#but two sims left and then the third one ran out of time

[neon-danger]

I added a mod that disabled it from happening, or so I thought, it got triggered for no reason from a pair that didn't fight so I spent an hour adding in another mod to remove it from them, and then realizing I was missing an extra script to make THAT mod work, and then an extra 10 minutes figuring out how THAT mod worked, and I am tempted to just take it out now but I worry it will come back and force me to do that all over again.

Needlessly complicated to just remove one thing from a pair of Sims I will probably never play as again because for some reason nothing else could remove it.

Idk why the sims doesn’t just have an option to turn off the satisfaction system in settings? That feels like it would be important for gameplay, especially since the sims never fixed that thing where sims will just autonomously be mean for no reason

[i2sunric]

HOLD YOUR BREATH (s.jy)

pairing: detective!jake x reader (f)

summary: not having seen your husband’s face in two days, you decide to bring him dinner and check up on him— sleep deprived and stressed, he can’t help but get a taste of you.

warnings: 1960s au. mentions of murder, unprotected sex (don’t be silly, wrap your willy!), pussy eating, pussy drunk jake (r we even surprised), semi-public sex, choking, p in v, jake is a detective, jake wears glasses, sex on desk, dirty talking, pet names (baby, love, darling), wall sex, breeding kink, cream pie, lmk if more. NOT PROOFREAD.

wc: 3.7k

published: 11th June 2024

taglist: (permanent) @stolasisyourparent @jaeyunsbimbo @heelvsted @jwnghyuns @seunghancore @bangtancultsposts s @shawnyle (oneshot) @kirinaa08 @immelissaaa @skzenhalove @anittamaxwynnn @honeybunnee @cherlv

a/n: based on this ask from anon! sorry if it took me a while to prepare it, hope you like it tho <3 please LIKE & REBLOG!

Being a detective in the 60s wasn’t easy at all. With all the danger occurring and newly killers all walking around, trying to take lives as if they were useless, you couldn’t help but bite your nails as you waited for Jake at home.

But being a detective’s wife was even more difficult. The constant dread fuelling your heart until it was too heavy to carry.

One late Friday night, you were sitting by the kitchen table all alone. The warm June air hitting your skin since you left your window open, watching as the sun was beginning to set.

You had already deep cleaned the whole apartment, probably not even a single crumb of dust was left.

Then, you rearranged the books on the shelves.

In the morning, alphabetically and in the afternoon from the oldest to the newest. Ridiculous.

Utterly bored, you had even painted your nails of a weird shade of green that matched your favourite blouse-skirt set.

You weren’t even being dramatic, given the fact that your only company hadn’t shown his face at home for two days.

Date a detective, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.

It was everything but fun or entertaining, since you spent most of the time alone, due to his crazy schedules.

But you loved Sim Jake too dearly to even consider confronting him about it.

You heard a few stories about old ladies’ nieces at the hair salon you worked who got forced into marriage and you were so glad it hadn’t happened to you.

Because you knew it, bet your heart on it that Jake would always choose you first.

You glanced at the clock that ticked half past seven and like the perfect wife you were, you began to wonder if Jake was even taking care of himself. Had he eaten enough? Had he even eaten at all?

So, rolling up your sleeves, you cooked a delicious meal to bring him to his workplace. Inside the small lunch box was some warm miso soup and vegetables for his big, sexy brain.

Repressing the shiver that ran through your spine when you stepped out of your house and immediately spotted a ‘Missing Person’ sign, you started walking down the familiar road. You just thanked the sun was still high enough to bring some natural source of light.

You reached his office when it was dark already, having walked almost one hour away. Cursing the heels you forced yourself to wear even as your feet screamed for help, you knocked on the door.

The new detective Jake introduced you at a dinner showed up, bright smile and innocence plastered on his face “Hello! Miss Sim.”

You smiled back “Good evening, Mister Kim.” Sunoo stepped aside from the door “Looking for Detective Sim?”

You hummed as you took in the sight of the very dark hallway “Third door on the left, is that right?”

Sunoo nodded happily, “You remembered.” He then placed one hand on the side of his mouth to whisper “But I warn you, he’s not in the brightest mood.”

Oh goodness. “Thank you for the information.” You said as you walked away, to the door that led to your husband’s office.

Softly knocking on the door, you waited for his response, and when his grumpy “What?” From the other side, you decided to open the door.

And there your husband was, his hair sticking to every direction while his glasses almost fell down his nose bridge.

Jake was playing billiards, leaning against the table as he desperately tried to get in the ball. A simple task that seemed not to work for him, since he looked so distressed.

A cigar balanced between his upper and bottom lip, its smoke lingering in the air.

When his chocolate brown eyes finally settled on your figure, they softened in a way that made your heart skip a beat.

“Y/N.” Jake breathed out, placing down the pool stick on the table and walking towards you as you closed the door “What are you doing here?”

“I brought you dinner.” You raised the lunch box in your hand, smiling “Figured you might need it.”

His brows knitted, a frown appearing on his face “You walked here all alone?” He glanced at the clock that ticked nine already “It’s dangerous, baby.” Don’t let yourself be fooled by the sweet nickname, his tone was low and rather pissed.

Being in contact with crime most of his day, Jake grew very protective of you, and directly imposed that you wouldn’t go out without him — or any male friend — after six pm.

You shook your head and let out a small sigh “I’m here, aren’t I?” You said as you walked towards his desk to place down the lunch box.

“Besides, I haven’t seen you in a while.” You tilted your head, resting your back on the table “Haven’t you missed me?”

“Christ, Y/N.” He walked toward you right away, closing the space you had put “I missed you like crazy.”

He dropped his head low and sighed tiredly “But there has been another murder and we can’t figure out who the culprit is. I’m in deep-sea here.”

You gently cupped his cheek in your small palm and rubbed your thumb “Maybe you should take a break?” You suggested “Working too hard fries your brain.”

Jake nodded “Maybe I should.” He murmured and looked behind his shoulders “Wand to play pool?”

You grimaced “You know I can’t play that game.” His lips twitched into a smile wrapping a strong arm around your waist. "I could teach you." He told you, lowering his head and brushing his lips against your ear.

You placed your hands with your newly polished nails on his clothed chest, right under his shoulders "I'm afraid I'm a lost case at this game, even for the greatest detective in town."

Jake chuckled lowly and tilted his head to press his lips against your own, sliding a hand downward to grip your thigh. He parted his lips, slipping his tongue into your mouth and tilting you backwards in between his body and the desk.

Jake took the opportunity to grip your thigh and spread it apart, too eager to even care about having a make out session first. He slipped his hand under your skirt and groaned when he felt your folds right under his fingers.

"Goodness, you didn't seem to be wearing anything." Jake mumbled against your lips before trailing his own down your jawline and to your neck.

His fingers pressed against your core and he groaned lowly, sliding his fingers across your entrance.

You let out a quiet gasp at the feeling and let out a small chuckle before his fingers delved deeper inside of you, moving in and out of your wetness while kissing across your jawline.

"You seem quite needy already, love." He mumbled with his gravelly voice. You grasped the back of his head and rested your forehead on his, your eyes never leaving his.

He kissed the tip of your nose, such a gentle gesture in contrast to the filthy thing he was doing to your body, the sound of your slickness pooling down your thighs and on his wrist filled the room— until it was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Cursing under his breath for not having locked the door when you first came in, and not having foreshadowed his fingers deep inside you, he pressed a finger on his lips to shush you. “Who is it?” He then asked.

“Detective Sim?” Someone’s voice came from the other side “The captain wants to speak with you, sir.”

He was about to turn the doorknob when Jake said “Busy at the moment.”

The other detective stepped back from the door but didn’t walk away. “It’s important.” He said bluntly.

You thought that at those words, Jake would leave you there on the table and go doing his job, instead he curled his finger inside of you, making you press a hand on your mouth to middle a moan.

“You can tell me from there.” The detective began speaking and Jake looked down at you, his eyes darkened as he continued to move his fingers in a circular motion inside of you. "Keep quiet, mh?" He whispered to you, his tone smug.

You let out a shaky breath and grasped his forearm, doing your best to not let out any noise.

He let out a low chuckle, curling his fingers again to draw a moan from you. "Shh, you have to be quiet." He whispered and the detective continued to speak.

Not like you could focus on what he was saying with the way his fingers worked you closer to the edge.

“About the murder cases we were working on…” The detective said, “I have an update.”

Jake tilted his head at the mention of the case and kept his fingers moving inside you. "And what is the update?" He called out, not letting up his movements at all.

You couldn’t take it anymore and tried to remove his wrist, "Detective Park found a similarity with the other two murders, seems like the culprit puts a small signature."

Jake ignored your piss-poor attempt to stop him as he continued to talk to the detective with a nonchalant tone.

"What sort of signature?" He questioned, a smirk on his lips while he continued his movements with a particular curling of his fingers.

Your legs shook as he kept hitting your sweet spot “He cuts the ring finger's nail of all the victims." The detective informed him.

Upon hearing the information Jake's eyes widened slightly before moving his sight back down to you. His fingers continued their ministrations, drawing more tremors from your body though his mind was working at the new information revealed to him.

Not hearing any reaction from the inside, Jake’s colleague added “Detective park said to find him when you aren't... busy?” He cleared his throat and for a second you thought he guessed what was happening “I'll tell him you'll talk to him later?"

Your husband hummed lowly as he thought back to the information, continuing to work his fingers in and out of you as if it helped him think. "Yes, I will come talk to him after." He told the detective with a steady voice, his eyes taking in your expression while his gaze darkened.

With the dismissal, the person’s steps went away until they completely disappeared. Jake smirked and moved his fingers faster, curling on your g-spot.

He lowered his head, pressing his lips against the side of your neck and up to your earlobe. "Just a little more, love." He whispered in your ear.

You moaned shakily, now finally able to let it out. You wrapped one arm around his neck to steady yourself as the other rested behind you.

You clenched around his two digits, the knot in your stomach tightening.

Jake let out a soft growl in your ear, his fingers curling against your sweet spot. "Not yet, wait." He demanded.

“W-what?” You frowned, unable to stop the euphoria creeping in “Why?”

Jake smirked against your ear "I'm not done with you yet, love." he mumbled huskily before taking your lobe in his mouth and sucking on it.

His fingers worked you until another moan nearly escaped your lips and he took that opportunity to capture them in his own "Quiet, you don't want anyone to hear you being a noisy little thing, do you?"

You shook your head as you threw it back, your hair dangling in the air and eyes squeezing. You bucked your hips to meet his hand, his palm rubbing against your clit.

Jake titled his head at the sight, looking ever so gorgeous. He added a third digit inside of you, but it stretched you so good to the point of pain. You couldn’t help but whimper out loud.

Jake chuckled at your reaction and his tongue delved between your lips when you whined, muffling your sounds. "Shh, you're being too loud, baby." He bit your bottom lip.

You clenched around his digits, walls taking them in “T-too much.” You murmured.

He hummed lowly and slowed his pace slightly, bringing one arm to grip your waist again. "You can handle it, can't you, baby?" Hequestioned as his fingers began to curl against your sensitive spot to ease your discomfort.

At the feeling, so full and good, you rolled your eyes to the back of your head “T-there.” You moaned helplessly “Keep going.”

“Be quiet for me.” He demeaned and curled his fingers at a speed you weren’t even sure was possible.

You looked down at where your bodies collided and couldn’t help but let out a moan, your slickness was pooling down his wrist onto the floor, making a whole mess.

Jake followed your gaze and smirked at the sight, “You like this? Mh?”

You nodded “Yes, Jake.” Your eyes were half lidded as you felt the knot in your stomach tighten “Like it. So good.”

Jake titled your chin up to meet his dark eyes and raised a brow, your walls sucking his digits in “Are you close, baby?”

Like the expert of your body that he was, he knew all the signs to pick up. “Yes— I’m so—“ You couldn’t even finish your sentence, that one particular curl on the spongy wall made your body shake in release.

Jake’s arms wrapped around you, holding your body against his as you quaked, “Good girl." He mumbled in your ear, his fingers continuing their work until you came down from your high.

He pressed a soft kiss to your jawline, his fingers slowly pulling out of and he smirked as they came out slick with your release. "You were so good for me, darling." he mumbled against your ear.

He pulled his fingers to his mouth and sucked them, he hummed “Love the taste of you.”

Jake gently gave your arm a light squeeze before moving you to the side. You watched him through puzzled eyes until you saw him pushing on the floor all of his files.

“Baby?” You asked and he only replied with a smile. He pressed his lips against your neck, sucking and biting on the soft flesh while he moved his hands to the back of your thighs.

“Now..." He mumbled as his hands gripped your thighs, lifting you up.

You widened your eyes when you noticed how he placed you on the desk and rested your thighs on his shoulders, kneeling in front of you “There we go.”

“J-jake?” You asked, looking down at him. He winked at you “Just relax." He mumbled softly as his lips began to trail across your thighs.

Your body twitched at the feeling, his featherlight kisses sending waves of pleasure.

Jake trailed his lips up until they were close to your core, his breath fanning against your sensitive skin.

“Wait.” You tried to stop him by pressing one hand on his hair. “You haven’t been touched yet.”

He chuckled again, looking back up at you from his position in between your legs. "Don’t worry about me, love. This is about you." He whispered, blowing on your pussy.

You rolled your eyes back and Jake took the opportunity to swipe his tongue slowly on your core, tasting your juices and your previous cum.

“Oh, Lord.” You moaned out, grasping his hair into your hand, knuckles almost white.

He hummed as the taste of you hit his tongue, drawing a low groan from him.

Your breath grew heavy, slowly guiding his head to lick in the spots you were the most sensitive.

“You taste wonderful, love.” He whispered, sucking on your clit.

You unconsciously bucked your hips, not in control of your body anymore as it succumbed to the pleasure.

Jake chuckled and pressed a hand on your hip, pinning it down to keep you from moving while his tongue continued circles against your sensitive spot. "Stay still for me, darling." He mumbled, continuing his movements.

You arched your back and grasped his hair and he could tell that you were already close to the edge.

So, he took the opportunity to slide his tongue in your entrance, making you moan out as the warm and spongy feeling made your whole mind black out.

His eyes never left your expression as he watched you closely. He was enjoying making you squirm, moaning out his name.

And just like thunder crashing, your body shuddered while you squirted right on Jake’s face.

You widened your eyes, unable to stop the overwhelming feeling of pleasure as you basically screamed-moaned. At that point, you were sure even people on the streets knew what you two were up to.

However, Jake seemed very content with it. He wiped his face with the sleeve of his suit. “Pussy so good, makes my day better.” Your liquid was dripping down his glasses and jaw.

“I made a mess.” You whispered, propping yourself up on your elbows “And?” Jake raised a brow, pulling your chin in a kiss. You could taste yourself on his tongue “I love your messes.”

“I want to help you.” You stated, palming his angry hard-on “You already made me cum twice.”

“We don’t have protections.” He murmured, kissing your lips once, then twice “I don’t want inconveniences to happen.”

The thought of him breeding you made your mind fill with primal urges, but you tried to negotiate “You can pull out.”

Jake shook his head, resting it on your shoulder “I don’t have self control when it comes to you.” He kissed your clothed shoulder.

“A blow?” You questioned, caressing the little hair he had behind his head. Jake chuckled again, “I’m too rough and I don’t want to ruin your cute attire.”

His gaze travelled down to your hand that helped you hold yourself up and smiled “You put nail polish on? It suits you.”

How he managed to make your heart flutter after literally having you shake, you weren’t sure. Maybe he had a talent.

“I wanted to be pretty for you.” You chuckled, “Can’t ruin your reputation.”

No matter how much Jake tried to talk you out of sex in his office, the way he was slowly rutting his hips on your inner thigh gave him away.

He occasionally let out small hums in between his words, and you knew damn well he must be feeling so pained.

So, you slowly climbed down the desk and looked at him. He showed you a nice smile, oblivious to the contorted plants you had in mind. His lips dropped into a frown at the same moment your skirt dropped to your ankles.

“Y/N?” He asked, raising a brow as you began to unbutton your blouse, showing your silk bra.

If Jake had one weakness apart from eating you out, then it was your boobs. He loved them, worshipped them day and night.

His eyes darkened at such sight, walking towards you right away and pushing you against the wall.

“You drive me insane.” He whispered, unzipping his pants and letting them drop to the floor “You fuck my head.”

You watched him with excitement bubbling your stomach, he gripped your bare thigh and raised your leg until it was around his waist.

You looked down at his hard cock, pressing against your stomach “Watch me stretch this pussy out.” He said as he aligned himself with your entrance and thrusted inside of you.

You were so wet and sensitive, your skin burning against his. Jake gripped your ass so tight it would surely leave a mark by the next day, he rutted his hips inside of you at a fast speed.

“I don’t think I’ll last long.” He warned, “I feel you much better without a condom.”

You clenched around his length as his admission, making him groan. He pulled you into a heated kiss as he kept moving his hips, desperately chasing the relief he longed for.

“Fuck.” He breathed out, grip on your skin painful “Fuck, you were made for me.”

With one skilled hand, he undid your bra and palmed your breasts, his tip hitting your cervix, making you moan.

Jake lowered his head onto your chest and began sucking on your nipple, circling his tongue around it “Ah, Yes!” You chanted out.

Without missing a beat, Jake changed tit and did the same thing to the other.

“So deep.” You moaned, squeezing your eyes shut as the familiar feeling of euphoria reached you for the third time “So good.”

“Yes baby,” He grunted, one hand sneaking up to wrap around your neck “You’re so good for me, so good.”

The sudden loss of air made you clench around him, your walls hugging his cock, sucking him in.

“Fuck— Stop clenching like that.” He huffed, squeezing his eyes just like you did “I’m already so close.”

“I don’t want you to pull out.” You placed one hand on his cheeks, brown eyes boring into yours “What?”

“I want you to cum inside of me.” A rather deep thrust “Your babies, I want them, I don’t care.”

“Oh goodness.” Jake grunted, his hips moving almost manically “You’ll be the death of me.”

You pulled him into a kiss which wasn’t exactly one, you two were just moaning and breathing into each other’s mouths.

“Are you sure, love?” He asked, drops of sweat coating his forehead, his bangs sticking to it “We can’t undo this.”

“I’m so sure.” You moaned out “Cum inside of me.”

At those words, Jake shot his load deep inside of you, filling you up with his warm seed.

You whimpered, grasping his forearm when the orgasm hit you as well, making you clench around him.

He held you against the wall, both of you trying to catch your breaths.

You smiled and removed one bang from his eye, caressing his cheek with your thumb “This was the craziest shit I’ve ever done.”

You slowly rocked your hips, needing to feel him more, needing his cum to stay inside of you.

Jake groaned and rested his forehead on yours “Damn baby, if this is how it’ll end up every time you visit, I hope you do it more often.”

[cheeseofmysteriousorigin]

CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY 🎄🥹 @floonasif-blog (floonasif_art on Instagram) drew this scene from my fic and it looks so wholesome and cute 😭

It's from Chapter 11 of my fic, To Live and Love Our Way (still a WIP). There's an excerpt of this scene below (the full fic is 🔞 but this passage is SFW).

I had almost forgotten it was Christmas morning when I rolled out of bed. Ochako’s parents said goodbye to me the afternoon before when they left for Hokkaido, so I was alone. I grabbed a shirt off the floor—the one that had the phone with the heart-envelope emoji on it—and tossed it on along with my skirt before opening the door. I was still sleepy and wasn’t paying attention, and so I almost stepped on the wrapped present that somebody had left in front of my door. There was a tag on the front that just said “TOGA”. It had never crossed my mind that anybody would get my anything. I picked it up and tore off the red and green paper. At the top of the box was a card.

Dear Toga, We’re sorry we couldn’t have you with us for Christmas, but we still wanted to celebrate with you. We saved up to get you something that we thought might help you out. We hope you like it. Merry Christmas! – Izuku and Ochako ❤️ P.S.: When you’re done setting up your gift, give us a video call.

A video call!? I tore away the tissue paper insiode the box and saw my reflection in the black glass of a smartphone screen. I couldn’t believe it. They were still students! And they were saving up to buy me a smartphone? I fished the user guide out from underneath the phone and flipped to the quick setup page. “Push and hold down the side button to turn on.” I did, holding my thumb against it and, after two seconds, the screen lit up with a soft white glow. The word “Welcome” faded onto the screen in English, then in Japanese, then in a bunch of other languages. I tapped through the setup instructions, popping the SIM card out of my old phone and sliding it into the new one. Four bars popped up in the top right corner, and the screen advanced to the next step. “Set up your profile?” I tapped yes. It asked me for my given and family name. Himiko Toga , I typed. This was already so much faster than on my flip phone. I tapped the little silhouetted head icon, and the front-facing camera opened up. I was startled to see myself, but I flashed a small smile and took a picture. My head appeared in a little circle next to my name. I tapped to go to the next step. “Thank you, Himiko,” the phone screen said. That made me smile. I knew it was just preprogrammed to say that, but it still made me happy. The message faded out, and it asked me a new question. “Import contacts?” I tapped yes again. There weren’t many on my old phone—just Ochako and her parents, and that was basically it. There was a little spinning circle icon in the center of the screen, and then it disappeared, replaced by a check mark. “You’re all set!” the screen said, before fading to the home page, with little rounded squares for all the apps that came with my new phone. When you’re done setting up your gift, give us a video call. Where was that? I tapped the icon that looked like a TV camera, and saw my face again, along with a couple of phone numbers: Ochako’s was at the top. I tapped it, and heard a ringing sound. My face filled the screen as I waited for them to pick up. It rang once, then a second time, then a third. And then, ping . My face shrunk down into the bottom corner and Ochako’s face took up the screen instead. Izuku was looking over her shoulder, and someone else—I guess Izuku’s mom—waved from behind them both. “Merry Christmas, Toga!” they all shouted at once. I smiled and held back tears. I had never had a good Christmas before. This was something totally new, and even though we weren’t physically together, I wasn’t going to have to spend it alone after all. We all sat talking on the phone for an hour until my phone ran out of battery. I grabbed the charger out of the box and plugged it into the wall. After a minute, the screen came back to life. I saw a text from Ochako.

Ochako [09:17]: I guess your phone ran out of battery? It was still great talking to you! You can call us back later if you want to? Himiko [09:17]: I might later, I still need to figure out all of these apps Ochako [09:18]: Okay, that makes sense! I hope you like it! Himiko [09:18]: I love it. Thank you so much, Ochako <3 You and Izuku made this Christmas so wonderful

[judgeanon]

Plastic Skies - Model 11: F-22 Raptor “Mobius-1″

As soon as I had a couple of finished models under my belt, I knew what I wanted my “Final Boss” to be. There was one plane that I really wanted to not just build, but build right; to do the absolute best job I could with it. It took me a while to get there, and there were a few bumps and stops along the road, but in the end I managed to not only build it, but also close the circle of what had inspired me to start modelling again.

It was time to become an Ace. Or at least try.

So, the F-22 Raptor. I love that thing.

Everything about it is just cool as fuck to me. Its shape, silhouette, hidden weapon bays, everything. It's just square and sharp enough to look futuristic while still having enough curves to still look like a fighter jet and not some jank spaceship.

The other reason why I love the Raptor is Novalogic’s old F-22 RAPTOR flight sim from 1997. At the time, and for a long time, it was the best flight game I’d ever played, looking and feeling lightyears ahead of any other flight game at the time. Even if the Raptor has famously never been in any actual combat or downed any enemy planes (which as far as I’m concerned is the best thing that can happen to any weapon), it’s sure seen a lot of virtual warfare. Especially in another series...

The thing about Ace Combat is that I’d never really played them until a bit under a year ago. As I mentioned when I started this series, I knew they existed and I’d had a few close brushes with them, but I’d never sat down and played any until Ace Combat 7, which promptly blew my mind. Soon, through the power of emulators, I made my way through every single game in the series. And one of the things I noticed was that every Ace Combat is actually two games in one: there’s the game before you unlock the F-22 Raptor and the game after.

In pretty much every Ace Combat, the Raptor is a late-game unlock, and always one of the best. It’s faster, moves better, and just using it feels like dropping the difficulty level down at least one. On top of that, it’s been featured in the covers of a lot of them, including the very first home release:

So playing through the series really reignited my love for the damn thing, to say the least. And when I entered the hobby shop for the first time and spotted that Revell kit up there, I knew I was going to end up building one sooner or later. But I held off for months, building other models, learning every technique I cared ot try and accumulating an arsenal of tools. Along the way, I also ran into something wonderful: an eBay listing for a decal sheet full of emblems from Ace Combat, including everything I could need to build not just any Raptor, but THE Raptor. Mobius-1′s Raptor from Ace Combat 04.

As it turned out, there had been an official AC04 Raptor model kit released some years ago, and while getting my hands on one was out of the question, the instructions were easy to find online. Turns out the model used the exact same mold as the Revell one, and the instructions included a color guide that helped me find the exact shades of gray used on the official thing. You’ve actually seen that gray paint in my F-16 and Fairey Swordfish models. It’s not the easiest paint to work with, but I was happy to have it and the decals. Between them, I had everything I really needed... except the model itself.

Unfortunately, 2023 didn’t have the best of starts for me, especially when it came to money. Long story short, my job started paying me late. Like, very late. Insultingly late. “Three months late” late. Although my family generously loaned me enough cash to make it through, it was a very upsetting era of getting paid, spending a third of it paying last month’s debts, then having to stretch what was left for two months until I got paid again and the cycle started again. It’s why I’m deeply indebted not just to my family, but also to the friend who sent me those old WWII models I posted about last time, since the frustration of having all these tools and nothing to use them on was really getting to me.

Eventually, in early March, I finally got paid and after clearing up a bunch of leftover debts, I said “Fuck it”. Whatever else was going on in my life, I decided I needed something to do other than worrying about money. The price of the kit had gone up since the last time I’d seen it, which was frustrating but also made the decision to buy it even easier. Get it now, before inflation made it any harder to grab. Unlike every other plane I’d built so far, I told nothing about it to my family. A part of me felt terribly guilty about it. Where did I get off, buying toy planes when less than two weeks ago I was asking my brother for grocery money? It was childish, irresponsible, and at the time, utterly necessary. I was increasingly feeling like I would go insane if I waited one more day.

Unfortunately, I’d still end up waiting one more week to really get started, since just as the kit arrived, my mom invited my brother and I to a short vacation trip. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to finish the kit, but by then I was so upset by the whole thing that I nonetheless spent an afternoon focused purely on the tailfins. Stupid as it sounds, I just... really needed it.

The trip was fine. Good times were had, new places were explored, mountains were hiked, and I can’t say I hated it or anything. But the closer we got to the end, the more I remembered those two tailfins drying out alone and the other 114 parts I hadn’t touched yet. It was late at night when I finally got back home, and that night I set everything up to get started first thing in the morning.

Unfortunately, that morning I woke up to a pretty troubling phone call. My dad had some health issues, and ten minutes later I was hailing a cab to go ride an ambulance with him to the hospital. I left home at around 9 AM that day, and only got back at 7:30 PM. He’s safe now and made a full, if lengthy recovery, but the days and weeks of having to be ready to drop everything and rush to the hospital to check on him quickly became grating. As with the trip, I found myself living for someone else, putting everything else I wanted to do on hold for the sake of others.

It didn’t last long. Once I was sure dad was out of danger and comfortable in the hospital, and once the rest of the family had started mobilizing to help, I once again said “Fuck it” and finally dove right into the Raptor, making it my personal anchor, a little thing I was making just for myself and nobody else.

The build started alright, but quickly ran into some trouble. A few of the parts were a hard fit, and the fuselage had gotten bent and warped a little in the box. Plus, I figured painting some of it would be a pain once the whole thing had been built, so I started painting some pieces as I went along. Which was absolutely the right choice, but it meant a fair bit of stop and go.

Something I did decide early on was to go “wheels up” with this one, not doing the landing gears. I figured an Ace Combat plane would be best displayed in flight, all weapons at the ready. I’m glad I made that call, because the build was already giving me enough headaches without the wheels.

Those little edges across the plane’s contour were particularly troublesome, since they required a lot of masking tape to work. I’m not terribly good at masking yet, and if you compare the two sides of the plane, you can tell. Still, it really was nice to see everything finally taking shape.

I also skimped on the armaments a little. The kit came with tons of decals for all the missiles, but I have a lot of trouble with the little stripe ones that usually go on them, and doing it for eight different missiles was daunting to say the least. I knew that alone was going to be a whole day’s worth of work. So I decided to save myself the trouble and just leave them like that.

The camo pattern, by comparison, was surprisingly easy to pull off. Using the paint guide from the official model, a couple of fine brushes and some very good gray paint, I did a much better job of it than the poor F-16.

The decals were a similar story. Funny enough, they actually came from three different sheets: the Raptor’s own, the Ace Combat one I’d bought off eBay, and that white marking in the center, which points to the Raptor’s fuel tank. Real Raptors use a different marking nowadays, but the one from Ace Combat 04 used this older model, which I got from the F-16′s sheet. In fact, that decal sheet was one of the reasons why I’d bought that specific F-16. By then I’d already decided to build Mobius-1, and I knew I’d be able to use that decal to give it that final touch.

Speaking of final touches, the panel lining also went shockingly well. This is one of the things I’ve gotten way better at, no longer having to rely on the sludge technique or anything. It’s still tricky and time consuming, but I can’t deny how much it improves a model, even when done sloppily. I also went and bought a box of transparent orange paint just for the cockpit, which in hindsight is... a little nuts. I have no idea what else I could possibly use that paint for, but I didn’t want this to be just another kit.

I left the weapon bays for last. Truth be told, I was a little terrified of them. Lots of small parts, two of which actually broke during the build and had to be tossed out. The end result is by no means perfect, and one of the side missiles is completely wrong, but by now I’ve learned to accept the small imperfections and let go of the things I can’t really fix (or am too scared to try). All poetry and self-improvement aside, I was squarely in that “let me just finish this” moment.

(It’s a good thing that I got the weapon bays done well too, because without a landing gear and a stand base, the plane currently rests on the bay doors. I should probably do something about that soon...)

Through the whole process, I still felt a few pangs of guilt over building this while dad was in the hospital. He wasn’t at risk or anything and I still made time to go see him, but there was enough shame to it that I didn’t really show the finished plane to any family member until about a week ago. And even then, I didn’t tell them when exactly I built it. As far as they know, I just willed it into existence in a couple days. It’s a terribly selfish thing to think, but after putting myself on hold for the sake of others in so many ways while also dealing with being routinely ignored by my work, having this one thing to make was important to me.

Eventually, the Raptor was finished. There’s a lot in it. Decals from three different sheets, paints and washes from about five different brands, a lot of material in general. There’s also a lot of me in it. Kid me, playing a 90s flight sim on an old Pentium and clumsily putting together cheap kits with cheaper glue, and adult me, falling hopelessly in love with a decades-old game series and comparing paint numbers to make sure I have the right shade of gray for the job. There’s some guilt and shame in it, but also pride and satisfaction. Even if I never built any other plane kits, I at least now had my Raptor. Not just a Raptor, or the Raptor, but my Raptor. With everything that entails.

(Also, you can’t understand how much I adore that the stabilizers are movable)

Things are getting better now. Dad’s way healthier and I’ve managed to more or less stabilize my finances, while also getting close to some new job offers. But for about a week, when everything else was a whirlwind of anxiety, this chunk of painted plastic was as good of an anchor as any. And I’m happy to say it’s not, in fact, the last kit I’ve made.

[ecofinisher]

Chapter 1

Note: For a better read, enter Ao3 or Wattpad.

A-Note: I forgot to share the last chapters here on Tumblr......as usual. Currently, I'm at 8, originally at 12 and I'm working myself up to the last chapter. Weirdly I've been writing this fanfic non-stop. No procrastination, nothing.....Quite rare.

A small electric minivan departed quickly away from the Sunset Vallian museum across the grass disappearing behind the home of the Frio brothers. A siren began to ring inside the museum, followed from the afar another different tune of a siren began to howl as well. Across the road by the lofts of the town, a raven-haired man walked by with his bicycle and took a look at the building to see, that the noise came from there, then observed curious the scenario to see, what was going on. Suddenly he gasped as he recognized a dark-dressed person throw with an object at the window, shrieking the pedestrian, who got up on the bicycle to bike away. 

At the museum, from the second floor, another dark-dressed person broke through the window leaving the other one back and landed on the ground gracefully. The person looked up signaling with the arms to the partner to follow. The second person jumped out to land on both feet and one fist on the ground then looked up to see the third person jump out, landing beside the second person, followed by a yelp.

“Oh shot! That didn’t go the way I planned,” Commented the male thief with green eyes.

“You’re fine, Don. Let’s get out of here,” Warned the brown-eyed person, who was notably female due to the difference by the front.

“There’s the first cop!” Warned the blue-eyed criminal, which was a man and the trio disappeared beside the museum to ran across the grass. “Why did VJ and Lisa leave so soon?” Questioned the blue-eyed man.

“I don’t know, Xander. Last time, it was quite close as they were our drivers. We were almost caught,” Commented the woman.

“Sunset Valley is kinda too small to hide a getaway car. Our only chance is hiding by ourselves or stealing a car,” Commented the green-eyed man.

“Let’s keep running. I’m sure they or Claire will help us. Claire mostly,” Mentioned the woman.

“Ayesha’s right. When someone’s helping us, it’s definitely Claire. Crazy, that coming from a single mother,” Commented Xander making Don nod.

“I would return on Claire’s place and you two know that. About VJ and Lisa…..I don’t know. They’re young. I don’t even know, how they came to us,”

“The same way Xander came,” Commented Ayesha. “Through Vita,” Added Ayesha watching Xander trip, then get up again upon racing above the wheel spurt of their heist car.

“Guys, let’s go across the beach and follow the coast. So we stay out of the police’s sight,” Suggested Xander feeling Ayesha pat his shoulder.

“Great idea,” Complimented the raven-haired woman making the man give her a thumb up.

“I got the phone, I can call Claire and tell her about it,” Commented Don taking out his smartphone to look for his friend’s number.

Meanwhile, by the museum, the first police car had arrived where a brunette police agent along with a dark-skinned police woman analyzed the broken window to see if they could find anything, that could have broken the window. A second police car arrived and a blonde police woman left the car from the driver’s side and looked at the other side to see a red-headed police agent step out to look at the hospital for a second, afterward back at the museum.

“The museum seems empty from here,” Commented the redhead, then looked at the blonde, who nodded.

“We haven’t found anything, yet,” Mentioned Hank making Blair nod, afterward the woman beside Hank whistled calling their attention, and pointed down at the broken window to show him a piece of ripped textile on the shard. “Nevermind, there’s a piece of clothing,”

“That sounds like a job for Rocky,” Commented Blair, then watched her work pal get around the car to open the door to reveal a large, gray-colored dog and remove the dog-seatbelt to let him out.

“Rocky, come here boy,” Called the redhead, followed by a whistle, and approached the shards along with the dog.

Hank chuckled upon seeing his friend with the dog, then looked at the brunette woman.

“You know since Jake’s the first one to have a dog here at the police station, I’m gaining more and more interest in getting one too,” Commented Hank watching the owner show the piece of textile on the broken glass, so the pet could smell it. Jake got down to observe his dog pick up the scent, afterward he moved his head up to recognize that the scent wasn’t old and ran forward to the side of the building.

“I will follow, Blair come with me,” Asked Jake earning a nod from the blonde, who followed the redhead, after getting around the corner she got surprised to find a spurt of a vehicle.

“We’re definitely heading in the right direction,” Commented Blair watching Rocky run down to the side of the house and Jake followed his dog to keep with him up.

The trio got around the home of the Frios to spot across the street three criminals race over the sidewalk, getting near the end of the curve past the home of the Wan-Goddard’s.

“Stop! Police!” Shouted Blair, followed by Rocky barking, which alerted the criminals. The criminals decided to split up and one ran into the beach, while the other two went up the hill.

The two criminals on the hill were Xander and Ayesha, who had in mind to get up the hill closer to the mansion of the Crumplebottoms.

“If you can jump, follow me!” Ordered Ayesha racing in front of Xander at the side passing above the rocks heading to a large gap with a few trees and the continuation of the hill. Xander analyzed the hill above them and decided to follow his love interest believing her way was better. Ayesha jumped above the gap, then grabbed herself on the branch of the tree to swing herself to the other side of the gap, making Xander drop his mouth at how quickly she did that.

“Oh crap,” Commented Xander, then stopped before reaching the gap and analyzed the situation.

“Stop right there!” Shouted a male voice causing Xander to look back to see down the road the police come closer together with their unit dog.

“Don’t think, just do it!” Shouted Ayesha watching Xander yell and head towards the gap to take a leap, managing to catch the branch of the tree. “Now jump!” Ordered Ayesha watching the brunette man slowly swing back and forth, thereafter he threw himself in the woman’s direction and landed with the upper part of his body on top of the edge. Ayesha got down quickly to help her love interest up, then rolled her eyes up and gasped upon seeing the police dog show up. She pulled Xander by the shirt, so he could quicker get up by himself and got up along with the tan-skinned woman to continue their escape. Xander took a look back as he departed to see the Cattle dog show up from the surface without any concern about the path, then jumped above the gap making Xander drop his mouth and race after Ayesha along the hill to head up to the location of the Crumplebottom’s area.

“The dog is almost on top of us!” Warned Xander watching Ayesha hop on the rocks to quickly climb up the grass, then looked back at Xander, who preferred to follow the side, and gasped as he heard the dog’s bark getting louder at the closer approach.

“Watch out!” Warned Ayesha watching Xander trip, followed by the dog snapping Xander on the leg.

“Argh!” Yelped Xander lying on the ground with the dog, making Ayesha gasp seeing that her love interest was down. The Australian Cattle dog began to bark while standing above Xander and the woman heard the voice of the police agents, then she looked down at Xander, who looked up at her.

“Get out of here, I won’t rat on you,” Promised Xander watching Ayesha jump down to help him.

“I won’t let the father of our girl back like this,” Warned Ayesha, then gazed at the police dog look at her, and bark as well. “Shush! Bad dog, let go, let go!” Ordered Ayesha stern, while the dog kept barking at her. Ayesha began to wave her arms in front of the dog, causing him to growl at the woman, while Xander slowly crawled away. The dog watched the man move and got down to bite him on the shoe, causing him to complain about the situation.

“Get off me, stupid dog!” Yelled Xander, then Ayesha tried to pull the dog by the collar away from her partner and heard another barking dog making Ayesha look around worried.

“Oh oh,” Mumbled Ayesha, then watched from the side they were trying to escape a black-brown mixed breed dog race into their direction making the raven-haired woman sigh in relief to recognize the animal. “It’s Brooklyn,” Mentioned Ayesha glad, then observed the female dog growl at the police dog, who mirrored her behavior and both began to bark at each other wildly.

“Let’s get out of here!” Ordered the woman helping the man up, then they ran up the hill and heard a gunshot ricochet on a tree, earning the duo’s attention, who looked back to see the first police officer to show up be a familiar redhead, they had encountered in their past more than one time.

“It’s him again,” Mentioned Xander, then watched the cattle dog move away from the gang dog to continue to pursue the duo. “Oh oh,” Spoke Xander and followed the path up to the top of the hill to spot the wall from the Crumplebottom lot, where they recognized by the wall a dark-dressed person stand there with a dog leash and waved at the duo to get their attention.

“That must be Lisa,” Commented Ayesha making Xander nod, continuing the rest of the path to meet up with the masked blonde, who hid behind the wall beside a tan-skinned man, who also was masked and held a net on his hand.

“Put your eyes up, VJ,” Ordered Lisa watching her boyfriend glimpse from the cut-out from the mask beside the wall to recognize the police dog come in their direction and he reversed back to make a short countdown.

“Three…...two…..one…..now!” Shouted VJ jumping out with Lisa against the dog, which stopped and both wrapped the net on the dog, making a quick knot. “Now let’s get out of here!” Ordered VJ getting up with the blonde to race down to meet up with Xander and Ayesha, who had approached a silver-colored van, that stood on the road. Ayesha had opened the side door of the vehicle to enter it along with her partner, then waited for the other duo to return and Lisa hopped into the front of the vehicle along with VJ. VJ stood at the side of the car to wait for their dog, which appeared behind the wall running towards the vehicle barking.

“Good girl! Get in here!” Exclaimed VJ waiting for the dog to arrive, soon Xander glimpsed out of the vehicle to watch the bitch come in their direction and he eyed the wrapped-up cattle dog trying to free himself, which made Xander sigh in relief, then he looked down at the mark, the dog had left on his leg. Xander looked up again, then widened his eyes as the policeman showed up and spotted them in the vehicle. “Come up here girl!” Asked VJ as the dog approached the vehicle and jumped in, followed by him helping the dog up, followed by Xander, which looked out at the policeman again who stood there looking at him with a stern face. Ayesha from behind shouted at the open window of the car to get out of there, while Xander remained looking at the police, who raised an eyebrow sensing as if he could recognize the voices of the criminals.

The driver caused the car wheels to spin and depart into the exit of the town, leaving the police agent back, who had just taken out his gun to shoot at the vehicle, but saw it wouldn’t be any useful. Jake frowned, then took out his walkie-talkie to call force.

“Here’s officer Furtado. The suspects have disappeared into a silver-colored van and are heading towards Riverview. Rocky had caught one of the culprits for a moment, but they managed to outrun him, Over,”

“Here’s Officer Hunter. I will contact the Riverviewer Police Station. Officer Goddard and Keaton are heading up there right now. Any clues?” Questioned Eugene Hunter while Jake looked at the vehicle disappearing at the end of the road behind a hill, making Jake nod his head slowly.

“By the looks and the voices of two of those culprits, they might be the ones we’ve been hunting for a long while. Since the start of my career here,” Mentioned Jake, followed by a rasp of the device. Jake got down to remove the net from his dog, which happily gave him a lick on his face making him chuckle for a second and pet the dog on the head. “Come on, the others still have a chance. Let’s go back to the others,” Announced the redhead giving the dog a cookie, before they got up to return to the road.

“Good night, dear Riverviewers. Here’s Nadine Ivanov from Radio Riverview with breaking news. The Sunset Institute of modern art in Sunset Valley was assaulted about an hour ago. The culprits are still on the run and have last been seen leaving Sunset Valley through the Redwood Parkaway. According to chief Justine Keaton the group consisted of around five members, counting the getaway driver. It’s theorized at the moment, that the gang is the same one, who broke in into the past months inside the ones in Starlight Shores and Bridgeport. All three robberies had in common the presence of at least a male and a female culprit, usually spotted together during the pursuits. Some have considered the duo to be the Bonnie and Clyde of our universe…..”

A hand had pulled the lever of the stereo down, which belonged to Don Lothario, one of the team members from the assault.

“Did you guys hear that?” Asked Don looking at the team sitting on old couches without their masks looking at the Italian man, who mostly eyed his close friend Xander Clavell. “You two are the Bonnie and Clyde from our world,” Announced the man amused watching Xander and Ayesha exchange looks. “Stealing together and escaping together. Side, by side…….” Don began singing playfully making the team members in the room laugh.

“I just hope you won’t sing about our dead,” Mentioned Xander followed by Ayesha slap her partner on the shoulder.

“If it wasn’t for Brooklyn, I’m pretty sure we would have ended up there,” Mentioned Ayesha. “You, at least,”

“The police won’t put any of us down that easy. Not the way as it is in Europe, but not as bad as people make it to be,” Commented Claire, who sat on another couch together with Marcela, who was dressed as a police officer.

“That’s only, in life-death situations. You barely have threatened anyone,” Commented Marcela, then watched VJ across the room on the other couch fake a cough.

“I hurt someone…..,” Mumbled the tan-skinned man making the blonde nod.

“Well, almost...that didn’t mean anything to you and that left a hole in the Sunset Vallian police station. It was notable during the first months. Most agents have processed the day already. It sounds hard, but that’s one sad aspect of the job. The possible loss of a work pal. He may not have had a family or children, but he meant to a few a lot,” Explained Marcela making the team nod.

“I’ve been at the police station, prior to the delivery of the coffin to the cemetery. One of the police agents, a redhead with light-blue eyes. He had set in his head to figure out, who had put his crime fight partner down,” Commented Xander’s childhood friend Tamara Donner, who was dressed in joggers and a jacket as she had come to the area a little while ago.

“That’s the guy, who was after us,” Mentioned Ayesha. “It’s been…..what…...four years ago since the murder. He’s probably still working to make justice for what happened, which is normal. Xander commented, that he had the impression the police knew us,”

“He did stare a while at us. Otherwise, he just wanted to see, if we were the ones from the other assaults or the one from said night,” Added Xander.

“With masks, you all look identical. Perhaps by eyes or voice, they might be able to recognize anyone. Unless they’re able to decipher someone from their surroundings with said details,” Commented Tamara making Xander nod.

“Yeah, well when was the last time I saw him outside of his uniform or as a civilian? Perhaps on the day, we ruined the community school? We’re living in Sunlit Tides while our real identities were considered to be in jail there,” Xander commented moving both hands up forming a V with the middle and index finger to the comment. “We’re still there and no one else from Sunset Valley or who knows us personally has seen us there,” Mentioned Xander, then watched Tamara’s phone ring inside the jacket’s pocket.

“That must be Nick, shall I put it on speaker?” Questioned the brunette watching the group nod and the woman attended the call while adjusting the voice speaker.

“Good night, Tamara. Has my team returned?” Questioned Nick Alto.

“Hi Nick!” Greeted the team member, afterward Tamara’s phone asked for a video call request, which she accepted to reveal Nick sitting in his house’s office.

“Great to see you all! I’ve heard about your escape on the radio. How did it go?” Questioned Nick watching half of the team put their thumbs up. “Nice, what did you get out of there?”

“Claire, Ayesha you two load the first vehicle and VJ along with Lisa the second one,” Mentioned Don, then Tamara moved her smartphone towards the side of Lisa and her boyfriend. Lisa got up with a smile to explain to their boss the load of their car.

“We carried from the Autumn exhibit all paintings, that were added last year to the hall. The mini statue of Liberty, the Tokyo tower inspiration, and the copper-melt statue of the founder Victor Goth,” Explained Lisa making Nick nod. “Everything is located inside the van, which we have here hidden in the warehouse,”

“Super. Tomorrow you can borrow the truck of our logistics and load it. I will just need to contact our pilot to meet us at the airport,” Commented Nick making Lisa nod, afterward Tamara turned her camera around to Claire, who exchanged looks with Ayesha.

“Add, if I forget to mention something,” Warned Claire making Ayesha nod. “We have the two-year old paintings from the winter exhibit, the igloo made of reused pearl necklaces, the piece of moon from the exhibit on the second floor…….Ayesha, what do you remember from the rest?” Questioned Claire, followed by Tamara moving her smartphone to the tan-skinned woman.

“Oh I unplugged the computer from the reception, the silver-colored hydrant, and the large Peter pen,” Added Ayesha making Nick smile.

“Good job team. I’m glad things went well in this mission,” Spoke Nick, then noticed that Xander had a bandage around his leg and looked up at him. “Did you get shot, Xander?” Questioned Nick watching Xander look down at his leg and shake his head.

“The police now have their own police dog and sent it after us. If it wasn’t for Brooklyn, Xander would have stayed back with the police dog hanging on his leg,” Mentioned Ayesha making Xander shrug his shoulders.

“I wouldn’t rat on any of you. I sent Ayesha away, but she didn’t want to leave me alone, mostly due to Kari,” Stated Xander making Nick nod.

“Your girl…….I know. I’m glad you two made it out there. At her age it would be terrifying to have her leave you if you had to go to jail,” Mentioned Nick. “Not only Kari, but also Rio or Zayn,” Nick added watching Claire nod sadly, while VJ and Lisa exchanged looks from imagining their son having to grow up in a different place.

“Two years ago things would have looked different. If one of them would end up in jail, they had nothing to lose. Now we got the kids…..” Added Don. “As someone, who’s not planning to have kids, seeing all of you happy and cherish them, knowing, that because of our deeds together things can change drastically if we fuck things up,”

“Don is right,” Confessed Tamara. “Are you sure about keeping to pull up such scenes as big as this one? You may have all made it through this one here, but what if things go wrong the next time?”

“Look, I told you all, that I was going to retire in the next few years. After we get redeem the money out of everything we have taken. I want you to take a break from this and move on with life. Work now as regular logicians as before. In the future, we can all together look about, what we can do,” Explained Nick while the team listened. “And Lisa…..” Nick spoke up earning the attention of the woman, who had been chatting with VJ and she glimpsed at the smartphone.

“Yeah, boss?”

“You know out of the group, you’re the youngest one. What do you think, if Vita and I create for you a fake diploma for business and you’ll be the head of our warehouse? You’ll have plenty of time to learn with me or Vita about the basic needs, so that in the future, when we need to do certain…..jobs, we can count on you as well,” Asked Nick earning a few clapping hands coming from Claire and Ayesha, who were proud for the blonde.

“No shit? Me as a leader of something?” Questioned Lisa making Nick nod.

“You won’t be doing the same thing as a real businesswoman, but you’re supposed to look like one from the outside. That’s what we need. I feel like that sounds for you better than any alternative job,” Commented Nick making Lisa smile and nod.

“I’ll take that chance, Mr. Alto,” Promised Lisa making the Spaniard smile.

“Glad to hear that, Lisa,” Replied Nick. “Tamara, if everything is clear, feel free to bring them all here. Kari and Zayn are fine, Vita has already given both a bottle of milk and Rio had offered us help as well,” Commented Nick with a chuckle making Claire smile from hearing that about her daughter. “Appreciate the upcoming months, my friends. Spend time with your kids. You will see with time, that the biggest treasure in this world is this one gift god gave you called life…..” Nick said making the teammates smile.

Xander smiled from now in the role of a father as well as understanding the meaning of the phrase, then felt someone grab his hand and Xander looked down to see Ayesha have her hand placed above his, seeing both of their engagement rings lay parallel from each other. Xander eyed his life partner, who smiled at him and he mirrored her facial expression.

In the early morning, the police officer Jake Furtado stood in the kitchen filling up the dog bowl with food, while his dog stood beside him waiting. Vice versa to the kitchen from the bathroom came out a blonde woman, who was the life partner of the policeman and wore a dark salmon pink hospital uniform.

“This is going to be the last shift before our trip. I have added two light jackets in case it is cold. In case you’re going to add or remove something from the suitcase make sure everything goes back into it again,” Spoke the nurse, who was known under the name Jamie Jolina.

“I will,” Responded Jake. “About Rocky, Blair promised me to take care of him, while we’re gone. Both know each other already and it makes it easier for all of us,” Mentioned the redhead moving the large bag away from the bowl and zip up the package, then watched the dog dig his snout into the bowl to eat.

Jamie approached the pet to observe him eat, then glimpsed at her husband.

“How was your night?” Questioned Jamie. “I did hear sirens last night,”

“Rocky had managed to put down one of the criminals, but they ended up escaping again,” Responded Jake leaning his back against the fridge. “We raced after them across town and behind the home of Miss Crumplebottom Rocky got thrown with a net by two other accomplices. All we know at the moment is, that the ones Rocky was after are a man and a woman, judging by their voices,”

“Is there a chance, that they’re the same group from the other assaults?”

“We don’t have many clues about them. In the videos, they’re all masked and they haven’t left any DNA spurt on the locals. I wouldn’t be surprised if all these cases were in one way connected. In all missions I went I encountered this team of five around seven times since I got here. The first time on the day Goodwin got shot down,”

“Right,” Commented Jamie. “Yet nothing has been found, that could explain who did that,”

“Four years passed and there’s nothing. Whoever was behind the issue was far away from the location. We haven’t found a gun anywhere. The culprit just made its way out of there. All we can say is, that they must have been under the same roof as the other two I were going after. By gender and body built, I’m certain, that both are the same persons,”

“They sure know, who used the gun back then. I just don’t understand, what’s the point of only putting Goodwin down. Weren’t more of you there back at that mission?”

“He had them under his control. The one who shot him just did that to spare the duo from getting arrested. If I had been faster it could have been prevented,”

“Or you would have caught the bullet,” Added Jamie making Jake nod.

“Well, that would be another option. If Rocky didn’t get under the net and I was faster, I could have snapped at least the one man. When he left I saw he and his other friends had their eyes notable through the gap of the mask. He had light blue eyes and I remember having seen them on the day Goodwin passed away. The man lied inside the pond as he was about to surrender, but before I could take him I was thrown with dirt onto the eyes. If I had just caught him a bit faster, all would have been solved,”

“That is going to get solved, don’t worry. You all at the police station have solved a lot of cases. Some take longer than others and this one of your friends just happens to be one of them,” Said the dark-blue-eyed woman. “Don’t break your head about the work. When you’re back, you can work on the case again, if you’re allowed to. Appreciate these three weeks we’re in Montpellier. My parents like the fact, that I’m married to a police agent, but they would like to get to know the guy behind the uniform as well…..they’re mainly interested in Johnny, but that’s with everyone’s parents, when they know they have their first grandchild,” Commented Jamie making Jake nod.

“Oh yes, my mother was really excited to meet him,” Confessed Jake looking into the bedroom where the baby crib of their common son was.

“I haven’t been able to feed him yet. He was still sleeping, when I came to check him out. Perhaps around 8 am eventually, you could warm up the bottle to feed him,” Suggested Jamie. “I’ll leave at 15:15, depending on how things go during the day,”

“Sure, people will need you and your team,” Commented Jake making Jamie nod.

“It will be a good day for me if I don’t have to deal with several bagatelles. I sometimes admire some of my co-workers’ patience. The other day Holly Alto had to remove a woman’s hair from the jacket’s zipper, which basically anyone on the road could do it,”

“But she had to go to the emergency station……” Added Jake shaking his head remembering hearing that story someday ago. “I’m pretty sure, it would have been cheaper for her to avoid the hospital,”

“I think Holly made an exception out of pity. I better get going,” Stated the woman leaning closer to her husband to peck him on his cheek. “See you tonight,” Said the blonde opening the door to leave her house, making her way to the sidewalk and Jake closed the door for her, then took a look at his dog, that had finished eating his food, then analyzed the ground making sure he didn’t drop any flake. Jake looked into the room, where his son lied sleeping and he made his way towards the crib to take a look into it to see the infant rest peacefully. Jake smiled enchanted from looking at the boy, which slightly reminded him of his wife due to sharing the same blonde hair as the mother, and caressed him gently on his cheek, preventing him from reacting to it. Jake placed back his arm above the lean of the crib to admire his kid sleeping and stood there for a little while appreciating the moment of silence.

[rubyflowerpetals]

chill friday 04/08/23

I got my period yesterday, so today I took it very chill. I mostly just played sims the whole day. I started a new household and story line, but for some reason a mod is being messy so I got frustrated and ended up not making any progress. But that's fine.

After dinner, I decided to finally leave my room for longer than it took me to make lunch and go on another walk. I left while the sun was setting so it was really pretty. While walking, I remembered about fnaf and Chloé pointing out again how excited I am for the movie and it made me even more excited! I had a nice warm and like not really exhilirating or tingly feeling in my whole body. I just felt like I needed to move, so I did.

When I got to the third left turn I had to take, I decided that instead I would continue further and go down to Goffertpark. It was a great choice on my part as I saw some deer!! They were so adorable! There were also some goats. I went further to explore the park more and realised just how huge it is! There is a big open field there and I saw the setting sun so nicely.

Then I decided that I had walked far enough and started on my way back. Before I left the park, I saw the street lights turn on!!! I again got the excited, tingly, I-need-to-move-to-get-the-excitement-out feeling I did about fnaf. It's so lovely!! I once again was just moving about and jumping a bit haha. It's lovely feeling free to do that and I hope I will feel comfortable to do that around people if there's ever such an opportunity. Further along I ran into three cats!! One of them was sitting on a fence-post and meowed at me and then came to say hi. The other two I saw from a distance, but they were also adorable. It was a lovely walk.

I feel a little guilty and uncomfortable about my crush situation. I feel like if she knew, she would also be uncomfortable and I really don't want that to happen. I keep imagining telling her and I'm honestly afraid of even doing that. Because like in a magical world where she does like me back (I don't fully believe Trine), I'm not sure what my reaction would be to that. I feel like I wouldn't be a good partner or girlfriend so I don't think I would want anything to happen. But on the other hand, it would be lovely. It's just that now any time I think about it, I feel stupid and guilty. I can't stop imagining that she would be uncomfortable if she knew. I really want to tell her, but also I don't want her to know. I feel like she knows already. I think I unconciously flirt a lot and it just makes me rethink every single thing I tell her. I also obviously overthink every single thing she tells me! And it's not helping, because even when I allow myself to be delusional, there's nothing that would indicate that she would like me back. And then I feel worse than before. I desperately hope I'm not making her uncomfortable, I know she doesn't like it wondering if her friend likes her, because she confided in me when it was happening!! I feel like such a hypocrite, and so stupid and dumb and like she would not be happy if she found out. I also feel like she might already be suspecting it, because I feel like I'm quite obvious. I hope I'm not. I really hope it all works out, I don't want this to ruin anything. I love being close to her and I hope that doesn't change. I'll try my best. I also hope it's made worse by being away from her. I also do kinda hope that this isn't one of those things where I've like convinced myself that I like her, but actually don't, you know? I hope this isn't all just mental ilness, but there's actually something there. I feel really guilty.

Tomorrow is saturday so I'm gonna go to the market. It will be a prequel to season 2 of the market adventures. St Annastraat is closed again, so I'll have to go down a different road, but I think I'll manage. I might go to McDonald's for lunch. Or Subway. I'm craving both. I miss my friends. Ida is coming in less than a week and I'm excited! I should text her about her plans soon probably. I don't want to stress her out though. I'll just say she can respond whenever it's convenient for her I think.

I'll try to go to sleep a bit earlier today so I can go to the market bright and early tomorrow! I hope I get some good fruits.

Ttyl <3

[herri-writes]

I Won't Say (I'm In Love)

Idia Shroud ft. Cater Diamond, Rook Hunt, Kalim Al-Asim, and Ortho Shroud

Note: this is so rushed that i got high a while ago at discord but damn this song made me ascend when i saw a genshin version of this lmao

lowercaps intended. have fun reading lol

another day for the introverted third year, idia shroud of ignihyde.

quite unusual for this gloomy ball of blue flame to stand idly at the courtyard like he's waiting for someone and it's no other than ortho shroud, his little brother. idia waited and waited for his brother to show up so that he'll avoid three infamous social butterflies on his list.

unknown to idia, four boys looked at him behind a coloumn far away from where idia is, waiting for his cue to leave. if you want to ask who, then it's ortho shroud of ignihyde, kalim al-asim of scarabia, rook hunt of pomefiore, and cater diamond of heartslabyul. this unusual group have a plan and that is to know if he's actually in love with a certain someone or not.

of course, don't ask on who knew about it because you already know who it is.

"this making me wait for too long," cater muttered. "when will the prefect show up?"

"calm down, big brother cater diamond," ortho said. "the prefect will show up in any moment with deuce spade, ace trappola, and grim in... now!"

"if life is a dating sim, then i'm the main character who sought for love in 2d world--" hearing sounds of laughter and bickering from a distance, idia stopped muttering and looked at the direction where the sounds came from. this third year jolted from shock when he saw the prefect between two idiots namely, deuce spade and ace trappola.

"scratch that. someone already raised my intimacy level."

oh how he wanted to walk beside the prefect and ask them on a date but he looked away, trying not to get all shy and jumpy in front of his one and only crush. he immediately left his spot and went to ignihyde alone.

the social butterflies stood behind the coloumn were surprised at idia's behaviour. ortho's excitement level rised up and he went flying above the three who were frozen in shock. meanwhile rook got himself de-petrified from shock and his well-known french resonated at the halls and corridors of night raven college.

"i... i didn't know idia have a crush on the prefect..." cater said as he stopped recording. when did he take a video of idia nearly panicking? ask him when he started doing that.

"should we celebrate with a feast?" kalim said as his red ruby eyes never left his gaze at the spot where idia is a moment ago.

"better celebrate that sooner because we really need to know if he actually liked the prefect in romantic terms," rook said as he placed his hand under his chin and ortho was so sure that his brother did have feelings on the prefect

"actually," cater spoke up. "i have an idea."

the next day, it was idia's unlucky day because the social butterflies found him and followed him. idia looked back and he walked faster than usual.

the whole walk is literally all idia stopping and turned around and the trio stopped and the four walking in different directions and became a pattern in the main hallway. idia got lucky when he saw a corner and went there and immediately and ran away, making him lose sight of the trio who followed him.

idia hid on the next few corners and looked for his way out of the school grounds. putting his headphones on, he quietly sang the song playing right now.

"If there's a prize for rotten judgement," he looked down and formed a small smile. "I guess I've already won that."

he thought he won the hide-and-seek and chase game but he was found by them.

"no man is worth the aggravation." the three showed up behind him like enchanted mushroom. he looked back and walked away for the nth time of the day, "that's ancient history, been there, done that."

"who d'you think you're kidding? they're the earth and heaven to you," the three continued to sang as cater took a video as a memory.

"try to keep it hidden," kalim and rook harmonized as they went closer to idia. "honey we can see right through you," cater lay an arm on idia's shoulders.

"boy you can't conceal it. we know how you're feeling," ortho joined the trio. "who you thinking of...?" ortho eyed his big brother since he knows who is the one idia liked.

idia walked faster and continued, "no chance. no way. I won't say it... no, no..."

"you swoon," rook grabbed his left arm. "you sigh," ortho grabbed the other. "why deny it? oh, oh~"

"it's too cliché. i won't say i'm in love..." idia got himself out of their grasp and walked away and leaned on one of the coloumns.

"i thought my heart had learned its lesson... it feels so good when you start out..." he kept singing until he saw the prefect passing by with their group of friends. he daydreamed again of walking his way back to the hall of mirrors with them beside him. "my head is screaming, "get a grip, boy"," he turned around to see the trio plus ortho giving him smug looks while sitting on kalim's magic carpet and he nearly panicked, "u-unless you're dying to cry your heart out--" and he ran away again.

rook and cater harmonized and cater snaps his fingers. "boy you can't deny it. who you are is how you're feeling."

"baby we're not buying. hon we saw you hit the ceiling." kalim joined in and ortho turned off his singing voice.

"face it like a grown-up," ortho told him and idia commented, "i'm literally 18--"

"when you gonna own up that you got got got it bad~" kalim, rook, and cater cut him off.

"no chance! no way! i won't say it, no no!" idia's about to explode at this rate and the tips of his flaming blue hair turns pink.

"give up, give in, check the grin you're in love," kalim pointed idia's smiling lips, showing his sharp teeth.

"this scene won't play," idia said and he's mentally screaming. "i won't say i'm in love," someone, please save him. he's nearing his limit. "We'll do it until you admit you're in love~" "oh, no, no, no, no, no--"

idia ran as fast as he could. "you're way off base! i won't say it! get off my case! i won't say it!"

"boy don't be proud it's okay you're in love~" rook followed pursuit while standing on his broomstick and posed like a tenor from an opera.

"at least out loud," idia stopped running and lowered his voice and sighed, "i won't say i'm in love..."

the group who followed him vocalized and idia's hair burst into pink flames. he reached his limit when he heard the prefect calling out their names and was stunned at the sight.

kalim and cater on kalim's magic carpet, rook standing on a broomstick, ortho is... the usual and normal ortho, and idia's hair is no longer blue but flaming pink.

poor idia fainted but luckily ortho caught him in a short moment. you were still stunned and silent that you couldn't help but to ask them this.

"what happened just now...?"

SHHSHSHSHHSHS I CAN'T--

anyways have some a bit of hopeless romantic idia crushing on the prefect-- you!!

nearly turned this into crack but anyways--

i'm out of brain juice today. adios

reference for rook's pose lmao

[gracefireheart]

A collection of me either trying to make a scene that happened in RP, or just making up a scene of my own. Also yes, all of these are focused on one character; Ryan Parker (aka my blorbo)

Keep reading if ya wanna hear context behind each of these (and something else that I found out and still find funny)

First drawing (drawn June 26th 2019) - I can’t 100% remember exactly what happened, but it was something about how Reid- Ryan’s friend at the time- had to tell them that they couldn’t hang out anymore due to Reid being part of a biker club and needing to prioritize that instead. So Ryan ran off and was emo for a moment before... something happened. Like I said, can’t quite remember, but the two got to hang out again.

Second drawing (drawn July 13th 2019) - After the last drawing, Ryan and Reid became a couple! It was fake at first so they could hang out, but the two eventually fell in love. So I made this scene up- with the help of Sims 4 to replicate the office they had in the biker compound- and then these fucking streamers [affectionate] that plays these two characters recreated this scene in my drawing AT THE END OF THEIR STREAM. BRUH. I was a giggling mess to say the least :’> ... And then the (RP) war happened on the day after o(-(

Third drawing (drawn July 17th 2019) - Tldr; A war broke out between the bikers and a group that called themselves “Cop Killer Records”, and in the center of the war was sadly Ryan. Who ended up held up by the opposing group, got something carved into his chest, and was shot down. While he laid unconscious in his own blood, EMS on their way to his location, someone came up to him. A man by the name of Norman Bones, who sorta signified death. And if I remember correctly, before Norman left Ryan, he said “Not yet.” So uh, yeah. Intense shit.

Fourth drawing (drawn July 25th 2019) - I- along with others- needed some fluff after a week or so of angst from these people due to the war, so I ended up drawing this. Just Ryan and Reid, sitting in the former’s beach apartment, and watching a movie together. I also added a couple of lil’ easter eggs to those who watched these guys as well. One of them being the wedding invite to Mia (Ryan’s best friend) and Colombo’s wedding (which uh... never ended up happening orz). The other being the bloodied map at the right side of the drawing, which Ryan recieved from Reggie’s will (who was a biker who died during the war that just happened).

Fifth drawing (drawn August 29th 2019) - Honestly, just wanted to draw Ryan and Mia together, just chatting shit and doing makeup or whatever :’>

Sixth drawing (drawn December 10th 2019) - Another scene where I just wanted to draw some fluff. This I had to rebuild how the streamer playing Reid built his- and Ryan’s- home in Sims 4. It was a fun drawing to do~.

Seventh drawing (drawn January 23rd 2020) - Ah yes. The voldemort timeline as I named it. ‘Cause- at the time- I don’t think Ryan was a lot around ‘cause the streamer behind him had to play his cop character for a while, so Reid (and the streamer behind the character) was joking around about divorcing Ryan. ... Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, they got married during a bank heist where they played DnD. He didn’t divorce him tho’, and Ryan got to come around here and there again.

Eight drawing (drawn Febuary 25th 2020) - Another scene I made up ‘cause I went around in GTA 5 and took a bunch of screenshots of places I would want to try and draw at some point with either just Ryan or both of them. This screenshot is of their home, which is in Sandy Shores.

Ninth drawing (drawn March 27th 2020) - Yet another place I screenshotted, tho’ I think it was ‘cause they found this place in RP, but I can’t say for sure. Anyways, thought it would be cute to make the lil’ room you can go inside of the destroyed plane at the junkyard into a cozy hangout spot. That’s about it.

Tenth drawing (drawn May 24th 2020) - One of my favorite drawings while I’ve been in this fandom! <3 Again, Ryan couldn’t be played for a bit, so I drew him relaxing at his and Reid’s home. Also, there’s that snake again that I really love. (Which I think can be found in the Yellow Jack, and also, Gazz- another biker and Reid and Ryan’s adopted son- named the snake Sheila)

Eleventh drawing (drawn May 27th 2020) - Basically just Ryan and Reid cuddling in bed. That’s about it.

Twelth drawing (drawn May 30th 2020) - I guess I got tired of fluff at the time and just wanted to draw Ryan having some sad boi hours™. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Eleventh drawing (drawn July 17th 2020) - At this time, I got CSP! So, I got to test out it’s 3d features thingy that could help out immensely with the background, which it did and still does! I don’t quite remember if this was a real scene or just me wanting to draw the old ladies (Ryan, Paddy (the redheaded guy) and Lucy (the redheaded lady)) and JP (who’s another biker) just going grocery shopping. It was really fun to draw, tho’ a lil’ frustrating ‘cause of the setting o(-(

Twelth drawing (drawn September 27th 2020) - With Ryan having been in the racing scene a bunch, I just wanted to draw him being a tease while also holding a sandwich or something :’>

Last drawing (drawn September 29th 2020) - So, this scene didn’t happen either. But! There had been times where Ryan had threatened to stab people with a lockpick if they did some shit towards him, his lover, or his friends/family. Which is why I drew this :) (Also, the text is in reference to the fact that a lot of cop characters think that Ryan is 100% a pacifist due to how much he refuses to use a gun/carry a gun with him)

And that’s about that! The funny thing I did want to tell y’all about is how- a month or so back- I found out that Ryan and Reid has been divorced for a while now, but from the looks of it, are still friends? I think? It doesn’t say a lot on the wiki, but does state that Ryan is associated with the biker gang in some way still. Idk. What I do know was that it made me laugh so hard when I found that out :’]

[julemmaes]

ahem... cassian taking nesta to that bookstore (fluff, don’t try making shit sad aight?)

Our First Non-Date

SURPRISE I GUESS!!

Nessian Archeron x Cassian

You can find the first part here.

A/N: this month has been really nice on me. I finally feel better, not crying every day for literally nothing and I wanna dedicate this to my fren Sim (@perseusannabeth) cause homegirl just finished the offcampus series and she's grieving. I know she is. So yep. Take some Nessian fluff

And Nina, I had to add some angsty parts, but they're not Irene Angst Level, okay?

Word count: 6,833

When Cassian had called her back the night after their outing with Amren and Varian, she'd stared at the phone for a full minute until it had stopped ringing and she could go back to reading the article on poisonous plants that Elain had sent her.

It hadn't even been five minutes before the words had been obscured from the call screen again and the name "Cassian Navarro" appeared.

When she had ignored the call for the second time as well, he had decided to change tactics.

Hi Nes, I was thinking about when you'd be free to go to the library. I need a couple of manuals because I'm building a little gazebo in Rhys and Feyre's garden and your sister is putting a lot of pressure on me, so I was wondering if you had the day off tomorrow.

Nesta was stunned at the amount of useless information he had given her, but managed to reply with a simple, Working tomorrow, day off on Wednesday. Sending you the address later.

She certainly hadn't anticipated how hard it would be to get up that day, her will to live must have been hiding somewhere under her bed and Nesta didn't know if it was directly related to their going out or just her stupid brain not being able to connect to real life.

The only other worst thing she'd been able to think of at that moment was having to explain to Cassian what was going on, so, pulled out of bed by the future embarrassment they'd feel in such a situation, she'd managed to dress, wash and style her hair so that she had a braid crowning her head.

She hadn't put too much effort into deciding what to wear, after all, it wasn't a date and Cassian had seen her many times before in far more outrageous and scruffy clothes than the comfortable black jeans and grey jumper she was wearing right now.

The silence had made her uncomfortable at first, only because Cassian seemed to be really stressed - about what, she certainly wouldn't ask - but after about ten minutes, he'd turned on the radio and popped a CD into the player and the melody of a Verve song had filled the cabin.

She'd started humming under her breath and he'd looked at her with a faint smile on his lips and his eyes sparkling. She hadn't mulled over that look too much, but she'd started eyeing him more closely and noticed the way he narrowed his eyes at every street sign and how he ran a hand over his face every time a strand of hair landed in front of his eyes.

When Cassian had to blow the hair out of his face for the millionth time, Nesta pulled a rubber band off her wrist and handed it to him abruptly.

Cassian looked surprised, but took it almost immediately, brushing her fingers. Nesta immediately withdrew her hand, feeling how warm and calloused his were.

"Thanks, my hair is killing me today," he finally spoke.

Nesta continued to look ahead, noticing that they were about to enter the highway. "Well, it wasn't very wise of you not to tie it up before you got in the car. I never drive with my hair down."

He nodded slowly, still with the band clutched between his fingers. And then, suddenly he let go of the steering wheel, "Hold that for me for a second." and Nesta's eyes went wide, launching herself at him to grab it and keep the car in their lane.

"Are you nuts?" she almost shrieked, keeping her gaze fixed on the road and feeling every nerve ending vibrate with anger.

"Relax." he said in a calm tone, shifting her hands and gently pushing her back into her seat one more time. "It wasn't even five seconds."

Nesta huffed out a laugh that lacked amusement, "You do something like that again without warning me first and I'm getting out of the car."

Cassian looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "A bit dramatic, but alright."

She sighed, shaking her head slightly and resting it on her hand propped against the window.

That awkward silence fell again and Nesta couldn't figure out what the problem was. She hadn't felt any kind of unease three days before, but after all, they'd been with friends and busy walking, not stuck in a car for two hours with no chance of walking away or splitting up.

And in that moment, the reality of their situation overwhelmed her.

She forced herself to steady her breathing, opening the window slightly so that more air could get in. She forced herself to think about all the things she would see today at the library and how beautiful and spectacular it had looked from mere pictures. She wasn't going to let her twisted mind stop her from having fun with someone who was desperately trying to be her friend.

She took a deep breath and a surprising calm enveloped her. She looked to her left to see if Cassian had noticed that temporal change in her behaviour, but it seemed to her that he was just as fidgety.

She was about to ask him if he was okay, because the knee that kept bouncing and the fingers opening and closing on the steering wheel were obvious nervous tics, when he did the eye thing again, this time leaning forward over the dashboard as well, and the sharp turn he took to the right caused her to shift in her seat so much that she bumped her shoulder against his.

Cassian grimaced, "I'm sorry," he murmured.

"What's wrong?" she asked, readjusting in her seat.

"Sorry?"

"What's the matter? With your eyes, I mean."

"Oh." he seemed surprised by the question, almost as if he hadn't realised she'd been observing him for the last twenty minutes. He cast her a curious glance immediately returning to the road. "I wear glasses when I drive, but I couldn't find them this morning and these contacts are the wrong shade and I can't see very well."

Nesta nodded thoughtfully, "Where do you normally keep them?"

"In the glove box. But I already checked," he replied, rolling his shoulders. Another nervous tic.

Nesta had to suppress a smile. There was no way he could be so worked up just because they were talking. She looked down at the phone in her hand to check the time, and a flash of light momentarily dazzled her. She blinked a couple of times and then scoffed, "Found them."

She reached a hand towards the hatch compartment and pulled out a pair of very plain black glasses, handing them to him. Cassian seemed to finally relax since she'd gotten into the car.

"Thank fuck." then he pulled into a lay-by and without turning off the car, slipped two fingers in his eye, removing one contact and then the other, leaving Nesta stunned. He put the glasses on his nose and flashed her a smile that went from ear to ear. And Nesta was stunned for other reasons.

She couldn't deny that Cassian was an attractive man. She wasn't stupid or blind, but the man next to her should have come with a warning sign or a bell.

Attention, hot stuff coming your way.

Nesta forgot the comment she had wanted to make about how antigenic and risky it had been to remove his contacts without first cleaning his hands and in such a dirty environment.

His hair tied back in a messy bun, with the hint of a beard he was letting grow, and now his glasses on, Cassian looked like a model on the cover of a newspaper about sexy carpenters. The short-sleeved black shirt he wore that pulled on his huge biceps every time he moved in the slightest was just one more point to add to the list of things that made him appealing.

"So," he began, getting back on the road, "what's your favourite colour?"

Nesta snorted, "Are you serious?"

Cassian seemed to blanch, "What?"

"Have you ever been out with a girl?" she asked him sarcastically, knowing full well what the answer would be.

He clenched his jaw so hard that a muscle popped out on his face, "Only on dates."

"And this isn't a date." pointed out Nesta, holding back a laugh at how tortured he sounded.

"It's not."

Nesta touched the tip of her nose, thoughtful, "Shouldn't this be easier for you then?"

Cassian released a breath through his nose, "I'm under a lot of pressure right now."

"Yeah?" she asked, looking away and smiling.

"Yeah, and stop looking like you're enjoying it." he retorted.

She feigned innocence, "Enjoying what?"

"My pain." he sheeted.

Nesta laughed, unable to contain herself any longer and when he glared at her, she covered her mouth with one hand, laughing harder. Only when he snapped his fingers against the steering wheel did she stop, laying a hand on his arm, just for a few seconds, "I'm so sorry." she wheezed, "I just don't understand. When you're hanging out with my sisters or Amren, or Mor, I don't know, you don't seem to be in this much discomfort."

Cassian sighed again and Nesta chuckled one last time, stopping when he smiled slightly. "I'm just trying not to make you uncomfortable. You accepted I take you on this non-date, and I'm doing my best not to flirt badly with you every chance I get." he confessed, nodding slowly, as if to convince himself that he was doing the right thing and not wasting their time.

Nesta was genuinely surprised at his answer and decided to offer him an olive branch.

"My favourite colour is blue."

"Nice." he smiled, showing a hint of a dimple, "Mine is red."

"It's too bright of a colour," she said lightheartedly.

Cassian chuckled, "I'm pretty sure it reflects my peppy personality."

Nesta nodded, "I read an article once about how a person's favourite colour says a lot about the person themselves," she said annoyed, "It sounded like one of those quizzes you find in gossip magazines, like it was written by a third grader. I hate those things, like horoscopes."

He grunted, "God, Mor's obsessed with horoscopes..."

The conversation continued without any more awkward silences for the remainder of the ride, and when Cassian turned onto a bumpy road, Nesta knew they were close. Of course, even if she hadn't looked at the directions from her house to the place, the myriad cars parked along the road would have been an indication.

They parked in the first vacant spot they could find and as soon as Nesta was out of the car, an icy gust of wind hit her face, making her shiver with cold. She looked over the bonnet at Cassian and found him staring at her with a half smile on his face. He'd left his glasses in the car and had let his hair down again, her hair band on his wrist, and he looked even prettier than before.

"Do you want my jacket?" he asked her, with a conflicted look on his face, as if he didn't want to. Nesta narrowed her brows and he hurried to add, "There's no hidden agenda to my offer, just a friend lending a jacket to another friend."

Nesta watched him for a moment, trying to really understand his intentions, but then remembered reading in one of the reviews that the library was heated inside and shook her head.

Cassian gave a small nod of assent and then pointed down the street, "Shall we?"

From where they had parked to the library it would have been about a ten minute walk and Nesta couldn't help but notice the way Cassian kept his distance between them as if he was afraid she would get scared and run away.

He was back to fidgeting nervously with his fingers and when he realised she was looking at him, he put them in his pockets, smiling tensely at her. He took a deep breath and then said, "So, what do you know about this library?"

Nesta looked ahead, hoping to catch a glimpse of the building, but the foliage of the trees was still too thick and they were still too far away for it to see anything. She brought her hands to her stomach, crossing her fingers, "I actually did a bit of research before I came. Did you know that the Peace Treaty between Prythian and Hybern of 1864 was signed here?" she asked in an excited voice.

Cassian smiled at her so naturally that she felt herself blush. He had an expression she couldn't decipher, but Nesta had never been good at cracking people in general, so she didn't venture to continue until he said, "Tell me more."

And Nesta launched into a detailed description of the events that had taken place inside the building, which only a hundred years before had become a bookstore. Only one wing of the building had been furnished in such a way as to become a real shop, the rest had been set up to be visited as a museum, one of the oldest libraries. She talked about the architecture and how it was obvious that the palace had been built long before it became an important meeting place for scholars and researchers.

"And in 1932 a fire destroyed the science wing, burning more than a hundred textbooks." Nesta sighed, thinking how devastating that loss had been. She lit up with happiness when she remembered what happened next. "But luckily, one of the most important literary clubs in the city got together and they managed to recover a small portion of the books. It took them years to rewrite every manual, but they got help from one of the local researchers, a certain Mr. Hawthorn, I can't remember the name or details of the research, only that he's mentioned often in the article I read."

When she paused to catch her breath, Nesta realised with immense horror what had just happened. Cassian had not spoken a word after asking her if she knew anything about the place and she had monopolised the conversation without even acknowledging him once. She felt herself flare up and knew in that moment that any hope they had of becoming real friends was gone.

Sometimes she would get lost in thought and ramble on about the things she was passionate about. Quite often people had stopped her, letting her know they weren't interested in the subject, but Cassian had never interrupted her and she was afraid to look at him, convinced she would only find boredom and disgust on his face.

That was why, when he spoke, she was struck dumb.

"I'm impressed." he breathed, chuckling immediately afterwards.

Nesta pushed herself to look at him and he stood admiring her with his mouth slightly open, as if he couldn't find the words. She felt her heart clench in her chest so tightly that she didn't know if she could survive the pain. Who knows how many times he'd tried to stop her and she'd gone on and on about windows and arches and treaties of peace.

But when she got a better look at him, stopping in front of him, Cassian looked... happy.

He let out a laugh, running a hand through his hair, and Nesta was distracted for a moment by the sway of his arms before she was brought violently back down to earth when he said, "You surprise me more and more every time, Nesta."

And the way he said her name - Ne-sta - made her toes curl.

"Why?" she managed to throw out in a weak voice.

Cassian laughed again, raising his eyebrows so high they ended under the hair on his forehead, locking his eyes to hers. "I have a degree in history and my final thesis happened to be on this very library." Nesta felt the ground open up beneath her feet and hoped it swallowed her alive. "I came out of university with top marks and various accolades for finishing my studies on time and you, dreadful creature that you are, have just taught me at least three new things about this place."

His gaze was so intense that Nesta had to lower her head to hide the satisfied and surprised smirk that popped up on her lips.

"You're amazing." huffed Cassian, "Perfect in every way."

She shrugged.

"Although," he clicked his tongue against his palate, "You made a mistake."

Nesta looked up at him, frowning, "Oh, yeah?"

Cassian nodded, smirking fiercely, "Why don't you turn around and admire the palace, and once we're inside, I'll explain what it is?"

She must have been so lost in her chatter that she hadn't noticed that they had arrived in the large entrance forecourt, because when she turned, her back to Cassian, the building stood among the forest trees, as imposing and splendid as ever. The photos had not done it justice in the slightest and Nesta was left speechless.

Living in a country with a history going back millennia, it wasn't hard to stumble upon historic streets with old buildings and monuments, but this was completely different.

She was still admiring the way the stone around the windows had been carved to look like trees trying to get into the building when she felt something settle on the small of her back. A hand.

Nesta stiffened slightly, before closing her eyes and relaxing.

Cassian must have noticed her discomfort because a moment later his hand was no longer touching her.

They entered the museum part of the building in silence and Nesta paid the entrance fees, reminding him of the tea he'd offered her last Sunday and Cassian hadn't been able to argue with that.

They had just passed the doors to the first room, the smallest in the entire palace, when he leaned towards her, to the point of touching her ear with his lips.

The fact that he was whispering as if they had been in a sacred place did things to her little icy heart, "Mr. Hawthorn was not a man."

Shocked by that information, Nesta's head snapped in his direction and she realised too late that she had miscalculated the space.

Her lips brushed against his cheek, the corner of his lips, before Cassian reacted so quickly he startled her, but avoiding them both an involuntary first kiss. His sudden movement caused him to lose his balance and he reached out his hands towards her, straightening as he held on to her shoulders.

Both of them were holding their breath.

Cassian cleared his throat, shifting his gaze to the wall of books, but returning to look at her soon after, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, you just surprised me," she said when she had recovered. "I must have read the article wrong."

He was still watching her and shook his head, "Oh no, I don't think it's that. They only found out a few months ago that it was Georgina and not George Hawthorn. They found letters in the house of what was thought to be Hawthorn's wife. Some people think they were just friends, but anyone who has read the letters they exchanged knows full well that they were lovers. Anyone who says otherwise is either homophobic or stupid."

Nesta realised that she could have listened to this for hours on end. And so it was.

The visit continued relatively quietly, Cassian explaining every detail to her, expanding on things she already knew and when he forgot something, she would step in and have her say, commenting on every little aspect.

She'd noticed how Cassian hadn't tried to touch her anymore and how whenever someone was about to bump into her, he'd vocally warn her instead of wrapping an arm around her shoulders to move her out of their way like he had on Sunday.

The visit to the museum lasted less than expected unfortunately, because Nesta hadn't had this much fun in too long. It was becoming easier to smile at him or tease him when he said dumb things and even he seemed to finally be more at ease when he had to make jokes that smacked of him.

When they finally got to the shop, Nesta couldn't stand on her feet anymore, she just wanted to buy all the books she saw and go home and arrange them on her shelves.

"Which section do you want to see first?" she asked him, even though she had started hopping impatiently about the place.

Cassian gave her a smug look, "Why don't you go wherever you want and I'll look for the manuals for the gazebo in the meantime? That way you don't waste time keeping up with me. I'll be right there."

Nesta let out an excited squeal and ran off, hearing only the echo of laughter that shook Cassian from head to toe.

***

As Cassian flipped through the various books to find a picture of a gazebo that looked similar to the one Feyre had requested, he kept casting glances at Nesta.

Her eyes sparkled as she grabbed book after book without even reading the synopses. She was in the romance novels section, from what he could see from where he stood, but soon ended up in the classics, where she grabbed just as many books. She moved to the mystery books section, this time stopping to read the plots and putting most of them back on the shelves.

Then, surprising Cassian, she walked over to where the historical novels were and turned to face him. He bent his head to the side, raising an eyebrow to ask her what she was doing there. Nesta seemed at a loss, trying to move all the books from one arm to the other to point him to join her, but Cassian was already halfway there and when she looked back up at him and found him standing in front of her, she gave him a bright smile.

"Hello." she exclaimed.

Cassian's breath caught for a second before he too sighed a greeting.

"I was thinking," Nesta began, running her eyes over the titles in front of them, "that you could recommend something about..." she wiggled her fingers as much as she could, trying to point to the shelf, and Cassian leaned forward, cursing himself for not thinking of it sooner.

"Here," he removed the first stack of books from her arms and she sagged a little, giving him a thankful look. "I can go get a bag so you can put them all in there and you don't have to carry them like this," he said taking all the books and having her help him arrange them so they wouldn't fall out.

He smiled at her over all the books, looking down at her and she smiled back just as happily.

Hell, if she looked at him like that every time he took her to a bookstore he should do it more often.

He had just turned to go towards the entrance, where he had seen special bags for carrying books, but Nesta stopped him by putting a hand on his arm.

"Wait!" she exclaimed almost impishly.

Cassian turned his head, genuinely worried that something had happened to her in the mere seconds he had been shot. He must have moved too fast, because one of the smaller classics flew off the top of the stack and landed right in her face.

Nesta groaned at the impact and brought her hands to her face, rubbing her forehead where it hurt.

"Oh my God, are you okay?!" he asked with wide eyes. And then Nesta laughed, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she stared at him and he visibly relaxed. "Christ, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to throw a book at you."

She waved a hand in mid-air, to let him know it was nothing, and bent down to pick up what he realised was A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Of course Nesta was reading feminist classics.

She turned back to the books as if nothing had happened and Cassian had the urge to look for a list of all the bookstores in the world to take her to if it meant having her in such a good mood by his side, it didn't matter if she would never agree to go on a real date with him, he realised. As long as he could see her smile like that, he didn't need anything else.

"So, I was saying, before you battered me with a book-" she cast an amused glance over one shoulder at him.

He frowned, muttering, "I said sorry."

Nesta ignored him, "What do you recommend?"

Cassian blinked.

"You said you read historical novels right?" she asked, looking for confirmation, "You could recommend your favourites. But not the English or Russian classics. Or French ones. Chances are I've already read those."

Cassian was stunned. Nesta wanted advice on books. From him.

They were silent for too long as she turned around impatiently, "You lied?"

He looked surprised, "When?"

"When you said you were reading. Were you just doing it to impress me or were you serious?" she asked and maybe Cassian imagined it, but she looked disappointed.

He was quick to reply, "The Black Coat, by Neamat Imam. It's pretty recent, but set in the 1970s in Bangladesh. It's about a man who needs help and seeks it from a journalist he asks for work and one of the main themes is the famine that hit the country after it became independent. It's not my absolute favourite, but it certainly gives you something to think about."

Nesta nodded, searching through the titles and finding it almost immediately, "Anything else?"

Cassian felt his neck heat up and coughed a little before resuming speaking. "The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson. Set in the tenth century, it's about a Viking who is called Red because of his hair and focuses on the European political outlook in the late Viking Age. Again, it's not as good as the historical classics, but it's nice and shows a way of life that we're definitely not used to. It's different."

After looking for a few minutes, Nesta gave up reading and turned to him, crossing her arms. She tilted her head to the side, watching him closely, "What's your favourite book?"

Cassian shrugged, settling the books against his chest, "I think at the moment it's The King Must Die by Mary Renault. But I change my mind every month when I find something more interesting or captivating."

She nodded thoughtfully, "I'll take that one then."

And Cassian wished he could change the title immediately because... what if she didn't like it? Or if she thought it was a stupid book? What would she think of him then?

But Nesta had already found a copy a few shelves down and there was no turning back.

He could counterattack, though, "What about yours? You're not going to give me any advice on feminist classics or blatantly trashy romance novels?"

Nesta opened her mouth wide, looking outraged as she placed the latest addition on the pile, settling the book under her chin, "How can you say they're trashy if you don't even know what they're about?"

Cassian chuckled, "On the cover of You Came," he said as he gave her a sly look, "there's something called a 'spicymeter'. How am I supposed to take you seriously?"

Nesta blushed, "I read erotic novels, so what? I have to keep myself busy in my spare time somehow."

And then he challenged her, "Get me the hottest book you've ever read," he said in a joking tone, "I'll go get the bag in the meantime."

She had already left for the section when he had an idea that would surely doom him depending on how Nesta would react.

He walked up to the cashier's desk, making sure she didn't notice, and begging the clerk behind the counter to be quick, paid for all her books, gently placing them back in the bags.

When he reached her again, she seemed not to have noticed anything.

"'So, what did you get me? Ride Me? Fucked You Good? Last Night I Gave You A Thousand Orgasms?" he teased her with an annoyed grin on his lips.

Nesta gave him a fiery glance before noticing the bags, quite different from those you put the things you wanna buy in, and closed her mouth tightly. She frowned and looked at them for so long before speaking that Cassian began to feel self-conscious.

"You paid for my books?" she whispered, looking at him.

He nodded.

"It's not a date, Cassian," she reminded him for the umpteenth time.

"I know, but-"

"So why would you pay for things that are mine?"

He couldn't read her. She wasn't hinting at anything.

She didn't look angry but she didn't look impressed or grateful either.

Cassian placed the bags on the ground between them and Nesta followed his every movement with her eyes.

He ran a hand through his hair, sighing, "My adoptive family is filthy rich. I have a trust fund that I never get to spend on things I really want to do, the only way I get to use it is by giving gifts to my friends, so just accept these as my first gift - friend to friend - and call it a day."

Nesta continued to be impassive as she kept her eyes fixed on the books.

Perhaps he had gone too far. After all, she had taken more than a hundred and fifty euros worth of stuff, but he really didn't mind.

He was about to apologise, tell her she could give the money back if it made her feel better. Cassian would find a way to spend it back on her at other times anyway.

Then she raised her head, handing him two books with hilarious covers to say the least, "These two have storylines full of plot twists. You won't be able to put them down, but don't expect big epic battles or Viking warriors. It's just two college kids trying to survive in the modern world while finding solace in each other."

He didn't even have time to thank her that she was already across the room and waiting in line so she could pay them.

He scoffed, shaking his head.

"I guess you'll be paying for these two," he said as he caught up with her.

Nesta didn't even look at him, pulling out her wallet, "A gift from a friend to a friend."

As they walked back to the car, Cassian offered to carry the bags, but she didn't want to hear one more word so they had managed to compromise and had split the load equally.

They'd been on the road for about thirty minutes now and Nesta had gone through every book he'd bought her, talking about all the previous works by the authors she was holding in her hand at the moment.

Cassian could have died like that. Happy, relaxed, listening to the plots of those dirty books with no moral lessons to teach the reader, just pure entertainment.

He wondered at that moment if he would make it through the first few chapters of the books she had offered him and let out a heavy breath through his nose as he turned right towards the coast.

Nesta looked at him wide-eyed, stopping her rant about the headmaster's son getting the occasional model student to fall in love with him. She brought a hand to her mouth, "Oh dear, sorry, I'm boring you. I'm sorry."

He gave her a confused look ready to tell her she didn't have to apologise, but she continued.

"Sometimes I do and I don't even realize it. And I realize they're not challenging plots where you have to apply some hidden lobe of the brain to understand them, but they distract me from everyday problems, you know? It's fun to be able to unplug a few hours after I get home from work and-"

"Jesus, Nesta, stop!" he laughed, placing a hand on her thigh. She sighed. "You don't have to apologise. Not when you're so excited about something." he looked at her slyly, offering her a reassuring smile, "In fact, I'm glad you're talking so much today. Normally I have to pull the words out of your mouth."

She blushed slightly and then grew sullen soon after, sitting up straighter, "This isn't the way to Velaris, where are we going?"

Cassian didn't answer.

"You're taking me into the woods aren't you?"

"We literally just came out of a forest."

She ignored him.

"I knew it. You're a serial killer."

"Nes-"

"You're a little dense though. Why would you spend so much on someone if you're going to murder them?"

He decided to ignore her, chuckling, "I'm taking you to the beach."

"Why?" she asked, somewhat unconvinced.

Cassian shrugged, "I wanted to see the sunset."

"You didn't ask."

He sighed, gripping the steering wheel, "Okay," he whispered, then louder, "You want to go to the beach and watch the sunset?"

She nodded in assent and then continued to read the plots aloud.

And Cassian could have sworn he was in heaven.

***

Nesta gathered more sand, making a small ball out of it and placing it on the top of one of the towers she had made so far.

"Where did you learn to make such good sandcastles?" asked Cassian suddenly from behind her, startling her.

She jumped in the air, turning to face him and noticing the satisfied smile on his face for having taken her by surprise.

Nesta didn't answer him immediately, but allowed herself to admire him a bit.

Since they had arrived at the beach, they had taken off their shoes and were now both barefoot and then Cassian had bent down and started to roll his trousers around his ankles, offering to do it to her jeans as well, but Nesta had refused. She had sat down, looking at the sea for a while, while he walked along the shore and collected stones and shells.

When he had come back to her and shown them to her, asking her to make a sandcastle, she had laughed at first, but faced with his serious expression, she had been unable to do anything but get up and roll up her sleeves, moving to where the sand was a little more workable.

She looked away from that heavenly vision and made another ball, placing it next to the one she had just made. "When I was little my mum never let me do these, she said I'd get too much sun and forced me and Elain to stay under the umbrella all day," she replied truthfully, remembering the cruel bite of jealousy watching the children on the shore.

"And Feyre?"

Cassian had joined her, kneeling beside her and had begun to place the shells so that they served as windows to the towers.

Nesta sighed, "Feyre was still too little when Mini Me wanted to build sandcastles, but as soon as I became 'too old to play like a kid'," she gave him a knowing look, mimicking her mother's voice, "and Feyre started to figure out she was an actual being, Mama let her do whatever she wanted. Even stand in the sun for hours on end." she shrugged. "Whether it was out of indifference or love, I never understood."

Cassian had been silent the whole time and now he watched her, hands on his thighs as he waited for her to give him more. For her to tell him another little piece of her soul.

So she offered him a forced smile, "So to answer your question, it's all pent-up creativity."

"Well, you're very good at it," he granted her. "I can imagine what you could have done if your mother hadn't been so strict."

Well, yeah.

"What about you?" she asked him.

"What about me?"

"Did you go to the beach a lot?"

Cassian smiled weakly, getting up and heading towards the water to collect more shells. He nodded a couple of times and then said, "My mum and I loved coming to the beach and she loved making castles. And she always put so many 'windows' on the towers-"

Nesta turned to look at their work, realising how many shells he had placed on the piles of sand. She smiled softly, covering her eyes from the sun and watching him walk towards her.

"We always came when she was free from work."

A charged silence settled between them until Cassian chuckled, drawing her attention, "What?"

"You said this wasn't a date. And that we're just friends. Right?"

Shifting her gaze to him, she noticed how he kept his hands hidden behind his back and the mischievous glint in his eyes didn't reassure her at all. Slowly she stood up, nodding.

"So, I must treat you as I would treat my friends. Correct?"

"Cassian, I swear to god that-"

She didn't have time to finish her sentence that something wet and sticky landed in her face with a resounding splash, making her jump back.

She took a deep breath and immediately regretted it when a strong smell of stale water and seaweed flooded her nostrils.

When she opened her eyes again, wiping the seaweed from her face, Cassian was doubled over in laughter.

She didn't even give him time to get up when she started to run towards him - to do what, she had no idea - but he started to run away too and soon they were chasing each other all around the beach, not noticing the sweet looks they were getting from the people around them.

At that moment, Nesta was running so fast that she could feel the wind in her hair and the smell and sound of the sea, together with the laughter of the man who was chasing her, mixed with her own and the continuous tapping of her feet on the sand, made her feel alive.

She felt Cassian come closer every few metres until two strong arms wrapped around her waist and she was pulled up and spun around in the air.

A surprised yelp escaped her as Cassian laughed in her ear, "Gotcha!"

It wasn't until he stopped spinning with her in his arms that they realised the position they were in and immediately broke away, laughing embarrassed.

Nesta turned to face him, her face red from running and her breathing laboured. He was in no better condition. His hair was pointing in all directions and his sculpted chest was rising and falling with haste under the black fabric of his shirt.

He looked away first, scratching the back of his neck and fixing his eyes on the sunset, and offered her his arm as they returned to where they had left theirs things unattended.

Nesta shook her head, laughing one last time and started to run, " Last to reach the castle is stupid!"

Cassian burst out laughing, but he caught up to her in the blink of an eye and they both knew that she had doomed herself to lose. That's why, when he fell tripping over his feet, Nesta knew he had done it on purpose.

She helped him up and they sat back as in silence they watched the sun go down, disappearing past the horizon and the blending lights of the sky created a breathtaking spectacle.

Nesta couldn't have noticed, too busy admiring the clouds, but Cassian had been watching her the whole time, trying to understand how something as sombre and secretive as her could look so bright just by being.

The journey back was silent, but this time the silence was not awkward. They both welcomed it with open arms, a new awareness that there was no need for it to be filled with chatter and that gave Nesta the opportunity to close her eyes for a moment and doze off.

When the car stopped outside her flat, Nesta was surprised to find that she didn't want to get out.

She turned to Cassian after she had gathered her things and nodded, "I had fun today."

He gave her a genuine smile, looking surprised, "Me too."

And then she permanently shocked him, adding, "I'm not working on Saturday, we could do it again. Changing location."

He blinked once. Twice. Then he nodded, "Sure."

He didn't seem to want to say anything more, so Nesta waved goodbye to him and then got out, not waiting for an answer from him.

Cassian stood motionless in the car park of her flat for another half hour, trying to figure out what had just happened, and when the reality of things finally dawned on him, he smiled, "Fuck yeah."

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[justmiha97]

TS3, boderderless, new machines and FPS limit!!!

UPDATE 2.0 Except borderless gaming app and initial explanations, this guide is now OUTDATED!!! Read new guide HERE: https://justmiha97.tumblr.com/post/633811982604222464/another-way-to-limit-ts3-fps IMPOTANT!!! UPDATE FOR 1.69 GAME VERSION INSTALLATION!!!

Check down in step 4.a. for changes on how to do this properly. For people who renamed their files to:

Rename them back to: TS3.exe  to  3booter.exe TS3W.exe  to  TS3.exe TS3W.exe.backup  to  TS3W.exe

Original post:

I never knew I would be making this post till few hours back, but until now it wasn’t really much known that sims 3 in windowed mode could be run with FPS limit, which forced a lot of people to run the game in full screen. Recently a friend (find him here) and I discovered how to limit FPS for both 1.67 and 1.69 game versions in windowed mode.

Why is this important?

Well, on newer PC’s, ones with a GPU processing power that can easily render recent games, Sims 3 is expected to run exceedingly well... but because Sims 3 is so poorly designed/optimized on a technical level, there is a problem with that. Sims 3 has no FPS limitation, so on newer cards, FPS can get up to even 1k FPS which is INSANE. Personally I had from 500-700 FPS on loading screens myself. This means that: 1. Your card is being overworked and overheated and will be damaged 2. The in-game micro stutter that happens frequently is because the game constantly has short but extreme peaks in frame rate (from 60 - 600 FPS) This is why it’s desired to FPS limit TS3.exe or TS3W.exe!!!

What does windowed mode have to do with all of this?

It’s possible to limit your game FPS in full screen mode trough your graphic control panel application. Though for me it did not work, a lot of people report it working for them. Until now it wasn’t known that the same could be done for windowed mode, meaning users with high end PC running the game windowed were doomed to experience GPU crashes or even worse component death. Now however, a fix has been discovered.

But why would I want to run windowed then?

In full screen mode, game is rendered way darker, which is why EA just lazily slapped on a brightness filter, which makes the whole game brighter than it actually should be. This also means that screenshots of the game taken in full screen (unless they are taken with in-game screenshot feature, which is lower quality) are practically unusable since they are too dark.

When in full screen, the game goes out of memory faster, especially if you are alt tabbing (switching windows) a lot.

Ok, ok but how do I get rid of borders now?

That’s why this guide is here. For that you will need a third party borderless games application. You can find it here, but this will be detailed later in this step by step guide.

THE GUIDE

Before we start, if you want to have your games set up to run well, read trough and apply fixes from these guides:

-https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1131162350

-https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Issues-PC/The-Sims-3-How-to-Minimize-Lag-and-Stabilize-the-Game/m-p/9647783

-https://twitter.com/crosimmer/status/1291882081191170048?s=21

They are all similar in nature but have their own additions to making the game run better. They are extremely helpful and effective. They even include guides on how to FPS limit the game in full screen if you want to keep playing the game that way. Also, be sure to read the last ( 7.) point in this guide as it is important and will determine if you even want to do this or not.

Now that that’s out of the way...

1. First thing to do is run the game and make sure that full screen is off. This is luckily easy to do. If it’s not off, turn it off in options:

2. Next, if you’ve applied FPS limit trough your graphic control application as advised by guides, make sure it’s disabled because it will interfere with this fix. 3. Once you are sure that it is disabled, get 3booter and FPSlimiter from this page: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=15585.0 (files in first two posts) 4. Open both .zip archives and extract all their contents to: - C:/Program Files (x86)/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Game/Bin or -C:/Program Files x(86)/Origin Games/The Sims 3/Game/Bin or whatever your install location of the game is.

4.a. If your game version is 1.69 there is one more step here. Once the files are extracted, you will need to rename launcher like this: Sims3Launcher.exe  to  Launcher.exe And then download and extract this new launcher exe in the bin:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18lMmkXBF_5sknVo0UvxbNp6h_JZu9z7E/view?usp=sharing

Rename it to Sims3Launcher.exe 5. Now that you have the fixes set up properly, you can run the game: - Trough 3booter.exe if you are on version 1.67 (feel free to make a shortcut) or - Trough new launcher, Sims3Launcher.exe, if you are on 1.69. Note that your shortcuts to game launcher will now point to this new launcher due to filename. If you want to use the old launcher, make a shortcut for Launcher.exe

6. BUT WAIT!!! What about that borderless thingy m’ bob? Well here comes that part of setting up windowed mode to look like it’s full screen. First you want to go to the link of the program, I’ll post it again for convenience: https://github.com/Codeusa/Borderless-Gaming/releases Then scroll down a bit and download this:

Once that’s downloaded, install it and run it, after you’ve ran the game in windowed mode. You will be greeted with this:

To have your game in borderless mode, add it to the list on the left by selecting your game name from the list. It will be the name of the last expansion you are running, with [TS3W] next to it ([TS3] if you haven’t installed FPS limiter on 1.69). After the game is selected, click the arrow

And your game will automatically turn into a full screen-like application. IMPORTANT!: DO NOT CLOSE borderless gaming app, only minimize it. It has to run at all times while your game is running or the game will stop being borderless. Make sure to set borderless gaming app to run on windows launch if you don’t want to bother reopening it every time you start your PC.

7. Final notes. (Still IMPORTANT) If you’ve gotten this far, congratulations, you are one patient simmer willing to put in effort to perfect your sims 3 game experience. Not everything can be perfect however, and there are some additional notes to take care of. - First, the FPS limiter program only limits the game to 30FPS. People who have had the game run at 60FPS might be disappointed by this. However the game already runs it’s animations at only 30FPS so there is no need for additional frames. However it’s still you choice. If you do see a difference with 60FPS and don’t want to change it, you can still run the game full screen with 60FPS graphics control limiter. -Second, if you are NOT experiencing FPS higher than 60 in any part of the game (even load screens and main menu), there is no need to install this fix. However be vary that whenever you change hardware, especially GPU, you might need to take care of this. -Third and final, as a side note, there is a program that lets you unpark your CPU cores for that final addition of sims 3 smooth experience. This is completely OPTIONAL. Here is the program’s page (scroll all the way down for download): https://coderbag.com/product/quickcpu To set it up to unpark all cores you just have to do this

And click Apply.

FINALLY DONE?

Yes, yes. Finally done. That’s it Folks. Have fun with your games and good luck simming! And thanks to crosims for helping me out get this working on 1.69.

[voiceless-terror]

I’m bad at prompts so I have an aesthetic vibe for a fic: dusty library, silver glasses, warm blanket, hot tea, cold voices.

Jon wants to get Martin’s attention. Daisy and Melanie have an unusual plan.

“I think he’s made it quite clear that he doesn’t want to talk to you.”

“I need...I need to make sure he’s okay. Daisy’s already tried and well, you-”

“Absolutely not.”

“Exactly.”

Jon sighed. He needed to trust Martin, he knew this. But how could he, when he faded more and more each day? When Jon couldn’t reach him, couldn’t know he was safe? He needed to touch him, make sure he was still solid, still there. That Jon still cared. And if Jon could just break through-

“He won’t let me talk to him. And I don’t know what to do.” The words came out more plaintively than he would’ve liked. Melanie gave him an unimpressed look, Daisy leaned back on the couch. He didn’t know why he’d suddenly decided to confess his feelings to these two, perhaps it was the leftover alcohol in his system from their afternoon drink. Basira was off on another lead and Daisy needed the distraction. They all did. And now they were back at the office, bored and lethargic, Jon dodging the paper balls Melanie lazily tossed his way.

“You’ve got to do something,” Daisy drawled, idly picking at her nails. “To get his attention. You’ve got to make him come to you.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” Jon groaned in frustration. “If I did, I would’ve done it already.”

“Wait.” Melanie sat up straighter, a wicked gleam in her eyes. “I know exactly what to do.” Daisy and Jon shared a glance as she broke into a smirk. 

“And Martin won’t be able to resist you.”

____________

“Is this really necessary?” Jon asked, flinching back as Melanie applied the pink-coated brush to his cheek. “It seems a bit excessive.”

“Stop moving. And yes, if you want to look the part.” Melanie wielded the makeup brush like a weapon as Daisy followed with a critical eye. “Does he look pathetic enough?”

“Hmm.” Daisy leaned forward, uncomfortably close to Jon’s face. “I think he needs a bit more. Just a pinch.”

“Agreed.”

“This is ridiculous,” Jon snarked, leaning away from Melanie’s hands. “I don’t know why I agreed to this. It’s not going to work.”

“You agreed to this because you know it’s going to work,” Melanie insisted, dipping the brush in the compact. “Trust me, Martin won’t be able to resist doting on you if you look properly ill. When I came here the second time ‘round, he hovered outside the door the entire time. “Do you need anything, Jon? Can I get you some tea? Are you feeling alright?”

“That’s not what he sounds like-”

“That’s exactly what he sounds like,” Daisy smirked, settling back into the couch. “If you don’t like the makeup, we can always go with option two-”

“I am not letting Melanie punch me, thank you very much.” She still harbored a lot of residual (and rightful, in his opinion) anger from the surgery incident, and he wasn’t willing to be the outlet for it. “How do we know he’ll even see me?”

“He goes down to the library every Wednesday, sneaks in and out real quiet-like,” Daisy repeated for the third time. “Trust me, I know his patterns.” There was still some Hunt in her yet, no matter how much she starved it. Listen to the quiet. He didn’t say it aloud, but from the look in Daisy’s eyes he didn’t need to. “We’ll set you up there. Don’t worry, he won’t be able to miss you.”

“Whatever you say,” he grumbled, batting away Melanie’s hand. “Are you done yet?” She evaluated him with a scowl.

“That should do it.” She shut the compact with a definitive snap. “I was going to add a bit of purple eyeshadow under the eyes, but that might be overdoing it. You already look like a zombie.”

Daisy nodded appreciatively. “Powder did the job. God, Melanie. You’re a pro.”

“Thank you,” she preened as Jon rolled his eyes. “Now, for the finishing touch!” She leaned forward, yanking the scrunchie out of his hair and ignoring his yelp with an air of satisfaction. “Perfect!”

“I fail to see why that was necessary!” His head ached from the sudden pull on his hair, which was now falling down his shoulders in a tangled, ruffled mess. God, I must look insane. He lifted a hand to put it in some semblance of order when Melanie grabbed at it, stopping him in his tracks.

“No, you’ll ruin it!” she snapped. “Martin likes it when it’s down.”

“How do you know that?”

“God, he really is oblivious,” Daisy said with a disbelieving chuckle. “I may have only visited a few times, but even I saw the way he stared at you whenever you so much as touched your hair. It was sickening to watch.”

“C’mon, we’ve got to get you settled. We have to time this perfectly.” Melanie gestured impatiently for him to get up. “Daisy’ll take you up. I’ve got to grab something.” Jon didn’t trust her but in all honesty, what did he have to lose? The things we get up to when Basira’s gone...though I suppose this is significantly better than the Coffin Incident. 

Daisy took his arm, leaning on him for a bit of support as they made their way up to the library. To anyone else it would look the opposite, that he was the one relying on her- Daisy was good at hiding her weakness. “There’s a couch by the front desk,” she murmured as they rounded the corner. “It’ll be right in his line of vision.”

“What if he isn’t paying attention?” Jon worried, watching as the other staff studiously avoided their gaze, side-stepping them in the hallway. The Archives were truly toxic, and no one wanted to anger the heavily-scarred, scowling Archivist and his rabid ex-cop friend. For the first time in his life, Jon was intimidating. He didn’t like it.

“He always pays attention to you,” Daisy insisted. “He just doesn’t want you to see it.” The words put a lump in his throat. He wondered if they were true. He opened his mouth to reply when Melanie scurried up behind them, her arms full of-

“No.”

“Yes.” Melanie pushed into him, impatiently urging them forward. “Trust me, it’ll work.”

“I am not-” He was cut off by a surprisingly strong push from Daisy, landing him on the couch with an ‘oof.’ Melanie threw the offending object around his shoulders- a fluffy pink blanket Jon recognized from its place on Basira’s cot. He tried to worm his way out of it but Melanie gave him a sharp slap on the arm, ignoring his hiss of pain. He looked around, wildly embarrassed by the entire situation to find that the room was strangely empty, which was surprising for the time of day. I suppose everyone’s trying to avoid us these days.

Daisy froze, her eyes narrowing and posture straightening. “He’s coming.”

Melanie swore, running around the corner and coming back with an old, heavy tome she'd snatched off the nearest shelf. She grinned, an almost manic thing that Jon instinctively leaned back from. “The final touch,” she said proudly, not waiting for his answer as she opened the book with a flourish, flipping the pages in front of his face like a fan. He flinched back, utterly confused.

“Melanie, what on earth are you-”

_______

Martin heard him before he saw him.

The scurrying of feet across the hardwood was strange enough, but Jonathan Sims sitting on the library’s best couch, sneezing into a fluffy blanket and looking bleary-eyed and very exhausted was even stranger. Well, not the exhausted part. That was Jon’s normal state of being. 

But there he sat, wrapped in Basira’s fluffy pink blanket with a flushed face, messy hair, and an ashen pallor that could only come from sickness. Martin had seen it before, back when he lived in Document Storage and Jon was working himself into the ground, much like he was doing nowadays. He felt that pang of worry that accompanied those long nights in the Archives, something he was trying desperately to tamp down.

Working for Peter was infuriating and isolating, just as it was supposed to be. He was constantly reminding himself that it was for the greater good, that he was doing something important, protecting his friends. Protecting Jon. But how could he protect him when he kept finding Martin, even though he promised to trust him? How could he protect him when he kept throwing himself headlong into any danger he could find? How could he protect him, when his biggest enemy was himself?

Another sneeze. Jon looked almost confused by it, maybe even offended that it happened. It made him want to smile, an urge he fought down as he tried to remember Peter’s promise to keep them safe if he kept his distance. He hazarded one last glance, sure that he wasn’t in Jon’s line of sight that he noticed one last detail- Jon’s sweater. Incredibly baggy, worn, light blue knit- a color he’d never seen on him before.

Martin’s sweater. And with that, he found himself walking over to Jon almost involuntarily, steps loud and purposeful as they startled Jon from his perch on the couch. And when Jon noticed him he smiled, so bright and happy and obviously extremely out of it if he was having this reaction to Martin. His face really did look flushed up close- he must have a fever, especially if he wandered up here in this state. Martin successfully resisted the urge to feel his forehead. 

“M-Martin!” God, how could he not talk to Jon, when he said his name with such happiness? He fought to keep his voice level and cool as he responded.

“Jon. What are you doing up here?” Jon’s smile dimmed slightly, and Martin tried not to feel guilty. He did not succeed.

“I, um-” Jon stuttered, his usual sign of nervousness as he ran a hand through his hair. His hair, that was mused and tangled and falling in his face. Fuck. “I w-was reading.” He struggled to pick up a particularly heavy-looking book from where it sat on the couch next to him, its title obscured from Martin’s view. “It was getting, er, a bit stuffy down in the Archives.”

A red flag if Martin ever saw one. They rarely left the Archives these days, unless it was for a quick lunch and even then, Jon had to be dragged out bodily. He sighed, trying not to meet Jon’s pleading eyes. And still, he couldn’t help but ask. “Are you...okay?”

Jon looked down to his lap, the blanket half slipping off his shoulders as he fidgeted with his hands. Martin looked pointedly away. “Not feeling very well,” Jon murmured to the ground, looking strangely nervous, maybe even guilty. That didn’t make sense. He must be really ill, if he’s actually admitting to it. Martin hesitated, fighting between what he should do and what he really, really wanted to do. The cold evaporated just a little and Martin had never felt so seen. 

He missed that.

And so, less reluctantly than he would have liked, he extended a hand down to Jon, who looked at it in shock. “C’mon. Let’s get you back downstairs, I’ll make tea.” Make tea. His solution for everything, he remembered Tim deriding. But Jon looked at him like he’d offered much, much more than that. Maybe he had. The hope in his eyes was too much to bear. So when Jon put a thin, scarred hand in his, he looked away, even as he helped him to his feet.

To his disdain and delight, Jon immediately leaned into his side, as if trying to leech warmth that Martin couldn’t provide. In fact it was now Jon who was the warmer of the two- the Eye would not accept the chill of the Lonely, and the fever probably didn’t help. He was like a touch-starved cat looking for a crumb of affection, and god did he want to give it to him. If it were the Martin of a year ago he would have blushed, stammered, maybe even squeezed him back. Now he can only offer him the shoulder, nothing more.

Jon didn’t say anything more than a muttered thanks as they made their way down to the Archives, as if he were afraid of spooking him. More than one staff member they saw stared; Martin had been AWOL except for a few official emails, and was now suddenly the assistant to the head of the institute. To see him with the dreaded Head Archivist must have been even more of a shock. He felt pity- what a pair we make.

By the time they arrived at the archives, Jon had leant almost all of his weight against Martin’s side, making it difficult to maneuver them both down the stairs. No one was there, and he wanted to scold the other three, wherever they were, for leaving Jon to wander in his condition. I’ll fix him tea, get him on the cot and then I’ll go, he promised himself. 

Easier said than done.

He barely managed to pry Jon off of him, and only with the promise to return with a cup of tea did he let go. Never in his wildest daydreams did he imagine Jon to be this clingy, hanging off him like a limpet. As he made his way to the break room he drew the Lonely back to him like a security blanket, albeit a cold one. You can’t stay. You have to go. He looked blankly around the room he used to think of as a safe haven; it was no longer familiar, different mugs on the table, different food in the cupboards, a bag of makeup on the counter. He no longer had a place. 

Jon was sitting up on the cot when he arrived back, cup of tea in hand. He pointedly didn’t meet his eyes as he handed it over, staring at his feet and ignoring Jon’s thanks as he turned to leave. Go go go-

“Wait!”

Damn it.

He turned. “What is it, Jon? I have to-”

“Will you stay?” His face was so open, so vulnerable it made Martin ache with longing. “Just- just for a bit.”

Martin sighed, trying to maintain his stoic façade. “You know I can’t.”

“I miss you.”

“Jon-”

“I know, I know,” Jon replied, voice going quiet. He thought dying would harden the man, but it only seemed to soften his sharp edges. “I’m sorry.” He held the mug between his hands, staring down like it was something precious.

“It’s fine,” Martin replied, though they both knew it wasn’t.

“Will you stay if I don’t talk?” Jon leveled that hopeful gaze at him again and Martin looked up to the ceiling for divine intervention that wouldn’t come. 

“Jon-”

“Please.” He was begging. His eyes were bright, whether from tears or the fever Martin couldn’t discern. But what was he to do, say no? Not when he was like this, not when he was sick. Martin made excuses, none of them particularly convincing even to himself and they certainly wouldn’t be to Peter, but it didn’t matter. He’d already made his choice as soon as Jon said the word.

“Okay. For a bit.” That smile again. Jon said nothing as Martin tentatively sat beside him on that small, rickety cot. He would only stay for a bit, until Jon fell asleep. He had no one to look after him, after all. He would go back up and face Peter later. 

For now, he let Jon rest his head against his shoulder. He let his fingers rise of their own accord and brush the hair from Jon’s face, eliciting a shiver. When he fell asleep, Martin didn’t move. He needs the rest. So he sat, reveling in the warm, heavy weight of everything he’d given up, everything he stood to lose, and knew he made the right decision.

Much later, when he’s faced Peter’s disappointed gaze and a mountain of extra work, he notices the strange, powdery cast on his sleeve from where Jon had laid his head. When he rubs at it, his fingers come back with hints of pink and white. It takes him a moment to put the pieces together- the footsteps in the library, the absence of Daisy and Melanie, the makeup on the counter. He wants to roll his eyes, wants to be angry.

Instead, for the first time in months, he laughs.

ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28581141

[digital-corruption]

Haunted by the Past Part 69

Inside the car I was sat between my contact and the woman I had met the last time.

“Took you long enough,” the woman snapped.

“She had to be cleaned,” my contact explained.

“Didn’t you read the contract? No communication between you and your lover boy while you’re inside the Senate,” she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Give me your phone.”

Damnit, I didn’t see that in the contract. “I think you’re overestimating my tech skills a bit here. I need to be able to contact him for support,” I frowned.

“Either you hand me your phone or Eisenberg over there does it for you,” she pushed.

I sighed and pulled my phone out. She opened the back and pulled out the SIM card, then handed it back to me.

“You get your SIM back once you’re out again,” she instructed.

“When I’m out again? You’re not escorting me inside?” I questioned.

“We don’t have authority inside the Senate. You will meet with Conway’s staff in the lobby. That’s as far as Eisenberg will take you,” she explained.

“You were meant to ensure my safety!” I frowned.

“Do I need to repeat myself?” she glared at me. “We will ensure you leave safely. Last time I checked you’re just a glorified messenger.”

“Last time I checked you needed us!” I snapped.

“My boss has been more than accompanying of your nonsense, against my advice,” she frowned. “I can’t believe we are putting all of our chips on you two idiots. Do you know how much shit we'll be in if you fuck up?”

“Then let me communicate with Jake!” I gritted my teeth.

“Do as you’re fucking told!” she hissed at me. “Such immature children!”

--

- Jake’s POV –

I pound on the heavy metal door for the third time. Fucking open up already, moron. To be honest, I am ready to punch my way through. Finally, the door opens.

“Oh, there you are, loser,” that ever so annoying voice greets me.

“Took you long enough, asshole,” I grit my teeth.

He steps aside to let me into his dump of a hole in the wall. The front room is full of cushions and blankets on the floor with a bong in plain sight. I shake my head at his arrogance and continue deeper into the next room where I find his multiple stations set up with numerous monitors. I quickly grab a chair and put down my backpack to unload my laptop.

“Who is that?” I hear an irritating female voice say from behind me.

“He’s just an idiot that thought he could go back a normal life. Look how he came crawling back to me! I’m such a gracious guy, love!” his equally irritating voice boasts.

I turn to look at him with his arm wrapping around yet another nightclub pick up. “What’s your name?”

“Melissa,” he grins.

“Marissa,” she corrects him with a smile.

“Marissa, has this jerk ever told you about the time he got a one-night whore, much like yourself, arrested because he left her with all of his equipment while he ran off?” I point out.

She looks at me dumb and clueless.

“That’s not what happened,” he rolls his eyes.

“She called your phone. Since you were occupied with another, I answered. She begged me to get her out!” I remind him as I plug my laptop in.

“And like the good friend that you were, you got her out without interrupting me,” he beams. “Melissa’s not a one-night whore anyway. Are you baby? What’s it been, two weeks?”

“One month tomorrow,” she smiles at him.

“Ah! We need to celebrate!” he grins.

I shake my head in disgust and sit down to check up on MC before I get any further setting up. Something is wrong. I can’t ping her phone. Why can’t I ping her phone!?

“FUCK!” I slam my fist onto the desk.

“I’m sorry, it looks like I won’t be much fun today. You can keep yourself entertained?”

“Mmhmm.”

Oh shut up you two! I'm already so sick of your fake shit!

Jerkface rolls up in a chair next to me, “I know you’ve been out it for a while, but I didn’t know you had become this crap.”

“You can track a phone with no signal?” I glare at him.

“I'll do it for you on the condition you tell me who you are so desperate to track,” he smiles slyly.

“That wasn���t part of the deal,” I frown at him.

“Then I guess you must not want to track that phone,” he shrugs.

I sigh, “Her.”

He grins stupidly at me, “He does have a dick!”

“Shut the fuck up! Are you going to do it or not?” I snap.

“Child's play! Send me the MAC address for the phone,” he rolls over to one of his computers on the other side of the room.

“If I fucking catch you hacking into her phone, you’re dead,” I threaten as I send the details to him.

“Like how you caught me in 2015? Yeah, I know it was you,” he laughs.

“You were still using your old, outdated tricks,” I roll my eyes.

“Hey! Those tricks work! I just had the misfortune of bumping into you,” he argues. “I hope you got paid well out of my misery.”

“My employer was impressed,” I admit. “Don’t act like that stopped you from moving onto the next target.”

“As I always say you win some you lose some,” he shrugs. “Found your girl. Her SIM has been removed, but she’s still pinging the WIFIs heading down towards... the government buildings?”

I roll over and look at his monitor, “Your secret technique involves having already hacked the free networks.”

He grins at me, “You wouldn’t believe the idiots connecting to the free WIFI in this city. Plenty of leads to last a lifetime. But back to the point, why is your girl heading to the government buildings? What the hell are you up to?”

“Not part of the deal,” I remind him and roll away to set up at one of the other computers.

“Hmm, well she’s stopped,” he turns towards me. “With how you’ve been doing a standout job so far, I don’t think you can avoid telling me what’s going on. How the hell did I ever get stopped by you?”

I glance at him, “You were always shit at covering your tracks.”

[janekfan]

Fair

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28298580

Secret Santa gift for @alextblue!

This was such a lovely prompt! I hope you like it!!

Keep it together or they’ll never invite you out again.

He knew when he woke up, tangled in the duvet and soaked in a cold sweat that it was going to be a bad day. No matter how deep a breath he heaved, none of the air reached its way to the bottom of his lungs, caught it seemed on the tight band crushed around his ribs.

Relax.

Just relax.

Everything is fine.

More than fine.

Great even.

Jon was meeting Martin and Tim at an outdoor festival and with the weather for once bright and sunny, it was going to be a wonderful day. In succession, he tightened each muscle, holding himself stiff before relaxing and shoving the thrumming anxiety to the back of his awareness where it hung like a trembling red wire.

Shower. Clothes. Hair loosely tied. Tea.

Stomach unsettled, his toast remained untouched on the counter.

Keys, wallet, phone. Each in their appropriate pocket.

Deep breath. Two. Three.

“I’m alright.” Because he was. There was no reason for this. None at all and he was going to end up being too much of a nuisance for his friends. Maybe he should cancel. No. No. Who knew when he’d get another chance to prove he was more than their arse of a boss and worth having around.

The train went well. He made it to the predetermined meeting place in the park early as was his wont and checked his phone for messages. Predictably, Tim was running a few minutes late but Martin would be here soon and sure enough Jon saw him weaving his way politely through the crowd, raising his arm up to catch his attention.

“Jon!”

“Martin.” When he dug up a smile from somewhere Martin’s face lit up in response and a jolt not unlike lightning ran up Jon’s spine. A strong arm landed over his shoulders and the smell of Tim’s aftershave assaulted him right before his enthusiastic greeting.

“Hullo, gents!”

For a little while, Jon was able to lose himself in the music, the sights, the people watching, settling his nerves with a pint and prattling on about obscure music genres much to Martin’s apparent enjoyment. Tim ribbed him good naturedly and only commented on the blush (not from Martin grinning at him, thank you very much) from the alcohol traveling up his neck and settling high in his face.

“Thank you, Tim.” Voice measured and academic, Jon accepted the next pint with a hand forcibly held still, relaxing on the bench with Tim sprawled comfortably next to him. Martin was locating food and would meet them back here.

“Whoa! Slow down, champ.” Jon had downed half of it without thinking and was now looking dazedly at the plastic in his hand. “You alright, boss?”

“Mm. Yes, of course. Was thinking, is all.” A knobby elbow nudged his side and Jon suppressed a ticklish yelp.

“Thinking.” The way he drew out the word and raised a brow made Jon grateful for his already rosy cheeks.

“Stop! No!” Tim raised his hands in supplication.

“Sure, sure, whatever you say!” He all but tackled Tim when he pulled out his phone and began texting and that’s how Martin found them, tangled up with each other, Jon’s fingers in a deathgrip around the device to prevent him from spreading gossip. Tim just laughed, loud and bright and Martin, the traitor, snapped a picture before doling out the kebab.

It was shortly after lunch that Jon felt the strain of the hours spent pressed between strangers and overwhelmed by sounds and colors and the deep breaths weren’t helping anymore. Instead, Jon’s whole chest ached from how tight it was strung, tied up in knots drawn tighter with each attempt. Incessantly, he checked his watch, trying to hide it from the pair chatting just ahead of him, but the minutes weren’t moving and all he wanted to do was escape the throng, nails digging painful crescent moons into his palms as he clenched his hands into aching fists. His heart was pounding, the sun beating down without mercy and he regretted his previous decision to quaff beer like there was a drought when the nausea returned.

Jon was on autopilot, eyes fixed forward, one step after another after another after another with his heart fluttering in a throat so narrow he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak. So he tugged on Martin’s sleeve, gesturing clumsy and stiff to the edge of the green.

“Just. Just be a, a minute, yeah?” The concern in his eyes was suffocating. He was ruining this.

“Everything alright, Jon?” He’d reached a hard limit. There were no more words left, no more air, so he nodded, flashed what he hoped was a reassuring smile, and walked away rigid and panting through an endless sea of jostling bodies.

Why couldn’t he just be normal? Why couldn’t he handle this like all the rest of them? Why did he have to be so difficult he needed to be invited to things out of pity?

What is wrong with you?

Jon hadn’t realized he’d yanked his hair out of its loose bun and was tugging on it until his head began to hurt. He stumbled more than once, vision going grey at the edges and what had only been anxiety before was swiftly sliding sideways into a panic attack. Dizzy. Where before he felt tense, as though breathing too deeply might crack him straight in half, now he was suffocating, arguing with himself:

Can’t breathe.

You can.

Back and forth, almost to the border and across the street to a bench, out of the way. Invisible. He’d fall apart here, scrape himself back together, and head back to find Martin and Tim. Ten minutes. He checked his watch. He’d give himself ten minutes. Panting, he pressed a hand to his breastbone, trying to force himself to calm down, relax, take in some air to prevent the black from spiraling further. Briefly, wildly he’s--

Dying.

Not. Shut up shut up shut up.

His ten minutes were almost up and it had been more like ten seconds. His chest hurt and he couldn’t breathe and his pulse was galloping out of control and filling his ears with a pounding, pounding, pounding. His fingertips were numb, he was light headed and trembling with his arms wrapped tightly around his stomach. He wanted Martin. He wanted Tim. He wanted nobody to see him like this. He couldn’t decide which was worse god he was pathetic just get ahold of yourself, Jonathan Sims!

Curled up impossibly small, wracked violently with chills and panic, Jon poured all his energy into staying silent and when a warm hand landed on his shoulder his shout of surprise was trapped behind clenched teeth. He looked up into Martin’s wide eyes and felt his own spill over with tears and a muffled sob. He’d been caught and the panic only rose higher until Martin laid a heavy hand across his shoulder blades.

“Jon. You need to take a breath.”

“C’c ah an’t.” He’d been trying. And failing. Always failing.

“You can, I promise.” And when he demonstrated, exaggerated, deep, Jon felt a pang of jealousy at how easy it came to him. “You can.” A sip of air made it through, then another. “Good, there you go, slow, good.”

“What’s happened?” With Tim came a fresh wave of tears and he sat beside Jon so that he was bracketed by the pair of them. “Oh, Jon. Okay, doing great, bud.”

“I’m,” he paused, swallowed another gulping breath. “M’sorry.”

“No reason to be sorry.” Jon wasn’t altogether certain Martin could be believed. “Just breathe, in, out. Good.”

“Okay…m’okay.”

“It’s alright if you’re not. Take your time.” Jon slumped forward under the weight of it all, exhausted and sore and full to bursting with guilt.

“I’m j’just. I’m sorry.” It wasn’t enough. His apologies never were and he didn’t know what else to say, what would make this better. “I didn’t mean. I.” Martin shushed his babbling, pressing a cool bottle of water into his shaking hands and wouldn’t hear anymore out of him until he’d downed at least a third.

“Jon?” The silence was becoming too much under the scrutiny of the pair of them and he just wanted to forget his little episode and get back to the festival so they would smile again instead of look at him with pity.

“We can, we can go back now.”

“Jon?” Of course, why would they want him to tag along anymore after this foolishness?

“Or I, I can leave, uh, go home. Yes. Yes, I’ll go home and see you at work. T’tomorrow.” Ignoring their noises of distress, Jon sprang to his feet and almost went down again when a wave of vertigo tilted the street. He was guided by careful hands back to the bench, head gently pressed down between his knees.

“Why didn’t you say you weren’t feeling well?” Tears traced his nose, falling to the pavement below but he forced them back, speaking in a very small voice in an attempt to contain his histrionics.

“Didn’t want to ruin our day.”

“What?”

“I know. I, I did anyhow, I’m--”

“You’ve not ruined anything, Jon.” Martin was so kind, too kind. And here he was squandering it.

“Yeah, boss. It happens, no harm done.” They didn’t understand and Jon clapped both hands over his mouth before it could all come bursting out, how much this meant to him and how upset he was to have lost his chance. It rushed forth anyway, too big, too vast, and not wholly intelligible.

“I know I was only invited because of Martin and I. I.” This was embarrassing and he wasn’t able to stop himself. He never could. “I was hoping I'd be w’welcome next t’time? If only I, I were on my best behavior.” Good lord, he was crying again, a mess, here in the street where he was probably drawing all manner of looks. They shouldn’t have to put up with this. “I, I know I can be, be awful. I don’t, I’m rude and quick to irritation and I’m, I’m--” Gasping. He’d worked himself into another bout or maybe he hadn’t even come down from it in the first place.

“Breathe, Jon.” Stern and his teeth clicked with the force of their collision. “Breathe.” Only when he wasn’t on the verge of passing out did Martin continue. “Jon, I’m sorry. I had no idea you felt this way.”

“If I’d known--” Tim was quiet. “I shouldn’t have assumed it wasn’t your scene. I didn’t. No. I mean, I didn’t, but that’s no excuse.”

“No, no it’s. It isn’t your--I. I.” It was him. “I.” Tim swept him up into an embrace, exerting the perfect pressure across his shoulders and he melted into the warmth like he’d done back in research a time or two.

Or three.

Maybe four.

“We’ll finish talking about this later, alright? When you’ve had some sleep.”

“I, I don’t--it’s…” When Martin’s firm grip enveloped his shoulder Jon gave up, let the rest of it all go. “I’m--”

“Don’t say it. Don’t need to be.”

“You’re our friend, Jon.”

“But--”

“Nope!” Tim helped him stand, took his arm in his and set off towards the underground. “Martin, my dear, my darling, if you’re amenable, I think I’d like to finish our spectacular day with a few drinks at mine.” Jon went red. “I don’t think you’ve yet had the pleasure of meeting my good friend Three-Shot Sims.”

“Tim!” Martin had the audacity to pretend to think about it.

“You know, Tim.” And both ignored Jon’s sputtering in favor of nearly carrying him down the street. “I don’t think I have!” With no other choice and knowing he’d be under no pressure to perform that particular introduction, Jon let Tim guide him along.

“Oh, Marto, my boy. He’s a real treat.”

[fellowstrangetownappreciator]

Well, that was cold

I have mod that makes diseases actually dangerous. (actually several of them and they’re all listed here on Pleasant Sims’ modlist)

The first rotation? Everything’s fine. The only one who fell ill was John Burb and he, as a family Sim, was able to soup himself to health in no time.

The second rotation... Ajaj Loner got sick.

With cold.

I was like, “I know flu is pretty dangerous with this mod but cold should be fine, right? I mean, I used to have it four times a year. So glad it’s not flu!”

I thought I was lucky.

I wasn’t.

After Ajaj’s turn ended, he was free to wander around and spread the cold everywhere.

Because they have chemistry and she was on a prowl, I even had Nina Caliente seduce Ajaj. She got the cold but I was like whatever, she’s a strong quasi-alien, running nose for a few days won’t kill her!

How fatally wrong I was I realized during a vacation that Nina went on with her sister and Ajaj. She was just chilling, sleeping in her hotel room, when all of the sudden, Grim Reaper!

You sure, Dina?

Nina was dead. Dead from the cold. And she was pregnant, no less!

I reloaded because it was on a vacation and Nina was the only playable Sim, so I was quite worried what would become of the grave. I managed to get her home and moved Chloe Curious in, so that someone can eventually plead for her. She was lucky the second time around and survived. Chloe got infected but survived as well.

But we had an epidemic on our hands now. Ajaj and Nina have been quite successful generously sharing their cold all across the hood and I failed to keep track of who has it.

Still, I thought it wasn’t so bad. I didn’t understand the scale, I was still thinking that it was just Ajaj, Consort Capp and the Pleasants.

Again, I was wrong.

When I got in the rotation to the Capps (the Capps 1), everyone was infected. I was still optimistic, though, because we were talking about a household where 2/4 Sims are Family and one is a Family Secondary, they can bathe in the soup!

The teens ate their soup and survived.

Consort died that night. He was due to die at the end of their round anyway but because he didn’t do so of old age, his grandchildren received no bonus inheritance.

The only one who gained something from that was Olive Specter who was delighted to see Consort, her crush, perish, so she could finally raise him as a zombie.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find a screenshot of her actually raising him, so here’s at the very least Olive walking menacingly to work.

Anyway, moving onto the Capps again (the Capps 2, Goneril edition), things looked bleak. Goneril was pregnant and she and all the kids were infected. Albany was immediately called to action to generate enough soup but the house devolved into utter chaos. Everybody had their soup but just as they recovered, they got infected again!

Ok, I was thinking, Consort was quite old and fragile. Nina must’ve had the cold for a long time, given she was on a vacation. There’s no way the kids are gonna die on the first day they got infected. They had the soup, so I’ll send them to beds, so they can get a good-night sleep and enough rest.

Nope.

Ariel, a child, died in her sleep.

Nobody was able to get to her in time to plead for her.

While I was contemplating an in-character way of resurrection, Desdemona, a young teen, died in her sleep just about two hours after her sister.

Again, nobody was fast enough.

Luckily, Miranda was already in college and she was roommates with Ophelia Nigmos, who was in possession of a genie lamp she was safeguarding from Olive. Hearing about the tragedy that befell her friend’s family, moved by the death of a little girl and her not much older sister, Ophelia the Family Sim offered Miranda the lamp on the spot.

Miranda rushed home to drop off the lamp and then ran off so she doesn’t get infected. Well, she did anyway but since I haven’t played the college Sims yet, I don’t know of her fate.

Hal made a good use of the lamp. He rolled the wants to resurrect both his sisters and that’s exactly what he did.

He triumphantly finished making the wishes...

And dropped dead.

Another young soul succumbed to cold.

But! Since there was still a wish left and his sisters were back alive, Desdemona swiftly brought him back.

Ariel’s and Hal’s resurrections were perfect.

Desdemona’s was faulty, so her personality got reversed.

But as long as they’re alive and preferably not zombies, everything will do.

The Capps were all cured! Hooray!

Wait. Not all Capps. There was still Regan’s branch and, predictably, they were all infected. And this time, there was no Family Sim in sight.

The only non-infected Sim in the family was a little toddler. The poor, poor child was in for a life-long trauma.

Kent went quick and quiet the first night of their round. Regan fortunately recovered. Cornwall did too. They had a very lucky start of the round all together, I may add. Kent’s tragic death was followed by Regan’s demotion that lead to her subsequent want to quit her job (...and she was the only one who was making any significant money), then Cornwall set the house on fire while cooking breakfast, then he got fired.

Poor thing. First got house-fired, then job-fired.

Regan’s LTW was to reach the top of the Law career, so she got herself a new job there. On her first day, she got promoted!

And she brought home a friend! Sweet!

No... nooooo...

It was Ajaj F*ckin’ Loner.

Both Regan and Cornwall got infected before you could say “act your surname and social-distance, you jerk!”

Cornwall died almost immediately. Unfortunately, Regan was asleep and failed to get up and ambush the Grim Reaper in time.

On the bright side, she recovered!

So I watch her go to work, the nanny arrives to baby-sit the toddler, everything seems to finally have settled down.

But then I spot an unexpected movement in the house.

It’s Titania Summerdream. Who let her in? I have no idea.

It would be quite sweet of her to check on her friend Regan after she lost two family members and to help with her young daughter.

If... if she didn’t have the fricking cold!

Regan returned from work and I rushed to have her send Titania away.

Of damn course she didn’t go before giving the cold to Regan.

Now it was the third time Regan got infected and there were no other family members to take care of the toddler if she dies. It was very suspenseful. I decided to use extreme measures and I teleported Albany in, made him selectable and had him cook the soup.

Instead of that, he proceeded to bicker with Regan.

If he got re-infected, I swear...

Anyway, after a three tries or so, Regan got her soup and Albany was on his merry way away.

What a relief! I sent Regan to sleep, trusting the soup to do its magic. The next morning her needs all looked great! No notification yet but I was sure it’s gonna arrive any second. When suddenly...

Yeap, she died.

Regan Capp died the way she lived. Paying her family’s bills.

I used Simblender again to quickly move in Hal. He was there in time to plead for Regan!

And for the first time in the Capp household, he actually made it! He pleaded!

And... and... lost.

So I had him stay to take care of the toddler until their round was over. Then I moved them both back with Goneril’s branch.

At the very least young Ione, the genius toddler with maxed Logic skill, got something resembling a birthday party with her cousin and his boyfriend Alexander Goth.

Given that Montys had their losses as well, the cold has already taken out much of the adult population of Veronaville.

The only two adults left (not counting fresh elders Albany and Goneril) in Veronaville were in fact the Summerdreams who were extremely lucky and with an abundance of soup, they survived.

To be completely honest, I’m very happy with the mod. I tend to play large hoods and although it tends to be rather tragic, the occasional epidemic of cold trims the population down a bit without me killing anybody off and it gives the game an additional bit of challenge and randomness.

...or maybe I’m just a sh*tty person to my Sims.

Bonus screenshots of the Strangetown cold outbreak:

Vidcund Curious spent two nights sleeping in a chair in his children’s bedroom because he was afraid they’re going to die from the cold in their sleep and wanted to be there to plead for them. In the end it actually happened, he pleaded and managed to save his daughter.

The Smiths had to be unfortunately visited by the Therapist. PT9 died on the day he was supposed to die of old age but hours prior, he became yet another victim of the cold. And it was very unlucky, since it meant no inheritance and by the Watcher, Jenny and their 5 kids could definitely use it. They were completely broke.

But not everything was morbid and tragic!

Lazlo rolled quite the unexpected want to get married to his girlfriend, Cassandra Goth. They weren’t engaged, she wasn’t pregnant, he’s not a Family secondary, and the date they were on wasn’t even in the stage Sims usually roll engagement wants, he simply rolled it out of the blue. And of course I went with it! (Cassandra had recently divorced Don, rolling the wish to remarry almost immediately.)

The only family in the hood that could technically mass-produce medicine so that not everyone is dependent on the soup, the Beakers, of course didn’t. Why would they risk their hides, toying with the Mysterious Disease, when they didn’t have to? Instead, they social-distanced and spent the rotation raking in promotions and taking care of their army of children. (Loki kept rolling wants to get abducted and ARC wasn’t kind to them either. But with Loki being Family secondary and Circe leaving most of the parenting on him anyway, I don’t think they mind.)

Note the alien toddler, the second youngest child. He has 10 Nice points. That’s 4 points more than all 5 of his siblings and his parents combined. He’s gonna have a rough childhood, the poor thing.

Jill Smith managed to get nibbled on by the pack leader just in time, a few days before going to college. She’s thrilled by her new wolf-y powers! And regardless of what her mother says, she knows the fur goes with her school uniform just perfectly!

Rachel Pleasant, the youngest offspring of Daniel that he knows about (the second youngest overall), aged up into a child! And judging by the look on her face, she already knows how much of a mess her family is.

Not even being brought back from the dead made Desdemona Capp immune to the Summerdream charm. Bottom, the young Romance Sim, invited her girlfriend to hang out in their hot tub. It was an afternoon to remember for both of them.

Local ageing general married a successful young athlete, Kristen Loste. Unfortunately for everyone attending the wedding, the bride’s former roommate Chloe Curious decided that flirting with her literally the next interaction after Kristen said, “I do.” was a smart idea. No need to add that the wedding cake was left to rot forgotten, never cut. It was a sad wedding cake but even though it started to stink around two hours after the wedding, it still lasted longer than the marriage.

And far away in La Fiesta Tech, two estranged siblings were talking things out and healing their relationship.

Now I lost this hood (again) and started a new one, so the next gameplay post will probably feature the same characters in completely different circumstances and nothing is going to make sense but... what does anyway?

[junker-town]

Western Illinois, Year 40, 2046-2047

The final season of our sim dynasty with Western Illinois in College Hoops 2K8 is here.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April 2020 for full context. As a reminder, we simulate every game in this series and only control the recruiting and coaching strategies. Dynasty mode runs for 40 years.

Before we pick up with the Leathernecks at the start of Year 40, here’s a recap of everything that happened last season:

Western Illinois entered Year 39 trying to three-peat as national champions for the first time in program history. We lost two starters early to the NBA coming into the season, but still had enough talent to be ranked No. 10 overall in the preseason polls.

We ran through the regular season schedule, losing only one game to UCLA during the non-conference season and sweeping Summit League opponents once again. We entered the NCAA tournament at 29-1 on the year and earned a No. 4 seed to the big dance.

We beat Brown in round one, knocked off Georgia Tech in the round of 32, beat Indiana in the Sweet 16, and lost to Florida in the Elite Eight. We know enter the final season of my career tied with John Wooden with 10 national championships.

We added three players in our last ever recruiting class: five-star JUCO SF Jerald Obasohan, four-star SG Erwin Walls, and four-star PF Kenny Butler.

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 40:

It feels like only yesterday that a fresh-faced, 25-year-old came to the small town of Macomb, Illinois with big dreams. Coach Rick was hired by Western Illinois to do the impossible: win a national championship with arguably the worst team in college basketball. After 39 seasons at the helm, our tiny program has accomplished that and so much more. Now it’s time to hang it up.

Our journey at Western Illinois is finally coming to an end. In literal terms, College Hoops 2K8 forces mandatory retirement upon coaches in dynasty mode after 40 seasons. All good stories need closure either way. As we start our final season, we have some big stakes attached to our swan song.

Western Illinois has won 10 national championships in the Ricky Charisma era. That ties us with UCLA legend John Wooden for the most in history. What started as a mission to win a single national championship has now left us with a different goal: to become the undisputed greatest program in the history of the sport.

While we failed in our bid to three-peat last season — falling to Florida in the Elite Eight — we did bring back all four breakout juniors for this season. We only lost starting center DJ Foster to graduation. Yeah, it’s been a while since we last published Year 39 (thanks for your patience), so let’s go over the roster:

PG Christano Ngounou, junior, 89 overall: Ngounou made major strides after being forced into the starting lineup last season, and now looks like a rock solid contributor going into our final year. An international recruit out of Cameroon, Ngounou is a fast 6’3 guard with lockdown defensive ability and a slightly above average three-point shot. We have bigger names on this squad who will be expected to carry the scoring load, but Ngounou is going to play a huge role because he’s way better than every other point guard on the roster. We need quality minutes from him in the tournament. Former five-star international recruit with B potential.

SG Bernie Doyle, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Doyle is an incredible talent who enters his senior year looking to fully blossom into a superstar. The 6’9 shooting guard uses his immense size on both ends of the floor. He’s elite at getting into the passing lanes and forcing steals (a team-high 1.8 per game as a junior) on the defensive end, and has a sweet three-point stroke offensively. Doyle is such a smooth scorer and dominant defender that it feels like he has the natural talent to develop into an all-great in his senior year. Let’s hope he’s up to the challenge. Former No. 36 overall recruit from Detroit with C potential. Projected lottery pick.

SF Floyd Keller, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Keller checks every box for a small forward. He has good size at 6’7. He has a three-point rating in the mid-80s. He’s the best dunker on the team. He’s an elite offensive rebounder for a wing with a rating in the low 90s, which helps equip him to play minutes at the four. After a tough shooting night in our Elite Eight loss last season — he went 1-for-7 from three — we’ll need Keller to be consistently great if we want one more run through the bracket. Former No. 101 overall recruit out of Dallas with C+ potential. Projected second round pick.

PF Oscar Fray, redshirt senior, 88 overall: Fray enters his third year as a starter with a fascinating combination of size and skill that could set him up for a breakout senior year. The 7-foot power forward is a great three-point shooter for his position with a rating just below 80. Defensively, he’s the top-rated shot blocker on the team, and also does a pretty good job on the glass. Former No. 118 overall recruit out of Lynn, MA with C potential. Projected second round pick.

C Brody Munoz, redshirt senior, 92 overall: Munoz finally gets the spotlight as a senior after backing up DJ Foster — a one-time NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player — for his entire career up to this point. We’re expected big things, and not just because he’s tied for the highest rated player on the roster going into the regular season. What Munoz lacks in elite size at 6’11 he can make up for with strength, agility, and rebounding. We expect him to be really good at forcing turnovers, grabbing putbacks, and helping fortify the paint. Former No. 169 overall recruit (No. 6 center) out of Nashville with B potential. Projected lottery pick.

We have an incredibly deep bench for our final season. Center Logan Polk (85 overall) will be our sixth man, and should be able to form a three-man front court rotation with the two starters in the tournament. After that, we have a lot of options but not a lot of good options.

Here’s the rest of the bench: wing Jaycee Queen (80 overall), wing Jerald Obasohan (79 overall), guard Archie Howell (78 overall), wing/guard James Haranga (74 overall), guard Edwin Walls (74 overall), and power forward Kenny Butler (74 overall).

This is really it. Year 40. The last dance. What a ride it has been. We start the season at No. 4 in the polls.

How did the regular season go?

For our final regular season, we tried to schedule a good mix of local schools and historic big conference rivals with a couple in-season tournaments thrown in for good measure.

Here’s how the regular season went:

Win over Bradley

Win over Nebraska

Win over UTEP

Loss to Southern Illinois

Win over Florida

Loss to Northwestern

Win over New Mexico

Win over DePaul

That sets up a rivalry game against Illinois. We’ve played the Illini in almost every season, and we don’t want to end this dynasty without one more dub. The losses to Southern Illinois and Northwestern were a real bummer, and we need a palate cleanser. Let’s go!

Big win, 102-68. Look at Cristano Ngounou hanging 17 points and six assists on the Illini. Love seeing both starters in the front court — seniors Oscar Fray (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Brody Munoz (18 points, 11 rebounds) — each dropping a double-double, too. And how about our new five-star JUCO addition Obasohan chipping in 12 points off the bench? Really promising performance from the boys.

We get a big win over Kansas in our next game. That sets up another marquee game with a program we don’t like very much out of the state of North Carolina: Duke. We’ve battling with Duke on the court and on the recruiting trail for 40 freaking years. Can we end this rivalry with a dub?

Ugh, loss, 88-83. Nice games from Bernie Doyle (19 points, four assists) and Oscar Fray (14 points, 12 rebounds), but it isn’t enough. That’s our third loss of the season. Get bent, Duke.

We end the year with three more non-conference games.

Win over Illinois-Chicago

Win over American

Win over Arizona State

While we may have lost the final battle to Duke, I won the war over Coach K with a significantly better career by any measure (more on that in a minute). Now it’s time to jump into conference play in the Summit League.

Did we go undefeated in conference season?

Yes we did, another perfect 18-0 stretch.

Now we enter the conference tournament. Can we punch one more automatic bid to the NCAA tournament?

Win over UMKC

Win over Southern Utah

Win over UL-Calcutta

We’re going to the NCAA tournament for the last time, but that isn’t even the headliner after winning the Summit League. Im taking home the conference tournament championship, I won game No. 1,171 of my career. That currently puts me ahead of Coach K for the most wins all-time.

We have built a great legacy at Western Illinois. Before we enter the NCAA tournament, let’s take a look at our statistical leaders:

What a year for Munoz. Dude sat on the bench for four seasons before finally getting a starting spot, and all he did was lead our team in scoring at 17.2 points per game. Fray was awesome, too, averaging a hair under 15 points per game while chipping in nearly two blocks and six rebounds per game. It’s good to see Keller and Doyle both hit double-figures in scoring. I’m a bit surprised Cristano couldn’t even put up seven points a night after his big game against Illinois, but the assist and steals numbers are solid. We’re going to need him in March.

The Leathernecks are heading into the NCAA tournament at 32-3 on the year. I can’t wait to see what seed we get.

2047 NCAA tournament

Well, we couldn’t end this dynasty without getting swindled by the Selection Committee one more time. We’re a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament. I thought we should have been a top-four seed without question.

We’ll open the tournament with a game against No. 11 seed Syracuse. Sheesh. Before we get to the game, let’s check in on our roster one more time:

I’m loving the way this group progressed through the year. We have two awesome wing scorers with an elite combination of size and shooting in Keller and Doyle. We have plenty of beef up front with Munoz, Fray, and Polk. Ngounou entered the program as a 77 overall and shot up to a 92 in three years without a redshirt. The bench also really improved during the season and should give us plenty of different lineup options in March.

This is going to be a tough run, starting with Syracuse. The Orange have knocked us out of the big dance before, and consistently put together really strong teams.

Our last dance starts now. As always, we’re simulating every game, I’m not controlling the ‘Necks.

Let’s go!

Win, 105-73! What an absolute beatdown. We’ve moving on to the round of 32.

Long-time followers of the series will know that our Leathernecks have always been known as a second half team. It happened in a big way in this game. Syracuse ended the first half strong to cut our lead to nine points, but we quickly turned it into a blowout out of the break.

I thought this was a tremendous all-around team effort. Six players hit double-figures in scoring with no one putting up more than Floyd Keller’s 15 points. Everyone who played recorded an assist. I loved this play from the first half when we set two screens for our five-star JUCO Obasohan that helped get him an easy layup.

Our bench is a big question mark coming into this tournament, mostly because it’s filled with a lot of fresh faces who haven’t played big minutes in clutch spots before. I have to say, the performance of our reserves in our tournament opener was super encouraging. Obasohan in particular looks like a keeper after scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting and knocking down a three. We always need wing depth, and he should be able to provide that on this run.

The clear highlight of Obasohan’s night: this sick two-handed dunk in transition for an and-one.

We love to turn defense into offense, and Ngounou and Doyle’s ability to get into the passing lanes really helps us out there.

Speaking of Ngounou in transition: he had a beautiful finish on the break to put the game fully out of reach. That’s what you want out of your point guard.

The win sets up a second round game against Colorado State

The Rams have been a solid program throughout this sim dynasty, regularly making NCAA tournament appearances. We have a decisive edge in talent heading into this game.

We are one win away from going to the Sweet 16 and extended our run in the big dance. One time, ‘Necks. Let’s go!

Win, 109-79! We’re going to the Sweet 16!

We didn’t need to be a second half team in this one. Our ‘Necks blew the doors off Colorado State from the opening tip-off. I thought we played a great game offensively thanks to our inside-out ball movement.

We had five scorers in double-figures in this one, but it was senior starters Bernie Doyle and Oscar Fray leading the charge. We know Doyle is capable of taking over a game at his best, and he was awesome in this one: 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from three. The real story was Fray, though.

Fray was probably the least appealing long-term prospect of our recruiting class when he entered the program alongside Doyle, Keller, and Munoz. That was mostly because of his 74 rating and C potential grade. While he’s always been rated a few points lower than his classmates, Fray’s skill set on the court is so important to us. He’s a massive 7-foot power forward who can protect the rim and shoot threes. What more do you want?

Fray went off in this game: 22 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals on 9-of-11 shooting. I love watching the big man shoot from deep. This was from NBA range.

Here’s one more catch-and-shoot three for good measure.

Fray might get slept on a little on this team, but he’s absolutely critical to our success if we want to win it all.

I also want to shout-out the bench for another solid performance. I liked what I saw out of Obasohan (11 points) and Howell (10 points). Since we already have two Obasohan clips in this post, why not make it three? Love him hitting this triple in the first half to help us open up the lead.

We’re rollin’.

The win sets up a Sweet 16 game vs. Alabama

We’re now four wins away from ending this dynasty with a national championship. A Sweet 16 game against Bama is going to be an absolute battle.

In our simulated future, the Tide have become a basketball school. This program seems to make the tournament every year, and they’ve given us plenty of trouble in the past.

A trip to the Elite Eight is on the line. Let’s go!

Win, 112-69! We’re onto the Elite Eight!

Say it with me: SECOND. HALF. TEAM. After a tight first half left us with a six-point lead coming into the break, our ‘Necks absolutely torched the nets in the second half to come away with the blowout win. Seriously: we scored 66 points in the final 20 minutes. That was an offensive clinic at its best.

I had a good feeling about the second half when Cristano got this three hit the rim like 50 times before falling. Sometimes you need some good luck on your side.

A couple possessions later, Floyd Keller came down a ripped another three. We finally had a double-digit lead, and we’d never look back.

It was great to see Keller (15 points) get going from deep. He hit all three of his attempts from beyond the arc.

While we don’t have any clips of the front court from this game, they absolutely deserve credit for the win.

Fray turned in another incredible performance, this one somehow even better than his last. He ended the game with 25 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, three steals, and three blocks on 10-of015 shooting. He didn’t attempt a three (booooo) but he dominated the game on both ends. His front court mate Munoz was almost as good. The senior center finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds. We kept going inside — Munoz and Fray combined for 35 (!) field goal attempts — and they were making the Bama defense pay.

Not the best Bernie Buckets game (9 points on 3-of-10 shooting), but I clipped this shot from the first half, so I might as well embed it here.

Elite Eight, here we come.

The win sets up an Elite Eight matchup against No. 1 seed Indiana

Our run in the NCAA tournament has been a breeze up to this point, but I fear things about to get a lot more difficult. Our plucky No. 6 seed is about to run into one of college basketball’s blue bloods: the top-seeded Indiana Hoosiers.

The Elite Eight has been something of a bugaboo for us. We lost in this round last year. We’ve lost in this round many times before. I don’t want it to happen again.

A Final Four trip is on the line. As always, we’re watching a simulated version of this game; I am not controlling the Leathernecks. Let’s go!

***

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***

***

Loss, 96-86. Oh my gosh. And just like that, our dream of ending this dynasty with a national title is over.

I am devastated. I really thought this team was good enough to send me out on top, but it wasn’t meant to be. The Hoosiers’ outside shooters did us in. Indiana’s guard-heavy lineup caught fire from deep (10-of-21 for 47.6 percent), and our perimeter attack couldn’t keep up. We only hit 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) attempts from three.

What happened to our second half team this time? We were only down two going into halftime, but we were outscored by eight over the final 20 minutes. Tough scene.

There were some solid individual performances. Munoz went out strong with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Bernie Doyle dropped 21 points and hit this three-pointer to keep us in it early.

Floyd Keller just didn’t give us enough on the wing. He shot 1-of-8 from three in the loss. He did give us a little juice in transition, at least.

Cristano played all 40 minutes, and had eight points and nine assists. I really wish I got another year with him as a senior next season.

Unfortunately there is no next season. After 40 years at Western Illinois, our sim dynasty is over. Here are some final numbers on the series:

Final record: 1,177-213

10 national championships (tied with John Wooden for the most in men’s college basketball history)

15 Final Four appearances

25 Sweet 16 appearances

Final NCAA tournament record: 113-27

38 Summit League regular season championships

35 Summit League tournament championships

38 seasons with 20+ wins

61 players drafted

The thing I’m most proud of? After we made the NCAA tournament for the first time in Year 3, we didn’t miss it again the rest of this dynasty.

Is Ricky Charisma the greatest men’s college basketball coach ever?

I think so. Here’s how we stack up to other top coaches in NCAA history in important categories.

Total wins

Ricky Charisma: 1,179

Mike Krzyzewski: 1,170

Jim Boeheim: 1,083

Roy Williams: 903

Bob Knight: 899

Dean Smith: 879

Jim Calhoun: 877

Adolph Rupp: 876

Bob Huggins: 828

Eddie Sutton: 806

Tournament wins

Ricky Charisma: 110

Mike Krzyzewski: 94

Roy Williams: 77

Dean Smith: 65

Jim Boeheim: 57

Tom Izzo: 52

Jim Calhoun: 49

John Wooden: 47

Final Four appearances

Ricky Charisma: 15

Mike Krzyzewski: 12

John Wooden: 12

Dean Smith: 11

Roy Williams: 9

Tom Izzo: 8

Rick Pitino: 7

Denny Crum, Adolph Rupp, John Calipari: 6

Consecutive tournament appearances

Western Illinois: 36

Kansas: 31

North Carolina: 27

Arizona: 25

Duke: 24

Michigan State: 23

Gonzaga: 22

Winning percentage

Ricky Charisma: 84.7

Mark Few: 83.44

Sam Burton: 83.33

Clair Bee: 82.444

Adolph Rupp: 82.1

John Wooden: 80.3

National championships

Ricky Charisma: 10

John Wooden: 10

Mike Krzyzewski: 5

Adolph Rupp: 4

Roy Williams: 3

Jim Calhoun: 3

Bobby Knight: 3

Who is the best player in Western Illinois history?

That’s the big question within the fanbase right now. Before we get to it, let’s look back at our greatest recruiting wins.

We landed five five-star recruits out of the domestic high school ranks during my time at Western Illinois. We also signed nine five-star JUCO recruits, and six five-star international recruits from places like New Zealand (shout-out Dave French), Montenegro (anti shout-out Vitor Andrisevic), France (what up, Kim Kone!), and Cameroon.

The highest-rated recruit in program history was Sammy Yan at No. 10 overall in 2032. He was pretty much a disappointment. The program’s all-time leading scorer was center Vinnie Harmon with 2,452 career points during his career. He was the No. 122 overall recruit and the No. 8 center (those that followed the series or played the game know that centers are always weirded underrated on the recruiting trail).

Here are some more numbers during tournament games only (aka, the games we streamed), from the amazing Leathernecks Database maintained by our fans:

The highest rated player in program history is a tie between small forward Nic Cummings and point guard Duncan Martinez, who are the only players to reach 97 overall. Cummings in particular is a great choice for the GOAT. He ended his career with three national titles, though only one as a starter. He’s top-10 for me, but not No. 1.

The people’s choice for the GOAT is Deke Van, the legendary center who helped carry us to our first national title in Year 8. Deke’s turn from from Year 7 goat to Year 8 GOAT is the most memorable we’ve ever had. We couldn’t have done any of this without you, Deke.

When Coach tell you youre guarding @deke_van https://t.co/RDhmDAPRA8 pic.twitter.com/fm2udgvMZT

— Ryan Thomas (@RTtheSID) May 10, 2020

As the series went on, other great players emerged who finished with gaudier stats and better resumes.

My personal favorite might be Bert Draughan, Mr. Basketball out of Chicago (No. 29 overall recruit), who went on to win a title with us in Year 13 and also starred for our Year 11 team that began the season 35-0 before losing to Michigan State in the Final Four. Harmon is another fine choice. Skip Clemmons helped us win three national titles in Year 23, Year 24, and Year 26. Albert Jagla, Clemmons’ former teammate, played a big role in our first back-to-back championship squad, and is arguably the greatest perimeter bucket-getter in program history.

All-time favorite moment? Impossible to say. The first one that comes to mind is Kim Kone’s go-ahead corner three in the 2024 tournament. Najeeb Goode’s steal vs. UCLA in the Final Four to help us win our second title in Year 13 also stands out. There was also the time superstar power forward Allen Cunningham took off his pants mid-game.

Thank you to everyone who read, watched, and interacted

I started this series on April 11, 2020, a few weeks after the pandemic had shut down all ‘real’ sports. At the time, I was gearing up to cover the 2020 NCAA tournament. That never happened. I had college basketball on my mind, and I always wanted to write something on ‘College Hoops 2K8’, probably my favorite video game ever. This project is what came of it.

I had no idea if anyone was going to read this. I definitely did not think I’d finish out all 40 years like a complete lunatic. I didn’t think I’d write the equivalent of multiple books in terms of total word count.

Just before I dropped the first post in the series, I tweeted this:

Got a real dumb blog post coming

— Ricky O'Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) April 11, 2020

I wrote around 70 posts in the series, counting the inaugural Hall of Fame induction (read a big Deke Van retrospective at that link) and two posts of my Deke Van x Seattle Supersonics spin-off. I’m estimating I wrote 200,000 words in this series. That’s about the length of “The Fellowship of the Ring.”

I still can’t believe everything that came from this series. The Washington Post wrote a profile on it. I went on WGN TV and did a few radio spots promoting it. We sold a Deke Van t-shirt with Homefield Apparel. Our series inspired a new friend in Japan named Thanh Nguyen to write a pair of e-books adding greater depth to our story. Friend of the program Mike Rutherford did an amazing hype video for our first championship run. When I moved the series to Substack for a few months, more than 7,000 people signed up for email updates and still remain. Our first Twitch stream for the Year 8 Final Four drew more than 7,000 total viewers, and had 2,500 concurrent viewers on it at as we were closing out the win. On SB Nation, the series has been viewed more than 500K times.

What really made the project special was always the community around it. Some quick shout-outs:

The Leathernecks Database is an amazing companion to this series. You can lost in there. Thank you to the diehards to helped maintain it, and reader Evan for starting it.

Thanks to my guy who started the Leathernecks Nation instagram fan page and whoever is behind the wondrous fake Deke Van twitter account.

Thanks to everyone in the Discord who maintained ‘Necks discussion always and forever.

Thank the diehards that came out for every Twitch stream. I don’t want to name names because I’ll forget someone, but you know who you are. I love you all. I also want to thank the readers for keeping up with the recaps, and everyone who emailed me feedback throughout the series. I also want to thank my buddy Scott for introducing me to the game and running through multiple 40-year dynasties with me way before I ever considered blogging through it like this. This series would not exist without him.

What a ride it’s been. As I sim through to the end of the calendar, I’m greeted with this message.

Thank you, everyone. Go ‘Necks.

[emmy-writes-sometimes]

Contagious

           Your dad, Sebastian, is sick. And your only jobs are to take care of him and not get sick.

-

           You walked the aisles of the grocery store, blindly grabbing everything your dad asked you to get, when your phone rang for about the third time in fifteen minutes. You couldn’t lie. You were getting a little frustrated with your dad’s constant calls.

           “What?” You asked him, sighing as you stopped in the middle of the cracker aisle to let someone through.

           “Can you also get ginger ale?” He asked.

           “I’ll add it to the list. A two liter or cans?”

           “Cans?”

           “Okay.”

           “And can you go to the pharmacy too? They should have something for me that’s slightly…” Your dad’s voice faded into a sneeze. You blessed him, said you’d go, and hung up the phone. He’d been sick for about a week, ever since he’d gotten off an international flight, and nobody was sure of what it was. He was only sure that he had never felt so bad in his life. You’d taken him to the ER, even, and all they’d said was that they didn’t know either.

           An hour later and you’d gone through half of Manhattan, including going to one of his favorite Romanian restaurants to find his favorite soup. His mom would normally come down, but she wasn’t feeling well either and you didn’t want her to get sick. The doctors had said it was very possible for you to get sick, too, but you were all your dad had and you barely ever got sick anyway.

           “I’m back with your drugs!” You called into the house, putting everything down on the kitchen table. You got a can of ginger ale, his food, and carried it along with the medicine into his bedroom, where he was sitting on the bed, legs crossed, blanket around his body, and a box of tissues was right beside him. He was sweating, but he still looked cold.

           “Hey, sweetheart,” your dad said, “thanks.”

           “I got some soup for you, too. You need to eat something.”

           “You’re one to talk. Have you eaten anything all day?”

           “Not really. I ran down to your agent’s office to drop off that contract, then the restaurant, then the store, and then the pharmacy. So no. I’ve been running around for you all day.”

           “Then get a fork and sit with me, I’m bored.” You laughed. Your dad was the worst adult you’d ever met, so much so that your grandmother constantly asked you to watch over him instead of the other way around. You both ate takeout most nights, and then leftover takeout the next day, neither of you ever knew where anything was, you hired someone to clean because you didn’t want to do it yourselves, and you both had no sleeping schedule whatsoever. It wasn’t rare for him just to not wake you up for school because he thought you should sleep a little more. Right now, though, he was the biggest mess in the universe. He’d moved the Playstation into his room and was playing some stupid game that he’d been playing that morning before you even left.

           “Fine,” you said, “what are you playing?”

           “Honestly, I have no idea.” You went into the kitchen and grabbed a fork, walking back into his room. He made room on the bed for you and the two of you ate the food as he continued playing whatever game he was playing.

           Eventually, you started watching a movie and he fell asleep, so you did what any good kid would do. You pushed him until he was lying down, cleared his bed off, turned on a fan, and covered him up with a blanket. You left the TV on, mostly because you didn’t know where the remote was, and you went to bed yourself.

           The next morning, you felt it. Whatever your dad had. It was in you now. You knew because you were sweating so badly that your bed was absolutely soaked. Your muscles were sore, too, and definitely not from walking halfway around Manhattan hunting for everything he needed. You sighed. Maybe you wouldn’t have it as bad as he did. And if he found out you had it, he would blame himself when it was probably your fault. You changed your sheets and grabbed some medication, taking it with a bottle of water, and went to go see what your dad was doing.

           He was in the same place he’d been in yesterday, only he’d evidently made a trip to the kitchen to get more crackers and ginger ale because it was all over his nightstand. He was still on his drugs, blanket pulled over his head, and he looked at you with hollow eyes.

           “You sleep okay?” He asked you.

           “When I wasn’t kept up by you coughing.”

           “I’m sorry, sweetie.” You shrugged and sat down next to him, grabbing the sleeve of saltines and eating a couple. Your stomach had started churning as soon as you had started walking to his room.

           “It’s okay, you’re sick. It’s fine. Just don’t make me go all over the city today?”

           “I’ll order in. You should go do homework or something.”

           “You’ll call me if you need anything?” He gave you a thumbs up and you went back to your room, taking the crackers with you. You doubted he even noticed. But your stomach was hurting just from moving. You had an excuse to stay in your room most of the day, though, so you won that round.

           You spent much of your day like he spent his; you opened your laptop and played the Sims for what was most likely hours. You ate the entire sleeve of saltines and only once got up to steal a can of ginger ale. Finally your dad suggested that you both move into the living room, so you tried to hide the fact that you were sweating out of your mind because of how bad your stomach was hurting by wearing shorts and a t-shirt, even though he always kept the house super cold. You wanted to find a way to sneak off and use the thermometer, just to see if you were actually sick or the food last night had made you that way. Eventually you just said you needed to use the bathroom and hid the beeping noise of the thermometer in your shirt.

           You had a fever. A fever. About the same as your dad’s. 101. A couple more degrees and you would be in trouble, so when you went back you sat closer to the air vent, hoping that it would cool you down a little bit. At least you hadn’t coughed or sneezed yet, you thought, thanking your lucky stars.

           “I actually feel so much better,” your dad sighed finally, about to get up to tune into a meeting he’d called out of earlier. “Thanks for taking care of me, kid.” You nodded, giving him a thumbs up, and tried to hide your clenched fist underneath the blanket. You were about to throw up if you ate or drank anything else. And you had a fear of throwing up. It was one of your least favorite things ever because the last time you’d thrown up, you couldn’t breathe, and then that had sent you into a panic attack where you got sick again.

           “Yeah, you’re welcome,” you said, rolling onto your side. That was a bad idea. That made your entire stomach shift, and not in a good way. No sudden moves, no sudden moves, you told yourself, bracing yourself.

           “You okay?” He asked, looking over at you from the other couch. You shook your head, sitting up, and that made it worse. You ran across the hall, falling to your knees on the floor, and threw your hair to the back of your head. And you threw up. You tried to swallow it down, but that only made it worse. You eventually felt your dad walk into the room, hopefully with some water, and he sat down behind you.

           “I got you sick, didn’t I?” He asked with a sigh. “I heard the thermostat beep but I just thought you were turning it off from when I checked earlier.”

           “Nope. 101,” you cringed, holding onto your stomach like it would make it stop. You threw up once more and then you were done, at least for a little while, and leaned on his shoulder.

           “You’re a fuckin’ mess. You had one job, and that was not to get sick. And what did you do?”

           “I got sick,” you sighed. “Why are you shaming me for…” You gagged again. Your dad handed you a cup of cold water and you drank as much of it as you could.

           “I’m not shaming at you, I’m laughing at you. There’s a difference.”

           “You’re my dad, can you please just take care of me instead of laughing at me?” He actually laughed out loud, helping you up, and handed you your toothbrush.

           “Yeah. Only if you brush your teeth first.” You did what he told you to do and then he was helping you exactly like you’d helped him, even ordering your favorite soup from your favorite place.

           “You know, I wouldn’t be sick at all if you hadn’t gotten me sick.” Your dad playfully whacked the back of your head, causing you to laugh a little bit. You were swaying in the place you were sitting and he chuckled for a second.

           “Yeah, yeah, I know. Lay down before you get motion sickness, I’m not dealing with that.”

           A/N: I’m sorry this is so short! But I hope you like it!

Taglist (if you’d like to be added, just shoot me an ask/dm!): @an-adventureland, @firstangeldragonranch, @ssebstann, @winterreader-nowwriter