#and now we have an extra round of reading and Sims to do

[weskie]

HOW ARE WE GETTING ANOTHER CHAPTER OF SIMULATORS ON THE FINAL WEEK *AFTER* THE FINAL PROJECT

CMON SUSAN

I either am getting an A on my business plan project or I'm getting a whole ass zero and I don't think there's an in between

[ominoose]

𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭

Pairing: Android!Nathan Bateman x GN!Depressed!Reader Summary: Your therapist advises you buy an android as a companion. He's a pain. Warnings: None, just fluff. WC: 1.5k Thank you @jinjersnapz for beta reading :*

The moment he stepped out of the box you wanted a refund. Thinly veiled disappointed creased his eyebrow and tugged down his lips as the android, Nathan, took in the cabin. It wasn't much, that you'd concede, wooden floors, walls and roof with a bathroom, office, kitchenette, living room and bedroom. The basic rooms filled with what one needed to live, or as your therapist called it “bare essentials” and “not willing to take up your own space”. Bullshit, essentially.

And now the result of not listening to said bullshit was taking in your abode like it was a one star Air BnB that posted fake five star reviews. He probably wanted a refund as much as you. That was an accurate description of life since he was shipped into it, ‘I want a refund.’

“You're wasting time.” Said the most annoying alarm clock since the creation of alarm clocks.

You only responded by turning over and pulling the covers over your head before they were ripped off the bed and cold air attacked your now exposed and cold skin.

“Stop spending all your time in bed just to go bitch to your therapist about how you're worthless and your life has no meaning. Either get your ass up or I'll dismantle the bed and hide the screws.”

The petty, blunt asshole would. Last week he messed with the dryer's wiring, leaving your bed sheets wet until you finished your book (that he'd recommended, ordered on your Amazon and held you at laundry point to read), citing “intellectual enrichment” as the reason.

Getting out of bed was rewarded with him asking for a cup of coffee while he worked out (apparently the extra use of his metal tendons strengthened them over time), knowing full well he'd only complain about it being cheap. It was a hellish routine, but a routine nonetheless,  as your therapist annoyingly felt the need to point out every session. Begrudgingly, you'd also be forced to admit it was the truth. He got you out of bed, engaging with the house, energizing yourself and having some sort of start for the day. 

“Why don't we go out for a hike?” Nathan rounded you to grab the steaming cup of coffee, grimacing at the taste. 

Broad shoulders rolled openly, clad in simple grey tank top and black joggers. Despite knowing he had no skin, no actual flesh underneath the tanned synthetic layers stretched over his biceps looked soft enough to bite. Not that you'd let the android know.

“A hike? Outside? Today?” The spontaneous request caught you off guard, already openly reluctant. 

The deadpan stare he gave you behind the silver frames wasn't fond. 

“You live in Butt-Fuck Nowhere and want to just sit in this shitehole. Wasting your innate opportunity to explore nature's beauty.”

“Yeah, I do. Have a fun hike Nathan.” That statement was meant to be closed by you swiftly turning and walking back to your room, but a warm, calloused hand gripped your arm sternly and rooted you to the spot.

“How am I meant to have fun if you aren't there to bug? A walk in nature is an easy hack to ease your disease riddled brain and you don't take advantage of it. It's a wonder androids haven't taken over yet.” 

The way he refused to handle you and your depression like a porcelain doll was something you loathed to love about him. How odd that an arrogant android treated you with the most humanity.

“I'll upload a virus into your cloud if you don't let me go, see who has a ‘disease riddled organ then.”

“An STD threat, how cute. Try successfully updating your Sims mod folder and I'll personally walk you through the virus myself.” Logically, there shouldn’t be a lively spark in his eyes, but it was there all the same, goading you into spats with him, time and time again.

“I bought you, the least you could do is fix my Sims!” Another thing you hated needing from him was the way he fed and stoked your fire, turning you from dying embers to a roaring bonfire. It always happened before you were aware of it, always when he got that cocky smirk as if this was exactly what he wanted.

And following routine he simply walked away, rolling those ridiculously handsome shoulders to add salt to the wound and leaving you to seeth.

“Hurry up and get ready.”

When you finally crested the hill, sun shining down through dark pine trees, birds chirping around you, part of you conceded it was worth it. The other part was whining over the stitch aching at your side.

“God I feel like death.” The panting breaths came out as a fog in the cold forest, but Nathan paid no mind to the temperature or your whining. 

You never once questioned his ability to enjoy the cold whistle of the wind, whether or not he could feel the numbing chill in his finger tips. Why did it matter why his favourite spot was the waterfall, always cold no matter the season, a hint of a smile plucking at synthetic lips when the mist tickled his beard. It didn’t occur that it should matter, but it was noticed by him the way your mouse didn’t entertain the news articles discussing the ethics of how closely androids now resembled a human, drawing comparisons to fictional history of Dune.

Nathan knew more than anyone that you weren’t the academic, whizzkid genius he was. Your mind physically could not scramble through numbers and piece together advanced mathematic equations. You weren’t book smart, but it wasn’t something he considered lacking. 

You dismissed stupid opinions (like the aforementioned article) as if they didn’t exist to you as easily as you stood toe to toe with him to defend other stupid opinions (Aristotle was just some annoying old guy). You were acutely aware of your depression, the way your mind functioned against you and plodded on, taking it in your stride your own way.

As you keeled over, huffing out cold whisps, his dark brown eyes scanned every inch of you. There was no part of you he hadn’t cataloged and stored carefully in his memory banks, no quirk or habit was unfamiliar to him. Yet it always felt like a small surprise to see them unfold in the intimate privacy of the small bubble you both shared.

“Why’re you staring? You better not say I told you so, I’ll ship you back and enjoy going back to my solitude inside.” 

“You wouldn’t have to be alone. You’re pretty enough to coax someone into your little hovel.” Said like a passing comment on the gathering clouds.

“Pretty?” Said as a reaction, completely caught off guard.

“Yeah? How many times do we need to go over how your mind will distort how you perceive reality before you finally listen to me, sweetheart?” How was he managing to still be so condescending while arguing about how beautiful you were, how the softly filtered sunlight through the trees settled against your hair like the sun was made to do just that

No wonder humans had wasted so much time on artsy poetic bullshit since the BC’s, beauty really could be all you had the capacity to think about.

“Based on what? I thought you didn’t abide by societal constructs Mr Bateman?” It was a shoddy attempt at acting normal, but the supercomputer android would’ve already noticed the quiver in your voice and the red dusting your face. Maybe if you pretended you didn’t know he could do that, he just wouldn’t. 

“I’m abiding by my standards.” His eyes stared right into you. The words words hit you right in the stomach, no time to brace.

And he takes advantage of the hesitation.

“We both know I’m capable of noticing when you ogle me when I work out. We both know I'm equipt to sense when your heart rate picks up, which it does every time I lean over your shoulder to correct your shitty work. We both know I can literally measure the heat in your cheeks right now, want me to?” 

The speed at which your head shook had your hair lashing your face, something that only grew his smirk.

“You sure?”

“Fuck yo-” 

His lips were warm when they cut you off, subtly soft in contrast to the calloused hands cupping your face. Your mind instantly jumps to satisfaction that you’d been right in your assumption about the feel of his lips until the actual realisation that he was kissing you kicked in, and by that point he was already pulling away. You didnt even have time to savour how the cold metal of his glasses pressed against your nose.

“Lets go, it’s gonna start pissing down and I hate fogged up glasses.” 

Nathan was already walking back home, back turned until he realised you weren’t already trailing after him. He turned. You were still staring, lips slightly parted and wide eyed, not yet finished processing what had happened. His smirk turned soft.

“C’mon sweetheart, I need my shitty cup of coffee.”

[herecirmsims]

I just wanted to thank you for making such amazing poses, especially the sick/injured ones. I have a deep love for whump-y sorts of things, and getting to visualize that sort of scene with my OCs in the sims is a lot of fun for me. Your poses of that variety are absolutely the best I've ever seen, and all of your poses are fucking phenomenal, regardless of their theme. You are hands-down my favorite pose creator at the moment.

I'm not sure if your requests are open right now, so if not feel free to ignore this, but I wanted to just float the idea of expanding your "sick child/adult" (I saw you made an adult version for someone in the comments) to have a pose of the rescuer checking the pulse of the unconscious one, that sort of thing. (If you only did it for adults, that would be fine. I understand it's kind of a dark topic especially regarding a child.) If that's not something you're interested in doing that's A-Okay, and I appreciate your hard work regardless! 💖

Hi! Oh my gosh!! First of all, thank you so, SO much for your incredibly kind words. They really made my day. 🥹 I'm so ridiculously happy to hear that my awful angst is beneficial to someone ahahah! Sometimes we just need to put our little darlings in situations and watch them suffer (then get comforted). It's cathartic. 😆

Secondly, yes! My requests are always open, it's just that I'm usually extremely slow at getting round to them, and had been having some trouble figuring out a way to make it easy for people to send requests in the first place. I'll make a master post later but for now here's the link to a Google form where requests can be sent (hopefully I've done it right. Thank you @armoricaroyalty for the fantastic suggestion!). The differences between a request and a commission can be read here (see images).

Thirdly, I made some extra poses for the adult version of that posepack since I happened to have both the time and a functioning brain last night. Unfortunately I then lost my motivation after fiddling (and failing) with the CPR pose, and I can't be bothered to do the promo graphics for it, so here's a mystery SFS link lmao. I may add to it and release properly at a later date, along with the child version.

The pack now contains 10 couple poses for a Sim finding someone on the floor, calling for help, checking for pulse/breathing, and then having a little breakdown as realisation hits. This overwrites the original Sick Adult posepack, so if you have that one, delete it from your Mods folder before adding this version.

And once again... thank you thank you a thousand ways for taking the time to say such kind things. I appreciate it so very much!! 😭🥹❤️

[holocene-sims]

simblr new years resolutions 2024!

thank you @stargazer-sims so much for tagging me!! ❤️✨🌟

not sure who has done this one yet but i'll tag 💌 @seyvia @simmersofia @mangosimoothie @minty-plumbob @queeniecook @dandylion240 @mmmatchasims @thebramblewood @aheathen-conceivably @nectar-cellar @igglemouse & anyone who sees this and wants to do it!

honestly, i have never made a new years resolution in my life, so this is a fun exercise to try out for once!

what's your resolution for your simblr?

this is VERYYYYY ambitious but i want to fully complete the core "everything the stars promised" and move on to doing side content and MOST IMPORTANTLY the more loosey goosey fun epilogue :)

april 15th of this year will mark the second anniversary of the story! i've done so much and yet at the same time, so little in the grand scheme of the plot i have in mind. i randomly checked today to see how many pages on my blog the story takes up and we're at 31 pages! so, uh, about 15 pages a year - not sure if that's good progress or not but oh well! we are getting close to the extra exciting parts of the story, and i would love to finish it all up this year, you know? finish on a nice round even anniversary number and with a bunch of plot point bangers lolol

but we'll see! it's possible, maybe, since i'm graduating college this semester and will have more free time for a while, at least i as figure out the work situation and probably even while working whenever i do get a job since nightly homework will no longer exist LMAO, but even if it's not possible, i am definitely promising myself to work harder on the story! i really do love this thing despite it all and i'm proud of it, and i want to see how much i can keep improving it so that the ending is truly the best part <3

what do you want from the sims franchise?

a sale on kits lmfaoooo!!! (which will never happen) i have exactly 5 dollars left over from an old gift card someone gave me for ea app when it was still origin. it's exactly enough for a kit except that sales tax adds on 7 cents and the gift card leftovers don't cover that.

yeahhhh...i'm neither charging 7 cents for sales tax nor 5 bucks for a second kit to my credit card. no, ma'am. i want that shit for FREE

any other new years resolutions?

don't become incredibly depressed by the shock of leaving the school system after almost 23 years of life and the horrors of figuring out the whole...life and career...thing

lol this resolution will be broken

so, how about an achievable one? read more books and write more actual prose, whether for my sims story or for something else. i've been so burnt out from academia that it's all stopped being fun. like even my sims story has been such a drag to create because i just have zero desire to write, to work on the outline, or find inspiration.

and that really sucks. writing and reading have been a huge part of my life for so long and they mean a lot to me, but right now they do feel exhausting. i'm tired of looking at a word document and wanting to bash my head into the keyboard because it reminds me of writing project proposals and boring shit instead of good fiction.

but i'm hoping the freedom from academia will spark joy in my literary hobbies again, and i'm going to try and bring back my love for them myself :) not sure how but aside from finding a way to work on the sims story more, i'm thinking maybe i'll commit to trying out more short-form writing prompts.

[thesims4blogger]

“Login Events” Have Officially Begun on The Sims 4

After a major leak on Tuesday, Login Events have officially begun on The Sims 4.

If you haven’t heard, players who load up the game a few times over the next few weeks will have access to new items, from objects to Create a Sim assets, including one new trait.

The Sims has shared a video tutorial on how you can claim your rewards. Watch it below, and read the blog post, which includes a FAQ section.

Events are Coming to The Sims 4

Come for the vending machine, leave with a trait

Oh hi there. I’m Font, a Senior Game Design Director on The Sims 4. I’ve been living and breathing the Sims for over a decade and have been lucky enough to contribute to The Sims 3, The Sims Mobile, and The Sims 4. I consider myself a Simmer whose day job is to come up with new and unexpected ways to play in The Sims 4. Which brings me to the topic of this development blog: the introduction of Events!

Events in The Sims 4

Events are a limited time experience, centered around a fun theme, with free rewards or gameplay that adds new opportunities to your game.

Our team created a platform for these new Events to live. Something that is flexible, easier to update, and will be easy for you to find and claim those rewards. Our designers have been busy making this new system shine and preparing for the first Event, while our artists have been creating new objects and Create-a-Sim pieces.Advertisement

The first Event will be “The Sims 4 Happy at Home Login Event,” where rewards can be claimed simply by logging in to the Main Menu for a limited time. This Event includes a suite of items that will help create a comfortable hangout space where your Sims can refine their skills with the new Practice Makes Perfect trait.

There will be updates in the future that bring additional layers to what you can see and do. The team is working on adding gameplay to Events, perhaps a quest or two to explore, and even more rewards to claim.

The team will be developing Events with objects and gameplay connected to The Sims’ Season. Events can also be timed to a variety of different occasions in a calendar year or a general theme that we look forward to sharing with you in the future.

How to Claim The Happy at Home Login Event Rewards

Each day, new game items are unlocked and ready to claim from The Sims 4 main menu.

Click the Event tile on the main menu to view the Event screen.

From the Event screen, select “claim” on any unclaimed Event rewards.

The claimed rewards will be added to Build Mode or Create-a-Sim. The team has added a new Event filter under the Special category in both Create-a-Sim and Build Mode that can help you quickly find the rewards you’ve claimed.

Each week a new set of rewards become available to view (each will unlock daily).

Any days you miss claiming your reward can be claimed at any time during the duration of the Event, and up to one week after the Event ends

Claim these rewards and add them into your game to create a stay-at-home retreat perfect to invite friends and family over to enjoy some snacks and a round of games or choose to mix and match them with other items to tell the story of your choice. Each of the objects come in a variety of color options to help fit your aesthetic.

Week 1

Toss a round of sharp objects with the Bullseye Dartboard while embracing the evening in this Night Sky Layered Necklace. After a few rounds, grab a snack from the Guerdon Goods Mini Fridge. Earn a few Simoleons by tossing your trash in the matching Guerdon Goods NanoCan garbage bin, now in a less futuristic style.

Week 2

Let your tresses down with the Serenity Hairstyle and grab a seat at The Cool & Compact Bar. Whether you are practicing your mixology skills or serving up drinks for your friends, The Cool & Compact Bar offers a smaller footprint so you can save on space without compromising on quality.Advertisement

Week 3

Give your Sims bed or sofa an extra oomph of cozy vibes with The Pure Pillow clutter item and offer them a comfy backdrop to take a rest after a day of skill gain with the Practice Makes Perfect trait. With this new trait, Sims can learn skills faster, even if they are a bit slower to start.

Week 4

Dress your sims down in laidback Athleisure Wear and pull up to the functional Guerdon Goods Vending Machine to round out their snack game.

Do you have questions, we’ve got answers here in the FAQ

Are these rewards really free?

Yes, these rewards are free when you engage with the Event. Once claimed the rewards for this Event will be available in the Base Game. Each Event may handle rewards a little differently. For instance, this first Event you get rewarded for jumping back into the game while the Event is active. In the future there may be Events that take you on a quest where you’ll complete goals in order to earn rewards.Advertisement

What about SDX releases, I thought those were to provide free content and updates!

Sims Delivery Express drops aren’t going away, but we’re always looking for new and novel ways to deliver gameplay, as well as objects and clothing to add to your Sims’ lives. You can still expect SDX releases throughout the year as well as new Events to engage with The Sims 4 throughout the seasons.

What happens if I join the Event late?

There’s plenty of time during the Event to jump in if you are coming in late. Each day you launch the game counts as a login to unlock the next available reward. If you come in late to the Event there’s still time to catch up, but it will take 8 days of logins to unlock all of the rewards. We’ve provided an extra week to login and claim those remaining rewards.

The Sims 4 Happy at Home Login Event will be available beginning on May 30, 2024 on PC via EA app™, Mac® via Origin, Epic Games Store and Steam®, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One systems.Advertisement

The Sims 4 Happy at Home Login Event requires The Sims 4 base game, available free to download with all game updates. See minimum system requirements for the pack.

[fan-girling-101]

Pickup Lines

Corpse Husband X Reader

Summary: Just some pickup lines from Corpse in a round of Among Us.

Warnings: Maybe some swear words somewhere and my trashy writing.

Wordcount: 1629

Definitely not my artwork. Also I’m back and not dead. Yay! Tell me what you think and please request.

Rae, being the big sister she is, begged me until I had to give in to make her be quiet, got me to agree to playing Among Us with her gang. As in Poki, Felix, Sean, Brooke AB, Sykkuno, Toast, Fuslie, and Corpse. I have never once in my entire existence played Among Us. I stream but never this game. I mostly stream the Sims 4 and I just started The last of us two. I download the game and the proximity mod Rae told me to get. After setting up my stream and greeting the early people who come early I open the game and join the discord call.

“Rae you said you have someone new to play.” One of Rae’s friends says as I join the call. I can clearly tell from the voice that they are excited.

“Yea, she’s really annoying most of the time and we share DNA.” Rae laughs causing me to gasp. “ME! Annoying imposable!! I’m the most un annoying person in the world. The audacity you have Rachell Hofstetter.” 

“Guys this is my little baby sister Y/N.” Rae introduces me to all her online Among Us friends. A chorus of hi’s sound out in my headphone, really loud hi’s form some of them. “Introduce yourselves.” Rae commands the group.

“Hi I’m Sykkuno I have a plant hat.” 

“Ok, um Hi I’m the better sister Y/N nice to meet you all.” I kindly say with a wave though after I realize they can’t see me. “Oh God I just waved though none of you can see me. Let’s just start before I do more weird things.”

“We still have to wait for Corpse.” I let out a small oh as I mute myself and talk to chat.

“Corpse finally you’re here!” Syykuno’s voice is the first I hear in a while. He greets the player that’s 19 minutes late.

“Corpse meet my sister Y/N, she’s our tenth player.” Rae butts in before Corpse even has a chance to talk.

“Whaddup baby.” An unbelievably hot voice makes it’s way through my headphones. I just sit there stunted for a second. His voice is Godly and amazing what I would give to wake up to that every morning.

“Uh um h-hi.” I giggle out feeling my face heat up a ton. My chat is going a million miles per hour even with slow mode. The ones I can read say something like SIMP!!!, that reaction tho, look at her blush.

“Hey, that’s my sister Corpse!”

The game starts with me being a crewmate. We all spawn around a blue circle table. I stay there for an extra bit trying to regain myself. “Rachell, how do I play?” After Rae gives me a quick rundown she leaves to the left to do her tasks. I head down to a place filled with boxes. I walk in circles around the boxes for a while just for fun when a body is reported. 

“Body in Nav.” Felix says being the one to report Sean’s body. 

I listen to the conversation they all have, silently observing what they have to say. That is until I’m brought into the conversation. “Y/N you’ve been silent.” Toast calls me out. “Where were you this round?”

“I was in a room.” I start off as the others laugh around me as I try to think what that place was called. “Sus” Someone says, causing me to panic. “Wait, give me a second it was a room with boxes some of them were like floating or something.”

“Storage?” Corpse asks, again causing my face to heat up. God this man doesn't even have to say anything interesting to make me blush, he could say the dumbest thing and I’d be hooked.. “Where else were you?” Toast asks clearly, trying to sus me for no reason whatsoever.

“Um… storage, I was there the whole round running around boxes. Why you so sus Toast trying to cover up the murderer are you?” I try to throw the sus back at the man. 

People start voting so I vote for Toast because why not, he’s being mega sus. My white head pops up next to Toast’s name with a little black head. And Toast’s cyan head pops up next to my name. We get into the next round and Corpse insists I follow him, so I do. I mean who can say no to him, certainly not me.

“Wait here,'' he tells me. I stand in Caf in the top corner unsure if I’m about to be killed or not. Corpse walks out of my sight before walking in front of me. “Do you believe in love at first sight? Or should I walk past you again?” He asks, causing me to become a stuttering mess.

“I um I… I got ta-task to g-go do.” I start walking away feeling my face heat up. But he follows after me.

“I'm learning about important dates in history. Wanna be one of them?” No matter where I go Corpse follows after me giving out pickup lines.

“I seem to have lost my phone number. Can I have yours?”

“Corpse s-stop following me I um I-I I have tasks.” I stutter helplessly trying to get away from him passing multiple people laughing at me. 

“Can I follow you where you're going right now? Cause my parents always told me to follow my dreams!” He uses another pickup line before a pink body gets reported. 

“The body is in the back of electrical.” Leslie is the first one to talk. The blush on my cheeks caused by Corpse Husband doesn't feel like going away anytime soon.

“I think Y/N and Corpse came from there.” Poki adds to the conversion by throwing the sus over to me and Corpse.

“It couldn’t have been Y/N I was with her the whole round.”

“Ye-yea yes it is not Corpse I-I um I was with him.” I stutter out. People start accusing Corpse because how unserten I sounded until Sykkuno stuck up for him saying he saw us together alot. Most of us skipped except a few votes on Corpse and one vote on Toast from me. He’s still sus.

And now the pickup lines from Corpse start again:

“I hope you know CPR, because you are taking my breath away!”

“If I had four quarters to give to the four prettiest women in the world, you would have a dollar!”

“Are you a camera? Because every time I look at you, I smile!”

“I'm in the mood for pizza. A pizza you, that is!”

“If nothing lasts forever, will you be my nothing?”

“Do you have a name? Or can I call you mine?”

“Is your name Google? Because you have everything I've been searching for.”

“There must be something wrong with my eyes. I can't take them off you.”

“You must be a campfire. Because you're super hot and I want s'more.”

“My buddies bet me that I wouldn't be able to start a conversation with the most beautiful person in the game. What should we do with their money?”

“Remember me? Oh, that's right, I've only met you in my dreams.”

“I'm glad I remembered to bring my library card. 'Cause I am totally checking you out!”

“I'm no mathematician, but I'm pretty good with numbers. Tell you what, give me yours and watch what I can do with it.”

“Are you a time traveler? Because I see you in my future!”

“There is something wrong with my cell phone. It doesn't have your number in it.”

“If I could rearrange the alphabet, I’d put ‘U’ and ‘I’ together.”

“Aside from being sexy, what do you do for a living?”

“Feel my shirt. Know what it’s made of? Boyfriend material.”

“I was blinded by your beauty; I’m going to need your name and phone number for insurance purposes.”

“Something’s wrong with my eyes because I can’t take them off you.”

“Did the sun come out or did you just smile at me?”

“You’re so beautiful that you made me forget my pickup line.”

“I know you vented Y/N. Right into my heart.”

That’s all I hear for the rest of my steam. Each time making me more flustered than the last. My face has been red all the time and chat hasn’t failed to notice, making me more flustered each time I read a comment calling me out.. We were all chilling in the lobby going to do our last game when Corpse decided to use another pick up line on me.

“Hey guys watch this, watch this!” He says getting everyone to stop their conversations. “Hey Y/N.”

“Hi?...”

“You remind me of the twenty letters of the alphabet.” He starts. I tilt my head a little confused where he got twenty from. But like sure dude.

“Corpse buddy, there are twenty six letter in the alphabet.” Sean says, correcting Corpse who somehow forgot about six letters.

“Silly me, silly me how could I forget U R A Q T.” Again the blush gets deeper.

“Hold up man you're still missing one you can’t count!” Felix yells out over the chorus of awww. From the rest.

“Don’t worry I give you that D later.” I think I died and went to heaven. Maybe hell couldn’t be sure.

“Woah woah woah THAT IS MY BABY SISTER YOU ARE TALKING TO!!!! KEEP IT PG!!!!” Rae yells out over all the people laughing and saying things. 

“I think I’m broken.” I whisper in my mic, somehow over all the talking Corpse heard me. “Sorry Kitten, maybe I should come over and make you feel better.”

CORPSE was banned by Valkyrae

CORPSE was kicked from the call by Valkyrae

[voiceless-terror]

And Many Happy Returns

a sequel (or companion piece) to Inseparable, my childhood friends AU. chapter 1 of 2.

“Next week?” Jon shrieks, slamming a hand down on his desk and startling the nearby students. “That’s not nearly enough time to prepare!”

Martin does that blinky-eye thing that means Jon’s being too loud, but he can’t help it! Martin’s turning eight in six days (less than a week!) and didn’t think to tell him. They’re best friends, he should know these things. He curses himself for not asking about this at the beginning of their relationship, when he was collecting Martin facts. Favorite color and book seemed more important at the time. 

And while Jon doesn’t think birthdays are that important, it’s still a fact he ought to have known. Well, his Nan doesn’t consider birthdays important. These past two birthdays he’s gotten one new (!) book and a dessert after dinner, but that’s about it. Nan doesn’t have money to spend on frivolous things, and Jon’s never needed much, but he wouldn’t mind a bit of fanfare. His mum always made sure he felt very loved- he got plenty of hugs, a fun cake, an outing where they would do his favorite things. But maybe that’s something only mums do. Nan, with her rare, stiff hugs and general stand-offishness was never one to put up much of a fuss.

“It’s not that big a deal,” Martin mutters, his pencil twitching in his hand as he refuses to meet Jon’s eyes. He doesn’t like it when Jon starts fretting about him. “We never do anything for it, anyway.”

Martin’s mum isn’t anything like Jon’s, that’s for sure. It’s not every day you turn eight. It’s a nice number, very even and divisible. Much better than boring old seven. When Jon turns eight, he’s going to get fifteen extra minutes added to his curfew, and he’ll be able to walk to the corner store all by himself. He’s already walked there several times, but it’ll be nice to have permission. That’s the real treat.

“So you’re not going to bring in cupcakes for the class?” he asks, remembering the last birthday they celebrated- it was Lydia’s, a quiet, unassuming girl that Jon doesn’t mind but also doesn’t think much about. As soon as Jon asks it, Martin gets that sad look in his eyes again, the kind that’s always followed by an “I’m sorry” or something equally nonsensical. Jon hates that he’s the cause of it, him and his stupid mouth. Think before you speak, that’s what Nan always says. She says that for most anything he talks about, though, so he takes her advice with a grain of salt.

He reaches out to pat Martin’s arm consolingly, giving him his best sympathetic head tilt. “It’s alright. I’ve never brought any in either. Just thought I’d check in case you needed help bringing them to school.” Jon’s not very good at carrying things, but for Martin he would make an attempt.

“That’s nice of you,” Martin replies, though it’s not really nice, it’s just a normal thing a friend would do. Jon’s read books about it, he ought to know. “But yeah. I don’t think Mum’s planning anything, much less making cupcakes. She’s really busy.” Martin’s always saying how busy his Mum is, but Jon’s pretty sure she doesn’t do half the things around the house that she’s supposed to. Martin already knows how to cook and make tea and do the laundry without hurting himself. It’s very admirable. The last time Jon attempted to do laundry, he flooded the cellar.

“Do you like cupcakes, though?” Jon asks, scooching closer to Martin’s desk. “Lydia’s mum brought some for her birthday, but they were all carrot cake. Blegh.” He makes an exaggerated face to get Martin to laugh. It works.

“Carrot cake’s not so bad,” Martin says, poking lightly at Jon’s hand with the eraser of his pencil. Jon flinches back dramatically, putting on his most wounded look. “You just don’t like it cause it has the word carrot in it.”

“I don’t like it cause it has actual carrots in it,” Jon sniffs, turning away from Martin to show his displeasure. He decides not to talk to him for the rest of the day, or at least until he has something else to say to him. He’s got a lot on his mind now, and he needs to be left alone with his thoughts. Besides, Martin will poke him again once he gets bored enough. 

Jon flips open the school planner that he’s never used for actual school work and starts to write. He’s got a birthday to plan, and he’s going to give Martin a Mrs. Sims birthday special.

______

It’s a Thursday, which means Martin can’t play on account of his many, many chores. Jon hates Thursdays.

But this time it works in his favor, as he’ll actually have time to plan without Martin thinking something’s up. Jon very rarely cancels on Martin; he’s his most important (and only) friend. But he does on occasion get a little mixed up. One time, he thought it was a Wednesday instead of Thursday, and wound up at Martin’s flat when he didn’t show up at the park. Martin was very nice about it, though, and gave him a cup of tea to ‘calm down’ to drink in the hallway, before he went home. Martin thinks a cup of tea is calming. It doesn’t really do much for Jon, but it is tasty, and Martin gives him extra sugar just the way he likes.

But today is most definitely a Thursday so he scurries on home, slamming the door open and screaming a greeting to Nan that goes unanswered.  She must be off at the shops, otherwise she’d be giving Jon an earful for being too loud. He kicks off his shoes and gazes at the picture of him and his mum on the wall. If his mum were here, she would know exactly what to do to make Martin’s birthday extra-special. But she’s not, and Martin’s mum seems like kind of a jerk, so it’s Jon’s responsibility. “I won’t let you down,” he solemnly tells her smiling face, and turns to take the steps two at a time.

After grabbing his planner and throwing his backpack into the corner,  he pulls out the chair to his messy homework desk, which is usually only used for doodling or writing stories or reading when he wants the activity to feel more official. He flips open his planner to next Wednesday, Martin’s birthday (!!!) and taps his pen impatiently against the page. 

What do birthdays need? Food. Presents. Happiness. The first two might be a bit difficult to pull off, considering his lack of money and cooking skills. Martin deserves a lot more than stale discount biscuits from the grocery. He can get those any day.

But a whole cake is going to be hard. If Nan won’t make one for Jon on his birthday, she most certainly won’t do it for ‘his little friend,’ even if she thinks he’s a good influence. Martin is always very quiet and polite when he sees her, and Nan always gives him a smile in return for his good manners. She doesn’t smile at Jon like that. He tamps down his jealousy and gets back to birthday thoughts.

He thinks he had a purple- or was it pink? - cake on his fifth. It saddens him that he can’t remember. He thinks he’d forget his own mother’s face if he didn’t look at it every morning and night. Memory’s fickle like that, as his Nan likes to say.

Maybe, if he’s very nice and good tonight, Nan will take him with her on the weekly shop and he can convince her to get Martin a cupcake, a good one. One that doesn’t have any carrots in it, even if Martin says they’re alright. He must like them so much because they’re orange, like his hair. Unsurprising. 

He stops wiggling in his chair and straightens his back, as if Nan can see him in his room right now. It’s good to practice, he thinks. If he can sit still all through dinner and not make a mess, she’ll come round. 

Next, an essential part of any birthday: a good present.

His mum never really showered him with gifts, but she always gave him something good, something from the heart. The last present he received - Augustus, an orange cat plushie- still sits on his bed. It’s kind of babyish to sleep with a stuffed animal at his age (or so Marcus declared during recess one day) but Jon doesn’t really care. It helps him sleep.

Unfortunately, Jon can’t buy Martin a stuffed cat. He doesn’t have much money except for what he’s found on the ground and in sofa cushions. And he’s supposed to give that to Nan if he finds it (which he does, mostly).

He could be creative. Make him something. Jon’s not very good at crafts, though. And he doesn’t have a lot of supplies. But he has almost a week to figure something out, minus the times he’s playing with Martin. Well, even then he can stare at him and hope it jogs a good idea.

Lastly, he’s got to make it the happiest, most special day he can. Martin should feel special all the time, but Jon knows how hard that is, especially when you go home and you’re lonely and it seems like you’re the least special person there is. But if Jon is very nice to him and makes the day as fun as possible, maybe he’ll be able to keep that happiness all night, even when Jon leaves. 

That’ll be the hardest part, Jon thinks. He’s not the type of person to make someone happy. Sigh in aggravation, maybe. Roll their eyes. But Martin does neither of those things, so Jon might have a chance. He’ll try and ‘tone it down,’ though. His Jon-ness can be too much at times, and he doesn’t want that to get in the way of what should be Martin’s day.

Everything’s going to be perfect. 

________

And then it’s Saturday, and Jon still doesn’t have a present for Martin. 

He somehow managed to get Nan to agree to the cupcake bit- he’d asked very politely, ate all of his dinner and didn’t spill a thing. Though he thinks it has more to do with her liking Martin. She always acts surprised when she sees him over, like she’s shocked Jon kept a friend for longer than a week. He’s not that bad. But Tuesday she promised to take him to the grocery with her, so it’s fine. One part of his plan is done.

But the present. 

Actually buying something is clearly out of the question- he already exhausted his Nan’s good will in that department. And Jon, for all his usual creativity, is plum out of ideas. He could give him one of his books, but he does that already without prompting. He doesn’t have any good toys, and Martin certainly isn’t getting his best pen, the one that glides real smoothly on the page.

“Are you alright?”

He’s been staring at Martin too long. “Of course,” Jon snaps. “I just like your shirt today, that’s all.”

Martin looks down at his worn t-shirt. It’s not Jon’s favorite, but it’s Martin’s, so he likes it. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.”

They’re out in the woods behind Mr. Fletchley’s house to investigate what Jon thought was an ancient ruin but just turned out to be a couple of crumbling cinder blocks. It was an incredibly disappointing find, but Martin wasn’t discouraged.

“We don’t know where they came from, or why someone dumped them here,” he reasoned, a hand on Jon’s shoulder. “What if they were stolen? What if they’re part of a...a crime, or something?”

Jon doesn’t know what crime would need a cinder block, but he intends to find out. They’ve been walking down the relatively short path (it’s not so much woods as it is a cluster of trees) and haven’t seen anything suspicious, besides a few empty wrappers and a particularly sharp stick that Jon’s been whacking against the ground. He thinks it could’ve been used as a weapon.

“What are you going to do when you’re eight?” he asks, nudging Martin in the side. He hasn’t mentioned his birthday since the first time, so he’ll be in for a real treat come Wednesday. Jon just hopes he can think of something good in time.

“Mm, I don’t know.” Martin slows down to a mosey, and Jon tries to match his strides no matter how much he wants to jump ahead. Martin’s a real ‘slow down and sniff the flowers’ type of guy. Jon’s more of a ‘run ahead and accidentally trample them’ type. “Probably the same as I’m doing now. It’s not like it’s an important age. I can’t drive or anything like that.”

“It’s a very important age!” Jon insists, though he doesn’t have much to back that up. He’s mostly just excited because it’s Martin’s very first birthday with him. “You should look forward to something.”

“I dunno, I don’t want anything to change,” Martin says, his face going a little red as he stares at the ground. “I’d just like to spend more time with you. Have fun. That kind of stuff.”

Jon blinks. “We do that now, though.”

“Yeah. It’s the best.” Martin gives him a toothy grin, the kind that Jon puts away and thinks about later when he’s at dinner with Nan or getting ready in the morning. People don’t smile at him like that, only Martin. He does it all the time when Jon tells him a good joke, or shares his food, or passes him a particularly funny doodle.

And now Jon’s got the perfect idea for a present.

part 2

[sybellebarnhamsims]

The Pixar Legacy Challenge Intro

I bring to you, the beginning of my Pixar themed Legacy challenge!

I play by my own rules and mostly just for fun, sometimes documenting for others while I have free free time (like right now while I have COVID)

We start our challenge off with our founder...

Lightning McQueen!.. well my sim version of him anyways. He is without a doubt one of the most heinously dressed sims I have ever created - but that is only about to be exacerbated by the living quarters I've cooked up for him.

Not only is my toddler son obsessed with the "Cars" movies right now, I thought "McQueen" would be an awesome legacy last name for the generations.

I created him by editing another sim, without realizing how many traits and whatnot came along with him, but since I play by my own rules I figured WHY NOT and I just left him as is. Is it not more realistic for a young adult sim to already have some extra traits under their belt? That's what I'm going with anyways.

And now for our starter residence...

Think - old gas station/garage, turned shifty and leaky one bedroom home of sorts. It's hideous and I love it. It's also entirely themed in Lightning McQueen colors, just as he is.

"Cars" characters is going to be the naming theme for the first round of kiddos, and then we shall see what inspires us and go from there!

I hope you guys will come back to join me in the first installment, let's see how far I will make it with this challenge (or will I get bored like I usually do...?) Only time will tell!

Thanks for reading, Sybelle Barnham.

[illenlan]

Pointnorth BACC... introduction?

I have no idea what I'm doing but I meant to make this kind of post earlier so! Here we go.

I'm using a mash up of rules and some of my own little ideas here and there. Pointnorth is a fishing town and as such, in the beginning everyone is only allowed to have a low level job in the fishing industry (custom career) And then they can unlock careers and buildings later on.

So far it means none of my sims have alot of money and earning money for community lots is VERY slow which is fine by me! More challenge.

The Mayor: Jess Warwick. Initially at the lowest level until she befriended enough of the founders... which she did, easily. I think she's best friends with them all at this point! Popularity sims + Outgoing = Powerful. I like her a lot because she's very friendly and gets along with everyone great.

She's a lesbian and had a crush on the ever-sought after Zoe Bathory, but recently hooked up with a cute townie girl so she's got a love life to look forward to

The Smith brothers. Me realizing that I don't take as much pictures as I think I do.

Glasses is Wade, brown shirt is Hector. Wade is a knowledge sim whose pretty outgoing and friendly. Very sweet and loves reading & writing. Hector is the athetlic jock sim who at first was not well liked. I don't think he's that liked, still, despite being a popularity sim. Probably because when he plays catch or soccerr, he hits too hard.

Wade's in a cute relationship with another founder, Beth Owen. Hector's invovled in the Bathory situation. Very mixed feelings, as he flirts with her but rejects any thing more intense.

Beth Owen. Very tired, also me too girl. She's the poorest right now, didn't have enough to even pay her taxes. She likes art and painting and spends most of her time at the park (Well, everyone's hanging out at that park... I restrict what they can buy, 1 item per round, so if they want to do anything fun they go to the park) and fishing for extra income. She's very in love with Wade, but doesn't get along with Hector. She was also Jess' first friend, so I see them as being very close :>

Bathory siblings. They started off with the most amount of money and contuine to be the richest, despite that only Tucker works. Zoe's a knowledge sim and I let her persue all her skilling, especially because I want science or medicine unlocked soon haha.

But she's so caught up in love drama?! Somehow? Her secondary is fortune... come on girl. She's going steady with Aaron Noble but I constantly see her canoodling with Hector on the park. And now with the introduction of new townies, she's getting spicy with them too! Poor Aaron.

Tucker's my fave. He's extremely playful, so he's always pulling pranks or playing around or being goofy. I gave him a pleasure secondary and now he's just a delight. I see him being a bit mentally childish and his sister takes care of him and is very protective. She was his only friend in the beginning when he pissed off the rests of the town. But now he's friends with everyone! He's like the loveable town foll ^o^

And then Aaron Noble. Ah, my poor boy. Works really hard and is nice to everyone but is absolutely getting played by Zoe. At first he was pretty lonesome, not alot of people paid attention to him but he's rising in popularity now. He's best friends with Tucker and they're ALWAYS hanging out, like, Always coming back with each other from work. Tucker likes to convince him to pull pranks, haha. He's shy and reserved, so i find their friendship to be adorable.

That's it for the founders. I wanna try to post more as the rounds go on (I'm nearing a full in-game year! Yay!) but I'm bad at remembering and my game's ugly as hell so XD

I'm def h aving the most fun i've had a while in this game :D What a great idea to give a BACC another try. I'm excited to see where it goes ^o^

[mumplaysthesims]

Sims 4 Legacy Challenge ROYAL EDITION

Adapted from “The Legacy Challenge Lite”

Welcome to the Sims 4 Legacy Challenge - Royal Edition!

I could never seem to find a challenge that I could use to play out a Royal-themed challenge to my liking. The original Legacy Challenge provided the best guidelines with enough restrictions to make it challenging, not so many that it was overly complicated, and enough relevance that it could be adapted for Royalty.

There are actually two versions of this challenge. I decided to use the “Lite” version, as I was not interested in Scoring (but the link to that, if that’s something that interests you, is below.)

The rules of the original Sims 4 Legacy Challenge Lite follow after the Royal Perks I’ve added to this challenge. I’ve struck out anything I felt like didn’t add to the challenge or made it hard to keep Royal-themed. 

If you like this challenge and play along, I’d love to read your stories! Tag your posts with #Sims 4 Royal Legacy #Royal Legacy Challenge or #Keep Calm and Sim On so we can see what everyone’s Royal Families are up to!

Now, the fun part…

Royal Perks

Your founders may begin their lives in a palace as elaborate as you wish! Create the Royal home of your dreams - no budget is necessary! You may only use ‘motherlode’ while building your palace; once the challenge begins, this cheat is no longer allowed. You may use any Lot Traits you like, but think about which would best suit this challenge. The palace may be in any neighbourhood (ie. the Kingdom), and your Royal Family may interact with anyone in the game (ie. all worlds.)

You may create, download and/or move-in commoners, Nobility, other Royal families into your Kingdom but you MUST NOT PLAY THEM. You may only play a Sim once they are moved into your palace (ie. when they are married into the family.)

The challenge begins once your founder(s) move in to the Palace. You must set their money to §50,000. This is the last time you may adjust Simoleons. 

Your founder may be male or female (or X, for that matter) and single or married. They must not have any children. (Laws regarding Succession are below.) You may title them appropriately (King/Queen, Duke/Duchess, Prince/Princess.)

You may have as many children as you like! (Keep in mind your home’s capacity of 8. You may not be able to move through the generations as quickly if you have a lot of children.) Butlers and Nannies are allowed - in fact, they are encouraged! This is your chance to live an extravagant life!

Children and teens must attend school as normal. Heirs/spares may also attend University, if they choose. They must pay their tuition in full, without taking a student loan. It can be completed full- or part-time. The heir MAY NOT move into student housing, as they must always remain on the lot. The spares may go away for University, but must return to the Palace. 

When your Sim is the head of the family (ie. King/Queen) they MAY NOT hold a job. Their only job is to reign over their land. The heir (and spares) may hold a job while they are in line-to-the-throne, but once they ascend, they must quit. The jobs your Royals may have are limited to:

Freelancer Writer

Painter

Trendsetter

Photographer

Charity Organizer

Internet Personality 

Environmental Manager

Botanist

Military

During their lives, each generation must host the following three social events*:

Coronation - the Official crowning of the King/Queen. Plan this as a “Black and White Bash.” A solemn event - may take place on or off Palace grounds (typically, in a cathedral or the like.) The dress code is White Tie. Children are typically not invited. 

Royal Wedding - must take place in a church/religious establishment/civic building and have a full reception of 20 guests. Plan this as a “Wedding.” The dress code is Black Tie. You must be engaged first and may not elope. Children may be invited. 

State Dinner - this is an occasion for the Royal Family to show off their kingdom! This event must take place at the Palace. Plan this as a “Dinner Party.” The dress code is Black or White tie. The guest list must be full, however, it is limited to other Royals, Nobility and Celebrities. No children allowed. 

*Other than your founders, who are only responsible for one State Dinner, and one wedding if they begin unmarried. They have technically already been crowned, and thus do not need to have a Coronation. 

The guest list must always be set at the maximum (so make lots of friends quickly!) and you must hire a caterer, mixologist and entertainer. You must achieve at minimum Bronze level to count the party. If it was unsuccessful, you must throw another.

These events may occur in any order - it will depend on your storyline - however, the State Dinner must be thrown by the King/Queen when they are reigning. 

Well, that’s all for the Royal Perks! Below are the rest of the rules for the standard Legacy Challenge. 

Keep Calm and Sim On!

Legacy Challenge Official Website

https://simslegacychallenge.com/the-legacy-challenge-lite/

Getting Started

Your challenge begins in Create-A-Sim (CAS.) There, you must design your founder. Your founder can be just about anything you want (they can even be an alien!) You can pick whatever aspiration you want for them and give them whatever traits you want. Pick out their gender, wardrobe, body shape and color, and even incorporate any custom content or mods. The ONLY two rules are that they must be of the Young Adult age, and they must be the only person in the household.

Take extra care when giving them their name, especially their last name, as many future Sims will have that as part of their name, so make it a good one!

Gender Law

The first component is Gender. You must pick one of the following options:

Matriarchy: The Founder must be female. Only girls are eligible to be named heir unless there are no female children, at which point boys become eligible for that generation.

Strict Matriarchy: The Founder must be female. Only girls are eligible to be named heir. Male children cannot, under any circumstance, ever be the heir to the next generation.

Patriarchy: The Founder must be male. Only boys are eligible to be named heir unless there are no male children, at which point girls become eligible for that generation.

Strict Patriarchy: The Founder must be male. Only boys are eligible to be named heir. Female children cannot, under any circumstance, ever be the heir to the next generation.

Equality: The Founder may be of either gender. Both boys and girls are eligible for the title of heir.

Strict Equality: The founder may be of either gender. However, only children of the opposite gender to the founder are eligible to be named heir. This repeats itself for the next generation (the next heir must be a different gender than the previous heir) so that each generation will have alternating-genders as heirs.

Bloodline Law

The Second Component is Bloodline law. You must pick from one of these options:

Strict Traditional: To be eligible to be named heir, a child must be naturally born from their previous-generation parents and be able to trace an unbroken bloodline back to the founder. Adopted children may never be named heir.

Traditional: Children who are naturally born from the previous generation are eligible to be named heir. Adopted children are ineligible to be named heir unless there are no naturally born children, at which point they become eligible for that generation.

Modern: Both Naturally born and adopted children are eligible to be named heir.

Foster: Children who are adopted are eligible to be named heir. Naturally born children are not eligible to be named heir unless there are no adopted children, at which point they become eligible for that generation.

Strict Foster: Only Children who are adopted are eligible for the title of heir. Naturally born children may never be heir.

The Gender Law and Bloodline Law serve as a sort of ‘qualifying’ round. If either law names a child as ineligible, then they cannot gain the title of heir. However, just because a child is eligible to be named heir according to Gender and Bloodline laws, doesn’t mean they WILL be the heir. The third category actually picks the heir.

Heir Law

The third Category is the Heir Selection Law. You must choose from the following options:

First Born: The oldest, by order of joining the family, eligible living child is named heir.

Last Born: The youngest, by order of joining the family, eligible living child is named heir.

Living Will: The eligible child with the highest friendly relationship score with their previous-generation’s parent will be named heir.

Merit: The child with the most fully completed aspirations will be named heir. If there is a tie, the child with the highest level in a single skill will become heir from among the children who are tied.

Strength: The first born eligible child becomes heir by default… but the tile can be forcefully taken from them if an eligible sibling beats them in a fight. That sibling may have their title taken (or taken back) if they lose a fight to another eligible sibling.

Random: The title of heir is randomly selected from the pool of all eligible children. Every time the eligible pool changes size, the heir must be re-rolled using the new pool.

Exemplar: At the beginning of the challenge, name a single trait. This trait must be one of your founder’s three traits. Any eligible heir that has this trait will gain the title of heir. If a single generation has no children with this trait follow the First Born rule. If more than one child has the Exemplar trait then the oldest child WITH the trait will be the heir.

Democracy: This rule may be used if you are displaying your Legacy Challenge in some public way. Either via Let’s Play, Livestream, blog or other format where people can leave comment. The heir is chosen by your viewers/readers from among the pool of eligible heirs.

Magical Bloodline: Choose the heir by whoever has the strongest magical bloodline trait. If there is no magical bloodline trait (ie in the earlier generations) then the law defaults to first born until magic is introduced to the family. If multiple potential heirs have the same level of magical trait, choose the oldest one.

Magical Strength: Similar to the Strength law above, this one requires two or more potential heirs to have a magical duel. Whoever wins the duel, is the new heir.

Children

Regardless of your succession law, you may always introduce children into your family via pregnancy or adoption. Bloodline law will determine which are eligible to be heirs. (With the addition of The Sims 4 Get to Work alien babies can also be brought into the family via abduction.) Children may only be adopted as infants. You may not adopt if there are any infants (natural born or adopted) living in the house at the time and must wait for them to grow to toddlers before adopting a new one. You may rename the baby, and it is recommended (but not required) that you change their last name to the Legacy Family’s name.

Regardless of their status, when an infant ages up into a toddler, you must roll for their toddler trait (and later their aspiration and their first trait using the calculator found here when they become a child.) Be sure to put the traits of the two parents (even for adopted children) in the calculator because the algorithm it uses factors those in when generating random traits for the children. When the child grows into a teenager, you consult the calculator again for their adult aspiration and their second trait. Finally the calculator will be used to generate the third trait upon reaching young adulthood.

There is an option here to generate both aspirations and all three traits for a sim at once, though the proper method is to wait until the Sim ages up. And remember- No re-rolling! One of the hallmarks of this challenge is getting randomly generated children so you should keep the good with the bad. Since the traits of the parents have an influence on the traits of their children, you can try to engineer children by selecting spouses with desirable traits, but this is no guarantee.

You are allowed to use fruit and/or music to influence the gender of an unborn child, should you choose to do so.

Gameplay Rules

No cheats/hacks/mods that give you an advantage in the challenge over someone that does not use them (ie. no “motherlode” or “kaching” to get more money.)

No restarting the game after bad events. You must let them play out.

You may not move or merge in other Sims into the Legacy Family with the exception of partners/spouses. 

The Legacy Family must remain on the same lot for the duration of the challenge (this does not include vacations.) They are free (and encouraged) to develop their house but they may not move into a new house. Rooms may be imported into the house from the exchange as long as the family pays full price for the construction and items contained within.

A Sim may utilize an anti-aging item ONCE in their lifetime.

You may not change a Sim’s current aspiration. The exception is when they fully complete an aspiration. When that happens, you may choose their new aspiration, as long as it is not one they’ve already completed.

You may not bring a Sim back from the dead once the reaper has taken them. You MAY plead with the reaper in order to save a recently dead Sim.

You may not move/marry out the sim who currently holds the title of “Heir.” All of the other children in that generation (known as ‘spares’) may move or marry out. Once a sim moves out, they are ineligible to be heir, even if conditions change that might make them the rightful heir.

When playing a Legacy Challenge, your legacy family is the ONLY family you may play in that saved game. You MAY move in new families into the neighbourhood during your challenge (keeping in mind that they can be used for friends, but not spouses) but you may not play them.

You must use the Random Trait Generator to get traits and aspirations for all children born/adopted into the family.

Scoring

https://simslegacychallenge.com/sims-4-legacy-challenge-rules-scoring-bulletpoint-format/

[your-denki-kun]

Gaming

Eijirou X Denki X Reader

A/N: This one-shot is a few months old. I have like 137 drafts of which only a few posted and a few unfinished, so I decided to post at least one tonight. So here it is. It's bad and I know it, but I really wanted to post. Also, I don’t play COD, so don’t come at me being all angry that i got stuff wrong. I write, read and play Minecraft, Sims and that kind of games. Also sorry for any spelling mistakes, English is not my first language.

What: Angst, sad, cursing, fluff

Word count:  4.6K+

~3rd person pov.~

After a long day at school you go to sit on your bed after starting your PS4. You get comfortable on your bed and put on your headset. You start up Call of Duty and wait for it to load. Once it's done you go into a random online match and turn on your mic so you can talk with your teammates.

''We're killing these fuckers.'' An aggressive, male voice says, a speaker appearing behind the name; King Explosion Murder.

''Calm down King, they're new to this.'' Another male voice says, the speaker appearing behind the name; Red Riot.

''Yeah King, Red is right.'' Yet another guy says, his name is Charge Bolt.

''Guys, calm down.'' Another male, Spidy Man, says.

''Yeah!'' A girl, Pinky, says.

''Shut it extra's!'' King barks.

''Calm down bro, the game is starting.'' Red says, the numbers on your screen counting down.

''Lets win this shit.'' King says, you can basically hear the smirk in his voice.

As the timer hits zero you run off, walking through the map and searching for a good snipper spot. Once you find one you take out some people, your teammates talking to one another, but you choose to ignore them. As no more people appear you go to look for another spot, taking out someone while looking for it.

''FUCK!!'' King yells as you see he died.

''My ears man.'' Charge Bolt whines.

''Shut it Pikachu!''

''Hey!''

''Guys, focus.'' Red sighs.

They keep talking, but you tune them out once again and keep taking out people. As you shoot someone else the winning screen appears. You smirk as you see you killed the most people. Everyone cheers except King who's just grumbling. You tune everyone back in in order to be able to follow the conversation.

''So manly, BB!'' Red cheers.

''Woo! Finaly someone who's better than King!'' Pinky cheers.

''Nice.'' Spidy says.

''Shut it! We're playing another game!'' King barks.

''No need to be salty.'' You mumble.

''Ohh~'' Everyone except King says.

''SHUT IT EXTRA!!'' King barks.

''Come on King. They're new.'' Red chuckles.

The new game starts and you repeat what you did before. This goes on for multiple rounds, you barely talking and if you talk it's mostly a comment on King. As the night ends you go offline and shut off your Playstation. You get ready for bed and lay down, getting comfortable as you let sleep take over.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next two months you keep running into the group of friends and slowly you start opening up to them, actually talking and working together with them. Everyone's scores go up and even King starts accepting you, clearly favoring you over everyone else in the group. That is something the others often complain about.

''King, go a bit to your right behind the wall, I can't get a clear shot.'' You say.

''Got it.'' Is all he says as he aims at the person and kills them.

''Why are you so good at this BB?'' Charge Bolt whines.

''Well, my brother taught me and I play a lot. Red, left, behind the stack of boxes. Like, I play a lot a lot.'' You shrug as you shoot someone.

''Lets just focus on the mission.'' Spidy sighs.

''Got it.'' You all, minus King, reply, going silent once again except the occasional instruction.

Just like always you guys win the round and Red, Spidy, Charge Bolt and Pinky compliment you just like always. You just brush it off and you all start another round. After a few rounds Spidy, Pinky and King have to leave, but Red Riot and Charge Bolt stay. You three play a few more rounds before just deciding to talk.

''So you're telling me none of you guys have ever met?'' You ask in disbelieve.

''Yeah, King doesn't want it and he's always here because we don't play unless he's online. Though that did change since you're here now, but we just never really thought about it anymore.'' Red explains.

''Well, how about we three meet up?''

''Really?'' Red and Charge Bolt ask.

''Yeah, I trust you guys and we can meet up in a public place.'' You shrug, indifferent about your won idea.

''Sure thing.'' Charge Bolt says.

''Great. Okay so I'll tell you guys my number, but don't give it to the others.''

''We don't have their number.'' Red shrugs.

''Okay. So my number is; 0X-XXXX-XXXX.''

''Great, I'll text you. You can make a group chat and we can decide when to meet up.'' Charge Bolt explains.

''Sure thing. Bye guys.''

''Bye.''

You disconnect and wait for them to text you. When they do you save them in your contact list before making a group chat. You name it; Gaming Idiots and wait for them to send something. You don't have to wait long for them to do so.

~Gaming Idiots~

Red Riot Do I need to feel offended?

Charge Bolt No idea bro

You Nah, don't feel offended

Red Riot Okay

Charge Bolt So when are we meeting and where?

Red Riot This Saturday?

You Sure, at the mall in Hosu?

Charge Bolt Sure thing

Red Riot Fine by me

The three of you keep texting for a while until you say good bye because you're almost falling asleep. The rest of the week you guys don't bring up the meeting in front of the others, only mentioning it in the group chat or when you guys are the only ones online. Right now it's Saturday and you're at the mall, waiting for the two males to show up.

You glance around at all the people that are walking around the mall. They both told you what they look like and you did the same. Red Riot said he has red hair and is decently tall while Charge Bolt says he has golden blond hair and isn't all that tall. Red also mentioned something about being buff, which made Charge Bolt jealous because he isn't, or so he says.

As you look around you spot two males, fitting the descriptions you were given, looking around as if they're searching for something. Deciding to test your luck you walk over to them. The closer you get the more sure you are it is them. As you reach them they stare at you, as if waiting for you to confirm things.

''Red Riot? Charge Bolt?'' You ask softly, hoping you're right.

''BB?'' The two of them reply in sync.

''Yes.''

''Cool, we all found each other. Me and Charge Bolt saw each other a bit ago. Have you been here long?''

''Nah, just a few minutes. My real name is (y/n) by the way.''

''Kirishima.''

''Kaminari, nice to meet you gorgeous.'' Kaminari smirks confidently.

''You're the flirt I see. Anyway, what do you guys want to do?''

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Months go by and the three of you meet up almost weekly. You've developed a crush for the both of them and you have a feeling they have as well. You aren't sure however, but the way you all get flustered and blush a lot is a good indicator. Right now you're on your way to Kirishima's house where you all decided to meet up. You knock on the door and wait.

''Ah, (y/n). You made it. Come in.'' Kirishima smiles as he steps aside to let you in.

''Thanks.'' You smile as you walk past him and into the house.

You take off your shoes and walk further into the house. You soon spot the living room and walk in only to see Kaminari sitting on the ground in front of the coffee table. He smiles at you and waves you over, to which you comply. Kirishima sits down with you guys pretty soon and you look at their nervous faces.

''Something wrong?'' You ask them worriedly.

''We want to tell you something.'' Kirishima starts, avoiding eye contact.

''Okay.''

''We've known each other for a while now and.... We started liking you. Would you be our partner?'' Kaminari blurts out, also avoiding eye contact.

''Of course.'' You smile as you hug them both.

They stare at you in shock for a bit before they start laughing as they hold you close. As you all break the hug after a while you all talk and laugh. When it becomes late Denki walks you home before going to his own house, which you and Eijirou really apreciated. You've never been a big fan of walking outside alone in the dark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

''Guys, we should all meet up.'' Pinky states as you all wait for the new round to start.

''Sure, I don't see why not.'' Eijirou says and you can basically hear him shrug.

''Why not.'' Denki hums.

''Sure.'' You mumble as a reply.

''When?'' Is all Spidy asks.

''What-fucking-ever.''

''Such colorful vocabulary.'' You joke as you roll your eyes.

''YOU WANNA GO?!?!'' King barks into your ears.

''My ears man!'' Eijirou whines loudly.

''How about this Saturday at the mall in Hosu?'' Pinky suggests as the round starts.

''Sure, it's crowded so if any of you are creeps I'll be safe.'' You shrug as you shoot someone.

''Don't worry BB. Me and Red will protect you.'' Denki says in a confident tone.

''You're dead.'' You deadpan as you see his name fade.

''WHAT?!?!'' Denki exclaims loudly.

''Jezus. Could you all quit yelling.'' You groan as you slightly shake your head.

''We both know this was gonna happen BB.'' Eijirou sighs softly, amusement clear in his voice.

''But he didn't have to yell.''

''True, but still.'' Eijirou replies to which you sigh.

You all keep talking until King says he's leaving because it's getting late even though it's only nine thirty, but he always goes to bed at this time. As you shut off your Playstation you hear your phone ding, causing you to smile. You grab your phone and unlock it, seeing Denki send something in the groupchat.

~Gaming Idiots~

Denki<3 But I wasn't kidding, Pichu, we will protect you

Eiji<3 Denks is right. We will

You I know, but it's fun teasing you Denki

Eiji<3 You both looking forward to Saturday?

Denki<3 Mhm! I'm curious as to what they look like

You Well one will have wrinkles from all the shouting and scowling

Denki<3 XD fnwfelsfflwnjk

Eiji<3 That's rude, but it is true

And so you guys keep texting until it's late into the night and you're all barely awake. The next two days you all play every night and you text your boyfriends until late into the night on both days. Right now it's Saturday, about eleven in the morning and you're getting ready. You know Eijirou and Denki will be there soon, so you quickly finish up.

Just as you put the last things in your pockets and bag you hear the door bell ring and a smile appears on your face. You walk over to the front door and put on your shoes and coat. After that you open the door and smile brightly. Your two boyfriends do the same, wearing some simple clothes just like you.

''Hey, Pichu, you ready?'' Denki asks as he gives you a quick kiss.

''Hey, Babes. I'm ready.'' You smile as you walk outside and lock your door.

''Good.'' Eijirou smiles as he gives you a kiss as well.

The three of you start walking towards the mall as you all talk and laugh, memories of your first meeting flooding all your minds. As you all reach the mall you look around, looking for anyone fitting any of the descriptions given to the three of you. You soon spot an annoyed looking, ash blond guy.

''Guys, isn't that King?'' You ask your boyfriends as you point at the guy.

''You might be right. Lets go check if it is.'' Eijirou smiles as he starts walking.

You and Denki follow after him, all of you pushing past people and excusing yourselves. As you reach whom you assume is King a pink haired girl and a black haired guy also walk up to him. You look at Eijirou and Denki and they just nod. Now you are almost a hundred percent sure it's King.

''King?'' You ask as you reach the man.

''Yes, who the fuck are you?''

''(y/n), but better known as BB.'' You smile at him.

''Kirishima, better known as Red Riot.''

''Kaminari, better known as Charge Bolt.''

''Ashido, but you guys know me as Pinky.'' The pink haired girl smiles.

''Sero, but you know me as Spidy Guy.'' The black guy smiles.

''Bakugou.'' is all King says.

''now that we're all here and know names, how about we get something to eat and drink before we just do whatever?'' you suggest as you look at them.

''sure.'' they all reply.

you start walking to your favorite coffee shop which you always go to with Eijirou and Denki whenever you guys are here. Two said males smile once they notice and grin at one another. Cheerful chatter fills the air around the six of you. As you all reach the coffee shop you all order and sit down. You sit in between Eijirou and Denki, Bakugou sits in front of you, Ashido in front of Eijirou and Sero in front of Denki.

''This is so exciting.'' Sshido gushes as she takes a sip of her drink.

''Mhm, I finally have faces with the voices and names.'' You smile as you take a sip as well.

''Yeah, that is nice. We should totally exchange numbers though. That way we can talk without having to play.'' Denki chimes in.

You all keep talking while eating and drinking. Once you all finish Eijirou pays and you all start walking around, walking into random shops and buying random things. As you're looking at some books together with Eijirou and Denki you feel someone stare at you intently, so you look behind you and lock eyes with Bakugou's burning gaze.

''Pebble, something wrong?'' Eijirou asks worried.

''Bakugou is staring at us rather intensely.'' You mumble as you keep staring at him.

''Then ask him what's wrong.'' Denki shrugs as he grabs another book.

You simply nod and walk over to Bakugou, never once breaking eye contact. He doesn't move towards you or away from you as he follows you with his eyes. As you reach him you stand in front of him and look up slightly seeing he's taller than you. He glares down at you, eyes burning with something you can't quiet place.

''Something wrong Bakugou?''

''Why the fuck are you so close with Shitty hair and Dunce face?''

''Can't I be?''

''You fucking can, but it's different. Soy sauce and Pinky are close as well, but you three are acting fucking off.''

''Not everyone is the same Bakugou.'' You deadpan with a soft sigh.

''Just fucking tell me, do you already know the other extras?''

''I d-''

''Ie! Denki!'' You hear Eijirou exclaim, causing you to look back.

You see Denki laughing as he runs off with Eijirou chasing him, a playful yet annoyed look on his face. Sighing you walk away from Bakugou and towards your two idiotic boyfriends. First you grab Denki by the back off his collar, causing him to yelp. Next you do the same with Eijirou. They both look at you sheepishly as you sigh.

''Behave.''

''Yes.'' They both reply.

You nod and let the both of them go. They sigh in relief, but that's short lived as you hit the both of them at the back of the head. They both yelp in pain and rub the back of their heads as they weakly glare at you. You simply smile at them and ruffle their hair. You hear someone stomp over and look behind you to see Bakugou.

''Fucking spit it out!'' He barks as he glares dagers at the three of you.

''Spit what out?'' Eijirou and Denki ask confused.

''Do you guys fucking know each other?''

''Of course, we all game together.'' Denki asks, confused at the question.

''That's not what he means. He means if we know each other outside of the gaming.'' You explain, not looking at him but Bakugou.

''Ah, yeah we do.'' Denki smiles obliviously.

''Denki.'' Both you and Eijirou groan, he can be too dumb for his own good sometimes.

''What did I do?'' He asks worried.

''We promised to meet up all at once and not separately, remember?'' Eijirou asks him.

''Ohhh, right. We did promise that.'' Denki mumbles. ''Oopsie.''

''Dunce face!'' Bakugou barks.

''Back off Bakugou. He might be an idiot, but he's our idiot.'' You say in a low, threatening voice.

''YOU'RE ALL PIECES OFF SHIT!! FUCKING LIARS!! I FUCKING HATE ALL OF YOU!! NEVER FUCKING SPEAK TO ME AGAIN!!'' Bakugou yells as he stomps off and out of the store.

''Well, that happened.'' You mumble, but as you look at your boyfriends you see their teary eyes.

''Ei? Denki?'' You ask as you walk closer.

''He hates us......We promised to always be there and....Now he hates us.'' Eijirou mumbles as he looks at you with sad eyes.

''Ohh, Ei, he'll turn around.'' You shush him softly as you hug him.

''He won't. He's the reason Ear Jack isn't in the group anymore. She kept canceling whenever we decided to all come online and Bakugou blew up on her.'' Denki mumbles as tears fill his eyes to the brim.

''I'm sorry. I didn't know.'' You whisper as you pull him into the hug as well.

''What happened here?'' Ashido asks worried.

''Bakugou blew up on us. Something about hating us and never wanting to talk to us again.'' You explain, holding your boyfriends close.

''I see. Well, it was nice knowing you guys. Bye.'' Sero says as he waves and walks off.

''Bye.''

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

''Come one guys, cheer up a bit.'' You whisper as you look at your two sad boyfriends.

''We lost our friend, Pichu.'' Denki mumbles as his eyes fill with tears again.

''He hates us. We failed him.'' Eijirou mumbles as he hugs himself close.

They've been like this for two weeks now and it isn't helping you either. You were the one who suggested meeting up in the first place, only the three of you. 'If I didn't ask them to meet up with me, just us, non of this would have happened. This is my fault.' You think as you walk out of Eijirou's house where Denki has been staying since that day.

You walk to the park and google Bakugou's number, finding some social media pages linked to it. After a bit you see a house, with a house number. He's standing in front of the house together with a green haired guy who seems to be the same age. You recognize the buildings and start walking to the neighborhood where those houses stand.

As you walk around you try to find his house, different scenarios running through your mind. After a while you see the house and walk up to it. Sighing you ring the doorbell and wait. After a bit a female version of Bakugou opens the door. You assume it's his mom. She looks at you in shock before smiling brightly.

''Hello, what can I do for you?'' She asks sweetly.

''I’m here for Bakugou. I'm a friend of his and I want to talk to him.'' You explain.

''Come in. KATSUKI!!'' She yells as she turns away from you and walks into the house.

''WHAT YOU OLD HAG?!?!'' Bakugou's voice yells back.

''THERE'S SOMEONE HERE FOR YOU!! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!!'' She turns back to you and smiles. ''You can sit in the living room.''

''I'll stand right here, ma'am.'' You smile with a slight bow of your head.

You hear feet stomp down the stairs and look up, seeing and annoyed Bakugou stomping down them. Once he sees you his look turns even more annoyed and even angry. You look at him with a neutral face as the mom walks into the kitchen after excusing herself. Bakugou walks over to you with a burning glare.

''What the fuck are you doing here?'' He hisses.

''It was my idea. I suggested to meet up, just the three of us. I asked if you guys ever met up and they said no. It was my idea. Don't punish them for my mistake.'' You state, meeting his gaze and holding it.

''And why the fuck would I believe you?'' He asks in a skeptical voice.

''I have no reason to lie to you. Eijirou and Denki are hurting, they're devastated that they lost you. Hate me all you want, god you can wish me death, but at least accept them into the games. You don't have to be buddy buddy with them, but they need you.''

''Bullshit.''

''Believe what you want. Deep down you know they're devastated and that it was never their intention to hurt you like this. I caught them off guard and got us to meet, it was my idea. That's all I have to say. Do with it what you want. I'll be leaving now. Bye.'' You say as you turn to the door and walk out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The doorbell of your house rings, causing you to frown. You walk over to the door you open it and see Bakugou, causing your frown to deepen. You open the door and let him in. He walks past you, takes off his shoes and walks deeper into the house, eventually sitting down on the couch. You follow after him, frown not leaving.

''What are you doing here?'' You ask as you sit down on a chair facing the couch.

''Where are Shitty hair and Dunce face?''

''At Eijirou's house. They haven't left it after that day.''

''Shitty hair has his own house?'' Bakugou asks surprised, although he doesn't really show it.

''Yeah, me and Eijirou have our own houses. Denki still lives at home just like you.''

''Get them to come over.''

''Okay.'' You take your phone out of your pocket and call Eijirou, putting the phone on speaker, causing Bakugou to frown.

''Pebble, we are not going outside and coming over. You know we aren't in the mood.'' Eijirou's tired voice mumbles after two rings.

''I know, Ei. I know.'' You whisper as your eyes sadden.

''Then why did you call?'' Denki mumbles as you glance at Bakugou who looks shocked.

''There is someone here who would like to talk to you guys.'' You sigh as you hand the phone to Bakugou. ''Hurt them and I hurt you. I'll be at the store. I'll be back in half an hour.''

Bakugou nods as you walk over to the door, put on your shoes and leave. Bakugou looks at the phone as Eijirou and Denki keep calling for you and asking who it is. Bakugou takes a deep breath and shakes his head to get rid of the thoughts. By now it's silent on the other end.

''Is it fucking true it was their idea?''

''....Bakugou?'' The both of them ask softly.

''Answer the fucking question.'' Bakugou groans in annoyance.

''It was. They suggested to meet up. Why are you at their place? I thought you hated us and wanted nothing to do with us.'' Eijirou mumbles defeated.

''They came to my fucking house four days ago and explained it was their idea, not fucking yours. I just wanted to fucking make sure.''

''Okay.'' They mumble softly.

''Oi.''

''Yeah?''

''Sorry or whatever. You guys can join games again and text or whatever. And don't make me fucking regret that shit.''

''We won't!'' The both of them cheer.

The three of them talk until you come home. You're glad to hear their cheerful voices over the phone. Bakugou looks at you with his usual scowl and holds the phone out to you. You shake your head, walk over and mute yourself. Bakugou frowns and it only deepens when he sees your teary eyes.

''This is all my fault. Here is Eijirou's address, you can go there and talk to them face to face if you want. Don't bother coming here again. I'll take responsibility for what I did.'' You whisper as you take the phone, unmute it and take a deep breath. ''Bakugou is on his way to you guys, bye.''

''What the fuck are you doing?'' Bakugou asks as he gets up and stares down at you.

''The right thing.'' You whisper as you walk over to your bedroom and close the door behind you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the next two weeks you cry a lot, ignore Eijirou's and Denki's texts and calls and when they're at the door you also don't respond. You know you're worrying them, but you can't bring yourself to face them after everything you made them go through. they were heartbroken when Bakugou broke off contact.

''OPEN THE FUCK UP!!'' You hear Bakugou bark as he bangs on your door violently.

''Go away.'' You mumble before walking away from the door.

''I SAID OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!!''

''Just go away! Leave me alone! I deserve it! I hurt them so much! It's all my fault!'' You exclaim as tears stream down your face.

''BULLSHIT!! OPEN THE DOOR!!''

''NO!! LEAVE ME ALONE!! I DON'T DESERVE THEM!! IF IT WASN'T FOR ME NON OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!! THEY WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN HURT LIKE THAT!!'' You exclaim as you fall to the ground.

''Fuck it.'' Is all the warning you get before you door falls to the ground. ''LISTEN HERE YOU PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT!! YOU'RE FUCKING HURTING THEM RIGHT NOW!! MAN THE FUCK UP AND TALK TO THEM!!''

''No!''

''GOD DAMNED IT DON'T BE FUCKING STUBBORN!! YOU'RE ALL FUCKING HURTING!!'' He yells as he walks over and grabs your collar, lifting you up so you're face to face. ''Fucking talk to them. This shit isn't helping. Go over to Shitty hair's house and fucking talk to them.''

''I can't.'' You whisper in defeat as a sob escapes. ''I can't! I can't bring myself to do it! Whenever I see their picture flash across my screen I fucking break down! I can't!''

''Fuck it.'' Bakugou grumbles before slinging you over his shoulder.

You eyes widen in shock as Bakugou walks over to the door and steps over it, walking out off your apartment. You trash in his hold and yell at him to let you go as you sob and hit his back. He just stays silent as he walks to Eijirou's house. Once he reaches it he harshly knocks on the door, by now you're just limply hanging on his shoulder.

''Hey, wh-(y/n)? Bakugou?'' Eijirou asks confused. ''What is this?''

''Let me the fuck in.''

''Of course.''

Eijirou steps aside and Bakugou walks in, heading to the living room after kicking off his shoes. He throws you onto the couch and walks out of the house again. You just lay motionless on the couch with your face buried in the cushions. Denki and Eijirou stare at you with worry and confusion as they sit on the chairs facing the couch.

''Pichu?'' Denki whispers softly, breaking the tens and awkward silence.

''Pebble, talk to us please.'' Eijirou pleads softly.

''It's my fault. All of this is my fault.'' You mumble as you push yourself up and hug your legs to your chest.

''What do you mean, Pichu?''

''If I hadn't asked you guys to meet up non of this would have happened.''

''We could have said no to your offer, we're just as much at fault.'' Eijirou says in a caring voice.

''I surprised you guys.''

'Iis this why you've been ignoring us?'' Denki whispers softly as he gets up and walks over.

''I just feel so guilty and I....I feel like I don't deserve this.'' You mumbles as you glance at him with teary eyes.

''You do deserve this, Pebble. We don't hold any of this against you and we never will. I get why you feel like this, but there is no reason for you to feel like this.'' Eijirou says with a gentle smile as he walks over.

''You promise?'' You almost whimper.

''We promise. Now are we good again?''

''Yeah.''

[pictureamoebae]

Eternal thank yous, and news!

I want to say thank you so much for your kindness and understanding yesterday, to everyone who sent me a message and to everyone who didn’t but had a warm thought for me. Life is very difficult for many of us at the moment, and sometimes what feels like a never-ending struggle to just get through each day can suddenly turn into a bit of a crisis, and when that happens we need a little space and to re-calibrate.

I spent the evening watching Landscape Artist of the Year (really recommend this, and Portrait Artist of the Year -- wonderfully lovely shows that just make me feel wrapped up in a blanket), drinking hot chocolate, and eating chocolate biscuits, and despite a rocky start am feeling a little renewed today.

So what’s the news, I hear all 4 of you ask. Under the cut, because who wants to read stuff, amirite? (It’s about my Patreon, if you’re curious as to whether to click.)

Long ago I stated my commitment to always keep my TS4 content free for everyone, and that will always continue to be the case. Despite that, people kept pledging to me on Patreon for some reason (I never collected on these pledges), and others from time to time expressed a desire to support me in some way. 

I find the whole concept weird, because I just make the things that I enjoy making out of a strange and chaotic desire to Do Stuff. And I’m not even very consistent. Nevertheless, for fear of being attacked by absolute throngs of 6 or more of you positively belting me with your wallets I have decided to introduce feel-good tiers to my Patreon, for those of you who are so moved as to think supporting me is a good idea (you’re very odd but I love you).

I in no way at all ever expect anyone to join one of the tiers if they don’t absolutely want to out of some curious and misplaced sense of being amazing. And as I said, my content will remain free to everyone because everyone deserves 300 badly-recoloured walls and overly-cc-stuffed builds in their game. Everyone.

I offer nothing other than the warm glow of recognising you are an Extremely Special Person, although for higher tiers (which are experiments in seeing if there is anyone absolutely weird enough to want to pledge that amount) I do offer the chance to suggest builds that will make it onto my Big List Of Builds I One Day Hope To Make, and for the upper-most tier (which I never, ever expect anyone to pledge to because it’s ridiculous, but again, an experiment) a build made to your specifications. Rubbish benefits, I’m sure you’ll agree. I wouldn’t pledge to me. (This is how you sell yourself, right?)

I have sent messages to those kind, misguided souls who had already pledged on a per-creation basis to tell them of the move to a per-month tier system. I thought I would be able to cancel their pledges myself so they don’t find themselves in a situation they weren’t expecting, but it doesn’t appear to be possible. I’ve made it clear I absolutely understand if they need to cancel their pledges (which I never previously collected on, as I said), and I apologise to anyone for whom this is an inconvenience. If there is another way to deal with this, please let me know because I don’t want anyone to find themselves in a situation they didn’t expect. I’d be pure fumin’.

I chose GBP £ because that’s where I’m based, and of course now everything looks weird and un-rounded in dollars, which is probably what most people will see first. I’M SORRY. I’m old and tired and technology is an eternal frustration.

Here are the ridiculous tiers, for those who want to save themselves a click through to my Patreon. Don’t get excited. They are rubbish.

You are special - £1 per month. You. Yes you. You are special. Thank you for choosing to support me. I send you a warm fuzzy feeling of appreciation.

And you are also special - £3 per month. How did you get to be so special? It's a mystery. But you really are, and I appreciate you so very much, thank you. I send you all the warm fuzzy feelings you can cope with.

Who's a special Simmer? YOU ARE! - £6 per month. Who knew that being you was such a gift? You are truly appreciated, in everything you do. In this tier, you get all the warm fuzzy feelings of previous tiers, with a little bit extra just for you. In addition, you can suggest certain TS4 builds you might like to see me make in the future that will get added to my Big List Of Builds I One Day Hope To Make.

Well someone's special. IT'S YOU! - £12 per month. An experiment to see if anyone is weird enough to pledge to this tier. If you do, wow, you are so incredibly special I can't even. How do you do it? You get all the warm fuzzy feelings you can manage directed straight at your face for the length of your pledge, and beyond. You also get to suggest builds that will be added to my Big List Of Builds I One Day Hope To Make, and you also get to ask for a build made to your specifications just for you (well, okay, it will be released publicly too). Nothing too freaky, we're a (mostly) family friendly show here.

A special (re)shade of special! - £12 per month. Another experiment to see if anyone is weird enough to pledge to this tier. If you do, I can only marvel at your oddness and epicness. You get all the warm fuzzy feelings you can manage directed straight at your face for the length of your pledge, and beyond. You also get to suggest builds that will be added to my Big List Of Builds I One Day Hope To Make. And you get a ReShade preset made to your specifications (which will also be made available publicly). I will provide ongoing troubleshooting and tweaking support for the length of your patronage, and if you cancel (which is cool, it's all cool) I'll still provide troubleshooting as I already do for anyone and everyone who rocks up with a ReShade question.

I can only reiterate again and again, I do not expect anyone to pledge to any of these tiers. They offer nothing of value, and merely exist for those very, very few of you who are truly odd enough to think supporting my chaos and unreliability is a good use of your time and money.

Regardless, as I say in my updated About section on Patreon, I never could have imagined what a big part of my life The Sims 4 would become, and how much I would enjoy the friendship and company of the people in this community. Thank you, every single one of you.

[sims2squared]

Rotation 1 - Brandi Broke & Kids

The Broke family is like my benchmark for noticing differences from the previous times I've played them. Every tim I restart the save file they get along differently! On this go round, they appear to get along pretty well most of the time and they are actually a very sweet little family. In my last save file most of them hated each other. lol I spent most of the time with the Broke family at home... because it was just too hard to get everyone's needs up to get them out the door. lol Sound familiar to anyone with kids (I don't have 'em, but I used to babysit when I was a teen, so I'm familiar with this issue)? Even with staying at home for the most part, with the Broke's there was PLENTY going on... from colds to a tonsillectomy, from Skip's ghost trying to seduce Brandi to Skip's ghost terrifying his children, to not being able to keep the house clean or the needs up, birthdays, earthquakes.... you name it. lol And now I have to weed 89 screenshots (I was too busy with them to remember to take more!) down to 10...

So we may as well start off with Skip back from the dead and attempting to seduce Brandi while she was delusional from a cold & fever....

Little Beau also aged up to a child. He's shy and introverted this time around (in my last PH save he got randomized traits that made him a little hellion!). Spends a lot of the time quietly helping out his mom by picking up dishes, mopping up messes, and taking out the trash.

Twins Sharla & Kashton popped out of their bassinets! They are... pretty adorable, but also a complete whirlwind of crazy.

Both Dustin and Beau are pretty helpful with keeping the twins entertained. Dustin plays with them a lot, and Beau is good for a shy hug or a chat.

Dustin is still dating Angela, but I have noticed their relationship bars declining a little almost every time they hang out... Dustin mostly invites her over when Mom is out of the house.

During this rotation Dustin graduated from high school (barely - he had a D grade and it was slipping) on his birthday. Immediately after ageing to young adult he required emergency surgery for tonsillitis. I love that with the education mod (I think) there is a high school graduation ceremony that the whole family can attend! I didn't know that was a thing (I'm terrible about reading mod descriptions, tbh), so I was very pleasantly surprised!!

Poor Beau nearly froze to death at one point! Winter is a key ingredient in the recipe for popsicle-sims. Luckily, Beau was already on his way inside. Related note: I keep telling my sims not to take off their winter clothes when they preform an action outside, but they just won't listen! Why put on your cold weather clothes for the walk to whatever they are doing outside, just to take off the cold weather clothes to do the thing they are doing outside??? My google-foo is failing me on this silly behaviour too, ugh.

Brandi briefly had a job in the culinary field, but got fired for catering a party on her own... behind her bosses' back. She got some extra cash, made friends with Judith Ward, and became a minor celebrity though so she wasn't mad about it. I'm not sure she was thinking ahead on that one.

Skip's ghost may have tried to seduce a delusional Brandi at the beginning of the rotation, but most of the time he's pretty scary. He doesn't have the nicest personality... At one point he was terrorizing poor Beau and an earthquake happened! I wish I had caught a better photo as I don't think I've ever seen a sim quite that scared! The poor kid was just cowering and screaming. Better Ghosts has basically won my "Best Fun Mod" award. I just can't get over how great it is. Lights flickering, haunting wails, sims actually afraid of the ghosts... it's so great!! And I think that puts me at the 10 photo limit, so I'll leave this here. Playing the Broke family was very fun in this rotation! I was so busy with them and they had a lot of memorable moments!! If you are interested in playing this save file for yourself, you can! It's packed full of fun features (like 170 clubs, for starters) and your favourite TS2 sims! Get more information about it on my google drive.

[jonspurpleskirt]

Down the Spiral

Tim Stoker & Jonathan Sims, hurt/comfort

Summary: Michael loves playing with the Archivist and so after Not-Sasha is taken care of and Jon is back at the Institute murder charge free it reveals that he has Sasha stashed "savely" in its halls. All Jon has to do to get her out is go through the yellow door. ____

Everything just kept getting worse. That thought hadn't left his mind since the confrontation with Elias. It kept him from his work, making him stare at the statement he had wanted to record hours ago. Something impatient within him tugged to finally get on with it, but his eyes just didn't see the words in front of him and the insides of his head kept resembling a barren wasteland.

There was nothing good in his life anymore. There was nothing good in any of their lives anymore. He had ruined everything. Dragged everyone into the cage with him and locked the door because he hadn't known any better.

If he had just known...

But he hadn't and now they were all trapped here. Nothing waiting for them outside and nothing but hostility meeting them inside. At least that was the case for Jon. He didn't know if Tim and Martin still spoke, still sometimes joked with each other. If Melanie had made friends with Basira perhaps, or god forbid even Daisy. The two of them shared a frightening amount of bloodlust.

He doubted it, though. Whenever he dared to emerge from his office these days the atmosphere in the shared space of the Archives was tense. One or more of them were always gone, Basira more often than not sitting somewhere reading.

Neither of them did much work these days, Jon mused. It was funny that once upon a time that thought would have made him angry.

Jon sighed, glancing over the statement for the upteenth time, saying to himself that now he would finally start and do some work, when loud cursing and several crashes made him jump out of his chair and run towards the door.

He ripped it open with the wrong hand, the burn left by Jude Perry sending a stab of pain through his arm.

Basira, Tim and Melanie were for once all there, and had taken on various defensive poses. They didn't grace Jons dramatic entrance with even the slightest of glances, but the being that called itself Michael grinned and cooed as though it didn't have a knife, an axe and a gun pointed at it.

"Archivist! Just whom I wanted to see~ It is quite hard to get a grip on you, you know. I've been meaning to have a little chat with you for a while now."

Jon squeezed his eyes together to ward of the headache Michaels multiple voices and impossible features always gave him. He breathed through the pain, before looking at the Distortion again, squinting to be able to make out something that resembled a coherent form.

The image still swam in front of him, Michaels smile literally blinding, teeth flashing with too many deeply saturated colours.

"Hello Michael. What do you want?"

"Awww you don't sound excited to see me at all! I've got more of a reaction from your assistants."

The thing pouted, but the grin reappeared fast when it heard the click of the safety of Basiras gun coming off.

"Aha I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The voice it used screeched like nails on a chalkboard and a microphone with its volume set too high. Weapons clattered to the floor as everyone scrambled to shield their ears from the sound. Jon felt a trickle of blood running down the side of his neck and winced.

"There. Better. You people are so rude." The laughter that followed was worse than the voices before, high pitched and low, aggressively amused.

"Michael." Jon hissed and it stopped.

"Yes dear Archivist?"

"Why are you here?"

"Ah." A misplaced chuckle, alltogether fake and a hungry grin. "I've heard you've dealt with Not-Sasha! Congratulations! Do you want the real one back now?"

"What?"

Tim had recovered fast and somehow had already taken up the axe again. He looked more than prepared to chop Michaels head off with it.

"Oh hello! I forgot you were here, too. How did you like my hallways?"

"Fuck you! What are you talking about?!"

Michael shrugged, or what could be perceived as a shrug. It was hard to tell when there seemed to be three sets of shoulders all in various places they shouldn't be.

"It is as I said. I took Sasha into my hallways so she could flee from the thing in the table. And now that Not-Sasha is gone I'm willing to trade her."

"Trade her for what?"

Jon had a bad feeling about this, but he let Tim lead the conversation. Better he ask the questions. Jon didn't want to accidently use compulsion and make Michael angry.

"Why for the Archivist of course! I'm terribly bored at the moment. No good prey out there. And I'd love to see how my hallways work against someone from the Eyes ilk."

"So it would be a game to you." Jon was careful to not word it as a question.

Michaels blinding smirk hit him square in the chest and left him heaving. "Yes, you could see it that way."

"Jon." Basira warned, inching toward him.

Melanies lips were pressed into a thin line, her eyes never strayed from the Distortion, even when tears started to run down her face from the strain. She kept quiet, but it was clear that she would attack if she felt it to be necessary.

"And that exchange."

"Yes." Michael dared him to ask.

"What would it look like."

"No static! My you are truly making an effort! It goes like this. You come here and step into my door and I let Sasha out."

"Jon we can't trust him." Basira hissed.

"I'm an it, actually." Michael purred.

"Whatever."

"I know. I want to see her. Melanie, you know what Sasha looks like. We'll both verify."

"Hmmm, sounds like a deal. Come here."

Jon scowled at the crooked finger beckoning him to come closer. Michaels horrible 8 bit laugh echoed through the Archive again.

"Don't be shy. I won't stab you this time, I promise!"

"What." Tim sounded about as done as Jon felt.

He'd rather not have to explain himself though. He was glad Tim wasn't directing his ire at him at the moment. So he quickly crossed the distance and came to stand stiffly beside Michael, tensing when the entity curled three of its impossible long fingers around his elbow.

"Marvelous!"

Another door that had appeared in on of the shelves banged open and out of it stumbled a woman with clammy tanned skin, big round trendy glasses and warm brown wavy hair, her grey eyes open wide.

Tim stumbled forward to catch her, trembling about as much as her. "Sasha?"

He looked to Jon for confirmation, who had to fight back his own tears. "Yes. Yes."

"That's her." Melanie whispered her own affirmation.

Before the smile on Jons lips had time to fully form he was yanked back, the yellow door slamming shut behind him. It felt like being dragged into a whirlpool while high on LSD and if Michaels realm would have permitted it Jon would have lost what little food he had eaten that day right then and there.

As it was he had to endure the minutes or hours he had to get used to the shift in reality, unsure if he was standing, laying down or sitting. When his head eventually stopped spinning and his eyes and other sensory input systems agreed to work again he found himself standing at a deadend. The door and Michael were gone, but the air was still filled with joyous laughter.

"Welcome to my humble abode little Archivist! I hope you like getting lost~"

Jon frowned at his surroundings that seemed to tilt and wobble under his every step. He was sure Michael was being extra distorting with the surroundings it had thrown Jon into. Jon didn't want to give it the satisfaction of knowing how much that bothered him. Although he doubted he could hide his terror from it.

Time didn't matter in the Distortions halls. It all melted together, turning and twisting into a bizarre fever dream. Jon relaxed as much as was possible with the horrible migraine that had formed behind his eyes. This actually wasn't so bad. He would probably just wander around aimlessly until he would either die from hunger or thirst, Michael would grow bored and kill him or he actually found the exit.

Jon very much doubted the latter. He had no real grasp of his supposed powers and the Beholding only opted to drop in a fact or two about the colours that normal humans shouldn't be able to see.

When he didn't grow tired nor hungry or thirsty in what he presumed was quite a while a new fear formed beside the pounding in his head. What if he was stuck in here forever?

But even that terror dulled over what didn't quite account for time. The hallways got tamer. They were still decorated with garish colours and wallpaper, bits of furniture strewn about here and there. But they had stopped being all wobbly and impossible.

Well they were less impossible. Jon thought as he walked through a wardrobe only to emerge from a mirror into a room with six walls, three doors, a window and a painting.

On and on it went until he felt deep in his bones a rhythm to it all. There was a spiral pattern to the twisting turns of the rooms and hallways. Inverted and containing a lot of deadends, but it was there and all Jon needed to do was follow it.

Down and down he went, even when the path lead him upward or turned him upside down. His head started to feel blissfully empty for once. No worry, no greater goal. He could just exist here in this weird home and wander. He might be as lost as he had been in the real world, but at least here he wasn't hurting anyone.

Electrical lights flickered on and off before turning to torches casting pink shadows across the chessboard walls. He startled out of his haze when he heard the clacking of heels somewhere to his right, a thought thundering into his mind, shattering all other not thoughts that hadn't resided in there.

"Helen!"

"Jon?"

"Helen! I'm here. Stay where you are!"

Jon skidded around the corner and there she was, still wearing her business dress and jacket, chin length brown hair curling around her ears. She was sobbing before he could even get to her and soon he had an armful of crying real estate agent in his arms.

They held each other tight and just weeped for what felt like an eternity, but was still too short.

"I was so scared." Helen sobbed as she drew back just enough to fix her gaze on Jon. "I thought I walked out of the Institute, but instead I found myself back in these horrible hallways and I couldn't find a way out this time, but I just couldn't stop walking, you know? I needed to find some way out. And Jon, Jon! There's an end here. It's close I just know it! You believe me right? That's why you're here? You're also looking for the end?"

Jon rubbed up and down her arms to calm her. "Yes. Yes Helen. I'm so sorry. Had I known-"

"It's alright." She gave him a watery impression of a smile. "It'll be all alright soon. I hear it whispering. Come."

"Now that was quite the show." Michael suddenly stood between them and they sprung apart. It had its arms crossed and a deep frown carved into what could have been its face.

Jon couldn't exactly make out its eyes. And yet he was sure there was a spark of fear there.

"It was nice to play with you." Michael adressed Helen. "But I feel you overstayed your welcome."

A door appeared behind her, standing in the middle of the hallway, no walls around it.

"There is the exit. Shoo."

She looked at Michael with wide, glassy eyes. "No. No I can't. I need-"

And with a sudden, horrible clarity Jon knew what would happen if she didn't leave now. A door locked from the outside. The body of Michael Shelley destroyed. Helen lost.

"Helen. Please believe me when I say that this is better. Don't heed the call. It will only cost you."

Her flitted between Jon and Michael, hesitating. "Why?"

"Michael was human once, too." Jon whispered and understanding bloomed behind her eyes.

"Oh. But can I be sure?"

"I can." Jon assured her. "You can open that door. It's save."

She swallowed. "Okay. Okay. Are you coming with?"

She reached for him, but Jon shook his head. "No. I don't believe my game is quite finished yet."

He looked over to Michael to make sure. The Distortion looked back at him, frown lightened by a pensive look. It didn't feel the need to correct him.

"Okay." Helen said again, sounding like it was everything but. "You'll be fine, though?"

Jon gave her the best smile he could manage at the moment, which wasn't much. "I think so, yes."

"Good then. I'll... see you around. Just. Not here, I guess."

"Yes. Take care Helen."

"You too."

The door clicked softly shut behind her, taking with it the swift breeze of fresh air and gentle midday sunlight.

Jon sighed. "That was... something. Thank you for letting her go."

"Hmmm."

Jon felt a deep satisfaction at how uncomfortable Michael seemed to be at the moment.

"I guess I shouldn't continue to walk down, then?"

"You were walking straight."

"It's all the same here, though, isn't it?"

"Stop that." Michael frowned harder, drawing itself up, terror apparent in the way it shook, after images pulsing off it in waves.

"What?"

"Knowing me."

"Sorry."

"You could just walk back up again, you know." Michael muttered, friendly facade all but forgotten. A near death experience would do that to you. Jon could sympathize.

He nodded, indulgent. "I guess I could."

Michael heaved a sigh that sounded more like the blare of an airhorn. "I'll show you out."

Jon didn't deem it necessary to tell it that it could just manifest a door like it had done with Helen. He got that Michael probably needed a hot minute to digest what had just happened. And for once Jon was more than content with providing some company.

It was Michael who talked first, essentially giving Jon its statement. Jon saw the fierce anger burn behind those multicoloured eyes and was reminded of Tim and his fury at Jons betrayal.

"How much of Michael is there in you, then?" Jon carefully asked, voice so soft it was barely there in order to keep any sort of compulsion out of it.

"That's not the right question to ask Archivist. Because there is no answer to that, that would stay definite. How much of you is in those tapes you record? It's your voice in there. How much of you is actually you? There's no meaningful distinction."

"That doesn't sound right."

"That's because you're too deep inside your head." Michael laughed. It wasn't as grating as usual.

"Thank you for keeping Sasha safe, by the way." Jon whispered into the screaming silence that had enveloped the two as they meandered through the endless expanse of hallway stretching out in front of them.

"You are no fun."

"Pardon?"

Slim fingers crawled like worms across his shoulder. His head spun with a sudden dizzying motion, feeling oddly light. His skin tingled with confused nerves at the points of contact. Unconsciously he leaned into the touch loosing himself in the sensations. The Distortion was less scary now that he knew it. It was actually kind of sad and he might have formed a small grudge against Gertrude for it.

Michael huffed beside him, caught between grinning and frowning. Jon wondered which emotion the Spiral wanted to portray and which one actually belonged to what was left of Michael Shelley.

"That's what I mean. You're not afraid at all! You're enjoying yourself. That just won't do."

It nudged him forward and oh, there was a yellow door there. Jon stepped up to hit and hesitated, hand hovering over the handle.

"What is it now?" Michael grumbled behind him, pout evident in its voice.

"I... I'm not sure if... I'm not sure if it's alright for me to get out."

Michael blinked at him in surprise. Jon shouldn't have been able to see it, but the motion was reflected in front of him.

"I just don't know if it's a good thing that I'm out there. Something is going on with me and at least in here I'm not hurting anyone."

"You... don't want to get out? You like it here?" Shrill, disbelieving laughter filled every nook and cranny of their space, drilling into Jons head and hollowing out his skull. Michael was bent over in a spine breaking way, arms wrapped twice around it and shaking with manic chuckles when Jon turned to frown at it.

"Two people in a row wanting to stay." It giggled, rightning itself. "I really need to redecorate this place." It shook its head, smile sharp yet soft. "No Archivist I will not drag you around as deadweight. Not when you aren't even making an effort of being afraid."

Jon squeaked as he was lifted, knife hands nicking the skin on his cheek and temple. With a heavy thump Michael kicked the door to the Archives open, startling Tim awake, who had been slumped over the desk, facing the door.

"We're baaack!" Michael crooned. "I'll leave you to decide if the Archivist should stay." He dumped Jon into Tims lap, who was barely awake enough to grab at Jon before he slid off.

"But Jon, when you next step into my door I will not let you back out again. See you around~"

Jon tried to identify the exact moment Michael had left the room. It was a futile attempt and not at all enough to distract from the fact that he was currently still inhabiting Tims lap.

"I'm sorry I'll-" Jon tried to stand up, but the arms around him tightened and he was squashed unceremonously against Tims body.

"Jon"

Oh no. What had he done now? He just got here why was Tim already so mad? Was he mad? Oh good lord he was crying. Jon awkwardly turned so he could sling unsteady arms around Tims neck, letting the man bury his head into his shoulder.

"Uhm hi?" He'd really rather go back to Michaels hallways now, please. This was already starting out to be a situation much more terrifying than wandering forever in a fever dream.

"You absolute bastard!"

"Sorry?"

Tim laughed and it was a strange sound. Too normal after who knew how long in Michaels domain.

"No you don't get to apologize. Not when you don't even know what you've done." Tim stood, Jon scrambling to get his feet under him so he wouldn't crash.

Standing on even, unmoving ground was like coming back on land after a year at sea. Tim shaking him did not help his coordination.

"You've been gone for over three months. Over three months, Jon! We had to blow up the circus without you. Elias was pissed! But Sasha managed to McGyver together a remote control for the C4 and it was amazing! Pressing that button was probably the best thing to happen in my life!"

"Wait slow down." Jon mumbled, trying to keep up with Tims flood of exposition while simultanously trying to get Tim to stop shaking him. He was going to be sick at this rate.

Tim didn't seem to hear him. "And then everything was over and Sasha was there, but you still weren't. And that bloody door stayed here all the while, mocking us. It wouldn't open. We tried everything minus blowing it up, figured you wouldn't have liked that. Tried to hunt down other Spiral locations, but no odd door would open to us."

Tim took a huge breath and stopped shaking Jon, his grip tightening when Jon tried to put some space between them.

"We didn't know what to do. And then about a week ago Helen came in to tell us about what happened in the hallways. She's fine by the way. Apologized for waiting so long before coming by. She was sad to see you still missing, left her contact details and wants you to call her when your feeling like the world makes sense again, whatever that means."

Jon knew exactly what it meant. He was sure it would take him a while to make sense of anything that wasn't strobe light effects, after images and nausea. He would have liked to elaborate on that and point out that he really should sit down oh my god everything was spinning.

"We figured if she was out you'd come back, too. And we didn't want you to stumble into an empty Archive so we took turns watching the door. Do you know how hard it was to keep Martin from hogging all the night shifts? The man hasn't slept more than a wink in months I tell you. He looks about as bad as you so if you don't let him hug you and fuss I will play the most embarrassing prank I can think of on you next April Fools day, you hear me?"

Tim shook him once and Jon had to cough and force the bile back down his throat before he could answer.

"Quite."

"Good."

There was another shaky exhale and a much more tentative hug. "You look like shit, come on you can crash at my place."

"I too have a flat, Tim." Jon felt the need to remind him, but let himself be led to the front doors and to Tims car, grateful to finally be allowed to sit again.

"You just came back. No way am I letting you out my sight and give you the opportunity to vanish again. Sasha and Martin would have my head."

Jon frowned down at his hands, flinching when the car sprung to life and grabbing for an empty take out bag, just in case. Tims behavior deeply confused him. The last time he had mother henned him like this was back in Research. Did Michael accidently drop him in a different dimension?

"We're there."

How did Tim get to the side of his door? When had they started to move? When had they gotten to Tims flat? Good lord time didn't make sense anymore.

Jon half stumbled out of the car and followed Tim into his apartment.

"Make yourself comfortable boss. I'll get you some tea, yeah? And food. Try not to fall asleep on me yet. And don't wander off."

Where would he even wander off to? Jon wanted to ask. He forgot about that as soon as his body hit the hard surface of the couch. At least the pillow was nice enough to cushion his fall. Letting out a pitiful groan he levelled himself up again to take his glasses off, rubbing at the spots where the plastic had dug into his skin.

He was glad that Tim seemed to have calmed down during the ride. Maybe doing something had helped. Tim had always been an action guy, needing an outlet for all the pent up energy.

It all felt so surreal. Here he was, out of the hallways, in Tims flat, with Tim being nice to him and the apocalypse over and done with. He would probably get an earful for missing out on that one later. Probably from Melanie. Maybe from Basira and Daisy.

Gods they were alright. He was gone for so long and they were all fine. Maybe a bit more traumatized, if Tims behavior was anything to go by, but alive. And in this economy that was probably the best outcome they could get.

"Sasha, how is she?" Jon asked as soon as Tim came back into the room.

A rainbow coloured mug and a bowl of instant noodle soup was placed on the coffee table in front of him before Tim answered.

"She's amazing. I mean she's doing well. She was in way better shape than you coming out of there. But I guess you didn't exactly go in at the heighth of your power. She said she was afraid for awhile, that Michael would keep her forever. But she was also curious how the hallways worked and she kinda got lost trying to figure them out? She chatted with Michael whenever it popped up to gloat. It kept her updated pretty well actually, which is kind of creepy. I think out of all of us she had it the easiest."

"That's... that's so good to hear." Jon breathed.

Tim chuckled. It sounded suspiciously wet. "Yeah. Come on sit up and eat your shitty soup."

Before Jon could move on his own an arm curled around his waist and hoisted him into a sitting position.

"I can move myself, Tim." Jon grumbled, leaning heavily into Tims side either way. Just for the contact, he told himself. He could totally sit upright if he wanted to.

"Of course boss."

Tim turned on the TV as Jon ate, the soothing chatter of news reporter talking about the weather filling the air. Jon was half dozing, unsure if he had eaten much at all when Tim moved him again.

"You want to clean up before going to bed?"

Jon took stock of his body, weighting his options. It was as if his muscles only now began to realize the amount of miles they had walked. His scars itched and pulled and the cut on his throat as well as the burn on his hand pounded against the confines of his mangled skin. His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, a bit of vertigo still throbbing in the back of his skull, while his ears still echoed faintly with piercing, inhuman laughter.

"No?"

"Okay. Sit tight boss I'm gonna get you a blanket."

Sit tight... Where did Tim think he would go, if he wasn't even up for taking a shower?

"You got better, too." Jon said in lieu of a thank you when a heavy blanket got draped over him.

"Hm. Blowing up a building helped."

"Ah yes, arson. The best therapy of all."

Tim laughed at that. "You'd be surprised. But actually I did get a therapist at Sashas request. I blew up at her a few times in between and she didn't take it well. I wanted to be better for her."

"Good." Jon mumbled, half asleep. "That's good."

"Yeah. Sleep well."

"Hmhm."

He woke up in the middle of the night. Or was it day? It was dark, but the curtains were drawn so he couldn't be sure. It wasn't to a full body flinch like he was used to waking up with. Just a slow, disorientated blinking into wakefulness.

The flinching came later, followed by a yell when he made out a blurry shape sitting in the arm chair mere inches away from him.

"Good Lord, Tim! What are you doing?!"

"Making sure you're not getting kidnapped." Was the brightly given answer.

"That's creepy." Jon grumbled, rubbing his eyes and settling his glasses back on the bridge of his nose.

"Well you're not the only one allowed to be spooky."

"M not spooky."

"Suuure. So Martin and Sasha will be by in a bit. Wanna tell me what all that about going back through Michaels door was about?"

Jon sighed. "He- it just threatened me."

"Really? Cause it kind of looked to me like it was kicking you out."

"I have it on good authority that I can be rather annoying, yes."

Tim crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at him. "Does that mean I and the others need to make sure you take the right doors from now on?"

"No?"

"That's not very reassuring, Jon."

"Why do you care all of a sudden?" It was said out of exhaustion and Jon immediately regretted it, seeing Tims face fall. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have said that."

"No." Tim took a shuddering breath, mussing up his hair with the hand that wasn't clutching at his own shirt. "No, that's fair. I've been an ass to you before... Fuck before you literally fed yourself to the Spiral in order to get Sasha back."

"You don't have to feel guilty about that."

"I do! But that's not just it. You've missed a lot. And I got better, but I'm still so angry most of the time. But when you were gone I was also fucking terrified. For Christs sake Jon we were friends once. And I just let you barter your life away like it was nothing. I was happy. When Sasha came back and you were gone I was even happy for a while."

Oh no he was crying again. They both were. He knew because Tim had gotten up to draw back the curtains before dropping onto the couch at Jons feet.

"I... it didn't last long. Call me selfish, but after a while all I wanted was for us to be complete again. You know the original four. It took me a bit to realize that I was mourning."

Tim barked out a broken laugh. "I've probably not slept about as much as Martin."

"You should then. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere at the moment."

"I can't. Every time I try I panic that you will be gone when I wake up."

Jon mulled that thought over in his head, an odd tingle flooding his body. "Lay down with me then?"

Tim stared at him for a moment, biting at his lip and barely stopping before drawing blood. "That... that sounds like an idea. Yeah. Let me draw the couch out first."

They could have just gone to bed, but Jon just about managed to drag himself to the armchair. And Tim hadn't offered so Jon wouldn't pry.

Tim collapsed on the couch and immediately reached out an arm and made grabby hands. Jon huffed out a small chuckle and obliged, trying not to seem too eager.

"We'll have to get up again when Sasha and Martin visit." Jon noted, snuggling into Tims chest with a sigh, whole body thrumming at the none violent contact.

"Sasha has a key." Tim muttered into his hair, spitting out some of the loose strands right after.

Jon shook his head. There seemed to be quite a lot he needed to be caught up on. And as they tangled their legs together Jon found that for once the future didn't look as threatening as it usually did.

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4: New Game Patch (July 26th, 2022)

There’s a new Sims 4 update available for PC/Mac and Consoles. If you have auto updates enabled in Origin’s “Application Settings”, the game will auto-update once you open Origin. If you have auto-updates disabled, you will need to manually update by clicking the game in your library.

To ensure your game is up to date, check the game version found in Documents > EA > The Sims 4 > GameVersion.txt. Your game should now read: PC: 1.90.358.1030 / Mac: 1.90.358.1230 / Console: Version 1.61

Update 07/26/2022 PC: 1.90.358.1030 / Mac: 1.90.358.1230 Console: Version 1.61

Hello Simmers!

As summer moves on, it is time to get excited for your teenage dreams and back-to-school adventures with The Sims 4 High School Years Expansion Pack. To get ready for this experience, we have a collection of Base Game updates and bug fixes in this update. There is something for the Sim Creators, Home Builders, and Storytellers alike.

Thank you for the continued support. We truly appreciate it!

-SimGuruGeorge

What’s New?

You’ve been hearing all about the amazing features coming with High School Years. Let’s take a moment and look at what is coming to everyone as part of today’s Base Game Update!

The Phone has gone through a bit of an OS update to a sleek, new interface. All of the previous functionality still is there and customizing the background and case color options for each Sims’ phone is easier than ever.

Body Hair is here and no lycanthropy is required. You will find a selection of arm, leg, torso, and back hair now available for all of your teen Sims and older. Find these new options in the Body section of Create a Sim. Proudly show off those distinct mammalian features.

Create a Sim now offers more options to support the Sexual Orientation of the Sims. Located in the “More Details” section of “Customize Gender,” you can now select the gender identities a Sim is romantically attracted to, whether the Sim is exploring romantically, and the type of Sim they are interested in WooHoo or Messing Around with if they are even interested in Woohoo or Messing Around.

If you do not change these settings, your Sim will maintain the default orientation settings known to The Sims, meaning they’ll have no inherent attraction to a specific gender, their attraction can shift through gameplay, and they will WooHoo or Mess Around with any gender.

Check out SimGuruJessica’s deep dive blog about this system to learn the specifics on how each of these options affect the gameplay.

Are you ready to tackle your Sim’s Wants & Fears? This base game update replaces whims and includes a large selection of Wants that your Sims will want to achieve or Fears they want to overcome. This feature is on by default and you can toggle them off in the “Gameplay” options menu.

Builders who feel limited by sharp 90° corners can round out their creativity with this update: Curved Walls are coming to your collection of Build tools! Place and adjust medium, large, and extra large curved rooms. Builders who are familiar with curved decks, fences, and platforms will find familiar controls for these new walls. Some doors and windows fit better than others, so to find the ones that do work well on these walls, use the new “Supports All Curved Walls” and “Supports Large and X-Large Curved Walls” filters within Build Mode.

Bug Fixes

Consoles

On some PlayStation®4 systems, Eco Lifestyle’s Evergreen Harbor had a lot of objects flickering in the environment. We think we have squelched the problem. If you see it, please let us know and provide information about the model of PlayStation and OS version.

On Xbox, interacting with Cottage Living’s Chicken Coop no longer causes the cursor to vanish.

Closing the Notebook interface now hides its controller legend as well.

The Sims 4

Sims can, once again, scoot over to an open side of the bed that is pushed up against the wall.

Sims deliver food reliably to toddlers via the “Grab Serving for <toddler>” interaction.

Throwing a birthday party for a toddler? Sims now can “Compliment the Birthday Sim” to complete the party if that goal appears.

Did you know that your Sims can take care of a Need on their own if you click on the Need in the Needs panel? Give it a whirl! Sims with the Neat Trait now clean themselves when you click on “Hygiene” instead of cleaning their home.

Vault Modular Counter maintains its color underneath the dirt when it gets dirty.

Sims jog once again when using The MotionMonitor Gaming Mat and PrioPerfection Motion Sensor Game Mat.

The “Save” and “Delete” buttons now both appear when mousing over a save slot on the “Save Game” screen.

Sims can ask about these Likes and Dislikes without having their own preferences for them: Décor, Color, Hobbies & Skills, and Music.

Since Sims in the same household know each other already, they no longer have the option to ask about various Likes and Dislikes. “Ask about Career” is the one exception.

When socializing with another Sim, questions related to “Likes and Dislikes” now are grouped together under a category with that name.

Your Sims went on a vacation with another household. You just heard through a Neighborhood Story notification that they adopted! That notification now has the name of that household’s home world rather than the vacation world.

Placing a Lot from the Gallery defaults to its Lot type instead of asking to change to the location’s Lot type.

When you have a window that aligns to the dotted half-tile mark and the window is as wide as its footprint, you now can place another window like that right next to it.

Placing a rounded platform within another room now fills in the floor tiling around the curve.

Placing Dragonfly Swarm and Mosquitos on ponds now results in dragonflies and mosquitoes, respectively. Bzzzzzzz bzzz….

Cars viewed from a distance on low-end computers now look more like cars and less like a newbie woodworking project.

That screen that appears when you can choose which Sim to do something with the active Sim… we adjusted the header so longer text does not overlap with the portrait of your Sim.

That screen also consistently shows the “Everyone” category now when it pops up.

Behind-the-scenes pregnancy tracking has some improvements for better performance and stability. We fixed three types of crashes:

Promotion Requirements in the Career panel now has a helpful hover-tip.

The Lot Challenges icon now has a helpful hover-tip.

[PS4-only] One sometimes happened on PS4 when saving a Lot to My Library.

One was related to graphics.

And the peskiest one sometimes happened when placing a Retail Lot that had mannequins. Take that, crashes!

Cats and Dogs

These curtains now can be placed around windows: Casual Country Curtains, Cozy Country Curtains, and Charming Country Curtains.

Seasons

Gnomes placed from the Inventory no longer continue generating seed packets after the Harvestfest ends.

Island Living

Children make progress for their Outdoor Adventurer badge when they catch fish or frogs.

Discover University

After switching specialization branches in a career, your Sim now earns their well-deserved rewards from that new career.

The button to “Go to Class Early” now appears one hour before University classes start.

Sims go to University classes early when directed to if they are at their campus.

Eco Lifestyle

What, you don’t want to see books among available ingredients for the Juice Fizzing station? Well, okay. Loading ingredients now shows only proper, edible ingredients.

Idle animations for enjoying a fizzy drink while seated at a table now play appropriately.

Sims can wash off the “Dyed In An Explosion!” moodlet with a good shower or bath.

Snowy Escape

Sims in the Salaryperson career can complete the “Host Phone Conference” task consistently.

Drinking the Lifestyle-Go-Poof Potion now actually removes Lifestyles. Go forth and discover your new you!

Sims now correctly gain up to three active Lifestyles.

Mountain Climb Excursions now start instead of automatically canceling. Let’s go conquer those climbs together!

Cottage Living

Specific Chicken Coop variants remain the same color when becoming dirty.

Chickens no longer prevent the Egg Hunt Holiday tradition from completing . Rumor is they were collecting all the decorative eggs for themselves.

Verdant Mushroom Soup now shows up properly when choosing it from the list of recipes to cook with other Sims and grabbing servings.

The color swatches for the long hair with bandana(ymHair_EP11LongBandana) now match the hair color.

Parenthood

Taking anger out on stuffed animal toys now decreases the teen Sim’s Empathy. Meanness has consequences!

Strangerville

Error Code 106:7f97032:aa761f01 no longer happens sometimes when traveling to StrangerVille’s Secret Lab.

Journey to Batuu

The “Hot Tip” mission for Scoundrels now appropriately asks for five information fragments to be collected.

Dream Home Decorator

The capri pants yfBottom_GP10Capri_Solid now appropriately appear as brown when selecting the brown color swatch.

Werewolves

Werewolf and Vampire Sims now exit the appropriate tunnel entrances after choosing to ”Explore Underground Tunnels”.

Tiny Living

The remote control for Murphy Beds now has the appropriate texture.

Bust The Dust

Don’t want to deal with repairing your broken vacuum cleaner yourself? It now has interactions to replace it with a new one or hire a Sim to fix it. Dusty Chaperone Upright Vacuum now sparks when broken.

[sushigal007]

Over to Chloe!

Who has forgotten how watering cans work. Chloe: Ahh, nice and refreshing.

I really like her new outfit.

Oh yeah, and here’s her random photobooth baby, Cody.

Chloe: Please hurry up and learn to talk, I don’t have cool alien mind-reading powers.

Remember when Marcel wanted to flirt with Chloe? Well she wanted to flirt right back, so I invited him over and let her and this is now officially the most interesting Marcel’s ever been. Chloe: And now you can go home. Marcel: But- Chloe: Got the aspiration boost, scram.

Yep, after one quick flirt, she decided she wanted to learn the skills to level up at work instead.

Adorable potty training face.

Chloe: This is all right for now, but maybe I should get an indoor dining table for when it rains.

The training continues.

Chloe: Hey, sunshine! Could you do me a favour and repair the sink? I’ve got stuff to do.

Stuff like: Cody’s birthday!

I have never seen a child look so... EAxis.

CC hair helps a little, but there’s no hiding those townie genetics.

Cody: Hi there! Don’t talk to strangers. Cody: Too late.

Townie: And now you have greeted me, I can enter the house, thanks! Cody: Please don’t. Townie: Too late.

Chloe: Why is my house full of townies? You forgot to give your kid the Stranger Danger talk.

Anyway. Turns out Cody’s OTH is cuisine, so he spends a lot of his time reading cookbooks.

Meanwhile, Chloe wanted to woohoo, so rather than me choose someone, I let her make a booty call, and she decided on Jim, her Twikki Island crush. Chloe: Show me what’s under that grass skirt.

Quick flight.

And to bed they go!

I locked it because her LTW is 20 lovers, but she’s actually way more interested in flirting than woohoo. Every time I let her flirt with someone, she instantly loses interest. Still, she doesn’t have any more interesting wants, so I leave it. Oh, and spoiler, pay attention to that roommate want.

Chloe: So how’s the weather on Twikki right now? Good?

Cody: But I read so many cookery books!

Jim: No. Nobody asked you. Jim: I’m still not doing it.

Some adorable mother-child bonding. Chloe: And the three bears lived happily ever after.

Cody: Turns out I just needed to read some different books.

Chloe: Hang loose! Elizabeth: Um, no thank you.

So! Remember that roommate want? It never went away and I suddenly realised that actually, there is enough space in the basement to house an extra person, so I got a few basic bits and let Chloe put an ad in the paper.

And here’s their new roomie. I’ve already forgotten his name.

Weekend, so I sent Chloe and Cody out to the park. Jason: Call me. Aren’t you gay? Jason: Not since I flirted with my wife.

Cody: Wheeeee!

Chloe: Holy shit, an alien I’m not related to, great to meet you!

Over to the spa for some Chloe time.

Not that Cody doesn’t have fun too.

Horrible idea. Let’s do it!

Buzz: So... anything else while I’m here? Chloe: Nope, that’s all I wanted, thanks.

Roomie autonomously cleans, we’re keeping him.

Roomie: Have you thought about taking a trip to Twikki Island yourself? Chloe: And risk you changing the locks while we’re gone? Lol no.

Still, they do risk leaving the house the next day to go to Sim Center North.

Chloe: Ladybirds. Thoughts?

Then a little fishing.

And we round off the week with Chloe inviting Ashley Pitts over for a little flirting. Chloe: Ahh, I needed that. You can leave now.

UBERHOOD INDEX