#can i just restart this week. i want a redo

[friendlifyre]

today has been a shitty day at every turn and at every shitty turn ive been like (holding back tears) ok lets try to make the best of this shitty situation. one such attempt was moving furniture around my apartment ie finally setting up a desk in the living room so i can do stuff on a desk while watching streams/shows without hunching over the coffee table and that meant transferring the 1000pieces jigsaw puzzle from the coffee table to the desk by sliding it on and off a big piece of cardboard i held up with one hand. ofc at one point i twitched and the whole thing fell apart in my hands and after inspection theres pieces that completely disappeared in the incident. and thats a perfect representation of how every single one of my attempts to ‘make the best’ of the situation today went

[okthatsgreat]

ok Idk if ur like hiding spoilers so don’t answer any of this if u can’t but if u CAN please please tell me why the dating sim girls hate & ur omnipotence so much they want you dead!!!!! is it the same reason they hated the first one or different? is there a reason tamsin wants you to stay on script, knowing she’s not interested and likely doesn’t like the dating sim format she’s stuck in? id kill to play this lee

ID KILL TO MAKE THISSSSSSSSS GOD I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS!!!!!! SO MANY IDEAS THAT ARE FAR TOO AMBITIOUS

BUT i can say this a lottt of it revolves around the medium of video games/dating simulators in general. if that makes sense. like the typical dating simulator is over the course of a few weeks(??) or something, which you AS THE PLAYER are able to pop in and out of as well as restart and redo to your hearts desire. if you want a different ending then you can simply restart the week and get a different ending!! if you want to date a different girl or see all of her reactions to everything you say to her then you can do that!! that’s definitely what the LAST guy did. but the thing that at some point these four girls became AWARE he was doing that. they are the only four people in this soulless world that are AWARE that they are stuck in an endless, one month cycle that all bends to one guys whim. they had no control whatsoever about what happened because they were not created to drive the narrative forward. and protag 1 was a very bored player with a lot of free time

so at one point the npcs finally actually for real talk to each other outside of their “pre-set” dialogue. the first protag has been repeating ellies route for a while now and the others were initially resentful of her just because they for real do Nothing when their route isn’t being played. but then one day ellie goes This Sucks. and the other girls go This Sucks. and the plan is formed to confront protag 1, and whether they MEANT to murder him or not they ended up killing him, at drowsy creek which is where ellie’s ‘final date’ is. and they don’t have that long to feel terrible or anything, because the timeloop STOPS. like they actually DID IT. which is why so many of them look different when YOU show up— they were actually able to explore the world and grow as people!!!!

but then here YOU are!! the second protagonist! you have the same ability as the first guy, and suddenly all four of them are stuck in the EXACT same cycle. which is why your decisions are really important here— IMMEDIATELY a lot of them are thinking about killing you, because that clearly worked for the last guy. pushing wayyy too hard about the murder is gonna make them even MORE hostile, especially tamsin who is quite defensive (hence why she’s telling you to BACK OFF BUDDY). a lot of the endings of this game are them taking you out lmao, only for you to come righhtttt back. if you go through the game just trying to do a normal romance route, it’s likely you’re gonna get killed!! ESPECIALLY if you do ellie’s bc she’s so over it lmfao

in my dream beautiful universe where i am able to make this game, the “true ending” of the game involves the four characters waving you goodbye before the game gets uninstalled from your computer entirely. bc that is truly the only way of ending the cycle. they have to be removed from the context of a video game and the protagonist simply can’t exist

[neopronounhell]

kie/kir short story! ⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆

Kie was breathing hard, all kir peers frozen in place around kir as kir palms went cold from sweat.

Kie had been able to stop time since kie was little. Stop time. It was absolutely insane. Kie had never told anyone, and what was the point? It wasn’t like kie could bring anyone into the timestop with kir.

Back to the current moment, though, kie had a presentation due right now. Kie hated public speaking, but kie hadn’t known it was this bad. Kie had never stopped time impulsively before.

Time had been stopping for kir for the last week, completely randomly. Kie just figured it was kir powers on the fritz, and this just confirmed it.

Well, until kie saw the person in the corner of kir eye, moving slightly and staring at kir.

“Who the fuck are you?!” kie screeched, and the handsome stranger laughed, extending his hand to shake.

“Allan, it’s nice to meet you, darling,” he smirked.

“Don’t call me that, asshole!” kie said, pulling kir jacket over kirself protectively, and glaring at him.

“I’m so sorry, we seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot. Would you like to restart?” he said.

“Leave me alone, creep.” kie snarled. Usually kie would curl into kirself and panic, but the time stop gave kir a confidence kie never had.

“Oh, c’mon, just let me redo this! I’d really like to be friends, you’re the only other person I know with… this.” he said, sounding almost disgusted.

“You’re the one who’s been stopping time for the whole damn week?! You’re even more of an asshole than I thought,” kie groaned, and he smiled at kir again. It was almost like he was trying to flirt with kir. Gods.

“You’re so kind,” he grinned, and kie scowled at him.

“Listen, I need to get this presentation over with. Will you unpause or fucking not?”

“Why should I? We can spend as much time as we want here. No responsibilities. No laws. What’s stopping you?”

Kir heart stopped. What is this guy saying? Kir heart pumped in kir chest as he stared kir in the eyes, challenging kir.

And time unpaused, and it was time to give a book report.

[chronicparagon]

[I don’t want to cry and I hate venting but I don’t really know what to do. I don’t have anywhere to go about this and it’s getting to a point that hiding it is becoming too much.

I’ll have it under read more but it involves my grad school and fighting to get permission to start my dissertation. I don’t know if all grad schools are the same but that’s how it is for mine.

What’s weird is I started my thesis without jumping through so many hoops when I got my master’s degree.]

I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my advisor. I am done with classes and my comprehensive exam. However, I can’t get permission to enroll in dissertation credits. My advisor wouldn’t talk to me for months. I tried to reach out so many time and I couldn’t handle it anymore.

I asked to change my advisor which was accepted. However, I have to search for a new one that will want to work with me. After that, the nightmare begins.

I was so close to getting that permission. But now, I have to redo my IRB at the school and hope for approval, but I also have to redo the IRB process at work since my dissertation was related to my work.

I will have to also need to see if the rest of the committee will want to work with me anymore. If they don’t want to work with any new advisor I can find, then they are out and I have to start that step over. That took me almost a year to find everyone who was willing to be in my dissertation committee. Restarting IRB will take at least a few weeks to several months.

This is not counting redoing the plan of study and possible have to start all over with my topic proposal which took a year and a half to work on and it’s not even approved to be presented and formally submitted. That would have been the last step to have that permission number to enroll for my dissertation.

I don’t think I can back out of the advisor change to save the progress. She already left and when she was working with me, she wouldn’t answer me for months. I waited for half a year for any response, only to be told I have to rewrite sections of my proposal, add more to it like policy briefs that she wanted (originally not my idea for my dissertation but I did what she told me to do).

I will say I am not leaving my grad school. I came this far for my PhD and I’m not quitting. That has never been an option.

I have people delay me and some even admit they never believed in me. My former advisor didn’t say that explicitly but how she always had me as an after thought and ignore my emails and calls, I felt that was a message.

Then, she would be unhappy with my progress in my proposal and tell me I need to do it over. It happened four times. I told myself I was being too sensitive to think my former advisor is sabotaging my work. I don’t want to be unfair and assume that . She has a lot going on like her family, work, her own research and travel. Still, that thought hasn’t left my mind since one of my coworkers told me sabotage is happening and I need to do something about it now. She is also a PhD student from another program and school and I explained my situation to her because I felt frustrated but also worried that I wasn’t giving my former advisor the grace she deserves.

I hate rushing people but I don’t have much time left. Once my time runs out, then I am removed from the program. It doesn’t matter if I never got the dissertation. When time is out, then I have to leave. The dissertation plus defense can take about 6-12 months, sometimes longer.

A lot of my cohorts who I studied with already graduated and got their doctorates. I don’t understand why I’m so behind. I got everything I could done but I was still pushed back.

I’m at a loss. All I can do is pick up the pieces and keep advocating for myself. I just need someone to listen and help me get to the final phase of my studies. I will be quiet today because I have to start searching for a new advisor and restart the process in hopes to be a candidate by the fall. This needs to be done in between my projects at work which also needs my attention.

I’m very sorry about this. The advisor change was bound to happen and I knew I may had to redo some things but not everything. Over a year’s work gone. It really hurts and honestly, I feel rejected because of all of this and searching for a new advisor.

[hexblooddruid]

For Bryn & Wyll: 34, 29

For Bryn & Astarion: 33, 35, 36

For Pacifico & Gale: 3, 33

(and in case it takes me a month to answer them, thank you in advance for the cyrus ship asks <3333333333)

OC Relationship Asks

Bryn and Wyll:

34) Who is more stubborn? This is tough but it's definitely Wyll. They're both people pleasers in their own way but also won't give in on things they care about. Bryn can definitely dig in her heels about things she's passionate about but she has an open enough mind that she can let herself be talked into things if the argument is good enough. With Wyll's lawful nature, he tends to make up his mind on what's "right" and stick to that. 35) How are they affectionate in private? Oh they are big time snugglers. Bryn is very physically affectionate in relationships and after spending the first few weeks of their acquaintance being so formal with each other Bryn really lets it all out after their dance in Act 2 (which I'm about to get to in my Bryn redo). Wyll absolutely eats it all up, after being on his own for seven years.

You will absolutely find them tucked in different corners of camp canoodling. Bryn will draper herself across him while reading or writing in her journal. I imagine that his hells touched body runs hot, so on colder nights she will absolutely cuddle him warmth.

Bryn and Astarion:

33) Who is the first to say 'I love you'?

Bryn is the first definitely. She says it implicitly the morning after the post Araj convsersation (aka Bryn's morning of break ups), when Astarion can't believe she broke up with Karlach and Gale to commit to him.

Astarion: You didn't have to choose this.

Bryn: Well I did. So get used to it.

Astarion: Well, if you insist on loving and adoring me, I just have to allow it.

Bryn: I do insist, actually.

She says it explicitly on their first night in Baldur's Gate proper. That day she had seen some of the worst of Astarion (him attacking Petras, him insisting that she support him sacrificing the spawn, him saying "I wish I could slaughter someone else's family" when she pushes back). After this conversation is when she turns to Wyll to vent and he points out that she says that she loves him but has not told him that yet. That comment, seeing his vulnerable side again in Sharess' Caress ("eugh, don't be so nice to me"), and the fact that they are planning to confront Cazador the next day makes her decide to tell him that night.

It's their first night at the Elfsong, first night in "proper civilization", and Astarion insists on a bath. After several weeks of them renegotiating non-sexual intimacy with each other, they are comfortable enough to be in the tub together. Bryn is combing out Astarion's hair. They're shooting the shit, talking about the events of the day, laughing about Astarion refereeing to her as his "friend" to his siblings. Bryn playfully scolds him about his comment to her at Sharess' Caress (Bryn: You should want to be nice to me normally, since I'm your...'friend').

Bryn prefaces her confession by saying that she's going to tell him something and that she's not expecting a particular response and that he actually doesn't have to respond at all. That she's not saying this because she's expecting something in return but because she needs to be honest with herself about where she's at. And she finaly tells him explicitly, "I love you, Astarion. I'm in love with you."

35) What moment did they realize that they were in love?

They both realized they were falling in love after talking to Araj in Moonrise Towers but neither were in a place to say it even after their conversation that evening, where they agreed that night to essentially restart their relationship. For Astarion, it was a combination of a few things that made him realize he was falling in love. First was Bryn standing up for him with Araj and he realized that she's always done that even when she barely knew him and he was obviously trying to take advantage of her. Second was Bryn turning to Astarion as soon as Araj was out of earshot and saying to him "I'll kill her if you want me to. Do you want me to kill her?" Bryn's fierceness comes out when she's feeling protective and this is one of Astarion's favorite traits of hers ("I like it when you show your teeth"). And lastly when they talked about it that evening, she told him she actually felt ashamed about she might have treated him they way Araj had spoken to him and that completely blindsided him. That the person who had treated him with the most kindness that he's received in over a century thought that it wasn't enough, that she could do better.

That's something he didn't realize he admired about her until the fight with Cazador. When she convinced him not to go through the ritual, that he could be better than Cazador. He remembered that she said the same thing to him, early in their journey together, nearly two months earlier. That was the moment it clicked for him and what made him want to finally tell her that he loves her that night.

For Bryn, that conversation after talking to Araj was the most honest and vulnerable she's ever seen Astarion. The fact that he trusted her enough to be that open with her, she really admired that. She had seen glimpses of that version of him but to see the wall come down completely and find a person in such dire need of love and affection, she decided that she'll be the one to do it.

Another important moment for Bryn, was their conversation after the Emperor reveal on their first night in Rivington. Bryn mentions to him that she's curious about the astral tadpole and he pleads with her to be careful. That he's worried about her personality changing and he wanted her to stay her. Bryn, who constantly holds herself to impossibly high standards, seeing someone she cares about so much say that she's enough as she is made her feel at peace for a bit.

36) How long have they been friends? Would they consider each other best friends?

Bryn considered them friends since the "stargazing" conversation when she told him they could still travel together even if they solved the tadpole problem. Since that night, she felt responsible for him (especially since this is right after she first let him feed on her). That's what friendship is, right? Feeling responsible for someone?

Astarion considered them friends after the Tiefling Party. Yes, that is the second time they slept together but for Astarion is was more about them sharing a bad bottle of wine together and him plying her with even worse pick up lines to make her laugh (and to eventually get her back into bed with him). He was being honest that night when he told her that he always does have fun with her.

And I would say yes, they are each other's best friends. They were close since Act 1 and after Act 3 starts they are inseparable.

Pacifico and Gale

3) It's late at night and your characters want food. What do they order/find in the fridge?

Late night snacks for these two is a three course meal. Pacifico prepares an array of savory finger foods, they warm up the stew that Gale made for dinner, and end with a fruit and cheese plate.

33) Who was the first to say "I love you'?

Gale. He tells Pacifico in Act 2 during his romance scene (the second night they spend in the Shadowlands). Pacifico doesn't say it in turn until the next morning. Gale is Pacifico's first love and he wanted to talk some things out more before returning it. He wanted to confirm that Gale really meant and that it wasn't just said in passion. He also wanted to talk more about how Gale currently feels about Mystra. Your first love's ex being a literal goddess is a little intimidating!

[ask-epitale]

Update on the comic

I was just thinking about making an update post yesterday, and getting an ask just solidified that thought.

(tl;dr, life was a mess, I’m not going to continue the comic for a while so it’s on a hiatus for who knows how long, and when I do return, i’m going to redo what currently exists of the comic before continuing officially. Asks will be turned off, use replies if you want more info)

I haven’t done much with the comic because I was dealing with depression without fully realizing it was depression. I finally got it diagnosed, so I’m working on it, but it’s still slow going. In the middle of making epitale, I was dealing with it, leading to weeks where I would post nothing. it was also not helped that at one point, my hard drive kicked the bucket, making me lose all my files, and then there was also an issue with the old hunk of junk i used until I got a new computer which caused a number of the layers to outright disappear (you can see this best with the comics in grillbys where we started on one side of the counter and moved to the other because i didn’t want to remake the old scene and not work right.)

I’ve seen a number of fan comics go the route of ‘hey, I don’t really want to work on this anymore, but here’s what would have happened’ and while this was half ask blog, half story comic blog, I don’t entirely want to do that. Sure, I’m going to give some details later in this post, but I’m not going to give the whole thing. Why? Well....

Making the comic with the stints of depression wasn’t so much I wasn’t doing art, more so, the comic felt less like something i wanted to do and more something that was expected, which made it feel forced sometimes. And then there was also the issue that since I was still doing art, my style evolved and I changed how I would draw things. (blob gaster into full skele gaster as an example). this made me less want to come back because I didn’t want to be changing style every page as well as the fact that the way I was doing it before wasn’t the best way, and even a single panel could take a while, or I would just alter the heads or hands slightly.

so all together, depression, art changes, complexity of art, fun, etc all made me not want to work on it. at least not publically. The other mods that were listed around here (mod bun, kiwi and bear) were all friends who sort of helped out with some of the ideas, but the story, blog running, art, etc was all mine (mod cat) one of the mods helped me the most with idea stuff, so much so that we have a full discord group we used for it, but it ended up evolving into stuff that’s... very non canon. I could potentially share tidbits from that eventually if anyone wants that, but I doubt that would happen. I’m going to turn asks off though, so turn to replies to request those.

as it currently stands, i have no clue when I would work on the comic again. that being said, when I do, I won’t be continuing the story. Not exactly. I won’t be deleting anything, just tagging them as old, but when I bring back the comic, I’m going to be... sort of restarting. I’m going to be redrawing the pages in an art style I can more easily do as well as fixing up things I’m no longer happy with (like how I draw undyne, and I might not redo the starting scene with sans and papyrus and the mod cat annoying dog substitute.)

One thing I will be slightly redoing is Dee, which i will just explain in a following post as when I first made them, I had a slightly different idea from what they are now (and what I have thought of them for a few years.

[mill3nniumforc3]

When I was in college, I made a list of 10 things I wanted to accomplish by the time I was 30. I turned 30 earlier this month, sooo let's see what I did (or did not).

Have my Bachelors AND Masters Degree in elementary education- NO. I don't even have a Bachelors because I discovered during my practicum semester that elementary education is not what I want. It's probably a blessing in disguise because we saw how teachers were treated during the pandemic. I might not be working a glamorous job right now, but it pays the bills. Tbh, I probably make more at my job than I'd make as a teacher.

Be married to the love of my life and have at least two kids- NO. While I have found the love of my life and we do plan to be married someday, we aren't now because engagement rings and everything wedding is EXPENSIVE. It's also the same reason why we aren't currently trying to get pregnant. I do have six cats and two dogs, plus a nephew (with a niece who will be here very soon!).

Move out of Ohio and to a warmer state (preferably one of the Carolinas, Florida, or Georgia)- YES and YES! I moved to Georgia in 2020, and while the political atmosphere isn't the best (better than Florida, but not as good as some other states), it's REALLY fucking nice to rarely worry about shoveling my driveway, brushing and scraping off my car, and driving on icy roads. Plus, my seasonal affective disorder has improved since moving down here, which is always a win!

Visit all 50 states- NO. While I've been to most of the states east of the Mississippi River, I'm a long ways away from visiting all 50.

Briefly live in another country- NO. I think I wrote this because one of my friends from college went to South Korea for a year and I wanted to do something similar. I spent a week in St. Lucia last year, but that was to vacation, not to live.

Live in a nice house- YES... sort of. When I was in college, my definition of nice was probably a large, clean house with a bedroom for everyone, at least two bathrooms, and good for having company over. Right now, we live in a 3 story townhouse with two bedrooms (which is enough, since my boyfriend's mom lives with us) and three bathrooms (tbh, I don't think I'll ever live in a house with fewer than three again). It's clean for the most part, and I think I wanted emphasis on it being clean because my parents did not care about the house (or us) being clean. The house is not good enough for having company over the way we'd like, but we want to remodel the basement area and redo the deck in the future. We also don't plan to live in this house forever.

Have friends that I see or talk to regularly- NO. I barely have friends at all! There isn't anyone I was friends with in high school who is worth being my friend now (not a single one of them remembered my 30th birthday for fuck's sake! Meanwhile, I remember theirs every year, but whatever...). The college friends aren't much better. I only have one friend from college that I kinda-sorta talk to consistently (we're both very busy women, and most of our conversations are quick ones on Snapchat. Since we don't live in the same state, it's harder to make time for each other. Plus, I'm sure she's busy trying to plan out her wedding). The only person besides my boyfriend that I can sincerely call my friend who lives near me is my coworker.

Drive a nice car- YES... again, sort of. I'm pretty sure college me considered "nice" as a BMW, Mercedes, or Tesla (I REAAALLLY wanted a Tesla when I was in college). I drive a Nissan Kicks, and I fell in love with that car the moment I saw it. Besides, little did college me know that those expensive-name cars aren't much better than the common-name cars ("A Lexus is just a Toyota in disguise" I would often say).

Still write, play the Sims, and maybe restart making Sims videos- YES, EH, and NO. I still write, though the stories I write are not the same stories I wrote in college (I don't remember the last time I wrote about Jannie, Bailee, and Alex, though when I'm feeling nostalgic for it, I'll go back to read and maybe edit/add stuff to the existing stories). I don't play the Sims nearly as often as I used to, mainly because every time I boot up the game, I get bored and don't want to play it (if only I could still play The Sims 2...). With that said, I don't make Sims videos. I haven't made a Sims video since I was 15, and I probably got to thinking about making Sims videos again because I thought people would find the stories I make with my Sims interesting. I think I'll stick to watching Kelsey Impicciche.

BE HAPPY- YES! I am happy. I might have days and times when I'm sad, frustrated, annoyed, and even angry, and sometimes I think the world would be better off without me, but I am generally happy. I'm happier than college me could've imagined, and way happier than high school me thought was possible.

So, I didn't accomplish everything that college me wanted, but I think that's all ok. Some things happen for a reason, and even if the reason isn't obvious. Here's to all the adventures that lie ahead in this new decade of life.

[garfieldsladybird]

i’ve taken a few of my gcses and they went really well! 16 to go (🤡💔)

i don’t know if you remember but that friend that i was complaining about who was a bit of a bitch hasn’t come back to school this term so she can revise at home instead of go to lessons and long story short, i haven’t spoken to her in 6 weeks and have new friends and feel really good for once! (had the worst few months from november onwards but hopefully it’s all over!)

only have like 1 week of school left and then it’s just exams!! they finish on the 24th of june and then i’m free until september tehehehehe!

i watched the coronation this morning and it was so boring in used it as background noise while writing some off my ron fic for wattpad 👀

currently listening to ed sheeran new album and i love it i’m so happy!!

(i love that stupid golf emoji next to my name sm you don’t understand it makes me happy 💗 - i think off you when i get dragged to do mini golf (which is quite frequently for some reason??))

what about you?

(sorry for the essay 🤡)

also sending all my love as usual <3

yayay!! I’m glad they went well, that’s really good!! I wish you tons of luck on the rest!! damn so you have one week of school left and then it’s just testing for the next month, that’s crazy. 

I’m glad you’re not talking to her anymore. Friends that disappear and go to online school or something are interesting to me tho because they just disappear. I did that last year lmao. but I’m really glad you got new friends & that that you’re feeling good! I’m sorry you had a few bad months, months, like those suck but i hope its been getting better and still gets better from now on!

What’s the coronation? if you want to explain. background sound is always needed for me though, like I just have a random show playing always. Right now I have next level Chef playing for background noise lol but also you’re writing stories on wattpad? that’s amazing!!

ed Sheeran is Baller! I don’t usually listen to his music but he has some good music.

awww I’m really glad you love it!! when I had picked that emoji at first I was like do I really want that to be the emoji? and I already did it and so I was just like oh well and i love it so yeah :)) I love that you getting dragged to mini golf games are frequent lmao!! that’s amazing

and also, I don’t mind the essay! It’s nice to catch up :))

I have the rest of the month left of school, we have finals week which is I’m pretty sure the last week of school. but school ends May 26, but for me it won’t because I have summer school :( but I’ll get that done with as fast as I can.

I’m 16 now! I don’t know if you know that, but yeah! That’s my biggest accomplishment yet :) I didn’t do much for my 16th birthday, I just had a little party with friends at the park and did some family things! It was nice :)) next year I’m gonna have a bouncy house 💪💪💪

And I also got a computer which is amazing! I play the Sims on it! I love the sims, I’ve been playing the Sims for so long. I messed up though, I did something wrong and I added way too many mods so I just deleted all of them and now I have to like restart all my mods which i dont mind but damn i have to redo it all. it will be worth it though.

other than that, I really don’t know what else to add. I got a lotta new friends at school, I got new smoke buddies at school too and I have a new partner, almost 2 months! Way way way better than my last relationship. 

I’ma gossip about what happened with my ex, so that dude wanted to become poly. Which I don’t mind, I’m poly but the person he wanted to add into the relationship was also his ex, they dated for a while last school year but broke up because something happened between them too but they stayed good friends. And so he told me that he still had feelings for them even before me and him got together and he put them aside to be with me. which really just fucked up my mentality, all of it did so I soon broke up with him at the end of November. And then I was really depressed for a long time, but I’ve been getting better with these last few months!

and what really sucks though is like.. I don’t know what happened but when School started last year, I just stopped going on Tumblr a lot. like I would still go on here every once in a while to read but I miss that I don’t go on this app that much anymore. this app is so much better than Instagram or any other app. I miss being on here. Maybe this summer, I’ll be on here more. idk. and I also haven’t been writing a lot, I just don’t have any motivation for it and It just takes like a lot of work out of me… do you have any tips for that? To get past the writing block. if you dont it’s all good, I just wish I could get back into it though yk.

Thank you for all the love!! I send you much more back!!! <333 🫶🫶🫶

[la-appel-du-vide]

When we made the decision to give up our new build, one of the saddest parts was leaving behind the two-story great room and beautiful fireplace column.

So we didn't waste a lot of time here in this house before we started the process of getting a fireplace column and fireplace put in, especially with how cold it's been this winter. We thought we had it made when Brayden's sister told us that her brother-in-law Bruce could easily build us a fireplace column, as he's a full-time handyman and he'd recently built one for his own house.

Bruce came over to look at the situation, and said he could easily do it in two days, the first week of December.

It turned into weeks of battling with him to get him to come finish it, and then to redo sections of it that were finished absolutely terribly. It was SO frustrating. Brayden ended up having to do a lot of extra work himself, plus all of the sanding and painting. But he was willing to, because we just wanted it to be done. We were supposed to have our mantle for stockings almost all month, but we only ended up finishing it on the 23rd. Insane!

In the end, it looks pretty good, as long as you don't look too close haha. UGH. We custom-stained our own mantle, and it looks awesome.

It does have storage inside the column, which is nice, and we can put all of our video game stuff in there to hide it.

The suppppperr bad part of the whole thing, was that I dropped our Frame TV trying to remount it. It only fell like one foot, but it hit the bottom right corner and completely broke. The little crack is not even a big deal, but it literally destroyed the entire function of the TV. I cried my eyes out for an entire day, and then we had to buy a new one. (It did turn back on after a week, and would work for different amounts of time depending on the day, before it would restart itself. Weird? Almost worked out, but it was so unreliable.)

I refuse to ever be a part of moving the new one around ever again.

BUT this whole mess is done. And looks beautiful. We're one project closer to decorating our house!

[askfallenroyalty]

Hello ! I discovered askfallenroyalty one week ago and I finished today to read all the story. But I see you consider to webtoon version as canon and...I'm not sure to understand what are the differences between the tumblr and the webtoon version ? Is it a reboot ? And if it's a reboot, will you finish the original story before the restart ? Thanks in advance for answering.

Howdy! Thanks for reading AFR ^_^ the story will be ending somewhat soon, though i'm on break. i'm animating an Undertale Anniversary project and I'll need time to cool off from working so hard on it. So like, a few more days after the anniversary I'll be back. After the story ends, there will be epilogue that'll be askable.

The rewrite version could be considered a reboot in some regards. not all of it is being remade. basically, because AFR is a few years old and I've messed up handling the story a few times, I want to fix those mistakes and make the story more coherent.

I started AFR back in February 2018. Since then I've grown as an artist and different factors have led to the story to be filled with holes. I'm sure reading the story you've noticed a few of them.

In the original run, there's 6 chapters and epilogue. Chapter 2 was abandoned because I was juggling 15 characters and I wasn't sure how to handle the sensitive subject matter -Asgore addressing his murder victims. I almost quit the blog right there but Deltarune inspired me to continue, so I did, at a timeskip.

Original run Chapter 3 is the darkworld arc, and it was an experiment that I feel didn't go right. The blog heavily depended on Tumblr playing Kris, and while it was fun and I don't regret it, I feel the story suffered. I made a few bad choices writing wise (including the knight as I did, not setting up the bone bro's disappearance, Frisk and Ralsei's arcs sucked ect.) and I'm just redoing it completely.

Anyway, my goal for the redraw is to make the art all more consistent and the story coherent and properly setup later events so it doesn't feel as confused and missing. I recommend reading the webtoons version (though you can skip the Baker's Trouble side-story, that won't be changed) to get the Definitive version of the story. Otherwise, you can be content with the incomplete tumblr version. They're two separate canons, and I do plan on the tumblr version to be as complete (as i can make it at this point) with the darkworld planned stuff to be released soon. (sketches, unfinished animation ect. they need to be cleaned up to be shared)

i feel bad for how i botched the story over the years and this is my way of fixing things, even if it means a lot more work for myself and testing ya'll patience. Thanks for reading, and I hope at least the tumblr version's ending will be satisfactory.

[fangirltothefullest]

I saw you say on that one post that the cortana thing can also be used to stop the constant, nearly daily, updates on microsoft edge and I was wondering how exactly you do that?

I often go into the task manager and just kill the 4 updaters because there are FOUR freaking updaters. But you should be able to go into the services and disable it like you do with cortana. Each time windows updates you will have to REDO THIS.

That's why I just turn it off in the task manager, it's quicker.

Also waasmedic (which is a thing that apparently runs constantly to "make sure your windows updates aren't broken" but really doesnt fucking work and is a thing that uses 100% disk space each time it runs, can also be turned off in task manager. (Sometimes for no reason it says you need admin permission hut there's no rhyme or reason as to why or when it decides this)

Also windows will try to update like... every single day and while it's looking for updates it's hogging your resources. You can postpone updating by a week and keep postponing it. Cause a tiny tweak here and there does not merit an entire restart when you can do it once a month and all the bugs have been patched from those tiny stupid updates.

You can also disable the stupid Microsoft side bar that takes up half the screen when you hover over it (and it's constantly recommending news channels and shit it's awful) in the settings of the thing itself.

Another thing.... Microsoft onedrive is cool but it does suck up a lot of background energy. End task unless you absolutely need it for something.

Adobe acrobat reader can and will fuck up your computer if it's older. My laptop is from like 2015 and for no reason at all Adobe acrobat reader decided to tell my computer to reverse my function (fn) keys. I spent literally two years trying a thousand and one methods to get the fn keys to work right and they never would. Then I uninstalled Adobe acrobat reader and boom. Suddenly they're fine. I have no idea why it does that so I've opted to just not use it. If you find random functions stop working or something messes up in your keyboard settings, try uninstalling AAR.

Another tip- Do yourself a favour and install wide registry cleaner and wise disk cleaner. They unclog your system really nicely on a daily basis. Once a year I do the deep defrag and it's worth it it runs so nicely. It also gets rid of all those unneeded pathways the computer remembers when you move files around.

Webroot is your friend and worth it. Kick ass computer protection and the slightly more expensive version let's you permanently delete things which rules because you can use it on bloatware files. All you have to do is see where the bloatware main files are being kept and delete it permanently (which needs admin permission) and it gets rid of it. Now.... when windows does a mega update and not a small one, it WILL take longer cause it wants to reinstall all the deleted shit but it only really mega updates a few times a year with tiny patches all the time so it's not a terrible hassle to find it and delete it again.

Also if someone says BUT BUT BUT YOU NEED THOSE THINGS OR YOUR SYSTEM IS AT RISK cause I know there are some of you who think the world will end if you turn off waasmedic or whatever SHUSH. I've been using this laptop since 2015 and it runs beautifully. My older laptop before I got this one was from like 2009 and guess what still runs? (It was windows 7 and the only reason I don't use it is because it doesn't have a lot of ram). Yes it's a Toshiba and Toshiba's were things of beauty and they don't fucking sell them any more because blah blah business blah. But the same thing goes for other laptops.

Deleting the Xbox feature of my laptop isn't going to ruin my laptop. Same with facebook. I don't need that bloatware app clogging my system when I can access it through my browser.

Preventing waasmedic from running isn't going to kill it. In fact, the fact that the system has a built in thing that tests whether an update is stable and functioning is stupid. You shouldn't give out a product if you haven't tested it for those kinds of problems. I'm not your guinea pig for free and unpaid testing of your product because that's generally what that is. If it finds a problem it tries to fix it. But if you have a problem you still have to manually go in and send an error report so their IT guys can find a problem they never bothered to test for and fix it. Essentially free bug testing.

Disabling cortana doesn't mean you can't still use the search function it just means you're preventing what is essentially Siri/Alexa/Clippy from making suggestions and autofills and listening to you while you sleep and forcing you to use edge which is the forced but only slightly updated windows explorer.

Anyways I ranted a lot I hope this helps.

Tldr: just end task in the task manager, get rid of adobe acrobat reader if it fucks up your keyboard, webroot is good, get wise registry cleaner and wise disk cleaner, corporations are evil and microsuck uses you for free bug testing.

[sweets-cookies]

Hi~ I've been in a pre shitty mood lately, just yknow, life. Sooo could I request some hc of Bakugou, Shinso and todoroki comforting theirs s/o? Perhaps silently getting their signs and just cuddling them close or making them smth to eat? Up to you tho!! Thank you sm in advance, darling ❤

A/N:Hi babes~ this is such a good and I had such a fun time doing it but fun fact I got half way done with it the first time and my phone ended up restarting for no reason and it erased all the stuff I wrote so I had to redo it but I in fact did finish it somehow apparently my phone didn't like the first one and said "No❤" anyway I hope you enjoy it since all of us have bad days~~

Katsuki Bakugo

Despite popular belief this boom boom boy would probably know straight away how your feeling and everything

He would probably start off not knowing what to do I mean who the hell would go to him for comfort normally

The answer is basically no one so he doesn't really know what to do everytime he's sad he just kinda sucks it up and deals with it

So don't expect him to know what to do right off the bat all he knows is he definitely doesn't like seeing you like this but he doesn't know what exactly to do so he does what he knows best, violence

He will try and hurt whatever hurt you, yes that includes things that technically can't get hurt like just life in general or school but he has good intentions I promise

After he realizes it's only making you more upset he'll try the second thing he knows how to do

"Hey dumbass I made your favorite food so stop pouting and come eat, and don't say you have I know you haven't"

Your health is so important to him and he wants to make sure your still taking care of yourself and he knows how much you love his cooking so expect him to cook for you when your not feeling like yourself

He will always be down to cuddle with you when you need it and honestly even when you don't need it

But even more when you do, he'll just hold you for hours and rub your back and try and tell you sweet things to the best of his ability which surprisingly isn't bad at all

"Hey baby I know things are hard right now but that doesn't mean that they wont be fine soon maybe not tomorrow or maybe even next month but I'll be here to help you alright dumbass" he always has this lovesick smile

And it's encouraging to him that you trust in him enough to show him your insecurities and to tell him and show him that you haven't been doing so well lately

He will always let you cry in his arms if you need to and he won't make fun of you for it after spending time with deku he understand s its important to let those emotions out(charecter development sis)

He feels lowkey privileged to be able to see the side of you that isn't happy and isn't perfect

He will read his Romance manga to you or with you when your feeling down to try and make you happier whether it's during a cuddle session or with you in his lap while hes sitting at his desk with his head on your shoulder

He's happy to make you happy and if having to show a more vulnerable side of him is makes you happy he will make that sacrifice

His main priority although is just making sure your taking care of yourself like eating,brushing your teeth and hair, and showering and if your not he will help do those things for you until you can

Hitoshi Shinso

Why tf does he look so fucking musty in all the gifs like huh?

Anyway He wouldn't know what to do either tbh he isn't really known for being exactly considerate to others feelings

But for you he tries his best it's not that he's bad with his words he's actually pretty okay at it but not really comforting words he's better at setting people off

He always wants to make sure that his words never come off condescending either as he can sound like that at times

He can always give you reassurance of you need it but unlike bakugo he won't try to solve your problems for you

He believes that everyone needs to figure out their own shit, that doesn't mean he won't be there to support you though he just wants you to be independent in a way

He let's you be down and doesn't complain since he understands that going through tough times happen to everyone and that it's best to ride out that wave and soak up that emotion

"Cry a river but don't let it drown you" type stuff he's supportive but your demons and problems are yours to fix he'll hold you If you need but when it comes down to the problem that's your problem to fix but he will be your cheerleader

"I know that things are hard kitten but just remember how amazing you'll feel when all of it is over the fact that you can endure so much in life and your still here is so important"

He wants you to know that just cause he won't solve your problems it doesn't mean he doesn't care about them he cares enough to know that he needs to let you handle some things while he's ok the side lines

But he also cares so much that he wants to fix everything for you even if in the end it won't help you very much

He just wants the best for you and sometimes it can get hard for him to do considering how important to him you are

Will happily take naps with you all day long if life has been beating you up to much and you just need some time to reenergize yourself

"Come on let's take a nap kitty you look like you need one"

Life gets hard for everyone and it's not fair but he tries his best to make you forget about it but the time you have to leave his dorm

He lives for the cuddles he gets while napping and you guys do it even when your not upset about anything but they last WAY longer when your not feeling like yourself

He will also hold you for hours telling you how proud he is of you

"This week was really hard for you kitten I'm so proud that you managed to get through it and still try and be optimistic"

A lot of head kisses while napping and him with his hair down while he tries to use his words to warm your heart~

Shoto Todoroki

Okay he's so fine tho like wow😶

Okay sorry my simp side is coming out so anyway when he see's you upset expect a lot of hugs and kisses and cuddles in public

He like the others isn't very good with comforting words but more of his actions are what shows he cares, he never had anyone show him how to treat someone when they feel down so he tries to figure it out on his own

"I heard you haven't been doing well lately so um I thought maybe we could share my soba"

He will give you anything you want expect him to come to you with random gifts bought from his father's card

"I wasn't sure if you'd want this new dress or this new necklace since they both reminded me of you so I just got both"

He definitely thinks that money can fix shit which I mean it lowkey can but not in all circumstances so just like politely tell him to stop buying you expensive shit(unless you don't care)

He will gladly also cuddle you and most likely will tell you all the shit he wished his father had told him when he was younger so expect a lot of sweet words

"Hey love, your doing amazing alright don't stress out so much my love what your doing is enough"

He's surprisingly really good with his words but is always scared of saying the wrong thing so he doesn't talk much and just cuddles with you and will let you lay on either siad of him(ya know if your hot or cold)

He'll heat up his hand and rub your back or stomach since heat is known to relax people and he Hope's that he can do that for you as well

He will feed you all the fucking time I think he just finds it cute especially when your not feeling like yourself he will just baby you 100%

He's really caring and just wants to make sure your taking care of yourself and you look cute with him feeding you usually you'd sit on his lap with the food infront of you on your phone and he'd just randomly put the food infront of your mouth on a fork and wait for you to open your mouth

He finds it cute and thinks that it's his own way of say that he does care about you a lot even if he doesn't say it all the time

He will also brush your hair and braid it or just style it into anything you want he just wants you to feel relaxed with him and would do anything to make you feel better

He definitely will go and talk to his mom about what he should do and how to make you feel better and he also will probably just bring you to his mom for like a little family meet up

His mom loves you and she will always be down to see you and he knows how much you like her so he Hope's it'll boost your mood a bit and she's better with words

He absolutely adores you so he'll do whatever you need until life stops fucking with you

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

how do you think edward would react if he was in the same truck-baseball game time loop bella was in (either if bella was in it or wasn't, whatever you prefer)

For reference, that one time Bella's stuck in a time loop.

Are we asking to make Edward even crazier than usual? Well, that will surely go... interesting places. Let's do it.

Edward In the Loop With Bella

Loop One

There Edward is, facing off with James, Victoria, and Laurent, gearing up for the fight of his life as he realizes exactly what it is James wants and is planning and then...

Then he blinks, he's in the parking lot, Bella's about to be hit by a van.

Edward panics, desperately saves her life, and has no idea what's happening. Did he... hallucinate those months? Were those his lovesick dreams of having Bella for himself?

Of course they were, he says as he drives to the hospital in Bella's car, sobbing as he listens to George Michael's Careless Whisper. For Bella, this bright, beautiful, angelic girl, could never love a beast such as him. He desperately tries to put his love for Bella out of his mind, for it can never be, what they had was a dream and nothing more.

BEEEEEELLLLLLLAAAAAA!

Bella ruins this noble, romantic, tragedy in two seconds when Edward enters the hospital and goes, "You're not going to believe me, but I'm from the fuuuuuuutuuuuuuure!"

Well, Edward doesn't actually like that, makes all of this a little anticlimactic. He questions her extensively, tries to convince her that she's just hallucinating, she hit her head pretty hard, but eventually gives up. Their memories seem to match up exactly, he and Bella are actually from the future.

Edward's not even sure why he's disappointed himself, yet, somehow he is.

He goes home and gets to be the one to tell the Cullens it's all fine, he's from the future, Bella is too, they're not going to kill her because Edward's in love with her, can we skip this?

The Cullens stare, Alice really doesn't know how she feels about this, but we get a similar reaction to canon. Where Carlisle says, "Alright then... I guess this means no moving."

Edward sighs, for the first time, he doesn't really feel like going to Bella's that night. He instead sits at the piano, playing Chop Sticks, wondering why he feels so despondent.

Bella loves him, he loves Bella, they're dating, he has everything he ever wanted. Why isn't he happy?

He gets to school and Bella's very clingy and seems to want to pick off exactly where they left off. She wants Edward to sit with her at lunch, she's talking about visiting the Cullens as soon as possible, she wants to go on a real date.

And Edward realizes that he doesn't have to battle with himself to stay away from Bella anymore, he's done that. He doesn't have to rescue her in Port Angeles, Bella's not going. He's not taking her to the meadow, he's done that too.

Edward's been there and done that for all of this. This isn't even a chance to redo his mistakes, if he'd really made any, because all the things he'd want to do again involve Bella who came back with him.

Edward throws himself into dating Bella, trying to shake himself loose from this strange sense of apathy. Bella doesn't even seem to notice the difference in him, something in Edward... grows a little cold.

He finds himself to returning to his plans of how best to nobly leave her. Something he always acknowledged he would do, but before looked at with reluctance. Now he actively schemes when and how it should occur.

He should wait until summer, that will be easiest on the family for the pretext of "moving", and that way he can go to Prom with Bella. She'll get over him quickly, move on with her human life, while Edward watches her from the shadows.

Bella finally starts to notice that Edward is... distant. She tries to confront him, ask what she's doing wrong, and desperately throws herself into the relationship. That just makes it worse for Edward.

The pair start fighting, Edward insists Bella does not come to the baseball game, and just then they loop again.

Loop Two

Edward's back in the parking lot, Bella's about to be hit by a van. Edward once again heroically saves her, but he feels as if he's going through the motions.

In the hospital room, neither Bella nor Edward say a word to one another, both realize exactly what has happened. After a moment of silence, Edward suggests that, perhaps, what they need is distance.

Just a few weeks apart.

Bella says nothing.

Edward consults Alice, telling her what's been happening to him, and Alice tells him that as far as she can tell nothing is wrong with time itself. Her visions work as usual, it's just that Edward and Bella's decisions have changed.

Though, not the outcomes, Alice confirms that either Bella will become a vampire or she'll die. Alice suggests, hesitantly, that if this keeps happening perhaps Bella has to be a vampire to stop this.

Perhaps that's why Alice only sees two futures. Because any future where Bella remains human, they loop.

Edward refuses to accept this in a rage. This, this cannot happen, he will loop for all eternity rather than turn Bella! HE IS NOT A TOY OF FATE!

There's a fire in Edward now, he returns through Bella's bedroom window, and restarts their passionate romance. Bella's thrilled, the love of her life has come back for her, she cries tears of joy.

For months, Bella and Edward are back in the honeymoon stage of their romance.

They loop again.

Loop Three

Bella points out that they're still looping. This is... starting to get weird. Maybe they should figure out solutions to this?

Edward says THIS IS FINE, with Alice's words ringing in the back of his mind. Bella can never know.

Too bad for him, this is Bella's first guess. Maybe, if she becomes a vampire, somehow the loops will stop. EDWARD WILL NEVER TARNISH HER LIKE THAT.

Bella is very hurt, and upset, and asks if Edward will seriously spend forever, trapped in these few months, unable to move forward rather than turn her.

Edward desperately tries to convince her that these months are wonderful. You love being trapped in this timeframe, Bella.

He romances her harder than ever, only this time, Bella's the one that's not thrilled.

She and Edward have no future. Edward would literally rather be trapped in this utterly absurd scenario, never able to move forward with their lives, rather than turn her into a vampire.

A lot of fights happen. In desperation, Edward proves that they can move forward, that this endless loop is what vampirism itself is like, where time ceases to have meaning. He proposes to Bella, they will marry.

Bella flat out says no, she doesn't want to marry, and god marry while she's still in highschool? Can she even legally get married right now?

Edward... did not expect that answer.

The pair end up on and off fighting up until the loop happens.

Loop Four

This time, distracted by his own ire, Edward forgets to stop the van. Bella is crushed, Edward and the family have to hightail it out of there to not slurp her blood off the asphalt, and Edward is horrified.

He... murdered Bella. She's dead, because he allowed petty arguments to distract him. Oh god.

To his horror, the loop keeps going, and he lives in terror that it will proceed past the baseball game. What if Bella's dead forever? What if, rather than turn her, the only other way out of the loop was her death?

Edward's an utter mess, clawing at the walls, and the family doesn't understand at all because Bella Swan is simply a girl who had a tragic death.

To Edward's horrified relief, he loops.

Loop N

Bella remembers Edward failed to save him. She does not blame him for it, but Edward certainly blames himself and there's now... a wall between them that wasn't there.

Nonetheless, they try again. This time, they'll go back to the basics.

Edward eats her in the meadow.

They loop.

Edward keeps accidentally eating her.

It's horrible and then he realizes... it doesn't matter. It never lasts, he's a monster yes, but he always was one. It seems he's doomed to eat Bella Swan. And at least he knows she'll be here tomorrow.

And if he's damned anyway then he might as well enjoy it.

He starts eating her on purpose.

Soon, they get a little routine down.

Bella nearly gets hit by a van, Edward saves her life, they go to the hospital, Edward drags her into a closet, eats her, then throws her corpse out the window and tells Carlisle she committed suicide.

Such a tragic end.

Bella starts desperately trying to save herself, but it's all over so quick, now her life is endlessly getting eaten by Edward.

Given this loop seems to be infinitely long, and thus all remote possibilities will eventually occur, there will be a timeline where Edward accidentally turns Bella into a vampire.

However, Edward can't do math, so he hasn't figured that out yet.

In the meantime, now that he's let go of all morality, he's having a great time.

... And it's probably best we leave Edward looping on his own for another post. That got long.

[archangelsquill]

i’ll come running

pairing: damien darkblood x civilian reader (gn, no y/n)

word count: 1190

summary: damien has a spell on you to warn him if you’re ever in danger. one day, it alerts him while you’re supposed to be at work.

warnings: none, really. uuuuhhhh work woes, protective damien?

a/n: bad day at work equals this, my dudes. also, i’m not super happy with this one, but if you never try, you never learn and all of that. still getting the hang of writing the raspberry man lmao

---------

“This is a damn trainwreck.”

The voice of your boss broke through the fog you’d been comfortably stewing in. This meeting was not only annoying, but you were being talked at, not to. Like always, you just let him talk so you could just get back to your job. You always laid low and it served you well.

Until today.

Today, you were the one responsible for the meeting. You were the trainwreck in question.

“Do you want to be here?”

No.

“Yes, I do!”

“Then why is your work so…” he paused to find a word, “lacking?”

You’d stayed after hours to work on that project.

Ouch.

“I don’t know…” you mumbled, not meeting your boss’ gaze.

“Well, figure it out. Then redo it. You have a week.”

This first attempt had taken you two.

“Okay.”

Not okay.

“That’s all I got for you. Go get started.” and with that, he turned away from you, back to his own work. Quietly, you got to your feet and left the big fancy office to head to your small, cramped cubicle. You stared at the mess. Papers, statistics, and other office supplies were scattered all around the small space: the remains of your hard work, scattered and messy, much like your confidence.

You looked at the clock on your desk, defeated.

You’d been in there since you clocked in at eight.

Now it was eleven.

And you still had to survive the rest of your shift without crying, or at least, not getting caught crying by the boss. You couldn’t get emotional. That’d hinder your work. Can’t have that, obviously.

The stress of it all weighed heavy on your chest, making breathing feel like the hardest thing you’ve ever done. You can’t quit, you barely make enough to live paycheck to paycheck, but you can’t get promoted because your position simply isn’t designed that way, no matter how much your boss lied to you and told you one day you’d be promoted. One day you’d be full time.

Bullshit.

Tears stung your eyes as it all hit you. You were stuck. Painfully stuck.

You wiped desperately at your tears. You couldn’t cry now. You had a project to finish. Taking a deep breath, you flopped onto your desk chair and got to work, hoping the pressure would somehow make this better than your first attempt.

You worked well past closing time. Even your boss had gone home, without even a breath in your direction.

Whatever. You were making progress, and you had to admit, it was looking good!

That is, until a loud boom! somewhere in the city -- probably some superhero fight --  knocked out the power.

You sat in silence, blankly staring at the black screen that had previously held your unsaved progress.

That did it.

When the first whimper left your throat, nothing was going to stop it.

You curled up in your chair, exhausted and heartbroken. How the hell were you supposed to finish this if you had to restart it again tomorrow? God, you were thankful no one else was in the building.

That is, until you felt a familiar chill fill your small cubicle. You didn’t even look up. You couldn’t.

“Amare?” gruff, yet concerned bass joined your tearful silence.

You couldn’t answer.

“Amare? Are you alright?” The familiar nickname came more urgently this time. You heard him shift over to you, and felt one clawed hand find rest on your back while the other found your chin, tilting it up so you could see his warm, glowing golden eyes gazing at you.

You muster a nod, but the lump in your throat keeps you from doing much else.

“Thought you were in danger,” he said, scooping you out of your chair and setting you on the floor as he inspected you for injuries, “Invincible broke through office buildings two blocks away. Thought--”

He didn’t finish his thought.

“Felt your fear. Came running.”

You met his gaze, confused.

“How?” you croaked.

He tore his eyes from yours.

“Worry for you…” he almost looked sheepish, “Have ways of knowing.”

Cryptic bastard.

“I’m okay, Damien,” you let out a shaky sigh, “Just the boss being...well…”

A nice, office appropriate word escaped you. With a stern look, Damien finished your thought for you.

“A bastard.”

“You said it, not me.”

The two of you sat in silence for a moment.

“So is sensing fear something all demons can do or…?” you trailed off. Demonology was interesting to you, especially how Damien explained it, but it was also a feeble attempt to get your mind off what will happen tomorrow.

“No…” he paused, “Worry for you. Cast a spell. When scared or hurt, I feel it.”

You furrowed your brow. You weren’t even mad, just...confused.

“Why?”

He looked back at you, those glowing eyes bringing the comfort of a warm fire as he pulled you close to him.

“Do not want to lose you,” he replied softly, “Will protect if I can.”

You blush a bit. You weren’t sure what to call this thing you had with Damien. Dating? Friends with benefits? Partnership? Pact of the Fiend Warlock? You never knew. All you knew was how you felt for him. Maybe it was love, maybe it was just affection, but either way, you cared for the demon detective. You never knew if it was mutual, but now...well, now you did.

“Really?” You felt like a first grader asking your crush if they like liked you, but you needed to know.

“Love not a thing demons taught,” he said flatly, the words wounding you before he continued quickly, “Not soft enough to feel like that. But...you…”

He gently cupped your face.

“Make me want to learn.”

You couldn’t think of how to respond, other than letting your mouth fall open in surprise at the confession. He’d always been sweet to you (as much as a demon can), showing a softer side that no one else knew he had. He’d bring you gifts, walk you to your apartment, but you always thought that was part of his “stay out of hell” thing.

Until now, of course.

“Well…” you stammered, “I can...I can teach you.”

Could you? You were human. Love was in your nature. Was it something that could be taught?

As a rare smile spread across his lips, you decided you were going to find out.

There was a moment of silence between the two of you. You wanted to kiss him, but before you could make any move to, another, much closer boom! rattled the building, knocking over bookshelves and nearly knocking both of you over.

“Talk later. Must evacuate.” he said with a quick peck to your temple. He helped you to your feet as you quickly grabbed your bag.

“If anything happens, I will come running.” and with that, he disappeared, but the chill didn’t leave like usual.

It was funny. You used to hate the cold. Now, as you ran down stairwells and out the front door just in time to see an Invincible colored streak crash through your office, you didn’t mind it so much.

In fact, you kind of preferred it.

[criquette-was-here]

Some Long Due Replies

Anonymous said:

Hi Criquette, I absolutely love your work. I have a question regarding the Rural Charm Roads, If one was to use a version with a sidewalk is there a way to make the road decoration pieces connect to the actual road instead of being placed underneath the sidewalk. And do the roads have a version for other terrain types? Thank you so much :)

Hello Anon! Thanks! Well, yes and no. You see, hood mode roads differ from lot mode roads in the way that hood roads float above the ground (Maxis was thinking about road/terrain z-fighting too much) so road pieces will always go under the sidewalk in neighborhood mode. But since lot skirt has a different approach to terrain/road mesh technique where road is actually a part of a lot skirt, all the road pieces appear to be visually above it. So asphalt pieces may actually connect to asphalt parts of the road, covering the sidewalk.

@jaomen1401 said:

Hello Criquette download your Fevervew neighborhood with everything indicated I played it yesterday and when I enter my game today the neighborhood is not there so I close the game and go into the neighborhood folder and the neighborhood if it is in the folder only happens to that neighborhood . Any suggestion?

Hi Jaomen! This is really weird. I'm not sure if it's Feverfew that causing this. I have this issue in my game sometimes, but that's because i'm on mac and have memory limits. Also this problem goes away when I restart my notebook and kill every unnecessary processes and applications via System Monitor.

@daydreamingdrawerette said:

Hi Criquette, do you have a tutorial on creating curved and diagonal roads while making them functional for lots?

+

Hi Criquette, do you have a version of your Rural Road charm without road markings?

Hello Aunty SimsGöttin! Well, in TS2 you can't create 'real' curved and diagonal roads that would actually work. There's a way to make lots visually connected to decorative lots and that implies the use of Lot Adjuster. As for the Rural Charm road without road markings – nope, I don't have such thing ^^

@m3rcaptan said:

Hi! Thanks for your amazing work! So, recently, I've been playing around (with considerable pain) with the idea of having a huge neighborhood decoration object that has the same(ish) shape as the neighborhood terrain, but with a cooler texture that can be seen from lot view. And it's currently a bit finnicky but one thing I thought about doing is using it with an "invisible" terrain default replacement. Is a an invisible terrain texture possible?

Hey M3rcaptan! Thank you ^^ Well, I might be wrong, but the material for the neighborhood terrain does not imply texture transparency as such. Making it invisible would require shader editing. I would suggest checking this amazing post from @lazyduchess for some clues. I've had no chance to learn everything about it myself yet, but it's definitely an outstanding concept with huge potential.

Anonymous said:

As wild as it sounds, Feverfew was I think the thing to finally push me to totally redo/clean up my downloads folder because I was like "I *have* to try out Feverfew, it is SO beautiful!" but I had so much cc and had been putting off sorting through/cleaning it. So! After a solid couple weeks (I am slow at stuff), I am finally downloading everything required for Feverfew and I am SO excited. Thank you for putting so much time and effort and making such a gorgeous 'hood!

Hello Nonnie! Ah, that's so sweet. Thank you so much! I hope this little town will make it up for you ^____^

Anonymous said:

Hellooo there, I hope you’re feeling good or at least okay? I have one question… would you consider to make an Italian (fishing) village/town as a neighborhood? I mean not even for download if you don’t want to do that, but as an inspiration? I’ve always thought as having one as the tropical vacation hood but I’m just not good at making neighborhoods. Only if you feeling inspired though, this is not a request 🤗

Hi Anon! Yes, I'm fine, thank you and I hope you're good too! There are so many places that inspire me to make neighborhoods based on! But life isn't getting slower and easier as it goes, and the main problem is always the same: lack of time. If I could make a living out of making neighborhoods, that would be the best work of my life, lol. Having said that, the only lifetime plan I have for making neighborhoogs is to make a Russian inspired neighborhood. Not just an average post-apocalyptic grungy stuff, but rather idyllic quiet place (like Feverfew).

Anonymous said:

hi Criquette, I recently installed the city of Feverfew (And by the way, it's great) but every time I go to a community lot it's giving an error, when I press "reset" my sim disappears and the game goes into build mode, what can it be?

Hello Anon! Thanks! Oh, I'm not sure if I get you right. There's a problem with doors in some lots (some of them are blocked by the decor that was placed on the same tile) but I'm not sure if it causes this. May be there are any GUID conflicts? The GUID database isn't working. I did my best to prevent this, but you never know.

Anonymous said:

Hi, Criquette! I'm a huge fan of your work! Thank you for all your contributions to sims 2, from cc to tutorials and the always impressive game pictures =) Do you have any plans to update your simple walkways, from mts, to lit up at night? And out of curiosity, have you always been so interested in the hood customizing aspect of sims 2, or is this something that gradually grew into you as you played live and build modes? Personally, you've been my biggest inspiration to start decorating my nhs.

Hello Nonnie! Thank you so much, most kind ^__^ Well, I don't have any plans to update simple walkways to make them lit up at night. Although I admit, it would be lovely thing to do, as well as adding lights to the trains, tramways and cruise ship set. But, as often happens, I only make things I'm obsessed with at the moment, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ As for my interest in hood decoration part of TS2, I'm a former SC player and modder since Simcity 2000. TS2 came out when Simcity 4 was extra popular but since it wasn't full 3D, Sims 2 had this amazing feature of being able to actually look at your 'city' from the ground level perspective. The lack of neighborhood decorations from Maxis got me going with making my own.

Anonymous said:

I finally did it. I achieved the level of hood building nerdiness required to apply your tutorial for moving single road tiles. Right now, you might as well be the only person in this world to whom I can say this, being sure I'll be fully understood: I NEVER FELT SO POWERFUL! I, the Terraformer, the Creator of Worlds, the Man Who's Been Minuciously Building This Save for Over a Year, but Has Not Played a Single Minute of Live Mode Yet, the Designer of Planets! Thank you for making this possible!

[sleepingcrisis]

I love these two meeting over bugs and pets and all that, but what if I put them in the same class and they both live with single dads who have to drop them off at school early? What then?

***

Shokichi remained gently tucked behind his dad's leg as he was taken into class. It was far too early to be here but he already knew how it went; his dad had to deal with his sister and then head to work. Getting to school early had always been common, now he was going into grade two and his father was putting him in some snobby rich kid school. Great.

First day and he was here early, but so was someone else. At the back of the class sat a boy reading a book. Shokichi nearly missed him considering how he blended right in. Regardless of if he was magic or just really good at optical illusions, Shokichi decided that this was his chance to not spend every morning alone.

After putting his stuff at his seat he made his way over and climbed up onto the desk in front of the black haired boy.

"Hi! I like your..." Shokichi's dad had always told him that a compliment was a good way to make new friends, but this boy he sat across from now was plain and looked at him with dull green eyes. "I like your eyes," he said completely by accident and slapped his hand over his mouth to shut himself up. That probably was not a normal compliment to give someone. Oh well.

"Thanks," the boy said. He then did the strangest of things, he didn't return the compliment. Instead he continued with what he was doing (which was currently reading a book that definitely did not look like a picture book.

"What are you reading?" Shokichi asked.

"James And The Giant Peach," the black haired boy says simply and shows him the cover. Shokichi had never seen a kid willingly read a book on their own, but maybe that was normal at this school. Either way, he had heard of the book before... but...

"Can you tell me about it?" Shokichi asks.

"It is about a boy who ends up in a giant peach and goes on an adventure," the boy explains.

Shokichi can tell that he is getting the condensed version of the story and pouts slightly. He doesn't want to spend his mornings alone anymore.

"Cab you read it to me?" Shokichi asks softly.

He makes eye contact with the other boy and pulls out his best puppy dog expression (it works everytime on his dad), and after a moment the other boy lets out a sigh and scoots over on his large desk chair. Soon the two are sitting together, side by side, as the black haired boy grumbled about how he isn't restarting before continuing on from where he was at.

Shokichi definitely didn't like the book. He really didn't. It was boring and weird and confusing (although he had missed the first bit), but still he did listen to the other boy read it. He listened every morning until eventually the book was done and they had learned one another’s names.

"You didn't like that book," Tadashi mentions as he pulls out a different book from his bag.

"It was okay," Shokichi lies. "What do you like about it?" He asks since maybe he is just missing something.

"Something that happens in the beginning. You missed it," Tadashi says with a small shrug. He doesn't look like he wants to share so instead Shokichi sets his head down on the desk as Tadashi pulls out a new book; Peter Nimble And His Fantastic Eyes. The cover looks more interesting, but it is also bigger then the last book.

Shokichi is very aware that he is about to be trapped into listening to Tadashi read another book for a few weeks if he doesn't say something.

"So... why do you get to school so early?" He asked when nothing else came to mind.

"My dad has to work, so I get dropped off early. I meet him at work after school," Tadashi explains with a small shrug as he runs a finger over the cover of his book.

"My dad works early too!" Shokichi explains happily. "What does your dad do for work?" He asked with bright eyes.

"Oh... he is a gardener for another family," Tadashi mumbled. He sounded almost shy about it.

"That's cool! My dad works in a shop!"

"Like a store?" Tadashi asked after a moment.

"No! Like a big shop for cars!" Shokichi said with an eye roll.

"So a garage?" Tadashi suggested with a small chuckle.

"Oh... yeah!" He said with a grin.

The two chatted for awhile. Shokichi learned that Tadashi likes bugs and Shokichi opted to tell Tadashi all about his fascination with dogs. The two go back and forth until eventually their other classmates arrive so Shokichi retreats back to his desk.

The next morning Shokichi arrived at the same time as always only to see that Tadashi wasn't there. He pouted slightly since in all this time Tadashi had always arrived first. Perhaps he was sick or something? That made the most sense. Still... Shokichi wasn't a super big fan of spending his mornings alone and without Tadashi reading for him (Shokichi had tried to read out loud to Tadashi and he wasn't nearly as good at it).

He didn't come to school that day. He didn't come to school the next day either. Soon the weekend came and went and on Monday Shokichi arrived to see Tadashi sitting in his spot as if he had never left.

"Where were you?!?" In his excitement he skipped over dropping his stuff off and went straight to Tadashi’s desk with his bag.

"Ummm—"

"Stop trying to think of a lie!" Shokichi said with a huff. He could see lies from a mile away at this point.

Tadashi let out a small sigh and seemed to be looking around for any listeners, so Shokichi scooted closer until he was right beside the other. Tadashi leaned up to speak quietly into Shokichi's ear, "My dad got hurt so I had to help him with work."

"Oh," Shokichi whispered in return.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," Tadashi said softly as he flipped through the stuff he had missed while being gone.

"It's okay," Shokichi said and gave a nod. "Why don't I help you with your homework?" He suggested. That way they could still spend time together and Shokichi was being helpful after Tadashi had spent so much time reading to him.

"Okay," Tadashi said.

This issue with that was that Shokichi wasn't nearly as good at any of this as Tadashi. So they ended up spending quite a bit of time redoing Shokichi's work since Tadashi explained that it wasn't done right.

"I wish there was more then one right way to do it, maybe then I would get it," he muttered with a small definitely-not-a-pout pout. He laid his head on the table as he watched Tadashi neatly fill out the worksheet their teacher had given them last week that he had only gotten this morning.

"There is more then one process, but some things only have one answer," Tadashi said with a slight shrug. Shokichi liked that Tadashi didn't automatically agree with him just because they were— wait a minute.

"Are we friends?" He asked and kept his eyes trained on the desk. He likes being around Tadashi so he hoped they were.

"Are we?" Tadashi asked. Great. He wasnt very helpful.

"I don't know! That is why I was asking you!" Shokichi said with a huff.

"Can we be?" Tadashi asked after a moment of silence passed between them.

Shokichi felt his face warm in the same uncomfortable way it did when his father praised him. He looked from the desk to Tadashi and then back to the desk. "If you will still read to me then I think we could be..."

When Shokichi looked up from his desk he caught Tadashi smiling. A small smile that would be hard for someone else to notice, but he noticed. He smiled slightly too and looked back to the desk since that was all the conformation he needed.