lie either

North- Not you, huh? Explain this. We've got witnesses who saw you as the last person on the scene of the crime last week.

Houston- Witnesses?? I look like a lot of people. I can't answer for what these "Witnesses" say they saw but it wasn't me. You know how unreliable eyewitnesses can be.

It was weird, Houston wasn't much in terms of 'confident' years ago, not a complete pushover but not nearly this tough.

Thinking about it, it made sense, the gang were rougher around the edges, his calmer voice didn't mirror the same calm in the public eye. Dallas couldn't help a small scoff in his smile, the same Houston he was familiar with

Houston- How are you doing on that lawyer by the way?

North- And what about the security footage? Sure looks a lot like you.

Houston- Really? security footage? Crazy what AI can do these days and you still can't get security footage over 480p anyway. I don't know what you're fishing for here, or if you're just setting me up, but I've been living clean for the past.... 5 years, at least.

North- A setup, huh? It's always a setup isn't it. You expect me to believe that there's some conspiracy against you? Even with... all this evidence?

Houston- That's exactly what I'm telling you.

North- ...And the tax evasion? We've got your financial records. You're deep in the red, Steele.

Houston-  I'd have to see those numbers myself North. But, I pay my taxes, every cent. If there's been a mistake, I'll make sure to sort it out together with my accountant and the IRS.

North- You're full of it, Steele. This case is a formality, we've got video, papers, witnesses. In all my years I've barely seen anyone this royally fucked. Just confess, make it easier for us both, I'll even see if I can get you a good deal for cooperating and saving the state some money. What do you say?

Houston- Confess? to crimes I didn't commit? Not gonna happen. I think we're done here.

It did seem like a lost cause, the case file looked all formal, the clear backing up of those papers, witnesses, videos, there was no room to argue and it was a criminal word against the police and justice seekers. While it seemed useless, Houston still stood his ground.

Even Hoxton could listen and even quietly admire, his progression and even the now mirroring situation of jail with hands around their throats, a clutch tight, it was...A little admirable.

North-  Have it your way, it's not like the trial's gonna drag anyway Franklin

A pause. He said what?

Houston- Good luck with that. I'll be here, waiting for that lawyer you're supposed to be calling. And I'll take you up on that bottle of water while you're up, thanks.

A cold and hot flush, the moment of confidence, the admiration that maybe he could have some way out, Nathan couldn't keep his pain down much longer.

this was worse than the new accusations, worse to dismiss and trust the paper and videos that yes, can be manipulated. the bite as he said it, the spite and almost small clear hint of victory either way when he said his name. He could only lower his voice so much

- Keep his name out your mouth

A little more shuffling, a closing recording of the case number and participants cutting off as the contact finally leaves, takes the recording before seemingly bolting back to work

Nathan stands by the desk, knuckles against the wood and feeling his nails dig into his palm.

Houston had said, he didn't like using his first name at all, kept it quiet and out of courtesy, no one went much out of their way to find something they kept hidden.

His teeth grit hard, only he had called his first name, he didn't care what happened out of his range of hearing and now hearing it all over again, the pain in his chest, shoulders, muscles strained now and now body temperature unbalanced under his jacket

...

"Keep his name out of your mouth"