#for reasons hahaha

[personinthepalace]

Dave Hearn in Mischief Movie Night In -> for @notsofastinspector - Happy Birthday!!

[vegan-kaktus]

EA's leaves are kind of dull, and I personally think TNW's are too bright, so here's my spin on a leaf default + a new mod :-D

Leaf variety mod

There are 4 different leaf textures in the game files but only one is used. I talked with @shastakiss some years(?) ago and she mentioned an unfinished mod Neder started working on to make the leaf use different textures. Unfortunately, Neder couldn't get it to work. Shasta kindly sent me said mod and I handed it over to @lamare-sims last year who of course managed to fix it (thank you so much once again, you're a legend!!)

Note #1: worth mentioning, this mod will only affect leaves that spawn after you've installed the mod! the same goes for my mesh fix included in the default below. Note #2: if you already have this mod in you dl-folder, delete that file and use the one from this download if you're planning on using my default (otherwise my uv-map and texture edit will not work).

Defaults

Replaces all 4 leaf-textures with new, more colorful and less blocky textures. I also edited the "effect"-textures of single leaves (the ones falling from the trees). This default can be used without the mod mentioned above, but then only the "original" texture will be used - see second image.

The leaves that spawns under the tree (the one sims can't rake), it was impossible to make it look good with any of the four textures, so I re-mapped it and gave it it's own texture (256x256px). There's also an optional default for the rake included, I edited a tiny error in the mesh and gave it a texture makeover. I made a separate LOD90-default for the leafpile (meaning: the mesh in neighborhood view) and instead of replacing the textures I repo'd them, meaning that the LOD90 default works with any leaf texture default you might use (it will only be showing one texture in neighborhood view).

Texture sizes are all the same as EA's:

Leaves: 512x512px x4 (my default +1: 256x256px)

Rake: 128x256px

Leaf effects: 32x32px x3

Edited leaf-related cc

I edited Sophie-David's leaf pile pet bed (the mesh) and repo'd it to leafpile_txtr, meaning the mesh will now pick up my default (or any other default you might have for leafpile_txtr, and if none - EA's original texture). The mesh now needs seasons + pets, since it's repo'd. Their recolors are not included, so be sure to download them from the link above if you want them and replace their mesh with mine!

I also edited Shakeshaft's leaf cover mesh (warning T$R) , I repo'd it to one of the leaf textures and made recolors - also repo'd - to the rest of the textures. This mesh and recs now need seasons, this also means that the mesh and recolors* can be used without my default.

*with the exception of rc4, which is repo'd to my custom leaf texture, found in my leaf default.

Recommended mod

I recommend simler90's Gardening Rake Leaf Pile Mod or jfade's leaf pile fix (I have no idea what the difference between those two mods are, they edit the same thing so choose one of them).

Nothing in this download is dependent on each other* so feel free to pick and choose what you want :-) remember you can only have one default for the leaves, meaning that if you have any other default (1, 2, 3, 4) or Shakeshaft's/Sophie-David's original meshes, make sure you remove them before installing my files. Everything has been compressed to reduce file size, as usual. Do let me know if I messed up anywhere!

*with the exception of rc4, see above.

DOWNLOAD: SFS | MTS

Credits: Neder, @lamare-sims (many many thanks!!), @shastakiss, Sophie-David, Shakeshaft and lasty EA.

[deerspherestudios]

HII!! I LOVE YOUR WORK SO MUCH <33 So, I know Mycheal is asexual but people are asexual for many reasons. What is the reason for Mycheal being asexual?

He just is! 🍄❤️

[periwinkla]

If I'm with you, I'm happy

'If I'm with you, I'm happy' - the meaning of the yellow hyacinth, the flower that inspired me to make this in the first place ♡ /Print will be on the shop tomorrow / edit: print here! <3

Hanakotoba notes:

Hyacinth (general) - 悲しみを越えた愛 ‘kanashimi o koeta ai’ love that transcends sadness

Yellow hyacinth - あなたとなら幸せ ‘anata to nara shiawase’ if I’m with you I’m happy, 勝負 'shoubu' battle/match

Blue hyacinth - 変わらぬ愛 ‘kawaranu ai’ unchanging love

White hyacinth - 控えめな愛らしいさ 'hikaemena airashisa' reserved love, 心静かな愛 'kokoroshizukana ai' tranquil love

Purple hyacinth - 悲しみ 'kanashimi' / 悲哀 'hiai' sadness/grief/sorrow, 初恋の直向きさ ‘hatsukoi no hitamukisa‘ devotion of first love

Pink hyacinth - スポーツ sports, ゲーム games, しとやかなかわいらしさ 'shitoyakana kawairashisa' graceful cuteness (shitoyaka 'graceful' can also be translated as 'refined', 'modest', 'gentle', 'quiet' etc.)

Red hyacinths also exist but I didn't add them here as they didn't fit (meaning is 'envy')

Margaret - 真実の愛 ‘shinjitsu no ai’ true love, 信頼 ‘shinrai’  trust. There's also 恋占い koiuranai 'love fortune-telling' which I think may refer to that 'he loves me, he loves me not' game.

Twisted trees also have some nice symbolism to them (in general). What I'm about to say isn't something I found anywhere in particular, just my own thoughts about them. Disregarding the *hahaha* about the not-straight tree implications that I'm sure will be lost to no one single tumblr resident whatsoever- generally twisted trees are that way because of the winds they withstood (I mean there are other reasons too of course...). They're beautiful in their perseverance towards life. Life may have shaped you a certain way, with the good and the bad - and the shape you've taken is to be appreciated in its beauty... of simply being, and existing, and persevering despite all.

Link to the Hanakotoba site (set up so you can switch between JP and (auto)translation - keep in mind autotranslation is not perfect, in fact there are a few differences I corrected above) : hyacinths and margarets You can also search some words on jisho to see additional meanings, there are quite a few... I chose the ones I deemed most apt. Unfortunately you can't copy-paste the Japanese, I use the rikaikun extension for the kanji I don't know (which is most of them I gotta be honest). I have the JP keyboard installed and I just retype it to post it here haha.

[chalkrub]

one of my resolutions is to post more stuff this year, we'll see how good i'll be at that! here's a mock-up band poster thing i made for a comic idea, which has very little bearing on anything in the story whatsoever, and which i made instead of actually working on ironing out the story like i'm supposed to be doing

[aardvaark]

i’ve said already many times that The First David Job is one of my favourite episodes for sophie in Leverage, usually in reference to the scene with her, nate & sterling on the rooftop. BUT i also love that episode for her relationship with parker! when sophie says "what would parker do?" and follows the knowledge she’s learnt from parker, it’s a very good almost-end to their season one arc.

over the course of season one, sophie’s gone from saying the same thing as eliot about parker - "there’s something wrong with you" (pilot) - to acting as a maternal figure (feeling parker’s forehead in The Two Horse Job) and mentoring her (The Juror #6 Job). she’s started to get some insight into parker’s past (The Stork Job) and has a rather unique way of seeing parker, noticing the vulnerability and loneliness under her fairly spiky exterior. however, appreciating parker’s expertise is a different thing entirely. The First David Job makes it clear that sophie’s actually been listening to parker and that she trusts parker’s expertise!! sophie takes a very literal leap of faith off the building, lol.

it’s important to me because it shows sophie doesn’t simply pity parker, doesn’t write her off. she’s learnt to appreciate that parker is indeed a very competent, analytical, knowledgeable professional in her field. she sees that same passion for the craft (the craft of crime, yes lol) in parker that she experiences herself. and this all mirrors how sophie comes to appreciate and trust parker’s ability to talk to the mark in The White Rabbit Job towards the end of their whole-series arc. gah!! this First David scene, it’s a good moment. it’s a great moment!! and notably there’s a similar thing between nate and hardison there, likely between nate and parker as well since he’s masterminding this plan.

[hellonerf]

i'm so easily pleased by cute things. these designs and descriptions are so cute. like wow explodable... wow imagining encounters with cute creature girls... found in various locations doing cute things...

[helps-the-writing-brain-go]

From @aroace-madness 's prompt on predator Marvel~ and what better prey than those with magic weaknesses~

Superman will admit, he'd pressed to admit Captain Marvel into the League on the slim chance that the man could be a Kryptonian.

While it had been disappointing to find out the man wasn't one, he tried hard not to hold it against him.

And it was easy enough at first! The man's genuinely kind, sunshine and rainbows temperament had him warming up to him almost against his will. Except sometimes-

Superman floats past Captain Marvel in the hallway.

They greet each other briefly, smiles and small waves before going their respective directions, but the second Marvel enters his blindspot-

The fine hairs on his neck immediately raise.

It's a dangerous gaze, a slavering gaze; a self-assured predator sizing him up and licking it's chops just biding it's time to-

Superman spins, cape whirling around him as the phantom sensation of jaws closing around his throat descends, just in time to see Captain Marvel begin to cross the corner.

They lock eyes, the golden glint under dark brows and the much more threateningly bared teeth of his grin the only sign something was off.

Was he-

The next time was less obvious, a meal in the cafeteria, a number of heroes seated in tables scattered across the room.

Superman digs into his reheated bowl of Ma's soup and chokes as he hears the distinct crunch of bone across from him.

It isn't even that Captain Marvel is close by.

The man is sheer across the space and seemingly minding his own business. Yet the way he tears into his turkey sandwich (not deboned for Rao knows what reason), rending flesh in long strips and griding them between his powerful jaws is almost pointed. No one else has noticed, but the very act has Superman pressing on the speed, knocked off kilter by some instinct he cannot name.

He's gone out the door with his clean dishes just as he hears the other man's last satisfied swallow.

[star--nymph]

I think people forget with Cullen, and characters like Cullen, that indoctrination is a thing. We're lucky to live in an age where we have a surplus of access to resources that allow us to think critically on the structures around us, to the point where we overlook that most people won't and haven't. Cullen was raised in a backwater village where the main educators and leaders were Templars. He was likely taught scripture by Chantry Sisters, he possibly learned to read and write through them. From the day he was born, he was being taught to love and obey the Chantry with out question--and the Chantry teaches that Templars are a force of good.

So I ask you, how the hell was Cullen, at eight or thirteen years old, going to learn about the crimes of Templars? How was he going to unlearn propaganda that was fed him to him every day by people he respected and possibly loved? How was he supposed to be aware that this idolized image of Templars being the saviors of the people and even mages was a lie?

And then he gets shipped off, happily, to be trained a Templar. Again, he's put into this position where he's fed nothing but propaganda. He doesn't get a real taste of the Order being corrupted until he's out in Kinloch and he's not sure what the hell to do because what he's seeing isn't jiving with what he's been taught for nearly two decades. So yeah, he tries to justify it, he tries to have his cake and eat it too by reasoning that mages should be treated like people but also the Order wouldn't lie to him, so they must be right to act like this. The Maker always had a plan, right?

If Cullen had been lucky, maybe he could have realized earlier on that the Order was abusing mages, that he had been tricked, he could have gotten out and unlearned the bigotry that was planted inside him.

But then BAM! the Broken Circle happened and I don't see how no one gets how perfect this is for the Order? They now have a templar that is so traumatized by mages, he will literally do and say anything to justify their abuses because now? Now he's afraid.

And remember, after Origins, Cullen becomes so erratic, he has to be sent off to a Chantry to 'even him out'--where he was more than likely manipulated even further by the Chantry to be this blood thirsty agent for them. When he's shipped to Kirkwall, they could have not delivered to Meredith a better second in command.

So yeah, is it really surprising that he says shit like 'mages aren't people like you and me' when we meet him in Kirkwall? Man is sleep depraved by the looks of him, swallowing all Meredith's frenzied rhetoric on blood mages, he's seeing for himself the damage these mages are doing, he's isolated from his family, he has no actual friends, and he's living with C-PTSD among other issues. Even under the best of conditions, none of what he says or does in DA2 is surprising when you put it all together.

And yet, the man still had enough of that idealistic child left in him to realize see that Meredith was going off the deep end and that he should be protecting the mages. That's text. That's in World of Thedas. The reason why Cullen is able to turn on Meredith in the end is because he was able to see, even clouded by his fear and hatred, that what she was doing was wrong.

And all this isn't to excuse Cullen's wrongs. It's weird how every time someone brings up Cullen's history, it's assumed that it's just a justification for his actions. It's not, it's an an explanation. Cullen was a victim of the Order that became an abuser, a tool, and he is responsible for his actions.

But the thing is, by DAI, Cullen is well aware of his sins and he actively works to better himself by leaving the Order and getting off lyrium (which for most people is a death sentence). People can argue all day about whether or not Cullen's arc in DAI redeems him or was satisfying, or if he did enough to 'prove' that he was sorry or--good god--does he deserve redemption in the first place (which is such a Catholic way of looking at shit by the way; no one 'deserves' redemption; you do it to be better or you fucking don't) but the fact is that Cullen says that he wants to be better, that he sees the Order as--at the very least--flawed.

That, yes, he's still unlearning all the bigotry he held as a younger man and he's ashamed that he was like that to begin with.

You can hate him all you like, and whatever, but Cullen's story--intentionally or not--is about a man born into an oppressive society, raised to uphold its beliefs, used and abused by it, and then awakening to those lies and trying to free himself from those beliefs so he could be a better person.

And sometimes I genuinely wonder if the reason so many people hate Cullen is because they themselves might have dealt with something similar in our own oppressive society where they also had to unlearn harmful bigotry and maybe, just maybe, he hits too close to home.

[wanologic]

I am actually obsessed with the way you draw danny

A friend told me I 'really fagged him up' and I agree, also its on purpose

[starleska]

ohhhh gosh i just realised something. @mana-is-lost suggested 'RabbitRoyale' as the ship name for Frankie x the Contestant which is brilliant!!! ...however. doesn't Frankie call us his 'lucky' contestant? ...i have to throw my hat into the ring. what about LuckyRabbit? 👀

[tarmac-rat]

hahahahahha whatever you do don't think about the fact that in Phantom Liberty Johnny has to watch V sit on an operating chair and get an implant installed against their will for a cause that they never truly believed in and he probably knows exactly how the whole damn thing is going to play out already and this time there's nothing he can do to stop it.

Maybe when he asks you "What's it feel like to be a traitor?", it isn't meant to be an armor-piercing question for V's own morality. Maybe it's him saying "How's it feel to be like me?"

[songofstrawhats]

Luffy Week Day 5- Family

Imagine the roughhousing you could do with a kid made of rubber!!! I bet they had fun!!

[mintaii]

May I ask for your thoughts on Arcane season 2! Be as honest as you want, I ook a lot of issue w it and would love to see what other people took issue with.

well overall i was kinda disappointed HAHA the animation was so jawdroppingly gorgeous (i am going to absorb that art book into my system when i receive my copy), i just wish the writing this season reflected the visuals it was delivered with.

i'll type out further thoughts under the read more

things i really liked:

episode 7 was so peak. an ekko character episode, the whole AU deal, timebomb, heimer's silly little bard song and jayce being miserable in the canyon with the voidimals

jayvik soulmatism (edit: ok but the reveal that the old wizard who saved jayce was viktor was SO goofy i'm sorry i can't take that part seriously)

there were a few scenes here and there i loved. off the top of my head: the entirety of ep 1's opening sequence (aftermath of the rocket launch, the funeral), mel's talks with 'kino' and the build up to the realization that he's fake, vi + jinx's fight paralleling jayce, ekko and heimerdinger experiencing the hexhorrors

i liked the horror elements, lowkey wish they did more of it

sorry i'm going to rip into it for a bit:

the pacing was not great LOL felt like we had no time to marinate in everything they were throwing at us because we had to move on fast. the reason why i love ep7 so much was bcos it gave us the time to breathe

this was the biggest thing for me: the zaun and piltover conflict not being the central story of this season was a disservice to nearly every characters' arc.

too many music videos lmfao interesting how it's for mostly addressing sociopolitical issues in zaun/piltover

i think it's kinda weird u don't see ekko and jayce for a nearly whole act (considering ekko's role in saving the timeline and what jayce finds out in the hexpocalypse)

vi in particular to me felt so extinguished as a character and it makes me so mad how she feels completely shoved to the side writing wise. even her big solo character moment which was her as a pit fighter was? relegated to a music video?

did not like caitlyn by the end of it all and how they handled her character this season unfortunately made me dislike caitvi's dynamic in the finale (and i was rooting for them!!!) hence why i don't like how vi goes i'm the dirt under your nails to her at the end LMAO

i felt like the reveal that vander and silco were besties with vi + powder's mom cheapened the emotional intensity of vander, vi and powder becoming found family on the bridge and vander's decisions afterwards, as well as silco's own decision to take powder in. i'm sorry but i really don't think silco in s1 knew who tf vi and powder were (other than the awareness they were vander's daughters)

prefacing this by saying viktor is my favorite character (to no one's surprise) but i wasn't a huge fan of the direction they took him this season!! i think he should have been a robot but also he was severely underutilised in their attempt to make him the main antagonist in act 3. imo it thematically makes more sense to have the herald still be a machine. also the lack of agency in his evolution was so weird to me (though i do like the idea of jayce being the one to jumpstart the transformation out of love). i could keep going on about him lmao

[meamiki]

[reverse entry AU]

so glad the work week is over!

no more meetings!

what do you mean its only tuesday.

[solaestial]

a long fall